Thought that on a periodic basis I would just toss up some quick thoughts on the world of sports without focusing on one thing in particular. Hence...some quickies:
-Trevor Linden resigns with the Canucks for 1 year. Good to hear. Linden was just as good as any other 3rd or 4th liner that Nucks had last year so why not one more shot. But this is it...I hope Linden does the right thing after the season and retires on his own terms instead of being forced out by the team. 20 years is enough. Would it ever be nice to watch him lift the Stanley Cup in the new Nucks jerseys at the end of the season. If that happens I might cry.
-Speaking of the new Nucks jerseys they come out on August 29th. Excited to see them. Reports suggest that it should look something like the current jersey except with the vintage colours and a newly coloured orca. If you have never dreamed of a newly coloured orca...well then you haven't lived.
-Flames also getting new jerseys at the start of September. Should look like piss.
-Canada begins the FIBA Americas basketball tournament tonight in Vegas against Brazil. With the likes of Nene, Barbosa and friends on the opposition you can expect us to lose. Unless Samuel Dalembert gets a quadruple double of 70, 20, 15, 10. Won't happen. I love Steve Nash to death but it sucks that the likes of him and Jamaal Magloire aren't out there this week. Good news...we get to play the US Virgin Islands. This should be a "guaranteed win or we all jump off a bridge into a river of thumbtacks" night.
-The Americas tournament is the first big test for new Canadian coach Leo Rautins. For those who don't know, Rautins is an arseweasel. Look for him to play his son Andy until his feet bleed and try out Chuck Swirsky at shooting guard at some point during the tourney.
-Garrett Anderson of the LA Angels had 10 rbi's last night! I had that once in a Grade 10 gym class. It was slo-pitch and it took me the whole week not just one night. Still glorious though.
-The women's world cup of soccer is next month in China. Predictions include a Germany win, some US complaining, and Canada's Christine Sinclair reminding me constantly of a less attractice Hunchback of Notre Dame.
-A couple excellent youtube videos to check out this week. 1. Adrian Peterson of the Vikings ripping up the Jets in a preseason game (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2_VaO43f4Y) and 2. the funny meeting between the New Orleans Saint's Reggie Bush and the LA Galaxy's David Beckham (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtwKa55aFuE). Both worth a look.
Also this one, not sports related but a commercial from Thailand that I saw on tv while vacationing in Australia this summer. All I have to say is...wow. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrixhUg1SCg
-Finally, it is sad to hear of the death of former NBA player Eddie Griffin who died last week when his SUV tried to race a train...and lost. Took a week and dental records to identify him. Only 25, he had a very nice bball game (not too many guys can hit 7 threes one night and block 7 shots the next) and a horribly bad lifestyle. Arrests ranged from DUI's to assault and Griffin battled alcoholism throughout his short career. Reminds you again that all the talent and money in the world does not buy you contentment.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Vikings vs Rams preseason game
How bored was I this Saturday morning? I watched the replay of the preseason (yep, thats right, preseason!) game between my Vikes and the Rams. I figured I needed something at 8am to wake me up before a full day of house renovating. Not sure preseason football was the answer. Below are my observations including a rundown of the first quarter where the starters played.
Pregame: Our friendly Viking preseason commentators are in a giddy mood. Talking about the optimism that surrounds this 2007 season. Ok...whatever...get on with it. Then they get my attention by telling me to wait until after the break for a special game guest commentator. For a preseason game. Sure enough after the break the Vikings broadcast introduces Viking legend and future NFL hall of famer John Randle. Good, right? Except the caption under his name reads "John Randall". Wow. Thanks for all the years John and almost 140 sacks (5th alltime), too bad we can't spell your name right! We could google it but c'mon this is preseason. Dumb. Can't wait 'til next year when they trot out "Kris Karter".
The first quarter: Be still my beating heart. But wait. Before the game gets underway we get to see the new Vikes mascot "Victor" come zip-lining on to the field from the ceiling. He lands and we get our first good look at the fella. To the naked eye Victor reminds one of the middle-aged guy that lives on the end of your block that your parents warn you not to ever go near or trick or treat at his house on Halloween. I swear he has had a pictorial in "Swedish Pedophile Weekly" in the last year. I'm guessing Mr. June. Oh well...good for him getting honest work as a mascot. Is that honest work?
15:00- Ooohh, today's referee is the ridiculously ripped Ed Hochuli. Is it bad that I think that Ed has the body to start at safety for the Vikes or at least moonlight in the nickel package.
