Leaf of the Day

I've talked before about Cardboard Gods, both the book (which I am now halfway through) and the blog, which is basically a team-agnostic baseball-oriented Leaf of the Day (which I have been very lax with, I know). Quietly, though, Cardboard Gods has been waging/documenting one of the

My grandparents had a dog who was so horrible he was wonderful.  He was old, short, fat and grumpy.  He had a dent in one eye, teeth that stuck out at odd angles and he smelled bad - so bad, that the cat would eventually decide to bath him herself

Over the holidays, one of the games we played was Scrabble.  Our eldest got it from her grandparents.  Now, I have never particularly liked Scrabble, and this is why:  the very first game we played, I took my seven pieces from the pile and wound up (in order) with the

It has been a while.  Aside from normal bouts of busy-ness (as opposed to business, which is also true but not what I wanted to imply), large bits have been falling of the car and I have been patiently explaining to them that they should stop.  My skills at reasoning

There are a few cards that stand out above all the others as my favourites.  They'll have some perfectly-captured moment, beautifully-framed, that is somehow set apart from the rest of a bulk product sold to kids at twenty-five cents per pack.  This is one of them. Here'

One of the more pleasant things about this season's Leafs team is the absence of a cringe-worthy goaltender. Now, the past handful of seasons have been particularly bad in that the goalie to strike fear into the hearts of teammates and fans alike was actually the starter, but

Last year on Remembrance Day, I talked about Alan "Scotty" Davidson.  If there's one player in Toronto history that I'd like to have added to the traditional Leaf mythology, it's Davidson.  For those who forgot, he was the captain of the 1914

One of my newfound favourite blogs is Cardboard Gods.  It's run by a kid from the 70s who takes his old baseball cards and uses each as an entry point into some dissertation on life.  In other words, he's basically me, except that he's

A number of years back (three is a number, you could look it up), the Leafs had their celebration of the 1967 Cup team.  They brought as many of the old players back as they could (Eddie Shack was golfing in the middle east - somehow that fits) and feted

Sometimes a hot start is the beginning of something special, other times it's not. The patron saint of the hot start that goes nowhere has to be Norm Aubin of the Leafs.  Norm was a scoring sensation in the Quebec league who was a third-round pick of the

If James Mirtle happens to wander by today and read this, there's a question I wish he would ask: What is the status of Tyler Bozak's hearing? I saw that he was one of the game stars the other day, which bodes well, but I'

I was listening to Jeff Blair this morning talking about rivalries (and really the lack thereof) in hockey.  I didn't catch the beginning of it, so I don't know if he just wasn't feeling the love for Leafs-Rangers hockey or whether there was something

I actually did my homework.  I just never turned it in. Back when Mt. Puckmore was all the rage, mf37 had the interesting suggestion that we approach our elders and find out who was on their Mt. Puckmore - the thought being that our choices and weightings might be a

As per thinkgeek, there are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who don't. Back on the first, @RobCollingwood tipped me to the fact that I'd been napping and missed out on a binary date. Today, with that great

And so it begins again.... This year marks the sixth season I've been doing the Leaf of the Day.  They have yet to make the playoffs.  I continue to maintain that this is not my fault, and I will continue to make this joke every season until such

The signs are everywhere: hockey is coming back.  The Blue Jays are done, having completed about the most enjoyable fourth-place season I can remember.  The weather is crisp and October-like.  At the school bus this morning, there were winter coats everywhere along with a smattering of gloves and scarves.   Talk

One of the reasons I've kept up with the Leaf of the Day for as long as I have is that I learn something new each time I write one.  It's not always something profound.  With Bunny Larocque, for example, the only new thing I learned

A number of years ago I was at a conference for Oracle users. During one of the sessions, the presenter put up a slide with a number of hockey names on it, most of which were then-current NHLers. The exception was the goaltender. "Does anyone know who Bunny Larocque

One of the things that struck me as interesting about the requests that came in for LotD candidates was that a cluster of them are associated with the single most depressing team I have ever seen - the 1990-91 Leafs.  That, of course, was the "did we really trade

A little housekeeping first - the admission that we do, in fact, take requests has raised the total to the completely unprecedented number of three.  Daniel Marois, as is turns out, is ready to come back in the rotation so I'll get to him sometime this year.  Lonny

Normally, if there's a player who hasn't been the Leaf of the Day for more than a year, I'll save him for the regular season. This time, however, I have a request. This is shocking for a couple of reasons. The first is that

With the return of preseason hockey comes the return of the Leaf of the Day. For the uninitiated, the Leaf of the Day (LotD) is a tribute to players who wore the blue and white with distinction - either that or crazy shots of 70s hair. Sometimes the LotD will

Well, for the fifth time in as many years, I'm finishing the LotD series (maybe - there's still the Brophy to do and I'd like a peek at the young'uns, so we'll see) with a recap that doesn't

I've made the comment before, but no matter what you do in life, never make the mistake of wishing that you had a little bit more to do.  It can only end badly.  I was checking my calendar and I think I can schedule five minutes to myself

After more than a year's absence, tonight marks the return of "lanky" to the Leaf lineup. Lanky, of course, left with Nik Antropov. It returns with the debut of 6'5" Brayden Irwin. He's not Kazakh, but you can't have