64 Years And Counting

Today marks the end of an era. Toronto marks it's combined 64th year without a major sports title, and we here at 64 Years and Counting mark the first ever Changing Of The Title. The counter ticks forward for our first time, but assuredly not the last.

We here at the 64 Years World News Centre are a little sad to see 63 go. After all, this blog was founded on that number. It's the only one we've ever known.

Let's take a walk down memory lane. This humble blog opened its doors April 8th, with the start of the MLB season, in which we went out on a limb, and brazenly predicted an undefeated, 162-0 season for the Blue Jays. We got burned on that one, and fittingly, it was the Jays' mathematical elimination yesterday that prompted our switch.

It was a good time to be in the business of making fun of Toronto's teams though, as both the Raptors and Leafs were stumbling their way to another lost season (In a stunning show of impressive foresight, 63 Years began on the twin assumptions that neither team would anything that year. We were right). The Jays were playing well enough, and the NHL playoffs kept us going after the Leafs hit the links, where we went seven for fifteen in series predictions, though we did pick Carolina over Edmonton, so it wasn't all bad.

The playoffs segued nicely into the World Cup, which was so entirely engrossing that the 63 Years staff managed all of three posts over a span of three weeks.

That led to a long couple of months, filled entirely with baseball, with the odd foray back to hockey, whenever possible (such as making fun of Buffalo's new jerseys. What were they thinking?)

That took us to the end of August, when we came to the sudden, and stunning realization (we were in the shower at the time) that the Blue Jays were not going to make the playoffs (Our favourite line, "We'd change the site's name to "64 Years and Counting" right now, but we figure we owe it to the Jays to at least wait until they've been mathematically eliminated. And because we still have a whole whackload of business cards. More the latter than the former.)

But that was ok, because hockey was starting to wake up from its (deep) summer slumber.

Which brings us to today. A rather sombre day actually. 64 years. Here's to another one.

Jason

Call Off the Parade

Well, so much for the Leafs doing anything this year. They lost their opening preseason game to Buffalo today 4-0.

You know, they Leafs talked a good talk all summer long, bringing in some quality guys, Mike Peca, Andrew Raycroft, Pavel Kubina, Paul Maurice, but then they go and get spanked by Buffalo.

You can call off the parade.

Oh, and speaking of parades that won't be going down Yonge St. this year, the Blue Jays are one game away from being officially eliminated. They're taking on the Yankees for a three gamer, and having lost the opener (a tight 7-6 loss) all it will take is one more loss before the Jays are mathematically, irrevocably gone.

Plans are already under way to change this blog's title. A long arduous task that no doubt will take no small amount of groveling at Blogger's feet to accomplish. Or we assume. We haven't actually looked into it. We'll get one of the interns on it. They must be good for something.

Jason

Prospectin' for Prospects

In hockey news (oh sweet cupping cakes, how good it is to type those words) there is actually hockey news. Training camps are almost ready to go, and the Leafs are looking like a team that might do something this year. Er, maybe. Don't get your hopes up. Well, you can get them up a little. No, no, that's too high.

Anyways, the Leafs' roster is almost set, the only hold-out being young Matty Stajan, who's holding out for more money, or more years, or more something. It doesn't seem like it'll be an issue or anything, everybody is still friendly, and it's not like Stajan (as much we love him) is a high enough calibre player to demand anything exorbitant (we're told that he wants to be payed more than Kyle Wellwood, one of last season's better rookies. That's fair enough, Stajan has been around longer, and scored more goals, with less power play time than Wellwood did).

Training camp should be interesting. The Paul Maurice era begins, breathing a breathe of fresh air over this team. The cobwebs have been cleaned out, and a nice, Febreeze-fresh scent lingers over them.

There's still some stuff to be figured out, such as the million dollar question, who will play with Mats Sundin? Pat Quinn's strategy was to stick a pair goobers on both sides, and hope for the best. Hopefully, Maurice has different plans. We like Alex Steen and Jeff O'Neill for the job.

