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This is the third in what I hope will become a long-running series of lame attempts to turn my latest sporting obsession into something resembling a Canadian political discussion. So, with that it mind, please choose the angle you wish to use to discuss Toronto FC's historic first game ever played -- a loss (2-0) to Chivas USA in Carson, California (we were robbed, but that's a discussion for another day...):

1) Sportsnet play-by-play guy Gerry Dobson couldn't quite get his head around the idea that this was a Toronto soccer team, and kept referring to them as "Canada." Now, being a Toronto boy, I hardly even noticed. Toronto, Canada, what's the difference?

Discuss.

2) Toronto lost to Club Deportivo Chivas USA, sister team to Mexico's most popular futbol club Club Deportivo Guadalajara. Chivas entered the all-American MLS league three years ago with the express purpose of appealing to the game's many Mexican and Latin American fans in the USA. From their website:

Chivas USA proudly celebrates its Mexican tradition, bringing a new language, culture and approach to the world of professional sport in the United States. The team is a diverse mix of stars of the future from Mexico and the United States, as well as veteran players with experience on the world's greatest stage.

Chivas USA set an MLS record in their first year for jersey sales. That record will almost certainly be challenged this season by Toronto. Toronto already is the MLS leader in season ticket sales for 2007, and their entry into the MLS made the league the ONLY professional soccer league in the world with teams in more than one country -- so, is soccer the glue that holds all of North America together? When Chivas comes to Toronto later this summer to get a taste of their own medicine, it will almost be like that large swath of geography between here and the Mexican border doesn't even exist. Add to that the official international friendlies the club will play this year, and we may be witnessing a Canadian introduction to world culture unseen since 1972.

Discuss.

3) Along the same lines, no professional sports team in Canada can claim a greater cultural diversity of players, not even the Euro-heavy Raptors. Toronto FC, living the Canadian ideal?

Discuss.

Finally, the Toronto Maple Leafs eliminated the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night in a pointless play-off drive of their own. The result, both of these Canadian teams are now polishing their golf clubs when, really, Montreal should be taking another of their vaunted Cup runs. This has nothing to do with soccer, but I'm writing it on the off-chance Andrew Potter has read this far. Feel the burn, Potter.

More entries on: Sport

February 09, 2007

all for one -- Jane Jacobs would love Toronto FC

Posted by john_d at 02:03 PM ET | Comments (30)

practice
image courtesy John Degen's page on Flickr.com

I just wanted to revisit an earlier post I made about Toronto FC, the new major league soccer club coming to Canada in the spring (first home game, April 28 against the Kansas City Wizards). Judging by Jessica's recent post, we can't look to Toronto City Council for community leadership, but I think we can look to the soccer pitch.

I seem to recall someone in the comments section suggesting there is "no evidence major league soccer will grip the city in a meaningful way." Please note the seating chart below outlining how over half of the new stadium is already sold-out of season tickets, with months to go before the first boot hits a ball. My season tickets are in Section 221, along with 3 of my high school buddies'.

seating_map
image courtesy Toronto FC

When we bought our tickets, we had no idea that the $12-or-so a game we were paying was going to be one of the best investments we ever made. With international superstar David Beckham set to make his MLS debut in Toronto on August 5th, I'm guessing we now own four of the most valuable professional sports tickets in Toronto in 2007. Beckham and the LA Galaxy will, of course, be soundly defeated by our boys, but if anyone wants to see that happen live, it may already be too late.

I watched a press-only team practice this morning at an indoor facility north of the city. Coach Mo Johnston has solid experience both in this league and in Europe, and he takes no crap from his squad. This was a full-tilt, two-hour skills work-out that saw marquee players mixing it up with the young hopefuls. At the end of it, Johnston gathered the men together and made about seven hard cuts to the squad. Now they get on a plane for more training in Florida and a mini pre-season tourney against other MLS squads in South Carolina. These guys are not fooling around about bringing quality sport to the city. The payroll talk in the scrum after practice was in the millions. Beckham's reported salary is stratospheric.

I repeat my original point. Sport plays a vital role in building livable and vibrant communities, especially in urban centres. Toronto is a bunch of soccer-mad international populations knit together, not always so comfortably. BMO Field, where the FC will play brilliantly, can be said to exist on the border between competing communities, both in southwest Liberty Village, a hipster condo enclave, and southeast Parkdale, a challenged neighbourhood struggling with increased gentrification pressure from the east. Why don't we all meet in a pub near the stadium one game-day and get to know each other better?

