R.I.P., CORY LIDLE, CROUCHING TIGERS AND OTHER VAGUELY THURSDAY ITEMS

If the Leafs fans in your life look at all jittery or distracted, well, Wade Belak is back on the blue line tonight. That should explain everything.

• Neil Acharya's call of Craig Monroe for ALCS MVP looked rather prescient last night. The Detroit left-fielder had two RBI to help the Tigers beat Oakland 8-5 and go up two games to none in the American League Championship Series. No team has ever lost the ALCS after winning the first two games on the road.
• Not too shabby for my Swedes in Euro 2008 qualifying: They spotted Iceland first goal yesterday, got it back right away courtesy of a Kim Källström strike and went ahead for good on Christian Wilhelmsson's goal around the 60th minute, prevailing 2-1 and remaining unbeaten in qualifying. Hmmmmm. Can you get teased for cheering for a national side that has a guy named Kim?
• Something of note for university sports fans in the nation's capital: the Ottawa Gee-Gees and Carleton Ravens have called a joint press conference for this morning at Scotiabank Place.
  
  You'd assume it has something to do with the CIS Final 10 men's basketball championship, which is to be held here from 2008 through '10. However, remember, Carleton will be a full-fledged CIS hockey team against in 2007-08. Most likely it has something to do with hoops.
  
  (UPDATE: Indeed it does... Carleton and the Ottawa Gee-Gees men's b-ball teams will play at Scotiabank Place on Jan. 23. Top ticket: $25. Get the lame joke out of the way: "Twenty-five dollars to watch Canadian college basketball? Does that count as a charitable donation?" Regular readers know this space gives pub to CIS sports, so save the hate mail.
  
  Should Dave Smart's Ravens win a fifth straight national title this winter, then it will be all but assured return trips for the next three seasons. That might spark some controversy... did the Victoria Vikes earn their trip to nationals each season when they won seven titles in a row during the 1980s?
• It's a damn shame that Cory Lidle, the Yankees pitcher and former Blue Jay, is leaving behind family and friends after dying in a plane crash in New York City yesterday. Richard Griffin has a particularly good column in today's Toronto Star that probably captures what Lidle went through as a former scab player who worked his butt off to have a major-league career, despite never being accepted by many players because of the choice he was forced to make back in the spring of 1995. There should be no glory for scab labourers, but at the same time, understand that many of the minor leaguers who did so were making peanuts and had the screws turned on them by some of the more hawkish major-league organizations at the time.
  
  That's not to say people can't make jokes. One of the first comments on Deadspin was (and Lidle's death wasn't even confirmed), "The plane should have been carrying A-Rod... That way it wouldn't have hit anything."

Back with more later, including the CIS Week 7 football picks. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.