Celebrating Jackie Robinson Day With Canadian Highlights And Lou Gossett Jr.

When honoring the great Jackie Robinson and all he has meant to baseball, my first thought was the same as the Dodgers': Roll out Chaka Khan. What, no Rufus? Tell me something good .... Of course Lou Gossett Jr. was also there, so it made perfect sense. Look, I don't like the fact that Jackie Robinson Day is also the last day to file your taxes. And of course confused scorekeepers wish they could skip the whole thing. But otherwise, it went pretty much as expected: With the Nationals and Braves both getting shut out. Oh, and the Blue Jays beat the no-longer-in-first-place Orioles, thanks to the offensive stylings of Aaron Hill.

Hill dined on a Steve Trachsel curve in the third for a three-run homer, as Toronto collected 16 hits in an 11-3 win over Baltimore. Hill is looking good in that 2 spot, is he not? Every Blue Jays starter had at least one hit; David Eckstein with three. It's all good news for Jays fans, who desperately need to update their banner collection.

Of course with all of the gala Jackie Robinson Day festivities throughout the majors, it only makes sense that Major League baseball's official blog site, MLBlogs, makes no mention of it on its front page whatsoever; instead featuring a post about Alyssa Milano's blog as its lead story this morning.

• The Meteoric Fall Of The Black And Gold. The aforementioned Dodgers rode the arms of Esteban Loaiza and Hong-Chih Kuo to an 11-2 win over the Pirates, ending Pittsburgh's four-game winning streak. But Pirates fans should be reminded that things could be a lot worse. Jeff Kent — who has to be older than John McCain, right? — and Russell Martin had home runs. And all of this despite the fact that Andruw Jones won't let anyone else near the buffet table.

• Tigers On Sizzling Two-Game Winning Tear. Miguel Cabrera had two-run homer in the eighth as Detroit stopped Minnesota 6-5. Magglio Ordonez homered and drove in two runs, and Gary Sheffield and Carlos Guillen also hit home runs for Detroit, which scored six in the eighth.

• Dusty And The Blustery Day. Dusty Baker's first 2008 Wrigley Field win was windy and boo-infested, just the way he likes them. Chicago won 9-5 in his second game back versus his old team (anyone remember the Cubs' last-place finish in 2006?), although he was booed each time he left the dugout. Derrek Lee had his fifth homer of the season for Chicago (wind-aided), and teammates Mark DeRosa and Ryan Theriot also homered. The latter was batting for the injured Alfonso Soriano. Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 595th homer for the Reds.

• Jason Varitek; Secret Pinch-Hitting Weapon. Boom goes the dynamite!