My First Blog

Hello Everybody,

On the urging of my work colleagues, I've now become a blogger.  I'm a sports guy and I have opinions about stuff, so they figured I ought to find somewhere to get those opinions out.  And what better place than cyberspace?!  I also like TV, so that will make its way into my blog from time to time.  With all that out of the way, let's begin:

The whole thing that brought up this blog conversation was the fact that I don't think Sports Illustrated gives the NHL enough love.  This week's issue (10/25) is the NBA preview.  All 30 teams got their own page.  Same thing with the baseball preview.  Same thing with the football preview.  The college football and basketball previews both give a whole page to the preseason Top 25.  You know how many pages the NHL preview consisted of?  12.  That's it.  Each division got two pages.  Basically, one column per team.  Now I know that the NHL is No. 4 in the pecking order, but 12 pages?  Really?  I understand that a lot of the American public doesn't care about the NHL (there are even cities in the South (Phoenix), where I'm not even sure if they realize they have a team), but can't SI at least humor those of us who do?  You already have ESPN not giving a crap, yet shoving LeBron and Favre down our throats everyday, as if we care about them.  (If I did, I'd follow them on Twitter, which is the stupidest thing ever.)  What's it going to take for the NHL to get a cover?  After the Blackhawks won the Cup, they were only on the cover in Chicago.  Oh by the way, it was their first Stanley Cup in 50 years!

I'll limit it to two topics for today.  Evidently the Giants and Phillies are playing quite a series in the NLCS.  It's not like I would know, since I'm one of 3 million New Yorkers caught in this Cablevision-FOX b.s.  We're on a week of no FOX now, and instead of actually doing something about it, both sides are trashing the other and blaming them for the blackout.  It's like they're the two candidates running for office.  FOX is the ridiculously right-wing Republican (for obvious reasons) and Cablevision is the blue state.  But seriously, I think I speak for most people when I say cut the crap and settle it.  This is the classic case of your mom's old "Two wrongs don't make a right."  I don't care which side is "right" or who ends up "winning," because they're both wrong.  The only people that are getting screwed are the customers!

Anyway, it's been a different experience listening to the NLCS games on the radio.  It's like I'm back in the '50s.  I can say this, Dave Campbell isn't much of a TV analyst, but he's excellent on the radio.  That's where he should stay.  Between listening live on the radio and watching the replay on MLB Network the next day, I've managed to survive week one of no FOX, but that's not gonna last much longer.  The World Series starts on Wednesday, and I don't plan on listening to the World Series on the radio.  Fortunately, we have DirecTV in my office, so if I stay at work late enough, I can watch at least some of the game live.  That's what I did for Game 1, that great Lincecum-Halladay duel.  (Silver lining of not being able to watch FOX: not having to listen to Tim McCarver.)

I haven't missed the Yankees at all since every game has been on TBS, but I'm so sick of Conan commercials!  Just in case you didn't know, Conan's new show debuts on TBS on Nov. 8.  The Yankees didn't play yesterday, so TBS didn't get a chance to play 30 Conan commercials (and have a Conan blimp) in a four-hour period to remind us all.  Leno's better anyway.  I'm not upset Conan hasn't been on TV in six months.  Just had to say that.  And while I'm on the subject of the TBS games, there are a few elements of their broadcasts that have to go.  For starters, get rid of the "pitch tracker" thing on the side, which is only on the centerfield camera (and only on the HD broadcasts) by the way.  It probably wouldn't be as annoying if it was on more than just the one camera and actually stayed on the screen for more than two seconds at a time, but does it really add anything to the broadcast?  The answer is "No."  Ernie Johnson and Craig Sager need to go, too.  EJ is just bad.  He should stick to studio stuff.  And Sager relies on shtick, which isn't working.  He makes stuff up, he's not funny, and he dresses worse than Don Cherry (which I didn't even think was possible)!  John Smoltz made a comment in Game 4 that came straight out of the Tim McCarver School of Broadcasting, but he's been good for the most part and Ron Darling is excellent.

Anyway, that's it for today.  Maybe entry No. 2 will pop up if I get bored this weekend (which seems probable).  Otherwise, I'll see you next week.  Must-win game tonight.  Go Bombers!