Cuddy Shark

FIFA, NHL learning from each other

A bit addicting this World Cup stuff.
But one might think the really catching thing is the bug FIFA contracted from the National Hockey League.
Judging by the crackdown on fouls so far into this World Cup in Germany, it would seem FIFA president Sepp Blatter was in fact the applying the teachings of commissioner Gary Bettman to the so-called beautiful game. This thing looks like an early-season NHL game when players, coaches and fans didn’t know what the heck was going on with the referees and their whistles.
This World Cup seems to have gone nuts-over-heels in trying to keep up with hockey.
Bettman is not shy about accepting accolades for the cleaned-up image of his sport. Blatter, on the other hand, has been taking heat because his referees are calling too much and spoiling the flow of play.
As the tournament, which most of the world outside North America considers to be the greatest on Earth, moves into the quarter-final rounds today, the whirlwind pace rivaling the early rounds of the NCAA’s March Madness basketball tournament has slowed and paused to allow for reflection.
By any standard, some terrific games have been played.
Some nasty games have been played, too. Record numbers for yellow and red cards to the point where one might wonder if a blend of the two colours might not be recommended.
It at least seems like scoring is up a bit, too.
It seems strange now to recall hockey had become soccer in recent years. Rife with 1-0 and 2-1 games, the NHL product had been lulled to a near-standstill. This we now understand for certain because we witnessed during the past hockey season just how terrific the sport can really be when skilled players are permitted to shine rather than be mauled, clutched and grabbed. Now, it turns out, 6-5 playoff games with power plays from start to finish are actually pretty entertaining fare.
Perhaps, unfortunately, for soccer, there existed no build-up period or regular season in which officials, players and fans had a chance to adjust their games. Sadly, the new philosophy of stringent refereeing was conducted in an on-the-run fashion and under the glare of the world’s spotlight.
Unlike his NHL counterpart, Euro-Bettman is appearing to show signs of retreat as tournament officials are criticized, ridiculed and dismissed by world media for calling the game too tightly.
But if soccer follows hockey’s lead and is able to clean up the blatant crap that goes on in a game, pretty soon maybe we’ll be hearing those soccer hooligans bemoaning the following sentiment: “Went to a soccer game the other night and a hockey game broke out.”

Rule changes may cost parents plenty

It’s costly news for goaltenders in minor hockey as Hockey Canada regulates equipment.
The governing body for hockey in this country announced at its recent annual general meetings in St. John’s, Nfld. that professional goalies will soon be joined by goalies at all levels of hockey in adhering to reduced equipment sizes.
Actually, the biggest losers in Hockey Canada’s announcement regarding reductions in goaltender’s gear to come into play for the 2008-09 season are not necessarily the goalies, but their parents.
You see, as the regulations governing equipment seep into the minor hockey ranks, parents are about to lose a valuable tool in reducing the high cost of sticking a kid in front of the net to stop, not score, pucks.
Playing goal is easily the most costly position on the ice, and perhaps in any team sport. It costs thousands of dollars in gear even before a goalie places a blade on the ice.
As it stands, parents are able to re-sell equipment their child has outgrown to another party in an effort to defray the cost of a new set of gear. No big deal, right?
Well, it likely will be a big deal. For who is going to buy illegal gear for their kid to wear?
Young goalies and their parents do have a grace period. But they will be obliged to purchase new equipment to meet specifications for the 2008-09 season, matching those adopted by the NHL this season.
The goalies will soon adapt to the size change. But one might wonder how many would-be goalies will be chased from the game because they can’t afford the equipment.
Maybe minor hockey associations ought to consider the possibility of decreased fees for goalies.
Or, since we’re in an era of radical change, even let them play for free.

