Too Hot For TV

You won't see this Blue Jays' ad on TV, because the Man is all about curtailing our right to see 275 lb. men hit small children. But don't worry, 64 Years and Counting is all about saying "up yours" to the Man, so in the spirit of the revolution, here's the ad that was too "violent" for TV:



Speaking of the Jays, their game in Detroit was colded out today, niether side apparently man enough to risk a little frostbite in the quest for October. I guess we know which teams won't be winning next fall.

Toronto has split their stillborn series with the Puddy Cats so far, winning game one 5-3 in extra innings, and then losing the next 10-9 - which isn't so bad when you consider that they were in danger of losing 9-0 at one point. Roy Halladay played his usual rock-your-socks game, A.J Burnett was sketchier, lasting less than three innings, but on the other hand, the Jays' oft questioned offense did show up. So, the jury is still out, in other words.

Jason

Sidenote - The game is rescheduled for the 10th... of September.

A Few Words on the Worst World Series Champs of All Time

Ew. The St. Louis Cardinals are the World Champions. This is so wrong on so many levels, we don't know where to start.

Yes we do actually. Let's start with the fact that the Tigers rolled over for them, playing a painful to watch game of possum. But that analogy only works so far because the possum is supposed to get up at the end and these Tigers clearly weren't pretending. The Tigers gave away a World Series title. It was theirs to lose. Because face it, the Cards weren't exceptional themselves (though Jeff Weaver's game five performance was about as good as it gets), but compared to the boys from Detroit, they were the freaking '98 Yankees. As far wiser talking heads have pointed out, St. Louis didn't beat Detroit, Detroit beat Detroit.

The Tigers just needed some token effort for the series, and they could have had it. St. Louis now has the ugly distinction of being the worst World Series winning team ever (in most news stories, the word "worst" is surrounded by quotation marks. This is not most news stories). They won a grand total of of 83 games.

83 games.

Do you know how many games the Toronto Blue Jays won in that same season? Hint: It was higher than 83, that's for damn sure. If there was a less deserving championship team in baseball history, we don't want to know about it.

Ahah, you might say, the regular season doesn't count for peanuts in the playoffs. Just look at the Edmonton Oilers. Nuh-uh buddy, that argument doesn't fly. There was nothing special about these Cardinals, there was no heart warming underdog label, just a bunch of semi-decent (and Chris Carpenter) baseball players plodding through October. There was nothing sexy about their run.

Compare that to the Tigers, who going into the Series, had all the momentum in the world. We frankly found it impossible to even conceive that Detroit could possibly lose, especially to such a bland team as St. Louis. Not that the Tiger's weren't bland too, but they had that magical playoff aura surrounding them that transformed every player into a potential playoff hero.

Except something went wrong. In the six days between sweeping the floor with Oakland, and beginning their first World Series since before anyone at 64 Years and Counting was ever born, something happened. The Tigers' momentum evaporated. Poof, and they were human again.

What's worse is that two years ago, the last time the Cards had a shot at the title, we were actually cheering for them. With all our heart and soul even. We were desperate to see them defeat Boston. The Cards were the only thing keeping the Sox from ending the curse, a prospect we weren't thrilled with (sharing a division with them does that to you). Except they didn't win. They didn't just not win the series, they didn't win a single game.

So that's why we don't like St. Louis. A forgettable team caps off a forgettable World Series in what has been an overall forgettable affair. But just imagine if Detroit had won it. Now that would have been a story. Just a few seasons removed from a 100 loss season, turning around and winning it all. That makes for good TV. St. Louis, does not.

In other news, the Ottawa Senator continued their regular season tradition of summarily kicking the crap out of Toronto, with back to back beatings this week. The Leafs can try to salvage some respect against Montreal in glorious Hockey Night in Canada action tonight. Or they could continue to embarrass themselves. Oh, and we heard Nik Antropov might be back tonight.

Guess which side we're leaning towards?

Jason

Sour Grapes, à La Russa

To recap: Kenny Rogers had something on his hand in the first inning of his impressive win against the Cards. And apparently St. Louis manager Tony La Russa has suddenly become professional sport's defender of fair play, integrity and all that is good and holy. Whatever. Rogers cleaned up, and went on to shut them down for another seven innings. Case closed.

And all of a sudden that's old news now (64 Years and Counting: Always Late to the Party), since the Cardinals went out and gave the Tigers their own take on good pitching, a 5-0 shut down by former Jay, Chris Carpenter (we are actually legally required to point out any player that has ever worn a Toronto uniform. Except Vince Carter). The Cardinals are up 2-1 now, in what just might be shaping up as the first actual World Series since a bunch of scruffy Marlins took down the Evil Empire.

However, all of this is in flagrant disregard for our World Series predictions, but we haven't lost faith in the Tigers yet. Tigermentum is still a go.