The teams' motto?... all for one.

More entries on: Sport

November 15, 2006

Next up: Emissions restrictions on Don Cherry

Posted by mason at 11:02 AM ET | Comments (0)

As a subscriber to The Hockey News, the last thing I expect to see is a story on global warming. But there it is, on page 51 of this week’s edition (not available online, though): a nice Adam Proteau column on NHLers whose eyes are wide open when it comes to climate change issues.

Calgary Flames defenceman Andrew Ference has to be one of the most environmentally conscious guys in pro sports—the article says he drives a hybrid car and it took one call to the hydro company to switch his home to wind power. “It shows you that all it takes is a couple minutes out of your day, or a few dollars out of your paycheque and you can have a positive effect,” he said.

Meantime, veteran forward Sami Kapanen told THN he has heard the winters aren’t as cold in his native Finland nowadays, a concern for young hockey players who develop their skills outdoors.

I fully expect to see letters in the next edition of the magazine criticizing The Hockey News for giving a forum to bleeding heart NHLers who should just shut up and play the game. The big question is, how many of those letters will be written under assumed names by Don Cherry?

PHOTO: CANADIAN PRESS

More entries on: Planet Earth | Sport

October 27, 2006

Soccer Rising; Community Building

Posted by john_d at 10:04 AM ET | Comments (5)

(photo courtesy Toronto FC)

Apologies to all the Toronto-indifferent out there, but sometimes it is just fantastic living in the professional sport centre of this great country. The Leafs are off to their classic shaky start yet they still look better than last year (really, all you can ask of the Leafs right now), the Argos look great to chase the Grey Cup, the Jays have made some recent noise and are bound to make some more next season, and the Raptors have gone undefeated in the NBA pre-season. I was in a meeting yesterday and found myself talking about the wealth of high-quality rugby to be found in the city.

Enter the Toronto Football Club (Toronto FC), the first Major League Soccer expansion team to come north of the 49th -- and a fantastic example of how public/private funding partnerships can be used to build and strengthen communities. These folks know what they're doing. Owned by Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (bosses to both the Leafs and Raptors), TFC has leveraged municipal money, private investment and corporate sponsorship to build Canada's premier soccer venue right downtown (and with a lake view). Seating 20,000, BMO Field will be bubbled over in winter to allow for ongoing local league and national team activity. Remember the dream of Montreal's downtown baseball park? Oh, Expos... if only.

Never has there been a better time for fully professional soccer to make its debut in Canada. The last decade has seen a steady, crazy increase in the attention given to both the World Cup Finals and the European Cup (Greece beats Portugal! - Gus, my barber, goes insane with joy; Nelly Furtado is depressed).

Make no mistake, MLS is a serious sporting endeavor in North America. Capitalizing on the extreme popularity of kids' soccer in suburban USA (minivan driving soccer moms are an official, much sought after voting block) Major League Soccer has built a solid following in a country best known for NASCAR and that other football. Choosing Toronto as the latest professional soccer expansion city is a visionary recognition of the international nature of the game, as well as a canny understanding that Canada's diverse population has exactly this sport holding it together. Who in TO wasn't Italian last summer? -- I mean except me, who was German, and very, very disappointed. Still, forze Italia!

Last night Toronto FC held the first of several "pub nights" in the downtown core -- promo events designed to build a dedicated fan base. They brought their head coach, Mo Johnston, and their only player so far, local boy Jim Brennan, to hang out in one of the city's soccer bars and just chat it up with nascent supporters of the club. That's them in the photo above.

I'm not sure if Jane Jacobs was a soccer fan, but leaving the Cervejaria soccer bar on College last night after shaking hands with some of our latest community builders, I knew I was in a healthy, vibrant, living city.

More entries on: Sport

October 17, 2006

Semi-serious posting delayed by real life

Posted by john_d at 04:50 PM ET | Comments (2)

Please note: I wrote this piece last week, and was about to post it when the news of Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle's death in a tragic plane accident hit the media. I have held it to allow that terrible story due weight.

