Huge congratulations go out to Bryn Chyzyk who last week signed his first professional hockey contract with the AHL's Rockford Icehogs, the farm team of the Chicago Blackhawks.Bryn ended his college career by winning the Frozen Four, better known as the NCAA championship, with the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux, I mean Hawks.He'll be in the Windy City for training camp in mid-September and there's little doubt he'll be thrilled to rub shoulders with Teows, Kane, Keith and Seabrook, surely a dream come true.Now all he has left to do, is work on his putting!
Let the Games begin!The Rio de Janeiro 2016 Summer Olympic Games are well under way and we even have a couple of medals to show for it, thanks to our swimmers, especially 16-year-old Penny Oleksiak, who won a silver and a bronze.A couple of big upsets in tennis to report; men's world No. 1 Novak Djokovic lost in the first round and the William sisters (Serena and Venus) lost for the very first time in women doubles.
It was good to see that at least one major sports organization had some common sense as the IPC (International Paralympic Committee) has banned the entire Russian Para-Olympic team from competing in their games next month, something the IOC was too chicken to do.The IPC looked at all the damming information from all the WADA reports in regards to the Russian state sponsored doping program, the exact same info the IOC looked, but fortunately they came to a complete different conclusion.Finally, we have a punishment that fits the crime. When a country chooses "medals over morals", like what our Russian friends did, then a strong and decisive message must be sent to all the other countries that this type of dishonesty and cheating will not be tolerated, under any circumstances.Bravo IPC!
Golf history was made last weekend when Jim Furyk, playing in the Travelers Championship, became the first golfer to shoot a 58 on the PGA tour, or on any tour for that matter.A 59 has been recorded on the LPGA (Annika Sorenstam), on the Web.comTour, on the Senior Tour and six times on the PGA but never a 58, until now.Just how hard was it to achieve this milestone?There's been roughly 1.5 million rounds played in PGA history but never this number. PS, he missed a 12 footer for a 57.
The Virden Oilers went 1-2 and had some tough luck at the AA Senior Provincials held in Wawanesa as they failed to qualify for the playoffs after losing to Pilot Mound and the host team before defeating Thompson in their last game.A heartbreaking last inning loss to the Brewers killed their chances to move on.The host team then got hotand ended up winning the AA's by disposing of the Minnedosa Mavericks in the final.But the Oilers' season is far from over as they now take on the Boissevain Centennials in the SWBL finale, with game No. 2 being played here on Monday.
In MLB news, Ichiro (Suzuki) finally gets hit 3,000, only the 30th player to do so, punching his ticket into Cooperstown.The other biggie is A-Rod (Alex Rodriguez) finally announcing his retirement after 22 seasons and numerous scandals, including the big one (steroids) that will hopefully keep him out of Cooperstown.If you don't think so, just ask Sammy, Mark, Rafael and Eddie.He'll end his illustrious but tainted career, (696 dingers including a MLB record 25 Grand Slams) tonight in the Big Apple.
Until next time…