Hate to Admit It

It is well documented that I hate the Toronto Maple Leafs. If you have ever talked to me you know how much I love watching them lose and how happy it makes me to watch them come in 9th every year and miss the playoffs by 1 point. One of the greatest sports moments of my life was watching Wade Dubielewicz throw down the poke check against the New Jersey Devils in the shoot out to stop the Leafs from making the playoffs in 2007.

Having said all that I am forced today to write that the Toronto Maple Leafs have had one of the best off seasons for any sports team in recent memory.

The Leafs have gone from a joke franchise with a roster that couldn't challenge for an AHL championship to a legit team with some serious weapons and a great front office.

The key to the Leafs success has been the addition of Brian Burke. Burke is a man who knows how to win and knows how to build a team. With his arrival he brought not only experience but also a culture of accountability which is something the Leafs lacked. He is an open and honest man and he doesn't sugarcoat anything. He told the media that the team wouldn't turn around and challenge for a Stanley Cup overnight but that it would be a process.

So far that process has started off very well. He started off by getting rid of a bunch of dusty players who were taking up cap space and were a waste of lockers. Darcy Tucker = gone. Andrew Raycroft...beat it. Nik Antropov = piss off to New York you slow ass scrub. He also traded perennial stiff Pavel Kubina to Atlanta and massive bust Justin Pogge to the Ducks.

After dumping some of the no talent stiffs on the team Burke set about rebuilding the Leafs from the blue line. His goal was to add some toughness to a team that sorely needed it as only rookie Luke Schenn would step in and defend his teammates.

In order to accomplish this Burke trade for Garnett Exelby and signed Mike Komisarek and Francois Beauchemin as free agents. This means that the Leafs now have one of the best defensive units in the NHL and will be a much more physical team to play against. Unfortunately though you can't win games with penalty minutes so Burke needed to do something about the offensive problem.

Well today that problem was solved. The Leafs traded their 2010 and 2011 1st round draft picks plus a 2010 2nd round pick for Phil Kessel. Kessel is a true sniper who can put the puck in the net from anywhere. Last year he led the Bruins in scoring with 36 goals in only 70 games. It also doesn't hurt that he is only 21.

Burke also fixed the offense problem through the draft as the Leafs picked Nazem Kadri who can step in and produce right away. He also signed a couple of former college players in Christian Hanson from Notre Dame and Tyler Bozak from the University of Denver. These two may not work out in the end but they were cheap and have huge upside.

Lastly there was the problem with goaltending. Ever since the salary cap was introduced the Leafs have had shitty goaltending. I don't care what anyone says Vesa Toskala sucks. In an attempt to fix this issue Burke went out and signed highly-touted Swedish goalie Jonas Gustavsson aka The Monster. Gustavsson could be the long term solution to the Leafs goalie woes and could provide much needed stability at the position.

All of these moves make this offseason one of the most impressive in recent memory. The Toronto Maple Leafs as an organization have solved so many problems and now can move forward. They have a great GM who has built a pretty solid team with little resources and will continue to build going forward. So as much as I hate to admit it the Leafs have done well and are no longer a joke.

After writing this I now need to go take a shower because I feel so dirty.

Random YouTube Video

Diamonds in the Rough

This year marks the 15th year in a row that the Toronto Blue Jays will not be playing baseball in October. The team started off strong going 27-16 and taking the division lead but since then have gone a pathetic 39-64.

To make matters worse the team has been surrounded with negativity all season as "star players" Vernon Wells and Alex Rios (who was shipped off to the Chicago White Sox for nothing in return) vastly under achieved. Add to the this the fact that ace pitcher Roy Halladay was involved in trade rumors for half the year and you have yourself a real problem.

The Halladay trade deadline talk really hurt not only the team's play but also the Blue Jays as an organization as it made them look foolish and very unorganized. Many fans were calling for GM JP Riccardi's head and even other baseball executives around the league were scratching their heads at the way Riccardi was handling the team.

Despite all of this negativity some players have managed to have amazing seasons providing the Jays with some optimism moving forward.

Adam Lind has had a MONSTER season. He is one of only 3 players in the MLB to be hitting .300 or better with at least 30 HR and 100 RBI. The other two are Derek Lee and Albert Pujols. Lind is also tied for 2nd in the league in doubles with 46 behind only Brian Roberts. These are crazy numbers for a guy who is in his 3rd season in the big leagues and really only his 1st full season. He will only get better as he moves forward and he is the kind of player that the Jays can build a team around.

Aaron Hill is another guy who has had a breakout year. He currently leads the Blue Jays and all second baseman in the league with 32 HR and 98 RBI. He is also hitting a healthy .285 and is playing his usual stellar defense. When Hill first came into the league I was pretty down on him but he has grown on me and time after time he has produced when called upon. The guy is a great baseball player and at 27 he should provide the Jays with stability at the position for years to come.

