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Posted by Scott on June 20, 2008
The most famous sports radio show in the country is arguably ESPN Radio’s “Mike & Mike in the Morning.” After listening pretty consistently for the last few weeks I have decided that this show is horrible. I like Mike Greenberg. If you haven’t checked out his book, Why My Wife Thinks I’m an Idiot, you should pick it up now. It is a very entertaining book. Honestly, I have nothing against Golic either. Together they have great chemistry. The fact is that the entire show is so generic and worthless to listen to. Two of my biggest beefs are…
- Commercial time is atrocious. The segments are max eight minutes and commercials can last as long as 10 minutes.
- They never discuss something in depth. Both guys give their opinion for about two minutes and then they go to commercial or the next topic.
Number two is a major issue for me because I listen to WDFN, a Detroit sport radio station. Admittedly, I am more interested in Detroit sports topics than Yankees topics. (I have discussed my hatred of the media’s love of New York) Still, the shows on the local station actually are entertaining. What is the point of sports radio? The real reason is to argue about sports. Mike & Mike will bring up a topic like last nights NHL Finals game. Not only do neither of them follow the sport, they don’t even convince me that they watch the game! If you aren’t going to really have an opinion don’t talk about it. I could sit in for Golic, if I was as good at talking on the radio as him in general, and come up with the same generic opinions that he does everyday. In fact, I can have a much more meaningful conversation about the game with my friend at work once I get there.
In the meantime, the morning show on the station I listen to talks about an event like ESPN would but instead of leaving it at a 6 minute segment on the game they will pick out a specific thing to discuss. For example, the ridiculous coverage on Tiger Woods this past week. Instead of talking about solely what is happening to Tiger they will broaden the issue to what if Tiger doesn’t break the record? What other athletes had injuries that prevented them from being great or breaking records?
Many people don’t like the calling-in aspect of sports radio, but that makes it what it is to me. There just doesn’t seem to be a passion to discuss without bringing in the fans of the show. (Yes, I know they talk about emails sometimes) Mike & Mike are great radio personalities, I respect them for that, and would love to talk to them about sports. Their show, however, just doesn’t entertain me the way I feel the most popular show in the country should. More than 50% of the show is commercials and their topics are too generic and don’t dig deep enough to bring meaningful and interesting discussions out from the woodwork.
Can someone explain why this show is thought of to be so good?
Posted in Stuff | Tagged: Mike, Radio, Sports | No Comments »
Posted by Scott on June 17, 2008
I just read this article about discovering new planets.
I feel like I am living in a cartoon or something. Super-Earths? I do not know much about astronomy, except for the astronomy course I took in high school in which I got something like 103% (that was only because if you got a question wrong on a test you were to be ridiculed for weeks). Still, are astronomers really that lazy? One thing I get confused about is what this does for us. I mean we are not going to be able to go there any time soon or ever. It seems as if the air pressure or other scientific stuff will simply not allow our bodies to go certain places. That is what is so frustrating about these things! Awesome, Super-Earths! Now what?
My favorite part of the article, other than the name, had to be the duration of these planets orbits. The longest orbit is 20 days. So, again I don’t know that much, but I take that as being seasons would occur in the span of 20 days. This would mean that in three weeks we would go from hot to cold and back to hot. Damn, that would be pretty cool. Talk about never getting bored. Retail stores would have to really get shipping of season related clothes really fast.
Back to the name though, I’m thinking that instead of Super-Earths we go with something like Mega-Earths. Super-Earth just sounds kind of weak and soft to me. But we could go places with Mega. The “Mega-Man” could do so many cool things like kill freaky ice flying creatures and take down the fire throwing boss. Don’t tell me you don’t remember that guy!
