From blog to mainstream

In the business section of today's Star, Christopher Hutsul takes a look at the rise and rise of Eklund, from anonymous blogger to anonymous mainstream pundit.

Eklund is supplying a column to Sportsnet for free on a "test drive" basis (whatever that is, it's never quite explained). Because he's anonymous, using anonymous sources, we can't really judge what's going on here:

It may be he's posturing for a real-money gig in hockey media. To that end, the validation that comes with being associated with a mainstream media outlet such as Sportsnet is invaluable.

But exactly why did Sportsnet.ca bring him on as a contributor? Is it because Sportsnet, a website rife with pop-up ads, wanted a slice of the hundred thousand or so hits that Eklund reportedly generates per day?

It's a good, provocative piece, raising some interesting points -- including the MSM's willing participation in something that would seem to violate some basic rules of journalism, disclaimers about "these are just rumours" notwithstanding:

I asked (Sportsnet director of news and hockey Scott) Morrison if he would have published a similar column in the newspaper when he was sports editor at the Toronto Sun. His answer: probably not. A newspaper is "kind of a different beast than the Internet," he said. "The timing is different too."

Hutsul alludes to Eklund's credentials having split opinion over the blogosphere, which is putting it mildly -- one recent example comes from the Acid Queen, who follows the forensics on one trade rumour that appeared on Eklund's site. It's a fascinating read, right down to the comments. (UPDATE: Over at Eric McErlain's Off Wing Opinion,  have a look at the Eklund Files for more debunking.)

Extraordinary defeats

An e-mail over the weekend from Glenn in Phoenix, a Leafs fan who watched Saturday's 8-0 debacle via satellite:

I agree with Ken (Campbell's) article, but I think the worst Leafs loss was the 14-4 drubbing they got when they played the Buffalo Sabres in '80 or '81.

That would've been on March 19, 1981, Glenn -- the most goals the Leafs have ever given up in a game, that one, matching a 14-7 loss to Montreal in 1920.

It got me thinking: What are the worst losses in Toronto pro sports history? That one against the Sabres wasn't it, at least from the standpoint of margin of defeat:

Leafs: Toronto 1 at Pittsburgh 12 (Boxing Day, 1991); Boston 11 at Toronto 0 (Jan. 18, 1964).

Argos: Toronto 7 at Edmonton 61 (Oct 24, 1981).

Jays: California 24 at Toronto 2 (Aug 25, 1979); Toronto 1 at Baltimore 23 (Sept. 28, 2000).

Raptors: Toronto 79 at New York 125 (April 15, 1996).

8-0? Chicken feed.

Gillick to Phillies?

Some items from the weekend, as the countdown commences to the opening of the NBA season:

Word out of L.A. is that the Phillies are ahead of L.A. in the Pat Gillick sweepstakes, and may make an offer as soon as tonight: "They haven't teed anything up," Gillick said of the Dodgers.

Jerry Bailey could keep riding, but at 48, "this is a little different situation than athletes in other sports," he says. If Saturday's Breeders' Cup Classic was indeed his last big ride -- and reading between the lines, he sure sounded wistful in the on-horse interview with Donna Brothers on the broadcast -- then it was a heck of a walk into the sunset.

Last night's late NFL: Tedy Bruschi returns, and so do the Patriots, rallying to beat the Bills. Meantime, Garth Woolsey figures the NFC East is turning beastly -- even after that Giants pasting of the Washingtons yesterday. And in the department of worst coin-flip call, the Lions took the ball in OT -- and coughed up the game-winning INT so don't look now, but the Bears are in first place.

If only the English Premier League was half as contested as the verbal catfighting in the dugout, vis. Jose Mourinho on Arsene Wenger: "I think he is one of these people who is a voyeur. He likes to watch other people." (But look here: Wigan is on pace for Europe and Gazza is back -- "Bloody hell, he's been in some dressing rooms!").

Rosie DiManno's been watching guys in pumpkin-orange spandex the last few days. Here's her roundup on a week of that.