Why We Love It When The Yanks Lose

They've got all the money; most of the influence; a giant talent pool; a massive, loyal, patriotic following; and for the most part a deferential media that can be lulled into repeating the mantra of their superiority. There are truly good people working the gears of the organization, though most everyone agrees the head guy is a bit of a fish. Even those of us who are not citizens of the Yankee nation understand and respect the justifications for their legendary status. Their history is littered with storied heroes and noble tragedy. They wear an undeniable greatness about them. And yet we do so love it when someone manages to bring them low.

The Euston manifesto folks can relax, because I'm talking baseball, not geo-politics, though maybe an examination of New York Yankee schadenfreude would prove germane to an understanding of why, while everyone is equally pissed off and terrified that irrational, tyrannical North Korea managed to rub George Bush's nice suit in the dirt last week, some of us don't so much mind that dirt was applied to that particular suit. And if anyone doubts that schadenfreude was out there after NK's big boom, let me point to the eminently reasonable Paul Well's blog comment on the subject, a reference to Bush's famous, now infamous, Axis of Evil speech:

Note to self:

In future, try not to write any speeches justifying an invasion of Iraq by saying Iran and North Korea are evil too.

'Kay thanks.

A quick perusal of the Daily Show website will get you much, much more of this kind of sentiment, and that even from within the United States. But back to baseball.

For those who don't follow the sport, the very expensive, very powerful New York Yankees baseball club, winners of the American League Eastern Division, were eliminated from the World Series playoffs by the lowly Detroit Tigers, a team that managed to squeak into the play-offs on what is known as "the wild-card." Really, in baseball terms it wasn't even close. In the face of Detroit pitching, the Yankees much-celebrated batting line-up, the so called "Legion of Doom" gathered up their equipment and went home like so many dejected pre-schoolers looking for a snack before bath time. As a fan of the Toronto Blue Jays, a team genetically determined to hate both the Yanks and the Tigers in head-to-head play, it was very, very easy to pick a favorite. Watching the Tigers hand the Yanks their butts was unbelievably delicious.

The reason fans of other baseball teams get an undeniable guilty pleasure from seeing the Yankees humiliated, especially by such an unlikely bunch as the Detroit Tigers (who just three years ago sported one of the worst records baseball has ever seen) is not because we don't like the idea of either the Yankees or athletic superiority. It's not because we don't believe the most-talented team should win. And nor is it because we have any particular animosity toward the good people of New York. Instead, it's a question of intention and method. The impulse to hate Yankees speaks to the baseball purist's instinct that the best, most correct, most pure way to win the World Series is to compete on a level playing field, to compete fairly and in the spirit of good sportsmanship.

Which is exactly what the Yankees tend not to do. This is a baseball team that spent $194,663,079 on player salaries this past season (source: USA Today). That's more than double the total payroll for the Detroit Tigers ($82,612,866), the guys what beat 'em. My dear Blue Jays, despite a number of expensive additions to their team during the last off-season only spent $71,915,000 in total payroll, and they tended to beat up on the Yankees all season as well. The closest team in payroll to the Yankees is the Boston Red Sox, and they are $74 million shy of the New York number. They are the entire Blue Jay payroll (plus a couple mil) shy of the New York number.

Obscene? A lot of folks think so, but what are you going to do? It's not like the New York Yankees have stolen this money. It's not like they spend money for evil purposes. No, they have a lot of money, so they spend a lot of money, buying up every superstar they can find in an effort to win the World Series (which they have not done since 2000).

In baseball, New York is thought of as America's team. I know a lot of people would disagree, but the numbers don't lie. Major League Baseball official merchandise sales generally show Yankees-wear selling more than any other team's. It would be easy to interpret this as implicit support for a win-at-any-cost mindset -- and some might then even transfer that conclusion into a discussion of America's role in the world.

Some might, but not me. Why not? Because this year it was Detroit's turn to prove that win-at-any-cost does not always translate into winning. And Americans are loving it. Reports this morning show Detroit Tigers gear flying off the racks at MLB faster than anything else, including Yankee stuff. If the perennial popularity of the Yankees suggest that many Americans endorse win-at-any-cost, the Tigers are proving that many more Americans disagree (though they still like winning). Canadian sales of Tiger gear have gone through the roof as well, but that's probably just our legendary anti-Americanism talking.

Now, you go off and figure out the implications of all this for the Democrats.

