Read Up!

When you think of baseball in Canada it is safe to guess that the Toronto Blue Jays come to mind. The Jays were the first Major League team outside of the United States to win the World Series, which they did in 1992 and 1993. This cemented their place in the hearts of Canadians everywhere. They wear the maple leaf on their hats and shirts, and brand themselves as "Canada's team." This title rings true as the Jays are now the only team north of the border, and all 162 of their games are broadcasted nationally on TV and the radio.  But the Jays aren't the beginning and end of baseball in Canada. You may also think of the Montreal Expos. Sadly, the Expos moved away to Washington D.C. in 2004 and became the Nationals. Montreal's MLB franchise was actually the first of it's kind in Canada, coming into the Majors in 1969 – they Jays weren't born until 1977. They never won a World Series title but had a number of great teams, and it's widely thought that had the 1994 season not been cut short by a labour strike, the Expos would have won it all.  The Expos have a sort of cult following, partially due to their quirks: they belonged to a french-speaking city, played in the unconventional Olympic Stadium, and had a wacky logo and uniforms. No team had worn a "pinwheel" hat before in the Majors, and it took some convincing to get people to believe that their cap actually did have an "M" on it. The Expos also had great, easy-to-love players, such as Tim Raines, Andre Dawson, Dennis Martinez, and Gary Carter. Guys that hustled and played with a smile on their faces.  The thing is, though – you can't stop at the Jays and Expos... Baseball in Canada is much more than that. The country has a long history of minor league, semi-pro, and, of course, amateur ball. Every major hub from east to west has some dirt-covered baseball story to be told, but for the sake of time, we're going to stick with Montreal right now. Not with the Expos, but with the other big club that has called the city home: the Royals, a professional minor league franchise that played from 1897 to 1917, and from 1928 to 1960.  The Royals were part of the International League during that second period, between 1928 and 1960, serving as an affiliate to three Major League clubs – the Philadelphia A's, the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers – though the bulk being with one team, the Dodgers. This relationship lasted 21 years over two class designations, AA and AAA. The Royals, who played out of Delorimier Stadium, borrowed the Dodgers look, donning blue accents and a flowy, cursive script.  And it was the Royals' relationship with the Dodgers that ensured the team would be widely remembered. In 1946, Branch Rickey, President and GM of the Brooklyn Dodgers, signed Jackie Robinson to a minor league contract. This made Robinson the first black man to be part of a MLB-affiliated roster, breaking the unofficial, but thoroughly enforced, colour barrier. He was a sensation in Montreal from the start, winning the fans' hearts with a hot bat and daring base stealing. In his one season with the Royals Robinson hit .349 with 113 runs and a whopping 40 stolen bases.  That year Robinson would guide the Royals to 100 wins and a 1st-place IL finish, and to a Junior World Series victory against the Kansas City Blues of the American Association. Clearly ready for a shot at a Major League roster, off he went to the Dodgers pre-season camp in 1947. It's famously noted that Royals fans chased Robinson to the train station – described thusly by Sam Maltin, a freelancer writing for the Pittsburgh Courier: "It was probably the only day in history that a black man ran from a white mob with love instead of lynching on its mind." The Royals would continue to have success after Robinson's departure, winning five more IL titles before 1960. They won an all-Canadian showdown against the Toronto Maple Leafs to grab their final trophy, in 1958. Despite this success the Royals struggled to keep attendance up in the later years. In 1960 the Dodgers, now two years into their LA adventure, decided to cut ties with Montreal. This was the death knell – the Royals packed up and moved to Syracuse for the 1961 season.  While professional baseball has come and gone in Montreal, the legacy of the Royals and their 1946 season remains. They are part of baseball history, Canadian or otherwise. Jackie Robinson changed the game forever, and that journey started in Montreal.

