And that is why you cover track meets by phone...

People seldom get a window into what it's like to cover high school sports like the one afforded by the story of Ogden, Utah, shooter Ryan McGeeney.

"PROVO -- Ryan McGeeney served seven years in the Marines, including a six-month deployment in Afghanistan, but 10 minutes of photographing the state high school track championships proved to be more dangerous to him.

"... The Standard-Examiner photographer was struck below the knee by a javelin while shooting the discus event shortly after 9 a.m. Saturday, delaying the events while an ambulance pulled onto the track..."

" 'They don't have javelins in Afghanistan,' McGeeney joked after returning a few hours later to continue shooting photos of the track meet. 'That's where I'm lucky.' "

Some people would wince, but not those hardy Utahns. The thrower's coach told the AP, "One of the first things that came to my mind was, 'Good thing we brought a second javelin.' " 

One of the commenters on the newspaper's website also had to ask: "Did the javelin thrower get credit for the six miles the javelin spent in the ambulance?"

It's good to know there are still some people who keep their eyes on the prize.

Related:

Standard-Examiner photographer pierced by javelin but keeps on shooting (Roy Burton, Ogden Standard-Examiner)
Photographer speared by javelin at Utah meet (The Associated Press)

Rapidz roster set

The Rapids have finalized their roster ahead of Thursday's opener vs. the New Jersey Jackals (7 p.m., at The Zip). Duty calls for providing the Opening Day roster, with a link to each player's Baseball Cube page. 

It seems like a very young club. Ed Nottle and Mike Kusiewicz had to work double-time to get a roster formed. The bottom line is as long as the players put forth a winning effort and it's a welcoming environment at the ballpark, the win-loss record should be of secondary concern.

Catchers — Kyle Geiger (LS-4), Maxime Bouchard (rookie).

Half-witted analysis: As a former pitcher, Nottle might have been thinking of his hurlers first when he picked up Geiger. He's 6-foot-3, 215 lbs. and got as high as Double-A, presumably mostly on his receiving and his throwing. Bouchard had a RBI double in the exhibition game vs. Québec; Nottle was pretty impressed by him, but he's also young.

Infielders — Jabe Bergeron (LS-3), Jose de los Santos (LS-4), Juan Infante (LS-1), Scotty McKnight (LS-1), Nick Trainor (rookie).

Half-witted analysis: Bergeron gets on base at a pretty good clip but hasn't had great power numbers in the Can-Am League. It is unfortunate that Mark Charrette didn't stick, but with nine rookies (five more than the league-mandated minimum), they probably felt a need to opt for more experience in the form of McKnight and Trainor.

Outfielders — Jared Lemieux (rookie), Jereme Milons (LS-4), Sambu Ndungidi (rookie), Pete Pirman (LS-4), Jeremy Ware (veteran, inactive list).

Half-witted analysis: Pirman tore up the Frontier League three summers ago (.973 OPS, league-record 100 RBI in 96 games, 35-of-42 stealing bases). Nottle told the Ottawa Sun that he's going to go with Lemieux as his starting centrefielder, so that likely leaves Milons, Ndungidi and Pirman for the middle of the order and the corner outfield/DH slots.

It might have been by design that the Rapidz are carrying more rookies and are two veterans under the minimum. In the long run, it gives them more flexibility beyond this season.

Left-handed pitchers — Mike Kusiewicz (veteran), Fraser Robinson (rookie), Jason Pilkington (rookie).

Half-witted analysis: Fun story about Jason Pilkington, who's done the tour of indie ball in Canada (Québec, Winnipeg, even the Canadian League, which folded in a trice). He's not a natural left-hander; Dad forced him to go left. He also forsook baseball for a while to focus on high jump; he cleared seven feet in high school.

Right-handed pitchers — Noel Baca III (rookie), Cibney Bello (LS-4), Greg Bunn (LS-3), Angelo Burrows (LS-2), Adam Hawes (LS-2), Karl Mejlholm (rookie), Orlando Trias (LS-4), Dallas Strankman (rookie).

Half-witted analysis: Bello, Bunn and Trias have the most established track records among the candidates for the starting rotation. For the bullpen, Angelo Burrows has had a good strikeout rate in affiliated ball since he converted from the outfield a few years ago; how does "Bello and Jello" sound to everyone?

No Bull. Tonight is hugh at the M-Cup

No, I haven’t been hiding since the Bulls tragic overtime loss on Saturday. But, it was tragic. Deserved too. Spokane was the best team on the ice and they showed their worth by coming right back and slapping Kitchener down yesterday.
The Chiefs aren’t pretty (which has never been a requirement of winning championships), but they are getting the job done.
The weekend’s results set-up the closest thing to a sudden death game in the tournament yet. Whoever loses between Belleville and Gatineau is in deep. Not officially eliminated, but rendered at mercy of other results.
Such is the nature of a tournament like the Memorial Cup. The flip side, of course, is you can always win your way back in. Both Belleville and Gatineau will advance to the semi finals if they win out.
Spokane will book a spot in the final with a Belleville win.
Meanwhile the hosts have to be wondering what’s going on. Clearly very talented, Kitchener has played in a bit of a funk in its first two games. It’s worth noting that the Rangers have lost four of their last six games. If Gatineau win tonight, Kitchener could actually face elimination against Belleville Wednesday.
This funny little tournament is far from perfect, but it is entertaining (which makes sense since it’s pretty much a made for TV event). With half the round-robin done, things are still blurry.
They will get a lot clearer after tonight.

