Thursday, February 11, 2016

HO-HUM

It's that bad time of the year between the Super Bowl and March Madness. Oh yes, spring training for MLB starts in about a week, but even that's boring for a while. Hockey...not my thing even if they played in my back yard. Pro basketball doesn't generate much interest until the playoffs, even for the players. It's even too early to speculate in the seeding for the NCAA Basketball Tournament, although the analysts try. So what's left? Let's pull some interesting things out of the world of sports.

Ask a stupid question...
Sometimes I feel bad for these announcers that are asked to ambush a coach at halftime as they head to the locker room to ask a question that no one cares about the answer to. Especially the female announcers, who seem a little more intimidated by big name coaches than the guys.
Last week, a lady reporter stopped San Antonio's coach, Gregg Popovich, at halftime and mentioned the the Spurs were trailing their opponent. "What's the reason for that," she asked? Very quickly, Popovich answered, "They scored more points than us." The lady had no where to go after that.

Can we make them any more uncomfortable?
Speaking of the awful situations ESPN insists on putting these ladies in, watch some of the setups they use. The last few days, I've noticed that a woman and two men, or three men, sometimes two women and two men, are sitting around a table that must be a bout 4-foot tall. They give them these tall stools to sit in. They have arms and a back alright, but they're very tall. Not only don't the ladies feet touch the ground, but they can't even reach the rung near the bottom to rest their feet. They also wear short skirts and are always placed on the outside. [The always seem very self-conscious about their skirts riding up; so much so that they don't seem to concentrate on the conversation:Annie-O]They look like little kids sitting there. Even Annie-O commented that the women couldn't even cross their legs comfortably. Sometimes they stand on opposite sides of a set and banter with a male counterpart. Occasionally they even give us a score. Please ESPN, a little decorum?

You are a professional, after all. 
The latest thing in pro basketball is the "Hack-attack."  That's where you continually foul a really bad free throw shooter and force him to shoot free throws. These poor souls are only making as little as 40%  of their chances. No one likes it - not the coaches, the fans, the players or the Commissioner. But they still do it. Why? It works. So it will continue. There is talk of a rule change, but you don't need more rules. You want to stop it? MAKE THE DAMN FREE THROWS. You're paid millions to play a game. Put in a few hours practicing them. What else do you have to do?

Speaking of too many rules... 
One aspect of the college game that I like, is when the students "storm the court" after the home team upsets the visiting team, especially if the visitors come to town ranked #1. They're kids, they get excited. I suppose it's possible that someone could get hurt, but there's less chance of injury doing that than playing football. They Big 12, in it's infinite wisdom, has disallowed the court-storming in their games, so when Kansas State upset #1 Oklahoma in Manhattan, Kansas, the students couldn't go onto the floor to celebrate with their team, so the whole team ran up into the stands and they celebrated with the fans up there. Apparently, the team planned in advance to do this. Nothing bad happened but that won't matter. I sense another rule in the works.

Quote of the week:
"The star-studded cast in FX’s “The People vs. O.J. Simpson” includes Cuba Gooding Jr. as O.J. Simpson, John Travolta as Robert Shapiro, David Schwimmer as Robert Kardashian, and Peyton Manning as the slow, white Bronco."  -- Argus Hamilton

 ***THEY SAID IT***

" Douglas County is cracking down on restaurants that haven’t paid their fees. Nothing can ruin a romantic Valentine's dinner faster than seeing your maitre d handcuffed and wrestled to the floor"  -- Brad Dickson
"According to Forbes, Maria Sharapova makes $23 million a year off-court helping to sell products. And $5 million on-court helping to sell earplugs."  -- RJ Currie
"A robot dubbed Eldrick — in honor of Tiger Woods — hit a hole-in-one on the same par-3 16th hole at the TPC Scottsdale course in Arizona that Woods once did.  Eldrick is so realistic, witnesses say, that it even backed into a fire hydrant while trying to quickly exit the course."  -- Dwight Perry
"Hall of Fame QB Joe Montana performed the Super Bowl 50 coin flip. Maybe time has clouded my memory, but I believe it will mark the first time Montana ever threw something on Super Sunday that hit the grass."  -- Scott Ostler
"So SEC football colleges, in the name of pre-emptive, preventative social activism, now hold preseason seminars to tell their recruits they shouldn’t commit battery or sexual assault against women — apparently at least some of the recruits arrive unaware."  -- Phil Mushnik
"Super Bowl concessions prices for small drinks were $12-15 for beer, and $15-25 wine. And Yankees fans are going “why so cheap?"  -- Janice Hough
"Super Bowl MVP Von Miller went to Disney World, where he sacked Goofy six times. Peyton Manning went to the Happiest Place on Earth – a Budweiser factory."  -- Brad Dickson
"Peyton Manning didn’t say definitely after the game that he was retiring. But guessing Americans will have to watch “The People vs. OJ Simpson if they want to see more of a slow white Bronco."  -- Janice Hough
 
 CP-


            

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