Tag: Dwight Perry

Scattershooting on a Sunday night while knowing the hockey world will answer the call to help out a family . . .

Scattershooting2

F Kyrell Sopotyk of the Kamloops Blazers suffered what The Sports Corporation, the agency that represents him, described in a Sunday tweet as “an injury . . . that will be life-changing” in a snowboarding accident. . . . Sopotyk, 19, is from Aberdeen, Sask., which is located 42 km northeast of Saskatoon. He was injured on Friday and is in a Saskatoon hospital. . . . He played two seasons (2018-20) with the Blazers, totalling 22 goals and 23 assists in 107 regular-season games. . . . As a 15-year-old, Sopotyk played for the Prince Albert Mintos and led the Saskatchewan U18 AAA league in goals, with 42 in 42 games. . . . The Blazers selected him in the fifth round of the WHL’s 2016 bantam draft. . . . The Sports Corporation, which is based in Edmonton, is headed up by by Gerry Johannson, its president and CEO. . . .

Kathleen Zary, the mother of Blazers F Connor Zary, who is from Saskatoon, started a GoFundMe page on behalf of the Sopotyk family on Sunday afternoon. Kathleen wrote that Sopotyk has been “paralyzed,” adding: “We’re raising this money to help support any possible renovations, healthcare costs, and any additional supports they may require.” . . . Shortly after it opened, the fund blew past its initial goal of $10,000. That resulted in the goal being changed to $50,000; as of Sunday night, the fund had surpassed $60,000. . . . If you wish to donate, click right here.

If you were watching Sunday’s NFL conference finals, you will have noticed fans in the stands. . . . There were about 9,000 present as the visiting Tampa Bay Buccaneers dumped the Green Bay Packers, 31-26, and about 17,000 fans in Kanas City as the Chiefs dropped the Buffalo Bills, 38-24.

Gee, you’re wondering, what’s going on?

Well . . . let’s look at some numbers, all as of Sunday . . .

According to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine, Wisconsin has had 580,003 confirmed cases and 6,184 deaths, with Missouri at 459,748 confirmed cases and 6,774 deaths. . . . The U.S. has had 25,124,064 confirmed cases and 419,204 deaths.

Now how about some Canadian comparisons, with numbers from government sites as of Sunday morning . . .

Saskatchewan has had 22,177 cases and 253 deaths. In Ontario, those numbers were 255,002 and 5,803, and in Quebec they were 253,633 and 9,478. . . . Canada has had 747,000 cases and 19,094 deaths.

BTW, some populations — Wisconsin, 5,8 million; Missouri, 6.15 million; Saskatchewan, 1.18 million; Ontario, 14.7 million; Quebec, 8.57 million. . . . The U.S. population is 331 million; Canada’s is 37.7 million.

Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle, with a Hank Aaron story — Among Aaron’s chilling memories: When he played for the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro Leagues in ’51, his team had breakfast at a restaurant near the ballpark in Washington D.C. As the players were finishing, they heard the kitchen staff shattering the dishes the players had eaten off. “What a horrible sound,” Aaron recalled years later.

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“Yogi Berra, the late New York Yankees legend, is about to get his own commemorative postage stamp,” reports Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times. “New U.S. Postal Service motto: It ain’t delivered til it’s delivered.”

Jack Finarelli, aka The Sports Curmudgeon, isn’t a fan of documentaries, so doesn’t plan on watching HBO’s two-parter about the life and times of Tiger Woods. But the curmudgeonly one did notice HBO plugging the shows with the tagline: “The raw truth about Tiger Woods is about to be revealed.” . . . That got the curmudgeonly one to write: “The reason there might even be ‘raw truth’ to reveal about Tiger Woods is because he has had nothing but fawning coverage — bordering on idolatry — for about 20 years. A major component of the existence of such ‘raw truth’ is the complicity of the toadies who covered golf and Tiger Woods.”

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Earlier this week, Finarelli began his daily post with what he referred to as a “personal note.” It went like this . . .

“There is a benefit to being an old fart; yesterday afternoon, my number came up and I received my first dose of the Moderna Vaccine. The selection process is the mirror image of ageism; rather than experiencing an adverse action as a result of my advanced age, I received a benefit based on nothing more than my date of birth.

And . . . regarding any worries I might have that I was just ‘microchipped’ such that the chip can be interrogated to locate me and track me, I have two simple responses:

  1. Why would anyone give a damn — hat tip to Rhett Butler — regarding my whereabouts?
  2. My cell phone already does that.”

Jon Rosen spent four seasons (2007-11) as the play-by-play voice of the WHL’s Everett Silvertips. So when he writes about what it was like riding a bus through the WHL, he knows of what he remembers. . . . He has written about it of late, and it’s entertaining, and it’s right here. . . . Somehow Rosen managed to write this piece without gloating about his Los Angeles Dodgers and for that he is to be commended!

You may recall that Urban Meyer, the new head coach of the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars, walked away from NCAA head-coaching jobs with Florida and Ohio State for health reasons. As blogger Chad Picasner points out: “Of course, the best treatment for that is money. . . . I’m sure he feels better already.”

If you’re a fan of the Baltimore Orioles or Washington Nationals, you may be interested in knowing that MASN, the TV station shared by the two teams, has made some cuts. Gone are Gary Thorne, the play-by-play voice of the Orioles, along with the likes of Mike Bordick, Tom Davis, Rick Dempsey, Jim Hunter and Dave Johnson. . . . Also gone are pre- and post-game shows. . . . There are reports that MASN is having cash-flow issues.

A tweet from Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt following the retirement of Indy Colts QB Philip Rivers: “I’ll never forget lining up for a play and Phil pointing to one of our linebackers and telling him he was lined up wrong based off the blitz we were about to run and being 100% correct about it haha.”

Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel writes about the legacy of former RHP Don Sutton, who died on Monday at 75: “Just a friendly reminder to all of the baseball pitchers of today who skip starts because they might have a strained cuticle on their pinkie and for all the NBA players who sit out games because of load management, Sutton was never on the injured list and never missed a turn in the rotation in 756 big-league starts over 23 seasons.”

THE COVID-19 CHRONICLES . . .

Ryan Struyk, CNN, Sunday, 7:38 a.m. PT — The US death toll will reach 569,000 by May 1, according to new coronavirus projections from a University of Washington model.

The New York Times — Mexico’s president, a coronavirus skeptic, is the latest world leader to become infected. Hospitals are overrun as the country’s death toll nears 150,000.

The U of Michigan has suspended all athletics for at least two weeks after cases of the B.1.1.7. variant of COVID-19 were found within the department. There have been five confirmed cases, with another 15 presumed positive cases in the athletic department. . . . The men’s basketball teams is 13-1 and ranked No. 7, with the women’s team (10-1) ranked No. 11.

It is expected that the accesso ShoWare Center in Kent, Wash., the home of the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds, will be used as a vaccination site. The city and King County expect to have all the paperwork done within days. The plan is to have the site open six days a week and to provide 500 vaccinations per day.

The NHL’s San Jose Sharks opened the NHL regular-season with an eight-game road trip. Under normal circumstances, they play in Santa Clara County, which has a ban in place on contact sports. That means the Sharks are going to play home games at Gila River Arena in Glendale, Ariz., the home of the Arizona Coyotes. The Sharks’ ‘home’ schedule opens with games against the Vegas Golden Knights on Feb. 1 and 3.

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.

Scattershooting on a Sunday night after watching Brady cash in as he proves again that he’s the GOAT . . .

Scattershooting2

It was a tough weekend for Saskatchewan Roughriders’ supporters of a certain age as they learned of the deaths of Steve Molnar and Bruce Bennett. . . . Molnar, who was a terrific fullback in the Ron Lancaster/George Reed era, was 73 when he died on Saturday. Molnar backed up Reed, then took over as the team’s workhorse following Reed’s retirement and had a terrific 1976 season. . . . Rob Vanstone of the Regina Leader-Post has more on Molnar right here. . . . Vanstone also remembers Bennett with a piece that is right here. Bennett, 77, died on Tuesday of complications from pneumonia and COVID-19. Bennett was Saskatchewan’s starting safety in 1966 as the Roughriders won the Grey Cup. Bennett went from there to a truly hall-of-fame career.

Mantle

Actor Rob Gough purchased a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card for US$5.2 million at auction in November. Had you strolled into your neighbourhood’s cornerstone in 1952, you could have purchased a pack of Topps baseball cards for a nickel. Gough’s card was graded Mint 9, meaning it was never bounced off a wall, stuck in the spokes of a bicycle, or atop a stack that had an elastic wrapped around it. . . . There are reportedly three Mint 10 Mantles in existence. . . . Prior to this purchase, a 2009 autographed Mike Trout card from Bowman that sold in August for $3.93 million had held the highest price of any sports card. Prior to that, the record ($3.7 million) belonged to a T206 Honus Wagner card that changed hands in 2016. . . . Records in other sports: A 1979 O-Pee-Chee Wayne Gretzky rookie card, $1.29 million, sold in December; a 2003-04 Upper Deck LeBron James rookie card, $1.8 million, sold in July.

Cat

On Thursday, Jack Finarelli, aka The Sports Curmudgeon, weighed in on the NBA trade in which James Harden moved from the Houston Rockets to the Brooklyn Nets:

“Harden and (Kyrie) Irving both want/need the ball to be as effective as they can be. (Kevin) Durant does not need the ball as much as the other two, but he is more efficient offensively than the other two in the sense that he scores a lot of points with the ball in his hands for a relatively short time. There is an unalterable fact about NBA basketball that applies here.  There is only one ball in use on the court at any given time. We will soon find out if James Harden, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant learned their lessons about ‘sharing with others’ in kindergarten.”

