Good day fellow Rioters! And welcome to yet another edition of Quick Takes. This is the late night edition seeing that it’s nearly 2am east coast time, 9pm on the west. And like two of my favorite radio personalities would say (I’m combining catch phrases) I’m taking you “into the night” while “slaving over a hot microphone” or a hot keyboard in this case. But as always, let’s take a look at the scoreboard before we go any further.*The Mets have had a rough week losing yet another star to an injury. David Wright went down with a stress fracture in his back, ouch. They say he will be out 10 days, but it sounds way worse than that. So on top of their general ineptness, now the Mets are battling the injury bug. In my opinion, these guys are just looking for a reason to get out of the lineup. The Mets after a 1-0 victory against the Nats yesterday stand at 21-22. Contenders? Ok, stop it.
*My cy young award pick for this season is R.A. Dickey of the Mets. It’s going to have to be an extraordinary 2nd half to get that done. He is 1-5 with a 5.08 ERA. I know at 36 this was a long shot, but LONG LIVE THE KNUCKLEBALL! Maybe he’ll do it, we’ll see.
*World Series picks update. A’s – 22-21 after falling to the Twinkies last night stand 1 game back of the Rangers for first in the AL west.
Brewers - 21-22, good for 3rd place in the NL Central. Currently 3.5 games back of the Reds. The big reason for the slow start is the performance of last year’s AL cy young award winner Zach Greinke. He was injured to start the season, but after 3 starts he’s 2-1 with a 6.60 ERA. Hopefully he turns that around and I can get one prediction right this season.
The Death of the 4th MajorI’ve been hammering my former passion, the NHL, for a few months now and I’m not going to stop now. I love the sport. I love playing it, and watching it both on TV and in person. The problem is no one else likes to watch it on TV. The numbers are bleak. I remember that it wasn’t too long ago that the NHL and the NBA were mentioned in the same sentence as equal shareholders in the grand lexicon that is sports in America. Let me tell you if you haven’t noticed, that ship has sailed. I truly believe the NHL and MLS are on a level playing field now. This past week was proof in my eyes. The NHL had a game 7 that drew just under 1 million viewers which by my fuzzy math is roughly a .5 rating on the Nielsen rating system. The MLS season just began and they have pulled an average of a .3 Nielsen rating. That’s only a few hundred thousand viewers. Now by the old standard, the NHL would be compared to the NBA right? The NBA playoffs thus far have averaged a 3.0 Nielsen rating. Guess what puckers, you’re closer to the MLS than the NBA. I now proclaim the NHL dead on arrival. They get the same amount of highlight time on ESPN as the MLS, and they are not even close to the rating of the NBA. The days of Lemieux, Gretzky and Messier are over and now you must embrace ESPN 2 status. Remember when the NHL was a prominent part of ESPN programming? You can say all you want about the baseball strike of ’94 doing irreparable harm to the game. Or this current lockout in the NFL doing damage, but no work stoppage did more damage to its game than that of the NHL lockout of 2004. The NHL lost an entire season, and thus half its fan base. They lost their TV contracts, their hype and any momentum they had. The NHL has yet to recover from that. So when you go from competing with Bulls-Knicks on a Saturday afternoon to competing with Union-Dynamo, you’ve fallen a long way. How Gary Bettman still has a job is beyond me. I’m angry at what the NHL did. Ask anyone who knows me; I was a rabid Ranger and hockey fan. It used to be my favorite sport by far. Now, I I’d rather watch “Dancing with the Stars.” I mean competitive dancing? REALLY? What have I come too? Maybe this is more of a statement on my gayness, and not how far the NHL has fallen?
Anyway, this is not a therapy session or a coming out party, I’m here to say that yes, the NHL is no longer a major sport in America. There are no longer “The 4 majors” there are only 3. So I guess you could either look at it as a negative thing, a loss for the NHL. Or the positive spin, way to go MLS, bringing soccer to the forefront and finally making America stand up and take notice. Even though, my local franchise here in the Bay Area, the one and only San Jose Earthquakes, play in the palatial Buck Shaw stadium at Santa Clara University. A stunning high school looking soccer stadium the holds an enormous 10,000 screaming Quake fans. On a side note, if you call your team the Earthquakes, shouldn’t you have a booming sound system, or a fan base that shakes the ground? A quarter full stadium that holds a mere 10K is not quaking anything. My kids would shake the ground more. So maybe it can’t be the positive angle, because this closing of the gap was facilitated by the NHL’s ineptness, not the MLS’s surging popularity. Oh well, LeBron and the Heat-les are on in a few, I need to go catch that.
