The Toronto Sport and Social Club (TSSC) has a fairly good reputation in Toronto for providing fun and social after-work sports. In fact, sportaholik.com visitors (80+ of them) have given the TSSC a rating of 4.1 out of 5. (more…)
Looks like the Toronto Raptors made it to the top of the popular social news site Reddit.com today with this YouTube clip. It’s a short video of the Raptor mascot devouring one of the cheerleaders. I guess anything really can go viral.
Great news for us Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fans as tonight, there’s a couple of great events on also happen to be available free (with a cable subscription) and in HD. Those of us who subscribe to either Rogers or Bell cable will be able to take advantage and watch these events live.
WEC 45 can be seen on TSN2 (Ch 98 / 507)
Strikeforce Evolution can be seen on Super Channel 2 - SCHD2 (Ch 559 for Rogers, Ch 844 for Bell). Lucky for us, a free preview for Super Channel is available until Mid-Janaury.
Both have a 10pm start time.
Apparently you’re looking for the lyrics to ‘Free To Be (The Leaf’s Song)’ by Alan Frew. Look no further. The song lyrics from the video version are reproduced here courtesy of sportaholik.com (where you can find other Toronto recreational players to play with!):
Free To Be - The Leaf’s Song (Alan Frew, formerly of Glass Tiger)
From the Isle of Vancouver
To the Labrador Sea
One nation, glorious and free
Where I’m free to be me.From the song of the Prairies
To the call of the ponds
Heroes of times come and goneWhere the memories go on and on and on
Oh! Oh! Oh! This is Canada’s song (Go Leafs Go)
Oh! Oh! Oh! Where my heart belongs (Go Leafs Go)Oh! Oh! Oh! This is Canada’s team.
Now you can sing along… I guess.
The Post had a front page article today about the new unofficial Toronto Maple Leafs anthem ‘Free To Be’ (the Leaf’s Song) by former Glass Tiger front man Alan Frew. It seems to be ruffling feathers across Canada as it declares the Maple Leafs to be ‘Canada’s Team’. Catchy tune, sure, but I think fans of the rest of Canada’s NHL teams may have something to say about the lyrics. Judge for yourself, below.
The Toronto Argonauts were soliciting feedback from Argonaut fans after this dismal 2009 season. I decided to fill out the survey as I’m a big fan (despite their awful record). What does an Argonauts fan sitting in the same end zone seats for four years think? Here are some ideas. These are more than I could write in the survey as they limited their ‘additional comments’ field to 350 measly characters - yowch, do you want feedback, or not?
Bring Back the End Zone Seats
This past season the Argos got the big idea to replace the end zone seats (regular ‘Skydome’ seats) with benches-sorta. Bottom line is there’s no seat backing and they’re really not comfortable at all. The ‘official’ word was it was to build camaraderie among the end zone patrons. Great goal, but wrong approach. These ’seats/benches/whatever’ are horribly uncomfortable.
Lets Fans Keep the Footballs
A regular occurrence at Argonaut games is when a football misses the mesh on a field goal some lucky fan gets a free ball. Not so fast. They’ll be surrounded by Rogers Centre staff in no time - and asked to give up the ball. The usher I spoke with says it’s a ’safety issue’ — ummm, ok. It seems they may give you a ’souvenir’ football in replacement - which, of course, if not an official ball. I’m not sure if this is the Argos policy, Rogers Centre policy, or that of the CFL. Whatever it is, it stinks. The CFL (and especially the Argos) need every fan they can get. You destroy the fan experience when you start confiscating footballs. How about this scenario: The ball is caught by a young fan attending his first Argonauts game. He’s elated, and brings it to school, telling all his friends what happened. Right away, the Argos are shown in positive light from the best source possible — word-of-mouth. This young fan’s friends take interest in the game and then bug their parents to take them to the next Argos game. If they’re hooked, you may have an Argonauts fan for life. The alternative is that this impressionable young fan is bugged by multiple Rogers Centre ushers/security folks to cough up his newly won ball. What’s his story at school now? I can tell you it won’t be positive. So much for getting new Argos fans on that playground. I’m still not sure of the real reason why the Argos take the balls or if the ’safety’ reason described to me is legitimate. I can see how they may want to deter people from running/pushing/whatever for the ball when it enters the crowd, but how does taking the ball away after-the-fact help that cause? Or, if it’s because the football becomes a ‘projectile’ after-the-fact then they should be sweeping everyone for everything they bring in. I can tell you the cowbells of the front row of Section 122 (and 123) can do a lot more damage than that football. Oh, and don’t even think about taking them.
