Many of the laurels and flowers being thrown Cito Gaston’s way are remarkably well-deserved. Ignore the fact the Blue Jays hit the perfect storm at the beginning of the 1990s — decent economy, brand-new stadium unlike anything we’d seen before, and prior to the far-more fashionable ‘retro craze” which brought us outdoor baseball stadiums with natural grass, that made us feel we were in a simpler time when we were in them (beginning with Camden Yards in Baltimore, and The Ballpark in Arlington).

For everything going the Blue Jays way then (a VERY down cycle for the New York Yankees, the start of the Tigers great decline, big budget baseball times greatly limiting the Milwaukee Brewers, and the aging and decrepit Municipal Stadium holding back the Tribe, before they were saved and got a major cash injection in the mid-90s with the opening of Jacobs Field), you still have to win the games on the field.

Gaston WAS a big part of that — yes, the Blue Jays’ ability to go out and get whomever they needed, whenever they needed was phenomenal — we’ll never see anything like it again in Toronto, not even with the Maple Leafs, given the hard salary cap in the NHL which our great-grandchildren will STILL be complaining about in the 18-team NHL of the late 21st century.

Hard to believe it almost didn’t happen for Gaston, the notion (however real your perception of it varies, I would imagine) that he’s walking away of his own volition, into the sunset, to fish, to travel, to nap.  In 1997, Gaston was ignominiously dismissed with five games left in the season.  His tenure and decision-making was apparently so terrible, he wasn’t even allowed the grace (less than four years removed from the Joe Carter home run on that fateful late October Saturday night – as great a sports moment Toronto has yet to even come close to matching) to post a lineup for Game 162 of an awful season, with an indifferent collection of World Series holdovers, and vets simply no one else wanted.

That was Carlos Garcia at second base, not Roberto Alomar.  That was Benito Santiago behind the plate (the crappy one, not the 23-year old) instead of the, uhhh, “scrappy” Pat Borders.  Rickey Henderson?  Nah…how about Orlando Merced?  And I can’t see real good, is that Jimmy Key and Dave Stewart warming up for their starts?  Ohhh, noooo, sorry — that’s Robert Person and Woody Williams. 

Without a 21-7 Roger Clemens that year (and apparently an armed-to-the-gills-with-needles Brian McNamee) – the Jays were potentially a 95 or 100-loss squad.  Changes came, and Gaston was gone, nearly never to return.

Now, while it’s nice and borderline adorable that Gaston received his proper due and has handled himself with grace and class, regardless of opinions questioning how much he really had to do with the back-to-back World Series championships, the bottom line — he won them. 

The facts are also that many who should have known better, were convinced the Blue Jays would be a 90-defeat team.  EASILY.  We were wrong….now it seems as though they might not even lose 80.  Cito Gaston’s the manager — he deserves some of the credit, because if they’d gone 60-102, he’d certainly receive some of the blame.

Here’s where (to quote The Sundays and their sweet-voiced singer) the story ends, though.  Cito Gaston should have a 0.0 percent say as to who the next Toronto Blue Jays manager should be.  Oh, he should be asked, but he should under no circumstances get “a vote”.  Does that make sense?  It should.

News reports suggested today that the Blue Jays have received permission to interview former Rockies and Cubs manager Don Baylor for the manager position. 

Disastrous idea — I mean, I PROMISE I won’t say that about anyone else, but this has got to be a joke, and the ultimate favour to Cito.  I mean, please tell me it can’t get any further than this.  Baylor brings a .476 career winning percentage as a bench boss — and while yes, he was the first-ever manager for the Colorado Rockies and they had a bad first couple years, he also managed the Cubs when they were outspending everyone EXCEPT the Yankees at the turn of the century — and the reign of his terror finally ended after his troops posted a 34-49 record saddling them in the NL Central basement for much of that time.

He’s currently the hitting coach for the Colorado Rockies — and not one team has made a beeline for him while in Denver, or prior to that in Seattle working for Mike Hargrove, to get him to manage their club.  Not once, and it’s been seven full seasons.

Baylor’s now 61 years old.  Sound like the fresh start and innovative baseball mind a growing young ball club needs?  He loves the long ball, and why not — he, from my memories as a kid, could simply CRUSH the ball.  He’s reputed to have hit a home run over the left field wall AFTER it had deflected off the third basemen’s glove.  Read that sentence again, please, so you full understand the guy’s power.

But he’ll do nothing to help this young pitching staff — he’s not about developing young arms, that’s for sure — and that’s the biggest and most pressing need for this current Blue Jays team, regardless of what they do or don’t do in free agency as far as position players go, for the next couple years.

I could go on — you’ve got internet access, do YOUR due diligence as a Blue Jays fan or baseball observer.  Find me more positives than negatives about Baylor.  Find me one good reason to hire him over a bevy of younger, fresher, hungrier, and more qualified and competent candidates.

In fact, find me ONE good reason to interview him.  And no, “because Cito hopes he gets the gig” isn’t a reason — and it’s a disturbing sign if that’s why this is happening.

Interviewing New York Islanders forward Doug Weight a few weeks ago, I certainly got the sense HE felt the Islanders had something big up their sleeves headed into this season.  After finishing dead-last and getting the late spring prize of John Tavares as a first-round overall pick, the Isles also had strong second pro seasons from Kyle Okposo and Josh Bailey, and despite another injury-racked season in net from Rick DiPietro (he contributed a stellar two wins to the cause), the Isles still shot up from 61 points to 79 points, and DID play “meaningful games” as late as mid-March.  All of this done without having a single player have a 60-point season…Tavares chalked up 54, two more than Okposo.

Staying healthy and having the kid forwards continue to grow into a go-get-the-puck-and-move-it-quickly system under young coach Scott Gordon, the vets like Doug Weight and Mark Streit would need to play key roles, get decent goaltending, and maybe the Isles would again be a possible playoff team.

Well, now with the awful organizational news that Streit, after an awkward scrimmage collision with fellow teammate Matt Moulson, has a torn labrum and torn rotator cuff, and is likely out until at the earliest, the end of February, they need to re-think things, and already with money to spend and plenty of cap-room, they get even more now with Streit on the long-term injury list.  In fact, in saving Streit’s money, the Isles now find themselves below the cap floor, so they’re forced to go shopping.  I hate when that happens….

So conventional wisdom would suggest the Islanders are going to look at D-men who play the power play well, have maybe a year left on their current contract, and might welcome a change of scenery from their current professional hockey climate.  Know anyone like that?