Notes:

• There isn’t much news out of Kitchener. It’s like it’s a holiday or something.
• What’s with famous owners of junior hockey teams? It seems like there is a story like this every year at the M-Cup.
  

But can you make someone's head bleed?

There's an early look at NCAA Football 09 for the XBox. This might help support the argument that a football video game was a lot more fun when the players didn't look so lifelike and the offensive playbook consisted of, like, six plays (toss left, fullback dive, sweep right, short pass, play-action pass, long pass).

Have any of you Canadian gamers ever bought the NCAA game and used the Create-A-School feature to put a CIS team in the game? Me neither.

Hoops: The case for Stace

The fantasy of ESPN's Dan Shulman coming home to call Blue Jays games again is unlikely to ever be more than a fantasy, yet people indulge it anyways.

It's as good a time as any to start pining for another Canadian-born ESPN talent to be brought home, even if the odds against it are just as long. Stacey Dales, the former WNBA star, generally gets good reviews and she obviously knows basketball. She would be a dream hire for CBC Sports, which is committed to carry more Raptors games next season and has long been knocked for not having a strong, female on-camera presence. How does Dales working an ice-level reporter on Hockey Night in Canada on a Saturday and commentating the Raptors on a Sunday afternoon sound?

It's a nice fantasy that you can use to insulate yourself against a creeping reality. The Raptors' TV coverage, post-Chuck Swirsky, might be headed in the same direction as the Blue Jays. Each carrier will use its own talent, some of whom aren't necessarily versed in calling the sport, but who are just expected to pick it up on the fly. (What's the worse that can happen?)

There's a passing reference in Sunday's Toronto Sun that "TSN and CBC may use their own announcers to do Raptors games." The Score, which has a couple deserving folks who have each paid their dues, Tim Micallef and Adnan Virk, might want to follow suit.

That's as many four different play-by-play voices when you include Raptors NBA TV. C'est la vie for the Canadian media. Seriously, though, they should try to get Stacey Dales.

Zen Dayley: Bumbles in the Bronx

There's no such thing as good. There's just varying degrees of bad.

• That Jays-Phillies six-hour marathon seems like another strike against interleague play (although Roy Halladay pitching in relief was kind of novel). Normally, the game would have been called and rescheduled.
• There's no enjoy-it-while-it-lasts about the Yankees' nosedive (four games below .500). Cool Standings has them projected to finish 76-86, last in the AL East, with less than an 8% chance of making the playoffs.
  
• Carlos Delgado still has his sense of humour even though the Mets are sucking. It's either that or Jayson Werth rubbed him the wrong way during their short time together with the Jays.
  
  

  ESPN showed the highlights from the Phillies-Blue Jays game from (Friday) night, when Jayson Werth homered in his first three at-bats, Delgado stood nearby watching. "Only one of us can hit four home runs in a game," he said. As Werth fouled out his fourth time up, Delgado said "sucker" and walked away.

• Some events are so cataclysmic that you're stunned into a delayed reaction. But enough about Reds manager Dusty Baker asking 6-foot-6, 250-lb. slugger to Adam Dunn to bunt in the ninth inning on Saturday.
  
  (Dunn hit a 449-foot game-winning home run after failing to get the bunt down. Dusty Baker then told him, "Go home and tell your mom you're a flop."
  
  Anyone who gets the reference is getting a church built in her/his honour.)
• The Red Sox have called up Bartolo Colón. A large gut feeling (there's no other kind when it's Bartolo) is that he's going to work out for the Bostons.
• It is somewhat sad to have actually noticed that the Jays' Triple-A team, the Syracuse Chiefs, are leading the IL wild-card race. If the Chiefs make the playoffs, this means J.P. Ricciardi is just as adept as John Ferguson Jr. at building a winner in the minors.
• Phillippe Aumont's pitching line yesterday in the Midwest League: 4 2/3 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 SO with two wild pitches as he took the loss for Wisconsin. He's 19, it's going to happen. His ERA remains a tidy 1.07.

That's all for now.

Digging in for a football feast

A little advice for Canadians who need their off-season fix of college football from south of the border: Visit The Quad, the New York Times college sports blog.

The writers are counting down to the start of the season by previewing every major-college team, from No. 120 down to No. 1. Yesterday, they previewed the Rice Owls (No. 104), whose lineup includes offensive lineman Scott Mitchell, a graduate of St. Mark, the big high school football powerhouse in the Ottawa area. (It would be remiss to omit the fact St. Mark had a two-year win streak snapped by Kingston's Frontenac Falcons in the playoffs last season.)

