Breaking news: Hoops Gaels lose Firmi

I learned just this afternoon that Teddi Firmi, the star point guard for the Queen's women's basketball team and last year's OUA East Defensive Player of the Year ["Women's teams exit early," myself, Queen's Journal, February 29, 2008], has decided to quit basketball and join the women's rugby team. She'll be playing her first match with them tomorrow on the road against the McMaster Marauders.

This is a big loss for the basketball team. Firmi was their starting point guard last year, and demonstrated a tremendous ability to control the flow of the game and find the open player. She could score as well, but her greatest talent was on defence, where she was an almost-unparalled stopper. The team has a lot of promising young players, though, so it will be interesting to see if any of them can step up and fill her shoes. It's going to be a very different women's hoops squad this year, as they've lost their best defensive player in Firmi and their best offensive player in Sarah Barnes, who's actually still doing graduate studies at Queen's but has used up all of her eligibility.

Basketball's loss could be a big gain for the rugby team, though. Firmi has quite a reputation as a rugby player, and played internationally for Canada at the U19 level [Alex Goff, Goff on Rugby, erugbynews.com, July 1, 2004]. If she's still got those skills, she might be a tremendous addition to the 2-1 rugby Gaels. It's a short season, though, so there's no room for a learning curve: after Saturday's tilt, Queen's only plays one more regular-season game at Guelph on October 4 before the playoffs.

According to my source, Firmi decided to switch sports because of the shorter season: she's in her fourth year, and apparently wants to spend more time on volunteer projects. Rugby wraps up by the end of October, whereas basketball goes until at least February and possibly March if you make the nationals.

Firmi isn't the only Gael to switch sports this year: Karlye Wong, who played libero for the women's volleyball team last season, has also transferred to the rugby team and has been doing well thus far.

I'll hopefully have more details on this in next Friday's Journal.

Intertubes Roundup: CIS media coverage expansion and more

Seeing as I'm spending so much time writing for other sites and publications these days, which means this blog doesn't get updated as often as I liked, I figured I'd bring in a new feature and rework an old one. I'll try to do a Bucholtz Roundup post every week with links to some of the pieces I've written (for any readers who want to see what else I'm doing and why I don't have much time to write here). To keep it from getting too self-promotional, I also plan to include a Best of the Intertubes section, where I highlight some of the most interesting pieces I've seen over the last week (it's pretty much the old Links of the Day, but that never turned out to be daily and I like this title better). Collectively, I'll call the combined post the Intertubes Roundup. Here's the first one.

Bucholtz Roundup:

Out of Left Field/The CIS Blog:

- "More coverage of CIS Sports on the way?": This is a piece based off of the feature I wrote for Friday's Journal about the potentially expanding media coverage of the CIS. It includes quotes from CBC Sports executive director Scott Moore, Score Media chairman and CEO John Levy and Streaming Sports Network Canada president Bengt Neathery. The Journal piece is written as a traditional news story, while the blog piece features more analysis, so feel free to look at whichever one suits your fancy.

Queen's Journal, Friday, September 12:

- "Football prepares to face Golden Hawks": This is a preview of today's football game between Queen's and Laurier, featuring quotes from quarterback Dan Brannagan, running back Mike Giffin and head coach Pat Sheahan. It also includes the details of the last times Queen's played Laurier. The last Gaels' victory came on October 11, 2003 during the Tommy Denison era. Dan Pawliw was nice enough to link to this one in his excellent Queen's Football Newsletter.

- "An ugly mark on a beautiful game": This is a column I wrote about Canadian investigative journalist Declan Hill's allegations of match-fixing during the 2006 World Cup. I highly recommend Stephen Brunt's piece on the same subject in The Globe and Mail (which includes an interview with Hill) for those looking for more information on the topic. This interview with Hill in Der Spiegel (a German news magazine, but the article's in English) is also very interesting.

- "Gaels fall to Trent in regular-season opener": This is a game recap of the women's rugby team's loss to the Trent Excalibur Wednesday. It features interviews with co-captain Shauna Geerts and head coach Beth Barz. The team plays again at home tomorrow against the York Lions.

- "Rock and Roll Report Card": Yes, it's not sports, but this review of Alice Cooper's new CD Along Came A Spider is the first album review I've ever had published, so I thought I'd include it.

