Cuddy Shark

Fans for Rory may be delivering payback

Rory Fitzpatrick going to the National Hockey League all-star game? As a starter, no less.
Sheesh! Next thing you know, Pat Quinn will be leading the post-game media scrum.
With apologies to Rory Fitzpatrick, who himself sounds a bit intrigued, if not surprised by the new-found swell of support, it just doesn't sit right.
On the other hand, it goes to show what can occur when dumb ol' fans are handed a blank ballot and left for a few moments to their own devices.
For the NHL, perhaps this is a case of be careful what you wish for, it might come true, this fan involvement idea. Sure, it provides the image an average has a chance to have his/her say on a small part of the game. It's just not the way the wanna-be-in-control-over-everything boss Gary Bettman would have imagined.
It's not that I've ever been a fan of fan voting for all-star games, largely due to the opportunity for fans to stuff ballot boxes and sway totals toward for their favourite hometown player(s) — some of whom are not necessarily having all-star type seasons. But at least it indicates what the average guy is thinking.
And, really, is it any worse than fans voting in a players who have been injured, or even retired, all season?
In this case, maybe the NHL should be reading into it all something along the lines of fan disenchantment. After all, the fans were the ones who suffered through the loss of an entire season as the owners and players' union dickered over a contract with little regard for the fans.
Then again, perhaps the Rory Fitzpatrick surge is simply a segment of the fan base telling the NHL to stick it, a little payback, if you will, to let the grand poobahs know what they think about past indiscretions.
In that case, sweet!
Give the fans the power to be part of the show and, in this case, determine the starting lineup in the league's mid-season spectacle and this is what you get.
At least they're having fun with the process. I fear the league is following the lead of its NFL and NBA counterparts in which the fun is being removed.

We need intermission from commercials

As annoying as it is to have commercials interrupt TV viewing of a sports event, it's even moreso during a live viewing of an event.
You can't sit down and watch a National Football League game anymore without wondering how you've stumbled from the counch and into the final two minutes of a National Basketball Association game, that's how bad it has become in recent years.
And to compound matters, we have those annoying play reviews ongoing throughout a football game that add to the lack of flow and increase commercial content.
Hey, I'm all for officials getting it right, but there's a got to be a limit. Equally annoying, however, is the NFL's policy by which no kickof will be left behind, or to the imagination, even if it means abandoning the excitement of a last-minute scoring drive to win a game.
Sitting in the ACC last week for a Maple Leafs game, it was driven home once again the frequency with which play is stopped to sell something and in most cases — with Canadian TV at least — it is the re-run of the same commercials over and over, spaced out by four-minute intervals of playing time. Three commercial timeouts in a 20-minute period of hockey is a bit much, don't we all agree?
For years, hockey whined on about games that dragged on too long. Since getting its games down to two hours and a few minutes, now it seems intent on increasing the length of games again.
The bottom line is, of course, the lack of flow on any given night, whether it is hockey, football or basketball.
Yeah, yeah. TV revenues help support the sports, no doubt there, but geez Louise, enough already.
How about packing all the commercials into the intermissions instead of watching some interviewer stick a mic into a sweaty face for two or three spoon-fed — and predictably uninsightful —  boring questions.

Poor owners? Yeah, right!

Next time the owners of major league sports franchises cry poor, it would be handy reference material to remember the shenanigans of Major League Baseball owners and general managers circa the 2006 off-season.
The mixed bag of nuts, easily identified by the portable vaults strapped to their backs and otherwise known as owners, obviously became filthy rich in the first place by being shrewd businessmen, likely with a keen eye for the bottom line. Yet here they are handing out contract money this off-season as if it were air to free agent players who often possess sketchy and mediocre past performance records.
Whatever crappy season awaits, this class of free agent acquisitions falls into that I-told-you-so posture their rivals, not so lucky in signing a free agent or two, will be sure to adopt.
Of course, you wouldn't expect there to be any plea of a shortcoming of funds. There is, after all, no collective bargaining agreement threatening to disrupt the game. All is rosy in baseball, so money flows.
That's because MLB has recently taken care of its labour situation for years to come with an agreement struck with the players union and announced during the playoffs.
You know, it makes perfect sense the most recent meetings would be held in Orlando, Fla. with a backdrop of Disneyworld.
It also might make a guy wish he was somewhat younger and a wee bit more talented. After all, a young man stationed in the right hotel lobby with a ball glove in one hand and a baseball bat slung over his shoulder and looking like he might know how to play, could easily be mistaken by an owner anxious to empty his vault and hand out a few million crumbs.
It's just plain Goofy.

