You are the President of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. Your name is Tim Leiweke. You are appalled at the pathetic effort Toronto FC has put out on the field during their seven-year existence. You have publicly pledged to turn it around. You talk about the team in the same breath as the Toronto Raptors and Toronto Maple Leafs. Toronto FC is no longer the unfortunate adopted son. Unfortunate, yes; adopted, no. You have a plan to turn them around. The company you work for might as well have a printing press producing dollars in the basement of the ACC, it is that rich. In an ideal, much fairer world, you would be able to spend, spend and spend some more to improve the team in all areas. However, this is professional sports where salary caps are implemented to create parity. You belong to the filthy rich MLSE, but in Major League Soccer there is only so much you can do with the money. Except in one area. An area you helped develop when David Beckham joined you in Los Angeles. You know full well you are allowed at least two designated spots where players can be paid whatever you want.When it comes to filling out the names in these positions, money is not the issue. Finding the players who will come is. You know you are an exceptional salesman, but you also know just how hard it is to sell this team to anyone. Simply getting the attention of international players should be an accomplishment. Only now are you fully aware of just how bad Toronto FC have been. They have produced atrocious performances season after season. Word on the street is out on them and the feedback is not good. Incompetence off the field with poor decisions from upper management has led to incompetence on it for far too long. On the pitch, they are the equivalent of Coventry City, a club stuck in the middle of the third tier of English football after ending five years of misery in the second tier (known as the Championship) when they were relegated at the end of the 2011/12 season. The Championship has often been compared to MLS in terms of quality but, unlike Coventry, Toronto FCs poor run didnt end in relegation. Back when Toronto FC began, much like at Coventry, when you were dining with Becks, they averaged over 20,000 people per game to watch the occasional good game, but ones that usually flipped between mediocre and miserable. Poor performances continued, yet the fans stayed, averaging over 20,000 in each of the first five seasons. After seven, remarkably, the club still averages over 18,000 per game, but as a businessman you know that is tickets sold and not bums on seats. That being said, it is still an extremely impressive number considering the awful entertainment on show. By now, fans have usually bolted in much more excessive numbers than that. In Coventry, for example, fans tired of watching a team flirt with relegation in five straight seasons. Coventry fans from the 2007/08 season to the 2011/12 season witnessed: 41 home wins, 37 draws and 37 losses for a home winning percentage of 36 per cent. They scored 133 goals in 115 games for an average of 1.16 goals per game. At the start of that run, Coventry averaged 20,342 fans per game at home. Last season, they ended their first year in League One averaging 10,950. This is what happens when teams go from bad to worse. Except in Toronto, where an amazingly large number of fans continued to show up despite having a remarkably similar home league record in their first seven seasons than Coventry had in the Championship: 36 wins, 39 draws and 36 losses good for a winning percentage of 32 per cent. They scored 135 goals in those 111 games – an average of 1.21 goals per game. Many people discussed the rise of red seats not being filled at games, but you know the the real story was how many were still being sat in. You know if you dont get this right quickly, more and more seats will stay empty for a long time. Yet, on the field you are in charge of selling Coventry City-type talent and performances to potential new signings. You know much of the sales pitch must be directed away from what has happened on the field in the past seven years. You can talk of the turnaround in form near the end of the season and, while looking ahead, the need for continuity on the bench with Ryan Nelsen. But who are we kidding here? You are trying to attract high-calibre, international players to a team that would have struggled in the third tier of English football in the last couple of seasons. But this is where you come in. This is where you become the X-factor. You talk of Toronto with a passion that would make even the most negative Torontonians realize their city is actually half-decent. For a country, and a city, that is so wonderful, your ambassadorial style is a breath of fresh air. Toronto and Canada are an easy sell, but the team is the exact opposite. You can talk about a bright future but, in reality, if you are from a club who has been as bad as TFC has, you usually wouldnt get past the door, let alone to the negotiation table. Except you are shopping with very deep pockets. You work for a company that is paying a basketball player called "Rudy" over $340,000 US per week. English newspapers this week called Jermain Defoes potential TFC wages of 90,000 pounds per week (approx $145,000 US) ‘incredible, but in reality, they are nothing more than a first-liner on the Leafs or a starter on the Raptors can make. You know the money plays a massive part in trying to persuade a talent like Defoe to come to Toronto, but you also know there are few players in a position in their careers who will accept such an offer. Players past their best, looking for a pension? A dime-a-dozen. Genuine Premier League or Serie A goal-scorer,s at a good age, who could play for at least half of the teams in that league if they offered the money you can afford? Absolutely perfect. That is what the DP is for. You have listened to fans worry about service for these strikers, but you have been here long enough now to have watched every current Toronto FC forward miss chances. You know the hardest thing to do in the game is score goals. When you work for MLSE and you have a soccer club in desperate need of help, it is very easy to throw money at old international players and hope for the best. While this team was playing like Coventry the past seven years, they have already had too many of them. No, this time it has to be right and you know it. The Daily Mirror can call the wages ‘incredible all they want, but you know they could be more if it were the right player. Subsequently, you know you could increase the wages and many stars would not leave the heights of Champions League football to come to MLS, even for Rudy Gay money. It appears you are closing in on Defoe and Alberto Gilardino