The sports business Part Two - by Apollo

Normally we won't go over a week without a post. Such delays are really cruel for our fans. I think that Wongoz was probably preoccupied with the Democratic Convention or something like that. He'll return in due course I'm sure. On a related note, say what you want about his politics or his personal life, but Bill Clinton can give a speech with the best of them.
 
The public obssession with sports and with celebrity is such that we could devote all of our posts to the sports business and offseason sports news. Hopefully with the coming arrivals of the Summer Olympics, the World Cup of Hockey and NFL and UEFA training camps, there will be actual sports to talk about shortly in this forum. Until then, some random thoughts I've had on recent on and off-field topics.
 
1. Nicholas Gill - Could this have been any more of a non-story? In fairness, anything that makes the front page of the Toronto Sun usually receives very little respect, and this "news" item was no exception. Apparently, Canada's best judoka and flag bearer for the upcoming Olympics in Athens was once a seperatist, or held seperatist views in any event. More noteworthy than the fact this topic stayed somewhat current for about 4 hours was that media outlets devoted about 2 lines of text to the fact that Gill is apparently not a seperatist now, and that he has always been proud to compete for Canada, even going so far as to turn down a lucrative offer from French sports organization Paris St. Germain which would have seen him changing citizenship and competing for France.
 
A couple points - are there any seperatist athletes competing for Canada right now? Probably. Are any of them going to wave the Quebec flag instead of the Canadian flag if they win a medal in Greece? Probably not. To some Canadians, finding out that an Olympian once voted for the Reform Party is probably just as bad as finding out if someone is a seperatist. Getting into political ideologies and backgrounds when it comes to sports is quite dangerous, particuarly since sports, and the Olympics in particular are supposed to be a non-biased celebration of athletics. Certainly flag waving and patriotism and even politics are prevalent during the Olympics, but it isn't supposed to be that way. Nicholas Gill has won medals for Canada in the past, he was happy to get the honour of being the flag bearer this year, end of story.
 
And by the way, for certain media reporters who thought that Simon Whitfield should have been the flag bearer, Canada's top triathlete already enjoyed this honour during the closing ceremonies of Sydney 2000. Inaccurate sports journalism has to be one of my biggest complaints these days.
 
2. The Ricky Williams retirement - I'm all for people quitting their jobs and going off to do whatever they want. Life is too short to be cooped up in...uh...a mansion, luxury car and private jet that are awarded to you as part of your job when you make millions of dollars as an NFL running back. Who among us hasn't yearned to take off from work and travel to Asia, when it is so obvious that 7 months of vacation time is not nearly enough to fit in a trip of a week.
 
I'm not particularly upset by the Williams retirement, probably because I'll believe it when I see the actual retirement papers faxed into the NFL head office. Not having Williams available for my football drafts is a bit annoying, but that's okay. And don't ask me if I have any sympathy for the Miami Dolphins or coach Dave Wannstedt that their star running back quit on them a week before training camp and after Eddie George already signed with another team. Football players, and running backs in particular absorb more punishment in a season than I care to think about, and while they certainly don't come close to Alex Rodriguez money, they make more than enough to retire after only six years, as Williams did. Williams, for now anyway, is tired of football, and is in the enviable position of being wealthy enough and somewhat carefree enough to walk away from it during his prime earning years. If anything, it says more about society that we're so puzzled that someone would do something like this, but that's another debate...
 
3. The Montreal Expos - I went to see my first Expos game (and likely my last) in 10 years the other day. It was surreal - general admission tickets in the lower bowl, having entire rows of seats to yourself, not having to fight any lines or crowds whatsoever. I can remember the first place Expos team of 1994 right before the lockout. I went to watch a first place game with Atlanta and over 40,000 fans were in Olympic Stadium for that game. It's sad what's happened to the Expos since then and how they can't leave Montreal soon enough now. Still though, there's so many conditions that need to be met in order to save baseball in Montreal - a downtown stadium with real grass, affordable ticket prices and a contending team - that it's probably better off that the franchise leaves sooner rather than later.
 
