Before tonights Toronto Blue Jays game at the Rogers Centre, when the American League East leaders host last years National League pennant winners, the St. Louis Cardinals, the team will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of the opening of the SkyDome. Jays legends Jimmy Key and Ernie Whitt, members of playoff and World Series-winning teams of the past, will be on hand for the festivities to look back at what was the beginning of the Jays halcyon years. The return of these former stars comes at an apt time. For fans of the Blue Jays, its starting to feel a lot like those glory days again. Heading into Fridays game, the Jays sit at 37-24 with a five-and-a-half-game lead on the second-place Baltimore Orioles. The last team the Blue Jays held such a lead atop the division was in 1985, the year of their first-ever AL East triumph. Its easy to see why theres excitement surrounding this Jays team, but before everybody goes and books their flights to San Francisco for the World Series in October, lets step back and take a good look at these Toronto Blue Jays. Is it time to stop saying "Well, its early" and officially deem them contenders? Is the 2014 version of the Jays just the 2013 one that was expected all along, but a year late on arrival? Or will reality catch up with a team that is currently playing above its station? Friday night marks Game 62, and an even 100 games remain in the regular season. While its not exactly the halfway mark, its as good a time as any to reflect on the interesting dichotomy of the Jays season, thus far. Obviously, there have been plenty of key performances from the top of the roster on down. Mark Buehrle leads the league in wins with 10 and has a paltry 2.10 ERA. Edwin Encarnacion launched 16 jacks in May and made every at-bat a must-see event. Jose Bautista is in the midst of an MVP-calibre season. Melky Cabrera has bounced back from offseason surgery and looks headed to another All-Star Game. Jose Reyes once again looks like the catalyst he was for the New York Mets. Picked up from the Milwaukee Brewers scrap heap, Juan Francisco is one of the five Jays with double-digit home run totals. There is a lot to like right now. But before the Jays were sweeping the likes of the Detroit Tigers and Oakland Athletics and tearing the cover off the baseball with reckless abandon and going 17-4 over its last 21 games, this team was once a very average 20-20. Its bullpen is still second-last in the bigs with a 4.62 ERA, having surrendered a league-worst 97 earned runs. Now second in the AL with 19 home runs, Encarnacion couldnt buy a hit in April and had just two homers. Reyes, Adam Lind and Casey Janssen missed significant time. Brandon Morrow and Colby Rasmus are down again. There were red flags all over this team not that long ago, but those have been seemingly swept aside in a tidal wave of power-hitting and timely pitching. Has this changed your expectations for the rest of the year? With April and early May indicating that the team was headed for another year of mediocrity, the fact that the Jays are division-leaders with the third-best record in baseball in June is quite frankly shocking. But wasnt this the Toronto Blue Jays team that was promised last season after a winter of major trades and free agent acquisitions? Maybe this run that the Jays are on isnt the aberration. Perhaps, last season and the beginning of this year was the outlier. Regardless of why its happening and how long it will last, the Blue Jays are currently playing meaningful baseball and its a welcome change for fans starving for a winner. So with 100 games left in 2014, just who are these Toronto Blue Jays and what happens from here on out? As always, its Your Call! 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According to a report from the Vancouver Province, the Lions are expected to replace former DC Rich Stubler with defensive backs coach Mark Washington.MILWAUKEE -- NBA Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is interested in returning in some capacity to the Milwaukee Bucks. "If I get a call, I will definitely offer my services," said Abdul-Jabbar, the franchises career leading scorer with 14,211 points. "Theres nothing on the table right now. A couple of people have asked me and if I had the chance to be part of this franchise again, I would take it." In December, former Sen. Herb Kohl announced he would seek minority investors in the team, which he has owned since 1985. The franchise is at something of a crossroads, struggling to draw large crowds to an aging building. The Bucks beat Utah 114-88 on Monday, but have the leagues worst record at 12-47. Still, Abdul-Jabbar sees Milwaukee as a viable NBA market. "They have to get their business model right," Abdul-Jabbar said Monday. "I hope that the Bucks are able to sort it all out and get on a good footing. You cant win it all unless you get the right players and you cant get the right players unless youre really in a good position as a business." Abdul-Jabbar was in town in part to promote a new tourism ad for the state of Wisconsin that played off his acting role in the movie "Airplane." Over the last few years, Abdul-Jabbar has expressed an interest in returning to the NBA as a coach. Hes worked as a special assistant with teams such as the Clippers aand Lakers.dddddddddddd. Abdul-Jabbar -- then Lew Alcindor -- was the No. 1 overall pick in the 1969 NBA draft and immediately turned the Bucks, coming off their expansion season, into contenders. Milwaukee went 56-26 and finished second in the Eastern Division behind Abdul-Jabbars 28.8 points and 14.5 rebounds per game. Not long after the season ended, the Bucks obtained Oscar Robertson from the Cincinnati Royals, leading to a dominant 1970-71 season. They finished with a 66-16 record and swept Baltimore in the NBA Finals, becoming the fastest expansion franchise to win a championship in the history of major professional sports. The Bucks returned to the Finals in 1974, losing to Boston in seven games. Robertson would retire just before the 74-75 season and Abdul-Jabbar quietly requested a trade, looking for a bigger market and the chance to join another contender. "They appreciated that and they appreciated that I kept my mouth shut about it," he said. "I gave them the opportunity to approach other teams and they figured out the best deal they could make for themselves." Abdul-Jabbar got his wish in June 1975, when he was shipped to the Lakers in a deal that included Junior Bridgeman going to Milwaukee. Both players have had their jerseys retired by the franchise. Bridgeman, who was honoured by the team last week, also has been mentioned as a possible investor. 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