Sports Superstar of the Week- Ricky Romero

I've always argued that the reason baseball is better than all other sports (yes, I said it, it's not an opinion I find easy to hide) is that it's a rare true team effort. No matter how great the single superstar on your team (or even the handful of superstars), one man simply cannot win the game alone. In most team sports, a single high-scorer makes or breaks your team. With baseball, even the best of the best only comes to the plate once out of every nine at-bats. The most solid pitching can't win without run support and the best hitting can't overcome mediocre pitching. Unlike any other sport, baseball teammates truly need each other.

There are very few exceptions to this rule. The most recent is Blue Jays LHP Ricky Romero who came as close to putting on a one-man show last Sunday as a baseball player can get. The pitcher tossed a complete game, giving up only 4 hits and no runs.  Mind you, there was the occasional fielder who had to actually, you know, field those outs, but you get the point. Then, in the rarest of rare fashion, Romero backed himself up by coming to the plate in a National League ball park. On a team not known for clutch production (we do love you though Doc, welcome back to town!), Romero ensured himself the win by providing his own run support with a 2-RBI single in the sixth (his first major league hit). The Jays went on to sweep the Cardinals with a 5-0 victory. No, Romero didn't actually score any of those runs, his hit brought in players who'd already made their own way to 2nd and 3rd, and he certainly didn't play defense all on his own. But in the truest of team sports, his effort on Sunday was notably independent.

Sports Superstar of the Week- Rory McIlroy

In honour of Rory McIlroy's history-making, record-setting, critic-silencing, storybook fodder comeback performance at Sunday's US Open, we're naming him My Sports Stadium's first ever "Sports Superstar of the Week". Sure he's only in his early twenties, a gracious player and consistently in contention (and now a winner) at the majors, but so are a few other up and comers in the current golf landscape (23-year-old Jason Day has placed 2nd in the last 2 majors). There's something that sets Rory apart, something that makes him just a little more superstar-y than the others. It's not his brilliant swing, consistent putting or steadfast determination; it's not the way he seems to love the game, his confident approach or his mature ease with the press- it's not as calculable as that. But you just know even the non-golf lovers of the world are gonna know this kid's name; and that's something golf hasn't seen since a fateful Masters Tournament in 1997.

What Have We Learned?

by Michael Bedard

In baseball, it is often said that you really don’t know what you've got as a baseball team until at least 60 games into the season. Well, the Toronto Blue Jays have now played 66 games so it seems like a good time to see what they've got (or, as their .485 record -32 wins and 34 losses- would suggest, don’t have).

Looking Back at The Masters

Two months ago one of the most exciting afternoons of golf ever unfolded at Augusta National in the final round of the 75th Masters Tournament. Looking back, the narrative value of that afternoon is not lost. The triumphs and failures of some of golf's greatest superstars and underdogs look all the more dramatic in hindsight. Here's the rundown of the year's biggest tournament's biggest stories: