Tag: SPORTS

WHAT’S UP WITH THE WNBA?

As a sports fan, a one-time amateur athlete, and as someone who has played and coached several sports, I have to ask a question that I’m surprised it’s taken me this long to ask.

What in blazes is going on in women’s basketball, and in particular, the WNBA, or Women’s National Basketball Association?

There was once a time, in a less than perfect life, when a boring Saturday afternoon at home might be enlivened by a google search along the lines of “women fighting,” or some other absurd search that would yield a YouTube video of a bunch of girls fighting after school, in school, at the bar, at the beach, at the concert, hell even at the hairdresser.  I’ll freely admit that watching such videos says as much about the individual doing the searching as it does about the girls scrapping in the cafeteria at lunch.  It’s not a good look for any of us.

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FLORIDA AND THE FLYING ELBOW

The term “Elbow’s-Up” was made more popular by Canadian comedian Mike Myers as a response to the buffoonery being put forward by the American president, who more and more seems to be an exact representation of the American people at large.

But the Florida Panthers have made it their personal calling card, as they elbow their way through opponents without much in the way of intervention by the Department of Player Safety, also known as Look The Other Way Committee.

How many concussions will need to be meted out by the Panthers before the pointy-heads up at league headquarters make the appropriate connection?

I’m not a Leafs fan, I’m a hockey fan, and if the league and officials continue to do nothing about this kind of thing, from Florida in particular, then the only way to handle this business is to build your own team with flying elbows, and maybe go back in time to the 1970’s.

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McGREGOR GOES FIRST OVERALL IN OHL SELECTION DRAFT

He thought it would be pretty cool just to hear his name mentioned on draft night.

Last night was the OHL Selection Draft, where teams from the OHL Major Junior A circuit go through the process of selecting players by which they can re-stock the cupboards.  That’s how it works in the OHL, you lose some, you win some.  Some of your players get drafted in the NHL Entry Draft, some graduate to other programs, and some retire from the league.  They’re replaced at the other end by prospects primarily from Ontario’s premium AAA hockey programs.

One such player involved in all of this is Braeside’s Kaden McGregor, a 5’11” centre playing for the Ottawa Valley Titans AAA program.

He did hear his name last night, in fact before anybody else heard theirs.

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IN DEFENCE OF GRETZKY. SORT OF.

Sometimes I genuinely dislike my work, if that’s what this is.

Sometimes, in an effort to be as completely true to yourself and to your values, you have to say things, even do things that may come across as distasteful but, at the end of the day, are recognized as the proper thing to do.  To satisfy your conscience.

To witness the pillorying of Canadian hockey great Wayne Gretzky in his own country was, at first, something that didn’t bother me at all.  It was more with a sense of schadenfreude that I observed the pummelling The Great One was taking from his Canadian compatriots, that this was something he deserved, that he had brought it upon himself.  Serves him right kind of thing.

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HOCKEY CANADA COMES UP EMPTY AGAIN

The post mortem is already underway.

And if you’re an Erie Otters fan, you already have a sense that there’s going to be pain as that OHL team sits in fourth place in the Western Division, with three teams nipping at their heels, and their best defenceman, Matthew Schaeffer, out for the next 3-4 months with a broken collarbone.

Schaeffer is but one aspect of the bad news that’s been the 2024-25 version of the Canadian entry to the World Juniors Championships, held this year on home ice in Ottawa, Ontario.

To say the knives are out is a bit of an understatement.

For the second consecutive year, powerhouse Canada is on the outside looking in, with no medals forthcoming for this year’s group.

About that group.

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NEW YEARS DAY

It’s New Years.

It’s a thing to make predictions as to what might happen in the year to come.  Almost every media platform does it, maybe because it’s a slow news day, maybe because it’s something that consumers legitimately want to consume.  I’m not really crazy about it myself, but I do understand the whole slow news day thing, so I guess I feel somewhat compelled to enter the fray myself, and offer some speculation as to what may happen in the new year, as opposed to making predictions.  So let’s go.

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SEEMING TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ANOTHER’S WEAKNESS

What do you call it when one party of a deal profits from the misfortune or disadvantage of the other party?  When one party enters into the agreement with eyes wide-open, with intent, and full knowledge that the other party is in a vulnerable situation, or the other party is misrepresenting their authority, or not having the full approval of a superior person or body to exercise that authority with respect to the deal in question?  When one party knows, or ought to know, that they are perhaps fleecing the other party, or the third party that person ostensibly represents?

What do you call behaviour like this?

Exploitation comes to mind as a start.  Taking advantage of someone else’s stupidity or possible malfeasance or misrepresentation, recognizing the advantage you possess, and seizing the opportunity to do just that.

Maybe opportunism is the correct word instead, just for the fact that you saw the opportunity, recognized it for what it was, and looked like you jumped on it to your advantage, possibly to the disadvantage of others.

What about predatory?  Where you may have recognized the situation, inserted yourself into it knowing that an unfair advantage could be obtained, and pursued that unfair advantage for your own benefit.  Where maybe you actively worked in concert with the weaker party all along, creating the situation where your advantage and their disadvantage would be cemented by contract, knowing that once signed, that contract would be considered valid except for very rare circumstances.

In business, they might call this business savvy, good business acumen.  They might say a deal is a deal and the other party should have known better.  They might say it’s not their fault the other party was stupid, or didn’t follow the proper rules, or that the people above that person didn’t exercise their proper due diligence.  They might say it’s not their fault everyone on the other side of the contract appeared to be asleep or intimidated.  Business is business.  If you can’t play with the big boys, get the hell out of the ring.

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BROWNS COME UP BIG IN THE SNOW

What a time to jump onto the Cleveland Browns bandwagon.

As Thursday dawned, I believed that I may be one of that team’s newest fans, given their record, given their futility, given their injury situation, given their, well, everything.

Plus, it’s Cleveland.

My very first game loomed later that evening, as the 2-8 Browns hosted the division-leading Pittsburgh Steelers, the Steelers coming to town with their 8-2 record.  I’ll be honest here, it didn’t look the best.

I watched anyways, determined to be a stalwart fan, the kind that digs in through thick and thin, mostly thin.  Not a fair-weather fan, because, how could there be any prospect of fair weather with a team like this?  Plus the weather sucked.

The game, being in Cleveland, had the Browns wearing their brown over orange home uniforms, finished on top with the orange helmet.  And as much as it hurt to have that colour combination as the uniform of my new favourite team, I have to say that I liked them as soon as I saw them.  Sure, I’ve seen photos online, watched some video, and have even seen the Browns play — I think — on television before, probably while sifting through channels to find another game with better-dressed players.  But I liked them as soon as I saw them, in fact loved them.  That brown, and that dark, almost burnt orange.  Seal brown and safety orange to be exact, or RGB 49-29-0  and RGB 255-60-0 to be even more exact.  And man, do they pop.

They even look good in the snow.

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