Tag: Jack Finarelli

Scattershooting on a Sunday: No welcome back Carter . . . Kamloops adds a scout . . . DD Train is rolling now

Scattershooting

Here’s Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle: “Former NFL running back Ricky Williams, who once took a break from smoking weed to swear to me that he was done smoking weed, is selling his own line of weed products, ‘Real Wellness by Ricky Williams.’  I hope it’s better than the line of baloney he used to sell.”

On the subject of weed and footballers, you don’t suppose the Saskatchewan Roughriders released Duron Carter because he had become too much of a distraction, do you? That being the case, the move should have been made weeks, if not months, ago.

Carter received an absolute discharge on June 21 in Winnipeg after pleading guilty to possession of marijuana-laced cookies — they also featured chocolate chips — following his arrest at the Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport on Nov. 25 in November.

He also has pleaded not guilty to another possession charge, this one stemming from an arrest at Saskatoon’s John G. Diefenbaker International Airport on Feb. 1. That case is scheduled to go to trial on Dec. 3.

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For any football fans expecting an honest explanation from the brass as to why the Roughriders dumped Carter, well, forget it. Chris Jones is the top dog there — actually, he is the vice-president of football operations, general manager, head coach and defensive co-ordinator — and the team’s playbook carries the title ‘My Way or the Highway.’ Jones also isn’t alone in footballdom in operating under a cone of silence. I mean, are you still expecting New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick to explain why he didn’t use defensive back Malcolm Butler in Super Bowl LII?

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If you’re interested in an overview of the situation involving the Roughriders and Carter, Ian Hamilton, the senior reporter at riderville.com, has a good look right here.

The Kamloops Blazers have added Jason Pashelka to their scouting staff. Pashelka, from Kamloops1Calgary, spent 11 seasons scouting with the Portland Winterhawks, so has a connection to Matt Bardsley, the Blazers’ new general manager. Bardsley had been in the Winterhawks’ organization since 1999 before signing on with the Blazers. . . . Pashelka spent the past two seasons scouting southern Alberta for the Moose Jaw Warriors. . . . Earlier, the Blazers lost scout Mark Blair, who left after 11 seasons with them. He since has joined the scouting staff in Moose Jaw.

“Estaban Loaiza, who made over $40 million as a Major League pitcher, faces life in prison for attempting to sell $500,000 in cocaine near a San Diego school,” tweets comedy writer Alex Kaseberg. “Experts say this is the stupidest thing attempted since IHOP changed its name to International House of Burgers.”

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Kaseberg, again: “In Florida, a police helicopter filmed a fleeing woman who stole a car being herded by cows toward the police. Authorities do not consider this a full-blown Florida incident as she was not carrying an alligator under her arm at the time.”

The Kamloops Broncos dropped a 42-0 decision to the Vancouver Island Raiders in a junior football game played in Nanaimo on Saturday night. Judging from the above tweet, the Broncos had some issues with their punting game.

The Las Vegas Aces, a team in the WNBA, spent 24 hours en route to Washington, D.C., for a recent game with the Mystics. When they didn’t arrive in Washington until five hours before the scheduled game time, they chose not to play “for health and safety reasons.” . . . Seriously. . . . Under similar circumstances, how many junior hockey games wouldn’t get played over the course of a season? . . . The WNBA later forfeited that game to the Mystics.

“The Dallas Cowboys welcomed Randy Gregory to camp after he had been suspended by the NFL for a year due to substance abuse violations,” notes Jack Finarelli, aka The Sports Curmudgeon. “This is merely the latest in a series of suspensions for the same reason. A couple of weeks ago, Jerry Jones said without any modifiers that if one of the Cowboys did not stand on the sidelines for the national anthem, that player would not play for the Cowboys. So, a serial drug abuser is OK, but . . .”

Brian Elder is the new head scout for the MJHL’s Virden Oil Capitals. Elder, who played three seasons (1994-97 ) tending goal with the Brandon Wheat Kings, lives and teaches school in Souris, Man. He spent the previous four seasons as a scout with the Oil Capitals. . . . Jamie Hodson, the Oil Capitals’ director of business and hockey operations, also is a former Wheat Kings goaltender (1997-2001).

