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Leading off, as always (or usual), it’s today’s edition of the Getting Blanked Podcast– which for the duration of the season will be coming at you daily! We’re not double posting this year, but I’ll be sure to include the link in the first Daily Duce or Game Threat that follows the post going up over at Getting Blanked. Otherwise, you can find the podcast at Getting Blanked on iTunes, get it via the RSS feed we have setup, or like Getting Blanked on Facebook in order to get each day’s podcast straight into your news feed (if we bother to post it). While you’re at it, go ahead and like DJF on Facebook, too. BlueJays.com tells us that Fred McGriff will represent the Jays at the Rule 4 Draft, which will take place on June 6th. Not quite the blockbuster that the title makes it sound like, but Tom Maloney of the Globe and Mail writes that trade winds seem to be swirling around the Jays, as they continue to find it difficult to make up ground in the AL East. Elsewhere from Maloney at the Globe, we hear that Alex Anthopoulos dismisses criticism of John Gibbons, and also get a deconstruction of the season so far, which… yeah. And, for good measure, one more from Maloney, who looks at the fantastic at-bat Adam Lind had against Jake Odorizzi yesterday. Interesting stuff from Marc Hulet of FanGraphs, as he wonders openly whether Sean Nolin is the next Jays saviour. “A piece of paper on Gibby’s desk lists the starting pitchers for the next few games,” tweets Brendan Kennedy of the Star. “For Friday it reads, ‘Jenkins?’ ” Kenned also tweets that Josh Johnson “will start again in Dunedin on Sat. Gibby says he’ll prob need a 3rd rehab start. ‘But we’ve been known to make some adjustments.’ ” Speaking of tweets, earlier today @DrewGROF passed along this gruesome bit of news: “Brett Lawrie versus ‘soft’ pitches in 2013: .282 OPS. Oh Pee Ess.” Think teams haven’t got that message yet? Think again. Gamereax has a nifty GIF of Hiroki Kuroda throwing Lawrie five straight sliders. Ugh. Drew continued trolling with this gem: “J.P. Arencibia’s sporting a 31 wRC+ in May. So weird. I thought he’d hit 8 home runs a month forever!” As always, interesting stuff from John Lott of the National Post, who looks at the Jays’ promotion of Anthony Gose rather soon after his having hit rock bottom as a Triple-A player. Dirk Hayhurst suggests that it’s the ghost of Chris Carpenter that has kept the Jays invested so heavily for so long in Dustin McGowan. In case you missed it, MLBTR fills you in on the Jays’ big waiver claim of Thad Weber, a move made possible by their placing of Sergio Santos on the 60-day DL. Bob Elliott of the Toronto Sun evokes last year’s Marlins in his assessment of this year’s Jays. So… y’know… next. The headline makes it sound worse than it is, as in the Toronto Star, Mark Zwolinski writes a piece titled Blue Jays leave New York broken as ever. Elsewhere at the Star, Richard Griffin calls Anthony Gose’s promotion puzzling, and also looks at Gose’s promotion in his latest Bullpen post, among other things. From the weekend, at Sportsnet, Shi Davidi looks at how Sunday’s rainout in the Bronx may have been a blessing for the Jays. In another piece at Sportsnet, Davidi tells us about the recently reinstated Marcus Stroman, who is once again beginning his push to be a quick call-up to the Majors. At Bluebird Banter, Nick Ashbourne tries to find the “real” problem with R.A. Dickey, and presumably comes up short. Similarly, in another Bluebird Banter post, Shermanator91 tries to find out what’s up with Emilio Bonifacio, and presumably comes up short. For ESPN.com (Insider Only) Keith Law re-drafts the 2003 draft, and it turns out the Jays actually did pretty well for themselves, with their 13th-overall selection, Aaron Hill, movi

The San Jose Sharks can't be satisfied with a split on home ice.

Big-hearted Helen Mirren helped a dying 10-year-old boy’s wish come true — kind of. While Mirren may not be Queen Elizabeth II, she has portrayed her and when she heard about cancer patient Oliver Burton’s dying request to meet Her Majesty, the Oscar-winner broke a leg. The youngster’s initial wish had been to meet the queen at Buckingham Palace, but prior engagements kept her from fulfilling the request. And that’s when Mirren stepped in, The Sun reports. Oliver thought she was the real Queen, and well, that’s good enough for us Mirren, 67, sent a limousine to pick up Burton and his family and had them delivered to the West End theatre where she’s performing in a play called The Audience. She stars as the queen, and invited Burton’s family backstage. She greeted them in full royal regalia. A posh butler served soft drinks, tea and cookies and Burton was made an honorary knight. Mirren said: “It was a pleasure and a privilege to meet such a brave young man.” Burton was diagnosed with cancer of the spine and bone marrow last Christmas. It was the third time the tough tyke has been hit by cancer. The first time was when he was three years old. HandoutTwice a Queen: Mirren played Queen Elizabeth II before her stint in The Audience, in the 2006 film The Queen (for which she won an Oscar). British doctors have said he has just weeks or months to live. Burton’s dad, James Browne, said: “She stayed in character for the whole thing. She was really very lovely. Oliver thought she was the real Queen, and well, that’s good enough for us.”

Super Bowl L will be held in Santa Clara, Calif., in February 2016 at Levi's Stadium, the future home of the San Francisco 49ers.

