Posts by :
Scorched Earth
December 14th, 2009
The classic PC game Scorched Earth provides an instructive model for the Blue Jays.
The Sports Illustrated report this afternoon that the Toronto Blue Jays have dealt Roy Halladay to the Phillies in a three-team deal confirmed what most Jays’ fans have known since the team’s early hot start last year fell apart; the team’s officially gone into rebuilding mode. However, the question remains as to just what that will entail, and the Jays’ recent history is not auspicious in that regard.
Read the rest of this entry “
The Whole 110 Yards: Setting Up The Grey Cup
November 29th, 2009I’m in Calgary this week for the Grey Cup, the CFL championship game, which features the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Montreal Alouettes. It should be a great one. Kickoff is at 6:30 p.m. Eastern/3:30 p.m. Pacific, and I’m planning to live-blog the game over at Sporting Madness. Before that, here’s a little preview to get you prepped for the game.
Media interview Roughriders' coach Ken Miller (centre) at a breakfast with the Grey Cup (background) this week
Saskatchewan:
Number of Grey Cups won: Three
Last Grey Cup victory: 2007
Coach: Ken Miller
How they got here: Finished first in the CFL West Division, then knocked off the Calgary Stampeders 27-17 in the West Final to advance to the Grey Cup.
Key player: Running back Wes Cates. Cates is a rushing and receiving threat in the Ray Rice mould, and a very good one. He was key to the Riders’ Grey Cup win in 2007 and was their top player last year. He’s had a down year thanks to injuries, but if he can get the Saskatchewan rushing game going, that could be the crucial key to their success. Otherwise, Montreal will be able to drop too many men into coverage and pick off quarterback Darian Durant.
Montreal:
Number of Grey Cups won: Six
Last Grey Cup victory: 2002
Head coach: Marc Trestman
How they got here: Finished first in the league with a 15-3 record, then demolished B.C. 56-18 in the East final.
Key player: Quarterback Anthony Calvillo. Calvillo won his third Most Outstanding Player award and his second one in two years this week. He may be 37, but he threw for 4,639 yards and 26 touchdowns while completing 72 per cent of his passes and was only picked off six times. However, the Alouettes are a surprising 1-6 in Grey Cup games with Calvillo at the helm. Not all of that is his fault, but this edition of the team certainly goes as Calvillo goes. If he has a typically brilliant day, they’ll win. If not, he may drop to 1-7.
Alouettes' QB Anthony Calvillo receives his third Most Outstanding Player award Friday.
Thanks for reading The Whole 110 Yards this season! Be sure to stop by Sporting Madness for my other Grey Cup coverage and my live blog. I’ll have one final edition of the Whole 110 Yards posted early this coming week to wrap up the game and the CFL season that was.
The Whole 110 Yards: Go East, Young Lions
November 22nd, 2009
Casey Printers will lead the B.C. Lions into the Eastern Final today.
Last week’s CFL playoffs saw a pair of thrilling games, with the B.C. Lions seeing off the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the Calgary Stampeders taking down their provincial rivals in Edmonton. That sets up a pair of intriguing matchups for this week. Time to break them down below.
Read the rest of this entry “
The Whole 110 Yards: Playoffs? Playoffs!
November 15th, 2009After a hiatus thanks to other work commitments, I’m back with another issue of The Whole 110 Yards, just in time for the start of the CFL playoffs today. I’ll be taking you all the way through the playoffs and will be bringing you on-the-ground coverage from the Grey Cup in Calgary in two weeks. However, we still have two playoff rounds to get through before then. Without further ado, let’s get to the breakdowns of the first round. Start us off, Jim Mora!
Last Call: The Last In Line
November 6th, 2009Welcome to our Last Call for the evening. First, before we get to the sports links, we have a glorious music video for you.
The Whole 110 Yards: How The West Wasn’t Won
September 23rd, 2009
Edmonton quarterback Ricky Ray (Sacramento State) gets a pass off before being hit by Saskatchewan linebacker Jerrell Freeman (University of Mary Hardin-Baylor) Sunday.
Welcome to another installment of The Whole 110 Yards. As always, check the CFL home page for statistics, video highlights and broadcast schedules. Comments, questions or suggestions? Leave them below, or send them to me via e-mail, Twitter or Facebook.
