Wednesday, May 17, 2017

BM's Muddled Mindtrip:May 17th,2017

This blog has been guilty of inconsistent entries and the  onus for that falls squarely on my shoulders.  I used to pride myself on endeavouring on essay pieces and while that will happen from time to time again,it donned upon me that there was a certain randomness that differentiated this sports blog from many others so it's important(in my opinion) that I encapsulated on that and as opposed to sticking to singular themes, to drive the passion and to maintain consistency I'm hellbent on publishing a weekly segment focused on five musings from the World of sports in no particular order or reason that I deem worth ranting about. As the avid readers of the blog are well aware, the Western Hockey League remains an entrenched passion of mine thus comprehensive coverage will be attempted to be continued throughout the season but as the "off-season" has begun compounded by my willingness to reinvigorate this enterprise, I thoroughly hope you'll enjoy what I'm choosing to title,"BM's Muddled Mindtrip" 

1) "Si woo-ing major titles"

It's happened. Many in the golfing industry we're hesitant to acknowledge this obvious ascertation in the yester-year but similarly to that of the LPGA tour,, the PGA Tour is in the midst of it's own "Asian invasion" and debate is rampant whether this is a good or bad thing for the tour.  The standard argument is that the language barrier hurts marketability amongst the majority of the Asian stars but that's flawed when surmising that global growth has skyrocketed and just take a look at the winners list of the last two years to understand that it takes a very naive individual to believe that golf is singularily America's game for it is now. Hideki Matsuyama may be labelled as the modern men's game pioneer and his two 2016-2017 PGA tour wins,four altogether validate that hypothesis but there is a particular twenty one year old Korean star by the name o Si Woo Kim that broke through at the 2017 Players Championship and assuming he can circumvent his required military duty) an immediate major title is in his vicinity. 

2) "Low of Oil"

Peter Chiarelli and coach Todd McClellan have rejuvenated the City of Champions pertaining to their professional hockey team but after bowing out in the seventh game of round two against the Anaheim "should be mighty" Ducks, critics out of Northern Alberta have since begun to chime in over the futures of Jordan Eberle and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Reports went so far to suggest that Jordan could be exposed to the Vegas Golden Knights which I chalk up as a ridiculous notion. The bias is certainly beaming through being as Jordan once shone for my hometown Regina Pats and for the record I haven't been the biggest fan of his play over the last calendar year but shame on those trying to tell me that he has negative value and couldn't bring back  B level defensive stalwart,I refuse to believe it.  Ladies and gentlemen, this is a player who tallied fifty one points often times getting relegated to third line duty.If you accept the fact that he'll never be a first line winger, topping out as  a complimentary second liner then a team looking for an upgrade at wing will reap the benefit. I predict that the Oil will wrongfully elect to hold on to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins while packaging out Eberle.Prediction is that by July 1st, Jordan will find himself alongside Noah Hanifin and the Carolina Hurricanes.

3) "Unwarranted loyalty"

A fascinating topic worth discussing is what is the proper way of handling loyalty for organizations that reign victorious is balancing loyalty versus grading performance. Case in point,Cubs lead off hitter and left fielder Kyle Schwarber. This  is as unique of a case as ever because while manager Joe Maddon rigthfully looks to reward the escapades from a year ago, Schwarber up until the World Series against the pitching deprived Cleveland Indians wasn't part of the picture as he was rehabbing an earlier suffered 2016 injury. The cold hard truth is that Kyle is hacking at a measly .187 pace, in other words not the type of statistics that a very innovative manager in Maddon would condone or stroke the ego of.  SIx home runs in one hundred and thirty nine plate appearances is respectable but perplexing at the same time for why he isn't being dropped down to a more power position in favour of a Kris Bryant or Addison Russell, who's on base percentages have greatly exceeded that of Kyle.I could never question the tactics of Maddon but perhaps it's time to take a page out of the book from Ned Yost where the 2015 champions have demoted once leadoff staple Alex Gordon to the nine slot.

4) "Cosmo Kramer"

When news broke that the City of Regina in partisan with "Soccer day in Saskatchewan" was announcing that Spanish soccer giant Valencia FC would rival the New York Cosmos in a friendly my first thought was the Valencia had agreed to play a power from the MLS. The false original presumption was that the Cosmo's were New York's,MLS organization but further research proved that the New York City FC were property of the MLS and the Cosmos were a member of the previously unheard of North American Soccer League. Second observation related to this is what is a team that lays claim to international superheroes in Nani and Rodrigo doing in the same galaxy against what would be the equivalent of a ECHL hockey team locking horns with the New York Islanders. My fear is, not a big enough fear to not attend as the announcement intrigued me is Valencia will use the friendly for developmental  purposes and field their "C" team. The closest that Nani and Rodrigo may come to Regina is the iconic "Hotel Regina" located in Milan.

5) "Lonzo lottery"

The NBA draft lottery is complete.The lottery capitvated me so much so that I failed to tune in but it was the aftermath that lured me back in  Any astute basketball fan knows that the Boston Celtics engaged in a trade with the Brooklyn Nets, perhaps in what will go down as the worst basketball transaction in history where, courtesy NBA.com sent Kevin Garnett,Paul Pierce,Jason Terry and D.J White to Brooklyn in exchange for Gerald Wallace,Kris Humphries,Marshon Brooks and Keith Bogans and Kris Joseph ALONG with three first round picks, the last of which in 2017 ended up being first overall. This deal was conssumated in 2013,essentially around the time where the prime of the great Garnett and Pierce began to wind down. If this very deal transpired in 2003 I wouldn't even wink an eye but given the state of the current franchises, the soundbite given by then Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov is now legendary as at the time he stated" Today, the basketball gods smiled on the Nets". No Mikhal, that day you aided a now young juggernaut Celtics franchise. The embarrassment of riches the Celtics now have in the stable is borderline unfair. From Kelly Olynyk to Jae Crowder to Isiah Thomas, the proud Celtics project to be dominant for many years. The only caveat is it has created an interesting dillema for Celts management with what to do with the selection. Do they trade the pick to enhance the 2017-2018 regime? Do they pick Washington alum Point Guard Markelle Fultz pairing him up with another Huskie alum in Thomas OR do they do the inconceivable and welcome in Lonzo Ball and his nutcase father Lavar. The latter is very unlikely as knowing Lavar he'll probably demand they replace the statue in front of the Boston Gardens of Bobby Orr with one of his son.





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