Posted in Stuff | Tagged: Astronomy, Super-Earth | No Comments »
Posted by Scott on June 17, 2008
For those that do not know the story, Becky Hamilton, a WNBA player, has decided to play for the Russian Olympic team and a colleague has called her a traitor. Traitor seems rather harsh. My problem with this whole story is that she is allowed to do what she is doing. Hamilton is not a citizen of Russia. She is U.S. citizen as far as I know. The Olympics are all about country pride, or at least that is what it is for me. If Russia was to win, Hamilton will be standing on the medal stand with a Russian flag over her head. That just seems wrong since there is no reason for her to be spreading Russian pride.
I admire that she wants to play in the Olympics. She wants to be given the chance to play in the world event and wasn’t given the chance to play here in the U.S. That is wrong for sure. She plays in the WNBA and she wasn’t given the chance to try out for the U.S. team. That is a different issue though. I would not call her a traitor because she is an athlete that wants a gold medal, wants an opportunity to play, and wants to gain an experience that most of us who played sports could only dream of gaining. I just know that I could not win a gold medal and start waving a flag from another country. That is something that she decided is worth to do. I am not going to judge her because of that. The real problem is that these athletes are now able to play for whoever they want. The Olympics just aren’t not what we seem to think they are. It is no longer about the country teams; it is about the individual athletes. We just have to accept that as sad as it is to many of us who enjoy the team competition of the whole thing.
Posted in Olympics, Sports | Tagged: Basketball, Olympics, Sports | 1 Comment »
Posted by Scott on June 13, 2008
There is sometimes a game that will come out and make such a huge impact in the sports video game world. Here are my top 5 life-changing sports video games…
5. NHL Hitz (XBOX)
Whether you like the NHL or not hockey games are among the most fun video games. NHL Hitz brought with it the idea of pure arcade hockey for the new generation. It all started with the classic “Rollin’” song by Limp Bizkit. If that didn’t get you pumped up the announcer sure did. After that, if you still weren’t excited you had to turn the corner when you players would reach their sticks up to the sky, a lighting bolt would hit them, and they would light on fire! This game was simply fun to play. In an age where games were finally starting to get sophisticated, Hitz gave us a pick up and play game. The best way to score was doing a 360 before you shot the puck. The game was life changing for me because of the time I spent with it. It is rare to have a game where every time you turn it on you know you are going to have fun…especially with a friend. What more could you want, and, oh yea, the goalies turned into a brick wall sometimes.
4. PGA Tour Golf II (Sega Genesis)
I’m not sure how many of you would remember this game, but it is life changing. The amount of rounds I played with this game is uncountable at this point. Why is this game so memorable? To put it simply, the game was perfect. Golf games are a lot of fun now. I own Tiger Woods 2006 I think and it is a lot of fun to play. PGA Tour Golf was great on a different level. There are three elements that I would remember forever. The courses – Sawgrass and Scottsdale were easily my favorite. That is how I knew hole 17 at Sawgrass! Putting – Push “B” and you are taken to a 3D screen of the green. It is a perfect way to line up your putt. Swing power – The three click system was amazing. I still remember that a 4ft putt uses a 10ft putter and you go to the 3rd line. Life changing.
3. Baseball Stars (NES)
Baseball Stars was first great baseball game in my opinion. It was a little before my time but I still got plenty of playing time in over my years. The customization options were better than what we see today! I remember making my own team with my friends name or the names of the current Pistons team. Then, you had to go up against the Lovely Ladies (easily the worst team) and mercy them in 1 inning (less than 3 minutes) and earn money so you can make your player attributes better. Finally, who could play that game and forget the American Dreams! You get to play against “Cy” and “Babe” all the time. The Black Ninjas were pretty good too.
2. NHL 94 (Sega Genesis)
Does this need explanation? I put Sega Genesis but this can also be played on Super Nintendo I just never did. Also, pick any year you want from NHLPA 91 to NHL 98 and I will say the game is life changing. One of the greatest movie scenes ever is inspired by this franchise. Swingers made this game a classic because everyone understood what was going on in that scene. These games had the best game play to date when dealing with hockey games. I don’t know what else to say but “Watch Gretzky’s head bleed, look man, I made is head bleed.”
