Let’s talk about a life without sports on TV

So, what’s life going to be like without sports? How can TSN and Sportnet fill all that air time with the playground shut down due to coronavirus?

Not to worry kids.

Both our national sports networks have clever, innovative programmers, plus expansive libraries full of film featuring vintage, classic events that can be aired 24/7. And, hey, some of it might even include teams from outside the Republic of Tranna.

Just don’t count on it.

As a matter of fact, we’ve already had a sneak peek at what the Tranna-centric TSN and Sportsnet have planned while the coronavirus has all sports shut down. Here’s the menu:

Midnight: Replay (black and white) of 1967 Stanley Cup final, Maple Leafs vs. Montreal                        Canadiens.
3 a.m.:   Interviews with every member of the Leafs who isn’t dead.
4 a.m.:   James Duthie and the panel gather ’round a Ouija board and interview every                             member of the Leafs who is dead (black and white).
5 a.m.:   Replay of Maple Leafs ’67 victory parade (black and white).
6 a.m.:   Special edition of The Reporters, where Dave Hodge, Michael Farber and Steve                       Simmons pretend they remember ’67.
7 a.m.:   Replay of Auston Matthews’ first NHL game.
10 a.m.: Interview with Auston Matthews about his first NHL game.
11 a.m.:  James Duthie and the panel break down each of Auston Matthews’ four goals in his                 first NHL game. (Jeff O’Dog gets bored and hungry and leaves the studio after the                    third goal.)
Noon:     Leafs Lunch with Jeff O’Dog, Andi Petrillo and Noodles McLennan. O’Dog is still                 bored and hungry, so he rejoins James Duthie and the panel to talk more about                         Auston Matthews.
1 p.m.:   Replay of 1991 Grey Cup game, Tranna Argos vs. Calgary Stampeders.
4 p.m.:   Interview with Rocket Ismail about the beer can one fan tossed at him on his TD                     run in the ’91 Grey Cup game.
5 p.m.:   Special CFL on TSN feature hosted by Rod Smith, who goes in-depth with the only                 six people in The ROT who still attend Argonauts games.
6 p.m.:   Sports Centre; Rod Smith spends an hour to confirm there are no games scheduled.
7 p.m.:   Glen Suitor Unplugged—Why I Left My Day Job to Become a Roadie for My Man                 Crush, Keith Urban.
8 p.m.:   Celebrity Hot Stove special, featuring Drake, Spike Lee and Jack Nicholson in                         conversation with celebrity host Dr. Phil, who moderates a discussion that asks the                 question: What makes a grown man make a complete ass clown of himself at a                       sports event?
9 p.m.:   Maple Leafs Poker After Dark.
10 p.m.: Maple Leafs 8-Ball After Dark.
11 p.m.: Maple Leafs Darts After Dark.
Midnight: Repeat loop.

Midnight: Replay of Game 7, Tranna Jurassics vs. Philly 76ers.
3 a.m.:   Interview with Kawhi Leonard about The Shot.
4 a.m.:   Interview with Drake about The Shot.
5 a.m.:   Drake interviews Leonard about The Shot.
6 a.m.:   Replay of Game 6, Tranna Jurassics vs. Golden State Warriors.
9 a.m.:   Interview with Drake about winning NBA championship.
10 a.m.: Replay of Tranna Jurassics victory parde.
Noon:    Highlights of Drake’s courtside antics.
1 p.m.:   Drake explains his courtside antics.
2 p.m.:   Replay of Game 6 of 1993 World Series, Blue Jays vs. Philly Phillies.
3 p.m.:   Feature on Joe Carter called “Touch ‘Em All, Joe.”
4 p.m.:    Interview with Joe Carter, who confirms he touched ’em all.
5 p.m.:    A ‘Where Were You When?’ special featuring various celebrities from the                                Republic of Tranna, who recall where they were when Joe Carter touched ’em all.
6 p.m.:   Sports Central with Carly Agro and Eric Thomas, who spend an hour to confirm                     there are no games scheduled.
7 p.m.:    Replay of 1992 World Series, Blue Jays vs. Atlanta Braves.
10 p.m.:  Interview with Drake, who explains why he isn’t a Blue Jays groupie.
11 p.m.:  Panel discussion among Sportsnet anchors who discuss why they talk about Drake                  so much.
Midnight: Repeat loop.

About the Great Beer Chuck…beer and baseball…racism at Rogers Centre…and the Rocket dodging a beer can

I cannot survive in a 140-character world, so here are more tweets that grew up to be too big for Twitter…

It has been a good week for sanctimony, theorists and figurative lynch mobs.

