Five random thoughts from this very random sports blog that I will share weekly.
1) "Tiger out in the Woods"
The rise and fall of Tiger Woods was well documented in the Winter of 2009 where his personal indiscretions made waves globally and basically from that point forward it was Eldrick's mission to garner back respect from so many that it had been lost through. Little did we know(okay perhaps some called his career trajectory to fall off a cliff) that his adulterous ways were just the beginning into this unfortunate chapter that forced him on the mend several times in way of chronic injuries.Let the record be shown that when it came to the mid two thousands Tiger/Phil debate,I was firmly on the side of lefty and to put it bluntly it hasn't upset me whatsoever that Tiger has fallen off the golfing scene,and that was before the arrest on Monday,May 29th for a DUI was made public.The fact of the matter is this,during his record breaking run he gave off vibes of sheer arrogance,as if to say he was bigger then the PGA Tour. Karma has came back to bite him in the you know what and I have a difficult time imagining he'll ever reach major prominence again.
2) "OHL skillset translatable to the 'Chell?"
The 2017 Memorial Cup has concluded which you would've thought may have hushed the critics who closely follow the Arizona Coyotes but quite to the contrary where Coyotes prospect Dylan Strome was handed the tournament's Most Valuable Player award.In lieu of this proceeding,Arizona faithful are now re-examining whether the right selection was made when in 2015 it chose Strome over the polarizing Maple Leaf phenom Mitch Marner,two OHL stalwarts. I've never been a huge proponent of Dylan as although I admit his skating has made great strides, when I compare it to the NHL level,even Marner, it's not comparable.While tensions from the aforementioned Coyote fanbase may ease in the immediate, I'll say I told you so right now that there will calls to send Strome down to the AHL within a couple years, not dissimilar to Curtis Lazar and Jake Virtanen. Great junior player capped of a marvelous junior career but let's not get ahead of ourselves.
3) "More the Merrier"
Kudos to Curling Canada this past week by making the executive decision by adding two additional teams into both it's men'sand women's "Road to the Roar" pre-trials event.After careful deliberation, it was determined that when weighing the closeness of the races for the respective genders that as opposed to denying the olympic dream to four deserving rinks, preventing what was originally going to be a tiebreaker amongst Briane Meilleur and Karla Thompson, this appeases the majority if not all the parties. However the interesting loophole with all of this pre-trials 'drama' is teams manipulating the system to retain a spot even though after this 2016-2017 season a couple teams publically declared disbandment only to conveniently do some roster tinkering to maintain eligibility.It's one thing to pursue the Olympic dream, I can only imagine the satisfaction in that but I would hate to be those select teams who just missed out because teams you won't see play together on tour in 2017-2018 take a crack at the Olympic can at their expense!
4)"No Jim Van Horne or Teresa Kruze"
Any child that grew up in the late eighties through the mid nineties would've been mesmorized by the sultry, transcendent voices of the likes of Jim Van Horne, Teresa Kruze,Gino Reda among many others on the iconic TSN Sportsdesk highlight shows.It's a random thought, well aware of that but the vintage Sportsdesk tapings shaped who I am today as it began my evolution into the sports fanatic I've become. Those shows back in the earlier Sportscenter days were memorable for the simple fact that unlike the modern era we're not seeing thousands of permutations and combinations in relation to who's hosting the nightly shows. The bottom line, settling in with familiar duos will allow TSN's modern era, headlined by Kate Beirness and Nabil Karim to form unbreakable chemistry and allow the viewer to grow up with a known pair. It's what made Jay Onrait and Dan O'Toole so popular before there endeavour to Lbaos Angeles(glad they're back on Canadian airwaves in September) and what made the likes of the aforementioned Van Horne,Kruze,John Wells and so many other legendary broadcasters stalwarts on Canadian television.
5) "In hibernation"
I'll be the first to admit, I prognosticated a National Central repeat for the Chicago Cubs as a sheer inevitability. Fast forward to the completion of May 31st on the baseball calendar and shockingly the Cubbies find themselves at 25-27, good enough for third place in the division. So what's happened through the confines at Wrigley that's led to the sudden dehumanization of the once lovable losers? I have a couple theories. To begin with, although manager Joe Maddon is often celebrated for his innovative tactics, perhaps he's let his own convoluted mind get in the way of fielding the best possible lineup. Baseball pendants credit Maddon for coming up with having the pitcher bat eighth which due to the copy cat society that we live in, many other managers have preceded to follow suit but to me this strategy only works when you have a competent swinging pitcher in the lineup. From a Cubs perspective it works when Kyle Hendricks and Jake Arrieta are on the hill as both can hold their own but when hurlers like Brett Anderson and John Lackey arrive at the dish,some would argue within the Chicago fan base that former Blue Jay Alfredo Griffin may be a preferable option(youtube Alfredo Griffin). Secondly, I respect the loyalty that Maddon has towards his disciples coming off the 2016 World Series triumph but at some point he has to start rewarding players for, for a lack of a better phrase, who give a damn. Ironically enough Kyle Schwarber didn't play a prominent role in the Cubs attack until his late return against Cleveland in the World Series, yet is thrown to the wolves daily hitting a concerning .174. If it's injury related then I would be willing to scale back the criticism as to why Javier Baez has been relegated to a secondary role. My biggest point of contention is that Albert Almora Jr and Baez aren't being thrust into more important assignments and Schwarber who hasn't shown the propensity to hit a beach ball can do no wrong. Favouritism much!
No comments:
Post a Comment