Things have changed, just a little, in the world of sports lately.
Numbskull politics got in the way of the love affair hockey fans from all over were having with overachieving everyman Tim Thomas.
He has, of course, the same right to his opinion as everybody else, but people need to remember that goalies, who volunteer to be pounded on by 150-km-per-hour-plus hard objects without the option of ducking, shouldn’t be considered paragons of intellect.
Egyptian hooligans channeled some emotion or other on regular folks at a soccer game, killing 74 in their version of the Stanley Cup riots even though their team actually created what should have been an occasion of joy by winning over favoured rivals.
A British court has decided that settling a serious, months old, criminal racism complaint against the current English soccer captain should be delayed until all the important soccer for the season is over, lest it disrupt the beautiful game with a less than beautiful reality. Priorities are priorities after all.
Hockey fans are apparently thrilled that iconic Canadian Sydney Crosby has been diagnosed with a serious neck injury, on top of, not instead of, still showing the results of several concussions – ignoring, of course, the implication that almost a year of supposedly top notch medical attention failed to provide a proper diagnosis of his situation, which might easily have become much more dire with one more heavy hit.
The Detroit Tigers and their fans are celebrating the fact there are now two of the best-hitting first basemen in all of baseball on their roster despite the facts that there is only one first base position for them to play and the club does not have a viable candidate for the more difficult third baseman’s job.
The golf season in Lethbridge opened this week even though the climate is changing so much even the Farmers’ Almanac was wrong.
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The Smoke Eaters, who have six of their next seven games at home, seem to have moved into the category of competitive on all fronts in BCHL play.
Barring the home game with Chilliwack two weeks ago, the Smokies have been well in every game recently and fans can hope Trail can actually win a few down the stretch.
This can’t be good for the Prince George Spruce Kings, who are trying to hold off Vernon for the final interior playoff spot. Prince George has four Cominco Arena dates over the next three weeks and probably was looking forward to gaining some ground in the standings, but, that was when Trail had gone more than a woeful month without a win. Meanwhile, Trail gets one last home kick at the Chilliwack can tomorrow night (no idea what last night’s result was).
Hockey fans can, of course, also trek to Fruitvale where the Castlegar Rebels try to restart their challenge to the Nitehawks Neil Murdoch supremacy tonight.
It’s becoming a strange old world, but that last bit – a consistent, long-standing KIJHL rivalry – promises a little normalcy
See you at some rink or other.
