Knock 'em dead, Kinger

Once in a great while, those who Kingston sports near and dear are privileged to know a broadcast talent so extraordinary he becomes part of our shared heritage.

Nineteen seventy-eight: Chris Cuthbert broadcasts football games for CFRC 101.9 during the Golden Gaels' run to the Vanier Cup and goes on to a career at TSN.

Nineteen seventy-nine: Rod Smith enrolls at Queen's to play football for the Golden Gaels and goes on to a career at TSN.

Then for a long time, nothing happened. Until about 2007. On a Saturday afternoon of no particular distinction, yours truly happened to come across the dulcet tones of Tyler King calling a Queen's hockey game on CFRC. The result of that game has been forgotten by everyone save the players and coaches. What endures is that some typical insecure angry young man comment that I made on OOLF prompted Tyler, not that he needed the help, to e-mail asking for any tips to he could use to improve as broadcaster.

There was probably little I could impart since I work in a medium blessed with a backspace key, to be honest, but that hardly matters. What matters is that was the beginning of a beautiful friendship, one that has enriched the person who's the older of the two by a decade more than the younger individual. You are probably acquainted with either Tyler or me personally and professionally. If you are devoted or bored enough to be checking this long-dormant site tonight you probably know this is about sending Tyler, AKA Kinger, AKA Cookie, AKA Miguel Sanchez, off well as he wings west. Monday, he'll begin what seems like a great opportunity, working for Rogers Radio as a newscaster and hockey play-by-play announcer calling the action for the Fort McMurray Oil Barons of the Alberta Junior Hockey League.

No one gets that an opportunity while still on the cool side of 25 without working so hard for it that people feel compelled to open doors, like the way then-Kingston Kimco Voyageurs owner Gregg Rosen and coach Evan Robinson, my fellow Napaneean, did in 2010 when they agreed to let Tyler set up an Internet broadcast of their playoff games, which was without precedent for the Junior A team.

It has been and will continue to be a trip to have a rinkside seat to watch Tyler work on his craft, refusing to take the easy way out on any task, even though many do while trying to gain or keep a foothold in the tough-to-crack broadcasting field.

No doubt this reads like a total tire-pumping. That is not needed. Tyler has very fully developed ego integrity. It just bears putting in words that without our association, borne from a random CFRC/Queen's/Kingston/sports connection, the past few years would not have been as fun. Knowing Kinger was a conduit for keeping somewhat in tune with the Kingston sportscape. It meant having someone to bounce lines off, someone who could always be meta when it came to having a germane sitcom reference to break out with wit and impeccable timing. It also meant having someone to down a few beers with after the seminal Saturday in November 2009 when the Big Yellow Guys took down Laval. Tyler should know that I feel fortunate to have witnessed his career changes, I am glad I knew him while my professional set-up changed for the better.

None of that is profound, I know. Hey, the only true currency in this bankrupt world is what we share when we're uncool. That's from the Lester Bangs character in Almost Famous. Tyler has never seen that film, no matter how many times I have recommended it.

That's okay, though, since the kid is stubborn-to-a-fault true to himself, like most people who get anywhere in this life. What draws people to Tyler is that he has taken it to heart that being in the media isn't about the events or stories you get to cover on the corporate dime. It's about trying to keep yourself fresh. It's also about considering why the stories matter to the people involved, knowing all the while that understanding will not make you rich, it will win something much more valuable — respect.

By all accounts, Tyler has learned that, lived it and loved it on all of his stops. One mark that someone is capable of bigger and better things is those who effect lasting change before they move up the ladder. Very rarely does someone get to do that in campus media or at one of her/his first jobs. A proof of how good Tyler is the influence he managed to have in Kingston over a short period of time. The aforementioned Vees had never had live play-by-play prior to his arrival. Next season, that will carry on with Allan Etmanski calling the games.

