Under Further Review – Douglas Smith with Editor Bill Morphy. Special thanks to our regular contributors including Jordan Moss, Ian MacPhee, Dave Kittle, Ted Tait, Peter Hucul, Glen and Bill Myles, Howard Steiss and Rob Wagner. This week, we have an NHL playoff preview. The Coyotes howl no more. Arm trouble in baseball and golf in crisis.
Bring On the Real Season – As you may know by now, we are not much for prognostications but by popular demand and with a little arm-twisting, we will make our first round NHL playoff predictions. If we are off the mark, then be forewarned. For the purists out there, let’s just hope we see some good hockey.
Canucks vs. Nashville: Every Canuck fan is wondering if the team is playoff-ready. Thatcher Demko is back between the pipes and it couldn’t have come sooner. Demko played the lead role in the Canucks breakout season. He posted 35 wins with career highs in save percentage (.918) and goals against (2.45). Without Demko, the Canucks went 7-5-2 in 14 games while he was sidelined with a knee injury. By comparison, the Predators Juuse Saros was 42nd in save percentage and 40th in goals against. Advantage Canucks.
Overall, where do the Canucks stand with the playoffs about to begin? When they score first, and that happens often, they are a very difficult team to beat. Their five-on-five play is as good as any team in the NHL. If the special teams hold up, they should be a formidable opponent for any team. They had to be doing something right to win their first Pacific Division crown since 2013. They hit the 50-win mark for only the third time in club history. It’s been eight years since we’ve seen playoff hockey at Rogers Arena. Bring it on!
Prediction: Canucks in six.
Edmonton vs. L.A. Kings: All the so-called experts are picking the Oilers. Not so fast. They point to goaltending. Really? As if Stuart Skinner is a big step up from Cam Talbot. L.A. has three big centres in Kopitar, Danault and Dubois. The Kings are boring as hell to watch but may find just enough scoring to stage an upset. Key will be holding the Oilers at bay on the power-play. The series features two rookie coaches with zero playoff experience. Hard to handicap how it may go when the pressure mounts. Connor McDavid figures to be on a mission. He will be the difference.
Prediction: Oilers in seven.
Winnipeg vs. Colorado: Now if you want to point to a goaltending advantage, this series offers one. Hellebuyck vs. Georgiev is a gaping miss-match in the Jets favour. Winnipeg has been dialed-in down the stretch and we like teams with structure when it counts. The Jets have been hugely disappointing in recent playoffs while the Avs have Cup pedigree. Still, the deadline additions in Winnipeg have made a difference. The Jets boast enviable depth and they know how to defend. The Avs don’t need to be reminded they were upset in the opening round last year by Seattle. This series will be tight. Home ice rules.
Prediction: Jets in seven
Dallas vs. Vegas: From the No Surprise Department comes word that Mark Stone is healthy and ready to go. He’s got the green light to play after recovering from a lacerated spleen sustained back on February. The Golden Knights have made a joke of the salary cap. If karma plays a role, the Golden Knights will exit early. They will ice a team worth far more than everyone else but will it gel? Vegas looked discombobulated down the stretch and it’s tough to just turn it on when it counts. Plus, their goaltending has been shaky. Dallas can lock it down when needed. The Stars have the depth to match Vegas. If the Golden Knights survive round one, look out.
Prediction: Stars in seven
Eastern Conference
Toronto vs. Boston: While the Canucks were emphasizing team throughout the season, the Toronto Maple Leafs were all about individual honours. Auston Matthews’ pursuit of 70 goals was at the top of the highlights every night. The Leafs look anything but dialled in. With the playoff approaching, good teams were buttoning down the details. The Leafs, meanwhile, gave up five or more goals in each of their final four games thanks to the focus on Matthews. Christ, he had 22 shots on goal in the last two games looking for #70. Does this look like a playoff-ready team?
Boston has a clear advantage in goal and on defence. They have above average special teams. Penalty killing has been a big issue with the Leafs all season. Their vaunted power-play has been a mess down the stretch. Teams that play as loose as the Leafs don’t win in the playoffs. End of story.
Oh, but wait. The Leaf Lemmings have a whole different view. Toronto will prevail and bring pride and honour to Leafs Nation. For a mighty good chuckle, click on the links below.
Prediction: Bruins in six. P.S.: The Toronto Maple Leafs haven’t won the Cup since every pre-pubescent boy in North America was fascinating over Barbara Eden in I Dream of Jeannie.