More entries on: Sport

August 22, 2006

sports, fighting and the trials of testosterone

Posted by john_d at 04:09 PM ET | Comments (3)

image courtesy a French blog

It's the season of the shove, apparently, among professional male athletes, and whether they do it with their hands, their heads or a weasely bit of graffiti on the clubhouse chalkboard, the boys of summer are all trying to make up for hockey's diminished physicality by stirring it up themselves. And what's weirder than the increased scrapping, are some of the reactions to it in the sports press.

First, there was the Zidane head butt. I wrote about that one earlier. Oh the shame, oh the black mark on a brilliant career. A gentlesportsman must always keep his head, even when the racist and personal remarks start flying. It's all part of the game. Etc.

Is Zidane any less a national hero in France a month and a half after his moment of insanity? One of the beautiful things about all beautiful games is that as time passes, the winners and losers fade a bit into history, while the great stories stay fresh. There was a narrative written on that day in July about a great man who sacrifices immense glory for personal honour. My guess is more will remember that story longer than they will the final score of the game.

Anybody? The final score of the World Cup final?

Then there's Paul Tracy, the Canadian race car driver who spent most of the last month auditioning for the Ricky Bobby sequel. Tracy has developed a habit of crashing out of races, often taking someone with him. He's kind of a human road hazard to his fellow drivers, and lately they've been holding it against him. Twice now Tracy has been involved in post-race, or at least post-crash confrontations/fist fights. The big issue there on sports call in shows -- why don't his opponents take off their helmets when they offer to fight, like real men? I wonder why Tracy doesn't finish a race behind the wheel of his car, like a real driver.

And finally, my beloved Blue Jays. A month or so back, first basewhiner Shea Hillenbrand was sent to San Francisco after what was widely reported as a verbal confrontation with manager John Gibbons. The verbs, apparently, involved an invitation to dance, with fists. This after Hillenbrand reportedly wrote disparaging graffiti in the clubhouse.

Gibbons, an ex-player himself, just oozes that strange laid-back intensity you get from some baseballers. He lounges on the bench, spitting tobacco juice and watching every detail of the game through half-closed eyes. He was a catcher, the physically toughest of all the positions, and so far he's exhibited a better than average baseball mind, pushing the play with aggressive base-running, and toughing it out in pro ball's most competitive division despite a disastrous pitching staff.

Everyone's heard about last night's altercation between Gibbons and starting pitcher Ted Lilly. Lilly was going to lose the game. Gibbons, an all-star manager, thought he'd try to prevent that. Lilly yelled at him on the mound. Later, there was... something... in the tunnel to the clubhouse. Was it a fistfight, a shoving match or just more angry words? No one's sharing details.

Watching televised reports, the official sports media consensus seemed to be that Lilly should be traded and Gibbons fired. They'd both disrespected the team with childish behaviour, and poisoned the clubhouse with their animosity. This opinion is echoed in much of the newspaper coverage today. So not only are the athletes shoving each other around, but the journalists are getting in on the act as well.

Talk radio had a radically different take, maybe because they took the radical step of talking to both men as though they were real people -- people who get angry and lose their self-control sometimes. John Gibbons appeared on local Toronto sports radio this morning and spoke of embarrassment, responsibility and a wish to move on. Lilly did the same in a postgame chat.

What's most interesting to me are the replayed images of the Blue Jay dugout and management box during and after the confrontations. Look at the other players. I swear, to a man they are all suppressing the giggles. Blue Jay General Manager, J.P. Ricciardi was caught on camera with a huge smile on his face. These guys are right in the middle of all this rage, and their reactions speak volumes about how we should view it. Nasty words were thrown around, people vented their pent-up frustration (the Jays have recently pretty much blown the season), and while it looked bad for a minute there, two men wound up controlling their physical natures and did not brawl. This morning, true professionals, they'd both like to move on. By comparison, Shea Hillenbrand took the opportunity of the altercation to send a few more nasty jabs all the way from SanFran.

It's embarrassing -- it really is -- but men fight. It's a chemical thing, and the best men are the ones who can wrestle control over the raging elements in their souls and either stop the madness before it happens (Gibbons, Lilly), or own up to it when they fail to do so (Zidane). Then there are the jerks, and those include the guys who start fights and then pretend to be victims. I'd rather my kids watched men than jerks, so let's not fire anybody after last night.

