As if Taylor Hall didn’t have enough pressure.

Now they’re throwing Wayne Gretzky’s name around with his in the same sentence.

The No. 1 overall pick in this year’s National Hockey League amateur draft — taken by the sadsack Edmonton Oilers — lived daily with the “Taylor or Tyler” hype that preceded the draft, with sports reporters and analysts wondering whether the Oilers would take Hall or fellow superstar-in-waiting Tyler Seguin.

Now that the Oilers have made their choice and moved on (such as signing Hall to a three-year entry-level contract that pays him the maximum amount allowed), the pressure continues to build. In Edmonton, columnist Terry Jones of Sun Media compared the prospects camp which featured Hall and other recent top draft choices Jordan Eberle, Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson, Anton Lander and Tyler Pitlick to the one in 1979 “when Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Kevin Lowe and the gang prepared to play their first year in the NHL.”

Thank goodness the ‘99’ number has been retired. Hall will wear No. 4 and will be counted on to be as dominant in the NHL as a couple of other pretty good No. 4s, such as Jean Beliveau and Bobby Orr (who happens to be Hall’s agent).
Meanwhile, has anyone noticed that ‘Hall’ has become the dominant name on the Edmonton sports scene?

Besides Taylor Hall, you’ve got head coach Richie Hall, the face of the city’s pro football Eskimos, and there is no more famous sports broadcaster in the city than longtime loudmouth Bryan Hall, who called his last Esks’ game at the end of 2009 after an illustrious 44-year career. So instead of a sports Hall of Fame in Edmonton, they might just establish a Hall of Halls. (Perhaps they could set it up in a hallway at City Hall.)

So while it may be a stretch to keep calling Edmonton the ‘City of Champions’ — at least until Hall, Eberle and the gang return the Oilers to the top of the NHL heap — it remains, at the very least, a ‘Hall’ of a city.

• Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times says the “Are Baseball Players Athletes?” symposium is hereby cancelled. Says Perry: ”As if the Angels’ Kendry Morales breaking his ankle during a home-run celebration wasn’t bad enough: a) The Red Sox’s Kevin Youkilis, stepping into the batter’s box, injured an ankle and had to leave a game; b) The Orioles’ Luke Scott, circling the bases after hitting a home run, strained a hamstring; c) The Astros’ Geoff Blum, putting on a shirt, injured his elbow and landed on the disabled list.

• Janice Hough of LeftCoastSportsBabe.com, on LeBron James booking an hour of air time to reveal his choice of teams: “Not to be outdone, Brett Favre says he will announce his decision in an ESPN mini-series.”

• Jack Finarelli of SportsCurmudgeon.com, on the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain: “It ought to be called ‘The Running of the Morons — and a jog in the streets for the bulls.’

• Brad Dickson in the Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald, after Lions president Tom Lewand’s DUI arrest: “Based on the Lions’ performance the past few years, I believe that stands for Drafting Under the Influence.”

• Dickson again: “Jets coach Rex Ryan is writing a book about how he became the man he is today. I’m guessing it’s a cookbook.”

• “For the second day, there were no World Cup games,” noted ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel in the leadup to the July 11 final. “I missed the sound of vuvuzelas so much that I taped a beehive to my head.”

• Janice Hough again: “LeBron should be a little careful with his pals in the party atmosphere of South Beach. Otherwise, following in Kobe’s footsteps, the next ring he gets may be for his wife.”

• Another one from Hough, who was on a roll last week: “Three reasons Amare Stoudemire signed with the New York Knicks: “3. $100 million. 2. The chance to live in New York. 1. None of that stressful playoff pressure.”

• Cam Hutchinson in the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix: “Why baseball is on its death bed: 3. Drugs; 2. Long boring season; 1. New York Yankees . . . Why basketball will soon follow baseball: 3. Drugs; 2. Long boring season; 1. Miami Yankees.”

• Comedy writer Jim Barach: “Cleveland Cavalier fans are in a depressed mood this morning. Not only did they wake up and realize it wasn’t a dream that LeBron James is going to Miami, they also had to deal with the fact they are still living in Cleveland.”

Care to comment?

Email: bruce
penton2003@yahoo.ca