4. Brazil wins the Copa America - Hey, rest of the world! Guess what? Defending World Cup champion Brazil sent their "F" team to this tournament and still won! Good luck in 2006 in Germany. In related news, Brazil announces their World Cup qualifying team will now consist of Ronaldo, Kaka, and the San Jose Earthquakes roster (okay, that's not true, but you have to give me extra points for the MLS reference).
 
5. Lance Armstrong wins again - It's unfortunate that such a landmark achievement as winning 6 consecutive Tour de France titles can be clouded by talk of banned substances and such. The suspicion I suppose will always remain, but I cannot help but be impressed with what he has achieved. The cancer issue aside, Armstrong traveled up the Alps and Pyrenees mountains faster than I can drive. He gets bonus points from some for divorcing his wife for Sheryl Crow as well, although not from me. Until proven otherwise though, this remarkable achievement is nothing except awesome.

The sports business Part One - by Apollo

Usually I like the offseason. Wongoz and I are those types of sports fans. We enjoy analyzing the multiple facets of sports, the transactions, trades, signings, firings, all the off-court aspects of the games that most casual fans don't pay attention to. This overall focus is what makes us the 2 Wise Men after all.

I have to say though that I've become pretty drained lately. Exhausted is almost a better word; melancholy. Disenchanted and disappointed to the point that I almost don't really care anymore about what's going on in professional sports these days. The off-court business of sport is superceding the on-court performance to the point that my usual adorable cynicism is reaching all time highs.

Now, it could more be a function of media coverage and the unprecedented access to information that sports fans enjoy today that is responsible for this shift. Back in the day, we were not privy to most information on trade talks, rumours, franchise moves, and other transactions that we would just continue blissfully unaware until the bomb dropped on us. Imagine if the Wayne Gretzky trade (and I mean the only important one) had happened today in the era of 24-hour sports networks and internet websites? Peter Pocklington would have felt the backlash far sooner. However, for better or for worse, I have the information, I have news. And these latest topics have only caused me further ambivalence:

1. The Carlos Boozer saga: Boozer, an NBA forward, was a second round draft pick of the Cleveland Cavaliers a couple years ago. Instead of the guaranteed riches of a first round contract, Boozer had to toil on the meagre $700,000.00 (approximately) annual salary thrown to second rounders. He proceeded to admirably become a potential star, posting double digit scoring and rebounding numbers for the Cavs last year. Under the NBA rules, Cleveland could have easily forced Boozer to accept a couple more years of being grossly underpaid, but instead they elected to not renew his contract on the understanding (or so they say) that they would re-sign him for a $5 million annual deal. Boozer, given his restricted free agent wings by the Cavs, promptly signed an even bigger multimillion dollar offer sheet with the Utah Jazz which the Cavs have no intention of matching, given their salary cap constraints. The Cavs, and beleaguered GM Jim Paxson claim that Boozer and his agent scammed them into believing Boozer would re-sign with Cleveland, when all along he just wanted to be let out of his contract so he could go sign somewhere else for more money.

Boozer has now defended himself. There never was an implied agreement he would re-sign. His coach, Paul Silas, told him he would not get the chance to become an All-Star in Cleveland. He's going to Utah unless Cleveland wants to pay him the same money. Now, far be it from me to stand between anyone and $68 million guaranteed US dollars. Furthermore, I would be one of the last people to defend the managers of a professional sports franchise, who generally enjoy much more bargaining power and are paid to be smarter than the agents and players they employ. This whole ordeal though, is just sad. Does Boozer not realize that Cleveland is the only team of the NBA's 30 franchises who felt he was worth drafting? Cleveland was the one who gave him his opportunity to prove he was worth $68 million. Furthermore, why in the world would Cleveland ever release Boozer from his contract if there was even the slightest suspicion that he might leave? Is Cleveland so naive that they thought their prize forward would actually accept the mid-level exception salary when at least three teams were willing to give him over double that if he ever became a free agent? What's sad to me is that there is now zero incentive for any team to ever treat a player right or to trust the word of a player or agent. If there is even the slightest chance that you'll end up being double-crossed in the end, you may as well just bind a player to his underpaid contract and force him to play out the entire term. There's too many conflicting facts in this case for me to pronounce who is actually telling the truth, but following all of this nonsense is certainly not making me a big fan of Boozer, Paxson, Cleveland or Utah.

