The unbelievably dramatic end to Game 6 of the World Series. 
Probably the most remarkable game I’ve ever seen. I feel for you today, Rangers fans. Then again, you stiffed the world with Dubya, so consider this payback.
Category Archives: Baseball
Crocodile Tears
Last night was the most amazing night of baseball I’ve ever seen – regular season or playoffs. I suppose I should therefore be upset this morning. Livid, even. The Red Sox, afterall, completed one of the most historic and spectacular flame-outs in all of baseball’s long history. But I’m not the least bit pissed off. Maybe it’s because my priorities have shifted this year or maybe it’s because I’m not a “true” enough Sox fan – I am satisfied with their 2 World Series wins since 2004.
Yes, a collapse like this is unbelievably embarrassing, and borders on unforgivable. Lord knows that if this were the Habs…oh hell, even he doesn’t know what I’d be doing this morning.
Perhaps the pain was eased slightly by knowing that so many people who love the Sox also love the Bruins and Patriots – two teams that make my skin crawl. After winning the Cup and being pretty much the best football team ever, it serves those uppity jerks right that the team that overshadows EVERYTHING in Boston suffers this kind of meltdown. Because the Yankees couldn’t hold a 7-run lead late in game 162. Does it get any better than that? If the collapse takes the shine away – even just a bit – from the Bruins winning the Cup, then good! If there are sports fans in Boston missing the Cup Banner raising ceremony because they’re tapping out their latest “fire Francona, trade everybody” rants then yay for collapses! But I don’t know I’m really that vindictive…afterall, if I never saw any images of the Bruins with the cup, then it never happened, right?
Maybe in another case of misery loving company, I find comfort in the fact that the Atlanta Braves also had their worst nightmare come true – blowing an 8.5 game lead in the Wild Card chase in the final month of the season. As an Expos fan, I’m glad to see the team that always stood in the way of the playoffs get slapped down like this. Too bad all anyone is going to talk about is how the Red Sox blew it. Too bad there were empty seats at Turner Field; it would have been nice to send a sellout crowd home in tears indifference.
Maybe I’m not upset because this summer I just learned to embrace baseball again. Really embrace it. Team allegiances fell by the wayside, as did many grudges (but I still haven’t forgiven the Jays). The biggest grudge being with MLB itself for knifing the Expos to death. I’m still bitter, but they can have my money again. I don’t hate the Yankees anymore now that George Steinbrenner is gone. It probably didn’t help that the Twins were out of the playoff race before the end of April, so I could have simply turned the switch to “passive”. A lot has changed for me in relation to baseball, but I did watch a decent amount of ball this year, and I listened to even more over the “radio”. Usually with an adult beverage in hand. It was terrific. After the Expos left at the end of 2004, I felt like I had to pay attention. This year I payed attention because it felt good to. That doesn’t mean that I still don’t miss the Expos – quite the opposite – I miss them more than ever. But it was nice to be, for lack of a better term, a free agent this summer and just watch baseball for what it is.
Last night capped off what I would describe as a rather unremarkable season as far as baseball goes, but it had as much drama in one night than the previous six months combined. There’s no doubt that many Red Sox fans cried themselves drank themselves to sleep last night, but let’s face it: If you blow a NINE game lead in 30 days, you don’t deserve to be in the post season. Now we move on to one of the best times of the year if you’re a sports fan – October baseball, the start of the hockey season, and the NFL season is well under way. Sorry NBA, nobody cares about you.
Major League Baseball in Montreal? Look To Winnipeg
posted by Kyle
Here We Go Again.
It seems like every few months some story rolls around that fans the flames of hope for the baseball lovers of Montreal. This time however, the story hasn’t appear out of the ether, but rather has come from one of Montreal’s most credible and authoritative voices on the game: Rodger Brulotte. In an interview with The Team 990′s Mitch Melnick earlier this week, Brulotte revealed that after spurning their advances several times, he had a conversation with a group of persistent Montreal-based businessmen who have a serious interest in bringing baseball back to Montreal. No names were given in order to preserve dignity if the project falls apart, but Brulotte is more than reputable and wouldn’t tease everyone if there wasn’t substance to the story.
The reaction to the story has been mixed. Many have gotten too excited, too quickly. Some blow it off as farcical and others walk the line of cautious optimism. What’s different this time is that the story seems to have evidence to support the thought that Major League Baseball can once again thrive in Montreal. It’s a well known fact that Montreal remains the largest North American city without any professional baseball in its boundaries. That in itself is a shame, but it means little…after all, while the conditions may be right to get a team here, that says absolutely nothing about sustainability from a fan/attendance standpoint and the ability to field a competitive team. Are Montreal’s baseball fans a sleeping giant, or are they so jaded by what has gone on in the past that they are either lost forever, or would be very slow to come around? Montreal is a town with no shortage of things to spend time and money on, and its casual sports fans take the word casual to a whole new level. Here today, gone tomorrow. Are there enough hardcore fans left to serve as an anchor while the casuals come back? We can’t possibly have the answer to that. The dreamers would say yes; the cynics would say no.
