COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY!Written by: Mike in DADate posted: 9/7/2010HAPPY NEW YEAR TO HMW'S JEWISH READERS!YOUR FAVORITE HOUSTON SPORTS TALK PERSONALITY POLL: SEMI-FINALS – POLL #3 RESULTS!In HMW’s Poll #3 of the semi-finals of “Your Favorite Houston Sports Talk Personality Poll” that ended Tuesday (September 7), the results by percentage of total votes were:Matt Thomas (790) - 27%John Lopez (610) - 5%Adam Wexler (790) - 13%Ralph Cooper (1430) - 32%Kyle Kennedy (610) - 25%
From this group, Messrs. Cooper and Thomas will move on to the Finals.The Final round is now set and the field is as follows: Ralph Cooper (1430), John Granato (1560), A.J. Hoffman (97.5 FM), N.D. Kalu (610), Matt Thomas (790), and Lance Zierlein (1560).
Don’t forget to vote for your favorite guy. Please note that the two top vote-getters will then be voted on by the HMW staff and the personalities/program directors for the eventual overall winner.PROPS TO SAM AND JENNY AND SPORTS TALK 790!
Two of the hardest working sportswriters at the Houston Chronicle are Jenny Dial and Sam Khan Jr., but because they cover mainly high school sports, they don’t get the recognition like the others do. So HMW would like to recognize both of them for the excellent jobs they’ve been doing over the past five years or so in keeping us informed of local high school sports. Of course, if you listen to Josh Innes of SR610, you would believe that no one cares about high school sports.
Jenny Dial is originally from San Antonio and attended East Central High School there. She then went on to the University of Oklahoma where she got a BA in Journalism in 2005. Jenny also works for the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (Columbia University in New York) and works with high school and college journalism programs all over the world. She has been with the Chronicle since June 2006.
Sam Khan Jr. is a born and bred Houstonian who graduated from Cypress Falls High School (2000) and the University of Houston (2005). He then started started working for the Chronicle in 2005. Whenever I need information on high school sports, he’s my source.
Well if you care about high school sports, it’s not the Houston sports leader, but one of the followers (Sports Talk 790) that provides a high school football information show. Every Wednesday night 790 has the Houston Football Hour with Randy McIlvoy and Matt Malatesta with Jenny and Sam showing up as guests. In addition, on Thursday afternoons at 1:30 PM during the Matt Thomas Show on 790, Jenny and Sam alternate each week for a segment to preview the week’s local high school action. Then on Friday nights 790 broadcasts a game of the week in which Jenny and Sam contribute during pre-game, at halftime, and then after the game. Hopefully, Houston's local sports talk stations can use Jenny and Sam for show segments during the high school basketball season, but they're probably not wise enough to think about it. Right, Josh Innes. Nobody cares about high school basketball. Right!FROM THE MAILBAG:
This is what they’ve been saying about Charlie Pallilo of Sports Talk 790 (3-7 PM, daily). Names have been omitted to protect the innocent:
“Palillo is great by himself. He is the only sports radio show in this town that freakin’ talks SPORTS! He can come across as arrogant, but his opinions and reasoning are well thought out. Palillo is also very prepared for every show, unlike some of his counterparts on the other three stations.”
"Charlie Pallilo is smug and arrogant, but yet is the best in the city. Not afraid to challenge the local players and organizations from time to time. Was excellent working with Rich Lord when I moved here 9 years ago, and even better now. He does the best job with the NATIONAL sports scene as well.”
"...Kudos to 610 for giving updates on Praire View and Texas Southern in the Labor Day Classic. Hmm, when HMW speaks 610 listens. However, following N.D. (Kalu) and company, 610 continued to update us on the classic Barry pipes about Prairie View and Southern! Wrong game Barry. Southern University is in Baton Rouge and that game is yet to be played my brother. Texas Southern of Houston, Texas actually played the game in Reliant. He claimed he had expected more points. Actually he must have been relying on info from 15 or 20 years ago if he had read up he would know experts expected a defensive battle. Yes, the two teams are ranked high in black college polls. The thing is I have heard Barry mistake Texas Southern for Southern before in the past few months...aarrh! Come on Barry you are better than that. I noticed no one ever makes the correction...surely they know the difference for sure...." END.
