THROWIN’ ELBOWS WITH BRENDAN MCGUIRE
1-DEATH BY A THOUSAND SCREENS: Michael Ball did a nice job on the CKRM postgame call-in show after Saturday’s loss to Calgary in handling the usual suspects like ‘Sheldon from Yorkton’ and all of the other angry callers unleashing their fury at Rider OC Stephen McAdoo.
The game was a heavy dose of short screen passes but what did people expect? The Riders had/have no choice with Brandon Bridge. Their goose was cooked with all those turnovers and a ball control offense was the only shot the Roughriders had. Just more proof they’ve given up on Bridge being anything more than a game manager.
2-IF GUILTY, MESSAM GOT WHAT HE DESERVED: I respect the right to due process for everyone accused but if Jerome Messam did what Calgary Police say he did 2 years ago, then he deserves to be out on the street right now. The Riders had no choice but to cut him loose and that’s a good thing. It’s people who do that kind of crap who make women distrust men in general which eventually leads to hating of all men. Society has had enough of this garbage and finally so has pro football.
3-ZACH NOT NECESSARILY AN UPGRADE: Like many of you, I’ve made up my mind about Brandon Bridge but my jury is still out on Zach Collaros. Playing in Edmonton Thursday night is reason for optimism but let’s not go crazy here. Zach said he felt better than he had in years leading up to the season opener against Toronto but later admitted his concussion was caused in the preseason and chose to not communicate it with the training staff. Take a wait-and-see with Zach. I know I will.
4-TIME TO PUT DURON BACK ON OFFENSE FULL-TIME: It just is.
5-TRESTMAN NOT WHO WE THOUGHT HE WAS: He’s still a great coach but he’s also had a luxury that 90% of all pro football coaches never get; a seasoned, hall of fame veteran quarterback. Marc Trestman was a match made in heaven for both Anthony Calvillo and Ricky Ray but 4 weeks of a sluggish James Franklin suggest maybe Marc isn’t the quarterback guru we thought he was. Say what you want about Chris Jones but he’s proven he can win with a mediocre (or even worse) quarterback. Can’t say that about Trestman. At least not yet.
6-REGINA RED SOX PLAYOFFS: Sox go on the road to start the Western Major League playoffs tonight in Speedy Creek where they will take on the Swift Current 57’s in game 1 of a best-of-5. This series should be the best of the bunch in the first round. The Red Sox took 5 of 6 meetings during the season (most of them blowouts) but the bulk of those games came before Swift Current got some much-needed additions down the stretch including slugging left-fielder Blake Adams. I might be biased but I’m rolling the dice on Regina to pull an upset and betting their stud pitchers Evan Rogers and Kyle Wilson will be the difference in a series that should go the distance. Game 3 will be Thursday night at Currie Field and I suspect we will see at least a Game 4 Friday night too.
7-WMBL TEAMS MOVING: I’m told the Brooks Bombers moving to Grande Prairie is just about a done deal and the Yorkton Cardinals are in discussions to move that franchise to Warman. Grande Prairie would be a great place for a team but it would mean more cost and longer bus rides for everyone else. I’m skeptical about Warman because small bedroom communities usually fail miserably but Okotoks has proven me wrong in this league.
8-YORKTON-MELVILLE BOTH PROBABLY DONE: I was very unsettled to hear the stories of financial ruin both the Yorkton Cardinals and Melville Millionaires baseball teams find themselves in. The sense I get is that they have opposite problems. The Mils have a great board of directors and lots of enthusiasm but in a town of only 5,000 people, they’re fighting a losing battle of competing with the Joneses of urban Alberta. Yorkton on the other hand, could make it work but chooses not to. They’ve been operated by baseball fans but not by marketers. They seem content on having a glorified senior men’s program rather than a vision of what the brand could be for their city or league. The solution: Merge the 2 franchises and base it out of Yorkton with someone who has a real marketing background to run things. Sell a half dozen game package or so to the Melville fans and wear Millionaires gear on the nights you play in Melville. Consolidate all of the corporate and fan support behind one organization. Y’er welcome. But don’t whine and complain about the cost of running a sports enterprise that Weyburn and Swift Current seem to be living with just fine. Like in hockey, Swift chooses to punch above its weight and Yorkton doesn’t. And that’s fine. But I sure hope the locals remember this the next time they complain about not having a WHL team or better entertainment options.
9-GLAD THE BLUE JAYS RID THEMSELVES OF ROBERTO OSUNA: See point number two.
10-BOOK/DOCUMENTARY OF THE WEEK: I, TONYA is a dramatized look back at the life of Tonya Harding to unravel what the hell happened to cause her connection to the 1994 attack on figure skating rival Nancy Kerrigan. It lays out Tonya’s personal life to show us all the realities of what she lived through to that point. Harding wasn’t a sympathetic figure back then but she is now. At least to some of us. You can find it on Netflix.
