Mornings with Mr. Canoehead...

Like raisins off an Oldsmobile, people ...

Alex Rodriguez dating actress Kate Hudson. The Almost Famous actress is just like the Yankees: She hasn't been part of a winner since 2000.

TSN being small-town cheap by hyping TSN2's coverage of the Blue Jays-Red Sox series, and then turning on the TV at 7 p.m. to find out it was the NESN broadcast, the same as a Rogers Cable customer gets when you have to watch a game on the Extra Innings feed.

Quoth The Tao of Stieb: "All of this scrapping over carriage on the Rogers cable system, and the CTVgm folks can't even see to it that a Canadian crew is employed to broadcast the game? How was this different than Rogers just giving the free MLB Extra Innings Preview? (Our guess is that TSN2 didn't have an HD production truck at its disposal, given TSN's hockey duties, so they decided to take the easier simulcasting route.)

"... We were actually happy to watch the NESN broadcast, which probably has the best production quality of any local MLB broadcast. However, spending close to three hours listening to Dennis Eckersley's ridiculous meanderings just about drove us batty. Really, can we have another five minute discussion of 'sneaky cheese?' " Not to make a mountain out of a molehill, but what really pointed out how shortsighted the decision was that the Red Sox had two Canadians (Jason Bay in left field and George Kottaras, who is Tim Wakefield's personal catcher). People might have appreciated that being pointed out, but it didn't matter to American announcers.

Trying to figure out the whereabouts of Brian Campbell on the Detroit Red Wings' overtime goal in the Stanley Cup playoffs last night. It's all part of the great plan, the Red Wings making good on any number of gutless "Detroit in six" form picks.

Alex Rios getting thrown out stealing last night with a knuckleball pitcher on the mound.

NBC's announced fall lineup not including Friday Night Lights, which won't air on the network until summer 2010. Summer is not for football, unless it's three downs.

Jays-Sox: They keep underestimatin' ya

Getting a game-face on for a cataclysmic Blue Jays-Red Sox series means amplifying slights real or imagined.

Well, then: It did not escape notice that the Boston Globe's 5 Things To Know About The Blue Jays, a column and a video discussion all neglected to mention Mar-co Scu-ta-ro. Scutaro is only leading the majors in runs scored and bases on balls, has reached base at a .415 clip from the leadoff spot and is keeping everything neat and tidy over at shortstop, where he has started all 41 games.

Scutaro has been a revelation. The Baseball Prospectus 2009 called him a "splendid fielder," adding, "The Jays could do worse" for an everyday shortstop (and have they ever since Tony Fernandez left for the second time after the 1993 World Series). He has been their most valuable fielding out of the "back seven" by FanGraphs' reckoning. How do you ignore that?



(OK, so, the Orioles' Adam Jones has scored one less run than Scutaro while playing in nine fewer games. Runs scored are a partially a function of what the other hitters, like Aaron Hill and Adam Lind, are doing. Fielding-wise, Jays shortstops are helped a little by always getting a true hope from Rogers Centre's turf, but that's neither here nor there).

One reason to be optimistic about the Jays being able to keep this up, albeit with some tapering-off since they're not going to go 107-55, is their fielding. This is just a layperson's understanding, it probably needs to be rigorously tested, but out of hitting, pitching and fielding, the latter probably varies the least according to the strength of the opponent. The Jays have made only 14 errors in 41 games, the fewest in the American League. There is bound to be some evenout, but that should help keep them somewhat afloat. Of course, fielding only buttresses pitching so far.

Anyway, as for the Showdown in Beantown, so-called, it's best to play it light and breezy. It's only May 19 and neither team is throwing its Nos. 1 and 2 starters. The bad man with the knuckleball, Tim Wakefield, who's always tough to predict. Their starters for Wednesday and Thursday, Brad Penny and left-hander Jon Lester, both have ERAs north of 6.50, which should not continue much longer. A result similar to the Yankees series last week is probably to be expected.

The arrival of interleague play, to be honest, might be as much of a concern, since the Jays are only 62-64 in those contests dating back to 2002, when J.P. Ricciardi became GM.

(For anyone wondering, the deepest the Jays have ever gone into a season with only 14 losses was 1984, when they started 31-14.)

On a whinge and a prayer, we have a deal

From about the about-friggin'-time department, it looks like the Rogers/TSN2 impasse will end, just in time for next week's Blue Jays-Red Sox series:

"A person familiar with the discussions told fadoo that an announcement of the agreement should be expected this weekend, likely on Sunday. No specifics of the deal were revealed, however it is believed that, as a result of the agreement, Rogers Cable customers with the VIP package will begin receiving TSN2 almost immediately and automatically." — fadoo.ca

This might be more about straight business than satisfying ball fans. Cable companies seem to be more aggressive about retention in the spring, when people might be more likely to consider cancelling or reducing their package since the warm months are coming and they're anticipating watching less TV. The public relations fallout, as others such as Chris Zelkovich have noted, was too much to risk at this time of year. At the same time, ball fans can certainly view this is a win.

