Something To "Mitch" About

What a great weekend!!!!  If you were a duck that is.  The weather ruined what was supposed to be a good weekend watching my daughter play softball in Moose Jaw. It ended up being a weekend at the Days Inn where she did a lot of swimming with her team-mates than running the basepaths.

Moose Jaw just continues to get bigger and bigger. Everytime I go there, I see something different. I had never been to the ball diamonds in the city before and I have to say, they beat the ones in Regina. Scoreboards, lights, a canteen. Its a very nice little facility the city has for girls softball. Its also right by Riverview Collegiate which is where a young Kelly Remple cut his teeth. I'm sure there were people in the neighbourhood that could have exposed shadows in the closet of the Silver Fox or dished out some dirt, but I never investigated it fully.

Since Mosaic Place came into existence, I have always come into the city down the Manitoba Street Expressway. Driving up Main Street Saturday night, I saw the empty land where the Civic Centre once stood and I gotta admit that was tough to see. That building had to be replaced, but the character of that place and the memories this Pats fan had of being in there are many. I went to many a game in that facility and seeing just dirt and weeds there now was sad. I thought they were rebuilding it and having a bunch of shops and stuff in there with the design being the same. Did those plans get scrapped?

I also couldn't help but notice a lack of cars at the Town and Country Mall. I can't imagine business in there is great with the way the downtown is growing and the fact there is no anchor tenant in there since nothing came in after Zellers left with Target deciding not to have a Moose Jaw location (which isn't a bad thing Moose Jaw).

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Before leaving for Moose Jaw, I ran into Craig Smith. The Riders director of player personnel seemed to know exactly what I wanted to talk about as he reached towards his hand to pull the Grey Cup ring off he had received the night before. WOW!! The pictures are great, but seeing it first hand is amazing. That is one heavy rock and one great rock.  As happy as I am for the players who got one, I'm also glad to see people like Ryan Pollock, Gord West, Cara Hull and Dan Plaster amongst others get one for the hard work they put in over the season----work that no one notices or realizes who is doing it.

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Thank you Geroy! Geroy Simon's CFL days are coming to an end as he has announced his retirement. I don't know why, but the Rider Nation really never as a whole welcomed him as one of ours as there was a lot of negativity about his arrival and production or lack of it as some suggested.  Simon's last game will go down as one of his best all time and that was his efforts at Grey Cup 101 where he caught a pair of TD passes and perhaps would have been the MVP had it not been for the day Kory Sheets had. He came in here for one reason and that was leadership. He had been around the block a few times and he knew not to get too high when things were going well and not to get too low when things were going bad. He helped many guys in that room with things we never saw. Once again, thank you Geroy!

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Thank you Mike! To I don't think anyone's surprise, Mike McCullough hung it up this week as well. I never thought Mike got the pub he deserved. He was very under-rated in my mind and whenever he was called upon, he got the job done and got it done in an efficient manner. He never ever looked out of place. His community work made him someone the Rider Nation loves and he made sure he let the Rider Nation know how appreciative he was of the support they gave to him in the tough times at his farewell news conference.  Losing two leaders like Simon and McCullough will definitely leave an impact in that dressing room, but there are guys who will step up now after learning from that pair.

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Very classy move by the Regina Pats to take an ad out in the Edmonton Journal congratulating the Edmonton Oil Kings on their Memorial Cup win. A lot of teams wouldn't even think of doing such a thing.

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Can the Hawks and Kings play a best of 9? I don't know if I have ever seen a better series than what Chicago and L-A gave us in the Western Conference final. That series had everything to it and it was only just that it go to overtime before Tyler Toffoli ended it (or do we call it a Nick Leddy own goal) to send the Kings on to a New York-Los Angeles Stanley Cup final in a matchup that should have NHL execs drooling. If L-A wins the Cup, it means the trophy will spend some time in our fair province thanks to Jarret Stoll, Robyn Regehr and Dwight King. If the Rangers win, I am guessing the fine people of Kindersley will have a day with the Cup thanks to Derek Dorsett.  I would have to think the Kings have the advantage, but when it comes down to the final, who knows.

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Why is it called the NBA Finals, yet its referred to as the Stanley Cup final.

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Someone in Regina needs to bring back Bonanza and while we're at it add a Fuddruckers, an Outback Steakhouse and a Papa John's Pizza. Is PJP any good. I've never had it.

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What could the Oilers get for the number 3 draft pick? Sam Bennett and Sam Reinhart are going to be good players in the NHL, but Edmonton has enough forwards. Aaron Ekblad won't be there by the sounds of it, so trade the pick and get for it what you can.

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As we go to June 1, the best team in baseball is the San Francisco Giants. A lot can change though----a lot!

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Damn rain kept people from going to Currie Field for the Red Sox home opener. That would have been a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Hopefully it will be nice Wednesday night when Moose Jaw comes to town in a 7 o'clock start.

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The Miami Heat are in their 4th consecutive NBA final. With all due apologies to the Heat fans out there,  that team would get clobbered by Jordan's Bulls, Isiah's Pistons or Bird's Celtics.  In fact, if the Heat were in the Western Conference of the NBA, I don't know if they would get out.

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Last LA-NY final in any sport if you were wondering was the 81 World Series between the Dodgers and Yankees.

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Why is it when there is a hockey fight the two guys go at it mano-a-mano while if a fight in baseball should occur, the benches always empty. Can you imagine the reputation hockey get if the benches emptied every time there was a fight. By the way, you shouldn't throw a ball at David Ortiz and not expect to have some retribution. David Price should thank his teammates for not getting him killed Friday night.

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That's all I got. Have a great week and consider this as you head out for the week. You can’t make me believe there’s a shortage of jobs in this country when there are 23 cash registers at Wal-Mart and only 3 cashiers.