toronto Page 50 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

There's A Great Salad Bar At Maple Leaf Gardens: The Second And Third Lives Of The Original Six Arenas
While we're on the topic of the sad fates of arenas without teams, it's worth noting that this week saw the beginning of a rebirth for the old Maple Leaf Gardens. The art deco masterpiece, which the Leafs abandoned for new downtown digs in 1999, is a National Historic Site. But lying largely dormant...

Brian Burke Was Going To Rent A Barn To Fight Kevin Lowe Until Gary Bettman Intervened
Brian Burke has rapidly become one of the most stand-up guys in hockey, after his unqualified support for his out-of-the-closet son Brendan and his own anti-bullying campaign in Brendan's memory. He wasn't always so cuddly—in a great interview with The Score, Burke relates how he nearly came to blow...

Predators Player Breaks Away On Empty Net, Sends Puck Flying Over The Crossbar
Craig Smith channeled Patrik Stefan in the third period of the Predators' 4-1 win in Nashville last night. Sometimes, I guess, the net just looks that big....

The Trystan Magnuson Era In Toronto Begins, And Other Exciting Hot Stove Developments
Your roundup of all the hottest hot-stove items of the day (and whatever shit Ken Rosenthal is throwing against the wall). This is ... HOT FUCKING STOVE!!!!...

An MLB Umpire Forgot The Count Last Night And Held The Game Up By Making A Phone Call (Video)
Part of Gary Cederstrom's job as a home-plate umpire is to keep track of the count for every batter, no matter what the scoreboard or any television graphic might indicate. But last night, with Adam Dunn batting with two outs and no one on in the bottom of the fourth, Cederstrom apparently got caugh...

Your Field Guide To The Assorted Kerfuffles Over <em>Moneyball</em>, The Movie
Moneyball, the long-delayed film adaptation of Michael Lewis's book about Paul DePodesta's TI-89 and Jeremy Brown's love handles, hits theaters next week. It's a big thing for baseball folks, because Moneyball helped bring a statistically inclined subculture to the mainstream. You'll notice this in ...

Maybe Justin Bieber Isn't The Most Loyal Maple Leafs Fan After All
Yesterday Bieber went on the radio and gushed about his Leafs fandom, being from Ontario and all. No bandwagoner he. Today he's rocking the Blackhawks cap....

Justin Bieber Is A More Dedicated Sports Fan Than You
Every morning, the fine folks at Sports Radio Interviews sift through the a.m. drive-time chatter to bring you the best interviews with coaches, players, and personalities across the sports landscape. Today: the Biebs is a Maple Leafs fan, so he can't be a bandwagoner, right?...

Wade Belak, Another NHL Enforcer, Found Dead (UPDATE: A Suicide, According To <em>Toronto Sun</em>)
Longtime NHL defenseman Wade Belak, who spent much of his career with the Maple Leafs, was found dead at 35 today in his Toronto hotel, according to a report from QMI Agency in Canada....

Biz Nasty Photobombs Blue Jays' Batting Practice
Coyotes tough guy and Twitter rock star Paul Bissonnette was among a handful of hockey players taking BP before yesterday's Blue Jays game, and the cameraman should have known better than to try and get a shot focusing on anyone other than the Biz....

David Price Has 12 K's Through Five Innings Against The Blue Jays. You Should Probably Watch.
Via ESPN Stats & Info: "David Price: 12 K through 5 IP. That matches what Clemens had through 5 IP in each of his two 20-K 9-IP games and 1 more than Wood thru 5 IP."...

Canadian Television Says Blue Jays (Now Diamondbacks) Utility Infielder John McDonald Hit 96 HR This Year
Ed note: he has not. Two, the number of homers McDonald has hit, is 94 fewer than 96. Thanks to Coreywise for the photo....

The Blue Jays' Sign-Stealing Operation Is A Lot Less Sophisticated On The Road
Your morning roundup for Aug. 19, the day we went fishing and caught a scuba diver instead. H/T to Jamo for the photo, which he got from a friend at the Jays-A's game who texted him to say: "Guy looks into binoculars for five seconds then holds up sign that says either 'OFF SPEED' or 'FAST BALL.' S...

Pitcher, Batter Reconcile HBP Over Twitter: "Just Grazed The Schnaz A Little Bit"
This is a beautiful story of modern reconciliation. Last night, Toronto's Brandon Morrow hit Mariner Casper Wells with a pitch. The outfielder was forced to sit out the remainder of the game, which deprived him of the chance to extend his home run streak to five straight games....

The Worst Time To Make Up A Quote From A GM Calling One Of His Players Crazy Is Probably In That Player's Obituary
Or, anyway, we think that the worst time you can invent a GM's quote calling a player "crazy" is in that player's obituary....

Darren Rovell's Rays Jersey Breaks His Seventh Rule Of Twitter
Darren Rovell, CNBC's sports business reporter and self-professed master of the Twitter, sang the Canadian and U.S. national anthems at the Blue Jays-Rays game today at Tropicana Field. He did a fine job. But he forgot rule number seven of his 100 Twitter rules to tweet by:...

Colby Rasmus Is Thrilled That Obama Isn't President In Canada
With Rasmus moving north of the border, Joe Sports Fan thought it would be a good time to unveil this undated photo of Colby making his political views known in the most effective way known to man — via t-shirt. So in a way, Rasmus is like everyone who's ever bitched that if an election didn't go th...

BREAKING: Hall Of Famer, Admitted T-Shirt Thief Roberto Alomar Will Return The T-Shirt He Stole
Perhaps you read our story earlier today, of Blue Jays fans Fiyaz Kanji and Owais Farooqui, who made the pilgrimage to Cooperstown this weekend to see Roberto Alomar enter the Hall. But during the parade, Alomar took the $50 t-shirt that belonged to Kanji....

Kansas City's MLS Team Compiled Laughable, Stereotype-Filled Video To Introduce Its Canadian Opponent
This introduction video, via KCKRS, is perhaps the greatest semi-official compilation of cheap Canadian stereotypes known to man....

1989's Back Again, In The SkyDome Opening That Featured Thousands Of Canadians Capering About, Plus Alan Thicke
Toronto's Rogers Centre was introduced in June 1989 as the SkyDome, at a time when the name "SkyDome" suggested an exciting future full of retractable roofs and mud-free Argonauts games, which we'd have to agree are two of the greatest developments of the past twenty-plus years....