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TORONTO – You would have never guessed this was Mike (Pinball) Clemons’s eighth Grey Cup celebration.

From his seat on stage left, Toronto’s general manager wore a giant smile, pumped his fists, stomped his feet and seemed to nearly fall off his chair with puppy-like excitement throughout the Argonauts’ hour-long championship rally at Maple Leaf Square outside Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday.

“(Grey Cups) are so hard to get,” Clemons said. “There’s no promise. Some guys go through and never get that opportunity to hold the Cup. The unpredictability of it is what makes it special.”

Unpredictability is perhaps the most apt descriptor of the Argonauts’ recent championship — a 41-24 victory over the favoured Winnipeg Blue Bombers at Vancouver’s B.C. Place on Sunday.

Hours before the rally began, a crowd of diehard fans began to form around the stage. The group sang intermittent “Let’s go Argos” chants together on a cool and mostly grey day in the city.

Many of them donned Argos jerseys, with names like Doug Flutie, Henoc Muamba and McLeod Bethel-Thompson represented among them.

But there were no Nick Arbuckle threads in sight — fitting for a whirlwind season that saw the backup quarterback take over as starter in the Grey Cup, leading to the team to its CFL record-extending 19th title and earning MVP honours in the process.

Toronto spent its first nine games of the season waiting out a suspension to star QB Chad Kelly. It eked out second place in the East by a half-game over the Ottawa Redblacks before beating them in the East semi.

Then, late in the division final against the top-seeded Montreal Alouettes, Kelly went down with injury. The Argos held on to win, but they were viewed as underdogs in the Grey Cup against a Blue Bombers squad making its fifth straight trip to the title game.

That’s when Arbuckle — a player who was investigating coaching opportunities in the off-season — stepped in and threw for 252 yards and two touchdowns against the stout Bombers.

“I’ve tried to make a lot of plans based on things I’ve done in the past and those plans never really seem to work out,” said Arbuckle. “And the plan that did work out, which was God’s plan, ended up being a lot sweeter and a lot greater. I never thought this would have happened, so I’ll just let him to take the reins.”

Arbuckle said his week leading up to the Grey Cup looked like most others, except for a few more first-team reps.

“I always prepare the same exact way for a game, whether you’re the starter or the backup. I always prepare to play every down except for the first one, so this is the only difference — I get to play the first one,” he said.

The CFL journeyman added that he now hopes to keep playing into next season. As a free agent, though, it may not be with Toronto.

Kelly, meanwhile, will still be under contract with the Argos.

The 30-year-old, who two years ago stepped in from the backup role to lead the Argos to a championship, joined his team on stage at the rally on crutches and offered an exuberant speech featuring many proclamations of “best in the world” and more than a few swear words.

“That was awesome to see him here and take part and be such a part of the spirit and direction of our team,” Clemons said.

When Kelly was still healthy nearly two months ago, the Argonauts visited the Lions at B.C. Place — the site of the Grey Cup. Toronto picked up an important victory in that game, but it was another moment during that trip that may live on forever.

Head coach Ryan Dinwiddie taped a toonie in the visitor’s locker room, with the promise of returning to pick it up during the Grey Cup.

“I felt like it was a good message to our players to let them understand we did take that step in B.C. in a tough game. I don’t know when’s the last time we won in B.C. We had to get that done — now we can get it done in a few weeks,” Dinwiddie said.

Dinwiddie said he now has the toonie safely in his house — though there was a scary moment on the flight home from Vancouver in which it slipped out of his pocket and into the depths of his seat.

But the coach, who’s signed with the Argos through 2026, recovered the coin and is planning to immortalize it in a trophy case alongside his Grey Cup ring.

In addition to Clemons, Arbuckle, Kelly and Dinwiddie, Toronto mayor Olivia Chow, MLSE chairman Larry Tanenbaum, president Keith Pelley and four other players spoke at the rally.

Chow declared Nov. 19 as Double-Blue Day in Toronto.

Pelley, a former Argos president who recently returned to MLSE, said when he spoke to the team ahead of the East final he implored six more hours of good football — and his players delivered.

