Category Archives: Sports

Ferguson gone, Fletcher back

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I’ve been calling for the firing of John Ferguson as GM of the Leafs for almost a year now. Now that it’s happened, I’m not sure it’s the right move. Well, sort of. It’s a move that definitely needed to be done, but I’m not convinced it’s the only move that needs to be done.

On Ferguson’s watch, the Leafs have gone from a just-making-the-playoffs mediocre team to a laughing stock, bordering on the worst team in the league. Based on the moves that he has made, I believed that Ferguson was simply incompetent, and did a lousy job of running the team. In recent days, however, I’ve heard a lot about what’s gone on behind the scenes — Ferguson tried to make a number of deals that were nixed by Richard Peddie, the CEO of MLSE, and not a hockey guy. Given that, it’s quite possible that it was not entirely Ferguson’s fault. If his hands were as tied as I have been led to believe, there wasn’t much he could have done.

Having said that, as I’ve mentioned before, MLSE has treated Ferguson very badly over the last few months. His contract was going to end after this season, and MLSE didn’t bother to renew it, implying that he was going to be done after this season, and Peddie did say that hiring Ferguson was a mistake. Ferguson says it did not affect how he did his job, but I think it must have, and it more than likely affected the other GMs in the league and how they dealt with him. Over the past couple of weeks, the Leafs have all but announced that Ferguson was going to be fired, and that they were talking to Cliff Fletcher about the position, so he knew his days were numbered. Openly talking about who the next GM is when the current one is still there is just not very nice. So it was kind of unfair to Ferguson not to put him out of his misery and just fire him.

Cliff Fletcher has been hired as interim GM, and will search in the off-season for a new full-time GM for next season. MLSE has announced that “As all of our general managers have had, he will have the autonomy and responsibility for all hockey decisions…” If that’s true and Ferguson did have complete autonomy, then he’s at fault and deserved to be fired. If that’s not true, and some of his attempted moves were blocked, then Peddie should also be fired. Since the Leafs have been making money hand over fist on Peddie’s watch, I doubt that the rest of the board of directors of MLSE would even consider firing him.

There’s also been talk of firing coach Paul Maurice, which I don’t agree with. As the old saying goes, you can’t turn chicken turds into chicken salad by adding mayonnaise. Given what he had to work with, I don’t think we can look at the Leafs’ record from this year and last and conclude that it’s Maurice’s fault. Even if Maurice was the best hockey coach in the world, I’m not sure he could turn this team into a winner. I say wait until Fletcher (and whoever the next GM is) makes some moves and gives him a half-decent team, and then see what he can do.

Ironically, Cliff Fletcher was GM of the Leafs in the early 90’s, and made the trade that brought Mats Sundin to Toronto. Now his first act at GM might just be to trade Sundin away.

A couple of sports quickies

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There have been a number of US Congressional hearings with respect to illegal steroid use in Major League Baseball. A number of current and former baseball players have been asked to testify at these hearings to determine the extent of the steroid use in baseball. Quite honestly, I’m glad this is happening, since MLB has been turning a blind eye to steroid use for years, and if it weren’t for the Congressional involvement, the Mitchell Report never would have been commissioned, people would still think steroid use in baseball was minimal, and José Canseco would still be thought of as an attention-seeking nutcase. (He might still be, but it looks as if he was right when he wrote his book about the rampant use of steroids.)

But all that aside, why is Congress involved? How is steroid use in baseball important enough to the American people that their congressmen (congresspeople?) need to get involved? Aren’t there any more important problems for them to solve?

Toronto Rock head coach Glenn Clark is in a mess o’ trouble. There were a number of fights and game misconducts at the Toronto – Minnesota game that I was at last Friday. After the game (which Toronto lost in overtime), Clark encountered one of the Minnesota players (Sean Pollock, who had been ejected early in the game) in the hallway near the Toronto dressing room. Pollock apparently made some comments about the game which Clark disagreed with, and Clark ended up punching him in the face a couple of times. Clark has now been charged with assault by Toronto Police. The NLL is also investigating and will announce the results of their investigation (likely a lengthy suspension for Clark) later this week. So not only is Clark not likely to be behind the bench again anytime soon, but he may get fired by the Rock entirely, and what’s worse, his day job may be at risk as well. When not coaching the Rock, Clark is a teacher, but if he’s convicted and ends up with a criminal record, his teaching career is over as well. Hopefully it doesn’t come to that.

