This Day in World Series III

TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO

At least they didn't botch the anthem.

Going back to 1992 today, and another fine moment in local lore with the Blue Jays' first appearance in the fall classic.

What's to remember about this one? Couples: Winfield and Morris, Jane and Ted. The upside-down Canadian flag on the U.S. colour guard. Devon White's catch (and the ensuing blown triple play call). The tomahawk chop. Pat Borders, MVP. And Bobby Cox, who'd left the Jays after their initial '85 ascension to playoff baseball, in the opposite dugout. A less celebrated but quite gratifying element was that the clinching game 14 years ago today took place in Atlanta, thus silencing one of the most annoying fan rituals in sports.

Most infamous personal moment, though, came in Game 5 at the nee-SkyDome. I was there with my brother in our usual spot in section 525, way up high, behind the plate and just shaded toward third base (we'd had season tickets, sharing with a group of half a dozen since 1984, when it became impossible to walk up to the Exhibition Stadium windows and get a decent seat). We'd never got so much as a sniff of a foul ball, and being up in the fifth deck having one come within even a couple sections was about as close as it got. A righthanded power pitcher and a lefty fastball hitter was the best combo to launch it just off target up to that altitude, but it never happened when we were there. Still I hoped for a Blue Jays Series-clinching win - and a baseball.

TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO

That's better.

About the third inning I went out to get a drink. When I came back, Warren nudged me. "You won't believe it," he said. "A foul ball came up here. And it hit your seat."

I thought he was kidding me, but he was absolutely serious. Then the guy in front turned around, brandishing the ball and flashing a way-too-wide grin, and you ever get that kick-yourself-in-the-ass moment? The rest of the game was agony. Every 10 minutes, it seemed, I'd turn to Warren with one of those "I can't believe what I just did" looks. Words couldn't do justice, etc.

And of course the Jays got hammered that night, thus delaying the celebrations until they were back in Georgia.

As for tonight we're on to Game 3, Joe D. in the comments is still calling for a classic - I'm not sure yet, but that Game 1 win by the Cardinals certainly has put some juice into this one, not to mention on Kenny Rogers' hand - and hey, if someone hits a homer to left, it's free tacos. For the whole freakin' United States.

Vaguely related: Blog regular Neate Sager's Top 5: Worst World Series Teams.

Related: Double Play Depth (via David Pinto) ruling out alien abduction to explain the old Kenny Rogers (awful) up against this new Kenny Rogers (unhittable cheater competitor).

Update: From a link supplied by reader Dave Lake from the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, Tribe didn't scoff at Rogers' scuffing, about a moment four years ago from the dossier of Mister Rogers:

Four years earlier, the Indians did more than wonder about Rogers. They blatantly accused him of dirty dealing during his start for Texas on Aug. 9, 2002, at Jacobs Field. The most interesting part? The Indians leveled the charges while Rogers was attempting to pitch the second perfect game of his career.
After Rogers retired Karim Garcia on a grounder in the sixth for 17 up, 17 down, Tribe interim manager Joel Skinner informed plate umpire Andy Fletcher that the Indians had noticed scuff marks on the same spot of ball after ball they collected. Each of 12-15 balls was scuffed between the logo and the seam, team personnel said.

This Day in World Series II

RICK EGLINTON/TORONTO STAR

Touch 'em all, Joe.

Not much trouble finding something for today. Let's go back 13 years, when Mitch Williams was still Wild Thing and Joe Carter was just an ordinary Joe, albeit a rock-steady, 30-HR, 100-RBI fellow with a World Series ring from the previous season.

This is World Series moment No. 1 for any Blue Jays fan aged 21 or so and older, and I'm no different. It was at home. It was as dramatic as it gets, just the second Series-clinching walk-off HR in history. And it gets more sepia-toned with each passing year.

I thought this was going to be the season where the Jays returned to not necessarily a division flag, or even a playoff spot, but something equally elusive for this franchise in recent years: September prominence. They're not there, and until they get back there, the generation that's been growing up since Carter's Series-winning HR has almost no idea what that kind of month is like day to day. There's nothing in a sports fan's experience quite like a pennant race.