In 1956 big-time baseball arrived in Vancouver. That's not to say the game wasn't being played here prior – there's a few great local stories to be told, like the rise of the Japanese-Canadian Asahi ball club, or Babe Ruth playing at old Athletic Park. But before 1956 baseball in Vancouver was all semi-pro. The Mounties, part of the Pacific Coast League, were a step above. The PCL brass were actually intent on becoming a "major league" and challenging Major League Baseball itself. That was until the Dodgers and Giants franchises moved west from New York to California, absorbing the market the PCL had previously controlled. Anyway, the left coast league didn't die, instead transforming into a feeder minor league affiliated with MLB. The PCL – and therefore the Mounties – became AAA ball in 1958.  In the Mounties Vancouverites got a taste of what real ballplayers could do. The lovely Nat Bailey Stadium (then called Capilano Stadium) was the scene – as it still is for pro ball – one of the prettiest minor league parks around. The Mounties also had a former Major Leaguer at the helm, the well-loved Lefty O'Doul, a lifetime .349 hitter. Lefty was an affable, gregarious man that served as an unofficial ambassador for the game wherever he went. He was particularly popular in San Francisco, his home town, and in Japan, where he toured with the aforementioned Ruth. Unfortunately, Lefty wasn't able to produce any significant results as manager (the team finished in 8th place), but he did have a stand-out moment at the plate. Yes, that's right, Lefty O'Doul made an appearance as player-manager. He stood in for a single at-bat – at age 59 – and hit a triple! It would be his first and only on-field appearance for the Mounties, and also his last professional at-bat. It's a great trivia tidbit.               

Baseball returned on March 28th as all 30 Major League teams took the field beneath the blue, white, and red Opening Day bunting. It's always a celebratory occasion, but this year there is some additional meaning: 2019 marks the 150th year of professional baseball. Way back in 1869 the Cincinnati Red Stockings became the first "full-salaried" team, as MLB puts it.  Cincinnati is always a focal point of Opening Day because of its role in the game's founding. They get a prime-time day game, and there is a pre-game parade, usually attended by the league commissioner. There will also be some season-long celebrations. The Reds will wear 15 throwback uniforms this season, which has to be a record, and will also have a unique commemorative patch. All other teams will wear a "MLB 150" patch. The league's move in claiming the sesquicentennial is actually a bit deceiving – Major League Baseball has technically only been around since 1903. If you go with the National League, formed as its own entity but now part of MLB, you could consider the founding year to be 1876, 143 years ago. The anniversary that is being celebrated this year is not technically MLB's. But this is not a new thing, as they did celebrate the 100th and 125th anniversaries of professional baseball as their own as well. If we're being really factual, today's Reds franchise is also not technically playing their 150th season of professional ball. The team that was formed 150 years ago, the Red Stockings, disbanded before the 1871 season as they felt they could no longer pay for a professional side. A second Cincinnati team, the Reds, formed in 1876 as a charter member of the National League. This iteration would only last three seasons. That Reds' owner allowed use of the ballpark on Sundays and also served beer, two things the NL brass did not approve of. The Reds, refusing to budge, were tossed from the league. The third go, founded in 1881 as the Red Stockings, was the one that stuck.  It's all a bit confusing, and, yes, you can accuse me of nitpicking, but there you have it: neither the current-day Reds nor Major League Baseball have been around for 150 years. That being said, you can see why both establishments would celebrate the occasion. MLB is the highest level of the professional game so to mark year one, regardless of who was involved, makes sense. The Reds use the same name as their predecessor and still play in the same city, so why not?  The bigger issue is in the execution. Instead of saying "MLB 150" perhaps the league-wide anniversary patch could say "Pro Baseball 150." And for the Reds, the patch checks out, but most of the retro uniforms they'll be wearing would actually be better suited to the current franchise's 150th in 2031, since the Cincinnati team that played from 1869 to 1871 never wore them... The throwback to the 1869 uniform is, however, one that works this year.  I suppose it's better to remember the past incorrectly than to forget it all together. The baseball season gets gussied up a bit in the process, and the celebrations have been fun thus far, that's not the point of contention. But, going forward, for the sake of us super nerds – accuracy please! 

