Back In Business

"Welcome back, To that same old place that you laughed about.
Well the names have all changed since you hung around,
But those dreams have remained and they're turned around.
Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back."
- Welcome Back Kotter

Yes we're back in business at Sports As Life. So much has happened in the last ten days that, instead of the usual Monday Headlines, I thought I'd do a little bit on each story - or at least all the stories I can remember. So if you were hoping for a Dot, Dot, Dot column today - you're in luck.

... First of all is the Roughrider playoff ticket fiasco. Here's what I know: you have to give season ticket holders, shareholders and flex-pack holders first crack at tickets - there has to be some incentive for buying these things. I imagine season ticket sales are going to increase substantially next year - with more home playoff games seemingly on the horizon people are not going to want to take a chance on missing out again. But here's the rub - there's no way a person should have been allowed to buy up to 6 playoff tickets. That's ridiculous. By limiting each person to 4 tickets the team could have made sure more people had access to tickets. A lower ticket limit would also keep tickets off eBay - as there have been hundreds and hundreds of playoff tickets on there since they went on sale - here are the current listings (hopefully this link will work, eBay links have a tendency to expire).

The eBay problem is tough because there is a market for scalped tickets, so people are going to gouge as much as they can. If the Roughriders want to get serious about electronic ticket scalping they need to revoke the season tickets of anyone caught putting their tickets on eBay. Don't think it can be done? The New England Patriots recently won a court case against online ticket broker StubHub (which is owned by eBay) that forced StubHub to give up the names of everyone buying and selling Patriots tickets - check it out. Obviously you can't do anything about the people that bought the public tickets. But if people are putting their season tickets up for auction - as Tony Kornheiser would say - they should be punished to the fullest extent of the law and their season tickets should be revoked

... How about that hit on Boston's Patrice Bergeron? Hockey sure is fun to watch isn't it? Here it is if you haven't seen it, or if you just need a refresher. If there had been an NHL Headshot of the Week last week, this would have been it without a doubt. What I love about this one is that people were blaming Bergeron for turning into the hit - see paragraph 4 - which he clearly does not. Here is Bob McKenzie's follow-up as well. From what I hear Don Cherry was blaming Bergeron as well, at least in part - further cementing my new found belief that for the good of the game Cherry needs to be put out to pasture (initially I was going to write that Cherry should have his tongue cut out - but decided to soften my stance).

Randy Jones' 2 game suspension probably should have been 5 - but he was a first time offender, so what can you do. You know who isn't a first time? The Philadelphia Flyers. This is the third time this season one of their players has delivered a cheapshot to the head of an opposing player. So here's what the punishment should have been - fine the Flyers organization $50,000 - fine General Manager Paul Holmgren $15,000 - and fine head coach John Stevens $5,000.

... Since I thought I should attend one playoff game in Saskatchewan this year, I went to the Regina Rams/Saskatchewan Huskies game on Friday night. I haven't been to a Rams game in many, many years - so maybe I'm behind the times - but when did the fake injury play become so popular. Obviously faking an injury has always been part of football, simply to give your team a bit of a breather. But I've never seen anything like that in my life. In the fourth quarter there was an injured player on the field after almost every play. And while I was in the stands I was characterizing it as "dirty Saskatoon tricks" but as the fourth quarter went on it was the Rams who were always on the carpet. Even the Rams' fans were getting sick of their own players lying on the field writhing in pain one minute, only to spring up and jog off the field the next. The mood of the Rams' fans turned so ugly at one point that people were yelling, "I'm giving my degree back!" (ok, it was just me).

I'm told that this was probably done as payback to the Huskies, who apparently did the same thing the week previous. Isn't that a mature response - but they did it first! And this is Canadian Football, it's not like the clock is running between plays or anything. The last 3 minutes of that football game literally took 35 minutes to actually complete. It was a real sad state of affairs.

... Two more things about the Rams game. First, why on Earth is there a 100% mark-up between advance ticket prices and walk-up ticket prices? Advanced tickets are $10 while tickets bought at the stadium are $20 - that seems like an unnecessarily large mark-up. I'm thinking like $15 at the ticket window. Be that as it may there were still almost 5,000 people there.

And then there's the Rams' mascot - oh Mercy, where to begin? First of all his name is Rampage 50/50... or maybe his name is just Rampage and his number is 50/50 - we were never very clear on that. Because of the tradition of the Rams' 50/50 draw I sort of understand the number - but that's still pretty ridiculous. I'd love to show him to you if you've never seen him, but there are not pictures around - so let's just say that he pretty much looks like this. The real problem is that whoever lives inside Rampage does not understand the nuances of football. He (or maybe she) was trying to incite the crowd into cheering while the Rams were near the goaline trying to score. If you have ever been to one football game in your life you know that you do not make noise while your team has the ball. While the opposing team has the ball make all the noise you want - but when you're team is trying to score, shut your mouth. All the Rams players were trying to get the crowd to be quiet, while Rampage was standing on benches trying to get everyone to make noise. High comedy all around.

... You know why the CFL makes me laugh a good natured laugh - it's because of things like this.

... Firing General Manager Marcel Desjardins is the best personnel move the Hamilton Tiger-Cats made all year.

... Hmmm, what else...

... I think there was a pretty big NFL game this weekend but I didn't really hear anything about it. I don't know when it was or who was playing. The NFL really needs to start doing a better job of promoting those marquee match-ups so people will know when they are.

... Good for those Colorado Rockies - they won 21 of their final 26 games. That's a pretty impressive feat and those last 4 losses in a row really should diminish their streak. Was that really the best team in the National League? They were not even close to being close to competitive against the Red Sox.

... Is there still an NHL team in Toronto? I haven't heard anything about them this year.

...Well I think that's about if for today. I'm hoping to do an mid-season NFL review either tomorrow or Wednesday, so keep an eye out for that.