Happy Father's Day!!!

I got an early Father's Day present this morning, with the cancellation of all the North Regina Little League action today. Thanks to whoever arranged the rain, much appreciated.

So I get to spend the morning puttering around before picking up Jacob at noon for an afternoon/evening of fun and frivolity! Works for me.

Happy Dad's day to all the paternal-types out there. And heartfelt sympathies to those dads who won't get to see their kids today, for whatever reason.

What the hell was that?

I deliberately waited until this morning to post this - had to let the emotional reaction pass, in favour of a more objective view. But it's really hard to be entirely objective about the Riders' 45-28 evisceration at the hands of Dave Dickenson and the B.C. Lions.

The Rider offence (save for some meaningless scores in "garbage" time) was putrid. And the defense was even worse. I can see the offence needing some time to adjust to the injection of a new quarterback, offensive coordinator and.............playing indoors? But the defense is virtually unchanged from last year - so what excuse is there for that pedestrian effort? The defensive backs may as well paint their helmets orange if they insist on playing like pylons in the future!

And, quite frankly, the Green Machine was clearly outcoached on both sides of the ball. That's a trend that has to stop immediately. With the "win or else" nature of this season, G.M. Roy Shivers can't afford to stand idly by and watch a talented team underperform as it did last night. Not when jobs are clearly (and publicly) at stake.

Let's put it this way: a similar effort next Sunday at Taylor Field against the same Dickenson-led Lions will not be tolerated by the paying observers. Nor should it be. Let's hope this was an unfortunate aberration, rather than a sign of things to come. Yuck.

Let's do this thing!

This might be the most excited I've been about a Riders season opener since moving to Saskatchewan in the early 90's. Even more excited than the years I was part of the CKRM broadcast crew as host of the pre-game show. Why, you ask?

Several reasons:
1) This edition of the Riders has as much talent as any previous Saskatchewan team in at least the past 15 years.
2) It's absolutely essential for the Riders to blast out of the gate, especially with four of the first five games against division rivals from B.C. and Calgary.
3) This is the first year Jacob and I have purchased season tickets together (okay, so maybe the kid didn't chip in much $, but still).
4) The team has to do well, or Rod Pedersen's expensive new mane (that'd be hair) will fall out!

So, tonight it'll be TSN on the big screen - with the audio provided by Rod and Carm via CKRM - and an entire province awaits the outcome. Let's do this thing!

Big sports weekend looming

So the Oilers wandered into Raleigh last night and staved off elimination, thanks to the overtime heroics of Fernando Pisani. Good on them! I'm still not jumping on the bandwagon, but I am looking forward to game six Saturday night - Rexall Place should be a madhouse.

I don't know if BC Place will be a madhouse tomorrow night, but everyone around here is sure looking forward to the season-opening tilt between the Riders and Lions. Gotta remember to get my HDTV package from Access, so I can watch the festivities in high def.

And then there's Jacob's baseball - a game tomorrow night, another on Saturday morning, and a season wrap-up ceremony of some sort Sunday morning. I guess the folks at North Regina Little League assume families have nothing else to do. Oh well, doesn't matter - we'll be there with bells on!

So what's with the President of Hockey Regina not returning phone calls? Does Mr. Cairns not see any value in free airtime? Hmm - wonder if that stalwart leadership has any relation to declining registrations? Just wondering...

Bye bye Oilers

I won't be shedding any tears if Carolina finishes off Edmonton in game five of the Stanley Cup final. I just can't throw my support behind the Oilers - not sure why. Maybe it's the sense of "divine entitlement" that Edmonton sports teams seem to present. Or, maybe I'm not big on looting and burning as a celebratory expression. For whatever reason, as much as I'd like to see the Cup return to Canada, I just can't get excited about the crew from Edmonton.

I wonder how the fans (both of them) in Raleigh will celebrate if their "beloved" Hurricanes win it all. And, as an aside, why the hell did they name their team after a devastating natural disaster? What was the thinking that went into that selection? Were the names Earthquakes, Famines and/or Plagues already taken?

Jacob's ball team returns to action tonight after an extended layoff. Time to get a winning streak going, as we head into playoff action next week!