A daddy blog.

07 November 2007

FanHouse: Wed AM 'Barry Melrose Cowers' Edition

G'morn.

Media Watch:
Is Instant Replay Coming to Baseball? The grumbling you hear is the the baseball purists talking about how this will ruin the game. I don't buy it, especially if this is limited to home run calls. Lots of ballparks have gray areas that make home run calls tough, especially from where the umpires have to make the calls from, which is generally closer to the infield than the fence. You can argue this will make the game longer, but how many games have disputed home run calls? One in ten? And how long can this take? A minute? I'm not buying the "this will make the game longer" argument.

Barry Melrose Cowers After Calling Area Around Devils' Newark Arena 'Awful': In summary, Melrose said that the area around the arena is "awful," that "the inside and the outside where it's built is pretty humorous" and warned those who dare see a game to not "go outside if you have a wallet or anything else." This naturally drew the ire of Devils fans and Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who told Fox 5 in New York that he's "sick and tired of people kicking our city around."

Gilbert Explains That Interview: "I didn't realize when you do interviews for articles and stuff and when people read it, especially articles with me, they're ready to nitpick. I didn't know you have to talk in interviews like you're talking to idiots and explain every little detail. I didn't realize that."

NCAA Basketball:
Spartans Go to Spartan Surroundings: After Michigan State's stunning -- but ultimately meaningless -- exhibition loss to Division II Grand Valley State, Coach Tom Izzo decided that his team has had it too comfortable in their sumptuous locker rooms.

NFL:
What If the Ravens Still Had Derek Anderson? With Anderson, I think the Ravens would be somewhere in the neighborhood of 6-2, and a real threat to the Steelers in the NFC North, not 4-4 and 31 points worse than the Steelers. The Ravens' defense isn't great anymore -- it's still plenty good against the run, but the secondary is a shell of its former self.

The Debriefing: It's a Mat ... With Conclusions ... You Can Jump To (Week 9, Pt. 2): Conclusion #1: Jon Kitna is an actual prophet and will get his own chapter when someone writes "The Even Newer Testament." I'm Jumping. The Lions are 6-2, and have only to go 4-4 in their last 8 games to reach Kitna's prophecy of a 10-win season.

NCAA Football:
Josh McNeil Did Not Make Angry Barbarian Love This Weekend: This, of course, reads "blah blah blah, blah. blah blah blah. OMG FOURSOME!!! blah blah blah" to males everywhere, and McNeil was a short lived internet folk hero.

MLB:
George Mitchell Beats 'Stop Snitching': 'The source described the player as one of several players Mitchell wanted to question because of their previous public comments opposing steroid use, not because the player was connected to any steroid use of his own. The source said the interview with the player was scheduled to take place "very soon."'

Curt Schilling's New Contract Has a 'Fat Clause': $2 million for "six different weigh ins." Yes, Schilling knows and admits he was out of shape last year and is determined to prevent that happening again. From 38 Pitches:

Boom, Bust, or Bobby Bonilla: Barry Bonds: Here's the thing with Barry Bonds (warning: amateur psychological profile coming): he knows no one outside of San Francisco likes him. He's accepted that fact and come to peace with it. He has instead decided that the one way to become fondly remembered is to hold significant records and reach as many significant milestones as he can.

The Dugout: Tom Glavine Undercover: This evening, though, our own PostmanE posted something that made me stop laughing about the whole thing. It seems that Tom Glavine will likely be a Brave next season. This, of course, completely validates our theory. To the best of my ability, I have re-constructed in Dugout form the events transpiring within Glavine's years in New York, after the jump.

NBA:
Is Kobe Trying to Buy MJ's Crib? Jordan's house isn't even for sale, but hey, if someone heard it, it must be true. What makes this post-worthy is the idea of Kobe going that far to imitate MJ, something he's frequently been accused of in the past. That wouldn't really make him that much different from any other baller of his generation, except he gets close enough for it to matter.

The Clippers Are 3-0, John Hollinger Might Be Getting Nervous: I told you before that John Hollinger was crazy for predicting just 20 wins out of this Clippers team, but now they're looking to do much better than that, starting off the season with three straight wins. So just what exactly is clicking for the Clippers early on that's allowing them to take down some of the league's better teams?