Sporting Madness

One of the most interesting themes around the Blue Jays lately is the discussion of how their ownership has changed [ Stephen Brunt , The Globe and Mail ] since the death of Ted Rogers . Rogers CEO Nadir Mohamed recently said the company remains committed to the Jays in a conference call, but talked of " bringing costs in line " [ Jeff Blair , The Globe and Mail ]. Those comments, as well as the recent trade of Alex Rios for nothing [ Bob Elliott , Toronto Sun ] and Scott Rolen for prospects , have led to speculation that Rogers may sell the team, as well as plenty of indignation over the team being run like a business. However, that indignation is misplaced in my mind. There's nothing wrong with running a team like a business; after all, a business-driven approach led to Billy Beane 's Moneyball strategy in Oakland. That exact approach is more difficult to execute these days , but the business principles behind it of finding undervalued assets, developing them ...

Note: this piece originally ran at The Rookies yesterday. However, a massive failure on the part of our hosting server means that it isn't accessible at the moment, so I figured it would be appropriate to repost it here today so everyone watching the Confederations Cup matches could share my vuvuzela hatred. It also originally had more pictures and looked prettier. I'll hopefully be running Part II on specific fanbases over at The Rookies tomorrow if our server's back up. - Andrew The ongoing Confederations Cup in South Africa has seen some great moments on the pitch, including the bizarre collection of circumstances Wayne and Rockabye described here and here . However, they have been overshadowed by one appalling one; the unleashing of the hated "vuvuzelas" (basically, cheap plastic trumpets) on an unsuspecting worldwide audience. A movement to ban them is already underway , and bloggers around the globe have weighed in. Even those who respect the vuvuzel...

Apologies for things being slow around here lately; I've been pretty swamped with other writing work. I'll try to get a full new post up tonight, but until then, I thought I'd share a few of the other pieces I've been working on. Hope you enjoy them! Feel free to leave comments on them at those sites or here, or send them to me via e-mail (andrew_bucholtz AT hotmail.com) or Twitter . Thanks as always for reading! - Over at my new blog, Canuck Puck , I have an analysis of how the Sedin twins stack up against other elite NHL players and why resigning them would be a great Moneypuck move. - At The Phoenix Pub , I have a few thoughts on how the recent increase in statistical analysis has changed sports. It's a bit of a follow-up to the piece I wrote here the other day about the (partial) demise of Moneyball . - At The Rookies , I have a piece looking at the most annoying fan traditions in sports.

That Vancouver Whitecaps - Toronto FC clash on Tuesday was quite the match . Both sides had plenty of chances and played some excellent soccer. With a few different bounces, it could have been a very different result; a draw was very possible, and even a TFC win could have happened. Still, Vancouver played a fantastic match and deserved the win in my books. It was a 2-0 final score in favour of the Whitecaps that could pave the way for a Voyageurs Cup title (if Toronto can't beat Montreal by four in the final match), but what it all means is still very much in dispute. Some see this as a dramatic shift in the USL/MLS balance of power, while others argue that it just demonstrates that the leagues were always closer than many thought. Others, like Duane , see it as more of an outlier. Personally, I don't think it's a good idea to draw absolute conclusions from one match, but looking at the games over the last couple of years can be more meaningful. Last year's matches wou...

I'll be live-blogging tonight's Toronto FC match against D.C. United (7:30 p.m. Eastern/4:30 p.m. Pacific, Rogers Sportsnet) here and at The 24th Minute . It should be a good one; D.C. leads the East with 13 points from a 3-1-4 record, while TFC is in second with 12 points from a 3-2-3 record. Thus, the winner of this one will take over or hold on to first place. One question for Toronto is if defender Adrian Serioux will be fit to play ; he suffered a neck injury against Columbus last week and missed the midweek clash against Vancouver. Sam Cronin also missed the Whitecaps game, but is expected to return to face D.C. tonight. Another interesting element is what's going on off the pitch. Everyone knows about D.C. United's stadium struggles, and they've led to threats of relocation if they can't find a new stadium. The D.C. United supporters are going to be marching to the match [ Jason Davis , MLS Daily ] to show their passion for keeping the team in D.C.; Ja...

Last night's 1-0 victory for Toronto FC over league-leaders Chivas USA was simultaneously the best of times and the worst of times for the franchise. On the pitch, it was a tremendous success. Despite the absence of Dwayne De Rosario , the team turned in a solid performance and gave Chivas their first loss of the season. That's pretty stunning, considering that Ives had Chivas at the top and TFC 14th in his most recent power rankings . It was also the first home win of the season for Toronto and an impressive showing from many of their players. Amado Guevara , Adrian Serioux and Danny Dichio were particularly effective. Even that success came with caveats, though. For one thing, Chivas was missing several of their stars thanks to injury, including Ante Razov and Maykel Galindo . For another, Guevara's impressive performance appeared largely due to him having more room to operate with De Rosario out. That's good news for the moment, as De Rosario is expected to miss...