Bucs say no to “Hard Knocks”
This week the Tampa Bay Buccaneers turned down an opportunity to be featured on this upcoming season of “Hard Knocks” on HBO. The Bucs said that they have a young team and didn’t want the circus and distraction that goes with being a part of a show like “Hard Knocks.” Being a Jets fan, I witnessed the “Hard Knocks” effect first hand and all in all, it’s not a big deal. Now I will say that the Jets are not nearly as young a team as the Bucs are, but the effects were mostly external. Especially for the Jets because they have big personalities with big mouths which created big time expectations. You’ve got to remember when the Jets were on last year they were coming off of an AFC championship game appearance and made moves to make them one of the early Super Bowl favorites. The Jets season of “Hard Knocks” was very entertaining, and I would say that the bulk of the negativity came from criticism of Rex Ryan and his confidence and language; he was kind of a potty mouth. Most of the criticism came from haters like Skip Bayless, who barked all pre-season about how the Jets attitude and Rex Ryan’s antics were going to put a target on the Jets back. And you know what happened Skip? Skip? Are you there Skip? Oh yeah, you won’t hear him talking about Rex Ryan anymore because the Jets were one or 2 plays away from a Super Bowl berth this past season. That’s called backing up that talk Skip, look it up.
Anyway, back to the Bucs. Taking the Jets season into consideration, I think the Bucs organization made a wise choice by turning this opportunity down. The Bucs as a team don’t seem to have the personality to follow up the Jets on “Hard Knocks,” who does? A team that might be a good fit behind the Jets and has all the makings of a dynamic up and coming team is the Detroit Lions. With a rising star at QB in Matthew Stafford, and stud WR in Calvin Johnson and a very bright and engaging mammoth of a D-Linemen in N’Domukong Suh; the Lions are poised to make the move to the next level this season. And what better way to get to know the stars of the future, than putting them on cable TV for the whole pre-season.
Riot! Math
And now it’s time for some Riot! Math. This is the portion of the show where we here at the Riot! show you how our brain works.
Vin Mazzaro + 2 Innings pitched = 14 Earned Runs (yikes)
14 earned runs + bad managing = a trip to the minors for Mazzaro
Vin Mazzaro + Ned Yost (bad manager) = Another shit season in KC
Another Shit season in KC + the past 5 shit seasons in KC + the next 5 shit seasons in KC= Zach Greinke in Milwaukee (way to go KC)
Jorgy goes boom!
I hate the Yankees, that’s well documented, so I revel in this type of turmoil they are dealing with right now. I promise I won’t dwell on it too long, I just have a few thoughts on this soap opera that is the nearly $300 million dollar team who can’t seem to win.
1- I get that Jorgy is down in the dumps about being demoted to 9th in the order, but let’s be honest, what’s the difference in the AL. And Jorgy hits 7th now. What is the big deal here Jorgy. Look, you’re hitting .179 with 6 dingers and 15 RBI, you’re not lighting the world on fire here. There are other players on the bench that would probably do a better job. Be glad you are in the lineup. I think Jorgy is bent because Jeter has gotten a ton of space to work out his early season hitting issues, as well he should, he’s Derek Jeter. Let’s make something very clear; Jeter is a first ballot, no doubt about it, Hall of Famer today. Jorgy will go down as a good player, a solid catcher for a dynasty, but NOT a Hall of Famer. So with that in mind of course Jeter will get the benefit of the doubt. Not to mention he’s going to be the first Yankee to get his 3,000th hit in the pinstripes. That is worth a ton to the Yanks, Jorgy, unfortunately you’re not.
2- What you are witnessing here in the Bronx is the reemergence of the way things were. Think real hard about pre 1993 Yankees. The Steve Balboni, Andy Hawkins, Mike Pagliarulo, Alvaro Espinioza, Don Mattingly Yankees. That team was a disaster for the better part of 10 years and why? George Steinbrenner’s rule with an iron fist ego, and the thought that he could buy championship teams instead of building championship teams. That is on the horizon for Yankee fans. Look how this team is put together right now. The last title was a credit to the Torre teams, not the new regime. Jeter, Mariano, Posada, Cano, and Petite are all credited to the Torre era. I hate the Yanks, but that team was built correctly, from the farm. Draft well, pay your own players and you’ll go far. The new team that has struggled to win the title; AROD, Tex, CC, Soriano, Swisher, etc, are the new Yanks, and they are struggling. Why? Because Hank Steinbrenner, newly crowned king of the Yanks, has the same attitude and ego a young George had. It didn’t work then, and it’s not going to work now. Jeter is such an effective captain and motivator because he’s been there from the gate. He IS the Yankees right now. He’s every bit a part of the Yankee fabric as Babe, Joe, Mick, and the Iron Horse. Where is that next guy? I don’t know, maybe he’ll be on the free agent market next year and the Yanks can buy him.
