Sports Broadcasting – enviable? Perhaps not so much
I'm a talk radio guy on my commute to and from work. I get sick of hearing the same 40 songs played over and over in different genres on different stations. I get even sicker of DJ's that find themselves extremely funny, when in reality, they are really one of two things - airhead or meathead, or a mix of both.
That being said, I'm going to cast out a blanket statement and guess that many readers of this blog have at one point in time thought that being a sportscaster, sports announcer or sports talker would be a great job. I mean, we've all got a million thoughts on our favorite teams, cards and otherwise. Getting paid to do this daily would be wonderful.
This morning, as I listened to one of the local Kansas City talk show hosts talk about how fired up he was about the "sticks in the Royals lineup," this season, I felt sorry for him. (Disclaimer, not originally from KC, not a KC sports fan, I just listen) The photo above represents what I believe those sticks to be and the Royals better be careful with them. Get those sticks near fire and up they'll go and by April 15th Dayton Moore will only have ashes to work with.
The point is this, unless you are a Kansas or Kansas State basketball fan, as a sports talker in Kansas City you have very little to work with these days, the same is true in other cities. It just has to be hard to wake up each day, go to work, feign excitement about the Chiefs, discuss the epic of GilgaMeche, or try and figure out what Mangino's been eating, I mean up to.
Now, that being said, we all have meetings, projects and other tasks we aren't excited about on a daily basis. Perhaps some more than others, they aren't pleasant but we get through them. However, from April to early October, broadcasters must eat, sleep, drink and I'd have to think puke Royals. That's not an enviable task. Every fifth day Grienke pitches, that's fun to talk about. Billy Butler, nice young bat. Jose Guillen, good for two to three soap operas per year. This years offseason signings - Jason Kendall (no comment) and Rick Ankiel - did you know he has a cannon for an arm in the outfield?
The phrase "ad nauseam" has never been so appropriate and for once in my life this morning, I felt sorry for someone who had to cover sports as a job.
Monday Morning NFL Thoughts
Courtesy of AP
In no particular order...
1. Michael Turner, 166 yds and 2 TDs, LaDainian Tomlinson - 22 yds, sigh.
2. Kurt Warner throws for 5 TDs and the Bears look worse by the week.
3. A little salt in that wound for the Bears? Cedric Benson keeps up his torrid pace with 117 yds and 1 TD.
4. The Saints got behind again, 14-0 in the first quarter. They played catch-up and still won but you have to wonder if this wont catch up to them at some point.
5. When the Cowboys went into OT with the Chiefs I really wondered if they were any good. Now, with their win over the Eagles last night they are 6-2 and in the drivers seat of the NFC East. My my how things change.
6. The Chargers won, in the last second. Does any team have a better two-minute drill (Patriots perhaps) but start slower than the Chargers?
7. Josh Freeman leads TB to a win over GB...WHAAAAT! I work with quite a few K-State fans and between Freeman and K-State's win over KU they do not know what to do with themselves this morning.
8. Speaking of Kansas City sports, the Chiefs are an ugly ugly football team.
9. Miles Austin continues to be one of the best waiver wire pick-ups I have had in a few years.
10. All of a sudden, Tennessee looks like a somewhat viable team again.
10 NBA Observations – 10/30/09 Games
Courtesy AP
1. Brandon Jennings had the best first game of anyone in the league - 17 pts, 9 rebounds and 9 assists
2. Second double-double for Russell Westbrook - 10 points and 10 rebounds
3. Nice night by rookies Tyreke Evans (22 points) but a crucial turnover in the last few moments
4. All five Memphis starters score in double digits as the put up 115 and beat Toronto
5. New York and Charlotte went into double overtime, this game resembled the Chiefs-Redskins game a few weekends ago...neither team scares anyone
6. As mentioned on Sportscenter last night, Josh Smith is the youngest ever to 900 blocks
7. Oklahoma City has a nice second half and has no trouble with Detroit. They appear to be much improved.
8. Channing Frye goes 6-7 from 3 pt land...
9. 20 assists for Steve Nash
10. How did the Lakers get beat so handily by the Mavericks at home?
The Whoops-a-Daisy Award: Sometimes, you just plain messed up.
The Kansas City Chiefs were expected to be bad this year, if it was possible to disappoint, they have. In fact, they have in a big way. After a resounding (not) victory over the Redskins, the Chiefs and their fans were revved up for a coming out party against the Chargers. I'm going to go ahead and guess that a 37 to 7 loss was not what they were looking for. As you might expect frustrations ran high. As you might also expect, Larry Johnson said stupid things.
Listen, people say stupid things all the time, far worse than what Larry said at that link. Just don't say them on Twitter, on Facebook, into a live mic, into a camera etc. You should be a little smarter than that by now Larry but I guess that is assuming too much.
Whoops-a-Daisy Larry
5 Monday Morning NFL Thoughts
Another great weekend of football has come and gone, here are five thoughts floating around in my mind this morning.
1. Vincent Jackson - Is he finally becoming the stud WR I thought he would be this season? So far in two games he has 11 catches, 197 yards and 2 TDs. I used to have two of his Exquisite Auto /5 Patches...I'm guessing I will want those back at some point in time this season.
2. Chiefs vs. Raiders - putrid, smelly, disgusting and atrocious. Two anemic offenses doing battle in Kansas City. The Chiefs find a way to lose at the end, thanks to a bad decision at the end of the first half. You can't throw the ball to the middle of the field without any time outs. Jamarcus Russell manages to win a game where he was 7 for 24 for 109 yards. Wow, in last 27 regular season games, the Chiefs are 2-25.
3. Drew Brees - I wound up autodrafting in one of my fantasy leagues this year, just couldn't make it to the live draft. At first I was bitter about this, until it auto drafted Drew Brees for me...no longer bitter...what a stud.
4. Frank Gore - wow! I'm going to go ahead and guess that Sunday is the only time this season he will have two ~80 yard touchdown runs.
5. Mark Sanchez - although he has not been doing anything spectacular, he has not been making mistakes either, which is spectacular for a rookie. Thus far he has two wins to show for it, one of which is over the Patriots. He appears headed for a Matt Ryan type season this year and J-E-T-S fans must feel very thankful to have him...and not have Mr. Drama Queen.
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