Refs Rob Banks!! Pros Before Bros and More!!

Well it shouldn't come to anyones fucking surprise that Andre Proulx and his band of fucking cretins screw things up for us, they tried their damndest to do it in the East Final and they pulled it off in the Grey Cup.  What a fucking disgrace, shit like this is what makes the CFL look so unbelievably bush league.  Brandon Banks had won us the Grey Cup, it was a fucking GREY CUP WINNING punt return TD called back on a marginal call at best with 35 seconds left in the game. The Refs robbed Banks, the refs robbed Hamilton of their first Grey Cup since 1999.  Granted the Cats got off to a slow start, dug themselves a 17-0 hole and relied on field goals when they got to the red zone... but still my blame has to be pointed somewhere and it is directly at that french fuck Andre Proulx and his shit tornado of an officiating crew.

The outcome put a damper on the hilariously fun and delicious Grey Cup party held in my buddy Jeff's man cave.  It was all the cast of characters I've been attending Ti-Cats games with all season, plus a town eccentric or two.  I loved being back in Hamilton and falling in love with the Ti-Cats again and I can't wait to head back to Tim Hortons Field next year to heckle the shit out of people.  Because this is kind of a food blog too, I will post my power rankings of what we ate last night in descending order.

7.  Vegetable Sticks.  Yeah there was fucking vegetables there, I guess there has to be an "healthy option" but as my pal Dave would say "mmmm lettuce is for rabbits"  I guess they're good for some nibblies before the main course.  The "town eccentric" accused my friend Angela of being a cute little vegetable.... yeah.

6.  Sushi Rolls.  Believe it or not I really love sushi, especially the rolls, I spotted a whole tray of those delicious bastards when I was avoiding the "town eccentric" who was bitching about how much it was a disgrace the Ti-Cats uniforms don't have stripes anymore... when I pointed it out to him on TV that they did have stripes, he claimed it was a Grey Cup only thing.  So basically I crushed 6 or 7 rolls while getting away from that squid.

5.  Mozza Sticks.  These weren't just your everyday run of the mill mozza sticks, they had a nice spicy kick to them, jalapeno perhaps??  They were actually crunchy too, not soggy little turds like they usually are.

4. Sausage with cheese in them.  These were prepared before hand, and cut up into bite sized portions, they were available for picking while running up to take a piss or grabbing a beer or avoiding the town eccentric.  I was starving so I must've crushed 5 or 6 of these bad boys along with the sushi rolls before we ate.  I have the 6 toothpicks in my pocket to prove it.

3.  Chicken Wings.  They were just your everyday delicious chicken wings, nice bite to them, not overloaded with fucking breading.  I only had a couple but under normal circumstances could destroy 15-20 of those mafuckers.

2.  Buffalo Chicken Dip prepared by Tash.  This was the best Buffalo Chicken Dip I have ever had in my life, mainly because there was so much chicken in it, it was kind of like a pulled chicken sandwich with Buffalo flavour, fuck it was good, despite it being a dip it would've made for an amazing sandwich.

1c.  I copped out, there is a 3 way tie for the best food I ate last night.  First up is Steve's Five Alarm Chili, served at half time on a hot dog.  I've had plenty of chili in my day and this is amongst the best I have had, nice and thick a good texture, with a bite but not over-powering.  Served on top of a Juicy Jumbo dog, you can't go wrong.

1b. Lasagna prepared by Angela.  She tricked us! This was a lean lasagna with turkey and a bit of pork in it as opposed to traditional ground beef.  It was on point delicious and made with an outstanding 8 different kinds of cheese, I was very impressed!

1a.  Philly Cheese Steak Sliders made by Jeff and Dave.  My God.  These little fucks were good.  Generally I hate sliders... fuck sliders why would you have a miniature version of something bigger?  But I suppose at a party where food is plentiful sliders are a great way to go.  They marinated and prepared the flank steak with onions and peppers all day, then heat them up with some provolone cheese, there was a nice chipotle spice kick to it, these little fucks were very, very good.

Wash all that down with about 15 beers and you've got yourself a party.  Too bad the outcome was as shitty as it was!

