For the third time in four years, we've got a federal election. Stephen Harper has dissolved Parliament and has called an election for October 14.

It's a shame we're going to the polls only a couple of weeks before our neighbours to the south as I fear Obama vs. McCain will hog most of our American-heavy media and water cooler chatter. Let's face it, Obama is far more interesting than Stephane Dion.

Harper's Conservatives have formed a minority government for the past 31 months and he now believes he has a shot at a majority. It will be awfully tough forming a majority while getting shut out of the entire city of Toronto, so my money is on another minority government for the Conservatives.

They say the majority likes Harper, but dislikes his party, while it's the opposite with the Liberals. We like the party, but dislike Stephane Dion. I see a new leader in the Liberal Party's future.

In my riding, I'm expecting a tight race between the incumbent NDP MP Peggy Nash and rising Liberal star Gerard Kennedy. I'm betting we go red again after a brief tryst with Jack Layton's party. Stay tuned, this thing is just getting started.

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Breakfast with Scot: 6.5 out of 10.

"Breakfast with Scot" was the first of the two Toronto Maple Leaf movies released over the past twelve months. I first wrote about it here. You may recall the buzz about it because it featured an ex-Toronto Maple Leaf who just happens to be gay and the film received permission by the NHL, and the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey organization to use jerseys, clips, and other items relating to the Leafers. It is the first time in major professional sports history that such permission has been given.

Yes, there is footage of the ACC and a Leafs practice and plenty of Maple Leaf posters and hats, but this isn't a hockey movie. It's a nice little Canadian movie about a couple who have a unique child thrust upon them. Yes, the couple happens to be a same-sex couple, but it's all pretty sweet and classy I'm willing to bet they could have viewed this film at the Republican National Convention and nobody would have squawked afterward.

Go Leafs Go! There are only 32 days, 10 hours, 16 minutes, and 34 seconds left until the Maple Leafs opener!.

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Often, when I need to learn about an event, a person or a thing, I start with Wikipedia. For everything from sports to music to politics, Wikipedia serves up a ton of great info. Sometimes, however, you have to wrestle with wikiality.

When Gregg Zaun came to the plate today in the bottom of the 13th inning down by a run with two outs and the bases loaded, I looked at his .227 batting average and thought Cito was making a mistake. Surely there was another bat on the bench for this situation. Zaun hit a walk-off grand slam and when I got home I visited his Wikipedia page to remind myself as to why he was named in the Mitchell Report. That's when I read this slice of wikiality.

In 2004, the Blue Jays were the first team to make Zaun, at 33, a starting catcher. Valuable in the line-up as a switch-hitter, he set a career high in 2005 with 133 games, which helped him earn his nickname "Big Jeezy". He is openly homosexual, and was made famous by an onfield argument he had with former partner Jason Phillips.

The edit was made by an anonymous person earlier today, and could very well be gone by the time you click through. Jason Phillips and Gregg Zaun did fight to backup Bengie Molina a couple of years ago, but I don't believe Phillips had anything to do with Zaun's alleged homosexuality. In fact, I can safely say Zaun is not openly gay, not that there's anything wrong with that.

Kids, as you Google your way through your essays this school year, remember this sage advice from a guy who had to collect all his university research from actual books. Wikipedia is not a reference, and Gregg Zaun is not openly homosexual.

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I just got back from a little 13 inning game at the ballpark formerly known as SkyDome. I took the kids who were enthusiastic angels for all 13 innings and it couldn't have been a more exciting game.

It should have been a quick 3-0 shut-out and a well deserved win for Shaun Marcum. With B.J. Ryan on in the ninth to close it out, the Tampa Bay Rays managed to tie it at 3, in part thanks to an infuriating error at second base by one Joe Inglett. Instead of a tidy 2.25 hour game we got a 4+ hour marathon that ended in 13 on a 2-out walk-off grand slam by Gregg Zaun. This is the first walk-off grand slam I've ever witnessed live and it gave us a 7-4 win. That's right, if Zaun gets out, we lose this sucker.

Hot damn, that was fun. The kids and I were literally jumping for joy as Zauny got mobbed at home plate. It's our seventh win in a row, our highest total in four years. Not even my presence was enough to break this streak.

A big thanks to Stephanie, a regular reader, who sent me the tickets. They were great seats, in the first row of the 200 level right by 3rd base. It was an even better game. The photoset is here.

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If you recognize the title of this entry, you're a child of the 80s and Canadian. You're also likely a little creeped out right now.

I'm a child of the 80s, and the ASTAR public service announcement from The War Amps always freaked me out. It was a pretty cool PSA, but chilling. During the ad ASTAR's arm is amputated by moving blades and he/she reattaches it. Then, he/she delivers that memorable line.

I am ASTAR, a robot. I can put my arm back on. You can't. So play safe!

Does that ring a bell? Perhaps you need to revisit the PSA. Here it is in all its original glory.

