the 4th star

The biggest baseball game on Canadian soil since the Blue Jays were good took place at the Rogers Centre today, when the World Baseball Classic descended on Toronto. Canada started strong against the United States, whipping the 42,314 on hand into a frenzy, but once they gave up a three spot in the fourth inning and had to play catch up, it was over.

Three thoughts:

1. Canada has no pitching. At no point did starter Mike Johnson and relievers Chris Begg, Chris Leroux, Phil Aumont and awesomely named David Davidson appear in total control on the hill. Granted, they were playing the WBC favourite, so some slack can be cut, but Canada is going to need a miracle if they hope to get past the first round of the classic with the arms they have.

2. Canada can hit. However, they need to get big production from the heart of the order — Justin Morneau, Jason Bay, and Matt Stairs — to outscore teams and win that way. That trio was a disappointing 1-for-9 with just one RBI.

3. Brutal decision by Sportsnet to clip the final outs of the Netherlands-Dominicana game. The Orange are up a run in the bottom of the ninth, ready to pull off the biggest upset in the brief history of the event, and RSN chooses to switch over to the start of the Canada-U.S. game. Jamie Campbell tries to quell the outrage by saying, “We thought you wouldn’t want to miss a pitch of this game,” or something like that. Actually, I can’t remember exactly what he said. I was too busy swearing at the network for the bonehead move.

Next up for Canada: The loser of tonight’s Venezuela-Italy game, on Monday.

So the Isles thumped the New Jersey Devils this afternoon. Big deal, right? Well, I consider myself a pretty knowledgeable hockey fan. I mean, I’m no Elisha Cuthbert, but I know enough about every team to be able to travel to the city on any given Saturday night and shoot the (Rob) Shick with fans in the area.

That’s why the Islanders game was so alarming to me, and thus the need to write up a post. As I read through the summary (won 7-3 by the NYI), I only recognized a few names in the line-up. Well, that’s not true. I’m familiar with the names; I just didn’t realize Bridgeport was also on Long Island:

Radek Martinek, Dean McAmmond, Jeff Tambellini, Kyle Okposo, Josh Bailey, Frans Nielsen, Mark Streit, Joe Callahan, Sean Bergenheim, Mike Iggulden, Jack Hillen, Blake Comeau, Andy Hilbert, Yann Danis, Bruno Gervais, Trent Hunter, Tim Jackman, Jesse Joensuu, Joey MacDonald, and Thomas Pock.

(bold denotes NHL player)

What are the cool kids wearing this spring?

On the left, we have Mike Komisarek. The Montreal Canadiens defenceman, smile as big as the apple he’s in, appears quite comfortable with a thin, black trench and white T-shirt. Notice the neck protector there, people. Up is where things are looking for this American blue-liner. And the hair — well, it’s like he just rolled out of bed and into the bustle of the big city.

Next to Komisarek stands fellow Yank Christopher Higgins. “Higgy,” as the belles like to call him on St. Catherines, chose to forgo the jacket altogether as it just gets in the way of the arms race he’s promoting on Broadway this morning. A simple, white throwaway collar and some innocent sexiness should bring in plenty of Coach bag-toting, high heeled-wearing broads who would be more than happy to pay for breakfast in exchange for a pair of tickets to MSG.

Little do the ladies know the Habs are on the Island. Suckers.