COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY! - MIKE IN DA - OCTOBER 4, 2010

COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY!

Wriiten by: Mike in DA
Date posted: 10/4/2010


THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

HMW is a little over six months old and our thanks go out to all of you who have checked out the website.

The number of visits to the website quadrupled from the second quarter of 2010 (140 per day) to the third quarter of 2010 (644 per day) and total visits through 10/4 are now over 74,000. Though my days of productivity may be numbered, HMW will be around for a while to continue to entertain and/or inform you.

THE BEST HITTER THAT I EVER SAW: TED WILLIAMS (HOWEVER, I NEVER SAW THE BABE)

In the 9/29 Peanut Gallery, there was a trivia question here and part of the answer was Ted Williams who in my mind is the best hitter that I ever saw.

We did not know about OPS (combined On Base Percentage plus Slugging Percentage) in the 40s and 50s, but today we know that an OPS of 1.00 is pretty good. Ted Williams played all or part of 19 seasons in the major leagues from 1939 until 1960. Only one time - in 1959 (at age 41) - was his OPS under 1.00 and his career OPS was 1.1155. If he were playing today and Scott Boras was his agent, it might take Bill Gates and Warren Buffet buying a baseball team to afford his contract.

However, the all-time OPS leader is Babe Ruth (aka "The Bambino", "The Sultan of Swat", "The Big Bam", "The Blunderbuss", "The Prince of Power", "The Wizard of Whack", "The Wali of Wallop", "The Rajah of Rap", "The Caliph of Clout", "The Wazir of Wham", "The Colossus of Clout", "The Maharajah of Mash", "The Behemoth of Bust", "The King of Clout", "The Colossus Of Crash", "The King Of Swing", "The Terrible Titan", "The Jovial Giant", etc., etc.) had a career OPS of 1.1636 and based on this stat plus his pitching ability will probably go down as the greatest MLB player of all time. Plus his legend is timeless. He's been dead for 62 years and almost every American knows of him.

FYI -the Top 40 hitters of all time are listed below through October 1, 2010, based on OPS:

+ - Indicates Hall of Famer. Bold indicates active player.

Rank Player (age) - OPS (OBP Plus SP)  Bats (Min. 3,000 PA)

1. Babe Ruth+ 1.1636 L
2. Ted Williams+ 1.1155 L
3. Lou Gehrig+ 1.0798 L
4. Barry Bonds 1.0512 L
5. Albert Pujols (30) 1.0511 R
6. Jimmie Foxx+ 1.0376 R
7. Hank Greenberg+ 1.0169 R
8. Rogers Hornsby+ 1.0103 R
9. Manny Ramirez (38) .9977 R
10. Mark McGwire .9823 R
11. Todd Helton (36) .9793 L
12. Mickey Mantle+ .9773 B
13. Joe DiMaggio+ .9771 R
14. Stan Musial+ .9757 L
15. Frank Thomas .9740 R
16. Larry Walker .9654 L
17. Jim Thome (39) .9635 L
18. Johnny Mize+ .9591 L
19. Alex Rodriguez (34) .9590 R
20. Lance Berkman (34) .9540 B
21. Jeff Bagwell .9480 R
22. Mel Ott+ .9471 L
23. Vladimir Guerrero (35) .9462 R
24. Ralph Kiner+ .9459 R
25. (tie) Ryan Howard (30) .9451
25. (tie) Lefty O'Doul .9451 L
27. Ty Cobb+ .9450 L
28. Dan Brouthers+ .9425 L
29. (tie) Chipper Jones (38) .9414 B
29. (tie) Willie Mays+ .9414 R
31. Shoeless Joe Jackson .9401 L
32. Hack Wilson+ .9399 R
33. Miguel Cabrera (27) .9393 R
34. (tie) Albert Belle .9333 R
34. (tie) Edgar Martinez .9333 R
36. Matt Holliday (30) .9314 R
37. Harry Heilmann+ .9300 R
38. Carlos Delgado (38) .9293 L
39. Hank Aaron+ .9285 R
40. Jason Giambi (39) .9284

Source: Baseball-Reference.com


PEANUT GALLERY'S "CALLER OF THE MONTH" FOR SEPTEMBER!

