STACKHOUSE’S 10 WEEKEND THOUGHTS

1 – CFL LABOUR – The owners and players got it done and there will be a CFL season after the two sides agreed on a 7-year contract. While I’ve got plenty of off-field reservations about the league, the reality is that there is nothing wrong with the rules despite much belly aching to the contrary. For me, so little about the actual competition on the field has been reported so I needed to do a bit of an offensive skill position primer for myself and figured I’d share it with you in case you are in a similar situation.

2 – CFL EAST – Toronto will be run by Pinball Clemons and that can’t be a bad thing. McLeod Bethel-Thompson starts at QB and cocky RB Andrew Harris has been added from Winnipeg. Hamilton has finally turned over its offense to Dane Evans full-time with Jeremiah Masoli moving on to Ottawa. Evans hopes to have Bralon Addison for a full season in the slot. Masoli is part of a new look RedBlacks team that features William Powell at RB, Darvin Adams, Jaelon Acklin, and BJ Cunningham as weapons for Masoli through the air. Montreal should have a formidable offense with Vernon Adams back at QB (backed up by Trevor Harris).  William Stanbeck may be the best RB in the league with Eugene Lewis and Jake Wienecke set to lead the receiving corps. I’m going to pick the Als to win the East.

3 – CFL WEST – We know what the Riders are going to look like but what about the rest of the division? Mike Reilly has retired and that leaves a big void, not only in BC but in the entire CFL as he was the league’s top quarterback. Canadian Nathan Rourke is set to start in place of Reilly and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see former Rider Isaac Harker get some playing time although he’s listed as their number three at the moment.  Winnipeg will be looking to threepeat and much will be made of Harris’ departure but I don’t think they’ll skip a beat with Brady Oliveira running behind that O line. Zach Collaros needs to stay healthy and the loss of Kenny Lawler is huge but the Bombers are going to be in the mix. Calgary will hope that Bo-Levi Mitchell can build further chemistry with his receivers, all of whom are back from a year ago. They’ve also added oft-injured former Rider Jordan Williams-Lambert. Ka’Deem Carey is as good an RB as you will find.  For Rider fans, the big ‘new’ name with Edmonton is coach Chris Jones. The polarizing figure is retooling the roster with Nick Arbuckle set to start at QB and the formidable James Wilder will be the RB. Assuming Arbuckle wins the job, he’s got Lawler and Derel Walker as his main targets. Could this be the year where the balance of power shifts to the East Division?

4 – RATTLERS OPEN SEASON – The Saskatchewan Rattlers home and season opener takes place on Wednesday against the Niagara River Lions.  They’ve been in training camp since May 17 and three players announced to their recruiting list were not in camp and have been replaced (Irshaad Hunte, Ben Hillis, and Shayne Osayande).  Returning guard Devonte Bandoo should be a centerpiece of the offense again.  D’Andre Bernard is also back and figures to be joined in the front court by newcomers Jordy Tshimanga and Malik Benlevi.  It may be unfair but also somewhat accurate to suggest how well Tshimanga and Benlevi play will go a long way towards establishing whether or not the Rattlers improve on their 1-and-13 record from a year ago.  Another player I’ll be watching for on Wednesday is 2018 NBA Draft pick Tony Carr, who was renowned for his excellent shooting in the NCAA.  The test in game one is a biggie.  Niagara lost in the league final to Edmonton last year after posting a 10-and-4 mark in the regular season.

4 – ANDERSON ‘JACKIE’ – Chicago White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson, who referred to himself as Jackie Robinson in an interview a couple of years ago is suggesting Josh Donaldson acted inappropriately when Donaldson called Anderson ‘Jackie’ during a game.  I’m going to side with Anderson here.  Donaldson didn’t use the term in an endearing way.  He was, clearly, taunting the ChiSox star and because of what Jackie’s name stands for in baseball, it’s definitely a racist remark.  What I do wonder about is if another African American player had said the same thing to Anderson would it get similar attention and would Anderson make a big deal out of it?  Racist is racist and it shouldn’t matter the ethnicity background of the person doing it.

