Shawn's Canadian Sports Blog

A (Sun)Day From My Old Life

2005-10-23T10:47:00.000-03:00

Just to give you an update on some of the happenings in my life, my finance and I are in the process of moving to Halifax. In fact, she has already moved. She started a new job in a hospital down there last Monday. I'm still living here in Moncton though it looks like I'll be following in about a months time give or take.

So today is the first Sunday in over a year that she's not here, I mean completely not here. So today I "get" to "enjoy" a Sunday the same way I did back when I was a single English guy living in Moncton with no friends.

I thought I would keep a running diary so you all know how much sports I can cram into a day.

The first part of the morning consisted on reading some game reports of last night's hockey games and checking on my fantasy hockey teams' progress.

10:45 Am I wrote the above introduction to this post

11:10 I started a pot of coffee, could be vital if I'm going to keep this running diary up. Then started watching the Sports Reporters. Today's cast includes the regulars: John Saunders, Bob Ryan and Mike Lupica, as well as some guy named Thomas George, I think from some paper in Denver, but I could be wrong.

I liked that Bob Ryan mentioned hockey in his little introductory blurb.

They started talking about the world series, I zoned out and thought about how I like Jayson Whitlock instead of today's token black guy

Then they switched to NCAA football, I thought Mike Lupica's head was going to explode when Bob Ryan suggested that "we" want the Rose Bowl to be USC v. Texas. Then the other guys supported Ryan, and Ryan defined "we" as "generic college football fans". So apparently everybody who likes college football wants USC v. Texas, except Lupica who wants Va Tech and Alabama.

11:22 am During the second segment they talked about the NFL. Nothing memerable was said.

The third segment they talked about the NBA's new dress code, perhaps you heard about it this past week, in passing, maybe.... Anyways let me take this opportunity to announce I'm sick of hearing about this dress code for three reasons:
1 I don't care about the NBA to begin with
2 I listened to this topic all week on PTI and Prime Time and
3 I don't care that old white guys either can or cannot see how it's a racist policy or not

11:29 am one comment from the parting shots, Thomas George has no carisma, he won't be back

11:30 Time for TSN's the Reporters, a Canadian version of the ESPN's the Reporters usual cast
Hodge, Simmons, Cox and Farber

The first segment's topic was hazing, very topical right now because of recent incidents with the OHL's Windsor Spitfire's and McGill University's football team. They were seemingly universal in their condementation of any and all forms of hazing. Let me just say, the only problem with hazing in general, is there is always the risk that will someone will take it too far. But when it is kept moderate, and non-sexual and non-violent, I think it can build team spirit and foster a sense of collective unity on a team.

NFL officials suck

2005-10-09T17:22:00.000-03:00

(Note: this posting was originally written about 5 minutes after the Week 5 matchup between Miami and Buffalo ended. I stand by the spirit of everything contained in it. However upon reflection the words choosen were not words that I want to remain attached to my name. Rather than deleting the post I did some editing. square brackets denotes edited wording)

Ok the Dolphins played a terrible game that just ended, I admit it.
Especially since they were coming off a bye week, there is no excuse.

But the [gosh darn] officials did a [rather] awful job also.

The Bills did not beat the Dolphins, it was a tie between the Dolphins themselves and the useless [ deleted words] officials.

First off even with the benefit of video replay the referee got the call wrong with a minute and change left in the game on the Ronnie Brown "fumble".

It was so obvious to any one, unless of course they were the Referee, that Brown still had is right hand wrapped around the ball and ball flush to his stomach when his ass hit the ground, therefore, the correct call is "Down by contact". But no! the referee got the call wrong and ruled it a fumble

Not to mention all the times that when Holcomb audibiled and the Buffalo offensive linemen, turned, not just their heads, no, their whole upperbodies, no false start there!

But Furrotte audibles and a Miami offensive linemen even thinks for a split second, in his mind, about turning his head to hear it. The afformentioned useless officials call it a false start.

If the Dolphins miss the playoffs this year. we know who to thank.

The O-Dawg Days of Summer Are Over

2005-09-03T00:30:00.000-03:00

Ok, I'll start off by addressing THE issue, because if I don't, well, I don't know, but it has to be said. My heart goes out to all the victims of last weektragedy along the Gulf Coast. To all KatrinaÂs victims as well as their friends, families and loved ones, you are in my thoughts, and if I prayed, you would be there to.

On a similar note, I will now announce that for the upcoming football season, LSU is my adopted Non-Notre Dame team, I'll discreetly cheer for them this year. And the Saints will be my adopted NFC team for this year. In a perfect world, the Tigers will lose to the Irish for the National Championship and the Saints will loose Super Bowl XL in Detroit to the Dolphins. My compassion does have limits, that is how you know that it is sinceer.

One final small note, I'm rushing right now to get this post finished up so I can take a shower and make some brunch before I try to settle in for ABC's triple header of NCAA football action. I love this time of the year.

With those out of the way, on to the main topic today's posting.

