The Blue Jays begin the second week of the major league season in very much the same fashion as they began the first; they're still an exciting young team with just as many wins as losses, they're about to host an AL East powerhouse, and they've yet to play a game in the great outdoors (and with the weather in Toronto right now, it could be a while)

It took quite the 7-day roller coaster to get to this point, beginning with a here-we-go-again beating at the hands of the Yankees, not exactly the way to welcome an Opening Day sell-out crowd of 50,000. By the time the Bombers left town, the Jays were 0-3, and early season hand-wringing had begun in earnest. The Jays looked bad, left runners on, and couldn't close out innings, while the Yankees looked like a machine, belting homers seemingly at will, and setting down potential Blue Jay uprisings with ease.

I'm sure somewhere on a wall in the Jays' front office there's a small glass box labelled "In case of slow start, break glass." Contained within are clichés such as "The young players were nervous," "It's early," and "Don't forget, it's a rebuilding year." One more loss, and just about all of these would have been pressed into action, as articles about Blue Jay futility were surfacing just two games into the season. Fortunately, having been beaten soundly about the head and shoulders by the AL East favourites, the Jays took out their frustrations on the AL Central favourites. Roy Halladay looked a little more like Roy Halladay, and so did Tanyon Sturtze, while long balls began flying from Toronto bats. In short, the promising young team got here, just three days late.

The Blue Jays are now 3-3, and start the week having earned a break from the skeptics. Of course, with eight straight games against the Red Sox and Yankees next week, it could be a short break.

Some very early season observations:

Roger Clemens pitching to Ken Huckaby is about the ugliest mismatch since the animated short Bambi meets Godzilla.

Lustily booing Carlos Delgado SEVEN at-bats into the season is ludicrous. Of course fans are free to cheer or boo whoever they like, but such impatience should be rewarded with a rolled-up program upside the head.

First person to use the words "Eric Hinske" and "sophomore jinx" in the same sentence are get the rolled-up program treatment, too. It's six games, people.

Almost as silly as the notion that Huckaby's play on Derek Jeter was somehow dirty, is an idea that cropped up right after the injury; that he's the Yankees best player. Jeter's a great player, but he slugged .421 last season, 18 points lower than Jason Giambi's on-base percentage. Stats don't always tell the whole story, but no one who slugs .421 should be considered the best player on any team, let alone the supposed greatest team on the planet. Unless, of course, they happen to pitch 200 innings along the way.

Memo to Sportsnet: just stick to the centre field camera during pitches. Not the backstop, not the overhead shot, just let me see the pitch.

As long as God Bless America was going to be played on Opening Day, why not play God Save the Queen as well, to signify Canada's unique ties to Great Britain, and support for British troops? It might have defused some of the criticism by Canadian fans who felt pressured into acting like patriotic Americans.

Some fun early season projections: Vernon Wells should challenge for the first Triple Crown in 36 years, as he's on pace to hit .320 with 54 homers and 270 RBIs. Oh, and 135 doubles. That should almost make up for Eric Hinske, who's set to hit .095 with 270 strikeouts. Meanwhile, Cory Lidle is on pace for a 16-16 record and 4.15 ERA, but with 224 Ks against just 17 walks, for a nifty 14-1 ratio.

That's all for the first week. I'm going to try and reserve box seats for the impending Pittsburgh-Kansas City World Series.