Similarly, lots of young guys have had sports shows on CFRC 101.9 over the years. Most were just the same variation on Here's What's Happening In Sports And Here's What I Think About It — basically Bleacher Report in spoken-word form. Tyler's show, Offsides, grew into much more over its three-year run (interrupted by his stint at Syracuse). Tyler broke news with respect to the Voyageurs and Kingston Frontenacs and kept Queen's Athletics on its toes. Many informed sports fans came to see it as the city's most credible source for sports news.

One hope in writing this is that someone else comes along to fill that void in Kingston before too long. Sports coverage is a niche, nowhere as big in the grand scheme as hard news, but Kingston's dedicated sports fans are not always well-served by either of the city's two old-media outlets. That's not a slam on the hard-working people employed on the editorial side at the Quebecor-owned newspaper and Corus-owned TV station. Far from it. I am just trying to be honest about what everyone working in a newsroom knows but might not say aloud: the wild world of monetized media coverage means there is precious little a mass-audience newscast or newspaper can do for sports fans who want to know more about the teams in their backyard than who won and who lost. Most allow for as much unbridled creativity now as a box factory.

With time, that will change. All it will take a few more young people such as Tyler going out there and pushing the limits until they're the mainstream. Let's hope it happens soonly.

Media: Please don't pull that Toth

Media personality Mike Toth has inspired a few posts on this site during the 17 years we've been doing this blog.

It would remiss to overlook there is a Truth & Rumours report the Tother has been let go from Rogers Sportsnet. Toronto Sports Media chimes in "what that means exactly for his duties for the Fan 590 has yet to be decided," which is open to interpretation. It could mean something, or it could just mean it wasn't nailed down.

(Update: Well, that mystery is solved. He's staying on!)

Toth at least tried to make talking sports fun. He has been willing to go into the crevasse when it came sports topics that seldom get a good airing in Canada, like the Grey Cup's diminished standing, how culture played a factor in Ray Emery's departure from Ottawa (just as it does in the love-in the Ottawa Senators' for at-least-he's-local lunkhead Matt Carkner) or the way everyone pretends to be a huge junior hockey fan for during Christmas holidays because it "re-affirms our collective navel gazing tendencies," as Greg Hughes put it.

You could argue Toth's style is maybe on the wane. The Revenge of the Sports Nerd is at long last filtering up to sports talk radio, where the frat-boy mentality has long ruled the roost. No longer can you semi-seriously suggest Gary Carter would be a suitable manager for the Toronto Blue Jays, or say, "There are no female sportscasters that I can think of that have more knowledge than their male counterparts" without risking a bunch of swiftly well-organized wrath from the blogetariat and on Twitter. At the same time, if you start talking about WAR and VORP and quoting a bunch of statistics, people will change the station and Nelson Millman will put you on a diet of bread and water. It's a balancing act, people.

It's not negative. It keeps people honest, makes them challenge their thinking and become aware they don't live in the world they were born into. It's for the better, regardless of how much griping comes from misery-loves-company old media dinosaurs. There is the potential to cause people to offer tepid, inoffensive opinions, although if anything, maybe it will make people work harder to justify a minority opinion.

Personally speaking, Toth seemed all right. There are much worse things to be in life than someone trying to "stir the pot with a very short spoon," to quote Lloyd The Barber from Ghostrunner on First. It's also folly to take someone's on-air persona for the genuine article. Any communications medium has it limits and not everyone is the person you see and hear on TV and radio. Kinger, for one, swore by Toth, which says a ton.

Long story short, if Toth was shunted aside, it's a shame. We'll always have The Honky-Tonk Man.



Related:
Has Mike Toth Been Let Go From Sportsnet? (Toronto Sports Media)
Mike Toth dropped by Sportsnet (Truth & Rumours)

Kinger now officially another country's problem

Out of Left Field contributor Tyler King,is beginning his master's program at Syracuse University today. From March 24, here's a post heralding Kinger's acceptance to SU.

