Tuesday, November 02, 2004
CORNUCOPIA
Just a couple of things before I get on with the usual post.
And I guess you should probably pick and choose the sports you want to read about in the post, or divide it up into sittings, because this one's pretty long.
-- You know those station ID spots that run on FSNNW? They're only about five seconds long, and during the season they'd show Edgar flipping the bat around or something, or maybe Joel Pineiro throwing a ball into his mitt, or whatnot. Today I saw two spots, both of which featured cheerleading crews for two of the northwest colleges, probably Oregon State and Washington, since they were playing volleyball at the time I was watching, right before the Keith Gilbertson press conference. I swear they use the same group of people for all the cheerleader spots, because I swear they had the exact same Asian girl in both of the spots that I saw.
-- I really don't give a crap about the Chamber of Fear. I wish Nike could be as ingenious with their commercials as some of the beermakers are.
-- No matter who wins the election today, I think last week's South Park episode hit the nail on the head. For those who didn't see it, here's a quick summary: PeTA forces South Park Elementary to change its mascot to something other than the Cows; Mister Garrison hands out a list of possible mascot names to the kids; Kyle suggests writing in "Giant Douche," and Cartman rips off the idea and wants "Turd Sandwich"; both names are the finalists; Stan doesn't want to vote because both choices are stupid; Stan is banished from town for not wanting to vote; P Diddy also tells him to Vote or Die; Stan learns from one of the PeTA people that the choice in voting in every election will pretty much be between a douche and a turd every time because they're the only ones that suck up enough to get far in politics; Stan goes back to South Park with this fact and votes for Turd Sandwich; Giant Douche whoops Turd Sandwich; Garrison discovers that P Diddy and his entourage killed everyone at the PeTA compound; the kids go back to the South Park Cows; Stan's vote doesn't matter after all.
-- I can't tell you how hilarious that South Park episode was. Of course, they had a top 30 (or so) viewers' choice countdown and the one with Cartman's hand taking the Jennifer Lopez alter-ego was number one, and one of my favorites was number two (the ninja weapons with Japanimation one).
-- Monday's Bremerton Sun (this is me not calling it the West Sound Sun or the new favorite, Kitsap Sun) notified me that Stanford butterflier and Bremertonian Dana Kirk had to pull out of Saturday's Stanford/Texas swim meet due to an aggravation of a lower back injury. Get well, Dana. The team goes to Long Beach for the Speedo cup from the 18th-20th. The rest of their schedule is here.
BASEBALL
Well, Bryan Price won't have to spurn Bob Melvin in Arizona because the pride of Aloha, Oregon, Wally Backman has been hired as the new manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks. It's pretty obvious what Arizona wanted, as in the first sentence of the SportsLine article, Backman is described as "scrappy" and "intense." Yup, Melvin didn't have a chance.
On a weird note, Gerry Hunsicker has suddenly walked from the Astros' GM post. If you're like me and are not a Phil Garner fan, you'd probably say that Hunsicker doesn't want to be there for when the ship goes under. Having a sinking ship is never a good thing when it happens under Garner's watch. Tim Purpura is your new general manager of the Houston Astros.
The Mariners unsurprisingly declined Eddie Guardado's option. Of course, Eddie has his own option on the contract that he can decide to pick up within 10 days. He says he's more than likely going to take it. Both Hickey and Stone let the public know that online voting for the Ford Frick Award is underway. Vote Niehaus. I wish there was some way I could vote for Rick Rizzs' name to be removed from the ballot, but alas, I cannot.
FOOTBALL
Let the Husky coaching speculation begin. Names appearing in the article include Tedford, Meyer, and Hawkins, as Jeremy noted (two of three). I'd say more, but I can only take so much Husky football in a day, and thank God I haven't been listening to KJR all day, it'd probably be unbearable.
