The View From Wisconsin
Just a random set of rants from a Sports Fan from Wisconsin.
Thursday, October 05, 2023
View Not From Wisconsin
I really can't update this blog anymore, because I'm no longer viewing it from Wisconsin.
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Ten Things About Sports in North America That You Probably Didn't Know.
TEN FACTS ABOUT SPORTS IN NORTH AMERICA
THAT YOU PROBABLY DIDN'T KNOW
1.
The man
responsible for the construction of Wrigley Field was the early 20th Century
version of Ray Kroc. Or, more appropriately, Fred DeLuca and Peter Buck.
You may recognize Ray Kroc's name (hint: Arches), but DeLuca and Buck might be
a bit more esoteric: they're the founders of Subway. And in a similar vein,
Charles H. "Lucky Charlie" Weeghman was a sandwich magnate in the
city of Chicago at the turn of the 20th Century. He developed his own franchise
chain of "lunch counters" in the Chicago area – owning 15 of them at
one point. His net worth was, at its peak, an estimated US$8 million (Somewhere
around $187 million today). After making a bid at purchasing the Saint Louis
Cardinals, Weeghman joined up with John T. Powers as a charter owner in the new
Federal League. After a year seeing his club playing on the campus of DePaul
University, the league declared itself a major league – and Weeghman decided to
move his team to a new, larger ballpark. He leased the land for the park from
Chicago Lutheran Theological Seminary, and built a ballpark in just under two
months. At the time, it was a single-deck park, and some of the seminary
buildings still stood beyond the outfield walls. In fact, the park looked
almost nothing like what Wrigley looks like now, 100 years later. After the
Federal League folded, Weeghman purchased the Chicago Cubs and merged his
Whales franchise with the National League team – and moved the Cubs from wooden
West Side Park to his new ballpark. Unfortunately, World War I saw his
luncheonette chain lose business, and he was forced to sell his stake in the
Cubs to William Wrigley Jr. Wrigley renamed the ballpark after himself, while
"Lucky Charlie" went through ups and downs in his private life – he
was divorced and remarried in the early 1920's – and his business life. His
brother, Albert Weeghman, took over the restaurants in Chicago, while Charlie
moved to New York with his new (and younger!) bride to start over in the
restaurant business. Just as he was getting things going again, Weeghman
suffered a stroke in late 1938 and died.
2.
The
National Hockey League was formed out of spite, and still exists due to a
lawsuit. In the middle of World War I, the existing National Hockey
Association was having issues with the owner of the Toronto franchise, Eddie
Livingstone. He had essentially bought up multiple teams to play in Toronto,
and the NHA – based mostly in Montreal – didn't like the usurper. The league,
which was only in its eighth season of operation, decided to contract to one
Toronto based team, and an all-star "military" team that would be
based out of the city, but would be more or less a public relations arm for the
RCAF. Unfortunately, in February of 1917, the members of this team (known as
the 228th Battalion Northern Fusiliers) were called to active duty. This left
the NHA with five teams. The remaining owners voted to have Livingstone's franchise
cease operations for the rest of the season to balance out the schedule. That
was when the problems began. Livingstone was promised compensation from the
league for his losses, but the league was too busy trying to get the insurance
they took against the 228th team to pay out. During the off-season, there were
heated words, threats of lawsuits, and slammed doors. In November of 1917, the
owners of the NHA met in Montreal and decided to suspend operations of the
league. A week later, as a "legal" move, Frank Calder and the
existing clubs met and formed the National Hockey League. Unfortunately, the
Quebec club was unable to certify that they could get ice time at their arena
(the rink owner was a friend of Livingstone), so the new league awarded an "expansion"
franchise to the owner of Toronto's Arena Gardens, Charles Querrie. Despite a
fire that destroyed the home of the Montreal Wanderers mid-season, the new
league finished the year, and (in a note of irony) the Toronto team won the
league title. The NHA would not formally cease operations until the following
season, when negotiations with Livingstone came to a standstill – and the
Canadian government refused to pay the league any damages for the loss of the
team. Livingstone would battle on and off with the NHL until his death in 1945.
3.
The
National Football League was formed in the offices of an Ohio car dealership.
Ralph Hay had been involved in selling cars in the Canton, Ohio area for nine
years when he purchased the Canton Bulldogs professional football team from a
friend. Though the team was a success on the field, winning games against
competition across the state, Hay was losing money on the cost of salaries for
his players. Following through with an idea initiated from his team's star
halfback, Jim Thorpe, he set up a meeting in August of 1920 with the managers
of three other major Ohio-based teams – the Akron Pros, the Cleveland Tigers,
and the Dayton Triangles. Together, they formed the American Professional
Football Conference, and they wrote letters to the "major" pro teams
across the Midwest to meet with them on September 17. In addition to the four
Ohio based teams, representatives from six other teams showed up – including
George Halas, who was the manager of the Decatur Staleys, and representatives
from Chicago's Racine Street Cardinals football club. The number of people
attending was so great, Hay had to move the meeting into his
Hupmobile/Pierce-Arrow showroom. The ten teams, plus four other franchises that
would join before the league began play that fall, were now known as the
American Professional Football Association. Of the 14 teams that played that
first year, only the Staleys (now the Chicago Bears) and the now-Arizona
Cardinals remain in the league. Though his Bulldogs would be a dominant force
in the early years of the APFA – which was renamed the National Football League
in 1922 – Hay was still losing money on the team. He ended up selling out to a
group of local businessmen after 1922. The Bulldogs would win the league title
in both 1922 and 1923 – the first NFL team to win back-to-back titles. Hay
passed away in 1944.
