Mike's Archive

Category: Sports

  • CBS Sports: A Guide for Next March

    The greatest weekend of televised sports has passed. As usual, CBS blew the coverage. Fear not, viewers — I have 5 ways to fix CBS’ March Madness coverage next year:

    1) Teams that are located hours from me are not local
    I live in Philadelphia. For some reason, we always, ALWAYS get the Pittsburgh games, no matter what other great game is on. We got the Bucknell-Memphis game and they refused to swich away even though it was clearly over. I also got the Seton Hall (New Jersey) game in round one, even though the other two games (BC-Pacific and UWM-Okla) were going to be far more interesting games. Which leads me to my next point…

    2) MAJOR upset possibilities are far more compelling than close seeded games.
    They showed Seton Hall – Wichita State and Marquette-Alabama in the first round, both 7-10 games. (Note: a 9 over 8 or a 10 over 7 is NOT an upset.) At the same time, the aforementioned 4-13 and 6-11 games, both close, were not only better games but big upset potentials. Instead of Montana-Nevada or Wintrop-Tennessee, again two games that figured to be evenly matched and good upset possibilities, we got a boring 7-10 game. People who don’t understand basketball might think that the 7-10 and 8-9 games have a better chance to be close, but a double-digit upset is what tourney fans live for. Let us have it. (You can always switch to the 7-10 in a blowout!)

    3) In the first round, big names don’t matter!
    Yes, I know everyone likes to watch Duke. If they are playing East Jabib State, however, I don’t care. The beauty of the opening round is that people and teams we’ve never heard up become stars for one weekend. The Dukes and UNCs will have their moment in the later rounds.

    4) Switch games faster
    There’s nothing worse than watching some boring game while some major upset is brewing on the top right corner of the screen. After lulling you to sleep, CBS brings you to the other game just in time to see a few foul shots that ice the victory. It is as if they are afraid to take you away from a game, lest it all of a sudden become good. Grow a pair! Take viewers to the best game! Of course, you could also…

    5) Take NBC’s lead with the Olympics
    Show multiple games at once on other Viacom stations. All of my programming notes above would be moot if all the games were available to me. Let people watch the game they want to watch! You can’t tell me that if ABC got the tournament (which would be one of the greatest days in television sports history), they wouldn’t have every single game shown in its entirety on one of the ESPN networks.

    On the other hand, the decision this year to stream all games online for free was a great one. Hey CBS — Congrats! You finally did something right!

  • 20 Years Burnin’ Down the Road: Bias still hurts

    June 19, 1986: Walking down the halls of Angier Elementary, someone tells us that Len Bias, the recent first-round draft pick and next in the line of legendary hoopsters for the hometown Boston Celtics, has died. “Yeah, right”, I say. It wasn’t possible. Cocaine? He was a great kid – Red Auerbach said so. No Way!

    Way.

  • Belmont Stakes

    The absence of Barbaro and Bernardini in Saturday’s Belmont Stakes is unfortunate, but it is still a great race every year. Let’s celebrate by watching Secretariat’s legendary performance:

  • Gary Matthews: Well, He’s with Leather

    Neil Everett has balls of steel.

  • Delmon Young Video

    In case you haven’t seen it yet, Tampa Bay minor leaguer Delmon Young doesn’t take well to being ejected from the game:

  • Oh, A-Rod!

    It’s must see you tube thursday! And, although I promised myself I would stop pimping videos from Deadspin, this one was way too good to pass up:

    (It really doesn’t get any better than A-Rod acting like an ass.)

  • Jay S. Bilas, Attourney At Law

    who knew?
    http://www.mvalaw.com/AttDetails.php?id=19

  • Foxfield Races: A fun-guide

    In an attempt to provide a real, useful guide to fun events for people who love to seek out a great party, I give you my Guide to the Foxfield Races (which are coming up 4/29):

    What is it?
    The Foxfield Races, or simply “Foxfield”, is a steeplechase horse racing event that takes place every April (and once again in the fall) in Charlottesville, VA. It is a “tailgating” event, meaning that it is more a social event than a horse race, per se. There is no offical betting, to my knowledge, and the horses are not truly a focus on the day. In reality, Foxfield is a bunch of people who go to a field to eat and drink all day and have a grand old time.

    How is this different than the Triple Crown Races? (Derby, Preakness, Belmont)?
    Foxfield is more of a true “Tailgate”. You drive into Foxfield and park in a pre-reserved “plot” where you set up shop for the day. Plots must be reserved in advance. Unlike the Triple Crown, there are very few people focused on the races, as most people are just there to hang out.

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  • Fever Pitch, The Movie

    I watched Fever Pitch this week, in honor of Patriot’s Day. Amazingly, it was better than expected. As a die hard Sox fan, I worried that it would make a mockery of the whole thing, but it was pretty well done. (Perhaps, of course, this is because I was expecting a disaster). The one thing it did, however, make me, was depressed that I wasn’t in Boston in October of ’04 — simply a time that will never, ever be duplicated.

    While we’re here, there are two technical gripes I need to get off my chest (partial spoilers):

    Today, April 17, 2006, is Patriot’s Day, the New England-only holiday that centers around the Boston Marathon and an early Sox game. It also kicks off “Spring Break” for all Boston area elementary, middle and high schools. However, in the movie, Ben is a middle school teacher who goes to Sox Spring Training every year during “Spring Break”, in March. While I understand how important this event is for the story — it is when Barrymore’s character finds out how psycho Ben is about the Sox — how could they let that go? Knowing this movie would be heavily watched by the Nation, how could they have “Spring Break” in Boston occur in March? It just doesn’t happen!

    On Ben’s first trip to Fenway (in ’80), he walks in and sees Big Jim Ed and The Eck shooting the bull by the batting cages during BP. A few moments later, however, as the game starts, the second baseman is wearing #14. And, he’s a white guy! Now, any die-hard Sox fan from the 80’s, which the Farrelly brothers are — should know that Rice wore #14.

    There, I feel better now.

  • MustRead: Fox29 Morning Show

    Philadelphia Will Do: The Fox29 Folks get freaky with the Phillie Phanatic