Werth bobblehead will grow beard . . . Diddy or didn't he? . . . Spice Girl gets married

If you’re a baseball fan, you will know that Jayson Werth of the Washington Nationals is a starter on the hair/beard all-star team. He’s about to join the all-bobblehead team, too. The Nationals have scheduled Jayson Werth Chia Night for Aug. 5. They’ll hand out 20,000 bobbleheads, each capable of growing a Chia beard. . . . When the Edmonton Eskimos and Toronto Argos opened their CFL seasons on Saturday in Fort McMurray, Alta., attendance was just under 5,000. It was an Argos’ home game and the top-priced ticket was $99. . . . Conflicts with the Pan Am Games and the World Cup of women’s soccer left the Argos without a place to play in Toronto. . . .

“No need to say ‘Break a leg!’ to these thespians,” notes Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times. “Tonya & Nancy: The Rock Opera — based on the Harding-Kerrigan figure-skating knee whack in 1994 — makes its Big Apple debut at the New York Musical Theatre Festival in July.” . . . “Well, one thing that can be said about Tonya & Nancy: The Rock Opera,” writes Bill Littlejohn, our South Lake Tahoe, Calif.-based correspondent, “is that the opera isn't over until the fat laddie swings.” . . . “Seattle Seahawks running back and Oakland native Marshawn Lynch rode on a float in the Golden State Warriors' victory parade,” notes Littlejohn. “He reportedly wanted the driver to stay in the No Passing Zone.” . . . Littlejohn has seen a report that indicates “there are 40 quarterbacks in the NFL who will make more than Russell Wilson this season.” Littlejohn adds: “Not only that, but five quarterbacks in the SEC will, as well.” . . .

When Edgar Martinez replaced Howard Johnson as Seattle’s hitting coach, the Mariners were last in MLB in batting average and 28th in runs and OBP. “Here’s hoping,” wrote the aforementioned Perry, “Martinez knows a good recipe for chicken salad.” . . . “Lambeau Field security officers ejected nearly 300 people for fighting, harassment and extreme intoxication during a recent Kenny Chesney concert,” Perry reports. “Or as the locals now call it, Packer fans’ offseason minicamp.” . . .

Richmond, B.C., blogger TC Chong, with a valid point: “With the winning team getting home-field advantage in the World Series, wouldn’t it be wiser for Kansas City fans to vote in the entire Phillies team instead?” . . . “If pitchers have Tommy John surgery,” asks Chong, “does Pete Rose get Pinocchio surgery?” . . . Here’s Fark.com with a suggestion on how to update the board game Clue: “Professor Diddy in the weight room — with a kettle bell.” . . . Headline in the Las Vegas Review-Journal: “Diddy or didn’t he?” . . .

With the Kansas City Royals dominating MLB’s all-star voting, Brad Dickson of the Omaha World-Herald reported: “Six members of the Kansas City Royals are now leading the U.S. presidential race.” . . . StubHub is suing Ticketmaster and, as Dickson notes, “Seats in the lower bowl of the courtroom are selling for $79.95.” . . . One more from Dickson: “The 2015 College World Series is over. Great, now where am I going to find a T-shirt in Omaha for 30 bucks?” . . . Social note: Geri Halliwell, the former Spice Girl, has married Christian Horner, who runs the Red Bull Formula 1 racing team. . . . Spice Girls? Better try Google. . . .

A bang-on Tuesday night tweet from Steve Buffery of the Toronto Sun: “When you watch the solemn coverage of #DeflateGate you realize how ridiculous sports is sometimes.” . . . Vancouver comic Torben Rolfsen wants to know: ““When did NBA draft candidates all start dressing like movie ushers?” . . . Frank Kaminsky, a centre, went back to the U of Wisconsin for his senior season a year ago, saying: “At the Kohl Center, we play in front of nearly 17,000 fans every single time. . . . I know the NBA has their crazy fans and all, but . . . there are games when teams like the Bobcats get hardly any fans, and it looks flat-out boring.” . . . You guessed it! Kaminsky got drafted by Charlotte on Thursday night. . . . And then there is forward Larry Nance Jr., who played at Wyoming. Three years ago he tweeted: “Gee I sure hope Kobe can keep his hands to himself in Denver this time. #rapist.” . . . Kobe, meet one of your new teammates. . . .

