COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY - MIKE IN DA

COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY

Written by: Mike in DA
Date posted: 4/2/2011

OTTAWA'S VERSION OF JOSH INNES AND BEN NANCE!





LOCKOUT/SCHMOCKOUT!

The NFL/NFLPA confrontation continues with no significant change. The local sports talkers this week mentioned that the NFLPA is about to begin to provide players locked out with supplementary income from a fund that the NFLPA has been setting aside for a while now. In comparison with paychecks, these supplemental payments are surely better than nothing. Yet in reality, they are a pittance for most football players.

Payments are supposed to begin on April 15 and will consist of a maximum of six payments to the players so long as the lockout/work-stoppage continues. The maximum that any player can receive as a total of those six payments is $60K and that maximum would only go to players who had been on a 53-man roster for every game in the last two seasons. Considering that the NFL minimum salary was $325K for rookies in 2010 and was $845K for 10-year veterans in 2010, supplemental income checks that might total $60K may not meet expenses for many of the players.


The NFL and the NFLPA will continue on their scripted paths for a while longer. This news is merely something that both sides had to anticipate as a necessary event along the way to meaningful talks to resolve the problems.

However, this action taken by the NFLPA makes Adrian Peterson look even more stupid than before with regard to his comments about NFL players being modern-day slaves.

When masters freed their slaves, which is similar to “locking out a slave”, was there a National Slave Association out there ready to provide them with supplemental income payments to keep them and their families going until they could find a new deal as a slave? I must have missed that chapter in Mr. Shroeder's American History class in the eleventh grade.


What I did not hear from the local sports talkers though I might have missed it was stories about several veteran players who have declared bankruptcy recently, the most notable being Charlie Batch and Mark Brunell.

Batch of the Pittsburgh Steelers, would probably qualify for the maximum payment from the NFLPA and he may need it. Even though Batch has been in the NFL for 13 years and once received a signing bonus of $10M, he has had to file for bankruptcy. That filing lists his debts at $8.3M and his assets at $2.3M. He owns/owned a real estate development company that recently defaulted on a mortgage and had to forfeit its interest in two dozen properties.

Brunell of the NY Jets is another veteran QB who has recently been through a bankruptcy proceeding demonstrating that bad investments can wipe out what appear on the surface to be earnings that ought to last through the lifetimes of at least a couple of generations. In his case, he filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year, in part due to numerous failed real estate and other business investments. Brunell and several of his co-investors (also former teammates) have defaulted on multiple loans involving different properties around the country. If interested, you can google for the details.

I mention those two QBs not with the intention of mocking them. There is nothing to indicate that either of these guys did anything illegal or shady; what seems to have happened to them is that they put their money in the wrong place at the wrong time. But it's interesting in comparing $60K in supplemental income as opposed to their potential veteran minimum salary of $845K. That is approximately a 93% reduction in income.


On the other hand, our local sports talkers were all over Cowboys WR, Dez Bryant, who is someone who might find himself in a bad financial position down the road and those bad financial problems could be of his own doing. Reports out of Dallas say that creditors have sued Bryant saying that he bought things on credit in 2009 and 2010 prior to signing his NFL contract and that he has not paid up yet. The suit claims that Bryant prior to his signing an NFL contract bought $588,500 in jewelry on a credit line from one place and another $246K in jewelry bought on credit from another place. Bryant would not qualify for the maximum payment from the NFLPA since he was not on the Cowboys roster for every game of the last two seasons, but even if he had been, those payments do not come close to paying off what these two lawsuits seek from him.

NOMINEE #4 FOR "FEEL-GOOD MOVIE OF 2011": "CAT RUN"





AROUND THE DIAL!

If you were a school principal and saw that students at your school were more knowledgeable than your teachers, what would you think? I wonder what SR610 program director, Gavin Spittle, thinks of his talk hosts who sometimes are unprofessional, sometimes lazy in looking up information, and often show their ignorance with regard to sports topics. Like the principal, Gavin probably doesn't care, just as long as the money comes in to fund his payroll and the station's various other expenses.

- Somebody please explain to Barry Warner what a “trap” game is. He thinks almost every other Rocket or Texan game is one. A "trap game" is a game that is played before or after a tough or rival opponent and the term is used mostly with regard to football not basketball. Teams have a tendency to look past an opponent preparing for the following week's game, or have a letdown after beating a tough or rival opponent. Playing the Philly Sixers this past Wednesday (3/30) after blowing out the New Jersey Nets the evening before is not a “trap” game. The reasoning is that a good team can overlook and get beaten by a lesser team! In this case, Philly was the better team.

