As noted here before, April is the month of the great convergence in sport, at least if you have the varied sports interests that I do.
If I were to write out a list of my favourite-10 team sports, eight of those are active right now, so I am in a time of glory when I can just cocoon on the couch and binge watch sports.
But just maybe I have developed a slight problem in the process.
On Saturday, a cold and my body were having a battle to see who would win out. I decided to let that little war play out and I stayed under the blankets in bed until mid-afternoon. Since I am writing early Sunday afternoon, I suppose my body has held the upper hand.
But back to my potential ‘little problem’ that I mentioned.
When I did crawl out of bed, the Toronto Blue Jay game was thankfully over. I say thankfully because watching Marcus Stroman struggle again and the Jays drop a 9-1 decision to the much-disliked New York Yankees would have not been a fun experience for a fan already feeling lousy.
I will digress here to note the Jays are playing better baseball than I had anticipated going into the season. They have been playing at a roughly .650 win percentage, and while 20-plus games is far from a season, I would have been satisfied with .500 baseball. The relief pitching has exceeded my expectation and the offence has been feisty, especially late in games. If not for Boston playing at an .850 clip, we could be in the top spot in the American League East.
But the Jays had an off day Saturday on the field and I slept through it. By the time I was wrapped in a blanket on the couch network television was devoid of sports that I cared about, so I found some YouTube badminton to kill time before the launch of the Major League Lacrosse League season.
Thanks to Lax Sports Network, I watched the New York Lizards, who appear to be a juggernaut this season, win the season opener over Denver. I managed to watch Florida and Atlanta on Sunday as well, but the Lizards’ win was the hors d’oeuvre for the evening to come.
The Toronto Maple Leafs were in a must win game five situation with Boston. As a Leafs fan, my heart has been with the Leafs, although my brain had picked the Bruins to win. But I was hopeful they could pull off the game Saturday and go home for a game six.
That game was on the TV.
Meanwhile, the Toronto Rush were playing in San Francisco against the Flamethrowers in American Ultimate Disc League action. That game was on the laptop on my coffee table as the AUDL game-of-the-week on Stadium.com, an ear bud in my right ear to follow the scoring.
My tablet was propped on a pillow in my lap tuned into NLLTV to watch the Toronto Rock in a must-win game against Buffalo. An ear bud from that game was in my left ear.
It turned out to a huge night for TO.
The Rush, a perennial contender in the AUDL, won 28-18 over San Fran to improve to 3-0 in the AUDL East.
The Rock won 16-11, keeping my NLL dream of our Saskatchewan Rush against TO in the final, although only 1.5 games separate Georgia atop the East from last place with a week to go in the regular season, so nothing is assured yet.
The Leafs, of course, won as well, squeaking out a 4-3 win, leading to a game six in TO that had me wanting Yorkton Council to be over quickly so I could get home to watch.
Before I write about game six, I should mention my Saturday concluded by watching a DVR’d women’s’ 7s rugby from Japan, which I also recorded Sunday, along with Professional Bull Riding action.
As for the Leafs they pulled out a game five win in Boston, then had a 3-1 win in TO Monday, forcing a game seven tonight, which leaves me only to say go Leafs go!
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that a) the Winnipeg Jets are headed to the second round after back-to-back shut outs by Conner Hellebuyck to eliminate Minnesota, and b) the Toronto Raptors looked very average losing game three of their series with Washington 122-103.
The Raptors then gave up 40 points in the third quarter and 66 in the second half to give the Wizards a pair of home court wins and turning their series into a best-of-three affair, not unusual for TO a team that never does anything the easy way in the NBA playoffs.
The Major League Rugby season also kicked off and international viewers have access to games via the MLR Facebook page. I must say the Seattle Seawolves, with Canadian Ray Barkwell and Phil Mack, looked good Sunday eve, topping the San Diego Legion 39-23 in front of a sold-out home town crowd. I am absolutely excited by the prospect of this league, and will be tuning in regularly..