One of our readers, Doug, let me know that the BC Lions are kicking some butt in the CFL. Before I dig up an article, I am going to see if I know the nine CFL teams' nicknames while seeing just their three-letter truncated location codes on a webpage. Here I go: British Columbia Lions, Edmonton Eskimos, Saskatchewan Rough Riders, Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Calgary Stampeders, Montreal Alouettes, Toronto Argonauts, Hamilton Tiger-Cats (Ty-Cats for short), Ottawa Renegades (no, they're not the second team of Rough Riders any more). I'm not sure whether I should feel good or bad about that, but I did it. Also, I've been wondering for the past six years or so how the hell a single point is scored on a kickoff in CFL play. I'm still not exactly sure, even after reading this. I'm having trouble discerning a "rouge" from the equivalent of a touchback.
As Doug mentioned, the BC Lions finished the regular season 13-5 thanks to their 40-38 win over Saskatchewan on Sunday. The Lions at one point scored 22 unanswered points in the game to take the lead by three. Their three-headed quarterback combo is David Dickenson, Casey Printers (who's thrown for over 5000 yards on the season), and former Minnesota Viking Spergon Wynn.
Doug mentions that the Lions are in the West Final on November 14th at BC Place (a.k.a., the place that changed Edgar's career). The playoff system has the 2nd-place and 3rd-place teams in the two divisions squaring off for the right to take on the division winner, with obvious homefield advantages going to the applicable seeds.
As for the Seahawks, it's a rash of injuries. Clare Farnsworth said if the team had to play a game yesterday, Koren Robinson might have been the only healthy receiver. The names of the feeble: Hutchinson (ankle sprain), Jackson (ankle sprain), Bannister (broken collarbone, out eight weeks), Rice (sprained ankle), Simmons (shoulder, chance to play Sunday), Engram (high ankle sprain, chance to play Sunday). Grant Wistrom is three weeks into his 4-6 weeks of rehab from a knee fracture. I saw an ad Sunday for the NFL Network, with the NFL Big Man Dancing Challenge. Wistrom was featured, dancing and being mobile and stuff, and it just rubbed it in. If they can get Simmons, Brown, and Wistrom on the field and healthy for the final eight or nine weeks of the season, it'd be just smashing, I tell you.
Also, Jerry Rice wants to play Sunday at San Francisco (no surprise), ankle be damned. The same article brings up something else -- why the hell hasn't Koren Robinson been suspended yet? We've waited long enough. If it's going to happen, make it happen early.
SONICS
It's Nate McMillan's last year as Sonic coach. How can it be otherwise? Howard Schultz wants a playoff appearance, but look at the pile that he's given McMillan to work with; as I've said, .500 will be a miracle for this team, and that's not good in a conference where even 50 wins won't guarantee you a very high playoff seed.
Also, Rashard Lewis may play in the opener tomorrow (yes, tomorrow) against the Clippers after rehabbing his plantar fasciitis. My advice to the Sonics: don't play him yet. I know it's been a few weeks, but I have this sick feeling that he'd be rushed. My comparison: Grant Wistrom plays mostly on FieldTurf and grass; Rashard Lewis plays on hardwood. A lot. It seems like it would affect him more, and therefore necessitate more rest. Bur hey, it's not my foot, and I'm not a doctor or orthopedic specialist.
HOCKEY
I tell ya, you just buy one shred of NHL apparel, and they keep sending you catalogs. Of course, they do have some decent deals in there which are a little enticing. I can tell you that the Rambling Hockey Fangirl has been buying MoDo Hockey stuff. MoDo is the Swedish team that has the Sedin twins, Peter Forsberg, and Tommy Salo playing on it right now. Markus Naslund would have been on the team, but he decided to stay back here, as far as I know.