Also, there are three spots open on defense for a few bright eyed youngsters, and boy howdy, the Leafs do have enough of them. There's Carlo Colaiacovo, who has been trying to crack the team for the past, what, decade? Staffan Kronwall, brother of a much better Red Wings d-man (that came off harsher than intended. We love you Staffan!). Jay Harrison, who had a brief stint with the big boys last year, and impressed us. One of our sentimental favourites, for sure. Andy Wozniewski, who has a great name (Woz-new-ski), a pretty good game too boot. And the rest, Brendan Bell and Ian White, who we don't even know enough about to make fun of them (What can we say, cut backs at the 63 Years' head office have left us with a rather meagre staff).

The picture isn't so rosy up front, where the only Leaf prospects we can name off the top of our heads are John Pohl (who led the Baby Leafs, er, Marlies, in team scoring last year) and Ben Ondrus (who isn't going to be leading anything in scoring anytime soon).

Between the pipes there's the trifecta of Mikael "Blame Me" Tellqvist, J.S "One Hit Wonder?" Aubin, and Andrew "All You Need Is Some Selective Amnesia" Raycroft. That will take some sorting out, and that's also without mentioning uber-prospect Justin "Watch Out Patrick Roy" Pogge, who might complicate things farther down the road. The good kind of complicated, we hope.

Jason

Well Isle Be Damned...

LATE BREAKING NEWS!!! - We have just received word that the New York Islanders (never a good way to start a story off) have gone and done it again. We hope you are sitting down for this one, or at least leaning against a wall or something, because even as stupid Islander moves go, this one is bad.

Ok, so here it is. Rick DiPietro, you remember him? The Isles' first over all pick a few years ago? Decent goalie? Well, maybe a little shaky? Yeah, him. Well, he signed a new contract with them today. It was... um, quite the contract.

They signed him for fifteen, FIFTEEN (!!!fifteen!!!), freaking years. That's a one and a five folks. Three times five gives you fifteen as well as the stupidest contract ever put down on paper. To reiterate, they signed DiPietro for fifteen years. What the fuck. Really, what do you say to that? Just, what the fuck. Our first reaction was to break out in tears. That is singularly the worst idea ever put forward in the history of not only the NHL, but all of pro sports.

Not coincidentally it was done by the New York Islanders, and more specifically, their owner cum whackjob Charles Wang, who seems to have as much hockey sense as a dead beagle. This deal is just such an exceptionally, mindboggingly horrible idea that it defies description. How many different ways can we write "what the fuck"?

Let's try to break this down. Let's start at the top. The New York Islanders, we're told at least, reeled off four straight Stanley Cups way back in the day. This is not that team. This team hasn't won a playoff series in more than a decade. It has been saddled with an incompetent GM for the past forever in Mike Millbury.

A laundry list of his offences: Signed Alexei Yashin to the (formerly) worst contract ever, chaining him up for ten years. We're not even halfway through that yet. He let players like Zdeno Chara, Wade Redden, Dany Heatly, Marian Gaborik slip away. He drafted DiPietro first over all in 2000, a vote of confidence, absurd 15 year contracts to the contrary, that he has yet to live up to.

So they scrapped Millbury this summer. About time they said. This guy made Isaiah Thomas look like a freaking genius. Ah, but the ride didn't stop there. The team then went about finding a replacement at both coaching and GM positions. Except they hired both independently of each other. Forget letting the new GM build the team the way he wants it, Wang went and found a coach by himself.

They ended up with Ted Nolan and Neil Smith, neither of whom had seen any NHL action in more than a few winters. Ok, whatever, the important thing is that Mad Mike is gone. Let's get this show on the road.

Except that wasn't it. Forty days later and Smith was gone from the GM's office. He did the draft, signed the free agents and then was out the door, nice ta meet cha Neil, don't let the door hit you on the way out. His replacement was even better though. Wang didn't look far. In fact, he didn't look past the dressing room, plucking DiPietro's backup, Garth Snow off the ice and placing him in the GM's chair. Ok, ok, not the worst thing in the world. Sure, Snow has no experience with that side of the game, but hey, you have to start somewhere, right?

Wrong. So, so wrong.

