SCRUFFY’S THIS ‘N THAT

The weekly assortment of thoughts running through my muddled mind and as always they are in no particular order.

–Baseball embarrassed itself on Wednesday by having a game played in an empty stadium. Why should the Baltimore Orioles and the many people who work at their games take a financial hit by playing a game in front of no one?  I won’t sit here and suggest what is happening in Baltimore is right because it’s not, but you can’t tell me there wasn’t another solution. They couldn’t have played in Chicago? They couldn’t have made the game up as part of a doubleheader later this season? They couldn’t have played it elsewhere like perhaps nearby Washington. What message did having that game in Baltimore have? How much money did the Orioles lose because of it? It looked horrible and you can’t sugarcoat it in any fashion.  As stated, what is happening in Baltimore is embarrassing to the city and is something that shouldn’t be happening, but taking it out on the Orioles is fundamentally wrong as far as I’m concerned.

–Who coined the term “good stick”? I’ve been told it was Jim Hughson, but I hear a lot of announcers use it. This might be the stupidest term I’ve heard. What exactly is a good stick? Is there a bad stick? Is there a mediocre stick?

–How do your hockey drafts look after one round?

–For what its worth, I had six of the eight first round series right getting the Tampa-Detroit and Minnesota-St. Louis series wrong. For what its worth, I am going with Anaheim, Chicago, Washington and Montreal in the 2nd round.

–Yes, I did take Montreal to beat Tampa, but if you are a Lightning fan, you have to like the fact Steven Stamkos didn’t score against Detroit and they still won. If he gets going, look out!

–Reason #2875 why I wish TSN still had the NHL contract. Game 7 of the Detroit-Tampa series ends and there is no sign of Mike Babcock leaving the Detroit bench for perhaps the last time. If Gregg Popovich was perhaps leaving the Spurs or Bill Belichick the Patriots, the camera would be on him for sure.  Reason #2876 is after having Hughson do the Calgary series in the first round, they are moving him to Montreal and moving Paul Romanuk who did the Montreal series to the Calgary series. Shouldn’t Hughson stick with Calgary and put Bob Cole into the Montreal series? I don’t understand. I don’t know if Rogers does either. Reason #2877 is the fact there is no great playoff montage before games like what Hockey Night in Canada had in past years. Those should be brought back.

–The popular consensus is Carey Price will be the NHL’s MVP this season, but my vote (if I had one) goes to John Tavares.

–What do the Toronto Raptors do in the off-season? Under Dwane Casey, the team has become relevant and I expect them to be a playoff team for many years with guys like Lowry, DeRozan and Valacunias leading the way, but there is no doubt this team is not a team made for the playoffs as they haven’t gotten it done two years in a row when they have had home-court advantage. Something happened to the Raptors after the all-star break as they were a different looking team. Is Casey a guy that can only get them so far and someone is needed to push them over the playoff hill? I don’t think the Raptors need to make a coaching change, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they think about it. Then again, perhaps they should try and sign Paul Pierce.

–As we inch closer and closer to the CFL draft, I have no idea what the Riders are going to do with their first round pick. Some have said with the depth and talent in this year’s draft, they should trade down and get two seconds if they can for their first rounder and then find a Canadian D-lineman and perhaps Addison Richards. I would be OK with that, but I’m not the one making the call. I have faith in what the Rider braintrust does. I would love to see them get Richards and after seeing the CFL rankings last week, he may not be a first rounder. That being said, if the green and white stand pat and don’t make any trades, I don’t see Richards being around in Round 3.

–Congrats to Noah Picton for having an opportunity to go to Riders training camp and learn from the pros. Wouldn’t it be great to see him throwing to Addison Richards at camp?

–The first round of the NFL draft went Thursday night and Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston went to Tampa with the first overall pick. Winston now joins other former Florida State quarterbacks like Christian Ponder, EJ Manuel, Chris Weinke, Charlie Ward, Peter Tom Willis and Danny MacManus. I might take Danny Mac ahead of all those guys because NONE of those guys had a solid NFL career. I don’t think Winston is going to be what the Buccaneers are looking for.

–The Regina Pats keep making off the ice moves with the latest one being local businessman Marty Klyne becoming the team’s new chief operating officer. The team also moved Chad Lang into a different position. Many feel Lang’s time in Regina didn’t accomplish much for the hockey team. Those people should remember it was Lang who engineered the trade to get goalie Daniel Wapple from Medicine Hat and it was Lang who was a big figure in the team winning the Eastern Division in 2013-14. The names of Adam Brooks, Austin Wagner, Colby Williams and Wapple can all be traced back to Lang. He wasn’t perfect, but who is in the hockey game? Don’t be surprised if teams come calling on his services in the off-season.

–It would be nice if the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight got people talking about boxing again, but I don’t think the fight will have a long shelf-life when it comes to discussion and the sport will just fade back into the limelight again.

–That’s all I got, have a great weekend!!