- On the same show, Barry said he’s not a “betting” man. That’s a good thing for him because if he were, Rocky Balboa might be coming around to break his thumb because Barry would be more on the losing than the winning end.

- And it would be nice if Barry would stop cutting off callers in the middle of sentences. He even interrupts his Night Show partner, Shaun Bijani, who looks up to Barry as the Lord Almighty. “Politeness is next to godliness.”

- Mike Meltser when doing his updates Thursday morning (3/31) at 7 AM said the Houston Rockets’ next game was Friday night vs. Atlanta. It was actually vs. San Antonio. I realize Mike doesn’t make top-shelf pay, but get it right.

- Speaking of Mike, (who is slowly becoming a good "listen" for me) during the first two weeks of the NCAA Tourney, one of Mike's guests on his SR610 morning show was Paul Bessire who has a sports handicapping service called the Prediction Machine, which uses the Predictalator (prediction machine), which is a state-of-the-art software and is supposed to be unbiased.

PredictionMachine.com finds the angle that you need to win with accuracy that stems from the Predictalator, which plays the game 50,000 times before it's actually played to provide confidence picks straight-up, against-the-spread, and over/under as well as player projections for fantasy players and props.

The Predictalator was 11-0 ATS during the most recent NFL Playoffs, or so Paul claims on his website. It strives to be the most accurate and trusted source for predicting sports outcomes straight-up and against-the-spread. It predicts football, baseball, basketball, and who knows what else; maybe even the next time Josh Innes gets laid. Mike seemed so impressed with the prediction machine that I wouldn't be surprised if he shelled out a week’s pay or so to get the “Machine’s” picks, so that he could augment his relatively low salary. When Adrian Peterson talked about slavery recently, I checked out the definition of “slavery” and saw Mike’s picture there.

However, if Mike follows the “Machine”, he’ll probably end up losing a nice chunk of change like other "Machine" clients before him and then he'll realize that guys like Paul Bessire, “Tony the Hatchet Man” (1560), the Sports Investors (790), etc., are a bunch of shysters/carnival barker-types and what are called “scamdicappers” who prey on suckers who fall for the bull crap lines that these people shove down their throats. It’s a shame when local sports talk stations allow scamdicappers air time to con the station’s loyal gullible listeners out of some of their hard-earned money.

By the way, the Prediction Machine did not have any of the Final Four correct based on its top four-rated teams led by Kansas’ winning 13% of the 50,000 times the tournament was played by the Predictalator. Notre Dame was second winning at an 8% clip.


- Misinformation continues with Rich Lord and Josh Innes (aka J&R). They recently tried to explain what “decertification” of the NFL Players Association meant. They should have left that to someone more credible, such as John McClain or the Texans or NFLPA legal personnel to explain.

- On Friday's show (4/1), Rich said that the Men's 2015 NCAA Final Four will be hosted by Houston. That honor actually goes to Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Houston will host the NCAA Tourney again in 2016. 

- On Thursday (3/31) J&R thought that Jerry Tarkanian was in the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame. Josh said if he wasn’t in, “he should be.” They should have googled to find out he wasn’t and Rich has been around long enough to know all the problems “Tark the Shark” had with the NCAA and that is why he isn't in. If you thought the Peanut Gallery believes Guy Lewis has a slim to none shot at the Naismith, Tark is even lower down the totem pole. (More on this topic in a future post).


- Lack of information is also still a problem of the local sports talkers. When advertising the NCAA Final Four team practices for this past Friday (4/1) at Reliant Stadium, very little was said about the Reese’s College All-Star Game highlighting twenty of the nation's top seniors that followed the practices. Most sports talkers also didn't give the times of the various practices, so people would know when it was. I guess since it was free, they thought no one would care about the times. But then with all the misinformation on the sports talk air waves recently, maybe it was better that listeners had to find out on their own. FYI - the West beat the East, 113-108.

- Brien Straw and Greg Koch two Saturdays ago (3/19) mentioned that former Oiler WR, Drew Hill, was in intensive care after suffering two massive strokes two days earlier. What they didn’t know at the time was that he passed away overnight, but then someone must have brought it to their attention because a few moments later they mentioned that Drew had died in an Atlanta hospital.

- Josh Innes is very funny at times, but sometimes he says tasteless things like this past Thursday (3/31) when he called Ryo Ishikawa dumb. Ryo is the Japanese teen golfer who promised to donate all of his earnings in 2011 to help the survivors of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated his country's Pacific coast. The 19-year-old, now in Augusta, GA, preparing for next week's Masters, also said that he would further donate $1,200 for every birdie he makes. To add insult to injury, Josh later referred to the Japanese golfer as Anthony Kim. The world could use more people like Ryo and less like Josh.