Poets Corner: On Saturday, the bard turned his modern abstract eye on "fun", in another one for The Collected Works of Donald Stewart Cherry:

You hear
what he said?
What'd I say
in coach's corner?

They're havin' fun out there.

Let's have some fun.

What's the first word he said?
We had a lot of fun out there.

Giddy up

A looking ahead post to send you into your weekend, with some good reads and some regulars returning:

What I'm watching. Breeders' Cup (Saturday, 1 pm, NBC). Old track pal Peter Mallet, of Crushing the Cup fame -- they'll be giving it away at Woodbine tomorrow, a rare instance of a handout that might make you some money -- passes along this e-mail from Belmont:

"Much comedy here, most of it provided this year by the Brits and their sudden concern about the weather and the turf -- "it's like a bowl of soup out there" sez Gerald Butler (trainer of Jack Sullivan). As if it hadn't rained in Europe all fall. Maybe he left his waders back at the yard."

Euros complaining about North American turf. Well I never. (By the way, Peter loves Singletary to defend in the Mile, and who am I to argue? As for my Classic pick Borrego, ace Star handicapper Jennifer Morrison termed his gallop this morning "awesome".)

What I'm not watching: Red Sox Week (WSBK, Sunday, 10 p.m.). On Monday, no game. On Tuesday, no game. On Wednesday -- you get the idea. 

Punters corner: A Friday tradition for, oh, eight weeks or so. You can go to the Linebacker. Or Chris Schultz. Or any of a number of places. But here's five Pro-Line picks that you can't get anywhere else. And for good reason (For entertainment purposes only. Don't ever, ever make a wager based on them. But Pro-Line, which falls outside the category of wagers into the realm of "pin the tail on the government-funded hospital bed", is definitely not a wager):

OTT V+ win (2.7) at TOR. On Queer Eye for the Satellite Hot Stove Guy, the panel works on Eric Duhatschek's yikes-only-a-sportswriter-would-wear-that sports jacket.

CHI V win (2.6) at DET (NFL). With Bears gathering momentum, coach Lovie Smith vows an even tougher approach, changing name to Hatie Smith.

NWO H win (2.5) vs. MIA. On Trailer Park Boys, Ricky Williams guest stars as Bubbles is called up to be the Jets' next quarterback, and Julian and Ricky concoct scheme to sell "Meadowlands Maui Wowie" brownies outside Giants Stadium.

CLE V win (2.5) at HOU. On this week's Disasters of the Century, a special show on Houston: the Astros' World Series; Tom DeLay; The Texans.

FLA V win (2.9) at TOR. Due to skyrocketing cost of insurance, Leafs cancel AMJ Move of the Game promotion where fan chosen at random is moved down to be Wade Belak's defence partner.

Almost forgot this: Jean Van De Velde, protesting that women are allowed to play with men, wants to try to qualify for the British Women's Open. To which the Brothers Judd reply: Don't Frenchman qualify already?

A stadium, but at what cost?

So city council votes 25-13 to approve borrowing $9.8 million and put up land worth $10 million to help build a $63 million soccer stadium at Exhibition Place that the city will own and the Maple Leafs will run -- "a terrific thing," says the mayor.

Hands up everyone who believes it.

Now, hands up everyone who hears the ominous word "SkyDome" in the background.

Is this an example of public and private enterprise joining together to do something worthy they couldn't do on their own? Or a white elephant in the making?

More questions: Why the rush? Who ever planted the seed that the MLS was some kind of jewel, worth pursuing with such breakneck urgency after that "deadline" of Oct 31 was imposed a few weeks back? Where is it written that Toronto just has to take centre stage for FIFA's 2007 world junior tournament -- if we're talking about supporting the game, Edmonton, for one, has a far better record. And after the MFP debacle, here we go, rushing into a deal without due process -- and just a few days after the latest notices of assessment went out, the ones with a double-digit percentage increase for tax purposes. Those optics stink.

