Can Baseball Be Revived In Montreal?

      As kids, the best memories my good friend Jesse Feret and I had, was going to the ‘Big O’ with our families to watch our Boys of Summer, the Montreal Expos. But when, in 2004, Major League Baseball announced that Nos Amours would be moving to Washington, D.C., it felt as if a piece of our souls were leaving as well. Now, after almost 10 years since that dreadful day, I have heard whispers that there may be a possibility that our team may return! Being the fan I am, I decided to do some digging. The facts I found out from former Expo Warren Cromartie, founder of the Montreal Baseball Project, and the fan feeling from Montreal’s singer/songwriter Annakin Slayd, has left me with high hopes that  I might be able to one day take my kids to a game in Montreal .

            The hype to bring baseball back to Montreal has picked up momentum. Talks about the Oakland A’s or the Tampa Bay Rays relocating, have lifted the hopes to all those who crave the return of baseball. It’s no secret how much Montrealers love their sports. It has been made loud and clear they want their team back.

                There is a rich history of baseball in Montreal. Going all the way back to 1946, when, after being signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers, Jackie Robinson was assigned to their minor affiliate, the Montreal Royals. It was here that he first broke baseball’s color barrier. Then, in 1969, the city got their very first Major League Baseball team, the Montreal Expos, named after the Expo 67 World Fair held in Montreal. The Expos became the very first Major League Baseball team outside the United States. Though the Expos never won a World Series, they came close in 1994, before a labour dispute caused a players strike, cancelling the rest of the season. After Jeffrey Loria took over the team in 1999, and failed to close on a plan to build a new downtown ballpark, and did not reach an agreement on television and English radio broadcast contracts for the 2000 season, reducing the team's media coverage. Then, in 2004, it was announced that the team will be moving to Washington, D.C. But now, there has been a major push to bring back baseball to Montreal. Leading that charge is former Expo Warren Cromartie.

                Warren Cromartie founded the Montreal Baseball Project, a profit organization, back in 2012. His idea to start this organization came when, coming in from the airport one day, someone recognized him.

” They asked me if here was something somewhere downtown to go see for the Expos,” explains Cromartie. “It caught me by surprise, because there is nothing in Montreal for the Expos, nothing with the Expos’ name on it. So, I pretty much thought it was a travesty. My whole thing, a year and a half ago, my whole object was to get Montreal talking baseball again.”

On February 16, 2012, former Expos catcher, Gary “Kid” Carter, passed away from brain cancer.

 “Montreal felt left out, Montreal felt embarrassed,” exclaimed Cromartie. “They were almost to the point of being ashamed because they didn’t do anything for their first player to go into the Hall of Fame with an Expo hat on.”

Eventually, local politicians got involved and Faillon Street W. in Montreal, near the former Jarry Park stadium, was renamed Gary-Carter Street in his honour.

                At the start of the year, The Montreal Baseball Project started a feasibility study to prove Montreal could support a team again. The results, released December 12^th, were nothing but positive.

“The corporate sector has stepped up, we are getting local businesses stepping up,” Cromartie explained. “We got the first round of the survey study done well.”

Cromartie also explained that if Montreal is to get a team, it would not be through expansion, but of an existing team’s relocation. When I asked why, out of all the other cities who would like a team, would Montreal be the lucky pick. Cromartie’s answer was simple, “Why not?” He stated how we are one of the largest cities in North America without a professional baseball team.

“We were Canada’s first team! Not Toronto, Montreal! It was Canada’s team.”

                It came as a shock to Montreal when it was announced that on March 28^th and 29^th of 2014, the New York Mets and the Toronto Blue Jays will be playing exhibition games at the Olympic Stadium. Cromartie believes this is our chance to show we still love our baseball and a big boost to getting our team back.

 “I can’t tell you how critical it is for the fans to show up at these to game,” said Cromartie. “Because it is the first thing the reporters from across the border will be looking at to see the people in the stands and we have to come loud and prepared to show the world, because the whole world will be watching.”

                As for fan support, Cromartie believes if 25 to 35 thousand people could turn up for games, we shouldn’t have a problem.

                The biggest concern the fans have about bringing a team back is money, or more specifically, where will it come from. It’s a fact that if a team returns, they will not be at the Olympic Stadium. But Cromartie strongly believes there is no need for worry.

