Tracking penalties, and goodbye to VCOE

Things have been kind of crazy around JABS Mansion of late, for reasons that will become clearer in the next little while. The blogging has suffered some, but here's a couple of weblog-oriented items that have to be mentioned NOW, and can't wait for the usual Friday roundup spot.

First, a bad news/good news thing. The bad news is that Vancouver Canucks Op Ed is packing up its bag of tricks.  I was a little shocked at the news. Great, irreverent blogs like this one don't come around too often. I'll miss it - where else am I going to go for a good CheliCart?

Good news is that VCOE's Alanah is going to keep contributing over at Kukla's Korner, and podcasting, and surfacing with a new, yet-to-be-URL-unveiled blog affiliated with KK, press passes (ever mindful of Don Carman's list) and pregame press meals. Well, three out of five ain't bad.

Meanwhile, the Falconer, blogging on the Atlanta Thrashers, has updated his monthly  Penalties Drawn figures, similar to what I'm doing here at JABS with the Leafs, only he puts the numbers in terms of minutes and to be completely frank, he was the first to start doing this stuff:

To be perfectly honest I'm rather surprised to see the same four names atop the November leaderboard. Jon Sim in particular spent some time in the recesses of the Bob Hartley's doghouse and didn't always get a ton of ice time, yet he still managed to be his usual irritating self (well at least to the opposition).
(snip)
One thing that really surprises me is Kovalchuk's -4 minutes on the season so far. With his speed and skill he really should be drawing more minutes. I can't help but think that his diving tendencies in past years have given him a reputation among the referees and he is not getting the benefit of the doubt when he goes down.

What he's found is a mirror of what the Leafs' totals reflect - I'll update them later this week - the slick and slippery guys (Kovalchuk in Atlanta, Wellwood in Toronto) don't draw near as many penalties as you'd think, and the John Pohls of the world earn more than their share. I'm not sure why, but I'd go along with the reputation theory at least to explain some of it. These figures are worth looking at and needless to say, I'd love to see them broken out leaguewide. But the NHL is not going there, at least not yet.

And with Falconer taking the lead as he has from the start, I'll be back with some updated Toronto numbers later this week.

Into the weekend: Grey Cup libations

Lots to ponder as we head into a strenuous weekend of armchair sports, chief among it this proposition up on the JABS odds board: Kobe Bryant's points tonight vs. Frank Thomas's RBIs next season vs audience for the MLS expansion draft live on ESPN4.

Shot of beer nuts? Check.

It's the Friday roundup. But you knew that already. And while you mull over that last bet, which is almost lifelike, a little treat arrived in the email basket this week: The Gibson's Kicker, billed as the official cocktail of the Grey Cup: "Part smoke and part fire with a hint of fresh lime and paired with a shot of beer nuts". Sounds a bit like a Flaming Mo. I'll pair it with the fish sticks and get back to you.

Meantime, better make do with that Kobe vs Hurt vs. MLS expansion draft prop, because the government gambling shop has done it again. The Grey Cup line is B.C. -7 1/2 in the books, a little light according to my original reckoning. But folllowing along with the theme of almost lifelike, you won't be able to play it on Pro-Line's Point Spread game. Biggest game of the year, one that even casual fans notice, and there's no betting against the line. They're looking out for us. Everybody, now, raise your Flaming Mo or your Kicker or your Champale and toast 'em. Toast 'em good.

One last read. From the Guardian's Sports Blog, the best thing I've read on world footy since all those Zizou rumours. It's Marcela Mora y Araujo (no relation to Haffa, I presume), hanging with Boca's la Doce:

The thrill of the terraces and the beauty of the display of affection hardcore fans offer their team is not unique to Boca, nor indeed to Argentina. But it has an intensity there that has few equals. I once met a Malvinas war veteran in the Boca terraces and asked him if he thought there was a connection between the intoxication and loss of self of the terraces, and the atmosphere of a battlefield. No, he said. "Nobody hates war more than a soldier," he explained, before surveying the scenes on the terraces and concluding: "This is about love."
Later that same day, after Boca had lost 2-0 to River Plate, two River fans were shot dead. Around the city the following graffiti appeared: River 2-2 Boca.

