COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY
Written by: Mike in DA
Date posted: 3/2/2011
JANE RUSSELL (1921-2011)
EASY MONEY FOR TIGER!
Just when I began to feel sorry for Tiger Woods, I recently read that in 2008, after Tiger put his name on a new golf course and resort in Dubai, he was paid in excess of $55 million. That project not only hasn't yet opened, it has been abandoned.
A Middle Eastern business magazine, Arabian Business, which is based in the UAE (United Arab Emirates for the acronym-challenged), says they have seen documents showing that Tiger was paid $55.4 million to promote a Dubai golf resort that will likely never be built. It claims that a contract between Woods and a UAE developer called for Woods to be paid $26.5 million in 2006, to promote the Tiger Woods Dubai, a planned resort that would included a golf course, shopping, luxury villas, and mansions.
In August 2008, they signed an amendment that included another $29 million upfront payment, plus another $14 million to paid upon Woods' appearance at the grand opening. Three week later, Lehman Brothers collapsed, as has the Dubai real estate market.
All told, the $1 billion project would have paid Woods $98M in fees (almost as much as Tiger's lifetime earnings in prize money of $107M). Unfortunately, as mentioned above, the project was officially suspended last week and may never be revived.
BASKETBALL GAMES ON TV HAVE IT RIGHT, SO WHY CAN'T FOOTBALL GAMES!
Before a basketball game on TV, the starting lineups are posted on the screen. That makes a lot of sense. Why don't the networks post the starting lineups after the tipoff. That’s because it probably doesn’t make much sense.
Yet, all the networks wait until football games have begun to give the starting lineups. Does that make any sense?
MOCK THIS!
If you’ve been following the Peanut Gallery, you know how much of a waste of time that mock drafts are. Yet each year, tons of hours are spent on these by sportswriters, sports networks, and sports talkers, both national and local, especially for the NFL draft. Well, mock NCAA basketball bracketology is also a big waste of time.
My Webster defines “mock” as follows:
Noun – an act of ridicule or derision; one that is an object of derision or scorn; an act of imitation
Verb – to treat with contempt or ridicule; to imitate closely; mimic
Adjective – of, relating to, or having the character of an imitation
Adverb – in an insincere or counterfeit manner
With that in mind, on February 18, the NCAA held a mock selection seminar in a luxury hotel near the center of downtown Indianapolis for the media and twenty media members, conference representatives, and college basketball influencers gathered to seed the tournament just like it would be done on Selection Sunday.
Florida State vs. Gonzaga
Georgia vs. Butler
Texas Southern vs. Buffalo
Maine vs. Northwestern State
On Selection Sunday, I will compare the First Four above with the actual First Four and I will be impressed if they have more than one team correct in this utter waste of time and money.
You can check out the mockery at http://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/2011-02-22/method-madness and the entire mock seeding at http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/daytonflyers/entries/2011/02/18/ncaa_mock_tourney_field_comple.html.
CARIBBEAN JUSTICE IS SLOW!
Two months ago, I mentioned here that Orioles reliever, Alfredo Simon, was arrested for allegedly killing his cousin in the Dominican Republic. Down in the Caribbean, they do things slowly. No one hurries; deadlines are flexible; we’ll get to it when we get to it.
The prosecutor in this case said last week that he is waiting for the results of ballistics tests to decide what, if any charges are to be brought bring against Simon who is in jail without bail and therefore unable to attend spring training.
Once again, that seems perfectly like a reasonable and prudent stance for the prosecutor to take. Except the incident that took the life of Alfredo Simon’s cousin happened on New Year’s Day. On my calendar, that is two months ago. How long does it take to do a ballistics test?
PACMAN TO SERVE THE LAS VEGAS COMMUNITY!
Speaking of the slow pace of justice, we have a similar situation here in the US. Remember the PacMan Jones’ incident where he made it rain at a Las Vegas strip club; that action led to a fight and a shooting incident that left a security guard permanently paralyzed.
