Spring Training Chapter 2... The Missing Link

FIRST THINGS FIRST:

We've been roach-free for 48 hours and counting.

Apparently an exterminator came by the condo this morning while we were at the ballpark just to make sure none of our friend's roach cousins were still skulking around, but I like to think my thorough thumping of our boy on Sunday night sent a clear message to the complex's roach community:

Don't eff with unit 1332.

Yeah, my six-legged neighbours know better than to come back up in here.

Anyway, it took me exactly two days on the Blue Jay beat to learn my college friend Raheem Covington is the "lookalike missing link" between me and Blue Jays pitching prospect Fabio Castro.

First, let me explain.

Each of us has a lookalike somewhere in the world. I've got quite a few -- everyone from Tommy Davidson to Vinnie from Naughty By Nature to the pretty boy backup singer from RnB one-hit wonder band, Ideal (that's him, back row on our left).



A missing link adds one degree of separation to the lookalike phenomenon, because he looks like two people who don't really resemble each other.

For example, rapper-turned-actor Will Smith looks like NBA championship magnet Robert Horry, who in turn looks like recently retired NBA center Alonzo Mourning, even though Smith and Mourning don't look all that similar.

See?

This guy:

Parents just don't understand...

This guy looks like this guy:

Horry, six championship rings not pictured.

Who looks like this guy:

Zo... but he don't look like Will

Got it?

Okay, so during my senior year at The Harvard of the Midwest I met Raheem Covington.

I had retired from the ball team by then and was working in the athletic department, and he was a freshman cornerback who looked JUST like me, except with a goatee (back then I was clean-shaven, like dude from Ideal). A little taller than me, but not by much. Similar athletic build, same skin tone, cheekbones, eyes and hair texture. More than one freshman chick I had never met walked up to me and started convos, thinking I was him.

Anyway, I always liked Raheem. Thought he was a handsome dude.

And this morning I swore he walked past me in Blue Jays' locker room. I knew Raheem had played a couple of years in the CFL, but had no clue he had remained in Canada and switched to baseball.

Turns out he hadn't.

It was a lookalike. Fabio Castro, a southpaw relief pitcher looking to jumpstart his career with the Jays this season.

But Castro doesn't look like me. I mean, he's a handsome dude, too, but besides being 5-foot-7 and brown skinned we don't look all that much alike. Raheem and I could pass for brothers, while Castro at best is a distant cousin on my dad's side.

See?

This handsome guy:

World's Greatest Sportswriter

Looks like this guy:

He loves Winnipeg despite the mosquitos...

Who in turn resembles this guy:

But he doesn't quite look like The World's Greatest

Haven't spoken to Castro yet. Not sure he speaks English. But even if he doesn't, estoy aprendiendo mas y mas espanol cada dia, so even if he knows no English, pienso que podemos hacer una entrevista en espanol.

Either way, by week's end, I'll have the story behind the story on the guy at the other end of the lookalike chain.

LOOKING AHEAD

All A-Roid, all the time.

Yankees visit Dunedin to open their preseason against the Jays, and apparently former MVP, admitted (under duress) steroid user and all-around stand-up guy Alex Rodriguez will play.

A month ago this game figured to be pretty mundane, but l'affaire d'A-Rod gives it a spicy subplot.

What a way to start spring training.

Can't wait.

Stay Tuned.