Demoralizing

It's not enough that the Bombers go and lose to the worst team in the CFL and it's not enough that they handed said team its first victory and it's not enough that a 42-year-old man at QB shredded the Bomber defence for 400-plus yards passing...

Oh wait, yeah that's enough.

Actually, the toughest part about Friday's loss to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats was the fact the Bombers could have made a significant step in the playoff race and will now have to basically win both ends of the home-and-home with the Saskatchewan Roughriders over the next two weeks to legitimately think about the post season.

Even in the CFL, realistically, you shouldn't lose a game if you put up 39 points.

A few notes:

• Hard to knock Kanye West for his effort even though he threw two picks at the end of the game on potential game-winning drives in the fourth quarter. He threw for over 400 yards and three TDs and kept them in a game their defence tried their hardest to make unmanageable.

• The D. Good lord. More often than not the front seven has been the saving grace for a defensive unit that game in and game out makes opposition QB's look like hall of famers. No pressure up front meant McManus had all day to disect a porous secondary that absolutely desperately needs the front seven to disrupt the passing game. Otherwise, well ... things like Friday night happen. Our secondary is abysmal and the best one we've got, Willie Fields, was exposed over and over on Friday.

• I can't rant about the refs anymore. Well, of course I can. But just anyone who watched that game, specifically the final minute, had to shake their heads at what the stripes pulled off with just a few seconds remaining. A legitimate completion at the 55-yard line was not only called complete but spotted by the refs and nearly whistled in for the next play before, someone (heaven knows which one) waved it off despite the fact that the ref closest to the play and with the best vantage point had called it complete. That eliminated any chance of a hail mary to the endzone because the ball got spotted back at the original line of scrimmage, back near the 30.

Match game

Watching the Bombers-Ticats game right now and something occurred to me that I have been meaning to post for quite some time.

Separated at birth?

Bomber quarterback Kevin Glenn

and

hip hop producer/emcee Kanye West

You be the judge.

Crying

Additionally, today....

This

I guess I wouldn't be MLB batboy material in south Florida.

Hard court

Awhile since I blogged y'all up so here's a quick rambling to make it at least appear as though I'm still making a college try at this thing.

A few hits from around the internet.

• Phil Jackson's legacy is somewhat questioned in this column from ESPN's Mark Kreidler.
> Indeed Jackson's latest foray into coaching, back again with Kobe and the Lake Show, seems to be a curious choice and greater and smarter men than me haven't come up with an answer as to why he's doing it. The Lakers are destined to be a team begging for a playoff spot at the end of the season and that sort of "success" doesn't exactly play into the track record the Zen Master has laid out for himself. If it helps the Lakers get just 10 more wins this season, however, I'm down for whatever.

• A couple of things from the pages of the Brandon Sun.

First, this story about a proposed home for troubled youth to be located in downtown BranCentral. I'm whole-heartedly behind a plan from the Youth For Christ to reach out and attempt to assist kids who are seemingly on the wrong path. But at the risk of sounding elitist, not in my 'hood.

This is a city that's downtown core has practically become gangland with random beatings and extortions, an Indian Posse problem that continues to lurk and streets that most citizens in the area don't feel safe walking on. Now you're offering to bring another 30 troubled teens into the area. Certainly it can be argued that this idea is best served in another region of the city, one that is not already battling with overrunning violence and widespread fear from its constituents.

And then, this story which has always been something that has drawn my ire. Brandonites want the city to fog as the threat of West Nile becomes ... well it's no longer just a threat, people.

In Winnipeg, hippies in various regions have shut down fogging activities by protesting — invariably just looking like children as they do it — the use of malathion to rid the city of the insects. A small minority has essentially decided what is best for the rest of the city despite the fact that there has been very little documented evidence that malathion is deleterious to humans, at least in the amounts and methods it is used when spraying.

These people have now put the entire population in jeopardy of a critical disease in their quest to curb the use of a substance that has yet to even be proven dangerous.

• Jason Whitlock, is an African-American columnist from the Kansas City Star newspaper and a frequent contributor to ESPN.com's Page 2. His column is decidedly Afro-American and he usually finds ways to twist a hot topic into an issue of race even when most people wouldn't see it there. However, it's not always what you'd think.

In this piece, for instance he discusses the firing of Cincinnati men's basketball coach Bob Huggins.

Whitlock's arguments aren't entirely without merit. Truthfully, the idea that NCAA programs are using black athletes for their own gain, despite the consequences, isn't new. Still, to charge that the black community itself needs to stand up and recognize that places like Cinci are not where they should be going, is misguided.

This story is eerily similar to the firing of Jerry Hemmings from Brandon University in the spring of 2004. Hemmings was dismisssed as men's coach after 30 years of service because the university wanted to clean up its image. The image being that the men's program recruited players who were more interested in the ball and the groupies than they were in the studies they were also there for. And for all the sympathizers that Hemmings has in Brandon, the university was right. You can't ignore the fact that there was a track record of delinquency at BU during his time there, even though I fully believe Hemmings was well-intentioned when he brought them in. I agree with his stance that he tried to give players a chance, and I even wrote about it in a column around that time. Brandon University later issued a mantra of what would guide the types of players that get recruited to the school. Much like Zimpher did.

Huggins, however, is different. By all accounts, there is very little that is likable about Huggins. And I think his dismissal was a long time coming. I mean, the guy got caught on tape drunk off his ass and driving around the city. The university gave him a small reprimand and he was back coaching in 2004-05. That move is unjustifiable.

Now he's bought out, surely to find work again — likely at a smaller mid-major — if he should desire, and we're discussing the racism of the NCAA. I don't disagree with Whitlock that the issue here is racially-charged, but I disagree that "black athletes participating in Division I sports graduate at an alarmingly low rate because the people running the institutions don't view the athletes as capable of being truly educated, and the institutions are ill-equipped to educate the black underclass."

Perhaps because I've never been a black student at a Div1 school, but that is passing the buck on what is really going on. It is with a very wide brush that you paint over a student's failures in school or society simply by saying "well they're black and the school just doesn't know how to deal with them." At some point why shouldn't an individual be accountable for the fact they flunk out of school or hook up a felony record that rivals Robert Downey, Jr?

The argument that Whitlock provides could be applied to some schools, some times, in some situations. But to say that the history that Cincy had with troubled players is the institution's fault for not "getting" black players, is letting anyone that fails or does a crime while at school off the hook.

Fact of the matter is Huggins dismissal was what it was: Ridding a post-secondary institution of a man whose only interests at heart were his own and who was a cancer to higher education and athletics.

W

A few things came out of the Steelers' first pre-season game, a fun-to-watch 38-31 victory.

• Hines Ward ended his holdout. More on this later.

• The draft picks were a fairly bright spot. Second-rounder Fred Gibson had a couple catches and a jarring block on an Eagles' DB that was a contender for hit of the night. Heath Miller was quiet but will fit in just nicely as the new TE when Ben takes over for real. Undrafted free agent Nate Washington was the surprise of the night. Caught a few balls and was a pretty exciting weapon. Still, he's going to be well out of the picture with the Steelers' fairly deep receiving corps.

• A unique game to watch because the Steelers' first unit only got in for one series of downs. Hard to say what to expect of them.

• The Steelers were the first team in NFL history to return an interception, kickoff and punt for a touchdown in a single game. A fact I found surprising.

• Could it be said that the Steelers' hit for the cycle? The football equivalent of hitting a single, double, triple and home run in a single game, Pittsburgh had a rushing TD, a passing TD, a kickoff TD, a defensive TD and a punt return TD. This needs to be made into a stat. First team to ever hit for the cycle.

---

With regard to the Ward holdout. Obviously, given the circus of Terrell Owens that has surrounded the Eagles this off-season, the subject of his holdout was a hot topic on last night's cast. I'm not going to suggest that ESPN was wrong in handling it the way they did, but just my own standpoint is to say that anyone suggesting T.O. and Hines' holdouts are in any way similar is completely mental.

Hines, widely regarded as one of the good guys in the NFL, wanted to be paid fair market value and was well below players who aren't even in the same hemisphere as him in terms talent level or contract security. Ward pledged that he wanted to end his career as a Steeler and wanted a contract that would allow him to do that. While all the talk on Owen's website is of him being the martyr and "whipping boy" who "only asks what every other worker in America asks for, respect and dignity", it was Ward who called coach Bill Cowher in an attempt to have the team come to terms. That's the professional thing to do.

Meanwhile, Owens actions have been much publicized and it reminds me of a Skip Bayless piece from a couple years ago that essentially told the Eagles, and by virtue the Baltimore Ravens, whom he spurned in the 2004 off-season, don't be surprised when the love-in ends. When T.O. arrived in Philly in 2004, it was a time of excitement for a team that believed it had the final piece to its puzzle. Undeniably the Eagles benefitted from Owens presence and you can't argue with the numbers he put up.

Still, it's likely the same as dating a stripper: You may love how she looks on your arm but you probably should be aware that something communicable might come from the relationship.