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Here is the curmudgeonly one on Urban Meyer’s move to the Jacksonville Jaguars as head coach: “In his seven years at Ohio State, Meyer’s teams lost a total of nine games. If his first year with the Jags results in the Jags losing fewer than nine games, he might be the Coach of the Year in the NFL.”

Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times, who tracks such things, provides us with a couple of headlines . . .

At Fark.com: “NHL announced that each division will have sponsor names this year. NFL expected to follow suit, starting with the Waste Management NFC East.”

At TheOnion.com: “Nervous Browns fan still worried team going to blow 48-37 lead over Steelers from days ago.”

A couple of notes from Bruce Jenkins of the San Francisco Chronicle:

“As part of its pandemic vigilance, the NBA may eliminate shoot-arounds — a notion certain to be applauded by the players. Show up in the morning with a game that night? Total waste of time for everybody. . . .

“More good news: Players are banned from touching hands with teammates at the free-throw line. Not sure who started this, several years ago, but it’s very dumb. (Ball clanks off the front rim.) ‘Hey, great miss, man.’ And if it goes in, why would you want your routine interrupted?”

So . . . what happened to the Pittsburgh Steelers, who started 11-9 and finished 1-5. Head coach Mike Tomlin explained to reporters: “We were a group that died on the vine.”

Among other things, the late Tommy Lasorda was known for run-ins with mascots. If you haven’t seen Lasorda get Youppi, the Montreal Expos’ mascot, tossed from a game, click right here. . . . But Lasorda also got into it with the Phillie Phanatic and the San Diego Chicken. . . . As Michael Clair of MLB.com pointed out: “Probably for the best that Lasorda never appeared on Sesame Street.”

Doctors

THE COVID-19 CHRONICLES . . .

CBC News — Manitoba is reporting 189 new cases of COVID-19 and 8 additional deaths. Sunday’s total includes 95 new cases in the Northern health region and 65 new cases in the Winnipeg health region. The province’s 5-day test positivity rate is 10.4%.

CBC News — Saskatchewan is reporting 287 new cases of COVID-19 and 3 new deaths. There are 4,121 known active cases in the province.

CBC News — Alberta is reporting 750 new cases of COVID-19. The province is also reporting 19 new deaths, pushing Canada’s total COVID-19 death toll past 18,000.

Keith Baldrey, Global BC — Latest BCCDC data shows 5 kids (under 20 yrs) were in the ICU with COVID-19 over the holidays and that 3 more people in their thirties in BC died from the virus. This is not just an old person’s ailment folks.

CBC News — Ontario sees 3,422 new cases and 69 additional deaths linked to COVID-19. Toronto recorded more than 1,000 new infections.

CBC News — Quebec is reporting 1,744 new cases of COVID-19. Sunday’s case count was impacted by a delay in the transmission of laboratory data. The province is also reporting 50 new deaths, 8 of which occurred in the last 24 hours. . . . 1,460 people are in hospital, including 215 in intensive care.

CBC News — There are 36 new COVID-19 cases in New Brunswick on Sunday, a single-day record. 24 of those cases are in Zone 4, the Edmundston region. Public health recommended that Zone 4 move to the red level alert effective at midnight Sunday.

CBC News — Nova Scotia is reporting 4 new cases of COVID-19, all related to travel outside Atlantic Canada. There are 29 known active cases in the province. No one is currently in hospital.

CBC News — 1 new case of COVID-19 has been identified in Newfoundland and Labrador. The new case is in the Eastern Health region and is travel-related. There are 6 known active cases in the province, including 1 hospitalized patient.

Public Health Agency of Canada, Sunday, 4 p.m. PT — Total cases: 708,619 . . . Active cases: 75,281 . . . Recovered: 615,324 . . . Deaths: 18,014.

CNN, Sunday, 5 p.m. PT — 23.9 million people in the United States have tested positive for coronavirus.

CNN, Sunday, 4 p.m. PT — 397,000 people in the United States have died from coronavirus.

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The NBA postponed a scheduled Sunday night game between the Philadelphia 76ers and the host Oklahoma City Thunder when COVID-19 protocols prevented the 76ers from dressing the league-minimum eight players. . . . Philadelphia had only nine players available on Saturday when it lost, 106-104, to the Grizzlies in Memphis. . . . This was the 14th postponement of this NBA season, with the last 13 of those occurring within the past week. . . .

Things don’t seem to be going too well as tennis players and their entourages begin to arrive in Melbourne for the Australian Open that is scheduled to open on Feb. 8. In fact, there already are calls to cancel the event amid reports that at least 72 players are in quarantine. . . . There’s more right here. . . .

An AHL exhibition game between the San Diego Gulls and Ontario Reign scheduled for Saturday in Irvine, Calif., was cancelled due to COVID-19 protocols. The Gulls are playing out of Irvine for the next while. . . . The game would have featured the pro debuts of F Trevor Zegras and D Jamie Drysdale, both of whom played for the gold medal at the World Junior Championship. Zegras, the tournament MVP, and Team USA beat Drysdale and Team Canada, 2-0, in the final. . . .

Kim Mulkey, the head coach of the Baylor U women’s basketball team, contracted COVID-19 on Christmas Day. She was back on the sideline for the first time on Saturday. . . . Mechelle Voepel of ESPN.com wrote that Mulkey said she is feeling OK physically, but “when asked if she is concerned about the season being completed amid a pandemic, she didn’t mince words:

“The answer is this: The season will continue on. It’s called the almighty dollar. The NCAA has to have the almighty dollar from the men’s tournament. The almighty dollar is more important than the health and welfare of me, the players or anybody else.

“One conference does this, one conference does that. The CDC says this. Everybody is confused. I’m confused. I’m uncomfortable coaching. I understand, COVID is real. I’ve had it — come talk to me sometime. But I don’t know . . . all the calls and procedures, that’s gonna go on and make it unusual, uncomfortable for every program. We’re no different at Baylor.”

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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

——

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

——

Or, for more information, visit right here.

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Did you know there are more than 750 people in BC waiting for transplants? You can give someone hope by registering your decision today at taketwominutes.ca. One organ donor can save up to eight lives. #Register2Give #TakeTwoMinutes

JUST NOTES: If you weren’t aware, Tom Brady picked up a cool $500,000 in bonus money with Sunday’s victory by his Tampa Buccaneers over the host New Orleans Saints. So far this season, Brady has picked up $1.25 million in playoff bonus money. . . . Almost two weeks after domestic terrorists attacked the U.S. Capitol, their leader not only is still in the White House, but there are reports that he is selling pardons and commutations. Is this a great time to be alive, or what? . . . If you were wondering, there were about 16,000 fans in the stands for the Sunday NFL playoff game between the Cleveland Browns and the Chiefs in Kansas City. The Saints had about 3,500 fans at their game, with 500 of those being vaccinated healthcare workers who were admitted free of charge. . . . On Saturday, there were 6,700 fans in the stadium in Buffalo, all of whom had to test negative before being admitted. Each fan paid US$63 for the test, too. In Green Bay, the Packers played in front of about 6,000 fans.

Tip

Scattershooting on a Sunday night following an NFL weekend and with Alabama-OSU yet to come . . .

Scattershooting2

Whatever it was that the WHL was selling on Friday — hope? — F Logan Stankoven of the Kamloops Blazers and F Conor Geekie of the Winnipeg Ice WHL2were buying. Both players have decided to stay put rather than play in a U.S. junior league. . . . The deadline for players released by Hockey Canada to move south was Sunday. . . . Stankoven chose not to join the USHL’s Fargo Force. He told Earl Seitz of CFJC-TV that he made his decision on Friday night. . . . “I decided (Friday) night to stay in town,” Stankoven, who is from Kamloops, told Seitz, “and stick with the Blazers since the WHL came out with a statement (Friday) night saying that we’ll be having a 24-game season starting in February.” . . . The WHL said Friday that it had “made a commitment” to play a 24-game season, but didn’t indicate a potential starting date, saying that would be determined once health officials “in each provincial and state jurisdiction” give the OK for a return to play. . . . Mike Sawatzky of the Winnipeg Free Press reported that Geekie, the second overall pick in the WHL’s 2019 bantam draft, had offers from two USHL and two NAHL teams. Geekie, who is from Strathclair, Man., got into nine games with the MJHL’s Virden Oil Capitals this season, scoring once and adding four assists. . . .

The Dubuque Saints announced on Jan. 5 that they were adding Ice F Matt Savoie. Savoie, the No. 1 pick in the WHL’s 2019 bantam draft, didn’t play in either of Dubuque’s two weekend games and, in fact, hadn’t been added to the team’s roster as of Sunday night. . . . A notice on the Dubuque website: “Our offices have been closed temporarily due to recommendations from the CDC in regards to COVID-19.”

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The WHL has done the smart thing in moving away from declaring potential starting dates for a new season. Here’s Ron Robison, the WHL commissioner, in an Oct. 15 Zoom call with media:

“We just felt that at some point we needed to create some certainty around the start of the season. We had announced already two tentative target dates but this is not a tentative date, this is a firm date. We are going to start on Jan. 8.”

From Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times: “The 6-10 Giants think they got hosed by missing out on an NFL playoff berth? ‘Cry us a river,’ said the 10-6 Miami Dolphins.

After Trump’s stormtroopers stormed the gates on Wednesday, wouldn’t it have been nice to have heard from the likes of Brett Favre, Jack Nicklaus and/or Bobby Orr, all of whom were proud to be seen as Trump supporters before the November election? You may recall that Orr took out a full-page ad in the New Hampshire Union Leader, stating that Trump was “the kind of teammate I want.” . . . Really, Bobby? He wasn’t anywhere near the joint as his troopers were storming the gates. Some teammate!

