k. p. wee

Recently, I announced my 100th game since 2022. The team that I work for took time out to acknowledge my accomplishment (thank you). There was a PA announcement at the rink at the start of #99. There was a social media post following #100. Thank you.

Now, on the other hand, there are some who will downplay your accomplishments. I’m not saying this to be bitter or anything; I’m merely sharing my experiences as I reflect on my journey.

I once volunteered at a community radio station. I’d just published my Tom Candiotti biography called A Life of Knuckleballs. Someone at the station was asking me about it. I answered the question. Another person was in the room and overheard, and scoffed when I mentioned that the book could be purchased online. The fellow scoffed that books should be in bookstores and not online.

More recently, I was helping out at an after-school academy for high school kids. I had asked for a particular Wednesday night off because of a hockey broadcast. I mentioned this to the school a week ahead of time and reminded the admin again. Then that night came and I received phone calls wondering when I was going to show up for class. When I reminded the caller that I had booked time off, the answer was they’d forgotten my request and I needed to tell the students afterwards that “I was sick” and couldn’t do the class. Huh? I am proud of my hockey broadcasting work and yet I was instructed to say I was sick and couldn’t have class? The school wanted to save face and didn’t want to acknowledge that they screwed up by forgetting my time-off request. (To provide some context, students often cancel classes to play sports or do extracurricular activities, and these cancellations are often communicated on the same day. It’s clearly a double standard.)

Again, I’m not bitter and I’m stating this matter-of-factly. Some people just don’t want you to succeed. For those who acknowledge me, I say thank you.

This is my favourite play of the last eight days:

Vancouver led 2-0 over Chicago after the 2nd period, and the pick here was to choose “no next goal.” It wasn’t my own pick, but I listened to an expert’s live analysis and decided to put $100 down.

I remember back in the summer, an administrative assistant at a place that I was helping out with asked me if she could invest $300 in what I do, ie. hand $300 to me and help her invest. I explained that the NBA/NHL seasons didn’t begin until October. I said to wait until then. She said okay.

Then she, along with the management there, for some other reasons didn’t call me back for jobs. Oh well.

Here are the best of the rest for these past eight days. For most of these, I relied on expert analysis before picking them.