May 2013
1 post
30 tags
Jays-A Vu
I wasn’t supposed to be writing this column this year…
Around this time, early spring, when our society celebrates the annual tradition of Cinqo de Mayo, or Star Wars Day (May the Fourth, Be With You), For What It’s Worth has established one of its own. For the last few years, I have penned typed up a column about the state of the Toronto Blue Jays. And invariably, it comes down to a punch...
April 2013
3 posts
30 tags
LIVING IN THE PAST [GLORY]
“There’s one other guy, I believe, in hockey today, that’s still working in the game that’s won more Stanley Cups than me. So, I think I know a little bit about winning.”
Kevin Lowe, Edmonton Oilers press conference – April 15th.
It seems to me Kevin Lowe was the most underrated player on those Edmonton Oilers Stanley Cup teams of the 25-30 years ago. Wayne Gretzky, well, he was a pretty big...
28 tags
Flames Future
The most hyped event of 2013 has recently passed and The Papal Conclave the National Hockey League Trade Deadline delivered its usual amount of activity. And the Calgary Flames, for the first time in over a decade it was different—the club was selling assets. It shipped out the most beloved player in franchise history, its best defenceman, who was supposed to be the next Gary Suter/Al MacInnis...
15 tags
Broadcasting Blues
“And again, in this shortened [National Hockey League] season…”
Sportsnet Analyst Charlie Simmer about 45 times each Calgary Flames broadcast this winter.
My ears are suffering from A.B.F. — Announcer BS Fatigue.
Since leaving Global last summer, I have had more time to watch sports than I ever did working for the station. That may seem odd to say, but I have viewed more games on...
March 2013
2 posts
19 tags
Celtic Pride
It’s not going to go down as a banner season for the Boston Celtics. Still, I have found this a fascinating campaign for the National Basketball Association’s most celebrated franchise. And while an 18th championship is going to elude the C’s in 2013, the last couple of months I have very much enjoyed watching the club.
Boston wasn’t really considered to be an top contender going into this season....
8 tags
Cujo
Only a few months have passed since I joined the “retired local celebrities” club. Despite the fact I’m no longer active at Global Lethbridge, I still have had the chance to pitch in and help out our community by emceeing local events.
Recently I returned to host the annual Lethbridge Hurricanes Celebrity Dinner and Auction. Over the years it has proved to be a very enjoyable evening as our local...
February 2013
1 post
30 tags
Oilers Window of Opportunity
Well, that was quick.
It seems it took about all of three minutes for Canadians to get over the recently resolved National Hockey League lockout. When negotiations seemed to be going nowhere, there was a large public backlash against the owners and players, with many people talking about boycotting the NHL even after the dispute was resolved. It proved to be just tough talk. As soon as the season...
January 2013
2 posts
7 tags
Bettman's Journal
Editors Note: Through a serendipitous stroke of fortune, For What It’s Worth has received what appears to be a discarded journal penned by National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman. What follows are some unedited excerpts from it. Do not ask how FWIW obtained this book. It most definitely had nothing to do with a well placed mole working in New York at NHL Headquarters rifling through the...
30 tags
Hopes For 2013
In what’s become an annual tradition here at For What It’s Worth, here are my hopes and wishes for sport for the upcoming year, 2013. We had many great moments in 2012, along with the usual disappointments and outright shocking events. This is why sport is so great: Truly anything can happen—and often does.
THE END OF THE NHL LOCKOUT
As we hit January, it still looks like this may never happen....
November 2012
1 post
30 tags
NBA Primer
With the National Hockey League pressing hard to kill another season, perhaps hockey fans are looking for something else to get into. Oil painting, skydiving faster than the speed of sound, teaching an old dog new tricks are all fine ways to distract oneself from thinking about how supposed rational human beings are putting yet another entire NHL campaign at risk.
However, if you enjoy...
October 2012
1 post
2 tags
Livestrong
I wear a Livestrong bracelet.
I will continue to wear a Livestrong bracelet.
