COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY - MIKE IN DA - AUGUST 12, 2010

COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY!

Written by: Mike in DA
Date Posted: 8/12/2010


FROM THE MAILBAG!

HMW readers, Patrick from the Southwest Side (aka Texan Pat) and "robnemar", both commented on Lamont Mann’s article from Tuesday (8/10) entitled, "SR610 AM KILT WE HAVE A PROBLEM"  (http://sheltonmedia.blogspot.com/2010/08/sr610-am-kilt-we-have-problem.html). Please note the comments have not been edited.

From Texan Pat:

“610 is a joke and why are you surprised that they are in the tank. The hosts there have about as much credibility as the fluke doctors they have had as guests.

The problem is, Rich Lord, Marc Vandermeer, Robert Henslee should not be on air if they have affiliations with the Texans. It prevents them from being objective. Please do not give me instances of where it works or not, I know what I hear on the air. These guys should not be on the air because they can't be totally honest. People actually view Marc Vandermeer as a Joke and Rich Lord as an opportunist. Robert tries to walk the line but he's boring. N.D. Kalu is lumped in although I can understand his friendships but he can't even speak honestly about the Texans. Lamont Mann you said maybe Josh (Innes) is trying to get a job with the Texans, didn't know the Texans want a Blow Job Specialist on it's staff.” END.

From "robnemar":

"For some reason after reading this article about operation 610 and its' non objective nature, I had to think about Andre Ware and what is really the root of the truth as to why he left 610. Did he see something within the 610 formula that made him question his professional intregity as a daily radio host? I agree this Cushing saga has been comical to say the least. This is too easy to see in my opinion. I agree with Lamont on that. I do disagree with you about being proud of (Bob) McNair in this process he is going through for Cushing. It would be OK if I believed in my heart that every player would be granted the same magnitude of defense by McNair if found in the same situation. I just don't think he would go so far out of the way for everyone. For that I am not in a rush to praise him. I believe something about Cushing inspires McNair to go to this length more than his play on the field. I think he is disappointed in Cushing the way a father would be of a son in a way. He is in denial. He is suffering from the not my guy, not my hope for the potential face of a franchise syndrome if Cushing is suffering from over active athlete syndrome. This further explains him calling (Mario) Williams out. He had this ace up his sleeve the whole while long. Remember that "Mighty Race" article and the point of coincidences? This is looking like one of these under the radar tactics that can fool even the best of us to charge it up as coincidence and not what it really is or might be. I'm just sayin!" END. 

HMW thanks Texan Pat and "robnemar" for their readership and input.


RANGER BANDWAGON JUMPER!



With the Astros being almost unwatchable this season, I jumped onto the Texas Rangers’ bandwagon in late June, since just about everyone of their games is on FOX Sports Southwest. They have a nice lineup with Michael Young, Vlad Guerrero, and Josh Hamilton leading the way and a decent pitching staff.

In March, Rangers’ manager, Ron Washington, admitted to being tested positive for cocaine during the 2009 season. I thought there was a 50/50 chance that he might be dumped by the team by opening day, but the Rangers’ management stood behind him saying that he had a fundamentally sound character and let him stay on the job.

The Rangers look as if they are going to coast into the playoffs as the AL West champions. As of Thursday morning (8/12), the Rangers lead the division by 7.5 games. No other division leader in MLB had a lead larger than 2.5 games as of Thursday morning.

IF YOU'RE GOING TO TEASE US, THEN PLEASE US!

One of my pet peeves about local sports talk is when a host right before he goes to a commercial break teases us with something such as, “What Rocket got in trouble with the law yesterday?”, or “What sports franchise is valued the most by Forbes Magazine?” or “An Astro makes a debut, it could be special!”

One of the rules to keep radio listeners is to never show all your cards at once, always leave mystery for the listener to solve. In the business, this is called "Tease & Payoffs". You tease what you have coming, then a bit later, you pay it off by telling them.


However, many times when the host comes back after the break, he sometimes wanders off into other topics and either gets to the tease later in the segment or completely forgets that he teased us and may get to it in a future segment or forget about it completely.

If you’re going to tease something and keep us in suspense during the break, please start off the next segment with the tease. We get bullshittted enough by sports talk hosts, why add to the chicanery.

YOUR FAVORITE HOUSTON SPORTS TALK PERSONALITY POLL - FIRST ROUND – POLL #3 RESULTS!


In HMW’s Poll #3 of the first round of “Your Favorite Houston Sports Talk Personality Poll” that ended Wednesday (August 11), the results by percentage of total votes were:

Barry Warner – 27%
Matt Thomas – 18%
David Nuno – 2%
Robert Henslee – 3%
Sean Pendergast – 10%
Ralph Cooper – 28%
Shaun Bijani – 12%

From this group, Messrs. Warner, Thomas, and Cooper will move on to the Semi-Finals.

