New starts and old cases of fans in the way, among other things

So, I hear it’s opening night?

Ah, hope springs eternal in all those cities and all those arenas and with all those fans.

(Including the six-year-olds who’ve never known the glory of a Leaves playoff triumph).

But the dawn of a new pucks season also brings out one of the silliest things in all of professional sports, quite aside from the scripted fights that really add nothing to a game.

The reward for losing.

Yeah, that whole “we get a point even though we lost the shootout” thing kind of rankles, doesn’t it?

The whole premise of professional sports is that there should be a winner and a loser (soccer being the exception and I have an issue with the plethora of regular-season ties in that sport, too) and rewarding teams with a point in the standings for losing seems a tad ridiculous to me.

I’m a bit of a fan of the shootout, actually, and overtime with one less skater on the ice can be far more entertaining than regulation time but if the object is to win, shouldn’t the winner get all the glory?

Let ‘em have shootouts for all the points; let ‘em know that playing for a tie late in the third period of a game or in overtime isn’t going to bring some miniscule reward.

Let ‘em figure out every game who won and who lost and parcel out the benefits – points in the standings – in an equitable manner

End o’ rant.

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So, I hear it’s opening night?

And not to pick on the hockey but the only “real” opening day to me, one that truly marks the opening of a new season with something special, is baseball.

For most fans, it’s the first chance they’ll get to see that season’s team in person, the clubs have been hiding out mostly in Florida or Arizona and they come “home” to start things for real and the fans flock.

The other sports – basketball, football, hockey – have all those home exhibition games that tend to water down the official opening in some way.

I know tonight’s for real, and the pretend games don’t ever have the same intensity or even the same lineups but for the simple fact of seeing a team in person for the first time, baseball Opening Day takes the cake.

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Memory lane?

Not quite sure how this came up but a friend’s asking the other day about sports fans and how they can, um, get in the way of the actual playing of the game.

That, of course, gets me to thinking about cases of fan interference and the most egregious instances and since it’s kind of timely …

How about that Steve Bartman?

Yeah, the kid who cost Cubs an out in an NLCS game they should have won had they not screwed it up themselves and here’s the cool part.

I was at that game.

Helping out Griff on my way to the Quad Cities for a HOTH exhibition game (remember those?) and I was writing the “scene” out on Waveland Ave. behind Wrigley when the whole thing went down.

Anyway, that’s got to be the one that sticks in everyone’s mind, right?

Others? Here are three and I’m sure you’ve got more.

Jeffrey Maier

Remember him? The kid who reached over the wall in right field at old Yankee Stadium in the 1996 ALCS to knock a Derek Jeter fly ball that might have been an out into the stands where it was – incorrectly – ruled a homer?

Yankees eventually beat Baltimore in extra innings; kid got the key to the city and an appearance on Letterman, if memory serves.

Bibbles Bawel

Isn’t that one of the great names of all time?

Anyway, no clue how I remembered this but Bibbles was a defensive back with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the 1957 Grey Cup. He picks off a pass, heads seemingly unimpeded down the field for a touchdown when – oops! – a fan sticks out his foot and trips him.

Here’s photographic evidence, and here’s a very cool story that recounts just who did what and if it doesn’t make you think a little bit less of the judicial system and the men who used to dominate it, I don’t know what will.

And, finally

Don’t mess with a stuffed animal at a basketball game.

Can’t imagine the fun-loving Chicken getting involved in anything like this, but this is classic.

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Hey, people.

I understand there might not be enough technological savvy for many, or any, of you to send video questions (I have none) but the old-fashioned mail stuff is still available to you and you’re really slacking this week.

Here. Words or pictures, whatever you like.

Thanks.

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Five things I fully expect you’ll hear before now and whenever the pucks season ends.

“If Toronto wins seven of its next 10, they’ve got a shot at eighth. Go Leafs, Go!”

“Sydney Crosby is almost cleared for full contact practices.”

“He only got suspended how many games for that head shot?”

“The Phoenix Coyotes are in Glendale to stay. Where they gonna go? Winnipeg?”

“Hey, when did Winnipeg get a team?”

