Scruffy’s This N That
1 – TOOTHLESS TABBIES: Unless you are playing Strat-o-Matic or APBA (loved those games), you don’t play the game on paper. Any team can beat another if everything goes right for them and everything will have to go right for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats if they are to come out of Mosaic Stadium with a win Sunday night when they visit the Saskatchewan Roughriders in Week 6 of CFL action.
While out and about this week, I had someone ask me why it is the Riders are seemingly the beneficiary of playing the number 2 quarterback in the game after the starter gets hurt? I don’t know how much legitimacy there is to that and I’m too lazy to look but do you think the Riders are apologizing for that? Nope and nor should they!
As of the time of writing this, the Riders are 8.5 point favourites to grab the “W”. I think you could get that spread as high as 11.5 to 12.5 before I would consider a Hamilton cover.
With Bo Levi Mitchell in the lineup, the TiCats would give the Riders a battle but with Jake Dolegala calling the shots after having just a couple of practices as the number one guy, I just don’t see it. That Rider D hasn’t been extremely impressive and I still think that perhaps they are trying to find that identity that they had last year. This might be the perfect game to find it.
2 – BO LEVI: It’s never good when one of your top players goes down to injury so it was disappointing to hear about Bo Levi Mitchell’s broken ankle in Hamilton’s loss to Winnipeg last weekend. What surprised me in the aftermath was the amount of people asking if this is it for Bo. This just in: unless there are major complications with that injury, Bo Levi Mitchell is not going out like that. His last appearance as a CFL’er will not be getting taken off the field in an ambulance. I could have seen Bo Levi calling it a career had he led the Ti-Cats to the Grey Cup and even if he comes back this year after the injury and does that, I don’t see him walking away as he will want to go out on his terms.
3 – CONGRATS CHARLESTON: No surprise to hear this week that Charleston Hughes was going to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. He led the CFL in sacks five times in 14 years. You know what type of force he was. I always thought that Charleston could have been trouble in the NFL as an outside rush linebacker similar to what Lawrence Taylor was like with the Giants in his heyday and no, I am not comparing the two because LT might have been the greatest defensive player to ever put on a helmet. He made that position what it is today and Hughes was a guy who I think could have excelled if he ever got the opportunity. He’s not the only CFL’er I could say that about.
4 – RUINING HISTORY: I love baseball. I have loved baseball since an early age. It is a game that is so special for many ways with one of them being you can beat someone by seven or more runs one night and lose the next night by seven or more. Over the years, the role of the starting pitcher has diminished. There were days when guys like Jack Morris and others would routinely throw 100 or more pitches every 5th day and think nothing of it. That isn’t the case now as major league teams can’t assemble a five man pitching rotation instead opting for a reliever to start in what is known as bullpen games. Complete games are also a rarity now and it would seem perfect games or no-hitters are just an afterthought.
Miami’s Eury Perez had a perfect game going through 7 innings last Sunday against Sacramento. He had thrown just over 90 pitches and his team had a comfortable lead. It wasn’t a one-pitch can change things scenario. That being said, Marlins manager Clayton McCullough prevented Perez from chasing history by pulling him. Are you F-ING kidding me! This kid had a chance at doing something that isn’t done every day. His name could have been up there as one of only 24 to do it and his shot at being a member of a very rare club was taken away from him. He should have been given the opportunity to get the six outs he needed and if he didn’t get him then yank him. Fast forward a couple of days and Dylan Cease took a no-hitter into the 9th inning in San Francisco. Blue Jays manager John Schneider could have pulled Cease, but he didn’t saying after the game he wasn’t taking that opportunity away from his pitcher. Cease gave up a hit to lead off the 9th and the hook came. Schneider gets it. McCullough does not. While I love baseball, the babying of pitchers is the one thing I hate about the game in 2026.
5 – BASEBALL AT THE BREAK: Sunday will end the unofficial first half of the baseball season as the all-star break hits us. It doesn’t matter the sport; I hate the all-star game. Give the players some time off to recharge before the stretch run.
