A daddy blog.

09 October 2007

FanHouse: Wed AM 'Joe Pa's Finger' Edition

If you haven't heard the Paterno rumor, you should scroll down and check 'em out.

Media Watch:

Cowboys-Bills Draws Huge Rating for ESPN: The broadcast was viewed in more than 9.6 million homes, the highest number for any cable TV broadcast this year. (High School Musical 2 on the Disney Channel had more individual viewers but was watched in fewer households.) That's good news for ESPN and the NFL, which has seen a decline in ratings this year.

MLB:
Cubs Fan Are Smart: Can't read that sweet cardboard sign? Here's what it says: "I, Leon "Bill" Bartman, have sacrificed my goat life and thereby have reversed the curse and have blessed the Cubs with "The Holy Cow" and in the name of Harry, Santo, Woo, Mr. Cub, "The Girls," Sweet Lou, Hendry, WGN, Mr. Wrigley, Tribune Co, and The Billy Goats of the World, and the Best Fans in Baseball..."

Scott Boras Will Melt Your Mind: Is Alex Rodriguez really a network shifter? The fact that YES Network subscriptions have increased since 2004 is hard to parse because such subscriptions were increasing before A-Rod put a foot through his pinstripe pants. It's almost patently ridiculous to assume that of all the business minutiae involved in running a sports network, A-Rod was the real reason for increased subscribers. Can you isolate business factors, or the influence of other players' desirability, and prove it? No, no you can't. How dubious is that?

Suzyn Waldman Cries on the Air for Joe Torre: This is hardly the first time we saw Waldman wear her heart on her sleeve (her on-air freak out upon seeing "Roger Clemens standing right in George Steinbrenner's box!" is a highlight of the entire MLB season, no?), but is she overstepping her bounds by displaying such emotion? Awful Announcing thinks yes; I'm not so sure.

Roger Clemens: The Final Tally: Clemens made cost the Yankees $15,000 per pitch this year. $1.3 million per start! In case you're curious, Rovell reminds that Cleveland's best starting team cost them $28 million this year, or, you know, just under seven times what the Yankees paid Clemens for each of his wins.

Mo Vaughn Let The Terrorists Win: The real reason he wanted out of Los Angeles? Osama Bin Laden."I haven't stated this to anybody," the former Angel, 39, says from New York, where he's forging a new career transforming dilapidated low-income housing developments into livable apartments, "but the reason I left Anaheim was because of Sept. 11. My parents never really missed a game and after Sept. 11 hit, I was like, 'I've got to get back home. I don't want my parents in the air.' " And with that, George Bush just sent 10,000 more troops to the middle east to avenge the trade of Mo Vaughn.

Diamondbacks Still Far From Selling Out NLCS: As of Monday, according to The Arizona Republic. I'm pumped up, my fellow FanHousers are pumped up, so why the heck isn't the city of Phoenix and its surroundings excited enough to buy tickets to watch their Diamondbacks make a World Series run?

Clubhouse Celebration: ALDS Style: Check the gallery out if you're an Indians or Red Sox fan that wants to relive the glory of winning the right to play for the right to play for the World Championship. Just don't do it if you're about to go to bed because Julio Lugo and Casey Blake's beard are featured prominently and I promise you, they're the stuff that nightmares are made of.

NBA:
Is Robert Swift Bad Because He's White? Sorry, that question comes out weird. Let's have Brian Robinson of SonicsCentral set the table so we can devour the hypothesis Sonic center Robert Swift's racial insecurity is limiting his performance.

If Jim O'Brien Gets You Excited, You Might Be Slightly Biased: This fall, the team's ads and billboards don't depict players. Instead, it's coach Jim O'Brien and sometimes, Hoosier legend and shaky GM Larry Bird. Henry suggested that race might be an issue here. To me, that seems pretty self-evident; for people who don't know about or follow "hip-hop culture," that phrase is basically a stand-in for "young African-Americans I don't understand."

Marbury a Hero Among His Peers: Apparently a favorite pastime among NBA players these days is surfing YouTube for Stephon Marbury. No, not highlights, but clips from various interviews Marbury gave during the summer when he alternated between making outrageous statements to times when he was downright babbling. According to various insiders, it has been the source of high comedy among his peers.

Baron Davis Wants Help Designing His Beard: Hopefully whatever he chooses will be a little more creative than what Lamar Odom has in mind for this season. I'm voting for a likeness of one of his special lady friends, but I'm open to any additional suggestions you might leave in the comments.

Video: KG Impressive In Celtics' Pre-Season Debut: We caught our first glimpse of KG as a Celtic the other night, and although it was the first game of the pre-season being played in another country, the results were everything that a Garnett or Celtics' fan could have hoped for.

NFL:
Eric Steinbach: Mike Vrabel Was 'Classless': Steinbach has called for the NFL to fine Vrabel for the move, so we'll see what they do. I didn't get a chance to see this specific play, so I can't comment on it, but it sounds dirty from the description.

Just So There's No Confusion, Cam Cameron Says It's His Fault the Dolphins Stink: There aren't many positives coming out of Miami these days -- Trent Green is concussed, the defense stinks, and the coaching is suspect -- but at least Cam Cameron is an honorable man: he's willing to take full responsibility for the crappy play-calling following the Dolphins' latest loss, a 22-19 field-goal-fest against the Texans.

Video: This Guy Doesn't Think Mike Sellers Can Crush: 'm glad this dude is around to explain what "getting crushed" really means. This gentleman set up a camera at his trailer park home to tell us that a) Mike Sellers didn't crush Kenoy Kennedy, b) the 49ers are going all the way and c) Jeff Gordon is his favorite NASCAR driver.

NCAA Football:
Yes, Honey, JoePa Is Giving Us the Finger: We could file this under "crazy-ass internet rumor" -- the poster had only 19 posts to his name and was probably a Pitt flamer, right? -- except that this post was followed up by not one but two newspaper items reporting on the incident. Neither goes so far as to say it was definitely JoePa, but one hints at it. the other specifically mentions that the names of the principles can't be released until the investigation is complete.

The Debriefing: Dumb BCS Computers Don't Understand the Value of Preseason Rankings: But that's what's wrong with these computers. They don't know that Oklahoma, because they were preseason #8, and because they have the big-time history and the recognizable uniforms, deserve to be ranked higher. Certainly higher than Missouri and South Florida, neither of whom was ranked before the season started. These damn computers, they just judge on things like actual on-field performance, strength of schedule, and quality of victories.

Tennessee-Georgia in 2 minutes, 18 seconds: Tennessee fans can't get enough of it. Here it is: the Tennessee-Georgia game in 2 minutes, 18 seconds. Time-lapse photography, baby.

NHL:
The Blog Box Fails the New Media Test: I was simply treated like any other member of the working press and was granted the same access and privileges -- including access to the visiting locker room if I wanted. Of course, that also meant I had the same responsibilities, which meant staying out of the way of the beat writers who had deadlines to meet, moving if I was blocking a camera angle, as well as making sure I didn't step on team logo on the center of the locker room carpet. And it also meant not cheering from the box and leaving my Capitals hat at home.