The AAA Ottawa Lynx are moving to Allentown, Pennsylvania after this season, where they will be known as the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs. Their new ballpark, under construction in East Allentown, now has a new name, according to this article in the Morning Call.

Interestingly, this is the first venue in the country that will bear the Coca Cola name. At 7000 seats, it will be the smallest ballpark in the International League. By comparison Buffalo’s Dunn Tire Park can accomodate over 17,000 patrons.

And that buffed bod of his is all thanks to good genes, plenty of exercise and a disciplined weightlifting regimen.

Umm… yeah… right.

Sights and sounds from the Sabres morning skate at HSBC Arena…

-Back skating on the ice were Chris Drury, Jaroslav Spacek, Ales Kotalik and Andrew Peters. Drury is set to play tonight against Colorado. Spacek and Kotalik are at least a week away, says Head Coach Lindy Ruff, although Spacek was giving his injured hand some work during the drills. It was funny seeing Peters wear the red “no contact” jersey during the skate, considering his size and strength. Ruff joked “his upper body is coming along nicely.”

-Ty Conklin is expected to get a start during the three game homestand, though when I asked Lindy when that might be, he replied he was still thinking about it and offered no more specifics.

-Conklin is adjusting to his new life in Buffalo very nicely. “The guys took me out and showed me around town, I’m feeling very welcome here.” Conklin played on the Stanley Cup finalists Edmonton Oilers last spring, and I asked him for the comparisons between our team and that squad. “The mark of a contender and a champion is that they can get the job done no matter how dire the circumstances are” replied Conklin. “That attitude is prevalent in this room and it is something not to be disregarded as inconsequential.” Conklin was the last guy off the ice this morning, and in true Marty Biron fashion, obliged some of the fans attending the skate at the arena with autographs.

-And speaking of fans in attendance, that is a nice thing the Sabres do allowing the fans in like that. Being a school day the crowd was smaller than usual. Interesting that at the point of the skate when Lindy calls the team around him for a discussion, the crowd gets very quiet, hoping to listen in.

-The season ticket renewal deadline came and went this past weekend, and PR Director Mike Gilbert tells me “the response has been overwhelming”. Customers who renewed by the deadline get a reduced rate for first round games and a shot at reserving additional playoff seats. Gilbert said that they are still tabulating the orders and should have some numbers to report by next week.

I’ll be home watching, while Peter will be at the game tonight covering, and he will post his game wrap up afterwards.

The Buffalo Bisons announced their action packed promotional lineup today, and once again there will be something for everybody for another fun filled season at the ballpark.

So what jumped out at me? Hands down, it’s August 8, when the team will give away replica ballparks of War Memorial Stadium to the first 4000 fans through the Swan Street gate that night.

I like bobbleheads, but quite frankly, I’m a bit bobbleheaded out as my shelf is full of statuettes. But being a huge fan of venues, I love these replica ballpark giveaways. Last year the Bisons gave away a replica of Dunn Tire Park in a similar promotion, and it was no ordinary trinket. The piece weighed almost a pound, was stunning in detail, and has earned an honored spot in my display of sports collectibles.

I have fond childhood memories of the Rockpile - seeing the Bills bumble and stumble in those early OJ days. My first baseball game in 1970 - Bisons v Mud Hens. It was a grey drizzly day in a nearly empty stadium, my neighbor took me, I collected a foul ball and for me as a little boy the experience was magic. A month later the Bisons were gone to Winnipeg and I was devastated.

So good luck and congrats to the 3999 of you who come down to the ballpark and snare yourselves a cool souvenir. I say 3999 because one of those Rockpile replicas has my name on it, come hell or high water!

HERE is all the information you will need on the Bisons’ 2007 promotional schedule.

It took Niagara 35 years to make it back to the NCAA tournament when they downed Rider in an emotional win at HSBC Arena two years ago. Now two years later they are going dancing again… beating Siena 83-79 in the MAAC finals in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Freshman Tyrone Lewis picked the team’s biggest game to come up with his biggest performance, netting 24 points and earning game MVP. In the hours leading up to the game, much was made about Siena’s two regular season wins over Niagara, then aided by Niagara’s shortened bench. But after the offensive clinic the Purple Eagles put on in the semi’s, you knew this was going to be a different type of game.

This Sunday we will find out who Niagara’s opponent will be in the NCAA’s. In 2005 they went in as a 14th seed, but all the bracket watchers and pundits are listing them as a 15 or 16 this year.

Congrats to Joe Mihalich and his boys… we are all proud of you!