The volume was turned up a notch earlier this month as the Conference Board of Canada released a report stating that “Montreal has the necessary market conditions in place today to be the home of a Major League Baseball franchise“, but that league conditions wouldn’t yet favour a team in Montreal (i.e. no salary cap, and ridiculous climbing salaries). With the Canadian dollar soaring in 2011 (even hitting a modern all-time high), this is not a surprise. Montreal has certainly grown over the past several years and the business climate is a lot more stable now than it was 8-10 years ago when the Expos were as bankable as a radioactive hooker. Whether you believe it was the fans’ waning interest that ultimately killed the team, or the sad-sack dollar that prevented the team from being competitive that deflated the fans that sealed the team’s fate, or if you believe that MLB’s lack of support was the root of all evil, it’s irrelevant now. There’s plenty of blame to go around, and no shortage of people willing to dole it out. What we do know is that baseball did work in Montreal (in the late 70′s the Expos were as popular as the Habs, if not moreso even while the bleu-blanc-rouge were in the midst of a dynasty). For various reasons, baseball was taken away. Baseball in Montreal had become a punchline around the league as fewer than 3000 fannies filled the seats. Once you acquire that dunce cap it’s a stigma that is tough to shake.
While there are certainly differences in how Winnipeg lost then regained the Jets, and how Montreal lost the Expos (regaining them being the goal), there are lessons to be learned from the Manitoban capital.
Here in Montreal we view ourselves as a major league city. Aside from the NHL, however, Montreal has the CFL, which is a notch or two below the NFL. We also have the Impact, who currently play in the NASL (and who will soon graduate to MLS). In terms of global quality the NASL and MLS are way down the ladder (As an example, Manchester United, one of England’s best clubs trounced the best that North American soccer could muster up). So let’s drop the notion that it’s “the best or bust”; Montrealers do support “lesser leagues”. Would Montreal support baseball that wasn’t MLB? It has before, why can’t it do so again?
Most, if not all fans conveniently forget that the Montreal Royals were the top baseball team in town from 1897 until 1960. You read that correctly: 1897. They pre-date the birth of the Habs by 12 years, and lasted nearly twice as long as the Expos did. Granted, it was not the more demanding Major Leagues, but the point still stands: Montreal cut its baseball teeth in the minors until it was ready for the majors. Can it not do so again? In my humble opinion it would be the height of arrogance to suggest that if Montreal doesn’t get a Major League team then it shouldn’t get baseball at all.
Enter the Winnipeg situation. When Gary Bettman sacked the Jets and moved them to Phoenix, it was viewed as something that never should have been done in the first place. Many suspected that hockey in the deep U.S. South would never work, and for the most part, it hasn’t. When the economy began to pick up in Canada in the mid 2000′s, it was apparent that a team in Winnipeg was once again a possibility. But the seeds for the NHL’s return to the ‘Peg were sown nearly immediately after their departure in 1996. A businessman named Mark Chipman believed in Winnipeg’s viability as a hockey market and moved quickly to scoop up a defunct Minnesota Moose team of the IHL just to keep the pro hockey seat warm in Winnipeg. Without knowing Chipman, he must have known that you have to feed an appetite or it dies. Pablum isn’t caviar, but it will fill the void long enough until another source can be found. For hockey fans, it was surely a blow to the collective ego. From the NHL to the IHL in a few short months. From Teemu Selanne and Shane Doan to Randy Gilhen and Scott Thomas. Ouch.
When the IHL imploded, the Moose joined the AHL for the 2001-2002 season, representing a significant step up in the professional hockey food chain. With this move, the city was able to build the MTS Center, 15,000 seat arena which would one day hopefully be the home of another NHL team. Patience pays off. Starting again from the ground up pays off, even when you’ve gotten used to sitting on top of the mountain.
Lo and behold, the plan has worked, and then some. It took many years, but Winnipeg went through the long, arduous and frustrating process of having to prove itself to the NHL once again. With a new arena, a rabid fan base, a solid Canadian dollar and with more and more teams facing troubles in the NHL, a return to Winnipeg became an inevitability.
Can Montreal apply this template to regaining a foothold in professional baseball? We’re already behind the curve with no presence at all (whereas Winnipeg picked up the Moose immediately), and no stadium to play in (the Big O is not an option for any league – its no longer suitable and its a no-fly zone for many baseball fans). It’s now been nearly 7 full years without a professional baseball game being played. Here’s a useless stat: the Expos last home game is fresher in the annals of time than the last Maple Leafs playoff win (that’s 2645 days in the rearview now, Leafs nation). Montreal has been without organized, professional baseball for far too long considering the long and rich history the city has with the sport. Without a consensus on where to build a stadium, and without the evidence of unwavering fan support before a team is installed, the likelihood is that Montreal will be a baseball vacuum for years to come. But if Rodger Brulotte is right, and there is a group with money to spend and a vision in mind, then perhaps there is reason to be hopeful.
