Scruffy’s This N That

1 – A FRIDAY AT MOSAIC: Make no doubt about it, the Saskatchewan Roughriders were the better team on the Mosaic Stadium turf Friday night as they beat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 19-9. Make no doubt about this too Rider Nation: after that performance from Andre Proulx and his mates in the striped shirts, you can no longer bitch and moan about his crew screwing your team because they had three very favourable calls go their way.

Kian Schaeffer-Baker fumbled a ball in the first half, but the command centre awoke from their nap to say no he didn’t. Shea Patterson was stopped on a 3^rd down gamble in the first half and Winnipeg had arguably the worst pass interference call of the season get called against them in the 3^rd quarter. All plays were big for the obsidian green and white, especially the atrocious PI call as it led to the Clint Ratkovich TD that put the Riders in control for good.

The real story of this game though was the play of the Riders D. What a group Corey Mace has put together. Is Rolan Milligan the best defensive player in the league right now? Quarterbacks are learning not to take a trip to “Milligan’s Island”.

The other story was the continued progression of Shea Patterson. I thought this was a guy that should have gotten more of an opportunity last year and now that he has one, he is capitalizing on it. He is the future. It would be a solid move to lock him up a-s-a-p. At this point, he has to be the number one guy going into 2025.

One other question I have is apparently the Riders reduced attendance for this game to 30,000 from the usual 33,000. If so, why? Is this a trend? I am guessing that as this season goes along, that will go back to 33-grand as the interest is coming back. Funny how “W’s” get fans energized no matter the cost isn’t it?

2 – CHRIS JONES:  Rider Nation wasn’t wiping away tears on Monday when the Edmonton Elks announced they had parted way with Chris Jones. I am guessing many in Edmonton weren’t wiping away tears either.  How can you when your record is 8-33? Go back and you find that since the start of the 2021 season that the Elks have a record of 2-26 at Commonwealth Stadium.

The final chapter in Jones’ tenure occurred in jaw-dropping fashion Sunday night in a game that Edmonton should have won and would have won had it not been for Boris Bede who somehow is still a member of that team. They kept him ahead of Dean Faithfull? The reality is Edmonton is 0-5 and something had to be done.  The truth is Edmonton could be right in the middle of the race as they have lost three games on a walkoff field goal. 3-2 is much better than 0-5 as you all know. If the track record hadn’t of been so poor, Jones might have stayed but management couldn’t ignore his win-loss record anymore and made the move.

The story now is what will this mean for Tre Ford? You can’t blame McLeod Bethel-Thompson for having three games end on the wrong side of a walk-off field goal especially on Sunday when he brought the team back against Ottawa. That being said, it would seem as if Jones was reluctant to hand the keys to the Canadian quarterback who has shown promise.

MBT is too expensive to sit on the bench, but Ford needs to get in there somehow.

3 – SPEAKING OF MBT: McLeod Bethel-Thompson went off on the CFL for having teams play five days after their last game. Go to TSN as I’m sure they will have the audio on their website. He’s not wrong! 

4 – CFL BRAINTRUST: Can the CFL schedule makers please explain how this past Thursday did not see a game get played? Thursday games aren’t ideal, but when there is no baseball on post all-star break, a lot of eyes in this country would have been on a CFL game Thursday night. I just don’t understand the rationale at times at the head office.

Meanwhile, the Ottawa REDBLACKS and the CFL appear to have had an epic fail occur. The WWE brought RAW to Ottawa a couple of weeks ago. Part of the broadcasting crew is Pat McAfee. Would it have hurt the REDBLACKS and the CFL to bring McAfee a care package knowing full well he would have promoted it on his show? I know my friends at the Rider office would have been smart enough to get something to McAfee. I would love to see McAfee experience the Labour Day Classic so he could get a great taste of what CFL football is all about, but his role on College GameDay prevents that. Maybe we can get him here for the 25 season opener!

5 – OH WALLY!  The great Wally Buono did a great interview with TSN’s Farhan Lalji as he gets ready to enter the Stampeders wall of fame. Farhan asked Wally what he would do if he were commissioner for a day.  He said expand to the US.

Haven’t we been through this before? As a CFL fan, would you welcome American expansion? I would think we would see the same scenario as the first time when it comes to Canadian players playing south of the 49^th meaning the ratio would be non-existent.

Am I against American expansion? I want to see this league exhaust any and all opportunities to places like the Maritimes, Quebec City and Victoria but if the league does decide to try this again, don’t go too far south.  See if there is interest in places like Portland, Fargo North Dakota and somewhere in Montana. I have no desire to see the league in places like St. Louis, Birmingham and Memphis.

6 – WHAT TO DO WITH VLADDY: Blue Jays fans have come to the realization of what I told you in this space back when the baseball season started: that a team that did not improve itself in the off-season would be hot garbage this year.  Now as the trade deadline approaches, fans are wondering what the future of Vladimir Guerrero Junior and Bo Bichette will be.

Don’t be surprised if one or both are traded by the end of the month. Vladdy says he would like to stay which is what all players say when contract negotiations start up. If he does, he will sign an extension, which is favourable to both him and the organization, before the July 30 deadline. If he doesn’t, I could see him being a Mariner, a Cub or here’s a longshot—a Pittsburgh Pirate by the start of August.

As for Bichette, he has been linked to Cleveland, but I think Toronto will try to keep him for the remainder of this season before making a decision as to what to do with the shortstop in the off-season.

7 – CARTER BECK:  Those in the Saskatchewan baseball community have told me for the past couple of years about Carnduff’s Carter Beck saying he is the real deal. I have had a chance to see this young man play for the Saskatoon Berries a few times when they have come to Currie Field to play the Red Sox. He hasn’t disappointed.

Beck will be playing Division 1 NCAA baseball at Indiana State University next season. That is the same school Larry Bird made famous. A lot of eyes will be on this kid at Indiana State. Would I be surprised to see him in the majors one day? Nope!

8 – COUNCIL COMES THROUGH: We are not at the stage of shovel in ground, but I was pleased to see Regina City Council is going to look at a new ballpark to replace the aging Currie Field. Those that go to Red Sox games know that Gary Brotzel and crew are doing what they can to make it an enjoyable location, but those also know that like Taylor Field, a new venue is needed.

I have said it once and I will say it again: if this is to become reality, it has to be built downtown. Could it be near where the new arena will be? This is the only way people are going to be in downtown Regina at night. I give those trying to revitalize that area a lot of credit for what they do in trying to get people downtown after work, but the reality is they need a place much like Rogers Place in Edmonton, Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg, and numerous MLB ball parks to make that happen. The community has to also come through. There are many companies with deep pockets that can make a ballpark happen in exchange for naming rights.  Hopefully, one of them will help the City and the Red Sox out.

9 – PATS ALUMNI ASSOCIATION COMMITTEE: Two thumbs up for the Pats for announcing the establishment of this with guys from many different eras like Adam Brooks, Logan Nijhoff, Boyd Kane and Drew Callander being involved. This is long overdue and will pay dividends for the organization down the road. I actually thought they already had something like this, but either it got dissolved for some reason or I was wrong.

That’s all I got. Have a great weekend everyone! Enjoy that Saskatchewan summer that has finally arrived.