Our Fearless leader is off on a top secret mission to #GoGetThoseGeckos so he’s asked me @okerland to fill in for him today. You may remember me from previous posts about kids television or saw my name on several “ND Football Tweeters to Watch” lists.
STARTING FIVE
1. Ntionl Bsebll Coverge
I love baseball more than any other sport (yes, even more than women’s basketball, Poot) and I happen to live and sometimes do business with currently the best team in baseball – the Oakland Athletics. The A’s with their Green Collar approach have made the playoffs the last two seasons and feature a plug & play roster which has made them so difficult to beat this year (just ask Yu Darvish). Bring in a lefty to face John Jaso? A’s counter with Derek Norris or Stephen Vogt. In fact, there’s been a few times where the A’s have almost had all 3 of their catchers in the field. But why don’t more fans know about the A’s? Lack of National TV Coverage. As we enter August and head towards the pennant chase, the A’s have been featured on TBS, Fox, Fox1 and/or ESPN maybe once if not twice. Meanwhile, this Sunday will feature at least the third time the Yankees and Red Sox have played against each other on National TV.
I know TV execs are all about ratings but what happened to growing the sport and teaching fans across the country about the game that many of us love? It’s not like the A’s came out of nowhere this year. They were the favorites to win the West and maybe finally get over the hump against the Tigers. Plus, the A’s have one of the atmospheres in baseball. The stadium may not be the greatest and the political battles have been head scratching but the fans that do come make noise and rattle the opposition. So much so, the Tigers raved about it 2 years ago.
But if you were a casual viewer in the first 4 months of the season, you’d have no idea the A’s still existed and that they were the best team in baseball.
2. Trading Day
One of my favorite days of the baseball season is on Thursday, the annual trading deadline. We have buyers and sellers, teams that think they are just a move away or already planning for next year. The Cubs are always in the later category. But it’s not the player movement that excites me, it’s sports talk radio around this time of year.
Tune into your local sports radio station and every armchair GM will propose the most ridiculous trades and the poor host has to play nice so as to not affend the listener. As young kid in New York, Mets and Yankees fans would fill WFAN’s (Sportsradio – The Fan) airwaves for nearly a month on how the Yankees could obtain Ken Griffey, Jr. for a bunch of washed up triple A/major league talent. Sometimes the trades would be even more crazy as it would be a blockbuster of Glavine, Maddux and Smoltz for Irabu.
Now with the SF Giants stumbling, every night fans propose trades on how to get David Price, Chase Utley, etc. despite that the Giants’ farm system is basically empty after several WS runs where they traded guys such as Zach Wheeler awway for Carlos Beltran. Last week, the Giants obtained both Dan Uggla and Brad Penny, both of which sent fans into a tizzy. Uggla was cut by the Braves because he couldn’t hit and the Sox wanted to part with Penny who hadn’t won in 9 (now 10 starts). Of course the fans were split as the Giants traded some of their better prospects to get Penny, but some said, “we didn’t need them anyway”
Enjoy the last two days and then again until August 31st when a second trading deadline goes into play. The second one just makes it harder to trade players, but those with big contracts often get through waivers.
3. Fittest in the World
On Sunday, ESPN2 aired the finale of the CrossFit Games while for the last 9 weeks, NBC has shown America Ninja Warrior. Both shows center around guys and some women showing off their strength and ability through a myriad of obstacles. Both claim to have the fittest athletes.
CrossFit is the latest rage in the country for it’s inventiveness and sort of renegade type attitude of not training in your typical gym but basically a rented out garage. CrossFitters think it’s awesome and brag about their WODs (Workout of the Day). This in turn pisses off people on Facebook and Social media who then hate CrossFitters. In addition, your strength, training and conditioning group is also split because some don’t agree on the philosophy and training (FYI: most strength coaches hate someone else’s plan).
