Canadian Crossing

ESPN rediscovers MLB in Toronto

"You always hope to have one Blue Jays game a year."

In Chris Berman's "Ode to Codeine," he notes that you should take advantage if you draw a Blue Jays assignment. Well, ESPN rarely makes the trip up north, much less show the Toronto Blue Jays these days. Monday night proved to be an exception, and the U.S. cable sports channel's trip to Toronto had nothing to do with the Blue Jays, Toronto, or codeine.

ESPN wanted a chance to showcase long-time Japanese hurler Yu Darvish, and this was its best shot so far. While the focus and coverage was on Darvish, Canada and Toronto were not ignored.

In the graphic for the Blue Jays fielding alignment, defense was spelled with a c — defence — and play-by-play guy Sean McDonough pointed that out. McDonough, along with Aaron Boone and Rick Sutcliffe, also teased on-field reporter Tim Kurkjian for almost not getting into Canada because of an expired passport. McDonough made a joke on how U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton helped Kurkjian with his passport.

Kurkjian, in his first report, said "Darvish has fit in beautifully here in the United States" though McDonough later made the distinction between the U.S. and Canada in a similar context.

The Blue Jays didn't impress in the U.S. national appearance. A rally without a hit in the second inning ended without a run. The only Toronto run came on a solo home run by Edwin Encarnacion in the fourth inning. Encarnacion is one of the few Jays sluggers hitting the ball well, hitting a home run in each of the last four games.

The game drew a relatively quiet crowd of 21,945 fans. Walkup wasn't much of a factor; while the roof was closed, the weather outside was rainy. The announcers thought there would be more fans because of Darvish. Boone pointed out the number of people of Japanese descent in Toronto, but the extra crowd for Jeremy Lin (Chinese descent, NBA) proved to be more of an impact at Air Canada Centre.

The announcers also had fun showing Sunday Night Baseball play-by-play guy Dan Shulman in the Rogers Centre crowd with his sons. Shulman is Canadian and from Toronto; you had to think he knew he might be on camera at some point. Sutcliffe mentioned that he had never met Shulman's sons before. Well, this is because ESPN rarely gets to Toronto.

Then again, ESPN ranked Toronto as the worst city for professional sports teams in North America last summer. The poll was based on fans voting online, so science certainly wasn't a factor. The playoff futility of the Blue Jays and Maple Leafs plus the overall futility of the Raptors played a lot into that take. They didn't take into account the CFL Argonauts or the score might have been lower.

McDonough referred to the long-suffering Toronto sports fans as having "not a lot to cheer about in this beautiful city." He pointed out the woes of the Blue Jays, Raptors, and Maple Leafs, and even the Argonauts though McDonough doesn't follow the CFL.

Toronto's past glory came up as well. McDonough relived his CBS-TV call of Joe Carter's World Series winning home run. They also paid tribute to the late Tom Cheek's call of Carter's home run.

Referring to 1994, Mc Donough noted that "the work stoppage that followed really killed baseball in Montreal and Toronto."

The city of Toronto was on great display in the bumpers coming out of the break. One particularly beautiful shot had the skyline of downtown Toronto lit up looking west as McDonough said, "one of the great cities in the world, Toronto, Ontario."

ESPN portrays itself as the Worldwide Leader. Canada is part of that world, especially when Toronto has teams in sports that the network cares about (MLB, NBA). Since ESPN doesn't carry hockey, the NHL gets very little coverage on the Worldwide Leader. At least ESPN made it up to Rogers Centre; Fox will show every MLB team this year except for the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Blue Jays get another U.S. national appearance as the matinee series conclusion airs this afternoon on the MLB Network at 12:30 pm Eastern. The U.S. cable channel will take a local feed for the coverage.

2012 NHL Center Ice/MLB Extra Innnings spring preview

Well, the 2012 spring NHL Center Ice free preview won't be remembered as being the best one. In many ways, it will be the worst.