The DD Train has started to roll. Dorothy, my wife of 46 years, had a kidney transplant on Sept. 23, 2013. This year, on Sept. 23, she will take part in her fifth straight Kamloops Kidney Walk. If you would like to support her with a donation, you may do so right here. As of last night, she was among the top-10 fundraisers in B.C. Yes, we are rather proud of her in these parts.

“Give Trump credit,” writes Janice Hough (leftcoastsportsbabe.com). “Before this year, almost nobody cared what the SCORES were for preseason football, let alone what players were doing during the anthem.”

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Hough, again: “The San Francisco 49ers now say there isn’t anything they can do about the intense sun and heat faced by fans on the east side of Levi’s Stadium. But they will lower the price of bottled water from $6 to $2 so fans can stay hydrated. That’s the NFL equivalent of ‘thoughts and prayers’.”

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Scattershooting on Sunday: Here’s to Manitoba . . . Carter and Owens together? Here’s hoping . . . U of Lethbridge has an opening

Scattershooting

Here’s a reminder that Manitoba got it right: The first Monday in August is Terry Fox Day, as it should be, but isn’t, everywhere in Canada.

Headline at BorowitzReport.com: Trump demands that NFL players stand during Russian national anthem.

If you were to look up stubborn in a dictionary, you just might find a picture of a football coach. No one with any power in the sporting world is more stubborn than a man in that position. However, I think it’s safe to say that Chris Jones, who is the vice-president of football operations, general manager and head coach with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, has raised that bar even higher.

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ICYMI, Jones worked out former NFL receiver Terrell Owens on Sunday in South Pittsburg, Tenn. Here’s hoping that the Roughriders, who are on a bye week, sign Owens, if only for the entertainment that would be provided by having Owens and Duron Carter on the field at the same time.

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A question: Is Regina big enough for Carter and Owens at the same time? . . . Is Saskatchewan?

“San Francisco Giants first baseman Brandon Belt and his wife named their newborn son August, in honor of Brandon’s college coach at Texas, the late Augie Garrido,” writes Dwight Perry of the SeattleTimes. “Just be thankful the Longhorns hired Garrido instead of Oil Can Boyd.”

If you spend much time watching the New York Yankees, you also spend a lot of time asking yourself: “How is it that the Yankees jettisoned Joe Girardi and then ended up with Aaron Boone?”

While musing about attempts by Chinese basketball teams to sign aging NBAers, Jack Finarelli, aka The Sports Curmudgeon, writes: “The reigning champions of the Chinese Basketball Association are the Liaoning Flying Leopards.  Liaoning is the Chinese province that borders North Korea; I have never been there; and if they have flying leopards there, I do not think I would want to visit.”

“What’s better?” asks Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle. “To be through the roof or off the charts? Off the grid or under the radar? Underrated or overserved? Over-exposed or half-baked?”

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Here’s Ostler, again: “If you’re wondering: Yes, it is a law that every sports interview be conducted in front of ‘wallpaper,’ those huge backdrops with a rep pattern of the team logo and a key sponsor. And, yes, a wallpaper backdrop can cause hypnotic trance. And, yes, when a coach or manager gets home and his wife asks how his day went, before answering he hauls out a wallpaper.”

“It’s staggering how much airtime TSN and ESPN devoted to Tiger Woods not winning the British Open,” notes RJ Currie of SportsDeke.com. “As for the actual winner, what’s the Italian term for chopped liver?”

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Currie again: “Toronto dealt veteran southpaw JA Happ to the Yankees. Which makes the Jays even more Happ-less.”

Two of ESPN’s baseball crews feature three voices in the booth — Jon (Boog) Sciambi with David Ross and Rick Sutcliffe, and Matt Vasgersian with Jessica Mendoza and Alex Rodriguez. I can guarantee that no one involved with either crew has ever heard Simon and Garfunkel’s hit ‘The Sounds of Silence’ or The Tremeloes’ ‘Silence is Golden.’

After quarterback Johnny Manziel was traded by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats to the Alouettes, Janice Hough, aka The Left Coast Sports Babe, wrote: “And we thought poutine was Montreal’s biggest hot mess.”