Oh -- and sitting above the jerks and the flawed men on that spectrum are the zen masters. If you can catch a replay, check out Blue Jay ace pitcher Roy Halladay during last night's tunnel fight. The bench clears as everyone runs into the tunnel to see what's going on, but Halladay stays seated, his face a slightly bemused mask of The Dude, Jeff Bridges' character in The Big Lebowski.

The Dude abides, man. The Dude abides.

More entries on: Sport

August 16, 2006

heroic

Posted by john_d at 08:50 PM ET | Comments (0)

(AP PHOTO/CP, Paul Chiasson) courtesy Yahoo images

The other day, national sports radio host Bob McCown did his controversialist thing when he insisted the only reason to watch womens' sports was for "the eye candy." His point, though I'm not convinced he actually believes it, was layered. Woman athletes have bought into a marketing around their sports that increasingly demands shorter, tighter outfits and an overt sexuality. Check out any recent ad featuring tennis great Maria Sharipova as an example.

As well, women sports enthusiasts have not supported professional womens' sports to anywhere near the degree they support mens' sports -- an accurate assertion, I think (compare crowds for the NBA and WNBA), though the economic reasons for this are more complex than McCown suggests. Not mentioned, though equally accurate I think, is the fact that any appreciation of sports has a semi-sexual element to it. Certainly anyone attracted to men enjoys the eye candy of mens' sports, while also appreciating the other elements that make sport attractive... competition, physical grace and skill, overcoming adversity, heroism, etc.

Well, I'm not sure even the crusty McCown could fault tonight's tennis match in Montreal between defending Rogers Cup champion Kim Clijsters and Canadian upstart and Laval native Stephanie Dubois. In terms of skill and experience, Clijsters was a goliath in this match, and she showed it with an easy first set win. But Dubois is a battler, and she held her own through pure skill and determination in the early games of the second set. And then something gave out in Clijsters' left wrist. She had it attended to, and continued on, but the injury eventually proved too much. Dubois broke back to lead the set, Clijsters withdrew and to everyone's surprise the Canadian Dubois is now in the round of 16, having made her way past one of the world's best.

Stunned by the result, Dubois managed enough poise to give a graceful interview in English during which she did little else but praise her opponent. Easily the first big test as a professional athlete for this 19 year old, and she did exactly nothing wrong, showing flashes of brilliance on the court that bode well for Canadian tennis into the future.

And, oh yeah, she's good-looking.

More entries on: Sport

July 13, 2006

teach your children well

Posted by john_d at 10:21 AM ET | Comments (1)

Since watching the last forty minutes of last week's World Cup final, I have to say I am baffled by some of the mainstream media response to Zinedine Zidane's head butt to Italian defender Marco Materazzi, including the initial -- completely one-sided -- response of the play by play announcer at the game. We're supposed to be shocked by and ashamed of the famous, and now retired, French striker, saddened that his career would end in a red card rather than a trophy photo op.

Why, exactly?

Does the sports narrative always have to end in the same way? Is there only one kind of heroism in sports, one kind of role modelling? Is there nothing to be learned, meaningfully experienced or even entertained by in failure? Does one bad act make a bad guy?

Zidane's character and career speak for themselves. He was a brilliant player and, for the most part, a model of sportsmanship on the field and off. When he lost it, he took the punishment and generally apologized. When he triumphed, he carried himself with pride but did not gloat. His personal history stands as a metaphor for hope in a new Europe. All that ends with a head butt? Hardly.

Margaret Wente in the Globe today argues that the kind of 'trash talk' Zidane experienced from Materazzi is all part of the game, and the true champions resolutely take it without reaction. She then goes on to give us a most facile lesson in sociology. Boys gather together in groups to insult other boys. Sports are just territorial wars played out without weapons. There is no equivalent to trash talking among females (I'm sorry? Can you repeat that one?). Etc.

In the Robert Altman film M*A*S*H, a football game is won partly because an unwitting opponent is verbally goaded into violence and must leave the game. I saw that movie while in high school, loved the strategy and tried it out in the next after-school touch football game. Everytime I lined up opposite Kenny Winter, just as the scrimmage began, I let fly with an insult, a personal one. I think I may have even mentioned his sister at one point. It worked beautifully. Kenny was thrown off his game, I received the best shot to the jaw I've ever felt, everyone felt stupid and terrible, and the game ended without a satisfactory resolution. I can't remember the final score, but I've never forgotten how dumb I felt.