Are there cracks in the hull of the NHL players' union? Rob Ray of the Buffalo Sabres and Mike Commodore of the Calgary Flames are speaking up. Ray says he would entertain the thought of being a replacement player and says that "[r]eally, it's the role players on the team who are going to get screwed in all of this. Guys like Daniel Alfredsson and Zdeno Chara are going to get their money. Players like Chris Neil and Shaun Van Allen are going to get (expletive). They don't stand to gain anything from this." Commodore says he'd be okay with a salary cap if both sides agreed to one. Peter Dagenais of the Habs also agrees. Of course, this ticks off Columbus union rep Todd Marchant, and now up to 80 players are meeting today in Toronto. If there's only one reason to click on that Commodore link, it's to see his picture. It's unbridled hilarity. "Sea of Red" takes on an entirely different meaning.
The additions of Phoenix Coyote Mike Comrie to Sweden's Farjestad team (a team with Sheldon Souray and Chara), Toronto's Bryan McCabe to Sweden's HV71 team, and Conn Smythe Trophy winner Brad Richards to Russia's Ak Bars Kazan team (it'll happen) have bumped the number of NHLers in Europe to 237, almost one-third of the total number of NHL players.
A former Canuck goalie and Euro player for the last two years, Corey Hirsch had some harsh words for the NHLers-to-Europe situation, after being bumped to backup status thanks to his team's addition of Martin Gerber of Carolina: "Every time an NHL player signs in Europe, another life is affected. One of these lives affected is my own ... NHL players are coming to Europe in droves and are bumping off, one by one, players who actually need the money. Every day, I read another arrogant quote from someone coming to play in Europe for no other reason than to stay in shape. Where is the logic in not negotiating a CBA that will still pay a player more than he'll need but instead come to Europe to play just to stay in shape? Some of these players should have a talk with my pregnant wife and kids who moved their lives to Europe, only to watch me sit in the stands game after game because I have been bumped by an NHL player [Gerber]. There's a good chance I may not play a game this season. Without playing the previous season due to this mess, many players in Europe may have to retire."
In a somewhat related note, Scott Gomez of the Devils is playing for his hometown Alaska Aces of the ECHL and netted a shootout goal and an assist against the San Diego Gulls on Friday. He's making $500 a week, but after he'd signed, the Aces sold 25 season tickets and 250 tickets for Friday's game, which sold out (6453 capacity).
I flipped across the CBC one day and saw a Canada Now report where they sent one of their guys, Shanel Pratap, to the Canucks' media camp. Basically, Marc Crawford coached a bunch of media members up, and the eventual culmination was a scrimmage against some Canucks of yore (i.e., Kirk McLean, Orland Kurtenbach, Richard Brodeur, Tiger Williams, Gino Odjick, Bill Ranford). Yes, the ex-Canucks won.
But the saddest note of the night is that one of the best Calgary Flames ever, and the great short (5'6") hope for guys like me, Theo Fleury, is still not sober. I've been hoping for the longest time that he'd straighten it out and tear up the NHL once again, but he's had trouble every time. One look at his stats lets you know how good this guy was -- he had 104 points in 1990-91 and another 100 two years later. I used to see this guy go nuts when we had the CBC in the house and when I was a fourth- or fifth-grader who didn't fully appreciate hockey yet. Somehow, this triggered some nostalgia for me and I dug up Pavel Bure's stats. Thirty-one points in the playoff run to the Cup Finals, people. Unreal.
Upcoming in minor-league hockey...
Tuesday: Prince George at Everett, Vancouver at Medicine Hat
Wednesday: Seattle at Tri-City, Prince George at Portland, Vancouver at Swift Current
Thursday: Utah at Manitoba
Friday: Everett at Prince Albert, Portland at Tri-City, Vancouver at Red Deer, Puget Sound at Tri-City
Saturday: Everett at Saskatoon, Seattle at Portland, Vancouver at Lethbridge, Utah at Manitoba (final game at Winnipeg Arena), Puget Sound at Tri-City
Sunday: Vancouver at Calgary
---
Have a safe and sane election day, everyone, and remember: if, for any reason, your election lasts longer than four hours, notify your doctor immediately.