And let’s not forget that it was Nicklaus who wrote in a tweet about Trump: “His love for America and its citizens, and putting his country first, has come through loud and clear.” . . . Yeah, hasn’t it!

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Meanwhile, I wake up every morning and wonder how it is that the United States of America could experience what it did on Wednesday and still have the same orange clown operating out of the White House five days later.

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Here’s Steve Kerr, the always thoughtful head coach of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors: “A legitimate election is suddenly questioned by millions of people, including many of the people who are leading our country in government, because we’ve decided to, over the last few years, allow lies to be told. So this is who we are. You reap what you sow.”

If you aren’t familiar with Kerr’s background, well, Google is your friend.

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And here is Draymond Green, a veteran forward with the Warriors: “Through social media and all these different tools we have at our fingertips today, we’re more aware. But nothing’s changed. We’re still the same America that it’s been. It’s no different. I’ve seen a lot of (statements) of ‘shoot (the protestors) like (Black people) would’ve been shot.’ Nah, I don’t think that’s the right thing to do. Stop shooting us. That’s more the battle cry than necessarily shoot them like we would’ve been shot. Just stop shooting us.”

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Janice Hough, aka The Left Coast Sports Babe, has a question: “While he’s banned from most sites has anyone checked to see if Trump is trying to sell the White House china on eBay?”

A big thank you to the NHL and TSN or whoever was responsible for blacking out the Toronto Maple Leafs’ scrimmage that was held on Saturday night. It was live on TSN-4 and, had it been available here, I may have watched it, all the while wondering if I wouldn’t have been better off playing solitaire. . . . Update: Later Saturday night, I stumbled on replays on two separate Sportsnet channels. I watched about three minutes of it and, yes, play-by-play voice Joe Bowen was in Game 7 form.

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So . . . why wasn’t the Montreal Canadiens’ Sunday night scrimmage available on TSN or Sportsnet?

If you’re a football fan, please allow me to suggest that you make Jack Finarelli’s Football Friday a regular stop. Finarelli (aka The Sports Curmudgeon) dropped a terrific all-encompassing read on his website last Friday. Take a look right here and I think you’ll agree that it should become a habit.

The Pittsburgh Steelers, who were 11-0 at one point and had a quarterback being mentioned as a potential MVP, finished 1-5. . . . BTW, that quarterback’s cap hit next season is to be more than US$41 million.

Leftfield

THE COVID-19 CHRONICLES . . .

CBC News: As of Sunday, more than 90 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, with more than 49.8 million of those considered recovered or resolved, according to Johns Hopkins University’s COVID-19 case tracking tool. The global death toll stood at more than 1.9 million.

CBC News: As of 8:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, Canada had reported 660,289 cases of COVID-19, with 84,567 cases considered active. A CBC News tally of deaths stood at 16,950.

CBC News: Ontario registered 3,945 new cases and 61 additional deaths. The new cases mark a single-day record for the province.

CBC News: Quebec reported 2,588 new cases and 39 new deaths, a day after it topped 3,000 new cases for the first time. Recent projections suggest Montreal’s hospitals could soon exceed capacity.

CNN, Sunday, 7:15 p.m. PT: 374,000 people in the United States have died from coronavirus.

CNN, Sunday, 3:15 p.m. PT: 22.3 million people in the United States have tested positive for coronavirus.

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The Vancouver Canucks cancelled their Sunday on-ice sessions because of a possible exposure to someone in their organization. They are due back on the ice today (Monday) and are to start the regular season in Edmonton against the Oilers on Wednesday and Thursday. . . . The Canucks are the fourth team to have cancelled training camp sessions, after the Dallas Stars, Columbus Blue Jackets and Pittsburgh Penguins. Of the four clubs, though, only the Stars have reported positive tests — six players and two staffers. . . .

The Boston Celtics and Miami Heat were to have played an NBA game on Sunday night. However, one of the Heat players had an inconclusive test. That result and contact tracing left the Heat without the required eight players needed in order to play a game. The Celtics had eight players available after nine were ruled out because of protocols. . . . On Saturday night, the Philadelphia 76ers played despite having only seven healthy players, and lost to the visiting Denver Nuggets. Philadelphia lost Seth Curry to a positive test on Thursday and four teammates were out due to contact tracing. . . . Tim Bontemps of ESPN has a great look at the NBA’s situation right here.

Shopping

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

——

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

——

Or, for more information, visit right here.

Cxn

Scattershooting on a Saturday night before a day of virus-ravaged NFL games . . .

Scattershooting

“Detroit Lions DB Mike Ford got penalized for taunting after teammate Jamal Agnew’s 74-yard punt return cut the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ lead to 40-7,” writes Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times. “They had to rule it taunting, because there’s no such thing as 15 yards for stupidity.”

Dabo Swinney of the Clemson Tigers was one of the many NCAA football coaches who went the entire season without learning how to properly wear a facemask. Of course, he’s also the guy who ranked Ohio State, 6-0 at the time, at No. 11 in the coaches’ poll. That was before the Buckeyes handed his Tigers a 49-28 drubbing in the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day.

It’s really too bad that someone who pulls strings in the world of NCAA football didn’t instruct the on-field officials to throw flags for unsportsmanlike conduct every time a coach was spotted with his mask under his nose or under his chin. Of course, had that happened it would have taken them about five hours to play one game.

Monk

Headline from @TheOnion: Facebook clarifies site not intended to be users’ primary information source.

So . . . when you were a youngster and ate a Christmas orange — OK, a mandarin orange — did you try to get the peel off all in one piece and then wolf down the slices, including all the white stuff? And now that you’re a mature adult, do you sit there and painstakingly remove all that white stuff, one strip at a time from one slice at a time before eating?

RB Alvin Kamara wore one red shoe and one green shoe on Christmas Day as he scored six touchdowns to lead the host New Orleans Saints to a 52-33 victory over the Minnesota Vikings. Kamara is well aware that he plays in the No Fun League, so he knew he was going to have to pay for his sin. As he told reporters: “You know that the Grinch always tries to steal Christmas.”

——

True to form, the No Fun League touched up Kamara for $5,000. As Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times noted, it left “pundits to speculate whether it was $2,500 per shoe, the green shoe put him in the red, or the red shoe cost him some green.”

Back to the NFL for a moment. . . . That’s the league where the Indy Colts could finish 11-5 and miss the playoffs . . . and the New York football Giants could be 6-10 and in. Seriously!

Headline at TheOnion.com: Report: 750,000 Americans die each year during first attempt to get back in shape.

Abe

THE COVID-19 CHRONICLES . . .

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Entertainment Weekly: Legendary talk show host Larry King has been hospitalized after testing positive for COVID-19.​

KTVU: Funeral homes in the hot spot of Southern California say they must turn away grieving families as they run out of space for the bodies piling up.​

CNN, Saturday, 8:47 p.m.: 350,000 people in the United States have died from coronavirus.

CNN, Saturday, 7:50 p.m. PT: 20.4 million people in the United States have tested positive for coronavirus.

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Tony Romo, CBS-TV’s top NFL analyst, was to have worked the game between the Arizona Cardinals and Los Angeles Rams on Sunday. But he’s out because of COVID-19 protocols and will be replaced by Boomer Esiason. . . .

The New Orleans Saints, who are to play the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, ran out of running backs on Saturday when they placed Latavius Murray, Michael Burton and Dwayne Washington on the reserve/COVID-19 list as close contacts of Alvin Kamara, who had tested positive earlier in the week. . . . Running backs coach Joel Thomas also will be out as a close contact. . . . Also out due to COVID-19 are S D.J. Swearing and S C.J. Gardner-Johnson, while S Marcus Williams is out with an ankle issue.

The Pittsburgh Steelers put CB Joe Haden, TE Eric Ebron and LB Massius Marsh on the reserve/COVID-19 list. . . . They won’t play Sunday against the Cleveland Browns who, on Saturday, closed their facility for the third time in four days after another positive test, this time to wide receivers coach Chad O’Shea. Bill Callahan, the Browns’ offensive line coach, and his assistant, Scott Peters, are out due to COVID-19 protocols. The Browns also will be without CB Denzel Ward, TE Harrison Bryan, LB Malcolm Smith, LB B.J. Gordon and S Andrew Sendejo, all of whom tested positive this week. . . .

The Buffalo Bills placed TE Tyler Kroft on the reserve/COVID-19 list on Saturday so he won’t play Sunday against the Miami Dolphins. . . .

The Arizona Cardinals won’t have WR Christian Kirk when they play the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday because he’s on the reserve/COVID-19 list. . . .

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who get the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, have placed LB Devin White, LB Shaq Barrett and DL Steve McLendon on the reserve/COVID-19 list. . . .

The Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants will play Sunday without some personnel. Dave DeGuglielmo, the Giants’ offensive line coach, tested positive, so he’s out. The Cowboys will be without S Darian Thompson and DT Justin Hamilton, both of whom now are on the reserve/COVID-19 list. As well, assistant head coach Rob Davis, offensive assistant Scott Tolzien and special teams assistant Matt Daniels didn’t make the trip due to protocols.

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

——

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

——

Or, for more information, visit right here.

Barnyard

Scattershooting on a Saturday night while wondering if the Canucks would consider Flin Flon . . .

Scattershooting

——

With the German and Swedish teams looking at extra time in quarantine 2021WJCbecause of positive tests, the World Junior Championship exhibition schedule in Edmonton has been slashed to four games from 10. And the first games will be on Tuesday, instead of today (Sunday) and Monday.

