My Bucket List

words: Paul S. Hendren

As sports enthusiasts the lure of the stadium is sometimes just as important as what transpires on the field of play.  As an impressionable youngster my late great Uncle Art, a proud Hamiltonian,  planted a seed that has lasted a lifetime.  He took me to Ivor Wynne Stadium to watch his beloved Tiger Cats and share a yarn or two about Hamilton’s rich sporting culture.  Now any business trip to Hamilton by yours truly includes a stopover to sit in its stands and sip on a cup of Tims.

Several years ago I was fortunate enough to visit Brisbane Road – a vintage football ground in East London and home to Leyton Orient Football Club.  I wanted to see the famous gable roof and immaculate grass pitch that garnished awards.  My tour guide for the afternoon was Adrian Martin, a young groundsman who was a lifelong Orient supporter.  The enthusiasm of my tour guide fueled my passion for stadium adventures even further.  It was his dream job pampering the grass for his heroes and he treated ‘his’ stadium as home.  Earlier this year I received  some sad news that Adrian is no longer able to work due to a serious car crash.

Distinguished author Simon Inglis, a wordsmith I admire tremendously , best summed up our  mutual passion as;

“ A football ground- its stands , its terracing, its floodlights, its crowds, its noise, even its smell- is as much a part of the event as the match itself.”

Not that I’m going anywhere soon but before I leave for a better place I hope to make a pit stop or two to some more sporting sanctuaries.  On top of my  bucket list is to visit Stadio Dall’ara in Bologna Italy. The stadium, inaugurated on May 27, 1927, has a history unmatched in sport.  The rich brickwork and adjacent pool blends harmoniously with its warm surroundings.  As a bonus there is the ‘antistadio’ alongside the stadium and the world’s longest portico that winds its way up the hill.  I have no craving for a trip to Italy but Stadio Dall’arra is a perch that I want to experience.

What is the sporting ‘pit stop’ on your bucket list?

Soccer 24/7

by Alf DeBlasis TLN for Cansportswriting.com

TLN recently launched EuroWorld Sport on Rogers Digital Cable Channel 425 (available free for the time being). We are very excited about the prospects for this service and as you have correctly pointed out, one of the key properties on EWS is Ligue 1, the French First Division. We hold rights to carry two Saturday games live (usually 1pm & 3pm ET) and two Sunday games (one live at 11am). Starting this weekend we are adding on EWS, la Serie A, the Italian League, with one live game Sundays at 2:30pm followed by a taped match. In September, EWS will add the Europa League on Thursdays with two games live at 1pm & 3pm and all the remaining scheduled games of the MatchDay on tape delay.   EWS will also have select FIFA tournaments including the Men’s U20 World Cup from Colombia and the Women’s World Cup from Germany in 2011.

PUCK HEADS

Words: Paul S. Hendren

Several years ago TSN sports anchor Gord Miller entered into a heated radio debate about the priority hockey should have within the Canadian sports media.  Miller’s proclamation, “it would be suicide to lead off any sportscast with anything but a hockey story”.

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To this date his words have stuck in my craw.  I don’t blame the veteran television personality for towing the party line.  For decades hockey has been embedded in our culture just like cricket dominates the broadsheets in India or football infiltrates the BBC.  It is my argument, however, that Canadian sports culture, like Canada, is vastly changed since the days when Eddie Shack donned skates for ’67 Maple Leafs.

Two Canadian teams are embarking on world championships this summer.  Yet it has been the saga of a well compensated Czech hockey defenceman, who has been wearing the blue and white in Toronto, that has garnished center stage in all facets of Canada’s one dimensional sports media.

At the end of August Canada’s hoopsters will be defending Canadian pride in Turkey during the 2010 FIBA World Championships.  Our Canadian men’s national volleyball team will be doing the same in September from Italy during the FIVB tournament -considered only second to the Olympics in stature.

Our hardwood giants are a group of young men who are now plying their trade across the globe in such locales as the Philippines to Latvia with several stopovers in between.  Many are far displaced from the glitz of the NBA with many others making significant sacrifices to attend the tournament  defending Canada’s honor.

Canada’s volleyballers are a skilled home brewed group of athletes who honed their craft in our backyard of the Canadian university ranks.  They have collectively raised the profile of a powerful sport once considered in Canada a recreational pursuit during phys-ed class.