As always, defence rules

Once again that theory about great defence trumping even terrific offence rings true.
It even applies at the high school level.
The Pickering Trojans' smothering offence pretty much had its way with a Huron Heights offensive unit which had produced nearly 38 points per game in nine previous outings this season on the rain-swept carpet at Esther Shiner Stadium for a 16-0 Metro Bowl senior high school football semifinal victory.
The Warriors vaunted one-two ground game punch of Ezra Millington, who played despite receiving a concussion in Saturday's York Region final, and Kamar Anglin to just under 90 yards. And nearly half of those come from Anglin on a last-minute drive. The Warriors were unable to complete a pass, but then, neither did the Trojans.
Even when in position to score late inthe second quarter — twice, actually — thanks to straight ahead running of quarterback Ryan Corry, the Warriros eventually came away with nothing.
The Trojans were full marks for the victory in a rematch of last year's Metro Bowl finalists. But the true testament to how good they really are is by the ease with which they humbled the Warriors.
As the saying goes, offence wins games; defence wins championships.
Power to the defence.

Patience, not miracles, in store for Hurricanes

Newmarket Hurricanes fans looking for an immediate turnaround in the
fortunes of their team may be in for a disappointment.
True, the appointment of Brian Perrin as head coach to replace Jim Wells
Jr., will provide a breath of fresh air into an atmosphere that had
obviously stagnated and hit a low in the past few weeks as the Hurricanes
piled one loss on top of another.
By all appearances, the players had simply quit playing for Wells. That is,
at least, the ones still with the team and not yet traded away.
But unless Perrin is some kind of worker of miracles, it’s going to take
time to clean up this mess of a hockey team.
Perrin, for his part, understands his second go at it in Newmarket is going
to require patience. He stated as much as he scanned over the remainder of
November. There’s no soft touches, he noted. That’s not an excuse, just the
way it is for last-place teams.
Right off the bat he is handcuffed by a lineup that has been ravaged by
suspensions from an internal discipline issue and compounded by injuries.
And there is the matter of selling players on his philosophies as the way to
proceed whether they like it or not.
What the Hurricanes can expect now is a hard-ass coach willing to
show his emotions, a sharp contrast to the easygoing Wells. They can expect
special teams play to improve drastically, if not in the short term,
certainly in the long, since this has been a characteristic of
Perrin-coached teams in the past.
Given the opportunity, Perrin will likely bring the Hurricanes back to
respectability, if not this season, certainly next.
One other thing, holdovers from the Wells-era should know they will have a
clean slate with which to work. Using it wisely would be a good idea.
Followers of the team, on the other hand, will have to exercise patience.

What’s up? Fan interest at Canes game

Perhaps everyone does love a train wreck, after all.
Or, more accurately, folks are inclined to slow down for a gander at the
carnage.
Crazy as it seems, the Newmarket Hurricanes-Stouffville Spirit matchup at
the Ray Twinney Complex in Newmarket drew by a mile the largest crowd among
four games scheduled Thursday night in the Provincial Jr. A Hockey League.
In fact, the contest drew 758 fans to watch the Spirit hand a plucky
Hurricanes team, which battled from three-goal deficits twice only to lose
6-5 in the final minutes its seventh straight loss and 11th in 12 starts.
This is a Hurricanes team that is fighting to remain out of the North
Conference basement and was playing under the dark cloud of an internal
issue which saw five players, including four defencemen, suspended earlier
in the week for violating teams rules.
And then it surpasses its nightly average of 625 fans with one of its best
draws of the season.
At the same time, games in Markham, Kingston and Brampton — all teams with
winning records and situated in the top half of their conferences — drew a
combined 413 customers, topped by 175 in Markham.
Crazy, huh?

NFL: Alternative logic

The National Football League, which could easily stand for the No Freakin’
Logic football program in the opinion of many poolsters, is an odd bird.
It’s true what they say about any given Sunday, the truest testament to
parity an unbalanced and weighted schedule can provide in order to create
fan, er, betting interest.
Sometimes you must wonder, though, about the absurd nature in which games
unfold. 
Of all the sports, the NFL is the sport where coaches are well-established
as ultra control freaks, spending days on end holed up in their offices,
looking over game films to acquire the slightest edge on an opponent.
Does it not seem unfair, then, that so many games are determined by
sloppiness, bungling and sheer luck, good or bad? The human element,
including fumbling hands, bumbling blockers and plain old boneheaded play
calls — how does a coach account for all that?
How does a poolie possibly forsee it all?
There is no logic to it all that I can detect.
Of course, I’m stinkin’ it up in my NFL pool, so my question is simple —
given the illogical nature of outcomes, what kind of mind can actually sniff
this stuff out?

