Rebuttal to another article called In Defense of the No-DH Rule. Here's why having the DH rule in the AL is a GOOD thing.

The Cubs want a veteran pitcher, and A.J. Burnett doesn't want to be here anyway. The Jays need a left fielder since Shannon Stewart is hurt. There's a trade waiting to happen!

Why are the Leafs looking for a coach before they've hired a new GM?

There's only one game left in the NLL season. Will the Bandits finally pull off the championship in their third attempt in five years? Or will the Portland LumberJax, mediocre in the regular season but peaking in the playoffs, pull off the upset?

In the first round, I predicted Buffalo over Philadelphia and got that right, but was wrong on the other three games, so I'm 1-3. There are only three games left, so the best I can do is 4-3. Here we go:

Buffalo over New York -- The one word that best describes Darris Kilgour is *intensity*. If there's anyone who can get his team fired up, it's Darris, whether that's through an inspiring speech or just being afraid that if you don't step up your game he'll beat the snot out of you. Bob McMahon just doesn't have that kind of presence. Anyway, they've been getting great goaltending from both Thompson and Montour, and if Steenhuis can learn that passing the ball is a good thing, I don't see New York, or anyone from the west, stopping the Bandits.

Calgary over Portland -- Dan Dawson has the ability to carry a team for one game, and since this is single-game elimination, that's a big deal. But he did that in the win over San Jose - can he do it two games in a row? Calgary played well enough to make it to the playoffs without Tracey Kelusky for most of the season. But he's back now, and if there's one goalie whose name isn't Bob Watson that I want between the pipes in a critical game, it's Chugger.

One more thing I need to say: I've never been a big fan of Billy Dee Smith. He generally takes too many dumb penalties and I haven't yet forgiven him for the nasty cross-check to Colin Doyle's head about five years ago. But he played a great game in Buffalo on Friday. The Bandits in general played smart, stayed out of the box (an old nemesis of theirs -- stupid penalties have cost the Bandits a number of games over the last few years), and Smith played a hard but smart game and even scored a couple. A few people on the lacrosse message boards have talked about Smith in the past as a good solid player with a bad reputation, but I never saw it. On Friday I did.

I'm also wondering if John Tavares will retire after this season if Buffalo wins it all. He's still playing at a high enough level that he doesn't have to, but he may want to retire before he gets to be one of those players who still hangs on and doesn't want to admit that their playing days are over even though they are a shadow of their former selves. Jim Veltman could probably have played another year, but he wanted to retire before he became that guy that *should* have retired, and Tom Marechek and Gary and Paul Gait all did the same thing. It would be kind of too bad if Tavares does retire after this year, since Veltman, Gary Gait, and Marechek all had the whole "final season" celebration thing, and Tavares deserves that as well. It would be too bad for the fans if he finished the season and then just didn't come back.

Frank Thomas was released by the Jays last weekend after a dismal start. Now some people are advocating that the Jays sign Barry Bonds as their new DH. While he's a better hitter than Thomas (in fact, he's a better hitter than many of the Jays), I think this would be a colossally bad move for the Jays. Sure they'd get a lot of press for it and attendance might increase, but the effect on the clubhouse might be devastating. Bonds is not known for his friendliness, and he's widely known as one of the least team-oriented players around. According to Rick Reilly, formerly of Sports Illustrated, when Bonds was with San Francisco, he skipped the team photo, didn't work out with the team, didn't travel on the same bus as the the team, and didn't eat with the rest of the team. Do the Jays, or any other team, need a DH badly enough to accept that kind of a primadonna?

I think the fact that Bonds has been a free agent since last September and nobody has signed him speaks volumes.

For the first time in team history, the Toronto Rock did not make the playoffs. They haven't finished above .500 in three years, and Rock management doesn't accept failure for long. Changes are coming.

The FAIL is for Avery's failure to grasp the most basic concept in sports: sportsmanship. What was Avery doing, counting steamboats? There's no place in pro sports for this kind of childish behaviour.

Should Avery be suspended for this? No. Should he have been penalized? I'd say 2 for unsportsmanlike conduct wouldn't be unwarranted. Should he be called out by his teammates and coaches? You bet. Will he? Not likely.

Is Daniel Alfredsson as much a leader in Ottawa as Mats Sundin is in Toronto? Damn straight.

Saturday night will be the Rock debut of Lewis Ratcliff, who was traded from Calgary at the trading deadline for Josh Sanderson (some draft picks were thrown in there too). For the most part, I will miss watching Josh on the offense — he's one of the best playmakers in the game, and holds the league record for assists in a season. In fact, I believe he holds second place on that list as well. He can score some pretty goals as well, make no mistake, but he is known more for setting up players, and was kind of the point guard of the Rock. However, he's not a great defender at all, so if he gets caught on a fast break and can't get off the floor, he's a liability. I did get quite frustrated with his lack of hustle as well — you almost never see him running full out, and on the transition to defense, he's almost always the last guy off the floor. He's probably the smallest guy in the league (5'7", 160 lbs), making him pretty useless at setting picks; big defenders just run over him without noticing that he was even there.

Ratcliff, on the other hand, is 6'1" and 200 pounds and is a pure scorer. He might give back to the Rock what we lost in Colin Doyle, and that's someone who can power through the defense instead of trying to finesse around them. (Nothing wrong with "finessing", but having both options available is definitely better.) People have called Ratcliff a selfish player who would rather take a low-percentage shot himself than pass, but he's got more assists than Sanderson this year, and that's without Tracey Kelusky playing.

I see this as a fairly even trade that might be good for both teams.

The Jays released the younger and better-fielding Reed Johnson in favour of the older Shannon Stewart in the hopes that Stewart will hit better. But if Johnson returns to 2006 form, he'll hit better than Stewart ever did.

In recent years, we've seen Wayne Gretzky, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and Roger Federer, each of whom is or was, at their prime, head and shoulders above the next best player in their sport, and each of whom is considered by many to be the best player ever in their respective sport. Who fits this bill in the baseball world?

The Leafs have been playing pretty well over the last month or so, but is it too little too late, yet again?

Here's an article from today's Hamilton Spectator about lacrosse rookie phenom Merrick Thomson.

Take a look at the Raptors lineup. Not a lot of typical North American names on there: Bargnani, Nesterovic, Calderon, Garbajosa, Brezec, Kapono, Delfino. Moon and Baston are not too bad, but with first names like Jamario and Maceo, they fit in as well. Even Darrick Martin's first name is spelled weird. This must have been why Fred Jones was traded, and I guess even Juan Dixon wasn't "ethnic" enough.

The only players left are Chris Bosh, T.J. Ford, Anthony Parker, Kris Humphries, and Joey Graham. Look for one of these guys to be traded to Indiana for Ike Diogu, or maybe to Chicago for Andres Nocioni and Thabo Sefolosha. The rule for the Raptors: If we can't pronounce your name, we want you on our team.