Riders 2007 Season

Tonight the Riders travel to Montreal for their 2007 season opener against the Alouettes. This will be the first game for new coach and past Rider great Kent Austin. Kent comes with high expectations and my excitement and anticipation for the start of the season has never been higher.

The team needs to get off to a good start. They did go 2-0 in the pre-season, but that was the pre-season and the real test starts tonight. The last thing that they need to happen is to get blown out in the first game, lose their confidence and set the tone for rest of the season.

I think Austin will be a good coach, and I think he and GM Eric Tillman have done a great job in getting the team renewed and rebuilt. There are some impact players that are waiting to break out and offensively, this should be a high scoring team. Whether or not the defense will be good or not remains to be seen.

I hope that this is the year they finally host a home playoff game, but in reality, I want more. I want a Grey Cup too. Is that too much to ask?

All I can say is Go Riders!

College World Series

I am in Omaha, Nebraska attending a number of meetings and our host has arranged for us to attend the College World Series that is on at the same time. As a baseball fan, this is quite an event to see and I have been very excited to be here and to be part of the atmosphere.

Everything is done first class; what one would expect with a NCAA tournament. I saw two games today...North Carolina Tar Heels beat the Rice Owls 6-1 in the afternoon and defending champion Oregon State Beavers beat UC-Irvine Anteaters 7-1 in the evening match. The atmosphere in and around the ballpark (Rosenblatt Stadium) is phenomenal, and it is one big party surrounded by a major sporting event.

Part of the best part of the day was that I was with a number of close friends and colleagues and that made it enjoyable. The baseball was great...at the senior college level the fundamentals of the players was very evident. These guys can play.

I predict that you will hear more about Dustin Ackley down the road. A freshman at North Carolina, this kid was above his peers and he dominated with a homer that clinched the game for NC.

It was amazing to see 29,000+ people in the stands for the games. They came with the college rah-rah attitude that made it a fun place to be. This continues for 10 full days until the winner is determined this weekend. My guess is that Oregon State Beavers will repeat as champions...they were the most impressive team that I saw.

I jumped on the bandwagon of the UC - Irvine Anteaters. First of all their name is great; they are back after shutting down their baseball program for over 10 years, they beat Arizona State last night, and that victory was their second walk-off victory after being behind by a large number of runs late in the game. They were the cardiac kids. I bought a hat to show my support, but they are out now as they were over matched by Oregon State.

This is a once in a lifetime experience that I will never forget. For a big baseball fan to be here is a pretty good experience! I also had great seats; row two behind the dugout on the first base side, and I was close to the action with a great view.

It doesn't get any better than that.

Golf Season

We are in the beginning of June and I have had the good luck to play a number of rounds of golf so far. The bad news is that I am not getting any better, but you know as they say, a bad round of golf is better than a good day at work. I concur.

I have 15 rounds in so far; not bad considering the travel that I have had. I few of these rounds were with tournaments; as our company put on four fund raising tournaments for our members this year. Traveling to them was half the fun.

Certainly the highlight was playing the TPC at Deere Run in Moline Illinois. As it turned out, I was able to play 36 holes the day I was there. This is the site of the John Deere Classic, the PGA stop that takes place in July right before the British Open. It was one great and tough course. I scored well; a 91 and a 87, and I'll take that on such a challenging track.

Another highlight so far this year was the Ledgeview Course in Abbotsford, B.C. We had our tournament there and from what I heard in advance this course did not disappoint. It is on the side of a mountain, in the rainforest, and it was one tough course. I didn't do very well, but who cares, the experience was worth it.

I have not been able to play out of my home course Lakeside Greens for a few weeks because of the travel. That will change this week as I hope to get out a couple of times. The course is in great shape, the recent renovations have gone well and I kinda miss the atmosphere around there. My regular playing partner T43 is also ready to hit the links at Lakeside and no doubt he'll be calling to get me out there.

I have a couple of meetings coming up in Omaha later this month and I have noticed that a couple of rounds of golf are part of the meeting. I will be looking forward to that. Also, I will also be looking forward to using my new Scotty Cameron putter. She looks pretty and feels nice...everything you want in a woman...I mean a putter....