One last piece of blogosphere news. Congratulations and good luck to Raptorblog ringmaster and footstool regular Scott Carefoot, on the move to Sympatico MSN's Sports Channel. That means, of course, that he'll have access to a press pass, poor guy.

One last curling update. George at the Curling News sends along this on those blog-favourite rockin' Norbergs.

One last view. This has been around a bit, but if you've missed it: Aries Spears does Mike and Shaq. (And if you liked that, check out this one sent over from TBJ.)

One last James Bond namedrop. Not much time for Bond. But I do like this.

One (two) last sponsorship deal. An English footy club has signed a marketing deal with Motorhead which includes an all-black uniform with the skull logo (which is just a cheap excuse, really, to revisit this QT-friendly video). And a link to Tom Benjamin for exposing this new NHL award for the runny nose that it is: "Is there anything Bettman won't do to squeeze out a few extra dollars?"

One last warning. This is pigskin freakout weekend, so if you find yourself on the couch a lot this weekend, do try to build in short breaks between the cheezie nibbling. It all starts with the CIS semifinals starting at noon Saturday. That OSU-Michigan thing goes midday (it'll be DVR'd in my house, so please, no giving away the ending before Saturday night). NFL all day Sunday and of course, the Grey Cup Sunday night.

One last Sam Mitchell laff. Two, actually, from TBJ, who I should just hand over the Friday roundup to, because it seems like every one of these has something from them -Coal Region Recipes with Sam Mitchell, and Searching for Sammy Mitchell. I'll miss this stuff when he's gone.

Sports around town. If you can tear yourself away from the couch - and you really should - U of T got its game on last weekend, and now it's York U's turn to start the party Saturday night. The Lions (got it right this time) host Waterloo up at the arena on the edge of forever, a doubleheader with the women at 6 p.m. and the men at 8. Bring your own pajamas. Honest.

Pooch punts. It's true - Jinks the Vizsla really is just as bad as all the other public handicappers out there. After another 2-3 weekend, here's the latest set of kibbles or cookies picks (bonus points, though, for the Grey Cup gobble):

Montreal (+7 1/2) over B.C.
St. Louis (+6 1/2) over CAROLINA
St. Louis-Carolina OVER 44
PHILADELPHIA (-13) over Tennessee
CLEVELAND (+ 3 1/2) over Pittsburgh

Have a great Grey Cup weekend.

Into the weekend: From Pro-Line to No-Line

Time to wrap things up, looking ahead to the annual exercise in masochism known around JABS Mansion as Browns Weekend. It's even supposed to rain. Joy.

But first, with all this idiocy at Queen's Park about outlawing online gaming advertising, a word about the province-run sports lottery, which ought to be sued for false advertising after they played chicken (again) last Sunday, taking the Bengals game off the board. In other words, it's not such a bad weekend to be away after all.

On to the usual . . .

One last read. The New York Times' Vincent Mallozzi caught up with Joe Frazier in Philadelphia this week:

Ten pounds heavier, but millions of dollars lighter, according to Frazier and the marketing people who work with him. Over the years, Frazier has lost a fortune through a combination of his own generosity and naïveté, his carousing, failed business opportunities and a deep hatred for his former chief boxing rival, Muhammad Ali. The other headliners from his fighting days — Ali, George Foreman and Larry Holmes — are millionaires.
But while Ali has benefited from lucrative licensing agreements and remains one the world’s most recognized and celebrated athletes, Frazier lives alone in an apartment one staircase above the gym where he and others train young fighters in a run-down part of town.
“This is my primary residence,” he said. “Don’t matter much. I’m on the road most of the time, anyway.”

