The Great Danes have Arrived

The happiest country in the world certainly has reason to smile when it comes to the competitive world of sport.

Denmark, with that top honour, as discovered by the Gallup World Poll, surveying 155 countries from 2005-2009, can certainly lay claim to an inproportionate amount of worldwide success (their population peaks at 5.5 million as it stands now) when it comes to three popular sports in particular; tennis, hockey and soccer.

With Serena Williams out of the U.S. Open with a right foot injury, Danish-born Caroline Wozniacki will take the honours of being seeded #1 thanks to her recent win at the 2010 Canadian Open and her 2009 U.S. Open final loss to Kim Clijsters.

But with that seed comes the heavy weight of expectations. Wozniacki (pictured) has performed well when she has been a relative unknown entity on the WTA tour, but now the 20 year-old phenom from the town of Odense is trying to learn from her mistakes last year where she was the first Danish woman to ever appear in a Grand Slam final.

She'll be looking for more than a finalist status this year, but despite Williams' absence, she will still have significant competition from established players like Venus Williams who will be trying to win on home soil, Maria Sharapova, Francesca Schiavone, Kim Clijsters, Elena Dementieva, et al.

While other 20 year-olds in New York worry about what time the Rockefeller Center closes on a weekend, Wozniacki will be battling these top stars for prize money other women her age could only dream of possessing in the world's largest city.

Adding to the northern country's mechanized athlete-producing machine, emerges the Danish national soccer team. Although not the finish the team would have liked at the 2010 World Cup, especially considering their draw in the group stage (they were placed with the Netherlands, Cameroon, and Japan- a manageable group), the Danish showed spurts of brilliance in their matches with precision passing and at times, impenetrable defence.

But just qualifying in the Western-European and South American-dominated tournament shows significant progress for the oft-jubilant country. The 2010 edition of the team featured a largely transitional flavour, with captain, and all-time leading scorer Jon Dahl Tomasson retiring after serving 13 years wearing the arm band. As well, young up-and-comers like Daniel Agger, 25, Simon Kjaer, 21, and Nicklas Bendtner, 22 will look to take the reigns from Tomasson and fellow team leader Martin Jorgensen. Bendtner (pictured) and Agger play for Arsenal and Liverpool in the English Premier League respectively.

Finally, Denmark couldn't be called a true northern, Scandinavian country if it didn't feature its fair share of stars on skates. Sweden and Finland have always had a rich history of superstar hockey players gracing their respective nation's sporting hall of fame, but Denmark is just beginning to tap into the gold mine of puck-crazed youngsters within their borders.

Three prominent Danes have already made names for themselves across the Atlantic, where the NHL rules the professional hockey show domestically and abroad. Most European players will travel to North America to play for the most talented league in the world. These three Danes are no exception, and the oldest only just turned legal drinking age in America.

Lars Eller, 21, jumpstarted a wave of Danish hockey teens with incredible skill to hit the ice on this side of the pond. Eller was chosen 13th overall by the St.Louis Blues in 2007. He was later traded to the Montreal Canadiens as part of the much-publicized deal that saw playoff hero-goaltender Jaroslav Halak shipped to St. Louis. Eller scored his team's only goal in his NHL debut, a 2-1 Blues loss vs. the Calgary Flames on November 5, 2009. Eller will now be looking to adjust to a culture within a culture with his new French-Canadian team.

Mikkel Boedker, 20, arguably the most promising hockey player to come from the land of Hans-Christian Andersen, eclipsed Eller's record for being the highest Dane ever selected in the NHL draft, when he was snatched up by Wayne Gretzky and the Phoenix Coyotes at #8 overall in 2008. Boedker (pictured) made the immediate jump from major junior hockey with the Kitchener Rangers to the NHL's Coyotes the next year as an 18 year-old. Boedker's speed and lethal snapshot makes him a constant threat on the ice.

Finally, the newest Dane to make a name for himself at the tender age of 17, Nicklas Jensen will suit up for the first time in Canada. Drafted by the Oshawa Generals, Jensen will look to elevate his NHL draft stock in the upcoming OHL season. The 6'2 left-winger is fast, has tremendous acceleration and very soft hands for such a big body. Jensen is already projected to go in the first round of the NHL's 2011 draft.

It seems the happy can only get happier in Denmark with very bright, very young, and very talented prospects carrying the country to places 5.5 million have never believed they have the business of being in.

Blue Jays' Inconsistency Has Never Felt So Good

As the regular season for the 2010 MLB campaing nears its close, the Blue Jays can be forgiven if their fans grow frustrated with a one win-two loss, or vice-versa scenario every series.

Pundits prognosticated a dreadful August with multiple series with the Tampa Bay Rays, New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox on the horizon, but the Blue Jays never questioned their ability to play with the big boys. That attitude has seen them with their head barely above the water, playing to an 11-9 record (minus the August 1st Cleveland game), but the question becomes, 'did anyone even expect this team to win 5 of these games at the start of the year?'

With Halladay on a one-way flight to Philadelphia, the team officially entered 'rebuild' mode, which gives them an automatic out by exclaiming in three or four years, the Jays will contend.

The fans surely showed their displeasure at that grim prospect by staying away from the Skydo- er... Rogers Centre early on, but something happened that even team officials hadn't expected to occur this early. The birds started winning. And often.

Fans north of the 49th parallel have always needed a bit of a shove to get out to the American pastime of baseball, and there is no better enticement than a winning team.

As of August 25th, the Jays are technically that winning team, but their 65-60 record is a far cry from contending come October, and perhaps a more troubling prospect, it is not dissimilar to their record of years past. Always levelling out at .500 baseball has been this Toronto team's trademark in recent years; always hanging around, but never quite reaching the upper echelons needed to truly challenge the elite.

But something's different this year. There's a certain 'feel' going around the ballpark that has fans and players much more excited about a 65-60 record than perhaps they should be.

Maybe it's the new faces in the club. Yunel Escobar, full of raw talent arrives amidst attitude accusations, but has largely stayed out of the negative spotlight, pelting in three homeruns since his arrival.

Maybe its the largely unforeseen rise of a solid group of a stellar pitching cast, a major perceived weakpoint in April. Brett Cecil, Shaun Marcum, Brandon Morrow, and Ricky Romero are the new make up of a young pitching squad that has the rest of the MLB whispering about a pseudo-Tampa Bay Rays ascent of talented throwers.

Maybe its the utterly inexplicable meteoric rise of MLB home-run leader Jose Bautista with 40 on the campaign so far, after last season, slicing only 13 over the fences. And honestly, when was the last time you saw the acronym 'TOR' beside the leading player on the much-esteemed HR Leaders list?

It just 'feels' good.

Add in the fact Jays GM Alex Anthopolous is gunning for younger players, and is willing to pay the price at a trade he deems advisable to his ball club and you have the recipe for a club, which already gives opposing teams fits with its 190+ homers on the year to lead the majors, a very large upside when looking into the crystal ball for years to come.