That happened on the NBA All-Star Game weekend in Las Vegas in 2007; that was four years ago for the mathematically-challenged. There is even video tape of the happenings that night; it is not as if Sherlock Holmes or Columbo had to be brought in to figure out what happened.
Just recently, Pacman received his sentence for that incident. Four years later, the judge ordered Pacman to perform 200 hours of community service in Las Vegas. Let me ignore the fact that 200 hours of community service in exchange for an incident involving gunfire and the paralysis of a bystander might seem pretty light.
Jones has never been a part of the Las Vegas “community” that he is now going to “serve”. The most likely way for him to comply with the court order will be for him to move to Las Vegas for a month or so. Of course, after he does his time talking to kids, cleaning graffiti, or whatever he is going to do, he is free to be a part of the Las Vegas community, including going to strip clubs which is how all this started four years ago. How the hell is this “punishment”?
THE NBA'S NOMADS
Speaking of Las Vegas, the Sacramento Kings reportedly are considering a move to Anaheim having been unsuccessful in getting a new arena or major changes to the current arena in Sacramento.
The fact that they are even pondering such a move means that David Stern and the NBA itself is still not ready to put a franchise in Las Vegas. The Maloof brothers who also own a hotel/casino in Las Vegas own the Sacramento Kings and the WNBA Sacramento Monarchs. If any franchise were ready to move to Las Vegas, it would have to be one owned by the Maloofs that just lost a referendum in its current venue to get a new arena.
Just so you do not lose track, the Anaheim Kings (or whatever new nickname will be), assuming the team moves south, were started as the Rochester Royals. In their reincarnation, they were the Cincinnati Royals, followed by the Kansas City-Omaha Kings, then the Kansas City Kings, and lastly the Sacramento Kings. Anaheim will be their sixth “home”; just a suggestion, but maybe they should be called the Anaheim Nomads.
SMIHT HAPPENS! BUT AT LEAST THE UNIFORM NUMBER IS CORRECT!
COOLEST SPORTS NICKNAMES: “BOOM-BOOM”
Today’s sports nicknames are terrible, such as A-Rod, L.T., and Bags. They are nothing more than a combination of a player’s first and last name. But nicknames haven’t always been so bad.
Here is another cool one from the past: “Boom-Boom”
Bernie Geoffrion, who played for the Montreal Canadiens in the 1950's and 1960's, had one of the coolest nicknames in all of hockey: “Boom-Boom”. The name comes from his thunderous slapshot which, although it cannot be proven, he claimed to have “invented” as a youngster while playing in junior hockey. At the very least, we can say that he perfected the shot and was one of the first to use it effectively.
ANOTHER GEOFFRION IN THE NHL
Speaking of “Boom-Boom” Geoffrion, while googling his name, I saw that the Nashville Predators had added Blake Geoffrion to their roster. I figured he was probably related to “Boom-Boom”, so I fired up Google to check it out. It turns out that Blake is a fourth generation NHL player.
Blake’s great-grandfather, Howie Morenz, and his grandfather, “Boom-Boom”, were both Hockey Hall of Fame players for the Montreal Canadiens. In addition, his father, Dan Geoffrion, played three seasons in the NHL with the Canadiens and the Winnipeg Jets.
Once again, information that you will find here and not on the local sports talk shows because they’re too fuckin’ lazy to do some work if it’s not handed to them on a platter.
FLUB OF THE DAY
John Granato on KGOW 1560’s Tuesday’s Morning Show (3/1) said that there are 117 NCAA Division 1A football teams. John must have gone back in a time machine when he was back in the good old days at SR610 in 2005 because that was the last time there were 117 Division 1A teams. Currently, there are 120 teams with the addition of three Sun Belt Conference teams since 2005 (Florida Atlantic, Florida International, andWestern Kentucky) .