The final first round poll, Poll #4, is on the website right now and the nominees are: Dave Tepper, A.J.Hoffman, Kyle Kennedy, John Harris, Fred Faour, Julie Takahashi, Rob Costa, and Raheel Ramzanali.

Vote for your favorite in this group. Poll #4 voting ends on Sunday.

FLUB TIME!

Once again, SR 610 leads with the flubs, but that’s mostly because they have more air time and a lot more hosts, some of whom are not as knowledgeable as you may think. This time, Brien Straw gets his turn.


On Monday and Tuesday (8/9 and 8/10), Brien got another shot at morning drive as he pinch hit on the Morning Show for John Lopez. One of the topics hit on Monday was the New York Knicks’ hiring of Isiah Thomas as a consultant. I have no idea what that job entails. (Please note that on Wednesday - 8/11 - Thomas' deal to work as a Knicks' consultant was disallowed by the NBA.)

On the show, Brien mentioned the sexual harassment suit filed by Anucha Browne Sanders in October 2006 against Thomas and Madison Square Garden.

FYI - The case went to trial in September 2007 and Thomas was determined to have made demeaning statements to Sanders, as well as making sexual advances and repeatedly telling her that he was in love with her. Madison Square Garden was ordered to pay Ms. Sanders $11.6 million, one of the largest sexual harassment judgments in history.


Brien shortchanged Ms. Sanders by over $10M, as he said the lawsuit was for $1M. Brien, that’s why they give you a computer at work and that’s why Larry Page and Sergey Brin, aka the "Google Guys" founded  “Google”, so that you can give out correct information to your listeners.

Also, Brien doesn't seem to be much of a “Beverly Hillbillies” watcher. On his SR 610 website blog, he misspelled Buddy Ebsen’s (Epsen) name and that of the character he played on the show, Jed Clampett (Clampet) on his SR610 website blog. That's why they have wiki and imdb.com.

I wonder how Brien would feel if his University of Mississippi diploma or driver's license spelled his name, "Brian".


LOOK OUT! EVERYONE FOR HIMSELF!

I'm sure by now you saw or heard about the girl (Sarah) who got hit by a foul ball at the Astros home game vs. the Braves on Monday night at Minute Maid Park, when her boyfriend (Bo) allegedly bailed out on her as a foul ball zoomed in their direction.

The Astros broadcast crew (Bill Brown and Jim Deshaies) made light of the situation ("Oh no! You have got to be kidding."). Multiple replays showed the guy fleeing as the ball approaches, leaving his girlfriend to get smacked in the elbow by the ball. Then FOX Sports sideline reporter, Patti Smith, showed up, and the excruciating inquisition began.

In case you missed it, you can check out the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrP-4DeEg_I.e The story as described by MLB.com follows:

The woman, identified only as Sarah, was struck on the right arm by a foul ball off the bat of Chris Johnson in the fourth inning while sitting down the left-field line - a ball that she didn't see coming because her boyfriend ducked out of the way at the last second.


"As soon as we got here and I saw where we were sitting, I said 'Baby, we're going to get hit,' the woman said when interviewed during the game. 'He said, 'No, I'll catch it. We just had this conversation and sure enough, the ball comes at me. He just bailed."

The boyfriend, named Bo, wound up retrieving the ball, but explained as to why he lost flight of the ball: "The ball was coming up and I was going to catch it and it was in the lights and I lost track of it." END.





Once again, this is the expected reaction by the media, blowing something way out of proportion, arousing public opinion with  words that put someone in the worst light possible, then standing back and throwing one-liners during the feeding frenzy. The media has done it again, including our local sports talkers and TV news shows who eat stuff like this up. Ridiculous!!!


So, without further ado, let's go to the phones and please make it fast:

Texas Mike, you’re on:

"Typical Astros fan; complete spineless moron.”


Dave from New Orleans, you’re on:

“What guy really wants to take the bullet for his girlfriend? He's just looking for a little action after the game, but he doesn't want to risk bodily harm. Bo knows chicks!”








George from Philly, you’re on:

"Personally it's no great surprise that a guy wearing a designer baseball cap backwards and sideways, and a lip ring, would totally bail on his girlfriend as a foul ball came flying in their direction."


Jake, you’re on:

“To the previous caller, that is one of the most ignorant things I have ever heard. What does his hat, the way he wears it and his lip ring have anything to do with the foul ball? What are you really trying to say? Don't be an ignorant douchebag like you're trying to make this kid to be. The ball got lost in the lights and he moved out of the way. Why didn't his lazy girlfriend get up and attempt to catch it or move? The whole area got up except her.”


