Hard to believe, but even with ice going into Cominco Arena for the start of serious hockey here in less than a month, there is still watchable baseball on the menu for Butler Park. It won’t last long, not past Tuesday, but there are two playoff games scheduled for Monday if you are interested.
• Only in Canada.
With the Pan American Games being touted as a showcase for all things Canadian – and, unfortunately, apparently an attempt to woo the corrupt IOC into another round of strip mining Canadian taxpayers – the organizers of said Panams have hired an American – some Kardashian hanger-on named Kanye West – as the feature artist for the closing ceremony.
Not as if, even with some virulently excluding Nickleback, there are not lots of talented and even world-famous Canadian musical acts from which to choose. There is a long list of old and new real artists of Canadian origin that would have made us proud at venues we all paid for, and will keep paying for.
Maybe this West guy has an in with the infamous voting delegates of the dreaded IOC, I’ve heard he has access to some wealth and is a funding player in New York sporting circles.
Too bad, especially since the Canadian team is doing us all proud (since it is already paid for we might as well watch, hope and cheer), that said organizers are not doing their best to showcase other exemplars of our culture.
• If you want to know why the Toronto Maple Leafs suck so consistently, it is because that does not seem to matter to the bottom line. The club is the wealthiest franchise in the NHL and its dollar value has risen almost 500 per cent since the last time the team won a playoff series. None of the other NHL franchises comes even close on Forbes list.
Since money seems to be all that really matters these days it is a safe bet Leafs bosses smile all day, every day, while pretending they want some on-ice success while doing little to achieve it.
PT Barnum once said there was a sucker born every minute, and the sad sack Laffs seem to prove the point – or at least the Toronto is awash in the results of that never-ending baby boom – because the rink will still be sold out for a few decades more.