The point of this blog post is not to bang the Minor League drum, nor is it to promote the snobbish thought that Montreal is beneath the Minors. The point is that this is one route back to the majors, even if this post doesn’t address the issue of new stadiums. Surely a Minor League stadium would fall far short of the demands of a Major League stadium, and there’s no way that Montreal has place for two stadiums. I’ll leave it to people a lot smarter than me to figure out a way to build a stadium that can accommodate both as the situation changes. Surely there’s a way to build a 20,000 seat stadium for the Minors that can be expanded to 35,000 if Major League Baseball were to be brought back. Lastly, the issue of a level playing field has not been addressed, and it’s a major difference in how the Winnipeg and Montreal situations differ. Players in baseball are paid ungodly sums of money, and all it would take was for a sagging dollar and a slumping economy to once again throw baseball in Montreal under the bus (hint to Canadian sports fans: keep your gas tanks full, get your oil changed often and buy anything made with or from petroleum!). Until baseball institutes a salary cap system that ensures that small market teams can compete rather than flushing out their best talent year after year for “future considerations” we are unfortunately looking at a pipe dream as far as the Major Leagues go. Bud Selig and the powers that be at MLB will need to be convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that Montreal can not only be a viable market for baseball, but one that can survive the ups and downs of the economy as well. That’s not an easy task and it’s not something that can be proven until a city has to ride that roller coaster.
Flatly, though, I do embrace the idea of Minor League baseball in Montreal. It’s a less expensive option for families, it’s less demanding in terms of seating and operating costs, and it’s more conducive to a true baseball experience. I’m all for it. I wrote a post earlier this year about another note that I heard on the radio. This piece was about the Las Vegas 51′s being in peril and that a move to Montreal may make sense. It fills the baseball void, and gives the Blue Jays easy access to their top affiliate. It’s key to be affiliated to a Major League team, and in my mind it would be a lay-up in terms of proving that Montreal truly is a baseball hotbed lying in wait like a dormant volcano. Many Montrealers bristle at the idea of being Toronto’s AAA colony, (and that bristling is not without its political and societal leanings) but what’s the alternative right now? Also, Blue Jays General Manager Alex Anthopoulos is a native Montrealer, and presumably somebody who’s heart was also broken when the game he loves was ripped away. How much would he like to be a part of this process? How much sense would it make for the Jays to have their AAA team in Montreal and their AA team just a few more hours away in New Hampshire? It makes tons of sense for them. It would give them a giant footprint in the Canadian market as well as strengthen their presence in the American Northeast. If Montreal could facilitate that, it would only help as a stepping stone back to the Majors.
There’s a lot to think about and digest here, but I’d love to hear your thoughts on this in the comments section.
Article first published as Major League Baseball in Montreal? Look to Winnipeg on Technorati.
A New Hope for Baseball in Montreal?
I’m taking a detour from Habs playoff action to talk baseball.
I know, sacrilege, right?
If you’ve followed this blog for the better part of its existence, you’ve probably seen me write a few times about the grand game of baseball. When I launched this site, it was with the intent of blogging not only about the Habs and Hockey, but of baseball and any other sports-related stories that struck me. Of course, the Habs have basically monopolized the content here but that doesn’t mean I’m not following what else is going on out there, and don’t have some opinions that I won’t sound off on.
With that said, a few weeks ago, I was listening to the radio and tuned in to Montreal’s sports station just in time to hear the tail end of a conversation between Bob McCown and some other guy who appeared to be a baseball insider (update: thanks to David Blye who let me know that the interview was with Richard Griffin, Toronto Star baseball columnist, and former PR Director with the Montreal Expos). Part of their conversation focused on the struggling Las Vegas 51′s, who happen to be the AAA affilate of the Toronto Blue Jays. I’m not an expert on the viability of American cities as sports markets, but what I do hear about Las Vegas is nearly unanimous – it’s a lousy sports town. The economic downturn really hurt the city, many residents are from places other than Las Vegas (and thus don’t have an attachment to any home teams), and there’s too many other things to spend money on other than sports.
Montreal is the largest market in North America devoid of professional baseball of any level, and considering Montreal’s long (and unheralded) baseball heritage, that’s a damn shame. Naturally, people have begun creating possibilities and coming up with some plausible scenarios for bringing baseball back to Montreal. The latest scenario has the aforementioned 51′s moving from Sin City to Montreal. On the surface this is a great idea, isn’t it? Montreal gets a high caliber of ball, and Toronto’s top minor league affiliate sits only an hour away by plane. When you add the New Hampshire Fisher Cats to the mix (Toronto’s AA affiliate), the Blue Jays would have a heck of a footprint in a relatively small area. It would make moving players around much easier and would provide the Blue Jays with a huge population to which they could promote nearly the entire upper echelon of the organization.
I’m no Blue Jays fan, and I told myself that I never would be. Not after they voted to have the Expos euthanized in an attempt to claim a bigger share of the Canadian market. Once the Expos left, Montreal’s local sports radio station wanted to fulfill the wishes of some fans and broadcast Red Sox and Yankees games. The Blue Jays stepped in and blocked that move, claiming that Montreal was now their market, and they were proven right, as that same sports station did begin to carry a number of Blue Jays games. I thought that was an underhanded, dirty move by the Jays, but not one unexpected of a sports franchise in 2011.