Time to rethink RBC tourney disaster

Hockey Canada has nobody to blame but itself for the Royal Bank Cup tournament that concluded Sunday night at Brampton in almost complete anonymity.
Hosted by the Streetsville Derbys, a team with very little fan base, a mediocre on-ice record in recent years and an apparent inability to organize much beyond a penalty shot, the national body might have been wise to poke around, kick some goalposts and ask a few questions before awarding its Canadian Jr. A Hockey League crown jewel.
In retrospect, the tournament turned out pretty much the way everyone anticipated.
As it stands, the event to produce the champion for Jr. A hockey in this country is viewed in most corners a colossal embarrassment. The crowning insult was a nationally televised final in which a smattering of fans — reported to be 900 and change — turned out to the cavernous Powerade Centre in Brampton to watch the Burnaby Express pound the Yorkton Terriers, 8-2.
That the other 35 teams in the Provincial Jr. A Hockey League were obligated to purchase $1,000 worth of tickets couldn’t even prop up attendance figures so miserable officials stopped posting them early in the week-long event.
It would take a miracle for Hockey Canada to consider southern Ontario as a venue any time soon when it is handing out the event. Then again, considering the tournament never really has caught the public fancy in Ontario, maybe it’s time to let it go. Previous national championships in Sudbury and Ottawa are recalled as flops, too.
Publicly, HC is blaming the RBC dud on a variety of issues, ranging from competition against the Stanley Cup playoffs to the lack of a home crowd for the host side because it was forced to move all the way from Streetsville/Mississauga to Brampton to stage the five-team tournament. Get real.
It is more likely a great many potential fans were turned off by the presence of a host team with little profile and which didn’t deserve to be competing in the first place. Geez, the Derbys had not even played a game since February after losing a first-round playoff series.
As a comparison of entries in the RBC, consider that the Derbys had half (27) the wins of the next closest competitor, Burnaby Express (54). At the top was Fort William North Stars, which represented the Ontario Hockey Federation and brought a nation-best 61 regular season and playoff wins into the tournament.
Maybe Ontario doesn’t deserve to host this prestigious event. However, it wasn’t a fair test of the market. It may take a long, long time before we learn otherwise.
In truth, perhaps the event truly belongs in small-town western Canada.

Never has second best been such a spectacle

It is mind-boggling that so much interest is being spent on the notion Major League Baseball has displayed a detached interest in Barry Bonds’ pursuit of its home run record, perhaps its most glamorous record.
Good for MLB.
Of course, Babe Ruth’s is not just another baseball name. It is probably the best known name since the sport’s inception. His exploits legendary, on and off the field, for that matter.
However, Ruth sits second to Hank Aaron in the home run hammering department, which makes one wonder: if Bonds get this much attention for being second best, what happens should he last long enough to chase down Aaron’s total of 755 home runs.
With the steroid scandal aspect surrounding Bonds readily available as a handy, all-purpose out, even Bud Selig gets it that moving to No. 2 on any list is far less worthy of celebration than No. 1. One can’t help but feel commissioner Selig, who remains pretty much been head-in-the-sand over the steroids issue, hopes Bonds’ assault on the all-time record held by Hank Aaron stalls somewhere shy of the 755 homers counted by Hank Aaron.
Bonds entered tonight’s play with 713 home runs, one shy of the record Ruth established so long ago, fueled only by beer and hot dogs, according to legend. Not really sure to what, if anything unworthy, Hammerin’ Hank’s slugging proficiency is attributed.
You have to feel badly for surviving members of Ruth’s family who have been invited to track Bonds’ pursuit of their ancestor’s achievements. Requests by the San Francisco Giants, with input surely from the folks in charge of Bonds’ self-promoting reality show, to witness the occasion have been graciously rejected.
Good for the Ruth girls.
Somehow, it’s difficult to see one of the Babe’s granddaughters receiving a hug from Bonds on the occasion of his 715th homer as being terribly genuine. They really have no reason to attend.
Rarely has so much attention been directed toward being second best. Thankfully, the Bambino’s kin seem to understand that concept.
It will be interesting to watch, once Bonds passes Ruth, to see how close he gets to Aaron.
Certainly, age and injury and the manner in which teams pitch to Bonds will at least delay the process. Maybe together those issues will keep the more credible Aaron at the top of the pile.
It would be interesting to see what kind response is forthcoming from Aaron should that time come.