OK, beyond Kevin Bieksa, Sheldon Souray, and Mike Commodore (and yes, I’m stretching it with the notion that Commodore can command the power-play at anything close to the level Streit handles it), NOW do you know anybody ELSE?

Oh, yeah? #15 on the Leafs? Quiet guy, right?  Flushed cheeks?  Unreliable in his own end in tie games?  Can’t control his Dad??  That’s right..forgot about him.

Sadly, though Kaberle desperately needs the change of scenery to further his career and snag a decent contract (likely his last of a long-term nature) next summer, for whateve reason Toronto’s got a hold on him.  I like the city a lot too, but if I’m an NHL player, after five straight years of the postseason being a lovely non-reality TV show in this town, I might like to play an 83rd meaningful game once in a decade, instead of stopping at 82.  I’d rather try and win my first-ever Stanley Cup, or at least play in the Finals, instead of practicing my backstroke in the heated pool while sipping merlot watching the sunset.

But that’s just me…I also would call my dad out publicly and say he acted inappropriately and doesn’t know me as well as he thinks he does, you know, if he were to, somehow reveal, umm (sarcasm-meter about to pick up here) things that simply “weren’t true” about how I “disliked playing for” my head coach, who’s actually accomplished far more doing the job HE does in the NHL than I have at mine.

Again, just me.  But Tomas Kaberle isn’t me.  He is a hell of a hockey player, and sadly, probably will end his Leaf career as it peters out this season, being underrated and underappreciated.  So be it, he’s made this bed, the strange thing is he’s been offered many opportunities to get out of it — opportunities many NHL players, even of a similar calibre, would die for.

But we all know the drill here.  In case you might forget the “facts”…ahem…allow me to refresh.

1. Tomas Kaberle is real happy being a Maple Leaf.  He has no interest in playing anywhere else.

2. Brian Burke won’t ask Tomas Kaberle to waive his no-movement clause.  It’s about honour.

3. By the way, why does Burke never mention what a skillfully and brilliantly negotiated deal this was on the part of John Ferguson Junior?  You’d think that would come up once or twice.

4. They like Kaberle, Burke and Wilson do, and both are simply befuddled that anyone would question otherwise.

5. In fact, they like him so much, they’d love to extend his contract — although no such discussions, to anyone’s knowledge, have ever taken place, nor will they.

6. Sooo…if Isles GM Garth Snow were to pick up the phone and offer something logical (like Kirill Kabanov or a Franz Nielsen, who actually would improve the Leafs up front) or completely illogical (umm..Tavares, Okposo AND a 3rd rounder in 2013) to acquire Kaberle and legitimately help the Islanders playoff hopes, Burke will politely decline to even discuss such offers, because his promise to Kaberle is more important than improving the hockey club.

7. I’ll repeat it again — Burke, by his words, won’t consider an offer for Kaberle, nor has he ONCE since the morning of August 16th, because John Ferguson Junior allowed Kaberle to have a no-movement clause in his contract.

8. Burke apparently won’t even tell Kaberle that the Islanders called, were interested in acquiring him, and would he consider whether the Islanders (or any of 28 other teams) would be a more preferable fit for him.

So as you can say, these are the “facts” of the case.  No one’s playing any games here, I mean — why would they?  The team LOVES Kaberle, the coach LOVES Kaberle, and he LOVES being here.  Where’s WWF manager Brother Love when you need him to emphasize the word, uh, “loooooovvvvvveeeee”?

So while it’s a superb idea to consider whether Kaberle would help the Islanders, and while it might be a mutually beneficial deal for every single party concerned, player, agent, head coach, team, OTHER team, OTHER team’s player — I guess it just can’t happen.

Loyalty’s a special thing in sports, and I suppose Brian Burke ought to be commended for it, especially for stepping in and being so loyal for a contract he never negotiated and probably never would have signed off on.  It’s just too bad the Kaberle/Leafs relationship is going to careen off the rails and end so very badly.  Can it possibly end any other way now? 

The NFL wasn’t always the most popular sport by a country mile in North America, far from it, in fact.  As a 1971 birthdate, I probably watched my first baseball game on TV when I was 5, my first hockey game around the same time, but didn’t sit in for the Super Bowl or the NFL regular season until the 35-31 Steelers win over the Cowboys in 1978.  It took that long — there was no fantasy football, limited exposure to gambling (err…I was 7 — so other than my addicted grandfather betting me in ping-pong battles), no NFL Sunday Ticket package, and a far weaker marketing machine involved with the league.

I’m not sure when the tide turned — some argue it was during baseball’s lost summer/fall of 1994, but I think the NFL had been steadily gaining ground since the mid-1980s.  The Super Bowls got bigger, the glitz and glam of the overall product did as well, whereas baseball — though a fantastic in-person sport, still carrying the romance of the passing from generation to generation of it’s complexities, yet still being as simple as the need for a father and son to have ”a catch’ as in Field Of Dreams — simply hasn’t changed with the times.  It has limited gains on HDTV, a close game is riveting, yet a blowout moves at a snail’s pace, and it has refused to budge from many of its traditions to either speed the game up, get the call right, or regulate itself so things are more uniform (as in the nearly four-decade-old DH rule — either make everyone use it, or move it along, and I’m way more of a DH guy than otherwise).

Baseball isn’t talked about by young people quite like the NFL is….go to a schoolyard, or an airport, or a busstop and see if anything to do with Major League Baseball is more than a passing conversation.  Some kids love it, but do they follow it religiously like WE did as kids in the late 1970s and 1980s.  I knew the entire starting nine for the 1979 Pittsburgh Steelers, but I couldn’t have named more than twelve starting NFL quarterbacks back then — now people under 30 are the opposite.

Either way, however it happened, and whenever it happened, the NFL is king — will it always be?  Maybe not, nothing stays on top forever, governments, media icons, bank executives, rock stars, movie stars — time catches up to all of them, and newer and hungrier talents take them down, one way or the other.  Not sure what will do it to the NFL, but we’ll all likely be in pine boxes before we see it actually happen.

As for the NHL/HBO tie, a smart move.  It’s easy to kick dirt on all that the league does, but a good move has to be embraced.  Some think the league vastly underestimated the need for the NHL to have its content on ESPN during either the regular season or especially the playoffs, and yes, of course they did — no question about it.  Having said that, there was no room at the inn in Bristol, Connecticut anymore — the NBA had signed a new deal with ESPN and let’s face it, that property and that demographic was going to reach far more of the desired audience than the NHL was reaching, or would even grow to reach.