“The money will come from private sectors, corporate sectors, fans, government, like they do everything else.” Cromartie explains.

                Not everyone in Montreal shares the passion of bringing back baseball. Some believe it won’t ever work or don’t want the team back. Then there are some who stay cautious, not too sure how they would feel. But, there is a large group who still show their support and will never let their hopes die.

                Montreal singer/songwriter Annakin Slayd, and Ambassador to the Expos Nation fan group, is among those who still have the passion for a Montreal baseball team burning in their souls. His relationship with the Expos started like most. He played the game at an early age thanks to his father’s enthusiasm for the sport. It only got better with the fact that his mother worked for Charles Bronfman's company ‘Seagrams’. She used to get tickets occasionally along the first base dugout.

 “I got to see some of the greatest players in franchise history very close up at an early age. Carter, Dawson, Raines, Rogers, Gallarraga,” Slayd explains. “When I entered into my teens, and could buy tickets and travel to the stadium on my own, it was timed perfectly with the resurgence of team in the nineties.”

                This was about the same time one of the most memorable events in Slayd’s life he will never forget.  During Gary ‘Kid” Carter’s last game in 1992, a young Slayd went to the dugout to try to get his attention with a sign he had sketched and coloured himself.

 “He took time to give me a thumbs up during the intros,” Slayd recounts. “During the National Anthem, he stood right in front of me. Photographers began to take pictures of Kid with myself and my sign in the backdrop. The Next morning, one of these photos was on the cover of the Gazette.”

Years later, Slayd met up with Carter again at a rally and brought up the sign. Carter remembered very clearly and told him that he had that gazette cover hanging in a frame in his office. “When I made the song (‘Kid’) after his passing, I knew the theme would revolve around those moments,” Slayd explains. “For me it highlighted the best aspects of being a sports fan. Developing a personal and, inevitably, a spiritual relationship with an athlete who inspires in the best ways possible. Gary was the epitome of great role models as far as pro sports stars go.”

 In 2010, Slayd released a new rap song and video dedicated to the Expos.

“I revolved that around the idea of family. My brother, Father and I went to the last game in 2004 and it was difficult experience for us,” Slayd explains about his song. “Although by that time the franchise felt it had been already dead for years, it was still very hard not to want to burst out in tears with my arms around my brother, Jay, and my Dad, Gary, as we watched the last out and the players race off the field.”

To Slayd, this seemed to be a logical theme for a song. He expresses the emotion that not only is it about the shared history and tragic demise of the team but also about family and how sports can unite us with the people we love in the most intimate ways.

                Slayd has no doubt in the fact a team can return here. He believes that the fans can do a lot, and have already done so much. With rallies at the Rogers Centre in Toronto and the overwhelming reaction of love and nostalgia to the passing of Carter, as well as resurgence of the Expos logo in fashion, we've made the rest of the baseball world take notice

 “The fans want to right a wrong and deserve a second chance and a better fate,” explains Slayd. “We must continue to support Cromartie's Montreal Baseball Project and the group I'm part of, Expos Nation. Whenever there is an event, we need to come out and support. When the Blue Jays come to town next spring, we need to fill that place with fans wearing the red, white and blue of the Expos to let the Baseball world know that although we're stoked to see major league ball back in our city, we will not be satisfied and until we see a Montreal team take the field.”

            My buddy, Jesse Feret, is a hardcore baseball fan. He has no trouble expressing his strong feelings. Feret explains that he strongly believes that from ’94 and on, the Expos became the best team in the league.

“The only problem after the strike in ’94, was that the Expos could not afford to keep the contracts of a lot of the players and it kind of went downhill from there. Then, 10 years later, the team's gone!” Feret explains the hurt he started to feel, when the talk that his team, the team he grew up loving, might be leaving Montreal. “The Expos were part of Montreal’s culture,” Feret expresses.

Feret remembers that day in 2004, as he watched the Expos run off the field for the last time.

 “I know for a fact, I cried,” said Feret. “I could not believe my team was gone.”

The ‘Boys of Summer’ in Montreal, were gone. Much like many baseball fans, Feret set out to find a new team. For him, that team was the Boston Red Sox.

“The Red Sox basically took over my life,” Feret explains. “I went to Boston, and felt the same passion there, that once was for the Expos; it was like a re-birth.”

