Raptors have better weekend than Colts

Time to tour the Monday morning links:

The Indy Colts are 12-0, but wouldn't ya know it, the Raptors, with Chris Bosh one of five NBAers averaging the gold standard of 20 points and 10 rebounds, had more wins over the weekend.

Christine Sinclair, Canada's top female footballer, scored twice to give her an NCAA record 39 goals on the season and her second NCAA championship at Portland (reg. req'd).

Baseball's winter meetings are on in Dallas, and the Jays are in a trading mood with A.J. Burnett apparently leaning to St. Louis. Closer to home, Bob Elliott delivers with a story of 11-year-old Cain Monaghan -- priceless, indeed.

Across the pond, Croatia wins the Davis Cup and Real Madrid fires another manager, so let the speculation begin on the next big name.

Two of the best around the blogosphere, Jes Golbez at Hockey Rants and Scott Carefoot's Raptorblog are in the final round of voting for best sports blog in what's billed as the Canadian Blog Awards. Check 'em all out here (JABS didn't make the cut. Thanks to my readers who voted, though. All 15 of 'em. *sigh*).

You're a mean one, Mr. B.L.inch

Some things to get out of the way, before heading out into the gloom to shovel snow:

One last read: We're into the Christmas month, so here's one I've been saving from Jes Golbez -- How the B.L.inch Stole Hockey:

Then he got an idea!

An awful idea!

THE B.L.INCH

GOT A WONDERFUL, AWFUL IDEA!

"I know just what to do!" The B.L.inch Laughed out with glee.

And he made a quick jot and signed up KT.

And he chuckled, and clucked, "Watch them all beat-ya!

"With this wave of my money, I'll let go Demitra!"

One last note: Congratulations to Richard Reittie of Sully's Gym here in Toronto, who won the 75-kilo division and was named Best Male Boxer at last weekend's provincial open championships.

Sports around town: Fresh off a win over the defending national champions and No. 1 ranked team in the country -- that would be Laurier -- York's women's hockey team takes on Brock tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Ice Gardens. And yes, I know they're the Lions now, but they'll always be the Yeowomen to me.

What I'm watching: Vanier Cup final, 3 p.m. Saturday, TSN. Huskies against Laurier, live from Ivor Wynne Stadium in Hamilton, and no, I have no idea what the halftime show is going to be. I kind of like it that way.

Not watching: Tim Hortons Canadian Curling Trials, 12 noon and 7 pm Saturday, 1 pm and 5:30 pm Sunday, TSN. Call me a traditionalist, but I don't start getting serious about curling until after Valentine's Day.

Punters corner: You can go to the Linebacker. You can go to a zillion places pretending to offer you expertise in the field of risking your hard-earned money on Wade Belak & Co. But only here can you find five Pro-Line picks that you can't get anywhere else. And for good reason (Entertainment purposes only -- geez, you've come here for entertainment? y'know, there are always reruns of Seinfeld and Everybody Loves Raymond on, surely you're better off there -- and not to be used as the basis for a wager -- actually, you need three of these to make a wager on Pro-Line, which is not a real wager-like proposition, when you come to think of it. I'm still dreaming of a jai-alai franchise for Toronto, and waiting for the groundswell of support to appear -- now there's a wager.):

TOR H+ win (1.75) over SJ. On Queer Eye for the Satellite Hot Stove Guy, Carson wonders about Eric Duhatschek's wool sports jacket, teal shirt and especially that swirly, multicoloured tie from last week -- "It looks like something out of a Kansas City cathouse," he squeals.

DET H+ win (2.00) over NYI. After addressing Kiwanis Club luncheon, Dick Pound says one-third of the chicken Kiev entrees would test positive for MSG and only another third would test positive for chicken.

DAL-NYG tie (3.00). From tonight's Jeopardy!:

Alex: "Michael from Dallas, your turn."

Michael: "I'll take old jokes for $400, Alex."

Alex: "The answer is, 'Huddle up guys!' ... Michael?"

Michael: "How do you organize a drug ring in Dallas?"

Alex: "You're right!"