They are on red alert down in Orange country.

Our own Tyler King, scourge of Kingston Frontenacs management, The Queen's Journal, the National Council of Churches (probably) and those who misuse the semi-colon, is taking the next step in his broadcasting career. Kinger, who's graduating from Queen's in a couple months, will be taking his master's degree in broadcast journalism at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. It's got a long name, so you know it's gotta be good.

In his dreams, Fronts owner Doug Springer sees himself having all border crossings between Kingston and Syracuse sealed.

The noble King has graced this site with his presence for about a year. Having a full-time course load and his 2,795 odd jobs with CFRC 101.9 (cfrc.ca), Kingston's TVCogeco and the city's local radio stations takes priority, as well it should. It's been a real enjoying-the-enjoyment experience, seeing Kinger avail himself of the broadcasting opportunities available to a student in Eastern Ontario, hosting his own shows the radio and TV, calling Queen's Golden Gaels hockey games ("over the line, holds it ... holds it") and broadcasting baseball in Ottawa with Howard Bloom.

He's also helped this site carve out its small, goofy niche, even if you don't always see his name here. Whether it's coming up with analogies between Canadian university football teams and Simpsons characters or pointing out the latest idiocies committed by Springer and GM-for-life Larry Mavety, Kinger can always be counted upon.

Going into broadcasting is a tough road in any era. Here is hoping Syracuse will open some doors for Kinger. Meantime, Kingston still has him for a few more months. Kinger will have the call of a Kingston Voyageurs playoff game on Thursday night.

The Vees won tonight, taking a 2-1 series lead over Huntsville in the Ontario Junior Hockey League semi-final series. It's a junior hockey playoff tilt in Kingston in late March, so it might appear in the TV listings under "science fiction."

Snark break ...

(Honestly, the Snark Break bit might have to die ... on Mondays, it should be, in honour of favourite funny bastard Bill Murray's first big role, the Trippers, as in, "It just doesn't matter! It just doesn't matter!" Anyway, it just doesn't matter ...

... that four Montreal Canadiens were elected to start for the Eastern Conference in the NHL all-star game and Alex Ovechkin, the best player in the sport, will only go as a reserve. It's an exhibition game in a sport where players only stay in the ice for 40-50 seconds at a clip, does it matter who starts? The NHL All-Star Game is as pertinent to hockey as Ben Lyons is to film criticism. Let it go.

... that there are still two games left in the Bowl Clusterphooey Series. The blogetariat is convinced the national championship should be handed to the unbeaten Utah Utes.

... that each team is not guaranteed a possession in NFL overtime, when it's Peyton Manning's team that ends up never seeing the ball. (Seriously, it's stupid.)

... who gets centrefielder Andruw Jones and his restructured contract, although it would be nice if he went back to the Atlanta Braves. Then they would have Chipper Jones and Cheaper Jones.

(One columnist has convinced himself Jones' career is done. Well, why didn't you say that his career is over? Start in with the J.P. Ricciardi jokes in 3-2-1 ...)

... that you never bother to read anything at AOL Fanhouse, because it's dead on arrival now that it has signed up Jay Mariotti. (Thank you, Sports On My Mind.)

... that the Minnesota Vikings, my Minnesota Vikings, lost out in the NFL playoffs. It puts Brad Childress on a short leash in 2009, one would hope. The game was there for the taking even though they didn't play very well or all that aggressively. It's kind of a microcosm of how it's gone under Childress. Anyone think that Bill Cowher would call for a run up the middle or a, groan, safe pass, right after the defence forces a turnover at midfield? No, he'd force the issue. The mind reels.

... that Kinger is the only one who gets why Big Wheel At The Cracker Factory would be a great title for a book if some guy wasn't already using it.

... that someone is another a year older. Thanks again to the readers and friends, and all of you are in the latter category, who sent Facebook messages to the newly minted 30-something-year-old. I debuted the same year as two franchises who have underperformed lately -- Star Wars and the Blue Jays.