The Toronto Huskies were Toronto's first NBA team. They were founded in 1946 and lasted only one season. The first-ever game of what is now the National Basketball Association – a pretty momentous event in the history of basketball. With the size and popularity of the league as it is now, you'd think that its founding year would be way back, in the early 1900s. And what teams do you think took part? With these things it's usually storied franchises, so the basketball equivalent of the Green Bay Packers, the Boston Red Sox, etc. Well, there's two surprises coming... one, the first NBA game was played in 1946. Sure, that was over 70 years ago, but for reference, the National Hockey League was founded in 1917. Major League Baseball's National League, which at one point stood on its own, dates back to 1876. And the National Football League, they will start celebrating their centennial season come September. So, when it comes to the North American "Core Four," the NBA is the baby of the bunch. And then there's the teams that took part. One of them is a classic franchise that is still going strong: the New York Knicks, or Knickerbockers, as they were originally and are more formerly known. Their competitor may surprise you, however. It was the Toronto Huskies. Yes, Canada had a professional basketball franchise before the Raptors, and yes they had the honour of playing in the very first NBA game. What happened to the Toronto Huskies? Unfortunately for the Huskies, they peaked a bit early. They would only play that single season, compiling a record of 22-38, before folding. From there the Huskies became a mere footnote, a trivia tidbit. They deserved better really – they had a great name and a look to equal it. Blue and white colours, matching those of the well-loved Maple Leafs, and a sweet panting-dog logo. The Huskies also had their own unique typeface. So why did the franchise fail? Attendance. That first game against the Knicks drew a decent crowd, but after that the numbers continued to fall. It's said that ownership lost $100,000 in that single season of operations. At the time, pro basketball was a new thing and was not seen as big-time, nor a real career path for those playing. The sport was instead built around the college and high school game. And in Toronto hockey is king, of course, so an upstart league with generally the same schedule didn't have much of a chance. At that time, before huge TV viewership – and therefore huge TV deals – became a thing, teams relied on the box office; that's where they got their money. That's why, for example, the Canadian Football League was on the same tier as the NFL, because they drew similar crowds. And that's great for a smaller-market league if you are getting fans through the gate, but if not... there's nothing to fall back on. So, the Huskies leapt, and the Huskies fell. The Toronto Huskies Legacy The Huskies have come back from the dead, somewhat, as the Raptors, the city's second go at an NBA franchise, now wear Huskies throwback uniforms on select nights. This started in 2009, and of 2016 the blue and white became an official "alternate" uniform. They even change the hardwood to match. It's a fitting tribute to the short-lived, yet trailblazing franchise that was.

Time for another journey back in time via our Who Were They? series. There's more hockey history on the docket (click the links for our Original Six and Class of '67 pieces), though this time we'll be looking at the history of an individual team, the Toronto St. Pats.  Think of hockey in Toronto and one thing comes to mind: the Maple Leafs and their famous blue and white. The Leafs are one of the National Hockey League's Original Six teams, the core group that battled between 1946 and 1967. The franchise has been around since the dawn of the league in 1917 and is still beloved despite having not won a Stanley Cup since 1967.  Their look – blue shirt, white leaf, and white stripes – is so iconic, and has remained largely untouched for so long, that many tend to think it's been that way forever. In actual fact, the Leafs were not always the Leafs. The franchise had two previous identities; first they were the "Arenas," from 1917-1919, and then they became the "St. Patricks," or "St. Pats." It was in 1927 that the now-famous "Maple Leafs" moniker came to be when Conn Smyth took over and wanted something more uniquely Canadian.  The St. Patricks name was decided upon for promotional reasons; there was a visible Irish population settling in Toronto, and branding the team in such a way was meant to get players on the ice and fans in the stands. Their ownership group ran amateur hockey clubs under that name in the city since the beginning of the 1900s, and when the Arenas went up for sale before the 1919-20 season those at the St. Patricks figured it was their time to make the step up to the big leagues. They bought the team for $5,000 on December 13, 1919.  As you can imagine, the St. Pats wore green and white, providing an eight-year colour deviation for the franchise. And during this period they managed one Stanley Cup win, in 1921-22. They beat the Vancouver Millionaires three games to two in a best of five series. But, in the seasons following this big win, the St. Pats struggled to make the playoffs and would suffer financially. In stepped Smyth, and the rest is history.  Though the St. Pats years were relatively uneventful – under the Maple Leafs moniker the club would win 11 cups – this previous identity remains popular. The Leafs have made a tradition of wearing throwback St. Pats uniforms around St. Patrick's Day in March, something we very much approve of!

