It's drunk night at the stadium

I'm not a big fan talk radio, just like I'm not a fan of the yellfests that wind up on cable TV. The rule that one person speaks at a time on TV (supposedly because only one person can be heard at a time) or that talk radio can produce intelligent dialogue is very old-fashioned, I guess.
But I did catch an item the other day in which the moderator was wondering why people who pay good money to attend sporting events wind up so blitzed that they don't remember what happened.
We've seen them – the ones who wind up sleeping it off on the shoulder of a complete stranger, the ones who get thrown out of a game without seeing it to completion.
Jump in ... love to know why you think people behave like that.

Race track idea resurfaces

Saw in the paper that the idea of building a race track in the Denver area is back before the masses.
This one would be closer to DIA and seat 65,000 people to start.
Do you think the Denver area would support something like this? Jump in and sound off.

Not what ESPN/ABC or the NBA wants

While very exciting – perhaps the best playoff basketball in years – there is the chance that Kobe Bryant of the Lakers and LeBron James of Cleveland won't meet in the finals.
Translated: a ratings disaster for ESPN/ABC.
If Denver wins, it would be a wonderful thing for the Nuggets and their fans. If Orlando wins, it's the first trip to the finals in 20-something years.
But ABC/ESPN would much rather see the Lakers and Cleveland. Two star players, two major television markets. It would be just the thing to boost ABC's poor overall ratings.

No Roy is a good thing

Saw this morning that former Colorado Avalanche goalkeeper Patrick Roy won't be coming back as coach or general manager – at least not now.
it's a good thing for this reason. Roy has no experience in an NHL front office. He was a wonderful goalkeeper, but that doesn't translate into a good coach.
Especially here, where the Avalanche need a little stability and some luck to turn things around.

Back to work

Here's hoping you had a wonderful holiday weekend and that you had a chance to think about the reasons for the weekend. The service to honor America's war dead in Fort Lupton yesterday was just such a reminder.
Two things came to mind yesterday during a long afternoon of TV viewing ...
* How about the Nuggets? Winds are hard to come by in Los Angeles. But Denver certainly has played better than the Lakers in all four games.
* How about them Rockies? How about them Dodgers? How do the Dodgers – they of a strong pitching staff since time immemoriam – walk 11 batters and still win by 10 runs? Answer: when they play the Rockies. I'm not sure the Rockos have tuned out their manager. But surrendering – in the span of eight days – separate innings of 10 runs, nine runs and an eight- and a seven-spot in the same game doesn't exactly produce a lot of inspiration.

Roy as an NHL coach?

What do you think?
Speak up.

1.5 innings of pure, unfiltered babble

The worst fears of many of us have come true.
For a full 1 1/2 innings Sunday night, alleged analysts Joe Morgan and Steve Phillips were debating about whether a New York Mets player was or wasn't a team leader. (Riveting stuff, I'm here to tell you)
Never mind the game was in progress. Never mind they missed two or three plays. Never mind the two of them will always be infatuated with the sounds of their own voices.
Even though Morgan has spent 19 years mastering the art of repeating the same point ad infinitum, there was always a limit, namely the next play, the next inning. Now that Phillips is part of the show, discussions like that are likely to be repeated.
We said it before, but it bears repeating. Two in the booth is a crowd. Three is stupid.

Four minutes too many

Not sure what to make of the Channel 9 piece about the virtues of Clint Hurdle, the somewhat beleaguered Rockies manager.
The gist of the "alleged" piece of journalism – clearly an opinion from the main anchor yet never labeled as such – was that Hurdle should have a lifetime contract.
There are many reasons why Hurdle shouldn't have a lifetime contract. The main one is save for one month, he's done absolutely zip with a franchise whose owners won't spend money.
For now, the complaint will be this. If the Channel 9 dude thinks Hurdle is the greatest thing since canned tuna fish, fine. Label it as an opinion so that people who want objective stories won't be misled.

Lakers in six

It's great that the Nuggets advanced to the Western Conference finals.
But that's as far as the ride goes.
In spite of the Denver sports media's efforts to crown the Nuggets the next NBA champions, it's not going to happen this year.
The Lakers are too talented and too deep for Denver. Even if the Lakers' alter ego shows up for the two to three games in Denver, the Angelinos are far and away the better team.
It won't be a whitewash just for the fact that the Lakers are very inconsistent. How else do you beat a Yao Ming-less team by 40, then get your clock cleaned two nights later?
It will be an entertaining series. But make mine Lakers in six.

In the finals

Now that Denver has advanced to the Western Conference finals --- and now that those in attendance have managed to make their way into work (we hope), the question today is how far can Denver go?
Is the next round the end of the line? Can they beat either the Lakers or Houston? What about their chances against either Cleveland, Boston or Orlando?
Jump in ...

Exciting but ragged

Any NBA game in which two teams can score 236 points is a pretty good game, especially considering that half the league plays games where the combined score is in the 160s.
But last night's Nuggets game (Denver lost by a bucket) had absolutely no rhythm whatsoever. Between the fouls, the technicals, the scrums, the TV timeouts (why do pro teams need six regular timeouts, a horde of 20-second timeouts and two mandatory TV timeouts each game?), the game had all the charm of two elephants dancing in quick sand. Little wonder it took almost three hours to play.
Let's hope this is just an exception.

This is journalism?

The sight of an ESPN reporter standing outside Brett Favre's home and saying nothing of any value yesterday made me think of two things ...
1) Wouldn't you have liked to heard her say, "The only thing I would add is there is nothing to add?"
2) How long will it be before networks like ESPN start using shower cams to chronicle people's private business?

Second thoughts

So ... how's Matt Holliday doing?
Seems that the former Colorado Rockies player is learning about the advantage of playing half his games at altitude vs. playing half his games in the cavernous McAfee Coliseum.
Through 23 games, ole Matt had three home runs and was batting .227.
He won't be in Oakland for long and not because of those numbers. But one has to wonder how much of a price tag he can command this offseason with that kind of production to back it up.

50 – count 'em 50

Manny Ramirez' 50-game drug suspension goes beyond the wonderful phrase "Manny being Manny."
It's more like "Manny being stupid."

Make him go away

One name (at least this session):
Brett Favre.

This guy is good

His name is Zack Greinke.
He pitches for Kansas City. Greinke won five games in April. His ERA was 0.50. He struck out 44 and walked eight and pitched two complete games. He and Fernando Valenzuela of the Dodgers are the only two pitchers in history to not allow an earned run in their first four starts in the big leagues.
Pretty good numbers.
Two downsides come with this. Kansas City is destined never to appear on a televised baseball game (free TV) near you because MLB's broadcast partners think we need to see Boston, the Yankees, the Mets, the Cubs and the Phillies – or some combination thereof – each week.
The other is a potential agent in waiting – Scott Boras. If Boras can gets his mitts on young Mr. Greinke, then Mr. Greinke will go where the top dollar happens to be at the time.
Because baseball's money is in such markets as New York and Boston, Greinke would appear every other Sunday night on ESPN, that's for sure.