A New York City-bound Amtrak train was stranded for about five hours without food, air-conditioning or working bathrooms. That had Janice Hough, aka The Left Coast Sports Babe, to wonder: “Are they really trying to compete with the airlines?” . . . With receiver Dez Bryant threatening to hold out on the Dallas Cowboys despite being contracted for US$12.8 million this season, Bob Molinaro of the Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot notes that he is “violating the first rule of rich people — no whining on the yacht.” . . .

When Alex Rodriguez got his 3,000th hit the other day, the New York Daily News headlined the story thusly: Mr. 3,***. . . . “If I'm a free agent,” tweets Peter Vecsey, “I want to play wherever LeBron James is coaching.” . . . At one point this month, Detroit Tigers first baseman Miguel Cabrera was hitting .647 with five home runs and 15 RBI in nine games against the Cleveland Indians. That resulted in reader David S. writing the Cleveland Plain Dealer to ask: “Did Albert Einstein get his definition of insanity by watching the Indians pitch to Miguel Cabrera?”

(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.)

There has never been a subscription fee for this blog, but if you enjoy stopping by here, why not consider donating to the cause? Just click HERE. . . and thank you very much.

“Michael Oher was recently cut by the (Tennessee) Titans,” writes contributor Bill Littlejohn. “Michael took the news fine, but Sandra Bullock had to be escorted off Titans property.” . . . Littlejohn, again: “Joba Chamberlain's new contract with the Detroit Tigers includes a Cy Young bonus. Isn't that like Vin Diesel's new contract including an Oscar bonus?” . . . A Littlejohn hat trick: “David Ortiz is upset over some of the new pace-of-play rules, including one where the batter has to keep one foot in the box after each pitch. Just think how upset Big Papi will be if a rule comes out speeding up home-run trots.” . . .

Ian Hamilton of the Regina Leader-Post has another idea that would help MLB speed up the process: “Give infielders and base umps a cattle prod to use on Boston Red Sox plodder David Ortiz during his home-run trots.” . . . Here’s Hamilton, again: “Media reports suggest England’s Radio 1 has banned Madonna’s songs because she’s old and irrelevant. Does that mean TV networks won’t show Tiger Woods anymore?” . . .

After a brief flurry of NHL deals on Wednesday, Ray Ratto of CSNbayarea.com wrote: “If this ruins Deadline Day, I will hate them all forever. But if it leaves all those Canadian TV guys on the set dissecting five-day-old news and literally begging teams on set to do something, anyway, my mood will be assuaged.” . . . It has to be a helpless feeling to be one of the TV hockey panelists watching all of the trade activity over the last few days. . . . What’s left for Monday’s trade deadline? No, I won’t be tuning in at 5 a.m. . . . With all of the NHL trade rumours being spewed by the talking heads these days, you have to wonder if the NHL is the leakiest ship in the navy. . . .

RJ Currie of SportsDeke.com reports: “Two Tennessee high school girls basketball teams got banned from the post-season for intentionally trying to lose a game to avoid the top seed. The first thing that gave them away? They came out in tank tops.” . . . Currie, again: “Complex Sports called Michael Jordan the most clutch player in Bulls history. Derek Rose may go down as the most crutch.” . . .

The next time you’re looking at that last strip of bacon and debating, don’t bother. Just eat it and think about Matt Stonie while you’re doing it. Matt Stonie? He’s a competitive eater and holds the world record for most strips eaten in five minutes. That would be 182. . . . Is this a great world, or what? . . . Outfielder Tyson Gillies of Kamloops, who was released last summer by the Philadelphia Phillies, is in Peoria, Ariz., with the San Diego Padres. He signed a minor-league deal with the Padres on Friday. . . .

“Donald Trump said that he is ‘more serious’ than ever about running for President in 2016,” reports Janice Hough, aka The Left Coast Sports Babe. “And Jon Stewart is thinking ‘well, maybe I can delay that retirement just a bit.’ ” . . . Finally, Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather are scheduled to climb in a ring together and duke it out. Noted ABC-TV’s Jimmy Kimmel: “I’m glad to see Manny and Floyd are finally putting aside their differences to fight.” . . . The last info I saw on tickets had the cheap seats at $3,500. That would buy a lot of bacon. . . . “If you thought the Mayweather-Pacquiao promoters couldn't get any greedier,” reports Vancouver comic Torben Rolfsen, “they've added Crosby-Dubinsky II to the undercard.” . . . One more from Rolfsen: “Rough week for Chicago sports fans: Patrick Kane injury, Derrick Rose injury, and the Cubs are back.” . . .

