COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY!Written by: Mike in DADate posted: 9/15/2010
FROM THE MAILBAG:
The first one is from Anonymous:
"It would be nice if HMW can address some of the questions in the mailbag. I like the feature, but I would like to see HMW address them. I wonder if HMW gravitates more towards the negative because you are listening too much or are these guys really that bad. It's similar to being a police officer or prison guard, if you are dealing with the scum of the earth over a certain period of time, it's common to look at everyone as scum through your prism. The truth of the matter is, you guys are diehard listeners but you are the minority. These guys will continue to dumb down sports to attract more listeners, it will get worse before it gets better.
Unlike your other commentors, I will end by saying I love the direction of HMW and I agree with everything you say because all of this is subjective, so no one has the right answer to any of this. Keep up the good work guys." END.Reply to Anonymous:Thanks for the comments and hope you enjoy reading this "tired drivel" we write, whether you agree with it or not.When we had only one sports station with local hosts, the quality of Houston sports talk was pretty good. At SR 610, in my opinion, you had what was probably the best show in town with John and Lance in the morning and in the afternoon you had Charlie Pallilo with Rich Lord. (Rich Lord has gone downhill since then and you've read a lot about it here, especially from some readers.) So if you were a sports talk listener then, you had eight hours of solid talk and until recently, SR610 had Sporting News Radio for national shows.
I’m not going to review here anything we wrote over the last six months. All you have to do is go back to the beginning and browse through the articles or blogs or whatever you wish to call them and see our points of view.
Craig “Lesbo” Shelton launched the site in March in what we deemed as an environment of fierce, but respectful and professionally courteous sports talk radio. Acknowledging the sometimes critical commentary by the HMW writers towards the on-air hosts, we hope our true intent of being an effective tool to gage areas the stations are having success in their programming as well as areas of needed improvement, is appreciated. HMW is meant to be a valued "part of the solution and not part of the problem", regarding the maintaining of high quality sports and entertainment on our local airwaves." The second set of comments regarding the 9/12 Peanut Gallery is from Sam: 
"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!
Craig’s response to Sam:
"Sam, thanks for your comments. I'm not certain that I agree with your take fully, but I respect it nevertheless. Let me ask you this Sam, my man. The writers are like sportswriters, they write about what it is they hear/see, etc. I don't want them to start writing for effect and become sensationalist, so what would you like to see more or less of?
We’re open to sincere criticism or recommendations. We know we’re not perfect, but we do work hard to entertain and provide credible information. Not sure if you're aware, but the stations have all complimented us openly on air and via private e-mail and correspondence.
Now as for you calling us "tired". Well, clearly you don't know the members, but we'll be happy to meet you sometimes to discuss your comments over lunch. Thank you for your comments and please, please, let's do brunch? Please contact me at 832-731-2464 at your convenience." End.Further to Sam's comments, though we may be getting "tired", as he says, below are stats for our first six months through the first half of September. Please note the increase in readers/hits to the website:And as far as being "tired" is concerned, in the 9/12 PG besides the mailbag, there were comments about Chris Paul, the WNBA Finals, Thursday Night Football, "DA Mike on a Mobile", NFL TV blackouts, Reggie Bush's Heisman Trophy, shower discipline, PT Barnum, Loek van Mil, etc. The 9/13 article was dedicated to Ines Sainz. The Peanut Gallery blog jumps around from topic to topic, whether it's your cup of tea or not, and it does bring some informative stuff or angles that you may not hear on local sports talk. That's a wide variety of stuff and it's all not "tired", though I'm not sure what your definition of tired is. Maybe you meant "tireless".Reader Earlis responded to Sam:
"Sam you can call the '610 Shiner Whiner Line' baby. I would think your mom told you if you are not part of the solution then guess what you are part of the problem. For example, you can write an article about what you think and feel and get it published here. That's dialogue that's sharing, my brother. Okay, this site is not perfect. It is a work in progress. It's a blog man. The free enterprise system at work right here...and guess what, you can do the same thing. Open your own blogspot and try to be all that you can be. My guess is you are really just blowing hot air. If you want to be entertained get cable." END.
