STACKHOUSE’S 10 WEEKEND THOUGHTS
1 – COVID SECRETS – The NHL keeping Covid tests secret is silly. What’s the reason for doing this? If anything, they should publicize it so that we can all see how ‘sick’ professional athletes get. So far, what we’ve heard on the baseball end of things is that nearly all of them are asymptomatic or the symptoms are so mild that it really would be impossible to discern if they had the virus without tracking it down through testing. In which case, why are we running so scared? I know some of you will say ‘violation of privacy’ but how do you figure? Seeing how many have it, how few have symptoms, and how easily they recover could give the rest of the population reason for optimism instead of fear. I find it interesting that baseball player Charlie Blackmon admitted he didn’t have hardly any symptoms at all and yet he didn’t want to talk about it because he felt that it downplayed the seriousness of the virus when in reality it would have made for a nice perspective. Auston Matthews felt his privacy was breached when Steve Simmons reported he had the virus but there is no evidence he suffered any personal damage from the disclosure. He also says he was mostly asymptomatic. For every Freddie Freeman (who was only sick for 4-5 days) I can produce nine Jimmie Johnsons.
2 – BASEBALL TESTING – I have to admit that even I was fooled by the sports media’s reporting on the China-started coronavirus testing of Major League players. It felt like too many were ending up positive and the season would never get off the ground. Well, on Friday, MLB released (without much media coverage) some facts surrounding testing and it gives me reason to believe the season will start on time this week and will end up being completed as planned. Almost 11-thousand tests were conducted over the last seven days and only 6 positives were produced (five players, one staff). Overall, 80 players and 13 staff have been positive for coronavirus and 22-thousand tests have been conducted. This is an incredibly small number. Relax. Enjoy the baseball season if you feel so inclined.
3 – BRADLEY OPTS OUT – One of the more fascinating things that I’m curious to see unfold is what happens with the LA Lakers once the playoffs begin. The Lakers are not a sure thing to win it and don’t have a deep roster after Lebron James and Anthony Davis. It’s possible they won’t need much beyond those two anyway. But in the event they don’t win, you can bet Avery Bradley is going to be the bullseye for a lot of criticism. Bradley has opted out from playing because of Covid fears and he’s a key player for them. I’m also curious how pending free agents will be received on the open market after opting out of playing. One could argue some will have difficulty finding employment for the desired price. Like it or not, reliability is a factor and we don’t know the personal reasons for opting out but you can bet it’s not popular in some circles to have guys sitting home while others are playing in the name of ensuring there is money to be made in the future.
4 – CFL – Speaking of money, the CFL can’t get out of its own way. If there is a playbook for a league on how not to handle a pandemic, the CFL is writing it as we go along. The communication with the players seems to be non-existent and if there is a plan to try and play, nobody outside of the Commissioner’s office seems to have any idea as to what that really is. There has been a lot of speculation but I don’t think we see anything close to the commencement of a season. While we can proclaim success with the virus and have zero CFL players pass away or even visit an ICU ward, 100% of them will be without work, 100% of them will lose a productive year of their life that they will never ever get back, and some of those won’t ever play football again. I hope you folks who believe in eradicating the virus at all costs are happy with this.
5 – NAME CHANGE – I don’t have a strong opinion one way or the other when it comes to the Eskimos, Redskins, Indians, Braves, Blackhawks, etc. changing their names to appease those who are offended but keep in mind that taking offense is subjective. It’s not universal. I really don’t think I should have an opinion as to whether those names are offensive because I’m white. I do feel the name Yankees is offensive because the only time I ever hear it used is by a Canadian who speaks negatively about an American. But, I’m not about to begin a crusade to get rid of the name. Here’s what I can tell you from first hand experience at the Painted Hand Casino Powwow in Yorkton last year: I had a great conversation with half a dozen native youth and we talked about the proper words to use. Frankly, I love having these discussions directly with the people affected instead of virtue-signaling white people who think they know best for all. On the word ‘Indian’, this is what was told to me by the group I was around and I am paraphrasing a larger conversation. “We don’t want to see the word erased as we feel it waters down our heritage and takes away from who we are, however we also recognize our community is split on the word and you could talk to a totally different group of people here today and get the opposite opinion.” The sample size is very small, but I am also aware of one elder who wanted to be addressed as an ‘Indian’. Again, I’m not qualified to opine either way. But this is what I’ve been told in the conversations I’ve been involved in.
