2021

Abandoned By MLSE

TORONTO (Oct. 8) — What is going to become of the Toronto Argonauts? Under no reasonable circumstance can the oldest professional sports team in North America survive by drawing less than 10,000 fans per game. On Wednesday night, with the… Read More

Well, It’s Hockey Season

TORONTO (Oct. 3) — Yes, it would have been exciting for Toronto baseball fans to see the Blue Jays in the playoffs. The 2021 team, in my view, could have challenged for the World Series… and that’s coming from an… Read More

The Torturous Routine Continues

TORONTO (Sep. 29) — The Internet is a fascinating place; sadly and ominously dangerous, as we know, but also the home of innocuous human behavior. It’s a place where quixotic people gather to commiserate and deliberately punish themselves. Nowhere is… Read More

Still The Biggest Problem

TORONTO (Sep. 25) — It is nearly four months since we last saw the Toronto Maple Leafs in action… and nothing has changed. To be honest, nothing of import has changed with the hockey club for 45 years, which is… Read More

Only In Toronto, I Say

TORONTO (Sep. 20) — I am forever amazed by the inflationary contrast. All media companies affiliated with Rogers and Bell — bitter rivals that control 75% of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment just so the other won’t be in control… Read More

Goaltending The Lone Mystery

TORONTO (Sep. 15) — For the second time in six months, the Toronto Star has dipped into the Rogers Media empire for a sports columnist. Last March, it was Mike Wilner coming aboard to write about the Toronto Blue Jays.… Read More

20 Years Ago This Morning

TORONTO (Sep. 11) — It began for me, on that fateful Tuesday, as it did for so many others: with a telephone call. I was packing a suitcase for a mid–afternoon flight to St. John’s, Nfld. (or so I figured)… Read More

After This Season, It’s Over

TORONTO (Sep. 3) — Whether you revere John Tavares, Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander for their wondrous scoring exploits in the regular season — or detest them for repetitive deficiency in the Stanley Cup playoffs — this season… Read More

A Decade of Wayne Gretzky Cards

TORONTO (Aug. 28) — Perhaps I’m a bit late to the party considering it was three months ago — on May 27 — that a Wayne Gretzky rookie card from the 1979–80 O–Pee–Chee set sold for $3.75 million (U.S.), the… Read More

20 Coaches, No Finals, No Cups

TORONTO (Aug. 25) — When the Maple Leafs open training camp in September, they will, for the first time, attempt to terminate the longest drought in Stanley Cup history — a dubious honor shared, until this year, with the New… Read More

Good To Have The Argos Back

***THE SCHEDULED GAME THIS THURSDAY NIGHT BETWEEN THE ARGOS AND EDMONTON AT BMO FIELD HAS BEEN POSTPONED AFTER SEVERAL ELKS PLAYERS TESTED POSITIVE FOR COVID–19. NO MAKE–UP DATE AS YET.*** TORONTO (Aug. 22) — It was an enjoyable first experience… Read More

Nothing Will Matter Until April

TORONTO (Aug. 18) — In the middle of the most abbreviated summer in National Hockey League annals, there remains plenty of chatter about the Toronto Maple Leafs. Mostly on–line, but also on television, as evidenced by a discussion (pictured below)… Read More

Bowen and Ralph Will Not Travel

TORONTO (Aug. 13) — Barring a policy reversal from Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, veteran radio broadcasters Joe Bowen and Jim Ralph will call the 41 Toronto Maple Leafs road games off a television monitor next season. Which they did… Read More

Blue Jays Uprising Seems Familiar

TORONTO (Aug. 10) — Could it be happening again, six years later? Under vastly different circumstances? The 2021 Toronto Blue Jays, middling and homeless from Apr. 1 to July 29, are beginning to author a second–half surge that is strikingly… Read More

Kyle Dubas Must Unload A Contract

TORONTO (Aug. 6) — It has been proven, unequivocally, that the going rate for an elite defeseman in the National Hockey League is close to double figures per season. Dougie Hamilton signed with New Jersey as an unrestricted free agent… Read More

Rogers Caught Napping?

TORONTO (Aug. 3) — It’s been hypothesized that Rogers Communications is deliberately maintaining the vanilla decorum of Hockey Night In Canada to preserve a sound coalition with the National Hockey League. Since the departures of Don Cherry (fired in November… Read More

Ho–Sang Is the Leafs’ Wild Card

TORONTO (Aug. 1) — Wow, did I get excited on Saturday when I thought I heard the Toronto Maple Leafs had signed Nicole Richie to sing the national anthem at home games. Maybe her dad, Lionel, would come along. Then,… Read More

Are The Leafs a Playoff Team?

TORONTO (July 29) — The question posed on the headline to this blog is largely hypothetical given the myriad factors that determine placement during the long, 82–game schedule in the National Hockey League. Injuries often play an immeasurable role. But,… Read More