TB-NO tie (3.5). Ten people arrested for operating mobile strip joint outside Bucs game last week invited by Vikings to be honorary Santas at upcoming team Christmas party.

SEA V+ win (2.2) v PHI. After Eagles fan scatters ashes of mother on field during game, Philly fans scatter pieces of dead fruit bats on lawn of Terrell Owens.

Showdown: Team Duceppe vs Team Gomery

Well, in the interests of jaking it research, it's time for the the game all Canada Gilles Duceppe wants to see: It's Team Duceppe (Quebec) against Team Gomery (The Rest of Canada), and for all your pregame chatter, background and lineups, go here.

TORONTO STAR FILE

Lecavalier and Lemieux lead the scrappy Quebec attack.

With a couple of the newsroom's more capable thumbs handling the chores on the PlayStation that Spencer has loaded with the teams -- For Team Duceppe, Christian (Elbows) Cotroneo; for Team Gomery, Chris ('Toon Man) Hutsul -- it's a lunchtime Game On, but wait, Cotroneo has to have his pregame cigarette break. ... Okay, here we go.

First period

Good pressure from the Gomerys, and Scott Neidermayer simply levels LeCavalier. I'm feeling good, as the GM that's my Gomery team out there representing.

1-0 Duceppes! Martin St. Louis whacks in a rebound, Blake out of position. A little worrisome, that, and it's not the first time. These Duceppes are fast.

"Chouinard? I can't believe you put Chouinard on my team!" grumbles Cotroneo toward Duceppes GM Spencer. I like to hear that -- dissension is good. Not that I'm at all sanguine, huddled in the corner, watching my visorless Gomerys getting a lesson in power skating from the likes of Lecavalier, St. Louis and yeah, even Chouinard. I'd take him on my team.

The period ends with Cujo getting a workout in the Gomery goal. The Duceppes are all over them, with a 13-8 edge in shots, despite getting outhit 19-5. As GM of the Gomerys, I feel good enough to offer a prediction at the Cotroneo/Spencer pair: "We're wearing you down. We're going to win this thing by wearing you down."

TORONTO STAR FILE

Iginla and Canada had the physical game going, but couldn't turn checks into goals.

My coach Hutsul is all over the stat sheet, turning to Cotroneo: "Look at the hits, man. If this was real hockey half your team would be in the infirmary."

Cotroneo: "I dunno, I just don't feel right when I don't get my Bob Seger pregame music. Do we have any tunes like Night Moves we could put on?"

Second period

Another huge Niedermayer hit. This guy does nothing with the puck. But he does make good with the hits.

Sid the Kid just misses. It's the first time I've noticed him all game.

2-0 Duceppes! Tanguay with a lot of the ol' dipsey-doo, and Pierre-Marc Bouchard is there to put in the rebound. For crying out loud, where is the defence?

TORONTO STAR FILE

Doan again working well with Smyth and Thornton to produce Canada's only goal.

The Doan-Richards-Smyth is making things happen.

Gomery goal, 2-1! Richards lays a hit in the corner and digs the puck off the boards, passes to Smyth in front for a whip into the net. "Typical Canadian goal," whoops Hutsul.

Cotroneo: "I don't like the way the momentum is right now."

Third period

Gomerys all over 'em to start. It's now or never.

Duceppes 3-1! The home crowd is singing at the Bell Centre -- soon to be renamed Le Centre Torstar. Another bit of Bouchard garbage-picking after Tanguay busts the net from the right flank. Regehr looks slow and out of it on the play.

Duceppes 4-1! Regehr and McCabe pair gets beat badly, Bergeron on a breakaway and no chance for Cujo.

Duceppes 5-1! The rout is complete, Chouinard -- yah, the guy the coach was rippin' on at the start of the game -- banging in a rebound.

And it's over. A crushing outcome in Montreal. And they didn't even need Bob Seger to get it done. I'm sorry, Canada. I'm sorry, Don and Ron. I'm sorry, Mom. As the GM of this team, I take the blame here (well someone's got to. Coach Hutsul has fled).

Three stars: 1 Bouchard; 2 Brodeur; 3 Tanguay.