Marco Scutaro is another guy is producing. Granted his numbers have tailed off a bit after his crazy start but they are still pretty solid. 12 HR 60 RBI and a .285 average from your lead off man is pretty good. He also leads the team in OBP with a .382 and runs scored with 100 (9th in MLB). It would be nice if he could steal a few more bases, only has 14, but he gets the job done nicely. The problem with Scutaro is that he will become a free agent at the end of the season and might want some big bucks.

As always Halladay has been amazing. He leads the team in wins (15), ERA 3.03, inning pitched (214), strikeouts (189) and complete games (7). The man is an absolute beast who can eat up innings and win games on his own. Now he does have 9 losses but that is because he didn't get much run support at the beginning of the season and he also struggled a bit near the trade deadline when rumors were swirling. The Jays may trade him in the off season but if they decide to keep him then he will be solid again next year.

Going into next year the Jays will also have an abundance of young pitchers to choose from. Robert Ray, Brett Cecil, Mark Rzepczynski, and Ricky Romero have all shown flashes of brilliance this year. While their stats may not be very impressive they are all still very young and very talented and should provide some good competition at spring training.

As always the Jays bullpen was solid this year with Jason Fraser and Scott Downs splitting time as the closer nicely. Jeremy Accardo had himself a pretty nice year as did Shawn Camp. The Jays will need to get themselves a solid closer if they want to compete next year however as no one they have right now is a stellar closer. They have guys who can fill in nicely but no one that can come in and just shut down the opposition.

So while it may seem like the Jays suck there are reasons to be positive. If Travis Snyder can have a full season in the majors and the new stand outs on the team can continue their success then the Jays can build. Sign a couple of free agents in the off season, maybe dump Vernon Wells and his fat head and contract and you might have something.

I also must remind everybody that Shaun Marcum and Dustin McGowan should be back next year adding some much needed stability to the Jays rotation and allowing the team to trade some of their young pitchers for some solid bats.

Maybe 2010 could be the year the Jays finally get back into the playoffs.

Random YouTube Video

Brilliant Idea

Pepsi has recently started a contest where they ask contestants to create their own Team Canada Hockey Cheer. The prize for creating the winning cheer is tickets to the World Junior Tournament in Saskatchewan and also tickets to the World Hockey Championships in Germany. This is an amazing prize but I think it fails in comparison to the greater prize which is creating a cheer that can be used by Canadians everywhere to cheer for Canada.

I hope the person who wins doesn't use the word hockey in their cheer so the cheer can also be used for other sports. I think it would be really cool to have a national cheer that Canadians can use when watching any sporting event anywhere in the world.

It would be like how Australia has 'Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi! Oi! Oi!' They use that cheer for everything and it is internationally known. If someone could create a cheer like that for Canada I think it would be sweet.

The reason I feel this is such a great idea is because it would help Canadian identity and pride. I recently returned from a trip to Europe and I found that Europeans are much more passionate about their sports and about their national pride.

For example when I was in England they defeated Australia in a cricket match known as the Ashes. When England won it was on the cover of every major newspaper and there were people in the streets drinking and signing 'God Save the Queen.'

I found that to be amazing. If Canada had beaten the USA in Hockey at the World Championships there would be nothing more than a few people out honking their horns and getting drunk in bars. That's what we do in Canada when we are happy, we honk horns.

Canadians as a whole need to step up and really back their teams with some serious passion and I think this cheer could actually help that a lot.

This is a great idea by Pepsi and I hope people really try hard to come up with a bad ass cheer. If you are interested in entering the contest then go to this link: http://pepsi.ca/jointhecheer/Default.aspx?bhcp=1

Random YouTube Video

Show Him the Money

In the past I have been chirped for always supporting the jerks of sports. Guys like Terell Owens and Michael Vick have gotten my support in the past and will continue to do so moving forward. My defense to the positions I often take is that as long as the guy is talented then I am OK with him being a head case or a jerk. Now if T.O was some scrub in the CFL and ran his mouth as much as he does then I would have a problem. But since he is a future Hall of Fame wide receiver I feel compelled to defend the man when he goes off at his quarterback or yells at a coach.

Having said this I am now going to defend another one of the NFL big mouth idiots. Michael Crabtree. Crabtree is currently in a contract dispute with the San Fransisco 49ers and I think they should give him whatever he wants. Before I get into my reasons for siding with Crabtree let me first lay out the series of events that lead to the current situation.

Coming into the 2009 NFL draft Michael Crabtree was being touted as a top 5 pick and the best receiver in the draft. Unfortunately he suffered a foot injury and was unable to compete at the Combine which hurt his stock.

