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)
