COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY (X-RATED)
Written by: Mike in DA
Date posted: 3/30/2011
NO WONDER SHAWN MARION TAKES SUCH A WEIRD LOOKING SHOT; CHECK OUT HIS PINKY!
AND THESE GUYS WANT TO MAKE US THINK THEY KNOW A LOT!
Holy Shit! Jesus Christ! A Final Four with no #1 seed in it! But the local sports talkers on SR610, Sports Talk 790, KGOW1560 and 97.5 FM devoted so much early-March time to arguing about who should be and shouldn’t be #1 seeds! How could this be? How can life as we know it go on?
What a bunch of fuckin’ dorks. These so-called sports talkers waste so much time and energy talking about nothing. This is just another example of asshole-itis. They actually try to analyze the four regions to declare which #1 seed has the “easiest” path to the Final Four.
Like I've said many times before, there is no such thing! Match-ups materialize at a moment’s notice. One team can’t have an easier road than anyone else when they have no control over the next opponent they play!
Once again, after four-plus rounds, the Crier’s game-by-game, choice plays have beaten 99.9% of Bracket Boys, who will either break even or lose money. We count 28-12 ATS here overall. We do realize lines vary, but it’s a clear, winning record at any of the available numbers. Let the Bracket Boys have their dreams. We’ll take the money and run.
I remember what one of the Disney clowns, John Saunders, said, trying to hype an ESPN game during the last week of the regular-season game between Connecticut and Notre Dame.
Georgetown had lost earlier that day, and Saunders noted how the the Hoyas' loss was “huge” for UConn, because now all UConn had to do was beat Notre Dame to “lock up” a #8 seed and get an “all-important” first-round bye in the Big East Tournament.
It’s 2011, and locking up a #8 seed is deemed as “huge.” What a fuckin’ joke, right? When Connecticut lost to Notre Dame, Saunders of course said that it was a “huge” loss for the Huskies, because now they would have the near-impossible task of winning five games in five days in the Big East Tournament. You know, the Big East Tournament that no opposing coach of a good team would have his team cranked up to win because they could care less about it? So, naturally, UConn, after “blowing” that “huge opportunity,” went on to win five games in a row in the Big East Tournament, and currently another four straight in the NCAA Tournament. In reality, how “huge” was the game vs. Notre Dame? Not huge at all. It never was. Except that John Saunders of ESPN said it was, and a lot of people believe what they hear on television.
And you know what’s really hilarious? VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University for the acronym-challenged), now in the Final Four, had the worst 2010-11 record vs. the pointspread of any regular or added-board team heading into the 2010-11 NCAA Tournament! This was yet another classic, high-profile example of just how wrong it can be to take past results against the spread seriously. VCU was 13-20 (39.4%) ATS prior to playing USC in the “First Four” game. Now, the Rams are 18-20 ATS. And the Crier has been on their bandwagon just like last year when he was on the bandwagon during their CBI ride and enjoying every moment of the ride laughing all the way to the bank. Hahaha!
Sure, when VCU was laying close to double-digits or double-digits in conference games against the likes of Northeastern, Towson, Georgia State, NC Wilmington, and William & Mary teams that a) know them intimately and, b) are hard to get up for and, c) they can experiment against with greater goals in mind, they won by less than the spread. That’s how you get VCU as +5 to +11.5 underdogs against USC, Georgetown, Purdue, Florida State, and Kansas, and they cover the spread by 6 to 27 points! Hahaha!
NOMINEE #3: "FEEL-GOOD MOVIE OF
2011"
WHAT'S NADER'S RAIDERS RAIDING NOW?
Just as Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, has used the NCAA tournament to blame the poor graduation rate of athletes in each of the past two years, ignoring the role of government at many levels in producing high school graduates who are functionally illiterate, another political person chose last week to use the tournament as an excuse to get his name in the papers again.
The always cranky 77-year-old Ralph Nader must have felt that he had been out of the public eye for too long, so the dude issued a call to eliminate completely all collegiate athletic scholarships. The four-time losing Presidential candidate did not reveal just how he might enforce such a ban or what resources might have to be devoted to assure that such scholarships are never given again, but I am sure that he has an efficient and effective idea in mind here because like every other problem in the world, the root cause of the problem has to be the greed and the anti-social nature of large corporations.
