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Non-baseball items, part II
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C. John
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Sep 23, 2025 10:32PM
Cricket legend and umpire "Dickie" Bird has passed away at age 88,
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Here is a bit of music to start off your day, unless you are up really late and see it now. It is "Intro and Outro" by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, sometimes simply referred to as the Bonzo Dog Band. As you may have guessed they are British. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcrUu...
This may be of interest to some. The Canadian Football League is making some changes to how the game is played.https://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/cf...
The nominations for the Sakharov Prize have been announced. Charlie Kirk is among the nominees, as is Pride Budapest
An item from today's Report on Sport from the Telegraph. Lance may know what this is about as I don't.And finally, a bitter £60m legal battle over the legitimacy of Lewis Hamilton’s Formula One World Championship triumph over Felipe Massa in 2008 – known as “Crashgate” – will finally be heard at the High Court next month.
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I saw that in use when I went to a minor league game in Syracuse last year. The S-Mets actually got the tying run in during the 8th inning on that. Batter challenged a strike call with the bases loaded - ABS showed it was ball four and the tying run scored. Didn’t help them win, though, as they lost in the top of the 9th. But I do like the extra strategy of when to use the challenge
I noted with interest that challenges are limited to the catcher, pitcher or batter. No managers involved.
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https://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/cf......"
As one who watches the CFL late in their season, I like some of the changes not so much the others. Like moving the goal posts back, reducing the size of the end zone and making it harder to score the rouge(especially with reduced end zone area). But I wish they would have kept the 110 yard field.
Listening to the New Release Radar playlist on Spotify. I was looking at the playlist and there was a song "Land of Make Believe" being performed by Les Stabler and Kim Fleming. This caught my eye as there is a song written and performed by Chuck Mangione. The best known recording by him is probably a concert he did at, I believe, Massey Hall in Toronto with Esther Satterfield doing the vocals. It just started playing and it is the same song. On to my Liked Songs playlist it shall go.Just noticed near the end of the playlist is a track entitled "A Christmas Eve Message from Bing Crosby". A little early for that one methinks. Then again I am aware that the record companies probably start releasing new Christmas albums at about this time.
Seattle Seahawks legend Shaun Alexander and his wife are expecting their fourteenth child. They are also grandparents so this child will have nephews/nieces older than them.
This one popped up in my notifications on my phone this morning, though in a shorter version. I recall the match they are talking about taking place but I don't recall who ended up having their head shaved. I also don't recall what led up to that match.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2FiW...
West Ham United has just fired their manager, Graham Potter. It appears they are going to replace him with Nuno Espirito Santo, who was recently fired as manager by Nottingham Forest. And the coaching carousel keeps on spinning. I recall someone once saying that it seemed there were two qualifications you needed to become a major league manager in baseball. One was you had to have been fired elsewhere. Looks like that can apply to Football as well.
Apparently England defeated Canada in the Rugby Womens' World Cup. Oh well. They are the number 1 team and were the tournament favourites.
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Lynx are in big trouble. Not only because of Reeve being suspended but also with Collier tweaking that ankle, three players disappearing this series (McBride, Smith and Carlton) and just overall lousy shooting.
I see that there doesn't seem to be any home field advantage this year at the Ryder Cup.
The following is from The Guardian's coverage of the Ryder Cup.Should Hovland be unable to play in the singles, the US would also remove a player, with both sides taking half a point. This would clearly edge Europe even closer to victory. Neither Donald nor Hovland will want such a situation to play out. Nonetheless, given the lack of sportsmanship afforded to them from the galleries here, the Europeans do not owe this event anything. They also, it must be noted, need no help.
Hovland did in fact have to withdraw so the score at that point stood at USA 5 Europe 12.
The Brisbane Lions defeated Geelong in the Grand Final and thus are the 2025 AFL champions. Unfortunately I do not have a score.
Apparently Bad Bunny will be headlining the Super Bowl half-time show.
A couple of wrestlers this time around. The first is Dewey Robertson who was from, I think, Hamilton, Ontario. He doesn't appear much in this match but I couldn't find much for him. Robertson was a face in Frank Tunney's Maple Leaf Wrestling in Toronto.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOfh0...
The second wrestler was known as The Missing Link. This is his WWF television debut.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGbJr...
The reason I have included these two wrestlers in this post is that they are in fact the same person.
Another did into the world of professional wrestling. This time we are looking at an event involving one Ox Baker which has become known as 'The Cleveland Massacre'. The three wrestlers involved are Mr. Baker himself, Johnny Powers and Ernie "The Big Cat" Ladd. The match itself was between Powers and Ladd but at some point Baker decided to attack Ladd while he was helpless. Ladd and Powers both wrestled as heels or faces so I am not sure who was which, but I am guessing from Baker's involvement Ladd was the face and Powers the heel. As you will see the fans got a little upset at what was going on and stormed the ring. This does not happen all that often. Here is a clip of the ending of the match
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBrSU...
And here is an article that includes details of the match as well as a whole lot more. The match is near the beginning of the match
https://illegalforeignobject.com/2019...
Happy National Coffee Day, which I discovered today is via an ad. And here I am enjoying a cup of coffee right now.
it is also Orange Shirt day up here, though that is not a holiday. My kids had school today. The wife was home from work but I am not sure why.