Mitchell did get some field time last season as a true freshman and graduation has created some openings on the Owls offensive line, if anyone cares to know.

There's exactly zero chance that any Canadian newspaper will do this for our university football, which has only 27 teams. The CIS Blog just might, however. Contributions are more than welcome, hint-hint-hint.

New meaning to the term 'mobile defenceman'

For anyone who hasn't seen it, Puck Daddy had a post last week about Kevin Smith's upcoming Zack and Miri Make a Porno, which is due to be released around Halloween -- Seth Rogen's character plays hockey.

Paraphrasing Brodie Bruce in Mallrats, "How could something so big as Seth Rogen portraying a hockey player in a Kevin Smith movie get by me? I must be slipping in my old age!"

There's no word if there's a scene where Rogen's character ignores his girlfriend to play a video game. That's only funny maybe, once, twice in a lifetime.

(Also, on the subject of hockey and movies, The Love Guru trailer is a little lacking in NHL content.)

Zen Dayley: Under Gibby, this team Costes

Jayson Werth hit his third homer and his second one hadn't even landed ...

• Baseball Digest Daily lays out the cases for firing J.P. Ricciardi and for a Vernon Wells-for-Adam Dunn and Ryan Freel trade.
• Cool Standings would have you believe that the Tampa Bay Rays are for real.
• Phillies catcher Chris Coste, who's not exactly a fondly remembered former Ottawa Lynx, got zinged pretty good by Mike Wilner on The FAN 590 last night: "Chris Coste is like 36 years old, played 150 years in the minor leagues before he got his shot in the bigs two years ago with the Phillies and has no idea how to run the bases."
• One book recommendation: It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over: The Baseball Prospectus Pennant Race Book (only $15.30 with a Chapters card). It's practically worth reading for the chapter on the 1967 Impossible Dream Red Sox: Dick Williams comes across like the the anti-John Gibbons.
  
  

  "There was method to Williams's madness. 'He did things to make you angry,' recalled center fielder Reggie Smith, a 1967 rookie who had hit .320 for Williams in Toronto the year before. 'He helped us develop a kind of mental toughness that you need to play the game.' "

  One has to acknowledge that Williams' style wouldn't work in 2008, of course.
• Last but not least, if the Souljah Boy wasn't dead, the baseball team at Lynchburg College definitely killed it. They also cover Sweet Caroline, so someone please send this to Sportsnet's Jamie Campbell, who mentions the Fenway Park every time the Blue Jays play in Boston.
  
  
  
  (We kid, because we love. Clip from Brian Foley's The College Baseball Blog.)

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.

Rangers rock on! Sort of.

A win is a win is a win and all that, but the talk today at the Memorial Cup has to surround the Kitchener Rangers seeming inability to finish teams off.

The Rangers were clearly the better team last night—at times they appeared to be toying with the Olympiques. But, whenever it looked like they were about to blow the game wide open, somehow they would let Gatineau back in. When you couple last night with the recent OHL final where the Rangers blew a 3-0 lead before rebounding to win game 7, you have to wonder. Do the Rangers lack a killer instinct?

What you don’t have to wonder is whether Kitchener is talented. They enter the tournament as the clear favourite. For now, they remain. Despite letting Gatineau back in last night and Belleville back in the Ontario final, the Rangers did manage to emerge victorious in both occasions. In game 7 against the Bulls Kitchener played a near perfect game. Clearly, this is a spectacular junior hockey team.

One area of concern for the Rangers has to be goaltending. Josh Unice was, frankly, terrible last night. Troubling, then, is news that World Junior goaltender Steve Mason is probably not going to be made eligible to play for the Rangers in the tournament. The Record reports that the Columbus Blue Jackets would need to give their OK for Mason to lace ‘em up.

If Kitchener entered the M-Cup as favourites, Gatineau came in as the clear No. 4 choice. Despite fighting back to force the overtime, the Olympiques didn’t do much to demonstrate that they should be taken more seriously. Clearly outplayed through long stretches of the game, last night was more about Kitchener playing down to an opponent than it was Gatineau stepping up.

Today’s game shapes up to be quite interesting. Both Spokane, who looks to be the New Jersey Devils of the CHL, and Belleville will have reason to think that they should advance to the final. Today, then, should give a good indication of which of those teams has the inside track.

It’s a cliché, but every game at the Memorial Cup is massive. Get a win and you pretty much guarantee that you will play, at worse, in the tie-breaker game. Lose and the noose starts to get tighter.

The Record has a bit of a preview on today's game. Here too.

NOTES AND LINKS:

• You can read a couple more game reports from last night here and here.
• The Belleville Intell, seemingly, continues to report on the tournament by talking to people on the phone (God help this industry). Today, we have a Q&A with head coach George Burnett and former Bulls captain Ryan Ready talking about his experience at the 1999 Cup. Hopefully, the Intell will cough up the gas money to send a reporter to Kitchener for today because I might just jump off a bridge if it runs the CP gamer.
• I'd love to provide some Spokane perspective, but the local paper out there is stuck in 2002 mode and wants $7 for the privilege of reading it. I'll pass. I'm sure they are taking things one game at a time and not taking anyone lightly.
  