Right move for ESPN to choose the NBA over the NHL, but wrong move for the NHL not to get on its knees and beg…like a dog…..to get SOME games on ESPN.  ESPN would have paid for the content (a little less than the previous deal) and the highlights and previews/reviews would have gotten far more coverage on the all-important Sportscenter and shows like Pardon The Interruption than it does now, which is downright miniscule.

Do I think the NHL overpumps the Caps and Pens and their (ooooooh…..) “bitter rivalry”?  Yeah.  Oh yeah, OH OH OH YEAH.  It’s a running joke among some NHL players until while speaking, they get downright frustrated that the league doesn’t seem to know how to sell or market anyone EXCEPT Crosby and Ovechkin.

The Los Angeles Kings didn’t appear once in an NBC game last season.  Neither did San Jose, who won the President’s Trophy.  Embarrassing.  No one is converting to hockey because of Sidney Crosby or Alexander Ovechkin — those watching were already buying in to begin with — so why not promote Drew Doughty?  Why not give a showcase to the league’s best line on many a night last year with Heatley-Thornton-Clowe, with Patrick Marleau and Devin Setoguchi tossed in for good measure?

Nope….the league is stuck with Pittsburgh, Washington, Detroit, Philadelphia, and occasionally, Boston or the Rangers.  If you’re not one of those six teams, your national TV time is limited.

But HBO does poke out an an edgier audience, so any exposure (pardon the pun) on the network is a good thing….provided Bruce Boudreau doesn’t go Andrew Dice Clay like Rex Ryan did, and Mike Knuble doesn’t stumble naming his eight different kids with seven different moms in five states (umm..that’s not true – Knuble’s one of the most honest and classy guys in the league, so unlikely he and Antonio Cromartie have been seen sharing birth control tips in an aisle at Walgreens).

Sure, the Caps and Pens (again) is slightly irritating, but it’s a step towards exposing the league further, though those of us progressives are quite sure the NHL needs to focus more on keeping the hockey fans it already has happy, rather than alienating the already-converted to hunt for new ones.

Greetings All….

1. I’ll be back on-air tomorrow — do with that info what you will.  No, I don’t have the Johnny-Carson-I-don’t-work-Fridays-schedule, though that’s two straight now.  I had a back tooth on the left side of my mouth bugging me for weeks — simply dreadful, crushing migraines resulting from the pain (flying to and from New Orleans for the BBC NFL gig last week, it felt like my skull was in a vise), so I finally dropped in to see a dentist for the first time in the Obama Adminstration, or the last year of George W. Bush’s,  for that matter.

I had a major abscess in the tooth, and it needed to be yanked out.  Those who’ve had a good chunk of freezing injected into the roof of their mouth, especially on the side, know how fun that is, and then the “pliers” did their work, and though, I’ve got some drugs to finish up over the next week or so, I’m back in business, after a fun trip to Cincinnati for a close cousin’s wedding, and a stop-in after landing at Metro Airport in Detroit at Ford Field to see the Eagles defeat the Lions. 

2. I felt for my colleagues Friday, but if there was ever an ideal day to take the day off work, it seems like I chose a beauty.  Ever since I’ve listened to the Fan 590, let alone competed against them (while at AM640), and certainly since I’ve worked there, I am well aware of the journalistic standards and heights they set for themselves, and they really thought they had it all covered on Friday, when it seemed that many in the media had it right and 3-time Jack Adams Trophy winner Pat Burns had succumbed in his THIRD battle with cancer.

Well, we’re all a bit luckier that Burns is still with us, despite the fact it was embarrassing for anyone who told or wrote otherwise.  What can you do?  It happens — many are blaming this on “the power of Twitter”, “the 24-hour news cycle”, and while those factor in, this one just caught a lot of people off-guard, and wherever this faulty report came from originally, it clearly had the ability to grow legs and walk in a lot of different directions.

Before Twitter, CNN, MTV, and even the CD player, the day John Hinckley shot President Reagan and members of his staff, White House Press Secretary James Brady was reported as dead by CBS anchor Dan Rather.

He wasn’t.  I couldn’t have been the only one who didn’t think any less of Dan Rather as a result,  because I only recall it happening once, and I certainly don’t think any less of those who got caught in the trap of the Burns misinformation.  Here’s hoping Burns, as universally popular now as he ever was during his coaching career, cheats the Reaper, so he can see at least some of this upcoming 2010-11 NHL season.

3. Not truly related to the Burns kerfuffle, but the Top 5 Deaths I was involved in relaying news for in my radio career.  *** I reserve a special and emotional place for 9/11 as I was on air with my then-partner Eric Pate when the second plane hit the second WTC tower, so yeah, we had some remarkably emotional phone calls: panic, anger, fright, indignation, revenge — all part of the human catalogue, but we only stayed on-air until around 1030am before going to a syndicated all-news program from a New York affiliate.  As much as I’d like to think I could handle any story/any time, this was far bigger than any of us working at WDFN then were able to handle.

Yet, I was REMARKABLY proud of the post 9/11 radio we did that week — towing the line between commenting on these issues, dealing with sports (what do they mean anymore?  should they continue? when do teams play again)….and my program director at the time, Gregg Henson, deserves tremendous credit for letting “us be us”, not letting us as hosts or our guests/callers get too inflammatory….we were really part of a special time with special people at that radio station, and that’s never lost on me.

1. Princess Diana (August 1997) — nothing touches this one, because while on the lower-end of the food chain at AM800 CKLW in Windsor, I’d gone out to a movie with a girlfriend (the dreadful GI Jane..the movie, not the girlfriend) and before we’d left, we’d heard Diana had been in the car accident. 

When I got back home lamenting the loss of my seven bucks (we went Dutch…big spender…radio..Windsor..you figure it out…), I had about nine messages on my old-style plug-in-the-wall answering machine.  They needed me to race in next door to the station and take some calls, give info on the passing of Diana. 

More than a few people crying, some so as they couldn’t continue on….yes, most were women – but their sadness and shock were truly universal.  I finished on-air at 4am or so, and rolled back in at 840am, hastily wrote a 9am newscast, did casts until noon, and then went off to the opening game of the 1997 NFL season at the Pontiac Silverdome to see the Falcons visit the Lions.  Extremely memorable weekend.

2. Michael Jackson (June 2009) — was on-air at AM640 when news started to break of a heart attack, being rushed to the hospital, but like I’m sure things were on Friday, it was truly a cautionary tale, given TMZ had Jacko DEAD long before anyone else did.

They were right, but very few, if no other organizations, were willing to go out on their own and do anything beyond reporting what TMZ was saying, and keeping themselves very distanced from linking to them. TMZ nailed it, gained huge credibility, and broke a couple other big Hollywood-oriented stories in the summer of 2008….I ended the Watters show at 7pm, and took calls on Jackson’s impact, his life, people’s memories of him until 9pm, and then I remember being up with Mrs. Brady pretty late watching all the coverage.

