So how about Felger yesterday? He basically turned into Chazz Reinhold from Wedding Crashers for 12 minutes while talking about Roy Halladay.
Felger almost sounded like Michael in the Godfather talking about Captain McCluskey, “a crooked cop who got mixed up in the rackets and got what was coming to him.”
I’m not always on the same page as the Deadspin editorial board – I don’t think Colin Kaepernick is the answer for the Dolphins, Colts, Packers or Texans – but I absolutely agree that this cringeworthy Felger rant is reprehensible. When I heard it on the Felger and Mazz podcast last night, I was shocked that the Sports Hub hadn’t taken it down. It was so bad, I was shocked he was allowed to finish the show. The rant came right after 3 o’clock. How do you stick around for another two and a half hours after that? He even went on tv after the radio show and no mention was made of this incident.
It’s hard to imagine a major-market radio host apparently taking pleasure from the tragic death of an athlete because he thinks he saw it coming. That’s a bush league take I’d expect to hear from some AM host in Binghamton. I don’t know if he should lose his job over it, but I don’t think a long weekend could hurt him. Make a half-assed ifpology, root for the greatest Patriots-Broncos game of all time on Sunday night, and take some advice from another Will Ferrell character.
ESPN – Three UCLA men’s basketball players — including LiAngelo Ball, the younger brother of Los Angeles Lakers rookie Lonzo Ball — were released on bail early Wednesday morning in Hangzhou, China, after being arrested for allegedly shoplifting Tuesday afternoon, a source told ESPN.
The three players, a group that also includes freshmen Cody Riley and Jalen Hill, were questioned about allegedly stealing sunglasses from a Louis Vuitton store next to the team’s hotel in Hangzhou, where the Bruins had been staying before leaving for Shanghai on Wednesday…
Ball, Riley and Hill were taken to the police station in Hangzhou, where they were kept for a number of hours. UCLA representatives, including coach Steve Alford, were at the police station along with the players.
Ball, Riley and Hill were released around 4 a.m. Wednesday and were staying at a luxury hotel in Hangzhou along with a UCLA representative, according to a source. They are being required by Hangzhou police to remain at the hotel until the legal process is over, the source said.
How is this story not front page news? No mention of this story on the New York Times homepage or even the Los Angeles Times homepage, and just a small link on the ESPN homepage. Three American college basketball players were locked up overnight in China. One of the players that was locked up is a member of the Ball family, the Kardashians of basketball. And oh yeah, the President of the United States just happens to be in China at the same time. This has all the makings of international incident.
It will be a while before all the details about what happened in the Louis Vuitton store come out but it’s unlikely that this case will play out like Jameis Winston crab leg incident. It was widely reported yesterday that the three players could face up to 10 years in prison, if convicted. A plea bargain including community service is probably not on the table.
Here’s what the U.S. Department of State website has to say about the Chinese legal system:
The Chinese legal system can be opaque and the interpretation and enforcement of local laws arbitrary. The judiciary does not enjoy independence from political influence. U.S. citizens traveling or residing in China should be aware of varying levels of scrutiny to which you will be subject from Chinese local law enforcement and state security.
While China might not be North Korea, it’s not Canada either. Was this not fully explained to the players before they got on the plane? They’re out of jail for the time being but even if they are not charged or convicted they might not get out of China for a while. Season 2 of Ball in the Family could be set in China.
On a side note, hopefully the NCAA will be forced to answer why they thought it was a good idea for a college basketball game to be played in China in the first place. Not every school should have to schedule games like the Ivy League, which only schedules conference match ups for Fridays and Saturdays, but it would be nice if they at least didn’t openly mock the “student-athlete” system. A week-long trip to another continent in the middle of the semester can’t be great for a student-athlete’s studies. Especially if they get locked up by a communist government.
Nothing gets me ready for the holiday season better than a Samuel Adams Winter Lager on a 72° day in Boston!
Look, it’s hard to rag on Jim Koch. There are definitely a few too many varieties of Sam Adams these days but he is the granddaddy of the American craft beer movement. He was making beer in his kitchen before it was cool. Still, I can’t help but point out the absurdity of the Sam Adams seasonal schedule.