Queen's Journal, Tuesday, September 9:

- "Football defeats Guelph": My game story on the football team's 41-30 win over the Guelph Gryphons. Includes quotes from centre Dan Bederman, quarterback Dan Brannagan, running back Mike Giffin and head coach Pat Sheahan.

- "Baptism by fire": My game story on new Queen's men's soccer head coach Carlo Cannovan's first win over the Trent Excalibur Saturday, and the team's loss to the Carleton Ravens the next day. (My earlier thoughts on Cannovan's appointment can be found here [Out of Left Field]). The story includes quotes from Cannovan, defender Andrew Nador and midfielder Grame Webber, a new transfer from Cornell.

- "A win and a loss for women's soccer": A game story on the women's soccer team's victory over Trent Saturday and loss to Carleton the next day. Includes quotes from head coach Dave McDowell, midfielder Jenn Pentesco and striker/defender Sara Buckham.


Best of the Intertubes:

-"The Brief Wonderous Life of Angel Berroa" [Joe Posnanski, September 7]: Posnanski delivers his usual excellence with this post about Dodgers' shortstop Angel Berroa. He covers stats, fandom, bizarre stories, and the unusual places you have to turn to for hope when your franchise falls on tough times. Highly recommended.

-"The Hunted" [Ivan Solotaroff,Details (I don't usually read Details, so hat-tip to Deadspin's Clay Travis for picking this up), October issue (yes, it's from the future)]: A fantastic profile of Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor, who's been described as "the next Vince Young and the next LeBron James—in one".

-"Twelve-Year-Old Girl Kicked Off Boys' Basketball Team For Being Too Good" [Clay Travis, Deadspin, Sept. 12]: Clay makes another solid pickup, this one from The New York Times Magazine. Both his thoughts and the original article are well worth a read.

"Zen Dayley: Manny is taking it easy for all of us sinners" [Neate Sager, Out of Left Field, Sept. 12]: Neate has a great deconstruction of Daily Breeze writer John Klima's article that alleges in the lede, "Manny Ramirez is the worst ballplayer I have ever seen." What I like about Neate's piece is how he gets why Klima would write that and why Ramirez is frustrating to watch, but still exposes the illogical nature of Klima's arguments.

"Still dreaming of the Ontario Derby" [Duane Rollins, Out of Left Field, Sept. 13]: Duane comes through with some good insight about why an Ottawa MLS franchise may not be a ridiculous idea.

"Angst Over Sonics' Departure Drives Local Man To Reach For New Heights...With His Feet!" [Damon Agnos, Buzzer Beater, Seattle Weekly, Sept 11 (via the fabulous J.E. Skeets at Ball Don't Lie)]: This is a hilarious but sad post about a Seattle resident who's started kicking his ceiling to cope with the loss of the Sonics.

The best quotes of the year

There were a lot of memorable moments in sports last year, but most were for less-than-stellar reasons. Scandals erupted in every sport from baseball (Steroidgate) to football (Spygate), basketball (Refgate), soccer (Riotgate), and cycling (Landisgate). However, there was never any shortage of good material for sportswriters. Here's some of the year's best quotes:

Baseball

"It was a pretty serious situation. I pray for his buttocks and his family." - Washington Nationals GM Jim Bowden discusses the abcess removed from the posterior of pitcher Jesus Colome.

"It's not lies if we knew the truth." - Toronto Blue Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi on the misinformation he spread about closer B.J. Ryan's elbow

"I hope he arouses the fire that's dormant in the innermost recesses of my soul. I plan to face him with the zeal of a challenger." - Seattle outfielder Ichiro Suzuki (via a translator) on facing countryman Daisuke Matsuzaka

"He looking for changeup. He find it." - Arizona pitcher Yusmeiro Petit, on giving up Barry Bonds' 740th home run



"As anyone can plainly see, I'm 5'6 1/2'' and a strapping 150. And unlike some people, I came by all of it naturally." - NBC broadcaster Bob Costas, on Barry Bonds calling him a "little midget man"

"Hey, it looks like Barry Bonds might end up in pinstripes after all." - The Orlando Sentinel's Mike Bianchi after Bonds was indicted

"The Dalai Lama is here in the United States. This morning, he was awarded the congressional gold medal for his contribution to peace, human rights, religious understanding. Unfortunately, a few hours after the ceremony, he was stripped of his medal after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs." - Jimmy Kimmel