On Tuesday’s Morning Show (3/1) on SR610, Mark Vandermeer and John Lopez wondered what it would be like if historical figures had the ability to “tweet”, so listeners texted in mock tweets. One came in from “Rosa Parks”. Mike Meltser’s response was, “What’s Rosa Parks?” I hope he went to the Google Express later on to find out what it is.
Carmelo Anthony did not exactly look so smart with a recent “Tweet”. After Denver Nuggets head coach, George Karl, said that Anthony’s less than full attention to defense sometimes frustrated Karl and teammates in Denver, Carmelo posted this tweet: “Damn, are u serious. Some people never seize to amaze me. Unbelievable.” From that tweet, it looks like Carmelo didn’t spend much time in freshman English class during his short stop at Syracuse University.
On the Sunday Afternoon Show (2/27) on SR610, since it was the day of the Academy Awards, following the commercial breaks instead of bumper music, they had sound bites from sports movies. In the one hour or so that I was listening, some of the flubs that I remember were:
Greg Koch calling one of the movies, “Chariots on Fire”.
Brien Straw saying that Marlon Brando’s “I could have been a contender” speech from “On the Waterfront” was made to Karl Malden. I called the producer (Brandon) and corrected them with Rod Steiger. They agreed and said that Karl Malden played the union boss. Wrong again. Malden was Father Barry. Lee J. Cobb played “Johnny Friendly”, the dockers’ union boss.
Brien couldn’t remember the name of the punk kid from the 1976, “Bad News Bears” flick (Jackie Earle Haley as Kelly Leak). He referred to him as “the guy”.
From the 1931 movie, “The Champ”, Brien identified the voice of Jackie Cooper as Ricky Schroder's (1976 version of “The Champ”). And from that movie, the guys weren’t sure if Wallace Beery or Noah Beery played the lead role.
And when the sound bite of Ronald Reagan came up from, “Knute Rockne, All-American” played, they were just silent and just went on with the show.
I then went out and missed the rest of the soundbites, but I’m sure there were some more flubs.
ODDS AND ENDS:
1. If the NBA’s Baron Davis didn’t have bad luck, he’d have no luck at all. Davis must have pissed off one of the Roman gods. He has been plagued by injuries throughout his career. After playing for the Charlotte/New Orleans Hornets for six seasons and the Golden State Warriors for three seasons, he signed with the LA Clippers in free agency with the idea that he and Elton Brand would play together. Brand, instead, signed on in Philly leaving Davis with the pathetic Clippers. Now, Blake Griffin has brought some excitement to the Clippers and put them on the proverbial map and Davis gets traded to the Cavaliers at the trade deadline. The Cavaliers are 11- 48 as of this morning.
2. Speaking of NBA guards, remember the fuss made over Ricky Rubio a couple of years ago around draft time? He was the European version of “Pistol” Pete Maravich; he was going to be a franchise player for someone in the NBA. When the Timberwolves drafted him, he refused to sign and remained in Europe . Rubio is now 21 years old playing for Barcelona
3. Back in November, the Peanut Gallery adopted Division III Hood College (Frederick , MD
4. The Saints last week released Jeremy Shockey, the NFL's most over-hyped "star" since Brian Bosworth. For some unexplainable reason, TV's NFL analysts took turns telling us how important Shockey is to the offense, yet there was very little evidence.
5. I read in the LA Times that some SF Giants’ fans were planning to charter a plane and fly a banner over Dodger Stadium on Opening Day hailing the Giants as World Champions. This shows why you just have to love rivalries in sports.
CRIER'S CORNER
BASEBALL IN THE SPRING!
For the handful of HMW readers that are on the Crier’s mailing list, the Crier will also be covering MLB (that stands for Major League Baseball for the acronym-challenged). That’s right. From Opening Day to the end of the regular season, 162 games for 30 teams. That’s a lot of stuff, and it will turn the dog days of July and August into the underdog days (or, favorite days) of July and August. If you thought baseball was getting dull and forgotten about, think again! It only has dull potential when there is no wager on the outcome.
