It’s Impossible To Predict The Leafs

TORONTO (Sep. 28) — Apart from the usual and tiresome narrative involving success in the regular season and collapse in the playoffs, there is virtually no way to forecast how the Toronto Maple Leafs will fare this season. Not with… Read More

Toronto Sun Closes Leaf Comments

TORONTO (Sep. 24) — I’ve written this before and I’ll continue to pound away until it happens: Lance Hornby should be in the Hockey Hall of Fame. That the Selection Committee continues to overlook the dean of Canadian hockey writers… Read More

Dinwiddie Loses Game For The Argos

TORONTO (Sep. 21) — I’ve been on this bandwagon for weeks now, but I didn’t believe Ryan Dinwiddie would directly cost his team a win. Until it happened on Friday night at BMO Field. So, I’ll say it again: If… Read More

God Help Fans Of The Maple Leafs

TORONTO (Sep. 18) — The evil empire has swallowed its petulant cousin. Hockey’s most–popular team is now fully owned by one of Canada’s most–unpopular labels: Rogers. Or, “Robbers”, as the company is often referred to in on–line babble.… Read More

The Maple Leafs Are Drug–Addicted

TORONTO (Sep. 14) — The latest media buzz about Mitch Marner went to print on Friday, courtesy Bruce Arthur of the Toronto Star. Arthur’s theory made the most sense for the Maple Leafs… because it made the least sense. Only… Read More

Craig and the Core–4: Hmmm…

TORONTO (Sep. 12) — I feel a gnawing sensation in my gut when I ponder Craig (Can’t–Smile) Berube spending a full National Hockey League season in charge of William Nylander, Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews, John Tavares and Morgan Rielly. Why… Read More

How Does Life Go On?

TORONTO (Aug. 31) — People who are observant, religiously, will often say “you can question God; you can be angry at God… but you can never dispute the existence of God.” For whatever it’s worth, I ascribe to the aforementioned… Read More

Are The Penguins Pursuing Marner?

TORONTO (Aug. 29) — This one makes a bit of sense. Amid all the gibberish involving Mitch Marner and the Maple Leafs, the gifted forward accepting a trade to Pittsburgh is far from implausible. Given, of course, that the Penguins… Read More

They Ambushed The Staff at CHML-900

TORONTO (Aug. 17) — It was another media catastrophe; this time involving one of the primordial radio outlets in all of Canada. CHML–900, the voice and conscience of Hamilton, Ont. for nearly 100 years, is no more. Hasn’t been since… Read More

Another Summer Love–In (yawn)

TORONTO (Aug. 15) — The actual “Summer of Love” was 1967, when hippies and counter–culturists gathered in San Francisco, crowding the intersection of Haight/Ashbury while tripping on psychedelia in Golden Gate Park. Simultaneously, 123 miles south of the Bay Area,… Read More

What About Those Jerseys, Keith?

TORONTO (Aug. 13) — At the conclusion of last season for the Toronto Maple Leafs, after the predictable first–round playoff defeat against Boston, the incoming CEO of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment offered a cheeky response to a query about… Read More

CFL Command Centre Needs Overhaul

TORONTO (Aug. 11) — I have closely followed the Canadian Football League since September 1969, when Dad took me to my first game at the old CNE Stadium (Ottawa beat the Argos). I stuck with the league through all of… Read More

Marner Is Going Nowhere

TORONTO (Aug. 8) — Welcome back, briefly, to our regularly scheduled programming. The question, laying dormant in the stifling heat and humidity of summer, arose once more on Tuesday, when a friend at a funeral service asked “why haven’t the… Read More

How Much More Can Be Expected?

TORONTO (Aug. 1) — This may seem like an odd question. But, in the realm of professional sport, what should a team optimally anticipate from its legion of followers? In my view, there are three stipulations: a) buying tickets to… Read More

There’s No Hope For the Blue Jays

TORONTO (July 22) — We are eight days removed from the trade deadline in Major League Baseball and the Toronto Blue Jays are still the purview of a general manager that has defaulted on virtually every promise. How, then, Rogers … Read More

How close we came to Zapruder–2

TORONTO (July 14) — Whether you like Donald Trump; despise Donald Trump or don’t particularly care (and relatively few occupy the indifference category), one fact is indisputable: the former and potentially future president of the United States came within centimeters… Read More

Toronto Sport Has Gone to the Pits

TORONTO (July 10) — It’s true: We play small ball here in the Big Smoke. As the Toronto Star detailed, this week, in a marvelous chain of essays that should win literary awards, we are, without question, a City of… Read More

Damien Was Only Half–Right

TORONTO (July 6) — When we covered the Maple Leafs at the same time in the 1990’s and 2000’s — he for the Toronto Star; yours truly for The FAN–590 — Damien Cox and I didn’t often see eye to… Read More