It was Larry King — yes, that Larry King — who tweeted this the other day: “The rat is perfectly named.” . . . Think about that for a moment. Is that a profound thought, or what? . . . I didn’t watch much of the Academy Awards, but I did get to see Lady Gaga’s tribute to The Sound of Music. Who saw that coming? . . . “What a strange world we live in,” tweets Steve Buffery of the Toronto Sun. “Everybody wants a bigger and bigger TV screen, but they don't mind watching stuff on tiny mobile devices.” . . .

“Alex Rodriguez reported to the Yankees’ spring-training complex in Tampa, Fla., three days early,” reports Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times. “Apparently clubhouse attendants needed the extra time just to haul in all his baggage.” . . . “According to Delta Dental research,” Perry notes, “kids in the U.S. received an estimated $255 million from the Tooth Fairy last year. In a related story, Alex Rodriguez still has $61 million coming from the Yanks.” . . . After A-Rod delivered that hand-written apology, and everyone laughed, Will Leitch of Sports on Earth wrote: “We have reached the point with A-Rod that everything he does is reflexively seen as venal and murderous; if A-Rod jumped on a grenade to save the President's life, the New York Post headline would be 'A-Rod Stains West Wing Carpet, Fails to Clean It Up.' ’’ . . .

“Junior hockey franchise officials are threatening to move their teams out of state if they are forced to pay players under child-labor laws,” writes Ron Judd in the Seattle Times. “Oh and they also want a new arena. And a PlayStation.” . . . One more from Judd: “Seattle is considering capping rents at $618 a month on ‘micro-apartments,’ defined as those containing less living space than the single box of a stereo speaker you owned in your 20s.” . . .

It was the late Dean Smith, the long-time head coach of the North Carolina men’s basketball team, who once said: “If you make every game a life-and death proposition, you’re going to have problems. For one thing, you’ll be dead a lot.” . . . Only in today’s NHL could Jaromir Jagr, now 43 years of age and slower than slo-motion, be traded to a team that appeared to be getting younger and faster. . . . Only in today’s NHL could David Clarkson, with one of the worst contracts in history, be traded for Nathan Horton, who has a big contract and back problems, and may never play again. . . . Yes, it’s OK to slap your forehead.

(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.)

There has never been a subscription fee for this blog, but if you enjoy stopping by here, why not consider donating to the cause? Just click HERE. . . and thank you very much.

Sunday . . .

The horrible stories of hockey players and their attempts to deal with concussions continue to flow like fine wine at one of those team dinners where the rookies pick up the tab. Cathy Gulli of Macleans magazine has more devastating life experiences right here. Her story includes former NHLer Eric Lindros telling some of his story, and it is devastating. It also includes former WHLer Kevin Kaminski, who talks of how he believes his problems with post-concussion syndrome cost him his marriage.
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Adam Micheletti is the director of hockey and business operations for the USHL-champion Dubuque Fighting Saints, the expansion franchise that won the league title on Saturday night. But there more to his story than that. It involves three concussions in 18 months, the last of which ended his hockey career. . . . His father is former NHLer Joe Micheletti, and this is a story to which ever parent should pay attention.
Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe has that story right here.
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While Kootenay struggles to score at the Memorial Cup, former Ice star Nigel Dawes scored twice Sunday to lead the visiting Hamilton Bulldogs to a 5-3 double OT victory over the Houston Aeros in an AHL playoff game. The Bulldogs, who once trailed this series 3-0, have forced Game 7 and will that one Tuesday in Houston. . . . Dawes got the winner at 9:11 of the second OT. . . . In AHL history, two teams — Rochester Americans (1960) and Adirondack Red Wings (1989) — have come back from a 0-3 deficit, and both teams won Game 7. . . . Dawes also set a franchise record for most goals (14) in a single playoff season.
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They’re calling it The Hit at the Mastercard Memorial Cup in Mississauga, Ont., and Steve Buffery of the Toronto Sun examines its impact right here.
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James Mirtle of The Globe and Mail was at Sunday’s Memorial Cup game. His game story is right here.

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