kickingfrog

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/league-and-players-are-fighting-in-an-age-of-disagreement/article4543964/ League and players are fighting in an age of disagreement KEN DRYDEN Special to The Globe and Mail Published Thursday, Sep. 13 2012, 7:13 PM EDT Last updated Thursday, Sep. 13 2012, 8:33 PM EDT For years, from the late 1990s to the early 2000s, Gary Bettman kept searching for an answer he couldn’t find. With no salary cap, the NHL teams that could spend, including the New York Rangers, Detroit Red Wings and Philadelphia Flyers, did. But many teams that couldn’t spend, including teams in smaller markets, more southern U.S. cities and Canadian teams, except Toronto and Montreal, overwhelmed by a 70-cent Canadian dollar, also spent to a point beyond what their revenues would support. In NHL governors’ meetings, Bettman would point this out, at first forcefully, over time as if possessed. He presented elaborate charts: Here’s what the league and individual teams take in, here’s what we spend. It makes no sense. Here’s what winning teams spend, here’s what losing teams spend. There’s no correlation between spending and performance (there was, in fact, some correlation). It makes no sense. He would run a roll call of teams, and one by one take team owners, with all their private business splashed up on a big screen for everyone to see, to the principal’s office. Here’s what you’re doing – you idiot – here are the results you’re getting – you moron – and, always prefaced by the anti-trust defeating phrase, “Of course, you have the right, as everyone does, to make any decision you want” – what are you going to do in the future – you total fool. To get out of the principal’s office, team owners learned to respond as if at an AA meeting. “Hi, I’m Bob, and I’m a spend-aholic.” “Hi Bob.” Bettman’s buildup would continue each year until free-agent day – July 1. This year would be different. Then on July 1, all hell broke loose. Bob, as well as Dick and Harry, spent his brains out again. Mutual support and individual humiliation weren’t working. Bettman’s response was to generate more and worse of the same. But each year, he got the same result. It was suggested to him that his approach didn’t work and would never work because many owners had a logic that overrode even financial success. Owners are competitive people, as players are. Owners want to win, as players do. But a player who wants to win, as a free agent, can go to five or six teams, playing each team against the others to drive up the money he seeks. An owner has no place else to go. An owner has to win where he is. When a player he thinks he needs to win sets to leave, he runs after him. An owner’s addiction isn’t chemical, it’s to his own self-image. Every several years a collective agreement between the NHL and the NHL Players’ Association expires and a new one needs to be negotiated. If owners couldn’t restrain themselves, Bettman knew they needed a collective agreement that would do that for them. Bob Goodenow, head of the NHLPA, naturally, wasn’t looking to co-operate. Goodenow knew these rich, tough owners were actually weak. All he needed was to say “no” to every proposal. Eventually they would cave. And they did. Finally, Bettman realized they always would. The only way for the owners and for him to win was to take the power out of the owners’ hands. He couldn’t do that directly. He was their employee. He had to get their support to change the NHL bylaws so that a higher percentage of team owners were required to override any proposed agreement with the NHLPA he brought to them. Then he’d need the support of only a few friendly owners, and the negotiations were his. He got the bylaws changed. Bettman girded himself for the 2004 negotiation, month by month building up in himself a belief in the rightness of his position, in the wrongness of the players’ position, and a solid dislike of Goodenow. And this time he had the power. Goodenow said “no” as he always did. The owners locked out the players. The season didn’t start. Goodenow said “no” again and again. The owners would cave. Bettman didn’t. Goodenow had no other strategy. Goodenow needed the players. Bettman didn’t need the owners. It became Bettman against the players. The players caved. The NHLPA disintegrated. Goodenow left. Infighting among players and their agents produced warring factions, new heads and acting heads of the NHLPA, and a mess. Finally, Donald Fehr, former long-time head of baseball’s players union, by far the most effective and respected of North America’s professional sports players unions, agreed to be the NHLPA’s head. And now here we are. The collective agreement expires at midnight Saturday. The sides seem nowhere near an agreement. The owners and players both want an NHL of 30 teams because owners have made big investments in those 30 teams and because players want the jobs those 30 teams provide. Some teams are financially weaker. To survive, they need help. The owners want the players to give up more of what they have to see that these teams make it. The players want the owners, especially richer owners, to give up more of what they have to do the same. So the biggest fight between them is over what percentage of league revenues should go to the owners and what to the players, and what constitutes “league revenues.” The fact is, both the owners and players are doing relatively fine. Their fight is not one of economic necessity. Bettman needs to win because he won last time, and he’s a winner. The players need to win because they lost last time and have to prove they’re not losers. The two sides didn’t really start to negotiate until July because there wasn’t much to talk about, and because for each to win what he needed to win, neither could agree before the collective agreement expired. There’s no agreement because neither needs an agreement. It’s not a fight they need to have. They fight because they can. There’s something not quite right about this. Others are affected. It’s not obvious that a fan will be better off if the owners win, or the players win, no matter what Bettman or Fehr argue. Fans want their game. They pay for their game – steeply – but a price they accept to pay. Eight years ago the NHL lost a full season. The fans could have developed new interests. Old hockey-viewing habits might have been broken. But the fans came back in even greater numbers and paid even higher prices. Bettman says the NHL has the “world’s best fans,” and maybe he’s right. But is it necessary that they prove it? Might love and loyalty not be paid back a different way? Or is this just the way things are: a strike or lockout every number of years, an 11th-hour season-saving deal, then two-thirds of a season of games crammed into a half-season of days, and critically, a full playoffs to try to make everyone forget? We have become better and better at difference. We hire more experts to push our own case. It’s their job to win, their only job. Nothing else matters. It’s black and white, winning and losing, winners and losers. Grey is boring. Conviction is good. Compromise is weak. Compromisers are spineless. The media decide what’s worthy of attention. The media love difference. There’s drama in difference, drama in conflict. There is no bigger interest. There are only interests. So we fight for as much as we can get. What are the losers – the fans – to do? They could try to stand up together, develop a strategy, stay home from games. As unlikely as that is, big surprises happen, and the strong are never as strong as they seem. Or the players and owners might say, this is going nowhere good. The way we live isn’t about total victory, about being the only one left standing, the only one who wins. An economy, a society, politics, sports don’t work if only a few win. With no overwhelming issues, NHL owners and players have agreed to disagree. They need to learn how to agree to agree.

