Keeping Score

Elliotte Friedman of Hockey Night in Canada, on his blog: “When Jarome Iginla was asked what would happen if the Flames wanted to move him, he said this: ‘If they don't want me here and they want to move in a direction or rebuild or believed they could do better, I would look at it. Absolutely.’ Reaction around the league: He wants to go.” . . . One more from Friedman: “If an NHL coach was the White House press secretary on Nov. 22, 1963, he would announce John F. Kennedy as ‘day-to-day with an upper body injury.’ ” . . . Here’s one from the Left Coast Sports Babe: “As part of a promotion for the RoboGames, the San Francisco 49ers put their kicker, Joe Nedney, up against Ziggy the Robot in a kicking competition. Nedney won. Undaunted, Ziggy has asked for a throwing competition against JaMarcus Russell.” . . . If this column was an NHL playoff game, we would pause right here for video review. . . .

To the young man who chose to stand and urinate in the parking lot at The Home Depot the other afternoon: Your mother must be so proud. . . . In Calgary, the president of the National Lacrosse League’s Roughnecks was livid that his club was forced to schedule a home playoff game for last Saturday at 1 p.m., thanks to the Calgary Hitmen having the Saddledome booked that night. Imagine how angry the pres might have been had he owned the NLL’s top-seeded Washington Stealth, which plays out of the arena in Everett. The Stealth had to move to Seattle’s KeyArena because the Comcast Arena was booked by Sesame Street Live. As Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times wrote: “In other words, hometown fans, Saturday's game is brought to you by the letters N, U, T and S.” . . . Scott Ostler, in the San Francisco Chronicle: “The headlines said ‘Roethlisberger accepts his suspension.’ Like it's an Academy Award. ‘I'd like to thank the district attorney, my lawyer . . .’ ”

Greg Cote, in the Miami Herald: “Did you watch the 136th Kentucky Derby on Saturday? I love the traditions and pageantry, including all of those colorful, elaborate hats they wear. Although I always thought it would be that much more festive if the horses wore the hats.” . . . David Whitley, over at FanHouse: “Galleries at The Masters were welcoming, and fans this week at Quail Hollow have really put on Tiger-colored glasses. You’d think he just returned from a five-month hiatus distributing mosquito nets to malaria-stricken orphans in Zambia.” . . . Mike Lupica, at the New York Daily News: “The Kentucky Derby is still the most exciting two minutes in sports if you aren’t willing to count Thanksgiving at Tiger Woods’ house.” . . . After that idiot fan was tasered in Philadelphia the other night, Len Berman of ThatsSports.com wrote: “What, a crossbow wasn't available?" . . .

Jeff Passan, at Yahoo! Sports: “Nowhere do they panic quite like Boston, where two World Series rings in the last six years cannot erase an institutional paranoia eight decades in the making. Chicken Little, no doubt, is a Red Sox fan.” . . . Remember when TRU’s athletic department made the decision to go CIS and put its basketball and volleyball programs into Canada West? It was only going to be a year or two before soccer also moved into Canada West. Remember? Well, now word is that might happen in 2014. . . . Yes, that 2014. . . . By the way, the TRU men’s basketball program will get a new head coach one of these days. In the meantime, Thom Gillespie, the WolfPack’s head coach the last two seasons, cleaned out his office earlier this week and is returning to New Brunswick. . . . The WolfPack is 5-36 in Canada West over the last two seasons. . . . Whoops! Toronto is buzzing us. Time for another video review. . . .

Don’t look now but the Toronto Blue Jays are rolling. Too bad they’re in the American League East, where the Tampa Bay Rays have become the most exciting team in baseball. . . . Columnist Phil Mushnick, in Monday’s New York Post: “The Montreal Canadiens . . . opened their second round of the playoffs with more U.S. players (four) than French-Canadians (three).” . . . New York Yankees southpaw Andy Pettitte turned in a terrific outing against the Los Angeles Angels recently. In fact, Pettitte was so good that Angels outfielder Torii Hunter told the Los Angeles Times: “He looked like the Andy Pettitte of old, when he was young.” . . . Outfielder Erik Byrnes, released the other day by the Seattle Mariners, is going to keep on playing. Byrnes, who is working on a three-year, US$30-million deal he signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2007, has joined a softball team in Menlo Park, Calif. "This is going to be a blast," he told Steve Gilbert of MLB.com. "Playing with my buddies. I can't wait for my first hit. I'm going to ask for the ball." . . .

So do you know what constitutes a puck being kicked into the net? Or goaltender interference? Didn’t think so. . . . Toronto-based blogger Navin Vaswani is on a tour of all Major League parks. One of his posts this week included: “I almost forgot to tell you about the great t-shirt I saw in Philadelphia . . . ‘Choke: Official Soft Drink of the New York Mets.’ ” . . . In looking for an offensive tackle, the NFL’s Cleveland Browns have uncovered Joe Reinders, who played for the U of Waterloo Warriors. As the aforementioned Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times put it: “Considering he grew to be 6 feet 7 and 320 pounds, little chance that all of the other Reinders used to laugh and call him names.”

Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. Email him at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca, or visit his blog at gdrinnan.blogspot.com.