A COUPLE OF NEAT STORIES

From Andrew Stoeten at Thescore.com:

For those of you who haven't run into Terry Tate lately, you might be surprised to know that an American election is coming up in just a couple of weeks. Check a few websites if you don't believe me. The media has really been underreporting this story, but trust me, the race really is going on-- and you want to know why one of the two presidential candidates is even there in the first place?

Mike. Ditka.

Seriously.

An interesting tidbit from Gunaxin points us to a USA Today article from August of 2004, titled, "Ditka says he won't run for U.S. Senate."
The story goes that Ditka was approached by the Republican party to run in place of their original candidate, Jack Ryan, who was shamed out of the race when it came to light, during divorce proceedings, that he'd gone to sex clubs with his wife, Jeri Ryan, the actress who played that Borg with huge tracts of land, and probably some other shit. Ultimately, Ditka decided against taking Ryan's place on the ticket-- citing his volatile temper as the main reason (though, uh... it's not like he would have exactly been dying to give up the one-day-a-week gig rambling on about the NFL).

His would-be opponent? Barack Obama ... (der).
Obama beat eventual-candidate Alan Keyes by 70% to 27%, meaning it's not exactly like Ditka could have just wandered in and slammed the Democratic opposition. But, uh... Ditka? In Illinois? I think he might have done OK. And if Ditka had won, that whole election thing that nobody's talking about right now might have looked a bit different.

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From Cory Masisak at the Washinton Times:

Tyler Sloan's father, Fred, drove 36 hours from the family's home in Calgary, Alberta, to Hershey, Pa., to spend a few days watching his son play in the American Hockey League.

As it turned out, Fred Sloan had to leave his car in Hershey and take an emergency flight home - and he probably couldn't be happier about it. His son was called up by the Washington Capitals and will make his NHL debut Tuesday night in Calgary against the Flames.

"I didn't think it would be this soon that I would get the call-up, but I'm ecstatic, and to get to play in Calgary is incredible," Tyler Sloan said after practice Monday. "To get this opportunity and be in Calgary - it is [like a] storybook."

It has been a long journey for Sloan, a 27-year-old defenseman who was never drafted. He has spent seven seasons playing for five teams between the AHL and the ECHL