Stackhouse’s 10 Weekend Thoughts

2 – ALL THE SPENDING ALMOST STILL NOT ENOUGH – The Dodgers spent a gazillion dollars on their payroll and had they not had an entire bullpen on the IL, maybe this series wouldn’t have been close.  You have to wonder what any series against the Dodgers looks like if they had Evan Phillips, Tanner Scott, Kirby Yates, Alex Vesia, and Tony Gonsolin as options.  Roki Sasaki backdoored his way into the closer role, but he was supposed to be a starter and got hurt and never made it back in time to get stretched out.   

3 – JAYS PITCHING – The Blue Jays should have had a starting rotation that featured Chris Bassitt, but he got hurt and for whatever reason was never ever considered to be an option.  Jose Berrios also got hurt late in the year and that’s what paved the way for Yesavage to emerge the way he did.  I guess if there was one question I had about their staff it was why the reluctance to use Eric Lauer, who was very good all year and in the playoffs whenever they went to him.  

4 – TURNING POINT & JAYS FUTURE – The ball stuck in the wall play from game six may be the most significant play of the series.  If that’s not a ground rule double, the Jays score one run for sure on that and maybe two.  Perhaps they win the game.  It’ll be interesting to see where the franchise goes from here.  Bo Bichette, Shane Bieber, and Bassitt are slated to become free agents.  Max Scherzer is expected to retire.  Yesavage will step into one of the starter roles to be sure.  Berrios should have a normal offseason and Gausman remains at the top of the rotation.  Can players like Barger, Clement, Lukes, and Kirk repeat their offense from this season? 

5 – SATURDAY CANADIAN FOOTBALL – I thought both CFL games were very entertaining with the BC Lions setting themselves up for a West Division Final showdown at Regina next weekend with a clutch fourth quarter in holding off the Calgary Stampeders.  The score in the Montreal-Winnipeg game flattered the Bombers as it really wasn’t as close as it indicates.  If they can prevent themselves from tripping over their own feet, I would expect Montreal to also beat Hamilton in the East Final.  The U-Sports playoff games were also excellent with the Huskies getting a great defensive performance in their win over UBC and the Rams needing a double OT field goal to beat Manitoba.  

6 – TICKET PROMOTION – In an effort to draw more fans to the West Final, the Riders are offering freebies if you commit to three tickets (the fourth is on them).  This is precisely why people aren’t buying.  They are holding out for lower priced or free tickets from someone who can’t go.  I was at the 2019 West Final against Winnipeg and there was over 33,000 on hand to watch and none of those tickets were free.  We all know what happened in our world in 2020 and how certain people and organizations have behaved since.  I stand by my assertion as to that being the single biggest reason for the dip that shows no sign of recovering.  The Riders would appear to have 20,000 hardcores and anything more than that is gravy.  As I mentioned last week, judging by how badly just about every other sport is attended in this country (NHL notwithstanding), the CFL should be over the moon with 20,000 fans per stadium per game.

7 – FACEBOOK INTERACTION – For all the negatives social media has to offer, there are still lots of positives to it too, including a short interaction I had with former CFL Blue Bomber coach Mike Kelly.  Kelly commented on a Facebook photo of old Winnipeg Stadium and that was met with a reply from a fan who expressed disgust from his disastrous stint as head coach in 2009.  While Kelly wasn’t successful in the win column, he was an absolute ‘must listen’ on Monday evenings when he hosted the coach’s show on the radio.  To call him and the show entertainment gold is an understatement.  He never was one to hide from criticism and I found him to be very likeable.  That one year shouldn’t erase what Kelly did as OC in the 1990s when he led the team to 29 club records on offense over four years and he also oversaw Matt Dunigan’s 713-yard game.  Without social media, I don’t get a chance to go back and forth with Kelly like I did the other day.  I hope he’s doing well and sports needs more Mike Kellys in it as far as I’m concerned.

8 – GOOFY PHILLY FLYERS JOURNALISM – There may not be a league more poorly covered than the NHL.  I was reading an article on the Philadelphia Flyers this weekend and goalie Dan Vladar was getting rave reviews for his 6.4-goals saved above expectation stat.  How do you stop .4 of a goal?  And what exactly is an ‘expected goal’?  One reporter dropped a tidbit that Sean Couturier is going to ‘miss some time’ due to injury.  What the heck does that mean?  It’s basically code for ‘I know what is wrong with him, and I want to make sure you fans know that I know but I’m not going to say anything out of fear of jeopardizing cozy relationships but please keep coming back to read my hot takes that don’t actually say anything’.  

9 – NLL VEGAS – It would be smart for professional sports leagues to make sure their Vegas franchise is healthy and playing well.  The NHL changed their expansion draft rules just for Vegas a number of years ago.  Now, it would appear as though the National Lacrosse League is going to get a dose of a highly competitive Vegas Desert Dogs team after they came dead last a season ago.  The Dogs have resigned leading scorer Jonathan Donville, and they’ve also added Chase Fraser and Chris Cloutier from the defending champion Buffalo Bandits as well as Mitch Jones, who racked up 110 points last season with Philadelphia.  A name Rush fans may recognize is Alex Buque and the Dogs are bringing him in as well to provide competition to Justin Geddie and Landon Kells in goal.  

10 – PRO WRESTLING – I was internet surfing and just randomly killing time earlier this week and stumbled across a post stating former professional wrestler Mike Rotunda has been put into hospice care at the age of 67.  Rotunda, when he wrestled under the moniker Irwin R. Schyster, was one of my all-time favorites.  Someone posted a photo of Rotunda that was dated May of this year and the decline in his health was shocking.  The way algorithms work, it wasn’t long before I was down a rabbit hole of wrestlers and where are they now.  Former Nasty Boys tag team champ Brian Knobbs is 61 and has a multitude of health issues, paid by fans through GoFundMe.  Another popular tag team, the Rock N Roll Express (Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson) are in their late 60s and still wrestling on the independent circuit.  One of the greater sports sins from the 1980s and 1990s is how these great athletes were just disposed of as if they were trash by the various wrestling promoters.  So many of them have died and a lot of who’s left are not in good condition.  There are a multitude of stories of wrestlers who are destitute.  It’s sad.

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