The first question to ask the Houston Astros signal corps is: Why did you think any of this would stay a secret?

It remains to be seen whether this version of the XFL lasts longer than its predecessor. But one thing: if it does it well may be because good things come in smaller packages.

Forget the holiday season just past, we are now in the heart of the football malpractice season. Across the frozen tundras NFL coaches are being overwhelmed by the pressure of making key calls during the postseason. 

The problem Megan Rapinoe and her colleagues have— one that they share with women in many, but not all sports— is that they can’t even make the sale to their fellow women.

If there were a handicapping contest on who has the best handle on the future between the major sports leagues in North America there is little doubt that the title would go to the NBA under its dynamic commissioner Adam Silver. When it comes to innovation, it’s Hi-Ho Silver away.

Lamar Jackson has crushed another opponent. But that’s not the most interesting thing about the dynamic Baltimore Ravens quarterback. Immediately after the 42-21 win over the New York Jets, a lineup of players he’d just pulverized lined up to get an autograph from the third-year star. In a league of stars, the first-year starter is the one the players now idolize. Think about that.

The sports year 2019— and the decade itself— is coming to a conclusion in a few weeks. But there’s little doubt that when the votes are counted one Canadian sports story will dominate 2019 honours. It might also qualify as one of the Top 3 news stories ion 2019. Hell, it’s probably one of the sports stories of the 2010s.

Little did anyone know that Mike Babcock’s firing in Toronto was going to uncover a much bigger story in the NHL. With the news that Babcock was out in his fifth year, we also learned that the future HHOF coach was something less than subtle in his dealings with players. 

The death knell for Babcock came not on the ice but in the office of new GM Kyle Dubas, a callow phenom who won a power struggle over Mark Hunter to be the GM. It fell to Dubas to negotiate the second contracts of his young stars, Matthews, Marner and Nylander. 

There have been rumours from teams about the Astros cheating for some time. But most people wrote it off as bitter losers trying to rationalize why the talented Astros  were taking them to the woodshed. But the first-hand revelation from Mike Fiers has taken the accusations past the rumour stage.

The man voted the seventh-most famous Canadian has finally talked himself out of his job as hockey analyst/ cranky old guy to the nation.  To the utter confusion of people outside Canada the removal of a TV figure has convulsed the nation. After 38 years he is no more. What happens now?

You have to hand it to Don Cherry. Only the bombastic star of Coach’s Corner could give the cause of the War Dead a bad name.

The move by America’s most populous (and progressive) state has forced the hand of the NCAA, which governs athletics and student-athletes in the United States. So, starting in 2023 the schools will have to come up with a formula for sharing the billions being raked in by video games, advertising and television/ digital.

Just remember that sports has always been a traditional enclave where progress is just a word in the dictionary between pigheaded and  protest.

Major League baseball has entered its Wagner phase. Yes, every performance is now a four-hour opera. The just-completed league championship series were mercifully brief (Washington in four; Houston in six). Which is just as well, because the games that were played stretched into eternity.

To that old saying about the things that one should never see we can now say the making of laws, the making of sausage and the making of running shoes.

To those wondering about the demise of Don Cherry, the rumours of his disappearance from Hockey Night In Canada have been greatly exaggerated. Yes, the end is in sight for the man wearing his wife’s table cloths. Hell, he’s 85. But while others in the Rogers constellation have gone dark, Cherry’s star survives.

Matthews vaulted from playing with other teenagers on the U.S. National Team Development (via one year in Switzerland) to making millions with the most visible hockey team in the world. Between fans, media and friends not many would breathe a negative word to him during his ascent. It’s easy to get lost in a bubble.

The question for the Tigers and their brothers in awfulness is can they reward fans with a bounce-back? The Tigers made the 2006 World Series after the 2003 disaster cruise. But only two teams a year can make the Series. And if the Tigers, Jays, Royals, Marlins and  Orioles aren’t substantially better within two years MLB is going to have a problem on its hands. 

The CBA wants these players to wait to get paid the big money on their third contract. The RFA class want to grow their brand now, but they can’t while trapped in the current NHL CBA. In a violent sport where it can disappear overnight. As Freddie Mercury sang, the young guys want it all, they want it now.