Category Archives: Sports

Trade Deadline

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Today is the trade deadline in the NHL, so teams have until 3:00 this afternoon to decide whether they are going to make a run at the playoffs, or trade away players that will become free agents at the end of the season, thereby getting something for them, instead of getting zilch later. This, traditionally, is the most frustrating day of the season for Leafs fans. This is the day when the Leafs management decides that they are going to take a run at the playoffs, so they need some kind of veteran help, and they trade away prospects and/or draft picks for someone past his prime. This year, there have been rumours of Gary Roberts returning to Toronto, and I love Roberts as a player, but the Leafs need to realize that they have no chance of winning the Cup this year, so adding someone like Roberts would serve no purpose.

There are also rumours about the Leafs getting Bill Guerin, but to do that, they’d have to give up — guess what? — prospects and draft picks. Once again, if this happens, the Leafs will be trading away their future for a hopeless shot at winning the Cup this year. All that giving up the prospects and picks will do is guarantee that the Leafs will be in the same situation next year, and the year after that, and the year after that…

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — the Leafs need to blow up the team and start over. Signing the formerly somewhat-overrated and now vastly overpaid Bryan McCabe was a mistake. I like Kaberle, so I don’t have a big problem with signing him long-term (especially since he’s not getting McCabe-type money), and they just re-signed Darcy Tucker, but for only $3 million a year, so that’s not bad at all. I love Sundin, but I think they need to trade him now, while they can still get something for him, and start stocking up on the aforementioned prospects and draft picks, rather than trading them away.

Heard on the radio this morning — the Leafs would like to trade Pavel Kubina back to Tampa. They don’t want anything back for him; they’d just send him back to Tampa, with a note saying “My bad”. :-)

I’ve only been really following basketball for a year or two, but it seems that Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo is very well respected in the league, and with good reason — in less than a year, he’s turned the Raptors from a laughing stock into a conference-contending team. They’re not likely to win a championship this year, but they could be a serious contender within the next few years. Whenever I hear him being interviewed, he gives an air of not just confidence, but control. He is in complete control of the team, and has a plan for it. When I hear the GM of the Blue Jays, J.P. Ricciardi, talk, he gives me the same impression. The Leafs GM, John Ferguson, however, always gives me the impression that he’s doing whatever he can to just stop the bleeding. He’s not trying to make the team tangibly better, he’s just trying to keep it from getting too much worse. Unless the Leafs turn it around in a big way this season (i.e. make the playoffs and win at least one round), they really need to get rid of Ferguson.

Update: The Leafs made one deal today — trading away 23-year-old prospect Brendan Bell and a draft pick for 35-year-old veteran Yanic Perreault. Same ol’ same ol’. Sigh.

You Suck

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Went to the third Toronto Rock home game of the season tonight. They played pretty sloppy, and Watson was kind of shaky in the first half. They were down 8-3 at one point and went into halftime losing 8-4, but rookie coach Glenn Clark must have given them some kind of pep talk at halftime. They didn’t exactly come out in the 3rd quarter guns-a-blazin’, but they did score 4 goals in the third to tie it up. Whipper, and the defense in general, was much better in the second half, only allowing two goals, and the Rock won it 11-10. I love those Rock comeback wins — they had a couple of games last year, both against Philadelphia if I’m not mistaken, where they came back from 8-goal deficits to win the game.

One thing you see (well, hear) at lacrosse games that you don’t hear anywhere else (at least, I never have) is the “Sucks” cheer. When the opposing goalie allows a goal, a bunch of people stand up, point to the goalie, chant his name three times, and then yell “YOU SUCK!”. The Chicago goalie was Brandon Miller, so tonight’s chant went “MILL-er, MILL-er, MILL-er, YOU SUCK!” I suppose it’s a little juvenile, but it’s all in good fun (otherwise you wouldn’t yell it when a goalie allows his fourth goal while your own team’s goalie has already allowed eight).

The fans in Philadelphia go one better — in Philly, everyone on the opposing team sucks. Before the game starts, they announce the starting line-ups for each team (don’t know why they don’t announce the starting lineup for the opponents in Toronto), and after every opposing player’s name, the fans yell “SUCKS!” Some players, notably Portland goaltender Dallas Eliuk who played 15 seasons in Philadelphia, hear the “SUCKS!” cheer following their name, immediately followed by applause.

Note: I created all of the Wikipedia pages I linked to above.

Rock lose home opener

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The Toronto Rock played their first home game of the season on Friday night,
a 19-15 loss to Rochester. It was a pretty entertaining game, though the Rock
took a lot of undisciplined penalties (and the officiating was pretty inconsistent
all night). Rochester scored an unbelievable ten power play goals —
the Rock offense wasn’t bad (hey, they scored 15), but they just couldn’t stay
out of the box, so it seemed like they were a man down for two thirds of the game.
You just can’t win doing that. Hopefully new coach Clark can settle them down
a bit for next week’s game in Philadelphia, and if Jim Veltman is healthy
enough to play, that will certainly help.

