PONDERABLES
How long will it be before the Leafs trade the inconsistent and grossly overpaid William Nylander in order to solve their salary cap problems?
How important will the Blue Jays signing of pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu turn out to be? (More below.
THINGS I FIRMLY BELIEVE
Last Monday’s afternoon “next generation” Leaf game, where kids were front and centre throughout the entire telecast, and which the Leafs ending up winning 8-6, was one of the most entertaining hockey game I’v ever witnessed.
When it comes to sustained entertaining hockey, the World Junior Championship series is second only to the Olympics.
BLUE JAYS SIGNING RYU
Although baseball pundits seem split on the merits of the Jays spending $80 million on a four-year contract for former Dodger pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu, there’s one aspect of it that pleases me.
First, the pundits. Their opinions range all the way from “they vastly overpaid him” to “he’ll make them a contender.” The naysayers point to his age (32), his injury-plagued career, that he’s going to have to face DHs rather than sure-out pitchers, and he’s moving from the pitcher-friendly Dodger Stadium to the hitter-friendly Rogers Centre.
What I’m pleased about is that Jays president Mark Shapiro and general manager Ross Atkins, cynically referred to as “Shatkins” because the latter seems to be basically just a yes-man to the former, finally did something other than opine on the Jays in gobbledygook that only they understand. Shapiro and Atkins are famous for long, rambling, meaningless dissertations about the Jays during press conferences and scrums.
MORE COUNTRY SONG TITLES
While listening to Stingray Country Classics this week I encountered three typical country song titles that I hadn’t heard before: If You Can Live With It I Can Live Without It; Do You Love As Good As You Look; and, Drinking My Baby Off My Mind.
A TEENAGER’S PERCEPTIVE PERSPECTIVE
Our granddaughter turned thirteen a week ago. When asked what career she would probably choose she answered, “I won’t graduate from university until 2028. It’ll probably be one that doesn’t even exist today.”
MY CHILDHOOD CAREER AMBITIONS
Coincidentally, earlier in the week a friend asked me if my childhood ambition was to play in the NHL. My answer was “no.” As I’ve written here before, although I played Junior B hockey in Toronto and Senior A in the Maritimes, I never had any notion of making the NHL, not even as a kid. Quite naturally, his follow-up question was, “Well, what was your childhood ambition?”
I actually had two; one was to work in an office and the other was to be a radio announcer. As I became an accountant with over 3,000 radio broadcasts to my credit, I think it’s fair to say I achieved both.
ANOTHER GUY WHO DID
Multi-talented musician Brian Gatto is another guy who achieved his childhood ambition. While in school (I think in Oshawa) Brian wrote that his ambition was to play in Anne Murray’s band, which he did for many years.
An interesting sidebar here. As Anne’s business manager I negotiated salaries with her band members. One year, Brian suggested that because he played both keyboards and steel guitar he should be paid double. I told him that when he could competently play them both at the same time I’d give it some consideration. Not long after that I dropped in on a rehearsal. During a break, Brian called me over and delighted in playing some notes on the piano with his left hand while at the same time playing corresponding notes on the steel guitar with his right hand. Although I commended his ingenuity and sense of humour, I told him that in order to earn a double salary he would have to play them both at the same time all the time. End of discussion.
MY ADVICE ABOUT CHOOSING A CAREER
Writing the above items about career ambitions reminded me of the many talks I gave throughout my career to high school graduating classes. On these occasions I always insisted that there be a question period, and without fail someone would ask how to choose a career. My answer was always the same: Find something that you enjoy doing so much that you’d do it for nothing, and then do it so well that people will pay you to do it.