On the same night that the last true Toronto star returned, it apears that another may have arrived in the form of the Toronto Blue Jays' Jose Bautista -- or at least his contract has. The job of designated Toronto star otherwise remains open - no Phil Kessel is not a candidate. We have that, the posible end of the Albert Pujols era in St. Louis and more; just don't boo me, 'kay?
1. LeBron James is no Chris Bosh, and Toronto is no Cleveland
The 19,800 at the Air Canada Centre got it right. The first fan I saw was proudly clutching a sign reading: Miami Heat -- Two-and-a-half men. Way up at the top of the building where every seat was full, you couldn't quite call the atmosphere electric, but when the man they came to boo got the ball, they sat up, they paid attention. They booed. Others chanted "over-rated" – and if it was some of the same ones who chanted "M-V-P" in year's past, well, that's the privilege that comes with buying a ticket.
But vitriol? Hate? Nahh.
The mood in the Heat locker room before the game was a mixture of curiousity and amusement – most of the amusement coming from LeBron James when he saw both Montreal's Joel Anthony and Toronto's Jamaal Magloire entertaining small scrums of reporters before the game. James just walked by giggling.
There was curiosity about what might be waiting for them out on the floor as Chris Bosh made his first appearance in Toronto after leaving in free agency. But not concern; not a chance. This Heat team has been to Cleveland, and to listen to former Cavaliers star Zydrunas Ilgauskas tell it, no experience will ever match it.
"You could feel the hatred," said Ilguaskas. "And not just in the arena, everywhere in the city."
While Ilgauskas played 12 years in Cleveland before joining the Heat as a free agent, nearly all of the venom was reserved for James, who burned every ounce of capital seven years of service had earned him with ill-fated ESPN television special announcing his departure, one of the all-time poor public relations decisions in sports history.
Ilguaskas avoided most of it because he's not a franchise player, he says, but taking out a full-page newspaper ad to thank the fans of Cleveland probably helped.
It was a gesture that Bosh might have considered. That's all the fans want, in the end: a bit of respect; some acknowledgement that their support over the years meant something.
But even without that the fans at the ACC – as Hayley Mick reported – were often in conflict. There were those angry or disappointed with Bosh for leaving - or at least for how he left -- and those still appreciative of the seven good years he had while he was here. Bosh said after the game his dramatic turn at centre court, blowing kisses to all four corners of the arena, was an attempt to acknowledge both types of fans.
In the end what the Heat heard last night, the way Ilgauskas made it sound, wasn't all that much different than what the Heat get every where they go as the NBA's designated black hat.
And on an otherwise routine night in February, against yet another opponent that has had this date circled since the schedule came out, and a crowd looking for a season highlight in a year sorely lacking in them so far, a little hate can add a little spice.
"It's made us close as a team," said Ilguaskas. "Every where we go it's nasty, on the streets, in the restaurants we go to. It's like we're the garbage can of the NBA and everyone saves up their garbage and throws it at us. But it's helped from a camaradrie standpoint. We've had no one to turn to but each other."
So while Bosh admitted to some anxiety about how he'd be greeted in his first night back after seven years, his teammates have been through worse. They had his back, but didn't feel like he'd need it.
"He's my teammate, my friend," Ilgauskas said as he got ready for what for him was just another night at the NBA office. "I just hope no one does anything stupid other than booing.
"But we're used to that."
2. The Bosh era is over, is it Bautista's time?
The floor is open in Toronto for a star. All indications are that Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista is going to be paid like one. The question now is how much of an aberration was last season's 54-home run masterpiece? Richard Griffin says Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopolous is wise to place his bet on there being more where that came from: Bautista has not yet proven he's a one-year wonder. What he's done is had one wonderful year. He showed in 2010 that when given regular playing time, whether it was improvement due to the added repetitions or finally grasping the hitting philosophies of Dawyne Murphy, the man that will continue to be his hitting coach, or whatever it was, he gets it. At some point the Jays have to quit pleasing fans in Las Vegas, New Hampshire and Dunedin simply backing up the prospects and roll the dice to refill the Rogers Centre.
The easiest thing to do is to say Jose can't and won't do it again. That's the easy way out for Toronto sports fans and, given recent history, who can say that they are wrong?
But at the recent State of the Franchise get-together president Paul Beeston scoffed at the idea that Toronto is anything but a large market and suggested that if needed, this franchise could support a player payroll of $140-150 million. Right now in terms of payroll for 2011, they sit about halfway there. Anthopoulos likes to recall one of his favourite conversations from his first winter meetings in Indianapolis in '09 when he was trying to get the best deal possible for Roy Halladay. He met Dodgers' GM Ned Colletti in the hallway. Colletti talked to him about trades and moving forward and offered this simple piece of advice: "Alex, if you're scared, get a dog."
3. Let the Albert Pujols free agent watch begin:
For those who don't follow National League baseball closely, it bears repeating: Pujols, the St. Louis Cardinals first baseman is - after 10 years of major league time - on pace to be one of the greatest hitters in baseball history: averaging 41 homers, 123 RBIis and hitting .331 for a decade will do that for a guy. The Cardinals coudn't reach an agreement before Pujol's self-imposed deadline yesterday and now the clock starts ticking on what will the hottest free agent target in recent memory: As sweet a story as it would be for Pujols to remain a Cardinal for life, to take Stan Musial's mantel and carry it for another generation, it's not that simple. Romanticism is running into commerce. Happy endings take money. Pujols is a commodity, the greatest commodity in baseball, and to approach his free agency as anything other than a business transaction would be selling himself short after playing at a discounted rate for a decade. Both sides wanted this to work.
