Mount Budmore awaits . . . Did Bo know? . . . Any bowl games left? . . . Hey, it's Mr. Double Cheeseburger

Stars may not always win on the ice, but they always win above it.

(Pic via @unlikelyfanatic) pic.twitter.com/C4KdO5SaQZ

— Allison Currie (@AlleyDalley) January 22, 2017

“I’m not saying Bud Selig doesn’t deserve to be enshrined,” writes Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle. “Just not in the Baseball Hall of Fame, even though he shattered all the commissioner-salary records. Selig should be chiseled into rock on Mount Budmore, along with Bud Abbott, Larry (Bud) Melman, Buddy Holly, Bud Light and Zola Budd.” . . . Ostler, again: “Look, I don’t want to return to the good olde days. I enjoy the crazy celebrations in the NFL, and even some of the taunting. But when did we reach the point where every play concludes with a heated jaw-off? Every play! Every cornerback is Deion Sanders and every guy who catches a pass is Terrell Owens.” . . .

So, in hindsight, adults in the 70s were pretty much just inviting us to all kill ourselves on the playground. pic.twitter.com/GKMnLtaToR

— Super 70s Sports (@Super70sSports) January 22, 2017

“NFL bust Johnny Manziel will be signing autographs and posing for pictures with fans in Houston in the week leading up to the Super Bowl, with charges ranging from $50 to $128,” reports Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times. “No word on whether each signed photo comes with a complimentary sucker.” . . . Here’s Perry, again: “What’s this, a pro athlete with perspective? Two-time MVP Stephen Curry — when ESPN asked if it bothers him being only the fourth-highest-paid Warrior — replied: ‘If I’m complaining about $44 million over four years, then I’ve got other issues in my life.’ We now return you to our usual assortment of miscreants and knuckleheads.” . . . 

I wish @seanspicer would stop texting people in the White House Press Corps that the Packers are winning.

— Dave Zirin (@EdgeofSports) January 22, 2017

You may have heard last week where former baseball/football star Bo Jackson said he wouldn’t have played football had he known the potential impact of head injuries. As Jim Barach of WCHS-TV in Charleston, W.Va., pointed out: “So it turns out after all these years that Bo really didn’t know.” . . . I turned on the TV on Saturday afternoon expecting to watch an NHL game or two. After all, there weren’t any football games until Sunday and Canada has a whole bunch of sports channels, so what better time for the NHL to monopolize the airwaves. But there wasn’t even one NHL game to be found. . . . I would like to thank Gary Bettman and the NHL, though, because you are responsible for my watching Adam Hadwin shoot 59, instead. . . . 

When Don Cherry said "The Russian.. whatever his name is.." he was referring to Martin Marincin, who happens to be from Slovakia.

— Dimitri Filipovic (@DimFilipovic) January 22, 2017

“The Los Angeles Chargers plan on playing their first two seasons at the 30,000-seat Stub Hub Center in Carson,” notes Bill Littlejohn, our South Lake Tahoe, Calif.-based correspondent. “Won’t they be embarrassed by all those empty seats?” . . . Littlejohn also notes: “The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is closing after 146 years. Fortunately, the genre still has the New York Knicks, the Kardashians, and the San Francisco 49ers front office.” . . . According to Littlejohn: “The Dallas Cowboys say they'll handle the 'Romo problem' with 'kid gloves.’ Right  . . . and the kid's name is Dak Prescott.” . . . Before the inauguration, Littlejohn reported that “President-Elect Trump has named New York Jets owner Woody Johnson as ambassador to the UK. When asked to comment about the Court of St. James, Johnson replied, 'I'm not going to get into it with LeBron.’ ” . . .

Sports should be about kids and their passion, not about parents and their goals. – Mike Matheny

— Coach Quotes (@CoachMotto) January 22, 2017

“Is that it for college football?” asks Torben Rolfsen, who hosts The Rolfsen Report on TSN 1040 Vancouver on Saturday mornings. “I’m worried there is some 7-5 vs. 6-6 bowl lurking.” . . . Rolfsen, again: “The Chargers are moving to L.A. Depending on freeway traffic, they should be there in time for the 2018 season.” . . . According to Rolfsen: “Netflix's new show A Series of Unfortunate Events goes behind the scenes with the Vancouver Canucks at NHL draft lotteries.” . . . Why is the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus shutting down? Because, according to Janice Hough, aka The Left Coast Sports Babe, “it couldn’t possibly compete with the daily circus in Washington.” . . .

“We didn’t only win five games because of the last-place defence that he co-ordinated,’’ Durant said. “I guess it’s all because of my play."

— Regina Leader-Post (@leaderpost) January 20, 2017

The feds have decided to give people free entry into Canada’s national parks in 2017, which is our country’s 150th birthday. That got Les Perreaux of The Globe and Mail to wonder: “Why destroy a provincial park on May long weekend for $8 when you can trash a national park for free?” . . . If you’re not Canadian, you need to understand that what is know up here as “May long” is when we come out of hibernation, set up out tents and, yes, it’s party time. . . . Before leaving office, President Obama pardoned Willie McCovey, the former San Francisco Giants star, for a 1995 tax-evasion conviction. As comedy writer Tim Hunter put it: “In tax terminology, that’s what they call ‘an intentional walk.’ ”

“Experts say Alabama would have beaten Clemson had Tide running back Bo Scarbrough not broken his leg in quarter three,” notes RJ Currie of SportsDeke.com. “I find the argument about Scarbrough fair.” . . . Currie, again: “A Florida man reportedly was arrested for burning his underwear in a Starbucks washroom. Its always hard to believe a story about pants on fire.” . . . One more from Currie: “Sylvester Stallone’s three daughters made history as the first trio to serve as Miss Golden Globe. The Rocky star has had five offspring in total — 11 if you include sequels.” . . . Headline at SportsPickle.com: Report: City of Los Angeles eyeing move to get away from Rams and Chargers. . . . 

