Sunday, November 18, 2012





If you're interested, the Okanagan Sun, a junior football team based out of Kelowna, is looking for a head coach. The sun set on Gavin Lake, the most recent head coach, after a 3-7 season. . . . Steve Simmons, in the Toronto Sun: "Adam Oates isn't the first undrafted player to make the (Hockey Hall of Fame) but one of the few. Last year there was Ed Belfour and the year before that Dino Ciccarelli. Other undrafted players in the Hall include Peter Stastny, (Borje) Salming and this guy named Gretzky." . . . One more from Simmons: "How proud the NHL and NHLPA must be: HRR is now a sporting term, just like RBI and ERA." . . .
If you are the owner of an NHL team who is used to speaking out about this, that and the other thing, how can you allow yourself to be muzzled while your league goes down the tubes? Exactly how does that feel? . . . Headline at SportsPickle.com: "Miami starting to regret building $634 million stadium for Toronto's Triple-A team." . . . "Marlins Park," notes Steve Rushin of Sports Illustrated, "was the first to feature a retractable roof and retractable roster." . . .Ian Hamilton of the Regina Leader-Post chimes in on the Toronto-Miami deal: "Jays fans are excited about the deal that is to bring to Toronto the likes of Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle and Josh Johnson - players who helped their team finish last in the NL East in 2012. Isn't selective amnesia a wonderful thing?" . . . After seeing a photo of Lance Armstrong that the steroid-tainted cyclist had tweeted — he is in his living room with seven framed Tour de France yellow jerseys behind him — with the message "Back in Austin just layin' around," Hamilton wrote: "Given the circumstances, shouldn't that be "lyin'?" . . .
By now you may have seen that amazing bicycle kick goal scored by Sweden's Zlatan Ibrahimovic against England. While it may be one of the greatest goals ever scored on a pitch, it won't be in FIFA's top 10 for 2012. Why not? Because FIFA released the candidates earlier in that same day. . . . The New York Giants won the Super Bowl. The San Francisco Giants won the World Series. The Yomiuri Giants won the Japanese World Series. . . . "Look out for the Wabash College Little Giants," notes Len Berman of ThatsSports.com. . . . Don't be looking for the rebuilding Vancouver Giants to be joining that list this season. All that can go wrong has gone wrong with the Giants, who lost leading scorer Marek Tvrdon to a blood clot in a shoulder this week. He may not play again this season. . . .
Here's hoping the Toronto Blue Jays realize they signed Melky Cabrera, admitted PED user, and not Miggy Cabrera, Triple Crown winner and MVP. . . . Two years and $16 million. Hey, who says PEDs don't pay? . . . A tweet from Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle: "Cheaters never prosper: Melky gets only $16 mil for 2 years. Geez, hope he got some incentive clauses." . . . And there was this from David Larkins of the Winnipeg Sun: "Any time you can sign a guy who's topped 70 RBIs 2x in his career & is coming off a 50-game drug suspension you have to do it." . . .
It was Darrell Royal, the late Texas football coach who died last week at 88, who once said of All-American running back James Saxton: "He could run like small-town gossip." . . . A tip of the cap to Charles Eugster, a 93-year-old Englishman who took up bodybuilding six years ago. "The idea," he told BBC News, "is to turn the heads of the sexy young 70-year-old girls on the beach." . . . After the Los Angeles Lakers fired head coach Mike Brown, Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel updated centre Dwight Howard's career numbers: "18.4 points, 13.1 rebounds, 2.0 fired coaches." . . .
In the Seattle Times, Ron Judd sums up the U.S. election: "After billions of dollars spent and about two years of torture inflicted upon the public, the national election produced essentially no change in the political equation whatsoever. All together now: It's the greatest system in the world." . . . Headline at The Onion: Fracture Im Steve Nash's Fibula Named NBA Broken Bone Of The Week. . . . Jack Finarelli, aka The Sports Curmudgeon, with his take on the Miami Marlins, after this week's deal with the Toronto Blue Jays: "When the Marlins fired Ozzie Guillen after a hugely disappointing season in 2012, here is what the President of Baseball Operations for the Marlins said: 'Our hope is that a new manager, along with roster improvements, will restore a winning culture.' And this is what the folks in Baseball Operations consider to be 'roster improvements'? Ozzie Guillen is lucky to be outta there." . . .
I'm thinking that, in behind closed doors, NASCAR absolutely loved that brawl on Sunday between the pit crews of Jeff Gordon and Clint Bowyer. . . . Hey, Ron Maguire, if you've got any pull with A&W's marketing department, how about seeing if you can get that commercial kicked out the front door. . . . "The WHL's Prince George Cougars asked families to bring dogs to their Nov. 10 tilt," notes R.J. Currie of SportsDeke.com. "What was the game plan? Dump and fetch?" . . . One more from Currie: "Scottie Pippen helped President Obama's team win a pickup basketball game on Election Day. Out of habit, Michael Jordan took the credit." . . .
Ian White is a defenceman, now with the Detroit Red Wings, and I'm sure you were wondering what he thinks of Gary Bettman. "I got to be honest, I personally think he's an idiot,'' White told MLive.com. "Since he's come in I think he's done nothing but damage the game." . . . After Detroit Tigers third baseman Miguel Cabrera was named the AL's MVP, over outfielder Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels, much debate ensued. To which Jason Gay of the Wall Street Journal responded via Twitter: "Cabrera over Trout for MVP is NOT an injustice. Dances With Wolves over Goodfellas for Best Picture — THAT'S an injustice."

(Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. He is at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca, gdrinnan.blogspot.com and twitter.com/gdrinnan. Keeping Score appears Saturdays, except when it doesn't.)

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