Then this doozy slips out. What the fuck is wrong with these people? Please, pardon our French, but there's no other way of saying this. This is nothing against DiPietro personally. He's a decent goalie, nothing special, or at least not yet. Wang obviously thinks he's going to turn into some sort of puck stopping dynamo, and here's hoping he's right. But seriously, there are virtually no scenarios where this deal works out over the long run. Fifteen year (fifteen years!) is too long to be making predictions.

Let's make this clear, no player is worth a fifteen year contract. That's a recipe for disaster. Long term deals are bad for both parties. Let's look at Yashin's deal. Yashin is saddled with the most (or, second most now) untradable contract ever. His slumping production has turned him into magnet for criticism, and his reputation has suffered greatly since heading to Long Island.

It only took a year or two for people to realise just how monumentally bad an idea Yashin's contract was. What if DiPietro, who, unlike Yashin, has yet to do anything to remotely justify this payout, bombs early and often? Yashin's contract is dragging on already, and it's only on it's fifth year.

This will end badly for everybody. And one more time, what the fuck?!

Jason

Everyone Do the Lindy Hop

Ok, so the Blue Jays are done. There's not much debate on that. But September isn't completely meaningless for Toronto. Par example (as a Canadian based blog, our lawyers have told us that a certain percentage of our posts must be en francais. There, we're good for another year now), there's Roy Halladay, who's looking for his second Cy Young award. He has sixteen wins, but he's been stuck at that number for awhile now, winless in his last four starts. Ouch. And that might not change any time soon, as he was removed from his last game in the first inning after coming down with a bad case of deja vu.

The Doc was hit by a comebacker off the elbow, and while the real docs say it's nowhere near as serious as the season ending whack he took last year, it's nothing that's going to send smiles through the Jays' clubhouse. (Sidenote: Our old friend, Josh "1-9" Towers made the emergency replacement, lasting an inning or two, and blowing a two run lead in the process. It's good to have you back Josh)

But the other thing September brings the Jays (other than reflections on another failed season...) is expanded rosters, which let's crappy teams bring up the farm boys to help out in the bigs (which is why Towers found himself replacing Halladay). One particular youngster that has turned our noggins is Adam Lind (Get it? Lindy Hop? Yeah, it's bad, but it was either that or, "Friends, Romans, Countrymen, Lind Me Your Ears")

Through five games, he has seven hits, four of them doubles, three ribbies, one homer and a .412 batting average. Sure, the sample size is small, but we'd like to project good things for him.

With Lind hanging around, the Jays might have a bright future, assuming they can keep Vernon Wells around, plus guys like Alex Rios, Aaron Hill, Shawn Marcum and Gustavo Chacin.

Sunny days ahead? Here's hoping,

Jason

Hockey's (Almost) Back

Wednesday, September 6, 2006 marks the appparent beginning of the Toronto Star's daily hockey coverage. Not soon enough if you asks us.

Simply Sublime,

Jason

Giving Props Where Props Are Due

There's something we here at 63 Years and Counting love about Greeks when it comes to sports. As a whole they are able to get behind anyone that dons the blue and white, whether it's European Cup winning soccer team, a previously unknown tennis player, or an under appreciated basketball team.

The staff over at the the 63 Years world offices are half Greek you see, so we have an inside track on that kind of thing.

What we love most is the ability of any Greek to wax philosophic on any sport, as long as Greece is in it. These guys would cheer for a professional hot dog eater, as long as his name was Papadopoulous.

Take for example the FIBA basketball championships. Hosted in Japan this year, and not even available on regular cable in this neck of the woods, Greece was an unexpected challenger. Well, unexpected by anyone who considers the Euro Leagues to be somewhat on par with say, NFL Europe in terms of skill.

That couldn't be further from the truth. The world (except of course, Canada) is improving their b-ball skillz (word up) with every passing year. The days of American Dream teams are long gone, with any number of foreign countries able to boast rosters chock full of NBA goodness.

Which brings us back to Greece, winners of the European basketball championship (and as any Greek worth their ouzo will tell you, the first country to be European champions of both soccer and basketball simultaneously) despite not having a single NBA player on its roster (well, technically Vassilis Spanoulis starts with the Rockets this season, and Antonis Fotsis put in a season with Memphis a few years back, but you get the point). They were the dark horse picks by basketball types who knew what was going on.

