It's the moment tens of thousands have been waiting for. After an off-season of intrigue and seemingly constant upheaval, the Toronto Blue Jays enter the 2013 season as,if not favourites, then definite contenders for their first championship in 20 years.

R.A. Dickey takes to the mound as a symbol of a new Blue Jays identity. The 2012 National League Cy Young Award winner hopes to work his magic on an unfamiliar American League batting crew, while Jose Reyes leads an overhauled Jays fielding unit.

Join Yahoo! Sports live from the Rogers Centre in Toronto at 6 p.m. Eastern for all the pomp and circumstance from the Blue Jays home opener against the Cleveland Indians. We'll bring you the sights and sounds, and you can share your thoughts about the Blue Jays for tonight and beyond before the game gets underway at 7:07 p.m.

The 2013 baseball season's almost here. Join us!

Baseball season's just around the corner, and Yahoo! Canada's got a lot of plans in the hopper! We're going to keep some of them secret for now, but we're happy to get things started a little early with a season preview of the 2013 MLB season, coming Thursday at 10 am Eastern.

Our friends at Digital First Media have been gracious enough to share a liveblog with their beat writers and experts as they discuss the stories and themes that will shape the upcoming season.

Digital First Media's Thunderdome combines the best of local reporting to create a true wide-scope storytelling experience. That breadth of coverage should make for an exciting viewpoint on the teams that will compete with the Jays for October glory in 2013.

Let us know what you think in the comments underneath the liveblog window.

Garret McNamara

What do you do when you're a big-wave surfer who's conquered the biggest wave on record in the world?

Find a bigger one.

That's what Garret McNamara's planning on. The Hawaiian waterman made waves figuratively and literally last  November when he rode a 78-footer at Praia do Norte beach in Nazare, Portugal, setting a world record that was recognized by the good people at the Guinness Book in May. The wave — and accompanying notoriety — set off a cavalcade of publicity and globetrotting for the 45 year-old who's spent his surfing life in the shadows of Hawaii's more famous surfers.

The world tour included a stop in Toronto last weekend as part of Surfers Healing, an organization that teaches children with autism to surf.  That event was the centrepiece of Aloha Toronto, a weekend-long event with Hawaiian music, hula dancers, and the general aloha spirit in Toronto's Beach neighbourhood. At the centre of that was McNamara, who flew in from Hawaii's North Shore specifically for the event.  It's par for the course these days, McNamara told Eh Game.

Usain Bolt

The Olympic fever never dies; it just settles into the cockles of our heart, where it rests for years, only to be awakened again one day when again we hear the dulcet tones of Jacques Rogge (or whoever replaces him next year).  We'll spend the next 2-4 years navel-gazing about all our bronze medals, and debating the merits of the Own the Podium program that left us tied with Uganda, but there will be plenty of time for that later.

For now, we asked Don Landry, Neate Sager, Andrew Bucholtz and Jim Morris - the bloggers who brought you Canada's best Olympic coverage for the last three weeks - about their most memorable moments of the 2012 Olympics. Here's what they said.

Christine Sinclair announced as Canadian flag-bearer at Olympic Closing Ceremony

Canada has chosen its flag-bearer for Sunday's closing ceremony at the  London 2012 Olympics: Christine Sinclair.

The choice was announced Sunday morning at a press conference in London that featured Canadian Olympic committee president Marcel Aubut, as well as chef de mission Mark Tewksbury.

[Slideshow: Christine Sinclair at the 2012 London Olympics]

Tewksbury said he "called her last night and she was at the athletics." But Sinclair, never far from controversy at the Olympics had to make a small confession. "I broke another rule," she said. "I called my mom" after she received the news from Tewksbury.

Sinclair was the popular choice, as much for her outspoken criticism of FIFA and its officials as for her heroic three-goal effort against the USA in the women's soccer semifinals last Monday,which Canada lost 4-3 in extra time. Sinclair led the women's tournament in goalscoring and led Canada to the bronze medal, its first medal in a team sport since 1936.

"This is by far greatest

The bronze age is upon us, and the Olympics are finally over.  Canada proved itself worthy of a place on the podium, but also left lots of room for improvement in 2016 in Rio. We had lots of surprise medalists, and losts of big names who fell short.  And along the way, we had funny moments, great quotes, silliness, seriousness, and an extravaganza of entertainment.

Join Yahoo! Canada Sports' Andrew McKay and Don Landry along with Steve McAllister from London, Yahoo! Canada OMG editor Kat Angus, and a host of others as we bring you the highlights and lowlights and memories of the games, and follow the Closing Ceremony entertainment. We'll have jokes, snark, trivia, and even pie (bring your own pie). Join us Sunday, August 12 at 3:45 pm!

gillisreid

The 2012 London Olympics wrap up Sunday with one of the marquee events — the men's marathon. While Canada likely won't medal, the mere presence of the Canadians in the field is a testament to years of preparation, both by the runners and the sport's higher powers, and could result in the breaking of Canada's oldest record.

Thanks to a renewed commitment to the sport of running in this country, three Canadians have qualified for the men's race — an impressive achievement considering the Canadian qualifying standard of 2:11:29 was a full 3:30 faster than the international standard. That meant that Dylan Wykes, whose 2:12:57 at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon last year was more than enough to qualify by Olympic standards, instead had to jam in a desperate last-minute race in Rotterdam in April where he ran 2:10:47, the second-fastest Canadian marathon ever. He'll join Eric Gillis and Reid Coolsaet at the starting line on Sunday.

Canada should get over it according to Damien Cox

Three days into our Ugly Americans series, and we're already being struck by random backlash. Yes, I've seen the Tancredi GIF. No, it doesn't prove anything - that's why FIFA and the rest of the right-thinking world is ignoring it. Yes, you can stop e-mailing it to me now.

[Related: Maligned soccer referee isn't working women's medal matches]

The series was intended to spotlight the ugliest of all things in the Olympics: people who think they're above it all, who think they know better than you and can act cocky and conceited and demeaning to what the Olympics mean to everyone. We saw it bubbling out of the American team, and we called them on it.

And so it is that on Day 3, the ugliest instance we've encountered comes from someone who's not at the games, is admittedly barely paying attention, and isn't even American.

On Wednesday, Damien Cox of the Toronto Star weighed in on the officiating issue that's been dominating the week in women's soccer.   His advice?

"Get over it."