The guys at Drunk Jays Fans, one of the city's better sports blogs, are kick-starting a grassroots campaign to have former Blue Jays play-by-play man Tom Cheek awarded the Ford C. Frick Award. The award, which is given annually by the Baseball Hall of Fame for "career excellence in baseball broadcasting," is the equivalent of being inducted into Cooperstown. Throughout September, fans can pick their top three broadcasters from a huge list of nominees,......

We love baseball statistics because they're totally malleable. Case in point: our very own Toronto Blue Jays. Heading into the weekend, the Blue Jays are 66-61; they’re mired in fourth place in the American League East, yet they’re technically on the fringes of a playoff race. And depending on how you examine their performance this year, they're either really good or really bad. Last night, as we watched the Blue Jays pummel the New......

If there's an oasis of calm at Christie Pits, among the kids tearing by on their bikes or laughing at the splash park, it's the back-to-back baseball games taking place in the northeast corner of the park. In Intercounty Baseball League action—essentially an independent version of single 'A' ball—the Guelph Royals are taking on the defending league champions, the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Maple Leafs, now in their 40th season since Jack and Lynne......

The Rogers Centre is beginning to show its age—yet despite its advancing years, it's still lacking what we'd call "authentic" ballpark atmosphere. Which is probably inevitable, since the Stadium Formerly Known as SkyDome is a sorta-generic, poured-concrete monstrosity with a cool-looking ceiling; when compared with some of baseball's classic stadiums, its shortcomings are plainly evident. Given the circumstances, the Rogers Centre's employees are vital to making a baseball game in Toronto a more enjoyable experience.......

Each week, Torontoist examines the upcoming TV listings and makes note of programs that are entertaining, informative, and of quality. Or, alternately, none of those. The result: Televisualist.......

It’s been (warning! understatement alert!) an interesting week in Toronto Blue Jay Land. Seven days ago, they were floundering under a lame duck manager. This week, the team is still floundering—but at least they're showing signs (albeit tentative ones) of turning things around. One week—six games—is a negligible sample size; it’s barely sufficient to draw any sorts of conclusions, let alone meaningful ones. Still, as fans, we’re cautiously optimistic. Cito Gaston was bound to......

Today, to the surprise of absolutely no one, the Toronto Blue Jays fired their manager John Gibbons. Three other coaches, including the ever-popular Ernie Whitt, were also let go. Gibbons's replacement, at least for the time being, is none other than Cito Gaston, the man who led Toronto to back-to-back World Series championships in the early 90s. We’re still absorbing this announcement—and while we'll have plenty more to say about it in the coming weeks,......

Every Saturday morning, Historicist looks back at the events, places, and characters—good and bad—that have shaped Toronto into the city we know today. 1979 Topps Rico Carty, 1978 Topps Jesse Jefferson and 1978 Topps Jim Clancy baseball cards Stories about the early days of the Toronto Blue Jays tend to focus on their debut in 1977, highlighted by a snowy opening day. Despite a mixture of cast-offs, free agents, and untested rookies that landed the......

Last week Gothamist reported on Major League Baseball's plan to place forty-two 8-1/2 feet tall Statues of Liberty covered in the logos of past and present teams around New York City in preparation for the All-Star Game on July 15th at Yankee Stadium. As this is the final season for "The House that Ruth Built," the MLB brain trust figures this campaign will provoke excitement for the game and provide spinoff revenue in the......

Every weekday morning, bright and early, we feature a photo (or two) from a photographer in the Torontoist Flickr Pool. It's our way of giving the many excellent photographers in our pool the attention that they deserve. Untitled BY ADAM FINLEY......

Analyzing Sleater-Kinney lyrics can be a fruitless task, but we're pretty sure they had the Toronto Blue Jays in mind when they wrote this line: "Rollercoaster, want to go back to the way things were." The way things were, say, in the late 80s/early 90s, when a winning baseball team was like a birthright 'round these parts. From 1989 to 1993, the Blue Jays won four division titles and two World Series championships. Since......

For a team that's accustomed to flying under the radar (partly because they're a Canadian team in an otherwise all-American league, partly because they're perpetually mediocre, and partly because they're in a division with two of the most self-absorbed franchises in professional sports), it's been an unusually eventful year for the Toronto Blue Jays so far. Last weekend they announced that Frank Thomas—the team's best slugger, #18 on baseball's all-time home run list and a......

If you're like us (and, God willing, you’re not), then you're utterly exasperated by the ongoing steroid scandal in Major League Baseball. You're puzzled that the United States Congress has nothing better to do than to interrogate multimillionaire athletes who might've used performance-enhancing drugs. Moreover, you're wondering why, this past Wednesday morning, no fewer than three Canadian sports networks were showing live coverage of the Roger Clemens hearing. Is it really that important? Regardless,......

After the Toronto Blue Jays acquired a gimpy Scott Rolen in exchange for a gimpy Troy Glaus, the general consensus was that the two players cancelled each other out. One point, however, hasn't been discussed—possibly because it's utterly irrelevant to the game of baseball. Still, we feel it's worth mentioning that we'll no longer have to wince as Troy Glaus limps up to bat with "Crazy Train" blasting through the speakers. Instead, we'll apparently......

'Tis the season for gift certificates. Whether you're scratching your head trying to figure out what to give to an impossible recipient or selecting your loved one's favourite store or service, the selection of certificates, cards and vouchers seems unlimited. More than a few local sports woke up on Christmas morning three decades ago to find one of today's passes for the Blue Jays' second campaign as a stocking stuffer. The Jays finished their......