3. Michael Hutchence, lead singer of INXS (November 1997) — again, an early morning newscast in Windsor — but having just seen INXS (for the fourth time, in Toronto, a month or so earlier), this one was strange.  The band’s decline had been obvious, though the tune “Elegantly Wasted” had some pop to it, got some tread going on rock radio, but seeing Hutchence in person, you didn’t see something like this coming.

4. Mother Teresa (September 1997) — yep, FIVE days after Princess Diana passed away, so it was somewhat overshadowed….you can imagine what a massive amount of tributes there were from similar people, who admired both women, who both did strive to do so much good in the world, but through such divergent paths.  I’m not sure we’ll ever see again coverage of TWO funerals in ONE week receiving such widespread attention from the news media…it would have to be something quite catastrophic, so I’m hoping it’s not.

5. Bo Schembechler (November 2006) — the legendary Michigan coach was as known for his Big Ten championships, his part in creating maybe the greatest rivalry in NCAA (perhaps all North American) sports, along with Woody Hayes, with the Michigan-Ohio State football contests, as he was for his numerous issues with his heart.

I often thought of Schembechler while Chris Farley on SNL, playing one of the Bears “Super Fans”, was pretending to have a heart attack (yes, irony — it’s here).  Schembechler had had numerous heart attacks, but his final one which killed him, was the day before Michigan was to play at Ohio State.  The fact they were playing in mid-November wasn’t all that unusual but the fact both teams WERE 11-0 was extraordinary.

Schembechler was the talk of Columbus, Ohio — the Wolverines team was already en route there when told of Bo’s passing. He was honoured on the field before the game, a 42-39 Ohio State victory (all the passing yards would have set Bo off early anyway — he preferred his three-yard runs up the middle), and then a massive service for him the following week at Michigan Stadium.  It was remarkable to hear people’s memories of him and thoughts of him the morning before the game, and obviously it was as much a story the next week as Michigan’s defeat was.  Michigan had a chance to be chosen as #2 overall in the BCS but the loss slipped them to #3 and a 1-loss Florida team met and beat Ohio State in the national title game.

JUST the way Bo would have wanted it.

 5. The Miami Heat holding training camp at a military base is going to very, VERY interesting. Already the Heat are demanding (because of the location and the need to protect national security) much more personal information from the media covering the team than they already would.

There’ll be less access to the Heat because of this, and Pat Riley seems to want that, but that doesn’t mean there’ll be less attention.  Maybe I’m misinformed, but don’t military bases have much better things to do than be FORCED to host a bunch of super-spoiled (and in this case, close to universally despised) multi-millionaires shoot some hoops?

6. Mis-step by the NHL lumping their European games in with the rest of the openers.  The thing that stood out about the London or Helsinki or Stockholm games was that they were the only NHL games on, and they were on the weekend before hockey really got rolling.  Having your first game of the season in Helsinki between the Hurricanes and the Wild is fine, but NOT at noon on a Thursday.  Not when five other venues open the season.  Not a major screwup, but it’s just lacking logic, as many things the NHL executes similarily does.

7. Speaking of neutral sites, I know the league still has aspirations to grow the game in certain markets, but wouldn’t NHL owners go for hosting 40 games, being truly on the road for 40 games, and playing TWO neutral site games each (one as home team/one as road team).  The league did this with an 84-game sked in the early 1990s, and barnstormed traditonally strong markets like Hamilton, and even rolled into Indianapolis, Peoria, Sacramento, and Saskatoon.  Attendance is going to be so lousy in several NHL markets, so why not take a chance that you can sell MORE tickets in either traditional AHL cities, or even a place like historic Yost Arena in Ann Arbor, Michigan?  I love the idea, and I usually can’t stand my own ideas.

8. I’m alive after two weeks in my NFL Suicide Pool (Week 1: Patriots, Week 2: Packers) — next week, I may even take the 0-2 Vikings at home against the Lions.  If the Vikes fall to 0-3 — it may mean Ryan Longwell and the other veterans will fly Favre BACK to Louisiana on a private jet and leave him there.  This wasn’t the plan for the Purple & Gold — 19 points in 8 quarters.

9. Yes, the Dolphins are 2-0…winning 2 games on the road and holding Buffalo and Minnesota to 10 points each.  They now are at home against the Jets next Sunday night, and the following Sunday afternoon against a Patriots team that got punched in the larynx today by the Jets.  When Miami gets to 4-0, I’ll get excited…until then, I’m numb.

10. Great topic last week involved the band that with any semblance of honour and respect would have/should have changed their name following the death/departure of a member — the “genesis” (pun ignored) being Roger Waters coming to Toronto and playing three sold-out gigs at the Air Canada Centre.  Off the top of my head, the most aggregious offences people brought up included:

1. Pink Floyd continuing as such without Waters

2. Zeppelin without Bonham

3. The Who without Moon (once they did it without Moon, they could easily justify doing it without Entwistle..I mean..c’mon…)

4. Van Halen without Roth (I’m fine with this…that’s their LAST name..and there’s TWO of them – though Van Hagar is a great moniker)

5. The Cars touring as “The New Cars” a few summers ago with Todd Rundgren fronting them, without Ric Ocasek, or their late, great, super-cool bassist/vocalist Ben Orr. “The Lace” lives on…he was GREAT.

6. The Beach Boys without Brian Wilson…and WITH John Stamos.  Yick.

7. Black Sabbath without Ozzy Osbourne

8. Foreigner touring without Lou Gramm — this really bothers me, but Gramm hasn’t kicked up too much of a fuss.

9. Journey isn’t Journey without Steve Perry, I don’t care what that little midget dude sounds like…..he’s NOT Perry. 

10. CCR (Creedence Clearwater “Revisited”) touring as an actual act without John Fogerty, so they can call themselves CCR, but “Revival” gets switched to “Revisited”….not…fooling…..anyone…except…idiots…

Also – Crowded House IS still Crowded House, and I’m ok with that because it’s Neil Finn, and I’m ok with anything he does — but it’s remarkable how fun Paul Hester could make one of their shows — he’s greatly missed….

11. After Brandon Jacobs threw his helmet into the stands in Indy tonight, it must make Ron Artest think: “Man, why didn’t I just do that, instead of running up into the stands”….