Feret became a die-hard Red Sox fan, and even has a brick in the Fan Wall at Fenway Park with his name on it.

            When asked what he would do if the Expos returned, Feret admitted it would be hard. “You know, even if the team came back, I’d still be watching every Red Sox game.”

But then, he said something that truly shows the fan he is.

“But if they returned, I’d have season tickets to see the Expos.”

Feret confirms he already has the most expensive tickets to go see the Mets VS Jays game here in Montreal, and will wear his Expos colors with pride.

“I’m going there not as a Jays fan, or a Mets fan. I’m going there as an Expos fan, and I’m going to make a statement. I will be the one chanting ‘Let’s Go Expos!’ ”

Dan Hawkins: Set Up To Fail?

                After losing arguably a great coach in Marc Trestman to the NFL, the Montreal Alouettes hired former College Football coach and broadcaster, Dan Hawkins. Now, fans know Trestman left big shoes to fill, taking the Als to 3 Grey Cup appearances, winning two of them. Hawkins now stepped in, and right away hired Mike Miller, who had no previous CFL experience in coaching, as his Offensive Coordinator.  Personally, this whole scenario worried me.

                Preseason began and ended terribly with no wins. To me, this was the first sign this might not go the way fans hoped. But, I took it as just preseason and that the season would be better. Boy was I ever wrong. The Als came out in game 1 and upset the Winnipeg Bluebombers new stadium opening game with a win, but the plays didn’t look right. The Als dropped the next few games that look just so ugly. It looked to me like Hawkins’ system just wasn’t working with this Als team. The worst thing I noticed was that Hawkins would not allow quarterback Anthony Calvillo to calls his own plays. Not to mention the Offensive line couldn’t hold, and Calvillo was sacked more times than he should have. The scariest part: This is only 4 games into the season! Something told me that Hawkins would not be the coach next season.

                I have to admit I was shocked to find, as the Bi-Week began after game 5, that Hawkins was let go. I expected him to at least finish the season, or maybe change his system to one of the Als. Dan Hawkins isn’t a bad coach, he just didn’t fit in.

But, after all I just said, is it really Hawkins fault?

                Alouettes General Manager Jim Popp was hailed a hero after hiring head coach Marc Trestman, a guy who only coached University teams in the U.S. My only guess is that Popp was hoping lightning would strike twice with new coach Dan Hawkins, who would continue where Trestman left off. Unfortunately, this was not the case.

                I strongly believe that Hawkins had no real knowledge of the CFL game. Popp even stated that Hawkins downfall might have been that he never coached a pro team before. Talk about putting Hawkins in an uncomfortable situation in a game he doesn’t quite understand. Evidently, what happens is a new coach steps in, uncomfortable with the 12-man game and a system that didn’t fit the team, and brings that team down. Popp admitted that he did make a mistake in hiring Hawkins, that he hoped Hawkins would learn from the players, and not the players learn the coach. Popp’s expectations that his new couch would adapt the system the Alouettes have had for such a long time with success, was a huge misjudgment. Popp even revealed that players had come to him to complain about Hawkins coaching style.

                I would call it extreme luck that the Alouettes are in second place, with the rest of the CFL having horrible seasons as well. The Als are loaded with talent, players who are absolutely spectacular and a superstar quarterback in Anthony Calvillo who has an ageless arm. This team has a special chemistry, or a standard, as Calvillo stated. Hopefully Popp can find a couch that can carry on said standard and continue the Alouettes glory.

                It makes you wonder though, who really runs the team: The players or Management? But that’s a whole other story.

I’M JUST SAYIN’: In my opinion, Popp is still a great GM, and Hawkins probably was a great coach. The chemistry between coach and players just didn’t flow, and the hopes of the GM fell apart. Just notch this up as the mistake it was, and hire a head coach WITH CFL experience. Now, all that is left to do is put the mistake behind them, come out of the Bi-Week strong and with confidence. GO ALS GO!

NHL: Making the game safer, or just reacting?

     The National Hockey League insists that it is doing everything in its power to reduce injuries and concussions in the game of hockey. Yet, in this past shortened 2013 season, in a 12 day span, 10 players went down with concussions and players were injured left, right and center. Let’s also not forget the tragic deaths of three players, known as Enforcers or Fighters, Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien and Wade Belak. All committed suicide during the offseason in 2011 because of an overdose on pain medication, and depression. Add the so called “goaltender safety”, the head shots and hits from behind that leave players concussed and unable to play for a period of time to the equation, and ask yourself again, if the NHL is getting any safer. Players aren’t feeling safe, as told in interviews, and know that every time they step onto the ice, there is a chance they will get hurt, or worse, end their careers.

