The NHL’s reigning MVP and former Arizona Little Leaguer is set to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at Tuesday’s Toronto Blue Jays–New York Yankees game.
And if there wasn’t enough pressure to avoid a 50 Cent moment at a packed Rogers Centre, what with the Jays gathering playoff momentum and Aaron Judge barreling toward history, Matthews’ teammates are doing their best to get in the pitcher’s head.
“It’ll be fun if he does chunk it or throw like (poop),” Mitch Marner chides. “It would be quite funny.
“Yeah, we’re gonna get on Auston tonight. Make sure that he knows he’s gotta throw some heat in there, and there’s some high expectations.”
Because Judge is sitting at 60 home runs (hey, the same number of goals Matthews scored last season), just one shy of tying Roger Marris’s Yankees and American League record, Leafs defenceman Morgan Rielly is predicting a few chirpping Leafs will be part of a packed dome.
“I think it’s going to be pretty packed because of what Judge is chasing. So, there might be a little bit extra pressure. He was talking about using some Spider Tack, so we’ll get the umps out and make sure it’s legal,” says Rielly, wryly.
“I think you got to put a little pressure on him. Maybe he puts one in the dirt. That’d be nice.”
Has Rielly ever seen Matthews throw?
“I mean, we don’t exactly play a lot of catch. But I know he’s a good athlete, so I’m sure he’ll be fine,” Rielly replies. “Might throw some off-speed stuff.”
Matthews knows what his buddies are up to, with all their encouragement to light up the gun.
“Maybe embarrass myself?” Matthews says of their objective. “I wasn’t much of a pitcher, honestly. I had a pretty wild arm, so I usually caught. I pitched a little bit, but not very good.
“I’d like to think growing up and playing that I have a decent throw. I should be able to get it there, I think.”
Matthews’ roots in the American pastime are legit.
His father, Brian, was a strong pitcher in his day. And Matthews himself played competitively — including one season of travel ball — until age 13, when he ultimately chose hockey after missing too many baseball practices.
In his youth, Matthews’ specialty was Judge’s — the long ball. A strength the lefthanded hitter showed off back in 2017 at Rogers Centre, when he crushed a home run taking batting practice:
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“Growing up, my dad always told me the hardest thing in sports is to hit a little white baseball coming at you 100 miles an hour,” says Matthews, who knows a thing or two about crushing longstanding team records. “So, it’s pretty cool to see what (Judge) has been able to do and the history of that franchise and how far back it goes.
“It seems like the last two months this guy is hitting homers every night.”
How far Matthews will go Tuesday is all the way to the rubber. He won’t cheat and lob his pitch in front of the mound, although Marner has warned him that the bump will make the toss more difficult.
Marner recalls his own first pitch, in June of 2017.
“I was too nervous to kind of throw some heat,” Marner admits. “I was nervous as hell.”
Marner was too shook to trot all the way out to the mound, until he got some advice and some guilt from the Blue Jays players.
“They’re telling me how serious it is and that (extra) couple feet is how people ground the balls into home plate. I wasn’t gonna do it,” Marner says.
“Then Marcus Stroman forced me to do it, which ended up being a lot cooler of a moment. A cooler feeling, seeing how they really feel up there and how lonely it is and how far it is.”
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Matthews plans to warm up well before his big moment tonight. He doesn’t want to give Marner, Rielly and the boys any dressing-room ammunition with an errant throw.
“I wasn’t much of a pitcher, honestly. I had a pretty wild arm, so I usually caught. I pitched a little bit, but not very good,” Matthews says.
“It’s been a minute since I’ve thrown a baseball, but I’m looking forward to it.”
LONDON – Canada will meet three-time champion Germany in the Davis Cup quarterfinals in Malaga, Spain this November.
Canada secured a berth in the quarterfinals — also called The Final 8 Knockout Stage — with a 2-1 win over Britain last weekend in Manchester, England.
World No. 21 Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal anchored a five-player squad that included Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., Gabriel Diallo of Montreal, Alexis Galarneau of Laval, Que., and Vasek Pospisil of Vernon, B.C.
The eight-team draw for the quarterfinals was completed Thursday at International Tennis Federation headquarters.
Defending champion Italy will play Argentina, the United States will meet Australia and Spain will take on the Netherlands. Schedule specifics have yet to be released but the Final 8 will be played Nov. 19-24.
Tim Puetz and Kevin Krawietz were unbeaten in doubles play last week to help Germany reach the quarterfinals. The country’s top singles player — second-ranked Alex Zverev — did not play.
The Canadians defeated Germany in the quarterfinals en route to their lone Davis Cup title in 2022. Germany won titles in 1988, ’89 and ’93.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Canada, fuelled by a 2-1 win over the U.S. and scoreless draw with Mexico, has jumped two places to No. 38 in the FIFA men’s world rankings released Thursday.
