A Rant Thread for Sake of Having One

[RDF]

It's a beautiful day here in Twin Cities, CFB season is right around corner, and I'm miserable with allergies/being sick. So watching television and flipping for entertainment the past week/weekend, I came across things that just started to irritate me (no surprise here), thought I'd list it in a thread where fans can just pile on things they are annoyed/irritated by instead of ruining someone else's thread by going off.

1. FOX Baseball coverage having Kenny Albert as their top replacement for Joe Buck. Now I don't like FOX at all--but when I hear Kenny Albert, my first thought is "which garbage level NFL game is this going to be?" as Kenny usually is assigned to the worst game of day. He's a marble mouthed goon and the clicker switched fast with him behind the mic--and you throw in McCarver? YIKES!

2. I realize we live in the era of micro-analysis, but did the LLWS really need 3 guys in booth, Karl Ravech on site, and a "roaming reporter"? What's next, a special ESPN Fantasy LLWS Draft, or a show hosted by a reject from MTV's Real World talking about who the 12 year olds are dating? Just glad the kids showed more class--well except the two goons from Coon Rapids, MN who got caught spitting on their hands prior to going through the handshake line. (let me add that Coon Rapids is like going to the town Kevin Bacon moved to in Footloose--except more primitive).

3. We now have "Beyond the Glory" episodes on FOX dedicated to Poker Players. I'm working on a documentary of my wiffle ball days and just need to get some Oakley's and hire Norman Chad to narrate to make it an OFFICIAL SPORT. Then FOX and ESPN can fight for rights and everyone can see marathons of it, as well know the average diehard sports fan would rather watch yocal goons instead of classic games in real sports.

4. Does anyone have interest in the "tournament of Americas" the NBA guys are playing in? I mean when NBA basically "Donaghy-ed" the event by having teams tell the best players on various teams to avoid the event-and USA needing to qualify acting as if they are beating the greatest teams of all time and knowing that when it's for real-a lot of this team won't be there due to various ailments,and if it's not sickening enough to see Coach K--Boeheim is right by his side. YUCK.

5. When did Nolan Richardson become Tommy Lee Jones character from JFK? I know we all age--but seeing Nolan, I could only think of Clay Shaw. Scary.

6. The US Open started Monday--and I realize Tennis isn't the most popular sport, but I've always enjoyed it and yet the annual hyping of James Blake and Andy Roddick always gets on my nerves by this time of year. Blake was put in a favorable bracket so he can have a deep run, and Roddick was receiving the annual "It's Andy's time" hype and then became the "clown prince" of Tennis last night with some nice stand up worthy of Carrot Top in his match with Justin Gimelstob--another awful American Player who was playing his last match--and yet 10 people knew he was an American player.

8. Maria Sharapova is overrated--in tennis and looks. Give me Ana Ivanovic anyday of the week--now that is a smokin' chick. Sharapova's sex appeal drops even lower when you factor in what Maroon 5 frontman said about her after his "encounter" with her--and it wasn't surprising. Rhymes with FED PAY.

9. Prior to every US Open night session on the opening day of play--they for some reason re-enact the scene from Blues Brothers where people sing and dance and Aretha Franklin is carted out or airlifted to perform and they honor something but it's overshadowed by the odd activities and singing/choir that comes out and just is a hot mess.

10. There was supposedly a Golf Tournament this past weekend--Tiger Woods wasn't in it--so I didn't bother even following it--couldn't have mattered that much if he wasn't entered--oh wait, it's their NEW PLAYOFFS! wow--what excitement. And just in time to compete with CFB and NFL? Baseball/Playoff Stretch too? What a great idea!

11. It's pretty sad when you are a Yankee fan and have to hope that Extra Innings gives you the NESN telecasts for a Yankee-Sox game. I can't stand Michael Kay, don't mind the YES commentators but Remy entertains me and is more impartial then anyone who works for ESPN. Do kneepads accompany Rick Sutcliffe into telecasts or is he still busy on the George Clooney Campaign Trail?

12. High Def television isn't a good idea when Julian Tavarez has a close up--the guy makes Freddy Krueger look like the spokesperson for Pro Active Solution.

13. When Bobby Abreu smiles--he looks like Mr. Clean. Took me a while to see who it was he kept reminding me of--but then I saw a Mr. Clean ad--and then waw Abreu smiling--striking resemblence.

14. The Minnesota Timberwolves have only lost 30 season ticket holders after trading KG. For a "franchise" guy to be moved--that's not that bad. Of course 30 of 1000 people in a 20,000 seat arena hurts.