The Brett Lawrie Era is over.  Holy shit-balls did Alex Anthopoulos (herein referred to as AA, I am sick of typing Anthopoulos) pull off a major move.  Josh Donaldson is only the best 3rd baseman in baseball, and is 2nd behind Mike fucking Trout in WAR over the last two seasons.  Donaldson has said all the right things so far, calling the Blue Jays uniforms 'sexy' (they are!) and saying that he has watched 1000 hours of Jose Bautista swings and emulates him as a player *swoon*.  Plus he is under club control for the next 4 seasons! It is kind of weird to see Brett Lawrie go, I assumed he was going to be a Blue Jay for years to come, but you know what he is kind of a douche-bag, ease up on the Red Bull and quit being such a fucking spazz bud.  I am really not too heartbroken to see him go, Brett Lawrie has had smoke blown up his ass since the second he came to the organization from Milwaukee, mainly because of his passport (fun note, Oakland is actually probably closer to his hometown in BC than Toronto is), and really he has only shown flashes of brilliance and he has been injured A LOT.  The guy is a fucking band aid.  AA has taken a Pros before Bros attitude this off-season, jettisoning the likes of Adam Lind, Anthony Gose, Colby Rasmus, Brandon Morrow and now Brett Lawrie, and brought in clubhouse stalwarts Russel Martin and Josh Donaldson.  Clubhouse chemistry has been an issue the last few years, John Gibbons even went as far as to say he needs more "mature adults" on the team.  Getting rid of Brett Lawrie ramps up the maturity level on this team significantly.

The Raptors suffered a bit of adversity for the first time this season, first they went 2-2 (it was weird seeing the Raptors lose, I forgot what that was like) and secondly they lost DeMar DeRozan to a torn groin tendon.  Ugh.  DeRozan has been remarkably durable throughout his 6 year career, and this is the first significant amount of time that the All-Star will miss.  They say he could miss a month of action, or about 14 games, luckily the Raptors have built themselves a nice little cushion so even if they only go .500 over that stretch they'd still be in excellent shape.  You never know with groin injuries though, it could take DeRozan a lot longer than a month to get back into game shape.  Luckily the Raptors have solid depth, "Sweet" Lou Williams, James Johnson, or Grevais Vasquez could easily take his spot in the starting line-up, and they still have Landry "Remember Me" Fields to come off the bench.  The Raptors lost two tough ones, Dallas is a great team, and the Raptors never quit that entire game, but that Lakers OT loss last night stings, especially after the Grey Cup debacle and the fact that Kobe Bryant is a fucking squid and I hate him.

The Week Ahead:  @ Sacramento (12/2), @ Utah (12/3), vs. Clevaland (12/5) .  Everyone knows the West is a far superior conference than the East, but the Raps finish their quick west coast trip against two of the weaker sisters in the conference with the Kings and the Jazz, it's tough for any team to go west and play but if the Raptors want to be considered amongst the NBA elite they HAVE to beat these shitty teams.  The game against the Cleveland LeBrons on Friday should be really good, Cleveland has to have revenge on their mind after we destroyed them on their home court a couple of weeks ago.  

After all the bullshit surrounding the 6-2 loss to Buffalo, the 9-2 loss to Nashville and Saluteghazi, the Leafs have been a pretty fucking good team.  They haven't lost in regulation since that 9-2 debacle.  The Leafs looked pretty good last week, coming back to tie Pittsburgh only to lose in OT against Sid the Squid, and then they completely dominated Ovi and the Crapitals.  But on a sad note my new hero Leo Komarov had to leave Saturdays game after Ovechkin delivered a cheap shot that should've resulted in expulsion from the league.  I am sure Leo has some KGB contacts, so Ovechkin better get someone else to start his car for the foreseeable future.

The Week Ahead: vs. Dallas (12/2), vs. New Jersey (12/4), vs. Vancouver (12/6).  The Leafs have a pretty home heavy schedule for the next few weeks because they are getting kicked out of the ACC at the end of the month for the World Junior Tournament, so even though they've had trouble at the ACC the last few seasons they need to take advantage of this stretch.  Dallas and New Jersey are both sub-500 teams, so they should win those, but the way the Leafs have been this year you can't trust the fuckers and they could come out flat as a pancake those games and completely shit the bed.  They'll crush Vancouver though, fuck the Canucks.