Most of you are familiar with the ins and outs of this situation, which probably had the most adverse affect on Toronto Raptors and NBA fans.

Bell GlobeMedia launched TSN2 in late August knowing it had more hours' worth of sports properties than it could fit on to one channel. Rogers dug in its heels, since Rogers Sportsnet is struggling against its competitor's institutionalized superiority (TSN gets more money per cable subscriber). It dragged on through the entire NBA and NHL regular season (Ottawa Senators fans missed out on a game in December) and first couple rounds of those leagues' post-seasons.

Anyway, this is a satisfactory piece of news. Score one for TSN for throwing some high heat and playing up that next week's Jays-Bosox games were available "only on TSN2." The timing of it all, during the week before the May long weekend, was brilliant.

Presumably, Rogers didn't sell off those games thinking this would happen. It has typically given up games in the third week of may in order to clear prime time for major junior hockey's Memorial Cup. Talk about not seeing the forest for the trees, eh.

Related:
Rogers/TSN2 reach an agreement (fadoo.ca; via Sporting Madness)

Helping baseball fans tune in to the magic ... of radio

Make what you will of a press release hyping TSN2's coverage of next week's Blue Jays-Red Sox series at Fenway Park. So much for that season-long spitting contest between Bell GlobeMedia and Rogers Communications, Inc., being resolved by next week, eh?

It is insanity that the two telecom giants are shafting Jays fans who are Rogers customers. It is still weird that this is persisting, especially when Rogers is also the main culprit for the MLB Network being unable to get carriage in Canada. It runs counter to Sportsnet trying to be the baseball network (at this writing, their main story is about former Jay A.J. Burnett's return to Toronto, while TSN and The Score's page-topper is the Stanley Cup playoffs.)

Granted, this should not matter so much. Baseball is sometimes best imagined, which can be facilitated with the radio and live scoring, especially since you can keep the lightweight commentary of the TV announcers intruding on your bliss.

However, Shaw Cable in western Canada managed to get something worked out last fall when TSN bumped a Sunday afternoon Edmonton Eskimos-Montreal Alouettes game to its companion channel. TSN and CBC Sports traded off NHL playoff coverage to better serve hockey fans. (Game 1 of the Anaheim-Detroit series back on May 1 was originally slotted for TSN2, but CBC aired the game opposite a Carolina-Boston matchup on TSN. Of course, if both series go to a Game 7 on Thursday, there will be a conflict.)

Point being, the powers-that-be did right by hockey and football watchers. Baseball deserves similar consideration. It as at least somewhat understandable from a dollars-and-cents point of view when this was inflicted on Toronto Raptors fans during the NBA regular season. Nationwide viewership for the Raptors has always been lukewarm (it's a poor metric for judging the Raptors' following, but try telling it to people who believe ratings are everything).

TSN will presumably have hockey commitments on at least one of those nights, depending on the schedule for the NHL's semi-final series. Otherwise, they're airing the NBA. Sportsnet will be showing the Memorial Cup. Its commitment to major junior hockey is admirable. It just doesn't make sense when it comes to how many people are actually watching the games.

Previous:
TSN pulls power play with Rogers Jays?

Snark break...

The stuff you're not letting bother you today ...

The gut feeling Henrik and Daniel Sedin's playoff underperformance (prior to Monday night's barnburner in Chicago) won't be so big a factor if they sign with the Leafs. They'd have to make it to May first, first.

TSN putting out a second press release hyping TSN2's coverage of next week's Red Sox-Blue Jays series.

(The rumour du jour: The Leafs, drafting No. 7 and the Lightning, picking No. 2, are going to flip picks and Toronto takes Ryan Malone's salary-cap hit.)

Talk about the NFL playing the Super Bowl in London, England. Everything there is already unaffordable as it is. Besides, you don't take your sport to new markets by playing games there, you do it by having players from those countries, such as Yao Ming or Dirk Nowitzki in the NBA or Ichiro in baseball. The NFL is comical when it comes to its Marshall Plan-era efforts to understand America's backwards neighbours throughout the world.

The ads Rogers Sportsnet ran last week trumpeting that the Blue Jays finished April first in the American League in "runs scored, hits and RBI." The first fifth of their season has been awesome, but two of those categories are essentially the same thing and what's slightly less irrelevant, hits or higher batting average? (The Jays are still first in that, at a robust .294.)

Sportsnet's been playing up tonight's pitching matchup between new Yankee A.J. Burnett and his "mentor," Roy Halladay. Ironically, Burnett is actually the oldest of the two.

The Windsor play-by-play announcer who shouted "Mission accomplished!" after the Spitfires won the OHL title on Taylor Hall's overtime goal without betraying the proper hint of irony (around the 4:15 mark).



(Seriously, how nails is Taylor Hall, the Kingston boy? The Kingston minor hockey product leading the Spits to a Memorial Cup berth, Mike Murphy being named the league's best goalie and the Kingston Kimco Voyageurs finishing fourth in all of Canada was more than enough to salvage the Limestone City's collective pride, junior hockey-wise.)