      Players are people. They bleed, cry, love, hurt, like any human does. They go onto the ice, as a career choice, as a form of sport entertainment. But, is that an excuse to put the careers and sometimes lives at risk for entertainment? When asked, players of the Montreal Canadiens, thought there could be so much more done to protect the men who skate on the ice. Fans, everywhere, would agree.

Head Shots/Hitting From Behind
     In the 1923-24 season, the National Hockey League introduced a rule where any player on the ice who deliberately injured or disabled an opponent would receive a game misconduct, be fined no less than $50, and must meet with the League president who would assess additional punishment. This rule is still around. Today, you receive a 10-minute misconduct and a game misconduct, which was introduced in the 1991-92 season. The offending player gets a disciplinary hearing with the head of the Players Safety Department, who decides if you get a suspension or not. However, it is remarkable how many players receive no punishment at all! They do the damage, leaving their “victim” injured or concussed, receive the match penalty, but don’t receive a suspension. Apparently, there are factors in all this, a big one being if you are not a “repeat offender”, meaning if you have never done anything wrong, you have a higher chance of being excused.

     Montreal Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty wouldn’t be able to tell you what happened to him March 8, 2011 in a game against the Boston Bruins, because he was out cold. During the game, while Pacioretty was handling the puck along the boards in front of the benches, Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara, who happens to be close to 6’7, rammed Pacioretty’s head into the stanchion at the end of the bench. “I don’t remember anything, to be honest,” Pacioretty recounted. “I remember waking up in the hospital the next day. Turned out I had a fracture to the 4th cervical vertebra (C4) and a severe concussion. My parents were at that game. When I woke up, my father showed me the replay. I asked him what Chara got for this. He looked at me and told me ‘Nothing’. I was in shock.”

     Although those types of hits have been going on for a very long time, the NHL had done nothing to prevent it from happening again. After the hit on Pacioretty, the NHL finally decided to fix it, by making the stanchion curve into the bench area! The curve now leaves no danger to be hit into. They have also have tried to suggest to players that if you see the opposing player’s numbers on his back, do not hit him! It took the League that long, and for someone to get hurt that bad, to do something. The worst part was that Zdeno Chara got off with nothing. No suspension, no penalty. It was deemed “a hockey play”. When asked, if Pacioretty thought it was a hockey play, he simply answered, “No”.

     Headshots and hitting from behind are considered intent to injure. Doing that in the street would get you arrested. But, on the ice, it was considered a hockey play. Now, should the League be pardoned for the fact that only in the last 3 years, they have decided to crack down on these terrible hits, enforcing a rule that was introduced back in 1923? Perhaps the real reason was because star player, Sidney Crosby, sustained a major concussion from being hit from behind. It’s hard to imagine, that a rule first introduced back in 1923, is only starting to be thought about today. Let’s hope a life isn’t lost first.

Goaltender Safety/Trapezoid
     Goaltenders have always been the biggest victims in the game. They face on average 30 shots of rubber their way per game. Their job: To stop the puck. When hockey first began, goaltenders wore almost no padding, except for leg pads used in games of Shinny. Thankfully, pads evolved to proper leg pads, chest protectors, a catching glove and a blocker. But still, there was a time where wearing a helmet wasn’t even an idea. A goaltenders face, became a target. That is, until one goaltender stood up, to protect his own life and change the game forever. On November 1, 1959, during a Montreal Canadiens and New York Rangers game, Canadiens goaltender Jacques Plante received a hard puck to the face by Rangers player Andy Bathgate. Since there were no backup goaltenders, the game was halted while Plante went in quickly for stitches. He resumed the game, wearing a fibreglass facemask. After that incident, Plante refused to play a game without it. It caught on quickly with other goaltenders, and now, in present time, goaltenders wear a full cage helmet.