It is official, I'm calling it now, the Jays' playoff hopes are over. Ok, the truth is this happened earlier in the week, however, I was busy with work and life, and didn't have the opportunity to announce it before now.

mathmatically, they are still alive being only 9 games back with 28 games left. But it's not the number of games out they are right now so much as the number of teams in front of them. Yeah, It's over now, but I'm not sad somehow.

Back in the spring, I expected this season to actually be worse than last year was for the Jays. Also, if you would have told me then, that: Doc Halladay would be out with an injury since before the All-Star Break; Ted Lilly would be sidelined for most of the summer; and Corey Koskie would miss a couple of months of action with a broken hand early in the season, well, I would then know first hand the pain of being a Royals or Pirates fan in April.

But they kept hanging in there, and got through a lot of the early ups and downs (like Vernon Wells forgetting that games in April count). I did a good job of managing my expectations, not getting too excited, just enjoying the fact that they are playing entertaining baseball games and still have a real chance in late June; at the All-Star Break; past the trade dealine, into Mid August.

Then, I lost control briefly. As soon as it happened I knew it, I just ruined everything for them, that was very bush league for me, I should know better and I'm sory. But, in my defense, I couldn't help myself. If you are a Jays fan you probably made the same mistake, unless of course pessimism is your natural emotion towards the team, and if it is who could blame you? . either way, I knowthat you know what I'm talking about.

It's August 11th, they just took 3 out 4 from Detroit, they are in spitting distance of not just the wildcard lead, but also the division lead, everyone in front of them are showing signs of weakness. Downside, they are starting a 13 game/ 14 day road trip.

But they go to Baltimore and win 2 out of 3 against the team that lead the AL East for most of the year. Then Anahiem (I refuse to the Angels the Los Angelas Angels, you canÂt change your name three times in 20 years with out actually moving) where they win 2 out 3 again.

ThisÂ isÂ whenÂ IÂ messed up. This is when I started to really get excited. I started mapping scenarios in my head. Win 8 of the next 10 and weÂre in the drivers seat heading home.

You of course know what happened. I should hve known, as soon I said they needed to win 8 out 10, they went out and lost 8 out the next 10 and 10 out 14 including last nights win over Tampa.
But it was a great season. IÂm happy, they got this far playing meaningful games. They are a young team, If they stay healthy next year, and improve, the way young players should (evil stare at Erick Hinske hear), if they make a couple positive off-season moves, then the sky could be the limit next year.

IÂm excited already.

Well time for some brunch, IÂll be cheering for the Irish tonight in their opener!

Even the Bad Guys Deserve a Defense

2005-08-30T18:27:00.000-03:00

This is part two of an however many part series of me commenting on "controversies" from this past summer. I put controversies in quotation marks because, like most controversies, these are just media creations. Once an athlete reaches a certain level, it seems, that everything they do has the potential to fill column inches and television segments. Also, most of the time, the reactions the sports media have to the athletes actions will be relatively evenly split in terms of positive and negative.

That leads in nicely to today's topic: Tiger Woods left the PGA Championship "early".
The first thing I need you to know is I am not a Tiger Woods apologist or idolater. For the most part, I don't like him. My only interest in him is watching him loose, or, more precisely listening to the talking heads when he comes up short. I am not a fan of over-hype, and Tiger Woods is the very definition of over-hype. Much like M J in basketball and The Great One in hockey. These are guys you want to see fall flat on their face.

You probably all know the story by now. The PGA championship, because of CBS wanting to time the ending of the tournament to fit with their Sunday night television lineup did not start earlier on the final day even though there was the potential for bad weather. So the inevitable happened, the whether turned and then darkness fell upon the tournament and they had to finish on Monday.

Personally, I like this, CBS got screwed. If ratings would have lower than what they wanted from an earlier finish, I giggle, literally giggle, when I picture how bad they were on Monday morning. To me there is nothing worse than when the broadcasters effect the way a sporting event is played. I know that is naive, but so what, that's who I am. It's just like at the CIS hockey championships. All season long they play without TV time outs, then at Nationals, because TSN is going to broadcast the championship game, and perhaps the two Saturday round robin games (don't get me started on how then try to sell them as semi-finals) all of a sudden, TV timeouts. Which change the flow of a game, a better conditioned team loses it's edge, it allows for shorter benches, not to mention how it ruins the flow of the game for the people in the stands. So, when the event betrays what is in it's best interest to appease television, then elements effect the almighty television's plans, I can't help but smile.

Returning to Tiger, as you know he struggeled most of the tournament, but, because he's Tiger, he hung around, then put together a strong finish to his round on Sunday and walked off the course with the club-house-lead. Although, of the players still on the course, five were ahead of him and a couple of the ones behind him could still catch him (don't forget the closing two holes were both par 5's). So instead of hanging around New Jersey until mid-afternoon Monday to make sure there wasn't a playoff, Tiger flew back to Florida on Sunday night to get ready for the NEC Invitational(which, along with the the other World Golf Championship events and the Player's Championship constitute the top tier of tournaments below the four majors).

