10 WEEKEND THINGS FOR CAPITAL AUTO MALL

1 – KICKIN’ ASPHALT: Saturday night was the highlight of the summer for me! Former Mayor Pat Fiacco and I were invited to be the celebrity flagmen on opening night at Kings Park Speedway. What a trip! I truly felt like I was in Tennessee, or the Florida Panhandle. The stands were filled to the maximum “allowable” capacity and it was shown on province-wide television. These guys do it right, and the track had a mini-Nascar feel. Seeing the stock cars and trucks sailing around the track under that huge blue prairie sky was simply majestic. Kudos to the provincial government for giving the green flag to the racing season. Races continue at 2:00 pm Sunday! See you there. Admission is only FIVE DOLLARS and they have perhaps the best concession in town. (The top rival is the Regina Red Sox)

*By the way it’s dangerous as hell. Get out and enjoy one of the last bastions of sports before it’s Health & Safety’ed to death. The origins of auto-racing go back to the 1920’s and moonshine running in the US South. 100 years later, I’m here for it. Sorry it took so long.

2 – BUCKET LIST: It truly gets your heart racing and the adrenaline pumping when you’re standing on a platform suspended over a track, and you’re waving a flag while the cars whiz underneath you! The only other feeling I’d compare that to is being in an MMA cage and hearing the gate “clink” behind you as you’re locked inside with two human animals. YIKES! I’ll put this racing experience into a really cool bank of things I’ve been lucky to do including announcing IBF boxing on Pay-Per-View, MMA on Fight Network, not to mention Grey Cups and the Memorial Cup. #blessed

3 – CFL OR NO CFL?: My emotions got the best of me earlier in the week when I wrote that my gut says the CFL will play in 2020. Most of my days are spent visiting with management types, coaches and players and they’re just so eager and optimistic about playing that I was momentarily convinced. However my brain says otherwise. They’re running out of time, there never really was enough money, and the Players Association seems split at best. Pray for the CFL.

4 – HAMMERIN’ HANK: Canada’s newest football Hall of Famer Henry Burris unloaded on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday’s Rod Pedersen Show. “If anything’s going to happen, we need money to do it,” Burris said. “And right now, where’s the money going to come from? Me being here in Ottawa, all the talk is Trudeau’s taking care of the Trudeaus and Morneau’s taking care of the Morneaus. As long as they’re taking care of their tight circle, nobody on the outside is going to be affected. It’s a shame. Right now as far as we can tell, the Trudeaus aren’t big fans of the CFL.” How remarkably un-Canadian this entire situation is.

5 – PLAYERS: CFL owners and governors are likely gambling that in the 11th hour, the players will vote in favour of a Return To Play despite the fact many are grumbling about the proposal on Twitter. However the governors shouldn’t assume this will happen. It appears the majority of players have picked up second jobs – for instance sack leader Charleston Hughes is doing landscaping in southwestern Saskatchewan – and this brings up the point I made a few months ago about NLL labour relations. As soon as the players don’t *need* to play football, they’ve got the leverage and it appears we’re very close to that now. It’s been 131 days or so of “nothing”, but the wildest days are still to come.

6 – ALL-TIME RIDERS: Absolutely no argument here with TSN’s All Rider team which was announced on Friday evening. I might’ve switched Jeff Fairholm for Hugh Campbell, but that’s simply a matter of choice. TSN got it right in naming Wes Cates the #2 all time running back behind George Reed, and ahead of Kory Sheets, Kenton Keith and Mike Saunders. Nice job TSN.

7 – NO-KAY BLUE JAYS: Canadian baseball fans were incensed with Saturday’s news that the Federal Government won’t allow the Blue Jays to host their home games in Toronto this summer. The border will remain closed, even for Major League Baseball which would’ve been crisscrossing the border at will. I get the outrage of Jays fans, but the government has to do what’s best for Canada, not the Toronto Blue Jays. So they’ll play their home games in Buffalo or Dunedin. Case closed, and no argument here.

8 – RETURN TO ICE: With each passing day, it appears the Stanley Cup Playoffs are going to be a “go”. Kudos to the NHL for pulling this off and doing it smartly. The players we’ve talked to are eager to play and soon we’ll be setting up playoff drafts. I even got an email reminder from OfficePools.com. Here’s a case of the players and owners working together and it appears to have been seamless. Wowza!

9 – MEAN: Speaking of betting, oddsmaker Bovada has Taylor Swift listed as the betting favourite to perform at Super Bowl LV halftime in Tampa. The full odds are: Taylor Swift +150, Adele +300, Rihanna +600, Arianna Grande +800, Drake +1500, Jay Z +1500, Ed Sheeran/Elton John/Foo Fighters/Justin Bieber/The Wkend +2000, Billie Ellish +2500, Imagine Dragons/Queen & Adam Lambert +3300, Bon Jovi/Lizzo/Post Malone +4000, Kendrick Lamar/Metallica +5000.

10 – RANDOMS TO END: 2 Pet Peeves – Kent Austin still isn’t in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame and Richie Hall still isn’t in the Roughriders Plaza of Honour. … God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. … The CEBL national tournament begins next weekend featuring your Saskatchewan Rattlers. Watch the games on CBC. … Welcome back CBC Sports! Where’ve ya been? … We’re entering our fourth week on national television with The Rod Pedersen Show on Game+ TV Network in over a million homes across Canada and the US. It’s believed ours is the first live, daily, national television show produced out of Saskatchewan in broadcast history. Corner Gas and Prairie Berry Pie were filmed and produced here, but they weren’t live. This is hella exciting! … If you’re wondering where the reader comments went on this blog, our tech guys have upped the security settings and it’s made it difficult to post comments. We’re working on it. If you want to comment on these columns, comment on the Facebook link. And identify yourself. … The Red Deer Rebels were voted by DUBNetwork.ca as having the #1 logo in the WHL. I strongly disagree, and feel their logo looks like an ant with horns. Sask teams were ranked this way: Swift Current #5, P.A. #11, Saskatoon #16, Regina #17, Moose Jaw #20. The Pats should be ranked farrrrr higher due to the fact their logo really hasn’t changed since the franchise’s inception in 1917. Incidentally the Portland Winterhawks were ranked last since the writers felt it was a clear rip-off of the Chicago Blackhawks. … Word in SJHL circles is reigning Goalie of the Year Berk Berkeliev is considering leaving the Melville Millionaires for the USHL. In the words of Julia Roberts in the movie Pretty Woman, “Big mistake. BIG! HUGE!” … What we’re watching on Netflix: Animal Kingdom, Bloodline, Trump: An American Dream and The Ranch. … Saturday marked 2,000 days sober for me. I’m not going back. … Kenton Keith turned 40 this week. … Happy birthday today to CFLPA exec Jeff Keeping, Roughriders D-lineman Chad Geter and Regina Pats alum Jesse Deckert!

Y’er welcome,
RP
@rodpedersen