The War Amps hit a home run with this one. Twenty years later and I still remember it. It was also effective. I've never played around spinning blades. You see, ASTAR was a robot. She (or he?) can put her (or his) arm back on, but I can't.

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My all-time favourite songs with "electric" in the title

1. She's Electric - Oasis
2. The Body Electric - Rush
3. The Electric Co. - U2
4. Electric Relaxation - A Tribe Called Quest
5. Over the Electric Grapevine - Primus

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In this entry I mentioned my need to introduce pagination for my category pages. Some categories have many hundreds of entries making the pages very long and painfully slow to load.

MT-Hacks has a slick little pagination plug-in for Movable Type that introduces pagination. I've got it working now. For example, if you visit my Toronto Blue Jays category page, it will only display the 20 entries at a time and you'll have to advance the pages via the menu at the bottom of the page.

This is very small world we live in. The chap behind MT Hacks is the same guy who works worked with me on SLS. He was also in the passenger seat when I ran my new car into the back of a pickup on he 401 while rocking out to Everlast back in '99, but that's another story.

If you're using Movable Type for your blog or website, you really should check out MT Hacks.

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I'm still angry. Last night my rec league softball team lost a semi-final game by a single run. It was as close as a game can get with me as the tying run deserted at third base in the bottom of the last inning.

I'm still angry because one of my players played a horrible game. He killed us defensively all night and in the last inning when we needed four runs to tie, he was the first out in the dumbest base running play I've ever seen. That's when I thought about John Thompson.

John Thompson was coach of the Georgetown Hoyas basketball team. In 1982, his Hoyas were in the NCAA finals against Michael Jordan and the North Carolina Tar Heels. Thanks to Jordan's jumper, North Carolina led 63-62 with 20 seconds to play. Georgetown's Fred Brown dribbled the ball up court and inexplicably threw an errant pass right into the hands of North Carolina's James Worthy.

At that moment, Fred Brown had cost Georgetown the national title. I can imagine how Brown felt. Right after the buzzer went, John Thompson went straight to Fred Brown and hugged him. I often think about that moment and remember it's just a game. I try and be like John Thompson at that moment in 1982.

Fred Brown would never play NBA ball, but he would eventually win an NCAA title with the Hoyas in 1984. I couldn't find footage of the hug, but here's the last 20 seconds of that game that inspired me so.

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I caught about 4 minutes of The Fan 590 during lunch and they were calling in to vote on which sport was best on the radio and which ones you have to see in order to enjoy.

This got me thinking about the four major sports: baseball, basketball, football and hockey. Which one do I enjoy most on the radio? Which one do I enjoy most on television? Which one do I enjoy playing most? Answers below!

Best on Radio

1. Baseball
2. Basketball
3. Hockey
4. Football

Best on TV

1. Hockey
2. Baseball
3. Basketball
4. Football

Best to Play

1. Baseball
2. Hockey
3. Basketball
4. Football

The opinions expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Canadian males in general.

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Let's try this again. This will the fourth year in a row I've encouraged you to vote for Tom Cheek as a finalist for the Ford C. Frick Award. You can vote here at the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Here are previous entries I've written about Cheek's eligibility for the Ford C. Frick Award.

• Vote for Tom - 2005
• The Ford Frick Award - 2006
• Show Tom Some Frick'n Respect - 2007
• The Annual Ford C. Frick Award Plea - 2007

In that 2nd last entry, I went off after Denny Matthews won the award.

Removing my extremely biased perspective for a moment, Tom Cheek called Blue Jays games since day one, calling 4,306 of them in a row. During that time Toronto won two World Series championships and a few additional division pennants. Tom Cheek's no longer with us.

Dave Perkins wrote about this in today's Star, but I was thinking the exact same thing, I swear. If Tom Cheek had called games in the United States of America, he'd have won the Ford C. Frick award long ago. Of this I am certain. There's a definite bias against recognizing baseball achievements in this country and Tom Cheek is a victim.

And yes, I shall use this opportunity to remind you that I've archived all of Tom Cheek's Greatest Hits. Click over and remember the glory days of Blue Jays baseball. And don't forget to vote for Tom.

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The summer of 2008 has been bitter sweet for fans of the Humble and Fred show. Over the past few weeks both Humble Howard and Fred Patterson have moved on to the next phase of their professional lives. I'm very happy for both guys, even though I'll likely never get to hear my favourite radio tandem on the air again.

Today Freddie P announced he's the new program director of two radio stations: Peterborough's Best Rock, 101.5 the Wolf, and Home Town Oldies 980 Kruz that will move to 100.5 FM sometime in the fall. It's perfect for Fred as it will allow him to spend more time at his beloved tin palace, a trailer a mere 20 minutes from Peterborough.

Humble has moved on to mornings on EZ Rock 97.3 as he works toward his goal of being the Canadian John Tesh. I'm rooting for him. Actually, I'm rooting for both Humble and Fred as they move on from the old Humble and Fred show.