1. NFL 2K (Sega Dreamcast)
For those who personally know me, you know this had to be up there. This is not about what are the best games of all time per se. I am not here to argue that 2K football is better than Madden (or at least was while it was around). Life changing sports games can be pinpointed with this game. I remember being at a friends house in 1999. He had a Dreamcast and we watched the demo of the game that he had. I was hooked from then on. The game introduced a 300% improvement in the graphics department from any other game, it was all 3D. Commentary was out of control great and players actually caught balls. NFL 2K changed the shape of football video games. It also changed the way I looked at sports video games.
What do you consider a life-changing sports video game? Now, I’m not a complete loser. Life-changing is used in a light fashion. Obviously, my entire life did not change. My video game life did change, however.
Posted in Sports | Tagged: Sports, Video Games | No Comments »
Posted by Scott on June 12, 2008
New York
To those who live in New York, I am not complaining about you. This pet peeve is about the attention New York gets in the media. Yea, it might be a little “old-fashioned” to complain about it but it has not gotten any better. Being from Detroit, I do not want all the attention on the Detroit teams. I love how they are usually going under the radar. When the Tigers got all the press in the world…well, I’ll stop there and say look where that has gotten them. So, when I turn on ESPN I do want to know about the national sports. What do I usually see? The first story has to be about a New York team.
The best example of this is easily the Yankees. They are almost too easy of a target. How often does their sub-par year have to be the top, or one of the top, stories? They are not a good team this year. I don’t need to hear about them. A-Rod is out for a month! Oh no! Alert the world at the greatness that is what used to be the Yankees. The other day there was seriously a story about how New York baseball is struggling. It was explaining the Mets and Yankees seasons. Really? Both teams are below .501 at the time of this writing. It is not newsworthy. There is a great race at the top of the AL East and even better one in the NL Central. Let’s make those the top stories.
I could go on for a little while but this can get boring fast. Rangers have the biggest salary in the NHL, but still aren’t good. We must talk about that. Knicks are the worst team in the NBA. We need to make sure that Isiah Thomas is the lead story about the league. This is not a creative gripe, but it seems to me to be pretty valid. There are things in this sports world that are much more annoying, and I’ll get to those in future posts. I just figured to get this obvious one out of the way. How do New Yorkers feel about the constant attention? (That is a serious question) Do they like having stories about their teams when they are awful? I really don’t know. I do know that if the Lions were the top story when they were awful then we would hear about them every single day, and I am pretty sure I would get sick of that. Heck, I already am sick of it and the season is 3 months away.
Posted in Pet Peeves, Sports | Tagged: New York, Pet Peeve, Sports | No Comments »
Posted by Scott on June 11, 2008
I have been a big advocate of NBA basketball this season but the finals have opened my eyes and I must be honest. It is tough to watch something so scripted. This has nothing to do with the players involved. Both teams I’m sure are playing their butts off every second of the game. It’s the finals for Pete’s sake. The NBA wanted a dream match up and they ended up getting it. Unfortunately, nobody gets to watch these two teams battle like they should be able to because the refs are determining which team has that edge. Did the Celtics win game 2 because they shot a ton more free throws? No. Did the Lakers win game 3 because they shot a ton more free throws? No. Still, both of those games showed one team having a far better shot at winning because of the discrepancy.
People will claim that whichever team is more aggressive is the team that deserves more free throws. There is no doubt that is true, but the numbers are a little out of control. 28 more free throws in one game? Come on. I would love to watch these teams play basketball, but we aren’t given an opportunity. Instead we get to watch these incredible athletes go shoot free throws over and over and over.