• Kitchener is a really swell town that's doing a fantastic--FANTASTIC--job of hosting the Memorial Cup. Or so says Al Coates anyway.
  

Your M-Cup link-o-rama for Friday

"When I step on the ice, I forget about it. That's why girls don't play hockey."

That’s Nazem Kadri of the Kitchener Rangers on his seven-stitch boo-boo gracing his upper lip. The Record’s Jeff Hicks gives us the rest of Kedri’s insightful prose here.

Hicks also tells us not to worry – really, the Rangers back-up goalie, who is now their starting goalie, isn’t injured. Maybe.

If you want, you can read a bunch of cliches here, as the Record is going all out on this little hockey tournament Kitchener is hosting. They are even blogging! At least I think that's what that is.

Meanwhile, the Belleville Intell's Paul Svoboda gives us a history lesson on early '80s Spokane hockey culture. Oh, and he's added a travel piece into the mix as well.

And, this is just bizarre. Although the author does reference Avril, so that's something.

If you are interested in some, you know, hockey related news about the Bulls you have to look beyond the Quinte region.

Watch out! The Globe let our boy Mirtle out. Not that he needs our help, but...

As a Bulls fan I like the way the London Freep is thinking.

I've been told that there are some non-Ontario based teams playing in this thing too. Evidently, Quebec is involved, as is Washington state.

Steve Nash is not walking through that door

Some day, he said in the tone of George in Mice and Men, there will be a story about Canada's national basketball team that doesn't have Steve and/or Nash in the lead paragraph.

The Nash question has kind of pushed everything else about Canada Basketball out to the perimeter, which is too bad. You can just hear it now, "Steve Nash isn't playing for the national team, so why should I care?" That serves to cut off any in-depth discussion about where Leo Rautins' program, with Wayne Parrish on the corporate side, is headed in the long run.

Canada needs a lot more than Nash. It needs cash, from the corporate sector, it needs to have a profile outside of hoopheads and it needs depth, especially at the wing positions. Point guard, as the globesports.com story noted, wasn't even a weak spot for Canada at the FIBA Americas -- Jermaine Anderson did a superb job.

No doubt Nash coming aboard would be huge if Canada can get one of the last three spots in the Olympics, but he's 34, he's entering a season with the Phoenix Suns where he might be playing for his last contract (he can get out of his deal after this season, and given what's known about wingnut Suns owner Robert Sarver, who could blame him?). It's understandable if he passes.

In the long run, though, it's not about Nash. There's so much more involved in getting Canada back into the upper echolons of FIBA and everyone involved in the effort deserves a more in-depth treatment.

A little housekeeping: Carleton coach Dave Smart is back as a lead assistant. Ryan Bell and Aaron Doornekamp, along with his older brother, Nate Doornekamp, who plays from Bremerhaven in Germany, are on the 20-man training camp roster. As Mark Wacyk alerted everyone some time ago, incoming Minnesota Golden Gopher freshman guard Devoe Joseph is going to the camp. Has everyone seen the last-second shot he made to win OFSAA?

(Is it any surprise, by the way, that Steve Nash won the online staring contest on YouTube? He beat Jessica Alba's time, but you shouldn't rub it in -- it's not much of a man who trash-talks an expectant mother on the Internet.

Michael Grange has a blog post noting that some that MLSE corporate muckamucks were at Thursday's press conference. That's a good sign.)

Hey, Jenny Potter: Canada will have a challenge

Canada's whole Own The Podium rhetoric for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics is probably taking a gold medal in women's hockey for granted.

The U.S. beat Canada for the gold at the worlds last month in Harbin, China, but chances are, the average fan back home waved that off as one of those anything-can-happens. It should be on everyone's radar screen that USA Hockey is setting up a residency program for the national women's team in Blaine, Minn., starting in the fall. Much of that group will play with the Minnesota Whitecaps.

Canada might be heading toward the same state that the U.S. is for women's hoops. There's an expectation that only an Olympic gold medal will do, but the rest of the world is catching up and the athletes' economic reality works against having a national team which is together all the time. (This is being written without a full awareness of what the Canadian women go through, but it's not exactly unknown they make huge sacrifices to play.)

It's great for the sport, of course. The bottom line is there's no analog to Whitecaps president Jack Brodt, or to use the soccer example, Greg Kerfoot in Vancouver, among the old boys club that runs hockey in Canada. (If there's a patron on par with the businesswomen who run a couple of WNBA teams, they're remarkably shy.) Please keep that in mind in February 2010 if you're wondering why we didn't win in women's hockey while you were second knuckle deep in a big bowl of popcorn. That's not an excuse and it's doubtful Canada would use it as one, but it bears acknowledging.