In a Utopian kind of world, colleges would not be involved in sports that generate billions of dollars. Colleges would be institutions of higher learning and scholarship and colleges would not permit functional illiterates to be part of that academic community. That is how the university system began in colonial times at schools like William and Mary, Harvard, and Yale.
There is little chance that universities are going to return to those beginnings any time soon. Therefore, the protest by someone like Ralph Nader regarding the banishment of athletic scholarships can really only serve one purpose. It lets people know that Ralph Nader is still alive and that he still harbors grand idealistic views that sound great, but will never come to pass during your lifetime.
It has been suggested that Mr. Nader use this issue as a centerpiece of his 2012 Presidential campaign. That will limit his candidacy almost immediately, so that the country can get down to its normal business of ignoring what he says from the outset of his campaign.
THE FIESTA BOWL IS IN DEEP SHIT!
Yesterday, the BCS asked the Fiesta Bowl to demonstrate why it should remain a BCS bowl game.
If you’re a regular reader of the Peanut Gallery, the Fiesta Bowl fiasco was brought up here almost a month ago, so yesterday’s news report about the above is no surprise to the PG. In the 3/4 PG in the section entitled, “IRS VS. BCS: WHO ARE YOU ROOTING FOR?” (http://sheltonmedia.blogspot.com/2011/03/comments-from-peanut-gallery-mike-in-da_04.html), the investigations by the State of Arizona and the Internal Revenue Service were discussed, which could lead to the eventual downfall of the Fiesta, Sugar, and Orange Bowls as members of the BCS configuration.
Prior to this year, if you had asked me to name a situation where the BCS might seek to seize the moral ground with regard to any entity or school involved in the BCS, I would have brought up a scenario where Adolf Hitler had returned from the grave and taken over as either CEO of one of the BCS bowls or as president of his alma mater, Michigan. If the BCS finds an action or behavior unsavory, can you imagine how bad it has to be? That’s like a vulture coming across a dead body so rotten, that it will not eat it.
What happened at the Fiesta Bowl is that the folks who run it have found it necessary to fire their CEO, John Junker, based on findings and allegations of “improper campaign contributions”. He had been on paid administrative leave since the investigations began. I assume that “improper campaign contributions” means “illegal campaign contributions” once a judge and jury become involved.
The BCS is willing to drop one of its cash cows, but you can be sure it will replace it with possibly the Cotton Bowl over this behavior and that means whatever has been revealed to the BCS guys has to have been beyond putrid.
It is not certain yet that the Fiesta Bowl will move to a lesser status, but it probably will happen. Stay tuned!
Oh, by the way, how great would it be to find out the full list of names of the politicians who took those “improper campaign contributions”?
If you would like to see the 276-page “public version” report that the Board of Directors for the Fiesta Bowl received regarding the internal investigation, check out the following (http://www.fiestabowl.org/_documents/reports/Fiesta_Bowl_Final_Public.pdf).
College sports such as football and basketball are great fun to watch; and at the same time, they are a moral cesspool. So long as billions of dollars attach to the football and basketball games, the chances of that moral cesspool draining and purifying itself are pretty slim.
PS - It's about time our local sports talkers got to talk about this topic. But once again, they have to have it handed to them on a platter aka the Internet because it's too much work for them to find out about this stuff on their own.
MIKE HAMPTON RETIRES!
Former Astro pitcher, Mike Hampton, announced his retirement from baseball over the weekend. I’m waiting for our local sports talkers to concoct a topic for their respective shows: Is Mike Hampton a Hall of Famer? These guys think almost everyone with Houston roots who had a decent career is a Hall of Famer.
DEZ BRYANT VOWS TO EMBARRASS THE NFL EACH WEEK THE LOCKOUT CONTINUES!
March 29 (SP) - Dallas Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant continued his brave show of defiance against the NFL today with yet another demonstration of jackassery. On the heels of being thrown out of a Dallas-area mall, again, Bryant has been sued by a New York jewelry company for an unpaid tab of $246,000.
“It is my solemn vow that for each week the NFL owners unjustly prevent us from doing our jobs and making a living to support our families,” said Bryant in a press interview, “one incredibly embarrassing story about me will come out. Only NFL owners, along with enhanced mall security, can put a stop to this.”
Bryant says he sees himself “a modern day Gandhi.”
