Weekend Reset: Jon Jones, MLS, and defensemen score beauties

This will be as regular of a feature as I can possibly make it, since Sunday night is a great time to cool down with a glass of scotch and recap everything we got to see over the course of the weekend.

Jon Jones, GSP, and the pound-for-pound debate

In the last few years in the world of mixed martial arts, there have usually been three fighters who are viewed as the top 'pound-for-pound' fighters in the world. Russia's Fedor Emelianenko, Brazil's Anderson Silva, and, of course, Montreal's own Georges St.-Pierre.

News and notes this Tuesday

-There are two big hockey stories to look at today. The fallout has evened out from yesterday's shocking, absolutely shocking revelation that Roberto Luongo would step down as Captain of the Vancouver Canucks. Iain MacIntyre of the Vancouver Sun does a nice job of arguing that Henrik Sedin should replace him. Over at The Hockey Writers, I argue the same point with the grace and maturity of the comments of the MacIntyre column.

-Then there is Sheldon Souray. His orange highness Steve Tambellini told the media that Sheldon Souray would not come to training camp. Souray's only fault, it seemed, was criticizing team management. And going minus-19 in just 37 games played.

-Speaking of Edmonton baggage, Eric Tillman has officially been named General Manager of the Eskimos. The TSN story does not skimp out on the details in the fourth paragraph of that story. Tillman is generally credited with building the current version of the Roughriders and winning that team's first Grey Cup since 1989, restoring the glory that team never had. He scouted and signed Darian Durant, Weston Dressler and Rob Bagg.

Even though he tried to hump the babysitter, Tillman and the Eskimos have drawn pretty well zero criticism through this union of geeky-faced football experts and football teams with names coming from derogatory Inuit slang.

-BC signed Ricky Foley last night. Then they didn't finalize it, but then they did today. BC has won two straight. Saskatchewan have lost 2 of 3 and Rider fans are scared. Will there be a home playoff game in pouring, pouring, despicable rain in November at Empire Stadium? Oh God I hope so.

*UPDATE* It appears that Ricky Foley has actually signed with Toronto, the rat bastard, or as Cam Cole put it on Twitter, owner David Braley "successfully outbidding himself for services of prized pass rusher."

-Defensive Player of the Week:



-Some MLS team somewhere in Canada fired their coach/manager. Never trust a guy with one first name.

-From the "Darryl Sutter is still insane" files, James Mirtle reports that Calgary tried to sign Vesa Toskala this summer. No word on whether Toskala turned the contract down because he could not in good conscience work for somebody dumb enough to sign him.

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I'll return to a full-day of posting on Friday, where I will get some CFL previews running.

Canada's newest international foe: Panama

This isn't anything to go to war over, but if Stephen Harper came out today and imposed economic sanctions on Panama, I would not be opposed.

First, Luis Bazan struck out nine as the Panamanian Little League squad beat our own Little Mountain squad 4-2. Look how big the guy is. The only thing missing is a column from Damien Cox questioning whether Bazan is truly under the age limit.

Then later, Panama squad Arabe Unido beat Toronto FC 1-0 in a CONCACAF Champions League match, which exposed CONCACAF for being cheap, corrupt, bastards, with the reds giving up 21 fouls, and two red cards to boot, to Unido's eight.

Yes, the real story, as often is in soccer in matches featuring teams from more than one country, was the referee, in this case, Marlon Mejia.

"It's cheeky to suggest that referee Mejia was the man to watch in this contest, but he truly did steal the show," wrote Asif Hossain of TorontoFC.ca. "The multiple stoppages in Arabe's favour restricted TFC as much as the players' reliance on directionless long balls."

Le sigh. Unido, model citizens; TFC, no discipline.

Citizen footage of yesterday's Toronto FC/Houston Dynamo "brawl"

Somehow, the football purists would say that this ruins the game more than disastrous officiating at the World Cup, but we're probably good because none of them watch MLS anyway.

The Full 90 has a brief recap of the implications for Toronto's Julian de Guzman, who was in the middle of all the calamity.

That was in the 60th minute, where Nana Attakora and de Guzman got into it with Joseph Ngwenya of Houston, with the latter two getting instant red cards.

More detailed highlights of the "brawl" can be found at MLSNET.com's Matchcenter.

At the end of the game, Amadou Sanyang got into it with a couple of Houston players, earning himself his second yellow. Suspensions are sure to come.

