Scruffy’s This ‘N That

1 – NEW UNIS GALORE:  We knew for quite a while that the Blue Jays were going to unveil their City Connect jerseys on Thursday. Did you know that the Riders were planning on unveiling a new look that day as well? Yes kids, both teams want you to spend some of your hard-earned dollars on new uniforms and many of you will.  As one of my Twitter followers (Jason Miller) responded when I asked about the new Toronto uniform, he sent me a pic of the Frasier logo. I laughed hard because it’s true! The City Connect jerseys that many teams have produced over the last couple of years are for the most part hot garbage in my mind and yes, I am looking at the Tigers and Phillies ones. It’s not the best CC jersey, but its not the worst either.

As far as the Riders go, they have seemingly bowed to the demands of the fan to put black into green-and-white. Actually, its not black, its obnoxious green……I mean obsidian green. Could I get that colour in a box of 64 Crayola crayons when I was younger? I digress. I’m not sold on the new looking S, but I don’t hate it. I haven’t gotten a Riders jersey for years for obvious reasons. That trend will likely continue, but I will be looking at a golf shirt.

At the end of the day no matter who you cheer for, its not what the uniform looks like it is how the guys or girls wearing them play. For what it’s worth, the retro uniform is the team’s best look in my opinion and that is the jersey that should be worn.

2 – WHO IS NUMBER 2? The season hasn’t even started yet in Riderville and the quarterback controversy is on, but only in Saskatchewan can that controversy involve the number two guy. I thought the Riders should have invested in Jake Dolegala ahead of Mason Fine, but the organization went another way. I have heard rumours of Dolegala and GM Jeremy O’Day not seeing eye to eye which is why he signed elsewhere, but I don’t know if that is fact or fiction.

With many, including myself, calling for Shea Patterson to be the backup it seems as if Head Coach Corey Mace wants to give Fine the designation. How much more do we have to see of Fine? He has shown he isn’t the guy—at least to me and many others he has. Patterson deserves to start the regular season as the backup and show if the opportunity arises if he is capable of handling that spot or not.

3 – DON’T PLAY LA BAMBA BABY! The Edmonton Oilers and Dallas Stars are involved in a ring-a-ding-dong dandy of a Western Conference final as expected. The rivalry is hot on the ice and the Stars music man unexpectedly turned up the heat after a Game 2 win when he thought he was trolling the Oilers by playing “La Bamba”.  That is more than a song as Oilers fans know as it was super-fan Ben Stelter who would say “Play La Bamba baby” after his favourite team won. The six-year-old captured the hearts of all especially the Oilers as he fought cancer.

What the Dallas DJ didn’t know was the meaning behind the song and good on him for owning up to his mistake and apologizing before donating money to the Ben Stelter Foundation. Dallas fans also came through by donating $20,000 to the foundation.  The rivalry can be strong on the ice, but it’s great to see fans show support to the team they what to eliminate by pulling off a move like this. It’s not the first time something like this has happened, but it is always good to see.

Oh yeah, let’s hope we hear “La Bamba” on Sunday night!!

4 – NO NEED: I don’t know about you, but I think the in-game interviews with hockey coaches are beyond stupid. 98 percent of the time you aren’t going to get anything of substance. On Tuesday night at the Memorial Cup, TSN put in-game host Julia Tocheri on skates and had her interview a member of the London Knights at centre ice. Why? Like the coaches interviews, the player interview was a whole lot of nothing.  I hope this isn’t a trend.  On the other hand, having a camera guy come out to get a closer look at a fight was different.  It brought you a little closer to the action, but I don’t think it is something we need.

Meanwhile, the Moose Jaw Warriors are out after what might have been their worst effort of the season. If it was, it came at the wrong time as they were blown out by Saginaw in the Memorial Cup semi-final. Yes, there is disappointment in Moose Jaw but remember they won a league title for the first time and they are the 3^rd best junior hockey team in Canada. The ride they took their city on won’t be forgotten for a long, long time.

5 – WHO IS YOUR OLYMPIC TENDER? We are a long ways away from the puck dropping for Canada’s first game at the 2026 Olympics. When Canada comes out for its first game, you know guys like McDavid, McKinnon, Makar, Bedard and Dobson will be wearing the colours, but who will be in net. Many believe it will be trio of Jordan Binnington, Adin Hill and Stuart Skinner. Is that the best Canada has? The days of Roy, Brodeur and Price are over my friends.

One might have argued Carter Hart could be in that equation, but chances are he might never play in the NHL again due to his legal problems. One could argue Marc-Andre Fleury might deserve a shot, but he will be over 40 and perhaps retired. I don’t see any kid on the horizon either meaning the above three may be what a country pins its gold medal hopes on. Meanwhile, the US will choose between Connor Hellebuyck, Jake Oettinger and Jeremy Swayman and oh yeah maybe Thatcher Demko too.   YIKES!

6 – DÉJÀ VU: So let me get this straight, Minnesota’s PWHL team looked like they had won the championship only to have an overtime goal called back because of goalie interference only to see Boston score to send the series to a deciding game. Minnesota celebrated like they had won the title only to have it snatched away from them because of a penalty. That doesn’t happen right? I can’t imagine a CFL team ever thinking they had won a title only to have it taken away because of a penalty and then losing. Thankfully for Minnesota, they managed to come back and win the deciding Game 5

7 – LIV TO STOON? No, not WWE superstar Liv Morgan although I think she has been there before. I am talking about the LIV Golf Tour. CKOM’s Shane Clausing came up with a big-time exclusive this week when he said LIV is looking at perhaps holding a tournament in Saskatoon. That would be big news for Saskatoon and the province as golfers like Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson could be navigating the fairways at what would likely be Dakota Dunes. I don’t know how far the talks are when it comes to possibly staging a tournament in Saskatoon, but I hear this might not be the only big tournament coming to the Bridge City in the near future.  Stay tuned!

8 – TACO BELL HITS REGINA: Why is there so much excitement in this? Regina has some great Mexican food places already like Agave, Guac and Tropezon Tacos. Thanks but no thanks! I don’t understand why Reginans go so crazy when a new chain restaurant opens. By the end of summer, the parking lot may be as empty as Carls Jr.  Remember the excitement when it opened?

9 – BYE ANGEL: Baseball no longer has Angel Hernandez to kick around as the umpire, who has been terrible for years, has retired. How this guy kept his job for so long and got playoff assignments was simply amazing.

That’s all I got.  Have a great weekend!