Over the Edge + October 14, 2009 SportsandClubs 5 The King’s Slippers Triumph! JOE GLAAB UNBC CHAPLAINCY On Saturday, September 12, the Kings Slippers emerged as the winning team in the UNBC Residence Scavenger Hunt. The hunt covered all of Prince George and chal- lenged all participants in their navigating and planning skills. The goal was to arrive at as many city destinations as time would allow and to do so as a team, Of the nine teams that registered for the hunt, five com- pleted, one remains missing and two did not start. Photos submitted by Joe Glaab. The Final Score The King’s Slippers: The Swinnish Rangers: The Wild Hippos: Nechako: Scandinavia: a eil Lettinga and Sue Lee compiling score sheets as team eagerly wait for results. ‘The King’s Slippers not only have bragging rights on campus, they also won the Bronze Beatle and $100 gift certificate to Kelly O’Bryans. Congratulations to The King’s Slippers, to the Swinnish Rangers who made it a close race and to all who participated. The UNBC | Residence Scavenger Hunt was organized by UNBC’s Chaplaincy. UNBC Residence Scavenger Hunt pe 58 56.5 Sills) 37 25 The Swinnish Rangers accepting second place honours Mainstream Meanderings ANDREW BAILEY EDITOR IN CHIEF Not that I was paying attention, midterms and holiday plans have filled my dance card over the past week, but it seems to me that there wasnt a whole lot of sporting events taking place at UNBC. Therefore, forgive me dear readers, but I’m going to take a stroll out from under- neath my trusty UNBC homer umbrella and meander into the world of the mainstream. Hockey being hockey, and the Canucks being the Canucks, let’s ig- nore this dismal start to the season and assume that better days are to come. More exciting news has come out of the baseball and basketball junkyards, We'll start with baseball and the news that Paul Beeston has finally fired JP Ricciardi after an impossibly long failed effort as the Toronto Blue Jays General Manager. I speak for Jays’ fans everywhere when I say ‘so long Ricciardi and thanks for all the garbage. Ricciardi was the type of General Manager that a masochistic baseball fan dreams of: he drafted poorly, made awful trades, and had no idea how to negoti- ate contracts. Emo people everywhere no doubt became big fans as he brought more depression and sulking to his followers than any Elliot Smith track could ever aim for. Ricciardi has become a legend amongst philosophers for being the first to concretely prove the colloquial gambler’s fallacy as he defied all odds by lasting eight years without managing to make a single decision that turned out well, Not even one! The odds never sided for him to at least give him a flukey success or an accidental fortune. There are meth addicts in Vancouver's Lower East Side who have a higher average of successes in their lives than does Ricciardi. For non-fans, to put the emotions that Ricciardi has put Jays’ fans through for the last 8 years: imagine the worst hangover you have ever experienced, now add to that symptons of H1N1 and a phone call from a crazy ex-girlfriend whose just told you she’s pregnant and it’s yours, or for ladies imagine a crazy ex-boyfriend whose just called to advise that you might want to go to the clinic and get yourself checked out. Add all that up and imagine that feeling lasting over eight years without ever getting any better. You there yet? Yeah? Now you're close to imagining how terrible Ricciardi has been to us. The only possible explanation for the tremendous atrocity that was Ricciardi’s reign in Toronto is that he is from Boston. He’ a Bostonian who no doubt grew up as a young boy, I can only imagine he was the smelliest of all smelly kids at that age, cheering for the Boston Red Sox. Therefore the only excuse I will ever accept from Ricciardi is that he was purposely sabotaging the Blue Jays to ensure that they would never be any good; and would thus never take a playoff spot away from the insufferable Red Sox. Now he’s gone, and he’s been replaced by a Can- adian and not just any Canadian at that; a French Canadian. Simply outstanding. If there's one thing I know I can always trust, it’s that French Canad- ians will never side with Americans and especially not Bostonians. No matter how bad the blood ever gets between Montreal and Toronto it will never be as boiling hot as the blood between French Canadians and Bostonians and therefore, Jay’s decider, Paul Beeston’s appointment of the Montreal born Alex Anthopoulos to replace J.P. Ricciardi is cause for the most tremendous of celebrations! The Jays were once the best team in baseball and now finally, with Ricciardi back in the United States, we can hope to be again. As much space was needed to explain Ricciardi’s impotence as a Gen- eral Manager and a person in general, I'll be brief with the basketball news but it’s still very exciting, After years of perpetually trading away superstars and bringing in players who refused to suit up, the Toronto Raptors made a surprising move and actually managed to sign the off- season's biggest target, even more surprising is the fact that he is willing to play in the red and purple this season. Regardless of surprise the fact is that the tenacious and Turkish Hedo Turkoglu is officially a Raptor. Granted, Turkoglu’s arrival in Toronto was confusing, a four way trade disguised as a free-agent signing in which Toronto gave up far too much value, but as a fan, its always a warm feeling to know that the team you root for is at least making an effort. By showing enough commitment to the team to bring in overhyped stars the Raptors ad- ministration is illustrating to their best and only all-star, and inevitable free agent, Chris Bosh that his team is trying to become a contender. Turkoglu may be overrated, and his injury history although less docu- mented that Jermaine O’Neal’s may be just as threatening, but when Bosh becomes a free agent at the end of the upcoming season he might just be curious enough to see how this all turns out and stay a Raptor for a few more years; and as any Raptor's fan knows: long as we have Bosh, we have a chance for an NBA Championship in Toronto.