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Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2014 0:49:00 GMT -5
A bit of a sad sports day for me, despite the Sox scoring 7 runs in extras for a win. It's the end of an era kind of sadness. The only team that holds a dearer spot in my heart than my beloved Sox, are the now defunct New England/Hartford Whalers of the WHA/NHL (currently the Carolina Hurricanes, but it's not the same). Today Jean-Sebastian Giguere announced his retirement after 16 seasons, and he was the last active player in the NHL to have ever donned a Whaler uniform in a NHL game. The Whale is now and truly done... I think I will cue up some Brass Bonanza for a final hurrah!
-M
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Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2014 8:48:41 GMT -5
I'm not a hockey fan in any way, shape or form, but even so I've always been really interested in the WHA (as I am in all rebel leagues, from the Federal League to the AFL to the ABA to the WFL to the USFL, etc.), ever since encountering an article in Sports Illustrated as a kid about the movement to form the league. I still fondly remember the title, "See the Little Pucklings Wobble In" (or something very close to that) & the accompanying illustration; a few years ago I made a point of obtaining another copy. (For some reason, I remember that A.J. Foyt was on the cover.) This was early enough, of course, that the Miami Screaming Eagles were still on the table; they eventually took the ice as the Philadelphia Blazers & later as the Vancouver Blazers, by which time they'd ditched their high-profile (but low-performance) NHL signee, Derek Sanderson.
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Post by Action Ace on Aug 27, 2014 12:39:39 GMT -5
Every time I watch the US Open Tennis Tournament I think about the All-Star Squadron.
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Post by Action Ace on Aug 27, 2014 12:44:56 GMT -5
College football starts Thursday. Finally...sports starts up again. College football is the only sport I know of where 98% of the teams participating will not even have a chance to play in a playoff/championship game that counts because they were't selected among the chosen few in a pre-season poll. Where the pool of championship eligible participants is predetermined and every other game played is simply an exhibition game, including every "Bowl" except the National title game. I have no interest in any league/sport where performance on the field matters less in determining a champion than the politics of the coaches and media choices of their favorites does. If you get to make your own schedule and schedule a bunch of patsies to ensure you have a winning record so you can fulfill the wishes of those who want to see you in contention because you earn them the most money, it's not really a competitive sport. Major league baseball teams cannot overstuff their schedules with series against the Astros and the Cubs if they want to to improve their records over the course of the season...they have to play who others choose for them and earn their records on the field, not set up their records at a bargaining table by paying other teams to be their patsies...that's what the Globetrotters do, not competitive sports. If you want to see a football exhibition on the level of a Globetrotter's basketball exhibition, then college football is the thing for you. If the NCAA/BCS required all those top 25 pre-season teams to play each other over the course of the regular season to determine who actually is the best teams and should play for a title-then I might give college football some consideration, until then, I have no interest in it. -M There had been quite a bit of talk about the Big 5 conferences and Notre Dame only playing each other. People are tired of seeing the big schools playing "Cupcake U." and more of the top schools have been scheduling tougher opponents in future years to generate fan interest. Now the funds from these "body bag games" fund a lot of lower tier football programs, so we could see a lot of Division I (MAC/ Sun Belt etc.) and I-AA schools forced to go to a lower level or drop the sport, as Hawaii's AD has warned. Should be a fun season and let the teeth gnashing and bickering about the #4/5 spot commence! |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2014 12:54:00 GMT -5
There had been quite a bit of talk about the Big 5 conferences and Notre Dame only playing each other. People are tired of seeing the big schools playing "Cupcake U." and more of the top schools have been scheduling tougher opponents in future years to generate fan interest. Now the funds from these "body bag games" fund a lot of lower tier football programs, so we could see a lot of Division I (MAC/ Sun Belt etc.) and I-AA schools forced to go to a lower level or drop the sport, as Hawaii's AD has warned. Should be a fun season and let the teeth gnashing and bickering about the #4/5 spot commence! I was under the impression the improved schedules are because in the new format scheduling directional schools is very detrimental to a team's chances to get into the playoff. I don't really buy the argument that elimination of awful non-conference games will mean an end to the lesser conferences having football. |
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Post by Prince Hal on Aug 27, 2014 15:18:58 GMT -5
I wish just once someone who benefits from the sanctimonious hypocrisy that is the NCAA would admit that the big two college sports are essentially the NFL and NBA's minor leagues. Those two leviathans get off cheap not having to subsidize any kind of developmental league, a la baseball and hockey.
