Posted on December 13, 2020 at 8:00 a.m.
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Alexandre Pratt
In 2002, the Expos acquired the American League pitcher of the hour, Bartolo Colon. It was – to put it politely – really unusual in the house. I quote: “Indians fans suffer the ultimate humiliation of having their top pitcher traded for an unwanted veteran and minor league players from a club under guardianship. As if the Canadian traded Saku Koivu at the Buffalo Sabers for three players from the American League! Colon left at the end of the season. And by the way, who were the three hopes? Grady Sizemore (two Golden Gloves, three Star games). Brando Phillips (2000 hits). And Cliff Lee, future Cy-Young winner…
Mathias Brunet
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, ARCHIVES THE PRESS
Saku Koivu
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This story still irritates me today. On April 29, 2006, Saku Koivu was accidentally hit in the left eye by Justin Williams’ stick during Game 3 of the series against the Carolina Hurricanes. The captain is rushed to hospital. The next day, a medical source confirmed to me, after consulting the results of the CT scan, that Koivu was not suffering from any significant damage and that if the swelling went away normally, the Canadian’s number one center might even be able to to return to the game by the end of the series. The general manager Bob Gainey also reassured me that day by making a rather favorable diagnosis at a press conference, without however advancing on the possibility of a return to the game. I had been the only journalist to me pronounce so clearly. However, I had kept an open door in my text: “The question remains however still hypothetical because complications can arise in the days following such an accident, and because the information does not come from the management of the club. “However, once the eye was swollen with blood, a week later, we were able to make a more complete diagnosis … and the doctors detected a tear in the retina. Koivu has not returned to the game in this series. Worse, he was operated on nine days after his accident, and a few days after the removal of the CH. A three week convalescence has been announced. To my dismay, I must admit… I had put my finger in the eye.
Miguel Bujold
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, PRESS ARCHIVES
Rakeem Cato
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Rakeem Cato had arrived at the Alouettes camp late in the spring of 2015. But because the club’s first two quarterbacks, Jonathon Crompton and Dan Lefevour, were injured in the first game of the season, the rookie got his first start from the second. And Cato surprised everyone with a superb performance. He had completed 80% of his passes (20 for 25) for 241 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions, and had allowed the Alouettes to surprise the powerful Stampeders this Calgary, 29-11. A few weeks later, it seemed very clear to me: the Alouettes had found the one who would finally solve their quarterback problem. Not so fast… Cato had grown up in Liberty City, one of the poorest and most dangerous neighborhoods in Miami and the United States. Because he had a strong southern accent and stammered, some Alouettes players had difficulty understanding him when Cato was communicating the games in the caucus. The fact that he wasn’t the most studious didn’t help either. Cato had the talent to have a great career in the CFL, and I was sure he would, but there were too many things that kept him from thriving. After a second season with the Alouettes in 2016, he was never seen in the CFL again.
Simon drouin
PHOTO KENZO TRIBOUILLARD, FRANCE-PRESS AGENCY
Tadej Pogačar
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My friend Dominique Perras, who has commented on the Tour de France for years on RDS, has always advised me to beware of strong opinions on the outcome of a bike race. “You never know,” he said in essence. I should have remembered this on September 17th, three days before arriving in Paris, when I broke my usual reserve to write that Primož Roglič would win the Tour, Tadej Pogačar would finish second and Miguel Ángel López would complete the podium. “Unless something unforeseen”, I had been careful to specify. Yes. I was so sure of my shot that I went to look for groceries during the decisive time trial, I who had followed almost all the other stages from kilometer 0. Luckily I had an eye on the phone. . So I rushed back, three or four bags of brown paper in my arms. Pogačar was causing one of the biggest upsets in Tour history. Lesson learned.
Richard labbé
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, PRESS ARCHIVES
Anthony Calvillo
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My God, where to start? At first, I vaguely remember my years as a music critic, a crazy time when I used to like artists that no one else but me knew; after all these years, I still say that the Notre-Dame group should have become bigger than that. But OK. On the sporting world, I think I once wrote that the Alouettes were never going to win anything with Anthony Calvillo (false), that a young quarterback named Joe Hamilton would one day land and rewrite the record book of Canadian football ( this did not happen). More recently, during a Canadian training camp in Brossard, I found myself admiring the athletic qualities of Jiri Sekac, to the point of believing that the Canadian had managed a flight, and to the point of believing that this young man was probably going to break Wayne Gretzky’s records. That never happened either.
Guillaume Lefrançois
PHOTO BERNARD BRAULT, PRESS ARCHIVES
Matthew Peca
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I’ve always been told to beware of the beginnings of training camp. I dare to hope that the 2018 camp will be the last time I get caught. Matthew Peca was awesome to watch. Even before the start of the camp, when I was doing my projections, I had placed him as a center for the third line. And after the first intra-team match, I dropped this sentence, unfortunately immortalized in Press : “He looks like an NHL player. “It must be said that there is a context: in the center, the Canadian was as thin as a Flammekueche. We didn’t think Jesperi Kotkaniemi would play in the NHL in his first season, and the fact that he carved out a place for himself is no stranger to this lack of depth there was then. In addition, Peca had been awarded a two-year, one-part contract at $ 1.3 million per season. He came from a good organization, the Lightning. But I should also have remembered that apart from Jonathan Marchessault, the Lightning is not used to letting the really good NHL players slip away …
Simon-Olivier Lorange
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, PRESS ARCHIVES
Ilya Kovalchuk
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At the start of 2020, as well say 250 years ago, Marc Bergevin surprised everyone a bit by hiring Ilya Kovalchuk, whose contract had just been bought by the Los Angeles Kings. Kovalchuk, really? At the press briefing, we didn’t really know who Bergevin was trying to convince: him or us? “He’s not the player he once was anymore. “” It’s a risk-free signing. Good evening enthusiasm! With colleagues, we made fun of a predicted disaster. How long would pass before Claude Julien had had enough of his defensive shortcomings and sent him to the stands? Two weeks ? Only one ? Don’t look for my good faith, she was in the wash. However, it must be admitted that Bergevin’s bet paid off, since Kovalchuk, visibly ready to work, offered his teammates and supporters of the club a rare lightening in this hitherto catastrophic season. I got almost everything wrong. And that’s good.
Michel Marois
PHOTO BERNARD BRAULT, PRESS ARCHIVES
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
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A bit like Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros, Roger Federer has long been the king of Wimbledon. His elegant game suited the London turf perfectly and it is undoubtedly there that he still retains, at 39, his best chances of winning in the Grand Slam. It was in 2011 that I was at Wimbledon for the first time and I was looking forward to the opportunity to see a Federer match on the central. I had to wait for the quarter-finals, where the Swiss faced Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. For 90 minutes, he offered the expected demonstration to take an advantage of two innings to zero. I had seen enough and returned to the press center to write a glowing text. Federer had never lost (178-0) after winning the first two sets of a match and he had never lost at Wimbledon (55-0) after winning the first set. You can guess the rest. Tsonga came back and he won 3-6, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-4, 6-4! Obviously I had to rewrite my text and have since developed a habit of never taking the result for granted when I have to start writing before a match is over.
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