One last e-mail. Monday's Notes from a Weekend post wondering where the hell all the hats were when Mats Sundin completed his hat trick brought this one to raise hopes that there is some life in the old ACC-mausoleum-on-Leaf-nights after all, from Aunt Wendy:

My two nephews, Steven, 19, and Matt, 23, were at the game, sitting in the Gold section (I might add that this was a once in a lifetime ticket for them, to celebrate a 19th birthday) behind the Flames bench and when Mats scored his 500th and third of the game in overtime, both of them, along with several others, threw their hats on the ice!
Steven, the 19 year old, had just bought his hat a couple of weeks before (camaflouged Leafs hat, of course!!) and hesitated for only a second in throwing it, sure that he would be able to buy another one after the game, only to be disappointed in finding out that particular hat was no longer available!
So there's at least one hat in a pile of them, that truly was thrown in the best of moments, with no regrets afterward, although a little disappointment.

One last salute. To Eric McErlain, whose Off Wing Opinion is one of the best hockey-centric sports blogs around. Eric has been picked up by NBC Sports, so check him out.

One last view. Joe (Jellybean) Bryant, otherwise known as Kobe's dad, dunks on Kareem (thanks to the TBJ's J.E. Skeets).

Sports around town.  The Pattison Canadian International has a field of 10 at Woodbine on Sunday, along with the E.P. Taylor as good as it gets for major-league thoroughbred racing in these parts - although according to Jennifer Morrison, the heavy rain of this week isn't exactly what International favourite Go Deputy likes.

Watching. Well, whatever comes up in front of me - I'm away, right? But Real Madrid-Barcelona is one of those matchups that carries some potential for fireworks, Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. on GOLTV.

Pooch punts. Jinks the Viszla went 0-5 last week. Which is, frankly, amazing. I mean, 2-3 or 1-4 is just crappy. But 0-5? That's perfection. This weekend he's scarfing down: KANSAS CITY +5, Denver -4 1/2 (BAD Dawg!), New England -5 1/2, HOUSTON +9 1/2 and the NY JETS -3 1/2.

Fergie's blog

The Leafs are preaching accessibility this year. And blogs.

Longtime broadcaster Joe Bowen has a blog. Former Sun columnist Mike Ulmer, too. Even John Ferguson Jr. And get this -- the latter blog is not bad at all, and as these house-organ offerings go pretty glowing.

Ferguson has never been good at articulating the vision thing. But even if this is not my full definition of a blog -- there are no links or comments, just to name a couple essentials on that list -- it was actually helpful to call it up and read JFJ's attempt to "explain our thinking" on the Leafs' latest round of cuts, especially 2006 first-rounder Jiri Tlusty:

Our first-rounder from last year Jiri Tlusty really impressed us. We were confident when we drafted him, but for him to come into an NHL camp and play the way he did was a real boost. He has good offensive skills, he plays with purpose, he blocks shots. Hockey people said he was a terrific all-around player and that’s exactly what we saw.
We are still considering the best place for Jiri to play this season. He can play junior in Sault Ste. Marie or with the Marlies. It’s probably rarer for a player to play in the AHL as an 18-year-old than it is in NHL. We have been talking to the people in the Soo who are very anxious to have him. Craig Hartsburg, the coach of the Canadian National Team coaches in the Soo. Wherever he plays he’ll develop well.

Other stuff gleaned from JFJ concerns Robbie Earl (not ready for the NHL) and Kris Newbury ("made an improved commitment ... to be in the best possible condition").

This is not exactly hard-hitting stuff, but it is an "improved commitment", and actually Ferguson has been posting more regularly than the other two I mentioned (which means that he is fulfilling another essential of blogdom -- post often). It'll be interesting to see how it goes through the season, when the inevitable tempests arise.

With the season started next week, the NHL preview bloggers' roundtable debuts on Monday, running three parts. John Ferguson Jr., the invitation to join is in the e-mail.

Related: After a fine rookie season, A Foot in the Crease is back with their weekly Leafs/NHL podcasts. Check 'em out.

Yes, It's back

Exactly one month later -- in blog years, that's akin to a millenium, and in Mundial years, let's just say the odometer on that car has rusted out -- like it or not, It is back.