Reports of the death of fans' interest in the Toronto Maple Leafs have been exaggerated. Bob McCown and Jim Kelley spent the first 15 minutes or so of Prime Time Sports ' 5:00-6:00 hour today discussing the idea that no one cares any more because the team isn't in playoff contention, and offered two major arguments as to why this was so; the Leafs' game story from last night was on the fifth page of the Toronto Star 's sports section, and there have been less callers than usual who want to talk about the Leafs during their 4:00-5:00 call-in hour. This is a flawed analysis, however. First, let's examine the placement of the story in the Star. I don't have the print edition handy, but you can see the listing of the stories in today's paper here , which is generally organized by importance. The top story is about hurdler Perdita Felicien 's return to competition, which is a reasonably big deal; she's a well-known Olympic athlete and the Star is k...

Photo: The Vancouver Whitecaps take on Toronto FC at Burnaby's Swangard Stadium. [Andrew Bucholtz photo]. A bit late getting to this one due to the other work I've had to do, but I was at the Vancouver Whitecaps - Toronto FC match on Wednesday, so I figured I'd better write about it briefly here. This was of course the Whitecaps' final match of the Nutrilite Canadian Championships, and came on the heels of their stunning Canada Day victory [myself, Out of Left Field ] over TFC at BMO Field [myself, this blog]. Unfortunately, the pair of eggs they laid against Montreal meant that they needed to win by a landslide to have any hope, and there wasn't much of a chance of that happening. There was plenty of pride on the line, though, and the Whitecaps played their hearts out, earning a draw in the end [Matthew Sekeres, The Globe and Mail ]. Here's the breakdown, in classic GBU style : Final score: Whitecaps 2, TFC 2 How I saw it: In person The Good: Eduardo Sebra...

Well, the details of the Sonics settlement have finally come out [Sharon Pian Chan and Jim Brunner, The Seattle Times ], and it looks like they will in fact be moving to Oklahoma City sooner rather than later in exchange for $75 million dollars ($45 million if the city gets another NBA team within five years). That's much better than the $26.5 million Bennett offered in February before the trial, but it leaves me with plenty of questions for the city. Their whole case revolved around the idea of "specific performance", the idea that money alone could not replace an NBA team. What about the passionate testimony from writer and fan Sherman Alexie? What about Mayor Nickels' testimony [Greg Johns, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer ] about being an eternal optimist, where he said "A lot can happen in two years?" What about the testimony from economist Andrew Zimbalist, who said he couldn't put a dollar value on what the Sonics bring to the community? What ab...

Photo: Steven Pyeatt of Save Our Sonics. [Photo from http://stevenpyeatt.com/ ]. As part of the preparation for Judge Pechman's decision [Greg Johns, Seattle Post-Intelligencer ] later today on the future of the Sonics, here's the next installment of On the Ground, featuring an interview with Steven Pyeatt, the co-founder of Save our Sonics . Steven has been one of the most influential figures in the fight to keep the team in Seattle, working with co-founder Brian Robinson and the impressive team they've pulled together (including former Sonics star Slick Watts). He's helped organize rallies (including the one I covered ), e-mail and letter-writing campaigns, and much, much more. If the Sonics do survive in Seattle, his efforts will be a large part of the reason why. There's an excellent Seattle Times profile on him by Ashley Bach. Anyways, here's my questions and his answers. Q: What’s the mood like in Seattle? Do people still feel there’s a chance to keep...

"Signs, signs, everywhere a sign/Blocking out the scenery, breaking my mind/Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?" - "Signs," The Five-Man Electrical Band [Andrew Bucholtz photo] Signs seen at the aforementioned Sonics' rally ... "The NBA: Where deception happens." "Hey Clay, I'm a fan possessed!" "Burn In Hell, Bennett!" "Hey Aubrey, white-out doesn't work on e-mails!" "Not aBout fAns." "Clay: Owners come and go, but e-mail is forever." "NOklahoma." "Hey David: Donaghy called: He can't fix this one!" "E-mail, lieS, decePtion, collusioN" "The NBA: Where team-stealing happens." "Hey Clay, I'm a man about to be repossessed." "soNics Belong in seAttle" "Don't steal our 41 years." "No Bennetts Allowed." "Stuck Fern" "The NBA: Where douchebags run the league." "We...

Some of the finest things about soccer are the inventive anthems each team's fans come up with. They can reference a past triumph, immortalize a particular player, or mock rival players, teams, fans and even the referees. They're also one of the prime reasons why soccer is so much more interesting and interactive than other sports: most North American pro sporting experiences involve blasting canned music (occasionally all right), doing "The Wave" (see Drunk Jays Fans for a great takedown of that one), running stupid animations on the scoreboards (Ben Knight had a nice rebuke of those), or trying to pump people up via the stupid NoiseMeter (no outside destruction of this is needed). Songs have always been a hallmark of the European soccer experience, but they've caught on in North America as well: the Whitecaps have long used "White is the Colour" (a takeoff on the popular Chelsea song " Blue is the Colour "), and TFC supporters have come up ...