“A Red Oak, Iowa, pilot celebrated his 99th birthday by piloting a plane,” Brad Dickson of the Omaha World-Herald writes. “Through force of habit he still calls his co-pilot ‘Orville.’ ” . . . Dickson, again: “A British man has legally changed his name to ‘Bacon Double Cheeseburger.’ The New York Times refers to him as Mr. Double Cheeseburger. His children, the McNuggets, had no comment.” . . . One more from Dickson: “In 2017, NBC will launch a year-round all-Olympic network.   Because it’s NBC, all events will be tape-delayed until 2019.”

(Gregg Drinnan is a former sports editor of the Regina Leader-Post and the late Kamloops Daily News. He is at greggdrinnan@gmail.com 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.

Game 7? Now that was reality TV . . . Maddon came close to being goat . . . LeBron humble?

The seventh game of the World Series was a perfect example of why sports provides the only real reality TV. Anything else that is advertised as “reality TV” is only pretending. . . . The 2016 World Series also will be remembered as the time when John Smoltz placed himself near the top of the list of the great sports analysts on TV. . . . And if you listened to any of the games on ESPN Radio, it was reaffirmed that there isn’t a better play-by-play man around than Dan Shulman. . . . You realize, of course, that had the Chicago Cubs not won Game 7, manager Joe Maddon would have been wearing the loss. . . . The way Maddon used — abused? — closer Aroldis Chapman over the final three games, you would almost think the Cubs won’t be re-signing him. As Mark Whicker wrote in the Orange County Register: “Maddon is brilliant in so many ways, but he should be giving his ‘luckiest man alive’ speech right now. He almost replaced the goat forever.” . . .

“In the wake of the Cubs' World Series title, scholars say that at least 45 per cent of the prophecies of Nostradamus will have to be researched and re-interpreted,” notes Bill Littlejohn, our correspondent who hangs his hat in South Lake Tahoe, Calif. . . . With the Cubs having become the first team since the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates to win the World Series by winning the last two games on the road, Littlejohn points out: “The Pirates song and motto was We Are Family; the Cubs’ should be We Are Finally.” . . . Tony Chong, the Richmond, B.C., blogger writes: “GM Theo Epstein has now guided the Red Sox and Cubs to World Series wins snapping the two longest droughts in baseball championship history. In related news, the Toronto Maple Leafs are trying to hire him.” . . . 

Headline at TheKicker.com: Belichick trades sons to Browns after they ask for more allowance. . . . It was a marvellous Sunday in Kamloops. I went for a walk and timed it so that I would be home by 2 p.m., in time to watch Connor McDavid and his Edmonton Oilers meet the Red Wings in Detroit. Except that, as I discovered, it was another of the NHL’s regional telecasts. So it was back to watching the NFL while I pondered the NHL strategy in attempting to grow the game while keeping McDavid off national TV. . . . Thank you to whomever was responsible for nixing the NHL’s idea of holding an outdoor game on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. That is the last place the NHL should be allowed to take over. Besides, the NHL’s infatuation with outdoor games jumped the shark a winter or two ago. . . .

“The Philadelphia Eagles cut wide receiver Josh Huff after he was stopped by New Jersey police, who say Huff was speeding, drunk, carrying marijuana, driving with illegally tinted windows and packing a handgun with no permit, loaded with illegal hollow-point bullets,” writes Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle. “But his tires were properly inflated.” . . . Ostler, again: “LeBron James says it’s ‘humbling’ to pass Hakeem Olajuwon and move into 10th on the (NBA’s) all-time scoring list. Humble, that’s the word I always associate with King James.” . . . One more from Ostler: “Warning to Ohio voters: If Donald Trump is elected, he plans to deport Chief Wahoo.” . . . 

Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times also noticed the Huff story: “The Eagles released receiver Josh Huff after he was charged with DUI, possession of marijuana and carrying a gun without a permit. Or to put it in football terms, a bad three-and-out.” . . . Janice Hough, aka the Left Coast Sports Babe, chimes in: “Huff was allegedly speeding while in possession of a gun and marijuana. So is that the NFL arrest trifecta?” . . . There’s a study out there that claims climate change could turn Spain into a desert. To which Jim Barach of WCHS-TV in Charleston, W.Va., noted: “Promoters are already organizing the annual Pamplona Running of the Camels.” . . . Bill Cowher hasn’t coached a football game since the NFL’s 2006 season. So isn’t it about time that his pals on CBS stopped calling him Coach Cowher? . . . 

If you think the NHL is really — I mean, really — concerned about player safety, you need only watch the Saturday night hit by Nazem Kadri of the Toronto Maple Leafs on Daniel Sedin of the Vancouver Canucks to realize otherwise. It was a blindside hit that showed zero respect for Sedin. The NHL chose not to discipline Kadri because Sedin’s head wasn’t the principle point of contact. . . . Keep in mind that the NHL world is ruled by a commissioner who has yet to solve the dot-to-dot puzzle that shows the link between concussions, CTE and dead ex-players. 

(Gregg Drinnan is a former sports editor of the Regina Leader-Post and the late Kamloops Daily News. He is at greggdrinnan@gmail.com 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.

Did Blue Jays win World Series already? . . . FIFA in Mob Museum . . . Hanks wants word with Flores

On the ultra-rare occasion you phone a business and a real live person answers, you're hard pressed not to begin weeping with gratitude

