Keeping Score

Bronson Maschmeyer, who joined the Kamloops Blazers in a trade last week, is a farm boy from near Fort Saskatchewan, Alta. He has two hockey-playing sisters — Brittaney, 20, a defenceman on hockey scholarship at Syracuse U, and Emerance, 16, a goaltender. There also are two brothers — Brock, 17, with the SJHL’s Lloydminster Bobcats and Kache, 12, who plays minor hockey in Fort Saskatchewan. . . . Bronson says their mom, Christine, isn’t a stay-at-home mom. Rather, he said, she “is a stay-at-rink mom; she’s always at the rink.” . . . Cam Hutchinson, in the Saskatoon StarPhoenix: “British Columbia has the distinction of having the lowest minimum wage in Canada, at $8 per hour. Among those complaining the loudest are members of the B.C. Lions.”
“Well,” notes the Left Coast Sports Babe, “it’s that time of year in some cities, like Washington and Pittsburgh, where frustrated baseball fans are relieved to turn their attention to football. Then there’s Toronto. Well, there’s always hockey. Hmm, how about those Winter Olympics?” . . . When Brian Burke gets the Maple Leafs turned around, which team will people use as a punching bag? . . . Kamloops’ own Tyson Gillies was hangin’ out with the Seattle Mariners for a bit on Thursday. Gillies and his teammates from the Class A High Desert Mavericks were in the dugout prior to the Mariners’ game with the Angels at the Big A in Anaheim. Gillies, an outfielder, concluded a wonderful regular season earlier in the week. He led the California League in stolen bases (44) and was second in runs (104) and on-base percentage (.430), tied for second in hits (170) and triples (14), and was third in batting average (.341). He also was sixth in OPS (on-base plus slugging), at .916, which is remarkable because he was the only one of the top 15 not to be in double digits in home runs. . . . The Mavericks, after enjoying a first-round bye, open a best-of-five semifinal playoff series with the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes tonight.
B.C.’s Liberal government yanked a $130,000 grant from high school sports, a move that puts at risk secondary sports such as badminton, swimming and wrestling. After which Dr. Margaret MacDiarmid, B.C.’s education of minister, said: “Rather than formal team sports, maybe people will be doing more walking or dancing or playing in parks.” . . . Please let me know when the NorKam wrestling team is going dancing or when the South Kam badminton team chooses to play hopscotch. . . . Of course, shortly after pulling out the rug from underneath the high school sports folks, the government was in the schools announcing some absolutely ludicrous Olympic Winter Games-related promotion that will cost, uhh, about half a million of your dollars. . . . Does all of this mean that head coach Gordon Campbell’s plan to have B.C. leading all of North America in healthy living and physical fitness has gone by the wayside? . . . Keith Hac is the head coach of the Lingerie Football League’s Chicago Bliss. Lucky guy, right? “When we first started, everybody said, ‘Man, that’s a great job.’ ” he told the Chicago Sun-Times. “Once you start coaching them, you don’t even look at what they’re wearing anymore; you really don’t.”
How bad are the Denver Broncos? “They are going to lose more than France,” writes Rick Reilly of espn.com. . . . The International House of Pancakes, one of the NFL’s numerous sponsors, has added some things to its menu, like AFC/NFC Stuffed French Toast and the Quarterback Scramble. Upon hearing this, Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times wondered: “What? No Brett Favre Waffles?” . . . And then there is the Exhibition Game Breakfast, about which Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle notes: “For the price of a steak dinner, you get bologna, burned toast, rotten eggs and assorted leftovers.” . . . After the Buffalo Bills canned offensive co-ordinator Turk Schonert last week, Dan Daly of the Washington Times wrote: “That’s right, Turk got a visit from the Turk. Who saw that coming?”
With the crew filming the movie The A-Team heading for these parts, UFC fans no doubt are excited about the possibility of having Quinton (Rampage) Jackson hanging out around here. Jackson will play BA Baracus in the film version of the once-popular TV show. . . . Adrian Beltre, the Seattle Mariners’ third baseman, missed most of three weeks after being injured when he took a ground ball to his unprotected groin. When he went to the plate for his first at-bat, Ken Griffey Jr. had made arrangements for the playing of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker over Safeco Field’s public address system. . . . Ian Hamilton, in the Regina Leader-Post: “Earlier this week, a group interested in purchasing the Phoenix Coyotes and having the NHL team play regular-season games in Saskatoon pulled its offer from the table. That means the Coyotes won’t be going to Saskatoon this season. Lucky Coyotes.” . . . Now that Theo Fleury has received clearance to attempt an NHL comeback, don’t be surprised if he signs with the Calgary Flames and starts with the AHL’s Abbotsford Heat.
After police were called to intervene in an apparent dispute between San Diego Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman and his gal pal, Tila Tequila, last weekend, Tim Sullivan of the San Diego Union-Tribune wrote: “When two narcissists get involved, friction generally follows. When Tequila (not her real name) signed a citizen’s arrest warrant, alleging that Merriman had choked, battered and restrained her at the linebacker’s place in Poway, well, isn’t that about what you expect when the irresistible diva meets the immovable peacock?” . . . A celebrity boxing match scheduled for tonight is to pit Simon (The Renegade) Aouad against Rodney King. Yes, that Rodney King. . . . Who was to know that getting boxed around by members of the LAPD could make one a celebrity? . . . Aouad, a former cop with a 36-0 ring record, says he is “going to make him think the Los Angeles Police Department were simply playing footsies.”

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