This post is worth nothing, but this is worth noting

• Bob Elliott of Sun Media published a list of the 100 most influential Canadians in baseball over the weekend. Jonah Keri of ESPN.com, Gatineau native Phillippe Aumont and Baseball Canada's Jim Baba (who had a little something to do with the Ottawa Rapids' existence) each made the list (and ahead of jamiecampbell, too).
  
  The Ottawa Citizen sportswriter Don Campbell, who's an accomplished youth baseball coach, received a honourable mention.
  
• Vancouver Canucks GM Mike Gillis, a Kingston guy, got a right good Kurtenblogging. Please don't shoot the messenger.

Snark break ... as God is my witness ...

... I thought turkeys could fly ... Happy Thanksgiving, to our American friends.



Be thankful that the NFL is duplicitous about gambling: That's why they created a third Thanksgiving Day game.

Actual words from an actual Ottawa sportscast: "(Mike Fisher's) teammates have been playing some inspired hockey without him in the lineup, going three straight games without a regulation loss." Making the other team play for more than 60 minutes to get a win is not the standard for any hockey team, so why would a professional journalist say that on air? Inspired, indeed.

The media really has been making too much of Brian Burke coming to Toronto.

Carleton University's student association is moving to reinstate a cystic fibrosis fundraiser after its cancellation caused a huge uproar. This means Carleton students officially have more common sense than Queen's University's administration.

Frank Fitzpatrick, writing in the Philadelphia Inquirer: "Lee Greenwood, whose syrupy, sophomoric, flag-wrapped country anthems have ruined more baseball games than Jose Mesa and Comcast commercials combined, has been appointed to the National Endowment for the Arts by President Bush.

"That means Greenwood now will be doling out public dollars to sculptors, composers, artists and filmmakers he deems worthy. Isn't that like putting the Goldman Sachs CEO in charge of the economic bailout?"

Paraphrasing Kurt Vonnegut's Hocus Pocus, if you don't believe Toronto shoppers should be charged five cents for a plastic bag, the inscription for your tombstone: WE COULD HAVE SAVED IT, BUT WE WERE TOO DOGGONE CHEAP. Only it won't say "doggone."

Have fun if you are going home for the U.S. Thanksgiving.

The above was worth nothing, but this is worth noting:

• Chris Bosh put up 39 points in last night's Raptors' win, but please don't ignore that Andrea Bargnani and Roko Ukic and had pretty nice nights too.

Have you no shame, sir? That was a rhetorical question

Only in the irony-rich, cash-poor NHL: Two weeks ago, the St. Louis Blues were trotting out the telegenic half of the Republican vice-presidential ticket in the midst of the greatest financial crisis in the U.S. in seventy-five years.

Now they are turning by said crisis to their advantage:

The team announced Monday that at every remaining Saturday home game beginning Nov. 29, the organization will call the seat number of a fan and pay that person's mortgage or rent for four months, up to $4,000 US total.

It is a not half-bad idea for a promotion and maybe one should leave it at that, but seriously, this is like something out of the last days of Nero's Rome or France around 1788.

Blues owner Dave Checketts, as Puck Daddy has detailed, donates a lot of money to Republicans, the party who generally had more to do with the global economic meltdown. Now his franchise turns it around in order to create some kind of whiz-bang promotion?

It just marketing and maybe it should be left alone. Another reading is that this is how desperate NHL teams are getting to get people in the seats, even in St. Louis, which has had a team since 1967 and has had an even longer history in pro hockey. It's the Blues' business and they're free to do what they wish. That doesn't mean people can't laugh like hell at the irony. You would not see any Canadian team offering to pay anyone's rent or mortgage.

Related:
St. Louis Blues contest pays mortgage or rent for their fans (The Canadian Press)

We Kid, because we love: Gary Carter can see Citi Field from his house, while Shea needs a new stadium

A lot of stuff gets missed over a weekend, but not the news Gary Carter is moving up the managerial food chain.