12.  I will attempt to watch Detroit-187 — but I will not watch one second of the lawyer show with Jim Belushi and Jerry O’Connell.  I, in fact, haven’t watched one second of Jim Belushi on television since his last season on Saturday Night Live in 1984-85

13. Jump rope…..it’s awesome…rediscovered it 2 years ago and now it’s my favourite thing to do exercise-wise.  I don’t know exactly what it benefits the most…if you know — tell me!  Love doing 200 skips….break….40 inverted pushups….repeat 5x…..I’m not a fiend by any stretch — but I should be doing this routine twice a day….

Generally, a very bad sign when there’s consistent giggling in the press box.  It’s also even worse when the giggling surrounds either the home team’s play-calling or their execution of said play-calling.

There were consistent giggles today, I can assure you after making the trek to the Ralph Wilson Stadium press box today and not just because of the unique fare in the press box.  I’ve probably covered 1pm games in 14-15 different NFL press boxes: obviously the Silverdome and Ford Field in Detroit, and numerous other venues.

I’ve never seen the cold cereal option in a press box.  Choices were Bran Flakes, Corn Flakes, & Rice Krispies — pretty much the staples of non-sugar cereal choices.  I went for the Corn Flakes, only because I wasn’t 100 percent positive because of the scratched-up plexiglass of the serving tower that the Bran Flakes weren’t Raisin Bran, with them there “Raisins” conveniently hidden.

Either way, the breakfast cereal was worth the trip, but the Bills again send their fans home, and back to more tailgating, cursing, calling shows demanding a chance in ownership, management, or quarterback — and the argument can be made, they’ll go nowhere until all three are changed, if not simultaneously, then at least, in quick succession.

It’s a bad football team, and though they only gave up 15 points, I’m not 100 percent sure the Dolphins are much better.  The stat is (I’m guessing at it here, so forgive me) but I’d wager that between 65-70 percent of NFL games are decided by 6 points or less, so yes, this game falls in that category, but if the Dolphins aren’t much better than this, they won’t be able to play with the Jets or the Patriots in the AFC East, and I’m not buying who think Miami is headed to a 10 or 11-win season this year.  There’s just not enough snap in what the offense does, though Brandon Marshall was making things look quite easy in the first half.

The Bills had one first down in their first three possessions.  They had nine in the entire game.  Trent Edwards was as lousy as his offensive line was — in all honesty, no better or no worse.  He had a real limited amount of time to do things, but that’s the case on many an afternoon for many a quarterback, and they accomplish far more. 

Marshawn Lynch had the best Bills run of the day for 15 yards and then was promptly stuffed next play by Karlos Dansby and never touched the ball again. C.J. Spiller was remarkably underwhelming and it’s funny how that works, isn’t it?  He’s not playing in the preseason anymore.  The bullets are live and rookie runningbacks often struggle with the pace and frenetic energy and that was certainly the case today.  Spiller had a carry that went six yards, and six mor that went a combined total of ZERO yards. 

In total, Spiller, counting catches and carries, touched the ball 11 times for a total of 14 yards.  A player drafted to create, regardless of how putrid the offensive line is, didn’t even come close to doing it.  But he’s a rookie, he IS a talented player — but let’s not throw the “special” word around just yet.

Then there’s Edwards — it always falls on him, and it some ways, every Bills quarterback since Jim Kelly, yes even Rob Johnson and Doug Flutie who can claim accomplishments with the Bills through their rivalry, has struggled with his ghost.  Miami’s certainly struggled at the position since Dan Marino, the Bears since Jim McMahon, and Cleveland and Detroit, since, well, the Eisenhower administration.  It’s tough becoming an elite QB, but how about a “good” one.

My mate and ex-morning co-host Jamie Samuelsen in Detroit and I used to talk about Joey Harrington and we determined that even if you couldn’t completely define “it” and what “it” was, we knew Harrington didn’t have “it”.  We were no geniuses (well..we were, but not on that particular account) to point that out to our vast listening public, but I mean, it’s so true.

Watch young quarterbacks — you know quickly.  I mean, you can tell sometimes in a quarter of football!  Aaron Rodgers?  Yep, he does.  He’s got it.  Matt Ryan?  Joe Flacco?  Yep, they look like it?  How about Joey Harrington?  Nope.  How about Mark Sanchez?  Yes!  Now — what about Tim Couch?  Cleo Lemon?  Josh Freeman? Jamarcus Russell?  And our man Trent? 

Nope — they don’t.  This isn’t all Edwards’ fault, certainly not.  I think he can be a decent and “serviceable” backup quarterback.  I know a pro athlete doesn’t like to be called serviceable, unless he’s 38 years old and is headed to a Hall of Fame somewhere….(for example, Mike Modano might be “serviceable” to the Red Wings this season), in fact, you should never describe a new girlfriend to your friends, in her presence or otherwise as “serviceable”….it won’t end well if you do.

Either way, the Bills look like a team going nowhere fast, against a team that heads to Minnesota next week against a Vikings squad with more rest, but seemingly some real offensive problems of their own.  A 2-0 start for the Dolphins, then being at home to play the Jets and Patriots is probably essential to winning double-digit games, but they still weren’t overly impressive here.  Yet, Miami never seems to have great results here, and the earlier in the season they can play in Buffalo the better.  Coming to Orchard Park early and getting the Bills in Miami late is SO much more preferable than having the opposite on the fixtures list.

Still, the Bills need to learn how to bottom out.  They’re terrible at it.  They and the Lions last made the playoffs in the 1999 season.  I was at the Redskins/Lions game where the Lions were destroyed, moments after Homerun Throwback with Wycheck/Dyson ended the Bills’ postseason run at one game.  Neither team’s been back now for 11 seasons.  But check out the records in the interim:

Bills: 66-94

Lions: 40-120

The Bills drafted in the Top 7 one time (taking tackle Mike Williams 4th overall in 2002), and in the Top 10 only twice.

The Lions countered with a #1 pick (Matt Stafford, thank you 0-16!), 2 #2 picks (Charles Rogers/Calvin Johnson..only one of those men is currently incarcerated), a #3 (Joey Harrington), #7 (Roy Williams), and a #9 (Ernie Sims).

Yes, the Lions really don’t have much more to show for it than the Bills do, but at least you can sell hope, and they seem to have keepers in Johnson and Stafford, whereas the Bills have nothing to show for being so bad, yet somehow not bad enough.

These Bills fans pay their hard-earned cash to come and support this team – they deserve a 2-14 year and Jake Locker.  Get ‘er done.

Meanwhile, while writing I FINALLY saw the “incomplete pass” in the Lions/Bears game at Soldier Field.  A horrific call.  Beyond belief.  Ball is over the line.  Receiver has possession.  THREE feet in bounds — not TWO.  Touchdown….plain and simple.  That was pure and utter incompetence.