— George Johnson (@GeorgejohnsonCH) July 27, 2015

“Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that FIFA boss Sepp Blatter deserves the Nobel Prize,” reports Ian Hamilton of the Regina Leader-Post. “Everyone else thinks Blatter deserves the No-Bail Prize.” . . . Have you noticed how Tiger Woods is becoming golf’s answer to the Chicago Cubs? Like the Cubbies, Tiger now teases his fans with a good round or two before he falls back into the pack. . . . “Thank God for @KING5Seattle's weather ‘futurecast’,” tweets Ron Judd of the Seattle Times. “Because ‘forecast’ was just so confusing to so many of us for so long.” . . .
“A woman who won a $188-million lottery jackpot this year in North Carolina was busted last week for marijuana,” reports Janice Hough, aka The Left Coast Sports Babe. “You’d think with that much money she could afford to move to Colorado.” . . . Hough, again: “The Houston Astros have made Taylor Swift move her tour date at Minute Maid Park from Oct. 13 to Sept. 9 because the team may be headed to the playoffs. Wonder how long it will take for Swift to write a bitter song about the brush-off?” . . . With the struggling Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox playing on ESPN last Sunday night, Hough wrote: “I’ll take ‘Matchups that sounded a lot better when they drew up the schedule’ for $400, Alex.” . . .
After Philadelphia starter Cole Hamels threw a no-hitter against the Cubs, the Twitter account @Cubs handled it with: “Dexter Fowler walks twice in loss to Phillies.” . . . It’s fireworks season in Vancouver and Wednesday was Brazil night. Why? Because, as Vancouver comic Torben Rolfsen explained, Brazil “had some money to burn between the World Cup and Olympics.” . . . The Seattle Seahawks signed quarterback Russell Wilson to a four-year, US$87.6-million contract on Friday. “Fortunately,” noted Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times, “Seattle citizens still have vastly less-important issues to hold their attention-like education, transportation and health care.” . . .
Is it just me or is Buck Martinez, the always-talking TV voice of the Toronto Blue Jays, trying hard to become the Canadian version of Hawk Harrelson, the professional cheerleader who calls Chicage White Sox’ games? . . . Why else would Martinez be screaming at balls to “get out of here” when a Toronto player hits a long ball? . . . Headline at SportsPickle.com: Yankees and Red Sox have to be disgusted by Blue Jays trying to buy an AL East title. . . . Did the Blue Jays win the World Series when they beat the bat-less Minnesota Twins on Monday afternoon? . . . Hey, just asking. . . . One more from SportsPickle.com: A-Rod says he wants to play until he’s 45 or baseball begins testing for rare steroid he’s using. . . .
“Jose Canseco says he will live as a woman to support Caitlin Jenner,” reports Bill Littlejohn, our South Lake Tahoe, Calif., correspondent. “He started by borrowing some leftover stash from Manny Ramirez.” . . . The Mob Museum in Las Vegas has said it will open a FIFA exhibit in September. That led Littlejohn to wonder: “How much did FIFA have to bribe them to get it?” . . . “The first photos of Jason Pierre-Paul's hand have emerge” Littlejohn writes of the New York Giants defensive lineman who suffered injuries during a July 4 fireworks accident. “It looks like we've found the long-lost cousin of Kermit the Frog.” . . .
Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News wonders: “Has any sports owner around here ever had to admit, as John Mara did the other day, that he didn’t know how many fingers one of his star players has?” . . . Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle has a question: “If Pete Rose were a Buddhist, would he be banned for more than one lifetime?” . . . Here’s RJ Currie of SportsDeke.com with a social note: “Tennis stars Maria Sharapova and Grigor Dimitrov have ended their two-year relationship. I can’t help thinking he took Sharapova for grunted.” . . .
Earlier this week, centre Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins was seen serving coffee at a Tim Hortons outlet in Dartmouth, N.S.. That got Richmond, B.C., blogger TC Chong to wondering: “How does he sleep at night taking away much needed part-time work from CFL players?” . . . Actually, Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche were shooting a TV commercial. . . . “New York Mets shortstop Wilmer Flores was shown on TV crying after they told him he had been traded,” Chong writes. “The deal fell through but Tom Hanks still said he wanted to have a few words with young Wilmer.” . . .
Brendan Taman, the general manager of the 0-6 Saskatchewan Roughriders, gave his head coach, Corey Chamblin, a vote of confidence on Monday. . . . That only means that Chamblin shouldn’t be buying any green bananas. . . . Actually, the head coach is signed through 2017 and, while the Roughriders have money in the bank, they aren’t about to spend it by paying someone not to coach for two-plus seasons. . . . NFL training camps are in full swing. "As usual," NBC's Seth Meyers reports, "the New England Patriots camp began with the ceremonial burning of the rule book.”

(Gregg Drinnan is a former sports editor of the Regina Leader-Post and the late Kamloops Daily News. He is at greggdrinnan@gmail.com and twitter.com/gdrinnan. Keeping Score appears here on weekends, except when it doesn’t.)
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Bulls have early lead . . . New cause of tennis elbow . . . March of robots begins

Coaches and players love to talk about how “we win as a team and we lose as a team.” That may be true, but on Friday night the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ head coach, Corey Chamblin, lost one for his side. The Roughriders held an 11-point lead over the host B.C. Lions with about two minutes to play in the fourth quarter. Chamblin went with an empty backfield on third-and-short late in the quarter and the QB sneak got stuffed by B.C. Lions linebacker Adam Bighill. Then, on third and short in OT, Chamblin — what was he thinking? — chose to kick a field goal. Three plays later, the Lions scored a touchdown and won the game. . . . It isn’t often you can point the finger at a head coach and say “This one’s on you,” but that’s the case here. . . . Oh, Chamblin also is in charge of the Roughriders’ defence, which was anything but aggressive. . . . They now are 0-3 and the howling of Rider Nation can be heard across the country. . . .

With the U of Texas having OK’d the selling of beer and wine at football games, John Sharp, the chancellor at Texas A and M, has said his school won’t go down that road. As he told TexAgs Radio: “Our athletic program has not reached the point where we require the numbing effects of alcohol.” . . . ZING!!!! . . . Headline at Fark.com: And in Pamplona, the early score is Bulls 11, Idiots 0. . . . One more from the gang at Fark.com: Eugenie Bouchard’s black bra runs afoul of Wimbledon’s dress code / Moaning, grunting, shrieking all still OK. . . .

“Matt Stonie and Joey Chestnut, who combined to down 122 hot dogs in finishing 1-2 at this year’s Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, also share the same hometown,” writes Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times. “Bet the all-you-can-eat places in San Jose, Calif., just love to see those two walking up.” . . . He’s hardly in the same league as Stonie and Chestnut, but Marcus Hanel, the Milwaukee Brewers’ bullpen catcher, recently ate 23 cheesesteaks during a four-game series in Philadelphia. . . . “Or,” wrote Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle, “as Joey Chestnut calls it, brunch.” . . .

