COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY - MIKE IN DA/SR CREW - JANUARY 25, 2011

COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY

Written by: Mike in DA/SR Crew
Date posted: 1/25/2013


GIRL WITH CRAZY EYES LOOKS LIKE SHE'S TRYING TO PUT A CURSE ON COACH K!

THAT’S HOW TV DOES THINGS!

For Sunday’s (1/24) Packers-Bears game on FOX, FOX brought its NFL pregame show on-site to Chicago. They did it because all the networks do that for the biggest games, regardless of cost and inconvenience to the crew. Did it make the pregame better? No way Jose. But that’s how TV does things.

Before the very first play from scrimmage, FOX threw up a graphic giving Aaron Rodgers' stats this season. To absorb and digest the entire graphic would have taken about 20-25 seconds, but they gave us less than five seconds. So why did they bother posting that graphic at such a time, knowing we wouldn't have time to read it, let alone care about it? Because that's how TV does things.

Just before halftime, the FOX booth, including Mike Periera, the former head of NFL refs, looked at a replay of a Packer interception at the goal line and then predicted that the call will be reversed to incomplete following a replay review. The review upheld the interception. But that happens a lot of the time. Why? Because that’s how TV does things.

And speaking of pre-game NFL shows, I don't mind when pre-game show panelists try to be funny, but be funny, don't just belly-laugh at any fuckin'  attempt at a joke. But that’s how TV does things.

Get the picture. That's how TV does things.



ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF A STAT "BEING OUT OF CONTEXT"

Speaking of FOX, last week during the Bears-Seahawks game, Chicago TE ("tight end" for the acronym-challenged), Greg Olsen, caught his third pass to total 113 yards for the day. FOX's Kenny Albert said Olsen was the first Bears tight end to reach 100 yards in a postseason game: "Not even Mike Ditka did so."

That's true that Ditka never got 100 yards in a post-season game, but Mike who played for the Bears from 1961-66 played in only one post-season game and that game was played on the frozen tundra of Wrigley Field in the 1963 NFL Championship vs. the New York Football Giants, as some still say, although the New York Baseball Giants left New York over 50 years ago.

In that 1963 game, the Bears strategy was a simplified game plan, nicknamed "three yards and a cloud of dust", in which they would play it safe by running the ball on almost every play instead of giving up an interception. Occasionally, Wade would throw short passes to Ditka and wide receiver, Johnny Morris.

Now you know why Ditka never had a 100-yard receiving game in the playoffs.

TELLING IT LIKE IT IS!


I already like Hue Jackson who is the new coach of my Oakland Raiders. At the news conference where he was introduced in that role, someone asked him about his predecessor, Tom Cable. The politically correct answer for a new coach in the position is to say that his job is to build on the strengths that his predecessor left, but that the team needs a new direction and he will seek to find that direction based on what the former guy began. Blah … blah …blah. What Hue Jackson said was: “What Tom Cable is as a football coach is an exceptional line coach.” That’s telling it like it is.

JOSH INNES CONTINUES TO BE RUDE!

On Tuesday morning (1/25), Mike Meltser of SR610 threw several topics, including the lawsuit by Stafon Johnson against USC ("University of Southern Cailfornia" for the acronym-challenged). Johnson sued USC and the former assistant conditioning coach who was present for negligence related to his weightlifting accident in 2009.

Since I heard no one call in on that topic, I thought I'd give my insight/opinion on the case, as I had some info that Mike hadn't mentioned.

At 10:43 AM, I was on hold as time was running out on the show. After the commercial break, Mike brought up a brand new non-sports topic. The night before he had read something on the Internet about seven things that men shouldn't do in public. I understand that if a sports talk host takes notes on something he saw or pulls out the article for his show, he wants to use it, so that he doesn't feel it was a waste of his time.

But as a caller to the show, I don't want to have my time wasted staying on hold, as time is running out on the show while the host is talking about a non-sports topic. He said that men shouldn't pick their nose, clean the wax out of their ear, eat food off the floor, groom themselves, etc. in public. Thanks for the info Mike. I'll try to remember that the next time I feel like adjusting my "package" in public. 

