How is playing an NHL hockey game in BC Place, or whatever it's called this week, going back to our hockey roots?
There never had been an outdoor NHL game until somebody put one in Edmonton a few years ago and then the whole league went crazy.
I was beginning to wonder when the league was going to get back to playing a few games indoors. Six "once in a lifetime" outdoor games in one season is a bit much, but when greed prevails, that's what you get. Australia, put up the cash, and here we come, says the Bettman money train. First outdoor game in the outbacks. Why not? They've tried everything else, including that outdoor game that was indoors.
Speaking of roots, I smiled last week when a young cashier informed me that she didn't know that once upon a time we used to have one dollar and two dollar paper currency bills. She had served a customer the day before who had handed her some paper Canadian dollars along with a few paper two-dollar bills. She kinda recalled that someone had told her that at one time we had done our cash transactions using one dollar paper bills, but she had never seen one and that two-dollar bill, just blew her mind. I assured her they were still probably legal tender and so it was alright to accept them.
I wonder if she'd know how my cassette tape recorder works? I have it on my desk right now. No typewriter though, dear diary. I'm a 21st Century man, without a cellphone, so that puts me back a half-century, I guess. I know I need to embrace one, but just can't afford it right now and besides my workmates wouldn't have anything to criticize and mock me about if I got one of those fancy phones without wires.
Now, on to one more not-too-important topic.
The Milwaukee Brewers have a new mascot. At least, they did during their spring training camp in Arizona.
It seems a little Yorkie pup wandered into their training camp in February, pretty scared and disheveled. It kept hanging around on the perimeter so the players and staff eventually corralled the pup, and he took to them like well . like a puppy takes to a friendly face.
Some players took him to a vet for shots, a bath and haircut, and he then paid a visit to the Brewer's store to get a blanket. Before you knew it, players, coaches, trainers, ticket sellers and office staff were getting regular visits. They named him Hank, in honour of their home run king, Hank Aaron.
The story I read had to leave me stranded because the Brewers were still in camp and Hank was a regular member, sitting on the bench with the rest of the guys during their spring games.
The speculation was that the Brewers might decide to bring Hank up north to Milwaukee with them for the start of the regular season. I don't know if dogs are allowed in major league dugouts. I know service dogs, those seeing-eye dogs are allowed in the umpire's change rooms where they are needed, but I'm not sure about dogs near the field of play. There was talk about finding a home for Hank in Arizona before the team skipped up to Milwaukee, but from the pictures I viewed from Arizona, I think the odds were pretty good on Hank making the northern swing.
