C is for CLASS

The World Junior Hockey Championships began on Boxing Day in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, with the host country's youngsters opening the tournament with a 16-0 drubbing of Latvia. I don't agree with everything Don Cherry says, but when it comes to issues of class and honour he is spot on. For those who want to know here is a link to Scott Fisher's report of the game on the Toronto Sun website.

Canada, did we really need to light the lamp sixteen times on Latvia? What was the motive: Returning earlier favours to the powerful Latvians? Sending a message to the tiny Baltic nation in case we meet again in the playoff rounds? As if the match was not a forlorn conclusion at 5-0 or 6-0, but sixteen goals?

CBC said "Canada defeats Latvia in style" and includes a picture of Canadian players celebrating in front of Latvia's bench. The Star questions the necessity of the 16-0 scoreline on their website, so there are some people in Canada that question the players need to go over the top. TSN would not except anything less than one goal against, so I neglected to provide a link to their pro-Canadian bias, over-the-top, fate of the world at stake reporting of the 16-0 'thumping'...?

I couldn't help it; I had to include it.

Going back to what I said earlier, Don Cherry acknowledges the presence of 'the karma of the game' and 'hockey gods'. When scores such as 16-0 or 82-0 (see Women's Hockey: Slovakia vs Bulgaria) take place, the gods have a way of administering payback in future games, if not the next game. Dear Canada, when you are down 1-0 and hitting post after post to a team that took only one shot on net, remember this day.

Sixty Seven: Trials and Tribulations of a Leafs Fan

My boss is a Bruins fan, and Monday was the first day of work since my Leafs beat his Bruins 2-0 in a regular season game on Saturday. My new co-worker is a Leafs fan as well, but he loves to rub things like this in. I used to do that, but when I realized Leafs fans like me did similar things since '67, I stopped (almost).

Is this our existence? Is this the end for us? Will we end up like our beleaguered baseball brothers forced to live out our lives paired on random benches spouting cliches about days gone by such as...

"Joe Carter worked for peanuts, LITERALLY worked for peanuts!"

"Who scored that goal in '93? Was it McDonald?" "Borschevsky." "Who?" "BORSCHEVSKY!" "Never heard of him..."

"This will be the Cubs year..."

When I move out, I'm changing teams...

(Special thanks to "TheMadHockeyBlogger" and "beachdust" from the Youtube community for video credits)

Step on a Stepbrother?

(But she's so pretty! I mean the other women look like they lost a fight with a 'two by four'... Oops!)

I haven't updated my blog in awhile. The last month at work was hectic, and I did not have lots of time and energy to spend on The Franchise. While I have a spare moment, I decided to talk about this month's current hot topic.

Since 1997, my stepbrother, whom my Mom claimed as her 'pride and joy' until recently, won every title imaginable. I believed Tiger Woods was the yardstick by which Mom measured my accomplishments, so it was easy to feel in second place. His greatest accomplishment on a golf course, which is his U.S. Open victory in 2007, remains the most remarkable individual sporting moment I ever saw; what is more incredible is that he played better golf on one leg than most if not all golfers in the world on two. Nevertheless, Tiger Woods was 'everything my Mom ever wanted in a son', until...

It would be easy to harp on Tiger after recent news of his infidelity drove the #1 golfer to playing his home golf course in the still of night. I am disappointed not just because a man cheated on his wife and kids, thus crippling the family unit, but another one of my heroes went out like a villain.

Keep in mind Tiger was once 'everything my Mom ever wanted in a son', so excuse me for not celebrating my return to the good graces of my Momzo. Tiger's story is similar to that of many young men in this world: How many young men with money, fame, power, ability, or intellect ever heard the world tell them 'No'? Nothing is impossible for us, and when we are successful the world is our biggest fan. There are examples of this everywhere: Asking for our autographs, shaking our hands, sliding a free drink down to us at the local, and as Frank Herzog of 'Skins radio fame said in an interview "giving us all the goodies - even the cocaine", or the women.

Whether we are athletes, analysts, prognosticators or die-hard fans, each of us have a duty to each other and to those we hold dear to keep things in perspective and not fall victim to the hype around our money, fame, power, ability, or intellect. After all, when those things go away, character is all you have to your name and that never goes out of style.

Happy Holidays

This is Phil Wood from The Franchise wishing all my readers a very Merry Christmas. Thank you for your support in 2009, and best wishes to you and yours in 2010.