A week ago, Ottawa’s latest CFL franchise made it official — its nickname will be RedBlacks. . . . The other options were BlackReds, BlueGreens and OrangeYellows. . . . BlueGolds and GreenWhites weren’t considered. . . . Headline at TheOnion.com: Young Pitcher With Bright Future Tragically Drafted By Marlins. . . . In case you missed it, Mike Tyson — yes, that Mike Tyson — and host Neil Patrick Harris did a dance number together at the Tony Awards on Sunday. “That,” noted Brad Dickson of the Omaha World-Herald, “sounds like something I’d dream if I ate right before bedtime.” . . .
If you’re wondering why the NHL’s Dallas Stars would give $10 million over two years to defenceman Sergei Gonchar, who is 39 years of age, it may have to do with Alex Goligoski. Gonchar and Goligoski were teammates in Pittsburgh. Goligoski hasn’t nearly lived up to expectations in Dallas. The Stars owe Goligoski three years and $13.8 million. So enter Gonchar, a Russian, to tutor an American. . . . Such is the state of hockey today. . . . “The Bruins are a very good, very tough and extremely strong-willed group,” writes Larry Brooks of the New York Post, “that has used the NHL’s vanishing standards of officiating to their benefit. And why wouldn’t they? The playoffs in both conferences have been dominated by the holding, hooking, and off-the-puck fouling the league once vowed to eradicate, but now accepts as a matter of unstated policy, with the amount of legal interference increasing incrementally by the round.” . . .
American tennis player Sloane Stevens, 20, wishes “that boys weren’t so stupid.” To which RJ Currie of SportsDeke.com notes: “She’s young. In time she’ll wish men weren’t so stupid.” . . . One more from Currie: “Happy birthday to supermodel Bar Refaeli, who just turned 28. And thank you to her parents for raising the Bar.” . . . The three-year entry-level contract that Kamloops Blazers left-winger Tim Bozon and the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens signed last month calls for an AHL salary of $70,000 in each season, with NHL salaries of $642,500, $667,500 and $717,500. He also got a signing bonus of $277,500, payable in three annual instalments. . . . Bozon, a third-round pick in the NHL’s 2012 draft, is 19, meaning he has to play with the Habs or the Blazers next season. . . .
The CHL moved this week to prohibit European goaltenders from playing for any of its 60 teams. On Thursday, Sherry Bassin, the majority owner and general manager of the OHL’s Erie Otters, said in an interview with Doug Harrison of CBC Sports that he wouldn’t be surprised if the CHL barred all European players at some point in the not-too-distant future. . . . Yes, Hockey Canada and the CHL are running scared. . . . The CBA agreed to between the NHL and NHLPA now is available online. Here is one of the key negotiating points that led to the lockout last fall: “Clubs are to provide high quality bath towels to players, to be replaced on as needed basis.” . . .
Ron Judd, in the Seattle Times: “Does the proviso that domestic spying is aimed specifically at ‘non-U.S. persons’ mean Big Brother can pass along what the Canadians are saying about us after they clean out the milk section at Costco?” . . . Judd, again: “Too bad our government cellphone spooks couldn’t have made themselves useful by telling that drifting Maple Leafer pilot-car driver to hang up and get the hell into the proper lane before the oversized load she was ‘piloting’ destroyed the Skagit River Bridge.” . . . When the Edmonton Oilers canned head coach Ralph Krueger a week ago, it marked the 25th firing of an NHL head coach over two seasons. The Kardashians don’t go through men that quickly. . . .
With UBC-Okanagan now a full-time member of Canada West, don’t be surprised if junior football’s Okanagan Sun are playing at the CIS level when the 2016 season rolls around. Will TRU and the Kamloops Broncos follow suit? Well, here’s a hint — the budget for a CIS football team can run as high as $800,000 per season. . . . Mike Lupica, in the New York Daily News, after watching the French Open women’s final: “Sometimes the soundtrack makes you wonder if Serena and Sharapova are trying to win the French, or are being waterboarded.” . . . One more from Lupica: “David Stern has become more obsessed with flopping than Capt. Ahab was with Moby Dick.” . . .
There’s a website out there somewhere that keeps track of home run trots. DH David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox has six of the 10 slowest trots this season. “There’s no telling how long he’d take if he had to spend half the game playing in the field like real baseball players,” notes Len Berman of ThatsSports.com. . . . The New York Mets, you may have noticed are limping along. However, one person pointed to a positive sign, writing to Berman: “Look on the bright side Mets fans. You have a Shake Shack at CitiField. Best $18 shake I have ever had.” . . .
Watch for news of the Olynyk Clinic, a five-day basketball camp coming to Kamloops in the latter half of August. Yes, it will feature Kelly Olynyk, who is expected to be selected in the second half of the NBA draft’s first round on June 27. The dates of the clinic — there may also be camps in Salmon Arm and Vernon, and perhaps Kelowna — depend on Olynyk’s post-draft schedule. . . . “Scientists in Japan have built a baseball-playing robot that was based on a typical major-leaguer,” writes Ian Hamilton of the Regina Leader-Post. “In other words, the robot catches, throws, hits and scratches its nuts and bolts.”
(Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. He is at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca, gdrinnan.blogspot.ca and twitter.com/gdrinnan. Keeping Score appears Saturdays, except when it doesn’t.)
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