We’ll have plenty to discuss on it tomorrow at 1pm on The Greg Brady Show.

*** Don’t forget — Centre Ice with Kypreos/MacLean/Brady debuts on The Fan 590.  Is it the beginning of an era or will it last as long as the new cop drama set in Vega$ with James Belushi & Jerry O’Connell?  It’s anyone’s guess.

That wasn’t your father’s Brett Favre out there last night at the Louisiana Superdome. It might not have even been your older brother’s Brett Favre. He looked shaky, indecisive, and had precious little zip on the football. But is he “done”? Is he “borderline done” as I infamously declared one Randy Johnson mere hours before he threw yet another career no-hitter a few years back? Naaahhh…you won’t catch me going there.

My BBC colleague Darren Fletcher and I were thoroughly unimpressed with Favre despite having barely passable numbers (15 of 27, 171 yds, 1TD/1INT), there was more to it than that. People overuse the word “swagger” dramatically with Favre, and yes, though he had precious little of it Thursday night, some credit has to go to the New Orleans defence. Jonathan Vilma is as smart and quick a middle linebacker as there is in the league, and I feel like he’ll hit his professional peak this year or next. The Saints secondary busted up plays and never looked like they didn’t know what was coming against Favre.

But I’m not sure this is an “age” issue with Brett Favre as much as it is an ankle injury issue. Yes, Father Time has made him look older than he really is, so when he does press conferences and looks more like a man in his very late 40s, he’s really only 41. But he needs the ankle to improve — his escapability was drastically limited Thursday night, and was having serious issues throwing off his back foot. It’s incredibly important for him that he get it back to better form before next Sunday’s home opener against the Miami Dolphins — and the fact the Vikings have the earliest bye week in the NFL this year, after just three games, will play to their favour. He needs the reps in practice, he needs the rest and rehabilitation, but it still may not be enough.

He’ll look better, Favre will, as the season goes on, and he’ll remind us more of the Favre that started last season as a Viking after looking so awful in his last couple games of the 2008 season as a New York Jet, but will his receivers?

The under-utilized athletic tight end Visanthe Shancoe needs the ball more — he can dominate individual drives if you let him, and that’s the only reason Minnesota even got their touchdown last night, but the likes of Greg Camarillo and Gary Lewis aren’t going to replace an injured Sidney Rice, or a less-than-stellar Percy Harvin. As the famous saying can be modified: Robert Brooks, Sterling Sharpe, and Donald Driver in his prime aren’t walking through that door to help Favre out.

As for the Saints, what a good second half for Pierre Thomas, one of the league’s underrated crunch-time runners. He had only two carries in the first half but got the ball tons in the second, fifteen times in fact, including the go-ahead touchdown. Reggie Bush is just a nice poster on the wall as part of this offence — Thomas is the real go-to guy and that’s not going to change anytime soon. Eight different Saints caught the football Thursday, and seven at least twice — Drew Brees has all the weapons he could ever want but despite the skills of Marques Colston, there isn’t that “elite” wide receiver. But the way this team plays together — Brees leading the offence, Vilma clearly doing so on defence, another elite player might spoil what the Saints have here.

That’s that — eager to get back to Toronto, get some Dolphins/Bills in me for Sunday, and then get to London next week for an evening of Leafs rookie camp.

Hey there…..LONG day — got guys out the door for school, hour-long bike ride with Mrs. Brady, stung by a wasp on the arm at its conclusion, in to do the show (probably the most fun I’ve had doing it in a while, and I’m having some element of fun every day), stuck in traffic galore headed up Yonge Street to the 401, to the airport, check in, fly to Charlotte, connect there — fly to New Orleans, wait an eternity for the hotel shuttle at 1230am eastern, and then eventually find the bed, the laptop, and as you read this, a remarkably peaceful sleep.

Tomorrow, another big day – hotel gym, large breakfast, off to the Superdome to do the Fan 590 show, off for a few hours, and then Darren Fletcher and I kick off the NFL season throughout Europe, with a massive rematch of Saints/Vikings — the implications of last year’s remarkable NFC title game still resonating in this city, and believe it or not, the sense one gets is that winning that title game, and GETTING to the Super Bowl in a home game against Favre and the Vikings, might even be more memorable than winning the Super Bowl itself in Miami, vanquishing the Indianapolis Colts.

Anyway — tomorrow night around 1130pm, I’ll be having a big, big, big, drink.  Until then, it’s all a nice downhill ride from here.  Here’s The Baker’s Dozen:

 1. Prepping for the game, the most noteworthy thing about Brett Favre is that he had four fumbles in his first ever game at Lambeau Field in 1993, replacing an injured Don “Magic Man” Majkowski.  The gaffes left fans chanting for 3rd-string Ty Detmer.  Having experienced first-hand the Ty Detmer-Lions era, that wouldn’t have been a good thing if Detmer had pushed out Favre for starts or reps.

2. Dan Ellis quits twitter.  Remarkable — it just gets worse, and worse, and worse.  Laying low and off of twitter for several days, and rolling back in as pre-season got going, no one would have given it a second thought.  You can’t help but think he’s not thought all of this quite through.  “Troubling” is too strong a word, but his online behaviour’s been very disarming.  Taking a few heckles from the general populace is something he can’t handle?  He’s an NHL goalie.  Some are theorizing the Lightning asked him to stop — not buying it.  This is all Ellis and his own doing.  It’s why the idiotic notion that athletes should be tweeting during games, or even immediately after, is foolish and ill-conceived — they’d get torched in cyberspace, and some deservedly so.

3. Bottom line: if you’re a pro athlete — don’t talk about money.  PERIOD.  Has Darrelle Revis talked about his new contract?  Nope — all football, baby.  People don’t want to know if you have more than you could possibly spend, and they certainly don’t want you complaining you don’t have “enough”.  Ellis broke that cardinal rule, and seemed incapable of understanding it was a rule in the first place. 

4. It’s a beauty when Allan Walsh, agent for a number of NHL players, chimes in and asks: “can’t an athlete express his opinion?”.  Sure he can, Allan, and people can respond and create a discourse.  Ellis decided he couldn’t handle the discourse, and cut bait, and ran.  Allan is a lot of fun on twitter, and clearly is a guy I’d call first to represent me if I was an NHl player, but he doesn’t have much objectivity when it comes to NHL players making money, and without objectivity, there’ll be credibility lacking when you come hard on a subject you’re directly tied into.

