10 Weekend Things

Taking shots …

1 – BATTER UP: You can’t say it’s been a boring summer! Whether you’ve attended Western Canadian Baseball League playoff games or not, it seems sports fans on the prairies are at least following what’s gone on over the past week. That includes the Moose Jaw Miller Express upsetting the Regina Red Sox in an East Division semifinal and the Saskatoon Berries doing the same to the Medicine Hat Mavericks, setting up a Moose Jaw-Saskatoon East Division Final beginning Sunday at Cairns Field in the Bridge City. (Shades of the WHL East Final). Okotoks and Sylvan Lake are in the West Final.

2 – MARRIOTT REWARDS: As Voice of the Millers, on Tuesday I had the great honour of attending the Miller Express team awards and regular season wind-up at the home of team President Darryl Pisio. To be frank, the speech from Millers head coach Eric Marriott – a 29-year old from Niagara Falls, ON – had my jaw on the grass. Once voted Moose Jaw’s fan choice Most Popular Player as a catcher back in 2019, Marriott talked about the team playing the right way all season, the pride in representing Moose Jaw, how this is the best time of their lives and to embrace it, and the Warriors hockey team won the WHL championship and are now heroes forever in that city, so why can’t the Millers? Then they went out and swept the Red Sox. I don’t know what’s going on in the clubhouses of the other teams, but this Miller squad became a tight-knit family over the summer of 2024 and it’s been remarkable to witness. Go Millers!

3 – BERRY GOOD: At a wonderful brunch on a family farm near Milestone, SK on Saturday, my little cousin looked across the table and said “Is Carter Beck as good as they say?” She was referring to the Saskatoon Berries outfielder and All Star Game MVP who hails from Carnduff, SK but has roots in nearby Lang. Yes, I told her, he is. Maybe better. And some baseball experts predict he will be the next Saskatchewan player to play in the Majors. Before that, Carter told me his goal is to play for Canada in the 2024 Los Angeles Olympics. Local baseball fans would love for Carter to play for the hometown Weyburn Beavers next season, but he’s already committed to Saskatoon.

4 – HALFWAY POINT: Let’s start with the good news. The 2024 Canadian Football League season has hit the halfway point and the rotten fruit is falling off. The Hamilton Tiger-Cats dropped to 2-7 with Saturday’s 33-23 loss at Montreal and benched Bo Levi Mitchell in the process. TSN’s Matt Dunigan surmised Ticats coach Scott Milanovich is “moving on” from the CFL great. Oddly, just a few weeks ago, the League trumpeted that Bo was on pace to throw for 6,000 yards. This isn’t the good news to which I’m referring. No, the good news is that, for the most part, the CFL action is still pretty good and there are some great storylines lining up over the second half of the season. However the Tabbies aren’t one of them.

5 – COMMAND CENTRE: Like anything in sports, the CFL fiddled with video replay and the accompanying command centre to the point that they’ve completely ruined it. Remember back in the day when the onfield head referee would go “under the hood”, look at the replay in a booth on the sidelines, and make the call himself? That’s what they need to go back to, rather than having a bunch of guys reliving their glory years by dictating outcomes in a downtown Toronto office. This isn’t the way it was supposed to be! … But as of Sunday morning the Score App doesn’t have the updated CFL standings, the CFL doesn’t even have an app, and the credibility factor is flatlining. I’m not being negative. I’m tiring of pretending this isn’t going on. Sad!

6 – CFL IMAGE: This is should be an easy fix, and it all rests on the shoulders of Commissioner Randy Ambrosie. They don’t need to emulate other leagues with video replay; they need to do what’s best for the CFL. What seems like a far more colossal threat is the amount of casual sports fans huffing on social media that they’re done with the CFL because of its continued Mickey House antics. “When does the NFL start?”, “I’m done with this league”, etc. That is catastrophic. Is it being reflected in TV ratings and attendance? I’m not really following that anymore but the crowd sure looked good in Montreal on Friday night.

7 – CITY OF CHAMPIONS: I’ve never spent one day of my life “living” in Edmonton but I’ve sure always liked the city. And the people there have always treated me royally for several decades. And they tell me that all the Elkimos franchise needs to do to win fans back is W-I-N. I chuckle, because every market says that, but it really seems that will be the magic formula for the Green & Gold. Unfortunately they seem to be a lonnnnnng ways away from doing that consistently. The trick is, staying afloat financially until they do. And why is it taking so long to introduce the new owner?? Again, I don’t really understand how and why the CFL tall foreheads do the things that they do but it doesn’t keep me up at night anymore.

8 – NATHAN ROURKE: The Victoria/Oakville product was 3/13 for 37 yards passing in the second half for the Atlanta Falcons on Friday night in a 20-13 NFL preseason loss at Miami. Nathan has three QBs ahead of him on the Falcons depth chart (Kirk Cousins, Michael Penix Jr. & Taylor Heinecke) so he’s hanging by a thread but if and when he’s released at the end of the month, you can bet he’ll hang around for the next NFL opportunity before reluctantly returning to the CFL. You wanna know why? Because once he does, he’s saying good-bye to the NFL forever. It’s that simple.

9 – HOCKEY: I see it everyday and still chuckle. “I miss hockey”, so many are posting to social media. Yah!? Then why didn’t you go to the Gretzky/Hlinka Tournament in Edmonton where the World Under-18 event featured fabulous hockey, played in a largely empty Rogers Place? Did you at least watch it on TSN where Dustin Nielson and Craig Button called it so beautifully on TSN? No? Ohhhhhh – you don’t miss hockey. You just miss the NHL! There’s a difference. Just sit tight and enjoy the predictions, lists and polls going around which the networks, teams and reporters are posting to pass the time. It’ll be here before you know it! In fact WHL camps should be opening in a week. Lorne Molleken always said junior camps start right after Buffalo Days.

10 – RANDOM THOUGHTS: Bicycles should be banned in Wascana Park. Don’t @ me. … History favours the winners. … The Toronto WNBA franchise is launching a Name The Team contest, and asking for colour suggestions too. My dream expansion team would be one in the NLL, based in South Florida and playing out of Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise. We’d call it the Florida Wave and the colours would be turquoise, gold and orange. I’ve already talked to a prospective owner about it. … The rules are there are no rules. … An average of six new teams per year make it into the NFL playoffs. Who will those six teams be this year? … Visitors to corn mazes across the country are finding a familiar figure in the winding labyrinth of tall stalks. Snoopy. More than 80 farms in the U.S. and Canada have teamed up with Peanuts Worldwide to create “Peanuts”-themed mazes to celebrate the beloved strip’s 75th birthday. The mazes span 35 states and provinces, from California to New York, Ontario to Texas, and are expected to attract more than 2 million visitors. Farmers are signing up for the free service because the mazes are part of the customer lure, in addition to things like hay rides, fresh produce and pumpkin carvings. … AND HOW WAS YOUR WEEK?

Y’er welcome,
RP
@rodpedersen