Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas.

Every year we have “Games Day” on December 26th.
This year, games day doesn’t have a home. We’re not sure where we’re having it – just that, yes we need to have it, and it has to happen.

I’ll let you know what happened. After all, we have a trophy to give out for “Gamer of the Year.”

I wonder if anyone who has been to games day and won “Gamer of the Year” has put it on their resume?

I tell you, if I was looking to hire someone and they had “Gamer of the Year” on their resume, i might look at them and challenge them to a game of Subbuteo or Magic the gathering, or Axis and allies miniatures or something. And if they were any good, well the job would just about be theirs.

Finding a guitar song

I have two guitars. One is an Art and Lutherie made in Canada, and the other is an electric Epiphone Les-Paul-Shaped Gibson (without any indication it’s a Les Paul).
I hadn’t played either guitar in a while. Usually that’s a good indication of how busy I am. That i can’t remember the last time i played is a bad sign.

So I picked up the acoustic – and instantly a song i haven’t played since the summer came back to me.
I hadn’t thought of the song in a while – but because i was using the capo it made me think of it.

Yes i know, these are really bad stream of conciousness posts. don’t like, don’t read.

Anyhow, the song was Benjamin Gibbard’s Farmer Chords. My friend Trevor sent it to me a while back and immediately i wanted to play it. It’s really catchy, and rather easy to play on the guitar – if you put the capo on the third fret.

It’s great when you remember a song, and it sucks when you forget it. Sometimes I’ll hear a song on the radio or in iTunes and then remember there was a time i could play it – but today i can’t remember.

Today that song was New England by Billy Bragg.

I forget how to play that on guitar. To paraphrase, I loved the chords he wrote,[to me] but that was bloody yesterday.

Anyhow, it’s late, a little too late to teach myself New England anyhow. I don’t think my neighbour would appreciate it anyway – as i’d probably want to do that one on the Epiphone.

Bill Berg and all those guys

The Leafs won last night against Tampa Bay.  It was their first win in 8 games.

The best part of the game, however, was seeing the private box with the 1992/93 Maple Leafs in it.

Those guys brought back the glory and gave Leaf fans a reason to believe again.

Doug Gilmour, Pat Burns, Dmitri Mironov… Mironov looked like he’s really filled out in the last couple of years. He used to have a lean face, now it’s pudgy.

A grey Mark Osborne. The venerable Wendel Clark.  Todd Gill. I’m not sure who else was in there, but it was great to see those guys again.

To think that they were one game away from the Stanley Cup final.

Why do Leaf fans hang on to that year perhaps even more than Montreal fans hold onto that year’s cup win?

It’s because of the overachieving nature of that whole team. Every one of those guys gave it. Watching that last game the team played against Los Angeles and you realize that these guys were at the top of their game.

They played with 5 defencemen. And pretty much one centre, Doug Gilmour. They put Zezel out there to stop the other guys.

And, not to knock Rob Pearson, but you were stuck with Rob Pearson.

But it did not matter.  That ‘93 squad had heart. And it was great to see them all together again – talking about what should have been.

Thanks Kerry Fraser.

Big Hurt

The Jays jsut got older this off-season.
We got “Rolls” Royce Clayton and Frank “Big Hurt” Thomas.

I’m sure FT has a ton of home runs left in his body – I remember watching him in batting practice last year and just watching him launch ball after ball into the stands.

But then, during the game, Thomas didn’t do much. And he didn’t strike fear into the fans the same way that Big Papi or Manny Ramirez do when they come up to bat.

No worries. He’s a Jay now, so he’ll be welcomed to the team.

I’m more concerned with our pitching this year. Perhaps J.P. has a couple more moves before April, but it remains to be seen what he can pull off.

Let’s start with locking in Vernon Wells to a long-term contract extension. He’s great on the team.

- Who puts pie in rookie’s faces during their interviews?
- Who throws a ball to outfield fans during the game?
- Who keeps winning gold gloves?

Vernon is the heart and soul of this team. They have to sign him – no matter what it takes.

Gregg and Greg

Toronto sports teams went Ga-ga for Greg(g)s this week.

the Jays re-signed catcher Gregg Zaun after chasing after another catcher – then after that deal fell through (though i didn’t wade through the convoluded explaination why the deal fell apart) the team said “Gregg, we don’t want to lose you.”

 Gregg Zaun is an awesome Jay. Newly signed Frank Thomas may bring a whole lot of home runs to Rogers Centre Skydome, but Zauny brings a great team first mentality to the park.

The second Greg was the Greg that we’ve been expecting for a while.

Toronto FC have Canadian national team goalie Greg Sutton signed up for next year.

This was a deal that soccer fans have been waiting to happen for a while. Mo even hinted about the signing with fans – so it’s no surprise.

I am surprised that MLSE isn’t going to have the Toronto FC shirts ready to be sold before Christmas.  My brother and I were thinking about exchanging jerseys, but i guess we’ll have to settle for getting eachother season’s tickets. Ahhhh – now i see the marketing behind the plan…