4.
The
greatest single-game accomplishment in National Basketball Association history
is wrapped up in mystery – except for the accomplishment itself. In the
early 1960's the NBA was still fighting to be seen as a legitimate professional
sport. When it came to hoops, the college game was still seen as superior to
the pro league that was now only in its 16th year of existence. Because of
this, even squads based in big cities like Philadelphia were forced to take a
back seat to college teams for arena dates. The NBA's Warriors (who would move
to the San Francisco Bay area later in the decade) were forced to play dates in
other far-flung locales, such as Hershey, Pennsylvania – home of Hershey
Chocolate. One of the main reasons for the derision of the pro game was the
integration of teams like the Warriors, who featured the seven-foot-tall center
Wilt Chamberlain. "The Stilt", as he was nicknamed, was able to
easily jump with hands above the hoop and throw the ball down forcefully – a
play he called the "dipper dunk". His ability to make this
very-high-percentage shot gave him scoring totals that had never been seen
before in the league. He had posted games well above a point-a-minute on a
regular basis, and on the night of March 2, 1962, the Warriors were having a
field day against their opponents, the New York Knicks. Wilt's previous NBA
record single-game point total was 78 – set in a double-overtime game (he also
held the record for a regulation 48-minute game with 73). After three periods,
the Warriors had a commanding 125-106 lead – and Wilt already had 69 points on
the night. Not many people had come out to watch the game (4,124 was the
announced attendance), but those that did would end up watching one of the most
epic finishes to an individual performance in NBA history. The Warriors made a
decision at the end of the third quarter that they were just going to give the
ball to Wilt and let him score. By the time the Knicks realized what
Philadelphia was doing, Wilt had already set the scoring mark at 79 – with 7:51
left in the game. New York tried to stall and hold onto the ball as much they
could under the 24-second clock, but Wilt would not be denied. Even fouling him
– a bane of Chamberlain's game, as he was not typically very good from the
charity stripe – wasn't working. Wilt, using the then-popular underhand toss, sank
free throw after free throw, ending up going 28-for-32 for the game. The
Warriors, who hadn't fouled the entire half, decided to start fouling in
reciprocation. The two teams ended up with 57 combined fouls – and Philadelphia
had two players foul out of the game. With 2:12 left, Wilt had 94 points. He
hit a fade-away jumper for 96, then took a lob pass with 79 seconds to go and
slammed it in for point 98. The next possession, the Warriors passed it to a
quintuple-teamed (yes, you saw that right) Chamberlain. He missed the first
shot, but the Warriors got the rebound. He then got another pass, and missed
yet again. After the second rebound, Philadelphia's Ted Luckenbill passed the
ball to Joe Ruklick. Ruklick lobbed a high pass to Chamberlain with 46 seconds
to go in the game – and Chamberlain tapped the ball in. Or, if some game
observations are to be believed, he stuffed the ball through for point number
100. This is where the story of the game begins to break down; a bunch of the
fans remaining in the stands stormed the court, and the final 46 seconds
weren't played. Others stated that the game did continue, but Chamberlain just
stood at center court, refusing to touch the ball. Even the final score of the
game is disputed: the scoring report says the final was 169-147, but the one
broadcast of the game that survived said the Knicks scored 150. That was the
worst part about this historic moment: there were no movie or television
cameras present to record the event. The complete radio broadcast was never
saved on tape either; only bits and pieces survived due to private recordings
of the broadcast on WCAU. Only the Warriors' call by Bill Campbell of the
fourth quarter was ever found intact. Chamberlain would go on to win two NBA
titles playing for the Warriors, Lakers, Sixers and (briefly) San Diego of the
ABA before retiring – but he would never come close to repeating his
performance on that early spring night in Hershey.
5.
One of
the most storied hockey franchises in the NHL was purchased with winnings from
a horse race. Conn Smythe was a University of Toronto graduate in civil
engineering, veteran of World War I, and a hockey loving businessman. He had
success in coaching and managing his alma mater's hockey squad, and had dabbled
a bit in managing professionally. Unfortunately, the NHL expansion team that
had utilized his managing skills – Tex Rickard's New York Rangers – declined to
make him the team's manager, favoring PCHA founder Lester Patrick. Smythe
stewed over the decision, demanding payment for the job he did of selecting the
players who would eventually lead to the team's first Stanley Cup in only its
second year. Rickard offered to pay off Smythe, but nothing even close to the
amount he wanted. A horse racing lover, Smythe offered to take $5,000 from
Rickard and place a wager on an upcoming stakes race. Rickard covered the bet,
and the horse came in as the winner – giving Smythe a payout of $25,000. That
amount was enough that, less than a year later, Conn and a group of Toronto
businessmen purchased the St. Pats franchise of the NHL, renaming them the
Maple Leafs. Smythe re-did the team's colors in blue and white, the same colors
as the trucks that his gravel and paving business used. A few years later, he
had the Maple Leaf Gardens constructed in less than a year, giving his Leafs a
grand palace of sport all their own.