Detroit wins in six. Simple as that

Jason

(P.S - The Ottawa Senators are officially "Back on Track", handing out back-to-back pummellings to New Jersey and (our beloved) Maple Leafs. Also, we might have to revise our predictions for Pittsburgh - if that trio plus Marc-Andre Fleury (M.A Fleury? Ma Fleury?) is as good as they were last night, this team could be scary)

No, I Think I've Heard This One Before

The Leafs dropped their third game via shootout yesterday against the Rangers. The Leafs are one and three in that respect. The Leafs' shootout is pathetic this season, but that's hardly surprising, the Leafs' shootout was pathetic last year too.

It was the same usual suspects out there for the Leafs, Mats Sundin, Darcy Tucker and Alexei Ponikarovsky (which is a suspiciously similar trio to the one Coach Q always sent out). You can't question Mats Sundin's place, he's Toronto's best player and the man with the big C, he has to lead by example (his miss was tempered by the fact that his Blueshirt counterpart, Jaromir Jagr also missed). Darcy Tucker is questionable for shootouts. Sure he leads the team in goals, and he had two in the relevant game (which in a coach's mind means that player is "hot"), but Tucker doesn't score on breakaways. He scores by cleaning up the garbage. And Ponikabobsky? We love him, we do, but he should be ripping slapshots from the top of the circle, not dangling pucks in front of the goalie.

Granted, the Leafs don't have too much to work with when it comes to shootouts, no super finesse players (though Kyle Wellwood deserves a crack) who can turn a goalie inside out, twice, before the puck even leaves his stick.

The Leafs have lost three points on the season to the shootout. Last year, it was pointed out by the more observant media types that had the Leafs won just a couple more OT duels, they would have had hockey in May. Let's make sure that doesn't happen again.

In other news, the Detroit Tigers opened the World Series by playing possum, taking a 7-2 beating from St. Louis. Hah, those crazy Tigers, trying to infuse some drama into what was going to be another routine AL sweep, wasn't that thoughtful of them?

Tigermentum has made a brief pit stop, but it should be back on the road for game two. The Tigers win in five. Simple as that.

Um... It Was Funny The First Six Times

We were all for Buffalo's blistering undefeated start to the season (now at 7-0 thanks to win against Carolina) until it was pointed out to us that the record for win streaks is ten games, and belongs to a certain Toronto team.

The 1993-1994 Leafs started the season with ten straight wins, and would eventually make to the Conference finals, and probably would have won too if weren't for a non-call to that bastard Wayne Gretzky. Anyways, that season is one of the few bright points in the last forty years of Leaf history (actually... it is the bright point), and well shucks, we'd be ever so obliged if the Sabres could you know... lose.

In other news, the Raptors are undefeated in the pre-season. Is it time to start planning post season games at the ACC? In a word, no.

In other, other news, the Mets didn't win game seven.




Sigh. That means we have to throw our considerable weight behind Detroit and their Tigermentum. Seriously, this isn't even going to be close. The AL dominates when it comes to this kind of stuff, and that's even without the massive rolling snowball that is Detroit.

Detroit wins in four. Simple as that.

Until then,

Jason

"... Wouldn't Know a Hockey Player If They Slept With Bobby Orr"

Thanks Don Cherry, but we still don't think Dion Phaneuf deserved rookie of the year. Great quote though.

It was a big night down at the Air Canada Centre. Mats Sundin notched a hatrick, including an OT game winning slap shot that froze Mikka Kiprusoff in his tracks. What, a hatrick's not good enough? Well how bout if those three goals were numbers 498, 499, and 500 for the grizzled Swede?

But forget about players joining the 500 club, we witnessed an even rarer event tonight as well: the Calgary Flames scored four goals in a game, something that is just slightly more common than total solar eclipses.

The Leafs are continuing to play well, taking 42 shots in this game, in keeping with Paul Maurice's offence first strategy. They can't seem to break their bad habit of going into over time though. Through five games, the Leafs have ended up in the extra frame four times, winning twice, and losing twice, both times in the shoot out.

But we don't mind saying it, these Leafs have moxy.

In other news, there's some sort of MLB playoffs going on, or something. 64 Years has thrown its support behind the New York Mets, entirely because of Carlos "Blu J 4 Lief" Delgado. We would love to see one of the best players to never win a championship finally shed that moniker.

However, it doesn't look like there is anything on Earth that can possibly withstand the ridiculous power of Tigermentum. Detroit is rolling over the opposition like there ain't no tomorra, and it's really hard not to see them winning it all. They took down the Yanks (good on 'em too) and just tonight finished smadackering the A's in four games. Can anybody stop them? The smart money says no.

Tigermentum is a trademark of 64 Years and Counting and all of its divisions,

Jason