The Sam Adams seasonal schedule is no longer based in reality. Summer Ale at Fenway Park on April 1 is comical. Seeing Summer Ale get pushed aside for Octoberfest when it’s still hot-as-balls in mid-August is depressing. Popping open a Winter Lager on 72° day is preposterous. And the poor old spring seasonal White AleNoble PilsAlpine Spring Cold Snap only gets about six weeks every year. At least it’s around for the Super Bowl.
And it’s probably going to get worse. With global warming and el niño, how long until Octoberfest becomes a beach beer?
The net worth of John Schnatter, founder and CEO of pizza chain Papa John’s, fell $70 million in less than 24 hours after the company released its third-quarter financial report on Tuesday afternoon. The business beat estimates on earnings and revenue, but it lowered guidance on same-store sales for the coming period…
Schnatter blames part of the downturn on the National Football League, which has faced turbulence amid widespread national anthem protests in the past year. “The NFL has hurt us by not resolving the current debacle,” he said on a conference call on Wednesday. Papa John’s is the league’s official pizza sponsor.
How about the balls on Papa John? Papa John blaming sagging pizza sales on NFL protests would be like the Ninety Nine Restaurant blaming sagging sales on the Dennis Eckersley incident. [Of course that would never happen at the Ninety Nine. Who doesn’t love Gold Fever Wings with a $2 Bud Select?] It’s long past time for Papa John to take a good long look in the mirror and in his recipe book.
Domino’s Pizza has had a resurgence over the last ten years. Their stock closed at $2.83 per share on November 20, 2008. At the start of trading today, their stock was at $178.44 per share. That’s an increase of more than 6,000%. What happened? Domino’s realized there were problems. Their recipes were stale and their service was subpar. Just as bad, they weren’t “cool.” So they very publicly reworked and improved their pizza recipes in 2009. They tweaked their menu. They introduced the Pizza Tracker. They were no longer the company with delivery drivers allegedly killing people on the roads to deliver pizzas in 30 minutes. They became a hip, self-deprecating company, a social-media darling that served affordable pizza in tough economic times.
Papa John’s has had no such soul searching. Their pizza tastes the same today as it did the first time I had it in college. At least then I could pay for it with convenience points my dad’s money instead of my own hard-earned income. Today I won’t even consider ordering Papa John’s unless the local team won the night before and it’s 50% off. Otherwise it’s $14.99 (plus tax) for a large pepperoni.
You’ll never realize the criminal mark up on pizza until you see what it goes for when it’s 50% off a few times a week. Why not just make a large three-topping pizza $7.99 all day every day like Domino’s? Cut out the gimmicks. Those “better” ingredients can’t be that much more expenses.
There’s also the problems with Papa John himself. Maybe a whiny rich guy who doesn’t want to pay more taxes shouldn’t be the mascot for a low-end pizza chain.
Sounds like you’ve got a “you” problem, Papa John. Why don’t you go figure it out yourself and leave your business partners out of it. I can’t believe I am going to stick up for Roger Goodell here, but there are enough things that he has screwed up in the past year and deserves the blame for. Sagging sales of your shitty, overpriced pizza are not one of them.
Jimmy Garoppolo was going to be the centerpiece of either Bill Belichick’s Herschel Walker Brooklyn Nets trade or Josh McDaniels’s post-Brady rebuild on the fly. Now he’ll be neither.
Reports of multiple first round picks being offered for Gaoppolo over the summer now seem to have been greatly exaggerated, according to Ian Rapoport.
When #Browns made an offer for Jimmy Garoppolo during the draft, they didn’t offer a 1st. Just a 2nd & change. Pats wait & take this deal.
Looking at things objectively, that makes sense. How can you trade one first round pick, never mind multiple first round picks, for a guy who has started only two NFL games? Matt Cassel had been in the league for four years (as opposed to Garoppolo’s two) and went 10-5 as a starter in 2008 by the time the Patriots traded him in 2009 and the Patriots still had to throw in Mike Vrabel to pry away just one second rounder from the Cheifs.