6.
The
biggest championship game in American pro sports was named for a children's
toy. The National and American Football Leagues had finally settled their
differences, with some skilled negotiations involving Kansas City Chiefs owner
Lamar Hunt. Hunt was now tasked at settling one of the major points of the
merger: a championship game between the American and National leagues. In July
of 1966, while he was considering ways of marketing the game, one of his
children was bouncing around a small, hard rubber ball, branded by Wham-O (the
people who brought you the Frisbee and the hula hoop). The name of the ball was
the "Super Ball." At the time, colleges were still popular with the
pageantry and glamour of the major Bowl games: the Rose, the Cotton, and the
Orange Bowls. An idea coalesced in Hunt's mind – one that he suggested in a
letter to NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle. The championship game would be played
on a neutral site in a warm-weather setting, like the college bowl games of the
day. However, instead of calling it by some fruit or local product, he
suggested the league name it the "Super Bowl". The name wasn't
immediately used (the other owners decided on "AFL-NFL Championship
Game"), but by the time the two leagues merged completely in 1970, the
name "Super Bowl" was part of NFL lore.
7.
The
location of the first major pro sports Hall of Fame was based upon a myth. The
origins of the game of baseball are generally accepted as being rooted in the
English game of "rounders", as the games both featured using a bat
and a ball, and running around to bases in a particular order. The first
organized game of "base ball" happened in 1845, when Alexander
Cartwright's New York Knickerbockers played their first game on the Elysian
Fields. However, as the 19th century came to a close, National League president
Abraham Mills sought to find an "American" origin to the National
Pastime. In the name of patriotism, a commission was formed in 1905, headed by
Mills and Chicago Cubs president Albert Spalding. Their goal was to discredit
sportswriter Henry Chadwick's contention that the game evolved from rounders.
In April, a witness came forth with a story. Abner Graves recalled to the Mills
Commission that, when he was a child growing up in the idyllic Catskill
Mountains, a now-famous Civil War general named Abner Doubleday had come up
with a diagram of a baseball field, and had set up the first game in 1839.
Unfortunately, there was one very big problem with the story: at the time the
gentleman claimed the game was "invented", Doubleday was nowhere near
the village of Cooperstown, New York. Instead, he was a plebe going through the
US Military Academy at West Point – which was on the opposite side of the state
from Cooperstown. Graves also proved to be a bit unreliable, as he expressed
anti-British sentiments to the commission, and admitted that he did not have
the original diagram, nor were any of the others who took part in the game
still alive. Graves himself would end up dying in a mental ward shortly
thereafter. Decades later, in 1934, discussion was building over a way for the
game of baseball to honor its past and its heroes. A prominent man from
Cooperstown, Stephen Carlton Clark, purchased the ball claimed to be from
Graves' family, and built a museum exhibit around it. The museum happened to
coincide with the idea of honoring the game's best players by starting a Hall
of Fame. The Clark family endorsed the idea whole-heartedly, and in 1936 the
newly-created National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum inducted its first five
members: Honus Wagner, Babe Ruth, Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson, and Ty
Cobb.
8.
A city in
the United States lost the right to host the winter Olympics because of a
referendum. In May of 1970, the Denver Olympic Organizing Committee was
awarded the 1976 Winter Olympiad by the International Olympic Committee. Their
bid had included a grand plan that would construct a new ski resort just
minutes away from the city, along with various venues for non-Alpine events.
However, plans for the resort fell through almost immediately as
environmentalists sued to block the plan. The backup site was located in Vail,
which was over 90 miles away – and that was on a good day. Interstate 70 was not completely finished through the
state, and to accommodate the Olympics, there would need to be a large outlay
of federal expenditures. The Federal government, in turn, wouldn't provide the
money without state assistance. Some state legislators, led by Richard Lamm
(who would go on to become Governor of the state), didn't want a thing to do with
raising taxes for a potential boondoggle and money sink that the Olympics would
bring. They proposed to bring the financing question as to whether or not the
state should approve a $5 million bond issue to publicly fund the games to a
state-wide referendum. On November 7, 1972, Colorado voters turned down the
measure by a 60%-40% margin. With no public money available to help finance the
games, the DOOC had to withdraw its bid for the games less than four years from
the planned opening ceremonies. After consideration of several other rejected
sites in North America (including future Olympiad sites in Salt Lake City and
Whistler-Vancouver), the IOC awarded the games to Innsbruck, Austria. Innsbruck
had hosted the games eight years prior (in 1964), and still had many of their
venues in operation.
9.
A major
league sports stadium was built on the site of a public housing project. In
post-war Los Angeles, the city government was experiencing a population boom –
and a severe housing shortage. In an early attempt at eliminating "urban
blight", the city purchased up the land in what was known as Chavez
Ravine. The area was home to a poor Mexican-American community that was there
as a result of housing discrimination elsewhere in the city. As the 1950's
began, the city made grand plans to turn the slum-like area into public
low-income housing, under the name of Elysian Park Heights. However, in the
wake of anti-communist feelings in southern California, public housing projects
lost their support. In 1953, the project came to a halt – even as the city had
already controlled most of the property. A few years later, an interested party
from the east coast took a helicopter ride over the city. When the copter flew
over the area of the ravine, the visitor turned to the person accompanying him
and said, "That area. I want that area." The city of Los Angeles was
only too glad to give the land of their housing project – which was still in
the process of being cleared – to Walter O'Malley. After getting the rights to
the remaining lots of land and clearing it, O'Malley's Dodgers finally moved
into their new ballpark in 1962. The irony of the situation is that even as the
first pitch was being thrown at Dodger Stadium, the team's old ballpark back in
Brooklyn (Ebbets Field) was being demolished to make way for… a public housing
project.