Now, none of this would have been a story, as nobody would even have known, had Tiger not told a reporter that he did it. But I don't see how this became a story in the first place. The field did not come back to him. The potential consequences of his leaving never happened. It should be a non-story on that front alone. Even more in support of Tiger's decision to leave is the knowledge the field was not going to come back to him. One or two players might have chocked their way back to Tiger, but all five plus no one coming from behind, not going to happen even if it was 5 random guys on tour. But it was 5 name players, including Phil Mickelson, and Davis Love III.

I have heard it said that leaving "tarnishes his legacy". I don't see how. He did everything he could for 72 holes to win that championship and didn't. That happens less frequently with Tiger than any other golfer, but, it has and will continue to happen more often than not for Tiger, as all other golfers. He made a calculated gamble, that his time would better be spent preparing for the following week's tournament as opposed to waiting around on the off chance that 5 great golfers coughed up a lead over him on the closing holes, when those closing holes are good scoring holes (relative to the course).

The worst criticism I heard leveled against him was that he disrespected his opponents by leaving. Again, I find myself having to support Tiger, I know, it feels wrong to me as well, just bear with me, I'm almost done. To my mind, leaving sent the message of "well done boys, I think you got me this week, now, if you'll excuse, while you finish up here I'm going to go and get ready to whip you all next week". Whereas staying would have sent the message "you guys suck, you'll find ways to blow it, and I'm sticking around just in case you don't blow it enough to avoid a playoff". Which one is more disrespectful do you think?

One final note: Tiger won the NEC Invitational the following week marking the first, and hopefully only time I actually rooted for him. I did so just to stick it to all the talking heads. Now that it is over, and I've had my say here things can return to normal. I don't like Tiger Woods. The next tournament he enters I'll spend Thursday and Friday hoping he misses the cut, then spend Saturday and Sunday hoping somebody can keep him from winning. And of course, you can rest assured I'll be hoping he comes up flat at the President's cup.

Zen and the Art of Steriods in Baseball

2005-08-26T23:00:00.000-03:00

I want to take the opportunity over my next couple of postings to express some thoughts on a couple of the "controversies" that have been floating around the sports scene this summer. These are all pretty recent, some of the others are lost for ever.

Today's topic: Steriods

The revolation this summer that some professional atheltes, mostly baseball players though, have used steriods can not be allowed to pass with out comment. This topic opens up so many kettles of fish that I'm not even going to attempt to attack this issue in a well thought out manner. In fact, I might even miss a few sub-issues on this.

One thing I can not figure out is how so many reporters and columnists in the sporting world were shocked by this. How could an allegedly intelligent person, who makes their living by following sports and writing about it, be taken so completely by surpise by this? It doesn't make sense. A close second in the head scratcher department raised by this issue is the sanctimonious, righteous indignation these same, and other reporters displayed on this revelation. To me it's laughable, the way these reporters react.

The first thing that strikes me is the suggestion that MLB players who used steriods from the late 80's upto about a year are "cheaters". Really? What rule did the break exactly? MLB did not have a rule against the use of steriods any more than they had rules against dietary supplements, sleeping pills, cough syrup or caffine. The fact that the government considers the non-presciption use of steriods to be illegal does not make their use contrary to the rules of baseball.

Then we have all the people who argue that "players from 'the steriods era' should have an asterik in the record book" or "players of whom it can be proven used steriods should have an asterik" or "a failed test equals a ban from the hall of fame". Please, oh please oh please. Let me deal with the asterik issue first. There are no asteriks next to Babe Ruth's name and he had a bigger unnatural advantage in compling his statisitcs than the modern steriod assisted player. His advantage? Segregation. There is an entire generation plus of baseball players whose statisitics and accomplishments are, if not corrupted, at least clouded by the fact that Black, Hispanic and Asian players were not allowed to play. And the record books don't put an asterik in there. But, you know what is there, a mental asterik. We all know this, and we all consider their accomplishments accordingly. I think the same thing will happen with the Steriod players. The mental asterik will prove to be far more effective than an actual one on the page.

Next, the hall of Fame thing. Ok, I'll get behind that. But first take every player who played during the segreagation era. Then take out every pitcher who doctored or applied a forigen substance to a ball. Then any hitter who used a corked bat. Of course, since steriod use was not a violation of any actual baseball rule, until very recently, we will also have to remove from Cooperstown any player who every commited any crime or did anything that might be considered a smug against the pristine game of baseball. Do I sound rediculous? Good, now, go tell Bob Ryan that.

Finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't discuss Rafial Palmier ("Raffy"). He has been fodder for the talking heads on three seperate occasions this summer. First, at the congressional hearings when he, of Viagra ad fame, proclaimed, with such conviction, that he has never used steriods, you almost wish he called them "preformance enhancing drugs" instead so the irony would be complete. Second, when he notched his 3,000th hit to not only join that elite club, but also being a member of the elite 500 home run club he became, I believe only 9th player in history to have accomplished both feats. Then finally, when it was announced that he was suspended 10 games for testing positive for steriods. Quite the summer, eh?