There is some potential good here, as noted by Kevan Pipe, the CSA chief who has been chasing this stadium all over the city. It may well give top Canadian players a place to play in a decent league closer to home -- but it'd be interesting to ask internationals like Paul Stalteri and Jason De Vos about this. There's still much more money to be made overseas for a top-drawer footballer, compared to the MLS. Will it improve Canadian soccer -- we're No. 86 on the latest FIFA men's rankings, and No. 12 on the women's side, so it would seem we have nowhere to go but up -- and should we be in the business of using our money to get us there?

Will people support the game here? They haven't before. An MLSE official told me last month that their own figures indicate such a team, to break even, would need 16,000 fans a game -- a little higher than the 2004 MLS average of 15,559 -- paying about $25 a seat.

And oh, there is one thing: None of the feds or provincial moneys are in writing, so with flashbacks to the "new Varsity Stadium" in my head, a little advice -- don't go writing any of this down in ink just yet:

"Chief financial officer Joe Pennachetti said the city has reassurances that they are on board. And if they fail to deliver, then the city can back out."

Dave Perkins, in attendance for last night's 4 1/2 hour rubber stamp debate, has the case against the stadium. A couple of days ago, Ken Fidlin at the Sun argued for.

Some of these arguments almost persuade me. I like soccer. I want to see Canada do well.

Then I think of that assessment notice, and I hear the Skydome's basso profundo, and it keeps repeating: Let private enterprise pay their own way on these sports stadiums.

Ain't that a kick

A question to start the morning:

Brian Diesbourg is:

a/the greatest clutch kicker in CFL history;

b/the highest paid kicker in CFL history;

c/responsible for the largest Argos crowd in 15 years;

d/a gimmick

CP PHOTO

It's good!!

e/who?

f/all of the above.

Discuss.

What did he do? Miss from 20, 30 and 40 yards, sweat out an "ice-the-kicker" commercial, then get his one chance to kick a 50-yarder for a million dollars (okay, it's $25 g's a year for 40 years -- an income supplement, sniffs the Globe's Stephen Brunt), nobody's definition of a gimme putt. At the bookie shops, they call this a longshot bet.

And he makes the kick!

Oh, and the Argos? They clinched the east.

No expectations

The Raptors finished off their exhibition schedule last night in Portland with a win, and Doug Smith reports that Morris Peterson looks to be coming from off the bench to start the season, rookie Joey Graham starting.
*Gulp*   
Ready or not, here comes the season. That urgency, perhaps, provided some impetus for yesterday's Bucks-Hornets deal that has Jamaal Magloire and Desmond Mason trading places, and No. 1 overall pick Andrew Bogut going to the bench. At least, that was  Milwaukee GM Larry Harris's explanation:

"We had not been rebounding well in the preseason and that was a concern. And then Joe (Smith) can't play until the seventh game of an eight-game schedule and Dan (Gadzuric) goes down . . . It showed how tenuous we were. As I started to look at things, Jamaal's name was out there and so I reached out to see if it could happen. He fills the bill of what we need."

We'll be coming at you next Tuesday and Wednesday with some preview-like stuff. For now, I'll just throw a few links at you I've been hoarding, setting up the theme that has settled around the Raps like low-lying fog: not just minimal expectations, but no expectations at all. And a sense that this is a franchise that has lost its way.

Couple of examples: ESPN's John Hollinger came out a while back with his player ratings and only three Raptors -- Bosh, Rose and newcomer Mike James -- scored above the league average. I know these things are kind of bogus, subjectivity disguised as numbers, but they do relate back to expectations.
CBS Sportsline's All-Poison team has all the usual suspects including Stephon, Kobe, Iverson -- and a couple of Raptors, including coach Sam Mitchell: "Who better to coach the most dysfunctional team we could dream up than a coach who reportedly regularly challenged his own players to fight him last season?" they ask.
Amid the gloom, a dispatch out of New Jersey from columnist/blogger Dave D'Alessandro to put the cherry on this custard pie-in-the-face:

It’s official: Vince Carter is a Jersey Guy. It has nothing to do with home ownership – any carpetbagger can buy a house. He has become embraced by the Candlewyck Diner (just off Rt. 17, on the East Rutherford/Carlstadt border), which has honored his frequent visits by naming a wrap for him. Grilled chicken, we’re told. Try not to share that last bit of information with sarcastic Ontarians.

