Capturing the spirit of the thing...

The urban legend going around Kingston is that Frontenacs owner Doug Springer was heard saying the other day, "The Voyageurs must have had a really terrible season. Is that why the league is punishing by making them play all these extra games?"

Forgive Springer for that one; a Kingston junior hockey team being one win away from the league championship series is just such an alien concept to him. (The Ontario Junior Hockey League's Voyageurs are up 3-1 in the league semi-final with Huntsville.)

Relax, that is just a way to introduce the video tribute that MisterDB of Fronts Talk put together for Kinger.



It is beyond the pale to divine the intent of headline writers, but there are two ways to take the headline in the Kingston Whig-Standard's advancer, "Owner ensures Vees can have shot at glory." One is that it's simply capturing the spirit of the thing; for this site's purposes, it can be read as a thinly veiled shot at the owner of the city's other junior hockey team, the one which is No. 2 in its market.

Let it be said Doug Springer also ensures the Frontenacs can have a shot at glory. There's some glory in being in the running for the No. 1 or No. 2 overall draft choice, right?

Zen Dayley: Home plate, for the hardcore

Note the time and place: Rogers Communications saying it will do something for baseball fans. (Why the cynicism?)

"If a deal can be reached, Rogers Media would introduce the Canadian version of MLB Network, which launched last week in the United States to enthusiastic reviews.

"Rogers would take programming from MLB Network, add Canadian content, and make the channel, titled Baseball TV, available to distributors."
– William Houston, globesports.com

The Tao of Stieb notes that a Canadian spin-off would be "licenced to air 10% live baseball games, which would work out to about five live games per week." In the States, MLB Network is only carrying about 26 live games this season.

That would be a huge bonus, barring the possibility of a new Rogers Media channel being a pawn in another spitting match between media conglomerates, like with TSN2.

Baseball fans are underserved by the traditional media outlets in Canada. MLB Network has had some mixed reviews among the hardcore Seamheads. Again, one would need to watch MLB Network in order to comment upon it efficacy. Reairing vintage games and Ken Burns' Baseball documentary and having ex-jocks and talking heads banter in a some studio is pretty thin gruel. They hired Bob Costas, instead of someone who's got something relevant to say about baseball in this century.

The alternatives, like an in-depth look at the park factors of the New York Mets' stadium, are so much better. At this point, MLB Trade Rumours probably rates its own show.

Can't there be a baseball show for the hardcore? Why subject people to a first-ballot inductee into the Smug Hall of Fame stuck in his own nostalgia trip instead of offering something new?

The bottom line is this is positive news, and thanks again to the The Tao for posting on this when it was not on many people's radars. Anyone who got the image of Jamie Campbell and Sam Cosentino going through their 1983 O-Pee-Chee cards -- look, Ryne Sandberg was listed as a third baseman! -- when they heard about Canadian content is forgiven. This is a positive.

Right side of history, wrong side of the scoreboard

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers' Barack Obama tribute on Saturday seems to have gone mostly uncommented upon.

Early in the game, which Edmonton won 29-21 to end the Blue Bombers' season, Romby Bryant took advantage of a busted coverage (all together now: Maciocia!) for a 78-yard touchdown.

In the end zone, several Blue Bombers lifted their jerseys to reveal T-shirts bearing the president-elect's name. It was no big deal. The Blue Bombers' players (and cheerleaders) have a penchant for cheeky public displays, and if they want to have some fun, by God, we're happy for them. Sportsnet Connected did not even show the celebration during its recap, since it wasn't part of the larger narrative of Edmonton winning the actual game.

It is quite a contrast between the flak NFL wide receivers Chad Ocho Cinco and Brandon Marshall have taken of late.

(Update: Dave Zirin has columns on this in New York Daily News and Washington Post, for anyone who is interested. It is not so much forcing politics on people, as acknowledging there are a politics in sport.)

Ocho Cinco admitted he had Obama banners stashed in either end zone during a recent game. That was dodgy, considering that his team is sucking out loud, but at the end of the day, he is an entertainer. Still, people called him an idiot.

Marshall had the idea that on Thursday, in the first NFL game since the election, he would hold up a black-and-white glove symbolizing unity if he scored a touchdown. When he did score, it came in the final 90 seconds of the game to put his team up by four points. His teammates, not wanting to get a 15-yard penalty stopped him. The chattering class whomped Marshall but good for even considering the gesture.

Dave Zirin noted, "Someone should tell the suits and ESPN: Some things are actually more important than sports."

Who knows what is the biggest reason why the reaction is apparently muted in Canada. Football is not connected to the power structure the way it is in the States. Hockey is the game that the business and political elites have sunk their teeth into in this country. We also like to believe we are a more liberal nation and above all else, are pretty live-and-let-live to the point of lameness.
There also seems to be a greater consciousness that in other countries, it is no big deal when sports figures are politically active.

Unfortunately for the Blue Bombers, they lost, but fortunately for them, their got their tribute in before shows of Obamania at sports events might have become dated. Sadly, its best-before might have passed during the first half of the Yates Cup on Saturday, when a VBWS (Very Blond Western Student) appeared on camera holding a sign that read, "Obama + UWO: Yes We Can!"

Granted, if any football team epitomizes the spirit of the 44th President's victory, it would be the Western Mustangs, who have the largest football budget in their conference, have been winning championships for decades and and represent a preppy party school where as one student once put it, "I saw enough Hollister and American Eagle (on campus) that my brain was starting to hurt."

Granted, Obama's triumph is far less relatable for CFL players. There is no way they could identify with "the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on" as pro athletes who sweat and bleed for less than $100,000 a year and grew up as black men in the United States of America.

