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Canadians facing a natural disaster
Updated: Friday February 16, 2001 8:44 AM
The governor of my state, the honorable Paul Cellucci, has just been nominated to be the ambassador to Canada. It's kind of a joke around Massachusetts -- the ultimate no-show, no-worry position, maybe a big-time version of a summer job with the park-rec department -- but I have a troubled area the new ambassador should investigate in a hurry: professional sports. Let's see, the Vancouver Grizzlies are on their way out of town, and the Montreal Expos surely look like they'll also be leaving soon, and the Quebec Nordiques already are in Colorado, and the Winnipeg Jets have morphed into the Phoenix Coyotes, and Vince Carter surely will head south when free agency beckons, leaving the Toronto Raptors in dire straits, and the Edmonton Oilers can't make a buck, and the Montreal Canadiens -- the Montreal Canadiens! -- were recently sold to an American businessman and ... talk about your economic disasters. The Canadian population obviously doesn't understand the importance of sport in daily life. The new ambassador is going to have to educate these folk, get them with the program. The city of Vancouver should be reacting to the possible departure of the Grizzlies as if it were a natural disaster, a flood of historic proportions. Man the barricades. Take the money from schools and roads, from old people and young, and keep the basketball team. At any cost, keep the Grizzlies. Mortgage futures, subsidize relief pitchers and power-play specialists, give Vince Carter his own province. Maybe Manitoba. Do anything and everything for sport. It's all that matters. Forget bread; concentrate on the circuses. Come on, Canada. You can be as stupid as we are. Sports Illustrated senior writer Leigh Montville appears regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
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