2. The Shaquille O'Neal trade: For eight years now I have watched the soap opera that is the Los Angeles Lakers, starring Shaquille O'Neal as Victor Newman and Kobe Bryant as Nikki. I love the Lakers. I've loved them since the Magic Johnson days (all four eras - 2 as player, one as coach, and one as part-owner). Through all the drama, I've always believed that the Lakers would win because no matter what, Shaq and Kobe were incredible players and they together could defeat 99% of the NBA regardless of whether they liked each other or not. I also tended not to believe they actually hated each other as much as some had reported. Then the Detroit Pistons became the 1%, Kobe decided he wanted his own team sans Shaq and before you know it, the Miami Heat now employ the Diesel and Kobe is deciding whether to play for the Lakers with Lamar Odom or to go over to Odom's old team - the cross-town Clippers.

This whole sorry saga is about ego, and how professional athletes have huge ones, and owners sometimes have even bigger ones, and how in the end, the last true NBA dynasty that we'll see for some time was undone from within. Does Kobe honestly think that he can win a championship with Brian Grant instead of Shaq? Did he learn nothing from that run of 40 point games he put up without Shaq, that for the most part ended up in Laker losses? Does Shaq really care that much about whether Lakers owner Jerry Buss respects him? Does the fact that Buss pays him $30 million a year, by far the highest salary in the NBA indicate enough respect for anyone. Hey, I sometimes don't like my boss either, but if he paid me $30 million, you can bet I would gladly keep not liking him for a long time. Shaq says if given the choice, he likes his chances of winning without Kobe than Kobe winning without him. That may be true, but there's no way either of them can dispute that their best chance to win is together...they've already proven that 3 times in the last 5 years.

How do you explain any of this to the average fan? How do you possibly comprehend Tracy McGrady forcing a trade to Houston when the whole reason he left Toronto in the first place was because he wanted so desperately to play for his hometown Orlando Magic? How does Kobe explain that he wants to turn his back on the organization and teammate that won him 3 championships before the age of 25 because he's on some power trip to prove he can single-handedly win a championship by himself? I suppose a few years from now we'll hear about Elton Brand demanding a trade to prove he can win without Kobe. The number of factors that professional athletes and teams consider important are staggering: respect, winning, character, heart...you would think that satisfying one of these components would be enough. Whether any NBA franchise should even contemplate signing Kobe at all is a debate I won't even touch, but the logic (or lack thereof) that some of these individuals possess is absolutely mind-numbing to me.

3. The Vince Carter trade rumours: Simply put, I don't care. I don't care anymore. I'm a rather ardent VC fan, I give him more credit than most, but whether he gets traded or not has become a circus here in Toronto that I want no part of. His mom said one thing, his agent said another, his friend the car salesman who was at his wedding said something else. Meanwhile, he says nothing. Although he's new on the job, I trust Raptors GM Rod Babcock to do the right thing. If he wants to trade Vince, he won't do it unless he gets value in return, which is something Babcock has said personally many times. That's enough for me. I would prefer not trading Vince at all. I would prefer if Vince could return to the Vince of 2000 and be a better player. But I have been bludgeoned into indifference by the constant speculation, the lack of comment from Vince himself and the overarching fact that the Raptors will be horrible this year with or without Vince anyway so it's all a moot point. For the record, I don't think Vince will be traded this season, and I think he'll have a good year for the Raptors. To be honest though, I almost don't care if I'm right or wrong.

4. The NHL collective bargaining agreement: The lockout is coming! The lockout is coming! The current NHL CBA expires on September 15, 2004, shortly after the World Cup of Hockey is decided. Everyone in the NHL, the NHLPA, the media and in coffee shops across Canada are convinced that 1) there will be a lockout; 2) the lockout will be a long one; and 3) once the lockout is over, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment will immediately announce a 15% price increase on Leafs tickets.

Personally I blame the owners for the current state of the NHL and I have a hard time trying to figure out why the players should concede anything at all in collective bargaining. One argument that comes to mind is that given their history, odds are the owners will end up messing up any new "cost-certainty" system anyway so the players may as well agree to anything on the assumption they'll end up better off regardless due to the owners' own ineptitude. The message that a lockout is coming has become so ingrained in my mind that I'm virtually resigned to it happening, as I am resigned to the fact that hockey fans will flock back to the NHL once it's over. Sure, the league may lose the Columbus Blue Jackets or the Nashville Predators along the way, but as long as the Leafs and Habs are around, who cares eh? (How's that for a stereotypical comment?)

