COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY - MIKE IN DA - OCTOBER 29, 2010

COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY!

Written by: Mike in DA
Date posted: 10/29/2010


COOL ATHLETE NAME

BCS UPDATE

There are three undefeated teams in the rankings from the “outsider” conferences - Boise State, TCU and Utah. Utah and TCU will play each other on November 6 in Salt Lake City, so the BCS overlords catch a break here and one of these three “outsiders” will fall by the wayside at the hands of another “outsider”. By the way, if Utah were to come out of the TCU game with a win, they would then take their undefeated record to South Bend (IN), the week after that for a showdown with Notre Dame.

Meanwhile from the “established conferences” there are four undefeated teams - Michigan State, Missouri, Auburn and Oregon. Oregon has a road date with USC this weekend; Missouri has a road date at Nebraska this week; Auburn still has to face Alabama in the Iron Bowl plus an SEC Championship Game if they remain undefeated that long. Of this group, Michigan State would seem to have the easiest road to an undefeated regular season - should they get by Iowa at Iowa this weekend.

The #1 ranked team has lost in each of the last three weeks; Oregon hopes to break that chain of events against USC. Interestingly, all three of the previous #1 teams who took it on the chin did so on the road: Alabama at South Carolina; then Ohio State at Wisconsin; and then Oklahoma at Missouri. This week, Oregon is at USC.


"IOWA STATE IS A PROGRAM TO BE RECKONED WITH”

Texas has been one of the top “underachievers” this college football season. Losing to Iowa State at home last week was not acceptable for a team and a football program that thinks of itself in terms of championship participation. That loss was shameful and embarrassing.


The Texas/Iowa State game did provide an important lesson for all of us. Thanks to the outcome of this game, we have another example why we need to ignore the words of politicians when they get on their rhetorical highs. Said Iowa governor, Chet Culver, this game proved that “Iowa State is a program to be reckoned with.”

Hey, Gov. Did you forget or did you conveniently ignore the results of Iowa State’s previous two football games? Let me refresh your memory:


Oklahoma 52, Iowa State 0.
Utah 68, Iowa State 27.









HOPEFULLY, CAM NEWTON IS WEARING A CUP!

TRUTH IN ADVERTISING???

1560 KGOW has a promo saying "1560 The Game, the only sports talk station in town". Come on now, guys. All I can say is, “Is that the best you got?” "1560 The Game, the only sports talk station in town next to the Disney Channel on the dial” might be more accurate.



For a station that has the number one sports talk show team in Houston (John Granato and Lance Zierlein) anchoring it, its overall listenership totals are pathetic, aka pitiful, sad, distressing, etc. after three plus years now. 1560 is becoming Houston sports talk’s version of the Houston Texans. Their base following is like a herd of sheep, which enables 1560 to lie to their loyal followers as much as they want to and they’ll be believed.


Their listenership levels in the evening were so bad during the summer that they didn’t even show up on the cumulative ratings causing them to bring in (David) Nuno and Raheel (Ramzanali) for some local evening program to replace their Sporting News Radio network programming that wasn't very successful.

If "Honest" Abe Lincoln was still alive, he'd probably say, "You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool HMW."


“The only sports talk station in town”; HMW doesn’t think so.






APPEAL? APPEAL THIS!

According to an AP story earlier this week, lawyers for Rae Carruth are about to go to a Federal Appeals Court trying to overturn his conviction for conspiring to kill his pregnant girlfriend, Cherica Adams, more than 10 years ago.

According to this report, Carruth’s lawyers contend that various statements made by Ms. Adams to paramedics and other medical personnel, as they worked to save her baby (the baby survived) and Cherica's life (she did not) ought not to have been used at trial because the defense had no opportunity to cross examine Ms. Adams on those statements.


I am not a lawyer, but if the Federal Appeals judges buy that argument, I hope all of them get an attack of kidney stones that lasts for a year. The reason she wasn't available for cross-examination was that she was dead, aka caput, gone, deceased, departed, lifeless, no more, extinct, defunct, gone, etc. If this argument prevails, that would negate every deathbed statement unless the defense attorneys were right there with a court recorder and someone to swear in the soon-to-be-deceased.


This appeal raises another interesting question in my mind. Rae Carruth was convicted of conspiring to murder Ms. Adams in 2001. During the nine years that elapsed, is this the first time the defense lawyers realized that they never got to cross-examine her to impeach her testimony? If that is the case, I sure hope these geniuses have an explanation for the judges as to what took them so long.


LONDON TO BE BLITZED (AND CONNED) BY THE NFL!


Roger Goodell keeps scheduling games in London with the idea that those games will grow the NFL brand and American football internationally. He has to hope that the British fans who bought tickets for this week’s “London Game” have not been following the NFL too closely for the first seven weeks of the season. The Niners/Broncos game shapes up to be a completely meaningless game.