This year, anyway, Detroit is the closest to Canada the World Series has been since Carter hit the biggest home run of his career.

Some links: Tom Cheek's radio call of Carter's home run (QT); Retrosheet's Game 6 boxscore and play-by-play; Steve Rushin of Sports Illustrated's report; ESPN ranks it No. 5 on its playoff performance list; Canada's top-grossing movie for the week ended Oct. 22/1993.

Newsflash: Marathons can be dangerous

We're into the fall marathon season, and on Sunday that meant another victory for Kenya -- in this case, Daniel Rono in the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon. Unfortunately, it also has come to mean time for another one of these sad stories -- a 41-year-old runner collapsed and died less than one kilometre from the finish of the half-marathon.

I don't know of any organization or website that collates marathon fatality statistics (if there is one, let me know and I'll post it at the bottom as an update). But there is no doubt they have become much more common in this age of larger fields, where more has brought in a whole new range of issues, not all of them particularly positive: Taking shortcuts in the name of getting a medal; Race bibs for sale (NYT subscription required) to the more high-profile, high-demand races; Experienced grumps upset that all these people have spoiled their cosy party. Walk into any running store, and among the GPS units and the hydration kits on offer, chances are there are marathon clinics that promise to get you to the finish line.

As Randy Starkman noted in the story linked earlier, the death of Martin Poyser marks the third year in a row someone has died in running at one of Toronto's two fall marathons (the second, the Toronto Marathon, goes two weeks from Sunday). And while this particular case may be just an example of the explanation thrown out by organizers -- the bigger numbers mean it's just the percentages catching up, running is actually quite safe, there's nothing we can do, etc. -- here's a case where someone actually suggests there are other factors involved:

Peter Donato of Toronto, a veteran race promoter who runs marathon clinics, said there are a lot of runners who overstep what should be their limits and those are the ones who usually get into trouble.
"Some just try to do too much too soon," he said. "If you look at where a lot of trouble happens, it's A-types who work 50 hours, don't eat too well and are egged on by their ego.
"I do a lot of talks and get a lot of questions and I just end up shaking my head thinking, 'You don't know what you're doing.' They don't take the proper approach. I don't think that's the sport's fault."

I have no idea what happened here (in the Sun's reports this morning, there's the suggestion that the runner had completed the full marathon last year.) But I do know this: Getting ready for a marathon requires a lot of time and commitment, including building a proper base before you get into an actual training programme. If you're contemplating running a race -- of any distance where you're going to be pushing yourself beyond your own limits -- consider a local running club instead of one of those shoe-store clinics, where you'll be surrounded by experienced runners more than willing to help you (and as a bonus, there's no suggestion you buy some shoes while you're there).

But most important of all: see your doctor first to find out if there are any pre-conditions that might increase the risk you're taking. Get a complete checkup.

Related: Waterfront Marathon Crowns Joggling Champ.

Update (9-27): Martin Poyser, 41: Hair stylist travelled world.

Another season begins

Steve Russell/Toronto Star

They're back and scrappin'.

The place: Paupers, Bloor east of Bathurst, early evening, Monday night.

The story: While A.J. Burnett is cruising through the lower end of his first run-through the Yankees order on the TV over the bar, a fellow walks up and addresses the bartender. "Can you put the Leafs game on?"

The time: 7:48 p.m.

Postscript: The satellite dish at Paupers wasn't working so, no, there was no Leafs "action." But I've got 7:48 p.m. in the pool for first "Can you put the Leafs game on?" question of the season.

Beat that, kids.

Into the weekend: Boneyard buddies

Doing these updates from the Canadian Open, there's precious little time for blogging, but this certainly is worth a look: Boca Juniors plan a cemetery for their diehard fans:

REUTERS

Wanna be buried next to him?

Home of football greats such as Diego Maradona, Boca had already started making available coffins bearing the team's blue and yellow colours.
Now fans can buy one of 3,000 Boca plots set aside in the Iraola cemetery, some 37 miles (60 km) from the capital.