The following is from Bobby in Flint, MI.:
Mike can you explain your passion for high school sports? Just curious. Will Yates be a force this season? Will they lose more than 5 games? Who will be their local nemesis besides the local radio down there?
My reply to Bobby:
Hello to Flint, home of WTRX (Sports Xtra 1330), and thanks for asking about Yates. Since I don’t work, I have a lot of free time on my hands, especially in the winter months. Therefore, I jumped on the Yates bandwagon after I saw the exciting brand of basketball they played when Greg Wise became their coach three years ago. I am a self-proclaimed honorary Yates' alumnus, Class of ’59.
You can google “Yates High School Basketball” and read various stories about them, but you have to see them play in person to appreciate how they play. They are 96-4 with two straight Texas 4A Championships over the last three years. It could have been three, but they lost a 9-point lead in the last minute in the 2008 Regional Finals, when they stopped pressing, which allowed Wheatley HS to tie it and win the game in double overtime, 75-73.
Yates basketball is the most exciting basketball that I’ve ever seen and I’ve been following basketball since 1949 – pro, college, and high school.
This year’s team returns just three bench players from last season, as everyone else graduated. Kids have been lining up at the door to get in, but Coach Wise had to turn some away because there are a limited number of roster spots. Since I haven’t seen the new players on the team, I have no idea how well they’ll perform this season. Remember that last year’s team top players had played together since middle school. All I can tell you is that this year's team will have the proverbial “target" on its back and will inherit a 58-game winning streak and is untested, as many of them will be playing together for the first time.
The freshmen team is the team to watch though. They have six players from the Houston Select 8th Grade AAU National Champions attending Yates, including two 6'6" ninth graders who I expect will grow a little more.
As far as a local nemesis, local radio has learned their lesson and will respect them. Yates now is a nationally recognized high school basketball power. I wouldn’t be surprised if ESPN has them on a national game this season.
The first day of practice is Ocober 27: the first day of scrimmage is November 6; and November 15 is when the season starts.GO LIONS!!! DEREK JETER – A YANKEE FOR LIFE?
Last Thursday (9/9) on the Morning Show on 1560 KGOW, John Granato mentioned the fact that Derek Jeter will be a free agent this winter and the question was will Jeter be re-signed by the Yankees. However, the conversation didn’t go further than that and there were no phone calls on it, so this is what I would have said, if I had called in:
"Hi guys! Jeter is 36 and hitting about 50 points below his career average in a free-agent year. It will be interesting to see how he and the Yankees handle contract negotiations. Jeter was spectacular last year. He hit .334 with an OPS of .871 playing in 153 games at age 35. There is nothing to complain about in those stats no matter what his age.
This year, Jeter is indeed struggling, hitting .261 with an OPS of .695, as of 9/13. Never in his career has Jeter hit below .291 in a full season. So, the inevitable question will be: Is he done?
The Yankees have to assess that question plus determine what Jeter’s value to the franchise is on the basis that he is the only player who is "Derek Jeter". Since the days of Mantle and Berra, in the 50’s and 60’s, Jeter has been the single most important and valuable member of the Yankees.
Even though free agency has changed baseball since the 50’s and 60’s, I do not think that the Yankees can afford the PR hit that would come to them should Jeter go to another team, particularly if that other team happens to be the Boston Red Sox. The contract negotiations will be very interesting and will be one of the big off-season stories, especially if the Yankees don't win the World Series." END.
CAMBY BECOMES A FAMER!Last Friday, Marcus Camby was inducted into the UMass Hall of Fame. I see no problem here. Camby was one of the five greatest athletes to ever attend UMass (Julius "Dr. J" Erving is still #1). Camby's dealings with agents did cause UMass to vacate their 1996 Final Four appearance, but it should be noted that the money UMass gave back to the NCAA for that appearance was paid back to the school out of Camby's own pocket.I don't blame a poor kid falling into the clutches of an agent. I put the blame on the NCAA that makes millions off the sweat of poor kids like Camby while hypocritically extolling the virtues of amateurism and student athletes. Like I've said here before, all NCAA TV revenue should be taxed.
SUPERLATIVES GALORE IN THE NFL!
