the mad sports man

 Kerri Einarson has beaten Rachel Homan 9-7 to win the Scotties championship for the second year in a row.  A very good game tonight. Hopefully she will get a chance to represent Canada at the world's this year. (Covid took that chance away last year). The world's was supposed to be in Switzerland in March but it got postponed. From what Devin Heroux was mentioning on That Curling Show, there's a chance it could be held in Calgary. Considering the other teams will be on this side of the Atlantic playing some of the grand slam tournaments, it makes sense.  I'm hopeful it happens.  Anyway, back to Kerri Einarson, she's the first skip to win back to back championships since Rachel Homan in 2013 and 2014.  Next up, the Brier. That starts Saturday I believe. Going to be fun.

 Sheesh the last day of February already.  Hockey going on some more, super bowl 54 came and went with Tampa Bay Buccaneers winning, Scotties tournament of hearts comes to an end tonight and preseason baseball began today (and I'm watching inning four of Ken Burns baseball documentary covering the 1920s).  I think we're over the worst of winter.  Supposed to warm up again starting tomorrow.  Would be nice to melt the snow some more. Anyway there's February.

 This wasn't much of a doubt as Canada's Kerri Einarson beats Alberta's Laura Walker 9-3 and will face Rachel Homan for the Scotties championship game.  First time in Scotties history that the same two teams play for the championship in back to back years.

 Laura Walker of Alberta was trailing Jennifer Jones of Manitoba 4-1.  She came back to win 9-8 in the tiebreaker.  She scored three in the 10th end to win.  She faces Kerri Einarson in the semi final game. That game is in an hour and a half.

 All the round robin and championship round games are done at the Scotties.  Kerri Einarson and Rachel Homan finished with a 10-1 record. Since Homan beat Einarson, she gets first and a bye into the final, while Einarson plays....... the winner of the tiebreaker game between Laura Walker and Jennifer Jones.  That game is at 9am, the semi final game with Einarson is at 1:30, and the championship game with Homan is at 7:30.  All times Prince Albert time. Did I mention Rachel Homan is 8 months pregnant?  She is doing remarkably well. There is a show on the CBC sports YouTube channel ( I think it's also on the Facebook group) called That Curling Show hosted by Devin Heroux and Colleen Jones.  I think their last show of the Scotties is tomorrow at 6 or 6:30 pm, but they will be back for the Brier next Saturday. Check their show out.

 The 1935-36 NHL season had eight teams and a 48 game schedule.  New York Americans reported to be in financial strain.  Howie Morenz gets traded from Chicago to New York Rangers. This is the last season of the two game total goals series. The semi final series with quarter final winners went from two game total goals series to best of three.  Quarter finals had Toronto beat Boston 8 goals to 6 and New York Americans beat Chicago 7 goals to 5. Toronto then beat the Americans 2 games to one in the semi final. Other semi final had Detroit sweep the Montreal Maroons three straight games. This series featured the longest overtime as Mud Bruneteau scored the only goal of the game at 16:30 of the sixth overtime in game one.  Detroit, as I said swept the series then beat Toronto three games to one to win their first Stanley Cup.

 It's here.  The Scotties tournament of hearts is in.  Curling is back. The first draw started about 45 minutes ago.  Tournament runs to the 28th.  Time to HURRY HAAAAAAAAAARD!!!!!!

 This tournament went from February 6-16 and featured 15 teams. Biggest story was the gong show between British ice hockey federation and the Canadian amateur hockey association over two ineligible Canadian players wanting to play for Great Britain.  Majority of the British team was Canadian expats living in Britain.  There was a threat of Canada pulling out of the final round, which ended up being resolved. The gentleman running Canada hockey was not of the carryover results rule, when the top two teams in their group has their result carried over into final round and counted. The British had beaten Canada, had that result carried over and Britain won gold, Canada silver, the United States got the bronze in a very close final round. Czechoslovakia finished 4th. World war 2 cancelled 1940 and 1944, so the next tournament is 1948.

 Saskatchewan's Sandra Schmirler, Jan Betkar, Joan McCusker and Marcia Gudereit wins Canada's first gold in curling since it's return to the Olympics since 1924. They were huge heroes in Saskatchewan. The team had NEVER lost an international event.  Three worlds - three gold's. One Olympics and they won that. Credit to Devin Heroux for info.

 On this day in 2018, Kaitlyn Lawes and John Morris win the first ever Olympic gold in mixed curling, while Alex Gough won Canada's first ever medal in luge, and it was a bronze.  It was a day of firsts.

 And two more speedskating medals.  Guess who? Bronze from Laurent Dubreuil in the 1000m and silver from Ivanie Blondin in the mass start.  Considering the team had to train on a nearby frozen lake when the regular training facilities had a malfunction, they all did pretty well.  Can't wait to see how well they do in Beijing next year.

 Three more medals Canada won in speedskating.  The men's and women's team pursuit each won silver.  The women were awfully close to winning the team pursuit title.  Meanwhile Laurent Dubreuil won gold in the 500m AND won the 500m title, becoming the second Canadian to win the 500m title.  Jeremy Wotherspoon was the first.

 Today we go back to the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo. Harry Jerome wins bronze in the 100m race. His bronze was the first medal in the event since Percy Williams won gold in 1928. So there it is.

 Happy Chinese New year. There are Chinese festivals all over, at least safely I hope.  It is the year of the Ox. In Chinese culture, the Ox is a valued animal.  Celebrations will last for 16 days.

 One player that I know of has won a batting title in one league while finishing the season in the other.  His name - Willie McGee. He started the 1990 season in St Louis. When he was traded to Oakland on August 29th, he was leading the National League with a .335 average. He had accumulated enough plate appearances (542) when he got traded. George Brett won the American League title (.329). Side note, Brett won the batting title in three different decades (1976, 1980 and 1990). McGee finished the season with a .324 average.  Overall batting title went to Eddie Murray with a .330 average.

 Man is it ever cold out.  Was outside earlier. It was -26c, but the wind though - talk about almost getting blown over. I'm sure the wind chill was -40c or colder.  🥶.  Stay indoors if you need to.  You don't need frostbite.

 The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are super bowl LV champions after a 31-9 win over the Kansas City Chiefs.  Wasn't much of a doubt here.  Tom Brady now has seven super bowl wins.  SEVEN.  Wow.  That's it for football until May - I hope.

 The 1934-35 season had nine teams an 48 games. 1. Prior to the season the Ottawa Senators had moved to St Louis to become the Eagles.  At seasons end, the Eagles would end up ceasing operations and its players on other teams.  2. Charlie Conacher (Toronto) led the league with 57 points (36 g 21 a), George Hainsworth (Toronto) had 30 wins and Lorne Chabot (Chicago) had a 1.40 gaa. 3. Penalty shot was introduced and was used twice.  First one awarded wen to the Canadiens Armand Mondue and was stopped by George Hainsworth. Ralph Bowman of St. Louis scored on his shot.  4. QF had the Maroons beat Chicago 1 goal to 0, while the Rangers beat the Canadiens 6 goals to 5. SF had the Maroons beat the Rangers 5 goals to 4 while Toronto beat Boston three games to one. Maroons swept Toronto three straight games to win their second Stanley Cup.

 On this day in 1976, Cathy Priestner won Canada's first ever speed skating medal. She won a silver in the 500m event.  Shiela Young won gold in the event. The games were in Innsbruck Austria.  It was neat seeing her race and they skated outdoors.

 Yesterday was one year to go to the Beijing 2022 winter Olympics.  They unveiled the torch for the Olympics and Paralympics. They look pretty awesome I think. Gonna be fun.