Ok, so I think it is obvious he perjured himself at the Congressional hearings. There really are only two ways he didn't. One, something went wrong with the testing, and he was stuck with a false positive or unkowingly took something which created a positive result; or two, he is among the stupidest man alive and never used steriods until after his testimony. I consider the second to be an act of utter stupidity because, of course, he could have used steriods his entire career and stopped last September and probably gotten away with it. I mean there were never any serious accusations directed towards Raffy. So to have never used until the very year when Baseball started testing is an act of stupidity. Putting all of this aside, if the United States Congress decides to "go after" Raffy for purjury, I'll be writing a very scathing condmenation of them for it. They should just let it go.

Earlier in the Summer, when Raffy became Mr. 3000/500 there was alot of chatter amongst the talking heads about whether or not Raffy gets to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Personally, I don't know how this was even a discussion, but, anything that can fill 2 or 3 columns or a segment or two of television talk time, generally will, so the debate was waged. Most shocking to me, was that the near consensus that seemed to form, at that time, was: No, not the Hall of Fame for Raffy; the Hall of Very Good definitly, but not the hallowed halls of the Hall of Fame.

The arguments against Raffy included: A) There attainment of offensive milestones should not be considered enough;B) He was never the most dominant at any given time; and C) I'm pretty sure nobody from the "steriods era" should get in period.

I think I've outlined how I feel about the third argument sufficinetly above.

It is true that for a variety of reasons, offensive statistics over the past decade plus are somewhat watered down. I'm going to put aside the steriods issue from this issue for the time being because, well pitchers juiced to, and reasonable peopel can argue about how exactly, steriods enhance a baseball player's performance. Although the critics still point to steriods as a reason to discount recent offensive numbers. The remaining explanations for the surge in the offensive prowess of Magor League Baseball players include: smaller parks; teams now being located in high altitude cities; over expansion has lead to a dillution of pitching talent relative to the top hitters.

Of course, there is some validity to this argument. All of those points are true and each contribute to inflated offensive numbers.

But, 500 home runs is still alot of home runs, and Raffy will be alot closer to 600 before he's done. Also, 3000 hits is alot of hits. Let's break down 3000 hits in a career, just to gain some prespective on the subject. Last year Ichiro was chasing the single season records for hits. He ended up with 262 hits. When a player gets 200 hits in a season he had an excellant season at the plate. At 200 hits per season a player would have to have 15 seasons like that in order to make 3000. So, no matter what, 3000 hits is still an accomplishment.

With regards to the second argument, that he was never the dominant player at his position, this is true. Raffy has been a firstbasemen / designated hitter his entire career. And he has never been the most dominant at that posisition. With out checking, I still feel safe saying he was never a starter at the All Star Game. Also, he never won an MVP, Batting Tittle, nor did he ever lead his league in home runs or runs batted in. Plus his post season resume is sparse and not particularly impressive. So, I suppose there is some merit to this argument as well.

However, I think it is neccesary to consider what induction into the hall of fame is supposed to represent. To me, it represents that that player had one of the great carreers in the game. To me, if the answer to the following question is "yes", then, the player should be in the Hall of Fame. "If 30 years from now, someone, never heard of the game of baseball, wanted to learn of and fully understand it's history should they know something about this player?"

And to me, anyone who was good enough, long enough to hit 500 homeruns and notch 3000 hits the answer should probably be yes. So to me, if we take away the cloud cast upon Raffy by his positive steriod test, there is no way he should be excluded from the Hall of Fame. Also, and I know the sentamentalists out there will disagree, but, one positive steriod test is not much different from one time getting caught with a corked bat. Hopefully, when all the sanctimoniousness surrounding the steriod issue dies down, people will realize this, and Raffy will get recognized for the great hitter he was. Even if his greatness was never fully appreciated in his prime, or even in his time.

Gone Too Long

2005-08-19T20:36:00.000-03:00

Friday, August 19th, 2005:

Ok, I know, it's been too long since my last post. If I actually had any readers they would be understanably surprised to see me back. I won't try to explain my absence, anyone who is reading deserves better than some lame attempt at an explanation. It is unfortuante because there has been alot of happenings around the world of sports over the last few months that I could have commented on, but the opportunities have been missed. Well, now I'm going to try to be back at this, and we will see how it goes.

What I want to talk about today is how the Madden 2006 video game is jerking me around.

Ok, first off , all the advertisment leading up to the release of the game were saying August 9th, 2005 as the release date. So, showing a remarkable degree of forsight I schedule the 10th, 11th and 12th for vacation. Now I should note that I was planning on going away on the 12th for a long weekend in Halifax, but that's besides the point.

So, On Wednesday the 10th, I get up early (for a vacation day) and am out the door by 9:30 and over the mall by the time it opens. First I go to Walmart, and look for the game. Making a mistake I ask the loser working in the electronics department, but, of course, he dosen't know anything. So I head to EB Games and can't find it there so I ask. And I get told that it was released yesturday but now on the PC Platform, it dosen't come on PC until the 19th.

