DAYTONA HOMES FRIDAY RODSERVATIONS

MEXICAN OBSERVATIONS

– Hola from Mexico!  Is that paradise or what?  We’ll get to the sports commentary in a moment but first I’ll give you an update on what we’ve been up to.  It’s that time of year again when Harvard Broadcasting brings advertisers from 620 CKRM, MY 92.1 and 104.9 The Wolf down on a Sun Trip.  This year we’re just south of Cancun, Mexico at the Dreams Riviera Cancun.  How do you get here?  It’s easy.  Just spend enough on one of our stations (preferably the SportsCage or Roughrider radio broadcasts) and you can join us.  Carm Carteri and I are brought down to mix and mingle with clients and sponsors annually. The same goes with the Las Vegas trip in April, however Carm isn’t on that excursion.

– I’ll be down here just long enough to get home and then turnaround and head to Arizona for the Riderville Tour March 3 between the Ducks and Coyotes at Gila River Arena.

– Sounds like a dream doesn’t it?  It is, but also consider it the payoff for being chained to the football team 24/7, seven days a week from June 1 to December 1 each year.  On-call round-the-clock.  I think of you at the cottage in late-July when I’m sitting in the Toronto Airport connecting on a flight back to Regina on a road trip!  Still, mine is a dream job.

– This has not been the most stellar of vacations for CKRM Rider Radio analyst Carm Carteri.  In the golf tournament on Day 3, he was stung by what the resort physician called a “yellow mosquito”.  Carm’s left foot swelled up to the size of a football and he was hesitant to see the doctor because we’ve seen people’s medical bills as high as $500.  I told him to see the doc and “get an estimate”.

– Yours truly didn’t participate in the golf tournament but I joined a group of Harvard customers in Playa del Carmen for the Coco Bongo Show on Day 4.  Coco Bongo’s plentiful advertisements boast “We Put Vegas Nightlife To Shame”.  Man were they right!  It was a rollicking three hour show which included tributes to such artists as Madonna, Michael Jackson, Pitbull, Guns ‘N Roses, LMFAO, Elvis Presley, you name it.  In between they mixed in daring Cirque de Soleil-type highwire acts between songs.  It makes Las Vegas look like Brandon.  We actually left before the show was even over, at 1:45 am.   Hands down, Coco Bongo is the best club I’ve been in in North America and I’ve been all over.  I wish I discovered it 20 years ago, because I’ll never be back again.  But you have to go once.  I should mention we paid $130 for VIP tickets which afforded balcony seats.  As my friend Johnny Athens says about the Vegas Tour in his thick Greek accent, “Just when you think it ends … it doesn’t end”.  Same applies here.

– One last thing on Mexico:  it’s wonderful being down here and enjoying temperatures that are nudging 30 degrees Celsius.  However you can feel almost entirely detached from our world because ESPN Deportes (Spanish ESPN) features only wall-to-wall coverage of soccer and rugby and it’s in Spanish language.  The same goes for 90% of the other channels.  I miss my Kate & Natsha, and Cybulski & Cameron.  Fortunately around Wednesday I discovered the free USA Today daily newspaper at the front desk.  That’s been a Godsend but as far as hockey or CFL news, forget about it.

– You can rent movies, and last night we attempted to watch Dumb & Dumber To.  It was so stupid it was ridiculous.  I nodded off about 10 minutes in and apparently Mrs. SportsCage reached over, grabbed the remote and zapped it off.  I didn’t need to waste any more time on that cinemagraphic catastrophe.

From Jim Hopson: A Rider gathering in Puerta Vallarta

– Speaking of Kate & Natasha and TSN, thanks to Canada’s Sports Leader for attributing the John Chick scoop last Monday to yours truly and 620 CKRM Regina.  In 25 years in this business, they’ve never given me credit for a story.  Until now.  My good friend Trent Fraser said last week that good things are going to start happening to me and it really looks like he was right.  I even got a Treadclimber from the Flaman family this week for some of the promotional work I’ve done for them.  What an incredible and amazing confidante the Almighty T.F. is!