And on Monday night's show, Barry came up with a new word, "puberescent", which he used to refer to his younger co-host, Shaun Bijani. Barry, you're getting old like me. The word is "pubescent", which means, "to reach puberty".
Please note that even the best commit flubs. Last Friday (9/3), Phil Mushnick of the NY Post wrote this: “Virginia Tech has worn maroon and orange since 1896 for 104 years."
Of course, a whole bunch of us e-mailed him to correct him or joke about his math. In Sunday’s column (9/5), Mush corrected himself by saying he was off by only 10 years.
I wish our local sportswriters and talkers would likewise be just as classy when they make mistakes and not make excuses or ignore the fact they misinformed or misremembered, as Roger Clemens would say. Many times I call in to the show producer correcting hosts, but I never hear the correction on air. When I e-mail a Houston Chronicle writer about a flub, they either don’t respond or blame it on the fact that they noticed it too late, as the paper was already going to print. Classless and probably clueless, also!NO ONE KISSES THEIR SISTER DURING EXHIBITION SEASON, SO HOW ABOUT ELIMINATING EXHIBITION GAME TIES!Near the end of Thursday night’s (9/2) exhibition game, the Houston Texans were moving downfield vs. Tampa Bay trailing by a score of 24-17 with under two minutes left. If the Texans scored a touchdown, which they didn’t, as they turned the ball over on downs, the score would have been 24-23, and they probably would have gone for the two-point conversion because no team wants to play overtime in the exhibition season.
Since no one wants to play overtime during exhibition games, why doesn’t the NFL just eliminate overtime, especially since most of the crowd is already in the parking lot or on the way home by the end of regulation time. Ties during the exhibition season woulkd be no big deal, since most people say that pre-season records don’t mean a damn anyway. Most say it’s how the team plays that counts in this case, not whether they win or lose.
Players and fans need overtime in an exhibition game about as much as they need the plagueDIAMONDS ARE A GIRL'S BEST FRIEND; SOMETIMES IT'S AN NFL PLAYER'S BEST FRIEND, TOO!You may have seen this cute story last week on ESPN. It showed some Miami Dolphins out on the practice field with rakes and on their hands and knees helping teammate, DE Kendall Langford, look for a 2.5-carat diamond earring that he lost at practice.
He said he forgot to take his earrings off before practice. Hey, if you are dumb enough to wear a 2.5-carat diamond on a practice day with a chance that you may forget about taking them off before practice, then you are probably dumb enough to need instructions on how to open a door.
What added to the challenge of the search is that the Dolphins have been practicing on two fields during training, so Langford and his small search party were spread across both practice areas. As of this morning, the uninsured earring was not found.
The defensive end would not disclose how much the diamond was worth. However, one of his teammates, Ryan Baker, described it as a "fat diamond." A local jewelry distributor told reporters that the diamond could be worth more than $50,000.
Langford should have done what Chad Ochocinco does. He purchases his "diamond" earrings at Claire’s where my 11-year old gets her costume jewelry. Ocho said nobody knows the difference. HOW ABOUT MLB GIVING US THE TRUTH ABOUT THE ATTENDANCE!
I was watching the MLB Network on Wednesday afternoon (9/1) when the network went to the late innings of the Dodger-Philly game. Vin Scully was calling the game. He announced that the paid attendance for that game was 37,080, but I have eyes, and every shot of the crowd from every camera angle told me that there weren’t more than 20,000 people in the stadium at most and there were probably closer to 10,000 than to 20,000.
