C5

Bill Hunt

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Is there any better time to be a sports fan than right now?

Baseball playoffs are at their zenith. The puck is about to drop. Basketball begins and, hey, it's not my cup of tea, but NASCAR is entering the late laps. Oh, and there's CFL and NFL to consider too.

And so, questions, observations, thoughts and shots for your contemplation and consideration:

Forget Liberal or Conservative or NDP, the real burning question is If the Boston Red Sox and the Philadelphia Phillies square off in the World Series, which way will Fredericton vote? It will be Matt Stairs versus Red Sox Nation. Discuss.

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Personally I'm pulling for Matt, in what is probably his last legitimate shot at a World Series ring. Red Sox Nation - God how I hate the arrogance of that term - has lost its charm. The Sox used to be lovable losers and that was part of the attraction. You wondered how they would break your heart next. Now, they've become chillingly efficient, with two crowns in the last four seasons, and, difficult as it is to digest, probably more to come. They have a young nucleus and the ability to go out and buy the parts they need.

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On the other hand, a Red Sox-Dodgers series carries a fair amount of intrigue too, for all the obvious reasons. The new 99 in Los Angeles is having an even bigger impact than the old one did. And of course, Jason Bay has been a perfect replacement for Manny in left field in Boston - a guy who can actually catch the ball and run the bases. Put it this way: Manny doesn't score the winning run in the bottom of the ninth against the Angels the other night. He's probably out by 15 feet.

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Have not yet pored through Bruce Hallihan's impressive 18th annual Atlantic University Sport Men's Hockey Preview package - graphics by Eli White, or as we've taken to calling him around here, The Amazing Eli.

Anyway, haven't yet read Hallihan's annual bible. Don't know the lay of the land in the rest of the country when it comes to college hockey. But at the risk of upsetting loyal St. Thomas supporter Nora Valentino and her ilk, here's a prediction: the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds will right the wrong and win the CIS championship this season.

Made the same prediction - under pretty much the same circumstances, and for the same reason - a decade ago. Mike Kelly's 1997 V-Re Reds lost the CIS national final to the Guelph Gryphons, a result that was considered an upset at the time. The V-Reds used the result of that game as motivation all the next season. They went 24-3-1 over the regular season, steamrolled through the playoffs and the CIS tournament and doubled the Acadia Axemen 6-3 in the national final to win the team's first title.

Circumstances are eerily similar this season. They probably won't tear through the AUS at a 26-1-1 clip this season - that's a season for the ages regardless of how it ends - but the veterans from last year's team will be motivated to go and capture the Cup they should have won last year. There. No pressure fellas.

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And while we're in prediction mode, here's another which probably won't surprise: the Red Wings to repeat as Stanley Cup champions in eight months or so. They were a machine last year, and went out and added parts: Marian Hossa, the prize of the free agent crop, who saw enough of the Wings while they were breezing by him in the Stanley Cup final last year that he wanted to be part of the parade this season, and Ty Conklin, who stepped into the breach with the Penguins last season when Marc-Andre Fleury went down and pretty much salvaged their season.

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From the "Bet you didn't know this" file: Ned Colletti, the astute general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, the guy who made the trades for Manny Ramirez and Casey Blake and the guy who hired Joe Torre, is a former sports writer. He wrote hockey for the Philadelphia Journal in fact, and ghost wrote a weekly column with Flyer icon Bill Barber. See ... we're not all dummies and wannabes.

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University of Maine freshman forward Mark Nemec will have some local support when he comes to town with the Black Bears tonight.

His uncle is local hockey icon Tim Gillies. Tim's sister Jane and her husband Frank are both UNB graduates and will be in Fredericton for the games tonight and Saturday. They live in the town of Rouses Point, N.Y, less than a mile from the Quebec border.

Bill Hunt can be reached at hunt.bill@dailygleaner.com or 458-6443. His column appears each Friday.