GOOD MORNING, MR. PRESIDENT: The WHL’s Kamloops Blazers are scheduled to hold a news conference today (Monday) to introduce Norm Daley, who is well-known in the city’s business and sporting communities, as the organization’s president. . . . Daley will fill the office vacated when Don Moores died of a heart attack while golfing on June 30, 2021. Moores was 65. He had been the team’s president since June 30, 2016. . . . Daley, who recently retired from Daley and Company LLP, an accounting firm, already is chairman of the organizing committee that won the right for Kamloops and the Blazers to play host to the 2023 Memorial Cup. He also has been the chairman of the Blazers’ advisory board that helps the organization connect with the community. . . . Daley also is co-owner of the Kamloops NorthPaws, who are in their first season in the West Coast League, a short-season summer baseball league. . . . Among other things, he was co-chair of the 2016 IIHF Women’s World Hockey Championship that was held in Kamloops.
SORRY, BUT IT ISN’T OVER: If you regularly tune in to Donnie and Dhali on Victoria’s CHEK-TV, well, you can skip today (Monday). That’s because co-hosts Don Taylor and Rick Dhaliwal, and producer Ryan Henderson, all tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday. . . . According to a Tweet from the show’s account, they are in isolation and “won’t have a show” on Monday. “We hope to be back on Tuesday.” . . . No, the pandemic isn’t over. And, by the way, it’s here for at least another year or two. . . . Get vaccinated. . . . Get boosted. . . . Wear a mask. . . . Thank you!
Headline at The Beaverton (@TheBeaverton): Supreme Court overturns Alien v. Predator.
“The Dallas Cowboys coined the term Hail Mary, and now they’re putting a different spin on the coffin corner,” writes Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times. “Rabid fans of the team have something to die for — a custom casket decked out in the NFL team’s colors and iconic lone-star logo. For a proud franchise that hasn’t won a Super Bowl since 1996, it’s just one more letdown.”
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Perry, again: “Major League Baseball will allow its teams to sell sponsorships to cannabis companies that market CBD products, the Sports Business Journal reported. ‘Spahn and Sain and Pray for Rain’ is about to be supplanted by ‘Cheech and Chong and Pass the Bong.’ ”
There can’t be anything more painful in sports these days than watching Joey Gallo of the New York Yankees at the plate with a bat in his hands. He is more lost than was Dr. Livingstone. You want proof? In June, Gallo struck out 32 times. The late Tony Gwynn of the San Diego Padres struck out 27 times — total— in the final three seasons of his career.
There is an expression in major junior hockey that goes like this: “Because it’s 
the Q.” . . . It has long been a way for observers to shrug off some of the bizarre things that often seem to occur involving the QMJHL and its teams. Take Saturday, for example. The QMJHL’s summer trading period opened and no one was more active than the Cape Breton Eagles. How active were they? Well, they made 10 trades in one day — yes, 10 . . . in one day. When they were done, the Eagles had acquired seven players and nine draft selections while moving out eight players and nine picks. . . . Only in the Q.
THINKING OUT LOUD: Wouldn’t you love to know how today’s NHL players really feel about the salary cap under which they play? F Kevin Fiala put up 33 goals and 52 assists in 82 games with the Minnesota Wild in 2021-22, but then was dealt to the Los Angeles Kings for cap-related reasons. He signed with the Kings for US$55.125 million over seven years. At the same time, NBA teams were giving players five-year deals worth $200 million or more. . . . F Chris Boucher, who played about 20 minutes per game last season, re-signed with the Toronto Raptors for $35.25 million over three years. . . . F Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers, arguably the best player in hockey today, is about to enter the fifth year of his eight-year, $100-million contract. . . . Here’s Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun: “When the NHL went to (a) salary cap in 2004, the highest-paid players were Jaromir Jagr and Peter Forsberg, each at $11 million a year. The salary cap then was $39 million. It has more than doubled in the 18 years since then, but the highest-paid player’s salary has only grown from $11 million to $12.5 million. The salaries of the middle-range players have grown out of control in the NHL, and that’s happened at the expense of the superstars, who aren’t paid comparable to what the greats are paid in other leagues.” . . . There was a time early in my newspaperin’ career when the item referred to in the following tweet was my favourite book. . . .
Mike Lupica, in the New York Daily News, on the NBA and its teams’ penchant for throwing around the Benjamins: “This has become a league that is ridiculous with money, a league where Bradley Beal — maybe you’ve ever actually watched him play, maybe not — can command a $250-million contract with the Wizards and where (Kyrie) Irving, whom the Nets don’t even want, can exercise an option and put the Nets on the books for $36.5 million. And who wouldn’t want to pay Dr. Irving that, after he was such a team guy in 2021-22?”
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Lupica, again: “The Blue Jays missed the postseason by one game last season and if that happens to the Red Sox this time, they might remember a couple of games they lost this week in Toronto because they didn’t have the unvaxxed Jarren Duran or their unvaxxed closer Tanner Houck with them. Two more graduates of the Kyrie Irving School of Medicine.”
Headline at fark.com: Kevin Durant the player not happy with the team Kevin Durant the GM has created, demands to be traded to any team that was in the Finals in the last 3 years.
Let’s close with one more from Dwight Perry: “Muhammad Ali on a commemorative stamp? It’s way overdue. As the ever-confident heavyweight champ, who died in 2016, once said: ‘I should be a postage stamp. That’s the only way I’ll ever get licked.’ ”
If you are interested in being a living kidney donor, more information is available here:
Living Kidney Donor Program
St. Paul’s Hospital
6A Providence Building
1081 Burrard Street
Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6
Tel: 604-806-9027
Toll free: 1-877-922-9822
Fax: 604-806-9873
Email: donornurse@providencehealth.bc.ca
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Vancouver General Hospital Living Donor Program – Kidney
Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre
Level 5, 2775 Laurel Street
Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M9
604-875-5182 or 1-855-875-5182
kidneydonornurse@vch.ca
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Or, for more information, visit right here.
TAKING NOTE 