Great idea. Next up, we can plan exclusive boneyards for people who talk on cellphones all game long, Raiders fans, adult autograph seekers, Pierre McGuire, Platinum-seat holders who spend the first 10 minutes of each period nibbling on shrimp, Raiders fans, anyone who laughed during Men With Brooms ... Hey, there's a weekend assignment. What other fan groups deserve to rot alongside each other? Go to it, kids.

One last e-mail. Much rantage off this week's NFL in Toronto post, but here's Paul Smith of Delta, B.C., seriously:

I'm a longtime football fan, as are my three sons. We enjoy and support CFL, NFL and NCAA, and in the past few years have seen games in Toronto (CFL), Denver (NFL), Seattle (NFL), South Bend (NCAA) and Seattle (NCAA).
I have respect for both Ted Rogers and Larry Tanenbaum as business owners away from sports, but neither has a shiny track record with their sports ownership.
I give Rogers credit for beefing up the Jays payroll, and we as a family try to get to Toronto each summer for 4-5 Jays games, but in my humble opinion, they have fallen short with their supposed marketing clout, in putting 'bums in seats'. Hey the GTA is over 5 million, why are they not averaging 35-40,000 with a pretty interesting team?
Tanenbaum doesn't have to market the Leafs because there are so many fools out there to keep buying tickets to fill the joint - just like here in Vancouver. The Raptors need selling, but have shown that when they win, they can sell out.
In my humble opinion, the NFL has its sights first of all on Los Angeles, which like New York, could eventually support two teams. San Antonio is a large area which could support the NFL, and there are possibly another 3-4 fairly large U.S. cities that would want a franchise when the NFL expands. Keeping the NFL 'American' further sweetens the TV/licencing deals (if they can get any sweeter) for American networks, which are the ones paying extremely high prices for broadcast rights.
I'd love to see the NFL in Toronto, but not at the expense of the CFL. The present hype with MLSE/Rogers is just that...also, what about the say $500-600 million just for a stadium, let along franchise fee and ancillary costs. Someone would be required to write a billion dollar cheque I would think.

One last read. This one is making the rounds: Stephon Marbury Loves Pot Snacks, a bit from his shoe-tour rider (more like a J.R. Rider, in a BYOW kind of way), courtesy of YAYSports!:

In terms of Stephon's food request for the trip, there were no Funyuns available (none until Friday, probably). The following items have arrived and are in the warehouse in Recruitment's section (ask Regina of the whereabouts if I'm not around):
4 - regular sized bags of Cooler Ranch Doritos
4 - regular sized bags of Nacho Cheesier Doritos
4 - regular sized bags of Spicier Nacho Doritos
9 - regular sized bags of Mesquite BBQ Kettle Cooked Lays
12 - packages of Pepperidge Farm Choco Chip Cookies (Sausolito or Tahoe Chunky)
72 - bottles of 24oz Poland Springs Water (six packages of 12 in each package)
3 (or 4..) - large 1-lb bags of Skittles
4 - large bags of individually wrapped Twizzlers (each bag has a bunch of snack-sized individually wrapped Twizzlers)

Brilliant. Shame about the Funyuns, though.

Sports around town. The Argos host Hamilton Saturday afternoon (3 p.m.), while the Lynx finish their season out Sunday at Centennial Stadium (6 p.m.).

Watching. Vegetating in my usual state on Sunday (Ticket) afternoon, but apart from that, nothing really thrills. Perhaps an early lookin on Liverpool-Everton early Saturday morning (7:30 a.m., Sportsnet), but man, it's September! Stay outdoors while you can.

Punters' corner. Ditching Pro-Line for this year after the robbers tightened the screws a little more on their point spread stickup game. Here's five plays, and kids, please don't try these at home:

PACKERS (+ 3 1/2) over Bears. Chicago hires Michael Jackson to co-ordinate their Neverland-in-the-end-zone offence.

LIONS (+6) over Seahawks. Detroit assistant Cullen promises to wear clothes. Okay, he said he'd wear a thong. Maybe. Sure hope so.

PANTHERS (-5) over Falcons. Carolina just hasn't been the same since the steroids ran out. But it's a new drug day.

