July 4 – U.S. Independence Day but who cares. If they had not tossed out Geogie’s Red Coats think of the consequences. They would have been part of Canada and Harper would be the PM of North American. Then again, probably not as we would not have the Louisianna Purchase to get the West and Seward would not have been in power to exercise his folly and buy Alaska. However, 70 years ago today was an important event in the sporting world.

Lou Gehrig’s disease – (ALS) - 70 years ago today, Lou gave his “historic” “luckiest man alive” speech at Yankee stadium. Not because he was going to have a disease become synonymous with him but because he celebrated his life, not what was happening to him. Here is the text of that speech – some thoughts we should all consider:

"Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. I have been in ballparks for 17 years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.

"Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn't consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I'm lucky. Who wouldn't consider it an honour to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball's greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Sure, I'm lucky.

"When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift – that's something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies – that's something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter – that's something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so that you can have an education and build your body – it's a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed – that's the finest I know.

"So I close in saying that I might have been given a bad break, but I've got an awful lot to live for. Thank you."

I have a bit of the audio – just the lead and tail end.

Gehrig died just two years later from ALS that is still without a cure today. Here’s the article.

Next – The free agents are dropping like flies – Nash, Ryan . . . Yo Brian – What’s up? Still looking for grinders instead of hockey players. Maybe the old Broad Street Bullies uniforms are available as the Leafs’ new gear. I notice the Fifth Estate is now jumping on the “didn’t you say that . . ” bandwagon.

MOHA – love to keep hearing the stories. Maybe it is petty, but it is fun. I see that folks have tried to edit my Coach and Convenor Guidelines for 2009/10. Search and replace is a wonderful thing, but you still need to read and understand the content. By the way, 20% of $9.000 is NOT $1,500. I know complex math is a challenge for some folks. When you fix that, you may want to take some “format” lessons as things are sliding. I am pleased that the address was finally corrected on the Sponsorship form and as a reward, here’s another hint. When you put a date as part of a document footer it should not auto update to allow version control.

West Hill Wins – If you caught the story on West Hill fighting with the Scarborough Hockey Assoc. to avoid being gobbled up and going to court, the battle is over. West Hill won an injunction and it looks like they will be able to affiliate directly with the GTHL (SHA is an affiliate) and West Hill’s 800 House League players will be able to maintain their own league. Somehow, I don’t think this is really over yet. Read the article here.

Part of the impetus for this little skirmish may be that 15 years ago, Scarborough had 10,000 hockey players, now, including the West Hill folks they were trying to shanghai, the number is 2,800! No wonder the GTHL focuses on raiding.

Bulletin – Looks like Orillia Council has approved construction of a new Twin Pad in West Ridge. Orillia was in deep doo doo after the community centre rink was closed, cutting their ice availability in half. This will likely cheer up the scheduler, not to mention the kids. No details on time line were posted.

Happy Independence Day - This could be it for the week-end – I am planning on relaxing with more Hill Street Blues – I did find them entertaining (I watched 4 episodes – Disk 1 last night).

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July 3 – Seems I was either wrong or premature. Mikey is now or was at 9 of the top 10 albums for the Billboard top 10. This is unbelievable in so many ways as with all due respect he was not that good. How can he be compared to the likes of Buddy Holly and the likes of “True Love Ways”. Just goes ta show ys – there is no accounting for taste. Enough already – let’s plant him and move on. I am sick and tired of the media frenzy but I know it is not over.

Be careful out there! – So ended roll call on Hill Street Blues. We will see if you can “go home again” as this was one of my favourite shows back in the time tunnel. While I was out for my noon constitutional (walk) I wandered into future Shop and found Season 1 of “The Hill” and NYPD Blues – another show I liked on for $14.99 each. With 17 and 22 episodes respectively, that works out to less than $1 an hour for reusable entertainment (provided the offspring don’t steal them). – Such a deal! Let’s see how well they stand the test of time and my jaded nature.

All out – I don’t know if anyone has seen this or cares but they don’t do this on my flights. Air New Zealand has taped their safety chant using crew that are wearing body paint – and that’s it. If you watch the videos, they have done a good and “creative” job and will I am sure get the full attention of their prurient passengers. I know I watched it (and the out take bloopers. The body paint job is fantastic. If the link does not work, just search it on YouTube.

