Stormin Norman Rumack

 

I knew as soon as I wrote the headline at the top of this page, that some sports fans would recoil in horror, and would be asking themselves: “ What ? Is this guy comparing Kobe Bryant to Michael Jordan ? What exactly is his point ? He’s not the only “clutch” athlete who comes up big for his team in the final moments of a game. That is a fair comment, because Kobe Bryant isn’t the only professional athlete who frequently makes game changing plays for his team in the most highly pressured situations that one can imagine. While he’s not the only one, and while no one is likely to ever eclipse Michael Jordan as the greatest basketball player ever, it seems that the more you see of Kobe  Bryant, the more you’re convinced that if anyone else ever has  a chance of at least getting close to M.J. in the same conversation, it has to be the Lakers superstar.

 

His buzzer beater at the Staples Center Tuesday night, which crushed the Toronto Raptors, was a repetition of what we’ve all come to expect...

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As the Toronto Maple Leafs finish the remainder of their regular season,many of their young players are hoping to make an impact with coach Ron Wilson, and general manager Brian Burke, as they effectively audition for next season. Speaking of next season, one other thing Maple Leafs management should do, is make a philosophical change to their approach to re-building the team. Brian Burke has emphasized toughness ,as one of his cornerstones in successfully constructing a hockey team.Its become quite clear the Maple Leafs measure of toughness has been counterproductive. At the time of writing, Toronto was the second worst team in the entire National Hockey League. The fighting and tough guy theatrics may at times be entertaining for some of the fans, but it only serves to distract from the overall lack of skill on the team, something which clearly isn’t hidden in the team’s win-loss total.

 

The only thing that the tough guy element has brought to the Leafs, is an increase in costly and sometimes...

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Concern over eliminating dangerous hits to the head, is reaching a new peak, with the latest incident over the weekend, in which Boston Bruins forward Marc Savard was hit blindside, by Matt Cooke of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who was not penalized on the play. Savard was reported as being briefly unconscious, but moving his arms and legs before being carried off the ice. He did return to the team hotel, with a member of the Bruins medical staff.

To correct the danger of dangerous head shots, the game of professional hockey would have to undergo some radical changes. The difficulty in protecting players from this kind of hit is multifold. There are three dimensions that need to be examined. The first is the speed of the game. With skaters moving at 20 or 30 kilometers per hour ( I’m just guessing, but that’s probably close) and a player trying to legally check an opposing player who has the puck, the slightest movement of the puck carrier before the hit, can change the impact of where a body check using the...

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I had the opportunity to watch some out of market hockey games this past week, and I was specifically looking to see if the Canadian hockey media were in any way correct, with their prognostication that the NHL would reap huge benefits from the tremendous hockey that was played in Vancouver at the Winter Games. With that in mind, Thursday evening and Saturday night as well, I was channel surfing several games ,including a Thrashers game from Atlanta,as well as  games in Dallas, Phoenix and Florida. In spite of the over the top assurances from several of the electronic and print media about how the Olympic hockey in Vancouver was sure to sell hockey everywhere and anywhere,especially with the record setting TV viewership numbers that were established in Canada and the United States, take a guess what I noticed about the attendance at these NHL games this past week ?  Unfortunately for the hockey media, they were totally wrong, and the NHL was right. The NHL has stated emphatically, that they reap no benefits from...

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I can’t say,and neither can anyone else, how England will fare in this summer’s highly anticipated World Cup, in South Africa. They will be one of the favorites, probably somewhat behind Spain and Italy, however, no one was picking France, other than me (true story) to go up against Italy in 2006 either. One thing about England that appears to be solid  this time, is how manager Fabio Capello, and the most important players on the roster, have responded to what could have been a crippling internal crises, pertaining to former team captain John Terry, who was stripped of his title by Capello, following public revelations of the Chelsea captain’s affair with the former girlfriend of former Chelsea teammate Wayne Bridge.

 

Instead of internal strife, the heart and soul members of England’s national team, have strongly backed John Terry as an important teammate in their aspirations for World Cup success. Manchester United’s superstar striker, Wayne Rooney, who has scored 23 times in 27 Premiership...

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Everyone reading this story had at one point or another,received one of those reality checks, that very quickly reminds you, and I, how fragile we all are, and puts everything else, including the world of sports in its proper perspective. I had one of those reminders on Thursday,when I attended the funeral of my cousin,Debra Sitzer. Debbie, lost a long, hard,  six year battle with Cancer. She leaves behind her husband, Leo, and her beautiful children, Devonne, Kerry, Stefanie, Fallon, and Gregory. She was that rare type of individual, that even if you hadn’t spoken with her in years, she was so warm and outgoing, that she made you feel as though it was just yesterday, when you last conversed. Debbie didn’t have a mean bone in her body, or a bad word to say about anybody ever, in her too brief existence. But the one thing she always carried with her, was a 24 hour a day smile, and a warm greeting for everybody. It is a rare blessing anytime in your life, when you get to know someone who can make you feel good,in...

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Myself included, there has been a lot of discussion and writing devoted to comparing the gold medal for Canada in men’s hockey at the Winter Games in Vancouver this past weekend, to other great sports moments in the history of the country. It may seem insignificant to some, but among my favorite memories of the 1972 Summit Series, was where and with who I was watching game 8, the final and deciding game of that epic event in Canadian sports history. As a high school student at the time, I was looking for a TV set, and knew there was one in the janitors office. I poked my head in, and sure enough, there were three janitors who I knew by face but not by name. I grabbed a chair and sat with them, and for the duration of game 8 of the Summit Series, we were one unit, cheering in a common cause,the good guys versus the bad guys, and in this room with these gentlemen, mostly about Democracy versus Communism. I don’t remember the names of the school janitors, but their were several memories that stayed with me about...

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Many hockey fans in Canada have been debating and discussing, where Sidney Crosby’s overtime and gold medal winning goal ranks, in Canadian sports history and specifically,Canadian hockey history. Having been around for a while, and having watched the entire Summit Series as a 17 year old, I can tell you without hesitation, that this gold medal win, as much as it excited the country, and shattered TV viewing records in Canada and the United States,that the Team Canada win in Vancouver during the Winter Games, can’t hold a candle, to the Summit Series, in any way, shape or form, for many reasons.

 

The NHL players competing in Vancouver all know each other, some play on the same teams, and many are friends off the ice. The Canadian and Soviet players from 1972 did not know each other, and not only were they not friends,in fact, as the series unfolded, the on- ice activity became quite hostile. The Canadian players were dealing with some very difficult circumstances. As the 4 games in Canada concluded,...

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Hockey fans and many members of the hockey media, are all over Gary Bettman and the National Hockey League, about their statements of non-committal, in terms of participating as a league in the next Winter Games, which will be held in Sochi, Russia, in 2014. In spite of the fan and media outrage, the N.H.L.’s position makes perfect sense, once you remove the emotion of the fans and media about the games in Vancouver. The reasons why the owners are against league participation are very bottom line. They have said that there was no upswing in business, in terms of ticket sales or anything else,as a result of their presence at the Winter Games of Nagano, Salt Lake City, and Turin. I would guess that the fringe hockey fans who might have watched Olympic hockey, probably get caught up in the excitement of the moment of a particular game, just like any of us might in a ski race, or perhaps the luge or speed skating, but that doesn’t mean that we will go out and pay money to watch one of these sports on their own. Most...

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