10.
A major
league expansion team was forced to move due to bankruptcy – after only one
year of play. After O'Malley and the Dodgers had shown how baseball-mad the
former cities of the Pacific Coast League were to the nation, the race was on
to try to bring more West Coast cities to the majors. After Gene Autry became
owner of the third California-based team in 1961, the relative success of the
Angels was a lure to another owner – Charlie Finley. Finley's Kansas City A's
had been the laughingstock of the league since their days in Philadelphia, and
he wanted to change that. In 1967, he started to scout cities along the Pacific
coast where he could move his ball club. He visited the city of Seattle, but
came to the realization that the city was far from ready to host MLB. Instead,
he moved the A's to Oakland – another long time PCL hotbed. The move began a
series of lawsuits and negotiations that resulted in the two major leagues
reluctantly deciding to expand. To placate the people in Kansas City, the AL
agreed to place an expansion city there. William R. Daley, the former owner of
the Cleveland Indians, had considered moving the Tribe to Seattle back in 1964.
Now, he was the majority owner of a group seeking to bring the major leagues to
Seattle. In 1968, King County voters approved the construction of a new domed
stadium in the Seattle Center area of downtown Seattle, as a condition for
approval of expansion. Thus, the Seattle Pilots were born. Almost immediately
problems began to pick up: first, the AL was forced by the threat of
legislation to move up the date expansion would happen from 1971 to 1969. Next,
the Pilots had to pay $1 million to compensate the PCL for the loss of one of
their most successful franchises, the Seattle Angels (formerly the Rainiers).
The biggest problem, however, was their ballpark: Sick's Stadium (named after
longtime Rainiers owner Emil Sick) was a minor league park, and was nowhere
near ready to be converted to major league standards. Despite this, GM Marvin
Milkes and manager Joe Schultz maintained optimism that they could finish in
the top half of the standings of the new American League Western Division.
Opening day, however, saw a ballpark that was only half ready due to cost
overruns and bad weather. The scoreboard wasn't even completed until the night
before the home opener. Some of the 17,150 fans who attended opening day had to
wait until the third inning to find their seats, because workers were still assembling
them at first pitch. Though the park would eventually reach a capacity of
25,420 by June, the team was floundering from poor attendance and poorer play
on the field. The Pilots posted a disastrous 9-20 record in July (and followed
that up with an even worse 6-22 record in August), falling completely out of
the race for a top three spot in the Division. Milkes, attempting to get some
sort of quality squad on the field, ended up trading away some of his better players
to contenders – including noted author Jim Bouton, who wrote about his
experience as a pitcher for the expansion squad in his epic book, Ball Four. The stadium's infrastructure
and lousy attendance (678,000, an average of only 8,370 per game) led to Daley
refusing to put up more money to fund the sinking team. The team had an
unlikely savior in a group of businessmen, led by Allan H. "Bud"
Selig, who were seeking legal action against MLB over the movement of the
Braves to Atlanta in 1966. During the 1969 World Series, minority owner and club
president Dewey Soriano agreed to sell the team to the Milwaukee Brewers
Baseball Club. However, the remaining owners of the team refused to sign off on
the deal. A couple of other ownership groups sought to buy the team, but one
failed financially and the other was rejected by American League owners. Even
as the ball club reported to Arizona for spring training, Pacific Northwest
Sports Incorporated (the ownership group of the team) was facing lawsuit after
lawsuit. After the state of Washington filed an injunction on March 16, 1970,
to stop the sale of the team to Selig and the Brewers, PNSI was forced to
declare bankruptcy. At the bankruptcy hearing, GM Milkes stated that the team
didn't have enough money to pay the coaches, players, and other staff of the
team. Also, if the team didn't pay the players within 10 days, they would all
end up as free agents and the city of Seattle would be left without a baseball
team in 1970. Federal bankruptcy court accepted the club's declaration of
bankruptcy on April 1, clearing the way for the sale of the team to Selig. The
team's uniforms and equipment had been sitting in trucks in Provo, Utah,
waiting to hear whether they would head northwest to Seattle or east to
Milwaukee. Seattle would not get another major league baseball team until 1976,
when the American League awarded an expansion club to Seattle.
Friday, May 23, 2014
Memorial Day Weekend Ramblings
Why yes, I still blog. I feel like I'm telnetting or something when I do it, though. So, here's some thoughts about things and other things.
- Donald Sterling's machinations in an attempt at keeping some control over his team, while interesting at some point, are doomed to failure. Knowing what I do about his past so far, I almost fear the NBA would have to outright terminate the Clippers franchise to keep him out of the NBA. And, maybe, as an ultimate blow-up, pull an NHA move. (The NHA, in 1917, decided to cease operations instead of continue with a particular owner in charge of their Toronto franchise. A few months later, they returned as the National Hockey League.) It'd be messy, but in the end, the NBA would win, and Sterling would lose.