Here is the new schedule:

Tuesday, Dec. 22: Switzerland-Austria, 3 p.m. PT; Finland-USA, 6:30 p.m. PT

Wednesday, Dec. 23: Canada-Russia, 3 p.m. PT; Slovakia-Czech Republic, 6:30 p.m. PT.

This means that only the eight teams who don’t have anyone in quarantine at the moment each will get to play one exhibition game. Germany and Sweden are out of luck.

The tournament schedule hasn’t been touched, at least not yet, so it all begins on Christmas Day with Slovakia-Switzerland, 11 a.m. PT; Finland-Germany, 3 p.m. PT; and U.S.-Russia, 6:30 p.m. PT. Canada plays its first game on Saturday when it meets Germany at 3 p.m. PT.

Sorry, but I can’t get all worked up about whatever it is that’s going on between B.C. and the NHL over whether a team will be allowed to play out of Vancouver if a new season gets started next month. Fans won’t be allowed to attend so does it really matter where the games are played? If the Canucks really want home-ice advantage maybe they should play out of the Whitney Forum in Flin Flon. . . . Hey, as Dallas Stars owner Tom Gaglardi said on Friday, “There are people dying from this, people that are losing livelihoods, that are struggling to get by.” . . . Can we wait to see the mid-January numbers before we start ranting and raving?

Sissies

Jack Finarelli, aka The Sports Curmudgeon, calls them “rants” and he had an especially good one earlier this week. Here is part of what he wrote:

“The NBA has problems. Those problems are significant but not fatal — unless the NBA decides to make them fatal. The core of the set of problems facing the NBA is demonstrated by diminishing interest in the NBA product. The playoffs in the ‘Orlando Bubble’ were a huge success from the point of view of epidemiology; the playoffs in the ‘Orlando Bubble’ were a disaster in terms of television ratings. Let’s get one thing clear:

“Epidemiology is important to the CDC and medical practitioners; those folks do not care about TV ratings . . . Television ratings are important to the NBA; the basketball mavens have only a passing concern about matters epidemiological.”

The entire piece is right here and I highly recommend it.

Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times writes: “Raiders coach Jon Gruden wore an ‘Oakland Raiders’ cap during the first half of Thursday’s game against the Chargers, then switched to ‘Las Vegas Raiders’ for the second half. Apparently his ‘L.A. Raiders’ cap was still in the wash.”

Here’s Janice Hough, who is at leftcoastsportsbabe.com: “Minnesota Vikings placekicker Dan Bailey missed all three field goals and an extra point against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Uh, if Vanderbilt classes are over for the year is Sarah Fuller available?”

Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks signed a new contract worth US$228 million over five years. If you’re wondering what that is in Canadian money, the answer is $291,576,620 based on a 78-cent dollar, or enough to buy all of Alberta.

Someone with the Prince George Cougars was having some fun. . . . See if you can figure out what they’re up to here. . . .

Henry Schulman won’t be covering the San Francisco Giants for that city’s chronicle after Jan. 4, having decided to retire from the beat. Here he is the other day with the true meaning of the news release in which the Cleveland baseball club announced it will be changing its nickname, but not until at least 2022: “We are going to keep our racist logo for another year and sell souvenirs featuring this highly offensive stereotype because we have a lot of this crap sitting in storage, but to make ourselves feel better we’re going to give the money to the people we are insulting.”

Army beat Navy, 15-0, in last weekend’s annual football game. Here’s blogger Chad Picasner summing things up: “Army lived up to its training as ground forces, running the ball 53 times and passing only once. . . . Navy was severely handicapped because there was no water on the field, and their battleship wouldn’t fit through the gate.”

Bob

COVID-19 CHRONICLES . . .

CBC News: Canada surpasses 500,240 cases after Saskatchewan adds 252 new infections to national caseload of COVID-19. . . . Latest tally of 500,242 cases includes 14,128 deaths; currently 76,391 active cases across Canada with 409,723 others having recovered.

CBC News: 9 more deaths, 238 new cases of COVID-19 reported in Manitoba Saturday.

CBC News: Alberta’s chief medical officer of health says 1,352 new provincial cases and 26 more deaths from COVID-19. . . . 19,260 active cases.

CBC News: Ontario reports 2,357 new cases of COVID-19 and 27 new deaths on Saturday. Ontario is reporting 27 new deaths related to COVID-19. There are currently 895 COVID-19 patients in the province’s hospitals, including 256 in intensive care. 146 of the patients are on ventilators.

580 CFRA: Ottawa Public Health says there are currently no patients in Ottawa ICUs with COVID-19 complications.

CBC News: Quebec is reporting 2,038 new cases of COVID-19 and 44 additional deaths related to the illness. 2 of the deaths occurred within the last 24 hours. . . . There are 1,005 COVID-19 patients in the province’s hospitals, including 142 in intensive care.

CBC News: New Brunswick is reporting 5 new cases of COVID-19. There are 49 known active cases in the province. 3 COVID-19 patients are in hospital, including 1 in intensive care.

CBC News: Nova Scotia is reporting 2 new cases of COVID-19 for a total of 46 known active cases. 1 of the new cases is in the Western Zone and the other is in the Eastern Zone. Both cases are related to travel outside Atlantic Canada.

CBC News: P.E.I. confirms 1 new case of COVID-19 related to travel; woman in 50s self-isolating after arriving in Charlottetown on Dec. 17 from Montreal on Air Canada flight 8302

CBC News: 8 new cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Newfoundland and Labrador. All of the new cases are in the Eastern Health Region. There are 31 known active cases in the province, including 1 patient who is in hospital. 

CBC News, 7 a.m. PT: U.S. sets new record of 249,709 coronavirus cases in one day; 2,814 more people have died across U.S., pushing its death toll to more than 314,300: JHU.

——

The New York Giants, already without offensive co-ordinator Jason Garrett because of a positive test, found out Saturday that offensive assistant Stephen Brown also has the virus. On Thursday, the Giants placed starting CB James Bradberry on the reserve/COVID-19 list. Bradberry tested positive, too, but his case isn’t believed related to either of the other two. . . .

The Ohio State Buckeyes played in the Big Ten championship football game on Saturday without 22 players, who were missing for reasons related to COVID-19. Yes, the game went on. . . . The Cal Golden Bears, meanwhile, experienced three positive tests during their season and ended up with four cancelled games. As John Branch of The New York Times tweeted: “I’ll let others decide if playing college football was worth it, but little debate that it was not equal.”

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

——

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

——

Or, for more information, visit right here.

Scattershooting on a Sunday night while waiting for the snow to arrive . . .

Scattershooting

If as expected the sale of the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks closes on Dec. 31, Michael Kramer, a 52-year-old native of Los Angeles who has been described by one of his former professors as “a rock star in the world of finance,” will be one of the new owners.

MichaelKramer2
MICHAEL KRAMER

The Winterhawks are planning a news conference at which it will be announced that Kerry Preete, a native of Melfort, Sask., and Kramer have purchased the franchise out of receivership for US$5,850,000.

Preete, 60, spent more than 30 years with Monsanto, and was its executive vice-president and chief strategy officer when it was sold to Bayer A.G., in 2018.

Kramer, who has a bachelor’s degree in finance from California State U Northridge (CSUN), lives in New Canaan, Conn. He is the CEO and founding partner of Ducera Partners LLC, an investment bank. As such, he has been involved in some monster deals.

Ducera advised Monsanto in the US$70-billion deal in which it was purchased by Bayer. Yahoo!finance reported in 2016, two years before the deal was completed, that “approximately $100 to $110 million in fees are expected to be divvied up between lead adviser Ducera and Morgan Stanley for their sell-side advisory roles, according to estimates by consultant Freeman & Co.”

Ducera also was involved in the restructuring or sales of iHeart Radio ($20 billion) and Nieman Marcus ($5 billion), among others.

Kramer also has been described as having been “the architect” of the sales of such professional franchises as the Dallas Stars, New Jersey Devils and Texas Rangers.

If you’re wondering just what it is that Kramer does, he explained during a speaking engagement at CSUN in 2019 how he handled a project involving Hostess Brands in 2012.

As Olivia Herstein of CSUN Today reported, Kramer told his audience:

“It’s the great American icon, the Twinkie. We can’t live without our Twinkies. Seven years ago, I was called by the board of Hostess. They said, ‘We’re having a lot of financial trouble, we’re running out of money — we don’t know how we’re going to continue. Can you come in and help us think through this?’

“When I, or any investment banker, gets involved in these transactions, it is usually a multi-year process. It’s not two or three weeks. In that situation, we had to figure out how to restructure the company. They had approximately 42 different union contracts! Two of the primary unions were the International Teamsters and the Bakers (the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International). So, I got to spend six months of my life, going three or four days a week down to D.C., to the headquarters of the Teamsters, negotiating with their most senior leaders.

“We actually cut a deal. The Teamsters were an incredibly tough counterpart, but we cut a deal. Unfortunately we weren’t as successful with the Baker’s Union. We were forced to totally shut the company down — that was me, I’m the guy who took away Twinkies for a few months. About six months later, we sold the company for approximately $1 billion. In many ways, that’s what we deal with all the time. It was a success in the price we were able to receive for the assets, but a failure in some respects, because a lot of people lost their jobs.”

Meanwhile, thanks to Joshua Critzer’s reporting on Twitter (@jjcritzer), we know that Mike Johnston, the vice-president, general manager and head coach, and Kyle Gustafson, the assistant GM and associate, will remain with the Winterhawks. Critzer also reported that Doug Piper, the franchise’s president and governor, will be staying put.