6 – ADVOCATE TO PLAY – If this isn’t your first time reading my column, you know that I’ve been advocating to play for many weeks now. Canada has 4000 active cases in a country of 38-million. If you can’t play today, when can you play? I’ve asked this question over and over again and nobody has ever given me an answer. If the answer is not until we have zero cases for a long time, then you can forget about ever watching and playing team sports. Someone else said we need to close it down until 2021 until we know more about the science. Well, okay let’s do that. Some of the panic porn being pedalled now is that we don’t know the long term damage of recovered cases. Some need lung transplants, some have lifetime heart issues, others will need limbs amputated. For real. This is what is on the news. So, if we are going to go with that, we can’t play when a vaccine hits either because we need to give it a couple of years to ensure we aren’t putting athletes at risk by elevating their heart rates or demanding lung capacity that isn’t there anymore because of a positive result 18 months earlier. This says nothing of the fact that I wonder if we should trust the vaccines immediately or do we give that time too to make sure we are safe? If you are of the belief that this kind of caution is too much caution then I will revert back to the original question – if you can’t play today can you ever play?
7 – CHOICE – I’ve given Major League Soccer a chance but haven’t been able to get into it. Major League Baseball starts Thursday and I will watch for sure even though I have a bitter taste in my mouth with how everything has unfolded with regards to return to play negotiations. The Saskatchewan Rattlers play their first CEBL game on Sunday, July 26 at 11:30am. I will watch this and give the CEBL a chance to be my preferred viewing choice over MLB. However, once the NBA and NHL get going a week after that I’m going to be fully invested in those two leagues. The first couple of weeks will be all NHL for me as I love the first round of the playoffs. Usually, my teams that I root for are done early (Winnipeg and Philadelphia) and I don’t maintain interest as the playoffs move along. The NBA playoffs are where I end up spending my tv time once they get to the conference finals and I don’t really have a preferred rooting interest in anyone.
8 – RATTLERS PRIMER – I paid no attention to the Rattlers last season, so I needed to do some digging to familiarize myself with what I may see next weekend. If you are a fan, feel free to correct me in the comments so I have a bit more knowledge when I watch, but it looks like the marquee player is Tavrion Dawson. Awesome Dawson was a second team all-star last year and is a dual threat scoring and rebounding. Dawson started last year with the Rattlers, but didn’t finish it. Yet, he’s back for the tournament in 2020. Judging from what I’ve read, the new player to focus on is guard Armoni Brooks, who had back to back 30-point games in January in the NBA G-League. He’s also got 4 NBA preseason games under his belt. Former U of S Huskie Shane Osayande, who had a big second half last year, is back along with team captain Alex Campbell and sharp shooter Negus Webster-Chan. Regina’s Kai Williams, who’s been playing pro for ten years, is also slated to be on the roster. I realize we aren’t a basketball province the way we are a football province, but the CEBL has a chance to take a foothold in some cities in light of the CFL’s absence, especially if they have a good tournament this year in Niagara and are able to start next year on team back in the home centres.
9 – MASKS – Here’s my thing on masks. I live in Yorkton and can social distance. I don’t need to wear one. In the event that social distancing becomes a challenge, then I would put one on. Why some of you insist on needing dishonest politicians to make masks mandatory is something I will never understand. The purpose of masks has never changed over the course of time and, therefore, the opinion as to whether they are helpful or not should never have changed. Yet, governments were either lying back in April when they downplayed mask usage (some even went so far to say that you really should try to avoid wearing them) or they are lying now when they say masks are essential. Some have said they had to lie back in April to prevent a mask shortage. Really? So it was okay to risk lives in April by ensuring we had enough for the medical professionals? Or is it okay to risk lives today because we have a number of citizens who are skeptical based on the lies from April? Or are we lying today because politicians are motivated to keep economies open and giving people a false sense of security is the best way to do it?
10 – MEDIA MASKS – The media’s fixation on masks in Saskatchewan is so frustrating I want to bang my head off a wall over and over every time I hear the questions about it at government press conferences. I didn’t hear one single inquiry about how we’ve had this outbreak in the Hutterite communities. Here’s what I do know: there was a tragedy in southern Alberta less than a month ago where three Hutterite girls drowned. The Hutterite community is a small close knit one. We have outbreaks in Hutterite areas in southern Alberta, southern Saskatchewan, and southern Manitoba. Is it possible people from all three provinces ended up at one mass gathering resulting in this outbreak? Were the rules followed as far as this gathering is concerned and if they weren’t, what penalties were put in place? I haven’t seen any stories about this anywhere, just speculation on social media. Instead, mainstream media is focused on wearing a mask everywhere you go. It’s the job of the media to ask the proper questions the general public can’t because we don’t have access to the politicians and health officials. To this end, we’ve been failed in a big way provincially, nationally, and internationally. It’s also the job of governments to inform citizens so they can make choices that are best for them. If the risk remains extremely low and we are talking about one big gathering that got out of hand then we need to be told that. It helps take the edge off when people are going about their everyday lives via shopping, dining out, playing on the playground, etc. It would also allow us to be more understanding and forgiving when officials say we can’t go to sports games, have large weddings, enjoy buffets, etc. And, this can be done without violating anyone’s privacy.
(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster. Follow him on Twitter at @Stack1975)
