the 4th star

First he gets a shot to play for Canada at the coming World Baseball Classic, now Corey Koskie, the only guy I know from Anola who has played in the Major Leagues, has signed a minor league deal with the Chicago Cubs. Spring training invite and all. Here’s hoping Lou Pinella has a soft spot for left-handed hitting Canucks who went bald before they turned 25-years-old.

And here’s something I didn’t know:

Koskie has primarily played third base, turning in a .966 fielding percentage throughout his big league career. His .966 fielding percentage ranked sixth among all major league third basemen from 1998-2006 (minimum 900 games played).

Getting back to the WBC, here’s a historic moment on the 4th Star: A link to the Beausejour Review. The story will probably go down in a few days, so here’s the quote of importance from his mother:

“We’re excited for him, it’s very exciting,” Maryann Koskie said, asked how it felt to know her son would be presenting his country, she added, “It feels very good. He’s done this one other time, he played for Team Canada.”

Apparently, Leonard was unavailable for comment. Usually, he’s so chatty.

Great day on a Saturday, my friends.

So the state of the economy is an “unintended blessing” for the new Winnipeg Blue Bombers stadium project headed up by No. 1 super fan David Asper, and while all sides continue to haggle over the details of splitting the cheque, Asper now has time to find tenants for the Polo Park retail space he stands to gain from the deal.

That sounds good on paper.

One question: How much haggling is there really left to do?

Since having to close my press box laptop for a less desirable desktop computer and cubicle, I’ve had a chance to be around a few people at the political table. All have essentially said, in one form or another, that they are ready to see the new Blue Bomber stadium happen.

Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz said the city is good to go. He’s actually expressed concern about the continuing delay.

Federal minister Vic Toews said the money is in place. He mentioned the term “shovel-ready” about 25 times in an interview about the Tory budget in January.

Premier Gary Doer said the province is cool, too. However, Doer hinted at the Cindy Klassen Recreation Complex ribbon cutting earlier this month that not all parties are looking at a green light on the project. He alluded to this story in the Globe and Mail to reporters, suggesting someone might be a little short, but wouldn’t come out and name names.

Asper denied that inference in the Saturday Freep story, saying his Crestwin Properties has nothing to do with the family Canwest empire, but it’s no leap of faith to believe he certainly would like to have the security blanket of a strong global company when this deal is finally put to bed.

Could it be that what’s holding up the deal is Asper himself?

Asper blames the process, but if he can’t find investors for the retail space to provide his revenue stream, and all three levels of government and the university know this, wouldn’t that put the stop sign in his hand?

There is a rumour that the once-accommodating University of Manitoba, the site for the stadium, is being a prickly pear in the negotiation. They might be looking at making sure they don’t get stuck with any over-runs during the build or extra operational costs once the stadium is open for business. Who can blame them?

Doubt could probably be said for all three levels of government, too. They are not going to put aside money for this project in perpetuity and they know the risks of a public-private partnership arrangement. If this thing gets going in 2011 or 2012 and the rising construction costs or a continuing economic slowdown means Asper doesn’t have enough dough to see it through, who do you think will get stuck with the bill?

“The government doesn’t just write you a cheque,” Asper told the Freep.

Yeah, they do, David. The difference here is that you get to take home the leftovers (a football team).

I decided to hold this until today, as I had nothing else ready to go for the weekly Man Sandwich feature. Here’s the object of your desire, ladies.

Seems innocent enough, right? I mean, if a sport so dependent on gate revenue wants to take direct aim at a certain segment of the population (and that segment happens to be the highly lucrative puck bunny sect) then so what?

Not everyone agrees with the sexism, though.

Personally, any chance I get to see Jose Theodore (above) look ridiculous is a bonus.

TORONTO — In a shocking, cost-cutting move, TSN traded hockey analyst Bob McKenzie and host James Duthie to The Score for the rights to regular season CIS basketball games.

The deal, which is still pending confirmation on whether anyone actually watches CIS basketball in this country, was made just days before the two hockey know-it-alls were about to settle in for another rousing National Hockey League trade deadline action.

The two networks also agreed to swap their out-dated studio sets. Both were expected to toss those in the dumpster as soon as they arrived.

With the NHL their focus, the move took everyone at TSN by surprise — including McKenzie.

“I didn’t feel my Blackberry buzzing,” he said, near tears following an emotional embrace with Gord Miller. “I was hoping for a flurry of trades this deadline. I’ve made a living off of the precarious nature of the professional athlete…I just didn’t think I would be a part of the meat market.

“It really hurts. I’m not sure what I’m going to do now.”

When asked if he would report to The Score, McKenzie shook his head and deflected all questions to his representatives.

“You’ll have to talk to my agent,” he said. “I don’t even know what The Score is.”

Duthie was also in shock, but understood he was no Jim Toth. The longtime annoying studio host said he found out about the trade when he was watching Rogers Sportsnet “for a good laugh.”

The news was on the ticker at the bottom of the screen.

“One minute you’re jock sniffing at the bar with Dutchie (TSN ‘personality’ Darren Dutchyshen), the next minute you’re working with Steve Kouleas,” Duthie said. “I betcha (CFL host Dave) Randorf was behind this. That weasel!”

A source at TSN said the network is a definite seller as the deadline approaches and that more moves could be coming in the next 48 hours. Names like Pierre McGuire and Michael Landsberg have been rumoured to be on the block for weeks now.