Bill Littlejohn, our South Lake Tahoe, Calif., correspondent, reports: “Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are going to make a movie about the FIFA scandal — Good Will Bribing.” . . . Littlejohn also noted that “international timekeepers added one second recently to compensate for a slightly slower earth rotation — and possibly for David Ortiz' slightly slower bat speed.” . . . One more from Littlejohn: “Matt Bonner of the San Antonio Spurs says that tennis elbow caused by his iPhone led to his poor shooting. Tennis elbow from an iPhone — is that a case of 'server error’?” . . .

There may not have been a NASCAR race with a better name than the Firecracker 400 that always was run on July 4. Except that this year’s race became the Coke Zero 400 and was held on July 5. As Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel put it: “Once again, let’s cue the patriotic music: ‘My country ’tis of thee, sell your soul to network TV.’ ” . . . Comedy writer Jerry Perisho: “Breaking: Golfer Phil Mickelson will never be inducted into Baseball Hall of Fame.” . . .

You may have heard that Denver Broncos linebacker Von Miller claims that he was fined for flatulence during team meetings. His defence? According to Brad Dickson of the Omaha World-Herald: “He tried to claim Tom Brady let the air out of him.” . . . Dickson also noted that the World-Herald “published a Q&A with (U of Nebraska Cornhusker) coach Mike Riley. Big surprise: It was only three times as long as our Q&A with the governor.” . . . Dickson, again: “Ohio Gov. John Kasich will reportedly announce on July 21 that he’s seeking the GOP nomination for president. By then he will be the 89th declared GOP candidate for president. Kasich is the third most powerful person in Ohio behind Urban Meyer and LeBron James.” . . . One more from Dickson: “The FCC chairman has proposed bringing high-speed Internet to the poor. According to an informal survey, 99.9 percent of poor people would rather have food.” . . .

The flag of the state of Washington features a photo of George Washington, and Ron Judd of the Seattle Times suggests it’s time for a change: “Keep George W., but redraw him to look more hip, swarthy and ticked off. Sort of like the way marketing geniuses changed the old, friendly Seahawk into the modern, constipated Seahawk.” . . . Failing that, Judd writes, “Cut to the chase and go with an image that more directly reflects our modern governmental process: corporate lobbyists and paid signature gatherers, arm-in-arm on the Capitol steps.” . . . Hey, that being the case, perhaps B.C. and Washington could share a flag. . . . “A 22-year-old worker was thrown up against a wall and killed by a robot in a Volkswagen plant in Germany,” Judd reports. “This is how it begins.”

(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.

Looking back at WHL final . . . Hurricanes sign head scout . . . WHL involved in Tigers' lease talks

Eyes on the prize! @Kelowna_Rockets coaches already busy looking at game tape to prep for #MemorialCup #GoRockets! pic.twitter.com/CrFyveM7qY

— Lauren Pullen (@Lauren_Global) May 15, 2015

WHL PLAYOFF LEFTOVERS, AS OPPOSED TO TURNOVERS:

Depending on whether you are a fan of the Kelowna Rockets or Brandon Wheat Kings, you will say the WHL final was decided by timely, or untimely, goals. . . . The Rockets won Game 1, 4-3, in Brandon, erasing a 1-0 deficit with goals at 17:41 of the first period and at 0:52 and 1:19 of the second. . . . Kelowna won Game 2, 5-3, also in Brandon, scoring at 19:57 of the first period to a take a 2-1 lead and adding another goal just 27 seconds into the second. F Nick Merkley’s shorthanded goal at 10:16 of the third ended up as the winner. . . . In Game 3, the host Rockets won, 5-3. Kelowna F Leon Draisaitl scored shorthanded at 6:35 of the first period. Brandon tied it, but the Rockets scored just 59 seconds later. . . . In Game 4, on Wednesday night, the Rockets broke a scoreless tie with two shorthanded goals 19 seconds apart early in the third. . . . From Kelowna’s perspective, you will win a lot of games by scoring timely goals in that fashion. . . . From Brandon’s perspective, you can’t give up all those goals in those situations and hope to win, certainly not in a championship final. . . .
The Rockets, who won the WHL title on Wednesday night, played 19 playoff games, going 16-3. . . . They will ride a seven-game winning streak into the Memorial Cup in Quebec City next week. . . . The Rockets will open against the host Quebec Remparts one week from tonight (Friday, May 22). . . . The Rockets have played in a Memorial Cup in Quebec City on one previous occasion. They lost a semifinal game, 2-1, to the Hull Olympiques, who had won the QMJHL championship. The OHL-champion Kitchener Rangers beat the Olympiques, 6-3, in the final. . . . The Rockets also played in the 2009 Memorial Cup, which also was played in the province of Quebec. The Rockets lost the final of that one, 4-1, to the OHL-champion Windsor Spitfires. That was in Rimouski, Que. . . . Brett Iverson, one of the referees for Wednesday’s game in Kelowna, will be working his second straight Memorial Cup. . . .
Attendance in Kelowna on Wednesday was 6,428, the largest hockey crowd in Prospera Place since the final game of the 2004 Memorial Cup. . . . The Rockets beat the Gatineau Olympiques 2-1 on that occasion, before 6,636 fans. . . . Kelowna G Jackson Whistle’s father, Dave, played hockey for the Brandon U Bobcats. In fact, he was a team captain before going on to play in Europe. . . . “It’s awesome. I actually moved here from Europe the year they won the (Memorial Cup in 2004), and I’ve been coming to Rockets games every single year,” Jackson, who is from West Kelowna, told reporters after Wednesday’s game. “I wouldn’t want to do it anywhere else, it’s a great feeling and I’ve never been more excited in my life. Everybody wanted it so bad and it was just a great game.” . . .
Kelowna scored four shorthanded goals in the final series, and finished with nine in 19 playoff games. . . . The Rockets, however, are going to have to get their PP going if they are to have success in Quebec City. Kelowna had the WHL’s best regular-season PP, at 26.2 per cent, but it was only 1-for-13 in the final and 16-for-79 (20.3 per cent) overall. . . .
Rob Henderson, the Brandon Sun’s sports editor, has a final game story right here. . . .
Larry Fisher of the Kelowna Daily Courier has a final game story right here.
Thanks to Fisher, Henderson, Perry Bergson of the Brandon Sun and Doyle Potenteau of the Kelowna Daily Courier for all of their playoff coverage.
———


