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......

Tomorrow, our lives come grinding to a halt until mid-June. The NHL playoffs are here—and even without the Toronto Maple Leafs (more on them in a second), that means there’s going to be meaningful hockey on TV almost every single night for the next two-and-a-half months. (That’s assuming you think it’s possible for sports to be meaningful, obviously; then again, if you didn’t, you probably wouldn’t be reading this.) Back in October we picked the......

The Toronto Maple Leafs have been mathematically eliminated from playoff contention. Which isn't surprising, given how poorly they've played for much of the 2007/08 season. What is surprising is that it took the team this long to make it official. Heading into this week's crucial home-and-home series against the Boston Bruins, the Leafs were still on the outside of the playoff picture looking in. A two-game sweep, however, would've brought them level with the Bruins......

Far be it from us to take pleasure in our favourite team’s misfortunes...but as much as we love the Maple Leafs, we had to laugh after Vesa Toskala’s incredible blunder against the New York Islanders earlier tonight. If you missed it, we’ve included the YouTube clip...which was probably unnecessary, since the play—a goal scored by New York defenceman Rob Davison from his own goal line, a distance of approximately 200 feet—is about to become......

The hosts of Re-Inventors, Jeremy MacPherson and Matt Hunter, put one of their "re-inventions" to the test against Olivier Jean, a speed skater and Olympic hopeful, at the Ricoh Coliseum this week. The propeller strapped to MacPherson's back was based on a patent registered in 1948 by Horace M. Morrill, who intended the device to "provide a portable manually supported propelling unit" for people on skates, boats or bicycles. The race, a promotional event......

Hope is a cruel thing for a sports fan: no matter how bleak the situation, as long as there's a straw in sight we'll happily clutch at it. Case in point: Leafs Nation, of which we're proud, occasionally defiant members. We've been flip-flopping over the Leafs all season long. A few weeks ago we'd written them off, then watched as the team put together an impressive run (which included comprehensive victories over the Ottawa......

Gas prices in Toronto are at $1.09 or more a litre today, reflecting all-time record oil prices of over US$108 per barrel. For all our driving readers, it might cheer you up to consider that it's still cheaper to fill up your car with gas than say, orange juice or Diet Pepsi. By the way, if you do decide to go with orange juice, remember that the pulp-free kind is less likely to gum up......

Torontoist visited Leaside Curling and discovered an array of curling enthusiasts that reflect the diversity and character of our city. (And some of its endearing eclecticism too.) With a handful of intimate portraits, Torontoist takes a peak at some of the people who help make Canada the curling capital of the world.......

Boozy Suzy is the undisputed champion of the Pillow Fight League. When she’s not downing beers, she’s downing opponents with her dreaded hammer fist. Boozy Suzy is also Suzanne Carte-Blanchenot, an event coordinator who has been involved with the Pillow Fight League since its inception. She has watched the girls-only league grow from a local curiosity to an international sensation that has been covered by Anderson Cooper 360º, Good Morning America, and ESPN: The......

Mark Oliver Tessaro just sent us a link to the video above, of an unbelievably fun-looking do-it-yourself ski-hill that he and his roommates built in mid-February on their Kensington Market deck. Says Mark of the hill: I live with 3 other guys above a used clothing store in Kensington Market and we have a ridiculously large deck. A few weeks ago this meant that we also had a ridiculously large amount of snow on......

Far be it from us to conflate professional sports with Bill Shakespeare—but the Toronto Maple Leafs’ actions before, during and after Tuesday's NHL trade deadline recall Macbeth’s famous words: full of sound and fury, yet ultimately signifying nothing. Charges of heresy will be duly acknowledged. In the end, the promised blow-up never materialized. None of the five big-money, no-trade-clause-holding players could be moved. Pavel Kubina was apparently ready to be shipped off (to San......

No Country For Old Men cleans up at the Oscars. The Coen Brothers finally got some big-time recognition with nods for best picture, best directing, best adapted screenplay, and best husband of Frances McDormand. In other news, a bunch of Canadians got nominated for stuff and didn't win any of it. (There! We could totally write entertainment news for any major Canadian newspaper now!) Visa IPO expected to be worth nineteen billion smackers. MasterCard responded......

If you're reading this and it's between the hours of 7-9:30pm EST, do yourself a favour and tune into Hockey Night in Canada. You might be witnessing the end of an era in Toronto sports. Mats Sundin, captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs since 1997, is on the trading block. Earlier this week, TSN broke the news that interim general manager Cliff Fletcher had asked Sundin for a list of teams he'd be willing to......

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,......

It's been the best of times, it's been the worst of times for the Toronto Maple Leafs; in fact, the past couple weeks have been nothing short of surreal. First, the best of times: wins against the high-flying Ottawa Senators and Montreal Canadiens, followed by a thoroughly unexpected Hockey Day in Canada victory over the league-leading Detroit Red Wings, have given the team a boost. Injured players are getting healthy. The return of the......