- Josh keeps telling us how much Blacks love him. Is this the same Josh who when asked why he doesn't talk high school sports, said. "nobody cares"? If he hung around the hood with his loads of Black friends, he would have known that many of them care about high school sports.

- Last year, Brad Davies (SR610) had me on hold for 2.5 hours one Sunday night and never got to me as that night’s show went off the air. Last Saturday (3/26), I was the only one on hold and he had me on hold for 1.5 hours and when he finally got to me, I was off taking a leak at the time. I called back and he had me on hold for another half hour before I realized Brad Davies doesn’t like me because I always make him look bad and so I hung up. And he wonders why he got gout.

- A guy called in to Charlie Pallilo on Wednesday (3/30) and said that college athletes are supposed to file an income tax return if they get “under the table” payments of more than $400 in the same year. Charlie asked him if he was a CPA and the guy said he was. My advice to you is to never go to this guy for income tax advice. FYI - you have to file a return only when your gross income is at least $9,350, unless you are entitled to a tax refund for taxes previously withheld and want that refund. Once again, a talk show host accepting anything a caller says and passing it on as good information.

- The Houston Press this week has a nice story about KGOW 1560 by Jeff Balke (http://www.houstonpress.com/2011-03-31/news/kgow-s-kapow-kapow). It makes 1560 sound so good that I thought Jeff was on the KGOW payroll or its PR consultant. I can’t wait to read his interviews with the people at 610, 790, and 97.5 FM.

- On Saturday’s (3/26) “Orange Slice” (KGOW1560), an e-mailer asked host, Brian Balboa, what were the chances of the U.S. hosting the 2024 Soccer World Cup. Brian gave a “hopeful/wishful” answer, but didn’t realize that there is no Soccer World Cup in 2024. The 2022 World Cup will be hosted by Qatar with the next World Cup being in 2026. Wake up Brian!

I can go on and on, but there's always the next time. Obviously, misinformation and uninformed opinions seem to be more the norm for Houston sports talk compared to other large radio markets such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Washington DC, and Boston.

IS THAT GRANDMA ROSE OR PETE ROSE?

LESS SPORTS TALK MAY RESULT IN LESS LISTENERS!

For what it’s worth (and probably not much), looking at the most recent Arbitron ratings (February), the Houston sports leader, KILT (SR610), leads overall with a 1.0 share, followed by KBME (790) and KFNC (97.5 FM ESPN) tied at 0.5, with KGOW (1560) holding up the rear as usual at 0.2. The four stations combined have a 2.2 share, which is less than each of the top 20 individual stations in the Houston-Galveston area.

According to David Barron of the Houston Chronicle, SR610 leads the four local sports talkers with an average weekly cumulative audience among persons 12-years-and-older of 240,500, followed by KBME (790 AM) at 147,600, KFNC (97.5 FM) at 131,000, and KGOW (1560 AM) at 33,300. Once again, the combined total of 552,400 wouldn’t crack the top 15 among all stations, led by KODA (Sunny 99.1 FM) at 1.97 million.

Though each of the four sports stations may tell you that things are fine in the listener department, I randomly selected May 2009 (the Rockets were in the playoffs then) to compare the average weekly cumulative audience during that month vs. this February. Below are the comparisons for February 2010 with May 2009 in parentheses:


KILT (SR610): 240,500 (381,500) – down 37%
KBME (790): 147,600 (173,600) – down 15%
KFNC (97.5 FM): 131,000 (122,100) – up 7.3%
KGOW (1560): 33,300 (46,900) - down 29%


The overall drop in the average weekly cumulative audience between the two periods is 171,700 or 23.8%, as the number dropped from 724,100 to 552,400.


There could be several factors for the decline: a decrease in the amount of actual “sports talk” vs. “non-sports talk” ; the local teams underperforming; new on-air personnel the listening public is not familiar with; lesser quality programming; decrease in listener interest; other options for the listeners, etc. But as long as the revenues from the sponsors keep coming in, we will continue to have four 24-hour "watered-down" sports stations.

FINALLY, A COFFIN FOR NASCAR FANS!

“WHO STOLE MY AK 47?”

I may have missed it, but I didn’t hear our local sports talkers comment on a burglary in Florida recently where thieves broke into the house rented by several members of the Tampa Bay Rays during spring training. The thieves cleaned out lots of electronic stuff and from the news reports, they got a nice haul. In addition, they got an AK-47 belonging to 3B Evan Longoria.