Tampa vs. Florida: The Panthers may regret not facing the Leafs in the opening round. The Lightning made some nice additions at the trade deadline and played their best hockey of the season down the stretch. The Panthers have been the NHL’s best defensive team all year. Aaron Ekblad is back for the playoffs to fortify the back end. This will be a grind-it-out series. All bets are off if the Panthers can’t stop the NHL’s top-rated power-play. Fortunately, the Panthers have the sixth-best penalty-killing unit.
Prediction: Panthers in six.
Carolina vs. N.Y. Islanders: Talk about teams being playoff-ready. The Hurricanes were deadly in the season’s final month and appear to be running on all cylinders. Jake Guentzel has been the trade deadline’s best pick-up with 8 goals and 25 points in only 17 games. The Islanders have a bunch of playoff-sturdy players but they simply can’t match the Canes speed and scoring punch. It’s time for Carolina to step up in the post-season. Noah Dobson has been hurt and that could be a big problem for the Isles.
Hurricanes in five.
Washington vs. N.Y. Rangers: If there’s a playoff miss-match, this is it. The Rangers won the Presidents Trophy as the NHL’s top team and the Capitals were fortunate to even quality for the playoffs. Everything favours the Rangers including a big advantage in goal. The Caps enter the post-season with the worst goal differential of any team in over three decades. The Blueshirts boast five forwards with 25+ goals. This series should be over in a hurry.
Prediction: Rangers in five.
NHL Notebook – The NHL’s long Arizona nightmare is over. The Coyotes have known nothing but turmoil since moving from Winnipeg in 1996. It seems unfathomable that the team would remain there for nearly three decades despite all the drama and instability. Seven different owners. Three arenas. Bankruptcy. The only thing that kept them there was Gary Bettman’s hard-headed obsession with the market. Remember when BlackBerry exec Jim Balsillie tried to buy the team out of bankruptcy court and move the team to Hamilton? That was 2009. A distant memory now.
You knew things were about to change when the NHLPA openly criticized Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo. Playing in a college arena was no longer an option. Any hope for a new arena within five years was a rose-coloured dream. As soon as Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith stepped to the plate, the die was cast. Instant arena. Growing market. No more unpaid bills.
Want to know why it happened? The Coyotes clown show was keeping money out of the players’ pockets. The collective bargaining agreement calls for a 50/50 split of all hockey-related revenue. The Coyotes were generating next to nothing. Utah’s arrival vastly improves the bottom line. So long Phoenix, Glendale, Scottsdale, Tempe and anywhere else the team tried to call home.
The big winner is Meruelo. What a grifter! He’s going to walk away with one billion when the sale is finalized. Meruelo took the NHL for a joy ride. He now has a window to try and get an arena built and bring a team back to Arizona. As if that’s going to happen.
When the team moves to Utah, they will make a name change. Utah is known as the Beehive State so mark down the Stingers as a strong possibility. One thing you can count on is a big change in how the franchise operates. The team will have a ton of cap space and should be aggressive in free agency. With a major stockpile of draft picks (20 picks in the first three rounds of the next three drafts) and an enviable prospect pool, the Utah Stingers could make a quick turnaround.
Do you think the Columbus Blue Jackets regret signing Johnny Gaudreau as a free agent? Gaudreau finished the season with 12 goals and 48 assists which placed him 88th in NHL scoring. Did we mention he was minus-27? Last season he was minus-33. That’s a combined minus-60 in his two seasons in Columbus. Gaudreau was plus-64 in his final season in Calgary. That’s mind-boggling. For $9.75 million per season, it’s grand larceny.
ESPN just released its annual ranking of the Top 50 players for this year’s post-season and it defies logic that they have Auston Matthews ranked number one. Who in the hell would rank Matthews ahead of a proven playoff bulldog like Nathan MacKinnon who has a Cup ring to show for it? Would you rank Matthews ahead of Kucherov or McDavid? No chance. In their ranking, ESPN had J.T. Miller 29th. Enough said.
Do you think the Toronto Maple Leafs are having buyer’s remorse when it comes to the massive contract handed William Nylander? You would have thought Brad Trelilving might have learned a lesson after signing Jonathan Huberdeau. When the Leafs signed Nylander to the richest deal in club history, he was on pace for a 47-goal, 120-point season. Nylander finished the year with 40 goals and 98 points. He was plus-one. Matthews was plus-31. Watch Nylander go missing in the playoffs. At least, ESPN was smart enough to rank Nylander and Mitch Marner 44th and 45th in their playoff rankings.