As bad as they have been this year, the Blue Jays go into the weekend just a game and a half out of a wild-card spot. They are not going to win the division, but they still have a shot in what is a weak American League to get back to the playoffs. Who is the best team in the American League? One would have to see Tampa that just finds a way to be competitive every year, but there are a lot of teams that if they have a great second half could be the team to beat. It would help if Vladimir Guerrero Junior would get out of the months-long slump he has been on, but no one wants to be extremely critical of VGJ’s play in Toronto for whatever reason. You know the hockey scribes would be foaming at the mouth if we got to February and Auston Matthews only had seven goals. Why is this different?
I have zero clue who is coming out of the AL and bettors are going crazy trying to determine who to lay some future bets on. All that is known is the Dodgers are likely coming out of the National League again and they are likely winning the World Series again which will pave the way for no baseball or limited baseball in 2027 as the owners and players battle over a salary cap.
6 – ALPHONSO DAVIES: Canada’s best soccer player is taking heat for basically taking up a roster spot. I don’t know if we will ever get the true story as to why Alphonso Davies only played for 15 minutes in Canada’s World Cup run, but the questions being asked are valid.
He wasn’t 100 percent. Canada Soccer knew it, his club team, Bayern Munich, knew it, Jesse Marsch knew it and so did Davies. In a country that marvels at the toughness of hockey players when it matters, Davies seemed to take the easy road out by saying he didn’t feel right before what turned out to be Canada’s last game against Morocco.
A nation chastised Davies for not playing, but no one batted an eye when Sidney Crosby missed the last couple of games in Milan because of the knee injury he suffered.
Davies probably should have been a spectator, but he wasn’t for whatever reason. He went to his Instagram account saying all the right things and that he will be there as Canada looks to qualify for future World Cups and equal or surpass this year’s performance, but perhaps there are many who need to take blame here for Davies’ time on the bench because he probably should have sat this one out. Canadian soccer fans wouldn’t have liked it, but it would have been better than what we got or didn’t get.
7 – DESECRATING THE CUP: Hockey people are pissed over what Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon has done and they should be. So should many others. The Canes owner decided to put the names of his wife and his five children on the Cup ahead of members of the front office, coaches and players. A couple of players and a long-time equipment manager were left off. While Dundon takes heat which he deserves, I have to ask where the h-e double hockeysticks were the NHL and Hockey Hall of Fame on this. Are the Canes in charge of the engraving? I would think that they aren’t. Do they not submit a list that has to be approved? It would appear as if the answer is no.
Dundon’s children have no right whatsoever to have their name on the best trophy in sports. Maybe a Vegas win wouldn’t have been such a bad thing.
8 – BRADY’S DEPARTURE: I said in an earlier column that no one should be surprised at the fact Brady Tkachuk is going to be playing with his brother in south Florida. Many thought it was something that would happen and many wondered why it took so long.
You can see what you want about Brady on the ice, but it would appear as if off the ice he might be a d-bag as well especially when it comes to being a good teammate. It was revealed this week that Brady’s teammates didn’t like the podcast he did with his brother. That’s being a little soft if you ask me especially when everyone is doing podcasts, but when one of those podcasts sees a Senators player get attacked verbally for mental health issues by Keith Tkachuk with nothing being said, that is a problem.
I am not sure how Brady could sit there and let his dad talk a teammate of his down without saying anything. Instead, he just sat there and let the attack continue. At no point did he tell Keith to shut it down and not no point did he look to ask for the camera to stop so he could address it. Florida is getting a good hockey player, but they appear to be getting a shitty individual as a teammate and it may be up to Matthew to babysit him if things get tough. Good luck!
9 – RANDOM THOUGHTS:
- Are people that don’t put their shopping carts away at the grocery store the same people that back into a parking spot?
- Rogers has a lot of radio stations in Ontario that they could have pulled the pin on, but instead they focused on news/sports stations in Western Canada and the Maritimes. Do I need to go any further?
- Seven umpires including the worst in the game right now, C.B Bucknor, are accepting a buyout and retiring at the end of the current baseball season. ABS is doing its job kids.
- Do you think Ryan Dinwiddie is wondering yet if leaving Toronto for Ottawa was the right move?
That’s all I got. Have a great week! If reading this in Craven, stay hydrated and be smart!