With a baseball vacuum in Montreal, fans have been attaching their allegiances to teams all over the league, though the Red Sox seem to have a very strong following, as do the Yankees. That could conceivably change if the Jays were able to relocate their AAA team to la belle province. Lending additional weight to this scenario is the fact that Blue Jays General Manager Alex Anthopoulos is a native Montrealer. He grew up as an Expos fan, and though he earns his living in Toronto now, he must certainly feel some pain from the baseball void in his hometown. It would make an awful lot of sense for him to want to fill that void, while at the same time streamlining logistics, promotions and interest in his own Major League team. That would be the right way to establish a footprint in a market, not by helping to kill the team that was already there, then claiming the territory as your own.
Of course, there is the ever-present issue of not having a proper stadium to play baseball in. While the Olympic Stadium could always be readied for baseball in the short-term, it is in no way a place to set up a team permanently. When there’s 40,000 people there, it’s a party. But how often does that happen, and how often would it happen with a Minor League team? Montreal would need proper plans for a 10,000-15,000 seat stadium before any of this becomes even a halfway serious conversation. More often than not, the “Big O” is more like a mausoleum than ball park, and it’s a pain in the neck to get to for those who aren’t near a subway line. Without the large crowd, it’s simply not an atmosphere for baseball. Minor league ball should be enjoyed outdoors, in more intimate ballparks. Period.
The bigger question is – would you support a AAA team run by the Blue Jays? Would you abandon a team that you follow by proxy if you suddenly had a team that you could root for in person? It’s a tricky question for Montreal baseball fans who have either sworn off supporting Bug Selig, or can’t stand anything Toronto on a good day, nevermind being in a master-servant relationship. If Montreal baseball fans hold hope of ever having a Major League team back in town (and that day is a long, long day away in the best case scenario), then hosting and supporting a AAA team would be a tremendous place to start. If the Blue Jays want to increase their footprint and market share in Canada, then this would be a move very much worth exploring. It could be a win-win relationship for everyone and would put Montreal back on the baseball radar.
What are your thoughts? Is it a hair-brained idea, or something worth maybe getting excited about? We all know the torrid love affair between Montrealers and the Canadiens. People like to say that hockey is religion in Montreal, but they’re wrong. The Canadiens are religion. All other forms of hockey struggle for attendance and coverage. But let’s not overlook the fact that the CFL is doing extremely well in Montreal (as evidenced by Molson Stadium’s recent 5,000 seat upgrade), and that MLS is slated to begin play at Saputo Stadium in 2012. This leaves baseball as the one sport that is sorely missing in the Montreal landscape.
In the mean time, if you’re a baseball-starved Montrealer, you do have some options, though they require packing up the car and heading out on the road. Here are some places where you can see some good, affordable ball just a few hours outside of Montreal, and not including the Major League teams in Boston, New York and Toronto:
- Quebec Capitales of the Can-Am league (in Quebec City).
- Vermont Lake Monsters (Oakland A’s Class A affiliate, in Burlington)
- Portland Sea Dogs (Red Sox AA affiliate in Portland, Maine)
- Pawtucket Red Sox (Red Sox AAA affiliate, in Pawtucket, Rhode Island)
- New Hampshire Fisher Cats (Blue Jays AA affiliate in Manchester, New Hampshire)
- Syracuse Chiefs (Nationals AAA affiliate, in Syracuse, New York)
- New Britain Rock Cats (Twins AA affiliate in New Britain, Connecticut)
Monday Musings – November 1st
I know you were all listening live, but for those of you who didn’t here’s the audio from my time spent at CJAD last Sunday (October 24th). I, along with Kamal Panesar from Habsaddict.com took part in the blogger panel on the Habs Show, hosted by Barry Morgan. It was a ton of fun, a privelege to be asked to take part, and neat to see behind the curtain of radio magic.
First off, I have to apologize to Calgary Flames fans. No, not for insinuating a couple weeks back that the wheels had already fallen off (they haven’t, and they’ve decent with a 6-5 record), but for making the Flames lose to the Capitals on Saturday night. Yep, it’s my fault. You see, I was channel surfing (mostly waiting for SNL to start) when I flipped over to CBC. The score was 2-1 Calgary, early in the second period. Within 3 seconds of tuning in, Ovechkin struck to tie the score. 12 seconds later, Ovechkin put the Caps on top. I continued flipping during commercials only to land back on the game a few minutes later. Guess what happened? Mike Green took a sweet pass and beat Kiprusoff to double the Capitals lead, and douse the Flames for the night. The next time I looked, it was 7-2 for Washington and I felt bad for clearly ruining the evening for many a Calgarian. Then again, I probably made a great many Caps fans happy at the same time.
So I’m sorry, and you’re welcome.
I have to say though, when things aren’t going well for the Flames, the look on Brent Sutter’s face resembles that of someone who’s been licking urinal pucks. Lighten up, Brent.
Danny Brière, that little rat, cross checked an opponent in the face. I know he’s small, and was being picked on, but that’s inexcusable, as all intentional stickwork is, and should be suspended. He’s been suspended twice in his career already, and sitting him down for at least 3 games should be a no-brainer in this scenario. Here’s the video:
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Did you catch the last play of the Alouettes / Argonauts game on Friday night? Probably the most bizarre ending to a football game that you’ll ever see. I can’t even describe it properly, so I’ll only suggest that you check it out here.
Aaaaaand with that, I’m done talking about the CFL until the Division Finals.
