STACKHOUSE’S 10 THOUGHTS

1 – DOUBLE STANDARDS: I’m not a fan of this American women’s soccer team that won a world championship earlier this month.  They’ve become media darlings for some reason, I’m guessing because their biggest loud mouth hates Donald Trump. I can’t help but watch some of their public appearance videos on social media and wonder why it’s okay for them to swear and talk with a great deal of vulgarity into the camera and just act, generally, obnoxious.  Imagine if that was Jaden Schwartz and Brayden Schenn doing that in the dressing room or in the parade, on camera, after winning the Stanley Cup. Or, what if that was Kawhi Leonard telling you to lock up your daughters because he was coming for them? I think we all can imagine the outrage.

2 – FURTHER: It’s also not that great of a feel-good story that these ‘women’ won the World Cup.  They have 20 of the top 25 players in the world on their team. They are supposed to win.

3 – WEAK ATTEMPT AT QB CONTROVERSY: The Calgary Stampeders lost to Hamilton this weekend so it’s not much of an argument now; but I was watching the game on Saturday and mused at half time about whether or not Bo Levi Mitchell would have a job to come back to when he’s healthy.  Nick Arbuckle costs a fraction of what Mitchell does and you could make the case that he’s emerged as one of the top two quarterbacks in the league (he and Trevor Harris) so far this season. Plus, the last we saw Mitchell, he was on the verge of ‘leading’ his team to an 0-and-2 start.  I know he’s got an impeccable resume, but it’s a ‘what have you done for me lately’ league.  

4 – LOW ATTENDANCE, HIGH PRICES: I’ve read Rod’s (and others) opinions about the state of attendance in the CFL and the fact that numbers are down. My opinion on this is that when you start to price tickets out of reach for the common fan, this is a predictable outcome. Don’t be mad at Ma and Pa who are no longer coming with their two kids.  You could take a week long holiday to a provincial park for the same price that you’d pay to watch a game for three hours. Blame your sponsors and businesses as they are the ones that have to pay the freight for attendance now.  Also, this isn’t to single out Rod because I know he has season tickets for the Roughriders, but most media people who blast fans for not going to games have zero credibility doing so because they all get to go for free and wouldn’t be able to afford to pay for a ticket either. 

5 – BORING BASEBALL: As a long time baseball fan, I continue to be frustrated with MLB executives who continue to keep their head buried in the sand as far as trying to identify and fix what is wrong with the game today.  There’s no shortage of things that make it unwatchable most nights, but one thing that caught my interest this past week was a caller to one of the MLB radio shows pointed out that there just isn’t much movement in the game now.  In the days of Rickey Henderson, Tim Raines, Vince Coleman, Willie McGee, Kenny Lofton, Paul Molitor, Steve Sax, etc. you’d see all kinds of pressure on the base paths as well as novel attempts to score that included (not limited to) the hit and run, sacrificing, purposely hitting to the opposite field, check swings, and stolen bases.  The game now is station to station and I just think it’s become boring for most people, including long time fans.

6 – MISGUIDED ANALYTICS: Saturday I was watching the Jays and Yankees.  J.A. Happ was cruising through five innings, but Toronto put two runners on base with one out and it was time for Happ to exit as he had thrown 89 pitches and this was the dreaded ‘third time through the order’ which nerds will tell you is like navigating a land mine for starting pitchers.  So, in comes Adam Ottavino and he gives up a two run single to Randall Grichuk. The two runs scored go against Happ even though he was out of the game and then we look at the stats and see that ‘oh yes, the third time through the order did Happ in’. But, that’s not true at all. The reliever allowed inherited runners to score.  Happ should have been allowed to be his own bullpen and get out of the inning. There was no reason to suggest he couldn’t do it if you trust the eyeball.

7 – STARTING PITCHERS ARE DINOSAURS: Once Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer retire, there will be no reason to ever have a starting pitcher as your favorite player. Pedro Martinez was must watch tv.  There was a chance he’d go 9 innings, allow 2 hits and strikeout 15 every time he took the mound. There’s no such thing today and never will be again unless kids are taught to pitch using location and change of speed as weapons instead of just rearing back and throwing every single pitch as hard as you can.  Using 5-6 pitchers a game is a buzz kill. If you want to speed up the game, that’s the best way to do it. Pedro fanning 15 only takes about two hours.

8 – BOYD HELPS FOR FUTURE…TWICE: I’ve long said rebuilds are fraudulent and the latest example of that is the Detroit Tigers taking offers on pitcher Matt Boyd.  Back in 2015, the Tigers acquired Boyd (and others) for David Price in a trade with the Toronto Blue Jays because Boyd was going to help them rebuild while Price was headed for free agency.  Here we are in 2019 and the Tigers suck even worse now than when they made the trade and it’s Boyd who is going to be shown the door because there is someone else out there who can ‘help them for the future’. 

9 – MORE REBUILDING FRAUD: The Philadelphia Phillies dealt Cole Hamels a few years ago because he was going to be too old to help them when they were ready to win.  Turns out that was wrong and nobody they received for him is helping them today. The team that acquired Hamels, Texas, traded him as part of a house cleaning last year because the Rangers are a number of years away from winning.  Well, one calendar year later and the Rangers are in a good spot for a wild card and they don’t have Hamels because he was given away to the Cubs nor do the have Keone Kela at the back end of their bullpen as the 25-year-old was also traded despite having 24 saves.  The Rangers closer situation is a mess and they’d have about 5-6 more wins if they had stability there. In any other line of work, you’d fire the guy responsible for this nonsense. But, in professional sports it’s become very acceptable to be a coward when you should be ultra competitive.

10 – WHEAT KING SPECULATION: Las Vegas GM Kelly McCrimmon has hired Darren Ritchie to be the GM of his junior team in Brandon.  Speculation is McCrimmon’s friend, Dave Lowry, is at the top of the candidate list for head coach. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Ryan Craig get the job either.  The former Wheat King player was an assistant in Vegas this past year. One thing pointed out was that when McCrimmon was rumoured to be in the running for the Oilers GM job, he would have had direct ties to two WHL franchises (Brandon and Edmonton).  I wonder how that would be looked upon.

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster. Follow him on Twitter at @Stack1975)