So their impressive run to the finals was not entirely unexpected, but it definitely converted a few Greeks to the basketball cause. It was a little funny actually, watching the games with gentlemen who couldn't tell you for the life of them what a shot clock was, or what constitutes a personal foul (not that we have any clue either).

But that didn't matter, these guys wore "HELLAS" on their shirts, and that was good enough for them. They beat the US convincingly in the semi-finals, and seemed a sure lock to beat Spain, who, like Greece, owned a spotless record but would be without top player Pau(l?) Gasol.

It didn't actually matter. Greece forgot to show up. They were manhandled by the Spaniards, not even scoring fifty points, and looking out of it from the get go.

But there was silver lining for Toronto fans. Gold lining, come to think of it. Two of Spain's starters are on the payroll of Toronto's very own Raptors. Jose Calderon and Jorge Garbajosa picked up Gasol's slack, and carried the team to victory.

We'd like to wipe some egg off our face right now. Not too long ago, we were a little critical of GM Bryan Colangelo's off-season moves, criticising him for building a team that looked more ready to compete for the Euro League title than any NBA championship, what with his signing of five international players. But our bad, those European fellows got game, if you catch our drift.

With Calderon, Garbajosa, first overall pick Andrea Bargnani, Rasho Nesterovic, Uros Slokar, and long time Tel Aviv player Anthony Parker (and who can blame him for getting out of Isreal?) the Raps will be bringing a distinctly different style of play to the table.

We only hope it's the good kind of distinct.

Jason.

P.S The Blue Jays are dead to us now. The only way to salvage this season would be to finish ahead of Boston, which, while a distinct possibility, would require these guys achieving a level of consistency that they haven't shown in far too long.

The NHL pre-season isn't that far away...

Going, Going, Gibbons

The clock has started ticking on manager John Gibbons' tenure with the Blue Jays. With his recent dust-up with pitcher Ted "An Eight Run Cushion? That's Nothing" Lilly, that brings his total of club house brawls to two, which of course is two too many.

Whatever the reason is, perhaps the players don't respect him, perhaps they're all pissed off at wasting the season, perhaps whatever, the point is, Gibbons is done. We like that the front office showed restraint in not doing it right away though, it would send the wrong message to players and fans to can him now. But rest assured there's no way he's coming back for another season.

Speaking of the Jays, they sent Roy Halladay to the mound today, league leader in wins, against the Kansas City Royals, league leaders in crappiness. Halladay had a gem of a game, allowing only two runs and four hits while throwing a beauty of a complete game. Oh yeah, he lost too. Whoops.

Halladay was outpitched by Runelvys Hernandez, he of the 3-8 win-loss record, and 7.5 ERA, who threw a spotless complete game of his own for the win. We assure you, that's the last time you'll ever hear his name on this site.

What's up Jays? Losing to Kansas, with Roy Halladay on the mound? Is this your way of throwing in the towel? Telling everyone to give up and go home?

Don't worry, everyone figured that one out long ago.

Jason

15 Reasons Why The Jays Won't Make the Playoffs

Following the Toronto Blue Jays spectacular, 15 nothing loss at the hands of Baltimore today, we here at 63 Years have officially given up on them. In honour of the occasion, we present fifteen reasons you should do the same.

(1) Because the front office has. We were fine with the Jays dealing away a middle reliever the other day. No problems there. But to trade away Eric Hinske, one of the Jays' key bench players to a division rival? The Blue Jays' brass has given up on the team.

(2) Their division is unwinable. The Jays are eight games back, and need to leap frog two teams, the Red Sox and the Yankees, in order to win the division. To put it bluntly, that is not going to happen.

(3) The wildcard is unwinable. The Jays are seven and half games back, and need to leap frog three teams, the White Sox, the Red Sox and the Twins, in order to win the wildcard. To put it bluntly, that is not going to happen.