15. My new target of hatred--Herm Edwards. I turn on HBO-he's there. ESPN? There's Herm. CBS? Herm. NBC, HERM! ESPN NEWS--there's HERM. Does this guy ever turn down an interview request and has a more average coach ever received more hype? The guy is known for returning a TD on a fluke play, and being a crappy coach--like most NFL coaches are. However he ups the the anty with his diotribes, press conference, and quest to do an interview with every market in 24 hours. If the guy would spend as much time on his team/game plan as he does doing television interviews, he might actually know how to manage the clock and not need a "time management coach"--who was a failure anyway or have a team who lays down and dies as his did in Playoffs against Colts--where he gladly bowed out and was about 100 times more happy then Dungy was--and Tony Dungy's team WON! I never minded the Chiefs before Herm's arrival-except for my hatred of the putridly awful and overrated Trent Green. Now he's gone--but Herm's still there. YUCK.

More to come if this misery caused by allergies doesn't leave--just ticked that I'm stuck inside when weather is perfect and while the past weekend was wet/rainy, this boiled over today.

[dajuan]

In related news:
www.thestamfordtimes.com/stamford_templates/stamford_story/314267280850556.php

Just kidding. I liked points 2 and 3. Around point 6 I realized how long the rant was so I had to bail.

[bubbrubbhoya]

I only got to point 8, but I happen to enjoy the resurgence of the U.S. American men's basketball team. We may not be beating the best in the world, but we were losing to these schlubs not long ago. Additionally, Maria Sharapova is hot. For some related research, watch the Nick GAS (Games and Sports) channel, on which Sharapova often makes cameos showing viewers her stretch and warmup routine. It...is...fantastic.

[AustinHoya03]

rdf said:

Do kneepads accompany Rick Sutcliffe into telecasts or is he still busy on the George Clooney Campaign Trail?

Hey don't drag George Clooney into this. I mean, he's up there with the Congress...he's trying to get everyone to go over there and solve that thing.

You been reading about that? You been seeing that?

I'm getting yelled at by Bill Murray in the back, I gotta go.

[DanMcQ]

Agree - Remy is quality.

[hoyainspirit]

Sharapova vs Kournikova? Give me Anna every time.

[Boz]

God love ya', RDF.

I still haven't made my way through all of this. I'm pretty slow.
(Hell, I'm still trying to figure out what rhymes with FED PAY).

I hope there is a reference to Matt Doherty in there somewhere though. ;D

[ExcitableBoy]

As a die-hard non-Yankees, non-Red Sox fan, I enjoyed Jim Caple's recent "Shut Up, Red Sox Nation" column
sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=caple/070829&sportCat=mlb.

That was, until I read Caple's brief 'bio' that informs me: "His new book with Steve Buckley, The Best Boston Sports Arguments: The 100 Most Controversial, Debatable Questions for Die-Hard Boston Fans, is on sale now."

Good plan, dbag, write a book aimed solely at a diehard fan base and then trash that fan base for being diehard. You coward. You belong on the rant thread.

[bubbrubbhoya]

danmcq said:

Agree - Remy is quality.

Let's not forget the other half of that team, Don Orsillo, who is one of the best pbp guys on TV.

[theexorcist]

excitableboy said:

As a die-hard non-Yankees, non-Red Sox fan, I enjoyed Jim Caple's recent "Shut Up, Red Sox Nation" column
sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=caple/070829&sportCat=mlb.

That was, until I read Caple's brief 'bio' that informs me: "His new book with Steve Buckley, The Best Boston Sports Arguments: The 100 Most Controversial, Debatable Questions for Die-Hard Boston Fans, is on sale now."

Good plan, dbag, write a book aimed solely at a diehard fan base and then trash that fan base for being diehard. You coward. You belong on the rant thread.

Something (from Lenin, maybe?) about selling people the rope they can use to hang themselves. You can still mock them and laugh all the way to the bank.

And, come on. No diehard fan is going to buy this. It's intended for:

1) Women to get their male friends as a birthday gift (possibly with the intention that he will assume that she is kind and likes sports too, and decide that pursuing her is a better idea than the blonde from his hometown who's two floors below and is a total tramp).

2) Girlfriends to get their boyfriends as a birthday gift, indicating that she accepts his insane level of fandom.

3) Guys trying to reconcile with their fathers (or vice versa), after finding out that the Field Of Dreams "Let's Play Two" Special Edition is sold out at Best Buy, Circuit City, and WAL-MART.

4) Kids trying to get Dad a serviceable birthday/Father's Day/Christmas present that is not a tie.

5) Posers who want to put it on their coffee table.

6) Annoying people who want to go to sports bars and win bar bets.

[RDF]

bubbrubbhoya said:

danmcq said:

Agree - Remy is quality.

Let's not forget the other half of that team, Don Orsillo, who is one of the best pbp guys on TV.

Don is outstanding. I still laugh thinking of the game where Orsillo was talking of how he likes to take pictures of each ballpark and of celebrities that he meets and it was interesting and then out of nowhere Remy asks "Have any pictures of you and Pee Wee Herman?"--it busted them up for the rest of the inning and was just classic Remy.