This post is worth nothing, but this is worth noting

• The Raptors' Andrea Bargnani only made the second team for the NBA No-Defense squad, thank you very much.
• The Score is having a nationwide search for Canada's finest undiscovered sports broadcaster. They would do this six weeks before Kinger leaves the country.

Hoserdome 2009: Setting up the second round

And it was all right...

• Sidney Crosby vs. Alex Ovechkin in a playoff series — you know you wanted to see that happen, although the league would have liked it to come one round later. The irony is Gary Bettman's hope was torpedoed by his darlings, the New Jersey Devils, losing to the lowest-seeded survivor, Carolina.
  
• The Carolina-Boston series starting on Friday is a bone of contention. Time was, teams who went the distance in the first round only got one night off before having to start the next series. The Bruins have had plenty of rest, but Carolina should have as little chance to catch its breath as possible. The league shouldn't diminish the reward of finishing in first place and then sweeping the opening-round series.
• It would be nice to be a fly on the wall at CBC Sports, which is due to make it two straight Saturdays without a game in the 7 p.m. Eastern timeslot. Game 2 of the Blackhawks-Canucks series is a 9 p.m. start.
• The Elias Sports Bureau had better burn the midnight oil to find out if a team ever lose a playoff series when it was leading in Game 7 with two minutes to play, let alone if that team's goalie was selected as his country's starter at the following Olympics. Martin Brodeur didn't look good on either Carolina's tying or winning goals, although that was a very good Game 7. Granted, as The Two-Line Pass noted, "if every NHL team shot at nothing but Henrik Lundqvist's high glove, his save percentage would be .657 and the Rangers would lose every game by 12.

Cheap commentary about the second round below...

WESTERN CONFERENCE

(5) CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS vs. (3) VANCOUVER CANUCKS

• Chicago, at least in the first round vs. Calgary, showed a tendency to take the higher-percentage shot, especially in the clincher when they dominated while being outshot almost three to one. That worked against the Flames, who aren't that good defensively or in goal (Miikka Kiprusoff was just overworked), but the Canucks keep a pretty tight ship in front of Roberto Luongo.
  
  
• Puck Prospectus figures the Canucks are the "third favourite" to be in the Stanley Cup final after Boston and Detroit.
  
  
• The irresistible force (Chicago's power play) vs. the immovable object (Vancouver's penalty killing, which did a number on a good St. Louis power play).
  
  
• The safe, gutless pick is to take Vancouver on goaltending, Roberto Luongo over the less consistent Nikolai Khabibulin.
  
  
• Is it possible to be pre-emptively sick of gratuitous references to Towel Power, since it originated from a Chicago-Vancouver series?
  
  
  
  What kind of punishment could Colin Campbell the player have expected from Colin Campbell the NHL disciplinarian?
  
  
• The same goes for the line brawl they had in the regular season, although it's a valid part of the discussion.
  


• The story making the rounds is that the the Hawks were rumoured to have been "Roxied," a reference to The Roxy, a legendary Vancouver nightclub, that has gobbled up many a visiting team."

Expect some live bloggage of the series.

(8) ANAHEIM DUCKS vs. (1) DETROIT RED WINGS

• The Ryan Getzlaf-Corey Perry-Bobby Ryan line could really wear out the Red Wings defencemen; they're some big dudes.
  
  
• Is it OK to just openly root for Red Wings centre Pavel Datsyuk to win the Hart Trophy? Sports trivia nerds would love to see a Hart-Selke-Lady Byng trifecta. Datsyuk wouldn't be the first forward to win the NHL MVP award with less than 100 points (Martin St-Louis had only 94 in 2003-04) or the first two-way centre to win (29-goal man Peter Forsberg in '02-03). However, it would be an indicator
  
  
• Anaheim will try to intimidate Detroit, who is probably used to that treatment by now.
  
  
• Detroit had 11 different goal scorers in a four-game first-round series, so they have the depth to fall back on if a few players go cold.
  


• If Chris Pronger does anything warranting a suspension, the NHL will give Donald Brashear a couple more games.

EASTERN CONFERENCE

(6) CAROLINA HURRICANES vs. (1) BOSTON BRUINS

• Honestly, not to sound like a defector to Red Sox Patriots Celtic Bruins Nation, but this has "sweep" written all over it. The Hurricanes got by New Jersey despite a flaccid power play (6.9%) and Eric Staal and Ray Whitney scoring almost half their goals.
  
  
• Boston got through the first round with very few nits to pick.
  

(5) PITTSBURGH CROSBYS vs. (2) WASHINGTON OVIES

• When the announcers mention that Washington won the season series 3-1, remember that the Penguins' one regular-season win over the Capitals came after they added Bill Guerin and Chris Kunitz. (Fist bump: PenBurgh.)