(4) Their starting rotation is looking thin. Operating with three-fifths of the original projected starting five, with Gustavo Chacin still another week away, and Josh Towers not likely to get on a Toronto mound for a long long time. The fourth and fifth spots have been filled by an unconvincing collection of relievers and rookies.

(5) Their bench is looking thin. The Jays started with too many players on the bench, and not enough spots on the field. Now Shea "Play For Yourself" Hillenbrand and Eric "Rookie of the Year" Hinske are gone, and the Jays have nobody to come off the bench to make a difference.

(6) No key rookies. Unlike everyother team in the majors, the Jays have not had a single rookie come up and turn heads. Casey Janssen looked like the real deal for awhile before crumbling. Guys like Shawn Marcum and Fransisco Rosario have been mediocre at best.

(7) J.P Ricciardi can't keep his mouth shut. The Jays GM finds the worst possible times to criticize his team, calling out Vernon Wells, even though he's putting up solid numbers. Stay out of the locker room, J.P

(8) Troy Glaus is hurting. The power hitting third baseman has been limping around for a bit now, but with Jays' depleted depth, there's nobody to replace him with. He's going to have to play through it.

(9) This team can't seem to get hot. The Jays have been consistently ok all throughout the season. With the exception of their recent seven game swoon, the Jays rarely lose in bunches, but conversely, rarely win in bunches. Their best effort so far was a fiver a month or so ago. If they want to do something, they're going to have to pull a page out of Minnesota or Los Angeles' book and start winning big and often.

(10) This team can't sweep. Stemming from the above, or rather, causing the above, the Jays are woeful when it comes time to apply the pressure and sweep away a team. This season is riddled with series where the Jays squandered sweeping opportunities. The Jays have lost their broom.

(11) Because... um... fifteen is a big number, did you know that? So we only got to eleven, but frankly, we didn't even think we'd get to six, so we're on top already.

The point is, we've given up on our baseball team, with a month and a half to go. We'd change the site's name to "64 Years and Counting" right now, but we figure we owe it to the Jays to at least wait until they've been mathematically eliminated. And because we still have a whole whackload of business cards. More the latter than the former.

Jason

Blaspheme!

According to TSN.ca, who have it on good authority from the Boston Herald, who totally heard it from a friend of the lady who does Vernon Wells' hair, the Jays have sent spare part and key benchwarmer Eric Hinske to the Red Sox.

We here at 63 Years World News Centre refuse to believe these reports. Why would manager J.P Ricciardi deal a key player to a division rival, and a team that they would have to leapfrog in order to get to the postseason?

Hinske was the 2002 AL rookie of the year, though he seems to have forgotten. He had a tough season last year, but coming off the bench this year, he's been a solid contributor.

To his credit, Ricciardi has denied the reports, for whatever that's worth. On the other hand, Hinske was scheduled to start tonight (an 8-3 debacle at the hands of Tampa Bay) but was scratched twenty minutes till go time.

We seriously hope that these rumours are untrue, or at the very least, that the Jays have not shipped Hinske to the Red Sox. At the very least...

To quote TSN.ca, "More details to follow."

Jason

Scho Long, Schoeneweis

The Blue Jays lightened their bullpen today, sending lefty reliever Scott Schoeneweis to Cincinnati for um... well, not much actually. "A Player To Be Named". Oh, and the penny conscious Blue Jays save about 600 thou on Schoeneweis' contract, which is up this year anyway.

Let's be honest, we here at 63 Years don't really care about the Jays' bullpen shuffling. MLB relievers are as permanent as that tattoo that came with our box of Froot Loops. This entry is just a slim facade for today's title, which came to us in a flash of inspiration as we read of Schoeneweis' departure.

Come on, "Scho Long, Schoeneweis"? It's virtual poetry.

Back to the story, we might as well make something out of it. Grafted word for word off of TSN.ca are Sho's stats for this season.

"Schoeneweis, 32, appeared in 55 games this season, posting a 2-2 record and 6.51 ERA but hasn't been as effective since the all-star break, in part because of a nagging leg injury. Overall, the six-foot, 190-pound left-hander allowed 39 hits in 37.1 innings, while walking 16 and striking out 18"

Nothing special, in other words. He was a pretty faceless guy in a pretty faceless bullpen. He didn't have great sideburns, like Bryan Tallet, great hair, like Scott Downs, or a great first name, like Jason Frasor.

