STACKHOUSE’S 10 THOUGHTS

1 – TOM WILSON – I offer no opinion on whether or not Tom Wilson should be suspended for his latest antics other than to say if you don’t want this in your game, the onus is on the team to get rid of him. The New York Rangers didn’t want Tony DeAngelo on their team despite putting up excellent numbers for an offensive defenseman last year so they released him. It all comes down to what are you willing to live with morally and if you are okay with the things Wilson is doing out there, great. Keep him on the team and stand behind him when the critics come out. But if you aren’t, and one of your own players gets laid up for months because of a dirty play and you complain about it then you are a hypocrite for rostering him. I know there are a lot of Boston Bruins fans out there who are not Wilson fans yet I don’t hear any of them complaining about Brad Marchand. The guy licked another player. Gross. Disgusting. Low. Sorry, you don’t have a leg to stand on criticizing Tom Wilson. And, the same goes for each and every team that ever gave a paycheque to Matt Cooke. I’d also put Brooks Orpik in this category even though he never seemed to get a lot of attention for some of his dirty work. Funny, in a way, that the Capitals rostered Orpik, Cooke, and Wilson at one point or another.

2 – FIGHTING – I saw a tweet from Chris Dingman saying this is the kind of hockey you get when you ban fighting. I think he’s a bit past his due date saying that as the NHL has eradicated fighting (for the most part) for a number of years now and players are just going to have to find another way to blow off some steam when they reach peak frustration levels. You see emotions boil over in other sports and it doesn’t lead to fisticuffs all that often nor does it lead to dangerous antics. It comes down to having respect for your fellow player and there just doesn’t seem to be enough of it right now. I have my theories as to why that is but best to keep them to myself rather than enrage you all.

3 – RANGERS RETRIBUTION – Which leads me to the fact there were six fights in the first five minutes of the Rangers/Capitals game on Wednesday night. Twitter was on fire with many sports journalists who were appalled at the violence. Yet, nobody got hurt and nobody turtled. Everyone seemed willing to answer the bell. I had no problem with it, but I recognize hockey doesn’t want that in their game. My question is where’s the union in all of this? If they want a safe workplace wouldn’t they just take care of Wilson themselves?  Don’t wait for the NHL Head Office. Keep your members safe, don’t protect the one guy who is a danger to the rest. How backwards is that? Having said that, I think fighting is, perhaps, the safest form of retribution.  Wouldn’t it make more sense, if you really wanted to hurt Wilson and get him back for what he did, to just take your stick and rap him upside of the head a la Marty McSorley/Donald Brashear? Or what about when Bobby Clarke slashed Valery Kharlamov’s ankle just to get him out of the Summit Series? These types of acts are far more dangerous than fighting.

4 – TJ OSHIE – Jay Onrait tweeted this week that TJ Oshie’s father lost his battle with dementia and then he went on to post an interview Oshie did on the ice immediately after the Capitals won the Stanley Cup in 2018 where the forward was very emotional and talked about how his dad doesn’t remember everything anymore but this Cup win will definitely stick with him. It’s a stinging reminder that despite professional athletes making millions and millions of dollars each year that they still have to deal with the same pile of manure the rest of us have that drags us down into the sewer of life from time to time. I’d love to have Oshie’s millions but the one thing I have that Oshie doesn’t have and I know he’d trade me in an instant for it:  a healthy 67-year-old dad.

5 – CFL RETURN TO PLAY – Provided everything goes according to the plan released by Scott Moe earlier this week and provided other provinces adopt a very similar reopening model in the days and weeks ahead, there is nothing standing in the way of the Canadian Football League beginning a season in August with plenty of fans in attendance. I caught a bit of Rod’s show the other day where he said unless you have a vested interest in the league you need to move on with life. This is true and it’s taken me a year to come to grips with it and it’s not just with the CFL. If you have something that is special to you as a person but it’s not something that pays the bills for you, let those who are directly involved fight for their survival. It can be frustrating to see some of these people not fight hard enough, which is has been of great concern for me on a couple of fronts but I have to understand that I can’t control it and the reality is that maybe going forward some of these leagues and organizations will have better hiring practices to ensure those who are employed are employed because they are passionate and not because it’s a replaceable job.

