Let me preface this by stating that I have no empirical proof that Scott Burnside's parents and grandparents are 1st cousins, but it is at least an explanation for the drivel he writes.
In his latest column Burnside proposes that should Mats Sundin not waive his no trade clause the Leafs should:
Strip him of his Captaincy
Make it clear that they will not give him a new contract
Send him to his room
Okay I'm an acknowledged Leafs fan and Mats lover and I really believe the best interests of the team lie in trading the captain at this time, however a "no trade clause" is a commitment that should be upheld. What Mr. Burnside is saying is basically that the team says "Yeah we'll give you a no trade clause but if we want to trade you you better waive it or we'll treat you like a pariah". Given that Mr. Burnside resides in Atlanta it's entirely likely that he is unaware that some athletes wish to stay in the city where they have played for a considerable length of time.
Sundin, and other players like him, have no trade clauses in their deals because they don't wish to have their personal and/or business lives uprooted every spring. No trade clauses are not handed out to journeyman and third year players they are rewards for veterans who have roots in the community they play in, and who are generally solid leaders within those communities.
Burnside further smears Sundin, and Tomas Kaberle, by stating that their only reasons for the "no movement clause" is that they don't want to play in the playoffs. Of course Burnside has no evidence to back this up but hey he's a columnist so it's his opinions that count, not facts or journalism.
The fact of the matter is Mats Sundin has earned the right to decide his future and where he finishes this season, and MLSE put that right in in his contract. In my perfect hockey world Sundin would be traded for two solid prospects and a #1 pick, win the cup with Detroit/Anaheim/Dallas and then return to Toronto in the offseason but that decision is Sundin's, and Cliff Fletcher's, to make not anyone else.
Given his stated contempt for legal boundaries and his desire to punish someone for just doing what is rightfully their due I can only imagine how the discipline runs with the children in the Burnside household.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Friday, January 11, 2008
Tony Gallagher made me Blog
I thought it was all over. I really felt the blog had run its' course and would just die off, in fact it had been so long since I'd blogged that blogger.com forgot who I was and I had to remember passwords and shit to get this far.
Finally, however, something rattled my chain enough to make me blog again.
No, it wasn't the sorry state of The Leafs, no it wasn't the Canadian kicker shanking a gimme and giving the SeaHawks new life when my Redskins had their hands around Seattle's collective throats, it wasn't even the delay in the start of production of High School Musical 3 or the fact that There Will be Blood isn't a vampire movie. What finally forced my hand was the most recent musings of Tony Gallagher in what passes for a newspaper here in Vancouver.
Now I've never really gotten Gallagher to begin with, his grumpy persona and West Coast homerism have never really appealed to me. I mentioned him in an earlier blog when he blamed the Minnesota Twins hitting coach for Justin Morneau's hitting woes - though of course when Morneau was successful it was all because of good clean Canadian air growing up. Truth be told I just stopped reading his column, but this morning his mug was on the cover of the Daily Fishwrap so I turned to page A4 to read Tony's musings on the recent Canuck's ownership flap, and was glad I hadn't eaten yet.
I don't think I've ever seen such a ridiculous display of flag waving outside the US border in my times. Gallagher would have us believe that the saintly Francesco Aquilini never had any partnership with the evil litigious Gaglardi-Beedie cartel and that his lack of details on cross examination was simply the honest omissions of a very busy man. What's more Gaglardi and Beedie are nothing but thugs for attempting to besmirch the reputation of a man who made his fortune benefitting from his family's long tradition of being Slum Landlords.
C'mon Tony we know that you have to kiss ass with the Canucks brass to get any quality time with Nonis et al, but does your tongue have to go up there too ?
Why is it I get the feeling that Tony had two columns written for this scenario, the one he published and the one that spoke of the evil Aquilini taking advantage of two honest hardworking BC boys named Gaglardi and Beedie.
I'm not sure I'm all the way back but at least the blog is alive for this week. I'll talk about the hamster later.
Finally, however, something rattled my chain enough to make me blog again.
No, it wasn't the sorry state of The Leafs, no it wasn't the Canadian kicker shanking a gimme and giving the SeaHawks new life when my Redskins had their hands around Seattle's collective throats, it wasn't even the delay in the start of production of High School Musical 3 or the fact that There Will be Blood isn't a vampire movie. What finally forced my hand was the most recent musings of Tony Gallagher in what passes for a newspaper here in Vancouver.
Now I've never really gotten Gallagher to begin with, his grumpy persona and West Coast homerism have never really appealed to me. I mentioned him in an earlier blog when he blamed the Minnesota Twins hitting coach for Justin Morneau's hitting woes - though of course when Morneau was successful it was all because of good clean Canadian air growing up. Truth be told I just stopped reading his column, but this morning his mug was on the cover of the Daily Fishwrap so I turned to page A4 to read Tony's musings on the recent Canuck's ownership flap, and was glad I hadn't eaten yet.