Do the players and owners not see the blatantly obvious facts that 1) Americans generally don't care about hockey; 2) the on-ice product is for the most part garbage; and 3) most people can't name the top 5 scorers in the NHL on a consistent basis. A work stoppage will not improve any of these problems. A work stoppage will not explain to me why I have to pay my entire week's salary for two seats in the reds at Air Canada Centre to watch the Leafs lull the Anaheim Mighty Ducks to sleep. At this point, I almost have to think that my constant attention to the NHL is somehow genetic, or influenced by the Canadian air that I breathe and that wongoz has breathed for most of his life. Otherwise, why do I come back after each round of collective bargaining buffoonery to this sport?

Malaise is a good word. I'm feeling a general malaise to professional sports right now. Hopefully the coming NFL season will help me out, but I'm beginning to understand why computer sports games like Madden 2005 and NBA 2K5 are so popular. Reduce these professional sports egos to mere bytes and pixels, and you have an overwhelmingly more enjoyable product.

Lamentations in the T-Dot Part 4 - by Apollo

Argh, the dreaded 4th post on the same topic...4 being a rather unlucky number in some cultures. I'm not too concerned about it in this instance since I have other things to rant about and therefore the death of this particular subject is not a real loss. All you 2 Wise Men fans out there rejoice at once again being blessed by multiple posts on the same day.

First of all, let me clarify something that wongoz obviously missed horribly. It isn't that I am against nicknames per se, I'm more opposed to shortened nicknames for terms that do not need shortening in the first place. Apollo is a complete name. If I was named Apollo and referred to myself as Ap, Ollie or A-Dot, then there would be a problem. The point being, why would anyone need to come up with an alternative name for something that's easily identifiable and pronounceable...eh, wongoz??? (Insert irony here).

Since he is a proud Torontonian (his term, not mine), wongoz has a lot of emotion on this particular subject, hence the first post on this issue was his. Moreover, as an educated Toronto sports fan, he has suffered through the frustration of the local teams for many years, and sees beyond the wins and losses. He can critique his teams, an admirable quality and one of the reasons I allow him to share this forum with me. I, as an outsider, generally celebrated the victories of certain Toronto teams and was somewhat disappointed by the losses, but never really took it too personally. I never identified with any Toronto team and never claimed any team as my own. I never bragged about any Toronto team's success because I knew that I was not a true Toronto fan. Therefore, I never became personally invested to the obssessive degree of wongoz and other Toronto fans.

Small traces of classic Toronto sports arrogance creep into wongoz' posts from time to time and they are clearly evident to anyone but a Toronto sports fan. He says he "doesn't blame" me for not liking Toronto teams, as if it somehow requires forgiveness that anyone could cheer for any team besides one based in Toronto. It's entirely understandable to him that people across Canada have to listen to the latest Toronto sports highlights. After all, more people live in Toronto than anywhere else so of course their teams are the most important and should take precedence over coverage of any local team. And who cares about the fates of other teams in other cities? We're Toronto dammnit, we're doing just fine over here so why do we care about anyone else? Who cares if other cities don't have the fan support of Toronto? That's their problem, not ours.

Never mind that Toronto sports teams benefit from a unique corporte and media culture that no other Canadian city can duplicate, and that they themselves had absolutely nothing to do with. If Winnipeg and Quebec City enjoyed the same luxury box crowd and sushi eating clientele as Toronto, surely the Jets and Nordiques would not only still be playing, but would surely have won more than Toronto over the last 37 years. If the Expos actually had a media contract that gave them more exposure than a few random games on The Score and over the internet, perhaps they would not be the orphans of baseball that they are today.