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Ontario Irregulars:

Vote!

Please.

Or forfeit any right to complain until the next election, which I believe will be in about six weeks.

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You know me and the D League, right?

Hardly kissing cousins but what the heck, a few of you may hold out scant hope of being real men’s professional basketball players and who am I to deny you your dream.

If you got any love for the Bakersfield Jam – this year’s version of the Erie Baycats, Colorado 14ers, what have you – there’s an open tryout this weekend and for the small price of $150, you can take a shot.

Details here and if you make it, let me know what the D League’s really like. Last guy who did got me in some soup with the folks in Ohio when I pointed out it wasn’t, you know, all that good.

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RIP Steve Jobs.

This is long but a friend once showed it to me and I know it resonates with many.

Know what kind of visionary that dude was?

Simply realize that I was able to put that and other clips up here because these new-fangled computer things are so easy.

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You folks are in for a treat.

At the urging of several Tall Foreheads, yours truly has been invited to take part in the IGBT for tonight’s Leaves opener!

I can’t promise insight, I’ll be doing it from a stool so I can’t even promise mockery of people in the arena or action on the ice but I can promise at least some of the usual fun and frivolity we have.

Be here around 7 p.m., I’m part of a gaggle of guys and gals who’ll be in on it and we need to show ‘em what a real IGBT is like.

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Comments

[JT]

Doug, you're keeping my sanity. I can't stand the millions and non-stop Leaf talk. Making a big deal of out trading for a guy who maybe plays 5 mins a game was front page story on thestarcom Really? End rant.

Thanks for inserting some baseball in your blog.
By the way, I hear from my minions that a couple of Raptors folks might be back in town? Jose?

Blogger's note: Not sure

[Mike D.]

Wow, that has to be the best shoulder check I've ever seen executed by a mascot. But you're right, I can't imagine the Chicken doing that......the Chicken is more about agility, so I'd expect some sort of elegant aikido move that puts the guy down with his own momentum while the security guys move in. Of course, I also can't imagine someone breaking away from the gents on the ACC security team who handle ejections near the court level.

@JT: dude, you have minions? Cool! I think that might make you unique among Irregulars.

[Richard]

Did that mascot get fired? And if not, why not? He was clearly the instigator. And continued to antagonize and escalate. Just brutal.

[john]

Doug, we havent heard "last, best, final proposal" yet from either side and its only about 10:45 so not quite the eleventh hour.
Would it surprise you if they didnt talk and let the first two weeks of the season get cancelled without giving it one more kick at the can?

Blogger's note: I'd be stunned if there wasn't some kind of contact, even through back channels, before Monday

[avinash]

Thanks for recognizing this amazing individual's passing. A inspiring commencement speech. Thank you for posting it.

Got me wondering, who in your esteemed opinion, is a Steve Jobs in the basketball universe?

[The J]

Wow, half of todays blog trashes either the Leaves or Hockey, and they still want you for the IGBT? What are they thinking? Though, I can admit you probably provide a very different perspective from the usual hockey bloggers.

Man that mascot sure represented. Wonder if he's got pads under that costume or something, because that was a mean check.

[Mike kovacs]

I hope that your true feelingd come out in the IGBT tonight!

[RD]

ESPN just did a 30 for 30 doc on Bartman called "Catching Hell". It's a very well done documentary, actually, and I feel horrible for Bartman. He was actually offered a lot of money to do interviews, Super Bowl commercials; was given seats for games at Wrigley, but he's said no to all of it.

[Tim H.]

Hi Doug:

I was just wondering, if, when the NBA season does get started, will you be doing an "All Day Blog?" :) I don't mind hockey - as a matter of fact, when growing up in Windsor, about the only 'sport' you could watch was Hockey Night in Canada (which also explains why I am a long-suffering Leaf fan - the only show in town most weeks) - but I do resent the emphasis Mother Star puts on it, compared to all the other sports. It doesn't seem very 'unbiased' to me.

Just my thoughts!

Take care!