When draft day came around it was presumed that Oakland would take Crabtree at #7 as they were in desperate need of a wide receiver. Too bad everyone forgot the Raiders are run by a corpse named Al Davis and are the worst organization in the NFL. The Raiders decided to take Darrius Heyward-Bey instead of Crabtree. This meant that Crabtree fell to the 49ers at #10.

After being selected Crabtree made it known that he was the best receiver in the draft and wanted to be paid accordingly. So when Heyward-Bey signed his deal with Oakland Crabtree asked to be paid more.

San Fransisco refused however and said that Crabtree would be paid less than Heyward-Bey because he was selected after him. Thus we have a holdout.

Crabtree has stated that if he does not get the money he feels is fair that he will sit out the season and re-enter the draft in 2010. He is not afraid to sit out the whole season and is perfectly willing to forgo a year of his career.

Now some people might look at this situation and say that Crabtree is being greedy and that he should be happy just to be in the NFL. I couldn't disagree more. I feel like it is the 49ers who are in the wrong and are being cheap.

Michael Crabtree is a top 5 talent and was one of, if not the, best players in the draft. The fact he fell to #10 was crazy and the 49ers instead of being grateful have acted as if he was lucky to be drafted by them. If Al Davis wasn't the most incompetent man in sports than Crabtree would be a Raider. Instead he fell to San Fran. They need to realise that they were gifted a great talent and just pay up.

I will also point out that this is a slap in the face to the fans. An organization as storied as the 49ers should not be squabbling with a draft pick over a couple of million dollars especially when they were 7-9 last year and couldn't score points. It makes the team look cheap when they put money ahead of having a good team. Fans don't appreciate this and if the season goes poorly because of this then there will be problems.

The 49ers are approaching the situation all wrong and are blowing an opportunity to have a very special talent on their team. If Crabtree re-enters the draft as he plans to then the 49ers will also have wasted their 2009 1st round pick which would be a huge blow to a team that is in a rebuilding phase.

Crabtree is the best receiver in the draft and deserves to pay as such. He is committed to getting his money and I like that. He knows he is the best and wants to be treated as such. Some might call it arrogance and greed but I believe that he is sticking to his principles and is trying to ensure the best for himself.

Having said that I think it would be detrimental to his career to sit out this season. Not only will he lose a whole year of his career as a professional football player but he will also not be able to play football anywhere. This means that in the 2010 draft there is no way he will go higher than 10th. Who would pick a wide receiver that hasn't played in over a year in the top 10? Maybe the Raiders actually.

Michael Crabtree is standing firm in what he feels is right and the 49ers are doing the same. On the one hand we have an individual who is trying to make something of himself and ensure life long financial security along with protecting his ego where as the other is an organization who is trying to pinch pennies and make a stand. Who will win? If Crabtree doesn't sign then there will be no winners. He will lose a year of his life and the 49ers will lose a potentially great receiver.

Random YouTube Video

NFL Week 1 Thoughts

Sorry that I haven't updated the site in a while but I was away in Europe getting all the traveling out of my system before I start a new career and am financially unable to leave the confines of Canada again.

I was gone for almost a month but managed to get back to North America in time for the start of the NFL season. Actually i got back on Thursday and was able to watch the Steelers/Titans game which I thoroughly enjoyed (especially when Troy Polamalu went down).

Before I get to my thoughts on Week 1 of the NFL season I need to ask a serious question. Is there anything better than Sunday during the NFL season? Honestly, It becomes a day dedicated to being lazy, watching TV, and eating pizza and drinking beer. Glorious.

Anyway here are some of my thoughts on an excellent Week 1 in the NFL:

Mark Sanchez Debut

I am a Jets fan so and going into this season I was worried. Kellen Clemens and Mark Sanchez as the quarterback options. Not good. Then I sat down and watched the Jets play the Houston Texans and was very impressed with Sanchez. He has poise in the pocket, a strong arm, and he seems to have a genuine love of the game. Throughout the whole game he was smiling and getting excited after catches. He even ran on the field after an extra point when a shoving match ensued in order to break it up. He is taking on the role of team leader very seriously and he showed he knows what it takes. I understand that it is only 1 game but I am now excited about the rest of the season.

Jets Defense

Staying with the Jets I have to comment on the defense. Rex Ryan was the defensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens last year and I knew he would make the Jets defense tougher but I had no idea that the change would be so immediate. The defense was great and they blitzed all game putting constant pressure on Matt Schaub. Loved it.

Early MVP Race

Drew Brees was a man possessed on Sunday as he lit up the Detroit Lions for 6 touchdowns. 6! Now I know that it was against the Lions but 6 touchdowns is 6 touchdowns no matter how you look at it. Brees is a statistical beast and was only a few yards shy of beating Dan Marino's record for most passing yards in a season last year. Despite his crazy numbers I still feel like he is an afterthought to most people in terms of elite quarterbacks. He is never mentioned with the Mannings and the Bradys despite his talent. However if he keeps having games like the one he had on Sunday he will be hard to ignore.

