Mixed bag this week on the Toronto sports scene. For example, while the excitement surrounding the Blue Jays continues to grow, the Raptors appeared to scupper their already slim playoff hopes with a loss at home to the Grizzlies.
(Actually, talking of the Raptors, the NBA trade deadline came and went with Andrea Bargnani remaining on the team. That in itself is a mixed bag of opinion, depending on your thoughts surrounding the Italian, who is now the Raptors third-all time leading points scorer, which, by the way, is not a positive.)
Meanwhile, the Leafs continue to get our hopes up by winning three out of four this week, but with last seasons collapse still fresh in the mind, nobody is willing to get too carried away just yet. (Yeah right! Who are we kidding?)
Anyway, lets get to the top pictures of the week.
1) We all know R.A. Dickey is an intelligent, philosophical guy, regardless of whether he’s an athlete or not. However, even having an analytical, thoughtful mind can sometimes be to your detriment.
Exhibit A: Taking far too long to pick your glove, resulting in the representative from Rawlings falling asleep:
2) Whilst the Raptors hopes of making the playoffs were always slim, I admit the recent five-game winning streak was beginning to get my hopes up. Obviously, Wednesday’s sloppy loss against Memphis compromised the momentum.
While the Grizzlies just about deserved the win, evidence has now come to light that they may well have resorted to cheating to help earn the victory:
3) I have no idea how old this picture is, but I only discovered it yesterday. Besides, you never want to miss the chance to see an attractive woman wearing Leafs apparel:
Given that Trish Stratus is a former professional wrestler, seeing her in a Leafs shirt seems more appropriate these days anyway, in terms of how they’re playing this season, i.e. they won’t just lie down and take it.
4) I think most people have been pleasantly surprised by Phil Kessel’s increased presence on Twitter in recent days. If nothing else, this alludes to the camaraderie between the Leafs players, with the majority of Kessel’s Tweets centring around banter with his teammates.
This increased presence for the normally shy Kessel even appears to have spilled over into the social scene, as evidenced by his recent appearance on ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’.
You know what, I was wrong. Maybe there is such a thing as too much exposure for someone. I guess the camera really does add ten pounds.
5) When it comes to sports radio, I normally listen to the FAN590. However, every now and then I’ll mix it up a little bit and tune into TSN, before remembering why I prefer the other station.
However, I was recently listening to Mike Richards and was highly amused by the appearance of the evil Pinball Clemons. It got me thinking about how great it would be if this person actual existed. It would be the ultimate battle between good and evil.
Be warned though, sometimes you should be careful what you wish for:
6) Ahead of this week’s back-to-back games against the Panthers and Lightning, the Leafs were lucky enough to get a day off in sunny Florida. As you’d expect from today’s metro-sexual generation, this included going shopping.
I’m not sure who normally dresses Carl Gunnarsson or indeed how much padding he usually wears on the ice, but for some reason he looks less intimidating that usual:
7) The Maple Leafs ran a caption competition for the following picture during last night’s win at home to the Sabres:
I resisted the urge to enter, purely because I don’t think they would have appreciated any response that included the words ‘prison’ and ‘bitch’.
8 ) The Blue Jays preparations for the new season this week have included various media activities such as photo day. Here’s John Gibbons adopting the standard managers pose for a picture, i.e. looking pissed off at the umpire’s call:
Let’s just hope Gibbons tucks his shirt in sometime soon, as it would be nice to see him set a good example to his players.
9) Sticking with the Blue Jays, Brett Lawrie’s girlfriend Paige Brendel, decided to make an appearance this week at spring training in Dunedin:
I think we can safely say Lawrie never looked that good in a helmet.
10) And finally, regular readers of Blue Toro will be familiar with my sports-hate for the ‘totally out of his depth as a franchise guy’ former Raptor, Chris Bosh. However, even I’ve almost felt sorry for him in the aftermath of All-Star Weekend, with the amount of piss-taking that has been directed towards him on social media.
However, at times Bosh just doesn’t help himself:
Enjoy your weekend.
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- By paul.taylor
- February 22, 2013
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