Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Another weekly reward...
And on the heels of Kerry Joseph, Matt Kellett and AC Collier's earlier victories, the Renegades claim yet another weekly award. This time it's the Little Ball of Hate, Josh Ranek and his 164 yards on the ground. The two long runs he broke in the first half helped break the game wide open.
Best ever?
It's surprising that I never did get aound to posting shortly after (maybe I could just claim that I've been on a celebration bender) the Renegades decisive win over the Stamps last Saturday. Surprising because it was perhaps the best end-to-end game I've ever seen the Renegades string together. They may have played a better one once upon a time, but I sure can't remember it. The Gades were in control from beginning 'till end with only a tiny glimmer of a scare when the Stampeders inched closer in the second half.
Good times. It was a helllofalotta fun to be on the right end (for a change) what was, by Renegades standards, a trouncing.
Tomorrow the Renegades will be out to prove that it wasn't a fluke. Although the Esks whomped the Gades in the season opener, the Gades have since proven against Montreal and BC that they can hang with the big boys. However Edmonton will also be out to prove that last week's close call against the Bombers was just a fluke.
Must....not...get....ahead....of...myself...... The season is still young.
Good times. It was a helllofalotta fun to be on the right end (for a change) what was, by Renegades standards, a trouncing.
Tomorrow the Renegades will be out to prove that it wasn't a fluke. Although the Esks whomped the Gades in the season opener, the Gades have since proven against Montreal and BC that they can hang with the big boys. However Edmonton will also be out to prove that last week's close call against the Bombers was just a fluke.
Must....not...get....ahead....of...myself...... The season is still young.
Thursday, July 14, 2005
I'm happy, I guess...
... now that the NHL is back.
I'm a huge baseball fan so I don't really pay attention to hockey happenings over the summer anyway, but I'm having an especially tough time getting excited over even an event of this size. I've had to tune out the TEAM1200 on my commute since I'm sick and tired of non-stop hockey talk (which became more and more constant as the deal approached) when it's 40 degrees out. Even a trip to the Corel Centre last night (to see The Boss) didn't do much to stir my interest.
Maybe I'll be more excited when they actually hit the ice again (or if the Sens happen to win the Sidney Crosby sweepstakes), but for now, play ball!
Meanwhile, check the side bar for hockey bloggers who are still truckin' on.
I'm a huge baseball fan so I don't really pay attention to hockey happenings over the summer anyway, but I'm having an especially tough time getting excited over even an event of this size. I've had to tune out the TEAM1200 on my commute since I'm sick and tired of non-stop hockey talk (which became more and more constant as the deal approached) when it's 40 degrees out. Even a trip to the Corel Centre last night (to see The Boss) didn't do much to stir my interest.
Maybe I'll be more excited when they actually hit the ice again (or if the Sens happen to win the Sidney Crosby sweepstakes), but for now, play ball!
Meanwhile, check the side bar for hockey bloggers who are still truckin' on.
Friday, July 08, 2005
Link roundup
Time to clean out some stuff (mostly hockey related to coincide with the imminent return of the NHL) I've been saving in Bloglines and elsewhere.
- Hockeybird has some suggestions about the NHL's upcoming makeover. I especially like the odd-numbered suggestions, along with #10.
- Andrew at Ottawa Senators Fanblog has had some sober second thoughts.
- Along with his usual top-notch takes on the CBA quagmire, Tom Benjamin has picked up on the book meme that's been floating around. I've been-there-done-that with my roundup of essential reading to pass the lockout. His answer to #1 (how many books do you own) could have easily been written by me:
Too many to count, but not enough. I also wear out my library card. (I can still remember how much libraries surprised me as a kid. "I can have these books? Free? As long as I bring them back? Cool." It is still the best deal a person can get anywhere.)
- Tom also had a couple of posts about how the new CBA (as it was rumoured at the time of those posts, about a month ago...yeah I'm behind) might affect the Senators.
- Jes Golbez applies some basic sabermetric theory to the 2003-04 NHL season. Jes has continued to provide great (non-CBA) hockey writing through the lockout. From European hockey, to the "kitchen unit"
, to pictures of Wayne Gretzky with Gary Coleman, and generally was consistently funny and insightful enough thath can be forgiven for calling the 67s uniforms ugly. - David Newhan, hitting a torrid .198 in 8 games with the big club this year, was optioned to the Lynx yesterday, and is none too happy about it. To save you a trip to bugmenot.com, here's the gist:
Newhan, who batted .311 in 95 games with the Orioles last season, isn't in a hurry to report to Ottawa. He'd prefer an assignment with one of the state affiliates to remain close to his wife and infant son.