Retiring horses, if not Raptors

The morning linkage, heavy on the fibre:

I'm not going to say anything about the Raptors this morning. I'll let others go ahead: Dave Feschuk checks in on practice (it went well -- yay! Way to go, guys!) and Steve Buffery at the Sun wants the Raptors ownership to explain themselves (um, just one thing ... They. Don't. Do. That).

Meantime, J.E. Skeets, the Pynchon of hoops bloggers, is made of brave stuff: He inspected 100 Slam magazine covers, comes up with the five worst, and answers a trivia question: Who was the first Canadian on the cover of Slam? Hey, it beats counting down to Raptors-Hawks (or taking the gaspipe).

Afleet Alex has retired, which has the mighty MJD crying "nay whinny" or somesuch. (I wish, when a horse retires is retired, we could get reminisces from bettors who cashed large on them. "I'll miss that 12 horse," said crusty Aqueduct regular Drew (Sheets) Bomanjagelli, pulling out a fresh Colt cigar and looking over a well-marked Racing Form. "I had 50-50 on him on Preakness Day. Wheeled him on top of the exactor AND the tri. Keyed him in the Pick 6. Home run. Had to pull a Brinks truck up to the back door to get the dough outta here. It was beautiful.")

In futbol, Big Phil has thrown out the ceremonial first bitch for next Friday's World Cup draw, and it's a hoary chestnut -- he's whining about the seedings. And in England, struggling Everton have joined the line at Roy Keane's door.

Dave Perkins notes that worst-case scenarios out of the federal election have a change in government Toronto's unbuilt soccer stadium being scrapped -- which, in his view, anyway, is a best-case scenario.

Team Quebec vs. Team The Rest of Canada

AP PHOTO

Let's just say that goaltending would be Team Quebec's strong point.

A big shoutout to Gilles Duceppe this morning. Not only has the guy grandstanded his way from the election trail to the sports pages with his talk of a Team Quebec, he's landed here in JABS' lap like a puck dropped from heaven.
As Cathal Kelly noted in an email this morning, Big Gilles knows the beautiful game:

"What I have noticed is that when you are at the World Cup ... Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own teams."

Wales! This guy's been watching since 1958!
But what would it look like, not only for Quebec but who's left (excepting Olympics, of course, which are held to national teams only)? Helped along by Hockey Page co-conspirator Spencer, we've put together possible lineups. And hey kids -- take the jump, and you can play along at home!

The No-Joe Zone

Joe Thornton is the big news this morning -- for details, go to our sister blog, The Hockey Page.
Otherwise, here's this morning's harvest (and an apology, some computer weirdness delayed me this morning. And being a guy who believes electricity comes out of the wall, almost anything amounts to computer weirdness):

Raptors death march continues, and no one can pin this latest one on Sam Mitchell. Interesting quote out of this one in Rob MacLeod's gamer at the Globe, from Damon Stoudamire:

"I guess for somebody like Chris Bosh, who's going to be a great player, he's probably in the same position, or similar position, to myself, Vince, and all those guys who aren't here anymore. He has a chance to take a way out, but at the same time, he's started here, he's building something here. Sometimes, even the grass is not always greener on the other side."

Ol' Damon always did know a thing or two about grass.

Cross Brian Giles off the Jays list, as he re-signs with the Padres. Others, with the winter meetings on tap starting Monday in Dallas: Paul Konerko is staying in Chicago, and the Yankees (remember them?) are on the verge of signing reliever Kyle Farnsworth.
(Shameless plug alert: Check the website today for Geoff Baker's new web-only column, Hit and Run).

Cathal Kelly reports on Canadian billionaire Frank Stronach, who resigns tomorrow as president of the Austrian soccer league.

I know, I was as scared as you with the news that the Black Eyed Peas are appearing at the World Cup opener. But here's some better news, at least I think it might be: Eno and Peter Gabriel are planning the show. (No word who will do the opening ceremony for the fussball version.)

Jiri Fischer went back into hospital yesterday after suffering an irregular heartbeat while resting at home.

And hey -- Deadspin at the Grey Cup! (they've also got Manny Ramirez's Boston penthouse condo up for sale -- asking price only $6.9 million).