I made an error here yesterday when I was recounting the players on the Kelowna Rockets’ roster and how they were acquired. . . . I referred to four players having been acquired from the Prince Albert Raiders. Actually, it was only three. . . . F Chance Braid was acquired from the Prince George Cougars. Braid, 20, played three seasons with the Raiders before being dealt to the Cougars prior to this season. He played 35 regular-season games with the Cougars and 30 with the Rockets.
——
Rob MacLachlan has signed on as the Lethbridge Hurricanes’ head scout. The team didn’t reveal contract details, other than announcing that he had signed “a multi-year deal.” . . . At the same time, the Hurricanes named Todd Hassen assistant head scout. . . . MacLachlan, who is from Moose Jaw, worked for the Moose Jaw Warriors for the 14 years, the last 10 as head scout. MacLachlan, 57, was fired as Moose Jaw’s assistant GM and head scout on Jan. 23. . . . Hassen has been on the Hurricanes’ scouting staff. . . . MacLachlan replaces Blake Robson, who had been the head scout under his father, Brad, who was fired as the Hurricanes’ GM on Dec. 10. The Hurricanes didn’t announce it but Brad apparently quit shortly after his father was fired.
——
Another day . . . another day without a lease for the Medicine Hat Tigers, who are expected to play out of the brand new Regional Event Centre (aka The House That Bob Ridley Built) in 2015-16. However, the Tigers have yet to complete lease negotiations with SMG, the management company that has been contracted by the City of Medicine Hat to operate the facility. . . . Jordan Kanygin of CHAT-TV reports that the WHL has been involved in the lease negotiations for the past month. . . . That story is right here.
——
Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle spent part of this week in Memphis, watching, or trying to watch, the Golden State Warriors and the Grizzlies in an NBA playoff series. On Wednesday, Ostler went looking a place to watch the game. . . . “I drop into Club 521,” he writes. “A blues band is playing at Beale Street volume, which is 15 on a 1-to-10 loudness scale. Love to be an ear doctor in Memphis. A couple of TVs have the game on. Also: hockey and MMA. Based on about four joints I’ve dropped into, high-def TV is still in Tennessee’s future.” . . . The complete column is right here.
——
Are there cheaters on your favourite professional team, or teams? If so, how do you deal with it as a fan? Howard Cole has written a piece for Rolling Stone that deals with that question, and it’s a terrific read. It’s right here.
———

THE COACHING GAME:

Danny Flynn will be the next head coach of the QMJHL’s Saint John Sea Dogs, according to Stéphane Leroux of RDS. . . . The 57-year-old Flynn will replace Ross Yates, who resigned following the season. Flynn spent this season as an assistant coach under Ted Nolan with the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres. . . . Before that, he spent 2007-13 as GM/head coach of the QMJHL’s Moncton Wildcats. He also has been a head coach in the OHL, with the Belleville Bulls and Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds.
———



The BCHL’s Victoria Grizzlies don’t have a lease at The Q Centre, their home in Colwood, and, according to Mario Annicchiarico of the Victoria Times Colonist, “vice-president of business operations Sonya Saujani made it clear that the team has one foot practically out the door.” . . . . Annicchiarico’s story is right here.
———

Only been here a short time, but @Drat_29 has a street named after him. And the red light is on. #Draisaitl #MVP pic.twitter.com/u8t6nZfKpq

— Gord McGarva (@GordMcGarva) May 14, 2015

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Was Innocent guilty? . . . From Q to q. Really? . . . A speeding minister

The MLS’s San Francisco Earthquakes have a midfielder named Innocent, who recently was hit with a one-game suspension. It was Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle who suggested that the headline on that story should have been ‘Innocent Guilty.’ . . . Ron Judd of the Seattle Times, with a ‘Note to Canada’: “Y’all seemed really excited last week announcing your first bombing runs against ISIS. Question: If we jumped off a bridge into Kabul, would you do it, too? OK, bad example.” . . . Judd, again: “Commercial fishermen in the Gulf of Alaska are getting increasingly miffed by the large numbers of sperm and killer whales that nab hooked cod and other fish right off their lines. Damn whales think they own the whole ocean.” . . .

ICYMI, a couple named Joel Burger and Ashley King recently were married. Richmond, B.C., blogger TC Chong reported: “When asked if they were planning to start a family they replied, ‘Yes, our first daughter will be named Wendy. If it’s a boy, then Carl Jr.’ ” . . . If you’re a fan of the New York Yankees, you are thinking: If they had only given Robinson Cano what he wanted. . . . Only the deep thinkers at CBC would take a scandalized radio show called ‘Q’ and rename it ‘q’. . . . Seriously, who makes those decisions? . . .

You can’t make this stuff up: Todd Stone is B.C.’s minister of transportation and infrastructure. Thus, he is responsible for the speed limits in the province. It was revealed on Friday that he was ticketed three weeks ago for going 109 kilometres per hour in an 80 zone. Cost him $196. Apparently, he was rushing to catch a ferry to the Lower Mainland from Victoria, with his wife and three children in the vehicle with him. . . . It turns out that Stone lost his driver’s licence in 2000 after accumulating five speeding tickets. He now has had two speeding tickets since then so obviously is a slow learner. . . . Maybe he should stick to the Coquihalla Highway, where he recently jacked up the speed limit to 120. . . . BTW, if you’re like me, you’re wondering if he made the ferry. . . .

You may be aware that Masters champ Jordan Spieth attended the U of Texas but didn’t stay long. He left in 2012 without finishing his sophomore year. As Reggie Hayes of the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel pointed out: “It's an under-publicized problem for college golf: The hole-in-one-and-done.” . . . You may have noticed that a big part of the media is in love with Tiger Woods. As Phil Mushnick of the New York Post put it: “If there were a 5,000-car pileup, the breaking news would be: Tiger Woods wasn’t in it — and escaped unhurt.” . . . After the 21-year-old Spieth won the Masters, comedy writer Alex Kaseberg noted: “Tiger Woods has hickeys older than Jordan Spieth.” . . .