You've heard him go up against anybody who was willing to take him on over the air (see below vs. Manny). That would be "Longhorn" Scott, who for years has been a staple of the "John and Lance Morning Show", first on SportsRadio610 and now on 1560 KGOW.

Scott is one of the most-disliked callers to local sports talk, but that is part of his act, which is to get under your skin. But it does make him one of the most entertaining and funniest callers on the local airwaves. Callers like Scott are very few and far between.

HEY KID, YOU CAN'T BECOME A FLYERS FAN IF YOU DON'T LIKE FIGHTING!

NOW IT’S MANNY RUMBLING WITH “LONGHORN” SCOTT!

Everybody’s phone villain and September's "Caller of the Month", “Longhorn” Scott, mixes it up with Manny on 1560 KGOW. This call is from the beginning of the baseball season (4/14) and is about six minutes long: http://thegame.podbean.com/2010/04/14/manny-vs-longhorn-scott.


“HEY GUYS, IT’S MY TREAT”

One of the topics that was covered last week by almost all of the local sports talkers was the story of Dez Bryant’s high-priced dinner last Monday night at Pappas Bros. Steakhouse in Dallas. It was amusing, but more troubling than cute, and not necessarily the fault of Bryant.

In case you're not familiar with what I'm talking about, Bryant – who refused to submit to the rookie ritual of carrying the shoulder pads of veteran players in training camp — agreed to take his offensive teammates out to dinner when fellow wide receiver, Roy Williams, decided the team’s defensive players should also be wined and dined on Bryant’s dime, as well as PUP , IR, & practice squad players who wanted to go. Not surprisingly, the team overindulged, leaving Bryant a tab of just under $55,000, including gratuities (actually $54,896 per news reports). That is more than our country’s median annual household income, which in 2007, was $50,233 according to the Census Bureau.

I don’t know how many players actually went to the dinner, but assuming almost every player on the Cowboys went and the tab was almost 55 grand with tips, that's about $1,000 per man give or take. Figuring every guy ordered $100 to $200 worth of food since it was a high-priced steakhouse - most of this bill was for alcohol - figure a bottle of wine a man at $100 to $400 a bottle and it's pretty easy to see how the bill got so high and for those of you following along, I know that doesn't add up, but from what I read, every player did take an extra bottle home with him, which adds up.

Unfortunately, the story adds to the perception of out-of-touch athletes living for the moment, out of touch with reality and pissing away money they may need later on in life. Williams, who has had windfalls from both the Detroit Lions as the 7th pick in the 2004 NFL Draft and the Cowboys with a $54 million contract ($26 million guaranteed), has made his money. Bryant, with a five-year contract worth under $11.8 million with $8.5 million guaranteed as the 24th pick in the draft, has not.


This story highlights the excess in the lives of professional athletes at a time where it is least needed. The NFLPA wants no stories like this out there now, especially with the CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement for the acronym-challenged) in the news with the possibility of a lockout next season.

Bryant was admittedly in a no-win situation after refusing to carry Williams’ pads in training camp. Had he skipped out on this bill with his teammates watching, we can only imagine the outcry about him being a diva and a bad teammate. You have to blame Williams more than Bryant for this exercise in excess.

Memo to Bryant and future NFL rookies: Next time carry a player’s pads, even his minipads. Then you can use the $55K on hookers or drugs like the rest of your teammates or donate it to a charity if you’re not into sex and drugs. The lesson here is if you're a rookie or new on the job - listen to your elders and do what you're told even if that elder is an overpaid schmuck!

I hope all the Cowboys enjoyed the meal. Also, I hope they all had designated drivers to take them home or Commissioner Goodell might have not liked hearing about it.





PERFORMANCE ENHANCING DRUGS AT THE TOUR DE FRANCE? UNBELIEVABLE!!!

Another topic briefly mentioned this past week on some of the local sports talk shows was the report about world-class cyclist, Alberto Contador, who tested positive for a performance enhancing drug - clenbuterol, whatever the heck that is -  during the Tour de France.

