Nobody asked me, but ...
In the meantime, Alex Newhook shouldn’t get too upset over getting cut from the U18s.
Daniel Cleary came up short three straight years in his attempt to make Canada’s world junior squad. And Cleary did OK, appearing in more than 1,000 NHL games … Blair
Bursey of Gander has finished his four years of NCAA DI golf at Utah Valley University and plans to turn pro. The Gander Golf Club is staging a fundraising tournament on Aug. 25, and Bursey is currently seeking sponsorship to assist him along the way (playing professional golf isn’t cheap). Bursey was a first-team all-western Athletic Conference all-star, although he didn’t exactly light it up at the Canadian men’s amateur this week in Duncan, B.C., falling short of making the cut … Have to admire the rowers in the Royal St. John’s Regatta. Well, the elite ones, anyway. They train their guts out for seven or eight months, and for what, a shot at five championships – Discovery Day (which is a joke), the Time Trials (held in a hurricane this year), Placentia Regatta (which few elite crews attend), the Harbour Grace Regatta (that no one attends) and St. John’s. And if the wind is up at Quidi Vidi on the first Wednesday in August, well, c’est la vie. Which would drive me nuts … And speaking of Discovery Day, drive downtown and count the number of vacant buildings. Yet all some members of this City Council can be concerned about is renaming the Discovery Day holiday …
Great all-newfoundland senior baseball final last weekend (St. John’s-corner Brook series went the limit, won by the Caps). And I understand the last four games at St. Pat’s drew healthy crowds. The St. John’s Capitals’ win was their 18th in the past 19 years. Hands up who else is tired with this. To the baseball crowd, a Caps-barons allnewfoundland is the ultimate but to the casual sports fan, it’s met with a collective shrug of the shoulders. Which brings us to Baseball Newfoundland and Labrador. Perhaps it’s time to stray from its template used last year, and the year before that, and the year before that (you get the drift) and come up with some kind of new format to generate a bit of interest for the senior championship. Maybe it means some kind of tournament format. Or how about considering going outside the province and exploring some kind of playdown with the Nova Scotia and/or New Brunswick senior baseball leagues. Just a thought, but baseball should start looking forward. The ol’ Caps-barons thing is old …
Hats off to the St. John’s Regatta Committee for keeping everything together on a tight Regatta Day schedule last week … Like the Newfoundland Growlers duds. Plain, but nice. Not wacky at all, as some ECHL jerseys tend to be. That said, keeping in the spirit of the ECHL and some of its fun promotions, I’m looking forward to seeing what the Growlers have up their sleeve. How about these few: Newfoundland Elvis night, Mummers Night, Rabbit Huntin’ Night (when the Greenville Swamp Rabbits come to town, minus the firearms, of course), Townie/bayman Night? I’ll leave it to the Growlers to figure out how to run those stunts …