For instance, on Monday (2/28), the Crier was taking a walk/jog and wanted to listen to the Matt Thomas Show on Sports Talk 790 in Houston, and instead heard the live broadcast of an Astros-Braves exhibition game. And it was only the second inning! Not good, unless you’re into being tortured. The Braves were leading, 6-0, at the time. About 1.5 hours later, the Crier got home and the game was still on in an Atlanta blowout. The announcers were talking about a player needing to develop and some other blah-blah-blah drivel. But the Crier knows how to cut through the bullshit and just hear what really matters – runs crossing or not crossing the plate.
You have to give MLB a lot of credit. They know that America loves boring stuff that they have become comfortable with. Every sportswriter in America has been writing that baseball is dead because of steroids and human growth hormone and whatever else these guys put in their bodies for the sake of better stats and more money. And every year moving forward, MLB sets attendance records. For the Crier’s followers, the Crier will be making MLB more interesting again!
BASKETBALL ACTION
Yesterday’s Record ATS: 6-2
W - DALLAS (-1.5) over PHILADELPHIA*
L - MILWAUKEE* (-8) over DETROIT
W - HOUSTON (+5.5) over PORTLAND*
W - CENTRAL MICHIGAN (-3) over TOLEDO*
W - NEBRASKA* (Pick ‘em) over MISSOURI
W - BOSTON COLLEGE (+6.5) over VIRGINIA TECH*
HORIZON CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT – FIRST ROUND
L - WISCONSIN-GREEN BAY (+5) over WRIGHT STATE*
W - DETROIT* (-4.5) over LOYOLA-CHICAGO
Cumulative Season Record ATS (excludes “pushes”): 427-274
Today’s Action (for reading purposes only):
NBA
GOLDEN STATE at WASHINGTON* (TOTAL UNDER 214)
Tough placement for this game for the Warriors. This will be the third game in four nights and they had to fly from Indy after losing by nine last night. The Wizards were far from disgraced when they gave Miami a game easily covering in Miami when John Wall had a double/double and "Slick Nick" Young popped for 38. WASHINGTON, 98 - 96
CHICAGO at ATLANTA* (TOTAL OVER 181.5)
This is a huge game for the Bulls because the next two games are against Miami and Orlando. Chicago rebounded from a loss to the Raptors by sending a message to the Heat, as they beat Miami on the glass by 14 rebounds. The Bulls are deep, talented and hungry. CHICAGO, 101 – 99
CHARLOTTE (+7) over DENVER*
Denver has had a day to rest since hosting Atlanta while the Bobcats flew in from Florida after a game with the Magic on Sunday. The Nuggets played well since life without Melo beating a depressed Celtics team and taking the Blazers to OT in the Rose Garden, as two new Nuggets, Danilo Gallinari and Wilson Chandler, combined for 50 points and 15 rebounds, but Gallo is out for at least a week. The Bobcats can defend and are scoring more, too. CHARLOTTE, 106 – 101
COLLEGE HOOPS
MEMPHIS (+1) over EAST CAROLINA*
Most thought there was no way nicked-up Pirates could get past UTEP. Wrong! But this is even more of a physical mismatch, and unless very young Josh Pastner is losing his motivational case with his young, talented group (again!), this should work. MEMPHIS, 72-68
MIAMI-FLORIDA* (+1) over MARYLAND
The Canes’ uncanny knack for fumbling close finishes disturbs, but Mary’s a distinct overration, remains a marginal Big Dance participant at best with their iffy defense, and their inclusion would largely reflect a generous affirmative-action gesture towards the ‘way-down ACC. MIAMI-FLORIDA, 73-70
RUTGERS (-3.5) over DEPAUL*
Blue Demons’ player (no exaggeration), sizzling frosh sharpshooter Cleveland Melvin, is out for the season with a severe thumb sprain. Given Oliver Purnell’s preferred uptempo game, that leaves door wide open for Scarlet Knights to take another step forward to hang up a convincing road win versus foe without meaningful alternative weaponry. RUTGERS, 75-66
MISSISSIPPI STATE (+6) over ARKANSAS*
