Holy moly. Why any city would want to host the thing is beyond me.
Roy Halladay, in his "return" to Toronto, threw seven innings, striking out four. The game was played in front of just over 43,000 people, which is technically the best attendance figure for a Blue Jays home game this season.
Major League Baseball, instead of simply rescheduling the damn series, moved the three games against the Phillies to Philadelphia. As if that wasn't enough to patronize the few remaining Jays fans, they dressed Toronto in white, Philly in red, and let Toronto bat last.
It just looks so stupid.
Oh, and Toronto lost 9-0. Technically their worst home loss of the season.
-We've all played pickup sports with that kid who would pick up the ball and go home if a game didn't go his way. It turns out Chris Pronger is one of those guys.
If you don't have the luxury of the Sportscentre morning loop with Onrait and O'Toole, you may have not noticed that Pronger picked up the puck after the game (you can see it in his left glove at the 0:27 mark) and then flicked a towel at Ben Eager.
Of course, Philadelphia had lost their second straight one-goal game 2-1 this time, and Craig Simpson on CBC speculated that Pronger wanted to keep the puck away from the Blackhawks as a part of team history. Pronger will go down in history as a great defenseman, and also somewhat of a prick. The man might be better served getting his team ready for Game 3 in Philly rather than attempting to play jedi mind-tricks with Ben Eager. "You are not a goal scorer."
"I am not a goal scorer."
"This is not the puck you're looking for."
"This is not the puck we're looking for."
Pronger later said he didn't know what language Eager was speaking. Eager apparently came all the way across the ice to tell him "you can keep the puck."
Either way, this is sure to broil down to a bigger controversy than Greedo shooting first. It may be wise to avoid Nick Kypreos' opinion on this one.
-His numbers weren't spectacular and his form wasn't particularly impressive, but Brendan Morrow put together a solid outing and gave the Jays a huge win in their first of three against the Rays to improve to 4-4 on the year. The Jays knocked Tampa started Matt Garza (5-4) pretty well, but only had three runs to show for their 11 hits. Adam Lind hit an opposite-field shot in the first inning, Vernon Wells had two more hits and Aaron Hill went 3-for-4 to increase his batting average to a paltry .179.
-In more Jays news, the team will honour Roy Halladay with a jumbotron tribute sometime this week. In the comments of that story, commenter JoeKnowsIt points out that the Leafs did the same thing with Mats Sundin when he returned to Toronto as a Canuck. I guess the state of Toronto sports is that bad, where you've run out of players on your own teams to honour. I can't wait to see what kind of montage the Raptors have prepared for Hedo Turkgolu.
-Justin Morneau went 3-for-4 as the Twins beat the Mariners 5-4. Jason Bay went 0-fer with two strikeouts and the Mets got gulled by San Diego 16-8.
-CFL camps start this week, with the BC Lions practicing just down the road from The 'Eh' Factor's head offices in Kamloops. This means that chances are high that Casey Printers will overthrow a receiver during a drill and the ball will carry into my yard.
-Toronto FC's Dwayne De Rosario was voted Major League Soccer's Player of the Week with a two-goal performance against San Jose. This is the kind of momentum that's nice to see from Canadian players as we prepare for the World Cup.
-Roy Halladay... remember when he used to pitch for Toronto? Well, it turns out he's doing well in Philadelphia too. He was 6-3 and third in ERA in the National League coming into last night's game against Florida.
Oh. Hm. I guess that's pretty damn good. What could have been, eh Jays fans?
-What do you think will be on the front page of the Philadelphia Bugle Sports Section this morning? The story of some guy the Phillies got in a trade with a team from far up north? Of course not! Philadelphia lost Game 1 to the Blackhawks 6-5 in a game described to me as one "with terrible goaltending and even worse defense." Not without controversy! CBC showed footage of a puck hitting Tomas Kopecky on the bench, and minutes later, he jumped onto the ice and scored!
Okay, it's not quite up there with the non-call on the Gretzky high-stick, partly because Kopecky being hit by the puck had nothing to do with the fact that Brian Boucher refused to move his right leg, instead flailing at it with his stick à la Goldberg the Goalie from the first scene of The Mighty Ducks (when the team wasn't good).
-NBA playoffs. The Suns found themselves down 14 at the half and didn't have another miracle comeback in them (only to be sabotaged by Ron Artest. DRAAAGOOOOO!) and lost to the Lakers 111-103, meaning that the Lakers and Celtics will meet in the NBA finals for the 437th time. Steve Nash's ceremonious exit (21 points, 9 assists, 5 rebounds) means that we can finally go back to concentrating on hockey. The fact that the two most destestable teams in the NBA meet in the finals have nothing to do with the fact that hockey will take precedence over basketball for the rest of the year.
Charles Barkley did say that Steve Nash represents all that is good about basketball. That has to count for something. It's also worth noting Nash is pretty much Barkley's exact opposite on the court.
-Did you know that the upcoming A-Team movie had some scenes filmed in Kamloops, British Columbia? Probably not. But B.A. Baracus, also known as Quentin "Rampage" Jackson, also fights people for a living. Foreshadowing the upcoming film's critical reception, he lost to Rashad Evans in a unanimous decision, the teammate of Montreal's Georges St. Pierre, who 'guest-Tweeted' the fight @ufc.
No Canadians were on the card, but the next UFC card, two weeks from now, is in Vancouver!
-The Blue Jays took the second game of the three game set with the Orioles, thanks in part to eight strong innings by Brett Cecil (5-3) and two dingers by Lyle Overbay. The Jays have won the second most games in the American League but are tied for third in the AL East. Justin Morneau went 1-for-3 with an RBI in a Minnesota 8-3 win over the Rangers, and Jason Bay went 2-for-5 in a losing cause against the Brewers. Bay left 4 runners on base.
-And, right at the bottom of the page, is your Major League Soccer update! Dwayne De Rosario scored two goals to lead Toronto FC over the San Jose Earthquakes 3-1. The Reds hold onto second place in the Eastern Division, and play next January 5th against Kansas City at BMO Field. I don't think I even need to STRESS how important that early season, inter-conference game is for the Canadian Nutri-Lite Champions.
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It's Sunday, and unless you like baseball or cars driving around a circle, chances are you won't be watching sports. My afternoon project will consist of trying to kill that damn fly that's been buzzing around my kitchen screen window for the past two days.
