It's the Little Things

Don Grose
I had a boss in a past life who used to love to use that line....." It's the little things.." He was the
GM at CHYM and CKGL radio in Kitchener Ontario..
I was the News Director...we seemed well able to handle
the crisis' but it was the stupid, nonsensical, day
to day stuff that made us all crazy...Hence...it's the
little things...
Little thing number one...I know I am not alone in
feeling that Terrell Owens is the perfect
representation of all that is wrong with pro sports.
After his escapade in Philadelphia - he should have
never appeared in an NFL team jersey, anywhere...anytime. But greed, the feeling that he would sell some tickets, led the oft shortsighted
Jerry Jones to sign him in Dallas...obviously Jones
has enough money that his hemeroids are less irritating than most...
Oh the poor Hamilton Tiger Cats...let the players
dance and the cheerleaders play. A few blogs ago
I backtracked on my criticism of the hiring ( re-hiring ) of Ron Lancaster as head coach...my back tracking was a bit premature. It's a shame...with the
Ottawa franchise such a recurring headache, and
Toronto just now appearing to have turned a corner,
The CFL without the Hamilton Ticats is less than a
league...for those of us left who still care, the
CFL needs the Ticats to be a foundation franchise
but I hear we're seeing the end of the road of both
the Tabbies and the CFL.
The Mark of a true champion..Tiger Woods can't lose
even when tries...The Firestone was an event that
Tiger had no business winning...He simply had more
business winning it than anyone else...Listen very
closely....put your ears to the wind...concentrate..
way off in the distance the plaintiff, wandering,
call of the loon ...now we know what they are saying..
" Where's Phil ???? Where's Phil ??? Where's Phil ??"
Ad tip of the day...Just friggin do it ! No matter
how badly to you do it...no matter where or how...
no matter how little return you receive on your investment, getting your name out there in a
competitive environment, is a must. Ah yes, with
planning, and the right approach there is much to
be gained from advertising, but advertising will never
hurt you. Someone , somewhere is going to see or hear
your ad and is going to be impressed..no matter
how bad it is...but it will never hurt you...And even
the best ad or commercial is going to piss somebody off. If it's good enough to make a positive impression
on your best potential customers, then it's also good enough to have the opposite effect on people with the
opposite personality traits...sigh...just do it !
If you want to discuss advertising for your business,
what you are currently doing, versus what you could
be doing, how much you should spend on advertising,
and what you shoud expect it to do...give me a
shout...drop me a line...I don't bite unless you're
masquerading as a tuna melt with a mountain of fresh
cut fries...Not the frozen ones...Lord Gawd..the
consessions we've made as a society in the interests
of economy, convenience and time..it is a sad world.
Next thing you know they'll have machines that brush
your teeth for you...
By the way...Mom, if you got my email and got into
my website, and have gotten this far...don't be disturbed..I'll be fine...Love you.
Til next time...hittem long and hittem straight.
Don