Palin packs it in – in an announcement characterized as “a surprise”, one of America’s favourite political whipping “persons” announced she is resigning as Alaskan governor. One side of the coin speculates that she is stepping down to focus on a run for the Presidency in 2012. I don’t know how anyone could support that thought as, in my opinion, she has “9” credibility on any topic other than how to look like an idiot. Perhaps a more accurate assessment would be the impact of her recent win of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists “Sitting Duck” award. An award directed towards the most ridiculed newsmakers in the U.S., or as indicated on the NSNC site:

Sarah Palin won the Sitting Duck Award for “showing it's hard to put your best foot forward when it's in your mouth.”

Further stating Palin’s qualifications, “this is the person to whom columnists have turned in the last twelve months when he or she is desperate for a topic and has to meet a deadline.”

Of course, it is only fair to point out that Bill Clinton is also a “Sitting Duck” award recipient.

Regardless - time to do the obligatory crank up the Barbie (Q that is) and since I have been abandoned this evening it looks like I can do my hot sausages, with a couple of wobbly pops and sit down for some Sarge and "Roll Call". Not a bad way to spend a Friday night.

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July 2 – a very quiet day in the office. It seems that a mid-week July 1 holiday is an excuse for a lot of people to stretch it out through to the week-end and “five” days off.  Dummy me –I was working.

Platform 27 – sounds like a horror movie title but it is not. It simply is the horror movie experience – the contentious “new” track access point at Union Station for GO Transit. Taking a later train downtown on Monday to head to Whitby / Ottawa, I got my first chance to experience it. Limited cover, limited access and egress points, narrow doors and disgruntled passengers who know they are dealing with it leads to a wonderful experience. Even after negotiating the platform, doors and stairs, you have to wend your way through Union Station to get to the GO Concourse (in my case only to find I had to turn around and head back through Union to track 13. My first thought is “what pinhead” designed this one – clearly not a system user. Wait for the fist fights, casualties or lawsuits on this one! I will stick with my track 4 and 5 , thank you very much.

Karl Malden – joined the cast of entertainment industry names who have “punched-out” lately. However, he made it to 97, which is much more reasonable and accepted than 50. Probably best remembered for two things – the crusty cop (along with Michael Douglas) on the Streets of San Francisco, and flogging AMEX – don’t leave home without it – hope he didn’t. either there have not been many competing stories or the recent hit list has seemed longer over the last two weeks.

Chart Toppers - in what can only be termed as a quirk of fate, it appears that being a dead celebrity does have a monetary value. Indications are that of the top 10 Billboard albums this week eight of them will be Michael Jackson related. Seven of them as a solo artist and one with the Jackson Five. If that is the case, I think it has to be a record that one artist has eight of the top 10 slots (for albums). It is even harder to fathom for someone like myself who would have a hard time identifying even one of his songs that I liked. Thriller, probably comes the closest.

Burke -- it would seem that Brian Burke has truly bitten off more than he can chew. I also love being a prophet in that I still contend he has not got a hope of turning around the Leafs to be any type of a competitive team in the near future. His current maneuvers to "add toughness" are not likely to add much to the hockey playing ability of the team. While they may be have more on people in their defensive zone, I haven't seen a lot of scoring punch added to the agenda and goaltending is still a question mark. While a number of other teams have entered the free-agent derby to pad their rosters, some of them for a long long time, the leafs appeared to be following their normal strategy of waiting till all the key free agents are gone before making their move. In any event, they're likely aren't very many that would want to come to Toronto and even if they did, what could they really add to the balance of the team. I would have to suggest that the upcoming season is not going to be much better than the last. It seems that more and more people are starting to come around to this view.

Hossa - signs with the Blackhawks for 12 years -- based on his experience with Detroit does that mean the Hawks are doomed?

Development fees -- glad to see that Oakville is now big news in the Toronto Star. The online lead for the GTA section profiles the battle shaping up over development fees. The current regime in both Oakville and Halton based a large part of their election campaign on making developers pay their fair share. Now that it's time to pony up, developers (as represented by Peter Gilgan of Mattamy Homes). Read the article here. I'm sure we'll hear a lot more about this one. Read the responses following the article as the developer side of the argument is not receiving a lot of support.

