Sunday, December 14, 2014





Headline at TheOnion.com: Derrick Rose criticizes grueling 6.5­game season. . . . One more from the gang at TheOnion.com: Wife kept up all night by Kevin Garnett talking trash in sleep. . . . After seeing those photos of Sidney Crosby late in the week, I know that you were as shocked as I was to learn that he had the mumps and not an upper body injury. . . . Baseball star Honus Wagner played 21 seasons in the big leagues and his career earnings are said to be US$138,500. The other day, the 1909 Honus Wagner T206 tobacco card sold at auction for $403,664. . . .

There was speculation, apparently unfounded, that B.C. Lions kicker Paul McCallum had his name in the running as the next head coach of the Regina Rams. With that in mind, Cam Hutchinson of the Saskatoon Express wrote: “Message to the selection committee: He’s. A. Kicker.” . . . Is it just me or has the cross-check become an effective, and mostly unpenalized, weapon in the game of hockey once again? . . . Hey, TSN, it’s one thing to have the same NFL game on four channels, but you did it with the Washington Redskins and New York Giants. . . .

You weren’t alone if you thought there were some crazy times at baseball’s winter meetings. “In my 27 years in the business," Miami  Marlins general manager Dan Jennings told ESPN.com, "I don't know that I was ever involved in a crazier 48 hours than this. And it was happening from 11 in the morning to 4 in the morning. Every night." . . . The Los Angeles Dodgers, who are undergoing almost a complete makeover, may have one of those rare management groups that chose to keep the manager and fire the players. . . .

In a span of about five hours, left-hander Andrew Heaney was dealt from the Marlins to the Dodgers and then to the Los Angeles Angels. He then tweeted: “Well, @Dodgers, we had a good run! Great to be a part of such a storied franchise. #thanksforthememories.” . . . Later, Heaney told Greg Beacham of The Associated Press: “Now everybody expects me to be this really funny guy, and I’m like, ‘I don’t know. I don’t  think I’m that funny.’ All of those new followers that I picked up are probably going to be disappointed.” . . .

Yes, it’s true. Pro golfer John Daly is preparing to get married for a fifth time. “Or,” notes Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times, “as he prefers to call it, 4-over par.” . . . There is an NFL fantasy league in Australia that sounds like a whole lot of fun. According to Perry, a team owner gets fined a case of beer or a bottle of hard liquor whenever a player on his/her roster gets arrested or suspended. “This year, by Week 6, we had no less than eight cases/bottles owed,” Sam Clohessy, one of the participants, wrote on Facebook. “The running count now is up to 14. It’s going to be a big end­-of­-season party.” . . .

If you haven’t heard, the U of Alabama-Birmingham has pulled the plug on its football program. “A football program that can’t work in Alabama?” wrote Brad Dickson of the Omaha World-Herald. “That’s like having a failed cheese store in Wisconsin.” . . . The stumbling, bumbling New York Knicks are struggling to learn the triangle offence that is part of Phil Jackson’s repertoire. Dennis Rodman, for one, doesn’t understand why the problems. As he told ESPN: “I learned that in probably 15 minutes when I was in Chicago. It’s not that difficult. It’s a triangle.” . . .

When a Tim Hortons clerk wouldn’t dice the onions, a customer in Saskatoon apparently tossed a live snake behind the counter. RJ Currie of SportsDeke.com doubts that we’ve heard the last of that incident. “Possible docudrama titles,” he suggests, are “3. Fang ’Em High; 2. Snakes on the Plains; 1. Horton Heard a Hiss.” . . . Here’s Currie again: “How about the UK uproar over LeBron James putting his arm around the Duchess of Cambridge’s shoulders during a photo-op? You’d think he was making a no-look pass.” . . . And there was this from Vancouver comic Torben Rolfsen: “LeBron James put his hand on Kate Middleton's shoulder. As usual, no whistle.” . . .

There is ample speculation that the NFL’s Oakland Raiders are going to pack up and move to Los Angeles. Ian Hamilton of the Regina Leader-Post suggests that “L.A. should decline that penalty.” . . . “A new study indicates sleep problems may result in an increased risk of dementia,” reports Janice Hough, aka The Left Coast Sports Babe. “Great, one more thing to lay awake worrying about.”

(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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