Clark played for the Rock for a number of years — he was a great defenseman and I was a big fan of his (I even created his Wikipedia page). Then he got injured one year and missed over half the season, and when he came back the next season, he just wasn’t the same. He played another year or two in Toronto, but was never as effective as before the injury. He signed as a free agent with Philadelphia and played a year there before retiring to take the head coach job with the Rock. He was never afraid to drop the gloves, and always played with passion, but he rarely did blatantly stupid things. However, during one game last year, he (as a coach) had to be physically restrained by one of his players because he was irate at one of the refs. There are other coaches in the league who get all riled up and yell and swear and throw things and stuff, but I’ve never heard of Darris Kilgour or Troy Cordingley hitting a player. If Clark is less composed than Darris Kilgour, well, that’s bad.

I think he should be suspended for at least half the season, if not the remainder of the season, and should be fired by the Rock. (Some have suggested a lifetime ban, but I think that’s a bit harsh.) There’s no place in lacrosse, or any sport, for stuff like that. It’s one thing for players to lose control like that, but Clark is the Head Coach. Even if some of the players on his team are older than he is (he’s 38 — several months younger than me), he still has to be held to a higher standard. Maybe he can take the time away from lacrosse to take an anger management course.

Having said that, I don’t think there was any need for police involvement. As bad as this incident was in the world of lacrosse (or sport in general), it was right after a high-intensity game that saw numerous lead changes, went to overtime, and saw a number of players penalized and ejected. This took place during a professional sporting event, not a floor hockey game during gym class. Clark is very passionate about lacrosse, and obviously needs to learn to control that passion. I’m not defending him — he did a stupid thing and deserves to be punished for it — but I don’t think there’s any need to jeopardize his teaching career because of it. I don’t think there’s any danger of some 11th grader talking back to Clark in class and getting socked.

OK, that second one wasn’t as much of a quickie as I originally intended…

Catch-22 for Ferguson

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John Ferguson Jr. is in a tough spot. As the GM of the Leafs, it’s his job to build the Leafs into a successful team. In my opinion, he’s done a lousy job of this, and the fact that the Leafs are playing really badly, losing yesterday to the worst team in the league, is evidence of this. The right thing to do now, as I’ve believed for a couple of years, is to blow the team up and start over with young kids and draft picks. One problem with this idea is that lots of the Leafs have long expensive contracts with no-trade clauses. These will be hard to get rid of, since nobody wants to take on that big a contract unless it’s for an exceptional player, of which the Leafs have none.

And then there’s Mats Sundin. He’s been the face of the Leafs for over ten years, is a fan favourite, and is still an impact player. He has stated numerous times that he wants to remain in Toronto, but he’s by far the most tradeable player on the team, in that he’d get the most interest and the Leafs would get more for him than the rest of the team combined. The buzz around Toronto is whether or not the Leafs will trade Sundin, who’s an unrestricted free agent after this season. If they do, it’s basically an admission that they’re not going to make the playoffs this year, and that they’re trying to rebuild. As much as I love Sundin, this is the right thing to do.

I heard some hockey analysts (far more knowledgable about hockey than myself) on the radio yesterday talking about this, and they said that Philly got a couple of current players (one great, one good) and two draft picks for an injured Peter Forsberg, and that Sundin would fetch even more than that. One suggestion was that Sundin would fit in nicely on the Ottawa Senators with his good friend and fellow Swede Daniel Alfredsson. How painful would it be for Torontonians, many of whom (though not me) hate the Senators with a passion, to watch Mats Sundin hoist the Stanley Cup wearing a Sens jersey? Ouch.

But here’s Ferguson’s real problem. The Leafs’ ownership, MLSE, have not renewed his contract for next year, and Richard Peddie has gone so far as to say that hiring Ferguson was a “mistake”. The Leafs have missed the playoffs for two straight years, and are looking at a third, and it would seem that Ferguson’s only chance to not get fired would be to make the playoffs this year. So what should Ferguson do? If he trades away Sundin for prospects and draft picks, which is sacrificing this season for the future, he’s putting the Leafs in a better position going forward but all but guaranteeing that the Leafs will miss the playoffs and so he’ll probably lose his job. If he keeps Sundin, the Leafs might squeak into the playoffs but will get devastated by Ottawa (likely to finish first in the East) in the first round. He may keep his job for another year because they made the playoffs (seemingly, this milestone indicates to MLSE that the season was a complete success), but the situation next year and in future years won’t be any better. So in a nutshell, if he tries to make the team better, he gets fired. But if he keeps things the same or does nothing to prevent them from getting worse, he might just keep his job.