As a fan, it’s disappointing. Not only do the Patriots not get the haul fans had been teased about, but the trade doesn’t help them out now. It doesn’t do anything for this year’s team other than leave them without a life preserver in the case of an emergency. The only excuse for not trading Garoppolo before the season is if Belichick still holds a grudge against Cleveland. You gotta respect a good grudge.
Garoppolo could have been the next Steve Young, taking the reigns of an established dynasty after the retirement of a legend and keeping the dynasty going for another decade. Now he follows in Steve Young’s footsteps by taking the reigns of the San Francisco 49ers. It’s nothing like the team Young last played for in 1999, though. Garoppolo is set to be San Francisco’s 16th different starting quarterback since Young last took a snap in 1999.
It would be interesting to find out if Garoppolo had a say in any of this. Given the choice, would he rather have been the Prince of Wales in New England or a starter immediately anywhere else? Seeing so many good quarterbacks have their careers ruined by bad teams, being the Prince of Wales in New England sounds a lot better than being the King in Cleveland, Buffalo, Jacksonville, Minnesota, Chicago or San Francisco.
NFL careers are short, though. Maybe Garoppolo would rather get paid now than sign a team-friendly deal to stay in New England. Who knows when Brady will actually call it quits? There’s no glory in being the President of the Tom Brady Backup Club, the most prestigious backup club since the Brett Favre Backup Club closed its doors in 2008.
With no one left behind him, though, Brady better stick around for at least another two seasons. Otherwise, the 2018 Patriots could look a lot like the 1999 San Francisco 49ers. And no dynasty (or coach) survives an 18-year quarterback search.
ESPN – Joe Girardi will not be back next season as manager of the New York Yankees, the team announced Thursday.
Girardi just completed the final season of a four-year, $16 million contract. Sources told ESPN’s Buster Olney that Yankees general manager Brian Cashman recommended to owner Hal Steinbrenner that the team change managers.
In an email to local media outlets, Girardi said: “With a heavy heart, I come to you because the Yankees have decided not to bring me back.” He went on to thank the Steinbrenner family and Cashman.
This is a ballsy move by Brian Cashman and I love it. I understand that this year’s Yankees team exceeded pretty much everyone’s expectations and came within one game of the World Series. But if you think your team needs new leadership in the dugout and in the clubhouse, why would you wait to take make the move?
What did the Red Sox gain by keeping John Farrell around for an extra year? Nothing. The Red Sox once again departed the playoffs in the first round in 2017 while the heir apparent, Torey Lovullo, helped the Diamondbacks win 24 more games than they did in 2016. I’m sure glad Theo didn’t keep Grady Little around just because he won 188 games in two seasons.
It took Ron Gardenhire four-straight god-awful 90-loss seasons to get fired in Minnesota. Why, because he won a few division titles and went 6-21 in the playoffs? That dude should have been given his walking papers at least two years sooner, if not three. Four 90-loss seasons in the first five years of a new ballpark is not a great way to reenergize a fan base.
If I had to choose between the Minnesota method of hiring managers or the George Steinbrenner method from the 1980s, I’d take the Steinbrenner method every day of the week. If you can’t be good, at least be interesting!
That being said, letting Joe Girardi go is not a vintage George Steinbrenner move. Girardi managed the team for ten years. The team has only had two managers since Bill Clinton’s reelection in 1996. This is not like the days when Billy Martin was coming back every other year like the Olympics. This is a conscious decision by Cashman to move in a new direction.
When Girardi was brought on board in 2008, the team was in a much different place. It was an aging collection of superstars and the average age on the team was 31.5. The Core Four was still in place. A-Rod was coming off of his third (and last) MVP season. Hell, Bobby Abreu played 156 games for the Yanks in 2008. Mark Teixeira and C.C. Sabathia were still a year away from joining the team.
The average age of a Yankees player this season was 28.7. The team is more focused on building than on signing the top free agent every off-season. Maybe Cashman sees Dave Roberts (45 years old), A.J. Hinch (43), and Alex Cora (42) and believes that the best path forward for the Yankees is to also get younger in the manager’s office, and to install a manager that can better relate to today’s younger players.