To add insult to injury, Josh Innes who has his own five-hour afternoon show dropped in and took up almost five minutes throwing in his two cents about what he does in public. I wish Mike would have interrupted him and said let's go to our last caller, but Mike probably didn't want to cut off or tick off the new "Mouth" and "main man" of SR610. As a result, I got shut out as the show ended. I wonder if that was a setup when they saw I was on hold. And as most sports talk hosts do when the show is over, Mike didn't say sorry to any callers that were left on hold, once again ignoring the caller(s).


Like I said above about TV, that's how local sports talk radio does things. Fuck the listeners who give them their ratings and help pay their bills by patronizing their sponsors. Some things never change at the local sports talk stations whether it's 2001 or 2011. They'll learn someday.

ANOTHER STUDY THAT WASTED TIME AND MONEY, AS WE KNEW THIS ALREADY!

Speaking of Mike Meltser, last week on his Friday (1/21) show, Mike mentioned a study that showed that 8% of the folks leaving sporting events are legally drunk. The study rests on data collected by Breathalyzer tests administered to folks leaving the stands after games.

If the local cops set up sobriety checkpoints at the exit points of the parking lots after games, they could probably do a lot to balance the budgets of a bunch of cities and municipalities around the country.

So, according to that study, about one in ten fans leave sports events intoxicated above the legal limit. I don't know how much the researchers spent on this project, but we could have saved them a lot of dough.

And one-in-ten leaving seems lower than the number entering drunk at NFL games. From what I hear, I would say that NFL stadiums are actually places where folks can sober up a bit. I strongly suspect that far more than 8% of the people entering the stadium after tailgating are legally intoxicated.

COOLEST SPORTS NICKNAMES

Today’s sports nicknames are terrible, such as A-Rod, L.T., and K-Rod. They are nothing more than a combination of a player’s first and last name. But nicknames haven’t always been so bad.


Here is another cool one from the past: “The Flying Housewife”


The track events at the 1948 Summer Olympic Games in London got a bit more interesting when Dutch runner Fanny Blankers-Koen tied on her spikes. She was 30 years old, a mother of two children, and ready to kick some serious tail. Fanny ended up winning four gold medals at the games, which propelled her to international fame as the wife and mother who outran everyone else and thus her nickname, "The Flying Housewife".

WILL A TEAM GIVE VY A SHOT IN 2011 WITH A LOCKOUT ON THE HORIZON?

Vince Young is a possible question mark for various teams for the 2011 season. As you may know, he will not be back in Tennessee, as he will be a free agent. However, the potential for a lockout and the potential for a shortened season of OTAs, minicamps, and training camp will make VY quite a gamble for a new team where he will need to learn a new offensive system. One of the knocks on Young has been his less than fully attentive nature to the “study” and the “learning” parts of the game.

You may recall that one of the “issues” swirling around Young during his draft year was his reported score of "6" on the Wonderlic Test. I have no idea if he actually scored a 6, but if he did, that would indicate that he needs to put in lots of extra time in the “study” phases of the game because those things will not come to him quickly. And, the lack of a CBA (collective bargaining agreement" for the acronym-challenged) and team activities might make time a commodity that teams do not have next year.

NBA ROAD WOES

Take a look at the NBA standings and you will see that that 18 of the 30 teams are playing under .500 on the road. That's no big deal, but 14 of the 18 teams with losing records on the road are playing at .300 or below on the road.

I understand the homecourt advantage, but when 14 teams or almost half of the NBA can’t win 30% of their road games, it says that there is a whole lot of mediocrity in the league.

Speaking of road records: as of 1/24 the Nets are 3-21; the Cavaliers are 3-22; and the T’wolves are 2-21. Despite those pathetic records, they are all looking down at the Washington Wizards who are 0-21 on the road.


The longest road losing streak in NBA history in one season is 37 games by the 1990-91 Sacramento Kings who lost their last 37 that season and then went on to lose their first six road games in the 1991-92 season for a total of 43 straight road losses.

