Booked tickets for three Mariner games the other day. We’re going to see the Cleveland Indians in a Sunday matinee and the Blue Jays in two night games at stunning Safeco Field.

It’s a relaxing, entertaining and rather inexpensive outing. The Safeco staff treat you like family and the fans are polite and well behaved even though thousands of them were cheering for the Red Sox when we were in Seattle last summer.

We’ll take in batting practice on the Sunday, and hopefully take home a $7 baseball everybody seems to believe is gold. We’ll buy the overpriced drinks, nachos and world-famous garlic fries.

And my kids and GF won’t care who on any of the ball clubs has been caught using performance-enhancing drugs. They will simply realize these are elite athletes and trust in their ability to entertain.

While the do-ragged Manny Ramirez, who gave us our money’s worth last summer, was regarded as the messiah of Chavez Ravine in Los Angeles when he signed there in the off-season, one has to wonder what fans think of him now.

He’s a cheat, but fans will likely forgive and forget when he returns to the Dodgers next Friday. I suppose they don’t have to trust the man.

In the June edition of Reader’s Digest, which my dad forces me to read by keep sending me subscriptions, they list the Top-50 people Canadians trust the most.

Environmentalist David Suzuki placed first with The Queen, Gen. Rick Hillier, Stephen Lewis and Michael J. Fox rounding out the top-five.

Comedian Rick Mercer, who was just in Vernon, was No. 10.

Canadians, according to the magazine, also place their hearts in institutions – whether it be the game of hockey or the CBC. Among the top-20 most trusted were four hockey personalities – Wayne Gretzky, Don Cherry, Ron MacLean and Jean Beliveau.

Some years ago, my dad recommended this Canadian Scholarship Fund for my kids’ education. After researching the fund, I saw Beliveau listed as a board member. Done deal. I trusted the man even though I had never spent a minute with him.

Steve Yzerman, at No. 31, Mike Weir, at No. 43, Hayley Wickenheiser, in 44th spot, and Bob Gainey at No. 48, also made the top-50.

One common bond amongst the people on this list is experience. We have followed their careers for decades. I have been fortunate to meet and interview Wickenheiser and Weir, and quickly judged them to be solid people.

In Major League Baseball, where some of the game’s greatest stars have been caught taking steroids or some other drug to give them an edge, trust has pretty much gone out the window.

Give me a sunny, warm, some peanuts and Crackerjacks, and I will keep buying baseball tickets. We’ll find out next week if fans in Mannywood feel the same.

Still with surveys, Sports Illustrated asked 324 NHL players if they would welcome troubled forward Sean Avery on their team.

A total of 84 per cent respondents said no thanks.

n A fourth-round pick in Saturday’s NHL entry draft isn’t such a bad thing for Viper all-star Kyle Bigos. The players chosen in round three apparently have no edge on the towering d-man.

According to SFU business analyst Peter Tingling, 15 minutes of fame may be about all most draftees will get.

Nearly 60 per cent of draft picks never play an NHL game, and of the 40 per cent who do play, one in five play less than 10 games.

Tingling, an assistant professor who specializes in decision-making strategy, tracked 30 years of NHL drafts for a study on scouting success. The interesting results are already attracting the attention of some NHL general managers.

His bottom line: “Scouting may not win you the cup if you do it well, but it will lose you a lot of games if you do it poorly. That said, good scouting is necessary, but not sufficient.”

There is no substantive difference between the performance of third – seventh-round picks for players that play more than two years, but there is for rounds one and two.

“It is obvious and true that the best players are drafted in the first two rounds,” added Tingling. “What is also true but less obvious is that there is virtually no difference between players chosen in rounds three through seven. This basically means that teams are not really doing a good job of decision making.”

n The Funtastic Alumni raised $4,885.07 for Vernon Special Olympics through a raffle and their recent dinner.

John Topping, Ken Nistor, Mel Briggeman and gang did a fabulous job on the “History of Funtastic” brochure.

Special dinner guest Howie Meeker, 86, is suffering with rotator cuff problems so isn’t golfing much these days back home in Parksville. He can still talk though!