Ravens (+3) over Bucs. Godspeed, Steve McNair. Don't forget your flak jacket.

GIANTS (+3 1/2) over Colts. Did you know? AFC runner-ups are 0-19 ATS in first games back against NFC opposition, on Sunday nights, in New Jersey, when two brothers are matched against each other.

NFL in Toronto: Go on, pull the other one

Here we go again with this story.

Not much to say from here, but I did waste spend a couple of hours going over the Star's database back to 1986 (keywords, NFL expansion Toronto) -- 887 stories in all. Whew.

So here it is, your timeline. NFL expansion to Toronto? Is it time for that one again?

Larry and Ted: The latest sequel.

Jan. 1986. NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle says league doesn't intend to expand into Canada and that has nothing to do with the future of the CFL.

Jan. 1987. Rozelle says no international expansion "in my lifetime."

Dec. 1987. Rozelle: "Toronto and Montreal are both great cities, capable of supporting NFL franchises." But he adds there are "five or six" better candidates in the U.S.

Feb. 1988. Montreal group announces a bid for an expansion team.

Jan. 1989. Expansion team price tag estimated at $80 million U.S. (Rozelle).

Feb. 1989. Toronto group (The Sun, Carling-O'Keefe) announces it's been working toward acquiring a franchise since 1986. Paul Godfrey estimates cost of an expansion team at $50-60 million.

March 1989. Cowboys president Tex Schramm preaches respect for the CFL, but as far as the NFL, "Toronto and Montreal could make awfully strong representations."

Late 1989. Price for an expansion franchise estimated at $75-100 million.

Aug. 1990. Commissioner Paul Tagliabue on international expansion: "If you include Canada I think it is obviously realistic in this decade."

Dec. 1990. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones says Toronto is ready for an expansion franchise, "could easily support any sports franchise."

Jan. 1991. Bills owner Ralph Wilson: "A Toronto club wouldn't hurt us. We don't depend on Canada for fans."

Aug. 1993. Browns owner Art Modell: Toronto will have expansion team "sooner rather than later."

Feb. 1994. NFL spokesman says league has no minimum seating requirement for stadiums.

Jan. 1995. Tagliabue on expansion: "Canada and Mexico would certainly be viable candidates."

June 1995. Godfrey pegs cost of expansion franchise at $200 million U.S. Tagliabue says L.A. the priority for a team, but suggests SkyDome smallish football capacity (54,000) is not a problem in Toronto's reckoning. "I think the future involves the quality of a stadium as much as the size."

Aug. 1995. Bills, Cowboys play exhibition game at SkyDome in front of 55,799.

Late 1995. Jacksonville, Carolina get expansion franchises for $140 million U.S. each. Bills owner Wilson: "A team in Toronto would definitely have an effect on our team. We think this is our market."

Nov. 1995. Tagliabue: Further expansion "unlikely until after 2000."

Dec. 1996. Pete Rozelle dies.

Aug. 1998. Bills, Packers play exhibition game in SkyDome in front of official crowd of 53,986, but Star reporters note about 10,000 no-shows out of that number.

March 1998. Cleveland gets expansion franchise, early estimate of franchise fee $350 million.

Sept. 1998. Cleveland group pays $530 million for franchise.

Oct. 1998. At NFL owners meeting, Toronto doesn't make bid for 32nd league franchise. Godfrey: "The NFL will go international and I think the first international city in the league will be Toronto."

Nov. 1998. Tagliabue: "No timetable for expansion" internationally.

Summer 1999. Local report has Bills being acquired by Toronto group for $500 million US and moved to Toronto as part of Wilson estate planning.

Oct. 1999. Houston added as 32nd NFL franchise, expansion fee $700 million.

Jan. 2001. Godfrey: "Whatever it costs, it will be worth more 10 years later. They've never gone down in value."

April 2002. Tagliabue: Toronto not on radar for future expansion.

Feb. 2005. Tagliabue, on whether NFL will expand to Toronto in our lifetimes: "It depends on how long you expect to live." And: "I think it could be very likely that the next franchises in the NFL, beyond 32, are outside the U.S. Toronto would certainly be a candidate."