Both sides boast recent nifty upsets on their dance cards – but every at-least-decent SEC team owns a home win over Kentucky this campaign, while Bulldogs reached out to snatch huge-underdog W in Vol country. Marked additional desperation lay with visitor, who actually maintains a legitimate shot for second place in the SEC West and some kind of postseason viability, since win would leave them at 16-13, going forward. And they’re one helluva just-over-.500 team, with crack PG Dee Bost and hulking interior presence Renardo Sidney, provided Sidney stays out of foul trouble – and no matter how little active defense he may actually contribute,his sheer presence in the interior makes a considerable difference. MISSISSIPPI STATE, 69-68
CAL-RIVERSIDE* (+8) over LONG BEACH STATE
Beach boys will be sittin’ and rockin’ in regular-season Big West finale while awaiting commencement of Big West tourney, eight days hence. Riverside doesn’t have top talent, to be sure, but they’ve been in there pitching, and they’re the recipient of the highest home-dog number anyone’s caught, this Big West season. We’re happy to find ourselves on the receiving end of market extremes, on select occasions. LONG BEACH STATE, 70-66
NEW MEXICO STATE* (+7) over UTAH STATE
A healthy NMS outfit, catching a touchdown on their home floor, on national cable (De Deuce!). Sign us up, because home side’s surface record has suffered from their not being healthy for lengthy periods, all year, and circumstances are much better now in that department and should this talented visitor fail to go to the Big Dance, if they don’t win the WAC tournament, they’ll have been robbed. Visitor’s absolutely real, but home side will want this more, and won’t go quietly. UTAH STATE, 66-65
MIKE IN DA
HMW
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COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY
Written by: Mike in DA
Date posted: 3/2/2011
JANE RUSSELL (1921-2011)
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| "THE OUTLAW" (1943) |
 |
| "THE PALEFACE" (1948) |
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| REST IN PEACE |
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| "GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES" (1953) |
LEBRON IS GOING TO MAKE A MENTAL NOTE OF THE NEW YORK POST'S LACK OF RESPECT FOR HIM AFTER A LOSS TO THE KNICKS!
EASY MONEY FOR TIGER!
Just when I began to feel sorry for Tiger Woods, I recently read that in 2008, after Tiger put his name on a new golf course and resort in Dubai, he was paid in excess of $55 million. That project not only hasn't yet opened, it has been abandoned.
In August 2008, they signed an amendment that included another $29 million upfront payment, plus another $14 million to paid upon Woods' appearance at the grand opening. Three week later, Lehman Brothers collapsed, as has the Dubai real estate market.
All told, the $1 billion project would have paid Woods $98M in fees (almost as much as Tiger's lifetime earnings in prize money of $107M). Unfortunately, as mentioned above, the project was officially suspended last week and may never be revived.
BASKETBALL GAMES ON TV HAVE IT RIGHT, SO WHY CAN'T FOOTBALL GAMES!
Before a basketball game on TV, the starting lineups are posted on the screen. That makes a lot of sense. Why don't the networks post the starting lineups after the tipoff. That’s because it probably doesn’t make much sense.
Yet, all the networks wait until football games have begun to give the starting lineups. Does that make any sense?
MOCK THIS!
My Webster defines “mock” as follows:
Noun – an act of ridicule or derision; one that is an object of derision or scorn; an act of imitation
Verb – to treat with contempt or ridicule; to imitate closely; mimic
Adjective – of, relating to, or having the character of an imitation
Adverb – in an insincere or counterfeit manner
With that in mind, on February 18, the NCAA held a mock selection seminar in a luxury hotel near the center of downtown Indianapolis for the media and twenty media members, conference representatives, and college basketball influencers gathered to seed the tournament just like it would be done on Selection Sunday.
