COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY! - MIKE IN DA - SEPTEMBER 25, 2010

COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY!

Written by: Mike in DA
Date posted: 9/25/2010

SAM, GIVE US A CALL!  WE'RE STILL WAITING TO HEAR FROM YOU!

About two weeks ago, HMW reader, “Sam”, left the following comments for HMW: "Same tired comments from the same tired people. You guys really need to step your game up. Same grudges get dealt with on a regular basis here and we aren't getting anything new. You guys are getting worse than the ones you are covering! Fun while it lasted." END!

HMW responded to Sam by thanking him for his comments and asked him to contact us so that we could discuss his comments with him over lunch or brunch.

Sam, just in case you were too busy or lost the phone number, here it is again: Craig Shelton at 832-731-2464. Please call at your earliest convenience. The meal is on us.

Today's "tired" Peanut Gallery is dedicated to "Sam the Man" in hopes that he can help us improve, so that we can "be the best that we can be."

YATES 84, DAVIS 0

No, Greg Wise was not the guest coach for the Yates Lions football team on Friday night (9/24) vs. Jefferson Davis HS, but when you see a score like that, you have to think twice.  Yates hoops begins in seven weeks.









CHISOX IMPLOSION!

Ozzie Guillen is an above average manager - not a great manager, but a good one. His outspoken candor sets him apart from many of the other managers in baseball. He is often a breath of fresh air when he comments on a touchy or delicate subject.

With that said, what Ozzie did earlier this week was in poor taste, as on the day that his White Sox were eliminated from the AL Central Division race, Ozzie complained about the fact that he has not been given a contract extension beyond next year. In early August, the White Sox led the AL Central; now they are eliminated and 11 games behind the Twins, as of the morning of 9/25.

Now put that collapse next to the date of mathematical elimination and it just does not make sense for him to be talking about a contract extension or a raise at that time.

ANOTHER IMPLOSION - THIS ONE IS 300 MILES AWAY!

Speaking of teams that have imploded, the team picture of the St. Louis Cardinals deserves to be on the side of a milk carton in St. Louis grocery stores. Over their last 39 games, the Cardinals are 14-25 through end of play on 9/24. Playing at that pace, the Cardinals’ record would be 58-104 games over a full season.

Mathematically, they are still alive in their division and in the wild card race because prior to this collapse, the Cardinals were on pace to have a season record of 92-70. That record just might win the NL Central this year, but the Cards will be nowhere near that level; this morning (9/25) they are only 5 games over .500 at 79-74 with a magic number of three to get eliminated from both the division and wild card races.

CELEBRITY ROAST FOR “THE GENERAL”!

Last Saturday (9/18), Bobby Knight was the target of a celebrity roast event to raise money for St. Joseph High School in Chicago. It could have used some of the writers of the Comedy Central Celebrity Roast, as all these jokes were suitable for ten-year olds.

ESPN ’s Jay Bilas was the emcee for the event and here is his best opening remark, which tells you that you didn’t miss anything: “Coach Knight has requested that none of the roasters bring up his past behavioral issues or his considerable use of profanity, so thank you everybody for coming and good night.”







BAD NEWS BROWNS!

Romeo Crennel went “home” to Cleveland last week as the Kansas City Chiefs’ Defensive Coordinator and did what came naturally to him. He sent the Browns back to their locker room as losers. The Browns’ offense managed only 55 yards in the second half of that game. Counting last season, the Chiefs have now won 3 games in a row; it has been a while since the Chiefs have done that.

The Chiefs won that game despite Matt Cassell posting a QB rating of 46.7. Why are the Browns floundering? That’s easy to figure out: the NFL is a passing league these days; the Browns’ QBs are below average; and the Browns’ WRs are not that good. Put those facts together and you have an 0-2 team.

The Browns being 0-2, is not good news, but the really bad news is that the Browns lost those two games against teams they probably thought they could beat - the Tampa Bay Bucs and the Chiefs. Here is what is coming up for the Browns: at Baltimore; home vs. Cincinnati; home vs. Atlanta; at Pittsburgh; at Saints; and the BYE week.

They say that on "any given Sunday", anything can happen in the NFL - but one of those things that can happen is that the Browns could be 0-7 heading into their BYE Week.






CJ OFF TO A SLOW START!

On his Friday morning show (9/24) on 1560 KGOW, Lance Zierlein made reference to C.J. Spiller’s slow start with the Buffalo Bills. He even mentioned something about a mistake he made in fantasy football, so I assume he was referring to Spiller.

In Spiller, we can see an example of two facts that many people refuse to consider as they become enthusiastic over rookies coming into the league. Almost everyone loved him coming out of Clemson as a running back who could threaten to make every handoff into a touchdown. The Bills took him as a Top 10 pick in the draft and put him at the top of the depth chart ahead of two “thousand-yard backs” already on the roster who did not have anything near Spiller’s speed.