That's good to know. As Jim Carrey once said, "So there is a chance!" (Then again, Paul Tagliabue is hale and hearty, and Ralph Wilson too.)

Weekend assignment: Junior hockey

A couple of responses worth putting up in response to Friday's (long) weekend assignment on whatever happened to junior hockey in Toronto. First, John Richardson, a Brampton Battalion and JABS regular:

James Mirtle partially answered his own question: St. Mike's plays in a cramped, crappy rink, with no parking to speak of.
If you go outside of the GTA, junior hockey is alive and well. Peterborough, Owen Sound, and London all sell out (or close to it) and junior hockey franchises are worth millions now. In Brampton and Mississauga it's a bit more problematic.
Brampton has a season ticket base of around 2400, I believe, in a rink that holds slightly under 5,000. Not great, but I'm sure that's better than the Slush Puppies in McCallumtown, who will be a lame duck franchise for the 06/07 season.
(That said, my pair of season tickets for the Battalion - 34 home games, 2 exhibition and the first three playoff games - cost less than a pair of platinum tickets for a couple of Leafs games. Best sports value in town.)
Okay, here are some thoughts on the lukewarm interest in junior hockey in the GTA:
It's not the Leafs. The cliche of course is that Toronto's not a great hockey town, it's simply full of mindless Leafs fans (including me). Hell, the Marlies can't draw flies at the Ricoh.
No strong ties to the community. The Petes, the Knights, the Generals and probably all the Western Hockey League teams are an integral part of the community. The Batallion rink is stuck beside the 407 in what was once farmland. It's just "there". Same with the Hersey Centre which isn't anywhere in particular - but neither is Mississauga.
Competition for the sports/entertainment dollar is a bit stronger here than in smaller centres.
If you're a hockey parent (me, I'm a recovering one), you may be spending three to four nights a week at the rink. When my three boys played in the GTHL (a logistical nightmare if there ever was one), the absolute last thing I wanted to do was go catch a hockey game on a Sunday afternoon.
Cultural. Let's face it, hockey's primarily a game for mostly middle class white kids. That translates into lack of interest amongst the various ethnic communities.
Here's a shot at the Toronto media (when in doubt, blame you guys). Coverage is pathetic. I know Sunaya Sapurji covers the beat on a part time basis for your paper. Terry Koshan does a good job over at the Sun and has done some good stories. The Globe is the Globe. However, generally speaking, articles are few and far between and unless there's a real scandal (like last year in Windsor), there's nothing at all in print or on local TV about the three local teams.

These are all pretty solid points. I'd add a couple more things. One of the casualties of the Ballard era at MLG were the Jr. A Marlies, and during the time I broke into the business I covered junior hockey at the Globe and Star during the final days. It was kind of sad, sitting there down in the gold seats with a couple other reporters -- they didn't even bother opening the press box. I don't recall any kind of Save the Marlboros campaign, either. The audience was measured in the hundreds, way down from the last-hurrah days of a decade earlier, and there was no money being put into the product.

I think the community involvement issue is critical, as well as the general over-all trend toward spectator sports being a more TV-driven thing nowadays. For a variety of reasons - cost and convenience chief among them - television has become the average sports fan's way of keeping track. No TV network has tried to do a Friday night junior game of the week, say, while the NHL and the other top pro leagues in other sports have gone prime time and in many cases, just about every night of the week has at least one of their games on - and more, if you subscribe to some of the packages like Centre Ice.

Another email comes from J. Ruschka, who fingers this town's pro sports barons:

MLSE.
Why? 'Coz if it ain't the Leafs people won't watch it. Folks won't even go to Marlies games!
I was at more than a few IceDogs playoff games a few seasons ago when they made it to the OHL final & the rink was empty the nights the Leafs were playing.
And add a little bit of Eugene Melnyk for buying the Majors, making them play out of a joke of a rink (although they have cheap hot dogs!! :-) ) instead of, say, Varsity Arena when it still existed, and for also alienating the very few hardcore IceDogs fans in Mississauga with his boneheaded idea.