Sometimes it just doesn't.
Whether it can in the offseason, when other teams join the Pujols bidding, depends on his imperative. And make no mistake: Pujols is driving this. The player always does. That's what free agency is about. It tells us what's most important to a player. Is it money? Winning? Loyalty? An amalgamation of the three? Free agency offers Pujols a world of possibilities, riches beyond what the Cardinals' best proposal, which fell short in both years and annual value.
While neither Pujols nor his agent, Dan Lozano, has confirmed what they're seeking, a 10-year contract for around $300 million is a reasonable guess. Pujols wants the biggest deal in sports history. The Cardinals, fearful of his age and their ballooning payroll, are balking. The truth is simple: As much as the city of St. Louis and the Cardinals' franchise are wedded to Pujols, the team does not believe he is a $300 million player. If they did, the ink would be dry on a contract already.
4. Joy in Cleveland
There is no team that has been more deflated by the departure of a single player, I'd bet, than the Cavaliers' following the loss of James. Before a win over the Clippers earlier this week they were in the midst of an epic 1-36 streak of futility; this with a veteran club that was assembled to compliment James and win an NBA title. But last night? Last night the Cavalies beat the defending world champion Los Angeles Lakers who are not without warts right now, but still: So, who are these people who did this? Where have they been keeping themselves? First of all, if the rest of this season is about trying to develop some competitiveness, it did not take much to beat "Double-Nickel Nightmare Night," which is what happened on Jan. 11, the last time the Cavaliers played in Los Angeles. They lost by 55 points. They totaled 57 points.
"I hope they were as [ticked] off as I was," said Scott, who played shooting guard alongside Magic Johnson's abracadabra act on three championship teams with the Lakers.
For the record, the Cavs passed the 57-point mark at the 9:01 mark of the third quarter on a layup by Jamison. It was absolutely astonishing, and it gives the long-suffering fans a good memory to go with all the bad ones.
5. Calgary: Do you believe?
The Flames seemed logical candidates to become the Ottawa Senators of the West not too long ago: as a veteran team in decline it seemed sensible to get a jump on rebuilding and start selling off their prized collection of Jarome Iginlas. But then the Flames started winning. Don' t look now but Calgary is in a five-way tie for fourth in the West. Strange things are happening: In the words of Don Adams, Agent 86 Maxwell Smart of Get Smart rerun immortality: "Would you believe . . . ?" There are phenomena that simply defy explanation. Stonehenge. The Northern Lights. Twilight Nessie sightings on the Loch. Why Justin Bieber pays $750 a snip for THAT haircut.And after Wednesday night you can add to the X-Files list:
The lethal Sarich-Staios combo.
From here on in, just call 'em cyanide and strychnine, nitro and glycerine, pestilence and death.
The two unlikely blueliners combined to pile further misery on the free-falling Dallas Stars and keep the Calgary Flames humming merrily along with a three-day break leading into Sunday's second greatest outdoor show on earth, the Heritage Classic, at McMahon Stadium.
The 4-2 victory moved the upwardly-mobile Flames into a logjam at 68 points in the Western Conference, in a five-way tie for . . . wait for it . . . fourth place.
"Really?'' said Staios, amused yet suspicious. "Yeah. Well. We're just going to put our heads down, enjoy it tonight and get ready for the next game. That's what's given us success over the last little while here. Not getting too caught up in the standings.
"Because it's ninth to fourth on any given night.''
6. The secret behind the rise of Texas basketball:
On the surface it would seem it's to recruit Cory Joseph and Tristan Thompson, the Canadian duo who are starting and starring as freshman at No.3-ranked UT, winners again last night and likely to be the No.1 ranked team in college basketball as soon as next week. But the Wall Street Journal makes it more complicated. It's still interesting though: This Lone Star turnaround surely has something to do with better arenas and stronger recruiting: Texas' top two players—sophomore swingman Jordan Hamilton and freshman forward Tristan Thompson—are from California and Canada, respectively. But the turning point in Texas basketball history can be traced to something far more obscure: a 1984 speech delivered by a little-known sports bureaucrat named Mike Kunstadt.
At the time, Mr. Kunstadt was president-elect of the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches. He was scheduled to make a presentation to the University Interscholastic League, the state's governing body for high-school sports. His speech was a plea for something that sounded simple enough: that high schoolers could be permitted (as they were in nearly every other state) to enhance their development by playing in summer basketball leagues and camps. Before then, high-school players who participated in these activities lost their eligibility to play varsity basketball the following season.
Mr. Kunstadt's proposal, which after years of pleading by the basketball community was accepted, set off a cultural revolution. For years, Texas had been retarding the development of basketball players on purpose, in all kinds of ways, for the same essential reason: nobody wanted basketball to interfere, in any way, with football.
Back then, basketball teams were often coached by members of the football staff who didn't necessarily know what they were doing. Even joining the coaching association was taboo. "When we started this association back [in the 1970s], I remember my athletic director saying, 'Why y'all doing that?'" said Rick Sherley, who is the association's director now. "They felt threatened. They didn't want to lose players to basketball."
7. It's summer in New Zealand:
And so the famous rugby All-Blacks are using their skills to host a barby -- or whatever they call a barbeque down there. Pretty neat video.
Update: Sean Gordon of the Globe's Montreal bureau and French Immersion fame, took a few moments away from lavishing his affection on P.K. Subban to provide a second, even neater, New Zealand rugby video. Watch the first one first, k?