Among the participants were CBS and SI.com’s Seth Davis, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi, Colonial Athletic Association deputy commissioner Ron Bertovich (a former Atlantic 10 commish), Sports Illustrated’s Andy Glockner, the Houston Chronicle’s Jeffrey Martin, Conference USA’s Chris Woolard, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference’s Ken Taylor, CBS Sports’ Steve Scheer, the Big East Conference’s Tom Odjakjian, the Big Ten Network’s Mike Hall, the Dallas Morning News’ Kate Hairopoulos, Yahoo Sports’ Jason King and HoopsReport.com’s Ryan Feldman.
Below are the matchups that the above group of journalists and college athletic administrators came up with for the opening-round NCAA games, aka “First Four”:
Florida State vs. Gonzaga
Georgia vs. Butler
Texas Southern vs. Buffalo
Maine vs. Northwestern State
On Selection Sunday, I will compare the First Four above with the actual First Four and I will be impressed if they have more than one team correct in this utter waste of time and money.
You can check out the mockery at http://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/2011-02-22/method-madness and the entire mock seeding at http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/daytonflyers/entries/2011/02/18/ncaa_mock_tourney_field_comple.html.
The prosecutor in this case said last week that he is waiting for the results of ballistics tests to decide what, if any charges are to be brought bring against Simon who is in jail without bail and therefore unable to attend spring training.
PACMAN TO SERVE THE LAS VEGAS COMMUNITY!
Just recently, Pacman received his sentence for that incident. Four years later, the judge ordered Pacman to perform 200 hours of community service in Las Vegas. Let me ignore the fact that 200 hours of community service in exchange for an incident involving gunfire and the paralysis of a bystander might seem pretty light.
THE NBA'S NOMADS
Speaking of Las Vegas, the Sacramento Kings reportedly are considering a move to Anaheim having been unsuccessful in getting a new arena or major changes to the current arena in Sacramento.
The fact that they are even pondering such a move means that David Stern and the NBA itself is still not ready to put a franchise in Las Vegas. The Maloof brothers who also own a hotel/casino in Las Vegas own the Sacramento Kings and the WNBA Sacramento Monarchs. If any franchise were ready to move to Las Vegas, it would have to be one owned by the Maloofs that just lost a referendum in its current venue to get a new arena.
Just so you do not lose track, the Anaheim Kings (or whatever new nickname will be), assuming the team moves south, were started as the Rochester Royals. In their reincarnation, they were the Cincinnati Royals, followed by the Kansas City-Omaha Kings, then the Kansas City Kings, and lastly the Sacramento Kings. Anaheim will be their sixth “home”; just a suggestion, but maybe they should be called the Anaheim Nomads.
SMIHT HAPPENS! BUT AT LEAST THE UNIFORM NUMBER IS CORRECT!
COOLEST SPORTS NICKNAMES: “BOOM-BOOM”
Today’s sports nicknames are terrible, such as A-Rod, L.T., and Bags. They are nothing more than a combination of a player’s first and last name. But nicknames haven’t always been so bad.
Here is another cool one from the past: “Boom-Boom”
ANOTHER GEOFFRION IN THE NHL
Speaking of “Boom-Boom” Geoffrion, while googling his name, I saw that the Nashville Predators had added Blake Geoffrion to their roster. I figured he was probably related to “Boom-Boom”, so I fired up Google to check it out. It turns out that Blake is a fourth generation NHL player.
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| Great grandpa Howie |
Once again, information that you will find here and not on the local sports talk shows because they’re too fuckin’ lazy to do some work if it’s not handed to them on a platter.