Or possibly MLSE will realize that trading Sundin is good for the Leafs’ future, and as long as he doesn’t get raked over the coals in the deal, maybe give Ferguson another year with these new kids — even if they do miss the playoffs this year. Sundin is also an unrestricted free agent this summer, so even if they do trade him, it’s possible that they could resign him then, and have the best of both worlds. Then again, even if they trade Sundin for Sidney Crosby and a draft pick (an arguably good deal for the Leafs, and one likely to get the Pittsburgh GM fired or, more likely, shot), they’ve still got Kubina, McCabe, Raycroft, Stajan, and bunch of other half-decent-at-best or overpaid (or both!) players. Even Crosby couldn’t carry these guys by himself.

Look at me, hoping that MLSE makes some smart decisions when it comes to the Leafs. Talk about blind optimism. Here’s what will happen: the Leafs will hold onto Sundin until he retires, and will not get noticably better in that timeframe. Then with Sundin gone, they’ll get worse.

Football pool winner! Who’da thunk?

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I’ve blogged a couple of times now (here and here) about this football pool I’m in, and how I don’t know anything about football but was doing well anyway. I am stunned beyond belief to announce that I won the whole damn thing. I finished 6 points ahead of second place, and 68th overall in all of ESPN.

Financially, I came in second in week 2 ($10), then I won week 16 ($30), and then I won $260 for first place overall, for a total of $300. I’m still deciding what to do with that money. Do I just put it toward the credit cards, or do I treat the family to something, or do I say “screw ’em all” and buy myself a new Rock jersey?

The Mitchell Report

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The Mitchell report came out last week, naming a bunch of players that took steroids or human growth hormone (HGH) over the past ten years or so. Nobody was mentioned in the report more than Barry Bonds (to nobody’s surprise), but Roger Clemens was a close second. This was a bit of a surprise to me, though I don’t know why. He is also a player whose career started to wane a little bit and then he had a great resurgence and is still excelling well into his 40’s. Maybe it’s because when you think of steroids, you think of a bulky hitter smashing 500-foot home runs, not a pitcher. Part of me thinks that you have to wonder about a power pitcher who can still hit 95 mph when he’s 45, but if that’s the case, you also have to wonder about Nolan Ryan, who was also able to throw in the high 90’s well into his 40’s. Was he juiced? My immediate reaction is “No, he wasn’t on the juice! He’s Nolan freakin’ Ryan!”, but why couldn’t he have been? Say it ain’t so, Nolan! (Note that I’m not saying that Ryan was using steroids, just that the assumption that he wasn’t might be naïve.)

Roger’s good friend and teammate Andy Pettitte was also mentioned in the report, but his situation is very different from Roger’s:

  • Clemens used steroids and HGH for at least three years. He has since denied the allegations despite the bucketloads of evidence in the Mitchell report.
  • Pettitte took HGH (no steroids) for two days in 2002 while recovering from an injury. He has since admitted his usage and apologized.

In Pettitte’s press release, he admitted to using the HGH, but only twice over two days, and only because he was trying to recover from tendonitis in his elbow. He was so uncomfortable about using it (despite the fact that it was legal and not even banned by MLB at the time) that he stopped.

While I think that what Pettitte did was wrong, he’s admitted what he did and apologized for it, and you have to respect him for that. Clemens, who would have to work pretty hard to earn my respect based on history, continues to deny everything, perhaps hoping that people will just forget about it. I think he might find that at Hall of Fame voting time, people won’t forget.

It seems ironic that if you go purely by statistics, the three players currently not in the Hall of Fame who most deserve to be there are Pete Rose, Roger Clemens, and Barry Bonds. But the HoF is more than just statistics and if you include everything else, none of the three of them deserves to be there.

Football pool redux

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Remember a while ago, I mentioned I was in a football pool? No? C’mon, you remember — I had won some money in week two, and I figured I’d never win anything again because I know zilch about football? You remember now? No? Uh…. ok.

So anyway, I’m in this football pool….

