• It’s almost impossible to know the number of people that Leo Fahey made an impression on in his more than 70 years in Pictou County. The long-time athlete, coach and builder died last week at age 93, and his death no doubt stirred up memories in thousands of people he encountered over the years, whether it be at his family-owned pool hall on Stellarton’s main drag – long since closed – or his work as a coach in track, softball and hockey.
One man can’t change the world, but if he can affect positive change in his own small corner of it, it’s a life well-lived.
So, good for him – and us, too.
• It’s about what we expected.
Last Saturday afternoon’s pre-season game between the Pictou County Crushers and Summerside Western Capitals was….umm…. oh, how should we put it… sloppy and not very interesting – unless you’re a hardcore fan who had literally nothing else to do on a Saturday afternoon.
It’s understandable, though: both sides were trying to shake off the rust and get in sync with their teammates and of course, many of the players on the ice Saturday are no longer with their respective teams, whether they were sent back to Midget or just sent on their way.
So, with the Crushers playing two games against the Truro Bearcats this weekend to wrap up their pre-season schedule (Saturday at home), it will be more watchable than the game against Summerside.
Which shouldn’t be a difficult thing to achieve.
• The New Glasgow PeeWee DQ Blizzards (cool name, by the way) went unbeaten on the weekend to win a provincial baseball championship on their home field. Whether its PeeWee or the major leagues, good pitching gets it done – you don’t win anything without it. No matter the level, you can’t just hit your way to a title. You need the arms.
Random Thoughts for the 2018 National Football League season:
• The Buffalo Bills will be one of the worst teams in the NFL. They have a bad offensive line and no offensive weapons, so it’s going to be a long year in western New York.
• The New England Patriots should never have traded quarterback-of-the-future Jimmy Garrapolo to the San Francisco 49ers, but 41-year-old Tom Brady, always the sensitive sort, felt threatened by the young whippersnapper, and reportedly lobbied Patriots’ ownership to trade his heir apparent.
• Super Bowl matchup: New Orleans Saints vs. Pittsburgh Steelers.
• I am feeling so confident about the Cleveland Browns, I bet a Steelers’ fan $20 on Sunday’s season-opener, when the Browns play the Steelers at home. Of course, most Steelers’ fans are feeling confident, because:
a.) Pittsburgh went 13-3 last year; and b.) they’re playing the Browns (0-16 a year ago, 4-44 in the last three seasons).
Non-Sports Thought of the Week:
• I used to dread this time of year. Going back to school (not as fun as the Rodney Dangerfield movie) was good the first day, then after that it was tough sledding. Boring subjects (seriously, plant biology? And math?), tough-as-nails teachers (the female teachers were somehow scarier and they all taught English!) and sitting in a classroom for what seemed like forever, which was worse than all the rest. Some people love school but I never did, at least not until high school, when we started rocking in bands, chilling out, when everything didn’t seem like one piece of hallway drama after another.
Kevin Adshade is a writer with The News. His column appears each week.
