Sporting Madness

It's a big night for Toronto FC as they take on the New York Red Bulls in the infamous date-altered match . TFC could really use some points to break out of the Eastern Conference logjam, while the Red Bulls sit at the bottom of the Eastern table and will be eager to try and gain ground on the sides in front of them. Newly-acquired defender [ Paul Attfield , The Globe and Mail ] Nick Garcia may make his TFC debut tonight as well. Join me in the live blog below for full coverage! Toronto FC - NY Red Bulls

So, I've added another site to the long list of places I write for. This one, The Phoenix Pub , is imagined as a sports hangout open to all, full of comedy pieces, analytical pieces and pretty much anything else you can think of. There's already a great cast of writers and editors on board, including Sculptor , the Avoiding the Drop gang and First Derivative of The Red Carders . My initial piece for them is one of the nightly Last Call series (open-thread commenting; you can find the full schedule over there as well), featuring booze, a Big Dirty Band music video and also an analysis of some of the reasons why the NFL has become the dominant professional sports league in North America. Check it out !

So, that was fun . The Whitecaps snapped their USL losing streak last night with a 3-2 victory [ Gary Kingston , The Vancouver Sun ] over Miami FC, but it may well prove to be a Pyrrhic one. The real story of the game was not the victory, but the fight between Whitecaps' teammates Charles Gbeke and Wesley Charles , perhaps the most ridiculous in-game feud between teammates since the Lee Bowyer / Keiron Dyer incident at Newcastle United (story from BBC News ). Compare the videos below. (Incident starts at 7:51 of the Whitecaps' clip). This is not good for the Whitecaps. In fact, it's hard to think of two players whose loss might hurt the team more (except perhaps goalkeeping legend Jay Nolly ). The Whitecaps are very short at central defence at the moment thanks to Jeff Parke 's injury (turf toe) and Justin Thompson 's sudden departure [ Marc Weber , Back of the Net ], so any suspension to Charles (which seems inevitable) will certainly hurt. Gbeke's almost ...

Well, hockey's over for another year, so it's time for some soccer! Join me in the live blog below for coverage of tonight's Vancouver Whitecaps - Miami FC USL match. Whitecaps - Miami FC live blog

I didn't write anything about the Raul Ibanez controversy [ Jerod Morris , Midwest Sports Fans ] yesterday outside of my Twitter feed , mostly because it was aptly handled everywhere else [links, in order, are Alana G , Joe Posnanski , Hugging Harold Reynolds , Rays Index and The Big Lead ]. However, today saw some Canadian media types weighing in, and I thought their reactions deserved some coverage. First off, we have Geoff Baker . Baker's a Canadian guy who used to cover the Expos and Blue Jays, and now covers the Mariners for The Seattle Times . He's a good baseball writer, and I usually enjoy his stuff. Today, though, he produced one of the more annoying pieces on the matter, ironically enough on his blog. You know it's going to be bad as soon as you read the title, "The Difference Between Real Journalists and Basement Bloggers." Baker does actually make some valid points. He has some good thoughts on the importance of accountability, and he'...

Hello, readers! As you might have noticed, there have been a few changes around here. I'm now part of the excellent TheScore.com Sports Federation , which will be a lot of fun, and have a real domain name to boot (sportingmadness.ca)! Check out some of the other sites in the network if you get the chance; they're all listed by category in the black bar at the top of the page, but I figured I'd spotlight a few of my personal favourites. For you baseball fans, there's a lot of great sites in the network,including Drunk Jays Fans and Ghostrunner on First . For hockey nuts, check out the likes of Down Goes Brown and the Canucks Hockey Blog . In basketball, RaptorBlog and DinoNation are both excellent, and for soccer, there's some terrific stuff over at TFC Connected and Arsenalist . In general sports, Sports and the City is the best comprehensive Toronto sports blog out there and there's some excellent insight into the world of sports at The Tony Ambrogio Expe...

Things aren't looking too good for Setanta, one of the primary worldwide broadcasters of the English Premier League. According to The Times , the company may go off the air "at any moment" after fellow broadcaster BSkyB declined to provide them with a £50 million [ BBC News ] loan in exchange for access to their live EPL rights. They've also apparently suspended new subscriptions [ Ireland Online , found via Brian Zygo ]. Founders Leonard Ryan and Michael O'Rourke are reportedly trying to find a new source of financing, but that isn't easy these days. This could have profound implications for soccer across the globe. Some of the most drastic effects will likely take place in the Scottish Premier League. Check out this passage from the Times article: "The worst effects of a Setanta collapse, though, would be felt in Scotland. Payments currently due to the individual SPL clubs range in size from £70,000 to nearly £750,000, with the Old Firm obviously ...