FLUB OF THE DAY
John Granato on KGOW 1560’s Tuesday’s Morning Show (3/1) said that there are 117 NCAA Division 1A football teams. John must have gone back in a time machine when he was back in the good old days at SR610 in 2005 because that was the last time there were 117 Division 1A teams. Currently, there are 120 teams with the addition of three Sun Belt Conference teams since 2005 (Florida Atlantic, Florida International, and
Carmelo Anthony did not exactly look so smart with a recent “Tweet”. After Denver Nuggets head coach, George Karl, said that Anthony’s less than full attention to defense sometimes frustrated Karl and teammates in Denver, Carmelo posted this tweet: “Damn, are u serious. Some people never seize to amaze me. Unbelievable.” From that tweet, it looks like Carmelo didn’t spend much time in freshman English class during his short stop at Syracuse University.
On the Sunday Afternoon Show (2/27) on SR610, since it was the day of the Academy Awards, following the commercial breaks instead of bumper music, they had sound bites from sports movies. In the one hour or so that I was listening, some of the flubs that I remember were:
Greg Koch calling one of the movies, “Chariots on Fire”.
Brien couldn’t remember the name of the punk kid from the 1976, “Bad News Bears” flick (Jackie Earle Haley as Kelly Leak). He referred to him as “the guy”.
And when the sound bite of Ronald Reagan came up from, “Knute Rockne, All-American” played, they were just silent and just went on with the show.
I then went out and missed the rest of the soundbites, but I’m sure there were some more flubs.
ODDS AND ENDS:
5. I read in the LA Times that some SF Giants’ fans were planning to charter a plane and fly a banner over Dodger Stadium on Opening Day hailing the Giants as World Champions. This shows why you just have to love rivalries in sports.
CRIER'S CORNER
BASEBALL IN THE SPRING!
For the handful of HMW readers that are on the Crier’s mailing list, the Crier will also be covering MLB (that stands for Major League Baseball for the acronym-challenged). That’s right. From Opening Day to the end of the regular season, 162 games for 30 teams. That’s a lot of stuff, and it will turn the dog days of July and August into the underdog days (or, favorite days) of July and August. If you thought baseball was getting dull and forgotten about, think again! It only has dull potential when there is no wager on the outcome.
For instance, on Monday (2/28), the Crier was taking a walk/jog and wanted to listen to the Matt Thomas Show on Sports Talk 790 in Houston, and instead heard the live broadcast of an Astros-Braves exhibition game. And it was only the second inning! Not good, unless you’re into being tortured. The Braves were leading, 6-0, at the time. About 1.5 hours later, the Crier got home and the game was still on in an Atlanta blowout. The announcers were talking about a player needing to develop and some other blah-blah-blah drivel. But the Crier knows how to cut through the bullshit and just hear what really matters – runs crossing or not crossing the plate.
You have to give MLB a lot of credit. They know that America loves boring stuff that they have become comfortable with. Every sportswriter in America has been writing that baseball is dead because of steroids and human growth hormone and whatever else these guys put in their bodies for the sake of better stats and more money. And every year moving forward, MLB sets attendance records. For the Crier’s followers, the Crier will be making MLB more interesting again!