With the passing on Neil Armstrong there was some renewed talk about the moon landings from the 60's. One of the astronauts made a comment along the lines of: today's cellphones having more computing power then the entire rocket and lunar lander used on his mission.

http://www.orilliapacket.com/2012/09/14/tumour-ridden-fish-found-in-lake-couchiching Tumour-ridden fish found in Lake Couchiching ROBIN MACLENNAN - Special to The Packet & Times Friday, September 14, 2012 10:13:10 EDT PM A Bowfin with pink and orange tumours was spotted by Larry Watson at his dock on Couchiching Point. He and his wife, Carole, caught the fish. The photo was taken by their neighbour. ORILLIA - Larry and Carol Watson want their neighbours to know about the discovery they made recently in the lake outside their Couchiching Point home. “I think it is very unusual,” Larry said. “I’ve never seen anything like this here before.” The discovery was a large Bowfin fish found swimming near the couple’s dock. While that might not seem unusual at first, this fish was different. “It was covered in large pink growths around its mouth and eyes and on its body,” Carol said, cringing slightly as she remember her first sighting. “It was not normal. We are concerned because there are kids swimming here and we don’t know what caused the tumours on the fish.” Concerned about potential health risks and unsure what was wrong with the fish, the Watsons called local naturalist Bob Bowles, who then contacted the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) for advice. “I looked at it and I really couldn’t figure out what it was,” Bowles said. “I sent pictures to the MNR and at first they said they would come out and do a biopsy, but then they decided that wasn’t necessary.” Disappointed and unsure what to do with the fish, Bowles then called the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority (LSRCA). Again, photos were forwarded and the reply failed to put their minds at ease. “Judging solely by the photos, it looks like lymphocystis, a common viral infection that is triggered by stress,” LSRCA senior fisheries biologists wrote in an email to Bowles. He advised the residents that the Bowfin “looks quite old” due to its size and that may be a factor in the progress of the disease. “It also appears that the eyes were affected which may have somewhat inhibited the specimen’s feeding,” He suggested that “this is nothing to worry about” and suggested Bowles send the picture to the MNR. The Bowfin, also known as the Dogfish, prefers to live in swampy, poorly oxygenated waters. Bowles and the Watsons are not happy with the conclusion and will continue to seek answers and reassurances that the water is safe. “We know the quality of the water out there is not good beause of the weed growth,” Bowles said. “Then we have a fish with these tumours found in the water we are drinking every day. I want to know what’s going on with it.” On the advice of the MNR, Watson released the sick Bowfin back into the lake. The Watsons have lived on the Point for 22 years and this is the first “obviously diseased” fish they have seen in the area. “We worry that there will be more,” Larry said. “I’m sure I have seen at least two out there.” Bowles said he was surprised to find that none of the authorities was interested in examining the fish, because “it certainly looks like lymphocystis, but the only way we can know for sure is to biopsy the growths,” he said. “This might be a common occurrence in some areas, but we have never seen it here. It makes me wonder who’s really monitoring the water for us.” [email protected]

