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Bulls-of-the-Week
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It might have included the two quietest days of the year in North American professional team sport — Wednesday, July 12 and Thursday, July 13 — but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t meaningful activity in the business of sport this week.
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Cue soccer fans awaiting the official debut of Lionel Messi as the biggest name of Inter Miami CF and Major League Soccer. His impact is already being felt well ahead of his projected July 21 start for Inter Miami in a Leagues Cup match against Cruz Azul of the Mexican Liga MX, with massive murals of Messi being unveiled in Miami and notable levels of social media activity around his every move.
Meanwhile, it’s been a good week for Canada Basketball as it announced its committed roster list for the upcoming FIBA World Cup of Basketball. If everything holds firm, it will be the best roster Canada has ever presented for a major international basketball tournament, one that Canada Basketball has earmarked to get the men qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Success at the World Cup and a positive experience for the guys in south east Asia will go a long way to optimizing Canada’s Olympic hopes next year and creating the halcyon era for Canadian basketball for the next decade and perhaps beyond.
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Bears-of-the-Week
MLB was up Monday night for its home run derby won in entertaining — and endearing — fashion by Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. of the Toronto Blue Jays and down Tuesday night for its actual Midsummer Classic (with an average national American audience of 7 million making it the least-watched MLB All-Star Game in TV ratings history). Note that those unremarkable TV numbers still led the week on U.S. television. What happens next on the popularity meter for the sport may indeed revolve around where Shohei Ohtani winds up next after he’s traded by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, something that now appears inevitable.
Meanwhile, the 0-6 Edmonton Elks sure seem hell bent on making their mark among the worst professional sports teams in North American sport history, and not just in the Canadian Football League. The once-proud franchise dropped a 37-29 decision to the visiting Hamilton Tiger-Cats Thursday night, tying the mark for continental futility. Only the old St. Louis Browns of Major League Baseball lost as many consecutive home games in the year before they became the Baltimore Orioles in 1954. The Elks have lost 10 straight games overall and a CFL record 20 consecutive home games dating back to before the pandemic (Oct. 12, 2019).
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Yet there might not be a sport organization more anxious this week than Hockey Canada, waiting as it is for the details to be shared on an investigation into sexual misconduct by members of its 2018 IIHF World Junior team. The consequences could be far-reaching for the players directly affected, let alone their NHL teams. The way Hockey Canada, along with the NHL and NHLPA, responds to the public report will be a fascinating case study of what the sport collectively has learned from the alleged incidents. A hint of the tone and scope of the report may be inferred from the fact that new Hockey Canada President and CEO Katherine Henderson, the former CEO of Curling Canada, will not start her new gig until early September.
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