As you know, the Toronto Maple Leafs have signed John Tavares and have the strongest group of young forwards they’ve had in a very long time. If you put aside age, it’s probably safe to say it’s been 25 years or so since the last time the Leafs had this much talent in their Top …
Category: Sports
50 Years of Misawarding the Conn Smythe
The awarding of the Conn Smythe in 2015 to Duncan Keith felt like a dose of sanity, he was well deserving of it. Unfortunately, since the award’s introduction in the mid ’60s, it hasn’t always been so obvious and oftentimes the writers responsible for voting for the award have picked odd, sometimes even terrible winners. …
The Nihilist Hockey League
I have been a fan of the hockey comedian/commentator Down Goes Brown for some time. I don’t remember when I became aware of him, but it was before he started writing for Grantland. I have appreciated both his comedic takes on what is a very silly league and also his perspective, which often seems to …
Your 2017-2018 Toronto Raptors: Blow it all up?
Every year at this time of year I usually write a recap of the Raptors season. (Before I switched allegiances, it was a Leafs’ recap.) I’m sorry to say I don’t really do this for other people. I know there are actual basketball writers in the world who have actual things to say about Toronto …
Memorial May Madness
My fellow Canadians regularly ask me why I watch March Madness. Usually, I tell them, “It’s the greatest sports tournament in the world” and then I spend a while qualifying that by telling them what I think of the NCAA. (I regret to say, by watching this year’s March Madness on cable, I am indirectly …
Riley Goes to Panorama Mountain Resort, February 3-February 9, 2018
For the past week, I was in the Kootenays, skiing at Panorama Mountain Resort, a place I have wanted to ski at for a very, very long time. (That is true of many ski resorts in North America, however.) I cannot say enough positive things about the resort and I would strongly encourage you to …
Boys Among Men (2016) by Jonathan Abrams
This is a pretty excellent narrative history of the one and only generation of NBA stars to come directly from high school. Though I have one minor quibble, I got over it and, for the most part, it’s probably the definitive book about this topic.
The NHL: 100 Years (2017)
This, the official documentary history of the NHL, is an adequate history of the NHL if you don’t watch hockey and didn’t grow up watching hockey OR you like having the old hockey myths repeated to you by different people than the people who usually told you these myths. As an actual history of the …
RIP Roy Halladay
It’s hard to know what to say when someone famous dies. When it’s a musician or filmmaker, I talk about their work. I can’t do that with sports. Normally, I don’t write blog posts about athletes when I they die, as I don’t feel as close to athletes as I to do artists, it’s just …
Rush (2013, Ron Howard)
This is an odd one at times: Howard plunges us into the racing world of the 1970s with greater context, instead focusing on the contrasting lives of two up and coming drivers. For someone who isn’t a racing fan, this must be really confusing. I was a little lost at first.
The Art of Fielding (2011) by Chad Harbach
This is an excellent debut novel, featuring a richly constructed world and (mostly) believable characters. It works as both a baseball novel and a college novel. It has been a long time since I cared about characters this much.
Am I Still a Leafs Fan?
As I find myself wrapped up in the success of The Blue Jays so far this playoff, and eagerly awaiting the NBA season, I wonder to myself if I still care about the Maple Leafs, this at a time when there is more legitimate optimism around the team than perhaps there ever has been before …
Initial Reactions to the Raptos’ 2016 Draft
I saw a CBC story that claimed Raptors fans (on twitter) were not happy with Toronto’s #9 pick. Some twitter users were unfamiliar with Poeltl because they apparently do not follow college basketball or NBA mock drafts or…maybe they aren’t even actually Raptors fans (but just play them on twitter)?