The MLB Extra Innings preview runs through April 15. The NHL element covers 4 days of the hockey season, except that there are no Center Ice games on Friday and the sport isn't playing on Easter Sunday. On top of that, since all playoff games will appear on NBC, NBCSN, CNBC, and the NHL Network, Center Ice will carry 0 playoff games.

The 2011 version lasted 10 days and was glorious on numerous levels. The 2012 version is 2 days, and even worse, I will have as few as 6 Canadian feeds.

All games on Saturday except for Ducks-Flames are available on CBC feeds (marked with *).

As for the Canadian feeds I will get this week, only the two games in Alberta on Thursday and all but the Ottawa game on Saturday. Baseball will also interfere on the shared feeds.

NHL Center Ice free preview
April 5 — Tampa Bay @ Toronto; Winnipeg @ NY Islanders; Montréal @ Carolina; Boston @ Ottawa; Vancouver @ Calgary; Anaheim @ Edmonton
April 7 — Ottawa @ New Jersey*; Anaheim @ Calgary; Toronto @ Montréal*; Tampa Bay @ Winnipeg*; Edmonton @ Vancouver*

The 2012 edition of Canada's best and only MLB team, the Toronto Blue Jays, start out in Cleveland before coming home on Monday. Rogers Sportsnet and Rogers Sportsnet One will cover all 162 Jays games.

MLB Extra Innings free preview
@ Cleveland: April 5 (3 pm), April 7-8 (1 pm)
Boston: April 9-10 (7 pm), April 11 (12:30 pm)
Baltimore: April 13 (7 pm), April 14 (4 pm), April 15 (1 pm).

Hope you have better luck with getting Toronto feeds during the preview. For those cable customers with the big C named company where I live, I have 0 Rogers Sportsnet feeds for the entire preview. Sad. If you're a Jays fan in the States, you want to see your hometown announcers. And you can't blame this on baseball, outside of Thursday and Saturday.

MLS soccer welcomes third Canadian team in Montréal Impact

Two years ago, Major League Soccer (MLS) only had one Canadian-based team: Toronto FC. You might recall the 2010 MLS Championship from BMO Field in Toronto.

Last year, the league added the Vancouver Whitecaps. And now, the Montréal Impact begins its inaugural MLS season today against the Whitecaps in BC Place.

The Impact will play at Sapputo Stadium once that field is ready. In the interim, the Impact will start out at Olympic Stadium. The home opener is March 17 against the Chicago Fire.

The Impact hope for a better opening season than the Whitecaps. Vancouver went 6-18-10 in its inaugural season.

Toronto soccer got a boost from the exhibition game on Wednesday against the Los Angeles Galaxy (re: David Beckham) at Rogers Centre. Toronto FC drew over 47,000 people — a new Toronto soccer record — for the 2-2 tie. Toronto FC has missed the playoffs in all five MLS seasons; the team tries once again starting March 17 in Seattle. Last year, the team finished with a 6-13-15 record.

MLB and NBA have only one Canadian-based team, two in its history. Outside the NHL, this is the first major U.S.-dominant professional league to have three Canadian-based franchises at one time.

Americans who live in a MLS market or get a Spanish-speaking network might have extra opportunities to see one of the three Canadian teams. NBCSN will carry two games featuring Canadian teams (Toronto and Vancouver), and Galavision will have a Toronto FC game.

2012 MLS soccer (all times Eastern)
April 21 Chicago @ Toronto FC 3:30p (NBCSN)
June 30 New York Red Bulls @ Toronto FC 7p (Galavision)
September 29 Seattle @ Vancouver 9p (NBCSN)

2012 Toronto Blue Jays spring training TV schedule

While Fox refuses to carry the Toronto Blue Jays on its schedule, and ESPN and TBS likely will carry few games that don't involve Toronto with the Yankees or Red Sox, spring training might be your best bet to get a glimpse of the 2012 Blue Jays.

In the "30 Clubs in 30 Days" series, the Toronto Blue Jays will be featured on March 29. The program will get repeated several time in the following 24 hours.