The search continues. Dave's Reel is sold out.

I have never seen them before. Interesting. I wonder if the large weight causes too much disturbance in front of the spinner blade to get it to spin properly?

Thanks, sent an email. Not sure how I forgot the "you" in "Have you dealt with them?"

I did the home rig thing and didn't have any problems getting it to work properly. Saved $80-$100. The ice-ducer is handy but for that much money, I say try homemade first. I now have an iceducer because I bought a portable unit that came with one.

Thanks Boss. Have dealt with them before?

I am looking for a counter balanced power handle for a Calcutta 400TE. The power handle for the Calcutta B 400 does not fit 400TE. I did some searches and checked ebay but thought I'd check here as well. Thanks for the help.

By the sounds of it, someone's nocturnal emissions would create a substantial "safe Zone".

On tonights broadcast Keenan mentioned the HoFers cut from the team: Al MacInnis Scott Stevens Cam Neely Dino Ciccarelli Yezermen For me the defencemen were the interesting picks. Considering Normand Rochefort, Craig Hartsburg, Doug Crossman and James Patrick made the team but MacInnis and Stevens didn't. I get players filling roles and defensive defencemen and since they won it's hard to say they were wrong but I'm sure the decisions on who got cut were heated discussions.

Meh. That's a lot of money for something that doesn't troll for snot. The real treat would being onboard while they were on maneuvers…. provided I could keep my cookies down.

Keenan was on the radio this morning talking about coaching that '87 team. I only caught a little bit of the interview, but in talking about the depth and talent on the team he cut 5 hall of fame players. One of which was Stevie Y.

Well, if time spent fishing is not deducted from our life; I hope that hour or so I just spent will not be deducted from mine, and if it is, it was worth it. I'll take sentences you won't hear on a remote fly-in fishing trip for a thousand Alex. "I can't believe you were just greased out by some rube flossing fish with a marshmallow on the Sutton!!"

Funny I was thinking about today's stars shooting on those goalies and the total lack of tight checking.

A real prince to post this in the early am. ;)I am not going to read or look at it on my phone so I have to wait until later. Thanks for taking the time to put it together.

I figured it was Mario, considering he had cancer and had retired for the first time in the 90's it's not who I first thought it was. Messier.

He was the last player from that team to play a game in the NHL, but I don't think he played in the final series. If he did, then you are right.

Weird fact that I thought of while watching the game: Which player in the series was the last to still be playing in the NHL?

TSN is showing the finals of the 1987 Canada Cup the next couple of nights. Game #1 tonight Game #2 Wednesday Game #3 Thursday That should get me through until the OHL regular season starts.

What expectation to privacy is there? Car on a public road = zero My licence plate is readily visible (as required by law) anytime my car is on the road or parked in my drive-way. Concerns: How is the camera being operated? re cellphone/handheld laws Is it really worth the headaches that may come with it?

My experience was that the treatment improved the rain-proffness of my jacket but is was not as good as when it was new. It was 9-10 years old by the time I decided it needed treatment. It's way cheaper to treat a jacket then to replace a high-end one. It will likely improve the jacket's current state. It won't be as good as new, or won't last as long as the original.

The Cabela's site might give you some direction for the product(s) to use. I bought some stuff at mountain equipment co-op that I used on my waterproof breathables. The products will have the instructions listed on the bottle.

Truffle oil, saffron and caviar. Call it the grandslam.

Floating in a plastic bin. http://m.thestar.com/news/world/article/1254748--man-survives-day-in-alaskan-sea-adrift-in-plastic-fish-bin-by-singing