- Dear Ron Roenicke: You know what happens when you assume things.
- Daniel Carcillo should have just skated away, and then turned and gone after the Habs player in question. I don't justify ever striking an official, but I'd have to think that the linesman said something that made him do the double forearm push. He had better hope the Rags take the series to seven and get to the finals.
- There seems to be an inverse relationship as of late between officiating and the level of importance of the game being played. The more important the game - conference championship, league title, etc. - the worse the officiating becomes. Players aren't the only ones who choke under pressure.
- Speaking of pressure: I've been trying not to turn on the Billy Joel Channel on SiriusXM, because every time I listen, I'm reminded of exactly how long Billy has been doing this music thing. I mean, I remember when he had hair, fercryinoutloud.
- Ha-Ha. I just wanted that to be the first reference on my blog.
- If I had a gift certificate for US$100 at OYO Sports Toys, I think I'd go nuts with some of the stuff they have there. Like the Predators players, or the Zamboni. Though, come to think of it, I could probably build a Zamboni out of the LEGO parts I have now.
- Plans for a new Bucks arena on the site of the old Park Freeway is such a no-brainer, the only way you could argue against it is if you either a.) don't have a brain or b.) you don't like sports. That being said, I am still somewhat saddened that the Bradley Center became outdated as a sports facility so quickly; it is a very well built place that had a great open concept - but it was essentially the NBA version of U.S. Cellular Field (aka New Comiskey Park). Arena construction concepts changed dramatically after it was built, and as a result it became antiquated.
- I was not surprised when Barry Trotz was let go at the end of the Predators' regular season back in April. Peter Laviolette's hiring was a bit of a surprise, however. I have a feeling that the Preds are going to either fall flat on their faces over this move, or surprise a lot of people.
- I think it's time for term limits for elected officials - except for judges - in the state of Wisconsin. I doubt that neither my assemblyman nor my state senator would be for this idea, but I many just decide to drop them an e-mail about the subject.
- I think this is where I'd say something funny in parting, but I'm at a loss.
Sunday, February 23, 2014
The Sock Index of NHL Team Popularity
Sometimes, it's funny what you find when you're looking for something else. I've been searching on the internet for a pair of hockey-themed socks, similar to ones that I bought long ago when I was in Nashville for a Predators game.
No, they're not "hockey socks", like you'd expect to see NHL'ers wear during games. I'm talking about novelty-type socks. I own a pair of white with blue heels and toes socks with the Predators logo on them, and I've been looking for a newer pair for some time now. I've concluded that there's only one pair similar to them - a pink pair by For Bare Feet, which I'm hesitant to order.
This search confirmed something I wasn't entirely surprised to discover: not every NHL team is created equal. I was looking at available socks from one particular website (FootballFanatics.com), and wondered how many different types of socks with logos of each NHL team were available - just on this one, non-hockey oriented, website.
In case you think the idea of "hockey socks" is odd, keep this in mind: there were a total
of 274 different types of socks, featuring 29 of the 30 NHL teams – and one for the NHL
logo itself. However - and this is where the "unequal" part comes in - not every team had the same number of items available.
What follows is a count of how many different "socks" you can buy through Football Fanatics for each NHL team, ranked from greatest to least. It paints an interesting picture:
1.
Buffalo Sabres (20 items)
2.
Detroit Red Wings (20 items)
3.
New York Rangers (19 items)
4.
Philadelphia Flyers (17 items)
5.
New Jersey Devils (16 items)
6.
Boston Bruins (15 items)
7.
Pittsburgh Penguins (14 items)
8.
Chicago Blackhawks (13 items)
9.
Minnesota Wild (10 items)
10.
Montreal Canadiens (10 items)
11.
San Jose Sharks (10 items)
12.
Tampa Bay Lightning (10 items)
13.
Washington Capitals (10 items)
14.
Dallas Stars (9 items)
15.
Los Angeles Kings (9 items)
16.
St. Louis Blues (9 items)
17.
Anaheim Ducks (8 items)
18.
Calgary Flames (7 items)
19.
Florida Panthers (7 items)
20.
New York Islanders (7 items)
21.
Winnipeg Jets (7 items)
22.
Vancouver Canucks (6 items)
23.
Carolina Hurricanes (5 items)
24.
Colorado Avalanche (4 items)
25.
Toronto Maple Leafs (4 items)
26.
Nashville Predators (3 items)
27.
Columbus Blue Jackets (2 items)
28.
Edmonton Oilers (1 item)
29.
Ottawa Senators (1 item)
30.
NHL Logo (1 item)
What is exceptionally odd is how three Canadian NHL teams (Vancouver, Toronto and Edmonton) have few items available. This is somewhat explainable in that this is a US-based web store, and as such they don't have much available.
It does indicate, though, what teams are thought of as "most important" to NHL marketing.
Friday, February 14, 2014
Olympic Thoughts
Now that we're headed into the final week of the Olympics, some thoughts on Sochi 2014:
- I am saddened and puzzled about the performance of the women's (and men's) Olympic curling teams. Based upon the amount of participation and dedication to the sport, you'd think that the bonspiels during the Winter Olympiad would be three teams - Canada, Great Britain, and the US. And yet, the shot selection and performance of team USA has been less than stellar on the big stage since the sport became an Olympic event. If anyone can explain it to me, please do so.