Cricket is not commonly watched or played in North America, one cannot dispute this. But it is there if you look. I actually played a bit as a kid; the rugby club I was a part of also fields a cricket team and would hold "Cricket Camp" over the summers. I remember hitting in the cages and doing tests on all of the strangely-named positions on the field (like "Gully," "Slips," "Fine Leg," "Square Leg," and so on). I also remember having to catch very hard red balls with my bare hands straight out of a dialed-up pitching machine. Then a coach I had happened to mention that the bones in one of his teammate's hands at one point looked like "the bottom of a box of Cornflakes" thanks to an improperly-caught ball. Safe to say my cricket career ended there.  I also played baseball at this time and continue to love it – both playing and watching. It really is North America's bat-and-ball equivalent and the reason why cricket never took off here; we just went ahead and developed our own adaptation. Otherwise you'd think that we North Americans, and Canadians in particular, would fit with the sport quite naturally. Canada is part of the Commonwealth and maintains its historical ties with Britain, and also has a large East Indian population, a group of people that certainly are mad for the game. Baseball had just enough growth north of the border to take hold permanently, stumping cricket. (Ha, my first cricket joke... you'll understand soon.) The similarities between the two games are close enough that if you enjoy one you'll enjoy the other. The rules are different and the fields of play are different, but they are brethren in terms of pace and just all-around vibe. This is especially the case when the weather is fine. Sun streaming down, fans mill about in shorts watching players in sweat-stained caps. In addition, baseball and cricket are games that require patience, from both participant and fan. A game can seem to go on forever, in the best of ways. "Test" cricket really takes the cake with this as a single match can go on for multiple days. And people seem to have a problem with baseball needing three hours to play nine innings! As an English gent once said to me, "North Americans can't seem to appreciate a game that can last for five days and end in a draw." Indeed, sir, indeed.  Baseball and cricket also have more bite-sized similarities in terms of gameplay. There is a moment of waiting, a pitch, the crack of a bat, and then a moment of action. There is a duel of wits between the person throwing the ball and the person attempting to hit it. There are runs scored and outs made, including outs made by catching the ball mid-air before it touches the ground. In cricket a batter can also be called out when he swings and misses the ball, similar to a strike out. There are umpires on the field that must determine if these outs are, in fact, made. And both games are a bit hard to understand at first, and there is more than meets the eye when it comes to strategy.  There are also the basic differences. In baseball you run the bases, while in cricket you run with a teammate between the two "wickets." The wickets are three wooden "stumps" – get the joke now? – coming out of the ground with two tiny sticks resting horizontally on top, which are called "bails." Generally, if the wickets are struck the batter is out. In cricket there are no foul lines, any struck ball is in play, even behind the batter. A ball that rolls on the ground to the "boundary" (think a home run line on the ground) scores four automatic runs, while any ball that clears said boundary by air scores six automatically. The pitcher, in this case called a "bowler," "bowls" the ball using a windmill-like release and delivers so that the ball bounces once before reaching the batter. A cricket bat has a flat front and is