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Somebody needs to tell me why Miami Dolphins Head Coach Tony Sparano goes ballistic when his team settles for a field goal, but stands like a statue when they score a touchdown that essentially salts away the game. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a coach go wild for field goals like Sparano does. Ever. It would actually be funny if it weren’t so mystifying. Meanwhile, Dan Carpenter has gone 10/10 in field goals in the past 2 weeks, which would also be funny if it wasn’t so alarming. The Dolphins need to find a way to punch the ball in to the endzone more often.
You never want to see someone get their clock cleaned, but you have to wonder if Brett Favre had it coming. Whether he’s passionate about playing, too stubborn to step aside, or too proud to watch his consecutive games played streak die, you have to wonder if the football gods are starting to fix their glare on Favre. He was caught under the chin late in the game vs the Patriots and was taken to the dressing room on the cart. Seeing him curled up in a near-fetal position certainly isn’t funny, but it was probably overdue. No doubt he’ll be back behind center next Sunday, even if his brains are scrambled and his jaw is shattered. Makes you cringe wondering what the football gods will have in store next.
It was also fantastic to see the NFC finally win one over the AFC, especially when that AFC team is the rotten Jets. In the “Teams that Favre used to play for Bowl”, the Packers shut out the Jets AT HOME. That should make for a pleasant Monday morning in New York.
I’m never one to have pity for a divisional opponent, but I really do feel bad for the Bills. Nobody thought they’d even get a sniff at being competitive this season, but to lose in back-to-back weeks in overtime, on the road, against superior opponents, in games they could have (should have?) won just makes you shake your head. Given their misfortunes in the Super Bowl, and chronic inability to field a decent team in recent years, I wonder what the people of Buffalo have done to deserve this? Usually the Sabres are around to ease the suffering, but even they seem intent on sucking this year.
Congratulations to Ladanian Tomlinson, who joins Walter Payton as the only the second player with 13,000 yards rushing, and 4,000 yards receiving in their career. That’s incredible, and LT isn’t done yet. In fact, he’s been reborn this season with the Jets. He’s reminding everyone of how good he was in the early to middle part of this decade. I’ve never seen a running back as good as Tomlinson was about 5-6 years ago.
When did the Raiders go from pathetic to average? I like them better when they were a joke, but I’ll settle for the Cowboys. Watching them sink lower and lower in a sea of embarrassment is a sight to behold. I can’t wait for Mount Jones to erupt.
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With a game 4 victory, the San Francisco Giants return home with a 3-1 series lead and their ace, Tim Lincecum going in game 5. How fitting. It appears as though the Rangers should have saved some of the runs they used to trounce the Yankees for use in the World Series. Methinks there will be a parade in San Fran in the very near future.
Monday Musings – October 25th
Yep, I took a couple weeks off. I know you missed my Monday morning nuggets of wisdom, so I’m back. For now. No promises for next week.
First off, congrats to the Texas Rangers. An organization that literally had nothing to hand its Texas-sized cowboy hat on is now on the cusp of winning it all. They aren’t hard to root for, either. With former Expo Vlad Guerrero, a rehabilitated Josh Hamilton, and an underrated pitching staff (except for Cliff Lee, who is out of this world), and Manager Ron Washington, the Rangers would be a fine champion for MLB. I find it totally insane that the Rangers hung 38 runs on the Yankees over 6 games. I’m no stat man, but I don’t know if that’s happened in the modern era. It’s also interesting to note that had the Rangers not had one bad inning in game 1, they would have swept the Yankees four straight. Wow.
The two best moments from the series:
From game 4: The Yankees intentionally walking David Murphy to get to Bengie Molina, who promptly hit a 3-run ding dong, killing the Yankees chances of tying the series.
From game 6: A-Fraud watching a filthy slider drop across for a called third strike, and the end of his team’s season. Glorious.
And kudos to the San Francisco Giants, as well. A rag-tag bunch led by a pitcher that looks like he could audition for a role in Nelson’s gang of ruffians.
For once I may be able to watch a World Series and be happy with either possible outcome though I admit that it would be really sweet to see Vlad get a World Series ring to add to his hall of fame credentials.
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Nice to see the Alouettes stiff the CFL by taking a second bye week. How else do you explain a 40-3 loss at the hands of the underwhelming Tigercats? You can’t. They’ll likely meet again in the Eastern Division final at the toilet bowl in Montreal, and hopefully the Als will put the Cats back in their place.
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I’m not writing about the NFL this week. The Dolphins were screwed and I’m pissed. At least twice now a team was jobbed by a lack of common sense. Recall that the Lions were also ripped off of a win in week one by a silly call that was “to the letter of the law”, but still dumb.
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Your Habs played their best game of the year on Saturday in Ottawa. Before the season, the 3 keys players everyone was looking at were Andrei Kostitsyn, Carey Price and Benoit Pouliot. Each played a fabulous game, especially Kostitsyn with 2 goals. Funny how that works.
