TrueBlue4ever

Maybe it's finally on display more now because he's never had to answer to anyone before. He was the boss, could yell "You're FIRED!" and that was it. Now he has checks and balances, still has to be accountable to the populace (both those who voted him in and those who didn't), and especially the people's proxy - the media, who take on the role of the official opposition party in the USA.

My drinking game is taking a shot every time Goalie posts a variation on "55 and 26 selfish, need to be split up/traded, coach is a disaster, fire him immediately or our window is closed". My liver is currently the size of the Jumbotron at Bell MTS Place. Do or Die and his gin is now considered "lightweight" at my current pace.

I'm not sure why this surprises me anymore, but I continue to be fascinated by the depths of Trump's oversized ego and at the same time his massive insecurity and inferiority complex. Doesn't really care about Twitter spam or cleaning up bots, just hates the bottom line that he is visibly losing followers - that is, his numbers aren't as big as he needs them to be in his mind (likely to boast -"most followers ever"). Just like his lies about his inauguration crowd size, rally crowd sizes, and his actual wealth (as others touched upon, his fear of being a "false billionaire"). Boy did he pick the ultimate wrong job if he was worried about his public perception and popularity. I'd like to think he had enough common sense to know that "politician" is an inherently untrusted and loathed occupation and could see what he was getting into (then again, his concept of a "real lawyer" is someone who never takes notes, so maybe he has no clue). Even the best politicians are going to get slagged by the media or some portion of the population just because that's what we do with our politicians and our own partisan views. Most amazing to me is how 65 million Americans did not see this glaring frailty and still seek to protect him.

Of course I am trolling a bit, but I am making a point of my own instead of missing it. To assume that anything spoiler-ish is fair game the second it has hit the public conscience is more than a bit presumptive. In the world of 3 TV networks and no VCRs, it was safer to assume that any major plot development would be seen by all at the same time, or those that missed it did not really care enough to watch the show in the first place. And spoilers were limited to word of mouth for the most part, so people could self-regulate what information they wanted to receive. But in today's world of "57 channels and nothing on" (more like 200), PVR and binge-watching, it is wrong to assume that everyone sees the episode right away (much like a movie that has so many sold-out showings that many won't get to see it until the second or third day, or maybe even the second or third week in this extreme case - hence my specific reference to it). And with the advent of instant gratification internet media like twitter, instagram, etc. and 24-hour streaming news/sports/entertainment, and the ability to cross over from one platform to another, the possibilities of being notified of a spoiler are much higher, despite one's best intentions to avoid being spoiled. So I can avoid all spoiler sites about "Avengers" diligently (moviespoiler.com and any Google search that takes me to "Avengers spoilers" websites would be the obvious ones to avoid) in an effort to not have the surprise ruined, but reading a generic Bomber fan website and being told about a big spoiler (plot-driven or not, it clearly is a big enough deal to hit CNN and obviously enough to warrant your mention of it, so you would have appreciated the sensitive nature of it to some) with no advance warning can be jarring - if you are so inclined to get worked up about such things in life. And to be fair, a CNN headline saying "actress thought GOT sex scene was a prank" that requires you to click on a link for more details is a lot less specific than "hey, I'll identify this person by name and say what happened out of the blue with no prior hint that the topic had changed". So my troll point was simply to say it's a bit frivolous to say "well if it's aired it's fair game and not a spoiler anymore because I've already seen it, so tough on anyone who missed the boat" as a justification for letting a spoiler slip, and used the extreme example of the biggest movie around to beat you over the head with my point. Not very subtle, no, but you get my drift, even if you want to debate the semantics of "movie" vs. "TV", where the lines are more blurred in the current day and age than in the past, IMO. Just my 2 cents. Personally, I'm not going to get bent out of shape about spoilers, but I am sensitive to those who do.

Not a spoiler if the episode has aired. Especially when it's newsworthy, right?

So we can spoil Avengers :Endgame since it has opened overseas?

Just curious, if you don't mind sharing, what is your annual salary (before taxes)?

Don’t blame him. I’ve been wanting to tell some select critics to f*ck off myself.

I am of the belief that the team chose to rest up down the stretch as much as anything. Their first round play would indicate that they are not “fundamentally broken” like the nay-sayers would proclaim. Pushing hard to 114 points last year left us worn out by round 3 last year. It didn’t do Tampa or Calgary any good to pile on the points in the regular season. I see no indication based on their play in this series that Maurice has “lost the room” or that we are being outclassed by our opponent. The series had been remarkably tight, as it should be for two teams that each had 99 points. And it isn’t over yet. People need to stop firing the coach after each individual loss in a 7 game series.

