you might very well think so...

I honestly wasn't prepared. When I found out that Sparky Anderson had died I was struck by sadness: fond memories of my youth have moved on. It's odd to consider, but Sparky was to a certain extent key to my engagement with The Church Of Baseball over the years in a way that Cito and the Jays of 92 and 93 never were. I've never been a Tigers fan, but growing up, if the team wasn't the Jays, it was the Tigers. Have a good rest, Sparky.

Stan-Van says (according to Tim Povtak) of Vincey:

"Everybody here just wants him to play the game the way he's played it through his career -- attacking the basket."

Excuse me, Mr VG, were you at all paying attention to Vincey's career here in the "tee dot"? Where, season after season, we heard constant commenting from broadcasters and pundits, "You know, the Raps would be in this game, if only Vince would live up to his promise and aggressively go to the rim..."

Vince's unwillingness to bring his game on a consistent and regular basis is the key to his disappointing career, to the Raps, to the Nets, and no doubt now, to the Magic. The Magic may in fact do well next year, but I rather doubt it will be at all thanks to Vince.

From Vince himself, we get:

"Just bring it. It's time to be me (again). I accept that. I understand that. It's been on my mind all summer. And I don't have a problem with it."

Wow. How refreshing. We've never heard anything like that from Mr Carter. If I only had a nickel, etc, etc, etc.

Fox News (sic) reports that the glorious Ines Sainz has written this gem in a newspaper in Mexico City:

"A group of news people and communicators, eager to make an even bigger scandal out of this situation, have moved women's rights backwards at least 50 years ... I am surprised by how easily some colleagues skip the basic rules of journalism: one should investigate, inquire, and look at the facts before giving an opinion."

Please remember that Ms Sainz is the TV Azteca glam-journalist who has, in the past, performed such critical investigative service as measuring the biceps of football players during the annual presser-orgy-media-week leading up to the superbowl.

Just about everyone seems to have behaved completely shabbily over this entire circumstance. And I'm sure that Sainz' behaviour and comments have absolutely nothing to do with a desire to place herself firmly in the middle of the story. Was she asking to be harassed? Absolutely not. Was she angling to have attention paid her way? That seems hard to deny given her "historical pattern of behaviour" as league head-office is wont to say.

In the words of the immortal Coz, "::phweeeet:: Everybody out of the pool!"

Six.... Four. Three? How about six-effing-teen, and shut the hell up, you entitled punk.

I find you calling yourself King James pretty offensive, actually. You can officially consider that a shot; now you can add me to your list.

We are all witnesses. To the fact that you seem to have so little idea about what it really takes to be great. But perhaps we should not expect anything more from you: high-school student turned stroked and spoiled celebrity sports demi-god.

Where's the struggle? Where's the challenge? Where's the contribution to the legend? Where's the message you're sending to the kids? It's not about loyalty, or work, or craftsmanship, or building anything. It's about that most hollow and dross-filled relic of the Cult of Celebrity: brand.

Have fun playing pick-up in South Beach. I'll check back with the league again when you're no longer in it.

I'd been wanting to cleanup up my Nike Series 6E trainers and bring them indoors for casual use as actual trainers; this meant getting a new set of kicks for everyday, knock-around use for the eight months of the year when there's no snow on the ground. I wanted something that fit well, was not too bulky, and also was a little muted in style: something that would go well with shorts or pants. Primary consideration was fit and suitability as a casual athletic shoe, and secondary consideration was style.

I also wanted to avoid a pinchy toe (one of my only minor quibbles with the Series 6E) which knocked out a lot of "trend shoe" type trainers (Pumas, Adidas Kundo, the 6F replacement for the 6E).

I'd been looking for some time, and was just not able to find something that fit all the details I wanted. I had a brief look at the Rockport Calter, and the fit of the last was fine enough, but it felt a bit boaty side-to-side. Luckily, while I was in the store trying on the Rockports, I ran across these from Cushe, a company I had never heard of (originally a small UK crafter, now a subsidiary of the group that owns Hush Puppies, apparently).

I tried on a pair and was very impressed by the fit. Astoundingly comfortable. Initial impressions are very positive. I'll have to see how they wear over the next little while as they break in, but I haven't felt a fit this good since I bought my Finn Comfort walking shoes. Pricey, yes: well, not as pricey as the FInns were, but in the same general realm as retail for Merrell or equivalent; however, I've never had a pair of Merrells that seemed to fit this well.

Initial grade, strong A, and optimistic.

I heard on the radio this morning, Don Cherry being interviewed by a local, hockey-heavy sports talk station. When asked if he watched any of the olympics, he said "no, not really, other than the hockey: I'm busy with my grandkids". Fair enough.

On the other hand, then he pops up and says, "But wait: you know, I did get to watching some of that curling. I never really watched curling before, and you know what? It's pretty good! I like the way that, right after someone throws a rock there's no fooling around; the next person gets right to it. And those curlers can sure drink, too, you know."

There you go, Canada. Don Cherry likes curling. Feel the relief.

Eight ends. Bah! What the heck is next? Six-inning baseball games? 13-hole golf tournaments? Sheesh. Sonsabitches.

Resetting doesn't really solve anything if you're suffering from serious hardware issues or non-volatile storage corruption.

And, it's not clear at all that MLSE doesn't have a full-on, force ten, disaster on their hands. Having watched four out of the seven games that they have played so far, frankly, this is perhaps the worst I Leafs team I can ever remember seeing. Ever. I am not optimistic at all, even with the addition of Kessell, the seasoning of the youngsters, the settling in of the new defence-men, and the (excuse me) execrable goaltending situation, that this team can manage to rise out of the draft lottery this year.

And if they can't (and heaven forfend that they "win" the draft lottery this year), I can't imagine that Burke isn't going to get pilloried and burned in effigy by Leaf Nation.

It's shocking indeed how fundamentally bad this team has become, and it's difficult to contemplate how much worse things could get.