Olympic tryouts orientation -- the invite list has been published for Canada's 2010 Olympic hockey team orientation camp (I think that orientation is simply a euphemism for tryouts as no NHL player wants to consider himself having to try out for a team). The really good news is on the list of five goalies Oakville's own Steve Mason has been invited. While there are no guarantees, let's all hope he has a great "orientation" for a good shot at a berth with the team.

I think everybody will be looking at the list trying to figure out who they think should be on it. Oftentimes an easy way to start is to identify who you think clearly should not be there and see how many are left. I will have to work at that. I already have a couple in mind.

Invitees:

Goaltenders (5)	Forwards (25)
Martin Brodeur (New Jersey)	Jeff Carter (Philadelphia)
Marc-André Fleury (Pittsburgh)	Dan Cleary (Detroit)
Roberto Luongo (Vancouver)	Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh)
Steve Mason (Columbus)	Shane Doan (Phoenix)
Cam Ward (Carolina)	Simon Gagné (Philadelphia)
Defencemen (16)	Ryan Getzlaf (Anaheim)
François Beauchemin (Anaheim)	Dany Heatley (Calgary, Alta./Ottawa)
Jay Bouwmeester (Edmonton)	Jarome Iginla (St. Albert, Alta./Calgary)
Dan Boyle (San Jose)	Vincent Lecavalier (Tampa Bay)
Brent Burns (Minnesota)	Milan Lucic (Boston)
Drew Doughty (Los Angeles)	Patrick Marleau (San Jose)
Mike Green (Washington)	Andy McDonald (St. Louis)
Dan Hamhuis (Nashville)	Brenden Morrow (Dallas)
Duncan Keith (Chicago)	Rick Nash (Columbus)
Scott Niedermayer (Anaheim)	Corey Perry (Anaheim)
Dion Phaneuf (Calgary)	Michael Richards (Philadelphia)
Chris Pronger (Philadelphia)	Derek Roy (Buffalo)
Robyn Regehr (Calgary)	Joe Sakic (Colorado)
Stéphane Robidas (Dallas)	Patrick Sharp (Chicago)
Brent Seabrook (Chicago)	Ryan Smyth (Colorado)
Marc Staal (N.Y. Rangers)	Martin St-Louis (Tampa Bay)
Shea Weber (Nashville)	Eric Staal (Carolina)
	Jordan Staal (Pittsburgh)
	Joe Thornton (San Jose)
	Jonathan Toews (Chicago)

 Earhart disappears - with the recent aircraft tragedies, it is an odd coincidence that this is the day in 1937 when Amelia Earhart’s aircraft disappeared. No trace was ever found to solve exactly what happened.

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July 1 -- Happy Canada Day. Despite the scurrilous rumor that today was a holiday I got home from Ottawa at 7:15 p.m., just in time to get pointed to the barbecue with instructions to start cooking. That being the case there won't be much posted this evening. I am too busy checking labour laws to determine what recourse I have.

No juice -- while in Ottawa, I indicated that I would try to post on my Microsoft MySpace site. Minor problem, in addition to being my usual busy self, in packing my notebook (office version), I somehow neglected to include the power cable. With only what ever battery life I had, important items like blogging had to drop down the priority list so that I could use what juice I had to supplement my Crackberry. There is nothing like that feeling when you reach into the bag for your power cable and realize it's not there.

No traffic -- traffic through Ottawa from Kanata to Rockland is typically brutal based on limited route options, road construction and a lot of traffic. It was amazing today how bare the roads were for July 1. Regardless, it was still a 4 hour drive. on the way back to Whitby where the adventure had started.

No energy -- call it a day as it back to the office tomorrow to catch up on my trip notes and all the exciting things that have stacked up over the last few days. A typical comment still is -- it's hard to believe the year is already half over. I will deal with a calendar update later.

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June 28 -- Sunday night of a pleasant weekend. Ignoring a little bit of rain it was a good weekend for lounging around. I suspect from a blogging perspective as we go through this summer you will get limited content from me on a Saturday or Sunday. Not that that's a bad thing as all of us should be doing something other than sitting around a computer when we have the weather and opportunity to enjoy the outdoors.