Nothing lasts forever. Congrats, Fred. I remember really digging The Wolf during a trip to Peterborough. Any station that plays that much Hip and Neil Young is alright by me.

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I share an MP3 from my collection every Wednesday. You have seven days to grab this week's MP3. Please right-click your mouse and select "Save Link As..." or "Save target as..." so you can download it to your PC before playing.

Johnny Cash - The Man Comes Around
I just finished watching the 7-part miniseries from HBO about the United States Marine Corps' 1st Reconnaissance Battalion during the Iraq war's first phase in 2003. It's called "Generation Kill" and it was based on the book of the same name by Evan Wright.

I enjoyed the series, although it scared the shit out of me. The final episode ends with a video produced by one of the marines set to the song "The Man Comes Around" by Johnny Cash. The song was a perfect conclusion to seven hours in the wilderness.

Here's the scene, if you're interested.

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I'm running for Terry on September 14. That's less than two weeks away, and thus far I've raised an underwhelming $44.

I serve up lots of content and never ask for a dime, so here's what I'm hoping you'll do so I can save face. My target is $500. I've got a long way to go. Brother, if you can spare a dime, pledge my run online and help me help the Terry Fox Foundation.

That link again is http://www.terryfoxrun.org/ENRunner/default.asp?s=1&RunnerID=52623 and it's secure and easy and you'll earn plenty of karma credits.

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Farewell, Matt Stairs. One of the 14 Canadians to play for the Jays, Stairs was recently traded to Philadelphia.

Now that he has one game under his belt as a Phillie, he's officially played for 11 different teams. That's right, 11 different teams in the majors. I couldn't believe it, either.

Here are the 11 teams Matt Stairs has played for in his solid career.

1. Montreal Expos
2. Boston Red Sox
3. Oakland Athletics
4. Chicago Cubs
5. Milwaukee Brewers
6. Pittsburgh Pirates
7. Kansas City Royals
8. Texas Rangers
9. Detroit Tigers
10. Toronto Blue Jays
11. Philadelphia Phillies

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Margot at the Wedding: 6.5 out of 10.

For the first half of Margot at the Wedding, I was digging it. It was kind of different and moody with just the right amount of family dysfunction. Then, it started to get boring.

It's only 91 minutes but by the end it feels like 3 hours. You're sick of this family and wishing they'd stop pestering you with their idiosyncrasies and melodrama.

And what happened to Nicole Kidman? She no longer looks like Nicole Kidman. I found her new eyes and nose distracting.

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I'm featuring 1988 Topps Cards featuring members of my beloved Blue Jays that are featured on this blog.

Jimmy Key was highly underrated. I think we appreciated him here in Toronto but he never seemed to get his dues outside of the GTA.

He finished his career with a .614 W-L% and two World Series rings. He always seemed to come up big in important games as he did in the 1992 World Series, winning two games for the Jays. Back in 1987, he actually finished 2nd in Cy Young award voting, finishing behind some guy named Roger.

This is actually the 2nd Jimmy Key card in the set. We covered his all-star card earlier. My favourite personal memory of Jimmy Key can be found in this entry about the last opening day in Exhibition Stadium history.

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Jerry Reed was 71. He was a singer who became a good ol' boy actor in car chase movies like "Smokey and the Bandit."

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I'm submitting a song for SLS20 consideration. I'm submitting "Viva La Vida" by Coldplay.

Someone came up to me the other day and said the new Coldplay song was the best Coldplay song they had ever heard. I found this shocking. I like "Viva La Vida" as much as the next guy, but I didn't even feel compelled to nominate it for SLS consideration.

My brain quickly ran through the songlist of Parachutes. Surely "Don't Panic" is a better song. "Trouble" and "Yellow" are as good, if not better. And there are several song on A Rush of Blood to the Head that are in the same ballpark.

Then, I listened to "Viva La Vida" again. It's very good. It's no "Don't Panic", but it's most definitely worthy of SLS consideration.

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In one horribly kept secret transaction, the Toronto Maple Leafs are sending Bryan McCabe and a draft pick to the Florida Panthers for defenceman Mike Van Ryn.

As the Bryan McCabe era comes to a end, it's time to reflect upon #24 and what he meant to this city. I just searched this site for instances of the keyword mccabe and there is 215 such entries. He's been on our blue line for the past eight years, delivering some horrible seasons and some solid ones. Remember, the man was an alternate in Torino.

He was good enough that my brother wears #24 on his Leafs jersey but then he scored that massive contract that his shoulders couldn't bear. I was ecstatic last year when I heard the rumours somebody wanted McCabe's contact but I never blamed Bryan for not waiving his no-trade clause. That mess was the doing of JFJ and MLSE.

Farewell, #24. Good luck with the Panthers. It was time to move on, and besides, Uncle Cliffy has already given us The Finger.

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Don LaFontaine was 68. He voiced over 5,000 trailers and almost 350,000 commercials and is responsible for the ubiquitous trailer-opening phrase "In a world..."

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