The MLB Network offers a rather decent amount of Toronto games during Spring Training. Then again, 4 of the 8 games involve the Yankees or Red Sox. Games with a + are live, the rest are tape-delayed.

(ss) Denotes split squad.

Date	Time	Opponent
March 10	7p+	@ Boston
March 18	4a	(ss) @ Philadelphia
March 19	10a	Philadelphia
March 20	7p+	@ Boston
March 26	10a	Boston
March 27	7p+	@ NY Yankees
April 1	1a	@ Philadelphia
April 2	6a	Pittsburgh

NHL notebook: Canadiens honor the late Gary Carter

When the Expos franchise left Montréal, the NHL Canadiens did their best to keep the memory of Les Expos alive. The Habs took on Youppi! and the retired numbers of the Expos hang in the rafters of the Bell Centre.

The Canadiens are wearing a #8 sticker on their helmets for the late Gary Carter who passed away on Thursday. Don't know if the CBC announcers made a note on that Sunday night, but the news escaped the NBCSN team.

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NBCSN made its point in the theme of the day that New Jersey had 7 American-born players and Montréal had 4 players. Mike Cammalleri has been traded (for Canadian Rene Borque) and Brian Gionta is injured. American-born Max Pacioretty scored the only goal Sunday night for Les Habs.

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Gord Miller and Ray Ferraro didn't get much air time on Hockey Day in America, but certainly made the best of it. The entire country started with the TSN team of Miller and Ferraro in Buffalo, and the Sabres helped out the TV crowd and scored a goal before the San Jose vs. Detroit game audience switched out. Those watching the St. Louis vs. Chicago game got a few extra minutes of Miller and Ferraro.

The NBC pre-game featured the Minnesota rivalry between Roseau and Warroad, two cities less than 10 miles from the Manitoba border. Warroad is on the bay that runs into the Lake of the Woods where Ontario, Manitoba, and Minnesota all meet.

You can't help but notice that two of the three early destinations were Buffalo and Detroit, both cities where you can see Canada from the hockey arenas.

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We had a bit of fun speculating about where Andy Brickley would be at the Bell Centre for Sunday night's telecast on the NBCSN. I contemplated him sharing space with Glenn Healy by the visiting goalie. D'oh. Healy was in Vancouver for the Saturday night HNIC game, so Brickley was in the usual spot all by himself. Bob Cole and Garry Galley didn't have an inside the glass analyst. Andi Petrillo went from the I-Desk in Toronto Saturday night to be the sideline reporter Sunday in Montréal.

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Hope you got a chance to see After Hours on the NHL Center Ice free preview. It may be the last time you see it until April.

We have made numerous points about the NHL Network's decision not to show the late CBC game or After Hours. CBC hasn't allowed U.S. ISPs to see After Hours on its site lately. And YouTube has had mixed results.

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The NHL Network will feature Canadian-based teams three nights in a row, including Saturday night's Hockey Night in Canada. Thursday night, Vancouver travels to Detroit. The feed will come either from Rogers Sports Net Pacific or Fox Sports Detroit. Montréal is at Washington on Friday night either from TSN or CSN-Washington. You can see more of the Capitals and Alex Ovechkin as Washington travels to Toronto on Saturday night via CBC.

Viewers who get a CBC feed get two extra games on Saturday. St. Louis will be at Winnipeg for a matinee and Philadelphia @ Calgary will be the late game. Once again, the NHL Network won't carry the late CBC game. Still haven't received a reply from the NHL Network.

Those getting the CBC from Ottawa will have Boston at Ottawa at 7 pm Eastern on Saturday.

For those who get Comcast simulcasts, these are your possible options on Tuesday (Philadelphia at Winnipeg), Wednesday (Washington at Ottawa), Thursday (San Jose at Toronto and Philadelphia at Edmonton), and Saturday (Philadelphia @ Calgary).