So it’s week 14 now, and I have not come in first or second in any weeks since week 2. But dammit all if I’m not tied for first freakin’ place overall! After thirteen weeks, I have correctly guessed predicted 9 games or more (out of 16) seven times. I have only gotten less than seven right once, that was 5 in week 5. I’m still in the 99th percentile, and I’m ranked even higher than I was before – 724th overall. In total, I have gotten 110 right out of 208, or a success rate of 52.9%. It seems odd to me that being slightly over 50-50 gives you first place. I also find my success in this pool rather odd, considering all I’m going by is (a) the ESPN game preview (though they never make predictions, they just say what’s happened in the last few meetings between the two teams and/or any winning or losing streaks the teams are on), and (b) the tiny bits of football information that I don’t fast-forward over when listing to my Prime Time Sports podcast. Note that the ESPN preview is right there on the page where you make your picks, so it’s exactly the same information that everyone else in the pool has access to. For a while, I also had a general rule of never betting against the Patriots or Colts, though I had to break that rule when they played each other (and I got it right). I have since gone against both in a few cases, but only betting that they won’t cover the spread, and I’ve almost always been right about those too.

I should have been buying lottery tickets…

Leafs, books, quirks, and Adam’s fall

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A few scattered things…

In the past couple of years, I’ve actually hoped that the Leafs wouldn’t make the playoffs, so that this would send a clear signal to the Leafs’ management that serious changes needed to be made, not just little tweaks here and there. They’ve missed the playoffs two years running now, but nothing really significant has been done, so this year, I’m hoping the Leafs miss the playoffs again so that management is replaced. Ferguson has done a lousy job of building this team, so he needs to be sent packing. I’m hoping that Tannenbaum et al have noticed the dramatic changes in the Raptors after they went out and got Bryan Colangelo (last year’s NBA Executive of the Year); maybe that will force them to rethink the Leafs’ situation. Rather than just getting some guy to run the Leafs, they need to go out and get the guy — someone with a proven track record who is not afraid to blow the team up and rebuild. I have no idea who the guy is (would Lou Lamoriello ever leave New Jersey?), but Ferguson just ain’t getting the job done.

Wil Wheaton has a new book out called “The Happiest Days of our Lives”, which is a collection of some of his best blog entries, and talking about the best blog entries on Wil’s blog is really saying something. I ordered the book a few weeks ago, and shortly after, Wil (I call him “Wil” like he’s a friend of mine) complained that the Canadian orders had to be processed by hand, and he was doing it himself (Monolith Press, who’s publishing the book, is Wil’s own publishing company). Lo and behold, my book arrived last week, and the envelope had a customs sticker on it signed by Wil himself. It’s not an autographed book, but pretty close…

When I first got my iPod, I spent a month putting all my music on it, and as an afterthought, I subscribed to a couple of podcasts. Since then, I’ve found that my main use for the iPod is listening to these podcasts on my way to and from work every day. I don’t know how I’d manage this if I didn’t have a 45-minute-each-way commute. Since you asked (lookin’ at you, CaHwyGuy), here are my podcasts:

  • Prime Time Sports, the FAN 590’s afternoon show with the legendary Bob McCown, recently voted North American sports radio’s “Air Talent of the Year”.
  • Bob McKenzie – the TSN hockey analyst’s five-minute podcast, once or twice a week.
  • Quirks and Quarks – CBC’s science show, which has been around since the mid-70’s (though not in podcast form).
  • Scientific American’s 60-Second Science – a daily 60-second science report, usually a brief summary of a recent scientific discovery.
  • This Week in Tech (TWiT) – a discussion of recent news in the world of technology.

I have also downloaded, listened to, and enjoyed a couple of audiobooks from audible.com. So far, I have only listened to audiobooks from guys named Stephen: Hawking’s “A Brief History of Time” and Colbert’s “I Am America (And So Can You)”. Just the title of that second one is enough to make me giggle, and the rest of the book is also very funny; I literally laughed out loud on numerous occasions while listening to it.