And I guess you should probably pick and choose the sports you want to read about in the post, or divide it up into sittings, because this one's pretty long.
-- You know those station ID spots that run on FSNNW? They're only about five seconds long, and during the season they'd show Edgar flipping the bat around or something, or maybe Joel Pineiro throwing a ball into his mitt, or whatnot. Today I saw two spots, both of which featured cheerleading crews for two of the northwest colleges, probably Oregon State and Washington, since they were playing volleyball at the time I was watching, right before the Keith Gilbertson press conference. I swear they use the same group of people for all the cheerleader spots, because I swear they had the exact same Asian girl in both of the spots that I saw.
-- I really don't give a crap about the Chamber of Fear. I wish Nike could be as ingenious with their commercials as some of the beermakers are.
-- No matter who wins the election today, I think last week's South Park episode hit the nail on the head. For those who didn't see it, here's a quick summary: PeTA forces South Park Elementary to change its mascot to something other than the Cows; Mister Garrison hands out a list of possible mascot names to the kids; Kyle suggests writing in "Giant Douche," and Cartman rips off the idea and wants "Turd Sandwich"; both names are the finalists; Stan doesn't want to vote because both choices are stupid; Stan is banished from town for not wanting to vote; P Diddy also tells him to Vote or Die; Stan learns from one of the PeTA people that the choice in voting in every election will pretty much be between a douche and a turd every time because they're the only ones that suck up enough to get far in politics; Stan goes back to South Park with this fact and votes for Turd Sandwich; Giant Douche whoops Turd Sandwich; Garrison discovers that P Diddy and his entourage killed everyone at the PeTA compound; the kids go back to the South Park Cows; Stan's vote doesn't matter after all.
-- I can't tell you how hilarious that South Park episode was. Of course, they had a top 30 (or so) viewers' choice countdown and the one with Cartman's hand taking the Jennifer Lopez alter-ego was number one, and one of my favorites was number two (the ninja weapons with Japanimation one).
-- Monday's Bremerton Sun (this is me not calling it the West Sound Sun or the new favorite, Kitsap Sun) notified me that Stanford butterflier and Bremertonian Dana Kirk had to pull out of Saturday's Stanford/Texas swim meet due to an aggravation of a lower back injury. Get well, Dana. The team goes to Long Beach for the Speedo cup from the 18th-20th. The rest of their schedule is here.
BASEBALL
Well, Bryan Price won't have to spurn Bob Melvin in Arizona because the pride of Aloha, Oregon, Wally Backman has been hired as the new manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks. It's pretty obvious what Arizona wanted, as in the first sentence of the SportsLine article, Backman is described as "scrappy" and "intense." Yup, Melvin didn't have a chance.
On a weird note, Gerry Hunsicker has suddenly walked from the Astros' GM post. If you're like me and are not a Phil Garner fan, you'd probably say that Hunsicker doesn't want to be there for when the ship goes under. Having a sinking ship is never a good thing when it happens under Garner's watch. Tim Purpura is your new general manager of the Houston Astros.
The Mariners unsurprisingly declined Eddie Guardado's option. Of course, Eddie has his own option on the contract that he can decide to pick up within 10 days. He says he's more than likely going to take it. Both Hickey and Stone let the public know that online voting for the Ford Frick Award is underway. Vote Niehaus. I wish there was some way I could vote for Rick Rizzs' name to be removed from the ballot, but alas, I cannot.
FOOTBALL
Let the Husky coaching speculation begin. Names appearing in the article include Tedford, Meyer, and Hawkins, as Jeremy noted (two of three). I'd say more, but I can only take so much Husky football in a day, and thank God I haven't been listening to KJR all day, it'd probably be unbearable.