Rotten Dogs

Don Grose
Alrighty then....so even Ceiladh the Wonder Dog at six
or seven years old starts to smell, well, " doggy" every once in a while.You know it's extreme when I
am motivated to do something about it...So out to
her pool we went yesterday..she stood while I splashed,
then shampooed, then splashed some more...no more
"doggy smell" and it is once again a happy doghouse
in which we live. The point to all this is...
John Gibbons should get himself a large pool and
hand pick a half dozen of his doggy smelling, high
priced, spoiled rotten, pup athletes and shampoo them -
it might be just as effective as threatening to get
into dust-ups with his problem Blue Jays. Let's face
it..the older I get the more entertaining it is to
watch baseball on TV...Baseball was always my grandfathers favorite game...I fondly remember old
Cecil in his Thorold, Ontario, backyard tossing the ball back and forth with me as a kid...I've been a Toronto fan all my life..he was Boston fan, Bruins and
Red Sox....but I digress...Let's face it ( again )..
Baseball players ( and basketball players ) are
the most pampered, overpaid, self indulgent, whining,
over-valued individuals in society today....and the
Jays certainly have had their share. Hillenbrand
got his just desserts...they gassed him. Good for
the Jays...now Ted Lilly...that arrogant little,
pompous,left handed package of attitude has got to go.
Lilly has underacheived at every opportunity. It dates
back to his first year as a Jay. His pitching coach
tried to get him to make a change in his delivery.
Lilly steadfastly refused. He continued doing it his way and continued to struggle. He has the ability to
be very good...but for some reason Lilly has confused
his role as a member of a team with that of God. I wish
that John Gibbons had gone into the clubhouse after
him the other night and throttled him. Lilly needs
a personality adjustment and nothing short of a
serious ass whoopin' is going to do the job.
They never should have stopped spanking kids...
JP Riccardi had better hope that the rest of the Jays
are as tired of Lilly's act as am I, and that they
rally together, take Lilly aside and put him in his
place...I fear that is not about to happen. I fear that
you will see Vernon Wells and some other key veterans
bailing for parts unknown to escape the soap opera...
and that's not good for anyone. I suspect we're heading
into a period where " Go Jays" takes on a whole new
meaning.
Now onto the important part...Graham MacIntyre is once
again atop the Nova Scotia Golf World...Graham
MacIntyre, one of the games true gentlemen, is gearing
up for the National Senior Championships in Winnipeg
next month. MacIntyre won his second Senior Provincial
Crown in three years of eligibility, convincingly,
at Oakfield a couple of weeks ago. I had a chance to
sit down and chat with Graham the night before last -
and as always, an interesting conversation it turned
out to be...What a nice man ! That conversation will
be on the Golf Shop September 1, 6PM on 92 CJCH...All
Oldies all the time...tune it in...
Tiger...the question is...can Tiger eclipse Jack
Nicklaus's mark of 18 Major titles by winning the
next seven Majors in a row ? Unlikely ? I'm not
prepared to say that at this point. The Tiger Woods
who won the British Open and the PGA Championship, is
the new improved Tiger Woods whose a Tiger we've not
had the pleasure of seeing before. Tiger was absolutely
dominant, when weaknesses only he saw, prompted him
to make changes - adjust his swing and approach...
That opened the door for Vijay, Ernie, Phil ( the
pretender )and others to make chase for the World's
Number One...I wonder if they realized how temporary
their effective pursuits would be.
In the golf world we have entered a new era.
A magical era where anything is possible...things once considered beyond the realm are now worthy of serious consideration....welcome to Tiger's era.
The Tiger Woods we're watching today appears to have heard the complaints that golf is no longer a shot makers game - heard the cries that driver, wedge is not the game that Hogan, Jones, Palmer and Nicklaus created.
Tiger Woods is singlehandedly making all the long-hitting young studs on tour obsolete, long before they hit their primes. Grip and Rip just won't cut it any
more...Success in the majors is going to be predicated on being able to design an assault on the host course dictated by the design of the course itself - and
being able to think your way around the track, and
pull off the shots you need to execute. The bad news
for all the "would be Kings" on the PGA Tour is that
no one is anywhere near Tiger's equal in any of those
areas. I do not think this is a bad thing for golf.
Tiger draws attention to the game...Tiger gets people talking about golf...Tiger gets non-golfers watching
golf...the only downside is that any tournament in
which Tiger does not play becomes little more than
a local tournament.
Ad Tip of the Day....80 percent of success in life is just showing up !!!!For gosh sakes...if you're in
business - invite people to do business with you..
give them legitimate reasons to business with you...if you can entertain them with a story, make an emotional connection with them at the same time...Home Run !
Ace ! Remember, if you are in a business in which
you beleive, somebody else is in that business, or
will be in that business, that beleives just as passionately as do you ! It is critical that you
constantly troll for new customers because someone
is out there trying to net yours...
The point to all of this obviously is that if you
don't wash the dog it'll start to smell like a
Blue Jay....don't even ask...I'm off to do my nails.
Til next time...hittem long and hittem straight.
Don

Wasted Opportunity ? No Such Thing

Don Grose
Another club championship comes and goes...one more
time I failed to mysteriously ascend from the depths
of mediocrity..one more time, somehow, I shot my
handicap and...at first glance spent another two days
on golf course, making the same predictable mistakes,
at the same predictable spots, with the same predictable results. Hmmmm...Just another wasted
opportunity. Au Contraire !!! One of the big attractions to playing in these club events is that
you get the chance to play with people you might
otherwise only meet in passing..say "hi" to on the
practise tee or practise green, or when you launch
an ill-fated tee shot onto their fairway instead of
yours...Saturday, the first day of the event I played
with Dwight Isenor and Dave Power...We all had our
issues but they were great company...and it was a better golf season having had the chance to spend
five hours in their company...Sunday I played with
Mel Ritcey and Jeff Burrell - an equally enjoyable
day in the sun..now these are four guys I wouldn't
normally get to play with - and that is what Club
Championships are all about for the vast majority of
us...There are those who magically come up with a
career best round during events such as these - very
few manage to put two of them together - they are left with the " what ifs..." The competition is fun..it's
engaging...the chance to compare your game to the
game of others at similar skill levels adds an
element..but at the end of the day..win or lose -
we all have to report for work on Monday, our wives still love us, and the dog doesn't bite us when we
get home...and when they write the history of the
world - our successes or failures on the golf course
will likely take up no more than paragraph or two.
I do have to share one little story..and this will
likely make the Golf Shop the week after next..
At one point in our game Sunday Mel hit a drive and
pulled it badly left into some trees. We all expected
find the ball without any problem but wheh it's hot and
your playing your second five hour round in two days
the last thing you want is to have to walk back to the
tee to hit another ball should you not be able to
track the ball down...so Mel teed up a provisional -
He hit maybe his best drive of the day...beautiful,
long, high draw down the right side...it hit the right side of the fairway and kicked dead into the middle.
Mel turned to Jeff and I and said, " Yesterday, I hit
three of the nicest provisionals I've ever hit..."
We chuckled...
I wonder what percentage of golfers since Tiger's victory at the Open have started working on the
"stinger." How many golfers are now starting to take
an extra club and "knock it down ?" You could be working on worse things..
Gotta go...back soon.
Til next time - hittem long and hittem straight.
Don