JAYS, LEAFS TEAMING UP? AND WE'RE NOT DONE WITH STUPID JOE

Some quick Friday afternoon notes, during a break from sending sympathy cards to the special Sabres fans in our lives.

• I don't ask readers for much, but I rather liked my panegyric to those plucky Buffalo Sabres fans. Please check it out. My ego is fragile.
  
• It only took about 48 hours for someone in the MSM to clue in that Stupid Joe's son has a cocaine conviction. The Sun's Steve Simmons makes a passing reference to it, but the crux of his column is the feedback from Stupid Joe's former teammates: Ex-Argos linebacker Mike Blum said, "Joe was a phoney back then and he's a phoney now ... Nobody really wanted him around, you know. Nobody, except a few of us, could stand the guy."
  
• Stupid Joe's been such a lightning rod this week that he even sparked a blog brawl over at Rogers Sportsnet. Except it really wasn't a brawl, because sadly for all us voyeurs, cooler heads prevailed.
  
  Talking head Mike Toth pulled a bit of Stupid Joe by going all high-dudgeon on colleague Andy Juniper for calling Theismann, among other things, an affront "to anyone who has even taken a broadcasting course at the local community college."
  
  After Toth -- it says here -- big-timed his colleague, Juniper managed to fire back without making it personal, confining his rebuttal to Stupid Joe: "... as a commentator, he’s but another erstwhile jock coasting on the laurels of his glory days; as a commentator, he stinks."
  
• Be afraid, be very afraid, Blue Jays fans. Team owner Ted Rogers and MLSE head honcho Larry Tanenbaum are mulling a partnership between the franchises, writes Dave Perkins in today's Toronto Star. It's bad enough the Leafs' bad karma has already infested the Raptors; fans don't need it screwing up the only big-league sport in town where the local team is actually trying to win.
  
• The Star's Damien Cox doesn't believe Bryan McCabe is worth $5.5 million. However, gotta call him on his blog post: Dwayne Roloson "might be the unlikeliest goaltender ever to lead his team to the Cup"? Way back in 1945, rookie Frank (Ulcers) McCool led the Leafs to the Cup -- and after the following season, disappeared from the NHL for good.
  
  And what about a rookie Ken Dryden backstopping the 1971 Canadiens with only six regular-season games of NHL experience to his name? Or Patrick Roy as a 20-year-old rookie with the '86 Habs? We're talking about two Hall of Famers, but at the time, no one knew that with any certainty. Again, the "Toronto media" gets it wrong with Roloson.
  
• This Stanley Cup final has a good chance to score the lowest prime-time ratings in U.S. TV history, notes Chris Zelkovich in the Star. Lowest ratings ever? Sounds like a challenge for Gary Bettman!
  
• Don't know if this was mentioned much but this will be the first Cup final between former World Hockey Association franchises. Salon's King Kaufman picked up on this, and also dropped a trenchant insight:
  
  

  "Edmonton-Carolina is exactly the kind of all-small-market final that could never have happened if the NHL hadn't interrupted play for a year with alockout that was necessary to get the league's financial house in order and restore competitive balance. Just look at the last Stanley Cup Finals before the stoppage: Tampa Bay vs. Calgary. Oh. Hmm. Wait a minute.
  

• We haven't had a Neate's Book Club update since the new blog started. I'm stll on pace for 50 books by the end of '06. Right now I'm started on No. 23: The Brontë Project by Jennifer Vandever. Yes, yes, it's chick-lit, but when you don't want to spend your whole paycheque at Chapters and you still haven't got around to getting a library card, you take what you can get -- mostly from the bin of discarded review copies that are sent to my office.
  
  The Brontë Project spoofs academia, which resonates with yours truly, who was a total fish-out-of-water as an English major at Queen's University a lifetime ago (i.e., 2000). I'm reminded of how much in awe I was of the women and uh, non-traditional males who studied English lit (and froze out anyone who didn't toe their line, it must be said).
  
  They were so much more well-adjusted. It's a safe bet none of them have ever stood in front of a TV cursing Ted Lilly's name.

That's all for now. Have an average weekend.