Category Archives: Sports

08.27.02
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Know Your Market

A little over a year ago the folks over at CHUM announced they were switching to an all-sports format. When confronted with the fact that such a small group of potential listeners already had the FAN590, CHUM noted they were confident they would win this war because they had a network of stations across the country and popular syndicated programs from the United States. The fans weren’t just interested in Toronto teams, they were interested in Canadian teams. And Americans loved Jim Rome, so therefore Canadians would love him too. As one of the few people (by FAN590’s Program Director’s personal admission to me via e-mail once) who will listen to sports radio for hours on end (like news, most tune in and out throughout the day) I was consistently barraged with opinions of those around me that my precious FAN590 was going by the wayside. A small Toronto-centric station could not compete with the CHUM power house.

I noted that had CHUM done some research, and learned from the FAN590, they would know that Toronto fans are interested in Toronto sports. They don’t care about the Vancouver Canucks. They don’t care about the Montreal Expos. They sure as heck don’t care about the Saskatchewan Roughriders or the Florida Marlins. They also don’t care about the opinions of radio jocks from Los Angeles – they care about Toronto teams and Toronto radio jocks. They care about Toronto. It’s rule one of marketing – know your market. Just because you love something you’ve created does not mean everybody else will. A little simple research could have saved CHUM a ton of cash, as they called it quits today on their all-sports experiment, have dismantled their network, and are returning to an oldies music format. Too bad, because there was plenty of great local talent in the Toronto area that might have allowed TEAM to give FAN a run for its money. But when you’re throwing Jim Rome up against Gord Stellick you can’t honestly expect to win – just ask The Fabulous Sports Babe.

Cheers!

07.16.02
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If you’ve been paying attention,

If you’ve been paying attention, you know I love the Toronto Maple Leafs. You also know I HATE HATE HATE Wade Belak. I wish ill will upon Wade Belak. I wish Wade Belak would take an errant skate blade to the head – not enough to kill, but enough to retire. I’d settle for a trade, though. So you can imagine my excitement when it was announced today that the Leafs had resigned the defensive wunderkind to a new contract – details withheld. I’m telling you now, if he cost more than a Big Mac and a bag of pucks he came too expensive. Oftentimes it’s hard to indicate exactly how bad one particular hockey player is without actually watching a game. But this, friends, might give you some idea – as excerpted from today’s press release:

“Belak, 26, set career-highs in 2001-02 for games played (63), goals (1-tie), assists (3), points (4), and penalty minutes (142).”

Yes, friends. Good old Wade Belak, utility forward and defense, tied his career high in goals last season with 1. 1 goal. What this means is, prior to these two stellar seasons of lighting up the twine with a goal, Wade Belak had scored as many goals in the NHL as I had. I’m going to e-mail the Toronto Maple Leafs to point out a glaring grammatical error in that press release. Why, it says “goals (1-tie)”, where it should say “goal (1-tie)”. And for being a useless blockhead with the scoring touch of a diseased coyote, Belak will make more money next season than I will in the next 10. If Belak was to score a hat trick in one game he would more than double his career goal output. I’m quite surprised we resigned him. You’d think his agent would have been beating General Managers back with a stick. I mean, what team wouldn’t love a goal every one or 63 games?

Cheers,
Rick Jessup

06.28.02
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The Phantoms game last night

The Phantoms game last night was a lot of fun. As you can see from that beautiful webcam shot it was free mask night. Alex and I bought some cheap seats and, keeping my tradition alive, promptly strolled down to the railing against the end zone instead. I’m making a habit out of this. Some would say I’m being immoral and committing illegal acts, I just say I’m making the arena look a bit more full on television. I wish I’d taped it because, being seated at the end zone, and me with my stupid-a$$ mask on, we would have been all over Sportsnet last night. I even wore my XFL jersey! :) Unfortunately our beloved Phantoms lost the game after giving the ball away three times in the second half.

I’ll be posting the Friday quiz a bit later tonight so check back.

In the meantime, for those of you leaving early for the big Canada Day weekend, have a great time, play safe, don’t drink and drive, and remember – celebrate the birth of our great Country by blowing up a small part of it. Get them fireworks! WOOOOOO!!!!

Cheers,
Rick Jessup

06.17.02
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A veritable plethora of posting

A veritable plethora of posting glory for everyone today! Get the popcorn, grab a Vanilla Coke and settle back. E-mail your love to me using the link at the end.

1. I beat John Garrett and Scott Morrison of Sportsnet in the playoff hockey pools this year. And THEY’RE supposed to be the experts. Tell you what, boys, I’m available for your show sometime.. we’ll shoot the poop, talk hockey, I’ll learn ya a thing or two. :)

2. I also near-doubled my “competition” (Brent, Rob, and Paul) in the Faceoff.com Playoff pool. In the immortal words of Kevin Spacey in American Beauty: “I RULE!”

3. Perhaps most importantly, this Friday night I’ll be doing an overnight run for the Canadian Cancer Society to raise money for them. I need to raise a minimum of $100 in pledges – receipts for amounts over $10 are available – so if anyone is willing to sponsor me for this I’d be grateful. It’s for a good cause – I lost an uncle last year to cancer and really wanted to do my part in his memory. I can organize donations through PayPal or we can work out something else. No pressure – but if anyone is willing just toss me an e-mail or give me a call at home.

4. If you marinate pork tenderloin in lime juice for at least a couple hours before cooking time, it’s hella-good. Seriously. Try it.

5. I’m now writing two movie scripts. I started a new one to see if I could do it – it’s a nice little coming of age love story with a sad ending. A big part of the film will be the influence music has on the main male character, and that said, I have already finished putting together what would be the soundtrack and I’m now detailing how the film will fall together. The problem I’ve reached is that the story doesn’t seem to have a single “high” moment, or climax if you will, that the film builds up to. Not sure if that becomes an issue or if it’s typical of lovey-dovey movies.

6. Can you write PHP? If you don’t know what that means, you can’t. If you can write PHP, e-mail me and we’ll chat. I need a PHP programmer for a project I’m working on.

Cheers,
Rick Jessup

06.03.02
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UPDATE: Back from the chiropractor/sports

UPDATE: Back from the chiropractor/sports doctor. He’s a former NY Ranger and knows his way around injuries like this, which was good. The results aren’t impressive. In my right arm alone I have an injury I kept under wraps for the last 11 years which I discussed with him today. Turns out that all our muscles have a plastic-like coating called a ‘sheath’ over them to keep them in place. The sheath over my bicep is torn, hence the fact my bicep comes out the side of my arm. Injury two: tendonitis in the left elbow which only really came about since I began weight-training. Finally, the big one from Sunday, my shoulder separated. As noted in my Biography I have always had the ability to disclocate both shoulders on request – over time, this adeptness to dislocation in my shoulders has worn that area down. On one particular throw from the outfield on Sunday my shoulder came out and snapped back in. Did it a second time on the bench. I’ve now done some decent damage to the entire area, from muscles to tendons to cartildge, etc.. They did some minor massage therapy, then some ultrasound, and I’m back in two more times this week for follow-ups. He thinks it can be fixed over time by icing it and keeping it mobile through weight training and so forth, but if it doesn’t, it’s a one-way ticket to surgery for me. Needless to say, no more heavy throwing for me. New gym opens on Monday and then it’s wrapping the elbow to stabilize and try to strengthen up the entire arm.

BTW, we can add these to the previously posted back problems, as well as a broken rib, two broken toes, and patella-femoral syndrome (no cartildge) in both knees. Not a bad record for 28 years. ;)

Cheers,
Rick Jessup