The Canadian sports media needs to acknowledge that our high performance athletes extend beyond those who ‘lace-em-up’ on ice.  Canada is a diverse and rich sporting nation.  Maybe the puck heads who control the flow of information will one day acknowledge Canada’s new sports landscape.

Globalization

(words: Paul S. Hendren)

It all started in Hong Kong with a journey to a local breakfast haunt to consume some Mickey D’s soup noodles and read the South China Morning Post (one of my favorite pastimes). Sitting across from me in the Tsim Sha Tsui fast food joint were my neighbors from Toronto. We were half way around the globe and we were once again joined at the hip through a chance meeting. My neighbors were on route to Beijing and I was in Hong Kong with family for several days before relocating to Shanghai. Photos were taken; hands were connected just to prove this strange coincidence was a reality – not a fictional residual of jet lag.

As a part time sports writer my take on things usually evolves from the sports section of any broadsheet. It is a twisted way to look at life but a necessary escape for me from the rigors of daily routines, including the challenges of parenthood.

While sitting delayed on the tarmac at Shanghai’s splendid new airport I had the opportunity to devour China Daily – a quirky little state controlled newspaper to appease the English speaking folks in China. To my surprise the name Stephon Xavier Marbury was infiltrating many column inches in the sports section. It appears that Marbury, a former two time NBA all-star who developed his skills on the tough asphalt basketball courts of Coney Island, New York, had also made his way to China.

The well tattooed Marbury, infamous for his controversial and bombastic career in the NBA, had not travelled to China as a tourist. He was there to play some serious ball joining the Shanxi Zhagyu Brave Dragons of the Chinese Basketball League. At 32 years of age Marbury became the highest profile American to play in the CBA.

“I’ll communicate with the fans through my basketball,” Marbury said of his adventure in Northern China. “I think this will be a unique experience. To go overseas to play ball, to live, for me it’s a challenge.”

Marbury has a shroud eye for business seeing the exploding Chinese sportswear market as a place to hawk his own brand of sneakers. He makes no bones about his intentions to crack a marketplace ripe for some American pop culture.

Upon my return to Canadian soil I quickly learned that the New York Red Bulls, a professional soccer club situated in one of New Jersey’s predominantly Portuguese speaking neighbourhoods, had lured a very high profile Frenchman and Mexican into their fold. Thierry Henry and Rafael Marquez had aborted the lifestyle of the rich and famous in European football for the uncertainty of America’s premier soccer league. Henry, once considered one of international soccer’s most marketable personalities, was even spotted on the train on route to his first game at Red Bull Arena.

Some people might think I am going to go there for vacation — I do actually go there for vacation — but it won’t be for vacation this time,” Henry said in a video interview on the club’s website. “I’m a competitor and I don’t like to lose.”

I was breaking bread in Hong Kong with my Toronto neighbours, a ghetto kid from Coney Island was playing professional basketball in Communist China and two international soccer stars were taking their talents to the colonies. Our sphere is shrinking and the world is now an upside down , inside out borderless puzzle

PROFOUND INFLUENCES

It is a strange set of circumstances that has led to this post. As spouses , as parents, as siblings and as friends we have an unspoken duty to inspire those around us.  However it is sometimes the act of a stranger , outside the sphere of our tight circles, that generates change.

Back in ’82 I became very smitten with the round ball.  It was a courtship that began years before ’82 but it was a single incident perpetrated by the generosity of spirit of one professional athlete that set the course for a mad love affair that keeps burning to this day.

Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame inductee Tony Chursky, a veteran NASL goalkeeper who plied his trade in Seattle, California, Chicago and Toronto, was the facilitator of my obsession.  Back in ’82 he responded to my request for information about purchasing a goalkeeper jersey in the GTA.  Not only did the former Canadian International send me one of his own jerseys but the the card that accompanied the package was most inspiring.  It depicted a cartoon character chasing a rainbow with a net with message scribbled inside: ” always chase your dreams.”

After a rather insignificant goalkeeping career that saw me toil with several mens teams throughout Hogtown and the Garden City I turned my attention to writing about the game.  I have enjoyed spinning a few tales about soccer/ football/ futebol / fusball / calcio from Halifax Happy Valley and many places in between.  I was even fortunate enough to have some of my scribbling featured at Football Expo in Cannes, France.
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Tony Chursky is now coaching soccer and teaching English in Washington State.  My bucket list (don’t fret I’m not leaving) has always been to contact him – albeit 30 years late.

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