Keeping Score

Eric Tillman, the GM of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, was heard to say this week that the game-time temperature in Regina for today’s CFL playoff game with the B.C. Lions would be about minus-7. And, Tillman said, the Roughriders would prefer it to be even colder. Easy for him to say when he’ll be watching from the comfort of a warm-and-cozy box somewhere at Taylor Field. . . . Word out of Regina yesterday is that the day’s high will be minus-2 with winds out of the southeast at 20-km/h. . . . No, I’m not calling it Mosaic Stadium. Some places just shouldn’t have corporate names and anything named after Piffles Taylor is one of them. . . . I don’t know about you but I’m pulling for an all-Alberta Grey Cup game. Why not? The Calgary Stampeders against the Edmonton Eskimos in Montreal. Does that have a certain ring to it, or what?
One fan of the Philadelphia Phillies is alleged to have robbed a bank the morning before his guys won the World Series. Police told the Philadelphia Inquirer that Mr. Robber used the cash to buy Phillies stuff at a nearby store. As Ian Hamilton of the Regina Leader-Post put it: “The cops obviously didn’t buy his excuse that he has the green light to steal at any time.” . . . Cam Hutchinson, in the Saskatoon StarPhoenix: “Buffalo has been awarded the 2011 world junior hockey championship. In a related story, Ted Rogers promises to do everything he can to hijack the tournament to Toronto.” . . . Kenny Williams, the manager of the Chicago White Sox, considers U.S. president-elect Barack Obama to be a good friend. And with the U.S. election over, Williams tells the Chicago Tribune: “Now I not only have to answer to (chairman) Jerry Reinsdorf about pitching, I have to answer to the president.”
If you haven’t heard, Brazil — yes, that Brazil! — has challenged the U.S. for the last North American berth in the men’s world curling championship. The challenge match will take place in late January in Bismarck, N.D. The Brazilian team comprises Celso Kossaka, Cesar Satiro Santos, Marcelo Cabral Mello, Luis Augusto Z. da Silva and Anderson K. Santos. In case you think this is the Jamaican bobsled team all over again, these guys are studying at the U of Sherbrooke and training at the Lennoxville Curling Club. . . . It was Larry Brooks of the New York Post who wrote that he is looking for one penalty call this season: “Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond of the Devils . . . for Too Many Names on the Ice.” . . . Congrats to good guy Don Hay, the head coach of the Vancouver Giants, on the occasion of his 400th WHL head-coaching victory last weekend. The next to 400 will be Don Nachbaur, another good guy, of the Tri-City Americans. . . . Nachbaur would be coaching the Kamloops Blazers right now had he not had a year left on his contract with the Americans.
Greg Cote, in the Miami Herald: “The opening ceremony for the 2012 London Olympics will include a concert by Mick Jagger, Elton John and David Bowie. They were looking for people even older, but they were all dead.” . . . Here’s hoping you at least caught the end of the U.S. college football game between the Texas Longhorns and Texas Tech Red Raiders a week ago. That one just may go down as the game of the year, at least until today. . . . Don’t forget that we‚re just a few days away from the launch of the seventh edition of The Daily News Christmas Cheer Fund. And a little birdie tells us that Jim Doan and the gang at the Western Karate Academy have already surpassed their fund-raising total of last season.
By now you’re aware that golfer John Daly was found drunk in the parking lot of a Hooters in Winston-Salem, N.C., the other day. As Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times noted: “No sign of any irons or drivers, eyewitnesses said, but the golfer was definitely in the bag.” . . . Daly can’t figure out why he ended up in orange coveralls and had his mugshot taken, either. He says his bus driver panicked and called 911 when he saw the golfer laying there with his eyes open. Daly says he sleeps with his eyes open when he’s tired and has been into the sauce. Seriously. “The picture looks like I’m drunk,” he said. “I wasn’t drunk when they took the picture. The picture people are seeing is me half-asleep.’’ . . . Here’s Perry, again: “Just when you thought the football in these parts couldn’t get any worse, our state’s NFL Seahawks, UW Huskies and WSU Cougars went 0-3 last weekend, getting outscored by a combined 140-7. And the lone scoring drive? One play, 15 seconds.”
Mike Lupica, in the New York Daily News, after drug cheat Marion Jones appeared on Oprah’s snoozefest and said she has never knowingly ingested, etc., etc.: “The Bonds defense! Later in the show she says that she really lied to the feds because she didn’t love herself enough to tell the truth. She still doesn’t. So next stop, Dr. Phil.” . . . Scott Ostler, in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Marion Jones didn’t know there was something fishy in the ‘flaxseed oil’ coach Trevor Graham gave her? That’s like Bonnie saying she thought Clyde was using his ATM card to make all those bank withdrawals.” . . . One more from Ostler: “Isiah Thomas, what a guy. He ODs on sleeping pills then announces that it was his teenage daughter whom the paramedics came to rescue. Hey, at least Isiah didn’t blame it all on Roger Clemens‚ wife. Thomas reportedly swallowed 10 Lunesta sleeping pills. If he was that desperate to go to sleep, Zeke should have watched some old tapes of the Knicks when he was the coach.”
Sweden’s national women’s hockey team beat Canada for the first time ever Friday in Lake Placid, N.Y. Geez, Grapes, I guess that means it’s officially no longer our game, eh? . . . Rookie Kevin Love of the Minnesota Timberwolves has hired a personal chef. The Milwaukee Journal asked Minnesota head coach Randy Wittman if players did such things when he played. “No,” Wittman replied. “We got married.” . . . Sharpen up those skates because you may be the next winger on the line with the Sedins. . . . This just in: Dan Russell will be next so you’ll have to get in line. . . . Peter Buckley ended his professional boxing career a week ago. And, yes, the Brit boxer actually won. It was his 32nd victory in, uhh, 300 fights. As he told BBC Sport when it was all over, “I definitely won’t miss getting punched in the face for a living.” . . . Buckley, who had been winless in 86 straight bouts, leaves the ring with a career record of 32-256-12. . . . This column actually is a hologram; the real column is taped to my refrigerator door.

Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. He is at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca. Keeping Score appears Saturdays.