Seven Wonders -- the Toronto Star has published a list of the seven wonders of the sports world. With first place going to the birds nest stadium in Beijing, I think there was a little homer influence in identifying the Rogers center as number two. Interestingly, Fenway Park shows up on the list as number three so two of the top three attractions are baseball stadiums. Having not seen them all, but looking at some of my own favorites, I would've probably found a spot for Dodger Stadium (Chavez Ravine), the home of the Los Angeles Dodgers that was built for them when they moved to LA from Brooklyn. I think this was the first stadium of its type ever built with no view obstructed seats -- i.e. no visible pillars. Unfortunately, a number of other icons are already gone -- or going, like Yankee Stadium, Briggs Stadium, the old Chicago Stadium and some others. I do have to agree with Pebble Beach, but I wonder why it is as low as number six. Clearly, I think it should be the concrete convertible.

On the road again -- bright and early tomorrow I am taking the scenic route to our nation's capital. Not sure if Canada Day week is a good time to be heading this way but that's the way it works out. Given my tour on the way down, meetings on Tuesday, and the return planned, it looks like I will be foolish enough to be "working" on the Wednesday stat holiday. Bad planning on my part.

Blog vacation -- given that I am not sure what Internet access I will have while traveling, this may be my last entry until Thursday. In the event that I do get hooked up, it won't be via my normal FrontPage application posting but I will go back to using my Microsoft MySpace location via the link below.

http://minorhockeyfan.spaces.live.com/

Not sure if they serve the beaver tails in the summer, or if they have the same allure as they do on a crispy winter day, but I may have to go after my sugar fix anyway.

Certification -- not a good year for yours truly. As most of you are probably aware anyone certified at the intermediate coaching level under the NCCP program was originally promised -- good for life. As we have all found out life is over this year as anyone with the intermediate designation who wishes to stay current must either take a refresher course or accumulate 20 CEP program points. Through some of the general staff I have done over the last three years -- which is all that counts -- I think I have about 12 points. So guess who has to take a coach refresher -- more on that later.

As a double whammy, I am also a certified trainer and through general interest in the area have established myself as a level III HTCP trainer. Similar to coaching, the trainers program regardless of level requires that you recertify every three years as well. Incidentally, my trainers ticket is due this year as well -- expiring August 31. The unfortunate news on top of that is that as a level III there are only two places where I can recertify this year, a weekend at Wilfrid Laurier under the auspices of the OHA, or August 30 at the HDCO head office in Toronto. If I don't take one of these two programs, I lose my level III status and have to go back to square one. It doesn't matter that I have had my level III for 12 years, you have to go through the process again. Besides that it's not the standard 50 bucks to pick up your level I -- it's $175 for the privilege of upgrading. However, thems the breaks. And by the way, if anybody cares in all the years I was coaching, and taking Speak Out, NCCP CHIP, NCCP Coach, Intermediate NCCP Coach, HTCP trainer I, HTCP trainer II and HTCP trainer III plus renewals, I never charged one dying to any of the teams I coached or received any partial reimbursement from the MOHA. As a matter of fact, I will have to pay a premium of $15 versus the normal refresher fee of $50 if I take the refresher in Oakville since I am no longer remember the Association -- money grab 101.

When (and if) I put my clinic application form into the MOHA I will post a notice here to ensure that it does not conveniently get lost.

Elephants or Pandas -- just for the heck of it into and out of light note it seems the zookeepers in thr Royal Elephant Kraal in Ayutthaya province of Thailand decided to dress up their boring elephant a little. No, this is not a genetic anomaly, but rather an attempt to have folks in Thailand pay a little more attention to their elephants. Do you think you will work?

 

For you car guys -- this is the day in 1953 when the first Corvette was assembled at a GM plant in Flint Michigan. The first one was handed assembled, featured a Polo white exterior with a red interior. The doors on these early models were designed to be opened only from the inside and did not have any exterior door handles. The price tag on the early models was around $3,500. Performance was not exactly what you would call sporty on the initial models as they are 0 to 60 clocking took 11 or 12 seconds. However, it is one of my all-time favorite cars. When I stayed in California the "Summer of '69", the guy with the corner service station (in Orange Country where I was staying before it became a TV show) had two - q red one and a white one on his lot - unbelievable.