Keeping Score

From Saturday's Daily News:

David Whitley of the Orlando Sentinel, after taking in a Pop Warner Junior Pee Wee (ages 9-11) football game at Disney’s Wide World of Sports: “It’s always nice to go to a game and not worry that a gun is going to go off in a receiver’s pants. And a running back is not going to pout over not getting the ball. Or one team isn’t splitting apart because a nut job thinks the quarterback is conspiring against him.” . . . Meanwhile, the Boston Herald was reporting that “the down-on-their-luck Dorchester Eagles Pop Warner team — who pleaded with the public for donations to allow them to go to Florida for a championship game — were kicked out of their Sunshine State hotel after they got in a tussle with another midget team. The Dorchester Eagles, aged 11 to 15, and the Edgewood Eagles of Rhode Island were kicked out of their Disney hotel on Thursday after the two teams got into a physical fight in the hotel cafeteria, said Pop Warner spokesman Jason Howarth.” . . . To which Jeff Gordon of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch noted: “SEC coaches are keeping a close watch on these kids.”
Ted Wyman, in the Winnipeg Sun: “While it was incredibly stupid (of him) to injure his hand in a snow blower, you have to respect the fact that millionaire Joe Sakic was doing his own dirty work around the house. Perhaps his need for manual labour could be filled by driving the Zamboni at Avalanche games until his mangled hand heals.” . . . Three words for you, Mr. Prime Minister. . . . Pick me, please. . . . A couple of weekends back, Fox-TV showed footage of the Minnesota Vikings in their locker room after a game. With owner Ziggy Wilf addressing the team, tight end Visanthe Shiancoe was in the background and, yes, he adjusted his towel. When told that all of him had been seen on TV, Shiancoe told the Minneapolis Star Tribune: “It’s not too bad. I didn’t just get out of the pool.” . . . Headline at Fark.com: “Off-duty firefighter saves man from choking. Chicago Cubs said to be very interested.”
For what it’s worth, Steve Nash owns a residence in Manhattan and could end up a free agent over the summer. Might he end up in New York, reunited with former Phoenix Suns head coach Mike D’Antoni, who now runs the Knickerbockers? . . . Merry Christmas! The Temple Owls upset the No. 8 Tennessee Volunteers 88-72 last weekend in Philadelphia. Dionte Christmas led the Owls with 35 points. . . . I’m headed east on the Trans-Canada Highway on Tuesday evening and can see maybe 20 feet in front of the car and the voice on the radio is telling me “there is a 70-per-cent chance of snow flurries.” . . . He must have been in the 30-per-cent area. . . . Headline at BorowitzReport.com: “Yankees sign Iraqi hurler/Shoe-throwing right-hander impresses scouts.”
There is a horrid story making the rounds that involves a naked minor hockey player sitting on the face of a teammate, being suspended, winning an appeal and returning to playing. The other player apparently dropped down a level. One would hope this simply is an ugly rumour and that it doesn’t involve the local minor hockey association, which is not unfamiliar with controversy. . . . So if this is what Mats Sundin had planned, why wouldn’t he waive his no-trade clause last season and allow the Toronto Maple Leafs to trade him? Instead, his once-beloved Maple Leafs end up with nothing and Sundin becomes a hockey mercenary, selling his services to the highest bidder, something he once said he didn’t want to do. . . . Ken Fidlin, in the Toronto Sun: “It all seems so hypocritical today. The halo that grew in intensity as the hairline receded over the years, has been tarnished. He is still a class act and if he is not the best Leaf player ever, he is in the conversation. But, like so many things about this franchise, on so many levels, Sundin’s legacy has been sadly diminished.”
When the Detroit Red Wings meet the Blackhawks at Chicago’s Wrigley Field on Jan. 1, NBC’s coverage will include Bob Costas as the host. Mike (Doc) Emrick will call the play with Eddie Olczyk providing analysis. Mike Milbury will be in-studio, while Pierre (The Yeller) McGuire and Darren Pang will be rinkside. . . . By the way, the ice at Wrigley Field will be left in for a Jan. 4 community skate. All tickets for that skate have already been sold with proceeds going to Cubs charities. . . . Comedy writer Jerry Perisho, for one, is eagerly awaiting the game. “About 40,000 NHL fans are expected to watch the game,” he writes. “I can’t wait to see if Steve Bartman reaches out and grabs a puck in play.” . . . One more from Perisho: “In Charlotte, the Meineke Bowl game between North Carolina and West Virginia will be played in Bank of America Stadium. . . . Hmm, Bank of America Stadium, huh? That means only one ticket window will be open and she’ll go on her lunch break 30 minutes before game time.”
If you were wondering, the Kamloops Blazers did the counting and came up with 2,700 stuffed animals and 400 items of winter clothing from their game a week ago. . . . Here’s Rick Telander of the Chicago Sun-Times, mixing Illinois’ messy political situation with Chicago’s attempt to land the 2016 Olympic Summer Games: “The Olympics, if we win them, will create a pig-slop, pork-barrel feeding frenzy of epic proportions in a town whose logo should be, as the late Mike Royko proposed, ‘Where’s Mine?’ Public property and trust will be sold like whore’s jewelry, and profiteering will be the pimp juice mainlining the insatiable thirst of the petty, vile, big-bellied, feathered-hat-wearing creatures we call our public servants. Trust me, we’ll pay for those O-Games for years.” . . . Headline at TheOnion.com: “Report: Everyone watching football game evidently needs new car, shower, shave.”
What does it say about Vancouver Canucks’ ownership that former GM Brian Burke wasn’t invited to the Trevor Linden hoedown on Wednesday night? . . . Dan Daly, in the Washington Times: “The Yankees give CC Sabathia a $161 million contract, then turn around and hand A.J. Burnett an $82.5 million deal. You know, maybe the carmakers should have gone to Hank Steinbrenner for a bailout.” . . . Bob Molinaro, in the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot: “Feel free to double check the math, but at a salary of $23 million next season, if CC Sabathia doesn’t miss a start, the Yankees will be paying him about $6,250 per pitch.”
All signs point towards the NHL’s Calgary Flames relocating their AHL franchise to Abbotsford in time for next season. That franchise now plays out of Moline, Ill., as the Quad City Flames. . . . And there is a 6,000-seat arena going up in Langley so perhaps a second AHL team will end up there. . . . Tony Augusty, in the Detroit News: “The NFL and the players’ union proudly announced they will pay a whopping $100 a month for Medicare costs of players age 65 and over. It seems like a nice gesture — until you learn the average life expectancy of an NFL player tops out at around 59. Talk about disguising the coverage.” . . . Janice Hough, the Left Coast Sports Babe, has an NBA-related question: “How long until the Oklahoma fans beg some other city to steal their Thunder?” . . . Have a Merry Christmas, and thanks for being here. Your presence most Saturdays is appreciated.

Gregg Drinnan is sports editor
of The Daily News. He is
at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca. Keeping Score returns in January but watch for the best of 2008 on Dec. 31.