Monday, March 30, 2009

The Twit: Sick As A Dog Edition

Alright, considering it's been over a week since my last true post, I'll bring you up to date, Twitter style, on the subjects that caught my attention during that time, in 140 characters or less (I promise to break that last rule a few times).

  • The viewing of the 12 Hours of Sebring was a success, even though the race was surprisingly boring. Too few battles, only 3 cautions (which allowed the field to get very spread out). Father-in-law said he loved it, though, so it was a success in that sense.
  • Hats off to Curt Schilling, who retired after a remarkable career. I don't care whether or not the bloody sock was a put-on: it worked and added to a magical World Series run in 2004. Another favourite Schilling moment: draping a towel over his head every time Mitch "Wild Thing" Williams pitched in the 1993 World Series, unable to watch. His gut feeling was right, it turns out ("Touch 'em all, Joe!!").
  • Lots of back and forth about Montreal Canadiens ownership issues. I'm not convinced Gillett is serious about selling his sports assets. Just a gut feeling, but I think he might be genuine when he says it's simply an evaluation of assets and has no intention selling his stakes in Canadiens, NASCAR and Liverpool FC.
  • Great post over at Out of Left Field about the Rapidz suing the Can-Am league and the City of Ottawa. The only thing I'll say in defence of the Zipperheads is that they were hard done by the City for quadrupling stadium fees from $250,000 to $1,000,000 for the upcoming season, making the whole venture unsustainable. It's no secret as a baseball fan and player that the City of Ottawa is waging a war against the sport to squeeze it out of the landscape.
  • WBC crown stays with Japan for another four years. For some reason the magic that surrounded the original WBC failed to materialize this time around. Haven't put my finger on the cause, but expect a full WBC post-mortem on these pages in the coming weeks.
  • Toronto FC starts the season undefeated! Great win in Kansas City and a plucky effort for the draw in Columbus, where 1,500 TFC fans made the trip. When's the last time 1,500 fans of a Canadian professional sports team travelled to the rival city to cheer on their team? Probably last season, again when TFC played in Columbus. Come on soccer less-than-enthusiasts, GET ON THE BUS!
  • Dale Mitchell was fired as Canadian Men's National team head coach. Another indicator of the Canadian Soccer Association's incompetence: the man had driven the team into the ground during World Cup qualification despite our most talented team ever taking the pitch. The last game of that effort was in November. The team hasn't played since. It took them four months to determine he hadn't done a good job? Pathetic. Shameful. Ladies and gentlemen, the Canadian Soccer Association.

And there you have it. Did I miss anything (keeping in mind that I will have a full post on both Tiger's comeback and the Austalian GP)?

1 comments:

sager said...

FYI, Théo, the stadium fee would have been the same this year as last year, $108,000. There was a lease in place through '09.

That talk about a million dollars was only a figure floated by city workers for what they could charge, starting in 2010.

Thanks for the link.