It seems pretty clear from the news coming from the divorce proceedings of the McCourts (Frank and Jamie) that ticket sales are far more important to the Dodgers’ management than are fans in the seats rooting for the Dodgers’ almost non-existent playoff chances. Nevertheless, I really do wish that MLB teams would announce both the number of tickets sold for a game and the actual turnstile count, but I won’t hold my breath on this one.ONE GOLFER YELLS "FORE!", EVERYONE ELSE YELLS "FIRE!"I heard this story on SR610 last week, and checked out the story on the Internet about a golfer in California who took a swing and his club struck a rock. That generated a spark that landed in the dry grass nearby starting a 25-acre wildfire, which required 150 firefighters and a helicopter to extinguish. It was so easy, not only can a caveman start a fire with a rock, but now a golfer can. 
In a women’s tournament held two weeks ago (LPGA Safeway Classic in Oregon ), Juli Inkster was disqualified from the tournament when a TV viewer called in to someone in charge and reported a rules violation. What rule did she violate, you may ask?The alert TV viewer noticed Ms. Inkster swinging a club with a weighted donut on the club while waiting at one of the tees for the group in front to clear the hole. That is a violation; she was disqualified. It is OK to swing a club to stay loose on the course; it is even OK to swing multiple clubs to stay loose; it is instant banishment if you swing a club with a weighted donut on it. I am sure the golf goofs can explain the serious nature of this rule and how it is there to prevent a player from gaining a horrendous unfair advantage over other players who may have left their weighted donuts in the clubhouse. However, I prefer not to hear anything about that.
I know that in professional golf tournaments, there are rules officials all over the place at every hole. How did all of them miss this only to be shown up by a TV viewer with nothing better to do than blow the whistle?
WHY NOT FOUR HOURS OF THIS – IT”S ABOUT THE ONLY THING YOU CAN’T SCREW UP!
On Saturday night (9/4) on SR610, John Wesling and Joe O’Donnell who have not been that successful at hosting sports talk shows, decided in the last hour of the show to have a sports trivia hour. There were no prizes, but callers were asked to call in and answer a question. This idea is nothing new to sports talk radio, but is fun and could be successful if done right
They even concocted it as a competition where quiz host Joe also asked John questions alternately with the callers and they kept score – John vs. the callers. That idea was stupid, but it’s their show. Each one could have their own questions that they could alternately ask callers.
Since Joe got the questions out of a book or from the Internet, the chances of flubs are very low. Also by having a quiz, we’re not subject to many of their ill-informed opinions or the idle chatter among themselves.
If they were very selective in their questions, they could make it a very informative hour. As a matter of fact, I suggest they do this for four hours and they could add in some additional facts or information pertinent to the answer. For example if the answer is "Hank Aaron", they can give some facts about Hank, such as the teams he played on or a trivia fact that he and his brother Tommy have the record for the most homers by a MLB brother combination (755+13=768). There isn’t too much worthy sports information passed out to the audience by SR 610 and this would be a good start to inform for once. Of course, this research would take time and since these guys are too lazy to look up things even when they are on air, don't expect much from them before hand. Lazy is as lazy does. DIBBLE FIRING REVISITED!Last week, I mentioned here that Rob Dibble was fired from his TV color analyst job with the Washington Nationals. The firing resulted from remarks Dibble made on his Sirius Radio program. Speaking about Nats’ rookie, Stephen Strasburg, he said: “OK, you throw a pitch; it bothers your arm and you immediately call out the manager and the trainer? Suck it up, kid.”Since Stasburg is the Nats’ meal ticket for selling an average of 15,000 to 20,000 extra seats per home game when he pitches, Washington management was not very happy with Dibb’s comments. I do not want this to become a discussion on whether modern pitchers are more fragile than ones of a prior era nor do I want to debate the concept of pitch counts or innings counts.
The good news though is that people who watch Nats’ games on the local cable network – MASN (Middle Atlantic Sports Network for the acronym-challenged) - won’t have to listen to Dibble anymore. Dibble, known for being a loose cannon, is probably one of the top five most annoying radio/TV sports broadcasters around. Good riddance, at least for now.ROB COSTA NOW WITH 1560/SPORTING NEWS RADIO!
