Saturday 27 November 2010

Grey Cup Weekend

It may be Thanksgiving weekend in the US, but it's Grey Cup time up in Canada. The Canadian Football League will crown a champion tomorrow afternoon in Edmonton as the Saskatchewan Roughriders face off against the Montreal Alouettes (who crushed the TO Argos last weekend by 31 points). It may not have the glamour of the Super Bowl, but believe it or not, this will be the 98th Grey Cup final. It's got a much longer and storied history than that of the Super Bowl. In fact, I learned last week that the University of Toronto was the first institution to win the Cup itself. Interesting stuff.

Also interesting is the Raptors run this past week, winning 4 straight games before dropping the last one in Boston. During that stretch, they beat Philadelphia twice, Houston once, and get this, Boston once. Still though, this team is just too weak and too shallow to consistently post streaks like that. They're playing at the ACC tomorrow against Atlanta.

The Leafs, in the meanwhile, have been the subject of much discussion in Toronto lately. This morning, I was listening to the sports radio and they were talking about what would makes this season a sucessful one for the Leafs. Is it making the playoffs? Is it not finishing second last again? Is it developing the young guns? What do you think?

It snowed this morning in Hogtown!! It was only a dusting but very exciting stuff!! Ah, gotta love the winter!

-D

Sunday 21 November 2010

MVP from TO

Canadian boy Joey Votto was named the National League's Most Valuable Player yesterday, joining a very elite club of Canadian major leaguers who have won the coveted prize!

The most exciting thing, I think, is that the man is in fact from right here in Toronto. He went to Richview CI, a TDSB public high school out in the west end of the city. And although he plays for the Cincinatti Reds now, it's always wonderful to see a hometown boy win the most glorious trophy in the league.

Josh Hamilton was named the AL MVP earlier today. A great choice on the writers' part. I've agreed with the major choices for the awards this year. Felix Hernandez and Roy Halladay definitely deserved their Cy Youngs, though it was a tough decision in a year dominated by pitchers!

Was talking to my friend about the future of Roger Federer, who lost to Gael Monfils earlier this month at the ATP Tour Finals. We agreed that it would be very hard for the Maestro to ever regain the #1 position, unless Nadal injures himself and misses out on multiple Slams. Federer is just ONE week away from tying Sampras for the most weeks at #1. Go Roger though. I hope he wins at least a couple other majors before retiring. Australian Open 2011 anyone?

-D

Friday 19 November 2010

TO Sports

Well, it's been a busy couple of weeks at school for me but also a busy couple of weeks in the sports leagues.

First of all, the Toronto teams have just been downright depressing. We thought that the Leafs were off to a mind-blowing start of 4-0-0. They were sitting atop the division. The Leafs spirit was very much alive in the streest of TO. We were GOING TO win the Cup. This was OUR year. And look how that is turning out now...2-6-2 in the last 10 games and an overall record of 7-8-3. But hey, they have won the last two in style, so maybe things will turn around.

The Raptors on the other hand, are performing just as people expected them to. Off to a 3-9 start, the Raps sit in 4th place in the Atlantic Division. This is a blessing in disguise though, I think. They have no pressure or expectations going into this year, and this will be really good, I think, for developing some of the young guns on the team. After losing Bosh, they don't really have a franchise player to build around. Is is Bargnani? Is it Calderon? I don't know.

Felix Hernandez out in Seattle got the congratulatory call from Major League Baseball today as he was named the AL Cy Young Award winner. It's quite refreshing to see an ace from a last place team earn the award based on merits like ERA and WHIP instead of wins. Congrats Felix! The man is like 23 years old! Mark my words, this won't be his only Cy.

And you can also mark my words on Derek Jeter resigning with the Yankees before the visit from Santa.

-D