Get your sports update by the Cracks of Don
A reasonably unfiltered selection of levity, opinion, information — and cheap shots
As someone who has worn a franchise record number of hats during a 31-and-a-half year run as a daily contributor to the Ottawa Sun, coming up with a catchy new name for an almost-daily notes column was a challenge.
I barely remember anything I’ve been called by readers, let alone my bosses.
Never dubbed, I think, were the weekly offerings on junior hockey, horse racing, radio/TV, CFL and a general Monday morning menu featuring news, view, quotes and notes. (Breakfast with Brennan?)
Cheapseats had a very long and glorious tenure. The most recent, regular notes package was baptized Donibrook, but that never did feel like a comfortable fit.
This, my friends, is the Don of a new day.
In pitching an innings-eater to Hawkeye, the (la de da) executive producer of Postmedia Sports, I offered to provide some opinion, levity, information and shots (cheap and otherwise) in a collection of items and thoughts, most but not all of which will be sports related.
Originally, I wanted to call it Brennan: Unleashed because I had visions of it being completely unfiltered, like an open conversation at the bar. Everybody would read something like that, right? Unfortunately, that would include lawyers hired by people who can’t handle their truths exposed. So Unleashed will have to wait until I retire (or get retired) and don’t give a crap.
Believe me, there will be no blood to draw from this stone at that point.
In the meantime, I plan to occasionally test the length of my rope with something a little less dirty, while keeping in mind that the audience will usually be readers, not just in the nation’s capital, but across the Postmedia chain.
Yes, like Bobby Orr did so often, it’s going coast to coast like buttered toast — or, at least, from Vancouver to Montreal.
So without wasting any more precious space with the introduction, here and going forward you are invited to wake up to the Cracks of Don — Wise and Otherwise.
LEADING OFF
The longer Gary Bettman takes to deliver a final decision on the NHL draft, the weaker he looks. Just do it already, for gawdsakes. … How hard up for live sports on TV are you? Enough to watch all three hours of a 2020 schedule release show the NFL Network has programmed for Thursday, perhaps, but will you binge by staying on the channel for a replay that immediately follows? Around midnight, you might be longing for the old test patterns. … The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were featured on prime time once last year, the first Thursday night game of the season. In 2020, expect that number to be bumped to five, minimum, with Tom Brady in Florida.
CONNECTING THE DOTS
The Mount Rushmore of all-time moments in my sports watching life would feature Orr (Cup winner, 1970); Paul Henderson (Summit Series winner, 1972); Tiger Woods (chip-in at 2005 Masters); and Kawhi Leonard’s buzzer-beating, series-winning, rim-rim-rim-rim-and-in (NBA Eastern Conference Semifinal, 2019). With all due respect to a Toronto Star pic of Kyle Lowry staring at a ball surrounded or being touched by a number of hands, it’s a joke that the Toronto Sun’s Stan Behal didn’t win his fourth National Newspaper Award for his shot of the Leonard shot.
PERSONALLY SPEAKING
Still waiting for NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly to come up with a suggestion on what should be for those of us who were poised to make a move into a money spot in our hockey pools. … Almost time to start Facebook unfriending those listing the top 10 albums that influenced their musical tastes and upbringing. … I’m joining the World Golf Tour (WGT) online, just as soon as I figure out how.
ON THIS DATE (MAY 6, 1976)
Somehow, Sittler wasn’t good enough to make TSN’s all-time Toronto Maple Leafs team, but he turned out to be the second best player selected in a top heavy opening round of the 1970 NHL amateur draft. The best was the No. 1 pick, Gilbert Perreault, who spent his entire 17-year career with the Buffalo Sabres back when stuff like that happened. Vancouver chose Dale Tallon second, while the Boston Bruins, who owned picks No. 3 and No. 4, took Reggie Leach and Rick MacLeish. Both became stars, but with the Philadelphia Flyers. Exactly 44 years ago, Leach scored five goals in the game that eliminated the Bruins from the semis, before the Flyers’ streak of Stanley Cup wins ended at two when they were swept by the Habs in the final.
IN MY OPINION
Only the truly gullible believe “more than 20 teams” were interested in signing KHL defector Artem Sub, who last week agreed to a one-year deal with the Ottawa Senators because they offered him a chance to play in the NHL when the games resume. If 20 teams wanted him, you would think a few (more stable) franchises would offer the same opportunity — and more than a one-year deal. … One day we see Tom Brady wearing helmet and shoulder pads, working on his mobility in Derek Jeter’s backyard. The next, Bears linebacker Roquan Smith being refreshed by the appropriately named pornstar Abella Danger on a crowded boat in Destin, Fla., where social distancing guidelines have been relaxed. It’s called a 20-year age difference.
FINISHING TOUCHES
Overheard concern that maybe a team like the Los Angeles Kings might use a minor league goalie if they were allowed to play the final 12 games on their schedule, with hopes of falling into a better draft position. Yet nobody complained about the Senators and Red Wings using players that didn’t belong in the NHL all season, did they? … As the great Dave Stieb might have meant, Tomorrow I’ll Be Better.