Honestly, I do not see myself going out of my way to watch game 4. It isn’t entertaining. Sure, I am a huge hockey fan, but no one can honestly say that this NBA Finals has been more exciting to watch than the NHL Finals. I can go outside myself and shoot free throws. I cannot play basketball in the NBA Finals, and it is to bad that nobody on the Celtics or Lakers are given an opportunity to play either. Let me guess, the Lakers go to the line 34 more times in game 4? Whatever gives David Stern the ability to talk up his dream final I guess.
Posted in NBA | Tagged: Finals, NBA, Playoffs | 1 Comment »
Posted by Scott on June 4, 2008
A new, hopefully consistent, series of posts here at Sports & Stuff is the Pet Peeve section. This can be anything from sports media, to players, to sports themselves. Today’s inaugural edition begins now!
Pet Peeve 1: MLB Fans
Before you go ahead and blast me for this initial annoyance of mine let me assure you that I think baseball is a great sport. I like watching it from time to time. I will admit, however, that I am not an avid fan that will make time to watch a random game that does not affect me. My problem with MLB fans is that I feel that they think they know what is going on more than any other sport. Baseball, to me, is the most difficult sport to analyze. It is also the dumbest sport to argue about.
MLB fans insist that they know exactly what is wrong with their team or what the right move for that team is. Baseball is clear cut who is playing well and who isn’t right? Wrong. This all starts with pitching. A pitcher will be judged so quickly. The judgment will be based on what just happened and I do not find that to be fair. In basketball if a player misses a bunch of shots you can easily say that he is not playing well. The pitcher could put the ball exactly where everyone wanted it, but if the batter crushes it the pitcher will be said to have “missed” his spot. This type of judgment is fine by coaches or catchers, but, more than any other sport, the casual fan will be able to make a comment that has no real evidence behind it. Sure, the batter hit a home run, but that could have just as easily been just a great swing!
The amount of casual fans is what annoys me the most. Baseball is the easiest sport to go to a game and not care what is going on. Heck, I have found myself to just lose touch with the game while I am there, and I usually care more about the game itself than anyone at the arena. Still, people go to games to go to the ballpark, which is great. What is not great is the amount of people who go, have no idea what is going on, and then make comments that make it seem that they think they know what they are talking about. Just because you played T-ball does not mean you know the dynamics of a swing.
Finally, baseball fans annoy me because they get so wrapped up in the standings. It is now June. The MLB season ends in October. The regular season game in April and May does not mean anything in the grand scheme of things. Can we stop worrying about the Brewers being 5 games back in May? Nope, because fans insist on taking every moment to worry about the standings with 130 games to play. This does not seem to happen in other sports. You do not here panic or praise after being 4 games up in December of the NBA season.
All of these, and probably more, are reasons for why Baseball Fans are my first pet peeve.
Posted in MLB, Pet Peeves | Tagged: Baseball, Fans, Sports | No Comments »
Posted by Scott on June 3, 2008
If you ever doubted hockey, I feel bad for you. Sure, my team ended up the game last night on the losing end of an extremely deflating triple overtime loss. My opinion will not change that it was one of the best examples of why playoff hockey is simply the best. People will blast me for bringing up hockey in the same sentence as the NBA or NFL, but I cannot sit here and say that I would watch the NBA finals over the Stanley Cup Finals. It helps the Wings are playing in it, but I would be watching the games anyway, especially if they are this exciting.
Last night, the Red Wings did what they usually do. They dominated every facet of the game except on the scoreboard. At one point in the third period I thought “wow, this is some of the best hockey I have ever seen a team play. How could they lose?” I found myself stuck five feet from the TV on several occasions as the action was non-stop from the third period to the third overtime. This revelation is exactly why people need to watch hockey. The NBA finals will be fun to watch for the last 3 minutes of each game. Sure, basketball fans will like to watch the games, but the games do not compare in excitement. Every second of last nights game, especially the three overtimes, was tense. The basketball games will be more “interesting” instead of “off your seat action.” That is fine.