Guess who'll be getting rubber glove treatment at the airport? In fairness, I can understand the desire to be close to his family (if not the mostly gratuitous shots at the team and city) and I think he's just generally pissed at being sent down as he also takes a few shots at the Orioles in the article for his lack of playing time.
"They really screwed up my [All-Star] break," he said. "I'll figure out when I can get there. That place is a mess and really doesn't deserve to be a Triple-A city at all. It's just a terrible place to be at. Terrible stadium, bad weather, bad fans, bad atmosphere, going through customs. Hopefully I can play in front of some other scouts and somebody will make a move and I'll get a chance to play again." - Welcome to a new sports blogger in Ottawa, Malcolm at Nine to Nine-Thirty Sports (great site name)
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Weekly honours
The 'Gades comeback earned them a pair of weekly honours.
Meanwhile, not content to take the publicity hit/boost (depending on your vantage point), the infamous Mardi Gras promotion is being milked for all it's worth....errrrr..... continued.
Meanwhile, not content to take the publicity hit/boost (depending on your vantage point), the infamous Mardi Gras promotion is being milked for all it's worth....errrrr..... continued.
Monday, July 04, 2005
A surreal evening at the park
What a surreal evening.
It started with the storms rolling through during the pre-game warmups (the fans' warmup, that is, not the players). Things played mostly to expectations in the first half with the Als offense moving downfield more or less at will and the Renegades O picking up where they left off against the Eskimos last week. Only a last second Renegades TD kept the game within reach (and in retrospect proved to be the first of a few momentum-building moments).
Then came the most surreal stretch of all... halftime.
WTF?!?
The halftime show was the most bizarre display of halftime "entertainment" that I've ever seen. Finnish princesses in wedding dresses, convoluted plots, and mascot abduction, topped by a frightful rendition of Sweet Caroline by possibly the world's worst lounge singer. So maybe this is what the grizzled vets of Ottawa football fandom cringe at when recalling the first Glieberman era.
(Here seems as good a place as any to digress and chip in my two pence worth on the infamous Mardi Gras promotion. I was happy, though not all that surprised, to see that it was mostly a non starter. It was a silly idea, and everyone, at least in my neck of the southside, knew it. Most people ignored their beads, if they bothered to pick any up in the first place. Now apparently there was limited 'activity' elsewhere in the upper deck, but by and large, people just ignored it.
Forgetting for a moment that the promotion was sexist - should I as a gent with borderline man-boobs not also have an opportunity at the grand - and immature, the promotion didn't draw new fans, or even target the right ones. It took place in seats that were already sold as part of the $99 promotion. It drove away one targeted demographic, families, while doing little to draw the younger 18-25 group that it was targeting)
Having survived the halftime show, the prospect of more pummelling at the hands of the Als seemed much more tolerable, almost welcome.
The second half started out on script. The Als scored a TD and then tacked on another FG to make it 33-10. While it was painful to watch, part of me was glad that the lopsided score would make it easier for me to make my escape 9:00, which I had pre-set time that I had agreed for my wife to pick me up to head to the cottage for the weekend. I had figured that the game would be more or less over within 3 hours. Although not literally true, it seemed more or less a fait accompli, even after the Renegades countered to make it 33-17.
Shortly before 9:00, as I started on my way out, a friend joked "Too bad you're going to miss the comeback"
Ha ha. The joke was about to be on me.
As I crossed the Bank St. Bridge, a roar. 33-23.
A short 10 min walk later, I meet up with my wife and hear an excited Dave Schreiber (is he ever anything but?) exclaim a Renegade recovered fumble. As we turn onto Bronson, Kerry Joseph connects in the end zone and it's 33-30. It must be a different game on the radio. I can't believe what I'm hearing. Is this the same game I watched for over 3 quarters. As we work our way down Booth, toward the bridge, the Renegades start to drive down the field and maybe, just maybe this is more than a tease. I try to hold my excitement in check, reminding myself that the game might come down to whether Matt Kellett (who was 1 of 1 to that point) was seeing single or double when the time came. Fortunately on this night, he was seeing straight, or at very least guessed correctly as to which set of uprights to aim at. We were going to OT.
As we pulled onto the 50, the Gades and Als traded FGs. Then, to kick off the 2nd OT, Damon (which I always hear as David) Duval was wide, missing the FG attempt after having hit his first 5. The door was wide open. Did the Renegades dare step through. They did, with Kellett nailing his 4th straight FG, and we wound our way through the hills north of Buckingham listening to the postgame with Stephan Jones finally having great reason to justify his eternal optimism. The Als (and more importantly The Don, largely because of his cocky decision to go from the shotgun on a late 3rd and 1 when a FG, or even a rouge could have salted away the Renegades) ware upset.