A report just out today states that the Pittsburgh Penguins have reached an impasse in their negotiations for a new arena and that they will begin to actively pursue relocation.

Check out story

Admittedly while a visit to Kansas City would be nice, I’d much rather do it for the NFL. I really believe that the Pens will be Stanley Cup Champions down the road and to see it happen in a ho-hum hockey market like Kansas City would be a borderline disgrace.

Message to Pens: STAY. IN. PITTSBURGH!!!

The Madness has begun locally, for one school it has already ended, and for another there will be no madness…a quick rundown of our “Big 4″ Division I basketball schools:

Canisius: eliminated from the MAAC tourney quarters by Marist.

UB: heading to Cleveland for the MAC tournament for its first round game against Central Michigan. For the first time the entire tournament will be in one location.

Bona: Heh heh heh…..don’t ask, let’s just say they’re almost pining for the days of Jan Van Breda Kolff..

Then there is Niagara….as the second seeded Purple Eagles are headed to the MAAC tournament championship for the fourth time in six seasons tonight with a matchup agianst fourth seeded Siena tonight on ESPN2.

Despite losing both regular season contests to the Saints the Purple Eagles come into tonights game flying high(pun intended) as they’ve won their last ten games and twelve of their last thirteen. They’ve been a different club since they began playing with a full roster following the suspensions of six players.

A win sends them to the “Big Dance” for the second time in three years….it was a thirty five year wait between appearances prior to that(1970-2005).

Nationally, the Big East gets it’s tourney underway later this week….I got six teams in from that conference now, with West Virginia and Syracuse possibly needing some work.

St. John’s has finally made it back to the conference tournament. The fact that this is considered a positive step for them shows just how far one of the mighty programs of college hoops has fallen. This blogger will be pulling for them though.

UConn….the twelfth and final seed??? That has to be a misprint right?

Duke….a seventh seed in the ACC?? Actually, maybe they should knock ‘em down a notch for the cheap shot that Henderson put on Hansborough….cheap shots to the face are for hockey, not hoops!

Gotta go…..George Mason v. VCU coming up in the Colonial finals!

Just checked in to all my sites as part of the morning online reading routine, and as usual, Kevin at Bfloblog doesn’t mince words when it has anything to do with the bosses, pundits or sportwriters at the Buffalo News.

The News at long last unveiled their new look website this morning, which was a long time coming. I am happy to see this happen because sites such as buffalo.com and the Buffalo News site are our portals to the world.

At the same time, publications such as the News have to be feeling the pressure from the growing presence of digital media, and they are trying to come to grips with how to deal with the growing tidal wave. The trend away from old line publishing isn’t about to change, and newspapers which don’t adapt to that will eventually go the way of the buggy whip.

That being said, the Buffalo News is still by far the big kid on the block when it comes to sports reporting, and let us not try to delude ourselves into thinking otherwise. We write for Artvoice (60K weekly circulation), Sports and Leisure Magazine (140K monthly) and WNY Hockey Magazine (9K monthly), and post stories to this blog. Our combined presence in all these outlets doesn’t have the impact that one Jerry Sullivan column has. Now five years from now the world might be a different place, but as for today, that is the reality of the situation.

So what do we do as bloggers? It’s simple really - if the sports blogs band together as an online community, we instantly become a bigger and more credible force. As Kevin so aptly put it, the blogs that are emerging aren’t just duplicative and repetitive, but are capturing their own nitch. Bfloblog is now teaming up with WNY Media as their sports department, and this in turn just gives the sports blog network that much more “mojo”. It’s all good!!!

But our responsibility is not only to copy and paste stories from the established media and offer critiques, but also report on the news and relay them here. And that means keeping eyes and ears open for anything relevant going on that may be of interest to our readers.

Last Monday before the NHL trade deadline I caught a story on TSN, where Phoenix coach Wayne Gretzky emphatically stated that he had no intention of moving Kevyn Adams anywhere and would instead re-sign him and keep him in Phoenix. Now THAT was an important bit of news and we posted it here, while at the same time, Bucky Gleason at the News and the reporters at WGRZ.com were still speculating whether Adams was in the mix and what it would take to bring him to Buffalo.

These are exactly the kind of “scoops” we need to watch for and post and that is how we snag that occasional “w” vs. the major media.

The sportswriters at the Buffalo News really aren’t bad guys - their degrees of friendliness and affability vary wildly, but they all have years of professional experience, contacts in the industry and their own opinions which we should respect. Whether it be sportswriters, TV personaliites,radio sports jocks, photo journalists, behind the scenes engineers, or internet media (including bloggers), we’re all part of the media family.