As someone who has done CrossFit, I can see the appeal. It mixes several elements so you aren’t bogged down doing the same thing everyday or every few days. But I can see the venom, as every class is a competition to finish the workout and I’ve always hated finishing last. Plus, I often felt as if sometimes the coach was more interested in making sure I put up more weight, rather than doing it right. (me getting stronger means they get more money when renewal time comes around)
America Ninja Warrior is a series of strength and agility obstacle courses with the goal of being the first person to scale Mount Midoriyama. (side note: in five seasons, no one has done it yet).
You may have heard that the big story of season 6 was that they had their first women make it to the Vegas Finals. Huge success story and it captured America’s attention. I’m not taking anything away from her but her small stature gave her advantage on everything but the warped wall, which is tall enough and curved enough that unless you have the right technique, you often fall. Height is a big factor in that obstacle. With Kacy being 5’1 she had struggled in past seasons to scale the wall. this season thanks to practice she scaled the wall and went on to finish the course, with her low weight helping her navigate some of the trickier weight controlled obstacles.
My own nit with the production of the show is the over the top excitement by the hosts and how the show will hype a contestant for two hours thanks to it being shown on delay. (Last night, they hyped a guy for 2 hours, who fell on the second obstacle). Since the season finale is never shown live, you know the results before it even gets to the end.
4. All Apologies
Been quite the few weeks for apologies:
– Dungy regarding Michael Sam
– Stephen A. Smith regarding abuse
– WEEI to Erin Andrews
– Aubrey Huff to A’s fans after he told them he hopes Jim Johnson kicks their asses next time he faces them
– Any Husband across the world
The first four people are media outlets who were probably forced to apology because of the backlash and ratings, sponsors, etc. The fourth just does so even though he’s right 99.99999% of the time (just like Ivory Soap).
John’s touched on Dungy, Huff’s a Giant so he hates the A’s and he shouldn’t be on the A’s flagship station but that’s another issue and numerous have commented on SAS’s apology. Although I do wonder why Jemele Hill and Cari Champion weren’t more offended? I watched Sports Reporters on Sunday to see if Hill’s take would be on the issue but instead was on the McGwire-Conseco fall out and from all indications Champion never refused to finish the show on Friday and basically accepted a taped apology yesterday. Here you have a guy who basically says “women need to do a better job of not provoking attacks” and Champion sat there. I know she’s the moderator but if Skip uses a racial slur would SAS and Cari just sit there as if they weren’t offended? Why was Beadle the only ESPN female to speak out about this?
5. HOT COLLEGE FOOTBALL SPORTSTAKES
With the B10 wrapping up media days, we’ve been filled with soundbites for almost two weeks. The funny thing is how the press eats up quotes and retweets them. Aside from Charlie Weis, how often does a coach go to media day and say the team sucks or this players sucks or all that offseason stuff didn’t help? Rarely does the media pounce on a coach for discipline issues or oversigning or NCAA issues, instead they all need to be buddies with the coaches so they can get the big scoop and make more money.
FYI: Your starting QB, RB and entire defense is poised for a big year because your coach spent the offseason with a NFL team.
BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS:
Part of my goal this year was to read 12 books (1 per month) so I wouldn’t spend my 45 minutes commute each way playing Candy Crush and being on social media (I save that for when I interact with my kid.)* I’ve already surpassed that goal but wanted to recommend a couple.
1. The Son by Phillip Meyer. – Spans the history of a family who helped settle in Texas. from being captured by Native Americans until their eventual making it rich in oil it will have your attention. My only advice is that since it is told from 3 different points of view try not to put down the book and come to it a week later as you will be confused.
2. Where Nobody Knows Your Name by John Feinstein. – Tales about life in the minor leagues from the perspective of a long time minor leaguer, an umpire, manager and former big leaguer trying to get to the majors. You’ll love reading about managers telling kids they’ve been sent up and reading about players’ journies up and down the farm system.
BTW: Want to read the night Lane left Tennessee from the people who were there? click here: http://www.foxsports.com/college-football/outkick-the-coverage/story/the-night-lane-kiffin-bolted-tennessee-an-oral-history-072914