Looks like the Van Kids, Connor Bedard and Macklin Celebrini, will both be representing Canada at the World Hockey Championships. It would be great to see Sidney Crosby join them and serve as a mentor for the two budding stars. Don’t rule out both of them being part of the next Olympic team.
The One and Only – Ask any long-time hockey watcher and they are liable to tell you the greatest player they ever saw was Bobby Orr. Put me in that category and I was in press boxes to see Wayne Gretzky play live probably 100 times.
Orr revolutionized the game. He won the Norris Trophy a record eight consecutive seasons from 1968-75. He led the NHL in scoring on two occasions. No other defenceman has done that in the game’s history. Here’s a fine video tribute to the great number four.
https://www.facebook.com/oldcanada/videos/2670550036548203/?mibextid=jmPrMh&rdid=uFw4LJXkE9QXzMpB
No player ever ragged the puck like Bobby Orr. Here’s video evidence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwzev0sZ8EA
The Toronto Bay Leaves – In 1983, Second City Television (SCTV), the Canadian sketch comedy show, aired a ‘Movie of the Week’ segment called ‘Power Play.’ It featured John Candy as Billy Stemhovilichski and his journey to join the Toronto Bay Leaves. (They obviously came up with Candy’s name by combining Mahovolich and Stemkowski) In the skit, Candy channels his inner Darryl Sittler. Joe Flaherty is an absolute hoot as sportscaster Dick Bedclothes, a clear take on Dick Beddoes, the former CHCH TV blowhard. If you’ve never seen it, it’s an absolute classic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmaG3qb1Saw&ab_channel=KidThunder10
SCTV also filmed an hilarious skit featuring Candy and Flaherty portraying Sittler and Guy Lafleur in a TV commercial. You can imagine how it went.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnTjs0heRJo&ab_channel=Fumanchuaeon
Blue Jays Notebook – It was predictable. We are not surprised Blue Jay bats are cold. Boy, that’s a news alert! The only bat in the lineup that’s producing is veteran Justin Turner who’s always been a professional hitter. Just look at the batting averages of the rest of the lineup – Guerrero (.219), Bichette (.235), Kirk (.192), Springer (.219), Varsho (.211), Schneider (.205), and Kiermaier (.217). The Jays are keeping their heads above water in the AL East but for how long?
The current Jays front office doesn’t seem to have any motivation to add Canadians to the roster. The division rival Boston Red Sox acquired outfielder Tyler O’Neill from the St. Louis Cardinals in the off-season for a pair of minor league pitchers and the Burnaby native has been outstanding. O’Neill is batting .313 with seven home runs and the two-time Golden Glover provides solid defense. Once again, Blue Jays brass were asleep at the wheel. They’d rather acquire behemoths like Daniel Vogelbach who is better suited to be playing on the Argos offensive line.
MLB Notebook – We’re not buying the notion that the pitch clock is suddenly responsible for the alarming number of arm injuries among top pitchers. Point the finger at the unending pursuit of velocity and spin rate. Over the past ten years, the average fastball has risen from 92.5 to 94.1 m.p.h. Stress on the arm from increased spin rotation is also causing more injuries. Young pitchers are consumed by the search for velo and you have to figure it’s led to overthrowing.
The wear-and-tear on pitchers can be traced back to usage when kids are just coming up in the game. You often see youngsters pitching on two or three teams when they are 13 or 14, oftentimes pitching more than once in weekend tournaments. Then, in college, they often throw well over 100 pitches in a game. An arm can only handle so many pitches before it blows out. It’s a cumulative effect.
You can also point to the pitching motion. When Stephen Strasberg and Chris Sale arrived in the majors, you knew right away the torque in their throwing motions was going to lead to injury. I would say the same about Jays ace prospect Ricky Tiedemann. He just underwent an MRI on his elbow.
Lost in the discussion is the importance of a tight, repeatable throwing motion. How do you explain Warren Spahn throwing over 200 pitches in a game at the age of 41? Fergie Jenkins won 284 games during his remarkable MLB career. 267 of them were complete games. Think about that for a minute! There’s a reason knuckle-ball pitchers threw into their mid-40’s. No spin. No arm damage!
