The dream of a Can-Am League baseball team in the capital seems to have died a quiet death. But did anyone see that Chris Neil wore a funny hat at Senators practice yesterday? Get that on the front page. No one cares about any other sport right?

As noted by the commenters, the Can-Am League sent out a press release today saying it plans to go ahead with eight teams for the 2008 season: Atlantic City Surf, Brockton Rox, Grays (traveling team), Nashua Pride, New Jersey Jackals, Les Capitales de Québec, Sussex Skyhawks and Worcester Tornadoes. 

There’s so much inchoate rage bottled up here that it’s best to just leave it at that. Miles Wolff came to down with a damn good idea, a damn good plan for Ottawa’s small-but-loyal core of baseball followers, one that would also help our national program.

Whatever the reason, our civic leaders showed him the back of their hands for reasons that are impossible for a layperson to understand. They had a choice of baseball or litigation, and chose litigation, AKA Lawyerball. How is Carl going to explain it to his 10-year-old son who lives and breathes baseball that the politicians in this city only care about sports when it’s a good photo-op for them? Our mayor has no problem sporting a goofy grin and throwing a football around at Lansdowne Park, but someone with an established baseball track record comes in saying he can make a Can-Am League team work here, and it’s like, oh no, his opinions can’t be valid because he’s not from Ottawa.

This is a great city in many ways, but it’s so blinkered, myopic and provincial that it’s not even funny. For the 1,002nd time, we have enough baseball fans here to make it work. Bringing in the Can-Am League was the most cost-effective, pain-free thing for the city to do… love to hear the spin-doctoring on this!