For you listeners of SR610, if you’re wondering why you don’t hear Rob Costa doing sports flashes or co-hosting on weekends there anymore, that’s because he now works down the dial at 1560 KGOW/Sporting News Radio. I’m sure Rob won’t be missed much at SR610. He’s a much better flasher than co-host anyway, as are most of the younger guys who work in sports talk. CRIER'S CORNER - FOR READING PURPOSES ONLYBelow are SR write-ups on games of local interest that are being played on Thursday and Friday: THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9MINNESOTA AT NEW ORLEANS*
The Vikings think that they won’t turn it over 5 times like they did in the NFC Championship Game at New Orleans. But Favre is 40 years old, coming off ankle surgery, and hasn’t had much in the form of a real training camp regimen or game action since then. The Vikings opened the 2009 season against awful Cleveland and Detroit, with Favre able to get away with handing off a lot (only 85 and 153 passing yards). This match-up, by comparison, seems like too much, too soon. The Saints have this nasty habit of moving the ball up and down the field against most defenses, forcing the opposing offense to give it all they’ve got. Although Minnesota’s defense held New Orleans to only 257 yards in the Title Game, you throw out those stats and start again. The Vikings also have an injury absence with WR Sidney Rice. Percy Harvin missed lots of pre-season time with migraines, and the reliable Chester Taylor is no longer coming in to spell Adrian Peterson. Favre might bump into one of the first- or second-year running backs behind the line and say ‘What the!?,’ as the ball pops out. NEW ORLEANS, 27-17.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10
UTEP AT HOUSTON*Revenge-mongers will be siding with the home Cougars in this Conference USA opener, because they can score big, because if UTEP can play defense, they sure haven’t shown it in recent seasons, and because UTEP is on so many road-kill menus. UTEP gained 581 yards in last season’s win, when Houston wasn’t playing hard enough after beating Oklahoma State and Texas Tech on consecutive Saturdays. Nevertheless, Case Keenum and his pals racked up 664 yards and 42 first downs in defeat. The Houston defense will attempt to lock down on the guy who killed ‘em last time, RB Donald Buckram (pictured), because if you let UTEP QB Trevor Vittatoe try to beat you, he usually won’t. HOUSTON, 42-26.WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE?THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9CENTRAL MICHIGAN at TEMPLE* (UNDER 48.5)Prospective Temple backers should not be too concerned that the their defense allowed Villanova to march up and down the field last Thursday night, on multiple drives that began in Villanova territory and repeatedly penetrated the red zone. Villanova is Temple’s neighbor, was 14-1 last season, winner of the 2009 FCS Championship Game. The MAC’s best defensive front will no doubt scheme it up better this Saturday against one of their own conference’s most experienced o-lines in a relative standoff that produces fewer points than expected, "under" the circumstances. Those circumstances also include Temple’s commitment to establishing the run with bell-cow RB Brandon Pierce, and CMU’s up-in-class move from Hampton in the opener, with a new coaching staff and new offensive linchpins who have big shoes to fill. TEMPLE, 17-6.MIKE IN DAHMWEmail: houstonmediawatch@yahoo.comBlog: http://www.houstonmediawatch.com/Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/lesbiancraigFacebook Search: Hmw SheltonUtube Search: HoustonMediaWatch
From this group, Messrs. Cooper and Thomas will move on to the Finals.
"...Kudos to 610 for giving updates on Praire View and Texas Southern in the Labor Day Classic. Hmm, when HMW speaks 610 listens. However, following N.D. (Kalu) and company, 610 continued to update us on the classic Barry pipes about Prairie View and Southern! Wrong game Barry. Southern University is in Baton Rouge and that game is yet to be played my brother. Texas Southern of Houston, Texas actually played the game in Reliant. He claimed he had expected more points. Actually he must have been relying on info from 15 or 20 years ago if he had read up he would know experts expected a defensive battle. Yes, the two teams are ranked high in black college polls. The thing is I have heard Barry mistake Texas Southern for Southern before in the past few months...aarrh! Come on Barry you are better than that. I noticed no one ever makes the correction...surely they know the difference for sure...." END. 
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