Dennys

Jack Finarelli, aka The Sports Curmudgeon, lives in the Washington, D.C., area. Of late, it seems that he has been trying to find some morning listening on the ol’ wireless. Here he is, trying to explain his adventure as only he can:

“I have tried for a couple of months to warm up to the current morning show on ESPN Radio. I decided about a week ago that was never going to happen. Jay Williams is the only one of the three hosts who ever says anything that is thought-provoking and among the three, he is generally the silent partner. As of now, I will only listen to these three guys in the morning if my alternatives are NPR’s Morning Edition and a televangelist preaching in some unknown language.

“This restricts my morning radio options in the DC area significantly. There are two other options. One is called The Sports Junkies — a show featuring 4 insufferably uninteresting people sharing inside jokes and ‘frat boy banter.’ The other option is the Kevin Sheehan Show which is now going to be my morning aural experience. I arrived at that position by selecting the least worst option available to me.”

Cooking

“The Gonzaga-Baylor men’s basketball game featuring the 1-2 teams in the country was scuttled by positive tests in the Bulldogs’ camp,” writes Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times. “In a related story, COVID-19 was just voted No. 1 in the latest AP poll.”

The Onion: Taylor Swift Fans Furious After Artist Excluded From ESPN’s List Of Best NBA Players Of 2020.

So . . . Michael Jordan has a new golf course — The Grove XXIII — in Hobe Sound, Fla., and it uses drones to deliver beverages. Why drones? Well, as Nick Piastowski of Golf.com, points out: “He was Michael ‘Air’ Jordan. Not Michael ‘Beer Cart’ Jordan. Not Michael ‘Hot Dog at the Turn’ Jordan.”

The 2021 Kamloops Kidney Walk will be held virtually, as it was in June. Yes, Dorothy will be taking part, as she has since 2014. . . . She already has registered and her granddaughters, Averi and Kara, have joined her team. If you are interested in making a donation — perhaps you are looking for a tax receipt for this year’s filing — you are able to do so right here.

COVID-19 CHRONICLES . . .

Bartley Kives, CBC Manitoba: Manitoba announced 273 new cases of COVID-19 and 7 more deaths on Sunday. . . . Active cases: 5,728 (overstated due to backlog in calling patients to designate active cases as recovered). . . . Total caseload: 21,023. . . . Recovered: 14,805. . . . Deaths: 490. . . . In hospital: 304, and In ICU: 43 (Understated. Both these counts do not include long-term COVID patients who are no longer contagious but still require hospital care.) . . . Five-day test-positivity rate: 13.5 per cent. . . . Tests completed Saturday: 2,145.

CTV News: There have been 222 new cases of COVID-19 and three related deaths reported in Saskatchewan in the past 24 hours.

CBC News: Alberta reports 1,717 new COVID-19 cases as well as a record 22 deaths.

B.C.: More crickets.

CBC News: Ontario is reporting 1,677 cases of #COVID19 and nearly 58,200 tests completed. Locally, there are 456 new cases in Toronto, 356 in Peel and 143 in York Region. There are 1,678 more resolved cases.

CBC News: Quebec reported 1,994 new cases of COVID-19 and 33 more deaths.

CBC News: Nova Scotia is reporting 6 new cases of COVID-19. All of the new cases have been traced back to previously reported cases or travel outside Atlantic Canada.

CBC News: N.B. reports 2 new cases of COVID-19, both in Fredericton region.

BNO News: 16,987 COVID deaths were reported in the U.S. this week, making it the deadliest week on record.

Ryan Struyk, CNN: 299,000 people in the United States have died from coronavirus.

Ryan Struyk, CNN: 16.2 million people in the United States have tested positive for coronavirus.

——

Pierre Lacroix, a former general manager of the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche, died on Sunday in Las Vegas. According to Le Journal de Quebec, he died due to COVID-19 complications. He was 72. . . .

Offensive line coach John Benton of the San Francisco 49ers missed their Sunday game with Washington in Glendale, Ariz., after testing positive. This was the 49ers’ first positive test since they were forced to relocate to Glendale.

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

——

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

——

Or, for more information, visit right here.

JUST NOTES: F Štěpán Novotný, who played in the WHL with the Kelowna Rockets and Swift Current Broncos (2008-11), has retired due to concussions. The MacBeth Report tweeted that he “suffered his fourth concussion in 10 years in a game against Liberec on March 3.” . . . The BCHL’s Penticton Vees appear to have lost F Quinn Hutson to the USHL’s Muskegon Lumberjacks. His name now is on the Lumberjacks’ roster on their website. Hutson, who will turn 19 on Jan. 1, is from Chicago and has committed to Boston U. He was in his first BCHL season and led the Vees with 10 goals in 14 games during the extended exhibition season.

Paranoia

Scattershooting on a Sunday night while wondering if we’ll get to watch the WJC . . .

Scattershooting

An early Christmas present . . . Here is for KING & COUNTRY with their version of Little Drummer Boy . . .

Sweden has lost a second player off its national junior team to a positive test. F SwedenKarl Henriksson, who was selected by the New York Rangers in the second round of the NHL’s 2019 draft, won’t play in the World Junior Championship that opens Dec. 25 in an Edmonton bubble. Henriksson likely would have been the Swede’s first- or second-line centre. . . . On Saturday, it was revealed that Swedish F William Eklund, one of the top prospects for the NHL’s 2021 draft, had tested positive.

Three players from Boston U — G Drew Commesso, F Robert Mastrosimone and D Alex Vlasic — won’t be attending USA Hockey’s national junior team USAhockeyselection camp. Jeff Cox of the New England Hockey Journal broke the news on Sunday, saying that the decision involves COVID-19 protocols. BU had a positive test last week so shut down activities involving the men’s hockey team and postponed its season-opener that was to have been played on Saturday against UConn. . . . Cox also reported that Boston U won’t be playing another game until Jan. 8. . . . Team USA replaced those three on the camp roster with G Logan Stein of Ferris State, D Tyler Kleven of the U of North Dakota and D Hunter Skinner of the OHL’s London Knights. . . . Commesso was a second-round pick by the Chicago Blackhawks in the NHL’s 2020 draft; Chicago took Vlasic in the second round in 2019. . . . The Detroit Red Wings picked Mastrosimone in the second round in 2019. . . . Neither Stein nor Skinner has played this season because there teams haven’t been able to get started. Kleven, a second-round pick by the Ottawa Senators in 2020, was playing for UND at a bubble in Omaha. . . . Skinner was a fourth-round pick by the New York Rangers in 2019. . . . Team USA’s camp opened Sunday in Ann Arbor, Mich. The roster includes 29 players and the plan is to trim two defencemen and two forwards on Dec. 13.

Steve Simmons, in the Toronto Sun: “If I was a parent of a junior hockey player or even an agent, I’m not sure I’d want my kid locked in an Alberta hotel room for two weeks, all in the name of quarantine and the apparent upcoming world junior tournament.”

Headline at fark.com: Washington is finally giving Texas a Wall.

Jeff Marek of Sportsnet tweeted early Sunday that the ECHL is expected to echlannounce the loss of three more teams for the upcoming season — the Cincinnati Cyclones, Idaho Steelheads and Kalamazoo Wings. That means 11 of the league’s 26 teams have opted out, the others being Adirondack Thunder, Atlanta Gladiators, Brampton Beast, Maine Mariners, Newfoundland Growlers, Norfolk Admirals, Reading Royals and Worcester Railers. . . . Marek also wrote that he has been “told the Toledo Walleye and Fort Wayne Komets are still undecided.” . . . The ECHL is planning on having some teams being play on Friday.

Insurance

“Heisman Trophy QB Johnny Manziel said on rapper Mike Stud’s YNK Podcast that he received impermissible benefits — i.e., cash — during his playing days at Texas A&M,” reports Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times, the shock dripping from his keyboard. “Or as Manziel is now known in booster circles, Johnny Windfall.”

——

Perry, again: “Star guard James Harden, who reportedly wants out of Houston, didn’t appear for the Rockets’ individual workouts Thursday as the opening of training camp looms. Harden apologists, fittingly enough, believe he was traveling.”

Bill Littlejohn, who writes from South Lake Tahoe, Calif., suggests that fans of the Cleveland Browns — hello there, Jeff DeDekker — are getting a bit ahead of themselves with their glee over their favourite team going into this weekend with a gaudy 8-3 record. Here’s Littlejohn: “Fans of the Cleveland Browns getting giddy over their team’s being 8-3, of which seven wins came against foes with losing records, should recall the case of Heavyweight contender Duane Bobick. Duane built up a record of 38-0 against a succession of stiffs and tomato cans before being demolished in 57 seconds by Ken Norton, Sr.” . . . The Browns now are 9-3 after beating the host Tennessee Titans, 41-35, on Sunday. Yes, that’s even gaudier than 8-3. Next up? The visiting Baltimore Ravens on MNF on Dec. 14.

“The Houston Texans had two players test positive,” notes Janice Hough, aka The Left Coast Sports Babe, “and it was just for PEDs. Seems so quaint.”

Mom

COVID-19 CHRONICLES . . .

Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times has taken a long look at sports in these pandemic days and that piece is right here. It carries the headline: Sports rolls on in the U.S. while the pandemic rages: Is it worth the risk? . . . It’s a good read.

——

CBC News: Manitoba is reporting 383 new cases of COVID-19 and 14 additional deaths related to the virus. 1 of the deaths is a man in his 20s. The province’s 5-day test positivity rate is 13.6%. 2,231 tests were completed Saturday.

CBC News: Saskatchewan is reporting 415 new cases of COVID-19 and 4 new deaths. Today’s case count reflects a backlog from Saturday for the Saskatoon region. There are 4,550 known active cases province-wide. 135 people are in hospital, including 26 in intensive care.