So what'd I miss? Momentous stuff -- Floyd Landis, caught; Maurice Clarett, bucking for a CFL tryout; Wade Belak, re-signed.

TORONTO STAR PHOTO

Like it or not, JABS, and Wade Belak, are back.

For now, I'll throw out a few links have caught my eye just to ease back into things and maybe get these cold embers up to room temperature. I didn't do much surfing during the time off, but a couple hats go off to faves Vancouver Canucks OpEd and Sports Guy North for their 24-hour blogathon efforts. 24 hours of continuous blogging. No wonder us daily newspaper types are getting killed (and on the subject of SGN, I've been tagged with one of those meme type things. I'm not quite sure what it's all about, but will advise and yes Kent, perform my blogger-bro duty).

Now to some of those links:

I know these are the dog days, and some of you are afflicted by golf addiction. Here's The Morning News' Ralph Gamelli with some tips, because, you know, it's such a mental game:

Hitting Out of the Woods

1. You’ve never liked the woods, have you?
2. You don’t even have a good excuse. You were never lost in them or abducted by crazed mountain men. You never suffered any kind of trauma in them whatsoever. You’re just a sniveling coward, afraid of what animals could be lurking in there.
3. Snakes.
4. Coyotes.
5. Maybe even bears.
6. You’re 50 feet away and already you can sense a pair of inhuman eyes in there, staring at you. Hungrily. Don’t go in. You’ll never come back out.
7. Take a penalty stroke and drop another ball at the nearest relief point.
8. Swing, you pansy.

And still on golf, Dave Feschuk, this summer's hardest-working (and best) columnist, filed today on young Hamilton swinger Salimah Mussani, playing in this week's CN Canadian Women's Open in London despite suffering from lupus:

"It's scary," she said yesterday. "Before it happens, you can't hear anything. Everything goes mute. And then I'd slowly lose the sensation in my fingers. And then, suddenly, I was just out. It's happened a few times. And I know it's coming and I'll drink more water and sit down. ... But sometimes it's so intense, your body just shuts down."
Such is Mussani's ongoing battle with lupus, a decimator of the immune system for which there is no cure. Because lupus is triggered by sunlight and stress — a couple of golf's unavoidable occupational hazards — two doctors told her she would have to quit golf. But Mussani found a third doctor, at McMaster University's lupus clinic, who in turn found a drug that has, for the past couple of years, helped a rare athlete resume a promising career.

Good find over at Sportsfilter, with Foxsports' Randy Hill riffing on sports' biggest cheaters:

What level of personal protocol would you sacrifice to be the world's fastest human?
Thanks to the predicaments of cyclist Floyd Landis and sprinter Justin Gatlin, a culture of alleged cheating may have reached critical mess.
But breaking the rules is not unprecedented.

And one more, from a while back, sent along by e-mailer Robert Simpson and posted here in case you missed it -- O Canada coming in at No. 2 on SI's list of greatest sports songs. Never mind that No. 1 is the dreadful "We are the Champions". We're No. 2!:

TORONTO STAR PHOTO

Proud to be Canadian.

Yeah, it's a national anthem, but most national anthems sound like dirges and this one is lump-in-the-throat gorgeous. It summons images of gleaming ice and players on skates, heads bowed under Stanley Cup banners -- even when it's played in baseball stadiums.

I've never been all that keen on anthems, but there are exceptions and O Canada, at times rousing, at times butchered, always seems to provide them. This spring's Rexall Place singalong. Roger Doucet on New Year's Eve 1975 in Montreal. Mary O'Dowd at Yankee Stadium (reg. required). (Unfortunately, I can't find links to clips for those last two. If anyone can help, please do).

Best anthem memories, or some jock rock that moves you (with so much of that SI list -- and pro arenas -- stuck on stale numbers like Glory Days and Centre Field, of late I do like the Decemberists' "Sporting Life")? More golf tips? A cheater or two? Send 'em along. Like it or not, JABS is back.