How does Materazzi feel about his part in all of this? Well, he's admitting nothing, but also rather sheepishly imploring FIFA not to punish Zidane further by taking away his tournament MVP award. Enjoy that guilty conscience my man. It's character building!

True to his nature, Zidane made some great comments yesterday. These are quoted from The Guardian:

"Of course the reaction has to be punished. But if there had been no provocation, there would have been no reaction. If I reacted, it was because something occurred. Do you think that in a World Cup final, 10 minutes away from the end of my career, I would do a thing like that because it pleased me? Never. My action was unforgiveable, but I'm saying to you that the person who committed the provocation should also be punished."

Now that's a sports narrative. I'll take my punishment, thank you. I deserve it. How often do we hear this kind of honesty in sports, or anywhere. He goes on:

"My action was unforgiveable. It wasn't the right gesture to make. I say this aloud because two or three billion people saw it, and millions of children. I apologise to them, and to their teachers, the people who have to tell them about good behaviour. I have children myself, and I know what it's like. I will always tell them not to be taken advantage of, and to avoid this kind of situation."

As a father of boys, I will very happily show them this great man's moment of failure. I'd like them to get something out of sports other than mindless triumphalism, or dumb social pseudo-analysis.

More entries on: Sport

July 05, 2006

deutschland uber nichts

Posted by john_d at 03:06 PM ET | Comments (0)

250px-Flag_of_Germany.svg.png

The Times of London has run a weirdly triumphant account of Germany's loss to Italy in yesterday's World Cup semifinal match in Dortmund:

Doubts voiced about World Cup boost for host country

I'll admit to being a fan of Germany -- the soccer Germany (and, in all honesty, the beer Germany, sausage Germany and literature Germany as well). Maybe it's time for the British press to stop suggesting that I should be slightly sheepish about doing so. You know, what with Germany's history and all... ahem, you know what we mean, right?

The World Cup has broken through 60 years of German inhibition about openly demonstrating national sentiment. The flag has been displayed everywhere, from shops to trams and underwear. Germans have started to belt out the national anthem without stumbling over the words.

But the question has always been: what will happen to this seemingly new national confidence if the team fails to become world champion?

Erm... I dunno England. How do you blokes deal with it?

More entries on: Sport

June 19, 2006

Oilers, shmoilers, let's talk Stanley

Posted by mason at 01:52 PM ET | Comments (1)

If we can take a break from all the Oiler-adulation for a sec, thanks…. I’d like to direct your attention to more worthy Stanley-Cup-related pursuits, such as the first novel by our own John Degen, The Uninvited Guest. Actually, to call this a hockey novel would be a mistake, since it seems (114 pages in) to be more about human contact and companionship. Regardless, it’s a beautifully written and imagined work thus far.

Want to sample it for yourself? Chapter excerpts are available here. But really, you don’t want to be left without a copy of your own, do you?

More entries on: Lit | Sport | THIS matters

"Tell your god to get ready for blood"

Posted by joyceb at 10:52 AM ET | Comments (10)

That's Deadwood's Al Swearengen from last week's season three opener. It's appropriate today.

Believe as we do: Edmonton is going to wipe the floor with Carolina. The Stanley Cup is coming home.

More entries on: Sport

June 14, 2006

Go Oilers!

Posted by joyceb at 11:10 PM ET | Comments (18)

Seriously. Go Oilers! Woohoo!

More entries on: Sport

THIS MAGAZINE. BECAUSE EVERYTHING IS POLITICAL

Please note that all writers hold the copyright for their pieces and it is illegal for any portion of them to be copied or distributed without their expressed permission. So please don't steal.

THIS MAGAZINE: BECAUSE EVERTHING IS POLITICAL

April 09, 2007

continental sport

February 09, 2007

all for one -- Jane Jacobs would love Toronto FC

November 15, 2006

Next up: Emissions restrictions on Don Cherry

October 27, 2006

Soccer Rising; Community Building

October 17, 2006

Semi-serious posting delayed by real life

August 22, 2006

sports, fighting and the trials of testosterone

August 16, 2006

heroic

July 13, 2006

teach your children well

July 05, 2006

deutschland uber nichts

June 19, 2006

Oilers, shmoilers, let's talk Stanley

"Tell your god to get ready for blood"

June 14, 2006

Go Oilers!