So this is what you get with T.O. and yet we're still, what, surprised? He whined in San Francisco, railed immaturely against his quarterback Jeff Garcia after he left there, told the Ravens to shut it when he was traded there and then, completely unprecedented, lobbied somehow to get a trade to Philadelphia where he got a 7-year deal. Now that contract isn't enough and he's attacked his quarterback again, Donovan McNabb another guy that is widely respected for his professionalism.

So we're talking about one guy who is one of the hardest-working, under-appreciated players that has done the little things for seven years in the same city and another player who is the biggest narcissist in the league with no one's interest but his own.

To paraphrase McNabb, a guy I really like: When you're talking about Terrell Owens, keep Hines Ward's name outta your mouth.

---

And so, lyric of the day is in honour of Owens. From Guru's solo album Jazzmatazz, a collection of hip hop with jazz and soul greats:

Lyric of the Day:
[Guru]
they're sleeping, it's deep man
so peep in closely when I'm speaking
weaklings, it's obvious you can't like up to
your pety pointless words, yet and still you love to
run off your jibs, now there come a time for judgement
punishment, what if we take away your ornaments
and strip you down to the raw deal
then I'd reveal the evidence
cause you don't really represent

Chorus

[Chaka Kahn]
listen here
I'm getting tired of you shooting lip
you better tighten up
or you will really slip up
and say something that you mean to do
turn around and it'll be on you
to save yourself from your call and blunder
...
and like a fool you'll sit and wonder
what, who do you wanna know, wish
no water, no magic spell
can save you from your self made hell
you've made your bed and you know darn well
you got a lay it in the ???
and there's no magic potion
to save you from the wheels you've set in motion
the stone is cut, the die is cast
what were you thinking

Sideshow

So the Bombers win. Fun game to watch and Keith Stokes' third-quarter TD was one of the most fun plays I've watched in a long long time. Just the sheer "this shouldn't still be going on but it is" of the play mixed with the increasing "how is he going to keep going" and then the capped off with the "drag the whole damn team with you" feeling made it fantastic.

Charles Roberts running in from 21 yards out with 40 seconds left to play was straight out of Madden. This doesn't happen in real life, professional sports. A team is getting boot stomped across the field, the game is over, the winning team is running out the clock and then, because of the other team's ineptness, one of the plays goes for a major. I mean it, right out of Madden. Only I would have called that play and I would have been looking to add insult to injury.

A couple of other notes...

• Was I the only one that was just a bit creeped out by Terrell Owens' press conference in his front yard. Ironically I wasn't disturbed by the fact TO would do such a narcissistic thing, but more that every media outlet in Philly was there while he worked out and were counting his sit-ups while asking him about his situation with the Eagles. I'm wondering if any of the reporters asked him out after.

• One more note on TO. Have to love Brad Childress, the Eagles OC, for his response to Owens flipping out on Childress because he would greet him by saying "hey Terrell". Childress' quote was akin to "if saying something like 'how's it going' is a bad thing I'm on the wrong planet because I must have done that about 200,000 to 300,000 times since I've been here.'

• This guy had an unfortunate day.

• Just for the heck of it: Ron Ockimy.

• The CFL refs (yes, we know, we know) are awful. But on the weekly "Here's the Call They Blew This Week" section, the Ticats fumble around midfield that was blown dead a millisecond after the ball hit the turf. The justice came, though, the Cats missed a FG, Stokes returned it to midfield and the Bombers scored a TD. Next, Stokes' plunge in the fourth quarter towards the goaline. It was debatable if he actually got into the endzone, that's how close it was, but then the refs go and spot it at the two-yard line, just a random spot. Idiots.

• Two things happening this month that I will be planning my life around: Kanye West's new album is dropping at the end of the month and 40-Year-Old Virgin is due out as well.

Since you asked...

Picture it: St. Catharines, 1999. It was a more innocent time. I had a university degree, southern Ontario was treating me well and the Indian Posse hadn't yet taken itself off my Christmas card list.

Around that time was the ascension, near peaking, of a little number we liked to call Kings of the Hill, on CFBU 103.7 FM Radio Niagara. The campus and community station of THE Brock University was the breeding ground for the most influential, cutting edge hour of sports talk to ever came out of an asbestos-filled early-1900s house on the edge of BU's gravel parking lot. In short, it was magic.

The KOTH took on many forms and, much like Regis' search for Kelly, a handful of different hosts graced the booth to bring the Niagara Region its most infectious form of radio ever.