14:49- Vikes first play of scrimmage and we get to see the lineup. Starting at wide receiver we have Troy "Oops, I dropped it" Williamson and Bobby "Who?" Wade. Not good. I realize more each year how spoiled we were as Vikings fans to watch Carter, Moss and Reed together back in the day. I see our potential #3 Cortez Hankton getting ready on the sidelines. I remember him...he was an adequate special teams player with the Jaguars not long ago. Now he might be our #3. I go and check what his overall rating was on Madden '07. A 64/100. With a 52 for offensive awareness!! That means that he might as well smoke a couple joints, drink a keg of beer and then go out on the field and try to catch the ball. Oh and did I mention we'll also turn off all the lights in the stadium? Sorry Cortez, but with those rankings just make sure you run in a straight line down the field and stay the heck away from anywhere Adrian Peterson runs. I'm dead serious.
13:30- Holy wow...Troy Williamson can catch. A couple nice grabs. One in Los Angeles drive-home type traffic. Thats a positive. Last year he would not have caught that with a butterfly net.
13:20- Tarvaris Jackson pulls one down and runs it for 17 yards. I don't miss you Brad Johson.
10:25- Just realized I am still loving the new jerseys from last year. They are sharp. I remember buying a Vikes jersey a couple years ago, taking it home, looking at it and taking it straight back to the store. My man ranking would be Hanktonesque if I had donned that thing. Now maybe I can go get one and chuck it on without feelings of guilt and fear. We'll see.
9:00- Here comes the Dairy Queen starting lineup for the Vikings. First one announced is Pat Williams. All 400 pounds of him. Insert your own fat joke here. Good thing Pat is a stud. Not much new from last year on defense. Good to see Chad Greenway out there starting at LB after being out all of last year. He's #52....or alternately...the white guy.
5:15- First appearance of Adrian Peterson, our 7th overall pick out of Oklahoma. On his first run he is stuffed for no gain. Still, the sight of him out there fills me with hope. Hope of a possible heir to Robert Smith. And with it hopefully the end to all my memories of Onterrio Smith and his pee machine.
3:00- I almost forgot the Rams are on the field too. My thoughts on them can be summarized as a) Marc Bulger is boring, b) Torry Holt can book his ticket to Canton, and c) I am happy that the lsat few years I can watch Rams games without seeing Mrs. Kurt Warner and her GI Joe haircut pop up on my screen.
The first quarter ended 3-0 Vikes. Then I realized that I could not sit through four quarters of NFL preseason football. One would suffice. Vikes lost 13-10 or so I hear. Who cares? At least I killed 35 minutes on a sleepy August morning. To rip off a little Green Day...wake me up, when September...starts.
Pregame: Our friendly Viking preseason commentators are in a giddy mood. Talking about the optimism that surrounds this 2007 season. Ok...whatever...get on with it. Then they get my attention by telling me to wait until after the break for a special game guest commentator. For a preseason game. Sure enough after the break the Vikings broadcast introduces Viking legend and future NFL hall of famer John Randle. Good, right? Except the caption under his name reads "John Randall". Wow. Thanks for all the years John and almost 140 sacks (5th alltime), too bad we can't spell your name right! We could google it but c'mon this is preseason. Dumb. Can't wait 'til next year when they trot out "Kris Karter".
The first quarter: Be still my beating heart. But wait. Before the game gets underway we get to see the new Vikes mascot "Victor" come zip-lining on to the field from the ceiling. He lands and we get our first good look at the fella. To the naked eye Victor reminds one of the middle-aged guy that lives on the end of your block that your parents warn you not to ever go near or trick or treat at his house on Halloween. I swear he has had a pictorial in "Swedish Pedophile Weekly" in the last year. I'm guessing Mr. June. Oh well...good for him getting honest work as a mascot. Is that honest work?
15:00- Ooohh, today's referee is the ridiculously ripped Ed Hochuli. Is it bad that I think that Ed has the body to start at safety for the Vikes or at least moonlight in the nickel package.
14:49- Vikes first play of scrimmage and we get to see the lineup. Starting at wide receiver we have Troy "Oops, I dropped it" Williamson and Bobby "Who?" Wade. Not good. I realize more each year how spoiled we were as Vikings fans to watch Carter, Moss and Reed together back in the day. I see our potential #3 Cortez Hankton getting ready on the sidelines. I remember him...he was an adequate special teams player with the Jaguars not long ago. Now he might be our #3. I go and check what his overall rating was on Madden '07. A 64/100. With a 52 for offensive awareness!! That means that he might as well smoke a couple joints, drink a keg of beer and then go out on the field and try to catch the ball. Oh and did I mention we'll also turn off all the lights in the stadium? Sorry Cortez, but with those rankings just make sure you run in a straight line down the field and stay the heck away from anywhere Adrian Peterson runs. I'm dead serious.
