Keeping Score

Dan Daly of the Washington Times took a look at the monster TV screen — it is 72 feet high and almost 60 yards wide — in the Dallas Cowboys’ new stadium and was able to find one negative: “The clicker weighs a ton.” . . . The Globe and Mail’s Jeff Blair: “Nobody should be surprised that Tom Hicks would rather sell the Texas Rangers than another team he owns, the Dallas Stars. You can sell a Major League Baseball team. Ask Phoenix Coyotes owner Jerry Moyes how easy it is to sell an NHL team.” . . . Is it just me or is Don Cherry starting to resemble Ric Flair? . . . Local hockey fans may remember that Darren Helm, who has played so well for the Detroit Winged Wheelers in these NHL playoffs, was the best player on the ice the night the WHL all-stars dumped a Russian side 8-1 right here in River City in the final game of the 2006 ADT Challenge series.

Cam Hutchinson, in the Saskatoon StarPhoenix: “Russian athletes winning gold medals at the Vancouver Olympics will reportedly get $155,000. Victorious Canadian athletes will get season tickets to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.” . . . One more from Hutchinson: “The World Beard and Moustache Championship was held in Anchorage, Alaska, last weekend, with 12 countries competing. The Canadian delegation was supposed to be led by the Toronto Maple Leafs, but for fifth straight spring, Leafs players had no reason to grow facial hair.” . . . Mike Lupica, in the New York Daily News: “It isn’t that great a thing for the Red Sox that David Ortiz has one more home run this season than I do.”

Patrick McManamon, in the Akron Beacon-Journal, after the Orlando Magic ousted LeBron James and the Cleveland Cadav, er, Cavaliers: “The NBA prides itself on its sportsmanship, and one of the great sights for the league every year is when players shake hands and embrace after hard-fought series. For the second year in a row, James walked off the court without shaking a single hand.” . . . Doug Smith, in the Toronto Star: “Blowing off the media is one thing — although it’s out of character for him, and he sure seemed to be around every other time anyone ever wanted to talk to him, after wins or losses or at halftime or pregame. But to not walk down the court, or even stay on the court to congratulate the Magic? That’s just wrong.”

Ian Hamilton, in the Regina Leader-Post: “A 22-year-old man was arrested in England . . . after he was caught wearing nothing but socks while on a golf course. Police officers were called after greenskeepers complained the man wasn’t repairing his ball marks.” . . . Isn’t it time the Kamloops Blazers found their own version of Karen Newman, the young woman who sings the U.S. anthem at Detroit Red Wings‚ home games? . . . Would someone take a minute and try to explain one more time how the two-man referee system is necessary? The officiating in Games 1 and 2 of the Stanley Cup final was, well, actually, it wasn’t.

You didn’t think NHL hanging judge Colin Campbell, who lost his credibility early on in these playoffs, would suspend Pittsburgh Penguins star Evgeni Malkin for instigating a fight in the last five minutes of Game 2 of the Stanley Cup final, did you? You should know by now that the NHL just makes ’em up as it goes along. . . . Jeff Passan, over at Yahoo! Sports, after Campbell chose not to suspend Malkin: “The National Hockey League rule book spells out 87 rules and hundreds of sub-rules that govern its game. There is an 88th rule that goes unwritten: The league’s braintrust can invalidate any of the others, so long as it behooves their short-sighted and selfish interests.” . . . Helene Elliott, in the L.A. Times: “When is a supposedly automatic suspension not automatic or a suspension? When the NHL is involved and it’s an act committed by a marquee player whose absence from Game 3 of the Stanley Cup final might have pushed the league’s showcase event further toward a rout that would have cut the already minuscule TV ratings.”

Why is it that every time I watch hockey from the ex-Igloo in Pittsburgh, I expect to see Jean-Claude Van Damme playing goal for the Penguins? . . . Or haven’t you watched the movie Sudden Death? You may have missed it because somehow it didn’t get nominated for an Academy Award. . . . By the way, I’m thinking of holding a news conference on Tuesday afternoon to announce that I want to bring an NHL franchise to Toronto. . . . The annual Major League Baseball draft begins Tuesday and runs for a couple of days. The top local prospect is pitcher Colin Kleven, a right-hander who is with the Premier League’s Langley Blaze and has committed to attend Iowa Western College in Cedar Rapids. . . . Right-hander Rory Young of Chase, who also is with the Blaze, likely will be drafted as well. He has committed to attend Panola College in Carthage, Texas.

Jim Balsillie doesn’t own the Phoenix Coyotes but that hasn’t stopped him from serving relocation notice to the NHL. Isn’t that kind of like letting the City know that you plan on moving your neighbour’s home even though he has no intentions of selling it to you? . . . Larry Brooks, in the New York Post, on the ongoing dispute between NHL commish Gary Bettman and Balsillie: “It’s never personal with Bettman, yet it’s always personal. The league canceled the 2004-05 season in order to remove NHLPA adversary Bob Goodenow from power. Now the league risks suffering a defeat in a Phoenix bankruptcy court that would render its rules on franchise relocation obsolete in order to ensure that Jim Balsillie doesn’t get into the NHL Good Old Boys Club.”

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