Hockey fans get ready for a long, long ride

It’s the second season. Make that the real season.
And for fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs, a long season, if it is to be noticed at all.
See, there is a suspicion Leafs fans tend not to notice much going on unless it wears blue and white and we know all about that issue.
Since none of the 16 Stanley Cup participants even vaguely resemble that description, look for especially well-groomed gardens and flower beds in your neighbourhood this spring.
Hey, what are you gonna do if your playoff pool team contains nothing but players eliminated before the wing ding begins?
What it means is the rest of us will be obliged to trudge along this Stanley Cup playoff season without our favourite foils. We’ll get along at least until our pool squad has no chance to succeed.
The longest, most grueling of playoff tournaments in professional sports gets under way tonight with another much-anticipated opening round of thrill, chills and spills. Not to mention cuts, stitches and scraggly facial growths that would make Grizzly Adams blush.
The NHL playoffs are a funny beast. Much like Major League Baseball, the opening round often proves the most exciting and fan-friendly. There really is no reason, it just seems to work that way.
Oddly, the opening round is the point at which teams would seem least likely to pair up well given the nature of the seeding of teams. Maybe because teams are much fresher, and thereby less likely to be beaten up, but you know someone that shouldn’t will get beaten in the first round. Happens every year.
Unfortunately, the Stanley Cup’s endurance race wraps up just about the time folks are heading to the cottages and beaches for summer vacation. For those aforementioned Maple Leafs fans, it will only seem like years since they’ve been gone when training camp opens in September.
But, truly, the real winners can be broken into two groups — those who win the Stanley Cup and those who lose early and can shave those nasty-looking beards.

Jays go to bat for T.O. sports fans

The Toronto Blues Jays certainly have an open door.
Now we’ll see if they’re able to enter the room with a splash.
With the Toronto Maple Leafs departing the Toronto spring sports scene ever so meekly following a three-week tease for a playoff spot, the Blue Jays have centre stage to themselves with a chance to enhance their place in the market after a run of mediocrity for more than a decade.
It is a rare opportunity for the Birds of Summer given the fact the Leafs had not missed the Stanley Cup playoff party in nearly a decade.
But now, with an off-season spending spree behind them and no pesky Maple Leafs competing for attention and attendance, the Blue Jays stand to become Toronto’s No. 1 team, at least for a few months until hockey again starts to dominate talk in and around the city.
In the meantime, a successful Blue Jays run in the American League East will at least indicate there is room for their ilk on the Toronto sports front. It’s not like Leaf Nation fans have much else to do for a while anyway.
Despite adding all those new arms and bats during the off-season, it remains fact a lot of things have to go right for the Toronto Nine to challenge perennial playoff contenders such as the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox.
No one rightly should expect the Blue Jays to replace the Maple Leafs permanently — the Toronto sports fan doesn’t work that way — but the opportunity to revisit the franchise’s glory days of the early 1990s exists. And with it, a chance to develop a new generation of fans and young baseball players.
However, should the Jays compete and still not nurture and grow a following, perhaps it will signal the beginning of the end for professional baseball in Canada.
These opportunities don’t come along all that often. The Blue Jays need to step up and hit one out of the park.

Rising fees pose threat to sports groups

Still find it difficult to buy into the increase in fees to use municipally owned facilties.
Perhaps it is wrong to make the assumption, but are municipalities not obliged to provide some reasonably priced facilities as part of their responsibility to the community and the very taxpayers who pay for such luxuries through their tax dollars?
It’s difficult to believe user groups are not rebelling or up in arms against this heavy-handed approach by municipalities that, in time, could threaten some athletic groups by pricing them out of the range of many residents. If for no other reason than to force municipalities to provide reasonable explanations for their actions.
As one sports group executive pointed out this week, the extent of consultation with the Town of Newmarket amounted to a meeting called to hand out a document announcing an increase in fees, in that case, through an hours used rate scheme.
There is a quality of community life issue at stake. By raising fees dramatically, municipalities risk pricing athletics out of the range of some families, kids are forced out of constructive activities and into the streets and dark alleyways.
Sounds alarmist? Wait and see.