I don't think I've ever seen such a ridiculous display of flag waving outside the US border in my times. Gallagher would have us believe that the saintly Francesco Aquilini never had any partnership with the evil litigious Gaglardi-Beedie cartel and that his lack of details on cross examination was simply the honest omissions of a very busy man. What's more Gaglardi and Beedie are nothing but thugs for attempting to besmirch the reputation of a man who made his fortune benefitting from his family's long tradition of being Slum Landlords.
C'mon Tony we know that you have to kiss ass with the Canucks brass to get any quality time with Nonis et al, but does your tongue have to go up there too ?
Why is it I get the feeling that Tony had two columns written for this scenario, the one he published and the one that spoke of the evil Aquilini taking advantage of two honest hardworking BC boys named Gaglardi and Beedie.
I'm not sure I'm all the way back but at least the blog is alive for this week. I'll talk about the hamster later.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Nice Malbec, Great Beer and Jiri's Unit
Well I haven't blogged for awhile but that's hardly unusual.
Halloween came and went, daughter was a "Car wreck victim witch" and we had about 70 kids come to the house. Many of these kids ask if they can pick out their own candy, I feel that's sort of a "cake and eat it" proposition and refuse, wife thinks I am an asshole for doing this but hey, I am an Asshole so that settles the issue.
I've been trying out a few new wines and have two which I can recommend.
The first is one that I would normally avoid like the plague but I tried it and quite enjoy it so it just goes to show that sometimes we should look past our initial reservations, especially when the wine is only $10.99. The wine is question is called Mon Ami Rascal which in and of itself would normally have me passing it by on the "Don't buy wines with Stupid Names" theory, secondly it is highly regarded by Robert Parker and thirdly it is a Vins de Pay de Porte de la Mediterranee which means it can come from pretty much anywhere in France between Switzerland and the Pyrenees.
Given all these circumstances how did I end up with said bottle you might ask ? Well I was in a hurry, I was having Salmon for supper and the Private Wine store I was in had no drinkable Pinot Noir under $20, so I saw Mon Ami was a blend of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre, and then it hit me that this is the "House Blend" made for Earl's restaurants by the venerable Perrin family. Now I have my issues with Earl's but they've always provided good value with their house blends so Mon Ami came home with me and I was happy he did. The wine is light to medium bodied with nice red fruit flavours, soft tannins and a longish finish, the acidity is a little low but it worked well with the salmon and has since partnered nicely with roast chicken. This is only available in private stores and retails for $10.99, it's recommended.
The second wine came from the same store, however it is more in tune with my normal buying practices. Looking for something to partner with braised beef I spotted a Argentinean Malbec from the reputable firm Nieto Senetiner. Once again this wine is not available in Government stores, but is worth seeking out. The wine is labeled as Benjamin, Nieto Senetiner, Malbec 2006 and retails for $12.99. Malbec can be very earthy and tannic but this wine is made in a softer "New World" style which emphasizes the black fruits and spicy pepper/clove character of the grape. The wine was lovely with the braise and has become a bit of a staple around the house as we move into the winter with more ragouts and braises, I highly recommend this wine.
One more beverage note, the BCLDB is discounting the finest example of English "Bitter" that I know this month. Fuller's ESB is a classic English "Bitter", which of course means it isn't bitter at all in fact it is golden and malty and caramelly and delicious. Michael Jackson, the world famous beer writer not the pedophile singer, perhaps best describes Fuller's ESB as "perilously drinkable". Greatness doesn't come cheaply however so even discounted a 500ml bottle of ESB will set you back $3.79 but that's not much to pay for the "best in show" - BCLDB, CSPC#636902, $3.79 reasonable distribution.
On another note Toronto Maple Leafs rookie Jiri Tlusty has been making a lot of headlines lately. The 13th overall pick in the 2006 draft Tlusty is a Czech forward with great offensive skills and a solid two way game. Most hockey observers ranked Tlusty as Toronto's #2 prospect heading into the 2007 campaign, behind goalie Justin Pogge, Tlusty had scored 17 points in 13 OHL playoff games in the spring and earned a promotion to the AHL Toronto Marlies.
Early seaon injuries on the Leafs roster prompted a call-up for Jiri and he scored a pair of goals in his first NHL game, and has stuck with the Leafs since his recall tallying four points in nine games while playing a solid defensive game (+3).
