COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY - MIKE IN DA

COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY

Written by: Mike in DA
Date posted: 3/19/2011

THE MILAN VS. BARI SOCCER WARMUPS ARE MORE FUN THAN THE ACTUAL GAME

 

TWEET THIS!

The insincere public "apology" had another big week.

Most of us heard of comic, Gilbert Gottfried, losing his job as the voice of the Aflac duck after he chose the Japan earthquake/tsunami to Tweet "jokes."


Dumbass Gilbert issued this "apology": "I sincerely apologize to anyone who was offended at my attempt at humor regarding the tragedy in Japan."

Then there was Ohio State football coach, Jim Tressel, having been caught and suspended for violations, who is another who "apologized" last week. He said to Buckeye fans: "I sincerely apologize for what we've been through."



These are modern-day apologies. I'm sorry that you've got a problem with me. I'm sorry if you were offended. I'm sorry this happened to us.

And now, I just read of another apology. Former Rutgers women's basketball player and current New York Liberty star, Cappie Pondexter, tweeted some stuff about the Japanese earthquake with some brutally hurtful, semi-literate thoughts on Japan and its people that I found in her Wikipedia entry (please note the grammatical and spelling flubs):


"What if God was tired of the way they treated there own people in there own country! Idk guys he makes no mistakes."


Then: "u just never knw! They did pearl harbor so u can't expect anything less."

Pondexter left Rutgers a year before the 2007 Don Imus racial trash-talk made the news. That was when Imus was talking about the Women’s NCAA Championship when he commented about the Rutgers’ players as "rough girls" and then described the girls as "nappy-headed hos”.


Soon after, the Rutgers’ women's program was nationally celebrated for its presumed dignity in matters of social sensitivity. Pondexter contributed her thoughts, condemning Imus and his crew as racist, women-haters, and just plain hateful.


Pondexter, this week, made "an apology" for her above tweets on the Japanese tragedy. She tweeted: "I wanna apologize to anyone I may hurt or offended during this tragic time. I didnt realize that my words could be interpreted in the manner which they were people that know me would tell u 1st hand im a very spiritual person and believe that everything, even disasters happen 4 a reason and that god will shouldn't be questioned. But this is a very sensitive subject at a very tragic time and I shouldnt even have given a reason for the choice of words I used."


Her team, the Liberty then released a statement: "We have spoken with Cappie and the content of that conversation will remain internal. She made a mistake and quickly apologized for that mistake. We will have no further comment."

That was an apology? She only apologized to "anyone I may hurt or offended." She didn't apologize for tweeting offensive thoughts, but only to those folks who were offended. Then she blamed others for misinterpreting what she tweeted. Finally, she hid behind the Lord. And given that she's a "very spiritual person" don't take it up with her, take it up with God.


That apology is almost as offensive as her original tweet thoughts.


Let's hear it for technology! When I was growing up, tasteless jokes, and indecent and obscene comments used to get passed around from person to person. Now, every idiot has an electronic soapbox. Which is worse, those with the electronic soapboxes or the ones who follow their every moronic comment?

Not only that, then there's someone like Pondexter, who can't spell or construct a proper sentence and showing her ignorance to possibly thousands of people. What was she doing in college?



COOLEST SPORTS NICKNAMES: "SATCHEL"

Today’s sports nicknames are terrible, such as A-Rod, K-Rod, and MJ. 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: “Satchel”.

Leroy “Satchel” Paige was a guy blessed with huge feet that resembled a satchel or suitcase. Leroy Paige carried his alternate identity whether he liked it or not.

He pitched in the Negro Leagues from 1927-1947 and was the oldest rookie to play Major League Baseball at the age of 42 when he joined the Cleveland Indians in 1948. Maybe being in the Hall of Fame overshadows a goofy nickname just a bit.







CHRONICLE "EXPERTS" MAKE THEIR PICKS!

So that’s what the Houston Chronicle calls them, “experts”. My Webster’s says an expert is “one who has acquired special skill in or knowledge of a particular subject”.


Columnists Richard Justice and Jerome Solomon and staff writers Jeffrey Martin and Kevin Pender in Tuesday’s Chronicle (3/15) gave their Sweet 16, Final Four, and National Champion selections for the Men's NCAA Tournament. Below are their Final Four and champion selections:


Justice: Ohio State, Texas, Kansas (champ), Pittsburgh
Solomon: Ohio State (champ), Duke, Kansas, Florida
Martin: Syracuse, Texas, Purdue, Pittsburgh (champ)
Pender: Ohio State (champ), San Diego State, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh

The PG will keep track of how the bracket “experts” are doing over the next two weeks.

BRACKET BUSTER!

The Crier is no "expert" in bracket busting and doesn't waste his time with it, but it was suggested here in Wednesday's (3/16) "March Madness" posts that if you used the Crier's ratings for the teams in your "bracket" pool, you probably won't win, but you'll probably still be in the hunt by next weekend. 

In the First Round (Tuesday and Wednesday), the Crier was perfect with the four winners.

In the Second Round (Thursday and Friday), the Crier was 26 for 32, with the losers being Penn State, Louisville, Texas A&M, Xavier, Georgetown, and Georgia.

The Crier has 15 of his "Sweet Sixteen" teams left (Louisville the lone loser so far), and his Final Four are Ohio State, San Diego State, Kansas, and Wisconsin with Kansas being the highest rated. 