also used to "defend" the wickets (in addition to being used to score runs). An at bat consists of the whole team batting until there are 10 outs made, at which point the two teams swap places. There, now you know the basics! If you're a baseball enthusiast there's enough similarities to draw you in, but also enough differences to tickle your imagination. It's like being a city person in a different city than your own. Part of you feels at home, while the other half is excited to discover a whole new place. Still, you might be wondering what the reason for my cricket re-discovery was. Well, my father recently underwent surgery and required some real rest, and also a helping hand during this recovery process. I was there with him for four days with nothing much to do between meals. Much of my love of sports comes from my dad, so it was natural that we looked for some game to watch. The only real live event was a cricket Test series between England and the host West Indies. It ended up being the perfect thing – hours of beautiful, breezy cricket all day, every day. Oh, that reminds me – there are different types of cricket. And by that I mean a cricket match can differ in length. The most traditional type is what I've been watching recently, Test cricket. A Test series consists of multiple games of undetermined length. Each team bats twice and fields twice, that is the only structure; you play as long as you have to to either score so many points that it would be impossible for the other team to come back, or to score just enough and then focus on getting all of the other team's batsmen out. A Test cricket match can last five days before it is decided, and that's just the one match; you have to win at least two games to take a series. It's quite the marathon. Test cricket is also unique in that all players wear white, on both sides, and the ball is red. These visual bits are also traditional.  Outside of test matches, there is "limited overs" cricket. An "over" is the term for the collection of bowls, usually six, that a bowler makes consecutively before he is swapped out for another. In Test cricket there are unlimited overs, the only rule being a single bowler cannot have back-to-back overs. Limited over matches are just what they sound like – there is a limit on how many bowls a batter can face, shortening the game drastically. Within this type of cricket there are two further distinctions: "ODI" (One Day International) and "Twenty20." The former usually restricts each team to 50 overs, while with the later the restriction is 20. ODIs typically last – you guessed it – one day, and Twenty20 cricket goes for about three hours. Each team bats once and fields once, no matter which is being played. The result is not only a shorter game, but also a more offensive one; batters can't waste overs defending the wickets, they must go for points. And there is that aesthetic difference: limited overs cricket features colourful uniforms and a white ball. Purists will prefer Test cricket, the slow-moving and technically advanced, sun-bleached granddaddy. And there is something very pleasing about the vintage feel of the all-white outfits stained with red from brushes with the ball. You can see why we are moving away from it in the 21st century, where everything must happen quickly. This generation wants excitement! And colour! However, if you've got time to kill, or if you want to slow life down a bit, it doesn't get better than test cricket. Grab a cold drink, something to snack on, and get lost in the game. You'll find that once you've started watching there's enough detail that you won't get bored; you'll start to relish in the little details. I'm very grateful cricket was there for my dad and myself when we needed it, and it will be forever tied to his recovery in memory. Batter up!