No team has ever gone through an entire NBA season without winning a single road game. The Wizards are halfway there. If they can find ways to end the 2010-11 season with a road record of 0-41, that record can never be broken, unless the NBA adds more games to the schedule which is something that exactly nobody is clamoring for.

ESPN CONTINUES TO MAKE A FOOL OF ITSELF

A week ago, ESPN's website reported the following: "Tom Brady will undergo surgery on his foot, a source who's close to Brady and familiar with his plans confirmed to ESPN Boston.com."


The next paragraph read, "News of Brady's impending surgery was first reported by the Boston Globe." Oh, I got the impression it was first reported by ESPN Boston.com. My bad!

TONY DUNGY AND HIS WIFE WRITE A BOOK FOR UGLY GIRLS!

ODDS AND ENDS:

1. Will there be more terrible towels or wedge-shaped cheese hats in Dallas on February 6?

2. Both the Steelers and the Packers “travel well”; the business community of the Dallas metro area can’t be unhappy with this pairing.


3. FOX lost the two largest TV markets (New York and Chicago) that have NFL franchises on Sunday, but I doubt they are sad to see the Packers and Steelers, both of whom have a national fan base, in the Super Bowl game.

4. We can now settle in for two weeks of nonsensical talk and concocted “angles” for stories about the upcoming Super Bowl game. Please excuse me if I ignore 99% of that bullshit crap.

5. The persistent Carmelo Anthony trade rumors are getting to be as annoying as those is-he-or-isn’t-he Brett Favre stories we listened to the last few years.


CRIER’S CORNER

CBS SHOULD THANK THE STEELERS!

The NY Jets almost made a game of it on Sunday, but that’s just because Pittsburgh did CBS a favor to hold the viewers. “Don’t worry, our defense can hold them on 1st and goal when the Jets actually think they have a chance to gain a pivotal yard against us! We’ll even mess up our snap from center on the next play and give them a safety, just to tease them and everybody watching even more! And then, after we let them score and they think they can hold us to a three-and-out, we’ll make not one first down, but two, to run out the clock!”


JETS-STEELERS: A BIG CRIER MISTAKE

The Crier made a dopey, Best Bet sucker-pick like the Jets over Pittsburgh, which made him mad enough to cry about in order to fully suffer the humiliation of the error, put it behind him, and move on, even if it’s only for one more football game.


DUMBASS AMATEUR HANDICAPPER FOLLOWS A TREND AND IS WRONG AGAIN!

 Here's some ridiculously amateur stuff that the Crier found at espn.com that sets football forecasting back 20 years. This was spotted prior to Green Bay at Chicago, and made the Crier feel much more comfortable about the Packers’ chances vs. the Bears last Sunday: “Since 1996, teams that score 40 or more points in a playoff game fall back to earth the following week, when they are just 2-18 against the spread.”


When will people realize that there is no connection between any of those 20 games, and the game coming up, the result of which they are trying to project for profit? “Oh, golly great. Because Minnesota scored 42 points in a playoff game eight years ago and didn’t cover their next playoff game, I can safely bet against Green Bay after they scored 48 points at Atlanta!”


BUCK RHYMES WITH SCHMUCK! 

What was more idiotic? The Crier picking the Jets over Pittsburgh, someone else picking Chicago over Green Bay because Green Bay had scored 40+ points the week before, or what Joe "Please-Shut-Up" Buck said following B.J. Raji’s interception return for a Green Bay defensive touchdown in the fourth quarter, which had created a 21-7 lead for the Packers: “There’s Aaron Rodgers on the sidelines. It’s been a frustrating day for him, with a quarterback rating in the 50s…”


The Packers’ offense, defense, and special teams were locked in a struggle with a division rival they were playing for the third time this season, a division rival with a good defense and special teams, and whose offense with the third-string quarterback was suddenly doing things that the Packers were not prepared for. Strange as it may seem on the surface, a back-up quarterback can be a living hell at first exposure to an opposing defense.

Because coordinators and assistant coaches pull so many strings on these players, and because video study of tendencies has become the number one priority for coordinators, an offense that suddenly changes things up in the blocking schemes and play-calling just freezes these robotic coordinators and the zombie players they control. The Bears got zero touchdowns with Jay Cutler behind center for a full half, doing things the Packers had seen before and defended well against before. But the Bears got two touchdowns with Caleb Hanie behind center for one quarter, doing things that Green Bay wasn’t prepared for.