Bringing Girardi back for another go around wouldn’t have been a bad move. It would have been a safe move. But ten years in the Bronx is a long time for anyone. With a new nucleus of young players set to play together for many years to come it makes sense to want a manager who will be in place for more than just the next few years. The next Yankees manager could easily be in place in 2022. It’s hard to imagine Girardi sticking around that much longer. As Bill Belichick has demonstrated so often, it’s always better to move on a year too early instead of a year too late.
So maybe it’s not be a popular move today, and it surely won’t be an easy vacancy to fill. But you know what’s easy? Being the Minnesota Twins. Championships don’t come easy. And they don’t hang up division Wild Card champions banners in the Bronx.
ArkansasOnline – The city of Little Rock won’t submit a bid to become the home of Amazon’s second headquarters after all.
In a full page ad that appeared in The Washington Post on Thursday under the heading “Hey Amazon, we need to talk,” the city said it has realized it would “probably never work out between us…”
Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, is also the owner of The Washington Post.
Genius move by the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce. I’d have bet my house that Amazon wasn’t headed to the Natural State. But instead of wisecracks about why the hell Amazon would ever even consider moving to the state with the third-lowest median income in the nation, the Chamber of Commerce has taken control of the situation with two classic George Costanza moves.
The first is the “It’s Not You, It’s Me” routine. That’s pretty obvious. But what is really going on in the ad and in the video is the preemptive breakup.
GEORGE: I have no power Do you understand? I need hand. I have no hand.
KRAMER: Break up with her
GEORGE: What?
KRAMER: You break up with her. You reverse everything that way.
JERRY: A preemptive breakup.
GEORGE: A preemptive breakup. This is an incredible idea. I got nothing to lose. We either break up which she would do anyway but at least I go out with some dignity. Completely turn the tables. It’s absolutely brilliant.
I actually wish more states would tell Amazon to go pound sand. Instead of bidding against each other and undercutting each other, why not just let the chips fall where they may? What’s the benefit of having Amazon in your state if you have to give away the store to get them there? It’s like these cities are bidding on the Olympics. The only difference is that the increased traffic, congestion and inflation won’t go away after a two-week party.
The Red Sox completed the greatest comeback in history and vanquished the Yankees in the Bronx 13 years ago today. As Dan Shaughnessy wrote at the time:
FOREVERMORE, the date goes into the New England calendar as an official no-school/no-work/no-mail-delivery holiday in Red Sox Nation.
Mark it down. Oct. 20. It will always be the day Sox citizens were liberated from eight decades of torment and torture at the hands of the Yankees and their fans.
Boston Baseball’s Bastille Day.
Nothing will ever top this moment for me as a sports fan. Not the Patriots comeback last February, not Boston University’s unbelievable comeback in the 2009 National Championship game. Nothing.
That’s why I can’t get too upset over this tweet.
Ah, work day for us. Game time is 5:08pm, if you’re not busy.
Sports Illustrated – We live in a great era for play-by-play voices. The list of quality game-callers is deep and sports broadcasting has become far more inclusive than ever as evidenced by women (Tiffany Greene, Beth Mowins, Kate Scott, etc…) regularly getting play-by-play assignments that have traditionally been the domain of men only.
Given the quality of talent among play-by-play voices, I thought it would be a fun parlor game to list the 25 best working play-by-play broadcasters in the business. This list is entirely subjective. It is entirely based on my likes when it comes to professionalism, preparation and quality of broadcast. I expect to be told on social media that the list sucks.
While Deitsch admits that his list is subjective and that he expects to get pushback on social media, he won’t get much pushback from me. His list is more than fair and includes a wide range of broadcasters from a wide range of sports. Still, I’ll add my two cents.
23. Phil Liggett, NBC Sports
The soundtrack for the Tour de France in the United States…
22. Mary Carillo, The Tennis Channel and NBC Sports
A play-by-play caller who is unafraid to deliver truths while calling a match…
A cycling announcer and a tennis announcer right out of the gate had me concerned about the direction of this list. Where’s the Boston Marathon announcer going to be ranked?