I know all about the Second Amendment and the "right to bear arms", as the cops said that Evan legally owned the rifle. If it was legally owned, that is okay. What is not okay is that with certain rights come accompanying responsibilities. The right to own an AK-47 for whatever purpose carries with it the responsibility to keep that weapon in a secure place when not being used. That responsibility was not performed in this case and now there is at least one more criminal in possession of an assault rifle. That is not good.

BRIAN IS INTERESTED IN MORE THAN JUST THE RED SOX!

SPORTS TALKERS SHOULD GET OFF JAY BILAS’ BACK!

Though I’m not a fan of Jay Bilas, it's much too easy, now, to mock the ESPN/CBS commentator for knocking the NCAA Tourney’s at-large inclusion of Virginia Commonwealth University like some of our local sports talkers did this week.

I didn’t hear any of our sports talk hosts mock him when he first said it? I don’t remember any of them thinking he was dead-wrong when he first said, right after the entire field was announced, that VCU didn't belong? Many even seemed to agree with Bilas thinking that maybe Colorado, Harvard, or Virginia Tech should have gotten in instead, but in a previous blog I gave reasons why they were justifiably left out.


VCU had lost six of its last nine conference games, but you may remember that I told you before Selection Sunday that since the Colonial Athletic Conference had a representative on the ten-person Selection Committee, that the conference was almost certain to get definitely two and possibly three teams in the tourney.


Only when VCU began to roll did the sports talkers mock Bilas.


AS LONG AS THE PIRATES ARE AROUND, THE ASTROS WILL NEVER END UP IN THE NL CENTRAL CELLAR!

Looking at the depth chart for the Pittsburgh Pirates, you have to take note of their starting rotation. Here are two of their five and what they did last season:



Ross Ohlendorf is the #3 starter. In 2010, his record was 1-11 with an ERA of 4.07. In his final spring training game this year, he lasted four innings and hit three batters in those four innings.


Charlie Morton is the #4 starter. In 2010, his record was 2-12 with an ERA of 7.57.

I do not know what the odds are in Las Vegas for the Pirates to go over .500 for the first time since 1992, but the odds are not high enough for me to take that bet. With improvement on offense, the Pirates will probably not lose 100-plus games again this year, but they will still stink worse than the Houston Astros, if that's any sort of consolation for Astro fans.




IT’S "CAL" DAY: CALHOUN VS. CALIPARI!

It’s UConn vs. Kentucky today in one of the NCAA semifinals.


CBS will probably not make a big thing about it, but in UConn vs. UK, we have Jim Calhoun vs. John Calipari, two coaches whose programs' wrongdoings likely will be quickly mentioned, then just as quickly ignored. You know the TV networks.

UConn under Calhoun, Connecticut's highest-paid employee, regularly has serious recruiting issues, including the illegally recruited and recruitment of the criminally-inclined.

Calipari's two previous Final Fours officially no longer exist, lost to serious NCAA violations. Calipari, though, has always stayed one job ahead of the law from Massachusetts to Memphis to Kentucky. And there's no hiding the fact that Kentucky hoops has now become a "one-and-done" basketball factory.

And to add insult to injury, today’s UConn-Kentucky winner likely will be favored by at least five points to win the national championship.

CRIER’S CORNER



BASKETBALL ACTION


Yesterday’s Record ATS: 4-3


L - NEW JERSEY at PHILADELPHIA* (TOTAL UNDER 193)
L - INDIANA* (-2) over MILWAUKEE
W - MEMPHIS (+1.5) over NEW ORLEANS*
W - DENVER (-5.5) over SACRAMENTO*
W - LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS at PHOENIX* (TOTAL UNDER 214)
L - UTAH* (+9) over LOS ANGELES LAKERS


CBI
W - CREIGHTON (+4) over OREGON*

Cumulative Season Record ATS (excludes “pushes”): 587-356


Today’s Action (for reading purposes only):

NBA

MILWAUKEE* (+2) over PHILADELPHIA
Strange placing of this game as far as the Bucks are concerned, as the three previous games were on the pavement and they head to Orlando on Tuesday to start another three-game road run. Philly will be hoping to even up the season slate with the Bucks here and to strengthen their positioning going into the playoffs. MILWAUKEE, 105-92


GOLDEN STATE* (+5.5) over DALLAS
The Warriors have had a day to rest since coming in from Beale Street when facing Memphis. As the season has gone on, the Warriors have gotten bench help from some unlikely players like Acie Law and Al Thornton. GOLDEN STATE, 100 – 99


