56 Days to Opening Day

Opening Day 2008 for the Timber Rattlers is April 3. That is 56 days from today. This off-season, the countdown will be based on books. Each day between now and Opening Day 2008, I will pick a random book out of my library and excerpt a passage off the page number corresponding with the number of days remaining to the first pitch of the new season. I will try not to repeat a book during the countdown.

Today’s book is Guide to America’s Best Sports Bars: 48 Sportswriters in 48 Great Cities Rate 48 Great Sports Bars edited by Mike Lessiter. This book was published in 1997 and the title is misleading in two respects. There are large reviews of 48 sports bars, but there are smaller reviews of other bars in those 48 metropolitan areas. Also, the reviews on page 56 are of some places in that great American city…Toronto*.

Rob Malich of The Toronto Star provides the capsule review of a restaurant that has been renamed Don Cherry’s Grapevine since 1997. The website for the restaurant below takes you to that restaurant…in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

Don Cherry’s Sports Grill

Every Saturday during the hockey season, Torontonians go out of their way to catch a glimpse of Don Cherry on Hockey Night in Canada, the longest running program (since ’52) on North American television. They also go out of their way to get to his bar, located eight miles west of downtown, to meet him and his family who run the place. The former Boston Bruins coach and current national media icon is known for his “tell-it-like-it-is” tough-guy image. His hockey paraphernalia-lined bar – focusing on mementos of his stay with the Bruins – is generally packed on hockey nights, and is also the place to be for closed-circuit boxing. It offers 29 brands of beer. 1233 The Queensway, Etobicoke, Ontario M8Z 1S1.

Put today’s excerpt in a baseball context.

*-That’s a “joke”. Everyone knows that the capital of Canada is not an American city**

**-Another “joke”