- It was almost predictable: all the complaints and issues about the accommodations in Sochi prior to the games have gone by the wayside. Now, they're just whining about the lack of snow in a venue located along one of the warmer spots in Russia.
- Will women's hockey go the route of women's softball in the winter Olympics? I doubt it, for one primary reason: men's hockey isn't going anywhere, unlike the counterpart to softball in the summer games (baseball).
- Speaking of men's hockey: I have severe doubts that the NHL will participate in the games at Pyeongchang, Korea in 2018. The NHL's going to be concentrating more on their 100th anniversary season that year, and the idea of stopping everything and going over to Korea isn't high on their agenda. Would there suddenly be a rash of "Olympic participation clauses" in player contracts? I doubt it, because who would know that far in advance that they'd be playing in the Olympics?
- Shawn White's lack of success in these games is, indeed, a good thing for the sport of snowboarding and freestyle skiing, just as Bode Miller's lack of success on the slopes is also a good thing: it gives other competitors the spotlight, and it shows that a sport isn't a one-man (or person) show.
- Anyone remember when the USA was dominant in speed skating? I must be incredibly old or something, because I vaguely remember people like Eric Heiden, Dan Jansen and Bonnie Blair being heroes in the sport. Now, it's right back to the days of when the Netherlands dominated the sport. I don't buy the argument that it's the suits, either. You either perform well or you don't; anything else is an excuse.
- As for excuses - there is none for the poor level of officiating in the hockey tournament in these games. Yes, I know, the officials are probably working together for the first time ever, but the game should be called the same, period.
- I personally believe the whole brouhaha over Evgeni Plushenko's decision to pull out of the men's skating competition at the last moment is only because of who he is and where and when he did it. And, in the long run, no one outside of Russia will much care about it.
- Ashley Wagner's meme is going to run its course, just like McKayla Maroney's back in 2012. Thankfully.
- This ten hour time difference is the real killer of TV ratings for NBC. It wouldn't surprise me that whoever takes the rights to the Olympics beyond 2020 in Tokyo will probably seek to put much of the competition video online.
- I'll just say it right now: it's sad when you're wishing you could go to the Winter Olympics so you can warm up.
Monday, January 13, 2014
What a difference a year makes
Wow, it's been a long time since I've updated this blog. A lot of stuff has happened since I last said anything "blog-worthy". Some of it is inconsequential, some of it isn't.
So let's go through some of it:
Shortly after my last post, two things became painfully obvious: the Nashville Predators weren't going to be making the playoffs, and they also weren't going to have the services of Pekka Rinne for a while. Sadly, both things are still true - and now, there are rumblings among the Predator Nation of a demand for change behind the bench and in the front office.
Also shortly after my last post, my cat, Brooke Field Houk, started having issues physically. It turned out she had lost pretty much all function in her kidneys, and her outlook was bleak. We had to put her down on the 20th anniversary of my first day at EAS.
The whole Ryan Braun thing happened out of nowhere, and had me soured on the Brewers and baseball for a while. The second the suspension was announced, the Brewers season effectively ended.
I wondered, after we put Brookie down, how long it would take us before we'd get another cat. The answer turned out to be just over two months. I forgot how much of a handful kittens can be, but it's been a fun time.
One night at work, I wandered in to the mail room and discovered that a posting had been made for a position that was essentially the exact same position that I had when I was at EAS. I put in for it, not sure if I'd get it - and it turns out I was the #1 person in line for it. The entire month of July was a transition phase for me, but I managed to re-adapt to working in the reception cottage.
I cringed with the rest of the people in the state of Wisconsin on the night of November 4 when we heard those words that sent a shiver up our collective spines: "Aaron Rodgers is hurt." I don't think there was anyone who thought a month and a half later that we would still be in the playoff hunt, and that we actually would end up winning the NFC North.
After a quiet Thanksgiving at home, I was looking forward to the Christmas holidays. I headed into work for one night, with my first weekend off of the month beckoning to get the holiday season off to a good start.
And then that deer ran across the road in front of my car. I swerved, hit a patch of the ice on the shoulder that launched my car into the ditch that normally would have been reserved by this time for snowmobiles, and nearly got back onto the road - but the frozen snow was too thick, and physics caught up with momentum.
I went into the body shop the next morning, after hastily calling in to work, and had them give me an estimate on the repairs - mostly to my side mirror and the dents the beastie did to car. There was also a crack in the front bumper, which meant that was going to have to be replaced, too. But overall, it wasn't looking bad.
So, Saturday afternoon, I decided I was going to go get gas in the car after dropping the wife off at an appointment. And on my way there, a 19-year-old kid in a 17-year-old Saturn tried to turn left in front of me as I was tooling down the main drag here in Merrill.
Now it was going to be the bumper, the grille, the hood, the headlights, the fender, the door... And this was accident number 3 for said car. That was enough for me. I decided to spend the day off that I had been given after a visit to Urgent Care to start looking for a new car. Obviously, I wasn't in much of a position to bargain or haggle, but I was pleasantly surprised by my credit union that I was okay for a loan. And the car I was looking at was under the amount I was approved for.
