Martin wins in Morris

Victory music didn't blast from overhanging speakers nor did balloons and confetti fall from the sky.

An hour after the polls closed in a byelection for the provincial legislative seat in the Morris constituency, Shannon Martin sauntered up to the podium and said, "I think we are ready to call it."

In his victory speech at the Kingswood Golf & Country Club, Martin said that he was as "stressed out today as he was on his wedding day" but he didn't show it or needed to be.

It came as little surprise to anyone following the election that Martin, a Conservative candidate, won in Morris. The constituency has been represented by a PC member since 1954.

As soon as the first polls began reporting shortly after 7 p.m., it was evident that Martin would capture the seat.

The final vote tally for Martin was 2,642. That dwarfed the number posted by the second place finisher, NDP candidate Dean Harder, who captured 488. In fact, it more than doubled the 1,133 votes that the other four candidates collected on election day.

Martin's win, along with fellow PC member Doyle Piwniuk victory the same night in an Arthur-Virden byelection, gives the provincial Conservatives 19 seats. While they still trail the NDP, which holds control with 37 seats (Liberals have one), the wins have given some party members hope for the next election.

"We are getting tired of finishing in second place," said Morden-Winkler MLA Cameron Friesen afterwards. "It's about us as a party introducing ourselves to Manitobans and letting them know we have a different vision for the future of Manitoba."

A general election is expected to be held in Manitoba in October 2015. It will be then we will find out if voters across the province share that same vision.

Twitter Storm

Twitter can be a powerful tool in today's world.

It can also be an ugly weapon.

The latter was the case when Richard Sherman turned pro wrestling heel after last night's Seahawks-49ers NFC title game.

Deadspin  did a good job of accumulating the racist, offensive, and downright disgusting things tweeted at Sherman following his fired up interview on FOX. (Here's a sampling).

It's unbelievable that anyone would take to a public forum and say things such as those in the link.

I know for myself, I have became extra careful with what I tweet, although on a much lesser scale (I would never tweet something in THAT light). A tweet that is meant to be an inside joke amongst my friends could be construed as something totally different to everyone else.

Twitter has connected every user to a larger platform, for better and worse. For people who chose to use it properly, it can be a great device to connect yourself with the world outside of your circles.

For people who use it to tweet hate, it will not protect you.

And, it's sports people.

Right Ilya?

Selling Change

When Dan Le Batard announced he was the Hall of Fame voting baseball writer that sold his vote to the readership at Deadspin, you knew it would hit the fan.

People had wondered for a while how ridiculous the BBWAA, the group of sportswriters given the task of voting players into the Hall of Fame, would react once they found out which of their members had sold their vote.

To quote the Joker from The Dark Knight, “They did not disappoint.”

Le Batard was stripped of his Hall of Fame vote and barred from attending any baseball game as a media member for a year.

In a statement released by the BBWAA, the organization said that it “...regards Hall of Fame voting as the ultimate privilege, and any abuse of that privilege is unacceptable.”

Of course, as reporter Richard Justice points out, Le Batard isn't the first person to crowd source his ballot (just not on this size of scale).

And apparently, the BBWAA doesn't consider voting for Jack Morris and Jack Morris only while deciding to leave Greg Maddux off his ballot an “abuse of that privilege.”

The problem with the voting process is it has become an exercise for vote-carrying reporters to feel extremely important about themselves.

In part, Le Batard explained the reason for selling his vote:

“I feel like my vote has gotten pretty worthless in the avalanche of sanctimony that has swallowed it...

Baseball is always reticent to change, but our flawed voting process needs remodeling in a new media world. Besides, every year the power is abused the way I'm going to be alleged to abuse it here. There's never been a unanimous first-ballot guy? Seriously? If Ruth and Mays and Schmidt aren't that, then what is? This year, someone is going to leave one of the five best pitchers ever off the ballot. Suck it, Greg Maddux.

...in a climate without reform, my next 20 years of votes will be counted but not actually heard. At least this gets it heard, for better or for worse.”

He is not the only one who feels the system is broke and with each passing year, more and more ridiculous. The only ones who don't feel way are the voters who feel important while holding the keys to baseball's Pearly Gates.

So while Le Batard will no longer vote and have to eat hot dogs in the section adjacent to the press box this year, hopefully his doing will result in change to the way Hall of Fame voting is done.

Last First Day

Let me be the last person in my class to say excitedly that today was the last first day of school in my life.

This is the final stretch for me as a student. I'm this close to completing my educational career and step into the real world with jobs, bills, and other fun/crap adult stuff.

And I'm ready for it. I feel that way because of the education I have gotten in the last 18 months. 2 years ago, would I have been ready? Not a chance. 4 years ago? I would have told you yes but I'd have been way, way wrong.

I feel prepared and confident in what I'm doing. Although I still act like an idiot child at points in the day, I've done a lot of growing up in the last year and a half, both at and away from school.

When I reflected on my past year while battling symptoms of the previous night on the first of January, I was proud of all I had done. I accomplished things that before I didn't think were possible for me to do.

I would like to say it's been all due to hard work but that would probably be an outright lie. I've walked the proverbial tightrope at points; sometimes getting to bed at the end of the day wondering how in the hell I managed to get through that day.

But at no point have I ever told myself I didn't want to get up the next day and do it all over again because while I might say that exact thing out of frustration, deep down I enjoy what I do and look forward to new challenges.

And now I'm ready to move on from school and face new ones.

It doesn't mean the learning will stop. Of course it doesn't.

But I'm ready to continue to do it beyond the walls of a classroom.