Sports notebook: Jeremy Lin rocks Toronto, Fox carries every MLB team but Toronto

UPDATE: Gary Carter, the first player to go into baseball's Hall of Fame as a Montréal Expo, has died at the age of 57.  Carter had been suffering from brain cancer for some time, and dealt with new tumors last month. Carter was a 2-time All-Star Game MVP, won 4 Gold Gloves, and finished with 324 HR. He also served as a broadcaster for the Expos and Marlins and worked as an ambassador for the game. He will be sorely missed.

We rarely talk about the Raptors because, well, there isn't much to say. But the Raptors got their second sell-out crowd of the season and the first since Opening Night all thanks to a guard from the New York Knicks named Jeremy Lin.

It didn't hurt that Lin has another great night capped off with a 3-point shot with less than a second left to give the Knicks a 3-point win.

Having an upstart 23-year-old from Harvard on a hot streak would be enough to draw bigger crowds. For Toronto, the fact that Lin is of Taiwanese descent and is one of the few Asian Americans in NBA history made a bigger difference. Outside of New York, San Francisco, and maybe Los Angeles, Toronto has the largest East Asian population of any NBA city.

One report estimated that 20% of the Raptors crowd was of Asian descent.

Leagues usually suffer attendance-wise after dealing with a strike. If Lin can bring more attendance magic to other cities, the Linsanity miracle will just get larger.

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"This season, the primetime stretch begins on May 19 and will continue through July 7. According to Fox, all teams excluding Toronto will be featured during that 8 week stretch at least twice."

Fang Bites summed that up well. The sentence is blunt about what Fox thinks of carrying the Blue Jays yet offers hope that maybe Toronto would get one appearance.

Nope. No Blue Jays telecasts on Fox. Not that we are surprised. The idea that the Pittsburgh Pirates, Houston Astros, Oakland A's, and Seattle Mariners have at least two telecasts in a 7-week stretch. Toronto has zero telecasts … for the whole year.

Toronto does end up on TBS Sunday afternoon telecasts, though their sole purpose is to play the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. Fox covers East Coast and West Coast teams; TBS rarely gets west of St. Louis to carry a game.

Fox's argument is the lost ratings in the home market. A game that has only one market would have less overall ratings than a game with two markets. Pittsburgh is pretty small and has a perennially bad team. Oakland is small and isn't good. Toronto is the 5th largest city in North America. Buffalo and Western New York can't be much smaller than Pittsburgh. Fox won't show Jose Bautista, one of the most prolific home run hitters, and one of the most explosive offenses in baseball. Heck, Fox won't even show O Canada at the All-Star Game.

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Okay, one hockey note from Wednesday night's Boston-Montréal game. Goalie interference was a dominant part of the game, and the most egregious call came when Max Pacioretty got a 2-minute penalty for avoiding goalie interference. The Canadiens were then on the power play, and Boston scored when the teams were at 4 apiece, so Montréal suffered on the ice.

Louis Leblanc was called later for goalie interference, even though Boston goalie Tim Thomas was well outside the crease. Refs called 4 goalie interference penalties in the game, only 2 of them (1 Boston, Erik Cole for Montréal) were legit.

While the NBCSN announcers ignored the fact that Leblanc's "interference" came with Thomas nowhere near the crease, Ed Olczyk and Pierre McGuire were left dumbfounded about why Pacioretty was penalized. Olczyk was particularly loud about how horrible the call was.

Watching referees overcall goalie interference takes us back to the times when Chicago would bash Robert Luongo but the refs wouldn't call obvious goalie interference. And watching Max Pacioretty, of all people, get a bad call against Boston at the Bell Centre reminds us that Zdeno Chara never got punished for his deliberate massive hit. And to add insult to insult, McGuire noted that refs were now cracking down after Milan Lucic (also of Boston) hit Buffalo star goalie Ryan Miller who has not been the same since. Lucic, like Chara, suffered no suspension.

Watching Brad Marchand clip yet another Canadian-based player makes us cringe as he couldn't claim self-defense last night. His outrageous self-defense claim was at least denied as a Bruins player actually got a suspension. We'll see if Marchand faces more discipline. The punishment by the NHL needs to be very tough on such cheap shots, especially by Boston.