In the same category Adrian Peterson must be mentioned. Peterson had a monster day on Sunday as he rushed for 180 yards and had 3 TDs. Peterson has been an absolute phenom since he entered the league and games such as this are now considered normal for him. His great play not only lead the Vikings to a win over the Browns but also took pressure of Brett Favre. Speaking of which...

Brett 'I'm a Waste of a Human Being' Favre's Return

God I hate this man. How can he even look himself in the mirror knowing that by signing with the Vikings he is turning his back on an entire state. He was a god in Green Bay and now he is public enemy #1. A real douchebag. I was surprised he didn't retire at half time and then comeback in the 4th quarter to get even more attention. People talk trash about T.O and his constant need for attention but Favre takes it to a whole new level. The man just loves hearing his own name and reading about himself in the news and has 0 consideration for anybody else. I hope that he gets hit by a bus on his way to practice tomorrow. By the way he threw for 110 yards (career low) and also had 1 TD. Thank god he can't stay healthy and I will only need to hear about him for another few weeks.

Need to give props to Peter King. I have ripped on King in the past for having a serious boner for Favre but during the soap opera this summer King made it clear that he was very against what Favre was doing and went as far as to call him "whishy washy." This may not seem harsh to you but this is as mean as Peter King gets. That translates to 'he is a prick' in the political correct world of a Sports Illustrated writer. Way to put down the Kool Aid Mr. King.

Nobody Blows a Game like the Buffalo Bills

Your team is winning 24 to 19. There is 2:06 left in the game. You are about to return the kickoff. You catch the ball a yard deep in your end zone and instead of taking a knee you opt to run it out. Then once you are tackled you decided that instead of just going down you are going to try and fight for that extra yard. You then realise you have had the ball stripped from your hands because you were fighting for that extra yard. After getting up from the bottom of a pile on you realise that the other team has recovered the ball in amazing filed position and you have just given away the game. You are Leodis McKelvin. You are the biggest idiot in New England.

The Bills played an amazing game and made very few mistakes. They were finally going to beatthe Patriots for the first time in 6 years. Then McKelvin ran the ball out of the end zone instead of taking a knee. Watching from the sidelines the Bills players must have had a sick feeling in their stomach. Presidential candidate Trent Edwards looked like he had been punched in the stomach. It was a terrible way to lose.

The Return of Brady

Tonight's game against the Bills was Tom Brady's first game since Week 1 of last year when he broke his leg after being hit by Bernard Pollard. In the opening quarter of the game Brady looked rusty and threw an interception that would eventually be run back for a touchdown. After that Brady really settled down and got into a rhythm. He ended up with 39 completions, 1 short of the Monday Night Football record, and 2 TDs both coming in the 4th quarter. He led his team to victory late in the game and looked like the Tom Brady of old standing strong in the pocket and throwing darts. There didn't seem to be any visible pain when he was throwing and he was planting hard on his repaired knee.

Brady could be counted among with Brees and Peterson as early MVP candidates. His team was minutes away from defeat but then the stars aligned and everything went their way. In a SuperBowl winning season every team needs at least 1 game like that. The Pats got theirs tonight and might end up being a team of destiny.

John Gruden Get Out of the Booth

A more annoying commentator there is not. Gruden has no business being in the booth and should step down and let Jaws and Mike Tarico do their thing. He was constantly talking and had nothing of value to say. His comments were always along the lines of, "he is a solid football player." Thanks John. I had no idea Tom Brady was good. Gruden was a scrub coach and is a scrub broadcaster. The only reason he won a SuperBowl is because he was the former coach of the team he ended up playing against. Gift wrapped.

To be fair to Gruden the 3 man booth doesn't work. There are too many people trying to get their points across. For some reason every network seems to think it works but in reality it doesn't. Pat Summerall and John Madden were the greatest broadcasting team in NFL history. Reason? There were only 2 of them. Imagine Al Michaels in there with them. It would be constant talking which would distract from the game. Get rid of the 3 man booth and get rid of Gruden.

Final Thoughts

- Jay Cutler loses and Kyle Orton wins. Good for Josh McDaniels who can now breathe a sigh of relief after a horrible off season.

- I know the 49ers won but they need to sign Crabtree. They got a top 5 talent at #10. In the words of Teddy KGB, "Pay that man. Pay that man his money." (more to come on this in tomorrow's post)

- Dolphins tried to run the Wildcat on Sunday but were unsuccessful as Atlanta had it covered. Could it be that teams have figured out the Wildcat? If so then Miami is in for a long year.

- The Rams still suck

- Jeremy Shockey caught a touchdown pass for the first time in 22 months. Remember when he used to go to Pro Bowls?

_____________________________________________

Random YouTube Video