A couple of weeks ago, I took the Yorkton Cardinals to task for being a perennial cellar dweller in the WMBL. Well, third base coach John McVey (and billet member Murray Marshall) took me to task on it and said I should be more supportive of a group of people doing their best to compete. Well, first I am going to defend myself but I'm also going to eat a little crow. The Cards have been a last place team for a number of years and I don't think fans owe them anything to fill the seats. Having said that, Yorkton is not a great sports town for supporting winners either. It took until the very last playoff series for anyone to watch the Terriers (SJHL). As McVey pointed out, the Cards are within striking distance of first place this season and he's right. The Cards are just two games out (as of this writing) and have played some exciting baseball. I lament there are never any home runs at Jubilee. Well, as a team, Yorkton has gone yard nine times (which is quite a high number when comparing to other years). Their offense ranks amongst the best in the league. So, while it's incumbent upon the Cards to show the community they are not going to be just another door mat like years past, I'm willing to concede this is a team that could, potentially, put something special together and we should support them. Friday night they are home to Saskatoon and Sunday afternoon they play host to Regina. Let's see if a few extra fans can help them get over the hump. As a footnote, it was really nice to see a good number of the players in the parade on Saturday.
It's a good thing the National Hockey League has instituted a tight salary cap. Otherwise, there's no telling how long of a contract and how large of a salary David Clarkson would have received. To me, anything beyond a four or five year deal should be reserved for the very, very best players (Crosby, Malkin, Stamkos, Lundqvist, Chara, Toews). Clarkson, in case you missed it, got seven years and in the high 30's for millions of dollars. Wow. I don't think I had ever heard of him prior to this week. That may be due, in part, to my disengagement to the NHL; but still. I know superstars in the sports I don't really follow and Clarkson simply isn't a superstar.
One thing that might bring me back to the NHL is the plight of the Vancouver Canucks. It's tough to resist a train wreck. And, this derailment is going to be colossal and it's going to happen right in front of all of our eyes.
Full marks to the Saskatchewan Roughriders after two weeks. That was an impressive display last Friday night against Calgary. Darian Durant has a 5:0 TD:INT ratio and his QB rating is a sky high 123.3. And, this is without Geroy Simon. There are a few readers out there who say I have a bit of a love affair with Kent Austin, so I'm sure they will be quick to email me this week with regards to Hamilton's 0-and-2 start.
In British Columbia, two people have been charged in relation to a Canada Day incident where pressure cookers were going to be used to set off an Al Qaeda like explosion to disrupt national fesitivities. If we really want this to stop, here's an idea: life in jail for anyone carrying a device in a crowd you can't possibly have a good explanation for. There, simply, is no good reason to have a pressure cooker at a Canada Day party. None.
BC hiker Dana Meise got to see some of Saskatchewan's finest and worst citizens earlier this month. He was in the midst of a cross country hike when he made a stop to take in some festivities on the Onion Lake First Nation. Well, all of his gear was stolen (including video footage he was archiving for a future documentary) and later discovered burned. While you can't replace memories like that, a Saskatoon store (Outter Limits) replaced what was replaceable so Dana could continue his journey.
Full marks to the police efforts last week as it appears as though law enforcement troops were brought in from other detachments to help deal with the riff raff that the fair seems to attract each year. What I didn't like seeing, however, was the heavy clamp down on the fringe areas of Yorkton in a tax grabbing effort to trick citizens into paying some fines. Of course, 95% of us are going to be already doing 80 km/h thirty or forty feet in front of the sign that indicates the limit is about to go up and yes most of us are also thirty or forty feet late getting back down to 50 km/h when entering the city. This is not the place to ding speeders. Find a trouble spot (again, I mention Circlebrooke Drive) where an accident is just waiting to happen and that way you can write a few tickets and also keep us safe too. Pointing the radar by SGI Salvage or Humpty's isn't what I call effective unless it's for filling tax coffers.
Nice person mentions this week to Joanna Boehm, Vaughn Fleger, Nadine Wagner, and Brett Franklin.