• The goaltending matchup is Simeon Varlamov vs. Marc-André Fleury. Sometimes, it's OK to fall back on experience, especially since Fleury has a good record vs. the Capitals.
  
  
• Alex Ovechkin had far and away more shots blocked this season (179) this season than any other NHLer. Does that explain why he stopped shooting?
  
  
• Remember, Ovechkin plays like Canadians did 30 years ago and Sidney Crosby plays like Russians did 30 years ago. Play around with that for a while.
  
  
• There is no getting around the fact that Wade Redden was on the ice when Sergei Fedorov snapped in the series-winning goal for the Capitals vs. the Rangers on Tuesday. Redden always seems to be around when someone else is knocking out his team (see New Jersey and Jeff Friesen in 2003 or Buffalo and Jason Pominville in 2006).

Forget not the fallen

• The runway is open for some columnist to take a run at the Sutter brothers. Brent couldn't win a playoff round with Martin Brodeur in goal and Darryl's Calgary Flames went out in Round 1 for the fourth season in a row, partly due to poor roster management that left them with a thin defence and no credible No. 2 goalie.


• History suggests the Sharks should not change too much. Teams which got knocked out in the first round after finishing first overall tend to win the Cup sooner or later.
  
  
• Darren Millard on Hockey Central just now, "If Gary Bettman does not at least look at putting a second NHL team in Toronto, he has no brain."
  
  
• Fun fact: Only one of the top 10 teams in penalty-killing is still alive in the playoffs.
  

TSN pulls power play with Rogers Jays?

This has a holy flurking schnit quality about it: Rogers customers won't able to watch the Rogers-owned baseball team play in the Rogers-owned ballpark against an archrival:

"Blue Jays coverage on TSN2 gets underway on Tuesday, May 19 with the Jays
taking on the Boston Red Sox in a key three-game series. TSN2 is readily available in the GTA in both Standard Definition and High Definition on Bell TV (Channel 401, 851 HD), Shaw Direct (Channel 401, 269 HD), and Cogeco Cable (Channel 156, 729 HD)."

None of you need any reminder what cable provider is still not carrying TSN2, especially if you're also a Raptors fan, or that Red Sox-Jays games tend to attract the highest ratings. This is bad news to go along with the injuries to pitchers Ricky Romero and B.J. Ryan.

The FAN 590's Bob McCown, at this very moment, is going high dudgeon about "what maroon brokered this deal?" It is possible this forces Rogers to come to terms about carrying the spin-off network, which launched in August. Or they could go el cheapo. Someone who knows can field this one: Would Rogers be able to air the visiting team's broadcast, particularly NESN in the case of that April 19-21 series vs. the Red Sox, on its four regional channels? It would be an easy way out, but given that they often stick the other team's broadcast of games which aren't being carried by Sportsnet or TSN on that Channel 399, don't put it past them.

The point is it is a blatantly anti-fan decision to stick games on a digital channel which is still unavailable to a wide swath of consumers, if it comes to that point. (Chris Zelkovich at the Toronto Star is saying it will get resolved, finally). However, let's stay on the up-and-up and presume the principals here must know this. Let's believe, in the heart of hearts, that reasonable people can always come to a reasonable solution. Times are tight in the Canadian broadcast industry, so you're going to see this pitched battles for customers, but this is going too far. It lasted through the entire Raptors season, but it might be different with the Jays, whose following is more national, more Boomer.

Really, only in Canada could you see this happen, Rogers owning the team and the ballpark, but being party to its fans not being able to watch. It is awfully curious that a Red Sox series was earmarked for TSN2 (TSN would still have hockey commitments in mid-May). TSN does not mess around and as Ottawa Senators fans can relate, the games won't be on the MLB Extra Innings package (just as local broadcasts aren't put on NHL Centre Ice).

The only other games scheduled for that channel are two Sunday afternoon games in September, presumably when there is an a priori commitment to the CFL. It should be pointed out Edmonton Eskimos fans raised a stink over this last fall and got a game aired when it wasn't going to available in Edmonton. Hopefully Jays fans can mobilize over at The Tao of Stieb and Drunk Jays Fans and elsewhere and do the same.

Snark break ...

Down Goes Brown has a list of all the Leafs' charitable endeavours.

The Martin Gerber Second Chance Program
Out-of-work derelicts who have been deemed unemployable due to a lack of marketable skills are given an opportunity to work again. Note: Gerber himself is not actually involved in this charity; it's named after him because he was the program's first recipient.

MLSE president Richard Peddie is blaming the Raptors/TSN2 controversy on Rogers and saying he hopes it gets resolved for next season.

Guess what? As long as MLSE has a huge marketing tie-in with Rogers (and we have the mini-basketball to prove it), it's MLSE's problem too.

As you're filling out your NCAA Tournament bracket, remember that Coach K kicks small for fun and hate children.

The Kingston Voyageurs, the hometown's Provincial Junior A hockey team (do not call it Tier II), won their division last night. Meantime, Kingston Frontenacs owner Doug Springer is carrying on like he's the cat's ass since the Fronts won 10 of their last 27 games -- more than one-third, don't you know. A wise man said it: If Larry Mavety survives in Kingston, the OHL won't.