It recently was National Intern Day in the U.S., which caused Hough to note: “I miss the days when that would have been the No. 1 source of jokes about a current U.S. president.”

Your good read for today has Robert Klemko of si.com writing about the bubble in which former NFL linebacker Ray Lewis was placed, something that has allowed him to avoid dealing publicly with a particularly nasty incident from his past. It’s all right here and this is really, really good stuff.

MacBeth

F Tyler Fiddler (Calgary, 2007-11) signed a one-year contract with Rungsted (Denmark, Metal Ligaen). Last season, he had 13 goals and 25 assists in 48 games with SønderjyskE Vojens (Denmark, Metal Ligaen). . . .

F Brody Sutter (Saskatoon, Lethbridge, 2008-12) signed a one-year contract with Sport Vaasa (Finland, Liiga). Last season, he had eight goals and 10 assists in 58 games with the Manitoba Moose (AHL). . . .

F Dwight King (Lethbridge, 2004-09) signed a one-year contract with the Graz 99ers (Austria, Erste Bank Liga). Last season, he had six goals and eight assists in 49 games with Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg (Russia, KHL). . . .

F Michal Šiška (Kamloops, 2008-09) signed one-year contract with Olofström (Sweden, Division 2). Last season, he was pointless in two games with Nové Zámky B (Slovakia, 1, Liga), and had three goals and eight assists in 15 games with Topoľčany (Slovakia, 1. Liga).

ThisThat

Head coach Spiros Anastas is leaving the U of Lethbridge after four seasons as the head coach of the Pronghorns. According to a news release from the athletic department, Anastas “tendered his resignation to pursue another coaching opportunity.” . . . The Pronghorns were 36-68-8 under Anastas. The Pronghorns are to be the host team for the Canadian university men’s championship in 2019 for the first time in the program’s history. . . . Anastas had joined the Pronghorns after working as an assistant coach with the Grand Rapids Griffins, the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings.

Dorothy, my wife of 46 years, underwent a kidney transplant on Sept. 23, 2013. She will celebrate the fifth anniversary on Sept. 23 by taking part in the Kamloops Kidney Walk. This will be the fifth time she has done the Kidney Walk; she has been the leading fund-raiser in Kamloops in each of the previous four years. . . . If you would like to support her this year, you are able to do so right here.

The Everett Silvertips and hockey fans in the Pacific Northwest have been fortunate over the last while as the Everett Herald had Nick Patterson and then Jesse Geleynse on the beat, While Patterson remains on staff as sports columnist, Geleynse is on the move. Perhaps he’ll end up on the Penguins beat.

F Patrick D’Amico is returning for a second go-round with the ECHL’s Norfolk Admirals. . . . D’Amico, 23, is from Winnipeg. He played 160 WHL games over three seasons (2012-15) with the Regina Pats, putting up 27 goals and 48 assists. . . . Last season, he had two goals and an assist in 10 games with the ECHL’s Atlanta Gladiators, then added 10 goals and 23 assists in 55 games with Norfolk. He also has played in the ECHL with the Colorado Eagles, Atlanta Gladiators and Indy Fuel.

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Scattershooting on a Sunday . . . Warriors get a Harley . . . Get outta here, Buck . . . Froot Loops on a hot dog

Scattershooting

I haven’t yet watched Sunday’s heats from the Rangeland Derby at the Calgary Stampede, so don’t know how Calgary Hitmen scout Chad Harden did. But he won his heat on Saturday night. Wes Gilbertson of Postmedia has more on Harden right here.

There are seven Sportsnet channels on my satellite TV package. On Wednesday, four of those channels started showing the MLB game between the Boston Red Sox and the host Washington Nationals at 8 a.m. Pacific (11 a.m. ET). Meanwhile, the visiting New York Yankees and Atlanta Braves, two of the best young teams in MLB, were to begin at 10 a.m. PT (1:05 p.m. ET) and Sportsnet had that game scheduled for the same four channels. . . . By the time the Braves and Yankees got on those channels, the Bronx Bombers had a 5-0 lead. You would think that maybe, just maybe, the Braves-Yankees game could have been shown in its entirety on one of those channels. . . . You just wonder if Sportsnet does things like this on purpose, you know, just to upset viewers.

Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times wonders . . . The biggest competitive mismatch these days is: (a) Globetrotters vs. Generals; (b) Warriors vs. NBA; (c) Joey Chestnut vs. hot dogs?

After the Golden State Warriors signed free-agent centre DeMarcus (Boogie) Cousins, who is all-star calibre, Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle noted: “It’s like you ask Santa for a bike, and he brings you a Harley.”

Hey, TSN, I think we can do with fewer shots of beer-swilling fans during your CFL telecasts. I would suggest that it was completely out of hand during Thursday’s game from Pilsner-land (aka Regina).

“If Brendan Shanahan wants a shot at the Stanley Cup immediately,” writes Cam Hutchinson of the Saskatoon Express, “he should trade John Tavares to Ottawa for Erik Karlsson.”

If auto-correct had half a brain it would correct your spelling mistakes, instead of taking words that you spell correctly and changing them.

Headline at Fark.com: 29 NBA teams to change their name to the Washington Generals in 2019.

Jack Finarelli, over at sportscurmudgeon.com, had a tasty note the other day: “In Cleveland at Progressive Field, fans attending Indians’ games can order a Slider Dog. That would be a hot dog topped with mac and cheese, bacon and Froot Loops. Seriously . . .”

I don’t know what is more hilarious . . . Buck Martinez, the lead cheerleader on most Toronto Blue Jays telecasts, screaming “Get outta here ball” as one dies on the warning track, or hollering “Get outta here ball” with his favourite team trailing 8-4 with two out in the bottom of the ninth inning.

“I was just watching Terminator 2 where the T-1000 becomes so brittle that part of his body breaks with each movement,” reports RJ Currie of SportsDeke.com. “Anyone else just think of Milos Raonic?”

Currie, again: “God’s truth, I’ve just watched 11 minutes of TSN without any mention of John Tavares. So I must — ooops; they didn’t make it to 12 minutes.”

One more from Currie: “So far, Cavaliers Game 1 goat J.R. Smith hasn’t gone into witness protection. And if he did, what would his last name be?”

Saskatchewan tragedy touches Humboldt Broncos . . . Evason on way back to NHL . . . Will Rockets be doing the haka?

MacBeth

F Brad Ross (Portland, 2007-12) signed a one-year contract extension with Heilbronner Falken (Germany, DEL2). Last season, he had 10 goals and 18 assists in 49 games. . . .

F Sergei Drozd (Tri-City, 2009-10) signed a one-year contract with Yunost Minsk (Belarus, Extraliga). Last season, with Dinamo Minsk (Belarus, KHL), he had two goals and four assists in 45 games. . . .

F Chris Langkow (Spokane, Saskatoon, Everett, 2005-10) signed a one-year contract with MAC Budapest (Hungary, Slovakia Extraliga). Last season, with the Worcester Railers (ECHL), he had 18 goals and 27 assists in 50 games. On loan to the Hartford Wolf Pack (AHL), he had one goal and one assist in seven games. He was second on Worcester in assists and points.

Ex-Humboldt player, family killed in crash

Troy Gasper, a former Humboldt Broncos forward, his wife and their three young children were killed in a two-vehicle accident north of Elrose, Sask., on Friday afternoon.

Gasper, 26, his wife Carissa, 28, and their children — Kael, 6, Shea, 4, and Maks, 2 — were killed when two SUVs collided on Highway 4.

The driver of the other vehicle, a 71-year-old woman from Swift Current, also died in the accident.

The Gaspers were from Rosetown, which is just south of Elrose. Gasper played two seasons (2009-11) with the Broncos. He then played four seasons with the senior Rosetown Redwings. The Moose Jaw Warriors selected him in the ninth round of the WHL’s 2007 bantam draft, but he never played in the WHL.

Troy was a salesman at Western Sales Ltd., a John Deere dealership, while Carissa worked for her father’s accounting business.

Troy’s father, Doug, is a veteran scout. He joined the Moose Jaw Warriors in 2007, moved to assistant head scout in 2012 and was director of scouting for two seasons (2015-17). He left the Warriors last summer to join the scouting staff of the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks.