What Toronto sports fans continue to miss, to the absolute annoyance of the rest of the world, is that they have very little reason to be so loud and proud. Toronto teams are in a down period right now, marked by poor sports management and a commitment to the profit margin as opposed to delivering a championship to their long suffering fans. And yet, with no evidence whatsoever that any Toronto franchise is headed to a championship anytime soon, Toronto fans still pay their money, follow their teams and demand a winning product and a championship contender. It goes beyond expecting a good effort, it goes beyond wanting to see annual improvement. Toronto is all about winning. Toronto fans are not content to sit back and track the progress of their teams. Toronto fans are living mostly in the glory days of the Leafs and Blue Jays when talk of a championship was realistic and bandwagons rolled along with overcrowded masses. It is entirely frustrating to listen to Toronto fans banter on about what top flight free agent they may get, what trades they might make without any semblance of realism. Why wouldn't [insert to superstar here] want to play in Toronto? Actually, why would anyone want to play here? Even worse, few Toronto fans offer any sympathy whatsoever to the financial plight faced by other franchises, or the greedy owners who move their teams to another city in the middle of the night. And Toronto fans then audaciously wonder why people don't like them so much?

Now there are signs of progress...after all, the entire point of this discussion was that wongoz sees no relief on the horizon for the continued losing of Toronto teams. You would be hard pressed to find a cocky Raptors fans these days, and most Blue Jays fans are staying home and waiting to see exactly what the J.P. Ricciardi era will bring them. What I have tried to convey is that until fans start showing their displeasure at the ticket window, very little will change. Moreover, no one is feeling sorry for Toronto's current state of woe. Every team has their die-hard and insufferable fans. It seems just more fun for the rest of us to make fun of Toronto's die-hards than most. Perhaps it's because we've often been outnumbered, having to deal with the sheer volume of the Leafs Nation or similar Toronto mob. Most likely it's because we're probably just jealous, jealous of the unending devotion that so few other cities can boast. As I have said before, that devotion is admirable. It's just annoying when they try and stuff it down our throats.

Lamentations in the T-Dot Part 3 - by wongoz

Ahh, finally something to rebut. But before I get into it, lemme just take a moment to guffaw at the brouhaha over nicknames... hello?!? Apollo? APOLLO?!? Surely the irony of your rant doesn't escape you. I'm surprised that such a venomous anti-nickname proponent as yourself would, in fact, take a nickname!

Alright, let's get down to it. I don't blame Apollo for not liking Toronto sports teams; it happens if you're from another town with a team in the same league/sport as Toronto. In fact, I think it's only natural to follow teams from your hometown. So while you can have your Canadiens, I'm a little more than perplexed that you followed both the Blue Jays and the Argos, when you had your respective hometown choices, the Expos and the Alouettes.

Now why would you choose the Toronto teams instead? I suppose it's because you actually grew up in Waterloo, just an hour outside of Toronto. Naturally, most media coverage of big-league sports would've centred around Toronto, so I suppose that could be a factor. However, access to media coverage doesn't fully explain why you would've done so.

Are you such a fan that you absolutely need to watch a team in order to follow it? Certainly not; this would negate your love for the Canadiens and hatred for the Maple Leafs. Perhaps you, as a Montrealer (do you hate that term too?), simply didn't profess your love for all things Montreal in your last post. Alright, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt...

But this love/hate relationship that people have with Toronto sports teams says more about those people than it does about the teams. Your biggest point of contention is that Toronto expects its teams to win. But why wouldn't you? After all, do you not support your own favourite teams with equally ardent fervour? Do you not think that your teams should try to succeed every year? Do you not want your teams to try hard, give a good effort, and be rewarded for those efforts?

On the contrary, I think many people are pessimistic about the chances for success. Certainly, many media reports (namely, the Toronto Star's coverage of the Jays and Raptors) expound on how unlikely it is for those teams to succeed. So where is this expectation, this so-called birthright, to winning? It's just that we think the organizations running the teams could be doing better. Isn't that in fact what we always talk about? Why other teams' organziations always seem to be better, or more capable? The last time the Leafs really won a trade was when they ripped off Calgary in the Doug Gilmour-Gary Leeman deal, and that was about 10 years ago.

