Entries Tagged 'Sports' ↓

Major League Baseball continues the extortionary policy of requiring all-public funding for any stadium: Baseball Rejects Council’s Changes In Financing Plan for D.C. Stadium. This is the underlying reason why baseball left Montreal and will likely leave Washington before ever playing a game there. MLB needs this cautionary tale to force other governments in other jurisdictions to put up the money or lose their team. The reason Montreal wasn’t viable had nothing to do with attendence or revenues and everything to do with the fact that the Provincial and Federal gov’ts can’t be bought or intimidated as easily as US municipal, county, and state governments can be.

but I’m a huge baseball fan. October is always magical for true fans of the game; no matter who is still in the running, you are pretty much guaranteed some very good, gripping baseball. This year is special, though. Last night, the Boston Red Sox won the AL Pennant sending them to the World Series. It will be their first visit since 1986, and it’s possible they’ll win for the first time since 1918!

In the Senior Circuit, tonight’s Game 7 between the Houston Astros and the St Louis Cardinals should prove to be a corker as well. The teams have been very easily matched through the 6 games that have been held, and both have great offensive talent and overall well-rounded teams - either would represent the National League very well against the Sox.

Personally, I’m pulling for a Red Sox-Cardinals Series. Two old-time teams, both featuring future Hall-of-Famers, and chemistry to spare.

I went to the Big O to see what was likely my last Montreal Expos game. The ‘Spos lost to the Phillies, as they have done many times before in my presence, but there was an odd poignancy about as well. Aislin, the noted editorial cartoonist at the Gazette, put it well: “It’s going to be weird…”

Michael Farber has published a text that follows from the not-so-stunning 3-2 Canadian victory over Finland last night in the World Cup of Hockey: The night hockey died. “The tournament turned out top be a pleasant diversion from the grim business ahead, no more or less. Today, the only bouquet that should be thrown are the lilies on the fresh grave of a game that deserves better.”

A lot of people around here probably think that’s an overstatement, but I really don’t think it is. The impact of the impending player lockout due to the impasse between the NHL and the NHLPA is, I believe, a much graver situation than anyone seems to acknowledge. Both sides are equally entrenched - the players won’t ever accept a hard salary cap, NFL-style, and the owners CANNOT proceed under anything resembling the current situation. I use “cannot” advisedly, because I think the important but unreported fact on the owners side is that at least 6 teams have likely given league President Gary Bettman an ultimatum: win this or we fold up the following day.

So the owners are in a bind - they are held hostage to franchises that probably shouldn’t have ever been in the league in the first place - Carolina, Nashville, Anaheim, Tampa, Florida, Phoenix, and others. So for the first time in a pro sports negotiation, you have an influence that demands discipline. Specifically, there is a sword hanging over the head of the Torontos, Detroits, and New Yorks of the league that forces them not to cave in as they likely would.

At the same time, you have a union behaving in very odd ways. Obviously they’re right not to want a salary cap - their members are THE value in the NHL, so they are justified in asking for market value on a case-by-case basis. But the only way they get out of this is if they wave goodbye to about 150 jobs - not behaviour common to most unions.

In a situation such as this, I don’t think Farber is exaggerating at all. They are all playing chicken with the NHL at our expense. And no one will hold them to it here - everyone will in the US. So they march blithely on, unconcerned about scenarios I don’t think anyone on either side has really seriously considered.

wants Bush to quit using them as the poster-boys for the US invasion of their country.

even a little bit, you know by now that a couple of days ago a Montreal man got through security with a tutu and polka-dot tights at the diving event and actually dove into the pool before being arrested by security. Today we find that he has been sentenced to five months in jail for his plunge, though he has been released pending an appeal. What has been played down is that he was advertising for the Golden Palace online casino, based in Kahnawake, and that the stunt was one in a long line of stunts designed to drum up attention for the operation.