Goodbye J.R.

It may be a day late on here, but my favourite player while growing up, Jeremy Roenick, called it quits on Wednesday. He even did it in comical fashion; text messaging a Philadelphia newspaper with the message "I'm retiring, is that still news?" Well, at least I got a good laugh out of it.

Starting his career in Chicago before moving on to play in Phoenix Philadelphia and Los Angeles, he amassed handsome career totals of 495 goals and 675 assists for 1170 points despite suffering more than the occasional concussion. The only American-born players with more goals than Roenick, a two-time Olympian, are Mike Modano (507) and Joey Mullen (502). Which isn't saying too much considering the U.S.'s hockey talent pool, but it still sounds impressive.

Roenick played last season with the Phoenix Coyotes under Wayne Gretzky, who surprisingly, didn't have any bad blood with J.R. over the whole "making 99's head bleed" scene from the cult classic movie Swingers. He wasn't the same J.R. of old and only came up with points over 70 games. It should also be duely noted that the J.R. in NHL 94, was rated as one of the best sports video game characters ever. He was truly legendary.

Meanwhile, the Islanders, who had already been rocked by departures, brought in some players to shore up their roster. After signing Bill Guerin to a two-year deal of which terms were not released. Guerin started last season with the Blues before being dealt to San Jose for their Cup run where he didn't show up on the score sheet very often.

Later in the day, the Isles also grabbed Mike Comrie off the wire. He had 20 goals and 25 assists in 65 games with Ottawa last season.

While these additions may help out a bit, I'm not expecting Long Island to go very far this year after the turnover their roster's going through.

A little Japanese influence?

Hideki Okajima of the Red Sox and Chris Young of the Padres have won a trip to the all-star game thanks to internet voting. Okajima beat out Pat Neshek, Roy Halladay, Jeremy Bonderman and Kelvim Escobar while Young won the vote over defending Cy Young winner Brandon Webb, Carlos Zambrano and Tom Gorzelanny. Roy Oswalt was initially in the voting but was selected to replace John Smoltz who is nursing an injury.

Is it just me or is the fact that Okajima's 4.3 million or so votes over the course of four days smell a bit fishy? I think that some of those votes from the far-east may have swayed the scales in the Japanese player's favour.

It should also be fun to see if Young and Derrek Lee, who threw punches at each other a few weeks ago, will interact during the break. My money would be on them keeping their distance. Young also, ironically started his suspension resulting from the brawl earlier yesterday.

Suns pick up Hill

After six seasons in Orlando where he was frequently injured, Grant Hill has accepted a low paying contract, by his standards, to play in Phoenix. While he's not the player that we all came to love in Detroit, he can still be a serviceable veteran influence and contribute for limited minutes. That is, if he can stay off the bench.

This should turn out well for the Suns; rolling the dice on a guy who will only cost $1.8 M and has the potential of being more than just a role player isn't a bad play at all.

Of the great players from the 90's, Hill was for sure one of the guys who was hurt most by injuries. I wouldn't be surprised if his entire lower body was on the uninsurable list down at NBA headquarters.

In “way down the road” news.

The Olympic committee announced yesterday that Sochi, a Black Sea ski resort in Russia, will host the 2014 Winter Olympics. Sochi beat out Pyeongchang, South Korea in the final vote while Salzburg, Austria lost out in the first round between the final three competitors.

This marks the first time that the games have been awarded to the second biggest nation in the world. Moscow had hosted the summer games in 1980 which was overshadowed by the U.S. boycott. It's pretty safe to say this sort of thing won't be a problem this time around but hey, it is seven years down the road.

A record for the ages

Forget anything about Barry Bonds and his chase for 755 (he sat yesterday due to sore legs; what a wimp). A hallowed mark was shattered yesterday in New York City. At the Nathan's hot dog eating championship in Coney Island, Joey Chestnut and second place finisher Takeru Kobayashi both beat out Chestnut's record of 59 and half hot dogs and buns in only 12 minutes. Chestnut took home the grand prize and the acclaim by scarfing down 66 hot dogs and buns in the session while Kobayashi could only stuff in 63.

Kobayashi was, arguably, not at the top of his game after having a wisdom tooth extracted recently and had also been receiving treatment for a sore jaw. Yes folks, it has finally come to publishing updates on injury reports of competitive eaters. What an age we live in.