Flash forward to ... what are we in... 2005? ... Well I still keep in touch with one of the previous hosts, Julio Garasa, and he and I have decided to bring the KOTH, ostensibly, back to the masses with a series of email exchanges regarding any issue that springs to mind. The basic idea, and yes it's essentially stolen from the brain of Bill Simmons (like much of what I write), is just a sports talk show via email. He in Ottawa, me in ... ugh... Brandon. So we're going to reprint the emails here in a little segment we called, very pompously, Since You Asked ...

Without further adieu,

Since You Asked: Rafael Palmeiro and the Steroid Era


-----Original Message-----
From: David Larkins [dlarkins@steelersfan.org]
Sent: Thursday, August 4, 2005 4:48 PM
To: Garasa, Julio: OPS
Subject: RE: OK ...

i agree with all you've said here, but just have one thing to add: Sammy's corked bat, despite popular rantings, would not be an assistance to him against big league pitching. The cork itself makes the bat too weak to take a 90mph pitch out of the yard. In BP? Sure, because it's just light cracks. But MLB pitchers would saw that thing off, as we saw. Hence, I don't think there was a cork issue in the past. Most people feel it is a booster, when it's actually the exact opposite.


--- "Garasa, Julio: OPS" wrote:

From: "Garasa, Julio: OPS"
Date: Fri, 5 Aug 2005 15:56:37 -0400
To:
Subject: RE: OK ...

True, but no one ever accused professional athletes (especially lately in baseball) of being physics scholars. Just the idea that he (or anyone) would be looking for any type of "edge" (legality, notwithstanding) is enough to question statistics. To ask an obvious question then ... if players have used it in the past for that extra edge in an era when it seemed that only Nolan Ryan could get a pitch in the 90s consistently, and if pitchers are throwing harder today, what's gotten into them (figuratively and literally speaking)?

-----Original Message-----
From: David Larkins [dlarkins@steelersfan.org]
Sent: Friday, August 5, 2005 4:19 PM
To: Garasa, Julio: OPS
Subject: RE: OK ...


yes, undoubtedly there has to be explanations for the amped-up numbers of the past decade and perhaps that is one of the reasons why Raffy is such a contentious pick for the Hall. He did his best work for teams that weren't in contention after the Break, did it in an era where offensive numbers were at an all-time high and did it away from the glaring spotlight fixed on others like Sosa, Bonds and McGwire. Whether it be the watered-down-pitching-caused-by-expansion theory, a tighter-wound ball or angels in the outfield for that matter, it appears the numbers of the past 10-12 years are at the very least suspect. The problem is, as they've suggested for Bonds, putting an asterisk beside a record or a stat isn't as simple as typing Shift-8. Putting that star behind, say Bonds, means adjusting countless other statistics as well for years and
years gone by.

djl.

--- "Garasa, Julio: OPS" wrote:

From: "Garasa, Julio: OPS"
Date: Fri, 5 Aug 2005 16:58:39 -0400
To:
Subject: RE: OK ...

I'm not sure about that. I think it would be fairly easy to see, more or less, when statistics took some noticeable jumps ... and stayed there.

Knowing what we now know, and will surely know in the not too distant future, you could make asterisking a fairly easy endeavour. In theory. The one major caveat is the indignation by players who have been flagged (they'll deny whether they're guilty or not). And they would be right. No one should be accused without some substantial evidence (although I'm leaning towards having photographic evidence count. "Here's Barry in his strong youth ... and here's Barry in his golden years by the Bay").

So how about this: Do the statistical probabilities, the theoretical matrices, and whatever other mathematical formulae are needed to determine an appropriate start (and presumably, end) to 'The Questionable Years', and asterisk that whole era. Claim that you can't count on the morality of players to come clean but nor can you ignore the ethical standard that should be accorded to the game itself (or some such language). This is a stain on the game and it may have come to the point to stop looking for bogeymen; "rotten apples", if you will, who have tarnished the game's image for all. It may serve the game
better to admit to a failure in conduct by men who simply wanted to be better, stronger, faster than any of their predecessors and chose nefarious means of doing so. I've had enough of this "it wasn't outlawed by MLB. I'm not sure if cocaine was specifically outlawed by the game either but that didn't seem to matter to Steve Howe (among others). And I would suggest that MLB played an implicit role in furthering the use of steroids. How? Remember the logo for the home run derby 2-3 years back? The silhouettes of the ball players used were straight out of a comic book. Behemoths with over-rippled arms, torsos, etc. If there was a home run derby during Aaron's time or Maris' time, they wouldn't have used such a logo ... and those guys had some power.

Just a thought.