[D-Mac Ottawa]

I’d like to add a little perspective to the holiday versus holy day conversation.
Thirty-eight years ago, I signed on for a six-month work/study program in Israel. Not being Jewish, I was assigned to a secular (non-religious) kibbutz. I arrived there in mid-September. Three weeks later – 38 years ago today, in fact, October 6, 1973 – Israel was attacked from the south, the north and the west, via land, sea and air. It was very nearly overrun.
It was later related to me that there were two huge reasons why Israel managed to survive that war. One was the significant fact that Jordan chose not to join the fray for a long, monumentally significant week. But the even bigger reason, I was told, was that the attackers had made a huge strategic miscalculation: They chose Yom Kippur precisely because it’s a holiday and the Israeli forces would be away from their bases. But of all the days in the year, that was precisely the worst day to choose for an attack. Why? The call-up to scramble and report to battle stations was a cinch on Yom Kippur – because 95% of Israel was gathered together in synagogue. Any other holiday or weekend of the year, troops would have been scattered all over the map: at the beach, hiking in the hills, on the road, barhopping, shopping.
Meanwhile, back on my kibbutz, no one was at synagogue. Being entirely secular, there was no synagogue. But that didn’t mean the residents were partying or out shopping or watching soccer on the tube. They were quietly observing the day in their homes, fasting, contemplating how they might live their lives a little better in the new year, and somehow maybe atone for their screw-ups in the past year.
That’s a holy day. And its observance is commendable, I think.
Now, our holidays and holy days here in North America – “the West” in general – have evolved a bit differently. We have Coca-Cola to thank for our Santa Claus. We have Wall Street to thank for threatening us with economic ruin if we don’t do our patriotic duty to get out there and spend, spend, spend for the holidays – because our very financial survival depends on that oh-so-important annual retail window. We have Butterball to thank for telling us what we should be eating two holidays per year. We have Hallmark to thank for Valentine’s Day and confectioners to thank for Halloween and Easter. And we have television to thank for football traditions on Thanksgiving and New Year and the NBA on Christmas. It’s not David Stern who’s stuffing it down our throats. And it’s certainly not David Stern stuffing it down our throats because he’s Jewish. NBA games on Christmas have been a tradition ever since there was an NBA – as in 1946.
We have our holiday traditions because we’ve asked for them; we enjoy them; hell, we wallow in them; they’ve become a part of who we are as North Americans; and we’ve demanded that our holidays be ‘fun’ and secular, at least in the overall public eye. The original religious connotations have mostly been sent to background. Nothing particularly holy or religious about turkey drums and Santa and wrapped presents and sports – but, you know, it does all start to take on sort of a ‘holy’ or maybe at least ‘spiritual’ feel… because it’s all become such a time-honoured, shared tradition. It’s how we run.
I stayed on for my work/study program. Really glad I did. Among the many places I’ve been, Jerusalem is hands down the most amazing. I visited the Wailing Wall there. The tradition is to write a little prayer or thought on a slip of paper and then place it one of the many cracks or fissures. My little slip simply said “Peace”. And when I slipped into that wall and some dust dropped to the ground, I realized that that dust was probably the dust of prayer slips from 1948, and 1837, and 1492, and 853, and 76 BCE… That’s tradition. And it’s honourable. Peace. Cheers.

[john]

D-Mac, thats a great perspective on the 'holy' vs. 'holi'days. I think you could agree that other religions in the world have the same perspective on their holy days, Muslim, Hindu etc. haven't been commercialized either.

An interesting note, the two sides didn't bargain on last Sunday, the Christian day of rest, but that didn't get a mention...

[J]

@D-Mac:

Loved the post!

I went to a secular law school, but it's board of directors was entirely Jewish, so I got to see first-hand how serious they were about their "holidays". Every Friday, my school would close down around 3 pm to allow those observing Shabbat to get home before sunset, and would reopen on Sunday. They did this for all the other Jewish observances as well, and it seemed like every other week during the fall semester we'd have a three-day week (not to be confused with a three-day weekend).