If there's one date on the North American sporting calendar that the masses will make time for, it's the Super Bowl. Even non-sports fans tune in (though much of the appeal may now be the half-time show and all of those crazy commercials). The game itself remains a spectacle, and regardless of why you're there watching, the Super Bowl has become a holiday of sorts, an opportunity for people to get together and have a party. From a scheduling perspective, it makes sense why the Super Bowl became the big draw; the other three core North American sports – baseball, basketball, and hockey – all have a "series" playoff format. Meaning, two teams play up to seven games in order to determine a champion. Because of this it's hard to pin down the day to huddle around the TV and see the action. With football, the date is saved well in advance.  The interesting thing is that professional football did not always have the public's heart. For the first half of the 20th century baseball reigned supreme in the United States. College football was also popular, but the professional game was looked on with uncertain eyes. It may feel like it has always been there, but the Super Bowl was first played in 1967, 64 years after the first World Series. Super Bowl I, as it is now known, was a bit of an experiment. Before 1966, the National Football League and American Football League were actually separate, rival leagues. After years of fighting for players and fans, the two decided to make peace and merge (which was scheduled to officially occur in 1969). Thus, a "World Championship Game" was born in order to determine which league had the true champion. The NFL's Green Bay Packers won this new title game, supporting what many already thought: that the established NFL was far superior to the upstart AFL. The Packers also won the season following. More NFL dominance was expected in Super Bowl III – the first to officially carry the "Super Bowl" title – as the heavily favoured Baltimore Colts, lead by Johnny Unitas, were set to face Joe Namath's New York Jets. The Colts had only lost one regular season game in 1967 and in the NFL title game whomped the Cleveland Browns 34-0. The Jets were 18-point underdogs, though that didn't stop Namath from "guaranteeing" victory for New York three days before the game.  The Jets, as their quarterback promised, would make good, a holding off a 4th-quarter surge by the Colts to win 16-7; for the first time an AFL team was number one, which legitimized the new league and the Super Bowl itself. From there the big game only got bigger. And while professional football's massive popularity growth would undoubtably still have occurred, the Jets' performance in Super Bowl III played a large part in speeding up that process. 

Stop number two on our Who Were They? tour of the past is the National Hockey League's first big expansion, the "Class of '67." Spoked by rumours that the Western Hockey League – one of hockey's top two minor leagues – was plotting to declare themselves major, New York Rangers governor William Jennings too the proverbial bull by the horns in 1963 and suggested to his NHL lodge brothers that the time had come to do something radical about their league's rather exclusive membership.  Two years later, NHL president Clarence Campbell announced that doubling the league's size was on the agenda, and by June 6, 1967, owners representing six new franchises – in Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia – had agreed to plunk down two million dollars a piece. This earned them the right scavenge the fringes of existing Original Six rosters, 12 skating players and one goalie. The one-goalie stipulation mean a couple of long-time net-minding heroes – like Terry Sawchuk and Glenn Hall – would join an upstart club, but the rest of the pickings were somewhat slim, especially as each established team was permitted by the league to "fill" their roster after one of their players was taken.  Even with the new teams grouped in one "West Division" and playing amongst themselves fro an automatic berth in the Stanley Cup final for the first three expansion seasons, it would be seven long years before an expansion team won so much as a game in the Cup final – but by then, in 1974, Bobby Clarke's Broad Street Bullies had matured to the point where they beat the Boston Bruins in six games for the fist of their two Stanley Cup titles.  Their fellow expansionists wouldn't fare so well, with the Penguins waiting 24 years and the Kings 45 years for their first Cups. As for the good fans of Minnesota, St. Louis, and the Bay Area – well, they're still waiting. Mind you, the current 50-year wait for those three (which included stretches of inactivity for Minnesota and the Bay area after their original teams left town for tonier locations) happens to coincide precisely with the length of time the long-suffering fans of a certain Original Six team have endured. 

It's a new year, which means it's time for a new blog series. And so, allow us to introduce Who Were They? a look back in time at some of the most important – yet less understood – terms, teams, and individuals of sporting history. First off is the National Hockey League's "Original Six." There is an unmistakeable mystique to the oldest franchises among the four major North American sports leagues, but perhaps none more so than the Original Six. The name is actually something of a misnomer; the term was never used during the period it references (1942-1967) and only two of the franchises in question – the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs – were on hand for the start of the league in 1917.  The NHL's first 25 years were tumultuous ones, with franchises failing in a half dozen cities. The Montreal Wanderers folded six games into the first season when their arena caught on fire and burned to the ground. But hockey had caught the imagination of fans in Boston, New York, Chicago, and Detroit, and after the folding of second franchises in Montreal (the Maroons, in 1938) and New York (the Americans, in 1942), the NHL embarked a quarter-century of shocking stability – and thus the Original Six was born.  The deep sense of nostalgia the era evokes certainly isn't rooted in its competitiveness. The Montreal Canadiens won 10 of the 25 available Stanley Cups, the Maple Leafs captured nine (including their most recent, in 1967), the Detroit Red Wings five, the Chicago Black Hawks one, with the Boston Bruins and New York Rangers shut out. The leading scorer of the era was, of course, Gordie Howe, with 1501 points, trailed distantly by Maurice Richard, Jean Beliveau, Andy Bathgate, and Alex Delvecchio. The winningest goalie was Terry Sawchuk, with 430 wins, followed by Glenn Hall, Jacques Plante, Harry Lumley, Gump Worsley, and Johnny Bower. As mentioned, the term "Original Six" was not used contemporaneously during the period, but was first referenced in a piece by Tom Fitzgerald in the Boston Globe on June 9, 1967, a few days after the expansion draft that saw the NHL double in size to 12 teams overnight. The term didn't come into widespread use until the 1990s.  