I found this on Boing Boing, and could not stop laughing. Author John Scalzi has written a review of the Creation Museum in Kentucky, which is a museum that promotes “young Earth” creationism, i.e. the Bible is literally true, and the Earth was created in 6 24-hour days about 6000 years ago. The other things that these young Earth creationists also believe are mind-boggling:

  • dinosaurs walked the Earth with humans, possibly as late as when the Egyptians were building the pyramids
  • there was nothing bad in the world until Adam ate that damned apple — there was no disease, no pain, every animal was a vegetarian, snake’s venom was harmless, and there were no weeds. Yes, there’s a sign in the museum specifically talking about weeds, and how they didn’t exist before “Adam’s fall”. (They didn’t explain why a vegetarian T. Rex would have had such huge teeth and claws — maybe they quickly grew after Adam’s fall turned this gentle giant into a vicious carnivore.) Man, you make one mistake, and everyone pays for it for the rest of eternity. God may be merciful and kind, but don’t piss Him off.
  • Cain’s wife was also his sister. This must have been true, since Adam and Eve were the only other people around, so it’s not like he could have married someone from next door. However, before Adam ate the apple, incest was OK and wouldn’t cause genetic problems. Ew.

The whole creationist thing seems to come from the dizzying logic that “the Bible must be true because it’s the word of God. How do we know it’s the word of God? It says so in the Bible.” It’s best explained by this.

NLL season – back from the dead

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So there will be pro indoor lacrosse this winter. As I mentioned before, the CBA expired during the off-season, and the league set a deadline date of October 15, by which time a new CBA would have to be reached in order to avoid complete cancellation of the season. The players called the owners’ bluff, and it turned out that it was no bluff, and the season was officially cancelled. That’s when the players union collectively said “oh shit, they weren’t kidding”, and the real negotiations started. A week later, the league announced that they had reached agreement with the PLPA on a new seven-year contract, and that the season was saved. Good thing too — I’m not sure the league could have survived a complete year-long shutdown.

After the original cancellation, the press asked NLL commissioner Jim Jennings if the season could be salvaged if an agreement was reached, and he said no. He said that the arena dates had been released, and he actually used the word “impossibility”. Apparently the Boston Blazers’ management took him seriously, because shortly before the agreement was reached, they told the league that they would not be playing in 2008 even if a deal was reached. There’s been no official announcement on this yet, but it’s been mentioned in a couple of interviews with people in the know. I’m not entirely sure what Boston could have done in the week between the cancellation and the agreement that couldn’t be undone — the season doesn’t start for another two months — but in so doing, the Blazers will lose all the players they drafted in the dispersal and expansion drafts, and will have to start again from scratch next year, if the team doesn’t fold completely.

When the season was reinstated, my first thoughts were words to the effect of “Woo hoo!”. Right after that, I started to wonder how we can ever trust Mr. Jennings again, after he said it was impossible to restart the season, and yet he did a week later. Jennings is known for missing his own deadlines for announcements; the league will say that there will be an announcement on league expansion (usually a team moving or an expansion franchise being awarded) on whatever date, and a few days or even weeks will go by before the announcement is made, with no explanation for the delay. Given that history, plus the season cancellation / reinstatement thing, my respect for Jennings started to drop. But then Jennings did something very few people in leadership positions generally do — he said he was wrong. He said the cancellation of the season wasn’t a negotiation ploy, he really believed the season was done, and that he’s happy to have been wrong. Perhaps it was a ploy and perhaps it wasn’t (though if it was a ploy, he probably should have notified the Blazers of that), but it took stones for him to admit he was wrong. Jennings has done great things for the NLL, and this admission increased my respect for him.

My respect for the PLPA, however, didn’t fare so well. It’s not because the players were asking for outrageous salaries — I don’t know the details of the CBA well enough to have an opinion on that. I know they don’t make a ton of money compared to the other pro sports — the highest salaries in the league are about $25k/year — and that they weren’t asking for huge increases. But after years of telling people “lacrosse players aren’t in it for the money, they truly play for the love of the game”, having the season cancelled because of a labour dispute (the third such dispute in the last four years) made me feel like a liar. If they were truly playing for the love of the game, there would be no need for the PLPA at all. I don’t like unions at the best of times, so maybe my judgement is a little clouded here. Note that I have no problems with the players themselves, it’s just the union I don’t like.

Anyway, the long and the short of it is that there will be lacrosse this year, and so, dear reader, you can look forward to game highlights and lacrosse commentary from yours truly throughout the season, which will begin in late December or early January. If you’re not into lacrosse but are looking for something just as insightful as my commentary will likely be, here you go.

Aside: Yes, the title of this post is a small Halloween reference.

