Blogger, back up and running, crazy busy weekend, Nanaimo pictures, latest rankings.

Greetings and thanks for stopping by the blog. I had hoped to post earlier on today but www.blogger.com was down. No one, myself included, could get on this blog or any other blog. My apologies for not posting since Friday. I promise, it's just lack of time why I am not posting, not another Bulldogs loss. The Dogs lost 4-2 to the Clippers in Nanaimo Friday, in case you missed it. Here was my weekend sked- it's funny, I complain that hockey takes up all my weekends and time, and when I only have a one game weekend, I'm just as busy. After the game Friday night in Nanaimo I was back at the radio station Saturday morning. After my work there, I attended/covered the 24th Annual Alberni Invitational Wrestling Tournament, at the invitation of tournament director Tom McEvay. Along with Charles Mealey, and "the professor" Ryan Dvorak, I provided commentary on the final matches of the invitational for Shaw TV. It was my first try at calling wrestling, and it was a pleasure to be a "third wheel" for a change as the more experienced Charles and Ryan did the most of the talking and I added a word or two here and there. Kudos to everyone with Alberni Wrestling and everyone involved as a volunteer with the tournament or the staff working at the Multiplex. Usually when there's an event like that at the Multiplex, it's because the Dogs are on the road, because the building is free. It was the first time in the three years that I've been here that I could see the Invitational first hand, as this year the Dogs weren't on a weekend roadie.

To continue with the recap of my weekend- after covering the Alberni Invitational, it was off to Nanaimo with my girlfriend Sarah for an Island Radio function- our company Christmas party actually. After a long night there and a night at a hotel in Nanaimo, it was right back to Port Alberni yesterday to tee it up at the Alberni Golf Club's "Superbowl Tournament" My thanks to the "Big Dog" Les Dorion (our team leader), his wife Crystal, David Turner, and Freddy Grey, the rest of the team. I will not speak of the teammate that DIDN'T SHOW UP yesterday. It was a great time, and a great round of golf. Too bad for the Seahawks, I know I wasn't alone in thinking they got the major short end of the stick when it came to a couple big calls. I wasn't really a fan of either team for the Superbowl. I like and respect Jerome Bettis and Bill Cowher. I liked the Seahawks for their proximity to all of us here, making them quasi-local, I guess. But I still thought the calls really didn't go Seattles way. Oh well.

Latest CJAHL Rankings. Click HERE to view

Not really surprising that the Bulldogs fall to 4th and are leapfrogged by the Clippers. The Clippers won the most recent head to head game, have won 5 in a row if I'm not mistaken, and the Dogs have lost 3 straight. I see the anonymous people are already taking swipes at me on the message boards....As one intelligent poster on that board was said on my behalf- "shame on Hammer, putting his name on his words and actually sending them to the people that mattered" I take the heat. Oh well. I still haven't gotten an answer from the CJAHL on what the rankings structure REALLY is. Oh well. Shame on me to think that the players, staff, media, and fans of the CJAHL actually deserve an honest structured ranking system. I could care less where the Bulldogs are in the rankings. People don't understand that. Maybe I should've made my arguement as to how flawed and baseless the rankings were when it involved another team. I just care that as a member of the media, what I look at as an official Canada wide release from the CJAHL (and honestly, how often do we get ANY of those anymore?) is at least done with SOME thought and care and structure.

I said this last time, I'll say it again. READ please. STOP. Turn off the TV. PAY ATTENTION.

"I could care less what position MY team is in the rankings. I know they mean nothing when it comes down to it. NOTHING. But if you are going to do these rankings, make them have structure, and make them make sense."

And just to reiterate AGAIN, I see no problems with the rankings this week. I just hope that if in two or three weeks the situation with the Bulldogs and the Clippers are reversed, that it's reflected in the National Rankings the way it was this week. Mark my words, if the opposite DOES happen in the game results, the same thing WILL NOT happen with the rankings. That's my point on how they don't make sense and have no structure. Wow, I've talked to much about this, especially when I say they mean nothing. I guess in closing, they DON'T mean nothing. The fans care and talk about them. Radio stations and message boards and newspapers across just this province quote them and refer to them. So how much NOTHING to they really mean?

Picture time now. Starting off with pictures from Nanaimo's Frank Crane Arena from Friday. The view "from the pressbox"

Looking Left

Centre viewRightSmallest "counter space" in the BCHL. Ace and I are always pressed for room"Course Marshall" BIG DOG Les Dorion. Crystal is in the maroon cart to the left. Behind Les on the left is Freddy Grey, to the right, David TurnerDavid tees on of #5 with a bomb.David's approach shot on #5. The shot of the tourney. From 100 plus yards out, he almost slam dunked it in the hole. Look at the damage the ball made almost landing right in the hole. The ball sucked back to where you see it above.
Last but not least, the BIG DOG's artillery. I asked if the bag was once used by Baggar Vance. A wood, a wedge, a putter. Why carry more?

That's all I've got. Morning show tomorrow, I'm out. Have a good one, and thanks for stopping by the blog.

Hammer.