The loss of Colin Doyle wasn’t a huge factor in this game. All three guys they
got for him played — Benesch scored four goals and looked pretty good.
Thompson wasn’t much of a factor, and Fines scored a goal, though I didn’t think
he played very well. Despite getting pounded for 19 goals, Watson played pretty
well — as my buddy Steve said, he was the reason the Rock didn’t lose by
10 or more. Funniest moment of the game: the Knighthawks gain possession of the
ball, and their coach immediately signals the ref for a time-out. The ref blows
the whistle and a second or two later, the Knighthawk players, who don’t know
about the time-out request, score. The goal is waved off.

Finally winter’s here! Normally, I’d complain about that, but I’m going
skiing this Friday, and I was worried that there wouldn’t be enough snow to
actually go. But it’s been cold enough to make snow for a week now, and
Collingwood’s gotten some real snow as well, so the conditions should be
pretty good. The forecast calls for a high on Friday of -13 — my ideal
temperature for skiing is about -6, so it’ll be cold, but for my one ski day
per year, I can handle it.

Bonds and Beckham

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Barry Bonds says that
Mark McGwire (and Pete Rose) should be in the Hall of Fame. Well, of course
Bonds thinks that McGwire should be there — if McGwire isn’t there
because he used steroids, then there’s no way Bonds will get there. I posted
a
while ago about McGwire, and how I didn’t know whether he should
or should not be in the HOF. Well, I think I’ve made up my mind now — if I
had a vote, I would not vote for him.

It’s never been proven
beyond a reasonable doubt that McGwire took steroids, but this is not a court of
law, so there is no set “burden of proof”. And even if steroids were not
explicitly banned by MLB, the belief by the general public (thanks Ben Johnson)
was that those who used steroids were cheaters. McGwire had already retired, and
had broken no baseball rules by taking the drugs, so there were no repercussions
if he were to admit taking them, but he still stonewalled the US Congressional
inquiry and refused to answer any questions. Why? Because he knew that
what he had done was wrong. If he had ‘fessed up, I might have had a
little more compassion, but he cheated and then lied about it. No! No
Hall of Fame for you!

I posted before
on why Pete Rose should not be in the Hall, so I won’t go over that again. I
can’t think of two more deserving Hall of Famers than Cal Ripken and Tony
Gwynn, so congrats to them.

So the MLS is all about signing older, used-to-be-good-but-not-so-much-now players for insane amounts money now, is it? Then who better than MLSE to own a franchise in that league? They’ve been doing that with the Leafs for years.

Lacrosse season is back!

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I’m watching the first NLL game of the season, broadcast live over the intertubes. Mike Accursi just scored for Rochester, and the Knighthawks now lead the reigning NLL champion Colorado Mammoth 11-10 in the second quarter.

My friend Mike has a nephew, Shawn Williams, who is a great lacrosse player. He was signed by the Toronto Rock in 1999, and Mike got Rock season tickets to watch Shawn. He brought some other friends to a couple of games, and they started to really enjoy the game. In early 2000, they decided to head to a Buffalo-Philadelphia game in Buffalo, and Mike asked if I wanted to go and check it out. I tagged along, though I knew nothing about lacrosse. I was instantly hooked, and when Mike said they were considering expanding their four season tickets to eight for the next season, I told them to count me in. Since then:

  • I have missed only one Toronto home game (because I was on a Caribbean cruise at the time)
  • I’ve also seen a number of games in Buffalo and a couple in Rochester
  • I run a lacrosse pool for my friends
  • I’ve edited hundreds of pages on lacrosse (and created about 50) on Wikipedia

I don’t think you could say I’m obsessed with lacrosse, but I’m certainly a fan.

Colin Doyle was traded from the Toronto Rock to San Jose the other day, which took the lacrosse world by storm, since Doyle has been one of the top scorers in the league over the last few years, has been named championship game MVP three times, and was league MVP in 2005. (Incidentally, Doyle’s page on Wikipedia was one of the ones that I created.) Doyle was traded with another guy (who the Rock acquired in a trade last month) and a draft pick for three young players and a couple of draft picks. One of the players the Rock got was Ryan Benesch, who was the first overall draft pick last year, so the Rock have essentially traded a proven scorer (who’s only 29 — likely lots of good years left in his career) for an unproven rookie, though one with lots of potential. I didn’t care much for Doyle for the first few years, because he was a bit of a hothead, and tended to dive now and again. Over the last two years or so, however, he’s calmed down a lot, and my respect for him has really grown. He also stands perfectly still for the national anthems, and even sings along with O Canada, which impressed the hell out of me the first time I saw it. Long story short, I’m not really sure how I feel about this trade. It’s nice to bring some young blood into the team, and the draft picks in 2008 and 2009 may set the Rock up nicely for the next decade. But Colin Doyle was the anchor of the Rock’s offense and a bona fide superstar player. If Benesch’s potential doesn’t pan out (does the name Nik Antropov ring any bells?) this could be the beginning of a number of “rebuilding” years for the Rock.

