DETROIT – Alex Anthopoulos likes to say the perception of a player is directly tied to his production. If a team is winning and a player is excelling, the guy becomes known as a "leader" or a "positive clubhouse influence." When a team is losing and a player is struggling, his character is questioned. Its easy to be enamoured with Mark Buehrle because of the year hes having. By now you know the statistics: 10-1, a 2.10 ERA and in his only no-decision of the season, Buehrle left with the lead. Even last season, when Buehrle struggled through the first half of the Blue Jays haltingly poor year, he drew no negative attention. He went about his between-starts routine despite his weight-related self-deprecation. He was always approachable despite his claims that he detests speaking into a microphone. What became clear, quickly, was Buehrles devotion to his family. Married with two kids, he looks in advance at the schedule and plots out homestands that will facilitate relatively lengthy visits. His father, John and mother, Pat, seem to be constants around the ballclub, even though John estimates they attend about 30 games per season. When this reporter renewed acquaintances with Buehrle on the first day of spring training and casually asked how his offseason had gone, it took the pitcher less than five seconds to begin to explain the difficulty he had saying goodbye to his children, who are now old enough to understand their dad has to leave home to go to work but wish that he wouldnt. John is in Detroit for the brief road trip, having scheduled a personal matter in the Motor City to coincide with the Jays lone visit to the Tigers. Hed have it no other way. "Our whole family was brought up as a family," said John Buehrle. "Everything we failed in or excelled in we shared as a family, our trials and tribulations if you will. When Mark did well in school, high school, college, everybody shared. When my other sons did well, everybody shared. They were brought up as a family, just as I was. They were brought up with respect." Mark Buehrle is making $18 million this season and is due $19 million in 2015, the final year of the four-year pact he inked with the Miami Marlins in the 2011-2012 offseason. When it comes to respect, money isnt an object in the Buehrle household. Johns three sons, Mike, 40, Jason, 37, and Mark, 35, and his one daughter Amy, 32, are expected to adhere to a set of rules when they visit. "Even today, they come to my house, they sit down at my table, their hat comes off," said John Buehrle. "Ill sit there and Ill stare them down. They wont even look at me, they can feel it. They can feel me looking at them because its manners. Theyll say Yes sir, no sir and Yes maam, no maam and open the door for the wives and their wives because thats the way they were raised." Mark is four wins shy of 200 for his career. Not many pitchers make it to the big leagues, let alone last long enough to win that many games. Johns son has never been placed on the disabled list. Hes pitching in his 15th big league season. John is pleased for Marks success but shows his youngest son no favoritism. "Any parent is proud anytime their child excels or succeeds at anything, regardless of what it is," said Buehrle. "Im just as proud of Mark for being where he is today as I am of my one son whos driving a concrete truck whos never had an accident. And thats a lot to say for concrete truck drivers, believe me, because I used to be one." Asked about Toronto, John returns to what matters most. "Toronto is as much of a family-oriented town as what we had found Chicago to be," said Buehrle. "We were there 12-and-a-half years in Chicago. Everybody in Chicago was like family. Every place we went, they were so nice." He admitted to uncertainty about Toronto after the trade with the Marlins and no, the fact Johns sons pitbull dog wasnt allowed to move to Ontario wasnt his top concern. "We didnt know, coming to Toronto, big city, we didnt know what it was going to be like," said Buehrle. "From day one, the people, everyone, not just the team, the staff, the people we ran into in the restaurants, it was genuine, you can tell when someones putting it on, but you could really tell there was a genuine Were glad youre here." The Blue Jays are glad to have Buehrle. Since last years All-Star Break, Mark is 17-5 with a 2.66 ERA. With an impending second knee replacement surgery scheduled soon, John hopes to be able to travel to Minneapolis for this years All-Star Game. He expects Mark will be a participant. "Hes having a real good year and I couldnt want or wish any better for him or the team," said Buehrle. "Im really happy for the fans, too, because the fans, I guess in a certain way through Mark see a little hope and glimmer and think, Oh, we may just pull it off this year. Its not just Mark. You look at Joey Bats, Edwin, Melky. Everyones having an awesome year." Houston Astros Store . In the other Group A game, the Czech Republic stunned Canada, 5-4 in a shootout. Dominik Simon scored the deciding goal in the tiebreaker. The United States scored its first three goals on power plays. "Overall, I love to see the power-play goals we were able to