I spent that week afterwards having to deal with two separate issues - uncertainty as to whether my car was going to be totaled, and a scheduling issue at work that nearly made my Christmas vacation a massive bah-humbug. Fortunately, the car issue was resolved, and I didn't have to cancel my vacation the week of Christmas, and it looked like I was going to be able to take delivery of my new (to me) car on the 26th.
The really sad part of the whole Christmas week, though, was that the snow forecasts that hit the state that weekend before. Both the wife and I decided we'd be better off staying home for Christmas Eve instead of driving down to be with family in Racine. It looked like a good idea when we were invited to a get-together with some friends after the Christmas Eve service for our church.
I got home that night, and my stomach didn't feel so good. I thought it was just me having over-eaten. I had some trouble sleeping that night, but I didn't think anything of it.
At least, not until I found myself racing into the bathroom and throwing up.
Unfortunately, the nausea and vomiting didn't stop until I told Sarah that I was extremely dehydrated and couldn't keep anything down. That resulted in a joyous holiday visit to the emergency room, where I was pumped full of fluids and anti-nausea meds which resulted in me exchanging nausea for instant diarrhea. (Hey, I never said I'd pull punches on here.)
I've recovered from that, but the recent "Polar Vortex" made enjoying my new car difficult. The funny thing was, the entire time I was concerned that my car wouldn't start in the cold, I never thought to check the wife's car. Sure enough, Tuesday morning came around (after she stayed home the Monday of the Deep Freeze), and when I went over to her car in the garage to start it... Rrrrr rrrurrr rrur.
When I took it in to the place where I got my car, they discovered that it was the original battery. On an '05 Sebring Convertible. Yeah. Replacement time. And, of course, that means putting the car up on the lift, taking the wheel out so you can take the battery out from under the left fender...
I'm just now kinda taking a breath after all this. I had a shrug-it-off attitude about the whole Packers "Arctic Bowl" loss, and this whole Predators season is starting to look like a lost cause. I'm not looking forward to spring training and baseball like I was in past years, because I know the Brewers aren't going to be as good as in the past (shuddering when I recall my days as a STH when the Crew was stinking up the place the first few years at Miller Park).
My December, as bleak as it was, wasn't all negative. Along with my new ride (a Chevy HHR - the first GM product I've willingly purchased), there was the pleasant surprise of my alma mater making the Stagg Bowl for the eighth time in the last nine years - and the subsequent pounding of our rivals Mount Union for our fifth D3 football title.
So here we are, 2014. Lot of year ahead of us, and a lot of blogging - at least, a lot more than in 2013 - ahead as well.
And, hopefully, by this time next year I'll have a new boss.
So let's go through some of it:
Shortly after my last post, two things became painfully obvious: the Nashville Predators weren't going to be making the playoffs, and they also weren't going to have the services of Pekka Rinne for a while. Sadly, both things are still true - and now, there are rumblings among the Predator Nation of a demand for change behind the bench and in the front office.
Also shortly after my last post, my cat, Brooke Field Houk, started having issues physically. It turned out she had lost pretty much all function in her kidneys, and her outlook was bleak. We had to put her down on the 20th anniversary of my first day at EAS.
The whole Ryan Braun thing happened out of nowhere, and had me soured on the Brewers and baseball for a while. The second the suspension was announced, the Brewers season effectively ended.
I wondered, after we put Brookie down, how long it would take us before we'd get another cat. The answer turned out to be just over two months. I forgot how much of a handful kittens can be, but it's been a fun time.
One night at work, I wandered in to the mail room and discovered that a posting had been made for a position that was essentially the exact same position that I had when I was at EAS. I put in for it, not sure if I'd get it - and it turns out I was the #1 person in line for it. The entire month of July was a transition phase for me, but I managed to re-adapt to working in the reception cottage.
I cringed with the rest of the people in the state of Wisconsin on the night of November 4 when we heard those words that sent a shiver up our collective spines: "Aaron Rodgers is hurt." I don't think there was anyone who thought a month and a half later that we would still be in the playoff hunt, and that we actually would end up winning the NFC North.
After a quiet Thanksgiving at home, I was looking forward to the Christmas holidays. I headed into work for one night, with my first weekend off of the month beckoning to get the holiday season off to a good start.
And then that deer ran across the road in front of my car. I swerved, hit a patch of the ice on the shoulder that launched my car into the ditch that normally would have been reserved by this time for snowmobiles, and nearly got back onto the road - but the frozen snow was too thick, and physics caught up with momentum.
I went into the body shop the next morning, after hastily calling in to work, and had them give me an estimate on the repairs - mostly to my side mirror and the dents the beastie did to car. There was also a crack in the front bumper, which meant that was going to have to be replaced, too. But overall, it wasn't looking bad.
So, Saturday afternoon, I decided I was going to go get gas in the car after dropping the wife off at an appointment. And on my way there, a 19-year-old kid in a 17-year-old Saturn tried to turn left in front of me as I was tooling down the main drag here in Merrill.
Now it was going to be the bumper, the grille, the hood, the headlights, the fender, the door... And this was accident number 3 for said car. That was enough for me. I decided to spend the day off that I had been given after a visit to Urgent Care to start looking for a new car. Obviously, I wasn't in much of a position to bargain or haggle, but I was pleasantly surprised by my credit union that I was okay for a loan. And the car I was looking at was under the amount I was approved for.