     Yet, goaltenders, who are now the most padded players on the ice, still don’t feel safe. Carey Price, the goaltender for the Montreal Canadiens, believes more could be done. “Because we are the players with the most pads on the ice, opponents think we still can’t be hurt,” Price said. “They take runs at us, chop their sticks at us”. Just this past playoff run, Price lost 2 teeth after being knocked in the head by a skate as a player tripped over him. “I feel maybe that the rules for protecting us goaltenders have decreased. Sure, there is the goaltender interference calls, but the deed is done by then. I sometimes feel certain players make it their goal, to take us out of the game. I miss the old rules, the ones that were there before I made the NHL.”

     In the 1991-92 season, the League adopted a rule that the size of the goal crease be increased, that penalties would be assessed for crease infringements and unnecessary contact with a goaltender. But, the rule Price and many goaltenders wish would return is the other part of the rule that states a goal would be disallowed if a puck enters the net while a player of the opposing team is standing on the goal crease line, is in the goal crease or places his stick inside the goal crease. This rule helped protect goaltenders from being rammed into, obstructed and even injured. After the 1998-99 season, the rule was abolished as the NHL believed it was disallowing too many “good goals” by hockey’s greatest stars. This, of course, left goaltenders open to be rammed at full speed, while the attacking player receives a 2 minute penalty for goaltender interference.

     After the lockout of 2004-05, the League introduced new rules in hopes of exciting the fans again. But to goaltenders, it made it a whole new game. There are some players in the league, who are very skilled in playing pucks in the corner to clear the zone. A few players like the great Dominik “The Dominator” Hasek and Martin Brodeur were forced to change their style of play, when the League introduced the Trapezoid. The Trapezoid is situated behind the net, cutting off the corners of the ice. This area is now the only area behind the goal line goaltenders are allowed to play the puck. If a goaltender touches the puck outside the Trapezoid (basically in the corners) they will receive a delay of game penalty. The thought of this rule was to protect goaltenders from being hit into the corners by attacking players. “When goaltenders go out of their crease to play the puck, they know the risks they are taking. So, why would you limit the area we can play in, when we know what we are doing?” Price said. When asked how he would change the rule to still protect goaltenders, he offered the simplest solution. “If a goaltender plays the puck behind the goal line or corners, make a rule that you cannot touch them. After all, goaltenders will go far out of their crease, even up the ice, in today’s game to play the puck anyways. What’s the difference?”

Fighting
     John Ferguson, who played for the Montreal Canadiens in the 60’s, hated Eddie Shack of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Every game these two teams played, both players would fight each other. They would be sent to the penalty box, and after serving their penalty, they would step out of the box and fight all over again. This was considered “Staged Fighting” where it was basically planned. The second type of fighting is the spontaneous fighting, where tempers have boiled and a fight breaks out. An example is the Good Friday Massacre on April 20, 1984 when tempers boiled in a game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Quebec Nordiques. A bench clearing brawl broke out and 252 penalty minutes were handed out.

     Whether the NHL likes it or not, fighting will always be part of the game. Currently, the League would like to end staged fighting. The question is, why start with staged fighting? Why not start with the spontaneous fighting? In the 1991-92 season, a rule was adopted that if a player had instigated a fight, he would receive a game misconduct. That should easily get rid of the spontaneous fighting, yet that rule is never used. Tempers boil, and fights break out. It happens in every sport. But in hockey, little do people know that fighting has a code.

     Brandon Prust, who was acquired by the Montreal Canadiens from the New York Rangers in the 2012 offseason, made his way into the NHL by being a fighter. Though now he doesn’t fight as much, he knows all too well the proper way to fight. “For decades, there have been many great enforcers, or also known as fighters or goons. Some like to just pick a fight by throwing their fists, while some go by the code. The code was put in place by enforcers themselves, so they do not come off as goons, but more as gentleman,” Prust said. “The code is basically this: You go up to a player and ask if he would like to fight. I will admit, it is not always said in the nicest ways. If it is declined, you must back off. If it’s accepted, you must then remove your gloves and take off your helmet. Once the fight is over, you tell the other “Good fight” and head to the penalty box”.

     At one time, being defined as a fighter meant it is the only thing you could do on the team. Although that role is now gone, it was once a hazard. Being known as a guy who scored infrequently, but finished a career with over 2,000 penalty minutes, was a role you had to play on your team. But, before 2011, nobody ever took notice. The spotlight on the enforcer role became brighter, after 3 NHL players labelled as enforcers, committed suicide in the summer of 2011. Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien and Wade Belak were great fighters, but the cost of fighting is believed to have cost them their lives. Nobody realized the pain these players faced, being known as just one thing, how it depressed them, and how pain killers took over their lives. The NHL was blamed for not watching over these players carefully, and not enrolling them into the NHL’s substance abuse program. Nobody should have to die first.