and, if that is the case, they need to be signed. The fact that such players are even considering it is, of course, a step in the right direction since, after all, you know they wouldnt go to Coventry even if Man Citys owners bought them tomorrow. However, you also know how bad it would be if players like these say no. The next level, where hundreds of players are waiting to accept your cash, is not an area you want to invest in. These two giant DP pieces of the TFC puzzle remain left in your hands. You know this is the area created by the league to give the mega-rich owners a significant advantage over the simply rich, slightly tighter, owners. In this game, there are no poor crosses, there is no bad defending or weak finishing. This is a game where Toronto FC are finally superior than most. This is a game you have to win. Padres Jerseys 2020 . - Henrik Samuelsson and Curtis Lazar each had two goals and two assists as the Edmonton Oil Kings secured top spot in the Eastern Conference by defeating the host Red Deer Rebels 7-4 on Saturday in Western Hockey League action. San Diego Padres Gear . The Argentine midfielder made the announcement himself on Twitter on Tuesday and posted a picture of his swollen left foot. His message said he would be out "at least three weeks. https://www.cheappadresjerseys.us/. Adding playoff teams. Monitoring instant replay from league headquarters. Possibly creating a set of guidelines to prevent locker-room bullying. San Diego Padres Shirts .com) - Jimmie Johnson won Sundays AAA Texas 500 while championship contenders Jeff Gordon and Brad Keselowski as well as their teams were involved in a post-race fight on pit road after the two clashed in the closing laps at Texas Motor Speedway. Wholesale Padres Jerseys . The Nuggets leading scorer, Lawson is characterized as day to day by the team. Hes averaging 17.9 points and 8.9 assists. Lawson suffered the injury late in Denvers win Sunday at Sacramento.BALTIMORE -- With several players hampered by injuries, Steve Clevenger became the latest Orioles role player to get a big hit. Clevenger, who is in the lineup while starting catcher Matt Wieters recovers from elbow soreness, hit an RBI double in the 10th inning to extend the Orioles winning streak to five games with a 5-4 victory over the Houston Astros on Saturday night. "Its big, just for the team," Clevenger said. "We were on a four-game win streak, now five. Were never going to give up until the last out and we proved that tonight." J.J. Hardy had an infield single with one out in the 10th before Clevenger hit a double down the right field line off Paul Clemens (0-1). "I was just battling," Clemens said. "I couldnt come in with my fastball at all so thats bad. I was really looking to get comfortable out there. We didnt go to off-speed soon enough. I just kept missing with my fastballs and paid for it. I feel responsible. This is a ball game we should win." The Astros have lost seven of their past eight games. Houstons Jose Altuve hit a two-out, two RBI single in the ninth inning off Baltimore closer Tommy Hunter that gave the Astros a 4-3 lead. However, after a 55-minute rain delay, Astros right-hander Anthony Bass loaded the bases with two outs on two singles and a walk before pinch hitter Delmon Young tied the game with an infield single. "I didnt let them on," Hunter said. "I didnt want them to get on. I actually tried to get them out. They got a couple hits. They got me tonight. Im probably going to come back out and give them hell tomorrow. Thats the only thing I can do." Ryan Webb (2-0) pitched a scoreless 10th for Baltimore. After Nelson Cruz gave the Orioles a 3-2 lead with his 10th home run of the season in the eighth, Hunter entered and allowed a single and double with one out before getting Jonathan Villar to ground into a fielders choice preventing a run from scoring. However, Altuve delivered a sharp single to centre to give the Astros the lead. Astros right-hander Collin McHugh allowed two runs and seven hits with four strikeouts and two walks over 6 1-3 innings. After allowing just one run in his opening two starts of the season, McHugh allowed five runs in just four innings May 4 against Seattle. "Collin did a tremendous job," Astros manager Bo Porter said. "He pitched well. He had a sharp breaking ball working. He did a good job of pitching thhe ball to the inner third of the plate.dddddddddddd He put us in position to win the game." After losing his previous two starts, Baltimore right-hander Miguel Gonzalez allowed two runs and six hits with six strikeouts and two walks over a season-high seven innings. The Orioles Adam Jones hit his fourth home run and Nick Markakis went 2 for 5 and extended his hit streak to 17 games, the longest active in the majors. George Springer went 2 for 4 for Houston and hit his second career home run after getting his first Thursday against Detroit. With the Orioles trailing 2-1 in the seventh, Hardy led off with a single and then Clevenger also reached when McHugh fell while trying to handle a dribbler. After Steve Pearce singled to load the bases, McHugh allowed the tying run on a wild pitch. The Orioles could not take the lead despite having runners on second and third with no outs as McHugh and left-hander Tony Sipp got groundouts before Josh Zeid struck out Manny Machado to end the threat. The Orioles improved to 17-0 when leading after eight innings. The Astros took a 1-0 lead in the second when Springer homered to left off Gonzalez with two outs. Houston increased the margin to 2-0 the next inning when Villar singled to centre and then took second when Jones bobbled the ball. Villar stole third and scored on a single by Dexter Fowler. McHugh was cruising and retired eight consecutive batters before allowing a walk to Pearce in the fifth. Jones homered in the sixth to pull the Orioles to within 2-1. It was the first Orioles hit since Clevenger singled in the second. NOTES: Houston manager Bo Porter lost a challenge in the seventh when Dexter Fowler was out on a close play at first base. It took 1 minute, 16 seconds to confirm the ruling on the field. ... Orioles first baseman Chris Davis (strained left oblique) played nine innings and went 1 for 4 in a rehab assignment at Double-A Bowie. He will be evaluated Sunday when he is scheduled to come off the disabled list. ... There is no timetable for Orioles catcher Matt Wieters (sore right elbow) to begin throwing. Wieters served as the designated hitter for the past three games. ... Astros catcher Jason Castro was back in the lineup Saturday after missing the previous game because of a left forearm bruise. ... Houston reliever Matt Albers (right shoulder tendinitis) is eligible to come off the disabled list, Porter said the team will give him a few more days to rest. ' ' '