Le Grande Orange makes it into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame

Long before Andre Dawson wore #10 in the Montréal outfield, #10 belonged to Le Grande Orange — Rusty Staub — an original member of Les Expos.

Though Staub only played three seasons north of the border, he will be inducted this June into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

Staub was embraced not just for his reddish-orange hair but also because he learned the French language. Staub played for the Montréal Expos from 1969-1971 and the last half of the 1979 season. The #10 is retired for both Staub and Dawson by the Expos.

Milwaukee Brewers General Manager Doug Melvin (Chatam, ON), long-time left-handed pitcher Rheal Cormier (Moncton, NB), and the 2011 Canadian senior national team will also be inducted in the June ceremony.

Cormier pitched for St. Louis, Boston, Montréal, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati in a career that spanned from 1991-2007. Cormier also pitched for Canada in the 2006 World Baseball Classic and the 1988 and 2008 Canadian squads in the Summer Olympics.

For those who deride the Montréal market for baseball should really go back and see the way the original Expos were warmly welcomed to La Belle Province. Expansion teams are by definition cast-offs from other teams. Coming to a new team in a new country with a different primary language, the fans really loved those players, especially those who learned the language. The Florida Marlins haven't seen that kind of love, ever.

The Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame is in St. Mary's, Ontario. St. Mary's is just northeast of London and west of Kitchener/Waterloo, not too far from Stratford in southern Ontario.

Notebook: Chicago's trip to Western Canada

While most American viewers were shut out of Canadian-based live hockey this past week, those in Chicago got to see the team's final trip to Western Canada this year.

Of course, the entire country ended up seeing the Edmonton-Chicago game yesterday, thanks to Sam Gagner's 8-point effort. Glad to see that the NHL Network used the TSN feed and they showed the rebroadcast in Chicago. Having Mike Johnson rinkside gave an unique perspective on the reaction from Edmonton's bench as to the herculean effort.

Only 1 NHL player ever scored more than 8 points in a game. Scott Gomez had 7 points in a year for the Montréal Canadiens, and 0 goals.

The Chicago-Vancouver "rivalry" is one-sided as the Blackhawks think more of Vancouver as a rival. The fact that WGN carried the game on a weeknight speaks volumes to how the Blackhawks feel about the game. The fact that TSN carried every Chicago game on the Western Canada road trip speaks volumes to what Canadian TV thinks of the Chicago NHL franchise.

If it weren't for the Edmonton game, this would have been the most noteworthy game. One of the best-played games of the year.

Canadian fans can watch WGN's local feed, so that feed was available throughout Canada (except for Vancouver). WGN operates as a superstation but its Blackhawks and Bulls telecasts are prohibited from being showed on U.S. cable systems, thanks to the NHL and NBA.

The irony is that the Chicago Blackhawks had the worst TV rights for many years: no home telecasts, even on cable and no OTA telecasts. Now, WGN in Chicago is one of the few (or maybe the only one) OTA stations that carries NHL hockey.

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Live Canadian-based hockey returns on Thursday as the Maple Leafs travel to Philadelphia. TSN is carrying the game in Canada, though the fear is that Comcast Sports Net Philadelphia will be the feed for the NHL Network.

We'll have more on Hockey Day in Canada later in the week.

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One of the most iconic MLB players from Canada has announced his retirement. Matt Stairs, born in St. John's and grew up in Fredericton, New Brunswick, has retired as an active player and will work for NESN as an analyst for Boston Red Sox telecasts.

Stairs was a 1B/OF/DH through his 19-year career, but became best known late in his career as a pinch-hitting extraordinaire.

Matt Stairs played for both Canadian teams, signing and playing with Montréal and later playing for Toronto. He also suited up for the Oakland A's, Kansas City Royals, Washington Nationals, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, Boston Red Sox, Texas Rangers, San Diego Padres, Chicago Cubs, Detroit Tigers, and Milwaukee Brewers.

With his physique being better suited for softball, Stairs was an endearing athlete who was more relateable than the average millionaire baseball player.