None of them will, but I can dream. As Al Pacino's character, Sonny, said to the double-dealing FBI agent in Dog Day Afternoon, "Kiss me. Kiss me. When I'm being #&@ed, I like to get kissed a lot ."
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Post by The Captain on Aug 27, 2014 20:17:48 GMT -5
My wife bought me a Hartford Whalers jersey for Christmas a couple of years ago. It's one of their earlier NHL versions, as it still has Pucky the Whale on the shoulders. That came a couple years after she flirted with the idea of getting me a Colorado Rockies NHL jersey, but she had such a hard time finding one that she just gave up on it.
I love the old NHL, back when offense ruled and guys didn't have to wear helmets. I'm currently putting together sets of the 1979-1980 and 1980-1981 O-Pee-Chee hockey card sets, and when I'm done with that, I think I am going to try to put together team collections for all of the teams that aren't in existence any more, like the Rockies, Whalers, Scouts, Seals/Golden Seals, and Barons.
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Post by berkley on Aug 27, 2014 20:36:44 GMT -5
I'm very nostalgic for the 70s hockey as well. I think it's a great loss that the CBC didn't see fit to to keep copies of all the old playoff series they broadcast over the years. I would pay top dollar to see the Montreal Canadiens playoff runs of 1971 and 1973, for example, but as far as I can find out no copies of those tapes are in existence.
I was a brainwashed little NHL fan back when the WHA started and thus completely bought into the NHL (i.e. NHL franchise owners and the league bureaucracy that represented them) propaganda that the WHA was bad for hockey, diluted the game, encouraged greediness in the players, etc. Now I wish had been able to see some of those games, especially favourtie players like JC Tremblay, Marc Tardif, etc, who weren't playng any more by the time the WHA merged into the NHL.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2014 23:32:59 GMT -5
I had two hockey jerseys as a kid (despite never watching the sport); a replica Whalers home and an authentic Whalers road (blue).
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Post by DubipR on Aug 28, 2014 9:18:48 GMT -5
My wife bought me a Hartford Whalers jersey for Christmas a couple of years ago. It's one of their earlier NHL versions, as it still has Pucky the Whale on the shoulders. That came a couple years after she flirted with the idea of getting me a Colorado Rockies NHL jersey, but she had such a hard time finding one that she just gave up on it. I love the old NHL, back when offense ruled and guys didn't have to wear helmets. I'm currently putting together sets of the 1979-1980 and 1980-1981 O-Pee-Chee hockey card sets, and when I'm done with that, I think I am going to try to put together team collections for all of the teams that aren't in existence any more, like the Rockies, Whalers, Scouts, Seals/Golden Seals, and Barons. Any particular player? Ron Francis? Mike Luit? Kevin Dineen? Gordie?
I have one O-Pee-Chee NHL set that I had to put together; 1984-85. Talk about a great set for rookies; Yzerman, Chelios, Neely and the Oilers in their prime. Good stuff; only problem was O-Pee-Chee were idiots and didn't know how to center their cards for cutting.
I had two hockey jerseys as a kid (despite never watching the sport); a replica Whalers home and an authentic Whalers road (blue). Nice! I had 2 hockey jerseys as a kid as well; old school LA Kings jersey (Purple & Gold) and the Gretzky era Kings jersey. I never put any numbers on the back as I was afraid that the player I'd like would get traded or retire.
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Post by The Captain on Aug 28, 2014 10:13:38 GMT -5
My wife bought me a Hartford Whalers jersey for Christmas a couple of years ago. It's one of their earlier NHL versions, as it still has Pucky the Whale on the shoulders. That came a couple years after she flirted with the idea of getting me a Colorado Rockies NHL jersey, but she had such a hard time finding one that she just gave up on it. I love the old NHL, back when offense ruled and guys didn't have to wear helmets. I'm currently putting together sets of the 1979-1980 and 1980-1981 O-Pee-Chee hockey card sets, and when I'm done with that, I think I am going to try to put together team collections for all of the teams that aren't in existence any more, like the Rockies, Whalers, Scouts, Seals/Golden Seals, and Barons. Any particular player? Ron Francis? Mike Luit? Kevin Dineen? Gordie?