13:30- Holy wow...Troy Williamson can catch. A couple nice grabs. One in Los Angeles drive-home type traffic. Thats a positive. Last year he would not have caught that with a butterfly net.
13:20- Tarvaris Jackson pulls one down and runs it for 17 yards. I don't miss you Brad Johson.
10:25- Just realized I am still loving the new jerseys from last year. They are sharp. I remember buying a Vikes jersey a couple years ago, taking it home, looking at it and taking it straight back to the store. My man ranking would be Hanktonesque if I had donned that thing. Now maybe I can go get one and chuck it on without feelings of guilt and fear. We'll see.
9:00- Here comes the Dairy Queen starting lineup for the Vikings. First one announced is Pat Williams. All 400 pounds of him. Insert your own fat joke here. Good thing Pat is a stud. Not much new from last year on defense. Good to see Chad Greenway out there starting at LB after being out all of last year. He's #52....or alternately...the white guy.
5:15- First appearance of Adrian Peterson, our 7th overall pick out of Oklahoma. On his first run he is stuffed for no gain. Still, the sight of him out there fills me with hope. Hope of a possible heir to Robert Smith. And with it hopefully the end to all my memories of Onterrio Smith and his pee machine.
3:00- I almost forgot the Rams are on the field too. My thoughts on them can be summarized as a) Marc Bulger is boring, b) Torry Holt can book his ticket to Canton, and c) I am happy that the lsat few years I can watch Rams games without seeing Mrs. Kurt Warner and her GI Joe haircut pop up on my screen.
The first quarter ended 3-0 Vikes. Then I realized that I could not sit through four quarters of NFL preseason football. One would suffice. Vikes lost 13-10 or so I hear. Who cares? At least I killed 35 minutes on a sleepy August morning. To rip off a little Green Day...wake me up, when September...starts.
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Mid-summer Canuck thoughts
Below is my entry into the Canucks blogger contest. Top eight entries get picked for a playdown to see who can work for Canucks.com. How sweet would that be.
Here was my entry (could only be 500 words):
I remember it well. When Scott Niedermayer's wrist shot somehow found its way into the Canucks net to end our 2006-2007 season, the world stood still. I remember the look on Jannik Hansen's groggy face, wondering if Rob Niedermayer's elbow was still lodged in his trachea. I remember the befuddled look on Roberto Luongo's face (think Donald Brashear on "Are you smarter than an 8th Grader?"). I remember looking over at the other couch and seeing my wife in tears...my yearly confirmation that the Canucks season had indeed come to an end. I can see it like it was yesterday.
But time heals all wounds. Or at least soothes them a bit. As we plod through summer towards next season it is once again time for Canucks fans to hope. As they say, hope springs eternal. Well, maybe except the late 1990's when Mike Keenan traded hope for conditional draft picks. This summer we have more reason to be positive than ever. Last year's team showed us that we are making progress and that we are on the verge of something special. Our summer pickups have us excited. Our defence looks deep. Our stars are primed for good years. And don't forget that our goaltender is to his position as Martha Stewart is to home making (and tax evasion). Things are looking up.
So how do our Northwest Division competitors stack up this year? Let's focus in on the big summer news of our competition:
1) The Oilers: First thought is that they overpaid at 4 million/year for Fred Penner. He'll be making way more money than he ever did crawling out of that log and talking to the "word bird". Whats that? Oh...it was Dustin Penner? Well that makes a little more sense. Not complete sense but a little more.
2) The Flames: They got Mike Keenan...enough said. Actually, after the Penner signing I was thinking Keenan was going to pressure the Flames owners into signing Mr Dressup to a long term deal and maybe getting Finnegan in the package to play alongside Phaneuf.
3) The Wild: Umm, they have cool looking jerseys? And if you go on their website you can audition to be an anthem singer this year. Seriously, not many rumblings out of Minny this summer. They did re-sign Derek Boogaard so thats kind of exciting right? Right? Anyone?
4) The Avalanche: Nice pickup getting Ryan Smyth but he's not a new sight to Canucks fans. We'll just have to beat him in a new jersey that has a Yeti foot patch on the shoulder. By the way, it's hard to cheer against a guy like Joe Sakic. Jose Theodore...not so much.
So here we are in August. Canucks fans find themselves (in the words of Jack Johnson) sitting, waiting and wishing for the season to come. I don't know how much more time I can waste Youtubing videos of Kirk McLean pad-stacking Robert Reichel in 1994. For the love of Petri Skriko, lets get on with it! I am ready to go!
