It’s snowing. Not much, a few flakes here and there, but enough to notice from my window seat on the 17th floor. I can see it, there it is. Snow.

And so now I can say with certainty that it’s officially hockey season. I saw the white stuff, ergo the game must be on.

You know, it’s funny how much context plays a part in my perception of sports. To me, sports need that feeling, that vibe. Many of my most memorable sporting venues fit perfectly in their surrounds, here's some that come to mind:

Outdoor Rink in Portage-Du-Fort – Portage is a small riverside town on the Quebec side of the Ottawa Valley. It’s not much at first, pretty small,  I’ve only been there countless times because it’s on the way to two of our cottages. Last time I was there in the winter though, they still had an outdoor rink - which they still used for league games! It’s far from fuzzy, and usually farther from warm, but you can’t help but smile when you see it.

Ivor Wynne Stadium – A black and yellow steel structure in the middle of Hamilton. It’s tough, its cold, its ugly. But add a near-freezing rainstorm to a Tiger Cat football game and in some bizarre way, its well worth the time. Definitely not for everyone, but definitely in context.

Surfing the Outer Banks, NC - Find a spot a stretch of beach with a sandbar break where no one else is in sight (amazingly, the banks is one of the few ocean beaches you can still accomplish this fairly easily). Paddle out about 40 yards. Sit and wait for the waves to come. If they come, it’s the purest form of sport there is. If they don’t come, it’s no problem. Just watch the shore, the water, time going by. Enjoy.

(just as an aside, the complete opposite of good context is the golf mentality. On those same sandy dunes and roaring ocean waves on the banks, there are bright green golf courses. Alien grass, collared shirts. It’s an old man in a bubble. The golf mentality is afraid of context, it’s tired and scared and hides in the safety of Walmart-esque uniformity. The world is a blank canvas, on to which the same green grass can spread like the plague. The golf mentality made Orlando, and is making places like Puerto Vallarta into Orlando part II. The golf mentality wants to go to a location, but has to make sure it can bring its own reality)

Wrigley Field – It’s almost impossible to distinguish between the stadium and the neighborhood begins. You’re not at a baseball game, you’re inside Wrigleyville. I could spend all day there.

I guess it’s mentionable that sometimes context can take a back seat, thinking specifically of the reclamation projects that created football and baseball stadiums in Cleveland and Detroit (in stark contrast to the surrounding blocks) to feel good results, but I think those are the exceptions and not the rule. Generally speaking, it has to be about the context. I’m a sucker for the scene.

- Quick, name the only professional team to currently sport two Heismann trophy winners on the same roster. Eric Crouch played the role of a perfect backup all year, and played decent in his first chance this past weekend, going 4-9 and helping the Ricky Williams-less Toronto Argonauts to a 26-23 win. Williams meanwhile, before breaking a bone in his arm that will sideline him for a few weeks, was putting up some average numbers. Where he really impressed was is in his receiving numbers, an 8.3 yard average in 7 catches, improving on every snap.

- Speaking of the CFL, with the improved officiating and addition of instant replay this year, call me crazy but I’m now among the believers who say that the CFL has the best framework for professional football. It’s no secret that the CFL rules and field dimensions are geared towards a smaller, faster player. The game is built for the stereotypical athlete, and punishes the overly large, exclusive to football big man. The absence of a 4^th down stretches the field on the vast majority of plays, adding to the excitement, emphasizing the stars. The CFL lacks the parity of the NFL, but allows its star players a much more significant amount of time to shine.

It’s a contention that can never really be proven of course, because the CFL will never attract enough talent to test it, and the NFL knows that the value of the ‘fat man’ in its marketing is too big to make the 400lb lineman obsolete by playing a pass first, 3 down game. That said, who wouldn’t like to see Payton Manning put up 7 touchdowns and 5 interceptions a game?

-Jazil is out of the Traver’s Stakes, having picked up a hind leg bruise in training. Unfortunately that means my oil-and-water Jazil vs. Bernardini dream match up looks to be down to the Breeder’s Cup Classic, or not at all. UPDATE - sorry, thats not entirely true, if Jazil heals well he could match up against Bernardini in the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park on Oct. 7, a month before the Breeder's Cup.

-Who knew salary arbitration would be the rally killer to the string of good luck the NHL had been seeing the past 12 months. How long it will take before the league can correct the problem of rulings like Daniel Briere’s $5.1M award is unclear. When team’s like Chicago and Tampa Bay, (who can’t do the math and figure out that $5M for anyone short of Wayne Gretzky is a cap nightmare) are setting precedent in arbitration hearings, expect to see more and more teams walking away from the awards.

-Even with the Twins in the mix, it says here the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees have a better chance of catching wildcard leaders Chicago than AL East leaders Boston.

It was nice to see 50 thousand plus fans at a ball game in Toronto again, even if a quarter of them were there to see the Yankees. Here’s hoping more Western New Yorkers start supporting the local team, the same way Southern Ontario helps keep the Bills afloat. As long as they keep their 45mph driving minivans out of the left lane on the way to and from that is. Seriously, I’m talking to you Tony from Amherst with the Rush Limbaugh bumpersticker, you don’t need to learn metric, just learn to get out of the way. You can't drive any slower unless the mayor is on your roof throwing candy.