Sports Guy North

Olympic Meltdown

I must admit, my motivation to write something every day is being sucked away by the Olympics at this point. It’s just too much mostly un-interesting stuff shoved in my face in a short period of time, and I don’t want to feel like I’m contributing to it. There is just no escaping sport during these weeks. I almost want to switch it up and write a political post, or something about “saving the males”, but I realize that this likely would turn the few loyal readers I have away. When you’ve only got a core fan base of 20 people, you really can’t offend them.



Speaking of saving the males, and offending people. When I typed out save the males up there, I thought it was pretty funny. That is, until I did a quick google search for Save the Males. What I found might be one of the most offensive sights I’ve ever come across. Everything is on there, from Relearning the Heterosexual love, to stating that George Bush is Jewish (and that it’s a negative thing, as you may have guessed). How an anti-feminism website turned into an anti-Semitic website is beyond me. But the strangest thing of all is that the site originated from the University of Winnipeg. The funniest thing of all is that it displays a flash that bashes the school for having a population that is 80% women, and says that socializing there stinks because there isn’t enough guys, shown here - http://www.savethemales.ca/uw/index.html (remember, if you watch this part, do not view any of the rest of the site. I do NOT condone it, and find it very offensive. I just think it’s funny that some people out there can still be this way. It’s beyond me.)

Anyway, to my straight readers out there, what is your first thought when you hear those statistics about UW? Probably the same as mine – why on earth didn’t I go there, and maybe what Graduate studies do they offer! Nothing in what they are complaining about sounds like a problem at all. But I guess if you’re someone who is going to take the time to research ways in which George Bush might be Jewish, you’re probably the type to find a way to hate anything. More importantly, if you’re so insecure in your own sexuality that you need to lash out at anything bordering on homosexuality, or being different in any way, then there’s probably a reason that you aren’t happy being surrounded by a 4 to 1 ratio of college girls.

Back To the Olympics

OK, that was enough of a side track for now, back to the Olympics (there really is no escaping it). I was watching a bit of the hockey coverage, and Don Cherry himself called Europeans smart, and said they use Canadians as dummies. Then he said that Canadians are kind of dummies, the way they act.

Oh sure, when put in context it was a little different than it sounds there, but who cares about context? It's media prerogative to take something way out of context in order to prove a more interesting point, especially if it then becomes something inflammatory. Hence, Don Cherry agrees with all those out there who think the education system is failing our kids and needs to be revamped. Maybe the best way to do that would be to get more boys into higher education, and fields like maths and sciences. I hear that they are at a disadvantage in those ways these days.



But in reality, maybe he has a point. Maybe Canadians are stupid. The Swedes were smart enough to throw their game in order to face the Swiss in the quarter-finals, why weren't the Canadians smart enough to throw their game against the Czechs. Obviously it was a huge brain fart for the Swedish coach to suggest out loud that they would throw the game, but it was a great move to throw it. No one expected them not to anyway. The same should have been true for the Canadians, except that the expectation with Canada is that they would never do something like that, so it wasn’t anticipated. In a sense, though, that is a pretty stupid charateristic of Canadians, if your definition of success lies purely in results.

Round Robin withstanding, the Russians are the one team in the tournament who would likely be the biggest challenge for the Canadians. And at this moment, I don't think they can beat them. It will be a Russia - Finland final, and since the Canadians didn't throw their game, that means no medal for Canada. Simple as that. The Swedes might not be in the gold medal game in the end, but I would much rather play the Swiss, followed by the Slovaks like they are primed to do, as opposed to the Russians and then the Fins. Winning today was just pure stupidity on the Canadians part, and it will cost one of the top 2 teams a medal. Brodeur’s really going to have to steal one for it to not be the Canadians who are going home. Depending on how you look at it, stupidity does play a big role in that outcome.

Non-Olympic Basketball

On the Raptor front, sandwiching 2 horribly blown chances to win around both sides of the all-star break is no way to weaken their effect. These lackadaisical efforts, especially in the 4th quarters, have probably but a stop to the raptors playoff hopes this year. 22-32 looks a lot better down the stretch than 20-34 does. I'm almost now at a point where I have to declare the season officialy lost. The next week and a half will say for sure. But if they even one more game get away like they did against both the lowly Knicks and he Griz, then it’ll be over for sure. At that point they will have a tough quandary to deal with. On one hand, Mike James’ contract is up at the end of the year, so if they don’t trade him and he signs elsewhere the Raptor’s office will take a lot of heat for losing him for nothing as they did with Donyell last season. On the other hand, if they do trade him it will upset franchise player CB4, who has been vocal about wanting Mike around long-term. I really don’t have a suggestion of which way to go. With their track record thus far, any move they Raptors office makes will be met with scrutiny, and will likely be looked upon as the wrong move. They need to have Embry make the decision, then bring in the new GM so that he isn’t tainted by the inevitable fall-out. No matter how the season closes from here on in, it’s going to be a tough one for the Raptor’s front office staff. If only a magical mind like Babcock’s was still around to find a way around this problem. I would love to see his approach.



North American Medal Update

Here now is the daily recap of how Canadians and Americans fared today as far as medals go. The Americans are finaly pulling away from the Canadians, which really is no surprise. Canada has Skeleton to thank for keeping it close for as long as they did.

Canada (14) – None

USA (18) – Shani Davis, Men’s 15m Speed Skating, Silver
Shauna Rohbock, Valerie Fleming, Women’s Bobsleigh, Silver
Chad Hedrick, Men’s 15m Speed Skating, Bronze