This post is worth nothing, but this is worth noting

• There's a post at cisblog.ca about today's story in the Citizen about regionals being held to decide the last three spots in the CIS Final 8. Let's just say the coaches at Toronto and Victoria should be licking their lips about the change, once they're down kicking themselves.
• Jody O'Neill, a goalie for Dartmouth who played in the Central Junior Hockey League, was named rookie of the year in the ECAC.

Raptors & TSN2: And you thought they took half-measures on D

The idiocy that's been perpetrated on Raptors fans is hardly worth updating with only 19 games left in the season and the team 23-40, but here's a note from The Star's estimable Doug Smith:

"Oh yeah, we were reminded last night that Raptors TV will be showing the games at Philly and against Detroit this week – yeah, they’re both TSN2 special – in their entirety.

"Nice patting of self on backs, Raptors, but if you think that’s going to make anyone feel good, you’re more foolish than I expected.

"Not only have they, Rogers and TSN screwed fans royally all year, this self-serving stuff only underscores the fact they should have been doing this all season.

"The TV situation has been a mess from Day 1 and this isn’t going to make it feel any better.

"What they should have been doing is simulcasting them from the start of the season."

Even stranger, a highly unscientific straw poll of the Ottawa Sun sports desk found that several Rogers subscribers get Raptors NBA TV without ever having requested, every one except the guy who actually follows the Raps and has seen his fantasy team suffer as a result of these shenanigans.

Snark break ...

Roberto Alomar has a girlfriend, named Maripily Rivera. You can all relax now, shame on you for being uncomfortable. How about that Bears game last week? Helluva game, helluva game. Bears got a good team this year.

Don't worry. If you're looking out the window and a falling figure goes shooting past, it's probably just the Montreal Canadiens.

Aussie basketball legend Shane Heal is playing his final pro game Saturday. It means nothing, other than a chance to recall Zander Hollander's summation of Heal's one full season in the NBA, where he shot 26.8%: "Maybe the ball rotates differently in his hemisphere."

You are not alone in thinking the Globe & Mail and TSN are word-flogging the Olympics so badly that everyone will have five-ring fatigue before they even light the flame. Two columns in the same day from Stephen Brunt is more obvious than a three-dollar bill. (Granted, two Brunt columns are better than 200 from a lot of writers.)

Mike Wilner, Sun Media's Steve Simmons, in a brawl to settle it all. It has happen. Wilner noted last night that Simmons' suggession "that a distinction has to be made between (Alex) Rodriguez and (Barry) Bonds because Bonds 'abused' steroids, but Rodriguez only 'used' steroids ... might just be the most ridiculous thing that I have ever read."

And they say newspapers don't know their readers anymore. The Hamilton Spectator notes the Hammer's $94-million contribution to a stadium for the 2015 Pan-Am Games could buy "195 Tim Hortons franchises or 43,300,000 medium coffee and donut combinations."

It is ridiculous when college basketball coaches don't trust a player to stay on the court despite foul trouble.

More great moments in fantasy sports: Manu Ginobili scored 32 points against the Raptors, but missed the game-winning shot with 10 seconds left. The beauty of being a Canadian playing fantasy hoops is you can blame your team's record, if need be, on the TSN2 controversy. Granted, it hasn't hurt the other 11 owners in the Rockhard Fantasy League.

Last but not least: Try to get, "How was your time with the Unabomber?" into conversation at some point today.



This post is worth nothing, but this is worth noting:

• Toronto-area hoops hotshot Cory Joseph (Devoe's brother), who's playing high school ball down in Nevada, scored 20 points last night. He had a better night than fellow Canadian up-and-comer Tristan Thompson, who's been thrown off his New Jersey high school team.
  
• The Score has cancelled The Score In The Morning, the show that was co-hosted by good Kingston lad Adnan Virk and Nikki Reyes.
• Down Goes Brown has some random early 1990s Leafs playoff memories. Guy Hebert would be the goalie for the Pierre Garcon All-Stars (pro athletes with French names who aren't French-Canadian).

Snark break...

Hey, we'll always have cheaper beer at the ballpark ...

Doug Smith, on the endless (and ignored by the media) Raptors/Rogers/TSN2 controversy: "Where to look next? How about the sponsors? How about letting them know that, say, you won’t shop at whatever store the omnipresent Galen Weston owns? Or you won’t get your car serviced by whatever bailed out auto giant buys an ad?

"Where to look next? How about the sponsors? How about letting them know that, say, you won't shop at whatever store the omnipresent Galen Weston owns? Or you won’t get your car serviced by whatever bailed out auto giant buys an ad?" That would be Loblaws, and Ford, to name but a few.

Former Buffalo Sabres tough guy Larry Playfair (1,812 PIMs), to ESPN.com's Pierre LeBrun: "I think, in my lifetime, there will be no more fighting in the National Hockey League. I think the day is coming. And that's OK. The game is so much better than when I played. The game is skill on skill. It's fun to watch."