Stairs finished his career as a .262 hitter with 265 HR and 30 stolen bases.

ESPN writer grossly misuses Montreal mass-shooting reference

We have certainly run into instances of American journalism where their knowledge of Canada isn't up to speed. But when a Canadian writer gets involved, well, that is news.

Chris Jones is Canadian, but also grew up in Australia, and writes for ESPN magazine, based in the United States. Jones wrote a column about Jeffrey Loria, current owner of the Miami Marlins (nee Florida) and loathed former owner of the Montréal Expos.

Jones' column was warning fans of the Marlins that Loria would repeat himself and the Marlins would eventually be without a team. While the sentiment of the column was something we would applaud, this wasn't the most well-researched column and there are a number of holes, a la fromage Suisse.

The column in itself isn't why Jones got into trouble; he referred to what would happen in Miami as "Montréal Massacre, Part II." What Jones said he didn't know, and what the ESPN copy editors should have caught is that "Montréal Massacre" in non-sports terms refers to the Ecole Polytechnique shootings in 1989, when gunman Marc Lepine targeted women and killed 14 female students before turning the gun onto himself. The reference is more disturbing since the anniversary was in early December, and the Stephen Harper government is getting rid of the long-gun registration, which was originally inspired by the Montréal Massacre.

Once Jones realized what happen, he said he tried to fix the situation as best he could. While the online version was changed, the printed version contains the horrible phrasing.

Jones said he was living in Australia in 1989 when the shooting happened, and didn't associate the term with the shooting. For now, we can accept that explanation.

As someone who is a journalist, writer, and editor, writers have a requirement to stretch the language. Editors are paid to recognize when something can be disturbing or offensive. Even if the U.S.-based copy editors don't know of a Montréal Massacre, they should have taken out the violent element of the phrasing. An editor isn't always the popular one, but a good editor knows that being right is more important than being cool.

When writing about a culture that you aren't familiar with, you do have to go overboard to make sure what you are saying isn't taken badly because of circumstances that they know and you don't.

In the United States, a mass shooting involving 15 people is almost a ho-hum moment. In Quebec and Canada, the Ecole Polytechnique shootings were a big deal for the gender targeting and that 14 innocent people were murdered in the prime of their lives. It was, and still is, a big deal 22 years later.

Sports is sports, and real life is real life. Sports writers and editors (and I have been one) don't always get the difference. The folks at ESPN didn't set out to upset the people of Montréal and Quebec and Canada, but they should have been paying more attention to their copy. Normally, having a Canadian writer means Canada won't get as slighted as sometimes happens in American journalism. But journalism means double and triple checking, even when things are obvious.

Bob Elliott is first Canadian sportswriter in Cooperstown

A belated congratulations to Bob Elliott, the latest entree into baseball's Hall of Fame. Elliott won the Taylor Spink Award.

Elliott covered the Montréal Expos from 1978 to 1986 for the Ottawa Citizen and the Toronto Blue Jays since 1987 for the Toronto Sun.

Tom Cheek, long-time broadcaster for the Blue Jays, missed a chance to also get into the Hall of Fame.

In an interview shortly after hearing about his induction, Elliott told a fascinating story about traveling to Cuba to see Omar Linares. The Expos and Blue Jays wanted to sign Linares to play just the home games, since Canada didn't have an embargo against Cuba. MLB wouldn't let that happen, and Linares never played in the major leagues.

The Expos were unable to compete at the same level as other teams throughout most of its existence, especially after the strike of 1994. And the Blue Jays haven't been back to the playoffs since then. Though Canada doesn't have the repressive relationship with Cuba that the U.S. has, the Canadian teams were punished because of U.S. political actions.

Last year was a huge year for Canadian-related people in the Hall of Fame. Roberto Alomar, Pat Gillick, and Dave Van Horne all made it to the Hall of Fame in 2010. This year will sound a lot less Canadian, but will still be worth taping the ceremonies. The MLB Network runs the ceremonies in the United States.