Mo Cranker, Medicine Hat News: 1,836 new cases of COVID-19 were identified in the last 24 hours by the province. . . . There are also 19 new deaths being reported. . . . Medicine Hat stayed at 94 active cases. The province reported six new cases in the Hat, as well as six new recoveries.

CBC News: Alberta now has 19,484 known active cases, including more than 7,200 in Calgary and over 8,900 in Edmonton. 601 people are in hospital, including 100 in ICU. Alberta’s test positivity rate is 7.8%.

B.C. on weekends: Crickets! . . . Watch for big, big numbers on Monday afternoon.

CBC News: Ontario reports new record high of 1,924 COVID-19 cases. There are 568 new cases in Toronto, 477 in Peel and 249 in York Region.

CBC News: Quebec is reporting 1,691 new cases of COVID-19. The province added 24 deaths to its total, 10 of which occurred in the last 24 hours. 778 people are in hospital, including 102 in intensive care.

CBC News: Nova Scotia is reporting 4 new cases of COVID-19, all in the Central Zone. 3 cases are under investigation; the remaining case is travel-related. There are 88 known active cases in the province. No one is currently in hospital. . . . Nova Scotia is amending today’s COVID-19 case count to add 1 more. Health officials say the latest patient is a student at an elementary school in Dartmouth. That school will now be closed until Dec. 10. The new diagnosis brings the number of new cases in the province today to 5.

CBC News: New Brunswick is reporting 4 new cases of COVID-19. 2 are in the Saint John region, 1 is in the Moncton region and 1 is in the Edmundston region. There are 82 known active cases in the province. 2 people are in hospital, including 1 in intensive care.

CBC News: P.E.I. is reporting 4 new cases of COVID-19. All are contacts of cases in the cluster reported Saturday. Dr. Heather Morrison says the source of the current outbreak is unknown, and more positive cases are expected. There are now 11 known active cases in the province. . . . P.E.I. is bringing in ‘circuit breaker’ measures for the next 2 weeks. Some of the regulations: In-restaurant dining, gyms and casinos must close. Retail stores can operate at 50% capacity. Organized gatherings like weddings and church services can have a maximum of 10 people.

CBC News: 4 new cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Newfoundland and Labrador. 3 of the cases are travel-related, and the other is a close contact of a previous known case. There are 30 known active cases in the province. No one is in hospital.

CBC News: Nunavut is reporting 2 new cases of COVID-19 in Arviat, after 8 new cases were reported there Saturday. There are 51 known active cases in the territory, all in the communities of Arviat and Whale Cove.

CNN: More than 30,000 new Covid-19 cases were reported in California Sunday, the highest number of new daily cases ever recorded in the state. Hospitalizations there are also at an all time high.

——

The Gonzaga Bulldogs, the No. 1 men’s basketball team in the NCAA, has postponed all games through Dec. 14. It was to have played the No. 2 Baylor Bears on Saturday but the game was postponed 90 minutes prior to tipoff after the Bulldogs had a pair of positive tests. . . . Gonzaga U is based in Spokane, Wash. . . .

The U of Texas has shut down all football activities after three players and two staff members tested positive on Sunday. All five are said to have tested negative on Friday, before visiting Texas whupped Kansas State, 69-31, on Saturday and then tested positive on Sunday. . . . Texas is scheduled to play at Kansas, at Lawrence, on Saturday.

——

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

——

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

——

Or, for more information, visit right here.

JUST NOTES: The Heritage Junior Hockey League, a 14-team junior B league in Alberta, has shut down at least until January. A release from the league states that it “will meet in January to discuss the best way to move forward.” . . . The Vancouver Canucks didn’t have any choice but to rid the organization of that dunderheaded anthem singer. . . . “The Vancouver Canucks have kicked anthem singer Mark Donnelly to the curb because he’s an anti-masker,” writes Patti Dawn Swansson, The River City Renegade. “Guess that rules out an appearance on The Masked Singer.” . . . If you sat down in front of a TV set on a Saturday morning and watched football through Sunday night, how much wine would you drink if you took a sip every time you saw a coach improperly wearing a facemask?

Phone

Scattershooting on a Sunday night while wondering if that really was an NFL game in Denver . . .

Scattershooting

EarlyMorning
Sunrise over the South Thompson River . . . Campbell Creek, B.C. . . . Sunday, Nov. 29, 2020 . . . 7 a.m.

There was a wonderful outpouring of emotion the other day when Fred Sasakamoose was taken from us by COVID-19 at the age of 86. Mel Recchi of Kamloops felt the loss, too.

FredSasakamoose, who would have turned 86 on Christmas Eve, played four seasons (1956-60) with the Kamloops Chiefs of the long gone Okanagan Senior Hockey League. This came after his 11-game stint with the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks (1953-54) and time with the New Westminster Royals, Chicoutimi Sagueneens and Calgary Stampeders.

During Sasakamoose’s stint with the Chiefs, Recchi sometimes would serve as a practice goaltender.

“He was a hell of a hockey player and also a pretty nice guy,” Recchi remembers. “He could shoot that puck. He really liked Kamloops . . . and they loved him here.”

Of course, goaltenders didn’t wear masks back in the day.

“I was a brash kid in those days . . . no mask and no fear,” recalls Recchi, who also got ice time with the Western league’s Vancouver Canucks when they would train in Kamloops. “I can’t believe it now.”

BTW, Sasakamoose played 94 games through three of those seasons with the Chiefs, scoring 43 goals and adding 57 assists. The stats for the 1958-59 season aren’t available.

Sasakamoose has family in Kamloops, including his younger brother, Pete, who didn’t make the Chiefs when Fred did, but ended up staying in the city and making it his home.

Solaine Sasakamoose, a great-grand niece, played for the Kamloops-based Thompson Rivers University women’s soccer team in 2019. She was born in Kamloops, but was living and playing soccer on the Lower Mainland when she was recruited by TRU coach Mark Pennington.

Patrick Johnston of Postmedia has more on Fred Sasakamoose and his Kamloops connections right here.

Papercut

Earl Seitz, the sports voice at CFJC-TV in Kamloops, has been an observer of the sporting universe for more than 50 years. Here’s a relevant thought that he posted on Facebook this weekend:

“Can’t understand the NFL and college basketball keep plowing ahead with growing number of COVID-19 cases. I make my living from sports, but if we want to keep living it’s time for sports, all sports, to take a complete break until there is a reliable vaccine for everyone.”

He’s right.

Columnist Ann Killion, in the San Francisco Chronicle:

“At UCLA, registered nurses protested the fact that the athletic department conducted 1,248 tests in a single week but health-care workers at the university hospitals have been denied testing.

“National Nurses United, the nation’s largest RN union, released a survey of more than 15,000 members: two-thirds reported never having been tested. Yet the NFL administered more than 43,000 tests in a two-week period in November.

“Do you think our priorities might be just a little bit skewed?

“Sports is a nice distraction. But at what price?”

“Veteran NBA forward Trevor Ariza got traded from Portland to Houston to Detroit to Oklahoma City in three separate deals in barely two days after this year’s draft,” reports Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times. “The Thunder is listing Ariza as day-to-day with severe jet lag.”

——

Perry also served up what he calls a “Turkey quiz.” Here it is: “The worst dish served up each Thanksgiving Day is: a) Tofu; b) Plantains; c) the Detroit Lions.”

——

It would seem that Perry isn’t a Lions fan, because he also had this one: “Eastern Market Brewing Co. has stopped sales and production of ‘Same Old Lager’ after Lions legend Barry Sanders — pictured on the can in team colors without his consent — threatened to sue. Apparently it was a little too Lions: It went flat the minute you opened the can.”

——

Perry’s tweet of the week came from George Takei, who played Mr. Sulu on TV’s original Star Trek: “Breaking: Professional sports fall into disarray as concerns mount over whether losing teams will concede to winning ones despite what the scoreboard says.”

Fixed

After Alabama football coach Nick Saban tested positive and another 19 NCAA football games were scratched, Janice Hough, who can be found at LeftCoastSportsBabe.com, wondered: “Wouldn’t it be simpler to write ‘COVID-19’ on the College Football 2020 Trophy and be done with it?”

Coming at some point over the next 10 days, the annual Taking  Note Bookshelf. Yes, it’s coming back by popular demand — two loyal readers have asked about it! . . . It looks like it’ll be in three parts, but be forewarned that I strayed from sports books over the past 12 months. Still, you may find a Christmas idea or two, especially if you’re shopping for yourself.

The story to which Jack McCallum refers in the above tweet is a wonderful piece of work by the great Steve Rushin. Take a few minutes and give it a read. You won’t be sorry.

Bruce Jenkins, in the San Francisco Chronicle:

“Against titanic odds, the NBA and MLB managed to complete seasons with historical significance — wildly different to be sure, but nevertheless authentic in the end. That’s hardly the case with the Pac-12 football season, a terrible idea (especially after the initial plan to call it off) that has descended into farce. Retrospective views will offer nothing but disdain, dismissal and wonderment, as in, What were we doing? Now the plague of stupidity (with a special dose of greed) has infected college basketball, with alarming developments expected throughout the land. . . . That’s the key word, expected. Positive tests, outbreaks, shutdowns, fractured schedules — all of this was going to be part of the deal, and the power brokers just brushed it aside, like lint. ‘Surely,’ wrote Chuck Culpepper in the Washington Post, ‘there’s an admirable human trait tucked somewhere into the way everybody continues to act.’ ”

COVID-19 CHRONICLES . . .

Catherine Litt worked in the newsroom at the Kamloops Daily News while I was the sports editor. As she writes: “It happens to other families until it happens to yours.” . . . Wear a mask, keep your distance and be safe out there.