Now, this completly bush league. And I'm understandably pissed off. Especially since I'm standing there holding the box for the PC version of the game found on the "Coming Soon" shelf but in big bold letters at the top of the box it reads "In stores 08-09-05". So there's little excuse.

Ok then, fast-forward to today. I sit through the whole day at work and head over the mall. I should take some responsibility for this, but well, not too much, I should have called first. It would have saved alot of frustration. So I go, and my first stop is Future Shop. I couldn't find it on the shelves. Then, on my way out the door there's a sign listing when new titles of different things will be availible. You probably know this board, it listed DVD, XBox games etc. And the date for Madden for PC, August 22nd, 2005. So I'm upset at this point.

Then, I wend over to EB Games. That box I told you about a couple paragraphs ago, now on the "New Release" shelf. So I'm thingking "Score"! I take the empty box to the counter, and the dude tells me they are sold out.

So, I might go try to buy the game on Monday. We'll have to wait and see

Picking My Second Team

2005-02-28T19:10:00.000-04:00

Monday, February 28th, 2005

Hi again everyone, sorry it has been a whole week since my last post once again. Would you believe I was dog sick all last week? Turned out that headache I wrote about last week turned itself into a nasty son of gun. But life goes on here on this Canadian's sports scene.

Major League Baseball's spring training is in full swing. Pitchers and catchers started reporting a couple weeks ago, tomorow is the official mandatory reporting day, Grapefruit and Cactus league games start up in another week's time. Heck, we are only five weeks from opening days. Double heck, six weeks and six days if you count the new annual Sunday night opener as opening day. So, in the abscense of hockey it's time to get cranked up for the boys of summer. Windchill here in Moncton was 19 degrees below zero, that's celcius, good time to start thinking about baseball anyway.

As you know, the Jays are my team in baseball. It also dosen't take a Bill James or Peter Gammons to figure out that they aren't going to win much this year, especially in the, to borrow a soccer expression, Group of Death. So with that in mind, every year I pick a second team. I route for them, expecting them to compete, thinking they can win. This year, for the first time, it is possible that this team might take on added significance as I am thinking of ordering the sports package from Rogers, that would give me the Extra Innings package, so I'll be able to watch some of my second team's games.

What I'm going to do now is treat you all to inside glimps at how my feeble brain goes about picking a "second team". This hasn't been predecided, I really don't what team is going to get choosen. I'm just like you, I'll have to wait until the end of this post to find out who it is going to be aswell. The way this works is I'll have various criteria, with each criteria I'll elimate however many of the 29 non-Jays teams do not satisfy the criteria, we'll keep going until only one team remains, my "second team". Let's go!

1) No AL East teams. This stand to reason, I can't have my second team play My Team 19 times during the year. Plus what happens if, somehow, someway, the Jays are able to contend this year, a race between your Team and your second team is kinda like taking your sister to the prom. So goodbye Yankees, RedSox, Orioles and Devil Rays; 25 teams remain;

2) No Western divison teams. This is because I live in the Atlantic Time zone. If a team plays in either the NL or AL West divisions then between two-thirds and three-quarters of their games will not even start until eleven pm or midnight. I can't handle staying up that late. I don't get paid for doing this. So goodbye Angels, A's, Mariners, Rangers, Dodgers, Diamondbacks, Padres, Rockies and Giants. That was tough, because the Padres are my outside shot world series pick. 16 teams remain ( I should do a bracketed tournament. I won't. But I should)

3) No team that made the playoffs last year. This is because I like to cheer for underdog. Cheering for entrenched power is kind of like cheering for the house in a game of blackjack. The Yankees make the playoffs, that's baseball's equivalent to poker's rake, where's the fun in that. So, goodbye Twins, Braves, Cardinals and Astros. 11 teams remain

4) No team that has as bad or worse shot of making the playoffs as the Jays. This is obvious to. If I wanted to cheer for a team that was not going anywhere I'd just watch 100+ Jays games and call it a season. This elimates: Pirates, Reds, Brewers, Royals and Nationals. 6 teams remain.

5) Elimate my Second Team from last year. This is just to keep things fresh. Goodbye Philies, 5 teams remain

6) Only choose a team with what looks like an ability to play "small ball" and what looks like a promising and interesting young pitching staff. This elimates: The White Sox, Tigers and Mets.

So now, we are down to just 2 teams: the Marlins and the Indians.

I'm picking the Marlins because the Indians are in the American League, and this will give me more exposure to more teams.

The Blahs

2005-02-21T19:59:00.000-04:00

February 21, 2005

If anyone reading this has one of those jobs, know the one, the one where sometimes you literally cannot call in sick, then you know why I didn't post anything last week. I have one of those jobs, and last week, was one of those weeks. I started getting sick Monday night/Tuesday morning and it grew from there. By the time Wednesday night/ Thursday night I won't say I wanted to die, but I think I thought I was going to. Add to that I had to put in some extra hours last week, so I was a Mess. So needless to say, by the time I got home from work each night I totaly tacked anything resembling the energy to put together a post about the NHL lockout situation.