One of our readers, Doug, let me know that the BC Lions are kicking some butt in the CFL. Before I dig up an article, I am going to see if I know the nine CFL teams' nicknames while seeing just their three-letter truncated location codes on a webpage. Here I go: British Columbia Lions, Edmonton Eskimos, Saskatchewan Rough Riders, Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Calgary Stampeders, Montreal Alouettes, Toronto Argonauts, Hamilton Tiger-Cats (Ty-Cats for short), Ottawa Renegades (no, they're not the second team of Rough Riders any more). I'm not sure whether I should feel good or bad about that, but I did it. Also, I've been wondering for the past six years or so how the hell a single point is scored on a kickoff in CFL play. I'm still not exactly sure, even after reading this. I'm having trouble discerning a "rouge" from the equivalent of a touchback.
As Doug mentioned, the BC Lions finished the regular season 13-5 thanks to their 40-38 win over Saskatchewan on Sunday. The Lions at one point scored 22 unanswered points in the game to take the lead by three. Their three-headed quarterback combo is David Dickenson, Casey Printers (who's thrown for over 5000 yards on the season), and former Minnesota Viking Spergon Wynn.
Doug mentions that the Lions are in the West Final on November 14th at BC Place (a.k.a., the place that changed Edgar's career). The playoff system has the 2nd-place and 3rd-place teams in the two divisions squaring off for the right to take on the division winner, with obvious homefield advantages going to the applicable seeds.
As for the Seahawks, it's a rash of injuries. Clare Farnsworth said if the team had to play a game yesterday, Koren Robinson might have been the only healthy receiver. The names of the feeble: Hutchinson (ankle sprain), Jackson (ankle sprain), Bannister (broken collarbone, out eight weeks), Rice (sprained ankle), Simmons (shoulder, chance to play Sunday), Engram (high ankle sprain, chance to play Sunday). Grant Wistrom is three weeks into his 4-6 weeks of rehab from a knee fracture. I saw an ad Sunday for the NFL Network, with the NFL Big Man Dancing Challenge. Wistrom was featured, dancing and being mobile and stuff, and it just rubbed it in. If they can get Simmons, Brown, and Wistrom on the field and healthy for the final eight or nine weeks of the season, it'd be just smashing, I tell you.
Also, Jerry Rice wants to play Sunday at San Francisco (no surprise), ankle be damned. The same article brings up something else -- why the hell hasn't Koren Robinson been suspended yet? We've waited long enough. If it's going to happen, make it happen early.
SONICS
It's Nate McMillan's last year as Sonic coach. How can it be otherwise? Howard Schultz wants a playoff appearance, but look at the pile that he's given McMillan to work with; as I've said, .500 will be a miracle for this team, and that's not good in a conference where even 50 wins won't guarantee you a very high playoff seed.
Also, Rashard Lewis may play in the opener tomorrow (yes, tomorrow) against the Clippers after rehabbing his plantar fasciitis. My advice to the Sonics: don't play him yet. I know it's been a few weeks, but I have this sick feeling that he'd be rushed. My comparison: Grant Wistrom plays mostly on FieldTurf and grass; Rashard Lewis plays on hardwood. A lot. It seems like it would affect him more, and therefore necessitate more rest. Bur hey, it's not my foot, and I'm not a doctor or orthopedic specialist.
HOCKEY
I tell ya, you just buy one shred of NHL apparel, and they keep sending you catalogs. Of course, they do have some decent deals in there which are a little enticing. I can tell you that the Rambling Hockey Fangirl has been buying MoDo Hockey stuff. MoDo is the Swedish team that has the Sedin twins, Peter Forsberg, and Tommy Salo playing on it right now. Markus Naslund would have been on the team, but he decided to stay back here, as far as I know.
