No Stanley Cups Allowed

Hey look where'd that come from, who's the dude with the fourth grade photoshop skills, and what's going on here, right?. Well, I've been toying with a name change for a few months actually and this seemed a good a time as any. The old name was stupid. It was based on some silly math and shakier logic, but it was one of those ideas that just made so much sense back when. It's important to know when to ditch a bad idea, and 65 Years and Counting was a bad idea. Let's not get negative though, this is a happy day. I guess my focus can shift more fully to hockey and now I don't have to pretend care about the Raptors, even if they have suddenly become major league model franchise number one.

No Stanley Cups Allowed is, I think, a celebration of futility. Negativity is no fun. It just leads to cynical wrinkles and early heart attacks.

Here's my rejected list of blog names. Think of them of them like an old betamax sitting on the curb, "please love me" post-noted to it.

Toronto the Fair(ly Adequate)
Toronto the (Not) Good (Enough)
Futility in Toronto
The Pain That Unites Us
The No Stanley Cup Zone
Why Try Harder
Maple Leafs Blowing in the Wind
Toronto the Sucks Ass

Jason

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

63 Years and Counting's Vision Statement...thingy

So what's the deal, you may be wondering. What have I stumbled across this time, is no doubt running through your head. Well, you have discovered one of the blogosphere's newest hidden gems (did I mention that I was modest?).

We here at 63 Years and Counting are dedicated to Toronto and her sports teams, the Maple Leafs, Raptors and Blue Jays. The title reflects Toronto's sad lack of success at winning championships. The Maple Leafs, with a playoff miss this year (anyone who still thinks they can make the playoffs is invited to kindly go jump off a bridge. It ain't happening) will make it some forty years without drinking from Lord Stanley's mug. They last won it all in 1967, the year before the NHL's expansion. Since then, they haven't even made it to the final round.

The Raptors only came into existance in 1995, so the commitee of one is willing to cut them some slack. However, the way the franchise is going, the light at the end of the tunnel is still a long way off.

The Jays are Toronto's most recent winner's of anything, posting their incredible back-to-back World titles in 1992 and 1993. Unfortunately, the franchise has been resting on those laurels for the past twelve years, with not so much as a post season berth to show for it. This year's Jays seem to be serious though, with GM J.P. "Show Me The Money" Ricciardi finally opening up the wallet to land some heavy hitters. The way things are going, 63 Years and Counting is putting their money on the Jays to be the next T.O team to win something. We're not saying it's going to be this year, but compared to the Raptors and Leafs, both of whom are in the process of extricating themselves from the ground that they had been driven into, the Jays are looking pretty good.

But most importantly, this is a sports blog. There's not going to be any politics here, no celebrity gossip, no headline news, no siree. Just sports.

And another thing. Am I the only one who was happy that that Rollins guy didn't break DiMaggio's record hit streak? I mean, is a hit streak really a hit streak when it's separated by six months in the middle? The baseball gods made the right call on that one, stopping his streak before he got close enough to pose any threat. Imagine the big whomping asterix next to that record if he had actually gone through with it.

Speaking of asterixes, here's hoping that baseball's walking asterix, Barry "BAL- What?" Bonds finally figures it out and retires before he breaks the Bambino's home run mark. Does anybody really want baseball's biggest jackass to pass Babe Ruth? The only positive thing is that the way Bonds is going, there's no way he could pass Hank "755" Aaron. Thank God for small wonders. I would be able to forgive him for the whole pill-popping and lying thing, and even the jack assery, if only he would just retire his aging ass. Save everyone the headache. Please.

That's really all for now,

Jason