Keeping Score

Major League Baseball now prohibits players from taking weapons (aka guns) into clubhouses, something that seems to have upset Luke Scott, a designated hitter with the Baltimore Orioles. All of which left the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Jeff Schultz wondering why Scott carries a gun. “Do you expect to be jumped by the cotton candy salesman in the bowels of the stadium?” Schultz wrote. “Do you believe somebody from Al-Qaeda may be hiding in the laundry bin? Is your team’s mascot, The Bird, giving you the evil eye? Or do you think the clubhouse attendant just spoke into his shoe phone?” . . . So how did defensive lineman Julius Peppers celebrate after signing a US$91.5 million contract with the Chicago Bears? Apparently, he did his partying at a Chicago club and at one point bought 25 bottles of Perrier Jouet Fleur de Champagne. At $350 per bottle. . . . Hey, he could afford it. . . .
By now you’ve seen Brad Keselowski flying through the air with the greatest of ease during the NASCAR race in Atlanta on Sunday. Carl Edwards, who was responsible for the wreck, got hit by NASCAR — he will be on probation for three races. . . . Isn’t that kind of like sending your son to his bedroom for three weeks but leaving him with the computer, the Wii and the Nintendo DS? . . . In terms of gross stupidity, the decision not to suspend Edwards and the NHL’s decision not to suspend Pittsburgh Penguins wind-up toy Matt Cooke for that ugly hit on Boston Bruins centre Marc Savard are in a photo finish. . . . NHL players like Cooke are fortunate that OHL boss David Branch isn’t the NHL’s chief disciplinarian. . . . Had the NHL suspended Cooke, it wouldn’t have to concern itself with what might happen Thursday when Cooke and the Penguins are to visit Boston. Things could get ugly, especially with observers like former Boston defenceman Mike Milbury criticizing the Bruins for not retaliating after Savard was hit. Here’s what Milbury wrote on his blog: “Not often in the last five decades have the Bruins been accused of being soft, but in their Cheez-Whiz approach to the incident on Sunday, this group qualifies as mushy. They accepted the hit on Savard as quickly as they would a free lunch.” . . .
When Gregg Doyel of CBSSports.com heard that the Cincinnati Bengals were talking to free-agent wide receiver Terrell Owens, he wrote: “Owens destroys locker rooms everywhere he goes, alienating quarterbacks and coaches and fans. For a guy who doesn’t beat up women or kill dogs or drive drunk, he’s still one the 10 worst human beings in a league that smells of sewage. And the Bengals want him? Really?” . . . Robert DeNiro as Vince Lombardi? Get ready, because it’s coming to the big screen. The movie, the production of which involves ESPN and the NFL, is scheduled for release a week before the 2012 Super Bowl. . . . Why all the empty red seats at the Tim Hortons Brier in Halifax? Could it be that the Brier only will sell out in places like Regina, Saskatoon, Edmonton and Calgary? . . . It seems to me there were a lot of empty seats at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in the Soo, as well. . . . Could curling be losing its mass appeal? . . .
Just when you start to think that professional sports teams have pretty much tapped all revenue streams, otherwise known as their fans’ pockets, the Miami Herald reports that the Dolphins are to start charging $5 extra for seats on the shady side of their stadium. . . . Former Kamloops Blazers D Brad Lukowich, who had a spin with the Vancouver Canucks this season, has shut it down. He will have season-ending shoulder surgery and be out for up to six months. He was with the AHL’s Manitoba Moose when the decision was made. . . . If you’ve got nothing to do on the weekend, or even if you do, head over to the Tournament Capital Centre and watch some of our country’s top volleyball players decide the university’s men’s title. There is some terrific athleticism on display there. . . . While there, make sure you check out the sartorial splendour of Trinity Western head coach Ben Josephson. You have to like the matching white tie and belt combination on display Friday afternoon. . . .
Kamloops Blazers co-owner Mark Recchi is having a pretty good season with the Boston Bruins and, while the thought of retirement has entered his mind, he hasn’t decided. “I’m not sure what I’m going to do yet,” he told me Thursday night, adding that he will sit down and think things through after the season. “I feel great for this time of year.” Recchi turned 42 on Feb. 1. . . . Recchi has played in all 66 of the Bruins’ games, scoring 14 goals and setting up another 21. . . . On the NHL career lists, Recchi is ninth in games played (1,556), 23rd in goals (559), 17th in assists (918) and 13th in points (1,477). . . . Jeff Gordon of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, remembering an early-season NHL scrap: “Blues enforcer D.J. King broke his hand earlier this season while punching Stars ruffian Krys Barch to the ice. That was bone on cement there — and it had to hurt.” . . . Outfielder Milton Bradley, now of the Seattle Mariners, just can’t figure out what went wrong last season with the Cubs. “Two years ago, I played, and I was good,” he told the New York Times. “I go to Chicago, not good. I’ve been good my whole career. So, obviously, it was something with Chicago, not me.” . . . Must have been the wind. . . .
Mike Lupica, in the New York Daily News: “In case you missed the stats on the (New York) Jets new cornerback, Antonio Cromartie, here you go: Cromartie apparently is the father of seven children with six women in five different states. So to paraphrase an old line, water covers about 70 per cent of the earth and Antonio Cromartie covers the rest.” . . . David Whitley, at FanHouse: “The Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor goes to all three Jonas Brothers for The 3-D Concert Experience, narrowly edging Tiger Woods for his performance, The 1-D Apology Experience.” . . . Let me guess. You are shocked —absolutely stunned — by the stories that Tiger will play in the Masters, aren’t you?
Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. He is at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca and gdrinnan.blogspot.com. Keeping Score appears Saturdays.