What is there to say about the NHL lockout? It sucks. I guess that sums it up best. There are enough people out there to write about the how and the why, and the consequences that I don't have to. And I'm not going to. A deal couldn't be reached that addressed the needs of both the owners and the executive of the Player's Association, so the NHL became the first North American professional sport to cancel an entire season because of a labour dispute. 2005 will be the first year since 1919 that Lord Stanley's Cup won't be awarded. And it's largely Gary Bettman's fault, although Bob "grab to goods" Goodenaugh deserves some blame to.

I hold the following truths to be self evident of cause of the current situation:
1) The league can't continue in its current financial situation;
2) It is not, in any way the player's fault that the league arrived in its current financial situation;
3) The player's are big winners based on the current situation;
4) The player's have to be part of the solution; and
5) The current situation is all Bettman's fault.

It is my undertstanding that when Gary Bettman was hired away from some middling job in the NBA to be NHL commissioner it was because he could sell the NHL to Americans. This implies that the league was having trouble down there. What does this idiot do to solve the problem? Expand. The idiot expanding a semi-strong league into markets that had no built in hockey support.

But the real problem with expansion? Simple, dissolution of talent, now the league is all defense. And you know what they say, Defense wins championships but offense sells tickets.

Here's my 6 point plan to solve hockey's problems if the labour trouble ever gets resolved.

1) Contraction, reduce the number of teams from 30 to 26.
2) Reduction, of the regular season from 82 games per team to 68 games per team, but played over the same length of time. This will result in fewer injuries, meaning more NHL caliber players will be playing in the NHL and less AHL quality players. Additionally, players will be fresher and better able to demonstrate their skills.
3) Expansion, of roster sizes, this is partial appeasement of to the union, to keep the job loses to a minimum each team will be able to dress 2 additional skaters. But there will also be benefits in the sense of fresher legs on the ice
4) increases, to the flow of the game. This will be accomplished by removing the red line and most importantly all the neutral zone clutching and grabbing, that has to go. This has been talked about before but do it!
5) More, more scoring. And more scoring opportunities. Minor penalties, serve the full two minutes. Offsetting minors, play 4 on 4. Take out the first row of seats all around the rink to increase the ice size.
6) consistency. Call the game consistency. Offside is offiside no matter if it's the first period and the score is 3-0 or if it's the third period and the score is 1-1. So why the game situation matter when it comes to the referee calling a penalty. In football, holding and pass interference penalties aren't game situation determinant, and nobody whines "let the player's decide the game" This could be a whole column in and of itself.

Now my headache is killing me again, so I gotta go.

PoSuBWeB: (Post SuperBowl Week Blues)

2005-02-10T18:12:00.000-04:00

February 10th, 2005

This is a hard week. It's usually a hard week, but this time it's killer. With the Superbowl behind us. With the NHL lookout still in full force. With baseball's spring training still a little less than a week away. I should not know that. In past years, you know the one's with hockey, I would transision smoothly this week (the post Superbowl week) from casual hockey fan to full out follower. Although, the games still seemed to lack meaning, being only slightly better than half way through and 82 game schedule used to cut 30 teams into 16. But that's a whole blog entry in itself almost. This would mean that pitchers and catchers reporting day would normally be marked only by a small story on SportsCenter (SortsDesk) on the topic that would get me thinking, "time to start preparing some strategies for Fantasy Baseball". This year I find myself logging onto MLB.com just to watch the numbers change on the Countdown to Spring Training.

yesterday, I was walking back to my office after lunch when some idiot driver almost took me out by speeding through a stop sign. It was at that point that I had a fantasy. I fantasied about getting put into a comma. To be unconscious for the next month and a half and then recover, a couple days before opening day, with now ill effects would sure be a nice way to deal with the upcoming lack of sports.

Since it looks like Bettman's announcement yesterday means by early next week we will know, one way or another, what is going to happen with the NHL season, I'm going to wait until then to really express my opinion(s) on this mess. Also, I'll have some preliminary thoughts to share on baseball to celebrate pitchers and catchers reporting next week. So now, I find myself with very little to talk about sports wise, much to the delight of my girlfriend.

What can I talk about with this Blog entry? Well a couple of small things can fill up a few lines I think. In this, the early stages of my blogging experience, I feel like I have to put something online, if only to keep me in the habit. So tonight I'm going to discuss two small topics. The first topic being the movie Coach Carter.

I went to see Coach Carter the other night, Tuesday night, in fact. This city basically has two theaters, one on Trinity Drive, that is tough to get to with out a car and the other one in at Crystal Palace in Dieppe. I've never seen a movie up at Trinity, so I can't comment, but the Theaters at Crystal Palace suck. They are small, the chairs are uncomfortable and the sound system doesn't seem up to the high standards I'm more used to from my days in Halifax. So that's a minus right there.

I had a good vibe going into the movie. I really felt I was going to get my money's worth, and with the cost of movies these days, there's nothing worse than when that's a crap shoot. Of course the odds were in my favour, as I paid for dinner not the movie, and I enjoyed the dinner. But Samuel L. Jackson rarely fails to entertain me and sports based dramas rarely fail to entertain me, hence the good vibe.

