JABS' last post - The 34 BEST Things to Happen to Sports

It's time to shut the JABS Mansion down. The night watchman/caretaker has moved in - seems like a nice guy, but kinda stiff - and the condemned sign is outside.

Thanks to everyone for making this such a fun place to hang out the last 16 months, 600-plus posts, 1600-odd comments and a few that ended up in the delete bin. In the new year I'm moving into a new job here at The Star, as deputy to new sports editor Mike Simpson. And if it all shakes out the way we want it to, there will be a new blog up in its place quicker than you can say sayonara, once the kinks are ironed out of this new website.

Here's the one thing I promised, which hasn't even been finished but, with the success of the 50 Worst Things to Happen to Sports a while back, had a few of you sending in their choices so I feel like it has to go up. Consider this a starting point - the comments are open below to add some tinsel on this skimpy tree, maybe even bring it up to 50.

So here it is, in no particular order, and thanks to regular visitors Sean, Bob, Neate and a few others for their input:

Overtime. Specifically, 4-on-4 overtime.
The San Diego Chicken
Muhammad Ali
Salary caps
Alcohol-free zones
Bobbleheads
Bill James
Billie Jean King
Fantasy leagues
Retractable roof stadiums
Cable television
Replay
Satellites
Sport-specific stadiums
Jackie Robinson
DVR’s
Long shorts
HDTV
The mute button
Larry Bird vs Magic Johnson
Dikembe Mutombo Foundation
Martina Navratilova
Joe Namath
Wireless remote control
Monday Night Football
The virtual first-down line
Rick Reilly’s malaria net crusade
Madden NFL
Carlos and Smith
Right to Play
Free agency. Specifically, abolishing the reserve clause in baseball
Steve Nash
Clara Hughes
THE INTERNET

Have fun. Enjoy the holidays. Here's to a fine '07.

Comments

[Carla]

Agh, I feel all weepy and quite inconsolable. I will miss JABS!

But congratulations on the new job. :-)

You did some really nice work here, cy--especially your posts from the World Cup. Those were really special.

This has been a fun and interesting place to hang out. But now I'm going to go lie down and cry.

*sniffle*

[Sighs]

I'm going to miss you cy. You're the first ever (and only) blog I follow... I wish you the best of luck in everything you do, and if you ever do start something up like this, please tell us.... PLUS you didn't post your thoughts on Toronto FC's open tryouts!

Hope you have an amazing 07.

Mommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmy, it'ssssss overrrrrrrrr

[Rob]

i am jynxed..first hockey game i watched was last time leafs won the cup and my dad gave me a cap of labatts 50 to celebrate...oooOOooo...now i just start participating in Jabs and its going..geez..everything i go near ends :D..seriously though..hmmph dangit and gosh darnit..why does the fun stuff end :(

[coach]

Darn. It's always fun reading JABS. Anyway. good luck and see you soon!

[karim kanji]

well chris, the time has come. i guess u will get to spend more time with the grandkids! best wishes to you and the family during this christmas season. and a happy new year as well! best wishes for your new post at the star. i hope we will still get to hear from you from time to time!

as you sign off, i thought i'd include this tongue in cheek holiday wishes....

I wanted to send some sort of holiday greeting to all of you, but it is so
difficult in today’s world to know exactly what to say without offending
someone. So I met with my attorney yesterday, and on his advice I wish to
say the following:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an
environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, nonaddictive,
gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced with
the most enjoyable traditions of religious persuasion or secular practices
of your choice with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or
traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular
traditions at all.

I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically
uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar
year 2007, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other
cultures whose contributions to society have helped make our country great
(not to imply that it is necessarily greater than any other country) and
without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious
faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms:

This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely
transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no
promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for
her/himself or others and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable
at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as
expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one
year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes
first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a
new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.

Disclaimer: No trees were harmed in the sending of this message; however, a
significant number of electrons were slightly inconvenienced.

[cy]

Karim, you know you just exceeded the usual limit around here right? but wtf. it's just electrons, at this point no one's counting. how's the little guy? good to hear from you again.
And Rob, like anyone raised in this city of ours and of our advanced vintage, all we have is memories.
and labatts, of course.
Sighs, good blogs: True Hoop, Basketball Jones, Raptorblog, Mirtle, Off Wing O, Out of Left Field, SportsBabel - the blogroll's got em all. there are more out there. VCOE moved, she's at Kukla's ... geez. so many blogs, so little time.

[cy]

some more candidates for the list:
Kareem's sky hook
Kareem's goggles
Rampant expansion (as bad as it is, Toronto has the Raptors and Carolina has the Stanley Cup champions - i'm not saying that's a fair trade, but if you're a basketball fan in hockey country or a hockey fan in basketball country, it works)
Gretzky behind the net, Orr on the rush
Ron Shelton (for Bull Durham alone)
Mullets (they made the 50 Worst Things too, but like MJ, they really belong in both places)
Bill Lee
The centre-field bleacher seats at Jacobs Field
The Walt Frazier-Earl Monroe backcourt

[James Mirtle]

Best o' luck, CY. Don't drop out of the internets for good.

[Sighs again]

does this mean you're no longer going to be a part of the star either?

[cy]

i'll just be a little more in the background, SA. no big deal.

[David Singer]

Good luck in the new position, I'll miss JABS.

[Carla]

Well, it’s Thursday morning--first morning post mortem--and I see it’s going to take a while before JABS isn’t the first thing I open when I go online in the morning… :-(

[Julian]

Congratulations on the new job and all the best in 2007 and beyond :)

[J.E. Skeets]

I dislike this news. Please delete this post immediately.

(Happy Holidays, CY. Best of luck with the new gig...)

[Ninja]

I hope you'll be joining the lecture circuit, evangelizing to most MSM types the ways of the blogger.

[Francis]

Congrats on the new job CY.

I must say, as a Canadian living in Los Angeles, your blog was one of the few things that made me feel like I was still in Toronto. Your posts have always been insightful, intelligent, and overall entertaining which I find a rarity in Sports media today (maybe it's this overexposure of all things ESPN over here :S ). I'll definately need a new routine to start my day at work.

Once again, congrats and a Happy Holidays, to you and to everyone else in the beautiful city, my beloved home, Toronto.

[Neate Sager -- Out of Left Field]

Chris,

JABS was everything that a good sports blog should be, and the way that you encouraged a lot of us in the blogosphere to keep on' keepin' on will not be forgotten. Rarely has a day gone by in the past 15 months or so that I didn't visit JABS, and I eagerly look forward to seeing its successor.

All the best over the holidays and here's to a safe and happy 2007. Congratulations on the new post.

[Paul]

Best of luck Chris with the new position.
Hope to catch you down the road.

[alanah]

Geez, this is sad. I'm going to miss you on JABS muchly, Chris. But I hope to see you soon... somewhere on the sports blogosphere!

[Sean]

cy, congrats on the new position....I hope it gives you the same opportunity to leave your imprint as you have clearly done for this motley audience. I will also second Ninja's hope that you will evangelize to the rest of the MSM just how to find that middle-ground between capital-J journalism and the unwashed blogging masses. Best wishes moving forward....

[karim]

kids doing great chris! merry christmas and a happy new year!

http://kahzmir.dotphoto.com

karim

[Scott Carefoot]

Tragic omission from this list: Charles Barkley.

Good luck in your new gig, Chris. What does a deputy sports editor do, exactly? Do you get a badge and gun?