Stackhouse’s 10 Weekend Thoughts

2 – OTTAWA SPORTS – Ottawa got smoked again and are 0-and-7 and it got me wondering if there isn’t a worse city for sports in all of North America.  The CFL team sucks, the NHL team is almost always no good, the CEBL team looks like they will miss the playoffs, the NLL club that moved from New York lost five in a row to end the season and missed the playoffs.  The junior football team is nothing to write home about.  What else do they have?  To make matters worse, Mark Carney lives there.

3 – BOMBERS BOMBED – The days of Winnipeg being a league powerhouse are history, clearly, as a rookie QB and the starting RB combined for 360-yards on the ground.  It was a mystifying game plan on defense by the Bombers as the Lions QB has no serious track record as a passer, even in college.  So why didn’t they just dare him to pass?  Instead, they invited them to run and offered zero resistance.

4 – UFL – I saw some CFL fans making fun of the UFL this week saying the league is on life support upon learning two teams are folding.  I looked into it and the teams are not folding, but rather relocating and there are plans to expand for 2028 to make it a 10-team league so it doesn’t appear as though the UFL is going anywhere anytime soon.  Having said that, the volatility of player movement seems to have died down and the CFL has recovered from what I saw as a talent drain for a number of seasons.

5 – MAMBA – The Saskatoon Mamba are a fun team to watch when they are winning and they go into the final game of the season on Monday afternoon with a 12-and-11 record and set to finish in third place in the West and will play either Vancouver or Winnipeg next Thursday in a 1-game division semi-final playoff.  I tip my hat to the Mamba, who are on a 5-and-1 run over their last six games and are 12-and-7 overall after starting the year 0-and-4.  They’ll be underdogs in the playoffs but the potential is there to pull an upset or two.

6 – NO MORE RADIO – The Columbus Blue Jackets have axed their radio broadcast team and will simulcast the television play by play instead.  The reason is because they want to give their fans ‘the same live game coverage’ whether they watch or listen.  This, of course, is a bunch of nonsense as listeners need a different presentation that revolves around better description and frequent score and clock updates.  It’s simply the Blue Jackets being cheap.  I suppose the flipside argument is that radio is a dying industry and the Blue Jackets will just say ratings for audio broadcasts are steadily on the decline and maybe they are right.  I can only speak for myself and I listen to games a lot when I’m traveling in a vehicle.

7 – DURAN – Much maligned Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran was in the spotlight again this week for hitting a shallow fly ball to left and Willson Contreras failed to tag up on the play to attempt a run scoring sacrifice fly.  The reality is that he would have been out by a mile had he attempted it but that didn’t stop Duran from yelling at Contreras and showing him up.  Duran has been at the centre of a number of weird situations over the last year or so and I think it’s long past time for the Red Sox to just cut him loose.  If there was ever an addition by subtraction move, this has to be it.

8 – SKUBAL – The Los Angeles Dodgers have acquired Tarik Skubal from the Tigers in exchange for three minor leaguers.  It’s expected Skubal will sign a long term, large contract with LA at the end of the season, but for now his addition will stack the odds in the Dodgers’ favor once again to win another World Series.  Yawn.  Skubal is slated to make $32-million this season (most of which is already paid).  The Dodgers also have oft-injured Tyler Glasnow making $32-million and equally oft-injured Blake Snell making $28-million.  Shohei Ohtani is, officially, at $28-million but because most of his money is deferred he makes way more than that.  Mookie Betts is at $25-million, Freddie Freeman $23-million, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto $20-million.  The Blue Jays, who aren’t exactly penny pinchers, have just four players over $20-million (Vlad Guerrero, Kevin Gausman, George Springer, and Dylan Cease).  It all adds up to a long labour stoppage at the end of the season and I’m not sure baseball can bank on the fans flocking back when they finally decide to reopen for business.

9 – HITTERS FOR PITCHERS – The Curtis Mead for Connelly Early trade backfired on Boston this week as Mead broke his wrist/hand in his first game with the Red Sox but this is the type of trade, that if you are the Red Sox, you will make 10/10 times.  A healthy Mead is going to play every day and, hopefully, contribute regularly.  Early, even if he’s lights out every time he takes the hill, is going to give you 5 or 6 innings a week and will be removed from the game regardless of score.  You tell me who you’d rather have.

10 – ROGERS GETS RID OF SOME HOCKEY – Last week Rogers announced it was charging subscribers more money for their streaming platform even though Sportsnet is losing UFC to Paramount come January.  Now comes word Rogers is selling off Wednesday night NHL games as well as three playoff series’ to Amazon Prime but it’s all done in an effort to bring people the best quality in live sports broadcasting.  

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