In mid December the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation released this sexy sketch of their vision for the Inner Harbor neighborhood, right outside the front door of HSBC Arena:

At the same time they gave Bass Pro, who has been designated to rehab the shuttered Aud into a mega store, a 30 day deadline to sign on or take a hike.

The 30 days came and went, everyone involved said talks are still ongoing and then said sure… let’s give ‘em more time!

All we hear now from the ECHDC is the sound of crickets chirping. Oh yeah, and Congressman Higgins got some funds released for an environmental impact statement for that low bridge (bottom of sketch) to take cars over to the Outer Harbor and Fuhrmann Blvd. Don’t expect to actually see such a bridge in place much before 2012, if even then.

In twelve days, we will be welcoming thousands of visitors to Buffalo for the NCAA basketball tournament. Just as in 2000 and 2003 and 2004, those visitors will have nowhere to walk to in the immediate vicinity of the arena for things to do. The LRRT ride up to Chippewa will take them past the shuttered Aud, shovel ready lots in the Main/Swan area, an empty Main Place Mall and a boarded up AM&As, boarded up eyesores in the 400 block, and finally by the most decrepit Hyatt in their entire chain. It is so depressing.

By now I am almost pining for Dennis Gorski’s old Horizons Waterfront Commission…this entire saga is yet another chapter in the failure of Buffalo’s leadership.

So as long as we’re presenting beautiful sketches and pie in the sky design ideas for Buffalo’s waterfront and the Cobblestone District, allow me to present mine:

Two trips up the QEW in one week and two big wins to show for it.

Both teams started out very sluggishly, perhaps the fatigue of having to each play on back to back nights. In the end it was Buffalo who came out on top, thanks to a rare goal by Toni Lydman, another first goal - this time Nathan Paetsch, and this time, Ryan Miller looked VERY solid in net.

For anyone looking at magic numbers, here are some things for standing watchers to digest:

1) Buffalo has now clinched at least 13th seed in the conference - Philadelphia and Washington can not overtake us.

2) Buffalo needs 11 points to clinch 8th seed and cement a spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

3) The magic numbers to eliminate division foes from overtaking us are as follows: Boston (11); Montreal (8); Toronto (11) and Ottawa (22). Any combination of Buffalo points or points that the aformentioned teams don’t earn reduces these numbers accordingly.

4) Magic number to clinch 1st seed overall: New Jersey (29). Here is where we got a ways to go and realistically speaking, the Devils are probably the only team with any chance of overtaking the Sabres.

President’s Trophy for first overall? We’re not gonna go there right now - Nashville, Detroit and Anaheim are thrashing it out for the lead in the West, and that is a real dogfight. Nashville and Detroit will play each other four more times in the regular season.

A division championship will be sweet - it means a banner to hang. First overall in the conference gets us home ice for the first three rounds so that is goal number two.

It’s starting to feel like October again… win after win after win. What a great time for this to be all coming together!

Up next: a three game in four night homestand starts Wednesday with Colorado. Peter is covering Wednesday and Saturday, I am covering Friday and attending as a fan Saturday. Our buddies Gary Herman and Mike “The King” Casiano are coming to town next Saturday from NYC on a sports road trip, and we’re looking forward to enjoying their “karma” for the Sabs on their visit!

I guess we’re back in track meet mode.

The Sabres, still playing without many of their top offensive weapons, put on a scoring clinic tonight at HSBC Arena, and once again the “Saberks” prospects figured in the outcome in a big way.

Mike freakin’ Ryan, of all people, netted his first two NHL career goals, and they were things of beauty. After the game Lindy said “he’s not a young prospect. He’s been around a while and came so close to making this team out of camp.”

Montreal did pull the goalie at the end, and I asked Ryan if he would have liked to have been out there with a chance to net the hat trick. “Heck yeah I thought about it” Ryan laughed. “But I’m just glad to have the opportunities I’m having and making the most out of them.”

WNY’er Patrick Kaleta is looking like a guy who is having the time of his life. He got right in and defended goalie Ryan Miller as he was getting roughed up at a whistle, and even took a penalty, but a good penalty at that. After the game he said the hubbub still hasn’t died down at home, the phone at his parents’ house is still ringing nonstop. As we’re talking, Sabres owner Tom Golisano cuts in to introduce himself and congratulate him on the nice game. Interesting how the two hadn’t met yet, and I was there to witness it… Before continuing, I said “Pat that’s the guy whose name is at the bottom of the check.” Kaleta smiled.

Fun indeed.