Actually, what I think is the key matter, is that most fans think that they can do better. Certainly you and I both think so. Never has there been such dysfunction in so many sports teams' management in any given city. The Leafs and the awkward Ken Dryden-Pat Quinn duo. The Jays and the inept Gord Ash/Tim Johnson/Jim Fregosi years. The Raptors and the disappointing Glen Grunwald/Butch Carter/Lenny Wilkens/Kevin O'Neill quartet (not to mention the meddlesome CEO Richard Peddie). The Argos and the embarrassing Sherwood Schwarz ownership fiasco. Do we expect them to be better? Hell yeah.

Maybe it's the overwhelming media coverage of the Toronto sports scene that bothers you. Well, you can hardly fault that. More people live in the Greater Toronto Area than 7 of the 10 Canadian provinces. Historically, Toronto teams were one the few teams to cheer for (in the case of the Raptors, they are the only team to cheer for), so fans of the Leafs and Jays spread from coast to coast, without shame.

Anyways, I won't get into why it's frustrating to be a Toronto fan - you seemed to have covered that part adequately. I just don't see how people can think that Toronto expects more out of its teams than other cities do out of theirs; if they do, it's because they don't support their team as well (or as blindly). Is it Toronto's fault that Vancouver lost the Grizzlies to Memphis? Is it Toronto's fault that Québec lost the Nordiques, or that Winnipeg lost the Jets? No, no and no. So whine all you want. At least we have something to whine about.

Lamentations in the T-Dot Part 2 - by Apollo

I quite dislike the term "T-Dot" to begin with. It's such a Canadian thing to come up with nicknames for everything. T-Dot, VanCity, the Peg. Is it really so hard to pronounce three syllables? And don't even get me started on hockey names. Dougie, Eddie, Iggy, Ribs...is there some reason why fans and media can't just use the actual names given to these people from birth? Moving on...

I am merely a Toronto resident, having been fortunate enough to be born in Montreal. Therefore, I've somewhat enjoyed the lack of success of Toronto sports teams. I don't dislike Toronto, but having been raised outside the city, I never caught on to the sports scene with the same fervour as wongoz. Sure, I followed the Blue Jays in 1992 and 1993 and I watched the Argos during the Rocket Ismail days, but really the happiest times for me were the Harold Ballard era Maple Leafs. A particular 10-3 drubbing by the Montreal Canadiens back in the 80's brings particular joy. Now that I have unfortunately followed the Raptors since their inception in the mid-90's, I've been more involved in the Toronto sports scene than I care to admit. For better or for worse, Toronto pro sports and Toronto fans evoke strong emotions - mainly love or hate.

Like the Republican Party, the New York Yankees, and Jennifer Lopez, Toronto sports teams are beloved by their legions of faithful fans, but despised by everyone else. To the rest of the country, a Toronto pro team is the first born child who was spoiled from birth and then whines when the rest of the family gets a few crumbs to eat. People love to hate Toronto, mainly because of the Leafs, and mainly out of petty jealousy, which Toronto arrogantly does nothing to stop. Many cringe at Toronto's proclamations as being the centre of the universe and hate that Toronto somehow considers itself special, different from the rest of the world. Grudgingly, regardless of the fates of its pro teams, Toronto sports fans are indeed unique.

Toronto is one of the few cities in the entire world to enjoy teams in all the major sports leagues (except the NFL - which has no non-American franchises anyway - and if it did, you better believe Toronto would be one of them). Toronto even boasts a pro lacrosse team, and minor league hockey and soccer franchises. Torontonians (another term I dislike) are spoiled by the plethora of options available to them for their sporting and entertainment pleasure. With that comes a sense of entitlement, a feeling that because we are Toronto, we somehow are destined to enjoy success in everything we touch. Losing is for the rest of the world, for Ottawa and Montreal and Boston. We're Toronto. Free agents will of course want to come play for us, we'll settle for nothing but the best coaches and general managers and facilities that money can buy. Canada's three major sports networks and three biggest newspapers always lead with Toronto sports coverage. Success is our right.

And why not? Thanks to corporate ownership that is non-existent anywhere else in the country, if not the world, Toronto has proven they have the resources to compete with anyone. The Jays, Leafs, Raptors and Argos have all enjoyed success to varying degrees both financially and athletically. Which is why being a Toronto fan is so frustrating. We can spend as much money as any New York or Los Angeles based team, and yet have no major championships in the past decade to show for it (sorry to say that the Grey Cups of the 90's don't really count since only Doug Flutie can remember them).