A new study says that diseases and parasites from farmed fish are having devastating effects on wild salmon stocks in parts of B.C. Skyrocketing global demand for seafood means fish farming can be very profitable, even when the cost of frequent tractor replacements is taken into account. Brian Mulroney continues to be the centre of the most-covered and least-followed story in the Canadian media. Basically he says he's not guilty of anything except taking......

If you haven't been following the Raptors too closely this season, it's possible that you may have missed one of the greatest stories in professional sports at the moment. Jamario Moon is a 27-year-old rookie who had been kicking around just about every minor league on the continent until he finally got his shot with the Raptors this year. And he's tearing things up. Even though he's years older than a number of Raptor veterans,......

Premier Dalton McGuinty says that he is not prepared to follow Quebec's example and ban cell phone use while driving, in spite of studies showing that the practice is more dangerous than driving drunk. McGuinty said that "some people also distract themselves by drinking coffee, eating and applying makeup while driving" and he wouldn't know where to draw the line. Because if you can't stop one stupid and extremely dangerous practice, there's no point......

Scandinavian Airlines says that they will permanently ground their fleet of Canadian-made Bombardier Q400 turboprops following three accidents involving problems with landing gear. In response, Bombardier will no longer market the plane as the Q400 Skid. The Dalai Lama is in Ottawa, where he will spend three days meeting with Tibetan exiles and politicians. The world's cutest religious leader said during a speech that war is obsolete, noting, "We all come from our mother's......

City officials to David Miller: don't tax booze. They reasonably pointed out that consumption taxes don't work when people can just drive thirty minutes to evade said taxes. In response, Miller pouted and ran up to his room, refusing to come out for dinner. Loonie opens trading today at a buck and four cents U.S. The reason for the most recent dramatic rise is, apparently, a combination of the groaning American economy and rising......

Sometimes, you just need to know when to give up. If you’re a Toronto Blue Jays fan, you should’ve picked last night’s game—a gut-wrenching 5-4 loss to the Detroit Tigers in which Toronto blew a three-run, ninth-inning lead for the second time in three games—as a good time to write off the team’s 2007 season. To be fair, most people did that months ago; unfortunately, some of us wouldn't let ourselves off so easy, and......

It's Labour Day, so a special shout-out to all the sweatshop workers who won't be reading this because they're working today and can't afford a computer on 21 cents an hour anyway. Thanks for all the cheap clothes, guys. The Star reports that the suspect in whose car police found three bombs on Friday was described by his landlord as "unstable." Ya think? Time to rethink those cross-border shopping plans—increased security checks at border......

Torontonians outraged by satirical ads for a children's camp where kids learn to be soldiers. The posters (which we wrote about earlier this week) are the brainchild of War Child Canada, which promotes aid and awareness for child soldiers and why that's bad. This story is further proof that satire is not only dead, but has in fact become a zombie. (The campaign's website is here.) New training and licensing regulations for Ontario's security......

A hundred and one games into the 2007 Major League Baseball season—a year in which they were widely expected to challenge the Eastern Seaboard's hegemony in the American League East—the Toronto Blue Jays are exactly one game over .500. In other words, this won't be the breakout year after all; in fact, it'll be tough for them to replicate last year's 87-75 record, which was only good enough for second place in the division.......

Sam the Record Man is closing its Yonge Street store on June 30. Remember when Sam's was the only place you could get a cassette of The Lowest of the Low's Shakespeare My Butt? Remember cassettes? Two high profile cases got their day in court yesterday. Wing-Piao Dumani Ross and Alexander Ryazanov, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing the 2006 death of cabbie Tahir Khan. The pair were sentenced to house arrest for a year,......

When people first hear the words "Professional Pillow Fight League," they often conjure images of jello-wrestling and hair pulling. However, if you've ever been to a Pillow Fight League event, you know that the fights are real, they're violent, and they're bloody entertaining. The Pillow Fight League, also known as the PFL, has been performing around Toronto since last year. They gained international attention in January when they fought for two nights in New York......

With all that went down this week, we thought we thought we'd cheer everyone up by giving everyone a double dose of dogs. It was a rollercoaster ride of emotions this week at DCist. Like the rest of country, we were floored by the news of so many dead coming out of Virginia Tech, and with so many of the victims and their relatives from the D.C. area, we felt it important to pay tribute......

In the tradition of reporting on undervalued national holidays, we bring your attention to the one occurring today: National High Five Day. The holiday is observed on the third Thursday of April each year, and celebrates the power of the popular hand-based greeting, which apparently also turns 30 this year. Those of you wanting to celebrate en masse -- but probably only in spirit -- can join the other 1500 people taking part on......

We don't know about where you are, but it seems like spring can't decide whether or not to happen. Some days are warm, some days are cold, and sometimes you aren't sure which. Baseball may have started up (and soccer/football winding down) but it still seems cold out there. Unless it's not. Anyway, onto the -ists. Austinist happily anticipated fall's Austin City Limits, even though they're not fully recovered from South By Southwest. In other......

Interesting and depressing news today in the Toronto Star, with the revelation that there are no plans to release the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theatres in Canada. Why is that, hmm? The article states (quite correctly) that it’s one of the most popular shows on The Detour on Teletoon (where you can watch it at 10:15 p.m. weeknights) so why they’re not giving it at least a limited release here confounds......