Nobody is happier than this guy that baseball season is here.
Because, not only does it signify the onset of spring, but it is also the harbinger of a long, hot summer. One we surely deserve after enduring one of our seemingly longest winters, locally, since 1973.
(Editor’s Note: I was in high school in 1973 when I was impervious to extreme cold, tons of snow, etc. That has changed.)
Although I remain a bitter Montreal Expos fan, this scribbler did indeed jump on the Toronto Blue Jays bandwagon last season and was as happy as any of you diehard TBJ supporters to see the Hogtown Nine advance to the World Series for the first time since 1993. The Jays came up oh so short in last year’s championship affair but return to the new campaign with a slightly tweaked roster and the usual suspects and should contend for MLB bragging rights once again.
Most media forecasters rate the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners — in that order — as the favourites to claim the 2026 World Series banner. What do they know? We ‘ll take the Jays, thanks.
That said, Major League pundits do like the momentum that Toronto should carry into the 2026 season and many wonder what slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. will do for an encore after his scintillating playoff performance last fall with eight home runs and a scorching .397 batting average in 18 games. The loss of longtime Jays fixture Bo Bichette in free agency to the Mets isn’t expected to adversely affect a club that already plays great defence and can hit the ball effectively.
To offset the departure of Bichette, potential AL Rookie of the Year candidate Kazuma Okamoto steps into the Toronto infield at third base after inking a lucrative deal during the off-season. Okamoto averaged better than 30 round-trippers per season during an outstanding eight-year stint in the Japanese League.
As always, it will come down to pitching.
Meanwhile, Mark Shapiro is taking absolutely nothing for granted as a new season unfolds. In a recent interview with Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun, the Blue Jays president said there are no guarantees for the ball club just because it almost won the World Series in 2025.
“There is no such thing as running it back,” Shapiro told Simmons. “This year is this year.”
Enjoy the summer. It’s almost here.
THREE THINGS
Three things I would do if I were the unquestioned czar of Major League Baseball:
First, all players would be required to wear their socks high and tight. The baggy, saggy, sloppy, Thursday night beer league long pants look would be banished forever.
Second, no gold chains. Save it for the disco.
Third, no ‘alternate’ black uniforms unless your team actually has black as an official club colour.
THE ITALIAN JOB
Recent CNN headline: “Italian soccer is in a nightmare that it can’t wake up from.”
No kidding.
The four-time champion Azzurri, participants in 18 World Cup competitions overall, have failed to qualify for the last three global tournaments, most recently failing to gain entry to the upcoming 2026 event in North America. That’s like Team Canada missing the cut for hockey in the Winter Olympics.
Many media types close to the scene in Rome call it a national disaster with poor infrastructure, failure to properly develop a feeder system and corruption to blame for the current state of affairs in Italy, which last won a World Cup in 2006. Once a consistently dominant force in the game, Italian soccer has hit rock bottom and experts are calling for a major overhaul of the program.
Speaking to European media after the latest Azzurri debacle, legendary Italian coach Fabio Capello called the situation “a disgrace and tragedy for Italy.”
SENTINEL CUP FINAL
It’s down to the fifth and final game for the Tweed Oil Kings as they attempt to capture the Sentinel Cup, emblematic of Eastern Ontario Sr. A supremacy in the Northern Premier Hockey League.
Kings are tied 2-2 with the Manotick Mariners in the best-of-five championship series with Game 5 Saturday at the Minto Recreation Complex in Barrhaven. Puck drop is 7:30 p.m.
The current Kings are trying to win a championship on the 50th anniversary of the former Tweed BP Oil Kings winning the all-Ontario Intermediate C title in 1976. Fifty years ago, that Tweed team defeated the Dresden Lumber Kings 4-1 in a best-of-seven provincial championship series.
The ’76 BP Oil Kings lineup included Belleville product Jimmy Richardson, who led the former Jr. B Bobcats in scoring in the old Metro League in ’73-74 with 96 points (39 goals, 57 assists) in 43 games.
Meanwhile, in the Western Ontario segment of the NPHL, the Alvinston Killer Bees and Six Nations Ironmen are tied 1-1 in the best-of-five Apex Cup final.