The Bills were very impressive last week, they kicked the living shit out of the woeful Jets under some pretty shitty circumstances and made short work of the Browns yesterday.  Unfortunately it is too little too late, while they sit at 7-5 now and are "in the hunt" for a playoff position, it is going to require a miracle for them to get in the playoffs.  Stranger things have happened I guess, but I am certainly not counting on it.

The Week Ahead: @ Denver (12/7)  I just mentioned miracles, the Bills need one here against Peyton Manning and the Broncos at Mile High... if they can upset them... then the Packers and the Patriots and kick the shit out of the Raiders like they should, you never know!!

Once again don't forget to follow me on the Twitter @HDH2112.  See you next week! 

Cats in Grey Cup! Raptors! Saluteghazi! Etc!

In the second time in as many years the Hamilton Tiger-Cats are heading to the Grey Cup!  Despite the best intentions of the most atrocious refereeing I have seen in my entire life (Head Referee Andre Proulx is a Quebecois piece of shit and surprise surprise he was completely biased towards the Alouettes).  Mind you I had a wobbly pop or two and was busy yelling at Duron Carter that his dad Cris Carter didn't love him, so maybe I shouldn't be the best judge?  Seriously though in that first half there was many questionable calls by that shitty refereeing crew, they basically gift-wrapped a Montreal touchdown, and robbed Brandon Banks of a punt return TD.  Speaking of Brandon Banks, what a gem, nothing better than being in the crowd watching someone break 80+ yards for a TD, jumping up and down, screaming, high-fiving and hugging all those around you... well I was in the pisser for one of the TD's and probably shouldn't have hugged the guy next to me.  The Ti-Cats are now a perfect 7-0 at Tim Hortons Field...what a home field advantage we have, it's always loud as fuck in there when they're on defense, mind you it's not Seattle or any other NFL or NCAA stadium, but for 25,000 fans we make a ruckus.  I love how they refused to touch the Eastern Division trophy NHL stylez, the trophy they want to win is the Grey Cup! Unfortunately I won't be on TSN during the Grey Cup like I was for the Eastern Final game!

The Week Ahead: vs. Calgary in the 102nd Grey Cup (11/30). I think the Ti-Cats have a way better shot of winning this game than they did last year.  Last season they had to play the Roughriders in Saskatchewan in front of a massively partisan crowd when it was fucking ice cold and snowy out.  This time they play in a true neutral site under a dome at BC Place in Vancouver.  Calgary has been the best team in the CFL from the jump.  Calgary won both match-ups against us this year 10-7 in July and 30-20 in August.  The Cats have been a much better team since those two games, so it'll be interesting to see how that plays out.  Either way I am pumped to watch this game, Oskee-Wee-Wee!!

Holy Fuck the Raptors are good.  After years (decades?) of mediocrity I've put up with all my teams it feels so good to cheer for a team that has quickly become amongst the NBA elite.  The Raps went a perfect 3-0 last week including an absolutely dominating performance against the surprising Milwaukee Bucks.  That game featured the NBA debut of the Brazilian Kevin Durant and new cult hero Bruno Cabaclo.  His first two points in his NBA career was a thunderous alley-oop dunk which literally had me jump of my seat cheering.  Then they go out and completely embarrass the Cleveland LeBrons on their home court.  This is one unselfish, tight knit group that has really gelled, GM Masai Ujiri pulled off a major coup trading John "Sleepy Lion" Salmons to Atlanta for Sweet Lou "Somali Pirate" Williams, my friend Steve has encyclopedic knowledge of the NBA and he told me in the off season what a great pick up that was, and he has been proven 100% correct.  I typically loathe marketing bullshit, especially if it involves hashtags, but the team and the fans have truly picked up on the whole We The North thing, it was awesome seeing the massive contingent of Raptors fans in Cleveland cheering them on, and players after the game were saying how much that meant to them. As Mike Wilbon said last week on Pardon the Interruption  "The Raptors aren't just under the radar, they're completely off the radar because they're in Toronto."  The players know this, the fans know this and it has created an "Us against the World" mentality with this team.  I think they won't be off the radar for much longer, this team is for real, they likely won't with the NBA Championship this year, but I see a deep playoff run.

