STACKHOUSE’S 10 THOUGHTS

1 – RUSH EMBARRASSED – I can count the number of times I’ve left a sporting event before it was over on one hand in my lifetime. Saturday night was one of them. That was the worst Saskatchewan Rush game I’ve ever seen by a country mile. It seemed every shot the league-worst Vancouver Warriors took, it was either going on, or the save was not going to be routine. Alex Buque was hooked after giving up 6 on 16 shots.  Eric Penney gave up 6 on 18. Buque came back in then Penney finished the game, according to the stat sheet (he had an assist). 16 goals. 31 saves. Horrible. If lacrosse is anything like hockey, bad goaltending can just suck the life out of everyone else on the roster and that appeared to be the case on Saturday. Robert Church – 0 goals. Nobody had more than 5 points and even though the Rush outshot Vancouver 63-47, the reality was that it wasn’t a difficult night for Aaron Bold, who turned back the clock to beat his former team. Keegan Bal, who may be a trade deadline target for a contender (which the Rush are not, by the way), led everybody with 11 points.

2 – RUSH TIDBITS – The best part of Saturday’s game was Ryan Barnable making his NLL debut and scoring his first goal 90 seconds into the game. Penney supplied the Rush with decent enough goaltending last year to allow the team to finish strong but the time has come to give the backup job to Laine Hruska. The reality is that the Rush will go as far as Buque will take them, nobody else. Give Hruska the experience and see what you have. Pride Night ended up being a nothing burger. The Rush oversold it. Those who were greatly offended at the notion of a drag show had no reason to fear. I spent halftime in the concourse, glanced up at the monitor and saw a modest outfit and what appeared to be some form of an airband type of show. It was nothing. As far as attendance goes, the Rush didn’t build on their previous three games where the crowd increased every time. I didn’t get a count, but the eyes don’t lie. It was the lowest or second lowest in-person game of the season.

3 – XFL – Week 1 was the best week any American pro-football league (outside of the NFL) has had. It was exciting to watch and there’s definitely something to build on here. AJ McCarron’s comeback on Sunday was nothing short of thrilling. His week one numbers were eye popping. 40-of-62, 374 yards, 3 TD, 0 INT, 9 rush attempts, 53 yards, 1 TD. McCarron, once upon a time, was on the brink of getting a starting job in the NFL but injuries have derailed his career. McCarron is 32 and unlikely to get another NFL shot no matter how well he performs in the XFL.  

4 – XFL ATTENDANCE – Attendance wasn’t great in three of the four venues in Week 1, with San Antonio drawing over 24,000. DC, Houston, and Arlington all had just north of 12,000. TV numbers are said to be disappointing as well with reports of 1-1.5-million eyeballs on each of the four games. While that’s considered a low number, if I’m understanding the numbers correctly, the NHL only draws 373,000 per game on ESPN/TNT. If those figures are accurate, the XFL has nothing to worry about despite the NFL pulling in 18.5-million per week. Another guess of mine is the media focuses too heavily on in-person attendance and not enough on the other revenue sources. The NFL and Disney are supporting the XFL and as long as they are willing to do so, this league isn’t going anywhere. Besides, all the other pro leagues played without anybody at all in the building during Covid and none of them are in financial peril. Heck, some of them are boasting of being in extremely healthy situations as far as money goes. So, the XFL should be no different.  Any fans at all are considered a bonus if you go by how the NHL, CFL, and MLB are acting.

5 – BETHEL THOMPSON BOLTS – Toronto Argonauts quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson has signed with the New Orleans Breakers of the USFL for the upcoming season. Bethel-Thompson was looking to play closer to home (not sure New Orleans is close to San Francisco, but maybe it is) and there was talk he would rather retire than come back to the CFL, which doesn’t say much for the CFL. I get there’s family involved but when you’d rather quit playing altogether (when you clearly do want to play as evidenced by signing this week) than return to the CFL, that’s a fairly damning indictment on the CFL. Here’s what I’m most looking forward to: Bethel-Thompson was a slightly better than average CFL quarterback. He should turn the USFL upside down and post video game numbers if I’m led to believe what I’m told as far as the discrepancy on talent. Rider fans may want to check out the Arlington Renegades, which is where linebacker Darnell Sankey is playing. Bethel-Thompson’s season, for me, is going to go a long way to determining just where the CFL belongs on the list of pro football leagues and how tough it is.

