"(Toronto) is a tough place to play. Especially if you're not playing well, there's the pressure of, `Oh God, if I mess up they're going to be talking about it in the paper all week and I'll get booed off the ice.'
BEALK, Wade Belak, confirms, with my emphasis, that despite Michael Grange and Dave Feschuk's head in the sand approach that the Toronto media does in fact have an effect on players. They are the first to mention it.
Also, new re-design for The Toronto Star. Thoughts?
over 2 years ago
PPP
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I think everybody knows that, and has for a long time. The fact that the media try to downplay their role in making or breaking careers in this town is laughable.
You could see it on Raycrofts face everytime he let in a goal. It said "Fuck me, im going to have to read this on the front page tomorrow….. god i suck…:
Chris Phillips scored the stanley cup winning goal on his own net, he still plays there. If that was Bryan McCabe he would be dead.
There is no "I" in team, but there is an "M" and an "E"
Honestly it’s not just the media. If McCabe scored a cup winning goal for the other team we’d literally have torn him limb from limb.
Pension Plan Puppets*
* Blog contains less than 2% puppet content by weight.
Im not sure what it was like in ottawa the day after game 5 but I doubt the paper said
“Phillips wins the cup!…. for the Ducks!”
There is no "I" in team, but there is an "M" and an "E"
by Matt_Roberts on Oct 6, 2009 11:01 AM EDT up reply actions
I don't mean for this to sound tasteless
but if the Leafs were in a must win Cup final game, and ANY player (even OLAS or Wendel) scored on their own net, chances are they’d be seen as more of a pariah than OJ Simpson.
Put another way, any Leaf who robbed their own team of a chance to win the cup would be about as popular as Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” given as a gift on Hanukkah.
"Sanity is not statistical." - George Orwell, a Leafs fan...
Stalk me here...
by blurr1974 on Oct 6, 2009 11:05 AM EDT up reply actions
We forgive these things
Just like we’ve sort of forgiven Manny Lee.
Sort of.
Well, I haven’t….
Leaf, the universe and everything.
Honestly
there is no way I could possibly forgive something like that.
For Ottawa, it may be a case of there still being hope that their window hasn’t closed, but for me, after who knows how long of waiting for the Leafs to get their shot, and to have a Steve-Smith-ian/Chris-Philips-ish moment would be pretty unforgivable to me.
"Sanity is not statistical." - George Orwell, a Leafs fan...
Stalk me here...
by blurr1974 on Oct 6, 2009 11:10 AM EDT up reply actions
not a cup final
but certainly pretty egregious.
"Sanity is not statistical." - George Orwell, a Leafs fan...
Stalk me here...
by blurr1974 on Oct 6, 2009 11:21 AM EDT up reply actions
Manderville going for the puck vs. Wayne Gretzky?
Again, not a final, but as close as we’ve been.
Leaf, the universe and everything.
Kerry Fraser
being blocked out on the play…
ya, both unforgivable. i’m a big fan of holding grudges, obviously.
"Sanity is not statistical." - George Orwell, a Leafs fan...
Stalk me here...
by blurr1974 on Oct 6, 2009 11:29 AM EDT up reply actions
Well Ottawa lost in game five and got dumped on in that game.
Pension Plan Puppets*
* Blog contains less than 2% puppet content by weight.
Manny Lee and Rance Muliniks are two of my most hated Jays because they were the worst players on the Jays from ’89-whenever they were finally let go. They were guaranteed outs at bat.
Pension Plan Puppets: A Toronto Maple Leafs blog and a group therapy session.
Rance?
I loved Rance.
Not as much as Garth Iorg (for whom I adopted the #16 that I wear to this day) but Rance was pretty cool!
Manny Lee let a routine grounder go through his legs that would have clinched the 1987 pennant.
Leaf, the universe and everything.
I don’t remember that far back. They were just atrocious batters that never got a hit when the Jays needed it.
Pension Plan Puppets: A Toronto Maple Leafs blog and a group therapy session.
I was a fan when he was old.
Pension Plan Puppets: A Toronto Maple Leafs blog and a group therapy session.
He owns a realty business where I live.
got anything you’d like me to pass along…?
"Sanity is not statistical." - George Orwell, a Leafs fan...