Veteran receiver DaVaris Daniels, who’s spent the past four seasons with the Argos, was the first player to take the microphone.

Daniels held a bottle of champagne that he sprayed into the crowd as he walked to the lectern. He spoke of the nobody-believes-in-us mentality his team carried throughout Grey Cup week.

“Never underestimate an underdog,” Daniels roared. “You just might get bit.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 19, 2024.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A combination of severe hurricane damage to Tropicana Field and political delays on financing means it is highly unlikely the Tampa Bay Rays’ planned new stadium will be ready for the 2028 season, if at all, the team said Tuesday.

Rays top executives said in a letter to the Pinellas County Commission that the team has already spent $50 million for early work on the new $1.3 billion ballpark and cannot proceed further because of delays in approval of bonds for the public share of the costs.

“The Rays organization is saddened and stunned by this unfortunate turn of events” said the letter, signed by co-presidents Brian Auld and Matt Silverman, who noted that the overall project was previously approved by the County Commission and the City of St. Petersburg.

“As we have made clear at every step of this process, a 2029 ballpark delivery would result in significantly higher costs that we are not able to absorb alone,” the letter added.

The tumultuous series of events came after Hurricane Milton ripped the roof off Tropicana Field on Oct. 9, forcing the Rays to play the 2025 season at the spring training home of the New York Yankees, 11,000-seat Steinbrenner Field in Tampa. Then, the Pinellas County Commission postponed a planned Oct. 29 vote on the bond issue that the Rays said has thrown the new 30,000-seat ballpark timeline off.

The commission was meeting again Tuesday on the bond issue, but its chair suggested a vote could be delayed again.

“We know we’re going to be in Steinbrenner in 2025 and we don’t know much beyond that,” Auld said in an interview.

Asked if Major League Baseball can survive long-term in the Tampa Bay area, Rays Principal Owner Stuart Sternberg said the outlook is “less rosy than it was three weeks ago. We’re going to do all that we can, as we’ve tried for 20 years, to keep the Rays here for generations to come.”

The team’s contract with the city of St. Petersburg requires that the Rays play three more seasons at Tropicana Field assuming it is repaired. The cost of fixing the ballpark in time for the 2026 season is pegged at more than $55 million for a building scheduled to be torn down when the new facility is ready.

Under the original plan, Pinellas County would spend about $312.5 million for the new ballpark and the city of St. Petersburg around $417 million including infrastructure improvements. The Rays and their partner, the Hines development company, would cover the remaining costs including any overruns.

It isn’t just baseball that is affected. The new Rays ballpark is part of a larger urban renovation project known as the Historic Gas Plant District, which refers to a predominantly Black neighborhood that was forced out by construction of Tropicana Field and an interstate highway spur.

The broader $6.5 billion project would transform an 86-acre (34-hectare) tract in the city’s downtown, with plans in the coming years for a Black history museum, affordable housing, a hotel, green space, entertainment venues, and office and retail space. There’s the promise of thousands of jobs as well.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB

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The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

WINNIPEG – Police in Winnipeg say a suspect is on the loose following a report of a man armed with a large knife at the University of Manitoba.

Officers were called around 6:30 a.m. to the university’s Fort Garry campus for a report of a man dressed in black carrying a large knife into the Allen Building, which houses the physics department.

Police and university officials had asked people to stay away from the area, and students already on campus were told to lock all doors and stay put.

Investigators say a suspect has not been found and officers remain on campus as a precaution.

In-person classes, exams and events were cancelled for the day.

Virtual classes and those on the Bannatyne campus were going ahead.

Last month, police said a man broke into a dorm room at the university and sexually assaulted a woman. A 46-year-old man was arrested and faces various charges.

Officers at a news conference Tuesday said that alleged assault did not influence how they responded to the knife report.

“This is an isolated incident that’s looked at for what it is, based on information we received. We don’t base that on prior incidents or to be careful. It has to do with this incident and how serious of a nature it was,” said police spokesman Const. Claude Chancy said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Nov. 19, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.