It's NFL time, so get ready for another season of pandering superlatives by TV and radio announcers broadcasting games featuring mediocre teams that are nonetheless loaded with "the best at his position" and "why he didn't make the All-Pro team is beyond me" stars.
The first game of the NFL season last Thursday (9/9) was in the first quarter when NBC's Cris Collinsworth went to the
superlative card.
Before that, have you ever been ticketed for driving 109 mph in a 55 zone? Probably not. But in December, Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings was. While speeding may not make you a bad person, it's strange behavior unless you're on a way to a fire or to the hospital.
Collinsworth called Peterson, "one of the finest young men you'll meet in the game." He might be right, just as long as Peterson's car doesn't ram yours on the highway.
So get ready to hear plenty of more superlatives again this season. THEY'RE BACK AND FUNNIER THAN EVER OR SO THEY THINK!1560 THEGAME’s comedic duo of David Nuno and Raheel Ramzanali who formerly teamed up on previous weekend shows, “The Scene” and “Game Time”, now have a daily evening show that airs Sunday through Thursday evenings from 7-11 PM with the exceptions of Tuesday (8-11 PM) when it follows “The Bob Stoops Show” and Thursday from 7-10 PM when it precedes “The OU Coach’s Show”, which will be on a tape delay.
If you’re a 1560 listener, you now have your own evening show. I tried to confirm the show times at the 1560 website, but it was not updated yet for the programming change. Please check with the station for the correct times. Also, please note that to accommodate the new Nuno-Ramzanali show, the Sunday “Vince Rachal Review” will be moved up an hour to 5-7 PM and "The Orange Slice" Dynamo show will move from Tuesday evening to Saturday morning at 9 AM. Once again, check the times.
Props to 1560 for increasing its local programming hours. Hopefully, for them it will work out, but as is usually the case they're going up against some good opposition on SR610, including Sunday and Monday Night Football and then the Rockets in October. ODDS AND ENDS!
1. Last weekend, the second longest winning streak in NCAA history came to an end. The Penn State volleyball team had won 109 consecutive matches over three seasons and finally lost a match to Stanford over the weekend. FYI – to save you some googling, the longest NCAA winning streak on record is the University of Miami men’s tennis team, which won 134 consecutive matches between 1957 and 1964.
2. The Under/Over on Jerry Jones shots per Cowboys' home telecast is 7 for this season.
3. The Green Bay Packers hadn't won a game in Philadelphia since 1962 when Vince Lombardi was coaching; they had gone 0-9 in the 48 years since their last victory there. On Sunday (9/12), the Packers broke that streak beating the Eagles on the opening week of the NFL season. Another streak bites the dust.
4. I am unemployed/jobless and have been so for going on a decade, so I spend a lot of time at home in front of a TV. I really miss World Cup Soccer and Little League now. And the reason is live sports on TV in the middle of the day. Seriously, do you really prefer watching the ninth re-run of SportsCenter on ESPN and a telecast of an ESPN Radio program on one of the other ESPN networks?5. There is a new NFL concussion guideline this season: A player can’t go back into the game if he experiences dizziness or disorientation: - "Dude, are you dizzy or disoriented?" - "No!"- "Great! Get back in the game. Whoa, big guy, the field’s that way."
6. The three-in-the-booth ESPN formula is back again this season. Mr. A calls the play, Mr. B reacts to the play, Mr. C reacts to Mr. B's reaction to the play. Next play, repeat the procedure. 7. Speaking of ESPN, Monday night's (9/13) Chargers-Chiefs game started at 9:15 p.m. K.C. time, on ESPN. That means spectators who stayed for the entire game probably didn't get home before 1:30 AM Tuesday morning. When Roger Goodell says, "It's all about the fans," he means fans of TV money.
8. And speaking of MNF, Kevin Harlan has replaced Marv Albert on Westwood One radio's national NFL broadcasts (heard here on SR 610). Harlan calls every play on radio as if it's the stretch run in the Kentucky Derby. Harlan is better on CBS's NFL telecasts, where you can see that he's hollering at nothing. When he's on radio, you can't really tell. Mike in DA
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