Big difference between Stanley Cup contender and “the guarantee” 4 years out. But that’s all anyone seems to see. We have SC caliber talent, but so do Tampa, Boston, Washington, Pittsburgh, Toronto, and now arguably NYI and Columbus (given their results in the first round) in the East, and Calgary, Nashville, Vegas in the West. San Jose, minus the goaltending woes no one saw at season’s start, have as much talent as anyone. And given their second half play, one could make an argument that St. Louis and Colorado have that caliber of talent too. And Dallas has the defence and goaltending that could carry them a long way. Point is, only one team can win - you don’t fire a coach just because you don’t make the conf. finals. 27 teams aren’t firing their coaches this year. We have not been outplayed in this series, we certainly have not had a lot of luck on our side. Even with talent, so much needs to happen to win a Cup. A lot more than a magazine article proclaiming it to be so a half decade ago.

Have to revise my hate meter (told you it was a constantly shifting scale). Removing my Tortarella hate for now. Dude has been very entertaining in these playoffs, even smiled after he got beer dumped on him during a game. Now, we’ll see if Oscar the grouch returns if they start losing, but I also saw that he took in an abused and neglected horse and nursed it back to health on his farm, and also has 3 rescue dogs he took in. Can’t hate on him anymore. That leaves me an extra hate point, which I will add to the Winnipeg Jets fans, specifically he “Fire Maurice” brigade who disappear after a win but come roaring back after a loss, no matter the circumstances. This kind of blind idiocy is why I avoid message boards for 24 hours after a loss.

This was the worst thing that happened to our fan base. Gave us completely unrealistic expectations. This team is not Cup or Bust yet. Firing Maurice right away because we lost to a hot goalie and a team that was tied with us in the standings will not propel us forward.

Season should be 80 games. 8 Divisions of 4 teams into 2 Conferences. 2 games against teams in opposite conf, 3 against same conf non-divisional opponents, and 4 against divisional opponents. One division champ and 4 wild cards. Season runs from October 1-March 31. Playoff games every other day alternating conferences until the finals, season done by May 31 at her latest. But yhat won’t happen either.

I am reminded of the movie “The Fugitive” where Tommy Lee Jones interviews the cop after the train crash: ”Care to revise your statement, sir?” ”What?” ”Do you want to change your bulls#it story, sir?”

Don’t judge a line by one shift, clearly.

Good thing Maurice did not split them up.

One man’s take: A very different position to judge in the 30’s-50’s era than today as run blocking and your two-way role on defence were so key as opposed to route running and catching on today’s role, and I won’t repeat the bios I posted. But Pitts was the best receiver of the group and was a two-way all-star multiple times, so he gets my vote. As my runner-up, Grant and Marquand were the receding leaders for the club when they each played, Funston was a key underrated cog in the dynasty years, and McCance’s 7 Cup appearances in 8 years will not be duplicated, but Jeff Nicklin earns my back-up spot for his play on the field (4 straight all-star nods) and his sacrifice off it. His bio says it all.

Bud Grant beat out Cal Murphy to be the all-time head coach. Murphy was voted in as GM.

