Stackhouse’s 10 Weekend Thoughts

2 – HERVEY HURT FEELINGS – The CFL Players Association is focused on the wrong thing after they fired off a press release condemning Edmonton GM Ed Hervey for what they feel are insulting and ignorant comments about the players in his remarks about losing receiver Eugene Lewis in free agency.  Hervey said he’s unaware of any superstar players in the CFL and that he doesn’t much care about their personal feelings about themselves.  For what it’s worth, Lewis had 10-touchdowns and over a thousand yards last year, one year after he found the end zone just three times.  For what it’s worth, Hervey himself had a season of close to 1500 yards and 12-touchdowns back in 2001 and he wasn’t even the top receiver on his own team that year so he can be forgiven if he’s not impressed with Lewis.  But, also who are the top players in the league today?  I’d suggest Chad Kelly but the league wants nothing to do with him because of the social media mob against him.  You could say Nathan Rourke would be the most familiar name in the league but he wasn’t even good enough to keep his starting job last year.  I’m going to side with Hervey here.  There are no Doug Fluties, Ricky Rays, Anthony Calvillos, Damon Allens, Milt Stegalls, Ben Cahoons, etc.  The real reason for that is because of the expansion of NFL practice rosters as well as the creation of the spring professional leagues in the US.  The CFLPA should be focused on partnering with the league (which has no Commissioner … maybe they should issue a press release on that) to come up with strategies to improve the quality of the players to where it was twenty years ago.

3 – TAX ADVANTAGES – The NHL says they are opening collective bargaining talks with the NHLPA and a ‘tax balance’ proposal is on the table so that teams located in states and provinces where the citizens are being ripped off by their government can compete with the more friendly locations (Texas, Nevada, Florida, Washington, Tennessee).  If I was running the NHLPA, this idea would be a total non-starter.  The onus isn’t on the league or the players to make the attractive states less desirable.  Nor should the highly taxed provinces and states be given an advantage (more money) to spend in free agency in order to make up for the theft by their respective governments.  The best way to become more competitive is to remove tax barriers.  Everybody pays too much tax, including millionaire athletes.  That’s the truth whether you like it or not.  We live in a time where the government has never taken more than they do and yet the problems have never been worse.  The answer is a total overhaul to make our cities more competitive with each other through lower taxes and alternative ways to tackle the issues that plague us.  There are some very smart money managers running these professional sports teams and I would be more than comfortable nominating some of them to tackle this issue.   

4 – SCOTTIE LINDSEY – Former Saskatchewan Rattler guard Scottie Lindsey, who led the team in scoring in 2022, has signed on with the Edmonton Stingers for the upcoming season.  Lindsey played last year with Winnipeg, averaging 13.5-ppg and a team best 1.2-steals per game.  Meanwhile, the Rattlers made what feels like an impact signing on Friday by announcing that Nate Pierre-Louis will join the team for the upcoming season.  Pierre-Louis has NBA G League and NBA Summer League experience and is averaging about 5-PPG at that level.  He turned pro in 2022 and this feels like a bit of a gamble on a player who has a high ceiling but just needs an opportunity.   

5 – HOCKEY SASK SUSPENSION – Far be it for me to tell someone what to post on their social media page as I have gotten myself into plenty of sticky situations with posts that I’ve made and continue to make.  I guess because I am the way that I am on social media I tend to have a lot more sympathy for those who get into trouble with it.  I mean you can say something verbally but after you do, it’s gone.  You can apologize and everyone moves on.  Social media isn’t as forgiving.  Someone takes a screen shot or neglects to let you know they are offended and decides to get you back in some other way.  Such is the case for a number of U18 hockey players in Saskatchewan who violated Hockey Sask’s social media policy with a post that had a photo and some words that, potentially, could rub some the wrong way.  It resulted in three players getting a 13-game suspension and another getting a 10-game suspension.  I’m also told the coach is suspended for life but that could also be hearsay.  Identifying them doesn’t serve anyone any good but I guess I just bring this to your attention as a reminder that if you aren’t willing to accept potential consequences of edgy posts, then don’t make them.  Having said that, I believe you should be able to do whatever you want with your own social media page and if someone doesn’t like it, they can easily hit the unfriend or unfollow button and they don’t need to make a major issue of things.  I also feel like there’s something wrong when we hand out 13-game suspensions for a social media post and 4-game suspensions for skating by and spearing someone sitting on their team’s player bench.