One last thing about how last season ended in my house. I swear to you this is true. When the tears finally stopped falling on that couch across from mine, I looked over and saw the most amazing thing. There was a little couch rainbow! I looked closer and saw the rainbow adorned with a Canuck logo and at its end I saw something incredible. The end of this rainbow held not a pot of gold...but a silver cup!
Okay, I totally lied but wouldn't that have been cool? Hope...it will mess you up. But real Canucks fans wouldn't have it any other way. It's our year.
Here was my entry (could only be 500 words):
I remember it well. When Scott Niedermayer's wrist shot somehow found its way into the Canucks net to end our 2006-2007 season, the world stood still. I remember the look on Jannik Hansen's groggy face, wondering if Rob Niedermayer's elbow was still lodged in his trachea. I remember the befuddled look on Roberto Luongo's face (think Donald Brashear on "Are you smarter than an 8th Grader?"). I remember looking over at the other couch and seeing my wife in tears...my yearly confirmation that the Canucks season had indeed come to an end. I can see it like it was yesterday.
But time heals all wounds. Or at least soothes them a bit. As we plod through summer towards next season it is once again time for Canucks fans to hope. As they say, hope springs eternal. Well, maybe except the late 1990's when Mike Keenan traded hope for conditional draft picks. This summer we have more reason to be positive than ever. Last year's team showed us that we are making progress and that we are on the verge of something special. Our summer pickups have us excited. Our defence looks deep. Our stars are primed for good years. And don't forget that our goaltender is to his position as Martha Stewart is to home making (and tax evasion). Things are looking up.
So how do our Northwest Division competitors stack up this year? Let's focus in on the big summer news of our competition:
1) The Oilers: First thought is that they overpaid at 4 million/year for Fred Penner. He'll be making way more money than he ever did crawling out of that log and talking to the "word bird". Whats that? Oh...it was Dustin Penner? Well that makes a little more sense. Not complete sense but a little more.
2) The Flames: They got Mike Keenan...enough said. Actually, after the Penner signing I was thinking Keenan was going to pressure the Flames owners into signing Mr Dressup to a long term deal and maybe getting Finnegan in the package to play alongside Phaneuf.
3) The Wild: Umm, they have cool looking jerseys? And if you go on their website you can audition to be an anthem singer this year. Seriously, not many rumblings out of Minny this summer. They did re-sign Derek Boogaard so thats kind of exciting right? Right? Anyone?
4) The Avalanche: Nice pickup getting Ryan Smyth but he's not a new sight to Canucks fans. We'll just have to beat him in a new jersey that has a Yeti foot patch on the shoulder. By the way, it's hard to cheer against a guy like Joe Sakic. Jose Theodore...not so much.
So here we are in August. Canucks fans find themselves (in the words of Jack Johnson) sitting, waiting and wishing for the season to come. I don't know how much more time I can waste Youtubing videos of Kirk McLean pad-stacking Robert Reichel in 1994. For the love of Petri Skriko, lets get on with it! I am ready to go!
One last thing about how last season ended in my house. I swear to you this is true. When the tears finally stopped falling on that couch across from mine, I looked over and saw the most amazing thing. There was a little couch rainbow! I looked closer and saw the rainbow adorned with a Canuck logo and at its end I saw something incredible. The end of this rainbow held not a pot of gold...but a silver cup!
Okay, I totally lied but wouldn't that have been cool? Hope...it will mess you up. But real Canucks fans wouldn't have it any other way. It's our year.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Our heroes?
Something has been bothering me the last couple of days. In fact it has kind of made me a little bit sick to my stomach. No, its not the Garnett trade to Boston which further dents the chances my lowly Bucks have of making an NBA final. Whats that?...you say they had no chance even before that trade? Hmmm...probably right.
No, whats making me a little sick is something thats becoming somewhat of a phenomenon in the sports world. The trendy thing it seems is for an athlete to be tragically killed and for a sudden rush of sympathy to pour in from all over the world. People write glowing reports about how great a guy the deceased was. How he care for his teammates, family and gosh darnit even the fans. How he will be truly missed and on and on it goes. The sports star is put on a pedestal for us to look up to even in death. Sports Illustrated writes a little obituary that immortalizes the player. The tv sports networks show a little tribute montage and then do that thing where they put up the picture of the player, play the sad music and slowly fade the screen to black. I guess this is all fine and until recently I would sit there and feel a certain amount of sadness for the sports worlds loss. But something has changed.