Er, we just did, Dave.

(UPDATE: The wrap is in fact named for Lawrence Frank, the boy-coach of the Nets. According to DD's email correction that just arrived, this has nothing to do with Ricky Davis torching VC for 24 the other night.)

White Sox win

Last night during Sportsnet's World Series CanCon moments they did one of those inane filler polls -- who's your favourite lovable losing team, or somesuch -- where they invite people to email in their answer to a question (eg, who do you think is going to get the hit that brings the Red Sox back?, during Boston's 14-2 loss in the ALDS).
I'm all for anything that cuts into Warren Sawkiw's camera time, and this one was surely better than most -- but really fellows, do you even have to ask the question?

DICK LOEK/TORONTO STAR

April '77, Exhibition Stadium: In the background, as they always have been until now, check out those old Sox jammies disguised as uniforms.

There is only one now.
So the White Sox win and never mind if this Game 4 was for the most part "a lifeless, listless dud," according to Richard Griffin. (There mustn't be a whole lot going on when all you hear from the home park is the sound of bees over the speakers.) Maybe you have to be from Chicago to understand or even care about the deeper import of this victory, but Bernie Lincicome, one of my longtime faves in the writing game, gives it a try:

"It was put to me by a longtime Chicagoan that if the Cubs were in the Series, it would be just that, "The Cubs are in the Series!" But with the White Sox, it is that Chicago is in the Series.

For a long part of the '80s, the team had no designation at all that identified them with Chicago, not on their shirts or caps or luggage. They were merely the Sox, rootless, unloved and defiantly OK with it."

North of the border, does this thing resonate at all? The ratings in the U.S. have been low, and with the NHL back, they have been down about the same 30 per cent from last year here.
Oh, and here's an item from Bob Elliott over at Team Sun: Tim McCleary, Jays assistant GM going back to the Gord Ash era, has been let go.

(Blog note: We're almost into our third month of this thing of ours. And rather than one big posting for the day, we're going to change up the format to a more tradition blog -- if there is such a thing. Smaller items. Less filling. Don't say we didn't warn ya.)

Breaking: Bucks acquire Magloire

The deal: Milwaukee Bucks acquire Toronto native centre Jamaal Magloire from the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets in exchange for small forward/shooting guard Desmond Mason, the Bucks' first-round draft choice in the 2006 draft, and cash.
Quick analysis: The Bucks are suddenly loaded, maybe even overloaded in the middle, with recently signed 6-foot-11 Dan Gadzuric (recently signed to a six-year deal), the NBA's most recent No. 1 overall pick Andrew Bogut and now Magloire. It doesn't put them up with the major players in the east, but it does move them up the ladder and they've now got to be considered a playoff team. Magloire, the Eastern Commerce product, is coming off a season cut short due to injury. He has two years and a little more than $17 million left on his contract. As for the Hornets, they get an athletic guy (2001 slam-dunk winner) who has some name recognition in their new home (an Oklahoma State product) and is coming off a career-best 17.2 points a year. They get a pick, and some money. But you wonder who will be jumping centre for them. Mason, like Magloire, has two years left on a deal worth a little less than Magloire's.
Edge: Bucks, big time. They get every team's dream: a young centre who can play right now, and they have the luxury to bring Bogut along slowly if they want to. They also clear up a  logjam after re-doing Michael Redd, signing free agent Bobby Simmons and trading for Jiri Welsch.
Fallout for Raptors: They were mentioned in Magloire trade rumours for some time. But the fit wasn't there after the Raptors  weren't willing to deal away their two 2005 first-round picks, using them instead to take Charlie Villanueva and Joey Graham. Now, with Magloire headed east, the conference just got a little tougher.