get tonight," said U. Jim Bouton Jersey . There were no real chances until Augsburg broke the deadlock through Raul Bobadilla in the 33rd minute. Frankfurt failed to clear a cross and Bobadilla slotted home from close range at the far post. https://www.cheapastros.com/2863o-rogeli...sey-astros.html. Watching them over the past year - and in some cases, two years - has given us a starting point for this seasons Craigs List. Joe Pepitone Jersey . - The Carolina Panthers believe Steve Smith lost "top-end" speed, a big reason the franchise parted ways with its all-time leading receiver. Jack Mayfield Jersey . The Raptors (15-15) posted six road victories last month and have won seven of their last nine games overall. Toronto visits the Washington Wizards on Friday night.MIAMI -- Extra pass, easy win. Its a tried-and-true formula for the Miami Heat. LeBron James scored 25 points, Chris Bosh added 24 and the Heat beat the winless Washington Wizards 103-93 on Sunday night to snap a rare two-game slide. Dwyane Wade scored 20 points for Miami, which hasnt dropped three straight regular-season games since Jan. 10-13, 2012. The Heat (2-2) had 32 assists on 37 field goals, including on all nine of their baskets in the third quarter. "Thats what we do," James said. "We understand that its easy for everyone when we move the ball, share the ball and we play like that." Including playoffs, the Heat are now 100 games over .500 at home since the start of the 2010-11 season -- 127-27. And when collecting at least 25 assists in the Big Three era, they are 58-5. Of the 10 Heat players who played, nine scored, nine got at least one assist and all 10 grabbed at least one rebound. "The intensity was better and the consistent ball movement was better than its been," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. Bradley Beal scored 19 points for the Wizards. Marcin Gortat finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds for Washington (0-3), which shot 43 per cent and allowed the Heat to convert 21 turnovers into 25 points. "I thought we battled well," Beal said. "We still had a few breakdowns on defence and didnt make a lot of shots on offence. But we did a great job moving the ball. We just have to knock down shots and limit our turnovers as much as possible." Miamis last three-game slide was against Boston in the 2012 Eastern Conference finals, a series the Heat won in seven games. With two defeats in three games to open this season, Sunday marked only the second time since James, Bosh and Wade teamed up that they took the court with a losing regular-season record. The other was after their first game together in October 2010. "You can feel it, and its special when it happens," Wade said of having so many assists as a team. "It just makes the game so much easier." Washingtons Trevor Ariza got hot to start the fourth, as the Wizards turned what looked like a runaway into a game again. Ariza missed all eight of his shots in the first three quarters, thenn had four baskets -- three of them 3-pointers -- in the first 4:48 of the final period as the Wizards got within 91-80.dddddddddddd That got the Heat to take a timeout, and got James back into the game. The Wizards kept chipping away, with Beal scoring and getting fouled with 41.3 seconds left to get his team within 100-93. Beal missed the free throw, it stayed a three-possession game, and the Wizards let 15 seconds run off the ensuing Miami possession before fouling Bosh. By then, the outcome was clear. Mario Chalmers had eight assists for the Heat. Ariza and Martell Webster each scored 13 points for Washington, which got 11 points and nine assists from John Wall. "This is how weve got to play," Wizards coach Randy Wittman said. "Nobody wants to lose but I thought we took a good step in the right direction." Before the game, Spoelstra said the early struggles this season were simply a matter of Miami not clicking at times. That wasnt an issue Sunday. James got it going early for Miami, scoring 14 points in the first quarter and connecting on all three of his 3-point tries in that period. All five Miami starters got into the scoring act early, and the bench added 12 points in the second quarter as the Heat extended the lead. About all the Heat could really complain about in this one was the opening minutes, in which they found themselves in a 9-2 deficit, continuing a trend of falling behind early. Miami trailed 9-2 against Chicago at home in the season-opener, then 19-0 (and 26-4) at Philadelphia, then 11-3 at Brooklyn. Sundays deficit didnt last long. A 14-2 run over a 5-minute stretch of the opening quarter put the Heat up by five and the margin grew throughout, starting with 33-27 after 12 minutes, 61-48 at halftime and 87-64 entering the final period. "We know what works for us," Wade said. "Sometimes we just dont do it." NOTES: James ran his double-digit scoring streak to 499 straight regular-season games, going back to January 2007. His teams are 363-136 in those games. ... Wizards F Nene (left calf strain) did not play. ... The Heat are 75-11 in their last 86 regular-season home games. ... Ariza was whistled for a flagrant foul in the third quarter. ' ' '