6 – ANGEL HERNANDEZ – Major League Baseball’s unofficial worst umpire booted three Kansas City Royals on Wednesday night (pitcher Brady Singer, pitching coach Cal Eldred, and manager Mike Matheny).  I didn’t see why but almost every time there seems to be a conflict between players/managers and umpires you can bet Angel Hernandez is in the middle of it. He should not be working games and the fact that he is just speaks to the low standards Major League Baseball accepts from this profession.

7 – AARON RODGERS – The old school train of thought is to say Aaron Rodgers is selfish and a ‘me’ player for wanting out of Green Bay. That may be true, but the NFL cultivates this type of behaviour through non-guaranteed contracts. If the shoe was on the other foot and it was advantageous for the Packers to pull the carpet out from Rodgers they’d do it in a heartbeat and by drafting Jordan Love last year they signified that.  Now we are a year removed and Rodgers is still bitter and wants a change of scenery. If Aaron Rodgers isn’t going to look out for Aaron Rodgers, who is? You can hate him for it, but such is life in professional sports.  These players are pieces of meat to their respective franchises so when the athlete has the upper hand and tries to force his way into a more favorable position I am all for it. Loyalty is a nice concept but it’s simply that. A concept. Now, I’d also say if I was running the Green Bay Packers and if trading him was punitive to the salary cap (which it is) I would give Rodgers the cold truth and say ‘you can go host Jeopardy because it’s cheaper for us to let you sit home than it is to give you what you want’. In fact, the Packers may even have a case to go after him for his signing bonus and recoup $23-million in the event he retires. I’m sure Rodgers can afford to give it back. He’s made $240-million over his career, not including endorsements. If the rumour of Rodgers wanting the GM fired and then he will agree to play is true, my guess is ownership fires the GM.

8 – ALOMAR – Major League Baseball conducted an investigation on Roberto Alomar and have decided there is enough evidence to remove him from any current involvement with the game and they’ve placed him on the ineligible list. The Blue Jays are also erasing any visual evidence of him in the event they ever play games in front of fans at Skydome again. I don’t imagine the team is in any hurry to forfeit the two World Series titles they won with Alomar being a key contributor but you never know. Virtue does trump winning now. I met Alomar a few years ago at a sports banquet in Melville and found him to be extremely likeable.  But, you don’t know what goes on when the public isn’t watching. I also have to say the spitting incident when he played with Baltimore really soured me on his character and I have to believe any human who has it in him to do that to another human is capable of a lot of bad things that most of us wouldn’t dream of doing. I just hoped he had changed.

9 – VIRTANEN – Which brings me to Jake Virtanan, who’s accused of inappropriate behaviour involving interactions with a woman in 2017. Unless there is some sort of video or electronic record of what happened during this situation it will be very difficult to prove Virtanen’s guilt or innocence and his fate will be determined, ultimately, by whoever has a more credible story. I’ve never met the young man so have no opinion either way other than to say if there is a certain level of acceptability as far as behaviour goes, let’s weed out any professional athlete who has crossed the line at any time for any reason so that we can just clean everything up the way society wants. If allegations are all it takes to get someone removed, so be it if that’s what the majority want. I’m all for high level moral professional sports if that’s what everyone else wants too.

10 – ROY OSWALT – Sports scouting can be a humbling job. Take former MLBer Roy Oswalt, for example.  He won 162 games and was in the mix for the Cy Young Award six times over his thirteen year career (Houston, Philadelphia, Texas, Colorado). Here’s a scouting report on Oswalt as compiled by the Cincinnati Reds:  ‘Shows occasional arm strength. Has short tight bite on slider. Fastball is consistently flat through the zone. Wild around zone. Doesn’t miss many bats. Has a long and lazy break, lacks command. Slide stays in the zone and gets hit. Change is up in the zone, slows arm and delivery. Lacks deception.  Consistently gets hit with all pitches. Has no value to the Reds. Role – Organizational fifth starter’. Oops.

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