Perish the cynicism over Edmonton Oilers owner Daryl Katz buying the city's Golden Baseball League team. Some would say he made made $400,000 investment in the Cracker Cats in hope Edmonton will build him a $600-million arena.

Doesn't Katz know that the owner of a Canadian-based NHL team (if not a Canadian-based owner of a NHL team) should be trying to build a soccer stadium miles from the city core, where most of the footy-minded folk live? That's how you do it.

Remember, death is not an option: Who's more credible, Gary Bettman talking about the Phoenix Coyotes or Eugene Melnyk talking about the Senators' prospects?

Honestly, not a headline about Bernard Madoff, but about basketball: "Boomers lick their wounds."

The unspoken scandal about the teenage camera operator in Oshawa who was reassigned for talking to Don Cherry: That so many city-owned OHL arenas are run by private American firms. Ask everyone how that arrangement is working out in Kingston.

OK, so NCAA hoops won't be on your radar screen for another month, but Duke had its worst loss in almost 20 years last night. Hey, you look happier already.

Snark break ...

Anyone who made a joke about Muntadhar al-Zaidi -- his name's not Shoe Thrower -- being signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates as a pitcher or by the Detroit Lions as a quarterback is officially worthless and weak. Making fun of the Lions got old weeks ago, making fun of the Pirates got old years ago, plus there is the whole issue about making light of a genocide.

Someone, please, should try to figure out what makes hockey people so obsessed about what athletes wear. Don Cherry goes on about the Sennies' Mike Fisher looking like a "thug," which he repeated it on The Hour last night. John Buccigross, who writes about hockey for ESPN.com, attacked Terrell Owens for his "Hogan’s Heroes jacket and his Fat Albert hat," and no, that's not the least bit disturbing.

Look at what's in someone's heart, not on someone's body, is that so hard?

Shorter version of TSN's quarterly report: "After school, you're dead, Sportsnet."

The Raptors are making people less angry about the Rogers/TSN2 standoff. It was a blessing to not watch that fourth quarter against New Jersey last night where "(Chris) Bosh and (Jermaine) O'Neal were dominated by a frontcourt of Brook Lopez, Ryan Anderson and Josh Boone" (to quote The Passion That Frustrates Us All).

This post was worth nothing, but this is worth noting

• Jim Kelley at sportsnet.ca is the latest to start soap-boxing over violence in hockey.
• Steve Sullivan -- 11 years later, people still haven't shut up about the Leafs dropping him -- is back skating with the Nashville Predators. He had a serious back injury two years ago.

Raps: Why this Triano post took so long

The giddiness over Jay Triano will have to wait.

There is much happiness for Triano. Words fail at describing the arc of his hoops odyssey that began long ago in Niagara Falls. For the people old enough to remember the glory days when Canadian ballers dreamed big dreams (thank you, Mike Hickey, your book is great), it must be a trip to see a disciple of Jack Donohue, a great Canadian even if his accent and birthplace said New York City, being one of the 30 men coaching a NBA team.

The resistance is twofold, eh. Hoser Nation has outgrown the First Canadian phenomena and (b) you have to look at the circumstances with the Raptors and Canada Basketball.

No doubt was a time when it would have been unthinkable that on some Sunday afternoon, there would be a NBA game in Toronto with one of our own coaching the home team, with a NFL game taking place right down the street. That era is long gone, thankfully. The point is that Jay Triano did not get this job because he's Canadian. His fellow coaches, in the NBA and in international basketball, one would hope, don't see him as Canadian. They see him as a coach who happens be Canadian.

The same feelings can be projected on to Douglas Coupland, Feist, Seth Rogen, O.J. Atogwe, the St. Louis Rams strong safety from Windsor who's likely going to the Pro Bowl, Jim Balsillie, or Ro Russell's Grassroots Canada program. They don't expect to be told they're "pretty good for a Canadian." They want to be the best — and still have people realize where they're from.

(Digression: Some people will say this is contradictory, coming from the biggest CIS fetishist around, but that's different. All I have ever wanted is for collegiate sports here to enjoy something like the attention that they do in the States. The Houston Chronicle, chron.com, for example, has five blogs dedicated to college football.)

That's what any of us should want. At the same time, you do want people to understand the realities of trying to make it in a creative or competitive enterprise when you're from, to update Mordecai Richler's phrase, the multicultural ghetto of the north. Opportunites are fewer and farther between in Canada, a country of 33 million people, living alongside a land of plenty of 300 million. We should realize that, given those odds, yes, Jay Triano coaching the Raptors is remarkable.

However, that Captain Canada routine is not patriotic. Realizing that it is not enough is patriotic. That is one way to segue into the current state of the Raptors and our national team program.