Football (American)

"I don't condone dogfighting, catfighting, cockfighting or bullfighting, but before it comes out in the papers, I have a confession: I bet heavily on hamster lacrosse."
- Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle on Michael Vick

"Some people get vasectomies. I used to give them." - Former NFL lineman Conrad Dobler, considered by many to be one of the dirtiest players in league history:

"He may be drawing on someone else's experiences." - Former New York Giants running back Tiki Barber on the announcement of Dallas Cowboys' wide receiver Terrell Owens' new children's book, Little T Learns to Share

"I'm realizing how ignorant you guys are. But I didn't mean that in a bad way."
- Chicago Bears' "quarterback" Rex Grossman to the press on Super Bowl media day

"We had better signs, but Belichick stole them." - Sign in the stands when the Baltimore Ravens played Belichick's New England Patriots in the wake of the Spygate scandal


Football (European, otherwise known as soccer)

"If Rafa (Benitez) said he wanted to buy Snoogy Doogy, we would back him." - Liverpool co-owner George Gillett showing his faith in his manager by giving him money to buy a mispronounced rapper (Snoop Dogg)

"You know, omelettes, eggs? If you have no eggs, you have no omelette. And it depends upon the quality of the eggs. In the supermarket you have Class One, Two and Three eggs. Some are more expensive and make better omelettes. So when Class One eggs are in Waitrose and you cannot go there, you have a problem." - Ex-Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, on his injury list causing problems

"To be the England manager you must win every game, not do anything in your private life and hopefully not earn too much money." - Former England manager (and current Manchester City manager) Sven-Goran Eriksson on the demands of the national team job

"Had I not become a footballer, I think I would have been a virgin." - At least Peter Crouch recognizes that his looks aren't great

"David Beckham is coming to the United States. People say he could make a huge impact on the way Americans ignore soccer." - Jay Leno


Hockey

"If one hockey player ever does that show he's never gonna live to tell about it." - Detroit Red Wings defenceman Chris Chelios on Dancing With The Stars

"I don't feel I have a concussion problem. I have a problem with people giving me traumatic blows to the head." - Ottawa Senators' forward Dean McAmmond


Rugby

"Head coach of the England team demands management skills that Brian does not have. Somehow we'd managed to turn our World Cup campaign into a Monty Python sketch - called The Life of Brian." - English writer Lawrence Dallaglio on national coach Brian Ashton

"We went into South Africa with no direction, no shape and consequently no belief. It was the worst week I had known in international rugby." - English player Mike Catt on his team's initial poor performance at the Rugby World Cup (they went on to place second in the tournament)


Basketball

"If I have offended any cowboys, any Texans, any horses or anybody else, I want to apologize for this." - L.A. Lakers coach Phil Jackson "apologizes" for his Brokeback Mountain reference

"When we lose, I blame the referees anyway." - Golden State Warriors guard Baron Davis, on why the Tim Donaghy scandal won't cause him to look at refs more closely

"I want to buy an island. Because Diana Ross has an island. Marvin Brando had an island." - Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas should bone up on his cinematic history before considering the real-estate market


Volleyball

"Beach volleyball in Mongolia is very difficult, because we don't have any beaches." - Mongolian beach volleyball player Bayarmaa Tsogtbaatar


Golf

"Some players have psychologists, sportologists. I smoke." - Angel Cabrera, U.S. Open winner

"This is the icing of the gravy." - Reserve qualifier Lucas Glover after his opening-round 71 at the British Open.

"I'll be in my villa in Malaga in 34 degrees smoking a cigar and drinking wine. You play in the rain." - Miguel Angel Jiminez to fellow golfer Paul McGinley, on why he's skipping the European Open in Dublin


Tennis

"I feel like a cow on ice." - Maria Sharapova on playing on clay

"Um, we both owned Alaska at one point." - Tennis player Dmitry Tursunov on the similarities between his native country (Russia) and his adopted one (America)


Boxing

"I'm not as top as I'd like to be, but I'm topper than others." - Heavyweight champion Vladimir Klitschko.


Formula 1 Racing

"This is the best feeling I ever had. You cannot compare it to sex. But you know, I would say it is better than sex. It is!" - Lewis Hamilton after winning the Canadian Grand Prix