Oh Canada!

As one of my friends will be traveling to the West coast in the next few months, I am reminded of what a great and diverse country Canada is. I have been to both coasts and have seen many of the wonders Canada has to offer, each region has something unique to it.

For most of my life I thought that Ontario was not as nice as either the East Coast or West Coast and that the province didn't really have much excitement to it, other than Niagara Falls, of course. That is a pretty logical assumption I thought.

The East Coast has miles of coastline (with several lighthouses) and the atmosphere is pretty relaxed. They also have some cool attractions like the reversing waterfall and Magnetic Hill in New Brunswick as well as an engineering marvel in the Confederation Bridge linking PEI with New Brunswick. On the other side of the country is the Rocky Mountains (enough said!). These gigantic pieces of land extend miles into the sky, through the clouds and stop just short of Heaven. The mountain range is probably the most breathtaking thing I have seen in my life.

In comparison with both coasts, Ontario seems pretty lame, doesn't it? All it has is an oversized waterfall. Ah, that is where I am wrong; Ontario has a bit of both coasts. There are some small mountains (they look more like hills after seeing the Rockies though) and several lakes, both great and small, and other such waterways. And don't forget the Welland Canal, another engineering feat that was and still is key to industry in this country.

It has taken many years but I can finally admit that every province, even Ontario, has its own characteristics that make it great. I am still partial to the mountains of the West Coast but I can now say without hesitation that Canada is a great country that has something for everyone.

Sad State of Hockey

I will keep this short. All winter long I have tried to give the NHL a chance but just couldn't find it exciting anymore. Hockey today has no flow or momentum. Just when a team actually starts to get something going the refs call a penalty or two or three. Maybe they feel neglected or something. I am sure many of you will disagree with me and that is fine, to each their own. I did however, keep an eye on the scores just so I could laugh at the Leafs fans. Poor, poor Leafs.

Now that the playoffs are here I was expecting some good hockey but again I was dissappointed. As a prime example of what I am talking about, last night I turned to the Edmonton/Anaheim game and watched it during the commercials of re-runs (yes everybody, I would rather watch re-runs of shows that I have seen several times over than an NHL game right now). So I had the game on for about 30 seconds and there were two penalty calls in that time. I don't know if anyone actually saw the infraction other than the ref either.

Congratulations Bettman, you have officially ruined hockey. Good thing they are still showing poker on tv, because that's a real spectator sport. Ha!

Everyday People

People are Stupid!!!!

Everyday on my way to work I am reminded of the above fact (it is even worse when I do get to work). I don't know why I expect people to actually use their brains, however small it may be, but I do. Is there such a thing a "common sense" anymore??? Sadly, I think not.

Barry Bonds - Hero or Fraud?

As Barry, or is it Mr. Bonds?, tries to hit his 714th career homerun to tie the Babe, there is a lot of negative publicity about him. The media that covers MLB (and those who don't know what a baseball is) has a history of trying to crush players personally when they are close to breaking any records set by Babe Ruth. Baseball is a game and records are made to be broken, similar to laws, so why does the media try to villify people trying to achieve greatness?

In '61 when Maris and Mantle were chasing the single season homerun record (previously held by the Babe), there was an uproar about a longer season. This time around the controversy revolves around a banned substance, steroids. The league knew about the use of steriods for years (at least a decade but probably more) and did nothing about it, in fact they helped the players hide it. After the strike of 1994 (the year the Expos were robbed of their World Series) attendance fell dramatically and the league was in desperate need of some trick to entice the fans to return. Lucky for them a natural born home run hitter named Mark McGwire flirted with 60 home runs in 1996 and 1997 and actually broke the single season home run record with 70 (before Bonds beat that a few years later). These home runs drew people from everywhere, coming out to see McGwire put balls into the Big Mac Land of old Busch Stadium. The league has found it's trick to get the fans back, home runs. Meanwhile, quietly in San Francisco, an aging Barry Bonds jumped on the home run band wagon and started pumping iron (and possibly with a little help) and building muscle. And why not, everyone else started to bulk up too and 32 home runs a season just isn't good enough anymore.

