Sports fans are about to be subjected to the logic of membership in the Baseball Hall of Fame, which is to say no logic. The 2025 members will be announced next week and the most pressing questions are whether Ichiro Suzuki will be unanimous, and if CC Sabathia will become […]
Bob Dunn – Distant Replay
How being in the sports media gave one writer & broadcaster the opportunity to interview sports personalities he never imagined he’d even meet in places he never imagined he’d be. These will be his stories about their stories — or just about them — from the pages of his past, while working out of Montreal, Winnipeg and Vancouver in the 60s and 70s.
There were five people around the brunch table, eager to talk sports. Being this time of year, the main subject was U.S. college football. Four participants were somewhat expert and knowledgeable…plus me. However, if you’re talking distant replays, this was an ideal demographic. The first “remember when” topic was rivalries. […]
As Alex Ovechkin zeroes in on Wayne Gretzky’s all-time record for regular-season goals (894), it’s like a pursuit from the past. Just a couple of generations ago, Gordie Howe was zeroing in on Maurice Richard’s all-time record (544). While he was slightly before my sports reporter days, I know enough […]
Often, trying to explain “the way it was” is a challenge. Try telling somebody, for example, that boxing used to be stop-the-press news, and the blank stare will leave you speechless. For decades, sports fans were mesmerized by championship fights that attracted the best sports writers, primetime television cameras and […]
It’s not going to happen, but the maestros who orchestrate Major League Baseball had to address the elephant in their room. Yes, MLB had discussed a rule change to allow teams, once every game, to designate any hitter to bat, regardless of where he was in the line-up. This “Golden […]
Just over six years ago, my wife and I were watching a hockey scrimmage featuring prospects of the Vancouver Canucks, a team that historically had many scrimmages more entertaining, or more interesting, than their games. This scrimmage wasn’t especially entertaining but it did feature their fifth top-10 draft pick in […]
The rash of burglaries recently at homes of pro athletes is an old story. Thieves who make hay while the athletes play have long tried to take advantage — along with the trophies, medals and money — by breaking into their homes when nobody’s there. If the athlete’s playing a […]
When I was young, I thought like a young person, full of idealism and believing the impossible was possible. In other words, I was certain the Toronto Maple Leafs not only could win the Stanley Cup, but would. And they did. As a kid, I’d grown up a Leafs fan, […]
This isn’t the way the 111th Grey Cup was supposed to be. In sports, that happens. It wasn’t supposed to be the Toronto Argonauts against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Sunday. It was supposed to be the B.C. Lions against…well, anybody. Why? Because this is the 60th anniversary of when […]
Now that Macklin Celebrini of the San Jose Sharks has returned from a hip injury, he will again be favoured to win the Calder Trophy. That’s what happens to the hockey player who is drafted first overall prior to his rookie season, especially when averaging two points a game, as […]
You always remember the first time, for everything, and for me that includes my first Canadian football playoff game. I was seated in the end zone at the original Winnipeg Stadium, maybe 12 rows up from field level, on bleachers made of 2×10 planks bolted to metal frames through which […]
He scored two touchdowns in an unspectacular seven-year Canadian football career. He threw one pass, caught 12 and ran the ball for 457 yards in those seven years, or less than one-third of what Winnipeg’s Brady Oliveira will finish with when his season ends on Saturday. Yet Karl Hilzinger remains […]
