PONDERABLES
How can Jean Chretien, who was minister of Indian affairs (as the portfolio was then known) for six years in the late 60s and early 70s, and prime minister from 1993 to 2003, expect anyone to believe he didn’t know anything about the abuse taking place at the infamous residential schools?And how can Brian Mulroney, who was prime minister from 1984 to 1993, make the same claim?
How many baseball fans who normally wouldn’t give two hoots about the Atlanta Braves avidly rooted for them simply because of hatred for the Houston cheats?
THINGS I FIRMLY BELIEVE.
Baseball will never attract a new generation of fans when kids have to be in bed before the fourth inning of World Series games begins.
STUNNING HYPOCRISY
The hypocrisy evident in the Glasgow climate change conference is stunning. Given there are only 195 countries in the world, how can the carbon footprint of having over 25,000 attendees possibly be justified? And what about the emissions from all the private jets that ferried them to and from Scotland?
GARY BETTMAN’S DISINGENUOUS PRESS CONFERENCE
In the interest of full disclosure to new followers, I intensely dislike NHL Commissioner, Gary Bettman. I think he’s an arrogant, narcissistic, condescending jerk, who although popular with enough owners to keep his job, tends to insult hockey fans far more often than please them. His virtual press conference last Monday was another example. No doubt Bettman, and possibly Deputy Commissioner, Bill Daly (whom I like and respect), thought a virtual press conference might mitigate the criticism the league has been suffering over the Chicago Black Hawks/Kyle Beach scandal. It did anything but. Following are three examples of typical Bettman disingenuousness.
1) Although it was Rick Westhead’s TSN interview with Kyle Beach that fuelled the intense media scrutiny of the scandal, the Bettman henchman who was deciding which journalists could ask questions refused to recognize Westhead until other journalists began using their follow-ups to ask why Westhead was being ignored.
2) Bettman effectively engineered the dismissal (or forced resignation as the case might be) of John McDonough, Al MacIsaac, Stan Bowman, and Joel Queenville, all employees of the Black Hawks at the time of Brad Aldrich’s alleged impropriety against Beach. But Black Hawk assistant general manager at the time, and current Winnipeg Jets general manager, Kevin Cheveldayoff, has not been disciplined. Bettman’s explanation was that the post of assistant GM is relatively unimportant, implying that it carries little or no authority. This will no doubt surprise the dozens of hard-working assistant GMs who are undoubtedly proud of their jobs and rightly feel their roles are important. Bettman may have had a legitimate reason for not disciplining Cheveldayoff, but looking down his nose at assistant GMs was nothing more than his typically insulting condescension, not in any way an explanation.
3) When asked why the Black Hawks were fined only $2 million for their egregious cover-up of the Aldrich situation, while the New Jersey Devils were fined $3 million for a salary cap violation, Bettman’s weak, dismissive response was that it was “a different context.” Can he really believe that a salary cap violation is far more grievous than a sexual assault?
The press conference having the exact opposite effect that Bettman hoped for was further exacerbated when Daly explained why the league (read Bettman) didn’t take action when it heard about the civil suit Beach, as John Doe, launched against the Black Hawks last December. Daly said it was because the league (again, read Bettman) believed the Black Hawks’ lawyers when they said the suit had no merit.
MORE
Five more reasons for hockey fans to dislike Gary Bettman:
1) The ridiculous goalie trapezoid was instituted because a couple of Bettman’s owner-cronies didn’t like New Jersey goalie Martin Brodeur’s superior puck-handling skills. As Brodeur has long since retired, the trapezoid is a cure for which there’s no known disease. It just disrupts the natural flow of play behind the goal line.
2) The shoot-out, although entertaining as a skills competition segment, is in no way a part of the fabric of the game. It's just a gimmicky way to break a tie.
3) Decreeing, without any convincing explanation, that some games are worth two points while others are worth three.
4) An inexplicable insistence on heading up the inaptly named Department of Player Safety with former goons. The result is baffling inconsistency surrounding punishment for dirty or reckless play.
5) And most harmful of all, the wrong-headed salary cap, a Bettman creation that punishes financially sound teams while not at all helping the teams with lower revenues. A payroll luxury tax, with the proceeds being distributed to the less-wealthy teams, would be much more efficient and effective. (On the other hand, according to Bettman, no salary cap would mean that assistant GMs would have nothing to do.)