Superstitions

Across the pond, it's hands across the water as Militant Moderate's Ken Owen is back with the Sportblog Roundup. What I like about this, revived after a short absence, is that it attempts to pull together sports blog posts from around the world, without the sniggering irony and cliches that sometimes greet sports like soccer on our side of the Atlantic (which is why I refused to bother with that Dave Eggers piece on America not understanding soccer earlier this month, surely one of the most overcooked of topics), or "gridiron", say, on their side.
So I was delighted to find this post in the midst of that post, Mezba on the superstitions and self-importance we attach to sports events:

During the 1999 World Cup, Bangladesh vs Pakistan, every time I would check Cricinfo for the scores and keep the live score window running, Bangladesh would lose a wicket. When I closed the browser window we would do good. I was convinced it was my browser that was costing Bangladesh wickets. So I walked away from the computer and checked the scores after the game. It worked - we won.

Yeah, I'm as bad as anyone else when it comes to this kind of stuff, insisting on wearing a Browns jersey when they're on TV and I'm watching -- white for home, brown for away, the way it used to be when they were actually, well, good. Not that it helps them like Mezba did here, but ... maybe it will, someday.
To top it off, Mezba is from ... Toronto.

 

From Marty Barrett to Billy Bucks

Apparently the people at Prime Time Sports were talking about blogging tonight, and even, poor dears, this blog in particular, according to an e-mail from a friend of mine -- perhaps a transcript or a stream will clear up the mystery some day soon on their podcasts page.
There's only thing one thing duller than bloggers talking about blogging: the mainstream media talking about blogging.
Here's a newsflash: it's all storytelling, in a slightly different skin. A newspaper, a magazine, a weblog, a podcast -- the same. And sometimes, better. Or at least, transformed.
You don't believe me? Check this out -- the best story on the net in at least the last day or so. Even if it's almost 20 years old. Sort of. You know what I mean, even if PTS (apparently) doesn't. Outstanding.

Now undressing, Ralph Kramdenero

It's an all-blog Thursday edition of the morning links! Everybody mamba!

That was some ball game last night, Cuba beating Puerto Rico 4-3 to reach the semifinals (Korea's into the final four, too, with a 2-1 win over Japan, meaning the U.S. still has a pulse and can complete the field today against Mexico). The seventh inning had it all, including pelting rain, the tying run thrown out at the plate -- and Cuba pitcher Romero looking like Ralph Kramdenero as he stood on the dugout, his uniform top half undone, then coming out to protest a call after the Cuban manager was tossed for arguing (and his interpreter, I presume -- the poor woman's translations were a bit too good, I guess). It took me a while, but I'm slowly becoming a believer in this WBC thing, which Dave Zirin hopes is the future of the game here: "If the WBC serves as an autopsy on America's national pastime, it also shows how the sport is being reborn beyond (the U.S.'s) borders."

Related: In honour of Dontrelle Willis, There's Your Karma, Ripe as Peaches has a post on charging the mound, with ESPN's Top 10 beanball brawls embedded. (George Bell inclusion: Bell's swing and a miss; Jorge Bell omission: Where's the karate kick and a miss on Bruce Kison?)

Raptors lose to the Pistons, but they did "play hard", as Rick Carlisle of the Pacers was applauding them for the other day (and as Tas on the Basketball Jones podcast was echoing in their latest). I have a question: since when did "playing hard" become anything other than a default setting, or an assessment that anyone outside of the coaches' fraternity should take seriously? These guys make a lot of money. "Playing hard" is the minimum they can do. "Playing smart" or "Playing disciplined" or "Playing prepared" or "Playing together" are different things entirely. Can't get on 'em too much for this, though, against a Detroit team that is best in the east. I mean, they "Play defence" while the Raptors "Just pretend".

More bloggorhea:

It's like a really, really bad sequel going down in Ottawa, or as Mike Nixon puts it at OttawaFootball.com: "The league should revoke the franchise immediately and decide either to carry it for one year while searching for new owners or fold it now. Ottawa fans do not deserve this treatment."

Down in New York, the worst nickname in sports is taking on one of basketball's most passive-aggressive (and decorated) martinets. It's "Starbury" against Larry Brown. Everybody mamba! (Or at least, keep a straight face.)