As you know, I'm not much of a baseketball fan (another blog entry in and of itself). But baseketball based movies are often good, partially because I lack the preconceived notions of what that sport means, I don't know. For example, I really enjoyed Hoosiers and the Basketball Diaries (Note on the Basketball Diaries, loved it when Titanic came out and all my female co-workers at Burger King were all swooning of DiCaprio, I told them to rent Basketball Diaries, cured them of that annoying habit).

If you are expecting an indepth plot analysis, or thorough review of the movie, I'm sorry, I'm not going to give you that. I will say, the story was compelling, the production values were solid, and the acting was, for the most part, high quality. There was one flaw in the movie that I think I caught, and of course, I'm probably wrong about this because, I'm not really a basketball guy. However, it seemed to me that the "Worm" character was always being referred to as the pointguard, even though in the basketball clips it seemed to me that the Damien character was the point guard. Small thing, and I'm probably wrong, but I'm right that's a .5 deduction from this judge.

Another thing I would like to know about this movie is who was the actor who played Damien? Also, why does he remind so much of a young Cuba Gooding Jr. Circa Boyz in the Hood? I welcome comments (bluenoser2000@yahoo.com).

Bottom line on Coach Carter: Worthwhile sports flick, in my opinion go see it. Now pity me, because it's looking like the next movie I see is going to be Hitch.

I was going to debate with myself whether or not Poker is a sport, but instead, I think I'll just go online and play a little myself, I need the exercise.

Some Super Thoughts

2005-02-07T18:06:00.000-04:00

February 7th, 2004

I'm going to apologize for not getting some pre-Super Bowl thoughts out over the weekend, as I indicated on Friday night I would. But really, did you miss my two-cents-worth on this topic? I didn't think so. First of all I doubt if I have any readers out there yet. Second of all, with all the other idiots out there telling you what to think about the SuperBowl, and really, there is no other event in which more "experts" tell you what to think anyways, and I include elections in that comment. So I kept my silence.

What did I think going into the game? Well I wanted the Eagles to win. Actually, to be accurate, I wanted the Patriots to loose. Hey, I'm Dolphins fan, and it's hard to cheer for your divisional rival. Although, it is a nice silver lining in an otherwise very dark cloudy season to say that my team beat the World Champions, in a meaningful game, late in the season. (Remember week 15, Patriots still had a shot at Home Field Advantage).

I used to have some like for the Eagles as well. They were my NFC team. A team that would like to see do well, and loose to the Dolphins in the Superbowl. Well that's not true, I'd rather watch the Dolphins beat a team I don't like. But you get my point.

Well that changed this summer when the Eagles went out and acquired Terrell Owens. He's often called T.O., which I think stands for Terribly Overrated, but I won't say that because we all learned last year what you are if you refer to an African American athlete as overrated. But seriously, all he is is an above average wide receiver, who has always had the benefit of having above average quaterbacks throwing to him, who has a big mouth, and is willing to do almost anything to get attention. He's a lot like Randy Moss, except Moss is at least 17.5 times better than he is.

So there I was last night, half-heartedly cheering for the Eagles. I ate way to much junk food, and didn't offset it with enough beer. That made work today absolute hell. The last time my stomach felt like this was probably the day after Halloween when I was 12. One of the secretaries whose desk is near my office had some microwave popcorn for an afternoon snack today, I thought I was going to throw up, I had to close my office door I ate that much junk food last night.

Troy Aikmen should not be part of Fox's top football broadcasting team. And as for Joe Buck, let me just say, when Chris Collinsworth is better than you, you should stick to baseball, where Tim McCarver makes you look brilliant. Although McCarver could make a cross eyed lobster fisherman look brilliant, it's all relative.

The game itself was good last night. About what you want from the SuperBowl when your team isn't it, a close score and not too many penalties. The was a lot of sloppiness, especially early, that's the problem with the bye week I think. Also the Eagles clock management plan with about 5 minutes to go and down by two scores was an absolute disaster. The benefits of going no huddle in that situation are pretty much axiomatic. I mean with limited time and you have to score twice, you don't want to waste any time in huddles, or slow developing passes over the middle for short yardage. Also and Bill Simmons pointed out in his pregame column, the best way to beat the Patriots is by taking Bellicheck out of the game and going no huddle.

The highlight of the night for me was watching the Simpsons after the game. Although, even that was bittersweet, as the Simpsons seems to be loosing its edge over the past couple years. Most notably the quality of the satire has gone down while the quantity of A) parody; B) Bathroom humour and C) Slapstick type comedy has gone up. Leading to an overall damping down of what was, in it's prime, a brilliant show that worked on multiple levels.

One more note about the viewing experience. This one came right after the game ended. I said to my girlfriend, who emerged from the spare room after halftime, " Dion Branch should be MVP". Then I predicted "but, he won't be. He wasn't dominate the way a wide out has to be to win the award, plus he didn't showboat enough. So when in doubt, rest assured the media in charge of this award, will give it to the winning quarter back, espically if he's a pretty-boy white guy". A couple minutes later, I was in the bathroom, missing the Lombardi trophy presentation to Kraft, when my girlfriend yells out that Branch won. So what do you know? I need to trust the media types a little more.