A paragraph from Bill Littlejohn, our South Lake Tahoe, Calif., correspondent: 1. “According to stats in the early going, the length of major league baseball games are down eight minutes. Or about one Mike Hargrove at-bat.” . . . To the youngsters in our audience, Hargrove’s nickname was The Human Rain Delay. . . . 2. “Tom Brady bounced his first pitch at the Red Sox home-opener. I hear the baseball was two PSI below the limit.” . . . 3. “Britt McHenry's life story on film — ‘Gone Baby-Girl.’ In Britt's case, there hasn't been such a clear and emphatic reminder of another's 'lower' station in life since the heyday of Leona Helmsley.” . . .

RJ Currie of SportsDeke.com has a “note to those who laughed at Tom Brady after his ceremonial pitch: Four Super Bowl rings; wife Gisele Bundchen; wife’s 2014 earnings, $47 million. Who’s laughing now?” . . . One more from Currie: “Iconic Pittsburgh safety and shampoo pitchman, Troy Polamalu, announced his retirement. Yet to be decided — the hair apparent.” . . . With foreigners again allowed to compete in the Pyongyang Marathon in North Korea, Vancouver comic Torben Roflsen point out: “But they couldn’t have any water. The winner of the race was Kim Jong-un, with a reported time of 1 hour 35 minutes.” . . . One more from Rolfsen: ““There is a mayoral bet on the Canucks-Flames series: If Vancouver wins, the Red Mile becomes a bike lane.” . . .

Please, no more whining about WHL bus trips. “The Milwaukee Brewers’ AA farm team,” notes Ray Ratto of CSNBayArea.com, “which moved from Huntsville last year because Biloxi got all flirty and new ballpark-y, is beginning a 55-game, 60-day roadie because said new park isn’t ready yet. And because this is the Southern League, it’s all bus rides -– from Pensacola to Mobile to Jacksonville to Pensacola to Huntsville to Jackson, Mississippi, to Jackson, Tennessee, to Huntsville to Chattanooga to Birmingham. When the Shuckers finish this trip, they will have well and truly bonded. Unless, of course, they kill each other going from Jackson to Jackson.” . . .

So, Charles Barkley, what goes through your mind when you hear about NBA players getting into it with fans on social media? “I always use this analogy when it comes to sports fans,” he replies. “Just because you watch Grey’s Anatomy doesn’t mean you can perform an operation.” . . . “In Allen, Texas,” reports Janice Hough, aka The Left Coast Sports Babe, “a rancher was given a $266 citation for doing what he’s been doing for years, riding his horse to Taco Bell. Apparently, it’s not allowable to ride on a public street. Now, if he’d just walked downtown carrying a couple of shotguns. . .”

You are wondering why Lou Holtz is leaving his role as a football analyst with ESPN. Well, he’s 78, and as he told a Notre Dame website: “I’ve been everywhere except to bed. I’ve spoken to everybody except my wife. Somebody said, ‘Do you ever go anywhere where people don’t recognize you?’ I said, ‘Home.’ ” . . . Ian Hamilton of the Regina Leader-Post reports: “In his new book, former NFLer Phillip Buchanon claims his mother demanded $1 million from him — her fee for raising him, as it were — after he was drafted by the Oakland Raiders in 2002. That gives new meaning to ‘child support’ ” . . .

“Rassler-turned-actor Dwayne Johnson says he eats 2¼ pounds of cod a day — or 821 pounds a year,” writes Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times. “Rock cod, we presume.” . . . Centre Kendrick Perkins of the Cleveland Cavaliers took nine steps with the ball in a recent game and wasn’t called for travelling. “I have gone for runs that were shorter,” wrote Kaseberg.

(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.

Four more bowl games? Really? . . . Did you see the Tebow Eclipse?

The next college football bowl season might feature four more games. Seriously! The cities of Austin, Texas; Little Rock, Ark.; Tucson, Ariz.; and Orlando, Fla., all have applied to play host to games. Should all four be accepted there would be 43 games on the schedule. . . . With that many on tap, the team that misses the CFL playoffs might end up in a bowl game. . . . Outfielder Tyson Gillies of Kamloops was in training camp with the San Diego Padres and now is with the San Antonio Missions of the Double-A Texas League. Gillies, 26, got into two spring-training games with the Padres, going 1-for-1 with a walk. . . .

“Chicago prospect Kris Bryant says he’s ready for the majors,” writes Janice Hough, aka The Left Coast Sports Babe, “but Theo Epstein and the Cubs say he needs more time in the minors. And how can you argue against a franchise with such a tradition of winning?” . . . “Off the coast of North Carolina,” Hough notes, “a man was rescued from atop his overturned sailboat after being lost at sea for 66 days. Presumably, they’ve already optioned Tom Hanks for the movie.” . . .

“Tiger Woods’ private jet reportedly landed in Augusta,” reports RJ Currie of SportsDeke.com. “Word is its approach was decent, but it took four tries to get it in the hangar.” . . . One more from Currie: “Maryland researchers successfully gave a female rat’s brain the characteristics of a male rat. Now she wanders lost in a maze for hours instead of asking for directions.” . . . Headline at SportsPickle.com: Pre-med student gets NHL team-physician job after accurately identifying upper body, lower body. . . .

“There is a report of a ringside seat for Mayweather-Pacquiao selling for $87,000,” notes Cam Hutchinson of the Saskatoon Express. “If I have to pay to watch old guys fight, I’d take Kapp-Mosca over this sham.” . . . If John Garrett’s Vancouver Canucks are going to get through the first round of the playoffs, they are going to have to find a solution for the woes of Henrik Sedin and Linden Vey in the faceoff circles. When you are playing the same team game after game, losing faceoffs the way those two do will wear you out. . . .

Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle is having a tough time as MLB training camps wind down. “I hate the dead-arm period of spring training,” he writes. “I can hardly lift my beer.” . . . “The Sacramento Kings new 7-foot-5, 360-pound center, Sim Bhullar, of Indian descent?” Ostler tweeted. “They're calling him Mahatma Grande.” . . . Ostler followed that with: “Sim Bhullar, in first game of 10-day contract with the Kings, did not play. So it was Bhullar's day off.” . . .