Raptors game #3

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I went to the Raptors game against the New Jersey Nets tonight, my third Raptor game this season. In the first game, the Raptors led 2-0, then Atlanta tied it up and went ahead, and never lost the lead again. In the second game, they had a 2-point lead around 24-22 or so, but then lost the lead and never got it back again. So when the Raptors had a five point lead early in the game, I was pumped. Sure it was only 10-5 maybe 2 minutes in, and sure, this is basketball, where a 10-point lead can vanish within a minute, but still. I was kind of right – the Raps had 12-14 point leads several times, and almost every time, the Nets clawed back to within 1 or 2; they even tied it up at least once. The Raptors persevered (even without CB4), and came out on top, 90-78. Their defence was much better in this game than in the previous two, and I thought (being the basketball novice that I am) that T.J. Ford played really well.

Ex-Raptor Vince Carter was booed every time he touched the ball, and whenever he took a shot and missed, the cheers were louder than when the Raptors scored. One time, Vince even attempted a three-pointer and missed the net, rim, and backboard entirely; the crowd went nuts. Vince — an air ball? Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Vince ended up with a positively mediocre 12 points. Fans were yelling “Carter sucks”, and a couple of years ago, I would have been right there with them, but tonight I just didn’t feel the hate. He’s no longer the slimy bastard who admitted that he gave less than his all for the last year or so of his stay in Toronto, now he’s just a guy who used to play here. It’s not like he’s Roger Clemens or anything. Oh, and Alonzo Mourning, who was traded to the Raptors as part of the Carter deal but told them he would not play, and forced them to buy him out for $10 million, is still a scum-sucking dirtbag.

This was the third major sporting event that I’ve been to where something exciting happened to the person next to me:

  1. A bunch of years ago, I was sitting in the 500-level of SkyDome during a Jays game with Gail and another couple we knew, Mark and Kathy. We were way out (and I mean way the fuck out) in right field, just inside the foul pole. Mark jokingly mentioned the remote possibility of someone hitting a ball to us and I swear to God, the next batter hit a long foul ball that landed in the empty seat in front of Mark, who grabbed the ball.
  2. At a Rock game a few years ago, my buddy Jeff (with whom I went to the Raptors game tonight) was sitting next to me, and caught a t-shirt thrown from the field.
  3. At every Raptors game (and every Leafs and Rock game too), they pick two fans at random from the upper section and move them down to the front row (it’s the “Move of the Game”, sponsored by a moving company). Tonight, the chosen two people were sitting right next to me. Man, that would have been suh-weet.

No Lilly, no Meche, now what?

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What, exactly, is J.P. Ricciardi thinking? We all knew that the Jays’ biggest
problem last year was inconsistent pitching. We also knew that other needs were
a catcher (both Zaun and Molina are free agents), and help in the middle infield.
So what moves has he made? Two good ones (well, not horrible at least), and two
bad ones. He resigned Zaun (needed to be done, but we still need
a backup and Molina is too expensive) and signed shortstop Royce Clayton, so
we’re OK up the middle. But he also signed Frank Thomas and Matt Stairs. Great,
now our good-hitting lineup is even better, but wasn’t pitching the problem in
the first place? Is he hoping we will win lots of 9-7 games and just pound our
way into the playoffs? Memo to J.P.: you need pitching to win. End of story.

The Jays were not able to re-sign Ted Lilly, and Spier is gone, so the
pitching staff is weaker than before, and we’ve spent something like $9 million
on Thomas (Stairs and Clayton were cheap). We were willing to go up to near
$10 million for Lilly ($10 million for Ted Lilly? Yeesh), so now we
have that money available. They were looking at Gil Meche, but he’s said no.
Even if they did sign him, they’d have been at best no better than last
year. Does J.P.’s plan for getting to the World Series this year really
include “Hope that Chacin bounces back, and that Towers, Taubenheim, Janssen,
and McGowan suddenly find a way to win 12 games each”?

Couldn’t the Lilly money plus the Thomas money have been better used on
someone like Barry Zito, or even Andy Pettitte? Maybe he’s looking at trading
Vernon Wells for a front-line pitcher, but a stud pitcher is worth more than a
stud outfielder, so we’d have to throw in prospects as well, and we just ain’t
got any. In general, I like what Ricciardi has done with the Jays, but these
moves have me shaking my head. Then again, the offseason isn’t over yet, so
maybe it’s too early to judge, but so far, next year’s team is not looking any
better than last year’s.