I spent that week afterwards having to deal with two separate issues - uncertainty as to whether my car was going to be totaled, and a scheduling issue at work that nearly made my Christmas vacation a massive bah-humbug. Fortunately, the car issue was resolved, and I didn't have to cancel my vacation the week of Christmas, and it looked like I was going to be able to take delivery of my new (to me) car on the 26th.
The really sad part of the whole Christmas week, though, was that the snow forecasts that hit the state that weekend before. Both the wife and I decided we'd be better off staying home for Christmas Eve instead of driving down to be with family in Racine. It looked like a good idea when we were invited to a get-together with some friends after the Christmas Eve service for our church.
I got home that night, and my stomach didn't feel so good. I thought it was just me having over-eaten. I had some trouble sleeping that night, but I didn't think anything of it.
At least, not until I found myself racing into the bathroom and throwing up.
Unfortunately, the nausea and vomiting didn't stop until I told Sarah that I was extremely dehydrated and couldn't keep anything down. That resulted in a joyous holiday visit to the emergency room, where I was pumped full of fluids and anti-nausea meds which resulted in me exchanging nausea for instant diarrhea. (Hey, I never said I'd pull punches on here.)
I've recovered from that, but the recent "Polar Vortex" made enjoying my new car difficult. The funny thing was, the entire time I was concerned that my car wouldn't start in the cold, I never thought to check the wife's car. Sure enough, Tuesday morning came around (after she stayed home the Monday of the Deep Freeze), and when I went over to her car in the garage to start it... Rrrrr rrrurrr rrur.
When I took it in to the place where I got my car, they discovered that it was the original battery. On an '05 Sebring Convertible. Yeah. Replacement time. And, of course, that means putting the car up on the lift, taking the wheel out so you can take the battery out from under the left fender...
I'm just now kinda taking a breath after all this. I had a shrug-it-off attitude about the whole Packers "Arctic Bowl" loss, and this whole Predators season is starting to look like a lost cause. I'm not looking forward to spring training and baseball like I was in past years, because I know the Brewers aren't going to be as good as in the past (shuddering when I recall my days as a STH when the Crew was stinking up the place the first few years at Miller Park).
My December, as bleak as it was, wasn't all negative. Along with my new ride (a Chevy HHR - the first GM product I've willingly purchased), there was the pleasant surprise of my alma mater making the Stagg Bowl for the eighth time in the last nine years - and the subsequent pounding of our rivals Mount Union for our fifth D3 football title.
So here we are, 2014. Lot of year ahead of us, and a lot of blogging - at least, a lot more than in 2013 - ahead as well.
And, hopefully, by this time next year I'll have a new boss.
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Sliding Away
The weather up here in Northern Wisconsin has taken a turn for the strange today.
Instead of the usual snow we get when the temps rise, we're starting to see rain. That wouldn't be bad, if it wasn't for a few things:
However: I started to stop for the intersection at the end of the road, and discovered something: black ice. What was worse, the last part of the intersection is an incline down to the main highway. So not only was I sliding, I was picking up speed.
The view to the left is obstructed by a roadhouse-like corner tap that has a small parking lot built into the side of road (something I've discovered is common here in NC Wisconsin). I had two brief thoughts as I was sliding: first, I was gonna get broadsided by some logging truck as it came down the road. Second, I wasn't gonna be able to stop once I got to the main highway, and I was going to slide right across the road.
And through the guard rail, and into the Wisconsin River.
Which, at this intersection, was about a good 30-40 foot drop from the other side of the road.
I think I swerved and threw my car into "Park", which locked up my wheels enough to cause me to stop - at about an 80 degree angle to the direction of travel. Very carefully, after finally breathing again, I reversed out of there and slowly went down to the stop sign, and turned right onto the main highway. There were no cars coming from the west, thankfully, so that wouldn't have been a worry.
Still - I don't know how much longer I can take this weather up here.
Instead of the usual snow we get when the temps rise, we're starting to see rain. That wouldn't be bad, if it wasn't for a few things:
- The temperature is hovering right at 32 degrees F.
- The wind is coming from the East and making that 32 F feel more like 21 F.
- The surface of many roads are already slightly melted from the minor warmup we had yesterday.
However: I started to stop for the intersection at the end of the road, and discovered something: black ice. What was worse, the last part of the intersection is an incline down to the main highway. So not only was I sliding, I was picking up speed.
The view to the left is obstructed by a roadhouse-like corner tap that has a small parking lot built into the side of road (something I've discovered is common here in NC Wisconsin). I had two brief thoughts as I was sliding: first, I was gonna get broadsided by some logging truck as it came down the road. Second, I wasn't gonna be able to stop once I got to the main highway, and I was going to slide right across the road.
And through the guard rail, and into the Wisconsin River.
Which, at this intersection, was about a good 30-40 foot drop from the other side of the road.
I think I swerved and threw my car into "Park", which locked up my wheels enough to cause me to stop - at about an 80 degree angle to the direction of travel. Very carefully, after finally breathing again, I reversed out of there and slowly went down to the stop sign, and turned right onto the main highway. There were no cars coming from the west, thankfully, so that wouldn't have been a worry.
Still - I don't know how much longer I can take this weather up here.
Copyright © 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, Joseph Houk. All rights reserved.