The Week Ahead: vs. Phoenix (11/24), @ Atlanta (11/26), vs. Dallas (11/28), @ Los Angeles Lakers (11/30).  As long as the Raptors keep playing like they've been playing they could easily have another great week.  Dallas will be their biggest test, but they shouldn't look past Phoenix and Atlanta, both team have great players, and now with the Raptors being 11-2 they've got a target on their back and teams are going to bring it every night against them.  Fuck the Lakers and Kobe though, I hope they beat those squids 168-30.

If you were to tell me last week that the Leafs would go 2-1 against Nashville, Tampa Bay and Detroit, I would've been very happy with the results.  But the 9-2 drubbing by Nashville and the surrounding bullshit around Saluteghazi (PS I am over calling anything -gate, Watergate happened in 19 fucking 72 it's been over 40 fucking years, time to come up with something new) has left a bad taste in everyone's mouth.  You know what, I do not blame the Leafs players whatsoever for not doing the whack salute after beating Tampa, the constant circus surrounding this team must have finally got to them.  That game against Nashville was unbelievably bad, everything that could have gone wrong went wrong.  If the LA Kings or Boston Bruins were to lose 9-2, you'd see the highlights on TV and go "holy shit" and forget about it, but the Leafs lose 9-2 and on NATIONALLY televised TSN SportsCentre they spend practically the entire hour long show dissecting every aspect of it, panel after panel of fat old retired plugs publicly calling for blood, no wonder the rest of Canada hates Toronto and the Leafs, if I was a Jets fan or whatever and I go to watch the nightly sportscast, and they spend the entire episode talking about the Leafs I would be pissed too.  The non-salute thing was obviously on purpose, and it was emotional 20-somethings thinking they had to prove a point against their "fans" booing, throwing jerseys on the ice, not to mention the absurd amount of vitriol spilled about them on social media and on sports talk radio.  Of course it was handled sloppily, no one bought Dion Phaneuf's excuse that they were trying to change things up, but it is a fucking joke how the media and some fans took it.  A win is a win who gives a flying fuck if they didn't raise their sticks to the 1000 real fans that attend games at the ACC amongst the thousands of corporate suit dummies that are just there to schmooze their potential clients. Lost in all this bullshit is they played really well against both Tampa and Detroit and if the season ended today they'd be in the god damned playoffs.  But because they lost 2 shitty games and they didn't raise their sticks it seems like the sky is fucking falling.

The Week Ahead: @ Pittsburgh (11/26), vs. Washington (11/29).  A pretty light week for the Leafs, which is probably welcome for the team after all the crap that went on in the last week.  Pittsburgh, as usual are really good, and that should be a tough game, but besides Ovi the Crapitals are just that - Crap.

After an absolutely obscene amount of snow fell on the Buffalo area last week, the scheduled home match-up against the Jets had to be moved to tonight in Detroit... well I guess that is one way for the Bills to get on a Monday Night game.  It's currently 17 degrees and sunny in Buffalo, where in the blue hell is all that snow going to melt too... I am sure there is flooding conditions everywhere, and the game on the 30th against Cleveland is in doubt too.  All this certainly does not help the Bill slim playoff chances.

The Week Ahead: vs. New York Jets (11/24), vs. Cleveland (11/30).  The Jets are absolutely awful, but they did beat Pittsburgh recently, Michael Vick seems to have some gas left in his dog murdering tank.  Cleveland has been one of the surprises this season, the Bills really need to win both these games if they want to even think of the Playoffs, as their December schedule (@Den, GB, @Oak, @NE) is going to be very, very tough.

The Jays did fuck all this week, but it is the off season after all.  Of course those Masshole shitting, puking, fucking puke shit Boston Red Sox go out and sign Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval today....

As usual hit me up on the Twitter @HDH2112 if you want to talk sports with me! Even if you want to tell me this is the worst blog you've ever read, I love feed back!