Jack Finarelli, aka The Sports Curmudgeon, and his good wife, Peg, recently went coast-to-coast-to-coast via Amtrak. One of his observations from the observation car: “There was so much coal being transported from Colorado/Wyoming to the east in trains that were 100-cars long, I began to worry that the Rocky Mountains were not going to be there when we got to Colorado.” . . . One more note from Jack The Tourist: “Many folks consider California as a source of trends within U.S. society and culture. I have never been one to be at the forefront of a trend and, very specifically, I make no claim to any ‘fashion sense.’ However, on this trip, I got the feeling that I had missed a memo somewhere because I saw a fashion trend that had totally escaped my notice: More than a few men were wearing black socks and white sneakers with their shorts. This is not a good look.” . . .
Headline at Fark.com: “Randy Johnson is selling his 25,000-square-foot home. That’s one big unit.” . . . One more from the gang at Fark: “Cyclists hospitalized after confusing laundry detergent for sports drink / Doctors confirm all urine tests came back clean.” . . . Atlantic City is losing three casinos in the next while as the Revel, Showboat and Trump Plaza all will close their doors. Which got Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times to wonder: “So when did Charles Barkley and John Daly decide to quit gambling?” . . . “The San Francisco 49ers’ new Levi’s Stadium hosted a wedding over the weekend,” notes Perry. “In keeping with the local football theme, well-wishers threw Jerry Rice.” . . .
If you weren’t aware, the last New York Yankees player before Derek Jeter to wear No. 2 was Mike Gallego, who wore pinstripes from 1992-94. . . . After Roger Federer came back from two sets down to erase Gael Monfils on Thursday night at the U.S. Open, Ray Ratto of Comcast Sports Net tweeted the facts: “The thing about Federer is, he can stab you, kill you, gut you, skin you, bread you, fry you, eat you and then extol your athletic virtues.” . . . “According to ESPN,” notes blogger TC Chong, “the highest price for a family of four to attend an NFL game is the new Santa Clara stadium of the SF 49ers at US$641. The cheapest NFL tickets can be found at Buffalo, where the team might pay you $641 to tell your friends that you were at the game.” . . .
Ron Judd of the Seattle Times writes that he is “so proud of the brain trust at the U-Dub for solving two of the most-pressing problems at Montlake — the heart-rending dearth of cash in athletic department coffers, and the notable scarcity of drunken, staggering fans inside Husky Stadium — with a single bold stroke: a new plan to sell booze at football games.” . . . That would be the U of Washington, of course. . . . Here’s Judd, again: “Millions of Fraser River-bound sockeye turned off by a ‘warm blob’ of ocean water off the coast of Washington are believed to be returning to their natal stream to the north, through British Columbia’s Johnstone Strait, rather than through the Strait of Juan de Fuca and San Juan Islands. Perhaps they prefer not to swim past the natural toilet that is Victoria, B.C.” . . . Yes, things are getting nasty as thumbs twiddle in the Victoria area while raw sewage continues to pour into the Stait of Juan de Fuca. . . .
“Canada loves Jay Onrait and Dan O’Toole,” notes Cam Hutchinson of the Saskatoon Express. “Not so much in the U.S., where their Fox Sports Live show averages 64,000 viewers a night.” . . . After Tiger Woods canned Sean Foley, his third swing coach, comedy writer Alex Kaseberg summed it up with: “In golf terms that is known as firing the dance instructor on the Titanic.” . . . If Tiger really wants to learn how to swing, might I suggest he hire Justin Bieber as No. 4. . . . “Reuters reports a Chinese farmer has invented a zip line so his pigs literally fly from one truck to another,” writes RJ Currie of SportsDeke.com. “In a related item, the Maple Leafs might win this year’s Stanley Cup.” . . . One more from Currie: “A church converted to a house is up for sale near Portage la Prairie, Man. It features a room with a pew.” . . .
Is this a great country, or what? I now have 10 Canadian-based sports TV channels pouring into my home. . . . One week ago, four were showing the same baseball game and four were showing the same CFL game. . . . I can’t understand why so many young people are turning to streaming and Netflix? . . . There were some nifty occurrences on Monday as four Philadelphia Phillies pitchers no-hit the Atlanta Braves, 7-0. For starters, Jason Heyward of the Braves stole three bases, which isn’t bad for a guy on a team that didn’t get a hit. Also, Ben Revere of the Phils had five RBI, becoming the fifth player in MLB history to do that in a no-hitter. Prior to Monday, Revere had one month this season in which had had five RBI. He had two RBI in all of August. . . .
In an NCAA Division II game on Thursday, the Tusculum College Pioneers beat the College of Faith Saints, 71-0. The Saints rushed for, uhh, minus-124 yards and their total offence was, uhh, minus-100 yards. . . . “One piece of good news came out of the game for the Saints,” notes Ian Hamilton of the Regina Leader-Post. “They have been granted admission into the CFL’s East Division, where they’ll fit right in.” . . . Here’s Hamilton with a soccer story from Bulgaria: “Soccer fan Zdravkov Levidzhov has won a 15-year court battle to change his name -- to Manchester Zdravkov Levidzhov-United. Mr. Manchester United, as the 50-year-old construction worker likes to be called, celebrated by having the crest of his favourite team tattooed on his forehead. Memo to Zdravkov: Man U are an idiot.”
(Gregg Drinnan is a former sports editor of the Regina Leader-Post and the late Kamloops Daily News. He is at gdrinnan.blogspot.ca and twitter.com/gdrinnan. Keeping Score appears here on weekends, except when it doesn’t.)
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