Monday Morning Halfback: The PWHL’s missing trophy; could Félix Auger-Aliassime win the U.S. Open?

Jamie Ross is the Sports editor at the Globe; Cathal Kelly is the national sports columnist

J.R.: Cathal, with all the recent fuss around Mark Walter’s disappearing sports empire, his ownership of the PWHL got nary a mention until Friday, when the league’s championship trophy (named after Walter himself) went missing. What’s sterling silver going for these days?

C.K.: In a nice metaphor about our shaky confederation, the trophy went missing somewhere between here and Lethbridge.

The reason this trifle of a story has made international news is it’s subtext: cash-strapped sports league. That’s a real unicorn these days. As the AP noted, “unlike the NHL,” the PWHL doesn’t have a dedicated trophy caddy. Because what respectable sports organization doesn’t employ someone full-time to bodyguard a piece of tin like it’s the Rosetta Stone?

Good for the PWHL for not treating its baubles like holy relics. As long as they didn’t ship it Canada Post. For that, there would be no excuse.

Cathal Kelly: Suspended tennis star Nick Kyrgios takes another shot at redemption

Re: Walter’s sports empire, this is one of those, ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’ scenarios. Apparently, you don’t need to have any money to buy the Los Angeles Lakers, and the L.A. Dodgers, and Chelsea Football Club and a chunk of the PWHL. All you actually need is a bunch of insurance companies willing to give you the money to buy those things, and – presto! – you’re Jack Kent Cooke.

Watching Walter’s empire fall apart – he’s just sold the Lakers, and is trying to shed enough of the rest to get himself right with U.S. regulators – is more proof that people in sports aren’t smart. They’ve just figured out new ways to run old cons.

One thing in this mess jumps out of at me – a “key man” clause in Shohei Ohtani’s contract. If Walter leaves the Dodgers (and it seems he must), Ohtani can opt out of the biggest deal in baseball history. And right in time for next year’s lockout.

Were you Ohtani, would you leave? And if you went, would it be to go to … I can’t even bring myself to say it.

J.R.: *Cues The Imperial March*. Everyone knows there are only two teams in baseball, leaving Ohtani no choice but to sign with the Yankees. But not before first using the Blue Jays as a decoy.

Think of the witty Cathal Kelly columns readers could expect. You’d cherry pick all the good stuff and then leave me and MMHB to sift through pebbles in the dirt, but I am getting ahead of myself.

There is still some fruit on the tree this week. How about tennis? The U.S. Open is fast approaching, and the men will see the return of Carlos Alcaraz, just in time for Jannik Sinner to bow out. Should they just skip the whole thing on the men’s side and give Alcaraz the trophy?

C.K.: I think you’re right about the Yankees, as well as the Jays. Ohtani has proved he is the greatest human cash generator in sport. Whatever you pay him will be recouped and more. If he had a do-over, he’d be a US$100-million-a-year man. I realize the guy has fewer gambling debts to pay off, but it’d be hard to turn down that kind of money, wouldn’t it?

And you know who’s going to win the U.S. Open? Félix Auger-Aliassime.

It’s his best surface. Alcaraz has been out four months. Sinner’s gone. The No. 1 seed, Alexander Zverev, won his first major at the French, so he won’t be desperate. That’s the top tier accounted for.

Auger-Aliassime is 26, which seems young until you compare him to Alcaraz (23) and Sinner (25). There will never be more or greater opportunity than right now. Maybe he just needs to start hearing it. Better yet, to start believing it.

Is this a selfish prediction? Absolutely. It’s not so much that I think he will win as I want him to win. I’m being foolish enough to root for an outcome.

I can’t think of anyone who makes a better global brand ambassador for Canada than Auger-Aliassime – just a lovely, lovely guy. Imagine if he supercharges that image by winning the U.S. (!) Open just as we go to (trade) war with America?

It would be Canada’s sports story of the decade, no?

J.R.: Is this you priming the pump for a trip to New York next month? Given that importing menswear will be a pricey proposition if it lands on Carney’s retaliatory tariff list, I can see you making a double-barreled trip out of it and smuggling a few suits from Bloomingdale’s back across the border upon return.

As for Auger-Aliassime, I’ll take your word that he’s a lovely guy but I still think a well-rested – if rusty – Alcaraz is a tough out, especially this late in the season.

Keeping things moving here, we’re coming up on an new NFL season. Did you catch the news that The Athletic, the titanic sports media entity owned by the New York Times, could be getting into bed with the league? The outlet also had some promo of its stories on the NBA league website. Should we pour one out for the idea of independent sports news coverage?

C.K.: Bloomingdale’s? That’s the cruellest thing you’ve ever said to me. They have a perfectly serviceable Drake’s on Canal St.

Independent sports coverage went the way of the dodo a decade or more ago, but nobody noticed. Once Sports Illustrated collapsed and ESPN stepped up to take its place, it was over. You can’t pay to broadcast the games and do truly independent journalism on the games. There’s no wall high enough to keep that church and that state apart.

The beauty of this system is that there is no actual fix. No one need say anything to anybody else. Everyone just understands the deal. You can go this far, but no further.

Every once in a while, circumstance tosses the journos a warm body to shred. The important thing is to prevent them from following the money up to the top.

This shift didn’t register for the first while because the corporate types were cowed by the glamour of old-timey journalism. So a League of Denial could still slip through. But that’s ending now.

The fact that the New York Times – from a remove, but the Times nonetheless – is considering polishing the NFL’s brass is indicative of how far we’ve fallen.

I’m not sure there ever was a golden era of sports reporting. Sportswriting, sure. But sports reporting? One or another section of the media has always been in bed with the teams. Which suits me fine. There’s no business where power is more easily disturbed by the written word. It’s duck hunting with a bazooka.

Pull back the curtain for me. How often do you hear it from some unhappy subject of a Globe sports story?

Cathal Kelly: Will uncomplimentary coverage of the WNBA cost you your seat in the Toronto Tempo’s press box?

J.R.: It’s almost never the subject of the coverage you hear from but someone who represents them. I wouldn’t say it’s common, but it does happen. Most people you encounter are total pros. Rarely, you’ll get a media relations person who behaves as if they are running the Department of War, making demands over some coverage they disagree with.

With readers, it’s usually much more level-headed and sincere. When I get those queries I do my best to find time to send them a likewise response.

Then there are the expletive-filled rants that cannot be reprinted here that I save in my own personal digital Wall of Fame. I’m sure you’ve got a few of those.

Speaking of Walls of Shame, I can’t not mention the time, years ago, some Blue Jays players put your picture up in a players-only area of the clubhouse with a caption “Do not talk to this reporter.” It was only thanks to a mole on the team staff that we even found out about that one.

C.K.: So many angry rants, but I keep only a few of them close to my heart (i.e. in a designated folder or – in exceedingly rare cases – framed around the house. That includes the Donaldson/Bautista Wanted poster).

I am daily aware that we work from an exalted position – able to comment on what’s going on without need of fear or favour.

Like legendary Star sports columnist Dave Perkins loved to say after a big event or a night out on the road – ‘It’s good to be us.’