“I took a history class at Oklahoma State,” he said. “I forget all the details, but I think Gandhi dressed in a robe and wore funny glasses until the king would stop taking his food or something. I don’t remember exactly. Although I do remember I got an A in the class. Good school, Oklahoma State.”
The second-year receiver says he has many embarrassing activities already planned.
“Next week, I’m going to get in a fight at the mall arcade when they tell me I don’t have enough tickets to get a stuffed panda bear at the prize counter,” he said. “And the week after that I’m going to crash my Big Wheel into a police cruiser. The week after that? Let me just say that it involves a turd and the ball pit at Chuck E. Cheese.”
NFLPA director DeMaurice Smith says Bryant’s actions are not endorsed by the players union.
“I just want to make it clear that we have nothing to do with this,” said Smith. “He is acting of his own accord. We are of the opinion that he is embarrassing NFL players more than the NFL. And I expressed that opinion to him, but he refused to take his iPod ear buds out when I was talking to him.”
Bryant’s strategy is similar to that of Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson on the other side, who vows he will continue to be a dick until the owners get 99-percent of the league’s revenues.
FROM THE HMW MAILBAG!
The following e-mail was received from HMW reader and recent retiree, Alan H., in response to PG comments made on the NCAA TV coverage earlier this week:
“Besides screamin’ Gus Johnson, one other gripe with CBS/Turner’s in-game coverage is too many cuts to sideline reporters to tell us either nothing or what a player’s favorite ice cream flavor is. Other than that, the overall tournament coverage provided by the new CBS/Turner alliance was terrific. But perhaps the most important element of this partnership was what was missing from the mix, which you alluded to as being ESPN. Had ESPN been involved, the games would have been smothered in self-promotion, cross-promotion, ridiculous graphics, Brent Musburger at courtside, Chris Berman in the studio, a distracting and court-shrinking non-stop run of redundant and needless information along the bottom of the screen - all the excesses that make ESPN ESPN. It sure was nice, the last two weeks, to take a break from being forced to watch ESPN.” END.
CRIER'S CORNER
BASEBALL IS BACK!
On Thursday (3/31), the SR Crew begins posting a separate PDF (“Portable Document Folder” for the acronym-challenged) online devoted to MLB action (Major League Baseball for the acronym-challenged). The working title is "Daily Baseball Brief". For those hoops followers who wish to continue with baseball, the user name is “astrosmike” and the password is “yankee”.
There will be written forecasts and picks on up to three games each day (sides and/or totals). Full 15-game Baseball cards will usually have three picks. Smaller cards, as often are the case in Major League Baseball on Mondays and Thursdays, will have two picks or one, depending on how small they might be.
There will be a 10:30 am ET release, daily.
BASKETBALL ACTION
Yesterday’s Record ATS: 2-1
L - NEW JERSEY* (+7.5) over HOUSTON
NIT (at Madison Square Garden, NEW YORK CITY, NY)
W - WASHINGTON STATE vs. WICHITA STATE (UNDER 144)
W - COLORADO vs. ALABAMA (UNDER 143.5)
Cumulative Season Record ATS (excludes “pushes”): 578-351
Today’s Action (for reading purposes only):
NBA
TORONTO* (+4.5) over MILWAUKEE
Post-season dreams of the Bucks are fading quickly. With about two weeks left in the regular season, they were two games back on Indiana in the loss column. Reggie Evans is back with the Raptors, but he is getting into the action tentatively. When he is right, this guy is just a fire ball of energy and the rest of the Toronto players feed off of that kind of effort. TORONTO, 95 – 94
PORTLAND (-2) over NEW ORLEANS*
These teams are fighting for seeding here and whatever they do, will directly affect the other. Not many teams can go into Florida and sweep like Portland did this month and they were caught in a back-to-back situation when they lost to the Big Easy boys in November after playing the Thunder to a basket. Wesley Matthews has been playing much better defense for the Trailblazers as of late. PORTLAND, 106 – 94
SACRAMENTO at DENVER* (TOTAL UNDER 221.5)
Respect is something that everybody doesn’t get if there is just one superstar on a team. That is no longer the case for the Nuggets and it has been a great thing for the franchise. Coach Karl has that attitude of saying ‘why not us’. Danilo Gallinari is starting to feel comfortable and is going to the hole more. DENVER, 105 – 94
COLLEGE HOOPS
CBI
CREIGHTON at OREGON* (UNDER 146.5)
CIT
SANTA CLARA at IONA* (UNDER 153)
MIKE IN DA
HMW
 | ||
| Catch Craig "Lesbo" Shelton & Marcus "@Patchmc42" Coleman Sundays 5p-6p for "THE CUT" on KCOH 1430AM |
COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY (X-RATED)
Written by: Mike in DA
Date posted: 3/30/2011
NO WONDER SHAWN MARION TAKES SUCH A WEIRD LOOKING SHOT; CHECK OUT HIS PINKY!
