Scruffy’s This N That

1 – RELAX:  The Riders begin the 2^nd half of the CFL season in Vancouver Sunday night. I didn’t like the way things were lining up for Saskatchewan in Hamilton as indicated in last week’s column and I was right as they fell to 6-3 in what was their worst 60-minute effort of the year. 

With the lineup the Riders put out in Hamilton, we really shouldn’t be surprised at what happened and with that lineup not really changing a lot this weekend, will we be surprised if the team is on a two-game losing streak when head hits pillow Sunday night? I’m taking the Lions on Sunday night, but I am expecting the green-and-white to be a much better unit than the one that took the field in Hamilton. The return of Sam Emilus will help, but whether or not it’s enough is another story. 

At the end of the day, the Riders are a very good football team that has hit a slippery patch. Most are confident Head Coach Corey Mace can pull them out of that patch. Those that aren’t have been preaching doom for years. 

2 – THE 0-10 REDBLACKS: What can you say about how bad they are that hasn’t been said already? When do you start wondering what the future of football might be in the Nation’s Capital seeing we have seen it fail before — albeit under much worse situations? 

The REDBLACKS are bad. They are very bad as evidenced by the beating they took in Montreal on Thursday. Can anyone see the light at the end of the tunnel?  An interesting story came out of the Ottawa Sun this week where former team President Jeff Hunt said he would welcome the opportunity to return to the role he left after a differing of opinions following the 2018 season — a decision that some say was the catalyst for the REDBLACKS being where they are now. He even joked he would do the job for free if the team paid him one million dollars should he lead the squad to the Grey Cup in three years. Yes, it is the CFL, but that’s a bold statement and one he likely couldn’t cash in on. By the way, since Hunt left, Ottawa is 27-86-1. 

I don’t know what happens moving forward for this team, but something needs to be done and done quickly. The debate as to whether Ryan Dinwiddie is a one and done is certainly intensifying, but for some strange reason I think he stays seeing he was given a lucrative contract. It’s very similar to the Chris Jones/Saskatchewan story and we know how that turned out. I think it is also evident that the team needs to get a quarterback that can play in this league because Jake Maier can’t and McLeod Bethel-Thompson isn’t a guy you can work with when it comes to the future.  They have some guys on their negotiation list including former Ole Miss QB Matt Corral who is currently with the UFL’s Orlando Storm. If he were to come up though, the old “can he adapt to the Canadian game” will come up which is something asked of every quarterback who comes north of the border. 

Ottawa has a game against Toronto and a pair against Calgary coming up. I think they can win at least one of those. 

3 – NEG LIST QB’S:  The US College Football season begins next weekend with Ohio State, Oregon and Texas, coached by former Riders quarterback Steve Sarkisian, being the best bets to win the national championship.  It gives CFL fans a chance to check out neg list players that may still be in college. I don’t understand how that can be the case, but whatever. 

One guy Rider fans may want to watch is University of Central Florida quarterback Alonza (I don’t think I am related to Danny) Barrett the 3^rd.  At James Madison last year, he was named the Sun Belt Conference player of the year after throwing for 2800 yards and 23 touchdowns while running for another 600 and 15 TD’s as the Dukes got to the CFP for the first time. I am sure he is a guy that will test out NFL waters first, but he looks like a guy who could come north. 

4 – FLAG FOOTBALL: Safe to say a lot of Canadians will have their eyes on the L-A Summer Olympics in 2028 after both the men and women qualified last weekend. Flag football is on the rise. Those in Regina know how big the sport has gotten thanks to the tremendous league that Mike Thomas and his friends at Football Saskatchewan have going at the U of R and we remember a Saskatchewan team was right in the mix at the 2025 World Flag Championships in Canton, Ohio. In fact, Football Canada says more than 60,000 people are playing the game in our country.

I don’t know how big the sport is going to get, but with the women going in as the world champions which is an accomplishment in itself considering the US usually has that honour, and the men being a legitimate medal threat, it is safe to say we will be watching carefully. 

5 – MERCY RULE: When Major League Baseball and its Players Association reach labour peace, which I don’t expect to be soon, I hope they talk about position players pitching and how that must be eliminated. 

On Tuesday night with the Seattle Mariners down 13-0 going into the 8^th, they brought out infielder Leo Rivas to pitch.  One inning later, Rivas had allowed nine runs as Milwaukee tied an MLB record with a 22-0 win. 