The Kid, wannabe major-league manager and walking punchline to sports journalists whom he might have put off a few times back in the day, was hired late last week to manage the Atlantic League's Long Island Ducks. He is getting closer to managing in the majors, at least geographically, since the Ducks' ballpark is not that far away from the new home of the New York Mets, whom Carter played for to no small amount of critical acclaim. Nevertheless, the critics only want to focus on the negative. Shame on them:

"He'll be in the New York media market now, and at some point, he'll say something dumb. Something that will increase the wedge between him and Mets ownership. That will hurt his reputation again.

"It'll be a complaint that the Mets didn't respect what he did for them. That he put in his time in the minor leagues, so why didn't he get a chance at the major-league level? Something within that theme.

"You can set your watch to it.

"Twice, in 2004 and again last year, Carter lobbied for the Mets' managing job while the office still was occupied, first by Art Howe and then by Willie Randolph. In last year's despicable sales pitch, on Sirius Satellite Radio, he said he could get out of his contract with the independent Orange County Flyers at a moment's notice. It led former teammate Keith Hernandez to shred Carter on an SNY telecast.

"Carter came to the All-Star Game festivities in New York, and at a media availability in Manhattan, he still didn't understand what he did wrong. I asked him if he thought that even if he intended no harm, he created a great deal of it.

" 'Obviously, I think what was transpiring was they were trying to take the heat off Willie at the time and throw me under the bus,' he said, the 'they' referring to Mets management.

"He just doesn't get it." — Ken Davidoff, Newsday

In the parlance of our time, that is cruel, Mr. Davidoff. It's mean-spirited. It's immature. It's unprofessional, and you guys are jerks if you came away with it, taking things out of context, and then tried to spread something about Gary Carter. It's not fair and not right.

The real Gary Carter is not the caricature put out by these dishonest leakers. The reality is he is a tough, capable, knowledgeable and focused baseball manager. He also had 1,225 career RBI in the majors, which makes him 1,225 more career ribbies qualified than current Amazin's manager Jerry Manuel to lead a major-league dugout.

Managerial experience? He had one thousand, two hundred twenty-five career RBI, people!

Meantime, in a story that seems unrelated but is in the same vein, Shea "Sinking Ship" Hillenbrand is contemplating a comeback. Hillenbrand played last season in, wait for it, the Atlantic League.

"I just had a bad year in '07. I was with the Angels and I thought I was going to be the full-time DH but they wound up having Vlad Guerrero and Garret Anderson take some time there, so I wasn't playing much and it was hard for me to stay in any kind of groove at the plate. It was just a bad year, but I never expected to be sitting out in '08. I played for York in the Independent League for half of a year and hit .340 so I know I can still hit and help someone. I had the problem up there in Toronto with John Gibbons (in 2006), so maybe that's followed me. But I've learned a lot and just want the chance to get back into the game.

"... I know my skills and they haven't gone away; in fact, they're better, because like I said, I'm entering my prime years right now. I know from all the players I've played with -- like Curt Schilling, Pedro Martinez, Barry Bonds - that I can really help a team with younger players." -- Boston Globe

One wishes him all the best, especially given that Hillenbrand, especially through his family's work with animals and underprivileged youth, does not fit the stereotype of a self-absorbed athlete (that's why it is a stereotype). He did hit .340 in 153 at-bats in the Atlantic League last season, but it was with his customary lack of power (two homers) and walks (five). It also came in a league where an entire team batted .303.

However, if he says he can still play, who are you to doubt him, you doubters? Take him on his word. Take Gary Carter on his, too. He might not be ready for the big stage yet, but don't rule him out in 2012.

Related:
Is Carter just a lame Duck? (Ken Davidoff, Long Island Newsday)
Previously:
The Kid can manage, I tells ya (June 17)