Aurora sports council bends ears of political hopefuls

It was difficult predicting what might happen when the Aurora Community Sport Council announced plans to host Sport Matters, an all-candidates meeting leading up to the Nov. 13 municipal election.
For there seems no such thing as a perfectly contented community sports group.
Conducted in front of a packed Aurora Legion hall Thursday night, the concept of picking candidate’s brains on sports and recreation issues was a bold initiative and one certainly long overdue. And certainly an idea suited to any community of significant size and possessing a multitude of sporting organizations.
Rarely, if ever, do sports organizations enjoy the opportunity to display their might and potential power. In that sense, this was refreshing.
Too often, residents involved in sports are content to grumble amongst themselves while nothing gets done. That’s why it is good to see the bold first step taken by the Aurora sports council rather than to be content with the usual moaning and groaning about the shortcomings of the recreation and leisure departments.
Essentially, it was a chance to air concerns in the rapidly growing sports and recreation community in Aurora to get a sense for where the 20 council and three mayoral candidates stand on issues near and dear to their athletic-minded hearts.
Indeed, there was the usual sidestepping and dancing around hotspots one would expect, but there also seemed enough sincerity to indicate the would-be politicians were paying attention and, possibly, willing to work with groups. That makes it a positive experience.
The evening included introductory statements from 22 of the 23 candidates seeking election, in addition to fielding six questions put forth by the ACSC and a disappointingly brief at-large question period from the audience.
An important focal point during the evening was the town’s master plan, sadly outdated and behind the times by several years. Particularly popular was discussion of allotting land for future recreation venues in a growing Aurora. That, and a pledge from some of the potential politicos the sports council deserves a significant voice in the future of recreation planning in the Town of Aurora.
Ironically, one long-term goal was succinctly put out there by a candidate who suggested someday, perhaps, there will be no need for a separate all-candidates meeting for sports in the community.
That, of course, is totally up to the politicians.

Run-around all over the town

Access to town hall is becoming real annoying. Real fast.
Getting direct answers to queries has never been more difficult and
frustrating than presently at the Town of Newmarket.
Actually speaking with a department head? It’s likely easier to phone the
White House and invite the president to an al-Qaeda sleepover.
It should not be next-to-impossible to contact a town authority, who, for
all intents, actually is on the taxpayer’s dime and should be available at
least during business hours.
In Newmarket, your initial call, received by the Department of Reception, is
passed along to the Department of Corporate Communications whose job it
seems is to perform the legwork and answer inquiries for the tall foreheads.
Never mind that it may take all day to find someone down the hall or that
actually speaking to the individual in charge is preferred.
In today’s episode, it required nearly five hours to track down a simple
‘yes’ or ‘no’ to a query for the recreation department regarding the
installation of lights at a soccer field at the Magna Centre.
But, jeez, they do make plans to tear down swimming pools, melt down arenas,
build playing fields and such. So squeezing a couple of return phone calls
to explain these actions shouldn’t be that tough.
Ridiculous.
It was the City of Vaughan, I suspect, that stumbled upon the notion of a
locked down, sound-proof city hall a few years ago when scandals seemed to
crop up too regularly. Since gossip has a way of traveling quickly from town
to town, next thing you know bright bulbs in other municipalities figured
it an excellent means to control the information seeping through their
walls.
The problem is, the media is shut out and, by extension, so too are
citizens. Loose lips sink ships, one supposes, but this apparent siege
mentality is way overboard and out of control.
The cone-of-silence attitude is not only annoying, but disrespectful to the
citizenry. It smacks of paranoia, too.

Hired to be fired

In the wake of another blown lead, a head rolled in the desert this
week.
That is in reference, of course, the NFL’s Monday night game in which the
Arizona Cardinals held a 20-point lead in the second half yet lost to the
Chicago Bears.
The unfortunate victim was Keith Rowen, the Cards’ offensive coordinator,
who was found to be the scapegoat and promptly fired.
At least the Cardinals scored two offensive touchdowns against a Chicago
squad that rarely concedes meaningful scores, and lost.
The Bears offence, on the other hand, didn’t generate a touchdown all night,
evidently handing over the controls to Rex the Wonderdog in the absence of
quarterback Rex Grossman. And their offensive coach gets to keep his job. Of
course, Chicago is sitting pretty at 6-0.
Just goes to show plenty gets overlooked in a winning atmosphere.
Well, except in Oakland where field manager Ken Macha of baseball's
Athletics was terminated despite winning a West Division title and finally
advancing the baseball Athletics to the American League championship series
after several recent misfires.
He might as well have lost, rather than sweep the Minnesota Twins in the
opening round, for all it mattered.