TIE DOMI, TRYING TO BE BE INCONSPICUOUS

This is strange: During the TV recaps of Sunday's Raptors game, clips were shown of Leafs enforcer emeritus Tie Domi and his new squeeze, auto parts heiress and member of Parliament Belinda Stronach -- Belomi, as they've been tagged -- sitting courtside at the Air Canada Centre.

During a phone conversation later, this was mentioned to a buddy who was at the game. He said, "That's funny, they never showed them on the video screen."

At the Lakers game a month ago, Leafs defencemen Carlo Colaiocovo and Tomas Kaberle were sitting courtside. Colaiocovo and Kaberle -- it's hard to resist calling them the concussion cousins -- were shown on the scoreboard video screen and also received an introduction by the P.A. announcer. There were cheers, but the general reaction was "whatever," since most of the sold-out crowd had come out to watch a basketball game and weren't overly interested in MLSE's efforts to create synergy.

In Domi's case, there is his somewhat bitter departure from the Leafs, his messy divorce proceeding and the fact his near-farcical TSN gig has him working for a competitor of Rogers Communications, which is partners with MLSE. Maybe he requested that attention not be called to him, although sitting at courtside with the heiress to a billion-dollar fortune is not exactly a way to remain inconspicuous. Sunday Raptors crowds tend to be tame compared to Friday nights, so it's not like he would have been booed or anything. Anyway, it's a nice little conspiracy theory.

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