Bring Back the Argonauts Fight Song
We (myself and my fellow Section 122ers) were elated when the Argonauts brought back the Fight Song a year or two ago. What a great way to connect with the past (so much history with this club, why not reach back for some of that!). Also, it’s simply a great tune that had the fans of the end zone and beyond standing and chanting/singing/whatever upon an Argonauts touch down. The Argonotes (including Taylor!) got in the act as well (sidenote: more Argonotes - they’re great!). So, what happened in the 2009 season? Sure the team scored less, but even when they did the Fight Song was not to be played (from what I recall) - or, if it did, it got cut off by some awful promo-bit. Really? Kill the fight song so we can plug Barrie Nissan - or whoever? (side note: ‘dependability, trustworthiness,…’ I forget the rest. Help me out Kent Austin!). So, umm, yeah, bring back the song! Put the lyrics back on the big screen so all can join in. Have the Argonotes play their hearts out. Good times. Hopefully there will be more touch downs, too.
Crowd ‘Promo’ Noise During Defensive - Not Offensive
This one is not my idea, but it’s genius. Hat tip to the Section 122 crowd noise leader, and ‘Renew-Your-Tickets’-poster-boy, Jube. For whatever reason (oh, free stuff!), Argos crowds make noise (and lots of it) for the lame promo giveaways. You know, T-Shirts that say ‘Show us your Parts’ (ok! - enjoy kiddies), and the like. So, coordinate these giveaways for when the defense is on the field and wants fan noise - not when the offense is on the field and want quiet. So simple.
Toronto Argonauts organization, if you’re listening, leave us a little comment below with your thoughts. Thanks-much! I’ll see you next season, hopefully in seats that don’t hurt my…
Ever heard of the ‘World Masters Games’? I hadn’t either, until we received an email from Paul down in Australia (yes, Australia). Apparently the first World Masters Games was held in Toronto. So, what are the World Master Games? It’s for those ‘a bit older’ (’To compete at the Sydney 2009 World Masters Games people need only satisfy their sport’s minimum age criterion, which is as low as 25 for diving and swimming and does not rise above 35 for any of the 28 sports.‘) And, you’ve got to be some sort of amazing athlete right? Not quite: ‘Anyone who meets the minimum age criterion for their sport can compete in the Sydney 2009 World Masters Games. Many sports competitions will be graded so as to provide competitors with the choice of participating seriously or socially.‘. Like the Olympics, it’s held every four years. In fact, many retired Olympic and professional athletes participate in the World Masters Games. So, sportaholiks, this could be something of interest to all of you. Paul put together these great videos from the Sydney 2009 World Masters Games. Enjoy:
Pumped? Check out the International Masters Games Association Web site and the Sydney 2009 World Masters Games Web site for more information.
No matter what you think of whether Toronto should be hosting the Pan Am Games (personally, I don’t think it’s popular enough to warrant the money being spent - the Olympics, different story) I think we can all agree that this video entitled ‘The Dream’, that was part of Toronto’s bid presentation, is pretty powerful.
The other one from the presentation not as great, in my opinion.
Via National Post
Found this the other day on torontomike’s blog during the first week of August, when many members of the 1992 and 1993 Toronto Blue Jays World Series championship teams came back to Toronto for some kind of reunion. Brings back some great memories back in the day when games at the Skydome (not the Rogers Centre!) was breaking all the baseball attendance records and everyone in Toronto was a huge baseball fan.
Do you remember where you were when Joe Carter hit that walk off home run to win the World Series? For me, I was in high school and a bunch of us were watching the game at a friend’s basement. Was a bit depressing at first because we were losing but when Carter hit the home run, we went crazy. Within minutes, we jumped into our cars and headed down Yonge Street, with apparently every other Torontonian.
When it was all said and done, I headed home at around 4am to my surprise a locked door! (I remember saying to my parents: “I don’t have my keys so please leave the back door open for me”). Ringing the doorbell got me nothing so I ended up getting the ladder out of the garage and climbing up to my brother’s bedroom window on the second floor. Scared the crap out of him as I knocked on the window but at least I woke him up and managed to finally get in the house! Lucky for me I didn’t end up getting shot or falling off the ladder and breaking my neck…good times.
What are some of your best memories of the ‘92 and ‘93 Jays?
It was total fluke I found this, but someone back in August of 2008 setup a blog to rant about the TCSSC (now the TSSC). From crappy field reports to asking for the ‘real dirt’ on teams that play in the TCSSC, the posts were really rocking for a whole of two days, but have since ceased. Actually, our readers have given the TCSSC / TSSC quite a good rating (so far), but not without a few negative comments. Please read what other Toronto recreational sports players are saying about the TCSSC on our TCSSC profile page. Of course, we’d love to hear what you have to say as well. See you on the field!