Meantime, it's Sweden vs. Canada in the World Hockey Championship semi-final this afternoon in Quebec City. Any True North strong and full of self-loathing Canadian is probably tempted to root for the Swedes, who the equivalent of an entire NHL roster -- 21 players -- pass on playing. Henrik Lundqvist could be this tournament's answer to what Martin Gerber was in 2006 and won't the garment-rending be fun to observe.

Looks like the WNBA made it

The time to call for a moratorium on guys smarting off on the WNBA even though they've never seen a game is long past.

The league tips off its 12th season tomorrow, which admit it, is about nine more more than many of us thought it would last when it began play in 1997. There's no great urge on this end to run out and buy a Candace Parker L.A. Sparks jersey. It has to be acknowledged that league seems to have turned a corner.

Fully half of the league's 14 teams now have stand-alone ownership. The Seattle Storm, who were bought by four local businesswomen after the NBA Sonics were spirited to Oklahoma City, are operated by a former project manager turned sports executive, Karen Bryant, while the L.A. team has a pair of businesswomen, Carla Christofferson and Kathy Goodman, in charge after they bought the team outright from the Lakers after connecting as season-ticket holders.

It's not all sunshine and roses. There is a reality that a lot of sports followers, of both genders, will never follow a women's professional sports league. However, why let that point of view take priority? Clearly, the WNBA's found an audience, it's starting to pick up some major advertisers (the widely publicized rookie orientation where players were given lessons on putting on makeup -- hey, what man hasn't needed some tips on grooming? -- could be read as a sop to squeamish ad execs). Recognizing its success doesn't seem too difficult.

What's an 'over' again?

Is it odd that I find this interesting?

Yeah, that's what I thought. Still, bet you never thought you'd see the day when Sri Lanka was acting as a sports mentor to Canada (with all due respect to the many Sri Lankan readers of OOLF).

Erin Mills is really, really mad and thinks it's just not fair.

If you have ever been curious as to why Canada struggles to produce elite soccer players, have a look at this letter.

It's got all the ingredients. A petty minor soccer system over zealously protecting its little fiefdom--player development be dammed, we've got an OSL u-18 title to chase--and an unorganized elite system that is scrambling to play catch-up and, in turn, putting undue pressure on the pyramid below.

(sigh)

Should the Toronto FC academy have had its stuff together earlier and signed these five kids prior to the eve of the season. Of course. However, the TFC academy is in start-up mode and some growing pains should be expected. It should also learn from this and there will be no excuses if the same things happen again moving forward.

The truly alarming thing here is the pathetic protectionism of the Erin Mills Soccer Club. Instead of patting its kids on the back and wishing them luck as they pursue a professional dream, Erin Mills is worried about how their loss will affect its Ontario Cup chances. Could you imagine a minor hockey program being compelled to write a nasty letter after it had lost a top player to the CHL?

There is a reason that this country's three professional soccer teams--TFC, the Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps--are wrestling elite development away from the minor clubs. The pro teams need young Canadians to develop for their long-term success and the minor clubs are, well, more or less incompetent.

THE STARS WERE ALIGNED FOR NBC

Damn the Dallas Stars for screwing up a perfectly good self-righteous rant.

A Detroit Red Wings sweep in the Western Conference final, followed by the Pittsburgh Penguins icing the Philadelphia Flyers in the East final tonight, would have been kismet. It would have meant that NBC and the NHL might have ended up in a messy little row over the sudden absence of any hockey game to show on Saturday and Sunday.

The network, for all we know, might have tried to push the league to start the final on Sunday afternoon. Never mind that NBC takes its hockey commitment so seriously that it cut away from sudden-death overtime in the Senators' clinching win against Buffalo in the East final last season. The league probably would resisted and pushed to start the final on Tuesday, just to make sure the Penguins and Red Wings had their rest, even though they scarcely need it with the way they've been rolling through the first three rounds.

Instead, Dallas won last night (who knows, maybe that goal that was waved off due to goalie interference was just part of the conspiracy). Now we'll never know. Dammit.

STILL BETTER THAN REDDEN ...

For anyone who hasn't seen it, here's Sens goalie Martin Gerber getting having his own defenceman, Phillippe Furrer, score on him the world hockey championship. Worse yet, it was short side! (Clip via the Yahoo! Sports' excellent Puck Daddy.)

The edumacation of the CIS

In the spring of 2006 I had a long and wide-ranging conversation with Wilfrid Laurier University athletic director Peter Baxter. Although the purpose of the interview was to gather information for an article I was writing for the St. Catharines Standard analyzing why Brock University doesn’t field a football team (short answer: money), I took the opportunity to pick Baxter’s brain on several topics of interest.

Baxter is a polarizing figure in the world of CIS sport. A few year’s earlier he was the most public face in a battle between the OUA and Canada West football conferences. The fight was about the rules that govern athletic scholarship for CIS schools. The west wanted to open things up to more closely mimic the U.S. system. Ontario favoured a more conservative approach that would see awards capped and tied into academic performance. In the midst of the battle, the OUA threatened to pull out of the CIS if the west’s calls for a wide-open approach were followed. Famously Baxter said that the OUA could pull out and form a league with different scholarship rules like the Ivy League in the U.S. In what’s become a CIS urban legend, Baxter’s words were widely twisted to suggest that he was actually comparing the academic quality of OUA schools to the Ivy League (something only a Queen’s grad would do with a straight face, right Neate?).