——

CBC News: Manitoba is reporting 365 new COVID-19 cases, 11 additional deaths. Officials say the current 5-day COVID-19 test positivity rate is 13.3% per cent provincially, 13.5% in Winnipeg.

Marc Smith, CTV Regina: Record highs for hospitalizations (115) and ICU patients (23). . . . There were a record high 120 positive cases in Regina in the past 24 hours. The high one month ago was 21. . . . Regina’s test positivity was 10.78%.

COVID-19 Tracker Canada: Both COVID-19 hospitalizations and patients in ICU in Saskatchewan are at all-time highs, with 115 in hospital (+9) and 23 in ICU (+5). . . . Today’s increase of +5 in ICU is the highest ever daily increase for COVID-19 ICU census data in Saskatchewan.

Robson Fletcher, CBC Calgary: The latest COVID-19 data for Alberta: 1,609 cases yesterday (1,608 net w/adjustments to past days); 15,692 active cases. A record; 435 in hospital / 95 in ICU. Both records; 9 more people have died. 533 total now.

rdnewsNOW: Red Deer up to 191 active COVID-19 cases.

Mo Cranker, Medicine Hat News: Another COVID-19 death is being reported in the Hat today. Bringing the total to four. . . . There are 107 active cases and 152 recoveries. . . . 1,608 new cases were identified in the last 25 hours. Nine new deaths (including the one here) are being reported

CBC News: Ontario reported 1,708 new cases and 24 deaths today: The province’s health ministry says another 53,959 tests were completed in the last 24 hours. Labs are reporting a 3.7% positivity rate for Ontario.

CBC News: Quebec reported 1,395 new cases today: The province has added 12 deaths to its total, including 4 from the last 24 hours and 8 that happened earlier this week. 665 people are in hospital, including 92 in ICU.

CBC News: P.E.I. has no new confirmed cases of COVID-19. There are 4 active cases in the province. No one is in hospital.

CBC News: New Brunswick is reporting 14 new cases of COVID-19. 4 of the cases are in the Moncton region, 9 are in the Saint John  region and 1 is in the Bathurst region. There are now 119 cases in the province, including 1 person who is in hospital.

CBC News: Nova Scotia is reporting 10 new cases of COVID-19. 9 of the new cases are in the Central Zone and 1 is in the Western Zone. There are now 125 known active cases in the province. No one is currently in hospital.

CBC News: 4 new cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Newfoundland and Labrador. All of the cases are in the Eastern Health region, but they are not connected to each other. There are 36 active cases in the province. No one is in hospital.

KOMO News: Washington State health officials report more than 2,000 new COVID-19 cases.

Top U.S. & World News: The US has surpassed 100,000 new daily Covid cases for the 27th consecutive day as those who traveled for the holiday risk spreading the virus.

——

——

Things have gotten to a point in the NFL where it is shutting down almost all team-related activities for Monday and Tuesday. Yes, there are games scheduled for both nights, but other than that it will be mostly quiet as the league tries to get a handle on what has been happening. . . . Yeah, good luck with that. . . . WR Willie Snead of the Baltimore Ravens tested positive on Sunday. He is the seventh Baltimore starter to test positive. The Ravens, who are to visit the Pittsburgh Steelers on Tuesday, have had at least one positive test each of the past eight days and have 20 players on the reserve/COVID-19 list. They also have had 10 staff members test positive. . . .  That is the game that was to have been played on Thursday, then was bumped to Sunday and, finally, to Tuesday. . . . The Steelers will be without RB James Conner, a cancer survivor who has tested positive, and a couple of assistant coaches.

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

——

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

——

Or, for more information, visit right here.

JUST NOTES: If you’re a regular viewer of PTI you have to know that Michael Wilbon is going to be an angry man on Monday afternoon, what with Northwestern and his beloved Chicago Bears both laying eggs on the weekend. . . . If you are interested in WHL history and if you’re on Twitter, you need to be following Kevin Shaw (@theblueliner). He posts something every day slugged “On this date in @WHLPats history” and it’s great stuff. Yes, every once in a while my name shows up, but more often it’s someone like Fran Huck or Billy Hicke or Terry Harper or Gord Berenson. You may know Berenson as Red. Anyway, check it out.

Bills

Scattershooting on a Sunday night after watching Mahomes weave his magic . . .

Hey, junior hockey fans, especially those of you in the west, how’s it going these days? Well, let’s take a look . . .

Let’s start in Manitoba. Oh, wait, there isn’t any hockey being played in Manitoba these days where they are on lockdown. The MJHL, for one, won’t be back until the new year. I have a feeling the junior B and U-18 leagues on hold also will be quiet until 2021.

CBC News: Manitoba is reporting 243 new cases of COVID-19, including 135 in the Winnipeg region. There have been 12 new deaths related to the virus. Manitoba’s 5-day positivity rate is 13.7%. A record 288 people are in hospital, including 52 in ICU.

——

Moving further west to Saskatchewan, the SJHL continues to play but it postponed a game between the La Ronge Ice Wolves and the Mustangs in Melfort on Saturday night without providing a reason. The Mustangs have experience with COVID-19, having had a player test positive late in September.

Games involving the Flin Flon Bombers also are on hold. With the team based in Manitoba and that province on lockdown, the Bombers are trying to get the OK from health officials to practice in Creighton, Sask., and play all their games on the road.

CBC News: Saskatchewan is reporting 236 new cases of COVID-19 and 90 new recoveries. There are now 2,683 active cases of COVID-19 in the province. Hospitalizations are at a record high with 99 people receiving care, including 19 in ICUs. The 7-day average daily case count has risen to 211.

——

That brings us to Alberta where it seems the virus is enjoying a veritable buffet.

The AJHL has had four teams — the Canmore Eagles, Calgary Canucks, Drumheller Dragons and Okotoks Oilers — hit with positive tests in recent days. Drumheller and Okotoks are done through Dec. 3, as are the Olds Grizzlys, who have postponed their games“as a precautionary measure.” . . . As of Sunday night, the AJHL schedule showed 12 games having been “cancelled” from Nov. 20 through Nov. 28.

Despite all the precautions taken by Hockey Canada, the virus found the national junior team’s selection camp and now a number of people, including assistant coaches Michael Dyck and Jason Labarbera, have been isolated. But the camp goes on — Team White beat Team Red, 6-3, in a game on Sunday night.

The 14-team Heritage Junior B Hockey League shut down on Nov. 13 and will remain on pause until at least Nov. 27.

Troy Gillard, rdnewsNOW: Alberta recorded more new cases (Sunday) than both Quebec (1,154) and Ontario (1,534).

——

As for B.C., well, we don’t have any fresh numbers — almost everyone in the province but retail workers and the virus takes Saturday and Sunday off — but you can bet there will be some big ones announced Monday afternoon.

Junior hockey? There isn’t any at the moment. It’s all shut down until at least Dec. 7. Just a hunch but perhaps there won’t be any until 2021.

Aside to B.C. politicians and health officials: Why do you continually choose to muddy the waters with your announcements regarding restrictions? It would be a lot easier for everyone if you just said: No games. Period. . . . Or if you said: All games are good to go. . . . But let’s stop with the ‘no travel between communities but you can travel in your region’ and all that junk. . . . It’s all about sending mixed messages. Surely some of you have heard about mixed messages. Surely?

——

CBC News: Quebec is reporting 1,154 new cases of COVID-19 and 23 additional deaths. 642 people are in hospital, including 103 in intensive care.

CBC News: Ontario reporting 1,534 more COVID-19 cases and 14 new deaths.

CBC News: Nova Scotia is reporting 11 new cases of COVID-19. New restrictions come into effect for much of the Halifax region Monday, including tighter limits on social gatherings. All 11 new cases in Nova Scotia today are in the Central Zone. 6 are linked to previously reported cases; the remaining 5 are under investigation. There are now 44 active cases in the province. No one is currently in hospital. . . . Today marks the province’s highest single-day rise in cases since early May.

CBC News: New Brunswick is reporting 6 new cases of COVID-19. 5 are in the Saint John region; 1 is in the Fredericton region. All of the new cases are self-isolating and under investigation. The province has 77 known active cases, including 1 person in hospital.

CBC News: 3 new cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Newfoundland and Labrador. 2 of the cases are close contacts of previously identified cases; 1 is travel related. There are 21 known active cases in the province. No one is currently in hospital.

CBC News: 21 new cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Nunavut. 18 are in Arviat, 1 is in Whale Cove, and 2 are in Rankin Inlet. A news release from the Nunavut government says: ‘There remains no evidence of community transmission in Rankin Inlet or Whale Cove.’

New York Daily News: More than 1M people traveled on planes in U.S. on a single day ahead of Thanksgiving amid the coronavirus pandemic.

BNO Newsroom: Los Angeles County bans all in-person dining at restaurants due to surge in COVID cases.

Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle, on the NBA draft: “How about this: Have the draftee put on an appropriate hat. You get drafted by the Celtics, you put on a green leprechaun derby. Kings, a crown. Warriors, a combat helmet. Spurs, a sombrero or cowboy hat. Bucks, an antler hat. Orlando, a magician’s top hat with a rabbit popping out the top. Charlotte, a hornet’s nest. And so on.”

Ostler, again: “Rae’s Creek? Henceforth it will be known as Tiger’s Creek. Whatever you call that creek, Woods was up it, without a paddle. Does Nike make a paddle?”