18. Sean McDonough, ESPN
McDonough continues to be criminally underrated. While he currently handles Monday Night Football and college basketball broadcast duties for the worldwide leader, he was also a terrific college football and Major League Baseball broadcaster. Arguably the best Boston play-by-play announcer of all time.
17. Brad Nessler, CBS
Love listening to Brad Nessler. I feel like my dad watching an Oilers/Bengals game in 1990.
14. Chris Fowler, ESPN
The best tennis match caller working today. There are better on college football but he’s improved each year at that gig, too.
I’ll give Deitsch credit, he is showing more respect to non-Big 4 sports than I would on my list. But I still miss listening to Brent Musburger on big-time college football games. Fowler is ranked too high for my tastes.
13. Gus Johnson, Fox Sports
Would probably be higher on this list if he stilled called NCAA Tournament games. It’s a shame we don’t get to hear him on CBS (or TBS) in March any more.
10. Joe Buck, Fox Sports
Perennially underrated as a baseball voice and he’s self-deprecating on the mic, which is welcome.
I agree with this statement 100%. Not the best in the business, but not deserving of much of the criticism he receives.
9. Kevin Harlan, CBS, Turner Sports, and Westwood One
I respect a broadcaster who will do play-by-play of a drunk fan on the field during the fourth quarter of a lousy Monday night game.
4. Ian Eagle, CBS Sports, Westwood One, Tennis Channel, YES Network
The highest ranked Sunday afternoon NFL broadcaster on the list and I don’t disagree. Though his partner, Dan Fouts, might need to be the next analyst to get pushed out the door when Peyton Manning decides to get back in the game.
2. Al Michaels, NBC Sports
Still the gold standard for the NFL—and still going strong at age 72. He’ll call his 10th Super Bowl on Feb. 4, 2018.
From the Olympics to the World Series to the Super Bowl and everything in between, Michaels is perhaps the best of all time.
1. Mike Emrick, NBC Sports
I did not expect to see a hockey broadcaster at the top of this list but it is well deserved for the Doc. No other sport and broadcaster go together better than Emrick and hockey. Hell, Emrick does minor league and college games when the NHL goes into lockouts. That’s dedication. I can’t imagine Mike Tirico announcing a Northeastern basketball game the next time the NBA has a lockout.
TechCrunch – The pioneering chat app that taught us to text is pulling the plug. On December 15th, AOL Instant Messenger will shut down after running since 1997. AIM dominated online chat in North America at the turn of the century. But with SMS and social apps like Facebook and WhatsApp having conquered chat, AOL is giving up the fight with no planned replacement.
Giving up the fight? What fight? I haven’t used AIM in six years, but it was pretty much the same in 2011 as it was in 2001. People complain about Facebook changing its look and features too often, but those changes keep it relevant. Facebook will be twenty years old in seven years, but it’s hard to imagine Facebook dying a death in obscurity like AIM.
Now that pretty much every app on your phone has the ability to send and receive messages from your pocket, AIM really did become superfluous years ago. It’s even a bit surprising this end didn’t come sooner. But broadband internet may of played a bigger role in killing AIM than smart phones. It used to be exciting when your best friend or crush signed on. After broadband internet became common place, no one ever signed off.
And while it is a shame that AOL never figured out a way to freshen up AIM, or keep it a little bit more relevant for a little while longer, it was a trail blazer. Away Messages really were the predecessor to status updates and tweets. Your profile is where you put obscure music lyrics and threw shade at frenemies in the days before MySpace.
But maybe going away is the best thing that could happen for AIM right now. How could we have ever missed Crystal Pepsi or Surge if they never went away? I’ll bet you an Andrew Jackson that AIM is relaunched as an app within the next five years. At that point, younger millennials will remember AIM the way I (an older millennial) remember SEGA Genesis. Now excuse me while I go crush the competition as Stockton and Malone in NBA JAM TE.
The 300s 