If you have been following sports lately, you know that the examples are endless. The new catching point however seems to be that once the tributes and life end credits have rolled on these sports stars...we then find out the ugly truth. When St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Josh Hancock died in a late night car crash in April, he got the posthumous treatment associated with a professional athlete. All the tributes, the SI story and the memorial patch worn on his teammates jerseys. It wasn't until a while later that it was revealed that at the time of the accident Hancock was highly intoxicated (twice the Missouri state limit), not wearing a seatbelt, talking on his cell phone, and later a smoking pipe and marijuana were found in his truck. And he crashed into a parked tow truck on the side of the highway! Oops. But no, its not oops. Its stupidity plain and simple. He killed himself but could have killed others. Further compounding this situation was the fact that his family then had the nerve to sue the bar he had just left, the tow truck driver parked on the side of the road, the towing company, and the driver who had needed towing assistance. What?! Those cases were tossed out but it makes me wonder if athletes don't have to worry about trifling things such as accountability. Its sickening.
The Hancock case is not the only one of its kind in the past 3 months. We were duped into feeling sad again this past month when former pitcher Rod Beck passed away. And the tributes rolled in. And then some time passed and we find that Beck had a whackload of cocaine in his house the day he died. That likely contributed to his death. Doh! I won't even start on the WWE wrestler Chris Benoit's story. I think you all know how that one goes.
I'm just saying that it sucks to feel sympathy at someones death only to find that maybe they did not live the most noble of lives or die the most poignant of deaths. Maybe its just me, but in a sports world that has to grit its teeth and endure the Barry Bonds' and Tour de Frances' of this world it might be nice to hear a genuine story of a pro athlete with no dark underside. Wouldn't that be nice? So I guess when your sports hero dies the new fad might be to hold your sympathy until a month or two later just to make sure it was okay to miss them. Now thats really sad. God forbid that word comes out next week that late NFL coach Bill Walsh spent his final months pushing drugs or pimping. I guess I'll just shake my head...but unfortunately not in surprise.
No, whats making me a little sick is something thats becoming somewhat of a phenomenon in the sports world. The trendy thing it seems is for an athlete to be tragically killed and for a sudden rush of sympathy to pour in from all over the world. People write glowing reports about how great a guy the deceased was. How he care for his teammates, family and gosh darnit even the fans. How he will be truly missed and on and on it goes. The sports star is put on a pedestal for us to look up to even in death. Sports Illustrated writes a little obituary that immortalizes the player. The tv sports networks show a little tribute montage and then do that thing where they put up the picture of the player, play the sad music and slowly fade the screen to black. I guess this is all fine and until recently I would sit there and feel a certain amount of sadness for the sports worlds loss. But something has changed.
If you have been following sports lately, you know that the examples are endless. The new catching point however seems to be that once the tributes and life end credits have rolled on these sports stars...we then find out the ugly truth. When St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Josh Hancock died in a late night car crash in April, he got the posthumous treatment associated with a professional athlete. All the tributes, the SI story and the memorial patch worn on his teammates jerseys. It wasn't until a while later that it was revealed that at the time of the accident Hancock was highly intoxicated (twice the Missouri state limit), not wearing a seatbelt, talking on his cell phone, and later a smoking pipe and marijuana were found in his truck. And he crashed into a parked tow truck on the side of the highway! Oops. But no, its not oops. Its stupidity plain and simple. He killed himself but could have killed others. Further compounding this situation was the fact that his family then had the nerve to sue the bar he had just left, the tow truck driver parked on the side of the road, the towing company, and the driver who had needed towing assistance. What?! Those cases were tossed out but it makes me wonder if athletes don't have to worry about trifling things such as accountability. Its sickening.
The Hancock case is not the only one of its kind in the past 3 months. We were duped into feeling sad again this past month when former pitcher Rod Beck passed away. And the tributes rolled in. And then some time passed and we find that Beck had a whackload of cocaine in his house the day he died. That likely contributed to his death. Doh! I won't even start on the WWE wrestler Chris Benoit's story. I think you all know how that one goes.
I'm just saying that it sucks to feel sympathy at someones death only to find that maybe they did not live the most noble of lives or die the most poignant of deaths. Maybe its just me, but in a sports world that has to grit its teeth and endure the Barry Bonds' and Tour de Frances' of this world it might be nice to hear a genuine story of a pro athlete with no dark underside. Wouldn't that be nice? So I guess when your sports hero dies the new fad might be to hold your sympathy until a month or two later just to make sure it was okay to miss them. Now thats really sad. God forbid that word comes out next week that late NFL coach Bill Walsh spent his final months pushing drugs or pimping. I guess I'll just shake my head...but unfortunately not in surprise.
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