As you likely realize, a compromise was eventual found and the OUA remained part of the CIS football umbrella (which was great for Baxter since his Golden Hawks would go on to win a national championship a couple years after the fight). But, the damage was done. Moving forward, Baxter was to become the voice of all those calling for academic purity in CIS sport.

So naturally our conversation that day turned to that very topic. Surprisingly, considering how hard he fought against the NCAA-fication of the CIS, he suggested that there was something the Americans were doing that CIS schools could learn from. Baxter indicated that he was pushing for CIS schools to provide a full disclosure of graduation rates among student-athletes, something the NCAA had been doing for several years.

At the time, he was facing resistance. Again, it was mostly the west that were against the idea (not surprising: I once had a Canada West head coach tell me, without a hint of shame, that there was nothing wrong with giving an athletic award to a student on academic probation ).

Since then something must have changed. Last fall, CIS executive director Marg McGregor told the G&M’s David Naylor that the CIS was “…in the process of doing an actual study on graduation rates among athletes.” Indeed, it’s listed right there on page 5 of the 2007-08 CIS Strategic Plan.

However, it appears that the study is limited in looking at overall graduation rates among CIS athletes as compared to the general population. Expect a self-congratulatory press release sometime soon. It’s clear that true student-athletes are more engaged to their university experience as compared to that depressed kid from your first year dorm that never bathed and listened to Metallica at full volume every night to 4 a.m. There is little doubt that the Trent fencing team hits the books.

What’s needed is a true sport by sport, school by school breakdown. Something with teeth that has the ability to praise schools that are doing a good job and, more importantly, shame those schools that aren’t. Small sports need to be separated from the big three of basketball, hockey and football. If there are problems they will show up there.

Almost every conversation I’ve ever had with western ADs and coaches on this topic has involved me being told that there wasn’t a problem at his or her school—that they were doing a fine job of protecting the academic integrity of their institution and they didn’t need outside hands (especially eastern ones) prying into their business.

If everything is under control it shouldn’t be a problem then for a public institution to release a little data showing that, don’t ya think? Unless, of course, you’d rather not have to explain to that fullback’s parents why 60 per cent of your former players are working at Wal-Mart.

ZEN DAYLEY: A CASE OF (VANISHING) RUNS

Hey, Roy Halladay only works about every fifth day and that works pretty well ...

• Apparently the Jays' struggles with the bats are just part of a giant league-wide sucking sound.
  
  Bringing this up after a 6-5 game is poor timing, but Baseball Prospectus has provided the context on the league-wide drop in run-scoring across the American League.
  
  (It's topical since Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi mentioned it tonight during his weekly CYB session that this is like the first time since 1974 that the National League has been outscoring the AL. Nate McLouth has more homers than anyone in the AL, for pity's sake.)
  
  Scoring in the AL is down more than half a run per game compared to this point in 2007, when it was also down by about the same amount compared to the same point in '06. All told, it's down 1.26 runs per game from 2006; that's enormous.
  
  That doesn't get the Jays off the hook for not being able to bring home anyone from second with two outs -- just read John Brattain's impassioned analysis for Hardball Times. It explains it in part.
  
  As the Beep notes, teams are trying to get more defence into their lineups, so you see players such as John McDonald end up as a semi-regular. It ends up taking away runs for both teams. The AL also seems to have a lot of pitchers -- Fausto Carmona with the Clevelands, Chien-Ming Wang with the Yankees -- who thrive by 'pitching to contact' and make hitters get themselves out.
• Brattain, by the way, even goes so far to say that Barry Bonds could even use the Jays' numbers hitting with runners in scoring position to build a collusion case.
  
  The Jays signed Kevin Mench and Brad Wilkerson -- nice guys, who can certainly help, but you wouldn't want to mock them by even comparing their 2007 numbers to the 43-year-old Bonds. (Six months later, the gut feeling remains that Bonds won't serve a day in jail -- but those U.S. prosecutors, god bless them, are determined to make something/anything stick.)
  
• Sox & Dawgs has a clip of that Manny Ramirez catch where he high-fives a fan sitting in the first row and then throws back to the infield to double off Kevin Millar.
• There are no master switches, but the Rays' bullpen has an earned-run average of 3.16 -- exactly three runs lower than their major league-worst 6.16 last season.
• Joe Posnanski has a book to sell for only $5.99.
• It figures that a post that would start off talking off about disappearing offence would come on a night when the Syracuse Chiefs scored 16 runs in back-to-back innings.
• It's probably not that amazing that smart people still deny Bill James' work at the same time that it's being used to help explain complex political strategy. A version of sabermetrics might have a hand in determining the next leader of the free world, as this article about a Barack Obama campaign strategist named Jeffrey Berman details:
  
  

  "A glimpse at Berman's, and the campaign’s, detailed, Bill-Jamesesque approach to the game of politics came in a spreadsheet the campaign sent to Bloomberg reporters, it said inadvertently, on Feb. 5. The spreadsheet had estimates of the outcomes and delegate counts in every state; it has called the winner wrong just twice.
  