If you heard or read about this, please tell me that you were not surprised even a little bit. And when you heard or read the reports that said his explanation for all this was that he accidentally ingested the drug by eating some food contaminated with the drug, please tell me that all you did was to nod your head to acknowledge that is precisely what you expected to read.

If any of the above surprised or shocked you in any way, you should go down to the district court in your county and immediately change your last name to “Maple” because you are a sap!

And if you believed the above story, then you will also believe the Pittsburgh Pirates have a bigger payroll than the NY Yankees  and that Michael Vick is the incoming president of PETA.





FLUB OF THE DAY!

It was a pleasure to be able to listen to sports events during the weekend on SR610 (Texas-OU, Stanford-Oregon, Texans-Raiders, Giants-Bears) instead of those weekend filler shows, which are poorly prepared for and of poor quality, hosted primarily by cheap labor, etc., etc. I hope during the basketball season, SR610 can fill in weekends with some college hoops when there’s no NFL games, UT hoops, or Rockets’ games. It beats poor quality sports talk.


It looked like I was therefore not going to get any flubs this weekend because I was listening to or watching college football and the NFL and heard no local sports talk. After the Texan game and before the NBC Sunday night game, I thought I’d check over at 1560 KGOW to see what was going on.

As Vince Rachal was out of town, the Nuno-Raheel Show was going on at 6:40 PM when I tuned in. I was sure that I could get a flub by 7:15 PM. At 6:41 PM, the siren went on as Raheel was giving NFL scores when he said the St. Louis Rams matched last year’s record of two wins. Since the Rams only won one game last year, they actually doubled last year’s win total.

Just in case, I misheard Raheel, during halftime of the Sunday night game, I put 1560 on again and at 8:53 PM Raheel repeated to guest, Sean Salisbury, that the Rams matched last year's win total. And guys, Salisbury does spell his name the same as the steak.



RECORDS ARE MADE TO BE BROKEN!



The last two weeks, the PG mentioned several times that after Ichiro Suzuki gets his 200th hit, it was necessary for his Seattle Mariners to lose 100 games, in order to make it the first time in MLB history that a player got 200 hits for a 100-loss team twice.

Well, Seattle lost their last five games of the season and ended up with a 61-101 record. In 2008, the Mariners had the same record while Ichiro was collecting over 200 hits for the eighth season in a row, which was the other time that this feat occurred for the Mariners.

AS A MATTER OF FACT, MLB ANNOUNCER DROPS “F” BOMB ON AIR!

Kevin Kennedy, who is a part-time TV analyst for the Tampa Bay Rays was trying to analyze a play in Saturday evening’s Rays/Royals game and tell the viewers what actually happened, but instead of saying "as a matter of fact", he said, "as a matter of FUCK(ed)" (http://thebiglead.com/index.php/2010/10/03/video-of-announcers-unfortunate-eff-up/).


COLLEGE FOOTBALL ANNOUNCER QUOTES OF SATURDAY, 10/2!:

"On this night, Mike Gundy is the man and he's got win #40." - Rece Davis

"From 2002-2008 he (Mark Richt) won over 10 wins a game." - Kirk Herbstreit


"JJ has not been dynamite lately." - Chris Fowler


"For Alabama, today is the first taste of true SEC athletic ability on both sides of the ball." - Kirk Herbstreit


"He didn't have enough yeast to rise up and make that catch." - Joe Tessitor

 "Clemson wins it for the homecoming queen." - Lee Corso


"Oh my goodness! A wide open Hankerson." - Dave Pasch


"He takes film with his cell phone at team meetings and his dad e-mails him back telling him what he did wrong." - Steve Martin


"Playing secondary is a lot like marriage." - Chris Spielman


"Both balls should have been thrown with a little bit of mustard." - Chris Spielman


"Dewayne Allen said he has a man crush on Antonio Gates." - Dave Pasch


"If he made that tackle, that wouldn't have been a touchdown." - Bob Griese


"To stop the DT, you have to chop his knees down." - Chris Spielman




MIKE IN DA

HMW

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