The Week That Was: This week saw plenty of action in the CFL, but the overarching theme was a all-but-decided East Division and an up-for-grabs West Division. There are still seven weeks on the schedule, but the 9-2 Montreal Alouettes have all but clinched the East title. They maintained their three-game lead at the top of the division with a 33-14 thumping of the 3-8 Winnipeg Blue Bombers Sunday. Meanwhile, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats strengthened their hold on second place in the East with a 24-17 win over the Calgary Stampeders Friday, improving their record to 6-5. Barring an unexpected implosion on the part of the Alouettes, a division title doesn’t appear in the cards for the Tiger-Cats, but they do seem set to return to the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
Read the rest of this entry “
The Whole 110 Yards: Patching up the Boatmen
September 15th, 2009
Hamilton wide receiver Marquay McDaniel (Hampton) makes a catch Friday against Toronto defensive back Jason Shivers. The Argonauts rebounded to win 25-22 in overtime and improve their record to 3-7.
The Week That Was: It was an interesting week in the CFL, complete with Saskatchewan’s 55-10 thumping of Winnipeg in the Banjo Bowl, the Stampeders pulling off a late comeback to knock off the Eskimos and Montreal getting revenge on the Lions at home. All three results were significant, and both the Calgary-Edmonton and B.C. – Montreal tilts were excellent games. Still, my vote for game of the week goes to the Toronto Argonauts’ improbable 25-22 overtime victory against the Hamilton TIger-Cats. It was the first home win for the Boatmen under head coach Bart Andrus, and their triumph snapped a five-game, 405-day home losing streak that predated Andrus, stretching back to last season.
Read the rest of this entry “
The Whole 110 Yards: Where we’re making it rain
September 4th, 2009
Pacman Jones won't be making it rain in Winnipeg any time soon.
Apologies for the delayed edition of The Whole 110 Yards this week; a nasty little thing known as work intervened and killed my blogging time. As always, leave feedback and suggestions in the comments, or send them to me via e-mail, Twitter or Facebook.
There were a couple of interesting CFL games last week, including the Edmonton Eskimos’ thrilling 31-30 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the Toronto Argonauts’ failure to kick a game-tying field goal in the last seconds of their 23-20 loss to the Calgary Stampeders. We’ll get to those games in detail shortly, but the most fascinating news of the week actually comes from the “Off-field Story of the Week” department. As SI’s Jim Trotter reported Monday night, cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones (West Virginia), he of the strip club troubles, was set to become the newest member of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. This made sense from a few different perspectives, but unfortunately for both Winnipeg fans and CFL writers, didn’t come true. Winnipeg was clearly very interested in Jones, and their director of player personnel, John Murphy, was quoted by Trotter as saying the deal was all but done. Unfortunately, it looks like management pulled the plug after a few days of speculation, and received plenty of applause in the local media for not signing Jones (but criticism for even pursuing him). I’ll explain why I disagree with that below, but first, won’t someone please think of the strippers?
Read the rest of this entry “
Last Call: Where Christian Ehrhoff, shark-dolphin hybrids and German metal happen
August 28th, 2009One of the big sports stories today (well, big in the hockey world at least) was the San Jose Sharks trading Christian Ehrhoff and Brad Lukowich to the Vancouver Canucks for a pair of lesser-regarded prospects, which I covered here. It’s interesting from a hockey perspective, as it clears cap space for San Jose and gives Vancouver some more defensive depth, but pushes them closer to the cap. It raises some interesting questions in other realms, though, such as should sharks really be trading with orcas? After all, orcas (often referred to as killer whales) are really dolphins, and dolphins and sharks don’t tend to get along. Is this a byproduct of the appearance of Nightmare Fin earlier this year? Have the Canucks moved beyond orcas to some sort of orca-shark hybrid? Will Steven Spielberg make a new movie about this horror? You can mull over these questions yourself in the comments below.
Read the rest of this entry “
The Whole 110 Yards: Carpet Bombing
August 25th, 2009
Winnipeg running back Fred Reid (Mississippi State) breaks away from B.C. linebacker Javy Glatt (UBC) Friday night. The Bombers beat the Lions 37-10.
Everything’s coming up CFL this week; I discussed the league’s history (including a surprising role in the founding of American football), rules and teams over at The Phoenix Pub yesterday and then talked about the league for an hour with James Brown and Sculptor on last night’s Pubcast. Now, it’s time for my weekly review of all the CFL action. As always, stats, video highlights and U.S. broadcast schedules can be found here. One additional reason to follow the league that I forgot to mention yesterday is that it showcases a lot of former NCAA stars who never quite caught on in the NFL. It’s a cool way to find out what these guys have been doing since they left the bright lights of college football. That’s why I include every player’s school when I mention them, and also why I’ll be adding a “Former College Star of the Week” segment to this column. Comments? Questions? Things you like, don’t like or would like to see in this space? Let me know in the comments section below, or via e-mail, Twitter or Facebook.
Read the rest of this entry “