Four items from Bill Littlejohn, our South Lake Tahoe., Calif., correspondent: “Wrigley Field now has a JumboTron. What's next? The Taj Mahal hosting Keeping Up With The Kardashians?” . . . “Joni Mitchell's reaction to Wrigley Field renovations: 'They paved paradise, And put up a JumboTron.’ ” . . . “The Florida Marlins plan a year-long Back to the Future promotion. Ironic, considering every time they've gotten good, they fire sale their future.” . . . “Saturday morning's lunar eclipse was the briefest total lunar eclipse of this century. They’re calling it the Tebow Eclipse.” . . .

The referee stepped in to stop a recent light heavyweight bout between Marvin Jones and Ramon Luis Nicolas, when a cell phone fell out of Jones’ trunks. “Also falling out of his trunks,” wrote Rick Chandler of SportsGrid.com, “in succession and making a loud clatter: Car keys, horseshoe, nunchucks, loose change, flashlight, several DVDs, framed family photo.” . . . Three rounds later, Jones was on the canvas and out like this phone. . . . “In Quebec,” reports Brad Dickson of the Omaha World-Herald, “thieves broke into a sporting goods store and stole about 100 hockey sticks.  Because it’s Canada, police dropped their investigation into a string of armored car robberies to find the hockey stick thieves.” . . . Dickson, again: “Two visiting Americans were arrested for carving their names into the Roman Colosseum. Is it perhaps time to require an IQ test in order to get a passport?” . . .

Arnold Schwarzenegger was riding a bicycle in Australia when police stopped him because he was helmetless. “If he got a concussion,” wondered NBC-TV’s Seth Meyers, “how would you know?” . . . The Canucks recalled F Sven Baertschi from the AHL’s Utica Comets on Friday and the way social media reacted you might have thought it was the second coming of The Great One. . . . Such is life in Vancouver where the wind blows nicely when the Canucks win. . . .

Conan O’Brien of TBS wasn’t at all impressed by the Notre Dame basketball team’s run to the Sweet 16 in March Madness. As he put it: “I’m sorry, but if I want to watch the Fighting Irish I’ll visit my parents.” . . . “To celebrate a victory in a Russian junior game the other day, players on MHC Loko impersonated a line of tumbling dominoes,” reports Ian Hamilton of the Regina Leader-Post. “The performance resembled NHL teams falling all over themselves to get Connor McDavid.”

(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.

“Sharks defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic said he missed (last) Saturday night’s pantsing at the hands of the mostly brutal Carolina Hurricanes because of ‘a cold,’ ” writes Ray Ratto of CSNbayarea.com. “Sunday he was placed on injured reserve. In other words, what we have here officially is an ‘upper body injury linked to killer phlegm.’ Boys, we don’t mind that you lie about injuries because your players are occasionally borderline psychopaths who would try to injure already-injured players. But you have to be able to lie better than that. You just have to. Children are watching.” . . . Meanwhile, in the WHL, Kootenay Ice head coach Ryan McGill sat out two games during the week. He went from “ill” to “upper-body injury” to “general body soreness.” . . .

You sit down on a Thursday night and have a hankering to watch an NHL game. The channel guide on your TV shows you four games, all on at the same time. Winnipeg at Nashville. Toronto at the New York Islanders. Pittsburgh at Ottawa. Edmonton at Montreal is on two channels, one French and one English. Later, it’s Calgary at Los Angeles. Five games. Each featuring a Canadian team. But in Gary Bettman’s NHL every one of those games is available regionally. Which means, here in Kamloops, it was the New York Rangers at Colorado or Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Hey, Rogers, if you’re wondering why the ratings aren’t nearly what you thought they would be. . . .

Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times discovered an interactive soccer-related calculator at BBC.com and typed in the average U.S. salary of $43,000. This is what he got back: “Cristiano Ronaldo earns €18,200,000 ($20.9 million) per year. It would take him 18 minutes to earn your weekly salary. On your current salary, it would take you 551 years to earn Cristiano Ronaldo’s annual wage. If you had started in the year 1464 you’d almost be finished.” . . . Perry asks: “What do the Seahawks and NBC anchor Brian Williams have in common?” Perry answers: “Both would’ve been better off staying on the ground.” . . . Minor league baseball’s Akron Rubber Ducks will play host to Brian Williams’ Pants-on-Fire Night on April 27. You know you’ve made it when a baseball team is honouring you with a special night. . . .

Here’s comedy writer Alex Kaseberg: “My sports and entertainment heroes have been, roughly in order, Bill Cosby, O.J. Simpson, Bruce Jenner, Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods, Charlie Sheen and Brian Williams. I am starting to think I might be the problem.” . . . Seattle Times desk editor Bill Kossen asks: “How many Marshawn Lynches does it take to screw in a light bulb?” Kossen's answer: “Thank you for asking.” . . . G Jackson Whistle of the Kelowna Rockets underwent an appendectomy about 10 days ago. If you have ever wondered whether that is upper or lower body, the Rockets list him as being out with a lower-body injury. . . .

“Tiger Woods withdrew with a bad back, explaining that a long wait in the fog caused his glutes to deactivate,” wrote Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle during last weekend’s PGA tournament. “First recorded case of foggy bottom. You know you’re in trouble when your ass goes south on you. Now can we declare a moratorium on discussion of any Tiger Woods body part below his waist?” . . . Jack Finarelli, The Sports Curmudgeon, chimed in with: “Personally, I wonder if this was a case of his glutes deactivating or a situation where he realized he was getting his glutes kicked.” . . .

“During a game at a recent Colorado Rockies fantasy camp,” writes Ian Hamilton of the Regina Leader-Post, “a pitcher brushed back batter Lew Dunlap. Livid, Dunlap — who’s 88 — started to charge the mound. He’s expected to arrive there sometime next week.” . . . Cardale Jones, who finished the season as Ohio State’s starting quarterback, recently spent some time visiting a children’s hospital. While there, he played the NCAA football video game with a patient. Jones later took to Twitter to clear the air. “Man, he tweeted, “I wish everyone stop saying I beat a kid in the hospital 91-35 . . . It was 98-35, had 91 with 1:26 left in the 4th.” . . .