5 – MANOAH BABIED – Saturday, emerging Blue Jays pitching star Alek Manoah was robbed of a complete game against Cincinnati as he was pulled after pitching 8 innings and throwing only 83 pitches.  The Reds are the worst team in baseball so any notion that Manoah’s manager was nervous about the dominating hurler facing the ‘heart’ of the Cincy lineup a fourth time is a crock of dandelions. This is just more evidence of a sport gone mad because of analytics and calculators.  There is a thought of Manoah being at incredible injury risk had he pitched just one more inning yet there is no mention of the potential injury risk of closer Jordan Romano who ended up, needlessly, working back to back days (thus making him unavailable for Sunday when the Jays have no idea whether or not he could be needed in a higher leverage situation than what Saturday was).  

6 – KERSHAW – A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Clayton Kershaw being pulled from his perfect game and former GM and current MLB broadcaster Jim Bowden praised the move to take him out because the Dodgers need to make sure Kershaw stays healthy.  That was about a month ago and today he’s on the injured list.  It’s impossible to get these new wave baseball nerds to accept the fact that Kershaw is injury prone and the number of pitches and innings he throws has no bearing on it and if it did, why wouldn’t you get him to correct his physical routine and form?  If human beings aren’t made to pitch, then it’s time to just cancel baseball as it’s too dangerous.  Thirty years ago pitchers were throwing twice as many pitches and twice as many innings without issue and they were nowhere near being in the same physical condition as athletes of today.  So, it’s not the number of pitches that is sidelining these guys.

7 – WRONG – I was wrong. The Tampa Bay Lightning do not look like a team tired from playing a ton of hockey over the last three years. What a difference a week or so makes. They now appear very much to be the team to beat and stand a very good chance at laying claim to their third Stanley Cup.  

8 – CREDIT NEWSBREAKERS – NHL reporters (or Insiders as they love to be called), all use Twitter to break news stories and all of them are, usually, within a few minutes of each other when a trade, signing, or some other newsworthy piece is announced.  Over the weekend, Darren Dreger expressed some disappointment that this insider group has gotten away from ‘crediting’ or praising a compadre for breaking a story first.  For example, he feels he should be acknowledged for having Bryan Rust’s six year extension with Pittsburgh before anyone else and that Frank Seravelli should be singled out for having the nitty gritty details.  What he’s failing to understand is that fans pick and choose their favorite ‘insiders’ and they really don’t care who has a news story first because it really doesn’t matter when they are all just minutes apart anyways.  Dreger’s tweet comes off as childish.  He’s got over 1-million followers.  That should be enough to tell him hockey fans trust him as a reliable source, regardless of whether or not he’s 90-seconds earlier at reporting a story than, say, Elliotte Friedman.

9 – REAL INSIDER – Whether it’s Dreger, Friedman, Pierre Lebrun, or some other sports media person; the reality is there isn’t much that separates any of them apart.  They all play by the same rules and try to be as cozy as possible with the teams and whoever is involved with the teams that will give them information the teams want to be made public.  What they don’t do is go digging for information teams may not want public but would be of great public interest and that’s why the NHL has become very poorly covered as a whole. 

10 – WESTHEAD CREDIT: If not for Rick Westhead, you have to wonder if we would have ever found out about the Kyle Beach abuse story yet it’s very difficult for me, as a former media person who was also privy to sports secrets, to believe that your typical ‘Hockey Insider’ had no knowledge of this assault before Westhead reported it.  I do wonder about the decency level of particular media people who think it’s okay to question Connor Hellebuyck’s parenting skills based on his Covid stance but don’t say a peep about what exactly it was that kept Cole Perfetti off the ice for the second half of the season (too bad my information on this is third hand or I’d do it). 

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster. Follow him on Twitter at @Stack1975)