When out at a sporting event, there's certain songs you're bound to hear blasting from the jumbotron. "We Will Rock You," "Jump Around," and "YMCA" are major ones. The probing beat of The White Stripe's "Seven Nation Army" has been adopted by teams and their fanbases across the globe. Queen actually has two stadium hits, as what would a title win be without an emotional rendition of "We Are the Champions"? The running trait of all of these songs is their ability to excite a crowd and get them to believe in their team, in a moment of glory. Each delivers a succinct statement, and/or has a strong and repetitive rhythm. They make you want to sing or move or both. Interestingly, while this kind of composition quickly jumps out as a arena rocker, the lyrical content tends to not actually reference sports. There are relatively few songs out there that are dedicated to teams, athletes, or a sport. The big one, which most baseball fans will know, is "Centerfield" by John Fogerty. It's a catchy, classic-rock hit that speaks to the mystique of the national pastime and its language, stories, and stars. "Centerfield" also, in the chorus, appeals to every little-leaguer's desire to get on the field and play their part: "Put me in, coach, I'm ready to play." There's another baseball-themed song out there that's written by a major artist, though it's by no means as popular. Bob Dylan penned a tune titled "Catfish," which speaks of Jim Hunter's legend. Jim "Catfish" Hunter was one of the best pitchers of his era and was the first to sign a million-dollar contract, with the Yankees. Dylan's ode is captivating, but is more bluesy bootleg than catchy stadium rocker.  Hockey has inspired a few songs, and most are by Canadian artists, which isn't a surprise given the sport's popularity up north. Tom Cochrane's "Big League" is a powerful rock hit that still gets frequent airplay. The song is actually rather sad – it, from the perspective of a parent, tells of a talented player that dies in a bus crash before he can break it.  Canadian giants The Tragically Hip also have a hit that tells of a hockey tragedy. The verses of "Fifty Mission Cap" are a tribute to Toronto Maple Leaf Bill Barilko who died in a plane crash shortly after scoring the series-winning goal in the 1951 Stanley Cup Final. The song has become an all-time favourite for The Hip, though it doesn't have the pop sensibilities to be regularly played in hockey arenas.  Perhaps the most fun and charming, and therefore popular, song to be inspired by the game of hockey is "The Hockey Song" by Stompin' Tom Connors. It's a popular one at hockey arenas around the National Hockey League, including the Maple Leafs', where it is played every game. You may not be familiar with Stompin' Tom himself, but if you're a hockey fan you'll know the chorus: Oh! The good ol' hockey game, is the best game you can nameAnd the best game you can name, is the good ol' hockey game It's a honky-tonky, rollicking-good-time of a song that, like Fogerty's "Centerfield," really captures the essence of the subject matter. The crash of the boards, the "insane" fans, a last-minute winner, the Stanley Cup filled with beer... it's all jammed in there in just a couple of minutes. It's become hockey's theme song, and for good reason. To take us out, here's Stompin' Tom making the only U.S. TV appearance of his entire career, on the Conan O'Brian Show.