Stalk me here...
by blurr1974 on Oct 6, 2009 11:55 AM EDT up reply actions
Rance
"Sanity is not statistical." - George Orwell, a Leafs fan...
Stalk me here...
by blurr1974 on Oct 6, 2009 11:58 AM EDT up reply actions
Yeah
Tell him that I understand that he was good before I was a baseball fan but his toothpick physique, terrible batting, and sleep inducing commentary have turned me against him for all time.
Pension Plan Puppets: A Toronto Maple Leafs blog and a group therapy session.
how about i just say
“Julian says hi.”
"Sanity is not statistical." - George Orwell, a Leafs fan...
Stalk me here...
by blurr1974 on Oct 6, 2009 12:01 PM EDT up reply actions
Anyone who has to look through his own armpit to see the pitch is OK by me.
Leaf, the universe and everything.
That’s right, he had a wicked stance.
by general borschevsky on Oct 6, 2009 11:52 AM EDT up reply actions
I agree entirely. But imagine if the player who screwed up was already hated.
He might need police protection, seriously.
Pension Plan Puppets*
* Blog contains less than 2% puppet content by weight.
Almost like Mitch “Wild Thing” Williams’ life after leaving a pitch over the plate for Joe Carter in the World Series.
"Sanity is not statistical." - George Orwell, a Leafs fan...
Stalk me here...
by blurr1974 on Oct 6, 2009 11:54 AM EDT up reply actions
second in MVP voting I believe…
"Sanity is not statistical." - George Orwell, a Leafs fan...
Stalk me here...
by blurr1974 on Oct 6, 2009 11:58 AM EDT up reply actions
Honestly, I don’t see why it’s any different than playing baseball in New York, basketball in L.A., or football in Dallas.
You know who else said that while getting drunk in Montreal?
Alyn McCauley
Julian!!!!
What?
Where’s my interview?
Wings fan by birth. Leafs fan by truculent osmosis.
Please. The Leafs have been so bad on home-ice because they’ve been a bad team overall, plain and simple. The media scrutiny here is intense, but it’s really no different from many other hot sports market cities in North America. This whole article is an exercise is self-satisfaction. How they can be so smugly proud of their own suffocating awesomeness while also knowing deep down the impact this has on the team is beyond me.
yea, during the quinn years the elafs kicked ass at the acc
There is no "I" in team, but there is an "M" and an "E"
by Matt_Roberts on Oct 6, 2009 11:25 AM EDT up reply actions
I’d love to know how many GTA/ Southern Ontario 4th liners have had career games versus the Leafs on a Saturday night.
I know it’s completely anecdotal, but it seems home games on HNIC have a very high incidence of the the Leafs getting burnt by a Glen Metropolit or a Rich Peverley.
Bitter Leaf Fan: a life-long Toronto Maple Leafs fan comments on the team, the media and the exasperation...
Do you think the radio and TV guys ever pitch a fit ’cause the players only talk about the papers?
I can picture Berger angrily asking a follow-up question about their radio listening habits.
Bitter Leaf Fan: a life-long Toronto Maple Leafs fan comments on the team, the media and the exasperation...
The Monster
"Myself, I don’t read so much, so I don’t know what you guys are writing and saying," he said. "If they say something about me in the papers I don’t care so much."
Sounds to me like he’s a perfect fit.
"Life is just a place where we spend time between games. Hockey is where we live, where we can best meet and overcome pain and wrong and death." - Fred Shero
by Karina on Oct 6, 2009 3:13 PM EDT reply actions
Own goals...
and then there was the South american footballer (er, soccer player for the uninitiated) whose name and country I have temporarily forgotten (due to advancing old age – ie. I’m over 40 LOL) – who was shot and killed after returning from scoring into his own goal during a World Cup match.
p.s. I also loved the Garth/Rance platoon…
Andres Escobar
He was a countryman (Colombia) that took some mean-spirited ribbing too far after the World Cup and tried to start a bar fight. Unfortunately for him, the other guy brought a gun to a fist fight.
Pension Plan Puppets: A Toronto Maple Leafs blog and a group therapy session.
by PPP on Oct 6, 2009 4:43 PM EDT up reply actions
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