You could argue that pitchers today are babying their arms instead of building them up to handle larger pitch counts. Pitch execution has always been more important than velo. Greg Maddox is in the Hall of Fame. His fastball topped out at around 90 mph. Chris Bassitt of the Jays had arm reconstruction and has come back a better pitcher because he adapted and now throws eight different pitches that keep batters guessing.
It’s astonishing that Angel Hernandez is still allowed to call balls and strikes behind home plate. A mannequin could do a better job. In a recent game, Hernandez rang up Rangers rookie Wyatt Langford on three pitches that were all out of the strike zone. In fact, the called third strike was 6.78 inches out of the strike zone. It was the largest miss on a called strikeout in Umpire Auditor history. This nonsense has been going on for years. Hernandez is a complete incompetent and everyone knows it. Only the umpires union allows him to keep a job.
Who in the MLB office came up with the concept called Prospect Promotion Incentive? It makes no sense. Here’s how it came about. In the last round of bargaining in 2022, one of the big issues was the manipulation of service time for top prospects. Teams were accused of delaying the arrival of top young players in order to increase their service time.
The result was an incentive program that provides an extra pick following the first round of the amateur draft if a player wins Rookie of the Year or finishes in the top three in MVP voting. The impact was immediate. Players like Julio Rodriguez, Bobby Witt Jr., Spencer Torkelson and Adley Rutschman were added to rosters for Opening Day. By winning Rookie of the Year, Rodriguez earned the Seattle Mariners the 29th pick in the 2023 draft. Gunnar Henderson will earn the Baltimore Orioles an extra pick in this year’s draft after winning AL Rookie of the Year last season.
The Orioles tanked for several years thanks to a now-deceased owner who seemed intent on burning the franchise to the ground. Rutschman and Holliday were number one overall picks in the 2019 and 2022 drafts. So now you reward the Orioles again? As if the O’s need another first round pick.
According to MLB, the PPI program has been a rousing success. Fans are seeing players they want to see much earlier. Damn the fallout. Looking at the program now it seems foolhardy. You are essentially incentivizing teams to tank.
Masters Recap – If there was any doubt that Scottie Scheffler is the best golfer in the world, it was removed by his performance at the Masters. Scheffler won his second Green Jacket in three years and tightened his grip as World #1. Dan Jenkins of Sports Illustrated once said the Masters doesn’t start until the back nine on Sunday. Scheffler quickly removed any doubt by playing the final eleven holes in five-under. At 1:30 Pacific, there was actually a four-way tie for the lead between Scheffler, Collin Morikawa, Max Homa and Ludwig Aberg, all tied at six-under as the final groups were finishing up the front nine. We know what happened next.
Scheffler’s ball-striking is Ben Hogan-like. The blustery conditions throughout the week failed to derail him. His four-stroke victory over Aberg looked almost routine. Scheffler has not had a single round over par since back in October. With his second-place finish, Aberg showed he’s quickly emerging as one of the game’s biggest stars. He may have multiple major wins in his future.
Meantime, it was a feeble showing for the four Canadians in the field. Abbotsford’s Nick Taylor and one-time champion Mike Weir missed the cut. Corey Conners finished plus-7 and T38. Adam Hadwin was plus-12 and T 53.
Tigers Woods should be commended for making the cut for a record-breaking 25th consecutive time. That’s the good news. The bad news is he had to play the weekend and turned in scores of 82 and 77. Woods finished plus-16 and dead last among the 60 players who made the cut. He still draws all the attention but why? TSN continues to display a Tiger Tracker on its website which seems ludicrous. Woods may soon come to the realization that it’s more of an embarrassment to play in the majors, let alone the damage to his legacy.
Bryson DeBraindead – Bryson DeChambeau was in contention until the par-5 15th hole on Saturday. He was out of position after his drive and inexplicably tried to hook a 240-yard second shot around a tree and onto the green. He ended up on the 14th hole, then duffed his next shot into the water, leading to a double bogey. All he had to do was lay up and try to get up and down from there for birdie. You wouldn’t see Scheffler trying hero shots like that.
DeChambeau finished in a tie for sixth with fellow LIV’er Cameron Smith. LIV Golf luminaries Brooks Koepka and defending champion Jon Rahm finished plus-9 and T53. It makes you wonder if playing only 54-hole tournaments on the LIV tour has not hurt the golfers who chased the big payday.