NOTE: There will be 1 winner, but choose 2 players and the second place finisher will go into the run-off for the "5th receiver" position. NOTE #2: Some of these players careers pre-dated the keeping of stats, so please read the attached personal bios of each as well. Aside from Neill; Armstrong, all are Blue Bomber Hall of Fame members. Here are the bios: Stats will be broken down into receptions-yards-average-longest-TDs for the career, with the best single season total for each in parentheses with the corresponding year following the career numbers. CFL all-star nominations not awarded until 1962. Neill Armstrong – 44 gp in 3 seasons (1951, 53, 54), 122-2108-17.3-100-19 (56-1024-18.3-100-10 all in 1951), 2 time divisional all-star (1951, 53), led league in receiving yards in 1951, 1 Grey Cup appearance (1953), Wikipedia bio is limited, later would coach the Edmonton Eskimos Farrell Funston – 74 gp in 8 seasons (1959-66), 220-3749-17.0-75-32 (60 rec.-9 TDs both in 1963, 892 yds.-75 long both in 1961, 23.7 avg. in 1959), 2 time divisional all-star (1961, 63), 4 Grey Cup appearances (1959, 61, 62, 65), 3 time Grey Cup champion (1959, 61, 62), team nominee Most Outstanding Player (1963) Bio: https://www.bluebombers.com/2017/04/17/farrell-funston/ Bud Grant – 64 gp in 4 seasons (1953-56), 216-3200-14.8-62-13 (68 rec. in 1953, 970 yds.-15.4 avg. both in 1956, 62 long in 1954 and 1955, 5 TDs in 1953 and 1954), 3 time divisional all-star (1953, 54, 56), led league in receiving yards in 1953, 1 Grey Cup appearance (1953), CFL Hall of Fame (builder) Bio: https://www.bluebombers.com/2017/04/10/bud-grant/ Bud Korchak – 82 gp in 6 seasons (1949-54), 94-1572-16.7-xx-14 (34 rec.-7 TDs both in 1951, 551 yds. in 1952, 22.6 avg. in 1950), 3 time divisional all-star (1951 – 2nd team, 52, 53), 2 Grey Cup appearances (1950 ,53) Bio: https://www.bluebombers.com/2017/04/18/bud-korchak/ Bud Marquardt – 54 gp in 7 seasons (1935-41), no receiving stats available, 3 time divisional all-star (1937, 39, 40), 5 Grey Cup appearances (1935, 37-39, 41), 3 time Grey Cup champion (1935, 39 ,41) Bio: https://www.bluebombers.com/2017/04/10/bud-marquardt/ Ches McCance – 40 gp in 8 seasons (1937-43, 45), no receiving stats available, 2 time divisional all-star (1940, 41), 7 Grey Cup appearances (1937-39, 41-43, 45), 2 time Grey Cup champion (1939 ,41), CFL Hall of Fame Bio: https://www.bluebombers.com/2017/04/10/ches-mccance/ Jeff Nicklin – 54 gp in 7 seasons (1934-40), no receiving stats available, 4 time divisional all-star (1937-40), 4 Grey Cup appearances (1935, 37-39), 2 time Grey Cup champion (1935, 39) Bio: https://www.bluebombers.com/2016/11/11/lest-we-forget-the-jeff-nicklin-story/ Ernie Pitts – 194 gp in 13 seasons (1957-69), (NOTE –switched to defensive back in 1965, receiving numbers are from 1957-64, 66), 337-5525-16.4-107-54 (68 rec.-1126 yds.-16 TDs all in 1959, 21.2 avg.-107 long both in 1958), 6 time divisional all-star (1957, 59, 60, 65, 66, 68), led CFL in receiving yards in 1959, 6 Grey Cup appearances (1957-59, 61, 62, 65), 4 time Grey Cup champion (1958, 59, 61, 62) Bio: https://www.bluebombers.com/2017/04/25/ernie-pitts/

Laine had 5 goals and 7 assists in last year's playoffs. You are thinking of Ehlers, who still has never scored a playoff goal.

Hate meter is on high today - https://www.tsn.ca/tiger-wins-the-masters-for-15th-major-title-1.1290580 https://www.tsn.ca/americans-survive-finland-in-shootout-to-win-gold-after-controversial-ot-1.1290626 A Blues win tonight and I just may break every radio and TV in my house just to tune out the annoying analysis of it all.

I would have ranked Pitts as a strong contender for one of the top 3 wide receiver/alternate spots.

The Bombers never had a tight end earn a divisional or CFL all-star nod from 1968 to 1980 when the league tracked that position, and Paul Marlkle had only 900 career receiving yards and 80 catches in his 3 seasons with the Bombers from 1970-72. Don’t think he makes the cut when stacked up against the Tony Gabriel’s of that era. But I will say that the “end” position of the 1930’s-1960’s that was the pre-cursor to the tight end position did produce some talent (Pitts and Grant should rightfully be placed there instead of wide receiver, along with Jeff Nicklin, Neill Armstrong, and Bud Marquand). So I will acquiesce and add an “end/tight end” category as well, with one starter and a second choice who can compete in the generic “5th receiver” spot. Our offence will now have 14 men on the field (sounds like a ‘Rider game). If you feel Markle deserves to be among the candidates, tell me which slotback to remove, since the tight end of the 1970’s was closer to a pass catching slotback of the 1980’s than a run blocking end of the 1950’s.

We had season tickets on he east side and bought 2 more in the east temp seats. My dad and I used the good seats in the first half, and traded off with my brother and his friend for the second. The wind came right through the back of the bleachers and feet were exposed to the elements, the second half was a miserable experience by the end of it.

Bios and "one man's take" will be out for next week, for now just putting out a starting list to generate discussion and see if I missed anyone. But I can say Rick House was the slot opposite Poplawski, and our top Canadian 3 times and tops in the league once. Wilcox was our go-to slot in the 90's and a 4 time Most Outstanding Canadian on the team (winning the league wide award once and being runner-up another time), and he also put up the second or 3rd best single receiving year in Bomber history (behind Stegall's 2002 and James Murphy's 1986 year respectively). Edwards was known as "Baby Milt" and quietly had some of the highest career numbers a Bomber has ever put up. For wide receivers, James Murphy was the greatest receiver we ever had and the guy who held every club record before Milt came along. Bud Grant led the league 3 times in receiving before switching to head coach in the 1950's. Pitts and Nielsen were 1960's and early 70's stars with multiple all-star nods and team awards. Holmes was the leader of the receiving corps in the Brock era. Boyd played second fiddle to Murphy in the mid-80's, and Gordon was the understudy to Milt in 2000-01 before Bruce came in.