Is there a better place to be a sports fan right now than the state of Pennsylvania?
The Pittsburgh Penguins are advancing to their second consecutive Stanley Cup Final. The Steelers are the reigning Super Bowl champions, while the Phillies won the World Series last fall.
Every major professional sports team in the state made the playoffs this year and that includes the Flyers, 76ers and Eagles.
But here's the question for this week's blog: Is there a worse place to be a sports fan right now than the province on Ontario?
Sure, the Blue Jays got off to a roaring start, but they recently lost eight straight games and their season is going up in flames like a Damaso Garcia jersey. But don't blame the Jays patchwork starting pitching or a slumping Vernon Wells for their recent struggles.
Cito Gaston's team has simply been bitten by the curse of Ontario.
Quite frankly, all Ontario teams are bad right now and the Blue Jays are just keeping in line with their provincial counterparts.
The Senators and Maple Leafs both missed the post-season this year - the first time we've been without playoff hockey in Ontario since 1992.
The Raptors won 33 games and now we're all concerned that Chris Bosh is going to bolt town next summer.
And in the cruelest twist, both of Ontario’s CFL teams missed the playoffs last year, with Toronto and Hamilton going a combined 7-29. Seriously, in a nine-team league, how do you have the only two teams that miss the playoffs?
Even the teams we want to bring into the province are running into this curse.
Jim Balsillie's NHL franchise in Hamilton and Ottawa's CFL team may never materialize. When non-existent teams are affected, that's a good sign that we're under a curse.
About the only good team we have right now is the Carleton Ravens, who have won six of the past seven CIS men's basketball titles. But when was the last time you were able to trash-talk an out-of-province person with some CIS references?
It usually doesn't go over very well.
So we have to figure out who put the curse on the professional sports teams in Ontario. I've narrowed it down to the following candidates:
1. Shea Hillenbrand. His sinking ship reference back in the summer of 2006 may have been a warning for all of us in the province.
2. Damon Allen. Since he retired last spring, everything has gone haywire. Playoff football and hockey in this province was a formality when Allen was an active player. He retires and suddenly nobody knows how to win anymore. Could he not have played until he was 50?
3. Ray Emery. It was easy to point the finger at Ray for the Senators struggles. I was thinking it would be easy just to blame him for every other team's issues as well.
4. Gustavo Chacin. Think about the eerie parallels between his struggles and the problems everyone else has encountered during the same time period.
5. Ed Belfour. When Eddie was in net for the Leafs, at least they had a chance to win every night. I think the province should chip in $1 billion right now to bring him out of retirement and get our teams back on track.
If anyone else has some candidates for who put the curse on this province, we can do a mass burning of jerseys of the suspected culprits and break this curse. Maybe we can even invite Damaso Garcia to start the fire.