Update: Read in the paper this morning: What’s the difference between J.P. Ricciardi and Lindsay Lohan at a bar? Lindsay Lohan can buy pitchers.

Musings on McGwire

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Mark McGwire is on the ballot for the baseball Hall of Fame. A lot of people
are saying he should not get in because of steroid use. Now, I’m a strong
believer that steroid use in pro sports is cheating. I think it goes against the
principles of sport in general; athletes are supposed to compete against each
other physically, and in many cases mentally, but not chemically. Also,
it teaches our young athletes that becoming the best you can be is not good
enough on your own, you need drugs as well. Not only does this damage their
self-esteem, but it puts them at risk because steroids can be dangerous, even
deadly. So on that basis, I think McGwire should not be in the Hall.

On the other hand, it has never been proven that McGwire took
steroids, nor has he ever admitted to it. Also, steroids were perfectly legal in
baseball until after McGwire retired, so even if he did take them, technically,
he never did anything wrong. His stats are
unquestionably worthy, and his home-run race with Sammy Sosa in the late 90’s
gave baseball a much-needed boost in interest (only a few years after the
interest-killing strike), so maybe he should be in the Hall.

On the other hand, the criteria for being in the Hall includes your conduct
off the field, and McGwire has repeatedly refused to answer any
questions regarding steroids, including questions in front of a Congressional
inquiry. This refusal could be seen as an admission of guilt, or at least
qualifies as detrimental behaviour, so maybe he shouldn’t be in the Hall.

On the other hand, baseball has far worse people in the Hall of Fame. Ty Cobb
was a racist who once fought with an umpire (after a game), and stabbed a man
to death during another fight. Kirby Puckett was arrested for groping a woman and
was accused of other “lewd acts” (according to Wikipedia). Those are just
two examples, but given that, does taking legal (at the time) “supplements”
qualify as detrimental enough? Maybe he should be in the Hall.

Should McGwire be in the Hall of Fame? I dunno. I’ll let the baseball
writers decide. I’m happy sitting here on the fence.

Squeak squeak swish

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I went to my first Raptors game in about 10 years last night – Raptors vs. the Atlanta Hawks. Last time I went to a Raptor game was around ’96 or ’97 with my old company – we went to a Raptors-Celtics game (fitting, considering the amount of time we spent in Boston) at the SkyDome. They, of course, play at the ACC now, and I know a little more about the game than I did then, which was precisely nothing.

I’m still no basketball expert by any stretch, but I can recognize bad defence when I see it, and the Raps were brutal in the first half. Chris Bosh couldn’t hit anything, and I think he might have had 4 points at halftime. He did have a bunch of rebounds though, but that doesn’t matter much if you miss the follow-up. The Raps quickly took a 2-0 lead in the first, then Atlanta tied it, went ahead, and never lost the lead for the rest of the game. The Raptors played better in the second half, and got to within 2 points of the Hawks a couple of times, but no closer.

I’m going to two more Raptors games next month – one with Ryan, and one with my friend Jeff. Jeff co-owns season tickets to the Leafs, and he’s taken me to a number of Leaf games, and never lets me pay for the ticket, so I think a Raptors game is the least I can do!

I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out

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Don Cherry was on the radio this morning, talking about how fighting is
required in hockey, and he was going to convince me, the listener, why this
is true. I’m not a fan of fighting in hockey (or lacrosse), so I waited to be
astonished by his insight. He proceeded to tell stories about how so-and-so star
player (Gretzky et al) were “untouchable” and if anyone “looked sideways” at
them, someone would take them out. He called this “protection”. As I’ve stated
before, I don’t have a problem with sending your resident goon out after
someone if he hits your star player with a cheap shot. But what Cherry
and Kypreos and others who advocate fighting don’t seem to “get” is that Wayne
Gretzky and other star players are not just stars, they’re hockey
players, and part of hockey is getting checked. If you’re a star player
like Crosby or Malkin or Nash and you’re heading towards the offensive zone with the puck, you better expect to get hit. If that’s too much for you and you need this
much “protection” (not from cheap shots but from legal checks), then you have no business being in the NHL. This notion of having “untouchable” players is just silly.

Cherry even told one story he told about someone who bumped his star
player accidentally (and Cherry agreed it was accidental), and got
beaten up anyway. He actually laughed when he said that his goon grabbed
the other player by the hair (no helmets in those days) and slammed his head into
the boards. Yo Don, does the name “Steve Moore” mean anything to you? Cherry’s
entertaining and all, but what an idiot.