Finally, James Mirtle his own self, in an e-mail exchange after I trotted out the old "competition for the dollar" argument and mentioned 1985 as a seminal turning point in Toronto sports history -- the Jays' first pennant race, and the year that the SkyDome was approved to give this town the "world-class" playpen it always talked about building, thus casting Toronto vs. Hamilton Red Wings and Argos vs. Saskatchewan and the like into something of a lesser light -- had this rebuttal:

Now, honestly, we're talking about Leafs fans. These aren't people going to the opera. They're, as you say, turning to the games on TV, which you can do in Kamloops, Saskatoon, Red Deer or any other junior hockey hotbed out there. I've been here closing in on four years now, and as far as I can tell, people here are doing the exact same things — except the drinks cost more and there are fewer pickup trucks. (And given the dollars to ticket cost ratio of Leafs games to Kamloops Blazer games, I know which I'd choose.)
Now, the 'big league' sports argument, under the right circumstances (penant race, etc.), I'll buy that. The problem? I was five years old when the example you're citing went down.
That's an awful long wait for something to do!
I don't mean to put down Toronto, 'cause I love it here, but there's absolutely no reason why they can't support junior hockey. Vancouver and Calgary are two of the best drawing junior cities in Canada.

Good points. The box is still open on this. Matter of fact, it's always open. And it's not just junior hockey. Monday, I was up at Humber to watch U of T Blues beat visiting U.S. school Mercyhurst in a preseason game. This on the same weekend that national champion Carleton lost by a point to top U.S. school Louisville in another tuneup that you never heard about -- but there was plenty of coverage here of NCAA champion Florida trouncing Brock, wasn't there?

They're back

A little rant …

Beyond the voice-from-the-grave quality to Pat Quinn’s latest pronouncements, beyond his explanations, there is the feeling this morning, at least in me, that this is no big deal. The message out of Quinn’s musings – that hockey is a business; that it has changed in the past 40 years since he arrived as a brawny defenceman best remembered for a hellacious body check/elbow (take your pick) on Bobby Orr; that the musings should go from generalities out of his mouth (that’s his story, anyway, and with his long links to the pro game, it’s not as if he doesn’t have history and experience beyond Toronto) to particulars among the chattering classes (as it always does, along with the end product to this mill --a roasted Richard Peddie on a bun) – come as no surprise.

Meet the new dog. Same as the old dog.

But of course it is there, right there (disclaimer alert) across the top of this blog's sponsoring sports page, and Quinn, anything but naïve, is nevertheless being just that if he really thinks his words would be taken any other way (if anyone has an audio link to the original interview, send it along. CKNW in Vancouver, which originally aired it, is a members-only site).

In the larger picture, though, it can only point to one thing. The new season is almost here, and for crying out loud, bring it on already. The familiar cast of villains are being lined up, with Peddie wearing the usual target as he fronts the anonymous MLSE puppetmasters, and “the media” and “the fans” assembling their designated spots in the gallery. Toronto’s favourite bloodsport is ready for another chapter, and all that’s required is the latest uniforms on the ice and the latest punching bag behind the bench.

Many people take all this for evidence that Toronto is a hockey town, which it isn’t. When Quinn came into the NHL, junior hockey was still thriving in Toronto. As a kid growing up here, Friday night in the Gardens end blues for a sellout of the Marlies vs. the Junior Canadiens, the Petes, the Generals and the rest was about as close to the big time as I could get, and it was plenty close enough – since, junior hockey has withered into insignificance here, along with college hockey (the U of T Blues were a pretty solid second choice on my list, way back then), and the ticket prices and dilution of the league and the game’s quality have turned most fans into watch-it-on-TV types. It is a Leafs town, as many amend the previous deisgnation. But that's not quite all -- what Toronto is mostly, I reckon, is a crappy sports town. With the smell of September in the air, anything Leafs immediately supplants the rest of the pro sports menu here, including an Argos team that looks suddenly like Grey Cup material, an intriguing Raptors collection with their centrepiece player playing in the world finals … and the (*sigh*) Jays, once again No. 3 but trying hard to carve out a little corner of this territory.

