PONDERABLES
Why doesn’t MLB mandate that all teams always display players’ names on their jerseys?
Is there no limit to Justin Trudeau’s hypocrisy?
THINGS I FIRMLY BELIEVE
Too many politicians have parked their principles and consciences.
Dan Shulman and Joe Buck are by far today’s best baseball play-by-play announcers.
Angel Hernandez is the worst umpire in MLB history.
BILL MORNEAU’S SWAN SONG
I watched Bill Morneau’s “resignation” speech with special interest because I knew I’d be musing about it, but as the social media folks exclaim these days: OMG! That speech had more spin on it than a Nolan Ryan fastball. There are so many pejorative adjectives that apply to it that I’ve had a hard time choosing one, so here a few from which you can make your own choice: absurd, banal, baseless, fatuous, vapid, improbable, unbelievable, empty, useless, inane, inadequate.
In addition to explaining his so-called resignation, Morneau also said that he’s going to apply for the post of secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Co-operation & Development, which is even more absurd than his explanation for “resigning.” First of all, he can’t just send in an application, he has to be nominated by the government of Canada, which is to say, by Justin Trudeau. Trudeau might do that as an all-around face-saving ploy. But there are thirty-seven countries that make up the OECD, and Canada’s Donald Johnston was its secretary-general from 1996 until 2006. Canada will not fill another OECD secretary-general role in my grandchildren's lifetimes, let alone Bill Morneau’s.
CHRYSTIA FREELAND
As my regular readers know, I’m a fan of Chrystia Freeland, mostly because she’s often the only adult around the Trudeau cabinet table. While I don’t believe her having written on finance and economic issues qualifies her for the position of finance minister, her toughness, intellect and communication skills do. Unless and until Mark Carney gets elected to parliament she’s clearly the best choice. (I mused a while back that this cabinet is probably the weakest in Canadian political history, and given that a journalist, even as competent as Freeland is, has to be given the finance portfolio, I confidently rest my case.) That she’s retaining the deputy prime minister role gives her enormous power, which some observers see as a stepping stone to the Liberal leadership, which would create an enormous conundrum for the party. I have it from a reliable source that Mark Carney’s ambition also doesn’t end with the finance portfolio, but rather that he, too, has his sights set on leading the party.
HOCKEY FIGHTS
I played a lot of hockey, Junior B in Toronto, Senior A in the Maritimes, and finally in a high-level industrial league in Toronto. I saw lots of fights, and even though I was an undersized goalie (or perhaps because I was) I had a few myself, including, as unlikely as it may seem, one with Dave Keon in Junior B when he was with the St. Michaels Buzzers and I was with the Lakeshore Bruins.
I was never a fan of the staged fight, and I’m not in favour of its contemporary cousin - - the fight designed to “get your team going.” Neither is a legitimate part of the game. But when you have ten competitive, elite athletes moving at 20 mph or more, in a relatively small enclosed space with no out-of-bounds area, carrying clubs, and crashing into each other, there will always be fights.
REMEMBERING LEFTY REID
Lefty Reid passed away this week in his 93rd year. I knew Lefty fairly well during his twenty-five-year tenure as curator of the Hockey Hall of Fame; two memories stand out. When Lefty came across an old Turofsky picture of me when I was briefly a back-up goalie for the Weston Dukes, a Maple Leaf Jr. B team, he gave me a copy, an enlarged version of which still hangs on the wall in our workout room. Then there was the evening during the late 60s or early 70s when Lefty and I were having dinner with Bobby and Joanne Hull at their farm near Picton, Ontario. Lefty was trying to get some Hull memorabilia for the Hall of Fame. During the main course, one of their epic loud, long, and obscenity-laced arguments broke out. A few minutes into the raging battle, which was obviously going to last quite a while, Lefty and I got up and quietly departed. Bobby told me later that they didn’t even notice we were gone.
(N.B. Brothers Lou and Nat Turofsky were Canada’s most famous sports photographers. About fifteen years later, Lou’s daughter, opera singer Riki Turofsky, became a client of mine.)