I’ve had a lifelong goal of seeing my name in The Hockey News but that dream is about to expire.  So TSN.ca is pretty cool too.

– So … about the Rider thing.  Kevin Glenn’s return has certainly made things interesting!  One CFL source said on Thursday “Tino can’t be happy” with this news but that’s pro football.  This regime has shown it’s not concerned with peoples’ feelings.  The battle for the #2 quarterback job behind Darian Durant is going to be fierce and I CAN’T WAIT FOR TRAINING CAMP IN SASKATOON!  My heart starts to race when I think about it.  I can’t imagine the football club will keep both Glenn and Sunseri so to the winner goes the spoils.  The 3rd-string quarterback position has to be of the developmental variety.  Doesn’t it?

– I don’t envy Rider GM Brendan Taman for one second.  Winning in the CFL, and staying on top, has become more difficult than ever before.  With these one year contracts (like Tino’s latest), and understandable deteriorating player loyalty, how can you seriously build for the future anymore?  You can’t.  So it’s a year-by-year proposition these days and that likely led to the signing of Kevin Glenn.  He’s the best insurance policy out there and if you’re him, why wouldn’t you sign a deal with a solid franchise at a lower rate in order to continue playing, and still have a shot at a ring?

– Apparently Glenn’s six year old son made the choice between the Roughriders and Alouettes so if the Riders win it all in Kevin’s reincarnation, maybe his kid’s name should go on the Cup too.

– I thought Alouettes GM Jim Popp told TSN Radio in Montreal last week he had “absolutely no interest” in Kevin Glenn?  How do you believe anything nowadays?

– John Lynch tells me this morning the Riders took Kevin Glenn over to Moose Jaw Thursday afternoon and he appeared on CKRM’s SportsCage as well as TSN’s broadcast of the Scotties Tournament of Hearts with announcer Brian Mudryk.  See?  This is how the Riders lead.

Will the Stampeders do this when the Brier is in Calgary?  Other teams whine about the following the Riders have, yet don’t get off their butts to do anything about it.

– Apparently Saturday is “Saskatchewan Day” at the Scotties in Moose Jaw and fans are encouraged to wear green to both draws.  Sounds like a winner to me.  I see where the Scotties Chair says curling is Saskatchewan’s official sport and this would be a great way to celebrate the province.  Works for me.

– Also, somewhere along the way, the Roughriders have confirmed 2015 Training Camp will be held in Saskatoon.  It may have even been announced last week in the Bridge City.

– More on Mexico.  The entertainer Pitbull is like a national hero down here.  Of mythical proportions.  Sort of like George Strait in the State of Texas.  However ironically Pitbull hails from Miami, FL.

– Scared to come to Mexico?  Don’t be.  No one else is.  In 2014 this country did a record $16-billion in the tourism business.  You have no more chance of finding trouble here than at home, and in both cases you’d have to be looking for it.  Come on down.

– The #1 area or country sending tourists to Mexico is the USA followed by Eastern Canada at #2.  I’ve met several folks from Chicago, IL and had a great visit with a sports fan from Chi-Town Thursday afternoon.  His jaw hit the floor when I told him I’m close friends with Marc Trestman.  Invariably, Bears fans don’t blame Trestman for the Bears’ problems the past two years.  As usual, the trouble starts at the top.

Had a great chat with a guy my age from Philadelphia this morning.  We discussed Cole Hamels wanting out of the Phillies to be on a winner.  GOD I love those conversations.  It’s a nice change.

– That reminds me, at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis this week, new Bears coach John Fox refused to sign off on Jay Cutler being on Chicago’s roster this season.  I’m sure once Marc Trestman heard that, he said to himself “You can do that?”

Another from Hopson.  Thanks Jim!!

