Who To Cheer For?

The saga of Roy Halladay is over. The Toronto Blue Jays finally made the move to trade there second best pitcher of the all-time.

Halladay, the Cy Young award winner for the Jays in 2003 and the ace of the staff has been dealt to the Philadelphia Phillies. In return the Blue Jays get three top prospects from the Phillies. The players they did receive are not names the average fan will recognize;

*C Travis d'Arnaud (from Philadelphia)
*RHP Kyle Drabek (from Philadelphia)
*OF Michael Taylor (from Philadelphia)

The Jays then immediately traded Taylor to Oakland for 1B/3B Brett Wallace (who the A's acquired in the deal last year that sent Matt Holliday to the Cardinals). For more details on those prospects check out Mop Up Duty.com

It doesn't look like any of these prospects will play in the majors next season, which will be a disappointment to fans who will feel the Jays didn't get enough in return for the "best pitcher in baseball". This is probably true, but in the end GM Alex Anthopoulos's hands were tied and hopefully a couple of these guys turn into major league players.

These however leaves Toronto in a bit of a bind. Who do Toronto fans cheer for now?

All of the professional sports teams that play in Toronto, have lost or will lose its major sports figures in a period of two years.
-> Toronto Maple Leafs - Mats Sundin gone
-> Toronto Blue Jays - Roy Halladay gone
-> Toronto Raptors - Chris Bosh - going in June
-> Toronto FC - Danny Dichio - gone

With the holidays around the corner, which jersey does a parent buy for a kid? There is no player currently on any of the Toronto teams that fans will feel comfortable walking around the city wearing that jersey.

Would you were the jersey of the overpaid and aging Vernon Wells? What about Alex Rios who tells fans to fuck off? Nope didn't think so.

What about the hockey team. They can't even name a captain, so who do you wear on your back? The jersey of the goalie that no one trusts (Toskala) or the one of the guy that won't play again because of his bad heart (the Monster).

Don't even get me started on the basketball team. The Raptors try to make the splash and sign a big name free agent in Turkoglu, but 20 games into his first season has been a disappointment and PLEASE don't get your hopes up that Bosh or another big name free agent (Joe Johnson, David Lee) will sign in Toronto.

In these situations, do what I like to do...go for the classics, buy a Sittler jersey, wear that Willie Upshaw jersey to the Dome this summer and by all means break out the Mugsy Bogues jersey.

Are You Hurt or Are You Injured?

This story came to light for me after reading about it in The Sun (UK) via Deadspin and Unprofessional Foul.

If you didn't take time to click on the link, the quick and dirty of it is that Manchester United player Gabriel Obertan, a 20 year-old phenom who is getting paid 20 000 pounds per week recently injured his back and was unable to play. This is a player who is the future of the Red Devils and is now starting for the squad on a regular basis. While injured the club thought the bright lights, big city and cash would get in the way of his healing and decided to assign him some light labour to keep his head screwed on tight. Obertan was made to trim the bushes (not in a Ronaldo type way), wash the cars of senior executives and keep the grounds looking fine.

He apparently did all this without complaint, worked hard and is now fully recovered and back to playing with the starting eleven.

After speaking of bad boys like Stephen Jackson, Allen Iverson and John Rocker yesterday, do you think any of those guys would do this kind of work? For that matter, do you think any North American professional athlete would take this kind of treatment?

Quick example - the Toronto Maple Leafs in the offseason signed the goaltender of the future, Jonas Guftasson. A player that was going to backstop the Leafs to the playoffs (don't want to say Stanley Cup and get all carried away). He impressed during training camp with his size, reflexes and Swedish charm.

Early in the season though, after taking the number one goalie spot away from Vesa Toskala, Guftasson went down with an injury. There are plenty of ways to get distracted during your recovery while in Toronto, especially for a hockey player who made a big early splash. It seems that Jonas, was a good boy and has recovered nicely from his boo-boo and is back on the ice, but would it have been prudent for GM Brian Burke to make Jonas, say sweep up the arena after games to earn his cheque. Maybe the goalie could have been used to wipe all the new windows at the ACC in between games. Just think, it would be just like the training Daniel Laruso did!

In principal I like what Man U was thinking here. Make their player earn his keep and keep him involved in the day to day activities of the team. The only way North American teams can seem to involve injured players is by making them show up to charity functions. I think alot of this has something to do with a players loyalty to a franchise, but that can be a subject for another day...