Really, all that was missing in the fallout from the Great Beer Chuck in the Republic of Tranna was a grassy knoll and a grainy Zapruder film that might or might not have been doctored. I swear, when cops identified the culprit who hurled a partially consumed can of beer at Baltimore Orioles outfielder Hyun Suh Kim at the Rogers Centre on Tuesday night, I was shocked his name wasn’t Lee Harvey Somethingorother.

Would any man from Hamilton toss away a can of beer with so much beer still in the can?

I don’t mean to make light of someone chucking a can of brown pop at an athlete on the playing field. I mean, with better accuracy, the hops-and-barley missile might have whomped Kim on the melon and Ken Pagan would be looking at a charge a tad higher up the criminal code than public mischief.

As it is, though, it has amounted to crying over spilt beer. And, my goodness, such crying.

The Toronto Star apologized to the city of Baltimore on behalf of the city of Toronto, describing the dastardly deed as “a misguided attempted to win what after all is just a game.” In case the good citizenry of Baltimore is too dense to follow the plot, the Great Beer Chuck was also “childish” and “totally unacceptable” according to the Star. So there.

Not to be outdone, the Toronto Sun, a Postmedia chattel known for operating on the chintz, somehow scraped together enough money to offer a $1,000 reward for the capture of the desperado, who fled the scene scant seconds after lobbing his aluminium grenade during the seventh inning of the Major League Baseball wild-card playoff joust between the Orioles and Tranna Blue Jays (their players, incidentally, were in no danger of a beer bombardment). Imagine the surprise when Postmedia checked its own payroll and discovered the name Ken Pagan, a chap who draws a stipend as a sports copy editor working out of Hamilton. Guess, he won’t be receiving a Christmas bonus this year. But, then, who at Postmedia does?

It wasn’t merely the media crying us a river, though. John Tory, the mayor of all the people, lent his voice, branding the beer-chucker a “loon-ball,” and isn’t that an interesting thing for a mayor from the Republic of Tranna to say, given that a loon-ball not so long ago sat in the big office at City Hall (hello, Rob Ford).

The deafening din will, of course, lessen in volume because media have a short attention span. The sanctimonious scribblings shall give way to a new chew toy for them to gnaw on, and the Great Beer Chuck will have been reduced to what it actually is—one person in a crowd of 50,000 tossing a can of beer on to a baseball field.

Again, there’s no attempt here to make light of an action that might have been injurious. But, come on. Reward money? Open letters to an entire city? Name-calling from elected government officials?

I think what everyone needs right now is a beer break. Just don’t toss the can away.

Ken Pagan has hired lawyers and his legal beagles believe proof of his innocence is in his postal code: “He’s from Hamilton, so he couldn’t possibly have done this,” they said in an official statement from the law offices of Mason, Matlock & McBeal. “Whoever heard of a man from Hamilton throwing away a beer can before the can was empty?”

Yes, baseball can be boring when Buck Martinez is behind the microphone.

Interesting take on the great game of rounders in a Globe and Mail editorial: “Baseball is generally a slow-paced, cerebral and potentially boring sport,” writes an unidentified scribe. “Alcohol makes the game more engaging for some fans…” While it’s true that baseball and beer go together like Trump and brain farts, I’ve never found the game so boring that it’s driven me to drink. Except, of course, when Buck Martinez is doing the play-by-play. Then there’s never enough beer in the fridge.

If I’m Blue Jays officials—and, by extension, Major League Baseball mucky-mucks—I’m more concerned about the racial taunting that took place the other night at the Rogers Centre. In its silly open letter to Baltimore, Toronto Star suggests, “racism? That just isn’t us.” Apparently it is and has been for some time.

If anyone in Winnipeg is feeling smug and tsk-tsking Toronto due to the events of Tuesday night, I remind them of the 1991 Grey Cup at Winnipeg Stadium, whereby some lout had the bad manners to hurl a can of beer at Toronto Argonauts Rocket Ismail at the tail end of his 87-yard kickoff scamper. Like Calgary Stampeders defenders, the beer can missed and Rocket arrived safely in the end zone. There was no great hue and cry, though (most likely because both Hue and Cry were frozen in place on that sub-zero afternoon). We just blamed it on Roughriders fans because, unlike men from Hamilton, they’re not bright enough to finish their beer before tossing away the can.

Patti Dawn Swansson has been writing about Winnipeg sports for 46 years, longer than any living being. Do not, however, assume that to mean she harbors a wealth of sports knowledge or that she’s a jock journalist of award-winning loft. It simply means she is old and comfortable at a keyboard (although arthritic fingers sometimes make typing a bit of a chore) and she apparently doesn’t know when to quit. Or she can’t quit.
She is most proud of her Q Award, presented in 2012 for her scribblings about the LGBT community in Victoria, B.C., and her induction into the Manitoba Sportswriters & Sportscasters Association Media Roll of Honour in 2015.