My Sporting Background

Before I get into my endless, incoherent rants about all that is wrong with sports or praise what is right, I thought I should give everyone a little background to my favourite sports and teams. Just to give fair warning, this may be a very lengthy post but hopefully I can organize it so you readers can fly through without realizing how long it truly is. I shall begin my history with my newest passion, lacrosse.

Lacrosse
I first found out about the sport of lacrosse in the early 1990’s during my first year of high school (unfortunately handling the stick did not come easy to most so after our mandatory classes, the lacrosse sticks were shelved). Shortly after my introduction to the sport, I found Buffalo Bandits games on TV and was quickly hooked on the sport. The television coverage did not last though and the sport of lacrosse was wiped from my mind until 1999 when I stumbled across a Toronto Rock game on TV one lazy afternoon. I had completely forgot about the Bandits (very unfortunate since I ended up spending many years half an hour away from Buffalo), thinking they were an amateur team, so when I found out Toronto had an NLL team they became my team. After experiencing the atmosphere at the HSBC arena in Buffalo and realizing that the organization is really in tune with the sport, I have finally switched back to their side. On the floor, Toronto has one of the best teams, historically speaking, but the live game experience has lost something since their move to the ACC. There are some other issues I have with Toronto right now (most mentioned in my Let’s Go Bandits! post in my general blog) and once they correct these issues, I will return as a fan but my favourite NLL team from this point forward will always be the Buffalo Bandits.

Favourite NLL Team: Buffalo Bandits
Least Favourite NLL Team(s): Philadelphia Wings

Hockey
Like most children of my time, I played hockey, was a fan of Wayne Gretzky, and had a small liking for the Edmonton Oilers. My friends and I all had Gretzky’s signature white Titan stick with red lettering and we would all take turns pretending to be him on the streets. During this time, being young and stupid, my team was the Toronto Maple Leafs (at the time the AHL team was in my home town so I knew the players). When Wayne left for Los Angeles, I followed him and started liking the Kings and their black jerseys. Around the same time, I decided to pick a new Canadian team to follow too and decided on the Calgary Flames who became my new favourite team. I switched to the Flames just in time to see them win their only Stanley Cup and was able to fly down to Tampa in 2004 to see game 2 of the Cup finals. The officiating that year was horrendous and it has only gotten worse since the strike so I do not follow the sport much anymore. I do still enjoy watching the future NHL stars in the Ontario Hockey League even with the bad officiating.

Favourite NHL Team: Calgary Flames
Least Favourite NHL Team(s): Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadians, and Philadelphia Flyers
Favourite OHL Team: Ottawa 67’s

Football
My liking of this sport peaked in my late years in high school when I was joined a weekly NFL pool with friends. I never really had a favourite NFL team but I did like the Oakland Raiders and I followed the league closely. Throughout my university days, I did get back into football and went to many CFL games in Hamilton cheering on the Tiger Cats. In recent years, I tried to reignite my enjoyment in the NFL and football in general so I picked new favourite teams, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, but I never really followed them nor did I get back into the sport. I did go to the International Bowl game in Toronto this year and fully enjoyed that. There may be hope for me yet.

Favourite NFL Team: Pittsburgh Steelers (closest thing to a favourite I have)
Least Favourite NFL Team(s): Buffalo Bills
Favourite CFL Team: Hamilton Tiger Cats
Least Favourite CFL Team(s): Toronto Argonauts

Basketball
Basketball is one sport I enjoyed playing as a child but was never any good at and as a result, I never learned to love the game. I did watch Michael Jordan and the Bulls when they were almost unbeatable but mostly just because that was the thing to do then. Even when Toronto joined the NBA with the Raptors, I was not interested in the sport. When I was younger, I did watch Alonso Mourning with the Georgetown Hoyas and began to follow the Hoyas. Finally, in university I was properly introduced to the NCAA Final Four tournament (the best tournament in the world) and I am now a huge fan of NCAA basketball.

Favourite NBA Team: None
Favourite NCAA Team: UNC Tarheels

Baseball
This sport was my first true love. I did enjoy hockey but my skills and passion were most evident in baseball. The Toronto Blue Jays was my team until Mark McGwire came into the league in the late 1980’s when I switched to the Athletics. I still had a soft spot for the Jays until they started playing Oakland in the playoffs and then they traded Ernie Whitt (my first favourite player). I followed Oakland until they started dismantling the team and eventually traded McGwire. It was around that time that I began to learn the history of the game and I started liking the Chicago Cubs and New York Yankees. I also started following individual players more as opposed to the teams. Once Don Mattingly retired, my liking of the Yankees started to fade too and once George started his extreme spending spree, I completely lost interest in the Yanks and now that love has turned to hatred. Since 2004, I have returned to my home team Blue Jays because they seem to want to win; they are even trying to improve the experience at the dome. I still claim the Cubs as my favourite team but I currently do not have any favourite players.

Favourite MLB Team: Chicago Cubs
Least Favourite MLB Team(s): New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox

The sports mentioned above are the ones I am most likely to comment on with the focus being put on lacrosse, hockey and baseball. I may also comment on the poor television coverage of sports in Canada or how the supposed national sports networks in Canada focus mainly on teams based in Toronto. I hope you got through this post without much pain, hope you all check back for more, and comment as much as possible. Something to keep in mind while you read my posts and before you add your comments: I have played hockey and baseball at various levels but have never played organized lacrosse or football. I look forward to reading other people’s interpretation of sport.