This week Lance Armstrong quit as the chairman of the Livestrong foundation. He lost some sponsorship deals including his most celebrated one with Nike. The cyclist is feeling the full brunt of criticism after the United States Anit-Doping Agency released a report that details allegations from multiple sources that he...
September 2012
2 posts
4 tags
Grieving The NHL Lockout
I really didn’t want to write about the NHL Lockout which started earlier this month. After all, approximately 1 billion words have been burned on it already by much better hockey minds than mine.
However, it’s still a major topic. And thankfully (he wrote sarcastically) the NHL and the NHL Players Association have gone down this road several times in the last two decades, so I guess we’re...
30 tags
Bold NFL Predictions 2012
As I have written several times before, prognostication is a fool’s game. Naturally this fits perfectly into what I do here at For What It’s Worth. The 2012 National Football League season is underway and it’s time to make some predictions. But not just any namby-pamby forecasting will do. No ma’am. It’s time for yet another whack of bold predictions.
THE CLEVELAND BROWNS WILL NOT SCORE AN...
August 2012
2 posts
21 tags
Spare Change
There are plenty of things going on in the world of sport. Here are musings, random thoughts and detritus that have accumulated in my brain that are not quite enough to turn into a full blown For What It’s Worth.
—I think many people are shocked that the NHL is on the verge of missing games to start the 2012-13 season. After all, wasn’t the last lockout supposed to give the league labour...
Beginning Anew
“Every new beginning is some other beginning’s end.”
Seneca – Roman Philosopher
As I begin a new chapter in my life, I am ending another.
By mid-August, I will have left my position as Sports Director at Global Lethbridge. A few years ago, a good friend of mine, Mark Huggins, started a business providing custom decorated apparel and promotional products named Amplo. I joined him shortly...
July 2012
3 posts
6 tags
Lethbridge Is Like London!
No question, London, England is the centre of the sporting universe this summer, hosting the 2012 Olympic Games. Yet, if one was to look elsewhere, say at Lethbridge, a person could find some pretty big sports events going on as well.
Over a two-week span in late July and early August, our city hosted some of the nation’s most prestigious competitions: the 2012 Alberta Summer Games, the Royale...
26 tags
2012 Olympics Preview
The latest, biggest, most-bestest sporting event of all-time is nearly upon us! The 2012 Summer Olympics are about to take over London, England for two weeks of thrilling competition.
And be rest assured, dear public of Southern Alberta, Global Lethbridge Sports is committed, as in years past, to providing only the highest quality coverage. Well, the highest quality coverage a non-rights holder...
24 tags
Magic/Bird 2.0
When I was young, there was no better individual rivalry in sport than the one that existed between Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.
The two basketball superstars dominated the National Basketball Association as their teams—Magic’s Los Angeles Lakers and Larry’s Boston Celtics—won 7 of 8 titles during the 1980’s. At one point, Bird won 3-striaght most valuable player awards; Johnson took three of the...
June 2012
2 posts
26 tags
Still Blue
This was supposed to be the season the Toronto Blue Jays were going to re-enter the competitive ranks in the Major Leagues. And as we pass June’s halfway mark it’s a good a time as any to take stock in the Toronto Blue Jays. The verdict: It’s not as strong as Apple, but in no means is it like Research In Motion. It’s more like Microsoft.
This is all a way of saying, the Jays are far from great,...
7 tags
#TCMM
It was the kind of night that Tanner Craswell and Mitch Maclean would have loved: A pleasant late May evening at Spitz Stadium. It marked the end of the baseball season for one team and the start of a new one for the other. The yard was looking good, with recently completed upgrades to the grandstand and improvements to the areas down both baselines. Old Henderson even has a new video board in...
May 2012
2 posts
17 tags
Another Drafty Day
A little something for now and the Lethbridge Hurricanes are hoping for a whole lot more down the road.
This month the Western Hockey League Bantam Draft took place and for the third straight year, the ‘Canes had another high pick. Another season missing the playoffs meant the locals were lottery bound once again, coming away with the fourth overall pick.
However, as significant as that...
23 tags
A Regal Run
In the last decade, nearly half of the National Hockey League clubs have vied for the Stanley Cup. Over a 10-year stretch from 2001-2011, 14 different teams have made at least one appearance in the championship series. New Jersey, Colorado, Detroit, Carolina, Anaheim (Ducks Mighty and otherwise), Tampa Bay, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston and Vancouver have all...
April 2012
2 posts
27 tags
Supsension of Disbelief
For reasons we cannot get into here, For What It’s Worth has recently secured some audio recordings from Brendan Shanahan’s office at NHL headquarters located in New York City. Shanahan is the league’s disciplinary czar and he has been very busy here in the first round of the 2012 NHL Playoffs. Here are some excerpts from the transcript between Shanahan and various other NHL employees recorded...
29 tags
Flames Future
Another spring brings us another Stanley Cup Playoffs. For the third straight year, the Calgary Flames will be watching it along with the rest of us. In the always tough Western Conference, Brent Sutter’s crew was in the mix for a 2011-2012 post-season berth, but a swoon in the last couple of weeks of March doomed its chances.
The prevailing talk among hockey fans these days is the Flames have...
February 2012
2 posts
30 tags
Spare Change
There are plenty of things going on in the world of sport. Here are musings, random thoughts and detritus that have accumulated in my brain that are not quite enough to turn into a full blown For What It’s Worth.
—It’s a fact: Eli Manning is the National Football League’s most clutch quarterback. Having fully moved out of his brother Peyton’s shadow, the younger Manning ripped it up leading...
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January 2012
6 posts
10 tags
Lanny
“PEPLINSKI!”
When Lanny McDonald is in a room, he’s usually the centre of attention. After all, his visage is one of the most memorable in hockey history, accented by his legendary moustache. Yet when his time came to address those who attended the Lethbridge Hurricanes 7th Annual Celebrity Sports Dinner, many of the Hockey Hall-of-Famer’s stories ended with his former Calgary Flames teammate as...
6 tags
Sutter 'Canes Captain
Just days after the Western Hockey League Trade Deadline, the Lethbridge Hurricanes were on the books for only one move. The Cam Braes trade to Moose Jaw was somewhat expected, if only because the club is clearly in a transitional state.
However, many people believed the Braes trade would also trigger a bunch of other moves as any 19 or 20-year-old player would also be shipped out of town to...
8 tags
Braes A Warrior
Word came out early this Monday that the Lethbridge Hurricanes had called a press conference. With the WHL Trade Deadline just over 24 hours later, there was little question about why the club called it. There was a trade to announce. And there also little question about who was on the move. Who else would require a press conference? It could only be Cam Braes.
And it came to pass, the ‘Canes...
14 tags
Canada vs Russia WJHC Semifinal
This is what wearing the maple leaf is all about.
In the span of 12 minutes, Canada’s entry in the 2012 World Junior Hockey Championships went from the depths of despair, to elation, back to the depths.
What happened in Calgary on this early January evening will be spoken about by hockey fans in the Great White North for years and years to come.
What will be discussed is one of the...
30 tags
Hopes For 2012
As we say goodbye to 2011, and welcome 2012, we also welcome another new year in sport. 2011 gave us plenty of great moments and I am looking forward to 366 new days of athletic excellence. Here are some of my hopes for the upcoming year in sport.
SOUTHERN ALBERTA GIVES THESE LETHBRIDGE HURRICANES A CHANCE
After an unimaginably woeful start to the 2011-12 WHL season, the Lethbridge Hurricanes have...
6 tags
Blog II (The Return)
“Don’t call it a comeback…”
Mama Said Knock You Out - LL Cool J
Well friends, it feels like something that was long overdue, so I have returned to the interwebs with a new blog here on Tumblr.
I am continuing to write for the Lethbridge Journal, with my bi-weekly column “For What It’s Worth.”
That was also my blog name on Canada.com which I used for a...
