Team Canada skip Brad Jacobs (The Canadian Press)

VICTORIA - For the last four years gaining an Olympic berth has been the sole focus for many of the world's top curlers.

Attempting to qualify for the Sochi Games has kept some curlers in the sport. Not going to Russia could end a few careers.

The Olympics are the Super Bowl of curling. Yet, just a few weeks after all the excitement and world-wide attention the sport will receive at the Olympics, the men's and women's world championships will be held. Isn't that a little like following the Academy Awards with a festival of the top Latvian movies?

Next year's Olympics will run from Feb. 7-23. The women's world championship start March 15 in Saint John, N.B. The men's world championship begin March 29 in Beijing.

"It kind of seems a little ridiculous," said Brad Jacobs, who defeated China's Rui Liu 7-6 Saturday to give Canada its first victory at the World Men's Curling Championship.

"A lot of those teams, especially from the other countries, will be going straight from the Olympics to

Morgan Rielly has a goal and an assist in his first six games with the Toronto Marlies. (CP)Dallas Eakins has been down this road before. It was only two years ago that the Toronto Marlies head coach was put in charge of the development of Nazem Kadri.

Kadri was 20 years old and the Leafs top prospect at the time. He spent two-plus years in the AHL working with Eakins on tweaking his game and learning to become more of a two-way player, and since cracking the Leafs opening night lineup in January he’s been one of the team’s most dynamic forwards.

Now it’s Morgan Rielly’s turn. The 19-year-old defenceman, who was selected fifth overall by the Maple Leafs in 2012, made his home debut for the Marlies Saturday in a 4-3 victory over the Abbotsford Heat.

“It’s like having any other player on our team,” Eakins said of the rookie defenceman after the game Saturday. “He’s a young player, he’s come in [and] played well for his age.”

Watching Rielly for a few shifts, it’s fairly easy to spot the strengths in his game. He has quick feet, generally makes smart decisions with the puck and

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.

Andrew Wiggins (right) receives congratulations from NBA great Alonzo Mourning (Sholten Singer, Associated Press)

Andrew Wiggins still has to go through the David Stern-mandated one season of college basketball before he can receive his due as the first overall selection of the 2014 NBA draft. In the short run, the Concord, Ont., native has shown he is the most entertaining teenage baller anywhere, if not the best player in the world outside of the NBA when you consider the '13 draft is not considered to be overly strong.

The 6-foot-8 small forward earned another U.S. high school player of the year. Plus the latest mix of soaring dunks and just-watch-me drives to the hoop is "will make you wish that we lived in a more just world, one in which Wiggins could enter the NBA draft rather than being forced into having his abilities exploited by the NCAA for a year."

George Chuvalo receives his key to the city from Toronto mayor Rob Ford. (CP)

While the feeding frenzy over the Toronto Star's front page story about whether mayor Rob Ford is a drunken lout consumed the city hall media on Tuesday, a brief respite from the hectic, ongoing civic sideshow (Nathan Phillips Square really should have been covered by a giant circus tent by now) came in the form of one of the city's great sporting gentlemen, George Chuvalo.

Chuvalo, at 75 years old and still remarkably lucid for a man of that age who spent most of the first half of his life being punched in the head, stood in dignified fashion at the podium and accepted a key to the city, merely the latest in a long line of increasingly varied honours. It may not be like having his picture on an Our Lady Peace album cover, but it's still a pretty good thrill, one would imagine.

Too bad his speech at city hall - emotive and eloquent as always, even if he is prone to going on a little bit of a ramble - must have been received with a certain amount of impatience, with the large gathered

Don Duguid (L) and Ron Northcott in their curling prime. (CCA/Michael Burns Sr.)

Two of Canada's curling giants are being elevated to an even higher place in the history of the sport they love.

Ron Northcott, a 3-time world champion and Don Duguid, a 2-time winner of the global title, will be inducted by the World Curling Federation during the closing banquet of this year's world men's championship, on April 7th.

“It’s a great honour; it’s unbelievable,” said Duguid, in a Canadian Curling Association media release. "And going in with Ron Northcott really tickles me. He was an inspiration to me when I watched him curl.”

These are two exceptionally deserving individuals and there is no question as to their status as hall of famers. Upon hearing this news, however, my initial reaction was 'they aren't already in the World Curling Hall of Fame?'

Makes you wonder what took the hall so long to enshrine them. It's true that the world hall only began accepting nominations for induction last year. However, previous to that, the WCF annually handed out the Freytag award to

Wells is headed to the Yankees, reports Jeff Passan (Getty Images)

Revenge is a dish best served in the form of a washed-up outfielder.

As if it was not enough for success-starved Toronto Blue Jays fans that their boys of summer stand poised to pounce in the American League East division now that time and fevers have caught up to the Evil Empires in Boston and New York. Jays fans could also enjoy the plight of their former centrefielder and "albatross" Vernon Wells playing for the Yankees.

[Jeff Passan: Sources: Yankees are close to acquiring
Angels OF Vernon Wells in trade]

Yep, it's that desperate in Gotham City. It's like 1991 when the Jays were winning the AL East while former Toronto heartthrob Jesse Barfield was hitting .225 for a 91-loss Yankees team. Only this time there's a side of venom.

Wells came up with the Jays, where he was three-time Gold Glove centrefielder from 2004-06. He was already at his peak, though, before the '07 season when then-GM J.P. Ricciardi signed him the worst contract in baseball. That made him an outlet for fan and media frustration.

From Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan):

Sources: Yankees in talks with Angels for outfielder Vernon Wells. Lots of money would go back to New York. Deal could be done today.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 24, 2013

Important caveat: Vernon Wells has a no-trade clause and must greenlight any deal. Unclear at this point whether he would go to New York.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 24, 2013

Big factor: How much of $42M owed Wells do Angels pay? Hearing money going back to Yankees is not nearly as significant as one might think.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 24, 2013

#Yankees under impression that #Angels' Wells will approve trade, but terms not final. So, he has not yet been asked to waive no-trade.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) March 24, 2013

Yankees and Angels dotting I's and crossing T's at this point. Vernon Wells has let team know he will accept deal. It will be official soon.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 24, 2013

Brampton's Melvin Ejim has helped Iowa State reach the Round of 32 (Getty Images)

The thrill of a NCAA Tournament victory and the agony of getting rejected by the rim... Canada's Melvin Ejim had all of that in a space of a few minutes on Friday.

The Brampton baller and his Iowa State Cyclones looked aptly named while they whoosed past higher-seeded Notre Dame 76-58 on Friday in their second-round game. (A Notre Dame team got exposed as slow, sluggish and overrated? That hasn't happened in forever, or since the BCS championship game.)

Ejim, the Cyclones' undersized centre, had a great all-around night for ISU with 17 points, eight rebounds and five assists. In the first half, he posterized Notre Dame's 6-foot-10 Tom Knight by elevating to complete an alley-oop started by teammate Will Clyburn. Minutes later, Ejim had a chance to throw down an uncontested dunk, but someone apparently raised the rim on him at the last minute.