6 – BASEBALL RULE CHANGES – The pendulum swung too far in favor of baseball hitters taking too long in the batter’s box and pitchers taking too long delivering a pitch. So, the pendulum swings back hard and fast with the institution of a time clock. Count me in as being a supporter of the clock. I wish we didn’t need it, but baseball has reached the point of being excruciatingly boring. I wish we didn’t need to ban the shift, but the players are so damn stubbornly opposed to hitting to the opposite field that the ban needs to be in effect. I hope to catch a preseason game this week to see how the pace of play goes, but reading the early reports on length of games is promising. Unrelated note: I chuckle when I hear a manager say he needs the entire month of March to get a player ready to play 7-9 innings per game. Baseball players have to be the absolute worst at needing to be babied.

7 – RADIO SHORTCUTS – In the mid-1990s, many predicted the end of radio when corporate suits decided to axe many on-air personalities and opt for automated programming instead. For those unfamiliar, radio stations now frequently ‘voice track’ their shows and there’s almost never an actual announcer sitting at the control board, with the exception of the prime hours (mornings, afternoon drive). The listening audience doesn’t know the difference and it’s a lot cheaper for the radio station to voice track as you can do an entire four hour show in mere minutes. This chintzy and cheap shortcut is similar to what’s happening now with sports play by play. If radio stations feel as though it can be pulled off (and it can) without the announcers at the venue, they are going to do it and they are going to do it all the while increasing profits because most advertisers simply don’t care about the diminished quality of the product. Unless that changes, it’s only a matter of time before every single radio station in North America utilizes the announcer’s basement as its broadcast booth.

8 – ROB VANSTONE – I never like to see anyone out of work, so good on Rob Vanstone for landing on his feet with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. My only criticism would be continuing to call him a journalist while he writes pro-Roughrider fluff totally redefines the word (even though I know real journalists are very much an endangered species). The bright side from the Riders perspective is that if they have the money to create a position, things are definitely healthy financially despite the decline in attendance. I look forward to seeing what he produces. There isn’t enough on the human interest end of things as far as players are concerned (in all sports by all forms of media) and I hope that is a real focus because it’s a major void, especially in Canada amongst writers and publicists. When I used to read Rob regularly, I enjoyed his ‘nice person’ mentions and it was something I stole from him when writing for the local newspaper in Yorkton. Perhaps I should bring it back here to rodpedersen.com.

9 – HARSH WORDS – A women’s basketball coach is out of work after video surfaced of him launching into an expletive filled tirade at his players during practice. The NCAA Division III school also noted he used ‘aggressive body language’ during his verbal explosion and they’ve opted to remove him from his position. It just goes to show winning isn’t everything and you better be polite or you will be out of work. It’s that simple.  This coach was the school’s current record holder for conference wins and most wins overall. He made seven American Southwest Conference tournament appearances adding up to 11 wins for the program. He’s also the only head coach to lead this school to the NCAA Division III Women’s Basketball Championships, with three appearances in 2019, 2020, and 2022.  But, you can’t use repeated swear words anymore as a coaching method.  So, he’s out.

10 – AUDIO BOOK BIOGRAPHIES – I listened to another audio book on the weekend and my only complaint about Alice Cooper’s biography was that it was too short. Alice tells a funny story about Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett. One morning (the two bands were living together), Alice got out of bed and went into the kitchen where he saw Syd staring at a bowl of Corn Flakes.  “I couldn’t imagine how anybody could be that high, that early in the morning.  I mean, we got high, but we didn’t get ‘that’ high.  I said to my guitarist, ‘Syd is sitting in the kitchen, staring at a box of Corn Flakes and apparently it’s television to him.  All the little cornflakes are singing and dancing around for him and he’s having the time of his life’.”  I’ve already started Stone Cold Steve Austin’s biography and I hope it gets better.  He seemed to really breeze over his early years, which is what I’m most interested in.

What the heck.  Nice person mentions:  Shaun Peterson, Nicole Campbell, Ashley Haas, Brad Hanmer, Lee Noble, and Michele Bear.

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