And Joe Buck thinks that Aaron Rodgers is frustrated, and concerned about what his quarterback rating in the NFC Championship Game might be? Rodgers had to take 63 snaps and play them all as if they were his last, while his teammates played them all like they were their last, just to win by one score against the Bears. There is a big difference between being “frustrated,” and “competing.”

Announcers have no idea what that difference is. They just see that a quarterback passed for 366 yards the prior game, and they think that because the same quarterback is en route to passing for 244 yards in the current game, that he is stinking up the joint. With that logic, Rodgers must have been really horrible in that Wild Card Game at Philadelphia, when he passed for “only” 188 yards.

But in that game against the Eagles when he passed for “only” 188 yards, Rodgers’ quarterback rating for the game was 122.5. So, if you can get a QB Rating of 122.5 with “only” 188 passing yards, but a 50 QB Rating with 58 more passing yards, then what significance is the QB Rating at all to whether the quarterback is doing well or not? Joe, it’s a team game, you schmuck!

And when talking about the passer rating, perhaps, then, the next time Buck has a calculator and two hours to spare, maybe he'd like to explain how these ratings are calculated, then what they're worth.

The bottom line was that the Packers were winning at that point against Chicago. They won at Philadelphia, with the 188 passing yards as part of the reason because they ran the ball in a diamond backfield for 138 yards. Scoreboard, Buck! Scoreboard!

And Troy Aikman, who was a decorated NFL quarterback, should know enough to correct him, but Aikman got hit in the head so many times he really has no idea what he’s saying up there. It’s mostly, “Blah. Blah-blah. Blah, blah-blah-blah.” And these clowns are announcing the Super Bowl. Get the radio, Shirley!



BASKETBALL ACTION


Yesterday’s Record ATS: 3-1
Cumulative Season Record ATS: 277-177


Today’s Action (for reading purposes only):

NBA



WASHINGTON* (+5) over DENVER
This is the first game of five on the road for the Nuggets and they play some weak teams. Denver had a full day to rest after hosting the Pacers while the Wizards played the Knicks last night and were in the game until a horrible fourth period. The distractions in the Mile High are taking their collective toll. Carmelo Anthony got T’ed up Friday vs. the Lakers when L.A. covered and won the battle of the boards by 20. WASHINGTON, 101 - 100


LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS (+6.5) over DALLAS*
Take the points here with the Clippers having a legit shot to win outright. L.A. has had 48 hours to ponder this game after playing and beating Golden State by two hoops and they have showed signs of turning it around. Baron Davis only had 7 points in the win vs. Golden State. Eric Gordon is playing both ends of the floor, Blake Griffin is a highlight film, and the Clips came out of the woodwork early in the year to beat Denver, Miami, and the Lakers. LOS ANGELES, 103 – 102


COLLEGE HOOPS


MARQUETTE* (-4) over CONNECTICUT
In this greatest of all collegiate hoop conferences – can you imagine if the Big East lopped off the four weakest sisters and went to a twelve-team circuit? All-TIME! – very good teams off a couple of recent tough losses on the road against stiff conference competition typically bring that “something extra” when back at their place. Buzz was not happy about the officiating at Notre Dame, but expect he’ll get his way, here, and it is highly-unlikely the Huskies will be able to match Marquette in effort, tonight. MARQUETTE, 77-67


PURDUE (+7.5) over OHIO STATE*
Outside of a home date vs. Iowa in which they were life-and-death to cover, the Buckeyes have made every Big Ten match to date an advantage vis a vis the marketplace. This should be no different, as Matta’s kids are doling out their energy, pacing themselves, and doing just enough to win while playing to maintain that cipher in their loss column. The Boilers are obviously the second-best outfit in the Big Ten, their teamwork may be a shade better than even Ohio State’s, and this goes to the final buzzer, in a screamer. OHIO STATE, 68-67



MIKE IN DA/SR CREW

HMW

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