TORONTO — We’ll always have Vancouver 2010, and the underlying idea that those Winter Olympics showed Canada to be a country that could get things done – “getting things done” including kicking your ass in a sports event and maybe rubbing it in a little bit. You know: a nicer, less nuttier version of the U.S.A.; a cheeky kiss and wink instead of a parting slap. I mean, that message is already out there in the advertising for Pyeongchang 2018.
But for those of us of a certain age, Canada’s performance at Rio 2016 is, maybe, even a little more remarkable than Vancouver. It stands to reason that we would be a winter sports power, once we figured out some of the details (OK, OK … once we figured out how to spend money). And truth is, we’d started to expand our winter horizons beyond hockey in the lead-up to those games, paying attention to sports that normally received short shrift.
Vancouver was the first time Canadians other than sports executives or the media started making mental calculations about medal totals.
But to see a Canadian once again chase the title of the fastest man in the world against one of the greatest Olympians of all time? To see a 16-year-old finish in a tie for first in swimming’s version of the 100-metres? To see Canadians lay down markers for the future in sports played on a much wider field than those of the winter games? To see Canadian women lead the way, winning 16 of our 22 medals? That, I think, says a great deal about the country we’re becoming. Running, jumping and swimming are the most basic of physical endeavours, available to all on a year-round basis.
What we need to do now is ask the same questions they are asking in Great Britain. That country finished second in the medal table four years after hosting the Olympics, and in the past four years that country has engaged in a mature debate about striking a balance between Olympic success and participatory matters. As Andy Bull of The Guardian wrote, it is time for that country to channel the energy of Rio and use it to increase opportunities at the grassroots level.
I don’t know if Penny Oleksiak and Andre De Grasse can help us build more swimming pools instead of closing them or bring physical education back to schools — it’s going to take financial and intellectual courage as much as athletic courage to pull that off — or if they can help us overcome the issues created by geography and climate. But they and their wonderful skills and their sports are going to be in our faces for a long time. We’ve never been at this point before, might as well make something of it.
NO KARMA KILLERS
It’s been a rough summer for those who believe there was no Toronto Blue Jays history before last year’s trade deadline; those who were convinced the team was going to hell in a handbasket because Alex Anthopoulos did not come back as general manager. Hell, even those who believed in the threat of some sort of karmic intercession due to the hiring of Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins need to go to the deepest, darkest corners of the Internet to find fellow travellers.
Less than a quarter of the regular season left, and the Blue Jays are in first place. In the process, the team’s new brain trust has remade a bullpen in the middle of a season, cut bait with two failed endeavours — Drew Storen and $2-million Franklin Morales — and added payroll at the deadline, filled one of a possible three spots in the lineup next year by adding a player whose salary will be picked up by another team (Melvin Upton Jr.), and signed J.A. Happ to the best free-agent contract in the game. They kept John Gibbons as manager, and all he’s done is have the team in first place despite a couple of injuries to Jose Bautista, an ace on an innings limit, no reliable setup man for the first two months of the season beyond some Rule 5 guy named Joe Biagini, and a bench always limited by the presence of just one bona fide catcher.
Gibbons still gets no respect from some corners of the media — he was ranked 30th among managers in a strange, little list put out by ESPN — but it sure seems as if he has his team figured out, to the point where Bautista volunteered to move into the leadoff spot despite hoping to cash in as a run producer in free agency, and where five other starting pitchers bought into the concept of a six-man rotation to benefit Aaron Sanchez — who in turn accepted being sent to single-A on the weekend as part of a trip into uncharted waters for the organization.
Sorry … unless the environment is really healthy, you don’t get that kind of buy-in, especially on a team with a couple of big-name free agents; a team that also saw one of the spiritual forces in its successful division title, David Price, walk away.
QUIBBLES AND BITS
- Dwight Stones, three times world record holder in the men’s high jump and a two-time Olympic bronze medallist, was one of the first track and field athletes to understand the value of entertainment; of creating a storyline beyond simply how high the jump or how fast the time.
He showed that at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, where his comments about French-Canadians and his reaction to the reaction made for must-see television at a time when must-see TV meant something. Stones also battled athletics organizations and led the charge to the professionalization of the sport.
So it was interesting hearing Stones say on my show that it’s not just track and field fans who will miss Usain Bolt. Track and field athletes will, too, when it comes to marketing and financial power. “The sport will miss him like it doesn’t believe,” said Stones, now an analyst for ESPN. “I don’t know how we will replace him. He changed the sport. Carl Lewis … he had to invent stuff. There was no model for how to be a ‘professional athlete’ until Bolt.”
Stones echoed the sentiments of many when he said he would like to see Bolt return to the 2020 Games in Tokyo to run the relay and take a shot at a 10th medal. Me, too …
- The Red Sox’s David Ortiz is one home run and three runs batted in away from his 10th season of 30-plus homers and 100-plus RBIs, and when he does achieve those marks Ortiz, who is 40 years and 278 days old, will become the oldest player in baseball history to reach 30 HRs.
That distinction currently belongs to Darrell Evans, who was 40 years and 115 days old when he slugged his 30th homer in 1987. Dave Winfield had 100 RBIs in 1992 at the age of 40 years, 357 days, and will remain the oldest player with 100 RBIs in a season. The only players with 30/100 in at least 10 years for one franchise, besides Ortiz, are Babe Ruth, Albert Pujols, Hank Aaron (10) and Lou Gehrig (10).
- Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred is the right man for the right time but, man, I don’t like some of the trial balloons he let loose at last week’s owners meeting — including limiting the use of defensive shifts and the number of pitching changes in a game. I get the desire to speed up the game, but I’m not certain shaving even 15 minutes off a game is going to draw in a younger demographic.
Network TV is no longer much of a factor because Major League Baseball’s TV foundation is regional sports networks less beholden to the clock. Beyond that, the game’s issue isn’t run-preventing strategy — it’s the nature of a game where the defence has possession of the ball; an inherently negative game where the first physical act isn’t trying to score, but throwing the ball in a manner to prevent someone from scoring — it’s the continued need for tightening rules preventing hitters from futzing around in the box.
Limiting the number of warm-up pitches made by a pitcher coming into the game, allowing the issuing of an intentional walk without throwing four pitches, and eliminating pitcher/catcher mound conferences would be worthy considerations, too.
THE END GAME
Watching a Cleveland Indians lineup with five switch-hitters coming through Sunday reminded me of a conversation I had in spring training with an old-timey scout. The scout’s theory was that with the greater emphasis on specialized bullpens in the major leagues, and the increase in pitching changes during games, a switch-hitter was the most valuable commodity in the game — as long as the switch-hitter was effective enough to put the ball in play from both sides of the plate. Get a young switch-hitter capable of doing that — especially if you’re a team without a big payroll — and you’ve struck gold.
It was 23-year-old Jose Ramirez who homered off Brett Cecil with the decisive blow on Sunday, but the Indians also run out switch-hitters Francisco Lindor, Carlos Santana and Abraham Almonte, a bit of a revelation who in two years has gone from hitting .214 against right-handers to .296.
Look, great pitchers get hitters out and great hitters can hit pitchers regardless of handedness. But the Indians will be a handful in the post-season, in part because manager Terry Francona doesn’t need to get into a mix and match game. Damn … also makes you think the people who helped build the Indians knew what they were doing.