Sorry Rory – This year’s Masters was the tenth opportunity for Rory McIlroy to win a Green Jacket and complete the career Grand Slam. It’s probably never going to happen. McIlroy continues to shoot himself in the foot with terrible starts. The closest he’s been after the first round in the last six years is six shots. One year, he was 11 back. For proof of the importance of a good start, all you need to know is that 37 of the last 38 champions have been in the top ten through two rounds.
Poor Rory opened with a 71 but ballooned to a 77 in round two. Over the past six tournaments, he’s 14-over in his opening two rounds and 22-under in rounds 3 and 4. You wonder if it’s the pressure of trying to complete the grand slam. McIlroy won four majors by the age of 25. His last major victory came in 2014.
Golf in Crisis – Television ratings for golf are way down. No settlement between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf is in sight. Concern for the game is extremely high and for good reason. Players are hitting the ball record distances. They rarely use half the clubs in their bag. Who wants to watch players hit driver and wedge on every hole? The governing bodies have done nothing to dial back the golf ball despite years of study and false promises.
Three-time Masters champion Gary Player said it best: “Nothing about the game today, not a single thing, is the same as when we played. Not a single thing. And so, we’ve got to cut the ball back 50 or 60 yards. Otherwise, the whole concept of the game, the history of the game, the par 5, par 4, par 3, that’s gone. I’m quite concerned about where the game of golf is going.”
This is not a bitter old man talking. Player is dead on. When you have a player like Aberg hitting a gap wedge on his second shot on a 500-yard par 4, something is wrong. Did you see Aberg drive the green on a par 4 in a recent tournament? The equipment has to match the course. It’s made a mockery of the game and golf fans have taken note. They do not want to watch tournaments where the winning score is minus-20 or lower. LIV Golf hasn’t taken off despite luring away many top players. Sorry, 54-hole tournaments with music, cheerleaders and team play do not make for must-watch TV. Golf needs to change and it better happen soon.
NFL Notebook – With the NFL Draft coming up next week, we felt compelled to provide our top draft flops over the past ten years. There is no shortage of draft busts and as you might expect, many were quarterbacks. None bigger than Trey Lance. The 49’ers gave up three first-round picks in 2021 in order to draft Lance third overall. He’s now in Dallas with a grand total of four NFL starts to his credit.
The New York Jets have the ignominious claim to a pair of monumental draft busts. They took quarterback Sam Darnold third overall in 2018 and followed it up by selecting Zach Wilson with the second pick of the 2021 draft. The bright lights of Broadway overwhelmed both Darnold and Wilson.
How can we forget Johnny Manziel? Johnny Football was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in the first round of the 2014 draft. Manziel was all hype. He lasted two seasons in the NFL. Can you believe Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones had to be talked out of drafting Manziel? The quarterback scrap-heap is loaded. We salute such luminaries as Mitch Trubisky, Blake Bortles, Josh Rosen and Paxton Lynch? Can you imagine the amount of money wasted on quarterbacks who bombed out? It has to be in the hundreds of millions. The Seahawks have had their share of first-round failures including Germain Ifedi, Rashaad Perry and L.J. Collier.
Our vote for the worst draft pick in the past decade has to be Washington Huskies receiver John Ross. He was taken ninth overall in 2017 by the Cincinnati Bengals. Ross was constantly injured and never really made an impact. His selection is noteworthy because the very next pick in that draft was a fellow named Patrick Mahomes from Texas Tech.
No team has had a worse draft record than the Oakland/Las Vegas Raiders. In a four-year period between 2018 and 2021, Raider first round picks included cornerbacks Gareon Conley and Damon Arnette, safety Johnathan Abram, DE Clelin Ferrell and OT Alex Leatherwood. And lest we forget, there was wide receiver Henry Ruggs III, taken 12th overall in 2020. Ruggs is now doing a 3-10 stretch in a Nevada prison after killing a woman and her dog in a fiery high speed car accident. He was reportedly travelling 156 mph at the time of the crash. When Ruggs joined the Raiders, he signed a four-year deal for over $16 million. He now earns $2.50 per hour working in government offices in Carson City, Nevada as part of his sentence.
