Sporting Madness

I'm taking a quick break from CFL coverage to live blog the Vancouver Whitecaps - Puerto Rico Islanders clash this afternoon at 4 p.m. Pacific. Marc Weber , Simon Fudge and Ben Massey have previews posted, so check those out, and then come back to join me in the live blog at four! Whitecaps - Puerto Rico

My new home over at Yahoo!, the 55-Yard Line blog, is up and running! Go check it out and let me know what you think. So far, I've got posts up on Chris Leak and the Winnipeg decision to hide their starting quarterback. I'll have another one in the morning on today's game between Winnipeg and Saskatchewan, and I'll be live-blogging the Hamilton-Toronto clash tomorrow with other members of the Yahoo! Canada staff at 2:30 p.m. Eastern. Make sure to stop by for that!

"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to." - J.R.R. Tolkien "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." - Hunter S. Thompson My writing life's been an unusual journey, which is probably true for many writers. My parents have been heavily involved in the journalism industry for decades, but I wanted nothing to do with it growing up. I always loved sports, but I wasn't particularly interested in writing about them either. When I went off to school at Queen's University, my plan was to become a chemist; I was more concerned with compounds and formulas than vocabulary and turns of phrase. That all changed thanks to the Queen's Journal , the campus paper I knew I wanted to be a part of soon after reading it for the first time. At first, I wanted the news and politics beats everyone else was interested in, bu...

Doug Farrar has an excellent piece over at Yahoo! Sports on the jump from the CFL to the NFL. He talks to former B.C. Lions Cam Wake and Ricky Foley about their experiences in transition, but perhaps the most interesting part is his discussion with agent Paul Sheehy about the loss of the "NFL window" in the CFL's new CBA. That certainly will limit the CFL's personnel losses, which have been quite high in recent years, but Sheehy thinks it might also lower the quality of the CFL; talented players who miss out on NFL contracts or get cut may wind up heading to the UFL instead, which is easier to get out of. The whole piece is a good read, and I'd recommend it even if I didn't contribute some minor information on guys who could perhaps make that jump in the future. Check it out .

After a month-long road trip, the Vancouver Whitecaps completed their odyssey with a return to Burnaby’s Swangard Stadium. Unlike certain Greek mythological heroes, though, their return was less than triumphal, and they came away with just one point from a 2-2 draw with the Austin Aztex. Whitecaps’ head coach Teitur Thordarson was impressed with his team’s play overall, but less pleased with their finishing touch. “We created so many chances today, it is unbelievable we didn’t score more than two goals,” he said. “We could have been up 4-0 by half.” Vancouver opened the scoring in the 16th minute when Martin Nash went in for a sliding tackle. The ball went off him and bounced to Cornelius Stewart , who broke in alone and drilled a low left-footed drive past keeper Miguel Gallardo into the bottom-right corner of the net. The Whitecaps dominated much of the rest of the first half, recording six shots against Austin’s two and controlling the majority of the possession. They we...

After another month-long road trip, the Vancouver Whitecaps return home today [ Simon Fudge , WhitecapsFC.com ] to face the Austin Aztex [ Benjamin Massey , Eighty-Six Forever ] in a game I'll be live-blogging. It will be their first match at home in almost five weeks [ Marc Weber , The Province ]. Their last home fixture was a 1-1 draw against Minnesota all the way back on July 25 . The team went 2-0-3 on their month-long road trip, picking up wins at Montreal and Minnesota and earning draws with Carolina, St. Louis and Tampa Bay. They've also undergone quite the roster makeover in that time [ Bruce Constantineau , Vancouver Sun : I focused on the reasons behind that in my World Soccer Reader column a few weeks back , but the changes have come even faster and on a wider scale than I would have imagined. We should see some of the new faces in the lineup today; Weber expects 19-year-old Swiss forward Ridge Mobulu to start, with 22-year-old American striker Cody Arnoux ...

Photo: Hamilton RB DeAndra Cobb (Michigan State) dances in for a touchdown before Toronto safety Willie Pile (Virginia Tech) can stop him. The Tiger-Cats won 16-12. Welcome to another edition of The Whole 110 Yards , your weekly guide to the CFL! Only two games to cover last week and this week thanks to byes, so we'll get right to them. I'll also be live-blogging tonight's B.C. Lions - Calgary Stampeders clash tonight with the usual suspects in the CFL.ca Friday Night Football Live Chat ; make sure to come join us at 10:30 Eastern/7:30 Pacific! Game of the Week: Hamilton 16, Toronto 12 This edition of the Battle of Ontario was surprisingly entertaining despite the low score. Both teams' defences came to play and delivered impressive performances, particularly early; the score was 3-3 after the first quarter and 9-3 for Toronto at halftime. The Argonauts extended their lead to 12-3 in the third, but fell apart down the stretch, conceding 13 unanswered fourth-...