50

At the start of this season, did anybody even dare to suggest that Jose Bautista would hammer 30 home runs? 40? 50? Sure he had a hot September last year but having been a journeymen all his life, he surely couldn't hit 50. Well, this afternoon, with one swing of that lightning-fast bat, Bautista did exactly just that.

When he emerged as the MLB home run leader back in the spring, it was a question of whether he could keep his pace. When he hit the all star break and made it to Anaheim for the fest of baseball heroes, people began to take notice. A few days ago, he broke the Blue Jays' club record for home runs in a season. And now, with his 50th, Bautista has added his name to an elite list of sluggers in baseball history.

The Jays as a team though has been riding on his back all year long. Can you believe where the club would be without Jose? When I went to a game a couple weeks ago down at the Dome here in Toronto, the ovation for Bautista was by far the loudest. Sluggers like these tend to fizzle out very easily though. I do hope Bautista's power performance is sustained come April. It's a bring spot in a city that hasn't seen much sports success in a very long time.

I've just been so busy these past couple of weeks with school and preparations for university applications that I really haven't got the chance to talk about Nadal's Careeer GS. It didn't come as a surprise AT ALL. Djokovic played a great second set but Nadal simply overpowered him in the fourth to win it all. I think we now have to consider whether the guard has been officially changed in tennis. Roger Federer is almost 6000 points behind Nadal in the rankings and I think unless Nadal has a disastrous 2011 or gets injured, it will be extremely difficult for Roger to climb back to number 1.

-D