The ‘Riders are left as a footnote to the Canadian Football League season, so the effort to pound the computer keys about the team seems too much to bear.
The Toronto Blue Jays continue on their roller coaster season. They go from days where they look near invincible, almost having us dream World Series, then going so cold they might be playing a mid-winter classic series. To say the team is confounding this year would be something of an understatement.
Running hot they can be scary good.
But when bats go cold or the bullpen tires when starters struggle, the team is very middle-of-the-road at best.
It can be a tad frustrating as a fan, especially as nights grow longer, and new fall television has not launched, so what do you watch?
Yes I still watch the Jays, or at least innings here and there as time allows, and I will DVR two or three CFL games to watch later so I can fast forward through boring video replays (please enough already), and repetitive commercials, but I do sometimes wish there was other options.
I can hear the NFL proponents rallying to that league, but I am Canadian, proudly so, so watching a sport league with no Canadian franchises is just boring.
It’s not just the NFL in that regard.
I love lacrosse, both box and field. Of course the indoor pro league has several Canadian teams including now the Saskatchewan Rush, so following the National Lacrosse League is easy. In fact, it’s my favourite sport to watch these days.
Major League Lacrosse is the outdoor pro league, and after Hamilton moved to Florida the league became much harder to watch without a Canadian franchise to rally behind.
The saving grace is the number of NLL players, most Canadian, who extend their playing days by turning to the MLL for the summer, so I do watch my share on the league via www.laxsportsnetwork.com
However, the MLL season is now complete.
There is the made up Ode to Gary Bettman hockey tournament going on with the ridiculous youngsters team and the bizarre team Europe, which holds all the interest for me of a paper cut. I’m sure ‘Sir’ Sidney Crosby is playing, and the ‘Anointed One’ Connor McDavid probably leads to the ‘baby brigade’ but as far as TV time, I’ll watch not a period. Call me when the best are at the Olympics playing for their country on a real international stage, and I’ll tune-in.
So I start to look ahead.
In basketball the Toronto Raptors will be entertaining, and should still fight for second best in the east, Cleveland needing a lot to go wrong not to repeat.
But really can Golden State, less a disaster of mega proportions, not win the title?
I suppose there is the allure of a train wreck here, you have to watch, even as you wonder why, but the NBA is now the realm of ‘mega teams’, top players coming together to rule for a short time. Lebron James did it going to Miami for four seasons, and Golden State after last year’s final loss are doing it now.
Some seem to like that the NBA is at best a three horse race this year, and two of those horses appear to have thrown a shoe as they look to trail the Warriors headed to the season.
I, on the other hand, in part as a Raptors fan, am not a fan of the seemingly clear cut favourite. It stands to make most games throughout the season have about as much relevancy as a month old newspaper.
Granted on a given night the Raptors should be entertaining, and they will win more often than they lose, but to what end with the Warrior beast waiting out there to consume all?
For me, I much prefer a league with a level of parity.
That can mean a level of mediocrity too, or seems to in the sense any number of teams can win on a given night, setting up a lot of teams flirting around .500, but if the games are competitive so-be-it.
The National Hockey League has that much going for, although how they achieved it has created what is best described as ‘Bettman’s Boredom’.
Smothering team defence, forwards flopping in front of shots like pike dragged onto shore while fishing, most goaltender equipment, and a ruleset that needs desperately updated, have stymied offence and led to generally boring games, but teams that lack talent can stay in such games. That has led to a level of parity but at the cost of devolving hockey to a new level of coring most nights.
So the games often induce loud snoring on chesterfields across the land, but when you do wake, you will have to check the scores to see who won.
That said I’ll admit I’ll be ready for the new NHL season to start. With no Canadian franchises in the playoff hunt last year, I tuned out the league when the regular season ended.
The question this year of course is whether Canadian teams will climb back into the playoffs?
There will be the fun of the season.
Winnipeg should be exciting.
Edmonton, not that I am a fan, have to be better after moves this summer.
Calgary too, should be improved.
Montreal, by virtue of having Carey Price back in net, and who isn’t interested to see if the Shea Weber acquisition turns out?
Toronto, a team I grew up liking, Dave Keon, Darryl Sittler, Mats Sundin, should be interesting to watch. They finally seem on a path that should get them to better, albeit not overnight. I’d settle for entertaining and competitive since the team is often on TV to watch.
Ottawa should fit the parity mold nicely, and with Kyle Turris, the Yorkton Terrier killer from our past in the fold, they are at least worth watching the scoreboard for.
Vancouver is the one team I have to say I can’t see making much of a step forward. That is unfortunate because when they are on TV it’s a late time game which are often ideal to sit down to relax and watch.
Now when I sat down to write this I had intended to discuss sports I wish we saw more of here in Canada, and as you will have noted, my mind went off on a tangent, as it is apt to do being a growing contrarian, but it does at least leave with an idea already set for next week.