I have one O-Pee-Chee NHL set that I had to put together; 1984-85. Talk about a great set for rookies; Yzerman, Chelios, Neely and the Oilers in their prime. Good stuff; only problem was O-Pee-Chee were idiots and didn't know how to center their cards for cutting.
I had two hockey jerseys as a kid (despite never watching the sport); a replica Whalers home and an authentic Whalers road (blue). Nice! I had 2 hockey jerseys as a kid as well; old school LA Kings jersey (Purple & Gold) and the Gretzky era Kings jersey. I never put any numbers on the back as I was afraid that the player I'd like would get traded or retire. No particular player on it; she wanted me to be able to pick someone if I chose to do it. If I do, it will probably be Ron Francis, since he was such a huge part of my favorite team's success (the Penguins) in the 90's. QFT about O-Pee-Chee's issues. I've never seen the 83-84 OPC set, but the quality of the centering and cuts (so many jagged edges) for the sets I'm collecting ranges from mediocre to atrocious. On the other hand, I love the OPC sets over the Topps sets from that time because they were 132 cards larger and included a bunch of obscure players, guys at the end of their careers (like Dave Keon or Syl Apps), and two goalies for almost every team; the Topps sets, especially in the early '80s only had three guys per Canadian team, so it was ridiculous to me that they would have Gretzky, Kurri, and Coffey for the Oilers, but no Fuhr, Anderson, Moog, Lowe, Huddy, or even Messier. I owned two jerseys as a kid: a road Penguins jersey, and a road Quebec Nordiques jersey (because I loved the look of it with the fleur-de-lis). Over the years I've had (and still have in my closet) a Bruins jersey (black), original Mighty Ducks (with the cartoony logo from the movie), Colorado Avalanche in white (with Peter Forsberg's name and number - he's my favorite player who never played in Pittsburgh), Flyers white (with Eric Lindros - got it for $20 on clearance from a local store), and my green Whalers jersey. |
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Post by Rob Allen on Aug 28, 2014 17:15:09 GMT -5
I've still got some stuff from the first season of the Mighty Ducks; I was a season-ticket holder that year. I lived in Orange County when the Ducks started and I lived in NJ when the Devils arrived. Clearly the NHL is following me around the country and it's just a matter of time before they put a team here in Portland where I live now.
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Post by The Captain on Aug 28, 2014 18:07:46 GMT -5
I've still got some stuff from the first season of the Mighty Ducks; I was a season-ticket holder that year. I lived in Orange County when the Ducks started and I lived in NJ when the Devils arrived. Clearly the NHL is following me around the country and it's just a matter of time before they put a team here in Portland where I live now. You're possibly right about Portland, although if Seattle gets their arena issues worked out, they'll be next to get a team. At some point, one or both of the Florida-based teams are going to move, because professional sports in Florida are a losing proposition.
Only reason Seattle wouldn't get one is if Vancouver can convince the league that would cut into their fanbase, at which point I think the next most-likely location would be Portland, to create a bridge between the California franchises and the Canucks, who are way out on their own up in BC.
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Post by BigPapaJoe on Aug 29, 2014 5:37:03 GMT -5
The NFL preseason has come to a close. As much as it is bothersome to get through those four games year in, and year out I would much rather have them in place than the NFL go to an 18 game schedule, which I think is the reality that is on the horizon. The preseason game really isn't for the viewers, especially the casual fan which makes up most of the NFL's target audience. The games are essentially televised practices. It is funny hearing a lot of people get up in arms (every fanbase of any team does this I find) about how their favorite team is struggling for reason X,Y, or Z. When the regular season comes around though it's like a spell that is instantly broken and people forget what they were complaining about. Especially since the preseason is NEVER indicative of what happens in the regular season.
Anyways, I hope my 49ers have a great year and finally get that sixth Super Bowl ring.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 30, 2014 13:05:24 GMT -5
The last ten minutes of this Chelsea/Everton match has been nuts. Five goals scored.
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