AND THESE GUYS WANT TO MAKE US THINK THEY KNOW A LOT!
Holy Shit! Jesus Christ! A Final Four with no #1 seed in it! But the local sports talkers on SR610, Sports Talk 790, KGOW1560 and 97.5 FM devoted so much early-March time to arguing about who should be and shouldn’t be #1 seeds! How could this be? How can life as we know it go on?
I remember what one of the Disney clowns, John Saunders, said, trying to hype an ESPN game during the last week of the regular-season game between Connecticut and Notre Dame.
Georgetown had lost earlier that day, and Saunders noted how the the Hoyas' loss was “huge” for UConn, because now all UConn had to do was beat Notre Dame to “lock up” a #8 seed and get an “all-important” first-round bye in the Big East Tournament.
It’s 2011, and locking up a #8 seed is deemed as “huge.” What a fuckin’ joke, right? When Connecticut lost to Notre Dame, Saunders of course said that it was a “huge” loss for the Huskies, because now they would have the near-impossible task of winning five games in five days in the Big East Tournament. You know, the Big East Tournament that no opposing coach of a good team would have his team cranked up to win because they could care less about it? So, naturally, UConn, after “blowing” that “huge opportunity,” went on to win five games in a row in the Big East Tournament, and currently another four straight in the NCAA Tournament. In reality, how “huge” was the game vs. Notre Dame? Not huge at all. It never was. Except that John Saunders of ESPN said it was, and a lot of people believe what they hear on television.
Sure, when VCU was laying close to double-digits or double-digits in conference games against the likes of Northeastern, Towson, Georgia State, NC Wilmington, and William & Mary teams that a) know them intimately and, b) are hard to get up for and, c) they can experiment against with greater goals in mind, they won by less than the spread. That’s how you get VCU as +5 to +11.5 underdogs against USC, Georgetown, Purdue, Florida State, and Kansas, and they cover the spread by 6 to 27 points! Hahaha!
NOMINEE #3: "FEEL-GOOD MOVIE OF
2011"
WHAT'S NADER'S RAIDERS RAIDING NOW?
There is little chance that universities are going to return to those beginnings any time soon. Therefore, the protest by someone like Ralph Nader regarding the banishment of athletic scholarships can really only serve one purpose. It lets people know that Ralph Nader is still alive and that he still harbors grand idealistic views that sound great, but will never come to pass during your lifetime.
It has been suggested that Mr. Nader use this issue as a centerpiece of his 2012 Presidential campaign. That will limit his candidacy almost immediately, so that the country can get down to its normal business of ignoring what he says from the outset of his campaign.
THE FIESTA BOWL IS IN DEEP SHIT!
Yesterday, the BCS asked the Fiesta Bowl to demonstrate why it should remain a BCS bowl game.
If you’re a regular reader of the Peanut Gallery, the Fiesta Bowl fiasco was brought up here almost a month ago, so yesterday’s news report about the above is no surprise to the PG. In the 3/4 PG in the section entitled, “IRS VS. BCS: WHO ARE YOU ROOTING FOR?” (http://sheltonmedia.blogspot.com/2011/03/comments-from-peanut-gallery-mike-in-da_04.html), the investigations by the State of Arizona and the Internal Revenue Service were discussed, which could lead to the eventual downfall of the Fiesta, Sugar, and Orange Bowls as members of the BCS configuration.
It is not certain yet that the Fiesta Bowl will move to a lesser status, but it probably will happen. Stay tuned!
If you would like to see the 276-page “public version” report that the Board of Directors for the Fiesta Bowl received regarding the internal investigation, check out the following (http://www.fiestabowl.org/_documents/reports/Fiesta_Bowl_Final_Public.pdf).
 |
| MORAL CESSPOOL |
PS - It's about time our local sports talkers got to talk about this topic. But once again, they have to have it handed to them on a platter aka the Internet because it's too much work for them to find out about this stuff on their own.
