It’s my Parting Shot to talk about the glut of different seasonal sports on the go – and not just on T-V!…..
As the calendar changes from April to May, it’s heart-warming to see the local soccer pitches already teeming with activity, the local baseball schedules are getting underway and the golf courses are open!
For myself, I can hardly wait to swing a club for the first time and the pending start of the Saskatoon Berries in the Western Canadian Baseball League gives me a lot of great feels.
But, that all has to give way in my world, at least for now, to the Blades in the playoffs! And, in a city and surrounding market area of nearly 350-thousand people, the Bridge City Bunch having won a third round game in the W-H-L playoffs for the first time in 30 years and hosting big-time post-season contests in May for a second straight year, yes I’m going to start a plea to local sports fans and fans of Saskatoon the city to seriously consider filling SaskTel Centre for all home games in this playoff year, starting with Friday!
My plea includes not to consider what the status of the series is. No matter if the Blue and Gold win the next two games in Moose Jaw for a 3-1 lead, split them for a 2-2 tie, or heaven forbid lose both and come home down 3-1, the Blades have been more than worth the ticket price this season!
Saskatoon’s W-H-L team has won 59 games, regular-season and playoffs combined, this season. That’s one shy of the 2010-11 edition of the Bridge City Bunch which flamed out in four straight games in the second round of the post-season. This group may very well have tied or eclipsed that amount by the time Friday rolls around! This squad shouldn’t have to play against Connor Bedard to draw 14-thousand, 768 bums in the SaskTel Centre seats!
And, if you think I’m alone in thinking this way, tune in to the second intermission of tonight’s broadcast from Moose Jaw when a prominent Saskatoon “mover and shaker” joins me to ratchet up this talk! If you haven’t purchased ducats for Friday before that, you’ll probably be hyped up enough to do it once his spiel is done!
Time to “fill the phone booth!”
That’s my Parting Shot. I’m Les Lazaruk…and it turned out nice again!…..