Red Sox give Leafs fans hope

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After watching the last out of the World Series, I thought “So Boston won the World Series… again“, and then realized that nobody has been able to say those words for almost ninety years. On the radio this morning, Damien Cox said that this should be great news for all Leafs fans, because the Red Sox were under the thumb of greedy and/or stupid ownership for a long time, and have now won two championships in four years, so Leafs fans can be reassured that their time may come as well. All we need to do is wait forty or fifty more years…

A-Rod has opted out of his contract with the Yankees, who have also lost Joe Torre. I have hated the Yankees all my life, especially during the last 10 years when they’ve been a juggernaut, but I have nothing but respect for Joe Torre. Without those two, the Yankees are instantly a worse team, and it’s possible they’ll also lose Pettitte and Posada, and Roger Clemens might finally retire for good. This brings the Yankees back down to Earth, and thereby gives the Jays a better chance. Now all they need to do is make sure Vernon Wells and Troy Glaus remember how to hit.

They mentioned during the game last night that Curt Schilling probably would not be back in the Boston lineup next year. Don’t know if he’s retiring or just moving on, but that leaves the Red Sox with a starting rotation of Josh Beckett, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz (who threw a no-hitter this past season), and possibly Tim Wakefield. That’s one powerful rotation, and with Okajima, Timlin (who might retire), Gagne (who will probably not suck so much next year), and Papelbon in the bullpen, I think the Sox will be OK next year, even without Schilling.

A fun weekend, and baseball’s over

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I’m sitting in the family room watching game 4 of the World Series; lovin’ that wireless internet. We had a bit of a busy weekend; Gail and Nicholas were at a Beaver camp on Saturday, so Ryan and I had a day to ourselves. We checked out the brand new Canadian Tire store that just opened in Waterdown; that’ll take some getting used to. It’s not set up like other Canadian Tire stores, all the car stuff is to the right while everything else is off to the left, and there’s a big Mark’s Work Wearhouse right in the middle of the store. I was kind of expecting one of those huge “superstores”, like the one in Waterloo, but it’s not nearly that big. Anyway, we bought Ryan and me each a new pair of skates and I got some new windshield wipers for the car. We then started painting a bookshelf that I’ve been building for Nicholas for about three years. Just before we started that, I got a big ego boost when a friend of Ryan’s from down the street came to ask if Ryan wanted to come out and play. I told him it was entirely up to him and after thinking for a minute, he told the kid that he was going to stay in and paint with me.

After painting we had lunch, then went grocery shopping, played on the Wii for a while, played some game that Ryan learned at school called “fumble”, which involved throwing a tennis ball against a wall, and then went out for dinner. After dinner, we came back and I continued reading Harry Potter to him (we’re into Goblet of Fire now) until bedtime. We had an amazing day.

Today, the boys had swimming lessons in the morning, then we all went out to Dyment’s Farm, where we froze had lots of fun. The boys played in an inflatable train, a big ball pit, a straw fort, and on a trike track (though Ryan was a little too big for the trikes), we went on a wagon ride around the farm and right along the edge of the Niagara Escarpment, and enjoyed a nice lunch of very expensive hamburgers, a hot dog for Nicky, and some really good fries. All in all, we had a good time, though it was pretty expensive. It cost about $25 for all of us to get in, and lunch was pretty pricey as well (three burgers and a large fries was $17.50, and a small cup of apple cider was $1.50). The pumpkins were only $2 each, and were pretty small, though we’ve been told that because of the dry summer we had, the pumpkins are small everywhere this year. We usually go to Parkside Farms in Waterdown each year for our pumpkins, but decided to give Dyment’s a try this year. Parkside is smaller, but just as much fun, no entrance fee, and cheaper food, so I think we’ll be heading back there next year.

I have a presentation to give on security in SQL Anywhere tomorrow morning, so I should probably not stay up too late. However, the Red Sox are an inning away from winning their second World Series in four years (and as one of the commentators said, also its second World Series in eighty-nine years), so I think I’ll stay up just a little longer and watch the end of baseball for another year. Despite the fact that they’re in the same division as the Jays, the Red Sox have become my second favourite baseball team. I think that happened when they came back from three games down to beat the hated Yankees in the ALCS three years ago. I also spent a lot of time in Boston during my three-year stint at my previous company, so that’s probably part of it as well. Plus, you can’t help but like David Ortiz. Manny Ramirez, not so much, but hey.

I’d like to write some stuff about the NLL season being cancelled (bad) and then reinstated (good), but I’m too tired tonight.