For the OHL, time has run out on 2020-21; and why Bo Bichette can play shortstop with his bat
Let's post two! There are some comments to be offered on the OHL's undead season, and the deeper context in the debate over Bo Bichette's fit at shortstop.
Loving the OHL means you can wait to see it in September. Do you mean September 2021?
The way it works now is the league you have the most beef with is probably your truest sporting love. One plaintive, silver-lining hope that took form early in the pandemic involved imagining the Canadian Hockey League — major junior hockey by designation but age-group, earnings-restricted minor pro by working definitions and working conditions — getting a reboot. The idea is too loose to see the light of day, but there is too much men’s hockey in Canada for either the commodified, commercialized CHL or men’s university puck to have the community connections that both needs to stay vital in the 21st century. A reboot might help create a player-friendlier and fan-friendler experience, so why not reform by fusing the redeemable aspects of both?
That is blue-sky thinking, of course.
The people who own the game would just like to have their teams of teenagers back on the ice as soon as Big Rona calls off the dogs. The CHL’s Québec and Western leagues are each having some semblance of a season, with periodic team-wide shutdowns due to COVID-19 outbreaks. The Memorial Cup has been nixed, but the Ontario Hockey League (update) was maintaining it would play as late as April 15.
The OHL its priorities and obligations to sponsors, team governors, agents, coaches and somewhere well down that list, current and prospective players, that dictate why it has not said, see you in September. But it really should. It is the humane play. Did it really take the government saying non?
The symptoms of coronavirus can be really rough even for a young high-performance athlete. They take on all the risk, while the public is screened off from seeing what is involved with that, as Ryan Nanni noted in a Shutdown Fullcast episode a few months ago. It is scary stuff, and downplaying it might actually be an understandable coping technique.
In the course of my writing this, Patrick Hruby dropped a Hreal Sports Q&A with epidemiologist Zach Binney and sports business expert Scott Rosner “on what sports has got right and wrong during the pandemic.” Both of them had the United States’ shamateurism-industrial complex, aka the NCAA, in the “wrong!” category. Also, the Vancouver Canucks of the NHL are about to provide a case study in what happens when an entire hockey team returns to play after a three-week shutdown.
The CHL, Canada’s equivalent to American college athletics, should not be playing anywhere outside of Atlantic Canada. The OHL is plumb out of time for a legit season — as one longtime fan observed, would you really want your favourite team to win the league after a 24-game regular season?1
Any arguments about draft-eligible players needing to show their skills in front of National Hockey League scouts should be reframed as an NHL priority. The NHL is US$4 billion-industry. It can afford to add a prospect tournament to the scouting combine instead of having players do the VO2 Max test and answer weird questions.
That is the case for the OHL to stay on hiatus until it can play a full season, and it does not even need to build in the potential ticking time bomb of Daniel Carcillo’s class-action lawsuit. Or egghead questions about whether it is even morally right to ask teenagers who are under 18 to play in a presumably for-profit league. It might even need the break to buy some time for a new media rights partner, eh.
It is just not worth it right now. And yes, this still a league I love with 85 percent of my heart, even if it does things I do not like.
Are you saying Bichette is Baseball Nylander?
A second-generation pro with great flow and sweet skills gets picked apart in Toronto. So it is with Toronto Maple Leafs wing William Nylander, and so it is with the fielding of Bo Bichette, the Blue Jays leadoff hitter and shortstop, in that order.
The paid baseball knowers can chin-wag about whether Bichette will be a shortstop for the long haul. It seems worth noting that the premium on middle infield play is not static. It changes. Shortstops do not have as much to do as they once did, as analyst Travis Sawchik detailed on Wednesday.
In other words, it is easier for the Blue Jays to live with having the tradeoff of getting Bichette’s bat and another potent stick in their lineup, even if his fielding will never make anyone forget John McDonald. Bichette is still shy of 400 times at bat in the majors over three partial seasons, but the Blue Jays have never had a hitter this promising who was also playable as a middle infielder. Bichette is slashing .349 / .563 since he arrived in late 2019, and his counting stats pro-rate to 105 runs and 90 extra-base hits per 150 games.2 And it could be like the point jerkasses such as I often conveniently overlooked with Derek Jeter — being the shortstop is part of what he needs to do his stuff as a top-of-the-order batter and all-around presence.
But hey, the Pasta Diving Jeter jokes were too good to resist.
If there is a point here, it is about learning to like a guy who is unconventional. Results are all that matter.
Trudeau Liberals get away with one
About 5½ weeks ago, The Line forecast that the federal Liberals faced a scandal with some stickiness. They had basically done zippo for nearly three years about sexual misconduct allegations against retired general Jonathan Vance, who until January was one of the nation’s senior-most military leaders. It should have blown up; pointing out that an armed forces typically will function better when there is (checks notes) not an environment where harassers and abusers do not fear consequences should be as obvious as ‘warning: contents may be hot’ on a takeaway cup of coffee.
On Monday, though, the Liberals, with backing from the Bloc Québécois, shut down a parliamentary committee that was looking it before everyone who deserved to be heard had the chance to testify. It is one time that the ‘imagine if Stephen Harper did this?!’ rubric is totally valid, even to self-professed shitty Gliberals such as I. After all, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has feminism in his political brand.
I am in no position to say why the Vance saga did not become a Thing outside of politics Twitter. There is, of course, a wing of Canada’s corporate media and opposition parties that cries shitwolf about Trudeau 24/7. When everything is presented as a scandal, a bona fide scandal is bound to not to get traction.
For anyone wondering, the above was written before Trudeau’s job-killin’ carbon tax became a Conservative Party of Canada pre-campaign promise. Only instead of a rebate, they will hold your money for you.
That is somewhere here and there. Putting the kibosh on the parliamentary committee is a bad look, but cynical conjurers who have used “feminist prime minister” as a pejorative since 2015 are not on the solidest ground to say it. The Liberals’ move sure is disconcerting to anyone who is contemplating a military career, and let’s focus there.
Lastly
Filmmaker Adam McKay (The Big Short) has dropped his Death at the Wing podcast, which focuses on the convergence of the NBA’s growth, hypercapitalism and the Reagan-era war on drugs. It relates to subject matter discussed with two recent SportsLit guests, Spencer Haywood (S5E01) and Brantt Myhres (S5E03), whose books touch on substance abuse.
Her Hoops Stats has everything you need to get prepped for the WNBA Draft on Thursday.
This thread from Cara Zelaya about mass shooters and extremism … the sad part is it will not break you.
Canada’s uniforms for the Olympic closing ceremonies are, well, a choice.
I am screaming. This is Canada's closing ceremony fit. Cancel the Olympics. olympic.ca/photos/team-ca…
@ItsTheBrandi Jean Jackets. I wish I was joking.
Mark Shyzer @MarkShyzer
That is more than enough for today. Thank you for allowing my words on to your screen.
Trick question if your favourite team is the Kingston Frontenacs or Sudbury Wolves.
Baseball writers use write a slash line with batting average. I do not; I just on-base and slugging percentages, since those metrics are more relevant than the one displayed on the scoreboard since that is how it has always been done. Baseball-Reference gives statistical averages per 162 games, but I pro-rate to 150 to account for rest days and minor injuries.
Wait, that Olympic outfit is real? I thought it was satire. PLEASE TELL ME IT’S SATIRE...