– There was a tremendous article in the USA Today regarding this year’s Super Bowl stars who were undrafted nor were invited to the NFL Combine.  The group includes Julian Edelman, Malcolm Butler, Chris Matthews and Doug Baldwin.  Throw in Jon Ryan as well, and you realize your scouting staff better be digging far deeper than what’s served up right under their noses.

– There really is only one other green like Rider Green in pro sports and it belongs to the Boston Celtics.  There are many Boston people here on the resort and their garments usually trick me into thinking I’m seeing Rider fans across the pool.

– The USA Today’s quote of the week went to Capitals star Alexander Ovechkin who took a jab at Ducks star Ryan Getzlaf by saying, “He must be jealous about my hair.  He don’t have any hair”.  I’ve often wondered if I should refer Getz to P-A-I in Regina for a similar hair transplant as mine (Lord knows he has the money) but he seems contain to just buzz ‘er down.  As for Ovechkin, no wonder he’s generally hated and/or mocked across the NHL.  Win something!

– I’ve also taken the time to listen to Bill Simmons’ B.S. Report podcast from ESPN on Itunes while laying on the beach.  Simmons interviewed the Raptors’ Kyle Lowry in advance of the NBA All-Star Game and they discussed the lack of exposure Toronto’s NBA franchise gets.  Lowry responded by saying, “We don’t get the attention we think we deserve.  But that’s okay.   Every night we play before 35 million people on national TV so we get enough attention up there.”

– The Regina Pats will try to snap out of a two-game home losing skid tonight when they host the Saskatoon Blades at 7:00 pm on 620 CKRM.  It seems Regina is getting swept up in Pats Fever as the crowds have been getting close to packing the Brandt Centre.  Even my Dad is thinking about going to a few games after recovering from a nasty broken leg which immobilized him this winter.  I told him to wait till I get back!  I’d like to take him to the hockey matches.

– Happy birthday to Regina Pats alum Ryan Bender (28)!  And also to the Voice of the Saskatoon Blades, Les Lazurak, aka My Brother From Another Mother.

– Two quick book reviews before I go: You Can’t Make This Up by veteran broadcaster Al Michaels is well worth the read, if you’re a broadcaster.  Anyone else might be lost in the details, I fear.  The stories were amazing but I didn’t care for the way he trashed his colleagues and one-time friends.  His railing on Howard Cosell was a little uncalled for, considering Cosell has since passed and can’t defend himself.  Meanwhile I’ve been reading Mr. Hockey: The Autobiography of Gordie Howe on the beach and it’s fantastic!  Truly, truly amazing, especially since it’s coming from a fellow Saskatchewanian.  The Introduction by Bobby Orr will leave no doubt, whatsoever, in your mind that Gordie is the greatest hockey player of all-time.  Period.  And my favourite story so far is the fact Gordie’s mother delivered him herself because his Dad wasn’t around and couldn’t get to the doctor.  She cut the cord herself in their dirt farmhouse in Floral, SK.  Nine days later the family moved to Saskatoon to find better work than farming.  Amazing!

– Finally, a tribute to Four Seasons Godfather and Papou Peter Yannitsos who will be laid to rest today in Regina.  Peter passed away this week, just the way he likely would have wanted it, at the Four Seasons Sports Palace as I’ve been told by a family friend.  Here’s a shot of Peter in one of our trips to an NFL game in Seattle.  I’ve got my hand on Peter’s right arm while his grandson Pann has his arm around his neck.

One of my favourite stories of Peter’s was how the Hamilton Tiger-Cats were in Regina for a game against the Roughriders in the late 1960’s and Pete and some buddies sent some local “party girls” to the Ticats’ hotel to keep them up all night.  The ploy worked, as Saskatchewan soundly trounced the Ticats the next day.  Peter was very proud of that trick.  He was also the proprietor of Regina’s first sports bar.  As I told his son George, we will never forget Peter Yannitsos.

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THAT’S ALL FOR THIS WEEK,
RP
@sportscage
Instagram: ridervoice