Scattershooting

Somehow I missed a move back to the NHL by former WHL player and coach Dean Evason. After six seasons as head coach of the Milwaukee Admirals, the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Nashville Predators, Evason has signed on as an assistant coach with the Minnesota Wild. . . . Evason, 53, was the Kamloops Blazers’ head coach for three seasons (1999-2002) and the Vancouver Giants for two (2002-04), then spent 2004-05 with the Calgary Hitmen. He was an assistant coach for seven seasons with the NHL’s Washington Capitals before heading to Milwaukee. . . . While in Washington, he worked under head coach Bruce Boudreau, who now is the Wild’s head coach. . . . Evason was prolific scorer with the Kamloops Jr. Oilers, putting up 164 points, including 71 goals, in 70 games in 1982-83 and 137 points, 49 of them goals, in 57 games in 1983-84.

Karl Taylor is the new head coach of the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals. He spent the past four seasons as an assistant coach with the Texas Stars, the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Dallas Stars. . . . In 2013-14, Taylor was an assistant coach with the Portland Winterhawks.

If you weren’t aware, Kelowna Rockets assistant coach Travis Crickard is spending part of his off-season in New Zealand. There is a rumour out there that this will lead the Rockets to perform the haka before home games in 2018-19.

Here is Jack Finarelli (sportscurmudgeon.com) with a couple of Detroit Lions-related notes:

“To give you an idea of the futility of the Lions as a franchise, the team has been in the NFL for 89 seasons (since 1930). Over that time, the Lions winningest coach is Wayne Fontes and Fontes’ career record with the Lions was 66-67-0.

“Here is another Lions’ oddity. Since the merger of the NFL and the AFL in 1970, no head coach of the Lions was ever a head coach for another NFL team after Detroit fired him. It is almost as if the rest of the league doesn’t want to risk that sort of taint on their franchise. Welcome to Detroit, Matt Patricia. . . .”

“Derek Jeter has put the 115-year-old Tiedemann Castle — his residence on Greenwood Lake, N.Y., during his Yankee playing days — on the market for US$14.75 million,” notes Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times. “It features a 12,590-square-foot home, six bedrooms, 12 bathrooms, one pool, one lagoon and one replica of the Statue of Liberty but, alas, no gift baskets.”

Garrett Rank, an NHL referee, qualified for and played in golf’s U.S. Open earlier this year. At one point, he heard someone in the gallery yell: “Call more slashing on Pittsburgh!”

A note from Cam Hutchinson of the Saskatoon Express: “Ex-New England mafia boss Francis (Cadillac Frank) Salemme was convicted last week for the 1993 murder of a nightclub owner. I’ve always thought mobsters have the best nicknames.” . . . Methinks Hutchinson loved The Sopranos.

One more from Hutchinson: “A survey found 50 per cent of Internet users will quit waiting for a video to load after 10 seconds. I wait five — tops.”

Vancouver comic Torben Rolfsen wonders: “Does Barry Trotz get to rejoin the Capitals for their Kremlin visit?”

“The Milwaukee Brewers have promised their famous racing sausages will compete ‘beyond 2018’ with new sponsor Johnsonville,” reports RJ Currie of SportsDeke.com. “It reassured fans who had feared for the wursts.”

The Kansas City Royals are in the tank and soon to start wheeling and dealing as a rebuild gets started. As Currie puts it: “Call it the Royal weeding.”

Scattershooting: The Logan Effect . . . Jokiharju done in Portland? . . . Whistle in goal for Great Britain

Scattershooting

So many Canadians have registered as organ donors since April 6 that some people are calling it the Logan Effect. Logan Boulet was a player with the Humboldt Broncos who died in the crash of their bus on April 6. Boulet had registered as a donor upon turning 21 on March 2, and some of his organs went to recipients following the accident. . . . André Picard of The Globe and Mail has more right here.

The SJHL’s championship final is 2-2 after the host Estevan Bruins beat the Nipawin Hawks, 5-3, on Wednesday night. They will meet again Friday in Nipawin and Sunday in Estevan, with both games to start at 7:30 p.m. If needed, Game 7 will be played Tuesday in Nipawin.