Marcus from Fresno, you’re on:


“Well, that guy isn't getting any for a while. Maybe she'll dump him. She's kinda cute. Too bad she's in Houston.”


Tisha from Houston, you’re on:

“Way to go, Patti Smith, hold his feet to the fire. He ran like a redneck from a bath!”


Myra from Baltimore, you’re on:

“Just goes to prove that chivalry is dead in the back-side-ways cap wearing, pierced lip boys. We can't call them men. A real man would have either caught the ball with his bare hand or took it in the chest trying because he would have stood in between the ball and his loved one. Real men are raised to protect the ones they love. I noticed that he didn't even offer her the ball she was hit by! You know he kept it for himself. A wussy and selfish, also!”


Annie Z. you’re on:

"Okay, I'll go out on a limb here and guess that this guy did NOT get laid that night.


Arnie from Houston, you’re on:


“Give me a break. You’re at a baseball game. If she's not smart enough to get out of the way or try to catch it, then maybe she shouldn't have gone to the game in the first place. Suck it up, Sarah.”


Nick, you’re on:

“Why do cute and pretty girls like Sarah date douchebag guys like Bo?”


Dave from Tulsa, you’re on:


“Only Bo knows how to be a wussy in front of his girlfriend and thousands of witnesses and a viral internet audience, too.”

Dickie from Boston, you’re on:


“If you notice the trajectory of the ball AND IF he had stood in front of her for protection he would have been hit squarely in the balls.”


Bubba from Houston, you’re on:


"As for the reporter, I would tell her where to stick the mike if I was the fan being harassed."


Lisa from Austin, you’re on:


“This is for the previous caller, Bubba. Bo ran from a ball...you think he was going to stand up to a grown-up woman like Patti? Please!”


Lance from Littleton, you’re on:

“Maybe he can get a job as a groundhog stand-in when they need to announce 6 more weeks of winter. He can shriek and run from his shadow. He's got it down pat.”


Baldy, you’re on:

“She's got to be pissed, which creates a great opportunity for Tiger to swoop in and hammer her.”




Tom from Tampa, you’re on:

“I think the whole ‘bad boy’ attitude associated with backwards hat wearing and pierced lips that his girlfriend was drawn to was exposed for what it really is....a facade for a scared little boy. My wife used to date those kinds of boys...most of them are either in jail or still at home hiding under their mama's skirts.”


JT, you’re on:

“We have lost something as men in this X and Y generation. They have grown too soft...with the obvious exception of those serving in our Armed Forces!”


Adolph from Miami, you’re on:

“All these white knight loser callers commenting. The guy should have gotten hit in the head because he was bonking some chick who wouldn't do the same for him. With feminism dominating, chivalry should die as well.”






Carlos from Houston, you’re on:

“That dude bailed out faster than Usain Bolt coming out of the starting blocks.”





Joe from the Hood, you’re on:


“The dude is just a wussy poser in a thug hat hiding between his mama's legs the rest of the day; and he probably took longer than she did to get all made up to look pretty. Mama probably had to front his lazy butt the $$ for the tickets, too. Dude should be ridiculed to death.”


Roman from LA, you’re on:


“Unless you are a pro-BMXer or fighter in the UFC, I don't see any acceptable reason to ever look like this guy, Bo. Like it or not, people judge others by how they look - it's a superficial evolutionary trait, just like we're attracted/unattracted to others; it applies to every area of human interaction. His girlfriend would change him if she could. I'm guessing she's attracted to the confidence that guys like this exude, as you gotta be pretty confident to walk out of the house looking like that.”


Dre from Houston, you’re on:

“Oh well, at least the Astros are getting coverage other than about how much they suck. Fire Ed Wade!”


Dino from Ohio, you’re on:


“Sarah, Bo here. You wanna catch an Astro game with me tonight? Great seats, left field line, lottsa foul balls, will dazzle you with my moves to protect you!!! Call me. I'm good.”


Levi from Wichita, you’re on:

“In spite of all other considerations, he was a wuss for not slugging that intrusive and judgemental reporter.”

Sean from Houston, you’re on:

“As for Bo, just look at him. His mere presence is offensive and he obviously hasn't received enough a$$kickings. A guy like that should get at least one beat down a day...but, it's Texas. Nothing but steers and queers there.”


Leonard, you’re on:

“Hat on backwards, below average IQ. Hat on sideways, way below average IQ.”


Antoine, you’re on:


“Boy, they sure know how to hurt a guy! Just trying to have a night out with his girl. Screw you haters.”


Mickey from Oak Park, you’re on:


“The guy did end up with the ball... so now he has one.”


Let’s go to a break to pay some bills.


HMW

Email: houstonmediawatch@yahoo.com
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