From Cork to Toronto

I meant to blog about this when I saw it on Torontoist a few days ago but am catching up now.  A Blue Jays fan waves a Maple Leaf at Dodger Stadium and gets hassled .   Various Canadian expats get stroppy with the rent-a-goon.   Apparently being cosy with the Governator , bolthole for their soldiers and the largest source of their oil imports still gets the Canadian flag classified as "a sign or a banner", as a Dodger VP (one of a hundred, no doubt) tries to justify it.  A couple of fans were chucked out and a few others left in solidarity. Apparently the US flag is also banned - a clear case of justifying a stupid policy with a stupider (and puzzling given the mawkish wrapping in the flag American sports teams do so frequently).   I'm all for restrictions at certain times and places - like Belfast Giants hockey team banning flags and especially Celtic and Rangers jerseys,  but this was very irritating when Canada puts up a bunch of securocratic crap from the US - no f...

I have been trying to put the Blue Jays on the Stephen Colbert regime (below 0.500 "on notice", below 0.400 "dead to me") but even with the dip into the .390s recently I couldn't avoid this story. With the Jays pitching in general disarray including two successive Halladay losses and a subsequent appendectomy, the merits of promoting one of the somewhat fragile bullpen versus the plucking of Jesse Litsch from AA New Hampshire where he was running 5-1 and 0.96 ERA was discussed on sports radio here in Toronto. Going to Litsch against the Orioles turned out to be a good call - he is now 1-0, having pitched 8.2 innings, one earned run, four hits, three bases on balls and one strikeout (1.04 ERA) while defending a slim two run contribution from his teammates with Accardo dealing with the last out for his 3rd save. More of that please! He picked up his customary shaving cream pie from Vernon Wells along with one for his dad who was watching on his 57th birthday an...

The CBC's sports department is a rapidly shrinking animal given the loss of the Olympics, curling and CFL football so it is interesting that the Blue Jays are in talks with CBC to either have them replace TSN as secondary carrier of Jay games or to do so in addition to TSN, the current contract holder. Due to the mutual parentage of the Jays and Sportsnet under the Rogers corporate tent, the primary contract is not up for grabs. In NBA news - when Toronto got its 27th win last year it was April 15 and they had lost 55 games. This year they have lost 23 and are 9-1 in the last ten after their defeat of Kobe Bryant and the rest of the Lakers . As for the Leafs - after last night Nashville is still the only NHL team never to lose to Toronto, albeit over the short history of the franchise. This is a big sporting weekend for me, tomorrow morning will be spent watching United and Sunday morning (10am EST) the historic first international rugby game at Croke Park against France - an...