The winner of the SJHL final will meet the MJHL champion for the ANAVET Cup. The Steinbach Pistons and Virden Oil Capitals are tied, 2-2, going into Game 5 tonight (Thursday) in Steinbach. Game 6 will be played Saturday at Virden, with Game 7, if needed, in Steinbach on Monday. All games start at 7:30 p.m.

In the AJHL, the Spruce Grove Saints hold a 3-1 edge on the Okotoks Oilers as they play Game 5 in Okotoks on Friday. . . . The BCHL’s Wenatchee Wild has a 3-1 lead on the Prince George Spruce Kings going into Game 5 in Wenatchee tonight (Thursday).

The WHL’s conference finals will get started on Friday with the Tri-City Americans visiting the Everett Silvertips, and the Lethbridge Hurricanes in Swift Current to meet the Broncos. They also will play in those same venues on Saturday night.

Scott Powers, who covers the Chicago Blackhawks for The Athletic, reported this week that D Henri Jokiharju may not be back with the Portland Winterhawks for a third Portlandseason. Jokiharju has been on loan to the Winterhawks from his Finnish team, Tappara, so is eligible to play next season in the AHL. The Blackhawks, who have yet to sign Jokiharju, selected him in the first round, 29th overall, of the NHL’s 2017 draft. . . . The last time something like this happened involving a WHL team it was in the fall of 2014 and the Swift Current Broncos lost D Julius Honka. He had been loaned to them by his Finnish team, JYP, so moved onto the AHL after one season with the Broncos. The Dallas Stars picked him 14th overall in the NHL’s 2014 draft and he played the next three seasons with their AHL affiliate, the Texas Stars. He got into 16 games with Dallas in 2016-17 and had a goal and three assists in 42 games there this season.

G Jackson Whistle, who played five seasons in the WHL, is on Great Britain’s roster for the IIHF World Championship (Division 1, Group A) that opens Sunday in Budapesdt, Hungary. Whistle played with the Vancouver Giants (2011-12) and Kelowna Rockets (2012-16). This season, he played with the EIHL’s Belfast Giants. His father, Dave, coached in Great Britain, and Jackson has dual citizenship.

F Cole Shepard of West Vancouver has committed to attend Harvard U and play for the Crimson, starting in 2020-21. Shepard, 16, had 53 points, including 34 assists in 34 games with Delta Hockey Academy’s prep team in the CSSHL this season. A second-round selection by the Vancouver Giants in the WHL’s 2017 bantam draft, he is likely to play next season with the BCHL’s Penticton Vees.

Here’s some baseball culinary news from Brad Rock of Salt Lake City’s Deseret News:

“The Salt Lake Bees are upping their food game with a new sandwich that is half ham, turkey, roast beef and cheddar cheese with a basil aioli; the other half consisting of salami, capicola, pepperoni, provolone cheese and green chili aioli.

“Both halves are topped with jack cheese, lettuce, tomato, onions and carrots mixed with Italian dressing.

“The $24 sandwich, sized the same as a regulation base, is called the ‘6-4-3 Double Play.’ Also known as ‘Gwyneth Paltrow’s Revenge’.”

Living in the U.S. as he does, Jack Finarelli, aka the Sports Curmudgeon, has regular access to ESPN, which is why he writes:

“According to reports, Pope Francis said that there is no Hell. Most assuredly, I do not wish to challenge His Holiness on religious matters. I know when I am in over my head.  Nonetheless, I wonder what the Pope would call viewing First Take and/or Undisputed day after day after day after . . .”

The curmudgeonly one then added: “I guess they don’t get those programs in Vatican City . . .”

Headline at SportsPickle.com: Report: Patriots stockpiling draft picks in hopes of taking a quarterback who can catch.

Fran O’Hanlon, the men’s basketball coach at Lafayette College in Easton, Penn., no longer has his team use a matchup-zone defence. Why not? He explains to CBSsportsradio.com: “The key to the matchup is being able to communicate with one another on the floor. Today’s players can’t communicate unless they text. They can type really fast on their cellphones, but not quite fast enough during a game.”

Attendance at a recent game between the Tampa Bay Rays and White Sox in Chicago totalled 974. As Jim Barach of WCHS-TV in Charleston, W.Va., noted: “All the fans bought a hot dog and beer, so the team still made $3 million from the concession stands.”