I'm Just Sayin': The NHL is claiming they want to make a fast paced, hard hitting game safer. The new rule of hybrid icing, which means instead of racing for the puck into the boards at high speed and risking the chance of injury, the whistle will be blown automatically to call an icing. Yes, this new rule will help reduce some injuries, but it will take much more to make the game safer. People question if it is even possible to make the game safer. After all, players know what they are getting into when they step onto the ice. The National Hockey League still lets too much go unpunished. Some people speculate that the League really does not want to change how the game is played, in fear of losing fan appeal, at the expense of player safety. Time will only tell what might come of the game. But you have to wonder, is it possible to make the game safer, without changing the game of hockey? Start enforcing the rules, and move on from there.

My Hero, My Friend, CFL Legend Peter Dalla Riva

Hey everyone! Now I know this is not an opinion piece, but I wrote this feature profile on someone I have idolized, had the privilege of getting to know and staying connected with him. A CFL Legend and Montreal Alouettes SuperStar, Mr. Peter Dalla Riva. I had the honor of meeting him while I was doing my radio broadcast show, and had him as a guest (Picture above). Enjoy!


         
      
      In 1970, one of Peter Dalla Riva’s heroes, Sam Etcheverry was named coach of the Alouettes. The Alouettes were a terrible team, not winning the Grey Cup since 1949. With a roster of 24 rookies, including Peter, they became the Cinderella team. Beating all odds, the Alouettes won the grey cup that year. Peter recalls that after winning the cup, the October Crisis had just happened. He remembers arriving home at the Montreal Airport, the entire place shut down. The team was ushered by the army into a hotel close by and were told they could pick up their luggage at a later time. Once everything was cleared, Peter had his first ever exciting Grey Cup parade, an experience he said he would never forget. Two weeks later, he married his long-time girlfriend, Carol.
       
      Peter Dalla Riva was born December 11, 1946, in Treviso, Italy. His father left Italy when Peter was 5, leaving behind his family to find a life in Canada. When Peter was 8 years old, his father had saved enough money to bring his family over to Hamilton, Ontario. Knowing no English, Peter struggled in his new home. Sports became his language and learned English through that. Growing up in Italy, he always had a soccer ball to kick around, but upon arriving in Canada, he found new sports to play, such as Hockey, Baseball and Football.
       
     Peter grew up three blocks from Ivor Wynne Stadium, home to the Canadian Football League team, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. He recalls one time in 1956, the Tiger-Cats where playing the Montreal Alouettes at Ivor Wynne. Class was let out early and Peter, with his friends, climbed the closest tree to watch the game. Peter was stunned at watching Alouettes stars Sam Etcheverry and Hal Patterson. Peter then fell in love with Football.
      
      His English improved and with sports on his mind, in high school he started playing Fastball. Along with having to go to school, he had to work in the mills to help support his family. Some of his friends were playing school football and told him he should try out. He made the team and got picked to play with the Burlington Braves at the age of 20 as a tight end. Finding that football was his calling, with just a 6’3, 190 pound lanky frame, Peter continued to improve his game. He got so good; scouts picked him to join their senior team, the Oakville Black Knights.
       
     Peter never forgot the time he got picked to go to a rookie camp for his favorite team, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Still having a tall, lanky frame, the coach decided to put him as a defensive end. During a warm-up, he was hanging out with the rookie receivers, catching balls for them. The veteran players were only supposed to show up later, but legend Hal Patterson decided to show up early to see the new rookies. Peter, sitting on the bench all alone, was shocked when his hero, Patterson, came and sat right next to him. “He sat right next to me, and I was in shock. He started talking to me like as if I was one of his teammates. I thought to myself ‘Geez, I’m a nobody, and I always respect him and how he played, and here he is talking to me!’” Unfortunately, Peter didn’t make the team. He returned to Oakville. The new confidence pushed him to improve even more, and got promoted to Linebacker/Tight-end.