MIKE HAMPTON RETIRES!
DEZ BRYANT VOWS TO EMBARRASS THE NFL EACH WEEK THE LOCKOUT CONTINUES!
March 29 (SP) - Dallas Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant continued his brave show of defiance against the NFL today with yet another demonstration of jackassery. On the heels of being thrown out of a Dallas-area mall, again, Bryant has been sued by a New York jewelry company for an unpaid tab of $246,000.
Bryant says he sees himself “a modern day Gandhi.”
“I took a history class at Oklahoma State,” he said. “I forget all the details, but I think Gandhi dressed in a robe and wore funny glasses until the king would stop taking his food or something. I don’t remember exactly. Although I do remember I got an A in the class. Good school, Oklahoma State.”
The second-year receiver says he has many embarrassing activities already planned.
NFLPA director DeMaurice Smith says Bryant’s actions are not endorsed by the players union.
“I just want to make it clear that we have nothing to do with this,” said Smith. “He is acting of his own accord. We are of the opinion that he is embarrassing NFL players more than the NFL. And I expressed that opinion to him, but he refused to take his iPod ear buds out when I was talking to him.”
Bryant’s strategy is similar to that of Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson on the other side, who vows he will continue to be a dick until the owners get 99-percent of the league’s revenues.
FROM THE HMW MAILBAG!
The following e-mail was received from HMW reader and recent retiree, Alan H., in response to PG comments made on the NCAA TV coverage earlier this week:
“Besides screamin’ Gus Johnson, one other gripe with CBS/Turner’s in-game coverage is too many cuts to sideline reporters to tell us either nothing or what a player’s favorite ice cream flavor is. Other than that, the overall tournament coverage provided by the new CBS/Turner alliance was terrific. But perhaps the most important element of this partnership was what was missing from the mix, which you alluded to as being ESPN. Had ESPN been involved, the games would have been smothered in self-promotion, cross-promotion, ridiculous graphics, Brent Musburger at courtside, Chris Berman in the studio, a distracting and court-shrinking non-stop run of redundant and needless information along the bottom of the screen - all the excesses that make ESPN ESPN. It sure was nice, the last two weeks, to take a break from being forced to watch ESPN.” END.
BASEBALL IS BACK!
There will be written forecasts and picks on up to three games each day (sides and/or totals). Full 15-game Baseball cards will usually have three picks. Smaller cards, as often are the case in Major League Baseball on Mondays and Thursdays, will have two picks or one, depending on how small they might be.
There will be a 10:30 am ET release, daily.
BASKETBALL ACTION
Yesterday’s Record ATS: 2-1
L - NEW JERSEY* (+7.5) over HOUSTON
NIT (at Madison Square Garden, NEW YORK CITY, NY)
W - WASHINGTON STATE vs. WICHITA STATE (UNDER 144)
W - COLORADO vs. ALABAMA (UNDER 143.5)
Cumulative Season Record ATS (excludes “pushes”): 578-351
Today’s Action (for reading purposes only):
NBA
TORONTO* (+4.5) over MILWAUKEE
Post-season dreams of the Bucks are fading quickly. With about two weeks left in the regular season, they were two games back on Indiana in the loss column. Reggie Evans is back with the Raptors, but he is getting into the action tentatively. When he is right, this guy is just a fire ball of energy and the rest of the Toronto players feed off of that kind of effort. TORONTO, 95 – 94
PORTLAND (-2) over NEW ORLEANS*
These teams are fighting for seeding here and whatever they do, will directly affect the other. Not many teams can go into Florida and sweep like Portland did this month and they were caught in a back-to-back situation when they lost to the Big Easy boys in November after playing the Thunder to a basket. Wesley Matthews has been playing much better defense for the Trailblazers as of late. PORTLAND, 106 – 94
SACRAMENTO at DENVER* (TOTAL UNDER 221.5)
Respect is something that everybody doesn’t get if there is just one superstar on a team. That is no longer the case for the Nuggets and it has been a great thing for the franchise. Coach Karl has that attitude of saying ‘why not us’. Danilo Gallinari is starting to feel comfortable and is going to the hole more. DENVER, 105 – 94
COLLEGE HOOPS
CBI
CREIGHTON at OREGON* (UNDER 146.5)
CIT
SANTA CLARA at IONA* (UNDER 153)
MIKE IN DA
HMW
No comments:
Post a Comment