“The problem,” said the source, “is that there isn’t much of a market for those guys.”

As the newspaper business suffers another deadly blow, it seems only fitting to include televison and the radio as a part of the Friday Wrap Jam this week. Media. See how this is coming together? TV on the Radio tickets go on sale this morning here in Winnipeg.

At least I think they do. Let me check the internet.

Killing time at the computer this morning, I happened to come across “The Plagiarist” and his new internet podium. What a treat! You know your opinions are well respected when the title sponsor of the web site has to put a disclaimer before each post you make:

Views and comments expressed in posts do not necessarily reflect the views of River City Sports.

If that’s not funny enough, check out this item from the grand master of the oblivious. In true ‘Plagiarist’ form, I have decided not to link to the web site or the post. After all, he hates the ‘mainstream media.’ I think that’s the way he would have wanted it.

Anyway, it’s about Corey Koskie. ‘The Plagiarist’s’ words are in BOLD, because he’s an out-spoken and controversial guy who needs a disclaimer on all of the outrageous things he says:

On the baseball front, Team Canada manager Ernie Whitt confirmed yesterday that Anola, Manitoba’s Corey Koskie, who hasn’t played a game in anger since July 5, 2006, would indeed be one of the 28 players named Tuesday to Team Canada’s preliminary roster for the 2009 World Baseball Classic.

Great. Sounds like a nice story. Of course, I don’t believe that you talked to Ernie Whitt or Koskie. And I’m pretty sure a phone call to the latter would confirm that.

We first reported this story here at (website name removed) at 10:03 a.m. CDT on Sunday, Feb. 22. Later in the day, a story on Koskie’s good fortune appeared on the St. Paul Pioneer Press’s website and the next day the story appeared at cbc.ca. Of course, cbc.ca — which only occasionally gets things right — wouldn’t credit (website name removed).

Couple things.

1. The time stamp on the Pioneer Press blog Twins Now reads February 22, 2009 8:24 AM. Um…that would be just under two hours before your stamp. Unless, of course, you believe reporters would change the time stamp of their stories to appear to be first. One would hope they would at least change to to an earlier time.

2. CBC did get the source right.

3. At this point you might be wondering why I sometimes do not give written credit to a story or source. That is because I link the source. Trust me, if you’ve ever met any blog people, they would take the page view over unlinked credit every time. Back to the show…

The mainstream media continues to act despicably. One can only hope the Harper government one day shuts down the CBC, a $1 billion-plus waste of taxpayers money. We live in a time when private broadcasters — the people in this country who pay their own way — are struggling to survive and yet we toss public money down that big CBC toilet.

Not only do we know where political leanings lie, we now know that he hates ‘mainstream media’ for acting despicably. The same mainstream media that employed him all those years. I seem to remember a weekly noon-hour hit on the Valerie Pringle show several years back. Not to mention some regular radio commentary. What national broadcaster were those on again?

Along those lines, if ‘The Plagerist’ is going to call out the “despicable” CBC for not giving his website credit for the story, then shouldn’t he call himself out for not giving credit to the Pioneer Press on his ‘original’ Feb. 22 story (which does not cite the newspaper as I type this)?

This is too easy.

Further to this story, what becomes of Sean Avery now? The pest is currently sitting in Hartford, playing for the Wolf Pack while he collects his full NHL salary from the Dallas Stars. It was thought to be an automatic that Avery would play a few games in the AHL and then join the New York Rangers sooner than later. Now that the club has its sparkplug in Tortorella, that doesn’t seem so likely, does it?

Here’s what the new New York coach said about Avery when he was suspended by Dallas after the infamous ’sloppy seconds’ comment a couple months ago:

“The league stepped up here and I think they did the right thing. Enough is enough. He’s embarrassed himself, he’s embarrassed the organization, he’s embarrassed the league and he’s embarrassed his teammates, who have to look out for him. Send him home. He doesn’t belong in the league.”

Hmmm…doesn’t look like Avery will be joining the Rangers anytime soon, does it?

One of the world’s most famous virgins models, Adriana Lima, is this week’s contestant for Hump Day. For those of you who follow these sorts of things — specifically, love and basketball — she is now officially off the market. Too bad, gents. All that she left us with are pics like this, this, and this.

Oh, and this, too.

Please let this be a sign of things to come. Yes, I can not wait for the New York Rangers first egg-laying at Madison Square Garden. Larry Brooks, the New York Post hockey guy, seems to have a rather warm relationship with Mr. Tortorella, doesn’t he? Maybe assistant coach Jim Schoenfeld can hold ‘Brooksy’ while Torts takes a composite to his head. Or feeds him donuts. Yikes. Let’s hope the Rangers free fall continues. Here’s a link with Tortorella saying all the right things.

Well, well, well. What a nice little present this is. God, I hope it works out for Mr. Koskie. I haven’t talked to him in a while but I know from conversations with family that he really wants to get back on the diamond. Hope this is the starting point for that.

Let’s say Mark Teahan gets hurt and Koskie comes in and does well in the World Baseball Classic. I wonder if there is still a market for the former Selkirk Steelers goaltender and if there is, what he would take to get back in Major League Baseball. He does have some value as a back-up infielder — he has a pretty good arm and he hits from the left side. If he can find his stroke, maybe a club looking for some balance in their batting order takes a chance on him as a DH.

Regardless of what happens, it’s nice to see a friend back healthy again.