He just was.

Scho long then, and thanks for all the memories. Like that time when you...um... you know what? Let's not ruin the moment.

Good luck with the Reds,

Jason

ADDENDUM: We would also like to extend an apology to half man, half machine, Roger Federer. It would seem that we jinxed him. A day after writing this,

Also unrelated, we feel we should devote a few inches to tennis, what with the Rogers Cup taking place in our backyard. Roger Federer won the men's side. No shit, Sherlock. Of course Federer won. Yawn. Moving on.

Federer goes and actually, get this, loses. Woah! Yeah, that's what we said. Wanna know something even freakier? It happened in Cincinnati!

So we'd just like to say to Federer, we're so sorry, and that from now on, we'll put our strange voodoo powers to use for the greater gooder.

For example: Those Toronto Maple Leafs, they're never going to win a Stanley Cup again. Never. Ever.

Are you listening, Voodoo gods? Never.

Wildcard Dreams?

The Jays are still, by the slimmest of margins, in the AL's wildcard hunt. They sit 7.5 games behind the current wild team, Chicago. Coincidently, that's also the margin of games that separate them from the AL East leading Yankees. There's no easy way in for these Blue Jays.

Realistically, the wildcard race is a three horse show, with the Jays looking in from the outside. But as long as they continue to win games, like they did tonight, sliding by the slumping Devil Rays 4-3, we here at 63 Years and Counting can continue to hope.

It looks bleak, it does, but as long the Jays can keep putting notches in the W column, we can keep pretending. All we ask is that Toronto stays competitive, at least until, say mid September. You know, make a good show of it. That should carry us into the NHL pre-season, which should help pick up the slack.

And if the Jays do manage something, it will be largely thanks to Roy "15-3" Halladay, who became the major league leader in wins today with his little number against Tampa. This guy deserves way more love than he gets from the US media.

Also, Gustavo "I Have My Own Perfume" Chacin, he of the three month long disabled list sojourn, is set to return on Saturday against the Baltimore Orioles. He owned a sparkling 6-2 record before he went down, which did a good job of sweeping his unsightly ERA under the rug. No matter though, because this means that the Jays will have four of their original five projected starters on the mound. Don't hold your breathe on Josh Towers though...

Sidenote: Former Leaf Owen Nolan has finally landed on another team, after a year's absence. He's in Phoenix now, and we'd like to say that we have no hard feelings towards the guy, even if he did try to shaft the Leafs' salary cap ambitions last season. He's coming fairly cheap (1.25 mil) and he's only 34. Good job by the Coyotes.

Also unrelated, we feel we should devote a few inches to tennis, what with the Rogers Cup taking place in our backyard. Roger Federer won the men's side. No shit, Sherlock. Of course Federer won. Yawn. Moving on.

We also feel we should mention that we totally dig the whole "chick sports" thing. Totally. Yep, we're all about that. Which is why we didn't even bother watching the men's tournament, the overpaid, chauvinist pigs that they are. That's right, we boycotted the men's half in favour of the women's half. Please, your praise is not necessary.

Maria Kirilenko, seen here at the Rogers Cup in Montreal. She can cup our Roger anyday. Giggidy!

What Are We Going To Do With You Buffalo?

We don't think it needs to be said, but that is an ugly logo.

Incidently, it's also the Buffalo Sabre's new logo. Did we mention how ugly it is?

We here at 63 Years and Counting are just a little bit too young to remember the Sabre's old jerseys, you know, the one with a buffalo, and couple of sabres on it. Straight forward, if nothing else.

Then they went through their black phase, which, despite what old-school Buffalo fans might say, we thought were pretty cool. Anyways, despite being a decent jersey, the fans weren't crazy about it. Something about tradition, yada, yada, yada.

