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