What happened to the winning? We now find ourselves in an era where winning at all costs no longer applies in Toronto. The corporate owners spend just enough to ensure the flow of revenues continue, but not enough to inspire serious championship aspirations. And Toronto fans, starved for any sort of victory, continue to pour money into the corporate pockets in hopes of one day stumbling upon a championship. And so the Jays rebuild, the Raptors reload, the Leafs recycle, and somehow the fans return again and again. Free agent after free agent bypass Toronto in favour of such metropolitan hot spots like Seattle, Chicago, Orlando, and Detroit, cities that while appealing in their own way, pale in comparison to Toronto for quality of life. When the time comes to hire new coaches or managers, we now settle for the young first time executives who have potential and work ethic as opposed to the people actually acknowledged as the brightest and best in their sports. And through it all, fans keep paying and showing up. Sure, the Jays lost fans after the baseball lockout, but so did every other major league franchise. The Argos are the Argos and will never be the Dallas Cowboys, but the promise of a new stadium has spurred renewed fan interest and smaller debt loads. Meanwhile, the Leafs and Raptors continue to parade out disappointing and inferior teams who generate some of the top attendance figures and revenues in their sports.

What do Toronto sports fans have to look forward to? Nothing. And yet that suits us just fine. We'll spend hours debating who the Leafs' backup goalie or third line centre should be. Entire emails will be devoted to which unknown Raptor draft pick or Jays minor leaguer could actually develop into a serviceable player. Vince Carter's wedding registry is considered news here. We would of course be happier seeing our pro teams under proper and intelligent management, with Phil Jackson or Larry Brown roaming the sidelines, Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, and all the top free agents flocking to play here. But we'll be faithful without any of that, and unfortunately, the owners know it.

In an era where attention spans are short and the faces on a pro roster change seemingly on a monthly basis, the continued loyalty of Toronto sports fans is unique, not good or bad but certainly inexplicable. This isn't a European city where everyone supports the soccer team that their grandfathers used to watch, win or lose. This isn't Buffalo or Cleveland where fans consider their teams to be an extension of themselves and live and die with them accordingly. This is a city where fans support four teams or more, all at once, and expect all of those teams to win, despite overwhelming evidence that there is very little chance any of them will win anything anytime soon. Fans cheer victories and cry over defeats, and despite all the pain of suffering through another season without winning, get ready to do it all over again. It's almost cute in a way, this blind devotion, where fans will rant and yell and scream but never stop supporting their teams. It almost makes you hope that a Toronto team will win something someday soon, until you realize just how much more insufferable Toronto would become if that happened.

Lamentations in the T-Dot Part 1 - by wongoz

It's tough being a sports fan in Toronto these days. Oh, I'm not talking about a lack of sports to watch - they're in abundance. What I'm referring to is the quality of it.

We have 4 "major" sports franchises in Toronto: the Maple Leafs of the NHL, the Blue Jays of MLB, the Raptors of the NBA, and the Argonauts of the CFL (if you consider the CFL to be a "major" league, which some don't). In addition to that, the T-Dot also hosts a number of annual sporting events like the alternating men-women Tennis Masters Series of the Canadian Open, and the Molson Indy 500 for CART.

So you're probably thinking, what's there to be disappointed about? Actually, plenty.

The first issue is the state of the major league franchises. The only one that appears to be healthy are the Leafs, as both the Raptors and the Blue Jays appear hindered by their financial situations (the Raptors by a salary cap; the Jays by the so-called small market limitation). This means that the best players, the best opportunities, are only afforded to the Leafs.

Witness the regular-season stretch where the Leafs, jockeying for a favourable playoff position, picked up such aged luminaries as Ron Francis, Brian Leetch, and Calle Johansson at the expense of young prospects. These moves led Toronto to a second-round exit vs. the Philadelphia Flyers, and given the impending labour strife, you would think that a team whose average age hovers around 30 (or even higher) would be prone to a youth movement. You would be wrong.

General manager John Ferguson Jr. has not only decided to re-sign a few of the seemingly injury-prone workhorses, like Gary Roberts and Joe Nieuwendyk, but also gave a whopper of a contract to yet another injury-prone workhorse, goaltender Ed Belfour. Am I missing something here? Shouldn't we be trying to save money, given the potential for a lockout, and go young anyways?