So the front office has decided to bring back the old colour scheme, blue and yellow, along with a new logo, the affectionately dubbed, "Buffaslug". Which has us scratching our heads. Blue and yellow? Our knowledge of fashion is admittedly lacking, but blue and yellow? And as you may have noticed, their new logo is no looker either.

Here's the problem as we see it. Buffalo fans are hung up on a jersey, that was essentially, bad. Their blue and "gold" number that they rocked since inception may be what Buffalo fans grew up on, but let's face it, as jersey's go, it was an 8.7 on the Blah scale.

And if they were really set on going back, they could do worse than to listen to this guy. Actually, those are pretty slick. I think that would be a jersey that every Buffalo fan could agree on.

Speaking of things that all Buffalo fans can agree on, that buffalo slug is one ugly mother. Seriously. Do you realise that someone was actually given money to come up with that?

There's a petition around somewhere to change it, but we all know you can't fight the man, so we won't bother linking to it.

There are a lot of other ugly jerseys in the NHL (like anything Nashville has ever worn) but that will be a battle for another day. Until then, fight the good fight Buffaloheads.

Jason

Oh Hockey, Where Art Thou?

It was pointed out to us the other day that the NHL is two months away from kicking off. Still two months? It feels like forever since Brind'Amour skated around the RBC Arena, Stanley Cup held high.

We're in a serious case of hockey withdrawal over here. The shakes haven't started yet, but...

We blame it on the Blue Jays mostly. When they were good, they were able to stave off the worst of it, and the World Cup helped take our minds off it. But with Toronto's, scratch that, Canada's baseball team in a serious swoon, our attention has wandered.

After swallowing a seven-game losing streak, the Jays are out of it in a bad way. Even Roy Halladay is struggling. What's going on here? The Jay's once held contender status has quickly widdled away to merely pretender.

Only 60 more days till the puck drops at the Air Canada Centre, Ottawa at Toronto. Early prediction? 12-1 for Toronto, with Mats Sundin eclipsing Darryl Sittler's single game point record with an impressive quadruple hatrick.

Until October 4 then,

Jason

"I Love Trade Deadlines. I Like The Whooshing Sound They Make As They Fly By."

We assume that's J.P Ricciardi's take on it at least. Another trade deadline past, another year of no deals. Does J.P Ricciardi have something against the trade deadline? Maybe it was on a trade deadline many years ago that Ricciardi first had his heart broken, or perhaps it was on one fateful deadline day that his faithful dog Sparky ran away to join the circus.

Who knows. We certainly don't. What we do know is that the Jays are in trouble. They've chosen an inopportune time to swoon, as the Yankees and Red Sox continue to surge ahead. The Jays deficit currently stands at six games behind the aforementioned Yankees for first in the division. That's a tall order for a team that considers it a huge achievement if they can string three wins together.

The Yankees made a move though (of course the Yankees made a move), picking up Bobby "I Won the Home Run Derby Last Year, Honest" Abreu and pitcher, Cory "Former Blue Jay" Lidle. They also spanked A.J Burnett around last night, winning 5-1.

The Jays are struggling, and these are the games the Jays have to win. Every game against Boston and New York is huge now, and they can't afford to waste them.

In other news, and you can file this under "There's Something in Detroit's Water", the Red Wings have signed Dominik Hasek. Again. They didn't learn their lesson the second time?

Apparently he's going to get the starters job, which bodes poorly for this franchise. And let's not forget that this is the same team that was thinking of handing Eddie Belfour a contract.

So what, at the beginning of the off-season did the GM sit down and say, "Ok guys, let's go out there and sign the oldest, fragilest goalie we can find!" because that certainly seems to be the game plan.

And what exactly was wrong with Manny Legace? He had, by all accounts, a very solid season. So what the team goofed in the first round, you're going to lay all the blame on Legace?

63 Years is skeptical, to say the least.

Also, Raptors GM Brian Colangelo has fufilled his promise of completely overhauling the roster. He just forgot to mention the part about him building the team to compete for the Euro League title.

Toronto hasn't seen this many European immigrants since they were giving away free land out west.

The Raptors will be better this season, it won't take much to top last year's effort, but we have yet to be convinced that this is a team that will make the playoffs.

Until then,

Jason