Your 2015-2016 Toronto Raptors
Putting aside any disappointments we may feel about those last two games, it must be acknowledged that, by nearly any standard, this was the Greatest Team in Franchise History; the most regular season wins, the most home wins, the most road wins, the most playoff wins… I may have had my expectations raised too high …
Conn Smythe Watch 2016
I am watching more playoff hockey this spring than I have probably since the last time the Leafs were in the playoffs. That’s still not as much as I used to watch, but it’s a lot more than than I was watching more recently. And so, for the hell of it, I wanted to see …
Top 33 Maple Leafs Draft Picks of All Time
More than a little while ago now (this past summer), Scott Wheeler (of PPP, etc.) claimed that Mitch Marner might be the most talented hockey player ever drafted by the Maple Leafs. And now that the Leafs have the #1 overall pick for the first time in over 30 years, Marner might be only the …
2015-16 NBA Awards
MVP Curry is
2015-16 NHL Awards
For the second time in as many years, I watched barely any hockey. But that won’t stop me from deciding who was good! I can’t decide whether I am doing this as some kind of self-parody, or just because, really, I want to know who was good, so that I can do better on Sporcle …
Triple Doubles
Draymond Green is two blocks away from being the first player in NBA history to record 1000 points, 500 rebounds, 500 assists, 100 steals and 100 blocks in a single season, since steals and blocks were recorded. That’s big news.
The Battered Bastards of Baseball (2014, Chapman Way, Maclain Way)
This is a sub-30 for 30 quality sports documentary (or low end 30 for 30) that makes up for its lack of film quality with the incredible story of the Portland Mavericks, possibly the most popular single A team of all time and the only independent baseball team of its era.
The Annual Hockey Hall of Fame Complaint for 2015
First of all, congratulations to the deserving inductees. The problem is, as always, that the Hall of Fame inducted players who both deserve to be in it, and players who do not (or, in this case, not yet). So congratulations to Nicklas Lidstrom, a player who, I have argued elsewhere, might be the 2nd best …
Does Andrei Kirilenko belong in the Hall of Fame?
Does Andrei Kirilenko belong in the Hall of Fame?
The Phil Kessel Trade
I never believed the Leafs would get the return for Kessel that the Bruins got for him from the Maple Leafs. But I hoped it would be something. When the Leafs traded for Kessel, I was upset. I was upset for the following reasons. On the side of what the Leafs gave up: It was …
Does Shawn Marion Belong in the Basketball Hall of Fame?
Shawn Marion is retiring apparently. So, does he belong in the Hall of Fame? As usual, all data from Basketball Reference.
2015 NBA Finals MVP Bull Shit
In hockey, there is a rare but time-tested tradition of awarding the playoff* MVP to the best player on the team that loses the finals if he excels so much that the Professional Hockey Writers Association thinks he deserves it, i.e. he drags a team to the finals. (*In the NHL, the award is for …
The Top 5 Raptors Draft Picks of All Time
The other day, I covered 10 of the “best” 15 draft picks the Raptors have made. Today we’ll be talking about the Top 5, the 5 players the Raptors have drafted, a couple of whom might actually make it into the Hall of Fame some day. I will be using a different format for covering …
Raptors Best Draft Picks as of 2015
Earlier this season (2014-15), a click-bait article was published on TSN about the “best” Raptors draft picks of all time, given that this was their 20th season and all. They were, according to the author: Bosh Mighty Mouse Mo Pete DeRozan T Mac No explanation was given for why Mo Pete is considered to be …
Your 2014-15 Toronto Raptors
Last year, as the Raptors neared setting a record for regular season wins in a season, I wondered which was the best Raptors team ever. A weeks later I concluded last year’s edition ranked among the best. But at the beginning of this calendar year, I was optimistic that we were seeing the best team …
Your 2014-15 Toronto Maple Leafs
I watched as little of the Leafs this year as I have since I was 16, more than half my life ago. I did this because Burke and then Nonis killed my passion for the team after JFJ made me more passionate, albeit passionate as to wanting him fired. I’m sort of kidding. I was …
2014-15 NHL Awards
I watched as little hockey this season as I have since I was 16 (i.e. half a lifetime ago) in part because Nonis was still in charge of the Maple Leafs until very recently and in part because basketball is slowly winning the battle of allegiances in my heart. So I’m not making any post-season …