The Sabres scored two quick ones, another was disallowed and Vanek got stoned on a breakaway, otherwise this one would have been over early. Montreal kept on coming, until Drew Stafford gave our guys a two goal cushion middle of the third. Vanek added an empty netter to seal the deal.

Andrew Peters left early with “an upper body injury”. No details on how severe but hopefully nothing major. Looks Like Mancari’s E-Z Pass will be getting some use as he will be coming back from Rochester to fill that spot.

So tomorrow night it’s back to Toronto, and every player said tonight they expect a different game than last Tuesday, when it was all Sabres. And on behalf of my partner Peter I’ll throw this in… “Die Leaves Die”.

My parting comment - as I’m heading up Washington Street back to my car, I see more than a few carloads of fans wearing Montreal’s rouge, bleu et blanc. So does even ONE of those cars have Quebec blue plates, you know the ones that bear the slogan “Je me souviens”? Nahhhh! Ontario plates, one framed with a logo of a Fort Erie car dealership. So let me say this.. you freakin’ people from Welland and Fort Erie and Stevensville make me sick!!! Since day one in 1970 this franchise has championed the Canadian culture, the anthem, the flag, the cross border bond with Hockey Night in Canada and shared TV signals. Why can’t you people wrap your arms around that and embrace this team??? But no, even when Vancouver comes to town, a city with a culture closer to Tokyo than Kitchener, you are quick to don their colors because their mailing address happens to be on Canadian soil. You guys suck! All of you!

Former Bisons Director Tom Burns and I had a meeting in March of 2004, and he told me that he had hired a new assistant. “His name is Brad Bisbing, and he is ONE COOL GUY!” said Burns. We knew the name from radio - Brad had worked at WGR and was the guy who did the scores on the 20 minute breaks. Now he would be joining the Bisons PR staff.

Two months into the season Burns was gone, and the entire weight of the department’s function fell onto Brad’s shoulders. He hunkered down and was true to the challenge. By 2005 Brad was given the title of “Public Relations Coordinator” — and no assistant. He would now have to rely on a crew of interns to assist him in getting the job done. But you never heard him complaining, because that’s the kind of guy he is.

Brad’s duties go far beyond media relations. He works closely with the game night entertainment staff, the field crew, the General Manager, and pretty much is part of most aspects of the behind the scenes game operation. When the team is on the road, he is back home keeping track of the games, compiling data and putting in some very long hours.

We deal with him from the media standpoint, and the Bisons could not have picked a better spokesman for the team. He is friendly, cheery and upbeat, eager to assist, and when attending Bisons games at Dunn Tire Park in the pressbox, it is like one big happy family up there - the video guys, the official scorer, the regular beat writers and Brad all combining for an energetic and collegial environment.

When you get involved in baseball at the AAA level, you get used to “callups” to the big leagues. Players go up all the time, several of our recent Bisons Managers, including Eric Wedge, moved on to coaching duties at the parent club, and even our play-by-play guy, Jim Rosenhaus, is getting his chance to be a radio announcer in Cleveland. Perhaps someday the “callup” will come to Brad Bisbing… a chance to do media relations for a big league team. Any team who gets him will be lucky to have him!

The NFL will not be the only game in town in London, England this fall. Previously it was announced that the New York Giants will be taking on the Miami Dolphins at the new Wembley Stadium on October 28.

Now comes the news that the Anaheim Ducks and the Los Angeles Kings will square off on back to back nights September 29 and 30 at the splashy new O2 Arena in London, and yes the games will count in the regular season standings.

The NHL has staged regular season games outside North America before - teams traveled to Tokyo to open up the ‘97-’98, ‘98-’99 and ‘00-’01 seasons. Oh and by the way, the O2 Arena is being built by Anschutz Entertainment, the same company who owns the Los Angeles Kings.

Tickets are already onsale online at the ticketmaster.uk website. Prices run 65-45-25 pounds plus service charges and tickets are still available in all price ranges.

Watch the Pittsburgh Penguins telecasts and the message keeps on blaring - “Season ticket deposits accepted for the 2007-08 season!”

Season tickets? My we’re being a bit presumptuous!

Yesterday was the deadline for the Pittsburgh Penguins to sign a one year lease extension with the Sports and Exhibition Authority to continue playing at Mellon Arena, while discussions for a new arena move along. According to this article in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review no extension was signed.

Everyone in the ‘Burgh is saying the right thing - “Nothing to see here folks!” “Keep moving!”

And in other news, work is progressing just fine on the Sprint Center in Kansas City. The roof enclosure is just about done, and an October 2007 completion date is on target.