     A year later, Montreal Alouettes Assistant Coach Ralph Goldston, approached Peter’s coach, asking if he had any good Canadian players he could take a look at. Four were picked, Peter being one of them. Since Goldston lived in Hamilton in the offseason, he took a ride over to the Dalla Riva residence. He sat Peter down, asking him how much he got paid working at the mills. Wanting to make himself sound better off than the $4800 he was really making, he told Goldston he was making around $5500. Goldston looked at him and told him if he came to play with the Alouettes, he would make $6000 in just 6 months. Peter immediately accepted the offer. This made his father furious! “My father thought I was crazy,” Peter recalled. “He lectured me about how I had a sure thing at the mills, with security and union. I looked at him and told him straight up that I had to go, or I will never know if I really was any good!”
       
     They gave his sweater number 74 and he caught the coaches’ eyes in rookie camp, hustling on special teams. He weighed less than 200 pounds, a good 25-30 pounds less than his future playing weight, but earned a roster spot as a linebacker/receiver.“I wasn’t even running properly,” he recalled. “When I was running, I was running on my heels. I remember Ralph Goldston pulling me over and saying, ‘Run on your toes, that way the ground’s not bouncing on you.’ He was right.” Towards the end of the season, an injury to one of the starters created an opening in the line-up and Dalla Riva moved into the tight end spot. He caught a few passes, one for a touchdown, and solidified himself for the rest of the season.
         
     Sadly, in 1971, Peter tore up his knee in training camp and missed the entire season. “I woke up. After that incident, I started to see the field more. My eyes were open. Once I got the taste of a championship, I wanted more. I vowed to be an even better player.” The 1977 Grey Cup game was one Peter remembers well. It was held in Montreal at the Olympic Stadium, which still had no roof. Unfortunately, the night before, Montreal was hit with a snow storm, turning the field into a sheet of ice. Under new coach Marv Levy, the Als struggled along with their opponents, Edmonton, slipping all over the field. CFL legends Tony Proudfoot and Wally Buono got an interesting idea of tacking staples to the bottom of their cleats. The Als ended up beating Edmonton 41-6. Peter caught the opening touchdown in that game.
         
     Playing 14 seasons with the Montreal Alouettes, appearing in 6 Grey Cups, winning 3, Peter Dalla Rive retired in 1981. Peter led the team in receiving five times and finished with a team record 54 regular-season touchdowns. He was voted an all-Canadian all-star in ’72, ’73 and ’75. He holds the team record for all-time seasons played (14) and games with at least one reception (164). He finished with 6,413 receiving yards, which stands as the third highest in team history, and is third overall with 450 career receptions. His number 74 was retired by the Alouettes in 1981, and was inducted in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1993. Peter Dalla Riva currently lives in Montreal with his wife Carol, son Mark and daughter Lisa. He has worked for a customs brokerage business for the past 15 years and has been part of the CFL Hall of Fame induction committee since ’94. He is active in many charity events and is a big part of his community.
       
     When asked to sum up what football meant to him, he simply replied “Football was my life, my bread and butter.”

Returning to the sports world

Hey everyone! Miss me?..Don't answer that. I know I have been away for a long time. Lots of things have happened to me in the last while. I apologize. But, I am back and ready to start posting again! One of the things I have been occupied with, is going back to University! So, stay tuned to I'm Just Sayin' for more of my opinions on this crazy world we call SPORTS! (please please hold the applause!)

Montreal Canadiens or Canadiens De Montreal?

                Ok, so I guess you all have heard of our “long time needed” firing of the Montreal Canadiens coach Jacques Martin and our “disgraceful” (according to La Presse) act of putting our non-French speaking assistant coach Randy Cunneyworth as head coach. Let the “West Side Story” rumble BEGIN! Give me a &%$#@ break!

                So, apparently it is against Québec laws to have a coach who can’t speak French. Why else would the Quebec Government get involved? Indeed, The Montreal Canadiens have done something so...horrific... that at the next Habs home game, a Québec group will be protesting in front of the Bell Center, waving and handing out Quebec flags and demanding owner Geoff Molson to fix this problem.

                Problem...you want a REAL problem? Give this a try (and there are quite a few): 1) Good luck finding a French coach who HAS coaching experience 2) We let ALL of our good French speaking coaches go to other teams because of our “impatience”   3) The Habs SUCK and need a jumpstart if we want to get anywhere.. and last but not least 4) PEOPLE HAVE FORGOTTEN THIS IS JUST HOCKEY!          I love hockey as much as the next Montrealer, but I think this is getting out of hand!

