In a year when Canadian teams failed to make the playoffs, and while achieving what everyone expected the Toronto Raptors bowed out of the picture in the Conference final, one sport team in this country took it all the way.
And in the process Rushnation was born in Saskatchewan, collectively celebrating enmasse Saturday as the Saskatchewan Rush won the National Lacrosse League’s Champion’s Cup.
The Rush were to be the great mistake in many people’s minds heading into the regular season.
Saskatoon and Saskatchewan were not expected to take to lacrosse in a major way after all, the province is not a hotbed of the sport.
Just more than 9000 attended the season opener back in January, a loss.
But the fans kept coming, and the former Edmonton Rush who happened to be defending champions too, started winning.
By season’s end the Rush would be 13-5, and home crowds would push past 15,000.
In the playoffs the Rush would roll over Calgary 16-10 and 12-9.
It was back to the league championship, this time against Buffalo who had a matching 13-5 regular season record, and they too won their Conference with two straight wins over New England.
In Buffalo for game one the Rush outscored the Bandits 3-1 in the final quarter to win the opening game of the best-of-three 11-9.
And that brought us to Saturday in Saskatoon.
More than 15,000 fans, the love affair with this province’s sports fans complete, were on hand.
And they had much to cheer about early as Mark Matthews went superman through the Bandit crease to open the scoring 1:14 in.
Thirty-six seconds later Curtis Knight made it 2-0.
But, at the end of the opening quarter Buffalo led 4-3.
By the half it was tied 5-5.
Buffalo would take a lead in the third-quarter going up 9-7.
The fourth quarter was tense. Believe me in the crowd with buds watching, every possession was heart-stopping.
Matthews scored at 4:12, then Robert Church put two in, to lead 10-9.
Buffalo was not done though, knotting the games at tens at 10:36.
Time ticked down.
Sudden death loomed large.
And then the dramatic ending.
The Bandits have the ball in the final 30-seconds. Fifteen thousand are standing.
Defender Jeff Cornwall steals the ball and heads down the court, a break away. He scores with 12-seconds remaining.
And the SaskTel Centre erupts.
It was the ending one dreams of in sport — a last minute stunning victory by the home team.
Anyone unsure if they like indoor lacrosse needs to watch the game. It was what has it as my favourite sport now that we have a pro team in our province.
The win Saturday was certainly the most electric sports event I have been part of. I’ll still put the Yorkton Terriers coming back late and winning the RBC as a bigger moment after covering the team for years, but the crowd, the stage, the atmosphere was not the same as 15,000-strong at a pro sport event.
What a great season, and a great win in the final.
I’m already looking forward to the 2017 season as a full bore member of Rushnation.
Jays rebounding
What a difference a couple of weeks can make in May in the world of professional baseball.
The Toronto Blue Jays coming off their best season in years seemed to be imploding into something below mediocrity.
As a result, I along with many others, were ready to pull the plug on this edition of the Jays.
The window for this team, is small. It opened last year as the team jelled following some huge deadline trades, but has a short life expectancy, now, and that means 2016, or never.
Juan Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion are free agents after this season, and given their age, and likely salary expectations, neither are likely to resign with TO.
The Jays need to be contenders if they are holding on to this pair until season’s end, when they will likely walk away with no return in the way of talent.
Bautista and Encarnacion both started slow at the plate, and their woeful swings seemed to spread throughout the line up like a bad cold.
The Jays starters were better than anticipated, but with no bats the team looked frankly horrible.
It seemed time to blow the team up, and I was on-side with that idea. In fact, I was at the point that I would have been OK with a complete gutting of the roster, not just the two free agents, but catcher Russell Martin who wasn’t hitting a lick and costing way too much for an aging catcher, Troy Tulowitzki who has seemed a disinterested Jay since being traded here, and possibly even Josh Donaldson.
The latter will surprise many, and most will disagree, but with a blow up the Jays wouldn’t be a contender for years, and by the time they retooled I’m not sure Donaldson would be a viable element.
For the record while I could see a sell off of talent being worthwhile my expectation of a rebuild is low. The Jays as an organization have been largely ineffective since winning World Series in 1992 and 1993. That doesn’t bode well for a rebuild.
Add the new Cleveland brain trust that has been installed at the head of the Jays does little to inspire thoughts of long term success, given the general lack of said success by the usually mediocre at best Indians.
But all this might be a moot point now.
The Jays are back above .500, and within striking distance of front-running Boston and Baltimore, only 2.5 games back after action this weekend.
And there are some positive signs in terms of the Jays.
The hitting is starting to come around.
Michael Saunders and Justin Smoak have added depth to the line-up with regular at-bats, and it’s good to have Devon Travis back.
The big poppers are still well south of .300 in terms of average, but the home runs are starting to soar, and that is how this team has to roll to be effective on offence.
The starting staff has the best ERA in the American League East, a surprise, but a huge positive given that pitching is a key to winning.
In that regard adding reliever Jason Grilli is a good move too. The bullpen might still need an arm, or two, but suddenly there are indications adding might be a better option than throwing in the hat.
Suddenly the month of June is huge for the Blue Jays. If they can keep close, and Jays management antes up the cash to make the moves necessary, it could be an interesting run to the playoffs yet.
