(Deep) NOT SO thoughts
A few random thoughts for National Macaroni Day. Which is also National Stick A Feather In Your Hat And Call It Your Favourite Noodle Day …
TURNABOUT ISN’T FAIR PLAY
Loads of people are loving John Tavares’ touching story of a young man choosing to return home to Toronto to play for the team of his childhood dreams and hopefully help them win a Stanley Cup. Wonder how much those same folks will be loving the story if Auston Matthews does the same thing and bolts for Arizona in a couple years?
STILL TIGER-LESS
News that the RBC Canadian Open is moving to early June next season — the year the event is being held here in Hamilton — is terrific. It could go a long way to enhancing the field since the event won’t be the week after the British Open.
However, before anyone starts dreaming and pencilling Tiger Woods’ name onto their tee-time list, it’s worth noting that in his entire career he’s never played an event the week before the U.S. Open.
EASY TO STOP
There’s been plenty of chatter about flopping and diving at the World Cup, which is a shame since the play has generally been extraordinary. Brazilian superstar Neymar, in particular, should be ashamed of his actions. Though you can be sure he isn’t.
Anyway, there’s an easy way to stop this. Now that FIFA is using the replay system that allows them to communicate with the referee on the fly, it should simply watch for any obvious dives. When the folks in the booth see one, they simply call down to the official who gives the offender a red card and expels him from the game.
The flopping would stop immediately.
EASIER TO FLOP
Speaking of Neymar, the Swiss broadcaster at the World Cup timed his dramatic performances and found that prior to Friday’s game, he’d spent 14 minutes writhing on the turf.
ONE MORE THING ...
One long-overdue note from the NHL draft.
An as eight-year-old playing for the Ancaster Avalanche AA team, Nicholas Caamano — same one who played for the Hamilton Bulldogs last season — played in a tournament in Pittsburgh.
The first game was against the host team with a kid who was a scoring star and found the net four or five times. The next time the two faced off was in the championship game when Caamano scored the winner in overtime.
Two years ago, Caamano was drafted in the fifth round by the Dallas Stars.
In June, the Pittsburgh kid — Logan Hutsko — was taken in the third round by Florida.
UM, PAY ATTENTION, PLEASE
On Tuesday, Canadian tennis player Genie Bouchard tweeted about not being able to stop staring at a ballboy’s open fly during her opening-round match. On Thursday, she was eliminated from Wimbledon in the second round by a player who never should’ve beaten her.
Perhaps a tad more focus on, y’know, tennis might’ve helped prevent yet another disappointing result.
NOT GOOD NEWS
That PK Subban-for-Shea Weber trade just keeps looking better and better for the Montreal Canadiens, doesn’t it?
Subban has played 148 regularseason games for the Nashville Predators since being dealt, has 99 points, has been in 35 additional playoff games and was a finalist for the Norris Trophy last season.
Weber has played 104 regularseason games for the Habs, has 58 points, has been in six playoff games and is now out for five or six months for knee surgery.
SCARY DAYS
Honestly feel concerned for Colombian World Cup team players Mateus Uribe and Carlos Bacca.
Both missed penalties in a playoff loss against England leading to both receiving numerous online death threats. Which could be dismissed as simply the rantings of angry but otherwise harmless fans if the game wasn’t played on the 24th anniversary of the death of Colombian Andres Escobar who was murdered after scoring an own goal at the 1994 World Cup.
BARF
When Joey Chestnut ate 74 hotdogs in 10 minutes on July 4 to win the annual Nathan’s hotdog Eating Contest, he consumed 22,200 calories, 1,332 grams of fat, 2,664 grams of cholesterol and an astonishing 57,720 mg of sodium. Meaning he ate over a tenth of a pound of salt in addition to everything else.
Think this goes without saying, but we’ll say it anyway.
Gross.
NICE TOUCH
Nice to see Jose Bautista recognized so warmly by Blue Jays fans this week.
He deserved it.
By the way, his .381 on base percentage is way higher than any everyday player on the Jays right now.
NO CONTEST
Who would win a seven-game playoff series between the Golden State Warriors and last season’s Eastern Conference all-stars?
For the record, that’s Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Kevin Durant and DeMarcus Cousins against Kyrie Irving, DeMar DeRozan, Gordon Hayward, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Joel Embiid.
The correct answer is: it would be a Warriors sweep.
OH NO, CANADA
Now that free agency has been largely sorted out and we can see what NHL teams are going look like, would there be anything less-exciting than being a fan of the Ottawa Senators, Montreal Canadiens, Vancouver Canucks and Edmonton Oilers?
Actually, let’s rephrase that. Could there be anything lessexciting for four fan bases that hate the Toronto Maple Leafs with a deep, abiding and soul clenching venom?
Gonna be a tough year for some of them.
FADED HERO
Sports Illustrated put out its annual Where Are They Now issue a week ago. Sammy Sosa is the cover boy for this one.
If you’ve seen Sosa recently, you’d notice his skin is a whole lot lighter than he was as a player. Michael Jackson-esque. Which has led to a million questions.
His son gave the magazine the answer. The change was the result of a skin cream Sosa started using every day a number of years ago to startling effect.
HAVE MERCY
A friendly suggestion for NBA commissioner Adam Silver.
You seem like a compassionate man. You don’t seem like someone who would revel in another’s pain.
So just give all the Eastern Conference teams a participant’s ribbon after the regular season and let them play for their own little fun championship. Kind of a house-league round robin. With popsicles and orange slices after the games are over.
No sense letting one of them get humiliated by one of the real teams in the West.