The farther I got from the stadium, the wackier and more surreal it seemed. Toward the end, it approached the Twilight Zone halftime show in pure unlikelihood. The unbridled optimist in me likes to think that this is the type of win that can spark a team to an excellent season (according to Renegade Relativity Theory, that means a .500 season and making the playoffs). The realist in me is trying to temper those "wild" expectations.
Regardless, this is instantly a Renegade classic (as it would be even if it had other Renegade classics to compete against) and one to savour, no matter what the rest of the season brings.
It started with the storms rolling through during the pre-game warmups (the fans' warmup, that is, not the players). Things played mostly to expectations in the first half with the Als offense moving downfield more or less at will and the Renegades O picking up where they left off against the Eskimos last week. Only a last second Renegades TD kept the game within reach (and in retrospect proved to be the first of a few momentum-building moments).
Then came the most surreal stretch of all... halftime.
WTF?!?
The halftime show was the most bizarre display of halftime "entertainment" that I've ever seen. Finnish princesses in wedding dresses, convoluted plots, and mascot abduction, topped by a frightful rendition of Sweet Caroline by possibly the world's worst lounge singer. So maybe this is what the grizzled vets of Ottawa football fandom cringe at when recalling the first Glieberman era.
(Here seems as good a place as any to digress and chip in my two pence worth on the infamous Mardi Gras promotion. I was happy, though not all that surprised, to see that it was mostly a non starter. It was a silly idea, and everyone, at least in my neck of the southside, knew it. Most people ignored their beads, if they bothered to pick any up in the first place. Now apparently there was limited 'activity' elsewhere in the upper deck, but by and large, people just ignored it.
Forgetting for a moment that the promotion was sexist - should I as a gent with borderline man-boobs not also have an opportunity at the grand - and immature, the promotion didn't draw new fans, or even target the right ones. It took place in seats that were already sold as part of the $99 promotion. It drove away one targeted demographic, families, while doing little to draw the younger 18-25 group that it was targeting)
Having survived the halftime show, the prospect of more pummelling at the hands of the Als seemed much more tolerable, almost welcome.
The second half started out on script. The Als scored a TD and then tacked on another FG to make it 33-10. While it was painful to watch, part of me was glad that the lopsided score would make it easier for me to make my escape 9:00, which I had pre-set time that I had agreed for my wife to pick me up to head to the cottage for the weekend. I had figured that the game would be more or less over within 3 hours. Although not literally true, it seemed more or less a fait accompli, even after the Renegades countered to make it 33-17.
Shortly before 9:00, as I started on my way out, a friend joked "Too bad you're going to miss the comeback"
Ha ha. The joke was about to be on me.
As I crossed the Bank St. Bridge, a roar. 33-23.
A short 10 min walk later, I meet up with my wife and hear an excited Dave Schreiber (is he ever anything but?) exclaim a Renegade recovered fumble. As we turn onto Bronson, Kerry Joseph connects in the end zone and it's 33-30. It must be a different game on the radio. I can't believe what I'm hearing. Is this the same game I watched for over 3 quarters. As we work our way down Booth, toward the bridge, the Renegades start to drive down the field and maybe, just maybe this is more than a tease. I try to hold my excitement in check, reminding myself that the game might come down to whether Matt Kellett (who was 1 of 1 to that point) was seeing single or double when the time came. Fortunately on this night, he was seeing straight, or at very least guessed correctly as to which set of uprights to aim at. We were going to OT.
As we pulled onto the 50, the Gades and Als traded FGs. Then, to kick off the 2nd OT, Damon (which I always hear as David) Duval was wide, missing the FG attempt after having hit his first 5. The door was wide open. Did the Renegades dare step through. They did, with Kellett nailing his 4th straight FG, and we wound our way through the hills north of Buckingham listening to the postgame with Stephan Jones finally having great reason to justify his eternal optimism. The Als (and more importantly The Don, largely because of his cocky decision to go from the shotgun on a late 3rd and 1 when a FG, or even a rouge could have salted away the Renegades) ware upset.
The farther I got from the stadium, the wackier and more surreal it seemed. Toward the end, it approached the Twilight Zone halftime show in pure unlikelihood. The unbridled optimist in me likes to think that this is the type of win that can spark a team to an excellent season (according to Renegade Relativity Theory, that means a .500 season and making the playoffs). The realist in me is trying to temper those "wild" expectations.
Regardless, this is instantly a Renegade classic (as it would be even if it had other Renegade classics to compete against) and one to savour, no matter what the rest of the season brings.