The NHL now has gotten to show the world some of the best hockey I have ever seen. Even though my Wings lost, and trust me, I was awfully upset, I could not have been more impressed with the entertainment value I had gotten in the last 4 hours. No movie, television show, or sport will ever be able to replicate the adrenaline that was pumping through me, not a player but a fan. Yes, it went on and on, but for those who watched the entire game, you had to feel something by the end. I had to wake up at 5:45 to get ready for work, I was annoyed that it was late, but I did not care because it was just so amazing. Good for the NHL. Way to show that you are the best sport in the world when it comes to excitement. Now, let’s stop calling extremely questionable goalie interference penalties and I will be happy.
Posted in NHL | Tagged: NHL, Playoffs, Sports | 1 Comment »
Posted by Scott on May 29, 2008
I have never understood it. It doesn’t make sense. It is something that is simply a cop-out for making a mistake. It is a way out of a situation that one way or another, you are going to be yelled at. I cannot blame officials for doing it, for I wouldn’t want to be put in the same situation. When those last minutes of the game come around, let them play is what we all say. Well, the fact is that basketball loses a lot of credibility for using that argument.
Many people do not like watching basketball because it is such a frustrating sport regarding the refs. No other sport is there arguments over every single call, and I mean every single one. So, why do we change our standards during the last few minutes? Obviously the big story is the non-call in game 4 of the Western Conference Finals. Should it been called or not? That argument will never be resolved, but the common argument is that the refs should not be the ones to determine the game so let the players play. This is very confusing. Unlike football where a simple hold may not have a huge effect late in the game, a foul on a shooter no matter how hard or soft will have an enormous effect. If nothing else, the players know (sometimes more than they think) when they are fouled. When hit in the arm, it is nearly impossible to make a long jumper. So, when it is late in the game, the foul should be called even closer in my opinion because you should have a legitimate chance to make the shot!
Officials in basketball are in the worst situation at all times. I know I would not want to be a ref in a big game situation because you will never get that call right according to somebody. Still, it seems to me that in a game that is so subjective, fouls should be called consistently no matter what the situation is. If the foul would have been called in the first quarter, it should be called in the fourth. If nothing else, teams will agree that they want nothing more but a consistently called game. That is true in any sport. Both teams should be called the same. Both teams should have an fair opportunity at the end of the game, and when you don’t call the game the same as it was early in the game, you are not giving them that opportunity.
Posted in NBA | Tagged: NBA, Officials, Sports | No Comments »
Posted by Scott on May 23, 2008
Over the last week, we have seen two bad calls made by umpires that took runs off the board. The MLB needs to implement some type of replay. If nothing else, there needs to be some type of replay for home run issues. Where else could it be used? I don’t necessarily agree with all of these but options include strikes and balls, base-runners, and fly balls in the outfield. My choice would be to use replays for everything except strikes and balls.
One argument against this implantation is that it takes the “human element” out of the game. What does that mean? Well, it means that the team that does not deserve the call or the win end up on top. I do not understand why we want to enable to possibility of making mistakes. The technology is clearly available. While I love fans that come up with excuses and post them on message boards around the internet, I am a bigger fan of watching teams win because they deserve it.
Another argument is that it will “disrupt the flow of the game.” Again, this makes no sense to me. This isn’t hockey or basketball where players can get hot and lose their rhythm. Baseball has no flow. Let’s be honest baseball fans. It is a slow, relaxing game. A hot hitter is not going to be cooled off because he has to wait 38 minutes instead of 35 to get his next at bat. I love baseball but a 2 minute break to make sure a call is right is so worth it.
In the end, they need to implement this right now. The home run replay is essential because they are simply taking runs off the board. Implementing replays for calls on the base-paths are another idea that I think is very important. My general opinion is that baseball and all sports should be won by the team who actually deserves to win. Let’s take the “human element” out of the game and let the players enjoy pure victory and defeat.
Posted in MLB | Tagged: MLB, Replay, Sports | 1 Comment »
Scott
Dan
