Hit for the cycle
A comprehensive look at the very lates in sports
Romer Bautista Staff
Even the holidays don’t slow down the news in the sports world. As a matter of fact, the past month and a half may have been the most action-packed six weeks all year, and gives us an encouraging glimpse at what the new year holds. That means there’s no room to waste, so let’s hit for the cycle, and take a look back at the month that was.
SINGLE : The clock does not strike 12 for the Boise State Broncos
Thrilling, exciting, unbelievable. I don’t think there are enough words in the dictionary to describe Boise State Broncos’ instant-classic, overtime, 43-42 victory over the Oklahoma Sooners in the Fiesta Bowl.
The Broncos, who entered the game as sevenpoint underdogs, took it to the Sooners early, jumping out to an 18-point lead. The Sooners showed their grit, however, and rallied for 25 points in the second half, to take a seven-point lead with 90 seconds remaining in the game, seemingly breaking the hearts of the thousands of Broncos fans in attendance.
That’s when Boise State head coach Chris Peterson decided to pull a couple of tricks out of his sleeve, literally. The Broncos used a hook-andlateral to send the game into overtime, a widereceiver run/pass option to extend overtime, and finally a Statue of Liberty play to win on a two-point conversion. The sequence of plays, from when Oklahoma took the lead to the final scoring drive, is sure to be talked about for years to come.
DOUBLE : Franchise player re-signs with the Blue Jays
Vernon Wells, the Toronto Blue Jays’ allstar centre-fielder, will remain with the team for at least a couple more years, as he has signed a seven-year, $126-million contract extension. The extension puts to bed the rumours that Wells was being shopped around as trade bait, or that he was interested in signing with a team closer to his home state of Texas after his initial contract was up after next season.
While the money will be an easy scapegoat for skeptics (the signing is the sixth-largest signing in baseball history, and easily the largest signing in Blue Jays history), the Blue Jays have locked up one of the best all-around players. Offensively, Wells is a stud. In 2006, he hit .303 with 32 home runs and 106 RBIs. Defensively, there aren’t many better. Wells has won three consecutive Gold Glove awards.
With staff-ace Roy Halladay also signed to a long-term contract, the Blue Jays are poised to make a legitimate run at the AL East crown.
TRIPLE : The Raptors are first place in their division
To be fair, the main reason why the Toronto Raptors are leading their division is because all of the teams are atrocious. It’s no wonder why many have dubbed the Atlantic division the Titanic division. All five teams enter the week with sub- .500 records.
That, however, does not take away from the success and improvements the Raptors have made this season. The team has overcome a multitude of injuries and the assimilation of nine new roster members to sit at a record of 14-19 just over a third of the season through. If the season was to end today, the Raptors would be sitting pretty in the playoffs as the fourth seed in the Eastern conference, a feat that many longtime Raptor fans would not have thought possible at the beginning of the season.
What’s even more promising is that the team is playing even better than their record indicates. Chris Bosh is playing like the franchise player fans expected him to be, Andrea Bargnani and Jorge Garbajosa are among the top-five rookies in all of the NBA, and T.J. Ford is making people say “Charlie who?” If things continue to stay the course, and there is no indication that it shouldn’t, Raptors fans will be taking out the salami and cheese at a couple playoff games.
HOME RUN : Canada strikes gold for the third consecutive year at the World Juniors
In what has become a new year’s tradition, Team Canada has once again taken home the gold medals at the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship, this year held in Sweden. The win marks the third straight time that Canada has won the gold medal at the event, giving Canada 13 gold medals in the 34 years that the championship has taken place.
This year’s team can be described in one word: dominant. The team blazed through the preliminary round of the tournament, allowing only four goals, en route to a 4-0 record and a bye into the semi-finals. That is where they met Team USA. In the most exciting game of the tournament, Canada defeated the U.S. in a shootout, thanks to the heroics of Winnipeg’s own Jonathan Toews, who scored three times in the shootout.
The gold-medal game, while not as exciting as the semi-finals, pitted the Canadians against their fiercest rivals, the Russians. Canada quickly got out to a 4-0 lead, but needed some late-game heroics from net-minder Carey Price to seal the win.
Toews, Price, and defenceman Kristopher Letang were named to the all-tournament team, while Price was named the tournament’s top goaltender, as well as the tournament MVP.