Are there cracks in the hull of the NHL players' union? Rob Ray of the Buffalo Sabres and Mike Commodore of the Calgary Flames are speaking up. Ray says he would entertain the thought of being a replacement player and says that "[r]eally, it's the role players on the team who are going to get screwed in all of this. Guys like Daniel Alfredsson and Zdeno Chara are going to get their money. Players like Chris Neil and Shaun Van Allen are going to get (expletive). They don't stand to gain anything from this." Commodore says he'd be okay with a salary cap if both sides agreed to one. Peter Dagenais of the Habs also agrees. Of course, this ticks off Columbus union rep Todd Marchant, and now up to 80 players are meeting today in Toronto. If there's only one reason to click on that Commodore link, it's to see his picture. It's unbridled hilarity. "Sea of Red" takes on an entirely different meaning.
The additions of Phoenix Coyote Mike Comrie to Sweden's Farjestad team (a team with Sheldon Souray and Chara), Toronto's Bryan McCabe to Sweden's HV71 team, and Conn Smythe Trophy winner Brad Richards to Russia's Ak Bars Kazan team (it'll happen) have bumped the number of NHLers in Europe to 237, almost one-third of the total number of NHL players.
A former Canuck goalie and Euro player for the last two years, Corey Hirsch had some harsh words for the NHLers-to-Europe situation, after being bumped to backup status thanks to his team's addition of Martin Gerber of Carolina: "Every time an NHL player signs in Europe, another life is affected. One of these lives affected is my own ... NHL players are coming to Europe in droves and are bumping off, one by one, players who actually need the money. Every day, I read another arrogant quote from someone coming to play in Europe for no other reason than to stay in shape. Where is the logic in not negotiating a CBA that will still pay a player more than he'll need but instead come to Europe to play just to stay in shape? Some of these players should have a talk with my pregnant wife and kids who moved their lives to Europe, only to watch me sit in the stands game after game because I have been bumped by an NHL player [Gerber]. There's a good chance I may not play a game this season. Without playing the previous season due to this mess, many players in Europe may have to retire."
In a somewhat related note, Scott Gomez of the Devils is playing for his hometown Alaska Aces of the ECHL and netted a shootout goal and an assist against the San Diego Gulls on Friday. He's making $500 a week, but after he'd signed, the Aces sold 25 season tickets and 250 tickets for Friday's game, which sold out (6453 capacity).
I flipped across the CBC one day and saw a Canada Now report where they sent one of their guys, Shanel Pratap, to the Canucks' media camp. Basically, Marc Crawford coached a bunch of media members up, and the eventual culmination was a scrimmage against some Canucks of yore (i.e., Kirk McLean, Orland Kurtenbach, Richard Brodeur, Tiger Williams, Gino Odjick, Bill Ranford). Yes, the ex-Canucks won.
But the saddest note of the night is that one of the best Calgary Flames ever, and the great short (5'6") hope for guys like me, Theo Fleury, is still not sober. I've been hoping for the longest time that he'd straighten it out and tear up the NHL once again, but he's had trouble every time. One look at his stats lets you know how good this guy was -- he had 104 points in 1990-91 and another 100 two years later. I used to see this guy go nuts when we had the CBC in the house and when I was a fourth- or fifth-grader who didn't fully appreciate hockey yet. Somehow, this triggered some nostalgia for me and I dug up Pavel Bure's stats. Thirty-one points in the playoff run to the Cup Finals, people. Unreal.
Upcoming in minor-league hockey...
Tuesday: Prince George at Everett, Vancouver at Medicine Hat
Wednesday: Seattle at Tri-City, Prince George at Portland, Vancouver at Swift Current
Thursday: Utah at Manitoba
Friday: Everett at Prince Albert, Portland at Tri-City, Vancouver at Red Deer, Puget Sound at Tri-City
Saturday: Everett at Saskatoon, Seattle at Portland, Vancouver at Lethbridge, Utah at Manitoba (final game at Winnipeg Arena), Puget Sound at Tri-City
Sunday: Vancouver at Calgary
---
Have a safe and sane election day, everyone, and remember: if, for any reason, your election lasts longer than four hours, notify your doctor immediately.
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