Blue Jays' influence is huge

It could be that the short-term future of baseball in Ontario, and possibly Canada, is in the hands of the Toronto Blue Jays.
Although registration numbers seem to be on the rebound after more than a decade of decline since the Toronto franchise celebrated back-to-back World Series, the sport could receive a significant boost at the grassroots level should the Blue Jays contend seriously for a post-season berth in September.
There’s nothing like a playoff run, or World Series title for that matter, to pique interest.
When you think back to 1992 and 1993, current Canadian players, such as Atlanta Brave Peter Orr and others now in or near the major leagues, were watching and developing new heroes.
In 1994, numbers hit their peak in this country on the heels of Blue Jays-mania and the payoff can be observed in significant major leaguers such as Jason Bay (Pittsburgh Pirates), Jeff Francis (Colorado Rockies) and Eric Harden (Oakland Athletics).
In all, 15 Canadians were on the rosters of 12 major league teams when the season opened earlier this week. Not far behind are another 79 Canucks at various minor league levels, chomping at the bit.
Many, at least the ones in their mid-20s, no doubt were influenced by the successes of the Blue Jays.
It really is no coincidence numbers have declined across the country as the Blues Jays fortunes have sagged.
The Blue Jays might not win a World Series title this season. They may not even earn a playoff berth, but they will likely at least put down the groundwork for the next few seasons when more impressionable youngsters are choosing a sports path.

Cheaters often prosper

Easy as it is to despise Barry Bonds, although most of the world doesn’t know him beyond the surly image presented by media interviews, he is merely one more alleged cheater in a long line of cheats in the world of sport.
Who knows what Major League Baseball’s in-house investigation led by former U.S. Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, now a Boston Red Sox’ director,  will reveal — likely not a whole lot — in the weeks and months ahead. And whether it’s that every player or only a few in the major leagues has juiced up, it matters really only that they have operated outside the rules.
All sports have cheats. It is human nature to cheat. No, that doesn’t mean everyone cheats, but in situations where an edge is possible, someone will come up with a way to circumvent the intended rules of a game.
Bonds, right or wrong, happens to be the highest-profile ballplayer under suspicion of using steroids. Look at the guy now and 10 years ago and it’s easy to see why he would be suspect. Having a surly, miserable attitude toward the media hardly helps his cause.
Until injuries have slowed his progress, Bonds was moving toward the revered all-time home run record held by Hank Aaron who played in an era when cheating technology was more about a scuffed baseball or watering down basepaths to slow the base-stealing rabbits on the other team’s roster.
Baseball happens to be a sport in which cheating is accepted as standard practice. The lords of the game tend to turn a blind eye, accepting it as almost a time-honoured part of the sport.
Cheating is cheating. Isn’t the player who grabs on to an opponent’s soccer jersey to slow him down not breaking rules as surely as the sprinter who bulks up by juice or injection to turn in a world record performance?
Oddly, cheating is a multi-layered beast. It can somehow be categorized as having varying levels ranging from nudge-nudge, wink-wink acceptance to international scandal and disgrace.
Even though steroids is presently the ultimate sin, it can also be determined that hooking an opponent on a breakaway to the ice on the hockey rink is also cheating, as identified by the resulting penalty. Yet it is accepted as part of the game, a penalty is paid (usually) as the game proceeds.
Cheating a little bit seems to be okay. Cheating to any degree, for that matter, seems acceptable until the cheat is caught.
Babe Ruth, who held the major league single season home run record before Roger Maris came along, also used a foreign substance.
And that was long before alleged juice-men such as Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire and Bonds started racking up homers.
In the case of the Bambino, however, it was more likely the resultant hangover caused him more hindrance than help.
It’s tough enough hitting a baseball, without having to decide which of the three coming at you is real.

Armchair GMs get their game on

As the playoff hopes of the Tornoto Maple Leafs swirl evermore quickly
around the drain of the NHL, it's always facscinating to listen in on their
fans.
For the next couple of weeks — heck, even in the weeks since the resumption
of play after the Olympics — fans will beat up their team, general manager,
coach, players, stick boys on the phone-in talk shows and letters to the
sports editor pages. Fire (fill in the blank) yesterday, they chatter, one
picking up from the other. Hire (fill in the blank) immediately. Or words to
that effect.
Sounds familiar? Of course it does.
The armchair GMs concocting and able to rubber stamp any deal they can think
of — "um, yeah, Nik Antropov and Tie Domi to Dallas for Marty Turco and ... yeah, Joe Thornton, that sounds like it'll work. But not unless we get a draft pick, too."
And in the end, after an August and September spent critiquing the trades
made by whomever is calling the shots, October will arrive and Leafs fans
will start picking out their vantage point for the Stanley Cup parade nine
months down the road.
It is fun to watch them behave, no? They die hard, they dream hard, too.