Random Leftovers – Pro sports have created an incestuous relationship with legalized betting so the lifetime ban of the Raptors Jontay “Alouetta” Porter should come as no surprise. This is what happens when you jump into bed with the gaming industry. Porter was found to have placed 13 bets on NBA games while using the online betting account of an associate. It was also revealed Porter left two games early to ensure prop bets paid out. He had to be pretty stupid. The NBA has business relationships with many wagering companies so you have to figure they had little trouble flagging the violations. Porter threw away his NBA career for the grand sum of $22 thousand.
Bigger picture. Do you really believe he’s the only player guilty of this kind of activity? Seems unlikely. He’s just the only one who’s been caught. There’s always someone who’s going to try and cheat the system. NBA Commissioner Adam “Hi-Ho” Silver issued the usual party line about how the league has to protect the integrity of the game. Fact is, leagues and players now share gaming revenues so the horses are out of the barn. Expect more of the same unless leagues institute a zero-tolerance policy regarding betting and that’s not going to happen unless its collectively bargained. What are the chances of that happening?
It was a season from hell for the Raptors. They will enter the NBA draft lottery with the sixth-worse record. Unless the lottery balls drop them back, they will retain their first-round pick. It’s top-six protected as a result of the Jakob Poeltl deal with San Antonio. Doesn’t mean they will add another foundational piece for their rebuild. This year’s NBA draft is a crap-shoot. Not a lot of elite talent available.
If you are in Vancouver and plan to take in a Vancouver Canadians game this summer at Nat Bailey Stadium, here’s some names to remember. Keep an eye on pitchers Kendry Rojas and Chris McElvain. The C’s have three outfielders worth checking out – Jace Bohrofen, Jaden Rudd and Oakville, Ontario native Dasan Brown. Brown has big-time wheels but he is yet to deliver at the plate.
Platter Chatter – We have several recommendations for you this week. From the compilation album ‘This One’s for Him: A Tribute to Guy Clark’, check out the song The Cape featuring Patti Griffin. As usual, she sparkles.
Former Mott the Hoople frontman Ian Hunter has a new release entitled ‘Defiance Part 2.’ Have a listen to What Would I Do Without You featuring Lucinda Williams and Benmont Tench and The 3rd Rail featuring the late Jeff Beck.
Marcus King is back with ‘Mood Swings.’ It’s very introspective. We recommend the tracks Save Me and This Far Gone. Never get sick of King’s voice.
Jeremy Spencer has been around forever. He was a member of the original Fleetwood Mac. While prone to occasional suggestive behavior on stage, Spencer was quiet and withdrawn off stage, often reading the bible alone in his hotel room. During a tour of the U.S. in 1971, Spencer left the band without warning to join the religious sect the Children of God. After settling in the U.S., Spencer and his wife would move frequently with stops in Brazil, Italy, the Philippines, India, Ireland and Germany. He still works with Children of God (now called Family International) as a book illustrator and story writer.
In 2007, Spencer got in contact with former Fleetwoord Mac bandmates Mick Fleetwood and John McVie. The three had informal jam sessions with Rick Vito at Fleetwood’s home in Maui but there was no reunion. In 2020, Spencer made an appearance at the Peter Green tribute concert, making his first stage appearance with Mick Fleetwood in 49 years.
In the 2000’s, Spencer released several solo albums. From the album ‘Precious Little,’ have a listen to his take on the classic It Hurts Me Too. From the offering ‘Homebrewed Blues,’ check out Perilous Times. From the release ‘Coventry Blue,’ we recommend Got to Keep Movin’ and Moonshine Slide.
YouTube Video Tribute – The legacy of Jimi Hendrix lives on. Radio icon Howard Stern made a habit of asking his guests about Hendrix, culling many stories over the years that only enhance Jimi’s larger-than-life status. Stern put the comments together into one video. Check it out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQfiT_EWKTo&ab_channel=TheHowardSternShow
Goodbye Dickie Betts – All of the old rockers seem to be leaving us. Sad to learn of the passing of Dickie Betts, guitarist and co-founder of the Allman Brothers Band. He was 80. Along with Duane Allman, Betts is credited with helping create the sound now known as Southern rock. Betts wrote ‘Ramblin’ Man,’ one of the Allman Brothers most recognizable songs. He also penned ‘ Blue Sky’ and ‘Jessica.’
We hope you are enjoying Under Further Review. If you have friends or family members who enjoy sports, please take a moment and direct them to the website at https://underfurtherreview.ca/ and encourage them to subscribe at no cost.
Recent Comments