6 – SJHL PLAYER GESTURE – Feel good story of the week comes from the SJHL and the Kindersley Klippers where forward Stein Dostal (Alaska product) took piano lessons all season from a lady known as Ms. Ewson and any time he was over for his instruction, if she needed her driveway shoveled he just took it upon himself to do it.  Last week, Ms. Ewson gave Stein $350 for his hard work and the Klipper forward decided to invest the money back into the hockey team by purchasing 50/50 tickets for his teacher.  It was the last home game of the year, so the pot was big–$13,580.  Stein used his piano teacher’s name on the ticket and she ended up being the winner.

7 – BIG CROWD – The Midget AAA (sorry I still call it that) semi-final series between Moose Jaw and Swift Current was of such high interest that attendance was in the range of 2600 in Moose Jaw earlier this week.  This would be impressive any year but especially during a time where sports teams are dealing with consistently diminished attendance numbers all across the board.  With the series over and Moose Jaw emerging as victorious, the league final features the Warriors against the Regina Pat Canadians in a geographical rival which should also yield big crowds simply based on the short travel distance, never mind the fact that it’s the championship series.

8 – SENIOR HOCKEY – Speaking of big attendance numbers, senior hockey in Saskatchewan is alive and well.  The entire province is buzzing over the Senior A final between Round Lake and Kenaston with game one taking place tonight in Kenaston at 6pm.  It’s expected to be a sell out and I wouldn’t be surprised if they have to turn fans away at the door.  Saturday night, Foam Lake won the Senior C provincial crown with an exciting overtime win over Wilkie in front of a big crowd and I, personally, was at the SaskEast league final game in Rocanville, where–in front of a packed house–Canora completed a 3-0 series sweep over the perennial powerhouse Tigers.  For the most part, senior hockey is played the way the game was played 15-20 years ago.  Fast, chippy, with a great deal of intensity.  It would be nice if those who governed hockey took notice and subsequent steps to improve/adjust the game for the junior ranks but I won’t hold my breath.

9 – MLB OPENER – The Major League Baseball regular season actually started on Tuesday in Japan as the Dodgers played the Cubs.  Chicago starter Shota Imanaga went four innings, didn’t allow a hit or a run, and threw 69-pitches.  He was taken out for some guy named Ben Brown, who promptly allowed three runs in the fifth inning and the Cubs went on to, deservedly, lose 4-1.  It’s amazing that nobody who follows baseball closely is calling out the stupidity of how games are managed nor are they trying to point out that the epidemic of pitcher injuries simply is not tied to the number of pitches thrown.  Imagine watching an NFL game and the score is 24-21 in the third quarter and the Buffalo Bills remove Josh Allen because he’s reached 30 pass attempts.  This is what happens in baseball, nightly.  Calling it stupid really isn’t calling it out properly.  It’s actually so much worse than stupid. 

10 – CHALK LINE – NCAA baseball player Mitch Voit was forced to apologize this week for a celebration that could be interpreted as promoting cocaine use.  Voit mimicked snorting the third base chalk line after sliding head first into third upon hitting a bases clearing triple in a 2-0 game in the second inning.  Someone somewhere saw this and decided to plaster it all over social media and then after promoting it, screamed how offended they were (so why give it even more publicity?) so Voit did some damage control with the usual ‘not my character or a true reflection of who I am, blah, blah’ statement.  Meanwhile, nobody seems to care about the state of our communities, which are overrun with people shooting up real drugs (not chalk lines) in plain sight in just about any downtown across North America.  I know this is a US story, but I feel it’s somewhat pertinent to talk about Canada here too and I was dismayed to learn, after a conversation with some small town folks earlier this week that they are even seeing decay in tiny communities where there are less than 2500 people as the drug dealers are setting up shops in these small towns in order to hide from police and it’s resulting in an increase in break ins, theft, and yes even the open drug use by vagrants passing through town.  So forgive me if I think the outrage over snorting the third base chalk line is a bit misguided.

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster)