This And That

The weekly assortment of thoughts running through my muddled brain


--Someone in the Blue Jays organization needs to explain why exactly Jose Reyes played in Montreal on bad turf when he was at less than 100 percent. The Blue Jays need Reyes to play everyday at shortstop and the fact he is on the 15 day DL is not a good sign for a ballclub that needs to get off to a good start.

--Baseball does it right with opening day.

--Thank you to the powers that be on TSN for giving us the ESPN show "Baseball Tonight". The nightly recap similar to "That's Hockey" is a must-see for a baseball fan and this year ex-Score employee Adnan Virk appears to be the host.

--Speaking of ex-Score employees, I loved Renee Paquette when she was at the Score and I love her even more working for the WWE. She appears to be someone that would be a lot of fun to hang out with whether it be at a Rider game, a sportsbar or Craven and that isn't a bad thing is it fellas? I know my Locker Talk co-host Pete Paczko agrees.

--It is WrestleMania weekend. Yes, its a must-see for this blogger and I've explained that time-after-time-after time. I'm just hoping Hulk Hogan has no involvement besides being the host.  Hulkamania does not need to run wild on Sunday.

--It would be cool if Hulkamania ran wild on Monday though back at his home base. If you don't know, Rod Pedersen is doing Saskatchewan's #1 sports show --"The Sportscage" from Hogan's Beach Bar on Monday. He was there doing the show when he went on that Marlin Travel trip late last year and he had Jimmy "Mouth of the South" Hart on. It will be the final show from Florida as RP keeps you informed on the Riders mini-camp. He will be right in the middle of it all as he broadcasts live Friday and Saturday from the team's meeting facility and dining hall. He will have "all access" which is something no other person at the camp will have.

--Say what you will about Premier Brad Wall --or the Grand Poobah---as I like to call him, but the man is razor sharp when it comes to wit. His Aprils Fools gag saying Graham DeLaet and Chris Getzlaf were the same person was outstanding.  It was great to have both DeLaet and Getzlaf play along in the "DeLaetzlaf" hoax.

--The Brandon Wheat Kings are a good team now and sadly for the WHL East Division, they may be the crème de la crème of the East Division and Conference for a while. Look at how young that lineup is and add the likes of Nolan Patrick, Kale Clague and the first pick overall in this bantam draft. I don't like that team, but you have to respect that team for what they are doing and ask how Kelly McCrimmon isn't being pursued by NHL teams.

--It pains me when the Medicine Hat Tigers have made it to the second round of the playoffs for 11 straight years while in Regina-----well you know.

--During a 16 inning marathon on Wednesday night, Chicago Cubs play-by-play duo Len Kasper and Jim Deshaies were saying if this was hockey, they would want them to remove an infielder or do something dumb instead of playing the game out the way its supposed to be played to its conclusion. Deshaies said if it goes past 13 innings, outfielders should be forced to play without a glove. That suggestion shouldn't be uttered too loudly.

--Emilio Bonafacio of the Cubs has 11 hits in his first 14 at-bats this year including a pair of 4 hit games to start the season. I'm thinking Blue Jays fans have to be asking if he had 11 hits in all of his time in Toronto.

--The city hopes raising the price of parking downtown at meters will stop people from parking all day at spots and allow several to park in spots per day. I'm not going to get into that, but I think the city needs to do a much better job at the issue of downtown parking and find some way to have those who don't need their car on a day-to-day basis once they park downtown  to take another way into the city centre. I have ideas, but I'm sure there is a roadblock to those ideas somewhere down the road,

--Safeway is abandoning its Club Card program. This begs the question from my good friend Keith Colhoun. "What happens to Touchdown to Win". A very good question!  Then again, I don't really care since my name has never ever been picked for that or "Score To Win" on the NHL games.

--David Letterman is retiring and I have no plans on going to New York City anytime soon. I guess I won't be seeing Dave do his thing live.

--Tiger Woods will perhaps win another major, but he won't be catching Jack Nicklaus. At the rate his body is breaking down, Tiger will be lucky to see the Seniors Tour. His body reminds one of an 91 Volvo....if its not one thing its another thing wrong with the machine.

--If your animal could talk, think of all the crazy stuff he or she would tell others about what they've seen you do.