Hawk On Fire

How would I describe the year 2017? Checking social media when you wake up to make sure there weren't any major breaking news overnight. AKA: *Opens Twitter * Ah...Trump hasn't tweeted WW3 today. That's nice. 2017 was a sense of unease, of instability. 2016 was a crazy year, and I kind of feel like 2017 was like the hangover that comes after. You still feel a bit sick, a bit dizzy, and a bit scared of what went on before, not knowing what it means or why it happened, but you get on with your life. At the same time, you kinda know that what happened can't be ignored, and that one way or another it's gonna be addressed at some point. 2017 is a year between binges, after the storms of last year and the storms to come. As ironic as that sounds. In other words, 2017 was kind of like the second half of Requiem for a Dream. Now onto the music. During the last few years, music has taken a drastic turn in mainstream and pop music. Mainstream music and ...

( Richard Lautens / Toronto Star ) Any Saudi, Dubai or United Emirate oil tycoons interested in Baseball? If you believe Forbes, the Blue Jays are worth somewhere around $1.3 billion . There's no reason Toronto shouldn't be spending like the large market team. Toronto is a bigger city than Chicago (ie. the 3rd biggest city in the US), making Toronto the largest city in MLB that doesn't share its market with another team. On top of which, it has an entire country of 33M as an essentially captive market - for TV and merchandising purposes. Vegas got a hockey team for $600 million in a non traditional market, not including building of arena and other costs. The LA Clippers sold for $2 billion USD a few years ago. The Maple Leafs alone are worth $1.4 billion and increased 27% year over year. The value of daily live content in an age of streaming and cord cutting is very valuable. In context, 4 billion is just above Rogers Quarterly revenue. Make it USD and you have a ...

Shohei Ohtani throws right-handed but is a left-handed hitter. (Toru Takahash/AP) I want to live in the dimension Ohtani gets signed by the Jays. But that's like saying I want to live in the universe where the Jays are a big market team that drafts the best players and signs the best players and wins the World Series all the time. That universe exists, but the team is called the New York Yankees instead. If Jays are looking to build a winning team, we need a solid #1 or #2 starter. Texas (Darvish), Dodgers (Maeda), Seattle (Iwakuma), Yankees (Tanaka) payed big on them, and all turned out pretty good. With the proven track record of Japanese pitchers, it's a no-brainer to spend big on probably the best prospect the world has ever seen: Ohtani. The versatile athlete can pitch over 100mph, with amazing breaking balls, and can hit DH when he's not pitching. I think he wants to go to the American League where he can DH a lot. We missed out on Darvish, and it's lookin...

(Image via MLB) You never forget the players that made you fall in love with the game. It's a sad day for baseball, and for the Toronto Blue Jays, and his fans. More importantly though, he was a husband and father. As much as we will miss him, it pales in comparison to the loss his family has suffered. He pitched for the Jays during so many losing seasons but remained a role model to so many of us. Roy Halladay had a 203-105 career record. He went at least seven innings in 40 of those losses and had fifteen career complete game losses. A true professional. He left Toronto after giving us everything he had. He has left this life with so much more to give. I know the Jays were waiting for him to appear on the Hall of Fame ballot to see if he got elected (and therefore retire his number), but I have to assume they'll put him on the Level of Excellence and retire his jersey number this season. Halladay was the lone bright spot for me when I first started watchi...

Image via Canadian Press We all knew it was coming, yet it still hits so hard. While never the biggest Hip fan, you'd have to be a complete cynic to deny Downie's impact on our country and its culture. A sad day. A rock star who never really acted like a rock star. His empathy and intelligence shone through in his lyrics. Nothing ever made me feel more Canadian than driving down a country road in the summer time with The Hip playing on the radio. When Gord found out he was sick, he didn't hide, or pity himself. He thought, in typical Canadian fashion, time to get on just like Terry Fox (who he wrote about in a song) and do some good before my watch ends. He toured the country, and said his goodbyes from the stage. His last concert was attended by the Prime Minister of Canada, and thousands of fans. Gord lived a hell of a life, and went out in the best possible way, under his own terms. If he had to leave the stage early, he was going to make damn sure it was a good ...

Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images As it turns out, it is pretty hard to start 6-16 and make the playoffs . This was a disappointing season. But there were some fun moments! Like a Morales walk-off . Or a Goins walk-off . Or Peace's walk-off Grand Slam . Or scoring 7 runs in the bottom of the ninth and Pearce hitting his second walk-off Grand Slam in just a matter of days. Or Kevin Pillar's catch , after catch , after catch . Let’s be clear - the playoffs were not out of reach after the Jays started 2-11. Nobody actually knew that for sure at that time. There was still loads of baseball left. It was early. They had time to make up the lost ground. And you know what? For a time, it looked like they were going to. Despite that miserable start, they were one game below .500 on June 2nd. Obviously they never passed the .500 threshold, but at that time, it really did look like they had enough in them to at least get back in the Wild Card race. So no, the season didn’t e...

Photo: MARK BLINCH/THE GLOBE AND MAIL HAVE U TRIED UNPLUGGING THE TEAM AND PLUGGING THEM BACK IN @bluejays — Emily (@emilydawnlove) April 15, 2017 36-11. That was the Texas Rangers’ record in one-run games last year. Now look at the Blue Jays. With the exception of one or two games, they have had the winning or tying run at the plate in the 9th inning during every loss this season. They’ve made the best reliever in baseball sweat more than any team did during all of last season. Yet they’re 1-9 to start the year. No one could have predicted this. A team who is coming off of back to back ALCS appearances, who had sky high expectations have now lost 7 games in a row to start the season, and the only team in the MLB without two wins. The Jays start to the season is the worst in franchise history and although it is still very early, the Jays will need to stir together some wins soon, or it may be a long season. The start to the season is a huge shock, they started off by g...