  "... the heart of Obama’s victory has been technical and tactical — to the frustration and disbelief of (Hillary) Clinton's inner circle." (Emphasis mine.)

  That would make Hillary analogous to Joe Morgan, then. (Link via the very essential ShysterBall.)
• Last but not least, contributors from D-Rays Bay and Drunk Jays Fans have a hand in the AL East Blog, which might become a regular stop. Their Yankees chronicler, get this, is named Hank Sager -- no relation.

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.

Hayashi's hell

You know a sport causing a buzz when an arts weekly lowers itself to write an article on it (because unlike the latest emo hotness, which clearly has huge cultural importance, sports are so…proletarian, a state of being that’s good in theory, but distasteful in practice, to those that publish your local left-wing rag). So it was a bit of a shock to see a mixed martial arts combatant on the cover of Toronto’s Now Magazine this week.

Although there was several errors in the article along with a ridiculous and condescending portrayal of the Six Nations native territory (where the author uses last month’s Rumble on the Rez MMA event to frame his story), it does provide a good overview of the ongoing efforts to legalize the sport in Ontario.

Having previously worked on Six Nations, it’s also a story I have written about a great deal in the past 12-months. I’ve sat ringside at previous events held on Six Nations, covering the event as both a sporting contest and as a news story.

Before continuing, this disclosure: I’m not much of a fan of MMA. But, not for the reasons you might think. I appreciate the ugly beauty of combat sports. However, when it comes to MMA, truthfully, I find it a bit dull. There is too much rolling around on the floor, not enough punching and kicking.

Still, it’s clear that Ontario Athletic Commissioner Ken Hayashi is a bit of a stick in the mud when it comes to MMA. Worse, his inability to properly react to the massive popularity of the sport is doing nothing but drive it underground. The best case scenario is that legally gray fights are taking place on reserves.

The worse? The abandoned train station at the edge of town. Knock twice and ask for Justin. BYOB.

The events on Six Nations are well run. Proper safety protocols are followed and, although likely a bit naïve, event organizer Bill Monture is sincere in his love of the sport and desire to grow it on native territories in North America. But fighters at them are still running the risk of being arrested and it’s hard to imagine their insurance companies being too excited by their participation in Rumble on the Rez III.

Hayashi has insisted that MMA be recognized as an amateur sport prior to it being sanctioned at a professional level. Toronto’s Marco Antico, who is involved with the Ontario Mixed Martial Arts Association and the Canadian Mixed Martial Arts Association, is tirelessly working to establish an amateur infrastructure to satisfy those requirements. Antico is a sharp cookie. He’ll get the job done.

The question is this: will Hayashi live up to his promise? Although he doesn’t have a direct role in approving amateur MMA—a different government body oversees amateur sport—there is a feeling that his influence extends beyond his jurisdiction. Beyond that, based on Hayashi’s barley hidden disdain for the sport, it seems farfetched to think that the UFC is coming to Ontario anytime soon.

CIS CORNER: KING, OF ALL KINGSTON MEDIA

• As you know, friend of the site Tyler King hosts a weekly sports roundtable, Offsides, each Friday on the Queen's student station, CFRC 101.9 FM (cfrc.ca).
  
  There's now a veritable treasure-trove of archived podcasts, if you're into that sort of thing. Hearing The Coach from K-Rock 105.7, Tim Cunningham, say the Leafs organization is "being run worse than it was in the Harold Ballard days," then add a few moments later, "there's not the drunken zaniness, but it's just as inept," is worth the download.
  
  Drunken zaniness ... beauty.
• Speaking of the Golden Gaels, Queen's just announced a new hockey recruit, centre Danny Morgan. Morgan averaged more than a point per game this season for a Junior A team which won the Eastern Canada title and went to the RBC Cup national championship. There will be no debate over whether it's Danny or Dan.
• Carleton's sports website has an update on the former Ravens uber-guard, Osvaldo Jeanty, who extended his personal title streak to six years in a row by helping Noerdlingen wins its division and earn promotion for next season. One wrinkle of European basketball is that it recognizes a comprehensive stat called Effectiveness Rating that weighs a player's averages and his shooting percentages (some basketball-geek websites such as 82games.com have something similar, but the NBA doesn't seem to have officially adopted it yet). Jeanty's ER was a solid 14.0, which again, is a by-product of coach Dave Smart's system.
  
  Here's hoping that a couple other Ottawa ballers, such as fellow Ravens guard Ryan Bell, gurad Sean Peter from the Gee-Gees and Kadie Riverin, who had a standout career with the women's team at Rice, get a chance to play overseas come fall.
• Former Queen's soccer all-Canadian Stacy Malloch has been hired as Carleton's new sports information officer. We wish her well.