Of the top six CONCACAF teams, Canada was the only one to move up. Mexico was unchanged at No. 17 while the U.S. and Panama each fell two rungs to No. 18 and 37, respectively
Costa Rica slipped one spot to No. 50 and Jamaica two places to No. 61.
It marks Canada’s highest ranking under coach Jesse Marsch, who was hired in mid-May when the Canadians were ranked 50th. Since then, the team has climbed to No. 49, 48, 40 and now 38.
Canada has been as high as No. 33 in the men’s ranking, achieved in February 2022 under John Herdman with Canada, named the “Most Improved Side” in 2021 by FIFA, turning heads with an unbeaten run in CONCACAF World Cup qualifying.
The new rankings encompass 184 internationals involving teams from all six confederations including 2026 World Cup qualifiers in Asia, Oceania and South America.
The top 10 was unchanged with Argentina ahead of France, Spain, England, Brazil, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, Colombia and Italy. But the gap at the top is closing with Argentina losing 2-1 away to Colombia and 3-1 at home to Italy.
Teams 10 through 15 were also unchanged. But there was movement after that in the form of Japan (, up two), Iran (No. 19, up one) and Denmark (No. 20, up one). Egypt (No. 31), Ivory Coast (No. 33), Tunisia (No. 36) and Algeria (No. 41) all jumped five places while Greece (No. 48) climbed six spots.
The biggest movers were Brunei Darussalam (No. 183) and Samoa (No. 185), who vaulted seven spots on the back of two wins apiece.
Qatar suffered the biggest drop, tumbling 10 places to No. 44.
San Marino remains at the bottom of the rankings in 210th place despite recording its first victory in more than 20 years, San Marino defeated Liechtenstein 1-0 on Sept. 5, ending a 140-game winless run since a 1-0 decision over the same opponent in April 2004.
Liechtenstein fell four places to No. 203.
Canada’s next match is an Oct. 15 friendly against Panama at Toronto’s BMO Field. The next men’s ranking will be released Oct. 24.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024
It has been a difficult start to the NFL season for quarterback Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers.
Carolina has dropped its opening two games after Sunday’s 26-3 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. And Young, the first player taken in the ’23 NFL draft, was 18-of-26 passing for 84 yards with an interception while being sacked twice.
As a result, veteran Andy Dalton will start Sunday when Carolina faces the Las Vegas Raiders (1-1).
According to the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp., the Chargers’ win was the most accurately predicted moneyline selection by Proline bettors. A whopping 92 per cent of wagers were on Los Angeles beating Carolina with 92 per cent also picking the Chargers to cover -4.5.
In other action that went in favour of Proline bettors: Kansas City edged Cincinnati 26-25 (86 per cent correctly selected the Chiefs to win); Houston got past Chicago 19-13 (81 per cent); the New York Jets defeated Tennessee 24-17 (78 per cent); Pittsburgh beat Denver 13-6 (76 per cent), Washington beat the New York Giants 21-18 (73 per cent); and Seattle toppled New England 23-20 (62 per cent).
However, only five per cent of bettors had the Raiders upsetting Baltimore 26-23.
And there was one winner of Proline’s second week main NFL pool of $407,613.
In NFL futures bets after the second week of the season, the odds for offensive player of the year got shorter for running backs Breece Hall (Jets) and Bijan Robinson (Atlanta) and Detroit receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown. But they got longer for running backs Kyren Williams (Rams), Christian McCaffrey (San Francisco) and Jonathan Taylor (Colts).
Quarterbacks Bo Nix (Denver), Jayden Daniels (Washington) and Caleb Williams (Chicago) all had their odds for offensive rookie of the year go up while they went down for running back Ray Davis (Buffalo), tight end Brock Bowers (Raiders) and receiver Malik Nabers (Giants).
Quarterbacks Patrick Mahones (Chiefs), Aaron Rodgers (Jets) and Jalen Hurts (Eagles) all had their odds for regular season MVP go up. But quarterbacks Jordan Love (Packers), Lamar Jackson (Baltimore) and Joe Burrow (Cincinnati) all saw theirs go down.
Kansas City, Philadelphia and Houston had their Super Bowl odds increase while Green Bay, Baltimore and Cincinnati all decreased.
Not surprising, the week’s top events were all NFL games. In order, they were; Buffalo-Miami, Chicago-Houston, Cincinnati-KC, Raiders-Ravens; and Saints-Cowboys.
A Proline retail player cashed in a $26,183 winner from a $10 bet on a 12-leg major-league baseball parlay. Another won $24,602 from a $10 wager on a 12-leg NFL parlay.
A third received $1,737 from a $3 bet on a six-leg NFL parlay.
A digital bettor earned $2,927 from a $25 bet on a five-leg NFL parlay while a second had a $704.35 return from a $1 wager on a seven-leg NFL parlay.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
