Labour Day happens to be one of the biggest days of the year for sports.
Canada had it pretty good this year with the traditional CFL rivalries, a competitive Toronto Blue Jays team in action, and more good play in FIBA Americas basketball.
Being a Monday, Labour Day typically isn’t known for the beautiful game, but this year, Euro 2016 football qualifiers supplemented a full day of U.S. Open tennis. It made for compelling sports watching on the tube even if there wasn’t a Canadian involved.
For the CFL, Labour Day is arguably the biggest day of the regular season. Steeped in tradition, the rivalries between Hamilton and Toronto and the battle of Alberta between Calgary and Edmonton are the best in the league. To spice things up, both games were battles for first place and both rivalries go again within a few days.
In the first game, the Tiger-Cats destroyed the Argonauts 42–12 and really put the game out of reach in the first half. The Argos couldn’t get past midfield in the first half.
In the second game, the Eskimos lost their 12th straight to the Stampeders, by a much closer 16–7 score. It was a battle between the two best defenses in the league and the score showed that.
Still, Labour Day CFL made it clear which are the teams to beat going forward. Certainly, division leaders Calgary (8–2) and Hamilton (7–3) have earned first place.
Pennant Race
How about Labour Day with the Toronto Blue Jays playing meaningful baseball? That hasn’t happened often in the last 20 years.
The Jays fell to the Boston Red Sox 11–4 and watched the New York Yankees come back to beat the Baltimore Orioles to close to within half a game of them. It’s going to be an ongoing battle with the Yankees for the AL East pennant and teams with a great deal of pride like the Red Sox are more than willing to play spoiler.