So now the league's attendance started to rise with all these mammoth home runs and the league was starting to blossom. The money started coming in and the league along with the team owners couldn't be happier. But then a question of steroids use in MLB came up and the league denied that there was a problem. MLB was drug free they said. But we all know the reality now. Now that the league has reached, and possibly even surpassed, pre 1994 attendance levels, the steriod use of ball players comes to light.

That brings me to my point...finally. Barry Bonds was one of many players that might have used steriods (I am sure he did but I don't know if there is any solid proof of that so I have to cover my butt) so why do we persecute him alone. After all it is a problem throughout the league isn't it? Ah, but not everyone is about to pass a baseball God on any other all-time list let alone the most sacred. We have to pretend we don't want to see this happen at all, especially by someone who might have used steriods, so the media won't let us forget that. The funny thing of this whole situation is that Babe Ruth isn't on top in career home runs so when Bonds eventually hits home run number 715 he will only be taking over the second spot on the all-time home run list.

So I ask, is Bonds a hero or a fraud? I consider a hero to be someone for us mere mortals to look up to so if Bonds did use illegal drugs then he isn't someone to look up to. So he might not be a hero. If we go by the definition of a hero, then it is possible that he is a hero of baseball. How about a fraud? I doubt that he is a fraud either, he did actually hit the pitches that ended up in McCovey's cove and on the other side of so many other fences in the Major Leagues. His home runs weren't deceptive or a trick, in fact the more recent ones were undisputably home runs. He isn't an imposter either, he really is a baseball player. Not a hero or a fraud then what is he? Just a human being that can hit a round ball with a round bat and do it well. I heard somewhere the hardest thing to do in this world is to hit a round ball with a round bat squarely. Hmmm!

Whatever we classify him as, I still say cudos to him for getting so close to the all-time home run record and giving the baseball world something big to talk about, something that doesn't happen everyday.

The Zebras Are Out Of Control

I really wanted my first post to be about something fun or witty; something to make people think, but unfortunately it is going to be a rant....and it isn't going to be about the striped horses of the picture.

The zebras I am referring to in the title are sports officials. Those men or women who are in charge of keeping the game moving smoothly and ensuring the players are following the rules. They are supposed to blend in to the game and be invisible to the audience. After all people didn't pay way too much money to see a bunch of zebras skate or run around (as much fun as that would be), they can go to the local zoo and see that for $10 or less (maybe a bit more in TO but the difference is worth it). In no way are the officials there to take away from the players or the game itself. Or are they? Did I miss a memo?

A few mistakes here and there are to be expected, they are human after all, but to miss obvious penalties or to call them so lopsided it seems the one team is shorthanded the whole game, is absolutely ludicrous. No professional sport is free from incompetent officials. Take the National Hockey League for the most blatant offence; Saku Koivu, a star player; on a French Canadian team, hmmmmm, gets a stick in the eye and none of the four on ice officials saw it....he was skating towards the net with the puck for heaven's sake. That disgusted me so much I stopped watching hockey.

So I turned to Major League Baseball. I can't cover everything but what is a strike? Apparently it changes from umpire to umpire and can even change for the same umpire in the middle of any given game. The most recent blunder I saw, if you can call missed calls a blunder any more, happened in the White Sox game two weekends ago I believe. A batter was in the middle of a swing and the ball hit him in the chest and was given first base. The thing that the announcers were questioning was whether the batter was able to check his swing. It doesn't matter! From what I recall, correct me if I'm wrong it has been several years since I've played, if a batter is in the motion of swinging and the ball hits him, it is a foul ball. He could have corkscrewed himself or barely taken his bat off his shoulder when the ball hit him, it is still a foul ball.

One last rant and I'll end this post. I went to the NLL championship game and Buffalo was shorthanded ten times compared to Colorado's one. Does that sound right to you? It doesn't to me.

It is time to take the power back and control the zebras before people start going to poker matches instead.