BASKETBALL ACTION
Yesterday’s Record ATS: 6-2
W - DALLAS (-1.5) over PHILADELPHIA*
L - MILWAUKEE* (-8) over DETROIT
W - HOUSTON (+5.5) over PORTLAND*
W - CENTRAL MICHIGAN (-3) over TOLEDO*
W - NEBRASKA* (Pick ‘em) over MISSOURI
W - BOSTON COLLEGE (+6.5) over VIRGINIA TECH*
HORIZON CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT – FIRST ROUND
L - WISCONSIN-GREEN BAY (+5) over WRIGHT STATE*
W - DETROIT* (-4.5) over LOYOLA-CHICAGO
Cumulative Season Record ATS (excludes “pushes”): 427-274
Today’s Action (for reading purposes only):
NBA
GOLDEN STATE at WASHINGTON* (TOTAL UNDER 214)
Tough placement for this game for the Warriors. This will be the third game in four nights and they had to fly from Indy after losing by nine last night. The Wizards were far from disgraced when they gave Miami a game easily covering in Miami when John Wall had a double/double and "Slick Nick" Young popped for 38. WASHINGTON, 98 - 96
CHICAGO at ATLANTA* (TOTAL OVER 181.5)
This is a huge game for the Bulls because the next two games are against Miami and Orlando. Chicago rebounded from a loss to the Raptors by sending a message to the Heat, as they beat Miami on the glass by 14 rebounds. The Bulls are deep, talented and hungry. CHICAGO, 101 – 99
CHARLOTTE (+7) over DENVER*
Denver has had a day to rest since hosting Atlanta while the Bobcats flew in from Florida after a game with the Magic on Sunday. The Nuggets played well since life without Melo beating a depressed Celtics team and taking the Blazers to OT in the Rose Garden, as two new Nuggets, Danilo Gallinari and Wilson Chandler, combined for 50 points and 15 rebounds, but Gallo is out for at least a week. The Bobcats can defend and are scoring more, too. CHARLOTTE, 106 – 101
COLLEGE HOOPS
MEMPHIS (+1) over EAST CAROLINA*
Most thought there was no way nicked-up Pirates could get past UTEP. Wrong! But this is even more of a physical mismatch, and unless very young Josh Pastner is losing his motivational case with his young, talented group (again!), this should work. MEMPHIS, 72-68
MIAMI-FLORIDA* (+1) over MARYLAND
The Canes’ uncanny knack for fumbling close finishes disturbs, but Mary’s a distinct overration, remains a marginal Big Dance participant at best with their iffy defense, and their inclusion would largely reflect a generous affirmative-action gesture towards the ‘way-down ACC. MIAMI-FLORIDA, 73-70
RUTGERS (-3.5) over DEPAUL*
Blue Demons’ player (no exaggeration), sizzling frosh sharpshooter Cleveland Melvin, is out for the season with a severe thumb sprain. Given Oliver Purnell’s preferred uptempo game, that leaves door wide open for Scarlet Knights to take another step forward to hang up a convincing road win versus foe without meaningful alternative weaponry. RUTGERS, 75-66
MISSISSIPPI STATE (+6) over ARKANSAS*
Both sides boast recent nifty upsets on their dance cards – but every at-least-decent SEC team owns a home win over Kentucky this campaign, while Bulldogs reached out to snatch huge-underdog W in Vol country. Marked additional desperation lay with visitor, who actually maintains a legitimate shot for second place in the SEC West and some kind of postseason viability, since win would leave them at 16-13, going forward. And they’re one helluva just-over-.500 team, with crack PG Dee Bost and hulking interior presence Renardo Sidney, provided Sidney stays out of foul trouble – and no matter how little active defense he may actually contribute,his sheer presence in the interior makes a considerable difference. MISSISSIPPI STATE, 69-68
CAL-RIVERSIDE* (+8) over LONG BEACH STATE
Beach boys will be sittin’ and rockin’ in regular-season Big West finale while awaiting commencement of Big West tourney, eight days hence. Riverside doesn’t have top talent, to be sure, but they’ve been in there pitching, and they’re the recipient of the highest home-dog number anyone’s caught, this Big West season. We’re happy to find ourselves on the receiving end of market extremes, on select occasions. LONG BEACH STATE, 70-66
NEW MEXICO STATE* (+7) over UTAH STATE
A healthy NMS outfit, catching a touchdown on their home floor, on national cable (De Deuce!). Sign us up, because home side’s surface record has suffered from their not being healthy for lengthy periods, all year, and circumstances are much better now in that department and should this talented visitor fail to go to the Big Dance, if they don’t win the WAC tournament, they’ll have been robbed. Visitor’s absolutely real, but home side will want this more, and won’t go quietly. UTAH STATE, 66-65
MIKE IN DA
HMW
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