For longtime Toronto sports fans, Monday’s heartbreaking 5-4 overtime loss by the Maple Leafs to the Boston Bruins brought back memories of other crushing disappointments in Toronto. Here are five of the most memorable sporting heartbreaks: The Disaster in Detroit: The 1987 Blue Jays were within grasp of the American League East Division title in the last week of the season, up 3 ½ games with seven left to play. The Jays lost an astounding seven games in a row to watch their playoff hopes dissolve, falling to the Detroit Tigers on Oct. 4, the last day of the season. It was the lowest of lows, third basemen Garth Iorg wrote in a column for the Star. Outfielder George Bell said he wished he could fly away to the Dominican and disappear from the reality of the stunning collapse. “I don’t want to think about baseball any more now,” he said. Leafs lose to Kings in 1993 playoffs: A Maple Leafs win against the Los Angeles Kings in the 1992-93 playoffs would have … [Read more...] about Toronto Maple Leafs’ collapse against Boston Bruins joins list of city sporting heartbreaks
Sports
NBA: Sacramento Kings become first pro sports team to use Bitcoin
The Sacramento Kings are the latest mainstream organization to embrace Bitcoin payments, becoming the first professional sports franchise to accept the virtual currency. Fans can now use Bitcoin to purchase merchandise from the team store, and will be able to buy tickets with the e-money starting March 1. The Kings are partnering with Bitpay, a startup that facilitates Bitcoin transactions, as owner Vivek Ranadive pushes to grow the team’s use of technology, increase its social media presence and allow fans to go paperless. Ranadive, the chief executive officer of TIBCO Software Inc., who established himself by digitizing Wall Street trading floors in the 1980s and 1990s, bought the Kings in May with the hopes of using big data and technology to establish the team and league into global brands. His ambitious plan has raised some eyebrows by focusing on India, Ranadive’s country of birth. The Kings have launched a Hindi-language website, and count Indian development company … [Read more...] about NBA: Sacramento Kings become first pro sports team to use Bitcoin
Boston Marathon: Gruesome attack fundamentally alters sporting landscape: Kelly
In one mad instant, someone has fundamentally changed the nature of sports fandom in North America. There are greater immediate concerns, for those injured or killed on Monday afternoon at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. But in the days to come, the focus will turn to security going forward and our naked vulnerability when we go to a game. It doesn’t matter who did this, whether it was enemies foreign or domestic. From now on, the danger we’ve only approached tentatively since Sept. 11 — the understanding that North Americans make the most inviting targets when they are gathered in crowds at sporting events — is fully upon us. … [Read more...] about Boston Marathon: Gruesome attack fundamentally alters sporting landscape: Kelly
Trump picks another fight with a Black sports figure. That’s no coincidence
The political press has a way of avoiding the obvious when stating the obvious involves calling out racism. So when Donald Trump attacked a sports figure on Wednesday, again, the obvious was left out of the news stories in the Associated Press, New York Times, Washington Post and CNN.com, among others. Here’s what’s obvious. The sports figure, LaVar Ball, is Black. All of Trump’s recent targets in sports have been Black. And the president of the United States is either calculatingly using racism for strategic purposes, again, or being instinctively racist himself, again. Of course, it can be both. But it’s not neither. Not after this many of these moments. “It’s a pattern that to me, and to most observers, is an obvious pattern. They’ll try to deny it because he’s taken pictures with Black people, because he has Black people working in the White House. But to me that doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t take for him to wear a … [Read more...] about Trump picks another fight with a Black sports figure. That’s no coincidence
U Sports basketball keeps making strides
There’s a chance that the thing I’m headed to this weekend might be one of the coolest sports events to attend – thanks to the NBA schedule-makers for giving the Raptors a weekend off so I can go – and I’d suggest you get a ticket to it but you can’t. Am trundling off around the lake to the centre of the universe – aka The Niagara Peninsula – to watch the two top-ranked men’s university basketball teams play at what’s going to be a sold-out Meridian Centre in St. Catharines. It’s No. 1 Carleton at No. 2 Brock, I’m told each of the 3,500 tickets has been sold and I’m looking forward not only to the event and seeing some old friends – and a chance to catch up with Super Son – but to the game itself. I saw a bit of St. FX-Acadia out in Halifax before the Canada-Bahamas game last week and it was a compelling game that went down to the final two or three seconds; I’ve streamed a few minutes of … [Read more...] about U Sports basketball keeps making strides