What has happened in the first two games points to those two facts that cannot be ignored. So far, from scrimmage, Spiller has carried the ball 8 times and gained 9 yards. He has caught 8 passes and gained 31 yards.

Fact #1: Running backs depend on their offensive line being equally competent to the opposing defensive line. That was true at Clemson; that is not true in Buffalo.

Fact #2: Defensive team speed in the NFL is much greater than team speed for any college defensive unit.






LET'S SHUFFLE OFF TO BUFFALO AGAIN!

Speaking of the Bills, they will change QBs this week by starting Ryan Fitzpatrick. If you want to know what prompted that decision, consider that Trent Edwards’ QB rating last week against the Packers was 37 and the Bills offensive output for the first quarter was zero yards. Nevertheless, before you hang all of the blame on Edwards and the offense, realize that the Bills’ defense gave up 6 yards per play against the Packers. The Bills’ fundamental problem is that they are talent-challenged.

Looking ahead on the NFL schedule, on December 12 the Bills host the Browns. The Bills do not sell out all of their games. If this one does not sell out and is therefore blacked out in the upstate New York area, the local populace should consider this a blessing in disguise.

BAY AREA BOMBERS!

The opening weekend of the NFL season was not kind to Bay Area fans. Both the Niners and the Raiders lost by 25 points. The Niners lost again in Week 2, but played very well against the Saints in that loss. The Raiders rebounded to beat the lowly Rams, even if it was only by two points.

In the Raiders/Rams game, the Raiders amassed more than 400 yards of offense. That is nice but hardly noteworthy, until you consider an item posted on cbssportsline.com. That was the first time in 76 games that the Raiders offensive total was more than 400 yards. 76 games! That is almost five full seasons!





BLACKOUT CITY!

The Raiders/Rams game drew an announced attendance of 48,396. That is the lowest for a Raiders’ home opener since 1998. The only other NFL game last week with attendance under 60,000 was in Detroit where the Eagles played the Lions. That was the eighth consecutive blackout for the Raiders for failing to sell out a home game.

The San Diego Chargers broke their streak of 48 consecutive sellouts last week and the game was blacked out in San Diego. Unfortunately for Jaguars’ fans, the game was still telecast back in Jacksonville. The Jags blocked a punt and created 3 turnovers last week and they were never in the game. How can that be? Well, for one thing they turned the ball over 6 times themselves.

The Jags have sold out their game against the Eagles this weekend making it two sellouts in a row. Last year, they only sold out once. Perhaps the PR campaign in that city has taken hold or could it be the reality of some team in the NFL moving to LA has been recognized by the local population. The next challenge will be to sell enough tickets to get the Jags to remove those tarps in the upper deck.

Meanwhile, about 200 or so miles to the southwest of Jacksonville in Tampa, the Bucs will play their second blacked-out home game of the year. According to Tampa reports, the team did not even bother to ask the league for an extension to sell the remaining tickets for this week’s game against the Steelers. I guess that means that there are a lot of tickets available for the game, so there’s no need to check out Stub Hub or the local ticket scalpers if anyone is interested in going to the game. I expect to see a lot of Steeler fans at the game.







ODDS AND ENDS:

1. Over the summer, the Knicks signed Amare Stoudamire and Stoudamire promised Knicks fans that he would usher in “a new era” in Knicks’ basketball. Since the Knicks have achieved nine consecutive losing seasons now, a 41-41 record would be “a new era”.

2.  Recently, the Peanut Gallery talked about the emptry seats in the New Meadowands Stadium (that's the name until some company shells out an outrageous amount for the naming rights) due mainly to not only the high PSL prices, but also the high ticket prices. The Jets and Giants combined for nearly 10,000 empty seats at their home openers during Week #1. The running joke in Jersey is: "PSL stands for Plenty of Seats Left."

3. National Hockey League training camps are already open and National Basketball Association training camps are opening this week. It seems that the NHL and NBA Finals ended less than two months ago.

4. In the first two games of the season, the Dallas Cowboys have moved the ball, but then find ways not to score points. Style points don't count in the NFL; if the Cowboys continue to play like that, they will only get to the Super Bowl in Dallas if they buy a ticket.
 

5. When the Seattle Seahawks have gone on the road in the last couple of years, bad things have happened to them. In their last 14 road games, the Seahawks have won exactly two of them and both of those wins came in St. Louis against the hapless Rams. They lost at Denver last week, but are home against the San Diego Chargers, so there is some hope for a W.
 
 
 
 
6. Three teams - the Dolphins, Cardinals, and Ravens  - have started with two road games on the schedule. Only the Dolphins go home this weekend with a 2-0 record.
 

7. The Steelers and the Bengals won their games last weekend and neither team scored an offensive TD. The Bengals had five field goals in their win; the Steelers returned a kickoff for a TD and added four field goals. In the Steelers’ win over the Titans, the Steelers’ defense held Chris Johnson to 34 yards rushing. That stopped Johnson’s streak of consecutive 100+ yard rushing games at 12 games.  
 
 



MIKE IN DA



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