                Fight me all you want about how the Montreal Canadiens are the pride and joy of the French community, that it’s a long tradition, but it’s still considered a sport right? Now, don’t start yapping at me that I’m Anti-French because my favorite hockey player of All Time is Maurice Richard for what he did, standing up for himself and the French and breaking the language barrier. But that was a long time ago.

                You know, it’s a well known fact that the Montreal Canadiens COULD possibly have an All-Star team with homeboys like Vinny Lacavalier, Marty St.Louis, Claude Giroux, Martin Brodeur, Roberto Luongo and all those players from Montreal. But they won’t come! Why? Because of what is going on right now! The pressure they would have as a Hab AND being from Montreal would be too hard to handle. Some say English people should rebel for their rights as English citizens, like the French once did.

                I’m sure this is what will end up happening: With all the pressure and all the talk, Patrick Roy will be a coach or GM (god forbid). And it will be done JUST to please the whiners. Look, mes amis, I understand the Canadiens mean a lot to Montreal, just like The Leafs mean to Toronto, or the Bruins to Boston. But like The Bruins and Leafs, they are hockey teams in an organization called the NHL. Enough of the fighting, grab a beer, and let’s watch some hockey!

I’m Just Sayin’: I don’t care if the coach is English, French, German, Latino, Italian, or can only speak Swahili. All I care about is having a coach, who can lead Les Blue, Blanc, Rouge and bring home the Stanley Cup once more.

Sidney Crosby and the Glass Skull

The date: July 30^th 2005. The Pittsburgh Penguins, with their first pick, choose a kid whose destiny was to be one of the greatest hockey players of his generation. His name is Sidney Crosby. Now, the 2011/12 season, may be his last pro hockey season.

                Ok, yes we all know who Sidney Crosby is. A talented hockey player, who has broken so many records, won many trophies and especially, won the hearts of many...but not all. I guess some thought Crosby as something beyond human. Sadly, this is not true. Sidney Crosby is an NHL hockey player, as human as anyone else who laces up his skates. This being said, being human comes with many, MANY tough situations.

                During the 2011 NHL Winter Classic on January 1, 2011 against the Washington Capitals and January 5 against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Crosby suffered hits to his head from Dave Steckel and Victor Hedman.  One could say he suffered 2 concussions before realizing his situation. It’s a fact, that the NHL approved new rules, to keep their “face of the NHL” from being hurt. I say again, he is only human. Hockey is a rough sport, and hockey favors no one.

                No one thought Sid the Kid would ever get hurt like he did, but the truth hurts. Crosby spent the rest of the season in the press box, as concussion symptoms were heavy. He then worked hard to get better, only to set him back again. He even missed 20 games at the beginning of the 2011/12 season. All summer, we wondered if he, Sidney Crosby, would follow the steps of former NHLer Eric Lindros, and never play again. But, that didn’t seem to be the case. After expressing he would only return to the ice once he was 100%, he returned on November 21, 2011 against the New York Islanders, scoring two goals and two assists in a 5–0 shutout win for the Penguins. SID’S BACK! HE’S 100%! Well, he must be, right? He said he would only come back when he felt 100%....I guess we were wrong.

                You see, after having a concussion, especially multiple ones, you start to have what I call a glass skull. Work it too hard, or let it get bashed around, and the brain weakens. Hence probably THE game, that may end it all. During a game on December 5^th against the Boston Bruins, Crosby received an elbow from the Bruins' David Krejci, a mid-ice collision with teammate Chris Kunitz during the third period and a lot of bashing around. After the game, he claimed to have felt “not right” and would be out 2 games. Then, 2 games turned into indefinitely.  In my opinion, if one game of being bounced around makes his concussion symptoms return, who’s to say it won’t happen again?

                Now the question surfaces again. Does he eventually return, or does he end his career short? I guess it’s tough to say right now, but if it does come down to the NHL losing one of the greatest players of this generation, it will certainly be a sad day. Sidney Crosby: an NHLer, a Superstar, a Human.

I’m Just Sayin’: As pretty much everyone says, and I agree: Crosby’s career is over. He should now worry more about his health, than hockey.