With little real news around, and training camp two weeks away this Friday, it’s like ravenous dogs jumping on a steak dinner. Even the most hair-brained, ill-conceived notions get an airing. And in a city starved for a winner, the customers are unwilling or unable to register their discontent in the only way they can – at the MLSE box office. Which was part of Quinn’s point, and the secret of the Leafs’ success. And so The Tradition Continues.

But look on the bright side. Eight months from now, they’ll be as gone as Pat Quinn.

(*- picture taken by PAM GM Creations, and included in this month's Dogs in Canada showcase section. Ta very much, PAM.)

Annus horribilis

The Argos are in Hamilton Saturday with as much at stake for a game in August as you'll find. That is to say, not much. Third place in the east for the winner, with still more than half a season to go. Wow.

But there could be much more going on here, and as any seasoned Toronto observer knows it's never as bad as it looks. Usually, it's worse. No one I'm aware of has quite grasped how truly awful, how unprecentedly putrid this calendar year is starting to look like for Toronto's pro sports outfits. The Leafs and the Raptors missed the playoffs. The Blue Jays' recent nosedive and ongoing pitching woes have removed them from serious playoff contender status. And now it's the Argos' turn, finding that pinning your hopes and offence on a grandfather quarterback, however sterling, is chancey going.

TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO

Marching unknowingly into a new era in Toronto sports.

Here's the thing. Should the Jays and the Argos go on to miss the playoffs it will mark the first time EVER that Toronto is denied so much as a sniff those glorious horn-honking, gridlocking moments on Yonge Street that follow a Game 1 first-round victory -- at least since 1967, which is to me, anyway, the demarcation line between old world and new in Toronto sports, not to mention the history of this country.

They've come close to this across-the-board futility. When the Leafs missed back to back in '97 and '98 and the Raptors were soiling diapers, the Argos were winning the Grey Cup then climbing gently off Mount Flutie with a playoff appearance. When the Leafs missed the playoffs in '89, '91 and '92, the Blow Jays were progressing from matching AL bridesmaids in those first two years, to World Series champions in the last.

The Leafs, being this town's leading losing light, have missed the playoffs 12 times since 1967. But each time, someone's always bailed out Tronna, thus forestalling a total outbreak of cross-Canada schadenfreude. Here's each one of those years since that glorious day when our fathers and mothers and grandfathers and grandmothers (and by now, maybe even a few great-grandmas and dads) were watching a Stanley Cup parade:

1968. Argos lose eastern final.
1970. Argos lose eastern semi.
1973. Argos lose eastern semi.
1982. Argos lose Grey Cup final. Jays miss playoffs.
1984. Argos lose Eastern final. Jays miss playoffs.
1985. Jays win AL East, lose American League Championship Series. Argos miss playoffs.
1989. Jays lose ALCS. Argos miss playoffs.
1991. Argos win Grey Cup. Jays lose ALCS (again). (Still, a banner year, eh? At least till 2002, when all four teams actually made the postseason).
1992. Jays win World Series. Argos miss playoffs.
1997. Argos win Grey Cup for second straight year. Jays miss playoffs. Raptors miss playoffs.
1998. Argos lose eastern semi. Jays, Raptors miss playoffs. In terms of ineptness, it's perhaps the worst year, until we move forward to...
2006. Leafs and Raptors miss playoffs. Jays, Argos still to come.

Of more importance than the question of whether the Jays, or more likely the Argos, can pull themselves out of this mess -- how hard can it be to finish in the top three of a four-team division? -- is the notion of who will be best equipped for next year, when FC Toronto join the group.

I know. I forgot the Rock, and the Lynx, and any one else I missed? One day back, and it's just a ray of sunshine eh? Looking ahead to 2007, who's got the best shot to rescue Toronto from sports purgatory? I still think the Jays are closer to that than anyone else, and the Leafs farthest away.

Related (a week old, but I've been away, remember?): Sporting News ranks Toronto No. 41 among North America's best sports cities for 2006.

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.