The Niners are 1-6; their first string QB had his arm in a sling on the sidelines last week; David Carr will be the starting QB on Sunday with Troy Smith as the #2 QB behind him. Sounds pretty bad, until you also consider that the Broncos are 2-5 and are coming off a 45-point loss to the Oakland Raiders. Fans in England paid straight-up NFL regular season prices for tickets for this stinkeroo. I suggest next year that the NFL send two 2010 playoff teams to London, so as not to shortchange the Brits.

ODDS AND ENDS:

 1. When the Cleveland Browns beat the New Orleans Saints last weekend, mostly everyone called it a shocker.  Nevertheless, that win makes it three seasons in a row where the lowly Browns have beaten the defending Super Bowl champion. In the ’08 season, they beat the Giants; in the ’09 season, they beat the Steelers; and now in the ’10 season, they beat the Saints.

2. You might not believe the following, but feel free to go to espn.com or cbssports.com and check out the drive charts for last week’s Bears/Redskins game. In the second half of the game -  which the Bears led at halftime by 4 points - the six offensive possessions for the Bears were: Interception, Interception, Fumble, Interception, Punt, and Interception. The best possession - the one that did not result in a turnover was a punt. That is simply atrocious.

3. If you anticipated Game One of the World Series to be a nail-biting pitchers’ duel where any misplaced pitch in the strike zone might have decided the outcome, those plans went astray when Cliff Lee and Tim Lincecum were both jerked around. In addition, the combined six errors made by both teams did not help achieve the anticipated observation of a pitchers’ duel. The combined line score for the game: 18 runs - 25 hits - 6 errors - 5 walks.

4. If Brett Favre really wanted to impress women, he should text them photos of his paycheck, not his dick.

5. Speaking of Favre, he is providing some cover for Saints’ QB, Drew Brees. Favre is having a down  season so far in terms of his stats and his team’s record. There has been a huge media focus on Favre’s bad stats, as he’s thrown more INTs already this year than he did in the entire 2009 season. However, if you look at Brees’ numbers, you will see a similar drop-off from last year. In 19 games last year through the playoffs and Super Bowl, Brees threw only 11 INTs. In 7 games so far this year, Brees has already thrown 10 INTs.

6. Ed Reed returned to the Baltimore Ravens last week off the PUP List ("Physically Unable to Perform" for the acronym-challenged). Some players have the label “impact player”; Ed Reed deserves that label. In his first game back, he intercepted two passes and forced a fumble. That's impact.

CRIER’S CORNER

NBA ACTION


Yesterday’s Record: 1-0
Cumulative Season Record: 6-2


Today’s Games (for reading purposes only)


TORONTO* (-4) over CLEVELAND These two depleted teams will likely be the bottom feeders in the league and Cavs need a total miracle to win over 30 games, but they sure shocked Celts in first without the King. Anderson Varejao will be in the wrong position at center and he will get pushed around. The bright spot for Cleveland will likely be the emergence of athletic J.J. Hickson. Andrea Bargnani will anchor the post for the Canadians and he can play. TORONTO, 99-89


OKLAHOMA CITY (-6) over DETROIT*
The Pistons could sputter badly this season. We’ve seen this same roster for awhile. It’s very doubtful at this point if Tracy McGrady will have any positive impact and even Ironman Tayshaun Prince missed time last year. The Thunder is young, hungry, talented, and deep. Westbrook dropped 28 with 10 dimes in the opener and they can bring James Harden in and he’s a hulk. Jeff Green is the type of foundation that champs are built on. Kevin Durant does not only have a stroke, but he’s a gym rat that seems much more dedicated to playing defense. OKLAHOMA, 104-92


MINNESOTA* (+4.5) over MILWAUKEE
Bucks played well in the Big Easy loss Wednesday while Minnesota fresh from hosting Kings. Bucks had the best ATS record in the league last year and expect much of the same. Andrew Bogut averaged 16 and 10 bounds last year, but the firepower comes in the backcourt with Brandon Jennings and John Salmons. Wolves need a break out year from Michael Beasley to have a positive year. Old school Kevin Love had double/double to start season. MINNESOTA, 92-87


L.A. CLIPPERS (+6) over GOLDEN STATE*
Golden State can only get better on the defensive end and they were outgunned 52 to 26 from the line against the Rockets and still won. David Lee was a super pick-up and only one of three players in the league to average 20 or more and 10 or more bounds. The Warriors backcourt is nuclear. Clips once again hopeful of turning it around and it will largely be on the shoulders of Blake Griffin, who is a quick jumper and went for 20 and 14 bounds to start career. GOLDEN STATE, 107-106

MIKE IN DA

HMW

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