At this hour, Triano just become the first Canadian to coach a NBA game on Canadian soil when the Raptors tip off vs. the Portland Trail Blazers. Of course, as you know, the Blazers boast Brandon Roy, whom Bryan Colangelo had available to him when he drafted Andrea Bargnani No. 1 overall two seasons ago. The wisdom of drafting Bargnani is starting to advertise itself a whole lot better, but as greater minds have already noted, Roy plays shooting guard, which is the Raps' biggest weakness in Year 3 of the Great Raptor Redesign.

The Raptors, as Newsday noted today, could have had Mike D'Antoni as coach if Colangelo had acted quicker with Sam Mitchell. They probably need to make a trade like yesterday (seriously, if they could have Steve Nash, why not?).

(About Smitch ... it was tempting to say that the same casual fans who are interested that the Raptors have a Canadian coach are the same ones who said, "but wasn't he coach of the year?" when you would expound on why Mitchell needed to go. It just seemed cruel.)

There's a lot of uncertainly over where the Raptors are headed, not to mention their place in the Canadian sportscape (although, does it really matter if they don't have much footprint outside Southern Ontario? Toronto is 6 million people, that's plenty big enough). If we had a federal broadcast regulator with any teeth or a federal government that wasn't completely dysfunctional — and gets away with being dysfunctional because Canadians don't care — Raptors fans might actually be able to see all of the team's games on TV.

Anyone who's remotely acquainted with Canada's fortunes over the years in international basketball also knows about being teased, about dreaming of things that never were. Canada will likely face a tough road trying to qualify for the 2010 worlds and the 2012 London Olympics.

It's in million-times-better place than it was when Triano was fired from the national team in '04, but there's still a lot of work to be done. If you're looking to impress friends and win drinks at cocktail parties, you should start mentioning Ettore Messina as a possible coach for either the Raps or Canada — it just sounds impressive, not that anyone will remember when you're proven right.

To sum up, yes, one should happy this is happening, but keep your eyes open. Of course, one hopes when all is said and done, Jay Triano has done more to put Tillsonburg and Niagara Falls on the map than Stompin' Tom Connors and the Falls themselves.

Related:
Donohue would be proud as his student makes history (Steve Simmons, Sun Media)
New Toronto coach hoped for Stockton's spot (Jody Genessy, Deseret News)
Fast Break (Paul Jones, sportsnet.ca)

About that first Raptors game on TSN2

Toronto Star basketball writer Doug Smith's blog is a good go-to for anyone wondering whether you will actually be able watch your Toronto Raptors play the Miami Heat next Sunday.

Smith today called Rogers Communications' refusal to carry TSN2, whose first Raptors telecast is less than six days away, "intractable." The Globe & Mail's Michael Grange and the National Post should be on this over the week. As Smith put it:

"I talked to a couple of people in the middle of last week and there had been no movement on the impasse. Rogers is being intractable in the talks, I’m told. TSN has somehow convinced just about every other cable and satellite broadcaster in the country to take TSN2, Rogers is the lone holdout.

"Figure out who’s the villain in this travesty yet?

"I’m looking directly at Rogers. And you should be, too.

"I’m going to try to get someone, anyone, on the record over there this week because I want to hear what their explanation is. Gimme a day or two to try and track it down."

As always, follow the money. A commenter at the Digital Home forums speculated that — and this is highly speculative — that there is fear that Rogers taking TSN2 would be the death knell for Sportsnet, which doesn't have many properties outside of regional NHL games: "... unless darts, pool and poker are paying the bills, it don't look real good for them."

Eep.

Want to watch NFL TV? No problem! The Raptors? Suck it!!

The point is, two business giants are, simply, screwing basketball fans in the biggest market in the city. Simple as that. Blame Rogers, blame TSN, blame Maple Leaf Sports but blame someone ‘cause you’re really getting the short end of the stick.

Sucks, doesn’t it?

That's Doug Smith writing in his blog today. And yes, yes it does. It's hard to understand how the optics of this work for Rogers. Extreme Sports went off the air this month. Replace it with TSN2. Done. Ok, so it's probably a little more complicated than that, but come on! Get it done.

Harassing Rogers and TSN (audiencerelations@tsn.ca) with e-mails can't hurt. Since it's publicaly listed I don't feel bad in posting TSN's audience relations phone number either - 416-332-7660.

NOTE: It's just been reported that the Raps go at 6 p.m. tomorrow to avoid Game 5.3 of the World Series.

Raptors: First they ignore you ...

It was a longish day yesterday, o apologies only following up on the Raptors/TSN schmozzle only now. Michael Grange is pretty sanguine that the "brinksmanship" between Rogers Cable and TSN will be worked out because no one stands to win, plus people are mad as hell:

"You could even make the case this is a landmark, of sorts: NBA fans, in Canada, being deemed worthy enough as an entity to be a pawn in machinations of power.

"We've arrived."
-- From Deep

You can anticipate the feeling on this end. Twenty-one months ago, there was a post here in rebuttal to a column out of Toronto that called the Raptors' TV ratings "pathetic," but buried the news that the franchise had the second-highest volume of website traffic in the entire NBA. On New Year's Eve last year, TSN missed most of the first half of a Raptors game to stay with a third-tier U.S. college football bowl game. Things have changed for the better.