Monday Musings – October 4
If Mike Cammalleri is indeed suspended for his actions against Nino Niederreiter, it will be well deserved. I’m not going to play the homer card here. It’s simply indefensible for a player of Cammalleri’s status and importance to go around wildly swinging sticks and jabbing sticks in faces, it’s reckless and dangerous. He HAS to know better. For anyone to say that Cammalleri doesn’t deserve any supplemental discipline is fooling themselves. While we can debate whether or not Niederreiter wanted to connect with Cammalleri’s head, we know for certain what Cammalleri was doing. It was a premeditated retaliation, and the NHL, for all of its illogical inconsistence when it comes to discipline will clearly see that, and probably hand Cammalleri a suspension of 1 or 2 games.
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Well it looks like life is back to normal in the CFL. The East division, which got off to a nice start in matchups against the Western division is back to their usual incompetent selves. The West was a perfect 4-0 this week, and the Alouettes, the East’s best team was positively hammered by the best in the West in Calgary by a 46-21 score. Ouch.
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It would be a double-whammy if you’re a fan of the East division AND a fan of an NFC team. In this week’s only cross-conference match-up, the Chargers smashed the Cardinals 41-10. The AFC is now 11-6 vs the NFC this year, but the NFC needed wins against the mighty Bills, Browns and Raiders just to keep the score somewhat respectable.
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Maybe there’s a light at the end of the tunnel for the NFC, as the reign of the Colts may be coming to an end. They’re 2-2 in a tight division and were beaten by a very weak Jacksonville team yesterday on a last-second field goal of 59 yards. The Colts will probably still win the division, but normally by this point of the year they haven’t even broken a sweat.
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Congrats to Donovan McNabb for a successful return to Philly, and kudos to the Eagles faithful for giving him a well-deserved ovation.
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Most eye-popping stat of the weekend: The Chicago Bears allowing NINE (9) sacks on QB Jay Cutler in a single half of football last night. I didn’t even think that was possible. Cutler shares in the responsibility as well (ahem, throw the damn ball away!), but who signed a bunch of human turnstiles?
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More props to be given out:
To the Tampa Bay Rays for edging out the Yankees for the division title on the last day of the season, and a date with the Texas Rangers (Tampa in 4)
To the Atlanta Braves for living with the loss of Chipper Jones and securing the National League Wildcard spot on the final day of the season. They’ve giving about-to-retire manager Bobby Cox the send off he deserves with a playoff berth.
I’m excited for this year’s MLB post-season, and am rooting for a Twins-Phillies World Series. But it would be nice to see Tampa also fulfill their potential before the roster is picked apart.
Monday Notebook – September 20th
In an effort to keep myself relatively regular on this site, I’m going to try and post a new series called “Monday Notebook”, in which I post a few thoughts about the weekend’s happenings. This may not last longer than a week, but hey, it’s worth a try.
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I love football. I don’t write about it at all on this site, but I really do love it. Especially when I win money by betting on it. Such was the case yesterday when I put down $10 on Mise-O-Jeu (that’s Pro-Line to anyone outside of Quebec). I was waiting on pins and needles last night for Peyton to beat up on little brother Eli, and big brother didn’t disappoint, leading the Colts to a 38-14 braining of the Giants. $100, thank you very much! Nice way to end the week, or start the week, depending on if you think Sunday is the end or start of a new week.
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Which leads me to my next point:
GOOD LORD THE NFC SUCKS!!!!!
It feels like it’s been this way forever, but perhaps this year bring new highs (or lows,as it were) for the NFC. Last week started off as well as the NFC could have hoped…posting a 1-1 record, except that win was against the Browns, who, if they aren’t the worst team in the league, are the second worst team. Forget that the Buccanneers barely beat the Browns IN TAMPA, a win is a win. I guess. Things took a nosedive for the NFC this week though. The AFC stomped the inferior conference, posting a 5-1 record in week 2. But, as in week 1, the NFC’s lone win came against the Buffalo Bills, who are in fierce competition with the Browns for the title of worst team in the league. Really, NFC? I know these things are cyclical, but geez.
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Do you think the Vikings are regretting waiting all that time for old man Favre to come back? He’s been absolutely horrific through two games this season and will probably eclipse the number of interceptions he threw last year by the quarter-season mark this year. He looks finished, and it could be a very long season for the Vikings and their fans. Everyone knew this was coming, and it appears as though Favre should have went out on a high after last year’s NFC Championship game. Still, we can’t count him out just yet. He’s defied so many odds through his career that it wouldn’t surprise me to see him fire 4 touchdown passes next week and shut everyone up, at least for the next 7 days.
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I giggled like a little school girl when Derelle Revis came out and called Randy Moss a slouch last week. It’s sort of like calling Alex Ovechkin a 3rd line checker. It’s stupid, and wrong. Needless to say, Moss made Revis look like the slouch with a stunning one-handed catch which he made look completely and utterly routine. If that wasn’t funny enough, Revis pulled up with a sore hammy on the play, and left the game. As if the millions of people watching will all fall for it in unison! “Oh, if he hadn’t hurt himself, he totally would have made that play!” Right. Where have we seen embarassed athletes pull up lame before after being thoroughly burned?
How about when Michael Johnson pulled up lame against Donovan Bailey in a one-on-one 200M race. Johnson essentially gave up as Bailey widened the gap.
How about Jose Canseco pretending to hurt his knee as some 7 footer cleans his clock (watch him grab his knee after the fight). You got your heinie kicked, Jose. A bum stick didn’t make you lose. You made you lose.
