- What has mysteriously sidelined Jonathan Toews of the Chicago Black Hawks? He missed the entire 2020-21 season without explanation from the Hawks or the medical community.
- Is this the year that a Canadian male matches the exploits of Bianca Andreescu and wins one of pro tennis’s Grand Slam titles? We’re looking at you Denis Shapovalov, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Milos Raonic.
- Are the hard-hitting Blue Jays, led by slugger Vladimir Guerrero, Jr, just one or two starting pitchers away from being a World Series contender?
- Is Aaron Rodgers’ future as a quarterback in Green Bay or as the host of Jeopardy?
- Isn’t it great that when Aug. 5 arrives, the Canadian Football League will REALLY be playing games?
- In light of Novak Djokovik’s dominance at the French Open, has he supplanted Roger Federer as pro tennis’s GOAT?
- Can the Seattle Kraken possibly have anywhere close to the first-year success of Vegas Golden Knights?
- Would a James Harden weight-loss plan begin with shaving off four pounds of beard?
- Can we end the goaltending argument right now and state emphatically that Carey Price is the best in the world?
- If you haven’t tried playing pickleball, what’s stopping you?
- The baseball world is already starting to ask: Who is the Most Valuable Player in the American League — Shohei Ohtani of the Angels or Vladimir Guerrero, Jr., of the Jays?
- How terrific will it be if it’s true that WHL rinks will have no limits on crowd capacity this fall?
- Th question isn’t ‘will Tiger Woods play professional golf again’, it’s ‘will he ever walk without a limp again?’
- Did you hear about Prince Albert’s Kent Adams getting two holes-in-one in a five-hole stretch in a mid-June round of golf at a course near Edmonton?
- Did you know that the odds of that happening are estimated to be in the range of 67 million to one?
- Is the possibility of a Ohtani-Guerrero-Tatis, Jr.-Soto-Acuna-Stanton-Judge-Alonso Home Run Derby must-see TV or what?
- How is it possible that San Francisco Giants are leading the National League West ahead of the pre-season acclaimed best team all time, the Los Angeles Dodgers?
- Who gets the bulk of the blame for the incendiary (and childish) Brooks Koepka-Bryson DeChambeau brouhaha percolating on the PGA Tour?
- Will NHL general managers take a second look at some 5-foot-7 junior superstars in the wake of Cole Caufield’s playoff splash with the Montreal Canadiens?
- How many games, or years, will it take before NFL fans find out whether Trevor Lawrence is the second coming of Joe Montana or merely a long-haired Mark Sanchez clone?
- RJ Currie of sportsdeke.com: “Reuters reported Robert Marchand, 104, was the oldest person to cycle around France’s national velodrome. He completed 15 laps in just under 30 minutes and six bathroom breaks.”
- Comedy writer Alex Kaseberg: “The Green Bay Packers started mini camp, but Aaron Rodgers did not show. As lovely as Wisconsin is, trying to decide between a training camp with huge guys trying to tackle you and a beach in Hawaii with Shailene Woodley is not a tough call.”
- Columnist Phil Mushnick of the N.Y. Post: “If only Aaron Boone were as tough on his players as he is on umps. Three times in less than a week the Yankees didn’t know how many outs there were. Counting to three is difficult.”
- Steve Simmons of Sun Media: “We live in a world devoid of logic: More than a million people ordered pay-per-view for Floyd Mayweather’s supposed fight with internet personality Logan Paul. What exactly, by the way, makes you an internet personality?”
- Former PGA Tour player Willy Wilcox, on Twitter: “People ask me why I don’t try to qualify for the U.S. Open. I say, ‘The problem is you have to play the U.S. Open if you get through and then what do you do then?”
- Pro golfer Richard Bland, active in the world of animal protection: “Two things I can’t stand is three-putting and animal cruelty.”
- Alex Kaseberg again, on the Koepka-DeChambeau feud: “Golf feuds aren’t like most sports feuds. Golf feuds start when someone doesn’t combine neither with nor.”
- From fark.com: “London police to Scottish soccer fans: ‘Please don’t travel to London as there’s nowhere for you to be Covid-safe and you’ll probably get arrested.’ Scottish soccer fans: ‘Y’hwah? for Glasgee bran divvun polisus.’”
- fark.com again: “Mexico is finally punished for homophobic chants by having to play their next two soccer games without fans. Pelting opposing players with debris still OK.”
- Steve Simmons again, quoting a friend of his: “If you have to decide who your starting goalie is, then you don’t have a starting goalie.”
Care to comment? Email brucepenton2003@yahoo.ca
- Bruce Penton
Disclaimer: opinions expressed are those of the writer.