Manute's Webb, with a great post on playing an NCAA pool in Canada, where March Madness is curling, follows it up with some Big Dance thoughts for today's opening -- okay, it's the picture of Scarlett Johansson that got me.

Moving to hockey, James Mirtle has a cool updating of the NHL's playoff race. David Johnson at HockeyAnalysis crunches the numbers and yes, We'renotconcedinganything is still out of the playoffs.

A Don Cherry action figure and more, courtesy of Vancouver Canucks Op Ed.

And although no one quite knows how, the USA have moved up to fifth in the FIFA rankings.

Canada beats U.S.

It's Thursday, so that means the a.m. links are all-blog:

Canada beats the U.S. at the World Limited Overs Baseball Classic, Adam Stern the big star as the Canadians take a 7-0 lead and hold on. I'm afraid I'm not quite of the same opinion of ace blogger James Mirtle on this -- "the country's biggest baseball triumph since the Blue Jays won the World Series in 1993", he calls it -- but it has pumped some life into this dog, and made me take notice. When I'm not contemplating JFJ's The Plan, anyway, the fast-approaching Real Baseball League draft, or how I'm going to walk the dogs in this rain.

More from the blogs on NHL trade deadline day (if you're bored at work, tune in to the  waymoresports.com website and send along any John Ferguson Jr. sightings, favourite JFJ speeches and your interpretation of The Plan as Damien Cox and I live-blog T.D. time, 12 noon to 3:30 pm or so):

JFJ gone wild! Leafs acquire Luke Richardson, trade Ken Klee and I don't get it either. Somebody dust off The Plan and let me know. Meanwhile, the big one has the Avs acquiring Jose (Shaggy) Theodore for David Aebischer, and I don't get that one either.

I'll have more ranting on this a little later in the day, having sat through another Sam Mitchell last night at the ACC, but for now, the Basketball Jones has the calculator out to figure how close the Raptors are to being a .500 team. File it in the "lies, damned lies and statistics" folder. And while you're at it, the Cavs guy who hit the game-winning shot is in trouble.

Arsenal knocks Real Madrid out of the Champions League after a scintillating night at Highbury (for a Spanish-language perspective, with a headline even I can understand, go here).

Pat Quinn's recent endorsement deal needs some possible prizes now -- a seat on a park bench? An early spring golf game? A guide to Hamilton?

It's Hammertime, the former A's bat boy posting to Barry Bonds: "You are loved by many. I love you. You have brought me so much joy in your mastery of the game of baseball. Don't let the bloodhounds win. Finish the mission."

Introducing the official blogger

Got an email Saturday that changed my life blog: It was Melanie Karlik, taking over as JABS' Official Blogger of the 2005 Grey Cup Game.

Melanie spent the weekend driving 12 visiting Toronto bar owners around Vancouver in a Lincoln Navigator. And blogged the heck out of it. Go here for pictures and commentary. It looks like she avoided having to wear the dreaded "Baby" T-shirt that was part of the deal off the top, but she and fellow chaperone Heather did manage to run into Pam and got the photo to prove it -- well done Mel.

Highlights:

"Dropped over 2 grand on just dinner"

"flapjack breakfasts are always on the itinerary but there is ZERO chance we'd have breakfast before noon"

"There was a great energy in the crowd and a lot of great dancing Homers."

"The weekend has kicked my ass. Even giving my keys to the valet to park the car tonight was a task that was far too complex for my meager football frenzy mind."

Good job Mel. Now go get some sleep.

And a postscript: Mel complained briefly about the halftime show, noting that there were sound problems. Lenore Leitch from Qualicum Beach, B.C. had trouble with it too, contacting us to echo some complaints over at the CFL website's message board:

"The performance was horrible in itself -- basically it was the vocal equivalent of Janet Jackson exposing her breast -- but why in this country of such huge talent are we importing the BEPs?"

Umm, because we're insecure, perhaps? I thought it was a kinda lame show, but nothing to get sneezy about.