TryingOn

Joe Murphy was the first overall selection in the NHL’s 1986 draft. He won a Stanley Cup with the Edmonton Oilers in 1980. Rick Westhead of TSN found him living in the bush near Kenora, Ont., in 2018. Murphy was last seen on the streets of Regina. . . . Westhead has written a book — Finding Murph — about the former NHLer’s slide and a whole lot more. Westhead appeared on CBC’s The Current during the week. There’s a story and link to that show right here. Give it a read and a listen — it’s worth about 30 minutes of your time.

“Cleveland Cavaliers guard Kevin Porter Jr. was arrested on a gun charge in Ohio after he crashed his car and investigating officers discovered a loaded firearm inside,” Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times reports. “Apparently he was on his way to the morning shoot-around.”

Perry also took the time to update some sporting cliches, just for 2020:

• “Playing .500 ball”: Completing as many games as you’ve had canceled by COVID.

• “Grabbing the facemask”: What you’d better do if you want to get into Costco.

• “We sent a message today”: Practice was once again replaced by a Zoom call.

• “Defense wins championships”: Costco rules apply to athletes, too.

Headline at TheOnion.com: Man Hasn’t Heard Or Read Single True Thing In 6 Years.

Parking

COVID-19 CHRONICLES . . .

The annual Apple Cup football game between the Washington State Cougars and Washington Huskies won’t happen this year. It was scheduled for Friday at Washington State. According to a statement from the Pac-12: The decision was made due to “Washington State not having the minimum number of scholarship players available for the game” as a result of positive tests and contact tracing. . . .

The Quinnipiac men’s hockey team has postponed its season-opener against visiting AIC from Tuesday to Dec. 26, and has cancelled games scheduled for Nov. 27 and Nov. 29. The moves were made after two positive tests. . . .

Brazilian soccer star Marta has tested positive and won’t play in friendlies against Ecuador on Nov. 27 and Dec. 1. Marta, 34, plays for Orlando Pride of the National Women’s Soccer League. She is a six-time world player of the year.

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

——

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

——

Or, for more information, visit right here.

LeAnne Jakubeit of Penticton lost her battle with cancer on Saturday. She was married to Andrew Jakubeit, who spent seven years as an on-ice official in the WHL and 10 in the BCHL. He also is a former mayor of Penticton. . . . LeAnne and Andrew owned and operated The Grooveyard, a music store that has been a Penticton mainstay for more than 30 years.

JUST NOTES: F Ridly Greig of the Brandon Wheat Kings was on the ice at the Canadian national junior team’s selection camp in Red Deer on Sunday. He had tested positive for COVID-19, but now is out of quarantine and has been cleared to practice. . . . Hey, TSN, how about giving us some MAC football action? In these pandemic nights, we really need a bridge to get us from Monday Night Football to Thursday Night Football. . . . Do you want to be the person to show Ken Norton Jr., the Seattle Seahawks’ defensive co-ordinator, how to properly wear a facemask? . . . Can anyone provide the name of just one singer or group that hasn’t cut a Christmas album? . . . If you’re wondering, Part 3 of my look back at the WHL’s early years will show up here at some point on Monday. Thanks for the great response to it.

Turkey

Scattershooting on a Sunday night while wondering if the Christmas lights will work or if I’ll need more extension cords . . .

Scattershooting

If you haven’t already seen this, take a few minutes out of your day to give it a listen/watch. This one will make you think about what not to do if you ever end up with a stinky, rotting whale on your beach. . . .

How did I spend my Sunday? Thanks for asking. The two rather large trees in our front yard got their haircuts on Friday, So on Sunday most of the outdoor Christmas lights and decorations are up and ready to shine. Another hour, hopefully on Monday, and it’ll be all done for another year. . . . Temperature on Sunday afternoon reached 11 C, so it was quite enjoyable out there. . . . Oh yes, we also had our first taste of this festive season’s fruitcake. Merry Christmas!

After the Boston Red Sox brought back Alex Cora as manager, Greg Cote of the Miami Herald wrote: “Adjusted bromide: ‘Cheaters Almost Never Prosper.’ ” . . . Cora served a one-year suspension after being manager of the Houston Astros during their cheating scandal.

Closed

Headline at TheOnion.com: Cora gets another kick at the can in Boston.

The USHL has been having its issues with COVID-19, and has had to postpone/reschedule a number of games. The Waterloo Black Hawks and Tri-City Storm both played on Saturday night and were supposed to face each other on Sunday. But the game, according to the league, “has been declared a No Contest. Per league safety protocols, minimum standards were not met to play (Sunday’s) game.”

A news flash from Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times: Dateline Washington, D.C.: Donald Trump finally concedes he lost — to the Baltimore Stars in the 1985 USFL playoffs.

——

Perry’s Tweet of the Week came from @Southampton FC, which, upon finding itself atop the Premier League standings for the the first time tweeted: “Stop the count.”

Come April 6, it will be three years since 16 people were killed in a crash HumboldtBroncosinvolving the bus belonging to the SJHL’s Humboldt Broncos. Michelle Straschnitzki and her husband, Tom, are two Broncos parents who aren’t prepared to give up on wanting to have seatbelts declared mandatory on medium and large highway buses and school buses. Bill Graveland of The Canadian Press reports that these parents “are angry at what they see as inaction from the federal and provincial governments on measures that could prevent another tragedy.” . . . Michelle told Graveland: “It’s just disgusting that nothing has changed. It should be legislated as of yesterday. It should be across the board, across Canada. It makes me nuts. This is not OK. We should not be fighting for this 2 1/2 years after the bus crash. It’s not right.” . . . Graveland’s story is right here.

ICYMI, St. Mary’s, Remsen beat Montezuma, 108-94, in an Iowa eight-man football state semifinal the other day. Interestingly, St. Mary’s had only 144 yards through the air, while Montezuma QB Eddie Burgess threw for 744 yards and nine TDs, then told the Cedar Rapids Gazette: “Credit to them. They kept us contained for some of the game.” . . . Blaine Harpeneau, the winning QB, was named player of the game after running for 354 yards on 40 carries. He scored four TDs and threw for four more. The teams combined for 1,497 yards of offence.

RJ Currie at sportsdeke.com: “Vasek Pospisil’s three-set loss in the Sofia Open final made Canadians 0-6 in ATP finals in 2020. You might call it Mission Im-Pospisil.”

A few years ago — actually more years ago than I care to remember — I took a whllook at the first 25 years of the WHL in four lengthy stories. The other day, someone who stops by this space on a regular basis wondered if I might post those pieces again. . . . So I have dug them up and they will appear here over the next while. Keep in mind that they were written more than 20 years ago, and I will post them as they were written. Also please keep in mind that they don’t pretend to be all-inclusive; they include some highlights and some lowlights and hopefully will help keep the past alive.

This is an all-time favourite hockey photo. Never mind the great stuff on the ice, take a look at the faces in the crowd . . .

Burger

COVID-19 CHRONICLES . . .

CBC North: 10 new cases of COVID-19 found in Nunavut, with signs of community spread in Arviat.

Ana Cabrera, CNN: US surpasses 11 million coronavirus cases. It took just 6 days to go from 10 million to 11 million.

Seattle Times: Gov. Inslee orders sweeping restrictions on indoor gatherings, restaurants, bars, gyms as COVID-19 cases surge in Washington state.

CBC News: 2 new cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Newfoundland and Labrador. Both are travel-related. The province has 10 known active cases, including 1 person who is in hospital.

CBC News: New Brunswick is reporting 3 new cases of COVID-19 for a total of 22 known active cases in the province. The new cases are in the Moncton, Saint John and Fredericton regions. 1 is travel-related and the other 2 are being investigated. All 3 new cases are self-isolating.

CBC News: Quebec is reporting 1,211 new cases of COVID-19. The province also added 15 deaths to its total, 2 of which occurred in the past 24 hours. The province has seen a total of 123,854 cases, including 6,626 deaths and 104,848 recoveries, since the pandemic began.

CBC News: Ontario is reporting 1,248 new cases of COVID-19, including 364 in Toronto, 308 in Peel and 125 in York Region. Provincial Health Minister Christine Elliott says an additional 1,062 cases have been resolved and more than 42,200 tests were completed.

Global News: Person in 20s dies from COVID-19 as Saskatchewan reports 2 deaths, 181 new cases.

CBC News: Calgary’s emergency management chief says Alberta needs a 28-day lockdown to battle COVID-19 — now.

CTV Edmonton: With 991 new cases, there are more than 9,600 active cases of COVID-19 in Alberta.

Global News: 10 more COVID-19 deaths in Manitoba Sunday, 494 new cases. There are 220 people in hospital with 41 in intensive care, and the number of deaths due to COVID-19 is 162.

——

The eight-team South Coast Women’s Hockey League has cancelled its 2020-21 season. The league, which features teams from Kamloops to Vancouver Island, had hoped to open in January, but ended up cancelling. . . .

The U of Vermont has delayed the start of its men’s and women’s basketball and hockey seasons until Dec. 18. “Our state is obviously seeing a significant increase in COVID-19 cases and it’s important that our programs are operating in a manner that is consistent with guidance from state officials,” Jeff Schulman, the director of athletics, said in a statement. . . . If you are wondering what former NHL head coach Mike Babcock is doing these days, he’s a volunteer advisor to the coaching staff with Vermont’s men’s hockey team. The Catamounts play in Hockey East, which is scheduled to start up next weekend. . . .

Jim Boeheim, the longtime men’s basketball coach at Syracuse, has tested positive. Boeheim, 75, is asymptomatic and is self-isolating at home. One other person in the program also tested positive, although it’s not known if it’s a player, coach or somebody else. The school also has stopped all basketball-related activities. . . .

The University of Massachusetts-Lowell paused men’s basketball activities last week after two positive tests. Practices are expected to resume on Wednesday.

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

——

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

——

Or, for more information, visit right here.

Remote