-----Original Message-----
From: David Larkins [dlarkins@steelersfan.org]
Sent: Friday, August 5, 2005 5:32 PM
To: Garasa, Julio: OPS
Subject: RE: OK ...

my reference to the difficulting of asterisking an entire decade (if that's the bracket we're putting on it) was more with regard to if you asterisk Barry's numbers, and Raffy's, and Sosa's and Alex Sanchez's for that matter, then it causes a ripple effect down the line. It's not simply a HR issue, it's a team's runs produced, it's a pitcher's ERA, it's a pitcher's IP, it's a team's OBP, it's a player's RISP%, it's a pitcher's K's, etc. etc. Run production would also have to be asterisked, as would runs allowed.

Yes, extrapolating on one small asterisk can go on forever — in that looking-into-two-mirrors-ad-infinitum sorta way — and the further down the line, the smaller the issue is. But one asterisk does invariably affect many other numbers it sits beside, making the asterisk not such a simple thing.

--- "Garasa, Julio: OPS" wrote:

"Garasa, Julio: OPS"
To:  
Subject:  RE: OK ...
Date:  Mon 08/08/05 08:36 AM

But that's my point. You asterisk the decade (for example), qualify/define exactly what you mean by it ("due to the apparent rampant use of performance enhancing drugs, ALL records and unbelievable short-term increases in productivity are subject to suspicion and a furrowed brow "(or words to that effect). My suggestion is not to change anything. Let the records and the rest of the stats stand. But make it clear that they were produced in a "questionable" era. Too simple? Occam's Razor,
my friend. Sometimes the simplest solution is the only one. Doesn't do much for those who weren't juicing up, but then again, we're not talking a couple of bad apples. These are entire rows of trees in the orchard we're dealing with.

JG

Extra innings

It's 10 minutes to four in the p.m. and Hendo and I are utterly immersed in a discussion about Roger Clemens and what he would be capable of doing should he pitch in the Manitoba Senior Baseball League.

For those unfamiliar, the MSBL is Manitoba's only senior AAA baseball loop and its six teams are comprised of mostly 9-to-5'ers, college guys who come up to get a summer workout and keep playing ball, and a few Winnipeg Goldeyes castoffs thrown in. The champion of this league competes in the senior AAA national championships the following year.

The MSBL's top pitcher is Matt Mutcheson whose fastball is generally topping out around 88 mph.

So here's the questions posed, and these were with all seriousness:

• If Roger Clemens was pitching in the MSBL, do you think he could go through the entire season (each team plays 20 games) with a 0.00 ERA.
Debate: The key here is earned runs. With Roger regularly throwing in mid- to high-90s, it's conceivable that MSBL hitters wouldn't be able to get much wood on the Rocket's pitches. Add to that the fact he throws an 89-mph splitter, said to be the best in the MLB, and you gotta think that he would be virtually unhittable. The only hope to get runs off Roger would be that he loses his temper and beans a few guys and then someone is able to get a bloop single.
• If Roger Clemens was playing in the MSBL, what would he hit?
Debate:Well, he's a .191 career hitter in 100-plus at-bats and that's given the fact he played practically his entire career in the DH'ing American League. For a pitcher, that's a pretty good average. Top hitters in the MSBL are in the mid-.400 range, and you'd be foolish to think Clemens wouldn't be at least in that echelon.
• If Roger Clemens was pitching in the MSBL, how many no hitters would he toss?
Debate:The no-no never comes easy, no matter who you're dealing with. Still, you'd have to think that Clemens would be at least flirting with one each time out. If he starts, say, 10 games in the regular season, it would be safe to say he could muster at least two.
• If Roger Clemens was playing in the MSBL, would the league's most inept team — the Oak River Dodgers (3-16-1) — be an automatic lock for the championship?
Debate: The Dodgers gave up a league-high 140 runs this season and were routinely blown out, including a 24-2 gem in the final game of the season in which they gave up five jacks in the hitter-friendly AT&T Rogers Wireless Great Canadian Ball Park of Oak River. Still, the MSBL schedule is spaced out enough that a team will have one, two or three days rest between games. A guy like Clemens could pitch off three-days rest and could possibly make upwards of 15 appearances in one regular season, should he and the Dodgers desire. Still, at some point a team has to cash in runs and there would be times that other pitchers would have to throw. With Roger out, the Dodgers lose. With him in, they certainly could get a first-round bye in the playoffs (first or second place) and then just hope they can throw him as much as possible in the best-of-five semifinal and best-of-seven championship. All they need him to do is appear three times and four times in each.

Thank you for joining in on the discussion.