You may have noticed New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick chatting with David Letterman on Wednesday. Perhaps you were wondering why it wasn’t Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll. According to Letterman, “We invited Pete Carroll to be on the show, but he passed.” . . . Katy Perry has told people that the NFL had almost total control over her halftime Super Bowl extravaganza. “If my calculations are correct,” noted Reggie Hayes of the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, “that brings the total number of events that the NFL had under control this past season to one.” . . .

It says here that Dallas Stars forwards Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin, aka The Immature Punks, should just shut up until they have accomplished off the ice what Daniel and Henrik Sedin have in Vancouver. . . . Maybe the voices in their heads made Benn and Seguin say what they said on that open mouth radio show the other day. . . . “Kanye West told Ryan Seacrest that ‘voices in my head’ told him to go on stage at the Grammys and rant against Beck,” reports Janice Hough, aka The Left Coast Sports Babe. “How come these ‘voices’ in people’s heads never tell them to sit down and shut up?” . . . Hough is getting ready for the spring planting season. “Picked up a little pot of tulips,” she tells us. “Small stick with care instructions in the soil. Ending with: ‘For decoration only. Do not consume.’ And they assume anyone dumb enough to eat tulips is smart enough to read instructions?”

(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.

It seems that Sunday’s big loser will be the chicken population. . . . The National Chicken Council, which looks after all things chicken in the Excited States, reports that 1.25 billion chicken wings will be consumed during Super Bowl XLIX. . . . Canadians have to be good for a few more, so lets’s call it an even 2 billion. . . . Hey, that’s a lot of chickens giving it up for the cause. . . . LGIW tells me about 36 wings will be eaten in our household. . . . Makes you wonder which day poultry hate most — Thanksgiving or Super Bowl Sunday. . . .

“Ashley Wagner won her third U.S. figure skating championship. At the age of 23,” writes Janice Hough, aka The Left Coast Sports Babe. “Guess this makes her figure skating’s Jamie Moyer.” . . . Actor James Caan filed for divorce the other day. It was the third time in 10 years that he has done so. With the same wife. Hough noted that even Brett Favre was heard to say: “Dude, make up your mind.” . . . One more from Hough: “The Pro Bowl final score was 32-28. And if you already knew that, you might be just beyond a football fanatic. And if you had a bet on the score, you might just have a gambling problem.” . . .

I won’t even go near the NHL All-Star Game or the Pro Bowl in this space. . . . I am pleased to say that I didn’t watch even one second of either game. . . . I did watch about five minutes of the AHL All-Star Game on Monday night from Utica, N.Y. It was like watching an old-timers game. . . . You don’t suppose the Toronto Maple Leafs would change coaches again, do you? What’s that? Oh, right, it’s the Leafs we’re talking about here. . . . At what point in this NHL season do we start to feel sorry for the Leafs? . . . Yeah, right. . . .

“I saw American Sniper,” tweets Torben Rolfsen, who hosts The Rolfsen Report on TSN 1040 Vancouver. “Luckily, before he saw me.” . . . If you haven’t heard, boxers Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao actually exchanged phone numbers during an NBA game in Miami. As Rolfsen pointed out: “See kids, that's how we did it before Tinder.” . . . One more from Rolfsen: “I like the Winter X Games, but I'm not sure about the snowmobile jump. That's verging on monster truck territory. What's next? Zamboni demolition derby?” . . . C’mon, let’s not be giving those folks any ideas, but maybe that’s something some junior hockey teams should be looking into as intermission entertainment. . . . 


“Chelsea Carey lost the Alberta Scotties final to Val Sweeting just days after a thief made off with Carey’s unique stainless-steel slider,” reports RJ Currie of SportsDeke.com. “Talk about a costly steal.” . . . A social note from Currie: “According to several reports, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are getting divorced. And despite what many believe, their union’s state was not what President Obama addressed.” . . . “An asteroid passed within 745,000 miles of Earth on Monday,” reports Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times. “Or in the words of amateur astronomer Bob Uecker, just a bit outside.” . . .

Ray Ratto of CSNBayArea.com has been in Phoenix and has been keeping an eye on ticket prices for Sunday’s big game. Here’s a report: “Ticket prices to the big game are escalating like the deutschmark before the Nazis came to power. It doesn’t matter. It just doesn’t matter. I mean, we’ll still bitch about the NFL and all, but it’s the law of supply and demand. They have all the supply, so they can and are demanding whatever the hell they want. We’re doomed.” . . .

Headine at TheOnion.com: “Lance Armstrong, Barry Bonds, A-Rod spring to Patriots’ defense over deflated footballs.” . . . Alex Rodriguez has been visiting with Barry Bonds, getting hitting tips. As Norman Chad of the Washington Post put it: “That’s like ‘Pretty Boy’ Floyd getting banking advice from John Dillinger.” . . . According to Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle, Deflategate made its way into the public eye “when Bill Belichick presented Tom Brady the game ball, and he folded it and put it in his wallet.” . . .

Richmond, B.C., blogger TC Chong reports that Forbes magazine has the New England Patriots valued at US$1.64 billion and the Boston Red Sox at $1.5 billion. Chong adds that “Sox owner John Henry is wanting to hire the Patriots’ ballboy to see if that will inflate his team’s worth.” . . . Chong, one more time: “Pro golfer Robert Allenby met Tiger Woods this week at The Waste Management Open in Phoenix, where Allenby said to Tiger, ‘Hahaha, photographer’s camera . . . why didn’t I think of that?’ ” . . .

The NBA’s Golden State Warriors have said they will wear Chinese New Year uniforms that will include a crest of a goat on one sleeve. Noted contributor Bill Littlejohn: “The logo will depict the Year of the Goat. I think they'd better check the Cubs' history before having anything to do with a goat.” . . . So who had a better Friday — Roger Goodell or Tiger Woods? Yeah, I’d call it a draw, too. . . . A late Friday night tweet from TSN’s James Duthie: “Phoenix/Scottsdale is a zoo tonight. As fans continue to celebrate Coyotes win over Leafs.”

(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.