80 million reasons??

Ok, I'm the first to admit I don't know all that much about soccer. I do know that Cristiano Renaldo may be the best player in the world and that one soccer team has just sold him to another soccer team for a whopping 80 million pounds. What's that in Canadian dollars? 100 million? Whatever, it's lots no matter how you convert it.

I understand it's a lucrative business, but don't you think there's something deeply, fundamentally wrong here? At a certain point you might as well stop counting. Why not make it 20 million pounds and feed people with the other 60?

I'm just sayin.

Football

I'm not a football fan, but I do enjoy a game or two each year. There was a time when I more or less followed it for a while, so I mostly know the rules and the basic strategy.

I watched "Superbowl" game this evening. It was a lot of fun, although it seemed as if penalties played too big a part. Those madcap Americans sure do throw a party around their football, with the fancy soulful version of the national anthem followed by fighter jets and all.

Now the half-time show, that was something else. Somebody should tell Bruce Springsteen it's time to cut out the goofy rock star theatre stuff and just play the music. For some reason he reminded me of Robert de Niro in Meet the Parents. And the choreographed fireworks were way over the top. It just seemed all wrong, and reminded me why I don't don't go to very many of those big stadium music shows.

$23 million

I heard this morning that the NY Yankees baseball club is going to pay some pitcher $23 million each year for throwing a ball. I'm all for paying athletes a good wage. They entertain us. They typically have short careers, and few of them have any other skills. I think $150k to $200k is generous. $23 million? There are people sleeping on grates. How about giving him $230k instead, or even $2.3 million and give the rest to a food bank?

Am I the only guy around who thinks there is something very very wrong with this picture?

Quiet in the streets

...in my "little Portugal" neighbourhood in Toronto, as Germany knocked Portugal out of the Euros. The fellow across the street still has his 15 foot flag nailed to the roof

The horns are honking in the streets around St. Clair Ave...

...here in Toronto. Portugal has defeated Turkey in the Euro 2008. Buddy across the street has a 10 foot Portuguese flag stretched across his roof. Here in the hood, the boys get very, very excited when Portugal wins.

Are you from Canada.....do you play hockey?

Well, it's that time of year Torontonians fear....time for the Leafs to start thinking about golf. Let's celebrate with Jughead and The Hockey Song:
.

I can't tell you how many times my friends and saw these guys play, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. We'd order up a pitcher of "50" and a plate of nachos over at Sneaky Dees and listen to Lopes and the boys play everything from Ace of Spades to the Wreck of the Old 97.

What if.... all athletes caught using performance enhancing drugs

were sent to the big house? It would be a boon to the prison construction industry, for sure.

The question comes up after Marion Jones was sentenced to jail time for lying to congress about her steroid use (plus some bonus months for some kind of check fraud).

It's obvious to me that a huge number of amateur and professional athletes use steroids and growth hormones to prepare for events. Mostly when they're caught, they're just disgraced. This is the first time I'm aware of that an athlete has ended up in the can related to this kind of drug use. I wonder if this is going to change the game? I think the jail time was really not for taking the drugs, but for lying about it. Maybe somebody should ask the Governator (before congress) if he ever used steroids back when he was a champion bodybuilder.

An alternate solution to creating an even playing field might be to open up sports to drugs. What if everyone could take anything? The role of the personal pharmacist would be huge. Would it be better or worse than deception? It seems to me that the game some athletes play is to take the stuff but be undetectable. It must be pretty frustrating for an athlete who wants to compete clean, knowing that the winners are often the cheaters.

Your thoughts?

Soccer madness

I was planning to write this morning about the Italian soccer riot....but I see Mookie has already reported, and included some excellent video footage....so please go on over for a look.

mister anchovy says...so much for soccer being the so-called "beautiful game". Some of these folks need to get a life. This is just a bunch of guys kicking a ball around, people!