Ochocinco on a bull
Ok, I actually have to give Ocho some credit on this one. It was stupid, dangerous and so easy to rip on, but I give him credit for trying to stay active in the face of joblessness. He’s learning new skills. (dancing, soccer and now bull riding) In a league where guys are having a very hard time being productive, good citizens during this work stoppage, (10 NFL players have been arrested since the lock out began) Ocho is out there being entertaining and productive. He’s also somewhat of a trailblazer here. How many black men have you ever seen riding a bull? That’s like a black NASCAR driver. Ochocinco is the Jackie Robinson of Bull Riding. Now if we can get him in a race car, he may be a cultural icon yet.
Rick Welts Gay admission
Ok, I have very little to contribute to the “gay men in pro sports” conversation. I don’t know who Rick Welts is or what he’s about, and I don’t really care. I don’t care if he has sex with women, men or chickens. Of course, being who I am, when I heard this story the only thing I could think of is Rick Welts does not sound like a gay guy’s name. Not that there is a criteria. Some are obvious, you know like Johnny Dicklicker would be a slam dunk right? The name doesn’t make you gay, but for some reason, I don’t think people would be surprised if Johnny came out of the closet. So while I’m listening to the “gay men in pro sports” conversation the name Rick Welts was rattling around in my brain. Welts. Welts. That’s an S&M name. He should have come out as a dominatrix. That would have made more sense. With a name like Rick Welts, you were born to shove ball gags in peoples’ mouths and…well…Welt their ass. Rick Welts asses, it’s right in his name. I know I’m going somewhere dark and hot for that. Good thing for me the rapture is this weekend, so I won’t have to wait very long.
Seriously, congrats Rick on your heroic admission. You’re a brave man, and I hope it inspires others who may be struggling with their own sexuality to consider coming out, and be who they actually are.
Bud Selig Needs to Be Stopped…or does he?
This week, a report was released that Bud Selig wants to add 2 more playoff spots that teams can fight for in 2012. That would make the playoff total 10 teams. Now I would normally say no way, no how, you can’t do this. But after further review, I think this has great potential, if done correctly. If I were Bud Selig, the first thing I would do is have massive reconstructive surgery on my face, my God is he ugly. But as far as the playoffs go, I like the proposed plan of having the 2 wild card teams in each league play a best of 3 series, and then have the winners go on to play the 1 seed in each league. This plan actually works on a few levels. The first is obvious it lets more teams compete for more playoff spots, which keeps more cities interested. The less obvious effect is on the division. It actually gives the division winners an advantage. They will get a few days off to get healthy and set up their pitching rotation the way they want. If a division comes down to the last day, the team that wins the division gets to rest a few days while the team that loses and has to play a 3 game set and give all that they have to even make the next round. They will feel the effects of not winning that division. I don’t do this very often, actually, I’ve never done this, but I have to give credit to Bud Selig. I think this time he may be onto something.
And finally…..
Harmon Killebrew passed away at the age of 74 from a long battle with cancer this week. Killebrew, a Hall of Famer and legend, was a feared hitter during his career. With a .256 avg, 573 HR’s and 1584 RBI’s, he was no doubt a tremendous player for the Senators/Twins. But that’s not the story I’m here to tell. I remember Killebrew not because I was a Twins fan, or lived in Minnesota. He retired one year before I was born, so I never got to watch him play. I remember him because my dad was a huge Yankee fan in his younger days, specifically a Mickey Mantle fan. He used to have all of this memorabilia with pics of the Mick and this other guy. Almost every slugger photo had all the familiar faces. Mickey, Hank, Mays and this other guy. I remember asking him who that was, he said Harmon Killebrew. Now that was an interesting name to me. First off, being from NYC, I had never heard the name Harmon before, and secondly, this guy had the word “killer” in his name. I found out later that it wasn’t spelled that way but it sure did sound like “killer.” When I was a tyke I used to run around and pretend to be 2 guys. For hockey I was Captain Barry Beck, we were huge Ranger fans, and for baseball, I was “The Killer.” That is my memory of Harmon Killebrew. I wasn’t a fan of the man, nor his team, but he is part of my childhood, and part of my early baseball memories even if I never got to see the man play. To me, that’s what sports are all about. RIP Harmon “The Killer” Killebrew.
In Honor of the sale of the Atlanta Thrashers to True North Sports and Entertainment, a Winnipeg based group, and the rumoured return of the NHL to Winnipeg, Manitoba has the city of Winnipeg, and The Riot! in a jovial mood. One of the forgotten teams of the NHL's rich history, the Jets should never have been exiled to Atlanta in the first place. Economic problems, and a growing American market at the time forced the hand of the Jets owners and the team was on it's way to a now 2 time failed NHL market, Atlanta Georgia. The Calgary Flames were originally the Atlanta Flames from 1972-1980.