Kicking for dollars

A hole in one: 12,600-to-1 odds.
A 35-yard field goal: 7-to-1.
Now picture this: your name's been pulled out of a hat to kick one of those field goals, but from 50 yards, in front of a crowd in the tens of thousands. You get one half-hour practice session to prepare. Make it, and you've won yourself $1 million dollars.
Impossible? Allan Ryan has the story on one Brian Diesbourg, who at tomorrow night's Argos game will get his chance.
So, does he have a chance? What would those odds be?

I asked the folks at leading online bookmakers Bodog.com (which doesn't, unfortunately, accept Canadian wagers) for their opinion. Here's what I got back in an email from a spokesman:

"Setting odds on this one is tricky. If a random guy was pulled out of the stands without any notice to kick a 50 yard field goal, I would say that the odds of that person being successful would be in the neighborhood of 200 to 1. Since this guy has had three weeks to prepare, to think about it, to practice (although rules state he cannot, but come on, you know he has been!), the odds will drop dramatically, especially due to the fact that he has no weather conditions to deal with, as the kick will be indoors. I would see the odds coming in somewhere around 25 to 1. This guy is young, athletic and still plays soccer thus he has a half decent shot of being successful."

This San Diego Union-Tribune story takes a look at the industry behind these kind of promotions, and has more on what Diesbourg is getting into:

AP PHOTO

Your move, Ronaldo.

"From the hole-in-one came the halfcourt basketball shot, and from the halfcourt shot came the 35-yard field goal at halftime. And then the hockey shot through a shrunken goal and the soccer kick through the open door of an SUV and the Del Monte "Can of Corn" pop-fly contest at minor league baseball parks, even an olive toss into a martini glass. The upshot: An estimated 50 companies specialize in prize indemnification, and the halftime contest has become a staple of modern-day sporting events."

Meantime, there are other candidates this morning for riffage: Ozzie Guillen's managerial style; Toronto's soccer stadium story; the Raptors.
But sometimes, you just don't know whether to laugh or cringe, so here's one of those moments courtesy of Francesco Totti, from the Guardian's James Richardson:

"Delirious with joy at having a goal - nay, a derby goal - to dedicate to his pregnant wife in the stands, Totti quickly scooped up the ball under his jersey and ran to the sidelines where his cheering team-mates gathered round.
As Totti lay on his back, stomach bulging, a stadium held its breath. Would it be a tribute to Gazza at Euro 96, or better yet, John Hurt in Alien? No. With makeshift obstetrician Daniele De Rossi gamely groping between the captain's legs, Totti gave birth to the ball, which Sami Kuffour then lifted aloft - Simba style - for the adoring thousands to cheer.
"Miming delivery is certainly a departure from the Rock-a-bye Baby celebration we usually get," mused a less-than-enthusiastic Repubblica. "Still, at least he didn't re-enact the conception."

Where would we be without these kind of moments? Last night, Ozzie Guillen was giving his nightly in-game interview, all of it boilerplate, and he finished by spraying sunflower seeds and shouting "Viva Venezuela!" to the camera. Guillen's managing has Richard Griffin wondering this morning, along with Eric McErlain and Colby Cosh. Having watched this guy through September, he doesn't always make sense, this Ozzie. But as Geoff Baker reports, he has the White Sox on the verge of going where the Red Sox went last year: World Series champs, for the first time in 80-plus years.

Closer to home, Dave Perkins is asking whether we really should be spending $9.8 million of our own money on a soccer stadium, and he's not alone: "Can a stadium built for pro soccer, with MLSE as a partner, be tax exempt? Should it be?" asks Alan Kasperski.
This is a story that has many layers, from the Oct. 31 "deadline" imposed on the city to the repercussions across the country.

As for the Raptors, they're a week away from starting their season. Doug Smith catches up with the ins (Joey Graham to start? Maybe) and the outs (the Araujo-Woods tandem at centre is struggling, and a "Bosh-Vallanueva frontcourt might be in the future").

In the WNBA, all-star Sheryl Swoopes has come out of the closet. Really.

Finally: From Deadspin, a couple of Cardinals fans, with a beery, teary goodbye to Busch: "Our grandma was in high school with Red Schoendiest!"