5. Watching ESPN in a hotel room isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, I forgot how annoyed I get by Neil Everett, Linda Cohn, Stuart Scott,….and there are others.  The glib factor is off the charts.

6. Fun topic today given Brad Pitt’s narration of the 2009 New Orleans Saints championship DVD….who would you want to narrate a Maple Leafs Stanley Cup DVD?

We got the inevitable Mike Myers calls, but I’m sorry — Myers as Leaf fan goes BEYOND cliched and an old bit.  Never mind the fact “The Love Guru” did irrepairable damage to his Leafs fandom.  This is an inarguable fact of life.

7. Speaking of movies, I’m in — I want to see the Joaquin Phoenix “documentary”…

8. Oh yeah — who were some of the best suggestions for Leafs Cup glory narration?

Neil Young (liked that one a lot)

Gord Downie (a wildcard, but picked up some steam on email/twitter)

Peter Mansbridge (can’t go wrong)

Bob McCown (this works for me, because he MIGHT give me complimentary copy or two, if I keep the studio clean)

9. Rosie DiManno — I’m a huge fan of hypocrites.  As a “journalist”, Erin Andrews shouldn’t be going on “Dancing With The Stars”, because it compromises her credibility — yet DiManno can loop and paste some factoids, rumours, and innuendo from the sleaziest of British tabloids, to put a papier mache column together on Wayne and Coleen Rooney.  Good stuff.  Stay consistent.  Rooney is a scumdog, but I’m not quite sure the 21-year old tarted-up whore is a beacon of truth and integrity, but Rosie’s eating it up word-for-word.  Oh, and shockingly — she writes about it 80 hours after the story first broke.  This is actually early for her.

10. Howard Jones is playing the Mod Club here in Toronto in October — first concert I ever saw on my own in November 1985.  Sounds like a plan — see an act you first saw a quarter-century ago.  I’m there…..but he’d best do “Everlasting Love” or I’ll throw a beer at his dome.

11. The Texas Rangers look like absolute cannon-fodder in the first round of the playoffs, likely against the Yankees.  They haven’t made the playoffs in eleven seasons, and have lost nine of their last ten playoff games.  All that combined with the current edition being banged up and looking completely gassed, spells a very early exit. I’ll take the Yanks in two.  Yep.  Two.

12. Further to that, the Red Sox, Tigers, White Sox, and possibly Blue Jays are all good enough to win the AL West.  I’m not for expanding the playoffs in MLB, but am totally fine with a completely balanced schedule (outside of 18 interleague games) and lining them up like the English soccer tables.  Then you still have playoff races, but you make sure the best four teams in the league are in.

13.  I would never ever ever hit a woman — but when it comes to Pam Shriver…well, I still wouldn’t — but I’m not sure I’d save her from drowning.  Wait, I’d have to hear her scream with THAT voice, right?  OK…I would save her — then gag her with duct tape.  Then run.

Hope you’re having a great holiday weekend as the fall weather has clicked in.  Going to check in on Argonauts/Tiger-Cats this afternoon and then after kids are in beddy-bye, a fantastic and intriguing college football game with Boise State having easily their toughest test of the season on their cupcake schedule by having to go to Blacksburg and battle a potentially returning-to-great Virginia Tech program.

Next week on Monday, Centre Ice w/ Kypreos, MacLean, & Brady debuts on The Fan 590.  Noon-1pm.  To say I’m pleased and excited to get this going is an understatement.  Still getting to know the guys and obviously, it was a bit of a topsy-weird summer with everything coming together as it is, but I think we’ll be a consistently entertaining and informative show.

I naturally had very mixed feelings leaving where I was previously, and especially given that Leafs Lunch was a show that I worked on quite a bit in a hosting capacity with Bill Watters when Darren Dreger or Brian Duff (ouldn’t do it over the nearly three years I was there.  I’d still much rather there were two hockey shows on at noon in this town, because that provides opportunities for broadcasters, and options for listeners, and I certainly am both of those things.  Either way, Nick and Doug and I will be eager to charge out of the gate, with great topics, great guests, and lots of interaction via phone/email/twitter.  So that’s that, next Monday — it gets going as the Leafs and other teams are in the middle of their rookie camps leading to regular camp.

Meantime, some squads still with some considerable financial trickery to swing — www.capgeek.com still notes that six squads are over the cap (including the Maple Leafs!), with the Rangers just over, and the Red Wings just under.  All other squads have at least 600k of wiggle room.

Colorado, Atlanta, and the Islanders have the 30th, 29th, and 28th-highest payrolls, respectively.  Boston has some work to do to get back under, but obviously most of the talk is about what the New Jersey Devils will do, following the approval of the Ilya Kovalchuk 15-year contract.

First off, it was described to me by one who would know, as “comical” the notion that the Devils would even consider dealing Travis Zajac.  Zajac has played every game the last three seasons, keeps improving offensively and is extremely reliable in his own end as well, and has a 3.9M cap hit, it’s not ideal – but it’s a lot more reasonable than many other Devils contracts.

People who’ve described the Kovalchuk deal as not stemming from Lou Lamariello’s great desire to keep Kovalchuk are probably quite accurate.  The owner has a building in dilapidated downtown Newark to fill and as we all know, despite the Devils’ great successes, they’ve always had a tough time being more than “cult heroes” on the New York/New Jersey sports scene.

Having said that, there’s bad deals galore on the Devils right now which Captain Lou must consider dumping, and the only way he can do that is to include prospects and/or draft picks.

37-year old Brian Rolston has $10 million owed to him over the next two years, and though he scored 20 goals last season, his best years are long behind him, though he did catch fire and become a 30+ goal scorer during his Minnesota Wild run of things.  Rolston has some value for a contender to add depth, like a Ray Whitney, but again, the Devils may have to take a less-than-desirable deal back to make that happen.  A $2.5/3 million mistake from elsewhere, perhaps.

Bryce Salvador’s another head-scratcher.  He’s always been a “nice” player.  Makes most teams better, but given he’s not a scorer, not a shut-down guy, not a fighter, and isn’t skilled enough to play the power-play — how he worked over Lamariello to a 2.9M/year long-term deal simply defies explanation.  I’m not sure he can be moved, and like Rolston — Salvador’s on the books through 2012.

Dainus Zubrus and his deal will make your head explode — $10.2 million over the next three years.  There’s a Dainus Zubrus on every roster, in every organization — only most don’t come with this pricetag.  Again, it’s even debatable whether he makes a contender’s roster better.

Lamoriello has a mess on his hands now — he really does, and despite his richly-deserved Hockey Hall of Fame induction, and the way he’s always valued character, integrity, and honour among the players he believes are fit to wear the Devils logo,  the team as it stands is a mess.

