Random Sports Thoughts as Autumn Approaches
• Logan Vande Meerakker scored two goals in his junior A debut with the Pictou County Crushers on Sept. 12, in a 3-1 win over the Fredericton Red Wings. Vande Meeraker had played two years of junior B hockey with the Pictou County Scotians, and more than a few people wondered why he wasn’t playing in a higher-caliber league. Statistics aren’t everything, but this was his stat line from last season: 12 goals and 39 assists in 27 games, which is very good for any player, let alone a defenceman.
To be fair, some players have the talent to play junior A but instead opt for junior B, where the expectations of commitment aren’t as intense and where they can be “the guy” instead of just “one of the guys.”
If anything, his ascension to junior A shows other junior B players that the possibility of advancement is there.
• The New Glasgow DQ Blizzards (under-13) and Stellarton Albions (under-15) both went road-trippin’ this past weekend and won Atlantic baseball championships in Springhill and Newfoundland, respectively. Four seasons ago, with many of the same players contributing, the Albions captured a U11 Atlantic title, so they’ve had a very impressive run over the past few seasons.
• An interesting baseball tidbit found while perusing the Internet: on July 25, 1956, in a 9-8 Pittsburgh win over the Chicago Cubs, future Pittsburgh Pirates hall-of-fame outfielder Roberto Clemente hit the only game-ending inside-the-park grand slam in the history of professional baseball.
Clemente, who was killed in a plane crash 1972 while on a humanitarian mission to earthquake-ravaged Nicaragua, isn’t nearly as well-known of many other legends of the game, but he is considered one of the greatest players who ever stepped on a baseball field.
Non-Sports Thoughts of the Week:
• Guy walks into a Superstore cigarette shop in Halifax and robs the place, after asking for money and a pack of smokes. If you’re going to hold up a cigarette store, shouldn’t you at least demand a whole carton? Or even two cartons?
• The audit committee meeting prior to a town council session the other night in Pictou was very fascinating, but there were moments when I’d be thinking, 'why didn’t I bring my cell phone, instead of leaving it at home?' That way, I could surf the Internet for work-research purposes. Or whatever.
Once or twice, a burst of laughter came from the big table where audit committee members were seated, so someone must have said something funny about payrolls, or projected surpluses.
In those very council chambers, on a wall behind and to the right of the mayor’s chair, is a nice painting of the H.M.C.S. Pictou, a Royal Canadian Navy corvette which took part in convoy escort duties during the Second World War and served in the Battle of the Atlantic.
Here it is:
The painting was tilted just slightly to the right, and I wanted to straighten it because that sort of thing bothers me, but that might have looked weird in the middle of a meeting. I did later inform the CAO, however, and he took care of the problem, which is what CAOs are used to doing.
• Will Brian Mulroney ever go away? Is his level of self-awareness so low that that he can’t comprehend he’s one of, if not the, most unpopular prime ministers in Canadian history?
Thanks to him for the nice (legacy-building) building at St.FX, although his legacy had already been, um, shall we say, established.
Kevin Adshade is a writer with The News. His column appears each week.