This Roy Halladay thing? I have seen it before. From Pedro to Twilight to Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

My favourite baseball player for the last while has been Roy Halladay, pitcher of the Toronto Blue Jays. He is old school gunslinger, never completely overpowering people with heat, yet he can fool hitters in so many ways. He has an excellent nickname (Doc) and he just exudes cool on the mound. He is tough and you hardly get the sense that he gets easily rattled.

Now Doc is on the trading block and it is a shame that we probably won't get to see him enjoy a playoff run with the Blue Jays, one that he has been with for his entire career.

And if he does get traded, some other block of fans will get to enjoy his brilliant pitching and their eyes will be opened to the fact of how good he is. Of course, with him playing in Canada he doesn't always get the media attention that he should. To see him get the nod to start for the baseball All-Star game is pretty neat.

But this entire scenario reminds me of my other favourite pitcher from way back. Pedro Martinez. He played in obscurity for the Montreal Expos. I knew he was awesome, but the rest of North America was not completely aware of how great he was. I still remember seeing him pitch one inning during the All Star game when he was with the Expos and the announcers barely gave him a mention after he shut everyone down for the inning.

When he got signed by the Boston Red Sox and he went on through a dominating stretch and everyone started waxing poetic about him, I thought that it was no big surprise. He was that awesome with the Expos and he just continued to improve and dominate.

Now Halladay is older than when Pedro moved on, but I will be jealous to see whatever team that he moves on to and think of the fans that will enjoy at least a great three year stretch from the Doc.

(As you can see I am obsessed with good pitchers. There is just something weird about a person able to control a ball in such an unnatural and violent manner. Someone like Doc and Pedro who have at least four different pitches are amazing to watch. Someone cerebral and completely in control like Greg Maddux interests me as well. Currently the pitchers that you have to see? Felix "The King" Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners, Zach Grienke of the Kansas City Royals, and the stellar Tim Linecum of the San Fran Giants (who happens to be the starter opposite of Halladay for the All-Star game. Pitchers are my favourite positional player by far.**An aside: my wife is currently watching "Twilight" a silly movie that is submarined by the terrible vampire baseball scene... the girl pitching in slow motion can't really throw a ball and I don't care if you are superstar vampires, you can't play baseball with essentially only three people in the outfield playing defense. Actually just a totally superfluous scene. But that is just but one of many in Twilight. I hope that this little jab at Twilight incites the rage of all those Twilighters out there thus bringing me national exposure and media. Go see a better fantasy movie, a series that did it right from the beginning... Harry Potter. The new one looks good by the way.

Oh yeah, if I was Josh Whedon, I would try to sue Twilight for pretty much ripping of the premise of forbidden vampire/human love. Buffy the Vampire Slayer did this theme years ago and did it with grace, humour, solid dialogue, and true heartbreak. Get through the very shaky season one and you will be hooked. With TV repeats, my wife and I are finally going through the seasons and we have blown through them... working on season 3. At the season 2 point, my wife (a Twilight fan) said, "Isn't this Twilight?"

I said, "You mean isn't Twilight ripping off Buffy."

By the way, it took me over a year to convince my wife to sit and watch Buffy. After much skepticism and reluctance along with an initial struggle with season 1, she is now a Buffy addict.

Get over the terrible name of the series and give it a chance if you already haven't.

OK, somehow from pitching to Buffy, I end this rambling diatribe. Hope all is well in your neck of the woods.