Listening to a song entitled "London Bridge is Coming Down" performed by a British Group The Spectrum. The title line is sung to the tune of the nursery rhyme 'London Bridge is Falling Down' and right after that line someone sings 'It's gone to Arizona'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdYkm...
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Today is Truth and Reconciliation Day here in Canada. Although it is a holiday it is a somber one and non one where you wish people to have a good (fill in the blank). Thus I shall just wish that everyone have a good day. Playoffs start today if I recall correctly.
On the Ryder Cup, one article I read said maybe Bradley should have picked himself to play. Still, the score at the end was much closer than it was going into the day.Also read that Tom Watson apologized for the behaviour of the fans.
Apparently there are people out there not happy with the NFL's choice of performer to headline the Super Bowl next year. One of them is Ken Paxton, the Attorney General of Texas. He has suggested Jason Aldean as a replacement. Personally I have heard of Bad Bunny but not Jason Aldean.https://www.chron.com/politics/articl...
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I agree with Brina. Husband & I thought Prince was one of the best half time shows.
The NFL also seems to have a young audience it is targeting with its half time shows. Bad Bunny seems to fit that vibe. Going to be an interesting few months until the show methinks.
Looking for something on Spotify and I came across a reference to a track entitled "Subdivisions/Kashmir" on an album entitled 'Baseball Organ in Hi-Fi' by Matthew Kaminski. Given that Subdivisions if one of my favourite Rush songs I had to check it out. It is the same song, and Kashmir is the old Led Zeppelin song.
I know it is only an eight-minute contest but this should be interesting to watch. I daresay, from the article, this is an attempt to get more public awareness for the sport as it is making its Olympic debut in a 2028.https://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/ca...
I am not sure why but all of a sudden I am getting emails listing jobs available in Elbridge NY.
Headline for an item in the WSJ Morning Report read "Pete Hegseth and the Generals". Sounds like a fifties or sixties rock band.
Some music for you now. This is "In Hell I'll be in Good Company" performed by The Dead South. I have heard this before as it appears on one of my Spotify playlists but I don't recall it. I figured from the title it would be by some Psychobilly band. Was wrong. The other surprise I got is when I checked their biography I discovered they are from the Prairies here in Canada.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9FzV...
Jane Goodall has passed away, age 91. No idea what cause of death was. Article didn't say.
The BBC will not be broadcasting what is called The Boat Race. The UK's Channel 4 will be carrying it. Apparently the director of sport at the BBC considers the event too elitist.
It is customary with international Football matches for the players to be accompanied by children. However for an upcoming friendly between England and Wales they will be accompanied by people suffering from dementia. As well the Welsh team will be removing the names from their shirts at half-time. The two countries FAs have teemed up with some charities for this event.
On the topic of the 115 charges against Manchester City Pep Guardiola at one point said the club expected to have a verdict in a month. That was a year ago. There is a possibility of us hearing something this month, but I don't suggest you hold your breath waiting. Here is an article which explains why it is taking so long to get this matter settled.https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/footba...
Given yesterday's news not sure I should be doing this but Happy Smile Day everyone.As well it was on this date back in 1990 that West and East Germany were reunified.
NBC news, and probably others I haven't seen yet, is reporting that the Church of England will be installing a woman as its next Archbishop of Canterbury. I had heard this was a possibility and now it is going to happen. Of course there are those who say it should have happened sooner. However it wasn't until 2014 that the Church of England allowed women to become bishops and the Archbishop of Canterbury she is replacing was the Archbishop back then. Of course there will be those who disapprove of this, just as they disapprove of women becoming priests and bishops.
Czechia is having an election. Only mention this as they have an interesting voting system. The polls opened at 2 pm today and will close at 2pm on Saturday. There is a break overnight.
This should prove interesting. If she is elected by the Diet Japan will have a female Prime Minister. I am sure that there are some opposed to that idea. What is interesting is that she is described as a conservative. Now some of her positions are the same as those of Western conservatives, namely opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage, as well as the idea of there being a female emperor. However, she also refers to World War II as being a war of self-defence and that Japanese war crimes have been exaggerated. Wonder what western conservatives will make of that. She also wants to modify Article 9 which limits what the Japanese military can do. I daresay some politicians might approve of that one.
The World Cup may be posing a bit of a problem for pub owners and Football fans in the UK, and probably other parts of the world as well. FIFA has stated it may be forced to play games either in the morning or late in the day. This is due to how hot it gets in the countries hosting the event in the summer. They found that out during the recent World Club tournament. Players were actually collapsing from the heat. This means that in the UK it will be well after midnight when the games are finishing.
Batman is All-Elite.Here is some wrestling and comic news for you.
https://bamsmackpow.com/dc-comics-set...
Apparently this is Banned Book Week. Started yesterday. The slogan this year is "Censorship is so 1984".
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A Hollywood Ending: The Dreams and Drama of the LeBron Lakers (other topics)Sense and Sensibility (other topics)
The Game (other topics)
The Game (other topics)
Rory Land: The Up-and-Down World of Golf's Global Icon (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Jenny Adams (other topics)Susan Elia MacNeal (other topics)