Many of us were looking forward to welcoming the Buffalo Bills to Toronto. The eight games they'll play here over the next five years could've been the perfect complement to our existing football diet of live Argonauts games and televised NFL matches. Now that the details have been announced, more than a few of us have been priced out of attending. The majority of tickets average into the $350 per game range, and are only......

Extreme cold alert! Be forewarned that this extreme cold is not extreme in the sense of "it is totally radical like Doritos and Mountain Dew," but rather extreme in the sense of "it can kill you if you stay out in it too long." Environment Canada will discuss the prospects of the extreme cold's effect on totally shredding slopes with your snowboard later today. Barack Obama thumps Hillary Clinton over the weekend, with impressively......

It's snowing again! This gives Torontoist yet another opportunity to bust out a pretty picture of streets clogged with snow, and it gives the rest of Canada the opportunity to go, "Hey, how come those Toronto folks can't deal with a little snow ha ha ha don't they have plows?" Then we say, "No, we don't have enough plows, fuckers, because it turns out everybody else is entirely happy to suck money off us......

Chris Bosh is at it again. Although his innovative video pitch to fans wasn't enough to push him past Kevin Garnett and Lebron James for a starting spot in the NBA All-Star Game, it has made him a media player. Sports Illustrated's Chris Mannix details how the video's popularity has raised Bosh's profile to new heights and how it prompted CB4 to start his own Chris Bosh TV channel on YouTube. To ring in......

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......

Chalk River reactor's risk level was 1,000 times greater than normal. However, Stephen Harper is a certified nuclear engineer, so if he says it's safe, then shouldn't we trust him? Wait, what? He's not a certified nuclear engineer? Well, dang. John McCain wins crucial Florida primary. The old coot narrowly defeated the Mormon android and the world's angriest ex-mayor to maintain his momentum in the Republican candidates' race. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton beat Barack Obama in......

It's fight night at the Gladstone Hotel this Thursday as the Pillow Fight League rolls back into town. The homegrown product and first professional pillow fighting league of its kind is just six months away from its second anniversary. With a glowing write-up in ESPN Magazine, a potential TV deal, and an April gig at Miami's Exxxotica Festival, the PFL is looking to make 2008 their biggest year yet. At PFL 14, two hundred......

The Raptors have reached the halfway point of the season, and almost every news outlet in town has been engaged in the mid-season ritual of handing out report cards. Jose Calderon gets top marks across the board, and deservedly so. His name is even being mentioned as a potential reserve selection for the All-Star Team. Of course, on his own blog and in interviews, Jose has tried to remain humble about the whole thing. That's......

The saga of John Ferguson, Jr. is mercifully over: the beleaguered General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, who's been a whipping boy for the team's misfortunes ever since his appointment in 2003, has been fired. Say what you will about Ferguson (and if you're a Leaf fan then you probably have): the way he's been treated by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, particularly during his final few weeks in charge, has been nothing......

We have no problem admitting our man-love for Mats Sundin: he's been the captain of our favourite hockey team for most of our adult lives, he's one of the greatest Toronto Maple Leafs of all-time and he's a shoe-in hall-of-famer once he retires. Seeing him score his 500th career goal still ranks as the greatest sporting moment we've ever witnessed. We know we're supposed to be too old and too sophisticated to have favourite......

The rumour mill is swirling around the Maple Leafs this week, as a less-than-stellar season and mixed signals from club ownership lead to daily reports about the fate of the team's management and captain. With all signs pointing to a third straight early vacation at season's end, the team's followers are steamed. Fans 70 years ago may also have been frustrated with the club, though in their case the problem was a team that......

Just in case this is something you like to be reminded of, you're going to die someday. The good news is that day is likely to be further off than ever, because average life expectancy in Canada has risen, with a baby born in 2005 likely to live to 80.4 years of age. On the other hand, who wants to be an 80-year-old baby? CIBC has announced that they will be selling $2.75 billion......

In the best campaign commercial since HuckChuckFacts, Chris Bosh has assumed the identity of a Texas used car salesman in order to try to drum up votes to make it to this year's NBA All-Star Game in New Orleans. Bosh has appeared in the All-Star game for the last two years. Last season he was voted into the starting lineup for the first time, but achieving that feat again became nearly impossible when Kevin Garnett......

Canada wins the Spengler Cup. If you are like us, your first reaction to this news was, "What the hell is the Spengler Cup?" It very probably has nothing to do with famed Ghostbuster Egon Spengler (played by great expat Canadian Harold Ramis), so it can't be that good. Give us a moment while we do some research... huh. Apparently it's a professional hockey tournament. Who knew. Hundreds of people attend memorial for Benazir......

'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......