I’ve hacked on Martin Brodeur before for not being an elite goaltender before, and if you took any joy whatsoever in Canada’s gold medal, rest assured, please, though I can’t scientifically prove it — I’m convinced if Mike Babcock doesn’t banish Brodeur to the bench in favour of a not spectacular, but far more steady Roberto Luongo, Canada doesn’t win that tournament.

Brodeur is an all-timer, no question.  Longevity has helped him break records, but he’s still had an exceptional career.  He’s far from an exceptional goaltender.  There’s simply no other keeper who could win 6 of his last 22 playoff starts and not be replaced in the organization.  Not a one.  Loyalty matters in the Devils organization and that’s great,  but the Devils’ roster issues and team decline have coincided with Brodeur’s decline.  He’s fine as a regular season goaltender when he can pad wins playing against other teams’ backups, and catching teams on long road trips or back-to-backs, but when it’s best-on-best and all teams are putting out in the postseason, he’s become sub-par and completely unreliable.

I know Leafs fans are hoping THEY can be the team like Atlanta and Toronto did, to hope to exploit the Devils’ “issues” before the regular season starts, but though Brian Rolston would help the Leafs’ offence, there’s no financial wiggle room without sending something back.  Count on the Islanders or St. Louis or Colorado to be the team to take on an overpaid Devils veteran, but there’ll be an asking price.  Future Devils like Nick Palmieri, the very underrated Adam Henrique, or even Vladimir Zharkov, who should make the Devils roster out of camp, are going to be in discussions. 

No one’s scratching Lou Lamariello’s back without a reciprocal snuggle here, especially after the circus the Kovalchuk signing ended up becoming.

For whatever reason, my 1986 World Cup Soccer memories are VERY distinct  – the teen years can be like that.  A song comes on the IPod and you remember exactly who/where/when and sometimes even who with.

’86 was a summer full of daily tennis and playing baseball for Oakridge in London, the Roger Clemens 20-strikeout game, the summer I completed my first year of high school, dying for September and not to be “freshman meat” anymore, but it was also a summer of soccer — the World Cup, and shockingly, Canada had qualified with the likes of Alex Bunbury, Randy Samuel, Bob Lenarduzzi, and others.

Whereas the Hand of God goal stands out for ALL English footy fans, and it does for me too, I recall a weekend tie against France to open the tournament, where Canada played Platini’s squad chance-for-chance, pass-for-pass, and in true Canadian style, foul-for-foul.  We even nearly went up 1-nil, but a French defender headed an attempt on goal off the line.  France would win the game 1-nil on a goal a few minutes before injury time began, and Canada got rick-rolled (before we knew who “Rick” was) by Switzerland and the Soviet Union.  End of tournament, end of story.

Probably much like Dan Marino thought 18 months earlier after his 16-2 Dolphins were drowned in Palo Alto to Montana’s 17-1 Niners in the Super Bowl: he assumed he’d be back in the big game several times over, Canada surely thought in the six World Cups which have followed, to be seven in 2014, Canada would be rep’ing for CONCACAF again.

Since then, Jamaica has gone.  Trinidad & Tobago have.  Honduras makes regular appearances, and the juggernauts of Mexico and the United States haven’t missed, not once.

We sit on the sidelines, and though Confederations Cups and Gold Cups come and go, we all know nations are judged on the World Cup, and European nations get the opportunity for double judgement with the incredible spectacle which is the European Championships.

There’s many answers why we miss out time after time, and sadly, though we seemed a more formidable international threat than Team USA at one point, that ship has long since sailed, and barring everything going against either of them, or some massive scandal or Ebola virus, USA and Mexico will make every future World Cup as high as we can count, which leaves only spot, and sometimes two for Canada to scrap it out with our Central American brethren.

Yesterday was an example of how far we have to go, and not just that, but the idiocy and inexcusable scheduling which saw Canada play a friendly at Toronto’s BMO Field against Peru, while Toronto FC had a key road affair in Dallas in MLS play.  Though the league properly and logically took two weeks off for the round-robin portion of this summer’s World Cup, the league still gets it so wrong by scheduling regular play on so-called “international weekends” with both UEFA and CONMEBOL qualifying rolling out of the gate with most matches on Friday.

TFC was absent the prominent trio of De Rosario, De Guzman, and Attakora and lost 1-nil, in a match where they hustled hard, but probably should have lost 2-nil based on a flimsy save attempt late which Dallas poked into the goal past Stefan Frei.  Peru won by a 2-nil score and from all accounts, toyed with Stephen Hart’s Canadian side bringing a very strong contingent of Peruvian fans (Peruvian Lady, anyone? Good tune!) to their feet, thundering away on numerous occasions.

So bad enough, TFC, likely not a playoff squad anyway, got zippo in a key road battle in Dallas and has to hightail it to Chicago to meet the Fire Wednesday night, but that they were absent three players, who were part of a disappointing result in scoreline and atmosphere at BMO.

Canada didn’t HAVE to play this weekend, nor do they on Wednesday in Montreal against Honduras.  These are conscious choices.  In fact, Team USA knowing full well, they damage the MLS “brand” by scheduling such matches of little consequence beyond chemistry-building and tactics (yes, important factors in the long-term), won’t play a friendly until October when MLS playoffs are nearing, when they meet Poland in Chicago’s Soldier Field, and Colombia in Philly at the Union’s amazing new pitch.

It’s a good bet that American internationals who have playoff implications on the line won’t play for Team USA in those games, or at worst, they’ll play in one, and yes, it should still come down to individual choice.  Dwayne De Rosario is hardly a “bad person” if he skips yesterday’s Peru match to stick with his Toronto FC brothers, who actually pay his freight, but the MLS really needs to do better than this and limit play on international weekends, and not force its prominent and elite players into a corner to choose.

Does this make us any closer to qualifying for 2014 or 2018, probably not?  I’m told by those who know far better than me that Stephen Hart is the best choice in a long time to direct this time, so I’m hoping they give him at least a couple World Cup qualifying campaigns to prove so.

I saw first hand in Summer 2008 what an amazing atmosphere BMO can be for a key qualifier like the 1-all Jamaica/Canada affair was.  A true night to remember, despite the field turf!  We need more of those matches and more of those memories.  But Saturday in both the shadow of the Ex, and deep in the heart of Texas, two different clean sheets demonstrated we have a ways to go.

Those apologists who just figure a couple more Canadian-based MLS teams will show up, as they will, and all of a sudden qualifying for the World Cup becomes a simpler task should think about adjusting those red-and-white goggles.