By the way, the game ended in a 1-1 draw, with Brian Ching and Dan Gargan exchanging goals off of headers. Gargan's was FC's first at home since Chad Barrett scored against New England on May 22nd.

So, to recap, a couple of fights and Toronto FC's first goal at home in over a month. I thought the Maple Leafs had the summer off.

BMO Field one third full due to riots

For some reason, MLS never thought to reschedule last night's Toronto FC/Los Angeles Galaxy game due to the G20. And while the Blue Jays were able to win their first ever home game at Citizen's Bank Park last night, the Reds didn't have quite as good luck.

On a night when violent political protests rocked their home city, Toronto FC kept their composure and gutted out a 0-0 draw with the league-leading Los Angeles Galaxy before an announced crowd of 18,809 at BMO Field.

Actual attendance at the match was sharply reduced. At kickoff, the stadium was barely one-third full. Protesters and police had been clashing in downtown Toronto, which is hosting the G20 summit of world leaders.

Rising security concerns forced the cancelation of most public transit in the downtown core, as well as all commuter trains in and out of Canada's largest city.

Keep in mind the people staying home simply because they were too scared to go outside. A few hours before kickoff, the 24th minute confirmed that the game would still be played, despite the riots.

FC cited the arrival of the Galaxy players and officials in a letter to fans who couldn't attend the game, posted on their website at halftime. Ticket holders, which should be about 10,000 or so, should be able to attend a game on a later date.

And hopefully, that one will have a frigging goal.

QMJHL draft-day trade shuts down Montreal radio

Your Sunday morning headlines



-Montreal Canadien draft-pick and future Hall of Fame winger Louis Leblanc, the hometown hero of Habstown, had his rights traded from Chicoutimi to the Montreal Junior 'Q' team, prompting speculation that he'll drop out of Harvard to play a year of junior in his hometown, giving Habs fans a reason to riot again.

You might not speak French, but you won't really want to. In this post, we're convinced that Leblanc can just as easily continue his studies at McGill University while he plays for the Junior. Hell, Bob McKenzie, a media leader in not jumping the shark, tweeted that he'd be "shocked if [Leblanc] doesn't leave Harvard for Q."

Anything to make people in Montreal care about the 'Q' again. The picture above Leblanc at Habs development camp yesterday, a snapshot that also made the rounds.

-From universal obsession to the completely overlooked, the Blue Jays beat the Yankees on a second straight day by a 3-2 score, with Aaron Hill knocking in the winning run in the bottom of the 14th in what was actually a pretty good game. Vernon Wells and Alex Gonzalez homered, bringing the team total to 96 on the year, 18 dingers above the next highest team in baseball, the Red Sox. The team has also struck out 427 batters, good for fourth in both leagues and just three behind the Dodgers, leading the category. Pretty soon there is going to be no reason to not watch the Blue Jays. It's a scary thought.

-Across town at BMO field, there is no danger of that happening with the local Reds, or 'Toronto FC' as they call them in soccer circles. They drew 0-0 on the road to the Kansas City Wizards yesterday, prompting one F.C. blogger to take pleasure in the upcoming World Cup break, since it means he won't have to watch F.C. for a while.

-Not his strongest outing of the year, but Ryan Dempster won another game, he's now 4-5 on the year, as the Cubs beat the Astros 8-5. He gave up six hits, two homers, and walked a couple, but managed to strike out seven. Justin Morneau was given the day off in a Twinkie 4-3 win over the As (although he managed to come in for a heroic pinch-hit walk in the 9th, before heroically being pulled for J.J. Hardy, who scored the winning run) and Jason Bay should have been given the day off. He went 0-for-4 with two Ks.

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With the Belmont Stakes today, horse racing's triple crown season is over. Next up on jockey's to-do lists: workouts with the Montreal Canadiens.

Tuesday June 1st - Morning Briefing

Pronger causes trouble, Jays continue to roll

-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.

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I'm really anticipating the start of football season. I think I might spend that time avoiding getting called out in the letters page of community newspapers by anonymous gym teachers. That's a pretty tight burden. Jays are on later, and if you're feeling particularly groovy, you can stay up late and watch the Twins on the Pacific channel, 100 per cent Buck Martinez free.

Sunday May 30: Morning Briefing

Halladay perfect, Nash out

-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.

Considering GSP can't speak in English for 140 characters, I'm amazed he got two words in in all four tweets.

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.