At first, it seemed outrageous that we were paying $50k+ per year for a school that would so often deny us access to its law library and facilities in general. There's a reason people study at a library and not at our noisy homes with noisy roommates, we thought. I later learned that all those Shabbats, Yom Kippurs and what not, those actually observing weren't exactly studying at home. In fact, to the more orthodox, even driving home was considered "work" (hence letting us out around 3 pm). It was an awe-inspiring experience seeing the amount of devotion not common to Christian "holidays" like Christmas and Easter (though I guess part of that might stem from the fact that both holidays have pagan origins).

[Lorie]

The complete commencement address by the late Steve Jobs to the 2005 graduating class of Stanford; a remembrance of The 1973 Arab-Israeli War as witnessed by one of Our Own Irregulars; and The Fall of Bibbles Bawel. Who needs hoops? How I love this place.

Blogger's note: And it's only going to get better. Stay tuned

[doug]

@D-Mac good response and i respect it, but as I said it has nothing to do with religion at all, and your wrong in that yes I respect tradition in sport...such as on the American Thanksgiving holiday Dallas and Detroit will be playing (not each other hosting a game), has been that way for years...and on Xmas Day there has always been a couple NBA games but to have 5,6 is overkill and that has came on Stern's watch...as I have said repeatedly the television networks are implicit in it as well...and for me it really doesn't matter how the "west's" holidays have evolved, to me I was adamantly opposed to Sunday shopping, and am adamantly opposed to this gradual "cheapening" of Christmas day, but one can't generalize and say it's "the west's" way, I know many people that don't include Santa Claus in the whole celebration at all...I know many people that are serious about Christmas day, going to mass, and also Good Friday, Easter Monday as are many other people in respecting and celebrating their various faith's such as Yom Kippur.....I am not religious but very spiritual...and in our culture we losing our family values and to me it began with Sundays being "lost" as I remember as a kid and into my youth our family going for Sunday rides, the beach, whatever, we spent time together as there were no malls open etc...I liked that part of it, now we have this family day in February whereas not to long ago we had family day one day a week,(and to me it wasn't a religious day it was a family day for all faith's) and when that was lost, it was the major holidays no matter, what your faith, or what days you took time to honour your faith it was a special day...now those are being lost....and people wonder why greed is rampant, and civility is being lost...to me it's obvious ..so to me I won't watch b-ball on Xmas day never have, i spend it with my brothers sisters, mother, nieces, nephews...and what others choose to do is fine...but to me I have strong feelings on this 24/7 mentality that permeates society, as I said all along it has nothing to do with religion and what and how one religion chooses to celebrate is irrelevant in my eyes as that is passing judgement, so the story you told was enlightening, and interesting but in my eyes totally removed in fact from this discussion...as to me no matter what your faith,beliefs etc..we need time for family, reflecting and appreciating what matters but we don't have it as it this 24/7 mentality permeates everything so that is where I am coming from on the Christmas day b-ball extravaganza..anyways cheers

[Michel G]

I agree Lorie, it's a nice place to visit every day! But I'd still like some hoops. :)

[doug]

@D-Mac...one thing you said that bothers me is this and it was surprising coming from you and it was in your first few words..."I’d like to add a little perspective"...to me the appropriate thing to say would be "I would like to add MY perspective"...it makes a huge difference...just saying...oh and I forgot to mention I was surprised no talk on the Cards-Phillies deciding game...Carpenter against Halladay how good is that....

[D-Mac Ottawa]

Hey @doug, absolutely wanted to write that only as my perspective, because it's the only one I have to offer. Your raising the legit question about how we view/celebrate holidays got me thinking about the whole thing this past week, and my perspective just evolved from there. Then realizing it was exactly 38 years ago today, well I definitely felt compelled to expand on it.
I'm not a religious person at all – all of that got drummed right out of me well before I'd finished those 12 long years of "parochial" school... For me, the very best way I can spend "Sunday services" is to take a nice long walk in the woods. I too distinguish between spiritual and religious, big time.
I hope we can all grab as much of that good spirit between family and friends, in nature, all around us – every chance we get, not on designated days of the week, month or year. And I'm as open to believing some people can get as big a spiritual fix skating, walking in the woods, shopping, watching hoops on Christmas, whatever, as others do by praying, attending services, fasting, volunteering in hospitals, whatever.
You're absolutely right: It has nothing to do with religion. Cheers.