OKLAHOMA CITY (-5) over LA CLIPPERS*
When lightning flashes, the Thunder strikes. Oklahoma City is 18-5 SU following a loss. They are also 28-5 SU against sub-.500 opponents. After the last Clippers home game, Dallas guard, Jason Terry said, "That's a bad team." After last night's road loss at Phoenix in which the Suns played without Steve Nash yet beat the Clippers soundly, L.A. head coach Vinny Del Negro said, "I don't think we had much energy tonight." Now, the team without much energy last night plays a third game in four nights, and Chris ("I'm Always Sick or Hurt") Kaman, who missed last night, is iffy for tonight. It will be quite convenient for him to miss playing against Kendrick Perkins and Serge Ibaka. OKLAHOMA CITY, 104-93

COLLEGE HOOPS


NCAA FINAL FOUR (at Reliant Stadium, HOUSTON, TX)

BUTLER (-2.5) over VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH 
CONNECTICUT (+2.5) over KENTUCKY
(Please see Thursday's (3/31) "Final Four" post for write-ups on these games.)

BASEBALL


Yesterday’s Record ATS: 2-1 (+3.1 units)
W - BALTIMORE ORIOLES (Guthrie) +155 over TAMPA BAY* (Price)
L - HOUSTON ASTROS (Myers) +250 over PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES* (Halladay)
W - FLORIDA MARLINS* (Johnson) -140 over NEW YORK METS (Pelfrey)


Cumulative Season Record ATS (excludes “pushes”): 4-1 (+7.1 units)


Today’s Action (for reading purposes only):

MINNESOTA TWINS (Liriano) -120 over TORONTO BLUE JAYS* (Drabek)

Things did not go well for the Twins on Opening Day. Their nominal ace, Carl Pavano, simply got shellacked as he gave up eight runs (seven earned) in his four innings of work, including three home runs. Fortunately, we were smart enough to stay away from Pavano, but we are more than happy to jump in today as we back the Twins' actual best pitcher, Francisco Liriano. Liriano is a better pitcher than Pavano and a much better matchup vs. a Toronto team that mashes righties. In fact, the Blue Jays scored 3.6 runs per game off of lefty starters vs. 4.9 runs off of righty starters. Liriano was a bit of a forgotten man in the AL Cy Young voting last year and if you look at his hit (184 in 191.2 IP), walk (58), and strike out totals (201), you’d be hard pressed to see why. In addition, the Jays send young Kyle Drabek to the mound, which plays in to the strengths of Twin MVPs Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau. Drabek struggled in a cup of coffee last year and showed questionable command this spring. The veteran, professional lineup of the Twins should be able to get them on track.


CHICAGO WHITE SOX (E. Jackson) -135 over CLEVELAND INDIANS* (Carrasco)

It was quite a scene in Cleveland yesterday. The Chisox jumped out to a 14-0 lead including 10 runs off of Fausto Carmona, only to hold on as they won, 15-10. We do not expect anything as high scoring today, but a similar result seems likely. Edwin Jackson takes the hill for the Sox, as he hopes to build on his short stint of success last season. After a disastrous first half of the season with the Diamondbacks, the White Sox took a flyer on the hard throwing righty and their gamble paid off. Jackson was 4-2 with a 3.24 ERA in his 11 Chicago starts. More importantly, Jackson has the powerful White Sox lineup behind him. New DH Adam Dunn certainly made a splash, going 2-4 with 2 runs and 4 RBI. Today, Dunn will get to face another questionable righty in Carlos Carrasco. Carrasco was very poor in a short stint in 2009 before bouncing back in 2010. Unfortunately for Carrasco, what we’ve seen from him this spring seems more like the 2009 version. The White Sox should be able to secure a series win today.


ATLANTA BRAVES (Hanson) -160 over WASHINGTON NATIONALS (Lannan)

Tommy Hanson was one of the more hard luck pitchers in the NL last season, as he far outpitched his paltry 12-13 win-loss record. Look for the Braves to help repay Hanson with a win over the Nats today. The combination of solid starting pitching, clutch hitting, and a lights-out bullpen the Braves showed on Thursday is exactly what we expect from them this year and though they did have their issues vs. lefties last season, John Lannan will not strike fear in Atlanta’s hearts. Martin Prado and new addition Dan Uggla should help balance the lineup with Uggla’s power especially coming in handy vs. a finesse lefty like Lannan.

 
MIKE IN DA

HMW