On the occasion of its season finale, here's a backhanded compliment to Modern Family from one of the stars of The Hangover Part III.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford should address allegations of crack cocaine use head on, says prominent conservative financier Conrad Black.“As one of my friends said, he’s like the embarrassing guest at a family Christmas party,” said Black in an interview with the Star Tuesday. “We don’t need an embarrassing mayor and he need not be an embarrassing mayor.”The former newspaper mogul most famously spent three years in U.S. federal prison for fraud and obstruction of justice charges before being released in May of 2012.His advice for the mayor is to confront his accusers.“I certainly would if I were being accused of being a cocaine user,” says Black. “I wouldn’t pretend the issue wasn’t out there.”Black says Ford isn’t “making it easy on himself” but he could still be a “successful” mayor.“This is pretty undignified stuff. All we have are allegations and until we have hard evidence we have to take the mayor’s word that this is not true.”Still, the former newspaper publisher says he likely wouldn’t resort to chequebook journalism if he still headed up Hollinger International, which owned marquee titles such as the National Post, The Daily Telegraph and the Chicago Sun-Times.U.S. website Gawker is trying to raise $200,000 through crowd-funding to purchase the video of the mayor allegedly smoking crack. The Star declined to pay the “six figures” demanded for the video.“A newspaper does lower itself when it does that,” Black says. Ford has so far remained silent after the Toronto Star and Gawker separately reported that they had viewed unverified cellphone footage that appears to show the mayor smoking crack.On Friday, Ford briefly slammed the Star and called the allegations “ridiculous,” but he has not elaborated since.Rob Ford wasn’t the only controversy that the controversial Black opined on in a wide-ranging interview to promote his new book on American history, Flight of the Eagle. On the federal front, Black says he sees no immediate issue with Nigel Wright, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s chief of staff, handing a $90,000 cheque to Sen. Mike Duffy to help pay back expenses.Wright quit his post on Sunday over the uproar over senate expenses. “Here was someone making a gift or a loan to a friend that has no connection to public policy. It was a generous act. And having been at times under some financial pressure myself, I can appreciate that and I was grateful to those who I could rely on,” said Black. “It’s not a bribe. It’s not hush money. It’s just a friendly gesture.”However, Black said some kind of investigation is needed to ensure that nothing illegal was committed in the highest office.“If it is the case that the PMO’s office was engaged in strategizing, or some counsel in the office had advised or was aware that Mike Duffy was not revealing the source of his money, then I would say it takes on a different colour,” said Black.

Three brothers are facing charges in a gang sexual assault investigation after a woman was allegedly repeatedly assaulted in an SUV early on Saturday morning. On Saturday, police say, a group of friends were at a nightclub near Richmond Street and Spadina Avenue when a 22-year-old woman was approached by a man who struck up a conversation with her. Not long after, police say, the woman and her friends were followed outside the club by the same man and two other men who offered to drive them home. The woman accepted the offer and was then led to a nearby parking garage. Police allege she was forcibly confined in an SUV and sexually assaulted by two of the men. Concerned for her safety, the woman’s friends searched the area near the nightclub and found her in the underground parking garage, and then called police. The three men were arrested not long after. Hewad Ahmadzai, 26; Omeed Ahmadzai, 24; and Nazeef Ahmadzai, 30 all of Toronto have been charged with forcible confinement and gang sexual assault. Police believe there may be other victims.

Catherine Zeta-Jones is preparing to return home after completing treatment for bipolar disorder.

City council has crushed Mayor Rob Ford’s pitch for “10,000 good-paying jobs” by decisively voting against a major downtown casino.After a morning of debate Tuesday, council voted 40-4 in opposition to any new gaming sites in the city. The four in favour of gaming expansion were Ford and Councillors Giorgio Mammoliti, Vincent Crisanti and Norm Kelly.The vote came after city manager Joe Pennachetti released new figures showing the city would be paid a $40 million fee for hosting a downtown casino.That’s far short of the minimum $100 million the city wanted under a revenue-sharing proposal with the province that Ford called a “pretty good deal.”Ford attacked Premier Kathleen Wynne for what he called a change of attitude at Queen’s Park.“It seems no deal is good enough for this premier,” the mayor said. “The fact is she simply doesn’t want a casino, at least not in Toronto.”At Queen’s Park, Wynne brushed off Ford’s criticism.“I don’t think this is a personal debate between me and any other politician in the province,” Wynne said. “I think this is about a principle, which is municipalities should be able to make this decision.”Anti-casino forces that have fought a casino for the past year were delighted with the vote.“We could only hope way back when that this would be the outcome, and the fact it is the outcome, we are ecstatic,” said Peggy Calvert, of No Casino Toronto. “We couldn’t be more ecstatic.”Mammoliti called the vote “a shame” and said the province needs to act to help Woodbine racetrack.City staff had suggested increasing the slots at Woodbine to 4,500 machines from 3,000 currently, and adding 150 table games. But council voted 24-20 against any gaming expansion in suburban Toronto.“We’re disappointed,” said Woodbine president Nick Eaves, who was surrounded in council by 200 casino workers wearing lime green T-shirts with the slogan Woodbine Jobs.Eaves expressed concern that a major casino could be located in Vaughan, hurting Woodbine.“If that goes ahead, then Woodbine’s ability to compete will be severely compromised,” he warned.Ford had tabled a motion that recognized there wasn’t majority support for a downtown casino and urged council to support expanding Woodbine. The motion was defeated 31-13.Ford’s council speech constituted his first public remarks since reports appeared last week about a video allegedly showing him smoking crack. The mayor made no mention of the controversy. He avoided reporters and left city hall after the vote.Meanwhile, anti-casino stalwarts on council were happy to comment.Councillor Joe Mihevc said he was surprised to see the overwhelming 40-4 vote.“I think what people on council were feeling was the energy and vitality of their residents, who’ve been calling and emailing and pushing the reluctant people in the right direction,” Mihevc said. “It shows the power of democracy. All those community leaders, the faith leaders, who said this is no way to build a city, got heard. And this vote reflects that.”