No, it is more relatable for some 20-year-old who was there for the long lines outside The Ceeps, the time the Sex and The City movie was sold out and the housemates whose feet are too wide to wear a pair of Manolos. Point being, you should be glad the Bombers did their thing when they did.

Related:
The Blue Bombers Support Barack Obama (TotalProSports.com, which got the pics)
No Obamamania for Brandon Marshall (Dave Zirin, The Nation)
Did Tiger Woods pave Barack Obama's path? Are you joking? (New York Daily News)
Missing the Campaign? Try the Politics of Sports (Washington Post)

Fronts: Out shooting the Bull, while Belleville wins 7-0 while getting outshot

Alternate title: "Who h'own da Fronts? Don't remind me."

It's said that you learn to say hello when you should be saying goodbye. In the spirit of that, one should welcome this new side that Frontenacs GM-for-life Larry Mavety has shown this week.

Mr. Mavety -- Royal Mavesty jokes are out after a 7-0 loss in Belleville tonight -- has turned storyteller. Seriously, he's been more open and accommodating than the low slot in front of the Fronts' net during a penalty kill. In the past few days, Mavety has regaled us with stories of his work as an extra in Slap Shot. He told The Canadian Press about his days with the Toronto Toros in the crazy, shaggy days of the World Hockey Association.

Mav even showed his flair for light comedy during the leadup to tonight's game. He joked ith the Bellevegan broadsheet about whether the game could be postponed since the Bulls scored a pile goals during their first two Wednesday night home fixtures. Only one of those games was against the Frontenacs, making the feat even more impressive.

Ours is not to question why. It is not all that odd why he would be doing so much reminiscing, seeing as some say his style of hockey dates from the period when the the Little River Band last had songs on the charts.

Enjoy it for what it is, OK? It is refreshing to see Mavety is not the crusty, cards-close-to-his-chest hockey guy who keeps it "in the room," as they say. Please don't jump to the conclusion, as as Jerry did on Seinfeld when his dentist converted to Judiasm, that Fronts owner Doug Springer might be keeping Mavety on "for the jokes."

No one wants to be branded as a rabid anti-Mavite. It's all on the up-and-up. It would take a real rat bastard to twist his line bout his WHA days – "You knew by crowds and everything else the Leafs were the team of choice, which is rightly so anyway" – and say that on a Kingston-sized scale, it's pretty much the situation these days with the Queen's Golden Gaels football team vis-à-vis the Frontenacs.

One should hope it doesn't get into Grampa Simpson country, this spinning of stories that don't go anywhere, not unlike like the Frontenacs power play. Now, someone please give Mavety five bees for a quarter, so he can call another GM and swing a trade for a forward who is not allergic to going in the corners. The only talk of "bangers" tonight was due to the fact a British pub is a major sponsor of the Fronts radio broadcasts.

The Fronts outshot them, you say? Go tell it to the Bulls out back who are celebrating getting an easy two points on a night despite missing their No. 1 defenceman, P.K. Subban.

Don't get mad. We're just trying to capture the spirit of the thing.

Related:
Don’t bother asking Mavety where he appears in Slap Shot (Oshawa Express)

CIS Corner; GGs star finding role with U20 team

Notes on our teams of interest in The 613 ... apparently there is a big football game going on in K-Town on Saturday, but there's so much more...

Gee-Gees: It would be remiss not to link to the one Ottawa media outlet which has caught up with Gee-Gees defender Amanda Robinson, who's out in Vancouver with the U20 women's team.

There's so many good elements to this story. Ms. Robinson, U20/Vancouver Whitecaps coach Bob Birarda and Steve Johnson from the Gee-Gees were very engaging (and patient with the soccer neophyte).

Birarda seemed very high on Robinson's personal qualities and ability to help "create a culture which is positive," which Canada will need when it heads down to Chile for the U20 Women's World Cup in November. They just won a 4 Nations tourney down there, while they won their CONCACAF qualitying tournament in the summer.

Time is tight today, but there will be some effort to post the quotes from all three. A huge glove tap goes to Richard Scott and Anne Pellerud from Soccer Canada, plus uOttawa SID Dan Carle, for helping arrange the interviews.

Ravens: Carleton hung in with a national power, Lakehead, for two periods on Friday -- and that was all they got to play.

There was a major storm system moving through northwestern Ontario, meaning a bank of lights were knocked out in the arena. It was 2-2 after two, and Alex Archibald had stopped 28-of-30 for the Ravens when the game had to be called. Lakehead was coming on and it's a game in September, but still, taking an early two-goal lead in one of the toughest places to play in the OUA should turn a few heads.

Mike Testa and Francis Walker scored for Carleton.

They will play, in effect, four periods of hockey on Saturday.

(How long until this blog refers to Alex Archibald as Adam Archibald, the former McMaster quarterback who was from Kingston?)

Golden Gaels: Sporting Madness has word of a bit of a bombshell.

Teddi Firmi, who's been a starting point guard on the women's basketball team over the past few seasons, has left to play for the rugby team. It's Bucholtz's story, so check back with him later. (Tyler, at this point, would ask if anyone would want to bet money that Carleton's going to finish ahead of Queen's in women's basketball, even though it's unknown how much he's seen either team play.)


Queen's hockey might have picked up a defenceman for next season. Stephane Chabot, as you probably heard, was cut by the Frontenacs and signed on with the Kingston Voyageurs. He is enrolled at Queen's. That's not indicative of anything other than that if he wants to play in the CIS eventually, at least he'll have got to know the campus and the city.

Small world: Felicidade Pereira, who got the goal in the women's soccer Gaels' 1-0 win over Carleton the other night, is from Simcoe, one of my old stamping grounds. (No word if she's related to Rick Pereira, a long-time pillar of the Simcoe Thunder's back four and Norfolk County's soccer community.

Yes, stamping ground. Look it up.