All the oddball hoser hoops nuts, or those who simply like the athletic supporter combo planner, are never going to be catered to like hockey fans are in this country. That's fine, since there are more hockey fans. It's also a spur to seek out basketball and information about it on your own terms.

It's great to see ... by the way, and please don't shoot the messenger, but Grange did have some choice words about the reportage in the city where the Raptors spent training camp:

"During training camp in Ottawa earlier this month the presence of the team garnered barely any attention from the local media, even though basketball is a thriving sport in the region. Why, I'm not sure, other than resources at most media outlets are thin these days and the Raptors didn't quite rate the use of them. Basketball fans were probably all over the Raptors being there, but mainstream media serves SPORTS fans, and clearly were able to largely ignore an NBA team in their market without being punished by their customers."

Ouch.

Related:
Canada’s basketball potential remains untapped (John McKinnon, CanWest News Service)
TSN going big on Raptors (William Houston, globesports.com)

P.S., you're missing one who falls between P and S in the alphabet

TSN/TSN2 put out a press release today trumpeting that it is in 3.2 million homes less than two months out from its Aug. 29 launch.

To pick up a thread Duane started Oct. 16, guess which cable provider, one that is fairly omnipresent in the GTA and rhymes with "Jeff Odgers," is not on the list. There is the small matter that the Toronto Raptors still have no broadcast schedule posted eight days ahead of their regular-season opener (which will be on The Score). The estimable Doug Smith has reported ("Of TV and Roko and all kinds of fun stuff," Oct. 16) that about half of TSN's games will be on be on the spin-off network. TSN also a basketball writers' roundtable on their mainpage right now — which is awesome to see and shows they really want to push the basketball, but makes it even more odd why this has not been settled. Far be it wonder who is at fault when you're offering an outsiders' perspective. However, TSN and Shaw Cable got a deal worked out last month when it looked like one Edmonton Eskimos game that was put on TSN2 due to a conflict with the Ryder Cup might not be available in that team's home market.

For the record, TSN2 is on 20 cable systems across this country (in this age of media concentration, who knew there were even 20?

Access Communications, Aliant TV, Amtelecom, Bell TV, Bluewater TV Cable, City West Cable & Telephone Corp, Coast Cable, Cogeco Cable (Ontario), Cogeco Cable (Quebec), Delta Cable, EastLink, Ex-Cen Cablevision, Nexicom Communications, Novus Entertainment, Persona (Ontario), Shaw Cable, Star Choice, SaskTel, Telus TV, Westman Communications Group

That suggests it is really inexcusable to not have something worked out with the biggest provider in the GTA and by extension much of Ontario, which has the heaviest concentration of Raptors fans per capita. TSN can act quickly when it's CFL fans in Alberta, but it's hard cheese for Toronto-area basketball fans? (Then again, which one is the have-not province, thanks again Mr. McGuinty?)

It also concerns Ottawa Senators fans. The Sennies are the only Canadian NHL team which will have first-run games shown on TSN2 — Dec. 10 at Chicago and Mar. 25 vs. Carolina at home, and Rogers has most of the Ottawa market too.

Wanna watch the Raps? Too bad.

In a follow-up to the tease he put out there a couple days ago, Doug Smith is reporting that 23 of 47 Raptors games that TSN holds the rights to will be shown on TSN2.

The first game isn't until December. And, Rogers claims that it is working to get the network on its service. If I were the Raptors I'd be having a little chat with the TSN folks. Right now it's possible that you will be able to watch a Raptors game in Moose Jaw but not in Toronto. That's, well, insane.

Basketball on TV? How un-Canadian

Writing in his always fun Raptors Blog, Doug Smith has a warning for the bouncy-bouncy fans: expect a return to the bad old days of playing the where-the-hell-is-the-Raps-game-on-TV-tonight game.

Everybody ready to go nuts. I’m hearing the broadcast schedule should be out any day now and there’s going to be some grumbling.

I’m not sure how many, but at least some games are going to be shown on TSN2, which is allegedly some secondary network that a million or so of us cannot see. Pretty sure some of you might be irked by that.

Now you’re prepared.

Considering that Rogers and Shaw aren't carrying the network yet, it's difficult to see how this arrangement helps anyone. You could have a situation where the majority of fans in Toronto , where Rogers is king, can't watch the game on TV.

Fans may want to send a polite request to get this figured out.

Update: The Score will have the Oct. 29 season opener against the Philadelphia 76ers and the Oct. 31 home opener against the Golden State Warriors.

The Score's November slate also includes:

• Wed., Nov. 12, vs. the Sixers
• Tues., Nov. 18, at Orlando
• Wed., Nov. 19, vs. Miami
• Wed., Nov. 26 vs. Charlotte
• Sun., Nov. 30 at L.A. Lakers