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Congrats to Blue Jays outfielder Jose Bautista, who took over the team’s single season home run record, bumping George Bell to 2nd place. Bell held the record since 1987, which is quite a while considering in the 23 yeras since the record was set, MLB saw its record book written and rewritten a few times by chemical-addled beasts. Bautista clubbed his 49th homer, which may actually mean something today, if you believe Selig when he says the steroid era is over (haw haw!). Of course, it goes without saying that Bautista is a pending free agent, and debate will rage as to whether or not the Jays can or should keep him. When a guy has a 50+ home run season, you’d think you’d do your best to try and hang on to him. But this being Major League Baseball, we can be sure of two things:
1- Bautista will be compensated far more than he’s worth for his one magical (yet ultimately worthless season since his team stinks);
2- The Blue Jays will make the wrong decision. They always do.
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I’m surprised that the Atlanta Braves have hung on this long. Once Chipper Jones went down with a season-ending injury, I thought they’d be toast. The Phillies, predictably have overtaken them after getting over injury woes of their own, but because the National League is weak (they must be hanging out with the NFC), they’ve managed to cling to the wild card and hold a 3-game lead. As much as I hate the Braves for monopolizing the NL East for years while the Expos were circling the drain, I hope they can make it to the post season and give Bobby Cox the send off he deserves, this being his final season on the bench. Cox has been managing the Braves for nearly a quarter century, unheard of in pro sports today. Good on him, I say.
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If the whole “elite defenseman” thing doesn’t work out for Habs rearguard Andrei Markov, he may consider a career in stand-up. He had two quotes from Saturday’s Montreal Gazette (story by Dave Stubbs) that had me in stitches. We knew he had a pretty good sense of humour, but I guess since his English is continually improving we are getting to hear more of it.
Maybe he was poking fun at us lazy North Americans, but he said that since he’s now a Canadian citizen, he’s not working 7 days a week to rehab his knee, but “I’m a Canadian now, I’m working five days.”
When asked about his future, Markov said: “It’s too early to talk about that. Nobody knows what’s going to happen tomorrow. I just want to focus on my rehab, try to wake up every day and see my smile in the mirror”
Just another reason to get him signed to an extension as soon as possible once it’s sure that he’s healthy.
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Lastly, if you haven’t read Bob McKenzie’s latest blog about his relationship with Pat Burns, I HIGHLY recommend it. You won’t regret it.
Baseball Making a Return to Montreal?
- Photo credit: quebec.sabr.org – S.H. du Marigot
Doesn’t Montreal deserve a new baseball stadium built to look just like this one?
Considering the content of this blog you’d probably be surprised to learn that in my younger years, I was a devout baseball fan, and hockey was a distant second on my radar. I first got the baseball bug in 1984 when I was just six years old. I enrolled in tee-ball and played the game for the next 11 years. Prior to 1984, the only thing that really mattered to me was Star Wars. Hockey didn’t enter the picture until the ’89 Cup finals. I have vague recollections of ’86, but nothing more. Fast forward 26 years and I’ll tell you that hockey and Star Wars are my bread and butter, but baseball has slipped considerably. Without a doubt, the departure of the Expos had almost everything to do with my drop in interest.
If I were in to online wagering, after the Expos left in 2004, I would have bet any amount that baseball was dead in Montreal forever. Most of that sentiment was emotional and very irrational. Teams come and go, of course, and there is always hope the game can live again in Montreal. A lot of people have allowed their love of the game die, some have promised never to give Bud Selig and Major League Baseball another cent, but many more have merely let their love of baseball slip in to hibernation. These latter two groups should be elated, as I was, when it was announced on the team 990′s airwaves that former Expos outfielder Warren ‘Cro’ Cromartie is working with Marc Griffin, and others to bring an Independent Baseball League team to Montreal.
If I didn’t have such a massive office chair, I would have fallen off upon hearing that news.
Whenever ‘Cro’ would be on as a guest on Mitch Melnick’s afternoon show, fans would constantly encourage him to try and bring ball back to Montreal. It seems he’s now going to give it a shot, and I for one could not be happier.
The pessimist in me can’t help but think this is going to be one big tease, but there’s no reason why a city the size of Montreal could not be (and isn’t) home to a professional baseball team. To those not in the know, baseball in Montreal goes WAY back. Famously, Jackie Robinson got his start in professional baseball back in the 1940′s when he broke baseball’s colour barrier with the Montreal Royals. Other prominent Royals include Tommy Lasorda, Duke Snider, Don Drysdale and Roy Campanella; all hall of famers. But did you know that the Royals are actually older than your beloved Montreal Canadiens? Though they were defunct between 1918-1927, the Royals were actually founded back in 1897, 12 years before J. Ambrose O’Brien founded the Canadiens at a Montreal hotel. For further perspective, the Royals went belly-up in 1960, after 52 seasons of ball in Montreal, and NINE seasons before the Expos played their first game. In an ill-fated attempt to bring affordable baseball back to Montreal, the Canadian Baseball League, in 2003 started up (and died that same year). The Montreal Royales were one of eight teams to play in the league during its inaugural (and final) year, but because the Royales couldn’t (or perhaps smartly wouldn’t) play their home games at Olympic Stadium, they never actually played a home game in the Montreal area.
