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By Josh Martin,
Sports Editor

t’s common knowledge

that baseball is not
popular on the West
coast. I can’t say for
the entire country of
Canada, because teams
like the Toronto Blue Jays
are household names,
but even then I doubt
that baseball in Toronto

overcomes hockey ina
popularity contest. Even
Toronto’s basketball and
football teams, from my
point of view, would
come out on top. It’s
strange that baseball is
so popular in the United
States, but once you cross
that border and head
north, the popularity
diminishes. Vanishes.
And turns that vapor
into a hockey-mad,

Tweeting twit

CFL fails to Nik
it at the bud

By Eric Wilkins,
Staff Writer

lassless Nik Lewis

has managed to sink
to a new low. In the bone-
headed play of the year,
the Stampeders wide
receiver tweeted, “I just
bought OJ’s gloves on
eBay. Now all I need is a
white girl named Nicole”
and added the hashtag
#maybealittletofar.

Lewis said, “I tried
to use my comedic rights
and I guess I went a little
too far.” Uh huh, sure.

Try way too far. There
are certain topics you just
don’t joke about, Nik.
Perhaps the worst part of
it all is that he acknowl-
edged in the tweet that
it was too far, but still
went on to post it (and
with a spelling mistake).
The CFL has fined him
an undisclosed amount.
Earlier this season,
hulking Khalif Mitchell
made an inappropriate
tweet himself, making
use of a racial slur to
those of Chinese descent.
The CFL fined him, and
the Lions promptly sus-
pended him on their own
accord. It was a smart
move, and the right
one. It was completely

_ The top five biggest

° Canuck letdowns

brawling, riot trashing
environment. But why?

Perhaps it’s because
Canada only has one
MLB baseball team, the
Toronto Blue Jays. If there
are no baseball teams
across the country than
how is it even possible
for the sport to gain
followers? We only have
one major baseball team
in our whole nation; you
can’t expect the entire
population of Canada
to jump on board the
baseball bandwagon. It’s
not convenient for the
over-privileged, iPhone
consuming, public.
There’s also the other
point of view of the con-
siderable risk there is of
bringing an MLB team to
a hockey mad city such
as Vancouver. If baseball
isn’t popular in Canada,
why even bother trying?
Is the risk worth it?

The Vancouver
Canadians, being the

out of line for Mitchell
to say what he did, and
the club showed that
they wouldn’t stand
for it, regardless of
how much they would
miss him on the field.
Coming back to
Lewis, whose tweet is
far worse, we should
expect the Stamps to
suspend him as well,
right? Apparently not.
The team has placed their
ethics and image behind
them and instead chosen
to focus on winning the
playoff game at hand.
Are we all as lost as Drew
Tate here? It’s a mind-
bogglingly loathsome
move (or lack thereof).
At least the public can

Blue Jays affiliate team,
are the closest baseball
team Vancouver has to
the big leagues. Yet, I
never hear about them
next to the Canucks,
Whitecaps, and the
BC Lions. Maybe it’s
because I don’t have a
particularly strong inter-
est in baseball, but even
still there isn’t a buzz
in advertising to go see
Canadians games around
town. No commercials,
posters, 2-for—1 deals,
no nothing. Not being
a baseball connoisseur,
if there isn’t advertising
to promote the sport I’m
most definitely not going
to randomly decide to go
to a Canadians game. It’s
just not going to happen.
Last year, I went to a
baseball game in South
Korea and couldn’t
believe the environment
there. Every single player
on the home team had
their own specific song

take consolation in the
fact that the receiver is
truly repentant for his
actions though: “Do I
regret it? [regret getting
money taken out of my
pocket, I regret saying
it, but I can’t take it
back.” Never mind.

The league should
honestly be ashamed of
itself. I still think, even
if the Lions hadn’t done
it themselves, Mitchell
should have been
suspended for his com-
ments. The same goes for
Lewis. Surely the CFL
realizes that the players
are the face of the league?
Do they really want to
push themselves further
into the bush league

Sports

that the crowd would
cheer for, and every
time the players went
up to bat the fans in the
stands would break out
into song and dance for
that player; the dedica-
tion and passion that
these fans had for the
game was unbelievable.
Baseball to them is like
what hockey is to us.
Hockey in Vancouver
is almost like a religion.
You don’t even have to
be a fan of the Canucks
and you can probably
list a few players that
you know on the team.
It is engrained in the
hearts of Canadians and
therefore profitable in the
well-developed market
where baseball doesn’t
hold the same cultural
value. Less people attend
the baseball games,
which is why the sport
is less profitable, has
less advertising, and is
less popular in Canada.

image that so many peo-
ple already see the CFL
to be? Allowing players
to act as these two have
is completely unaccept-
able. The fact that the
suspension would cover
a playoff game isn’t suf-
ficient reason to ignore
Lewis’ comment. In fact,
it would have been the
perfect opportunity for
the league to make a very
public stand. Instead,
they slapped him on the
wrist and allowed him to
continue merrily along. If
one were to translate the
CFL's actions into a phys-
ical act, we just watched
an epic face plant.

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