Recently however Jiri has been getting much more press for the naked pictures of him floating around the internet plus a shot of another man and Jiri touching tongues. Jiri states that the pictures, taken last year while he was playing in Sault Ste. Marie were sent to a girl and she made them available to the media.
A couple of things to note:
1) If camera phones and digital photography were around in my teen years my naked body would be everywhere.
2) It is sad indeed that this is considered "news"
3) at least we know how to pronounce his name now - it's obviously "T" Lusty.
4) at least it wasn't pictures sent to another guy so despite the "tongue" picture he's probably not gay
On the final point, I finally gave in to "Big Firm Partner" and put some Toad the Wet Sprocket on my I-Pod, not that there's anything wrong with that.
Halloween came and went, daughter was a "Car wreck victim witch" and we had about 70 kids come to the house. Many of these kids ask if they can pick out their own candy, I feel that's sort of a "cake and eat it" proposition and refuse, wife thinks I am an asshole for doing this but hey, I am an Asshole so that settles the issue.
I've been trying out a few new wines and have two which I can recommend.
The first is one that I would normally avoid like the plague but I tried it and quite enjoy it so it just goes to show that sometimes we should look past our initial reservations, especially when the wine is only $10.99. The wine is question is called Mon Ami Rascal which in and of itself would normally have me passing it by on the "Don't buy wines with Stupid Names" theory, secondly it is highly regarded by Robert Parker and thirdly it is a Vins de Pay de Porte de la Mediterranee which means it can come from pretty much anywhere in France between Switzerland and the Pyrenees.
Given all these circumstances how did I end up with said bottle you might ask ? Well I was in a hurry, I was having Salmon for supper and the Private Wine store I was in had no drinkable Pinot Noir under $20, so I saw Mon Ami was a blend of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre, and then it hit me that this is the "House Blend" made for Earl's restaurants by the venerable Perrin family. Now I have my issues with Earl's but they've always provided good value with their house blends so Mon Ami came home with me and I was happy he did. The wine is light to medium bodied with nice red fruit flavours, soft tannins and a longish finish, the acidity is a little low but it worked well with the salmon and has since partnered nicely with roast chicken. This is only available in private stores and retails for $10.99, it's recommended.
The second wine came from the same store, however it is more in tune with my normal buying practices. Looking for something to partner with braised beef I spotted a Argentinean Malbec from the reputable firm Nieto Senetiner. Once again this wine is not available in Government stores, but is worth seeking out. The wine is labeled as Benjamin, Nieto Senetiner, Malbec 2006 and retails for $12.99. Malbec can be very earthy and tannic but this wine is made in a softer "New World" style which emphasizes the black fruits and spicy pepper/clove character of the grape. The wine was lovely with the braise and has become a bit of a staple around the house as we move into the winter with more ragouts and braises, I highly recommend this wine.
One more beverage note, the BCLDB is discounting the finest example of English "Bitter" that I know this month. Fuller's ESB is a classic English "Bitter", which of course means it isn't bitter at all in fact it is golden and malty and caramelly and delicious. Michael Jackson, the world famous beer writer not the pedophile singer, perhaps best describes Fuller's ESB as "perilously drinkable". Greatness doesn't come cheaply however so even discounted a 500ml bottle of ESB will set you back $3.79 but that's not much to pay for the "best in show" - BCLDB, CSPC#636902, $3.79 reasonable distribution.
On another note Toronto Maple Leafs rookie Jiri Tlusty has been making a lot of headlines lately. The 13th overall pick in the 2006 draft Tlusty is a Czech forward with great offensive skills and a solid two way game. Most hockey observers ranked Tlusty as Toronto's #2 prospect heading into the 2007 campaign, behind goalie Justin Pogge, Tlusty had scored 17 points in 13 OHL playoff games in the spring and earned a promotion to the AHL Toronto Marlies.
Early seaon injuries on the Leafs roster prompted a call-up for Jiri and he scored a pair of goals in his first NHL game, and has stuck with the Leafs since his recall tallying four points in nine games while playing a solid defensive game (+3).
Recently however Jiri has been getting much more press for the naked pictures of him floating around the internet plus a shot of another man and Jiri touching tongues. Jiri states that the pictures, taken last year while he was playing in Sault Ste. Marie were sent to a girl and she made them available to the media.
A couple of things to note:
1) If camera phones and digital photography were around in my teen years my naked body would be everywhere.
2) It is sad indeed that this is considered "news"
3) at least we know how to pronounce his name now - it's obviously "T" Lusty.
4) at least it wasn't pictures sent to another guy so despite the "tongue" picture he's probably not gay
On the final point, I finally gave in to "Big Firm Partner" and put some Toad the Wet Sprocket on my I-Pod, not that there's anything wrong with that.
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