Disappointingly, JFJ is not the only GM around here to have bungled up some moves. Raptors GM Rob Babcock made one of the biggest reaches in NBA Draft history, selecting Rafael Araujo with the 8th pick, and thus supposedly causing superstar Vince Carter to ask for a trade. This is the just the kind of thing we don't need. Without Carter, what are the Raptors? Could they even beat Duke or UConn?

Carter isn't the only superstar leaving town either. The Jays, piddling around with a $50 million budget (compared to the Yankees who are reportedly around $200 million), just can't afford to keep their superstar slugger Carlos Delgado. We can see what this team is like without Delgado - it can't even play .500 ball. Then again, 2 of the last 3 years were sub-.500 ball even with him, so what's the point?

The point is, what do the Jays plan to do with the money they save by not paying Delgado? If they're smart, and I seem to think GM J.P. Ricciardi is, then I would not try to just pocket the money and hope we don't lose any more than we already have, but I'd spend it on a top-drawer pitcher, plus another mid-level one. Then, with reigning Cy Young winner Roy Halladay, plus Ted Lilly and Miguel Batista, that'd make up a pretty good rotation. But the decision to spend the money isn't Ricciardi's - it's up to the beancounters at Rogers. A shame, isn't it?

The Argos are up against a brick wall though, compared to the other teams. Torontonians just don't care much about CFL football, not like they used to (note: I used to have season tickets to the Argos, for 2-3 years). It's a problem when the biggest star of the team is the coach. That's not to say there isn't a lack of talent or skill on the team; it's just that most people don't know or appreciate it.

Knowledge and appreciation don't seem to affect the TMS Canadian Open or the Molson Indy though - attendance appears to increase every year. While shiny new tennis facilities at York University have been built, Toronto seems to play second-fiddle to Montreal (where the other alternating tournament goes) in the eyes of the players. Maybe it's the culture, or maybe it's just my impression. We'll see if the new courts and facilities change that.

The Molson Indy, though, has problems it can't control. CART racing has just about died (a horribly slow death, I might add), and the prospect of losing one of the best open-wheel road courses on the continent is a shame. Whether it will be picked up by the Indycar Racing League, or left to die, remains to be seen. What I didn't know until 2 weeks ago though, was that Toronto could have been the host of the Formula 1 Grand Prix (instead of Montreal), but for 2 greedy little men who happened to own Mosport in Shannonville. I read the article in the Toronto Star, but it might not be there anymore.

So is there any optimism for Toronto's sporting future? Sure... one can look forward to another Leafs playoff exit short of the Stanley Cup, another 80-something-win season by the Jays and possible trade of Delgado, another agonizingly bad Raptors year and possible trade of Carter, and another non-Grey Cup season for the Argos (like anyone really cares even if they did win)... Cheers!

The Beautiful Games Part 2 - by wongoz

You'd think that the title of the post would lend itself to only European football (aka soccer), but i see Apollo's taken it all over the map.

well, in the European championships, Greece continues to play the spoiler, as they knocked off the previously-undefeated Czech Republic 1-0 in the last minute of the first overtime period. Prior to this year's tournament, Greece hadn't won a single match in the 2 times they had qualified, let alone make it to the final.

But give them and their German coach, Otto Rehhagel, credit - they're playing amazing football. The Czechs had their chances, to be sure, but it was surely a tough blow when all-world midfielder Pavel Nedved injured his knee barely half an hour into the match.

So the final is a rematch of the first match of this tournament, Portugal vs. Greece - a match that the Greeks won. Wouldn't you think that karma or fate or whatever you believe in means that Greece will win, playing the ultimate underdog story to perfection? Hold that thought. In 1988, the Netherlands lost the first match of the tournament to Russia, and ended up beating Russia in the final. History repeating itself? We'll find out on Sunday.

Personally, i'm hoping Portugal wins, if only for the sake of Luis Figo and the rest of the "Golden Generation". But there are more Greeks here than one would think, and if I thought last night's partying was excessive, wait until Greece wins... It'll be pandemonium in the streets.