Before we get to the meat and potatoes of this week’s
subject I’m going to let you in on a hot tip. Are you ready? This is for all
you risk takers and bettors out there. So here it is…take a sport, any sport
with two teams vying for a championship…phone me…ask me who I am betting on…go
the opposite way…and…voila…cash
in your hands. It won’t work every time but 9 out of 10 ain’t bad. (Writer’s
disclaimer-Betting entails some degree of risk. Bettors should inform
themselves of the risks involved in engaging in any legal or illegal wager
before acting on the advice of said writer.)
Now, if you
had bet on the New York Mets to win the World Series then we’re both losers.
Actually, I didn’t bet anything on the series because-1.) Gambling is one of
the few vices I don’t have…yet…and 2.) I have never been able to convince my
heart what my head knows. There you have it, so congratulations Kansas City
Royals, (insert sarcasm here)-yay. It’s not that they weren’t deserving
champions, or anything, that is one talented ball club they’ve got there, it’s
just that I liked the Mets better, especially after Kansas City beat the Blue
Jays in the American League Championship Series. Enough with the sour grapes
now; let’s move on, shall we?
As with any
sports series these Major League Baseball Playoffs, including the World Series,
had their share of great plays, misplays and some awful weird plays going on at
different times. There were some very cool moments, too.
One of the
coolest, most moving and somewhat sad moments occurred on October 30th
during Game 3 of the World Series at Citi Field in New York City when players,
fans and everyone else in the ballpark on that night joined together to Stand
Up 2 Cancer (please visit-StandUp2Cancer.org). Every person at the ballpark
that night was given a card so they could write a name of someone they know, or
knew, who has had, is battling, or has beaten cancer. Seeing that sea of cards
throughout the entire ball park of roughly 45,000 people was quite a moving
moment.
Sadly
enough, though, as I was sitting there watching the spectacle, I was running
through quite a list of people I knew and know who have or are still battling
cancer. Picking one name for a card would have been very, very difficult
because, unfortunately, there are just way too many to choose from. Actually,
I’m doing an inventory again and I cannot believe how many people it is. I’d
put some names to that too-large number but that always leads to somebody being
left out.
It is,
however, appropriate and timely that the one name that I will use in this
week’s editorial is Dale Blackstock. Dale succumbed to the miserable disease
when he was barely thirty-years old. So sad. Dale was a good friend, workmate,
teammate and one of the funniest people that I have had the great privilege of
sharing company with. A fine example of “the good die young.”
This weekend the Kipling Arena will
once again be the site for the 29th edition of the Dale Blackstock
Memorial Recreational Hockey Tournament. In 1987, it was a small way for the
Kipling Royals Senior Hockey Club’s executive to pay tribute to a guy who loved
the game of hockey, loved the team and town he played for and loved the guys he
played with. That little gesture has become one big event.
If I was a betting man, and a surer bet you’ll never find, I’d bet that there’ll
be lots and lots of fun at the old Kipling Arena this weekend. You can put
money on it.
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