FOX SPORTS TO AIR DOCUMENTARY ON FORMER MICHIGAN SIXTH MAN ROB PELINKA



March 19 (SP) - Fox Sports Net will air the documentary “Pelinka Chips In” on Wednesday night about former Michigan Wolverines' bench player, Rob Pelinka, who was the team’s sixth man during its “Fab Five” era. The network is hoping the hour-long, hastily-produced documentary could piggyback off the success of ESPN’s "Fab Five" documentary.

“We plan to run the Pelinka documentary a lot,” said Fox Sports chairman David Hill. “A few times a night at first and pretty much constantly during the middle of the night. And then, later on, whenever your hometown baseball team has a rain delay, the local FSN affiliate will get Pelinka. Between all that and DVD sales, I think we’ll definitely recoup the $300 we spent making the documentary.”

The largest portion of “Pelinka Chips In” focuses on the one time the Fab Five players - Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King, and Ray Jackson - invited Pelinka to a party in 1991.


“It was like I had arrived. They were welcoming me as one of their own,” Pelinka reminisces on the documentary, filmed with a cell phone. “It turns out they just had me there to man the keg, but still! Me, Rob Pelinka, at the same party as the Fab Five!”


The remaining 48 minutes of the documentary is just the narrator asking Pelinka if he has any “cool stories about the Fab Five” or if he has any of their phone numbers. Pelinka insists that he does not have their numbers, which is probably true.

FYI - Pelinka graduated from the University of Michigan Law School and as a sports agent is the President and CEO of Landmark Sports Agency, LLC. Rob is best known as Kobe Bryant’s agent and some of his other clients are Corey Magette, Carlos Boozer, Derek Fisher, Andre Iguodala, Ed Davis, and Wesley Johnson.

ODDS AND ENDS:

1. A TNT graphic during the Temple-Penn State game on Thursday (3/17) noted that Fran Dunphy is a graduate of LaSalle, has his Masters Degree from Villanova, coached Penn, and now coaches Temple. Color commentator, Dan Bonner, said that the only Big Five thing left for him is "to become the AD at St. Joe's."

2. It seems baseball broadcasters are no longer allowed to refer to big innings when three or more runs are scored as "big innings”. They now must say that a team "put up a crooked number." That one has spread like a plague, a "walk-off" plague.

CRIER’S CORNER



BASKETBALL ACTION


Yesterday’s Record ATS: 10-4


W - MIAMI (-4.5) over ATLANTA*
W -OKLAHOMA CITY* (-9.5) over CHARLOTTE
W - PHOENIX* (-5) over GOLDEN STATE
L - SACRAMENTO* (+5) over PHILADELPHIA


Quicken Loans Arena – Cleveland, OH
W - GEORGE MASON (+1) over VILLANOVA
L - XAVIER (-2) over MARQUETTE


Time-Warner Cable Arena – Charlotte, NC
W - GEORGIA (+5.5) over WASHINGTON
W - LONG ISLAND U. (+18) over NORTH CAROLINA
W - MICHIGAN (+2) over TENNESSEE


United Center – Chicago, IL
W - PURDUE (-14) over ST. PETER’S
L - TEXAS A&M (-1) over FLORIDA STATE
L - NOTRE DAME vs. AKRON (TOTAL OVER 136)

NIT
W - COLORADO* (-6) over CALIFORNIA

CIT
W - AIR FORCE at SANTA CLARA* (Over 131.5)


Cumulative Season Record ATS (excludes “pushes”): 542-325



Today’s Action (for reading purposes only):

NBA


LA CLIPPERS* (-12.5) over CLEVELAND
This is a daytime game, so Cleveland ought to love that – reverting back to daytime after being out on the West Coast all week. Revenge for the Clippers, who became the team that lost to Cleveland to end Cleveland’s long, long, long losing streak. That was a fifth straight road game for them, coming off a win in New York. Guard Eric Gordon and center Chris Kaman were inactive for it. Cleveland starts two undrafted players in the front court: Samardo Samuels and Alonzo Gee. Mo Williams was their point guard when they beat the Clippers. Mo now plays for the Clippers and Cleveland got malcontent, Baron Davis, in that deal to help drag them down farther than they already were. Davis will probably find a reason not to play today. Word is that Gordon will find a reason to play for the Clippers, and they’ve had Kaman back for a while now. LA CLIPPERS, 105-87


MEMPHIS* (-9) over INDIANA
Kevin Love has made history this year with his double/double binge, but a little known fact is that the Grizzlies' Zach Randolph has been racking up 20 points a game to go along with his 13 off the glass nightly. Both teams have something to play for, as they are both tying to hold on to the final playoff spot and sneak into the post season. MEMPHIS, 105 – 90


COLLEGE HOOPS

NCAA

St. Pete Times Forum -- Tampa, FL 
UCLA (+5) over FLORIDA


Verizon Center – Washington, DC
BUTLER (+8) over PITTSBURGH
CINCINNATI (+3) over CONNECTICUT


Pepsi Center – Denver, CO
GONZAGA (-1.5) over BYU


NIT
NORTHWESTERN (+4) over BOSTON COLLEGE*


CIT
BUFFALO (+1) over WESTERN MICHIGAN*



MIKE IN DA


HMW