MLB needs to put an end to this. Does anyone want to see this?  There are players who don’t even like going up to bat when a position player is on the mound even though they can pad their numbers. I am guessing the TV audience has dwindled significantly and same with the crowd inside the stadium. 

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: If you are resorting to having to put a position player in the game, you are waving the white flag and saying it is over.  If the game is one-sided, the manager just needs to go to the home plate ump and say we’re done. I really don’t think that would be a bad thing. Yes, you couldn’t do it until the 8^th inning, but at the end of the day it prevents what we saw Tuesday and many other nights.

6 – WCBL SKED: Congratulations to the Saskatoon Berries as they got to the top of the mountain by winning the WCBL title for the first time in their young existence. It ended what I think was a pretty good year for the league, especially if you don’t count the Energy City (Edmonton) ballpark situation which is a huge stain on the league and needs to be rectified. 

In a season-ending interview with Clark Munroe and Joe McFarland, league president Kevin Kvame admits getting 56 games played in 64 days can be a challenge. We saw that late in the season when the Regina Red Sox had a lot of doubleheaders to play because of rain getting in the way. 

The season is compressed. I don’t think anyone in the league will argue that. Kvame wants to shorten the season but by how much. I don’t want the regular season to be anything less than 50 games. Can some Sunday afternoon day-night doubleheaders be scheduled?  If we do shorten it, can we make the league final a best of 5?  I understand the need to get things done quickly, but I feel a best of three final can be a little anti-climactic with a best of 5 being much better. 

At the end of the day, I think Kvame and the teams are in a pretty good spot and baseball fans across Saskatchewan and Alberta can look forward to another good season next summer. 

7 – MOVIN’ ON UP: Good to see Carter Beck’s progression to the Majors is ramping up. After spending a short time with the Augusta Green Jackets (love the name) to start his pro career out after getting drafted in the 1^st round by the Atlanta Braves, the Carnduff native has moved up to the Rome Emperors which is the High A affiliate of the Braves in the South Atlantic League.  To say that he will get an at-bat in the majors this year might be a stretch even when rosters expand but he could end up ending his season with Double A in Columbus, Georgia.  If we see MLB in 2027, it wouldn’t surprise me to see him get a look even if it is just for a game or two.  Tell me that Beck’s route to the majors isn’t something that many young and old are watching in Saskatchewan. It was great to see him for two years doing his thing at Currie Field when the Berries would come to town. 

8 – JESUS SANCHEZ:  As the Blue Jays try to crawl their way into an American League playoff spot, every game is paramount. On Wednesday night, Toronto lost in Tampa because Jesus Sanchez lost a ball in the lights.  He actually lost two balls, but the first one hit a catwalk at Tropicana Field and should have been called a homer but wasn’t. You would think he had murdered someone.  This just in, Jesus Sanchez is not the only baseball player to lose a ball in the lights especially at Tropicana Field. To see the Toronto media and Sportsnet Blue Jays personalities like Caleb Joseph and Kevin Barker go after him for a mistake was over the top, especially when no one on Sportsnet will come right out and call Vladimir Guerrero Junior out for the season he has had or question the effectiveness of Brendon Little or Jeff Hoffman at the start of the season when he lost his closers job, I guess they have the sack to go after a less than average outfielder, but they don’t have one to go after the star player who continues to be more concerned about dousing teammates with a Gatorade bucket after a Tuesday night win in May than trying to figure out why he can’t hit for power anymore.

Guys like Joseph and Barker should be all over VGJ for the fact he hasn’t hit a homerun at home in over a calendar year.  It was also interesting to note in Thursday’s game that Alejandro Kirk missed a pop-up because he lost it in the lights. Thankfully for Toronto, the ball bounced foul. Not a word was said.

9 – RANDOM THOUGHTS:

• Has TSN said who will be replacing Vic Rauter as the voice of curling in Canada? I am guessing it is Bryan Mudryk. 
• Who has had the worst season: Vladimir Guerrero Junior, Cal Raleigh or Kyle Tucker. I gotta go with “The Big Dumper” on this one. 
• Mail-order music giant “Columbia House” is calling it a day after 71 years. How many of us took advantage of their offers over the years?
• Discussions were had this week on the Mount Rushmore of pro wrestling.  Who is on the Mount Rushmore of Canadian pro wrestling.  Bret “Hitman” Hart, Chris Jericho and ????????? 

That’s all I got.  Have a great week!