(While we're on a hometown theme, Halifax Herald reporter Kristen Lipscombe, who's covering the world hockey championship, is a Kingstonian.)

Girls just wanna retire

Did the Elite Female Athletes of the World Society meet recently and decide that they had enough?

First this yesterday. Then this today.

If Tiger and Federer retired on consecutive days there would probably be weeping in the streets. These two stories will likely be forgotten by tomorrow.

Sad, that.

TFC notebook

I made my weekly appearance on Champions Soccer Radio Network’s Around the League in 90 minutes today. The program should be available for download now.

ATL90 is a worthwhile listen if you are a fan of MLS, but if your interest starts and stops at TFC then you can catch my hit in the second to last segment.

Since TFC didn’t play last week there wasn’t much to talk about. It will be interesting to see how TFC handles the rust this Saturday after a 15-day layoff. They won’t have much time to recover, as the Reds will play five games in 15 days starting this weekend.

This weekend sees the first-place Columbus Crew come to town. Columbus defeated Toronto 2-0 to start the season, but that was before Toronto added a couple key players in Amado Guevara and Laurent Robert. Guevara and Robert have been the engine that has driven TFC lately. Although the Reds are still struggling to score, they have been dangerous on the set-pieces, something they struggled with last season with holding midfielder Carl Robinson and defender Jim Brennan handling most of the duties.

With a 70 per cent chance of rain, it could be an ugly game. Toronto has been bunking up the midfield in recent games by playing a 4-5-1 and I suspect they will put a similar line-up out this week.

One area to look for change might be up front where fan favourite Danny Dichio has struggled early. With only one goal in five starts it might be time to put the temperamental Jeff Cunningham back in the starting XI.

The game is at 4 p.m. and can be seen on CBC or at CBCSports.ca. U-Sector and North End Elite will be doing their typical march to the stadium, leaving from the corner of King and Dufferin at 3:15 p.m. The U-Sector pre-game warm-up starts at 1 p.m. at the Dufferin Gate (where I’ll be there doing “research” for Out Of Left Field—I’m dedicated that way). The NEE pre-game festivities while be at the Rhino. The Red Patch Boys tailgate.

In other TFC news, former Canadian international Paul Peschisolido is training with TFC. Peschisolido is currently out of contract and his appearance at BMO has fueled speculation that he may come home to finish his career. It’s likely wishful thinking. Although it would be wonderful to have a Toronto-boy like Peschisolido come home, the reality is that he is 37-years old and has deep family roots in England (He’s married to Karren Brady, the Managing Director of Birmingham City). TFC would also have to do some juggling of its roster to add Peschisolido. A player would need to be moved to the development roster, or cut. But, don’t let his age fool you. Peschisolido still has the pace of a man half his age and is only 12-months removed from scoring the goal that sent Derby to the EPL. As a super-sub, Peschisolido would add value to TFC.

Judas to the hall?

File this one under the ‘not sure what to think’ department. Former world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis has been named to the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame.

He’ll be joined by the 1996 Olympic champion 4x100-metre relay team, Steve Yzerman swimmer Nancy Garapick, a triple Olympic medallist, short-track speedskater Marc Gagnon, also a multiple Olympic medallist and former Jays GM Pat Gillick.

Lewis, of course, won gold for Canada as a super heavyweight in Seoul.

Then he turned his back on this country, choosing to fight under the Union Jack as a professional. At the time of his decision he said that he was moving back to England because he felt that he would not be properly supported in Canada. As is often the case, he received a near free pass from the Canadian sports media. Just like they did with soccer players Owen Hargreaves and Jonathan de Guzman years later, most Canadian sports writers were tripping over each other in an effort to defend the decision, actually.

It was if we Canadians should be grateful that Lewis lowered himself to represent this country at all. After all, great athletes that don’t chase rubber disks on ice must come from other places--we should be happy with the glory by association that Lewis would provide.

Indeed, whenever a Lewis fight was reported on here he became “the former Canadian Olympian now fighting for England.” And although Lewis’ thesis was likely correct—Canada is horrendous at supporting its non-hockey athletes—there was always a tinge of loss in those reports. How much he could have done for the sport in Canada had he chose to fight for this country will never be known. But, it was a lot, likely.

Talent doesn’t know geography. There is little doubt that Lewis would have achieved the same if he had worn the Maple Leaf instead of the Union Jack. Instead, he chose an easier path and as much as I can respect his talent I can’t respect that choice.

Where I will cut him some slack is in this: Lewis did spend the first 11 years of his life in London. His British roots were unquestioned. And, unlike Hargreaves and de Guzman he was always up front about his decision and why it was made (both soccer players were evasive and, in Hargreaves’ case, outright lied in interviews just prior to making the jump. Additionally neither has manned up nor spoke about their choice in an honest way since).

So, should Lewis be in the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame? Maybe, but only if you feel that his accomplishments in Korea are enough to get him there. I’m sure there is a hall of fame in England that can recognize his pro career.

Related: The G&M's Stephen Brunt has a different take.

Where have all the good guys gone? Houston, apparently.