Bye AJ

Well.  I guess we can count AJ in.  Hot off the press, AJ has signed with those damn yankees.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3765754

it was a love hate in toronto, which i don't personally understand.  i don't think he underperformed, nor did he overperformed.  but for what we paid (a lot), we got.  what we knew might happen when we signed him (injury prone), we got.  what we thought we might get out of him as a healthy starter (guy with unhittable stuff) we got.

we'll be seeing you AJ. and i'll be booing you. but only because you're a yankee now.  its just business.

Winter Baseball

Well, if things work out the way i think they might in the next day or two, you may see a yankees starter rotation of:

Chien Ming Wang, Joba Chamberlain, CC Sabathia, Derek Lowe, and AJ Burnett.

the yankees have ponyed up for CC already, and the rumours are swirling that they are closing in on the other two. money? what money?

impact on the jays for 2009? uh...in the words of vince carter... "it's ova."

Bills vs Dolphins

I was at Canada's first NFL regular season game yesterday to watch my Miami Dolphins take on the Buffalo Bills.

It was a pretty boring game, ending 16-3 and further solidfying the fact that JP Losman is worse than any of the random QBs that Miami had last year. My Dolphins are definitely overachieving this year, at 8-5, but thats definitely deserved given last year's terrible season.

Anyways, the game was OK, the house was pretty full except for a few patches and it was generally fun.

Easily the best moment of the afternoon was the pre-game, during the national anthems. Divine Brown got to sing the US Anthem with no hitches. Then some singer named Kreesha Turner stepped up to sing the Canadian anthem. She started, and my first thought was, damn she has a squeeky voice. My second thought was, man she's singing kind of slow. I started to look around, and there was this odd murmer in the crowd. I guess other people were thinking the same thing. Then, suddenly, at "from far and wide", it appears that the entire 50,000 people decided enough was enough and took matters into our own hands and drowned her out.

Classic.

Here's the video if you're interested. Very brave of her to put this up herself...with comments... good for her. She made my afternoon entertaining, and that's all i ask.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtjxgPTYJ7U

EDIT: she wasn't so brave afterall and took it down. i guess there was too much ridicule in the comments.

anyways, here's another one of the incident. if it goes down, just search her name, and you'll inevitably find one...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUl0sEi13eU

Edit: Avery

follwing up, avery was suspended for 6 games today by the league. who knows what his team will do afterwards. i still feel that this is unjustified, and it appears Mary Ormsby agrees. I don't normally even like her columns, but this one hit the nail on the head.

http://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/548836

Sports Randoms

Sam Mitchell fired. I can’t say anything that anyone else has already said. He wasn’t a bad coach. He certainly wasn’t a great coach. It irked me that he seemed to never have a set play at critical times – like 10 seconds left, after a time out. But either way, the team needs to play better. When Joey Graham is becoming anything more than an afterthought, you are in trouble.
On the new coach… http://www.firejaytriano.com/ (credit to KL for the link)

Rickey Henderson is being considered this year for the Hall of Fame. He deserves to be a first balloter. I’m just happy that they have these funny articles reminding us about just how weird Rickey was.
http://www.faniq.com/blog/The-25-Best-Rickey-Henderson-Stories-Of-All-Time-Blog-15243

Sean Avery suspended indefinitely. This has got to be one of the most ridiculous things in sports. A guy gets a semi-permanent suspension (if not by the league, then his team), for shooting his mouth off? Why do guys get 3 game suspensions for hammering fellow players into the boards, but get indefinite suspensions for talking trash? Perhaps we can agree that the guy is not likeable, but there are plenty of guys who are not likeable in sports. This is yet another reason why I continue to be nonchalant about the circus that is the NHL.

Brian Burke as GM. Not a fan of him. Not since his behavior after the Steve Moore incident. Now HE’s an idiot. But somehow, he comes out as a “hard-nosed hockey man”, and praised as the savior of a franchise that has done nothing to prove that its worth watching years. How strangely the world works. Well OK. Go get em tiger.

Digressing once more. The other Moore brother wrote a book awhile back called Saving the Game. And it’s a good one. About changing the game to make it safer and more exciting than it is. He touches on his brother’s incidents, as well as his own experience in the NHL (before retiring due to too many concussions), but it’s the insight on how the game can be altered, and yet still keep its essence that makes it a good read. If they changed it like this book suggests, I’d probably watch more of it. Somehow I have this feeling i may have blogged about this book in the past...shows how much i read....

I’ve been sitting on the sidelines on this issue. My buddy over on the third floor is pretty pumped up about the fact that this could be history in the making. A party leader who gets trashed in an election, is about 2 steps away from become the Prime Minister of Canada. Stephen Harper, meanwhile, could leave a legacy as being the PM in charge of the longest minority government, followed by the shortest in Canadian history.

Before I begin though, I should disclose, that I failed to vote in the past election. In my own words, this basically nullifies any right I have to bitch and complain about anything governmental until the next election. But I just got married, was going to be out of the country, and just didn’t have the time with planning and all to get to the advanced poll. So sue me. With that being said, I had been on the fence about either voting for the Conservatives or the Green party at the time. My riding went the way of the Reds (which has been the case for every election since I was born, for the record).

Strangely, if you talked to the public before the election, and you asked which party was best equipped to lead Canada through a recession, I think most (I’m projecting here) would say the Conservatives. Dion and his “Green plan”, though ambitious, seemed less plausible, especially without a lot more government money.

So my question is, what has changed so much in the past 7 days, that has led this “coalition” to be formed between the Libs, NDP and the Bloc (aside: what?? The BLOC?). Simple. Nothing has changed. Just the fact that the Libs, NDP and Bloc realize that this is the only way that they can get into power for the next few years, so why not role the dice. They say it’s better for Canadians. I say, its sour grapes. Is it because I’m biased? Could be. But here is the reality. The Bloc will NEVER be able to form a government. They exist to stir up sh*t (for which I am not opposed). The NDP – its possible, but not for a very long time, I would think. And the Libs? Well, they just go their butts handed to them, led by a guy who backdoored his way into party leadership. But it seems they'll do anything to attain the power they crave. Let's be clear - this is not the will of the people, its the will of politicians, doing what they do best. And hey, if Dion can backdoor into party leadership, why not the PM's job too!

Is this coalition the best group to lead a country through a recession? I don’t know the formal rules of a coalition, but I would think that a formal cohesive party at least has an initial lead. A party with a history of fiscal restraint and putting economic issues on the front burner – yeah…I’m thinking they probably have it MORE right than the alternative. That’s not to say that there are problems, or holes to be fixed in the proposed budget. But how about we negotiate with them, and have them moderate their plan, rather than doing something wholly radical, during a time where level heads need to prevail?

Either way, the point is likely moot. Its likely only two alternatives now – election or coalition. Obama they are not. I can't help but feel a little excited, just like Third Floor does, for the prospect of something new and different and turning a political system on its head. At the same time, I'm not sure I want the potential fallout of job losses, and economic disaster for the sake of a little personal entertainment.