My mind is racing, but for this to work, Cromartie and his group would need to have their team play in a stadium not called the “Big O”, not even temporarily. People simply won’t go. It’s a dump; cold and sterile, out of the way, not to mention the fears of falling concrete. It carries the hurtful baggage of being the Expos home for so long. Basically, the Olympic Stadium is to ballparks what Tatooine is to Star Wars, minus the twin suns. But before a team can be brought to Montreal, a stadium would have to be built. A small, cozy, open-air stadium that would sit 10,000 people would be more than enough to make this work. The stadium wouldn’t even have to be half-full to make it work! The location of the stadium is also critical. With people exiting the city for the outlying suburbs, it’s crucial that the stadium be in a place that is easily accessible by all. The part of town where the Olympic Stadium currently sits is not accessible, parking is scarce and with all due respect to the people that live around there, it’s the ass-end of town now.
I badly miss watching a game where time is not a factor, where you can sit outside and enjoy the beautiful (and sometimes not so beautiful) weather. Baseball, unlike other spectator sports is a game where you can chat with friends in the stands, and get lost in the atmosphere of a great stadium without feeling like you’re missing the game. In hockey, if you blink, you’ll miss something. There is NO sound in any sport as inextricably linked to summertime as the crack of a bat. That sound been brutally absent in Montreal for 5 years now, and it’s time that gaping void is filled.
If you’re a Montrealer, and miss baseball as much as I do, this is great news. I’ll keep listening for, and posting updates here and on twitter. I also created a twitter account specifically focused on bringing baseball back to Montreal. You can follow that account here, and follow the facebook group called “Baseball in Montreal – Baseball à Montréal“, founded by Game Points on Team990 host Matthew Ross. The group is already at 496 members, so let’s try to push that above 500 and beyond!
Ageless Wonders
Now that Chris Chelios’ return to NHL action is imminent, it got me thinking about guys who prolonged their career well beyond what is considered “normal”.
Chelios broke in to the NHL in the 1983-84 season with the Montreal Canadiens, and was a member of the Habs until he was traded to the Blackhawks for Denis Savard in 1990. He played 9 productive seasons in Chicago before heading to the Red Wings, where he remained until 2009. By that point he was 47 years old, and though he was not the player he used to be, he also knew his role and adjusted his game accordingly. Still, age and mileage has not deterred Chelios. Instead of calling it a career after not being brought back by Detroit, he chose to continue playing in the AHL, with Grand Rapids, then back in Chicago with the Wolves. Lo and behold, he was brought up by the Atlanta Thrashers and it’s just a matter of time before he is back on the ice in the NHL. That’s an amazing feat. Nobody is going to expect Chelios to bolster the Thrashers’ waning playoff hopes, or to log more than a few minutes of ice time per game. His role at this point will be to provide leadership to the young players, and to be a shining example of how prepare and train properly.
I’m wondering if Atlanta is a place where aging players like to play in the twilight of their careers? Over in Major League baseball, Julio Franco ended his career with the Atlanta Braves in 2007 after a career that began in 1982 with the Philadephia Phillies. How long ago was that? In 1982, Ronald Reagan was the President of the United States, Pierre Elliott Trudeau was running things in Canada, people were not completely sure if Darth Vader really was Luke’s father (Return of the Jedi didn’t confirm that until 1983) and Sidney Crosby’s FATHER had not even been drafted yet (The Habs drafted him 2 years later). Baseball fans in the 80′s and 90′s remember Julio Franco mostly for his distinctive batting stance and his jheri curls…and I suppose his statistics as well. In 2007, and 2,500+ career hits later, Franco finally called it quits. Among his many distinguishing stats, however, the one he may be most remembered for is that of being the oldest position player in Major League history, playing the less taxing position of 1st base as he neared the end. Equally impressive is the fact that he played the majority of his career at either shortstop or second base, and it’s not a trivial thing to simply switch between the two spots. Both positions require agility and speed, but have key differences that set the 2 positions apart. That he was able to play both says a lot.
Both Chelios and Franco were notorious for their fanatical devotion to off-ice training, especially later in their careers, which obviously was a major factor in their longevity, but also likely a reason why teams kept these guys around long past their primes; what an example for younger players who still rely on their youth and sheer talent to pay the bills.
While Chelios is most likely headed to the Hall of Fame when he does finally retire, I’m unsure of Franco’s chances (though with the watering down of the Hall of Fame, and with what will hopefully be new perspectives on what a Hall of Famer is post-steroids, I hope that he will get in). Nevertheless, both were players were tremendous for the teams they played on, and brought value to their teams from the very beginning until the very end.
There are some obvious examples of players who stuck around forever. Gordie Howe remains the gold standard, as he played professionally until he was more than half a century old. In fact, he even suited up for one shift for the Detroit Vipers of the IHL in 1997, making him the only player to play in 6 different decades (40′s, 50′s, 60′s, 70′s, 80′s and 90′s). A tremendous accomplishment for a guy nearly 70 years of age, even if it was for only one token shift.
Can you think of any other guys who prolonged their careers well past what is considered normal?