More free agent news!

Only this time it's the NBA we're talking about. While deals can't be officially announced or finalized until July 11, plenty of action is still taking place on the front lines with GMs scrambling to find the missing pieces to championship hopes, or even just stop-gap replacements for the departed.

The Raptors kicked everything off by agreeing to a four-year, $24 M deal with sharpshooter Jason Kapono. If anything, this move should signify the end of the MoPete era in Toronto. Also, don’t you think that’s a bit high of a price for someone with only one real skill?

According to one source, Chauncey Billups had agreed to stay in Detroit for the next five years to the tune of $60 M. The fifth year would be a team option. Then, a mere after the report hit the wire, Billups’ agent came out saying that the news of the deal was “a vicious rumour.” That may be a bit of an over-statement but, it’s not like Chauncey was seriously going to anywhere anyway. Would he really?

Interesting fact: Chauncey Billups was the first ever Raptors point guard to dunk. You learn something new every day.

Rashard Lewis has packed his bags and apparently has no desire to play with rookie phenom Kevin Durant as well as the number five pick, Jeff Green, in Seattle. It was announced yesterday that Lewis will sign a max contract in Orlando but this isn’t too much of news as it was widely speculated as his destination. The real shocking news from the land of Epcot is that the Magic have removed their qualifying offer from Darko; this means that the former number two pick (over Wade, Bosh, Melo and others) will become an unrestricted free agent. The sad news is that only three teams have the amount of cap-space to take him in, unless he’s willing to settle for a team’s mid-level exception. Poor Darko.

Vince Carter and his faulty heart will be staying in the swamp. My guess is that he’s waiting for Jay-Z to move the team to NYC and become a hot-bed for players. Either that or he was too lazy to go look for another team to sulk around on.

With the Kobe and KG sagas still around as well as Phoenix’s desire to get out of the luxury tax, there could still be some big moves on the horizon. I’m personally waiting for Darko’s decision.

Blood in the water

The NHL’s free agent feeding frenzy opened up on the first with tons of names, including some big ones, flying across the board. Several small market teams were forced to absorb big personnel hits, especially Buffalo and Long Island. Who said the salary cap makes every team equal?

Daniel Briere is going to be lacing them up for the Flyers who had a season disappointing enough to put them in the lottery and force them to fork out a massive front-loaded deal to the diminutive dynamo. Lucky for them his cap number is the average of the eight-year contract he signed, not the $10 M that he’s getting for his first season.

The other player that struck a $10 M deal was Scott Gomez who crossed the state-line north from Jersey to New York. Gomez will be joined in MSG by another one of the top-flight free agents from this year’s crop, Chris Drury.

With the exits of Briere and their captain Drury, it’s looking like the Sabres will be hard-pressed to equal their run from last season that saw them fall just short of reaching the finals.

Philadelphia also made a trade to bring in the Oiler’s captain Jason Smith and Joffrey Lupul, who had a disappointed year in Edmonton after coming over in the Pronger trade last off-season. Going the other way were Joni Pitkanen and ??

Speaking of former Oiler captains, Ryan Smyth, who was dealt to the Islanders at the trade deadline, signed on with the Colorado Avalanche after a reported “convincing” phone call from Joe Sakic. Seeing those two on a line with some of the youth they have developing in Denver should make for a return to the playoffs. The Avs were also able to ink defenseman Scott Hannan

On the blue line, two big names filled some holes. In Anaheim, after learning that Scott Neidermayer is leaning towards retirement, GM Brian Burke went out and got Mathieu Schneider from Detroit, who then went and signed Brian Rafalski to a five-year deal.

The defending champion Ducks also brought in a player that suits their rough style perfectly by netting Todd Bertuzzi. If he can find his form from prior to the Steve Moore incident, he will pay off in spades.

The Toronto Maple Leafs addressed their need for a winger to pair with aging Mats Sundin in the form of Jason Blake. But is signing a guy who is 33 to a five-year deal really a smart move? Considering he just hit his career high last season, I wouldn’t expect more than 60 points from him and that’s on the generous side.

With this amount of signing in the first few days, there aren’t very many names left that will gather too much interest other than some role-players. I’m glad to say that after Peter Forsberg and Sheldon Souray come off the board, there won’t be too much NHL posts ‘round these parts.