Keeping My Teeth

2005-02-04T22:19:00.000-04:00

February 4th, 2005

So one of my alma matters brought their hockey team to town tonight. I went, sat in the visitor's barn and hoped to get out alive. I am a heckler. I firmly believe if you are a fan of a team it is your job, no duty, to make the other team uncomfortable and try to influence the officials. I think I do a good job.

For example a couple of years ago I went to a preliminary round game during the Nationals. UNB was the host school and they were playing Lakehead University. I had to buy scapled tickets and ended up sitting behind the Lakehead bench, a few rows back. I noticed a player on Lakehead with the same last name as a good friend of mine who was getting next to no ice time, so I started ragging on him for it. So he finally got a shift late in the second period of a tied game, he took a really stupid penalty and UNB scored what proved to be the winner on the powerplay. He finally got another shift in the 3rd period and promptly missed a wide open net. So I had to yell at him, as he sulked back to the bench "Way to go hotshot, you couldn't score with your sister on prom night".

Unbeknownst to me, the guy's father was sitting right behind me. He wasn't thrilled with, but accepted, in the good humored nature it was intended, the ribbing I was giving the player up until that point. Well dissing his son was one thing, but he too exception to the implication I made regarding his daughter's sexuality, so he took a swing at me, and security showed him the exit. Small victories.

Now, for tonight's game I had made some promises to a couple people that I'd behave myself. Probably a smart move, I'm in the other guy's barn and outnumbered. So I wore my new retro-style jersey that my girlfriend bought for me just last weekend during our road trip back to our old campus in Fredericton. And I sat myself down behind the visitor's bench and prepared myself to applaud politely and cheer discreetly.

Ok so the score is 2-0 for Universite de Moncton Aigles Bleus, which I will now refer to as university of Moncton Blue Eagles, if for no other reason then it will piss off any local Frenchy who happens to read this, after the first period. UNB scored a goal late in the second, unfortunately Moncton scores two quick ones themselves before the frame ends and it's 4-1 Moncton during the second intermission.

Now, I'm on my way back to my seat after going to the can and picking up a hotchocolate, when some Moncton fans point at my V-Reds jersey and make a couple smart ass comments, or at least I assume they were smart ass comments, I don't speak French. It was at this point that I wanted to point out a little history, but remembering my promises I bit my tongue and returned to my seat.

Now, to make myself feel better I'll tell you, my readers, what I wanted to tell those Frenchies.

Laugh it up boys. I mean your team is winning 4-1 tonight and playing quite well. But of course last year, UNB took the National Championship game to double overtime, while Moncton finished dead last in the conference and missed the playoffs. Oh, and the year before, UNB won the conference championship and finished fourth at Nationals. Moncton on the other hand, dead last in the conference and missed the playoffs. So now it's a rebuilding year for the Reds, but despite being an incredibly young team, they are still going to make the playoffs, so perhaps we'll see you there.

UNB went on to loose 5-2. It's ok though, its a young team, and they'll get better. And they gave me lots of great memories while I was at the school and able to attend more than 2 games a year.

tomorrow I'll try to give some pre-SuperBowl thoughts.

First post

2005-02-02T19:27:00.000-04:00

February 2nd, 2005

Well hello everyone and thanks for reading. This my first post and my first attempt at blogging, so it will probably suck, hopefully, you'll be wishing me luck.

I'm thinking with my first post I should give all the readers a little bit of biographical information about myself, that way you'll have some idea where I'm coming from in my future posts. With that in mind here goes. I'm 27 years old, originally from Nova Scotia, Currently living in New Brunswick, with my girlfriend who I love, but who doesn't share my other love, sports. I have a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Saint Mary's University and a law degree from the University of New Brunswick. My day job sees me working as a lawyer in a small law firm.

Since this blog is supposed to be about Sports you need to know some of my biases so here is a list of favorite sports, in order, with a note about teams I like and don't like:

1) International Hockey .... Go Canada Go
2) NHL .... nothingstanding the lockout, Bettman must go. Favorite team: Montreal, most hated team: Boston
3) MLB ... Favorite Team: Toronto, most hated: Yankees, also every year I pick a team that has a chance and root for the them, since the Jays won't win
4) NFL... Favorite Team: Miami Dolphins, Hated: Rams
5) NCAA Football.... Favorite: Notre Dame, Most hated: Michigan and USC
6) CIS Hockey.... Favorite: UNB (also SMU) Hated: St. F.X. and Dalhousie
7) PGA... I like Wier and Mickelson the most, what can I say, I'm a lefty golfer myself. I'm sick of hearing about Tiger Woods, I hope he misses the cut a major soon.
8) NCAA Hoops.... to be honest I only really watch during the tournament.

All other sports get the consideration the deserve after I pay attention to the above sports.

Ok, that's enough for this intro post.