Sporting Life

The Sparrow’s guide to baseball Blue Jays 2009

Apr 8th, 2009 | By | Category: Sporting Life

As we slowly edge into spring after a long winter of much economic turmoil it is once again time to focus in on more simple pursuits. The economic tsunami has engulfed the world, and its reach and effects extend to all corners of the global village. With that in mind, we begin our annual baseball […]



Back to the future .. can 2008 Blue Jays really return to old golden age?

Apr 4th, 2008 | By | Category: Sporting Life

Are you ready for some baseball? As we now finally hang up the thick coat and put away the toque and mitts, after a winter that has battered and bruised this land from coast to coast to coast, it is time to focus on more summery pursuits. This season promises to be one with many […]



Are you ready for baseball Blue Jays? .. the succession of seasons 2007

Apr 9th, 2007 | By | Category: Sporting Life

As the Leafs fall out of contention in Toronto, like the Canadiens in Montreal and the Oilers in Edmonton, attention in many parts of the wilderness shifts to springtime. It is time once again to get ready for another year of baseball in the Great White North. While the Blue Jays look to vie for […]



Boys of summer 2006 .. new Jays miss out on internationalizing trend .. but C$ still rising

Apr 5th, 2006 | By | Category: Sporting Life

Fresh from the success of the World Baseball Classic, the major league season kicks off this week in parks around North America. With Japan taking the world title over Cuba the sport was shaken out of its myopic concept that the American brand is the best and only one. The game has grown in leaps around the […]



What’s with the World Baseball Classic .. just deja vu all over again?

Mar 13th, 2006 | By | Category: Sporting Life

The other day a friend from Australia who is seriously into cricket told me that a few decades ago the West Indies had some of the best cricket players in the world. But times have changed, and everyone in the West Indies plays baseball today. I thought of this again when I bumped into the […]



The Rogers Blue Jays : are the boys really back?

Apr 7th, 2005 | By | Category: Sporting Life

 TORONTO, April 8, 2005. As the dust is settling from a long off-season – made even longer without our beloved hockey – and as the migrating birds return to northern climes, there is a feeling of renewal in the air. It’s the beginning of baseball season. And just as the first pitch is being thrown […]



Happy holidays .. and hockey blight in Canada

Dec 17th, 2004 | By | Category: Sporting Life

The National Hockey League is the one half-serious example of Canadian cultural imperialism extant. So when the front page of Canada’s national newspaper moans “NO DEAL, NO TALKS, NO HOCKEY,” on December 15, you know something is half-seriously amiss at the north pole. As far as what is to be done practically goes, only fools will […]



More NBA follies : crowd turns on Vince in T.O.

Nov 24th, 2004 | By | Category: Sporting Life

On the same recent November night that basketball’s Indiana Pacers clashed with Pistons fans in Detroit, Raptors fans at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto “unleashed their wrath” at reluctant home-team star Vince Carter. They “booed every time he touched the ball in the first quarter,” jeered an early failed field-goal attempt, and “held up […]