ON THE MARK.

ALL TALK AND NO ACTION

Have you noticed that much of the talk in sports these days doesn't seem to be about the great games or the exciting plays, but rather the negotiators and mediators and General Managers and owners and managers and lawyers and union leaders and coaches and scouts and politicians?   Even when we're talking about the Sidney Crosby's and the Jonathan Toews', it's as union members/negotiators rather than hockey players.  In baseball, we're 3 months away from spring training and four months from opening day.  Alex Anthopoulos is the new Pat Gillick and Mark Buehrle is going to get the Ontario government (insert joke here) to repeal the Pit Bull ban so that he doesn't have to commute from Lewiston N.Y. or Livonia, Michigan (Close to Ontario, Pit Bulls welcome).  We predict, we speculate, we prognosticate.  That's sports these days.

Remember, the Jays are now the favourites to win the American League East.  The Yankees are dead.  The Red Sox just signed Shane Victorino, for crying out loud.  Big Papi is getting older and heavier.  Their manager is much despised around these parts. The Jays will kill them with Johnson, Morrow,  Ricky Romero, JA Happ, and of course, Buehrle.  My "Sportsline" partner Bubba says the Jays will be expected to win every game this year with a lineup like they have.  I even think the starters can win 70 games between the five of them.  But, of course it's all talk right now. 

 I kind of wish Tom Cheek was around to see this latest incarnation of the Jays.  Tom was named the winner of the Ford C. Frick award for excellence in baseball broadcasting.   If it weren't for the efforts of Mike Wilner of The Fan in Toronto, Cheek might never have gotten in.  He died in 2005, never knowing how much support and love he had garnered.  If it wasn't for Tom, I never would've gotten to where I am today in broadcasting.   I have so many stories to tell, having worked with him back in the early days of the Jays.   I will reveal many of those stories tomorrow, including the time I got to sit beside Tom and broadcast three innings of play by play when his partner, Early Wynn, took sick.   That day, I became a professional broadcaster.

The hockey thing has got me puzzled. Gary Bettman makes a 15 second announcement that he is pleased with the progress of the talks.   I wonder if he can even look NHLPA head Donald Fehr in the eyes. Really, if the players had any idea that the Fehr-Bettman standoff would negatively effect negotiations, they should've gotten together and made other arrangements a long time ago.  This is THEIR livelihood.   Instead, half of them flew off to Europe to play hockey, which made it appear as if they were more concerned with playing somewhere, rather than getting a deal done.  Fight or flight, I guess.  And now some of those players have been hurt (physically) and some have been hurt by the lack of progress, miscommunication, idle threats, family pressure, peer pressure, guilt, homesickness, etc.  Every time somebody posts something on Twitter, they get their hopes up for a resolution.    Let's face it, it's un-Canadian to make your fellow hosers suffer through the Holiday season with only the World Junior Championships to look forward to.  With all due respect to the Hamilton Bulldogs, Toronto Marlies, Kitchener Rangers, London Knights and Dundas Real McCoys, a Christmas with no NHL is like a donut without the coffee.  The two just go together.