[StPetersburgHoya (Inactive)]

Sharapova any day. I'm sorry man but you are way off on that one.

[RDF]

stpetersburghoya said:

Sharapova any day. I'm sorry man but you are way off on that one.

Sharapova is just lame. As I said--can't say I was shocked when the dude who was with her said corpses had more life.

You want to check out a smoking tennis player--Anna Ivanovic is the way to go--she is not only hot, but she has a personality as well.

[vcjack]

rdf said:

stpetersburghoya said:

Sharapova any day. I'm sorry man but you are way off on that one.

Sharapova is just lame. As I said--can't say I was shocked when the dude who was with her said corpses had more life.

You want to check out a smoking tennis player--Anna Ivanovic is the way to go--she is not only hot, but she has a personality as well.

You can take the guy's word for the truth but if he ain't getting anything from her I'd put more money on that its his fault not hers. Besides if hes going to be a dick and call her out to the press he don't deserve a hottie like Maria. And Bubb is right that if you ever watch Nick GAS (Legends of the Hidden Temple baby) you would take it back

[jacko]

I am interested in FIBA Americas, and I've been keeping up with it as much as I can, even though I'm traveling around a bit now. I watched over half of the Uruguay game through an almost indiscernibly snowy feed. Anyway, I agree that this tournament isn't important overall. We do need to qualify for the olympics at some point, and sooner is better than later. But I feel positive energy from the players working toward the olympics next year. In '04 many key players weren't invited, and many of the key invited players didn't want to go. I think this will be quite different from the transition we had between the '03 TOA (more complete domination than '07) to '04 olympics (disappointing 3rd place finish, although I thought it was overachievement for that particular group of players). I like to see the team's progress, and I do see it as progress, but I also recognize that we are not playing ANY top teams in this tournament.

I was reading your part about the T'wolves' season ticketholders - I read quite quickly and missed the word "lost," so I thought you said they only had 30 ticketholders remaining. I thought about it before re-reading it, and I wasn't the least bit surprised. It might hurt to be a fan of theirs for a while.

[sleepyjackson21]

I'm with RDF on Ana Ivanovic, especially when you consider personality. She's going to be a star both on and off the court. As far as Sharapova, RDF you are way off on saying she's overrated as a tennis player. All she's done is been ranked number 1 or 2 in the world since she's burst on to the scene when she won Wimbledon. In her last 12 majors she has two wins, 1 runnerup and 6 sf appearances. She doesn't have federer's record but hey, she's done pretty damn good. Nobody's comparing her to the alltime greats like Navratilova or Graf. She is what she is and that's one of the top women's players in the game today. As far as Levine is concerned,1) he's a scumbag for airing his dirty laundery 2) he's comparing her to uhh experienced rock groupies (not really a fair comparison) and 3) the girl has spent her entire life on a tennis court so i wouldn't think she'd be jenna jameson in bed. btw, what the heck happened to her.

[RDF]

sleepyjackson21 said:

I'm with RDF on Ana Ivanovic, especially when you consider personality. She's going to be a star both on and off the court. As far as Sharapova, RDF you are way off on saying she's overrated as a tennis player. All she's done is been ranked number 1 or 2 in the world since she's burst on to the scene when she won Wimbledon. In her last 12 majors she has two wins, 1 runnerup and 6 sf appearances. She doesn't have federer's record but hey, she's done pretty damn good. Nobody's comparing her to the alltime greats like Navratilova or Graf. She is what she is and that's one of the top women's players in the game today. As far as Levine is concerned,1) he's a scumbag for airing his dirty laundery 2) he's comparing her to uhh experienced rock groupies (not really a fair comparison) and 3) the girl has spent her entire life on a tennis court so i wouldn't think she'd be jenna jameson in bed. btw, what the heck happened to her.

Sleepy, what was that about Sharapova not being OVERRATED ON THE COURT? She sucks--was given an easy path to finals of the Open and when you look at the other half of the women's draw--it's sick with talented players who unfortunately have to battle it out against each other while crap players will walk to Final--as the draw was set for Princess Overrated in Every Aspect to make the final. Good riddance.

[sleepyjackson21]

I stand by my words that she isn't overrated. She played horrible today and i'm sure if i was playing her i could have broken her serve. Serving 75 mph even on the women's side is pathethic. It's easy to say that she's overrated because she had an off day but in the end she still has 2 majors. Those two majors weren't flukes either. She destroyed Serena at Wimbledon and soundly beat Henin last year at the US Open. That's more than Ivanovic or Jankovic or Bartoli or whoever the new flavor of the month is. (I love Ivanovic and think she's going to be a star but let's wait until she knocks off one of the big dogs before we crown her) Is she hyped? Of course. Does she get too many endorsements? Of course. RDF, I totally understand where your coming from but outside of Serena and Venus who else can the American press turn too. Like i said earlier, you can't compare her to the greats like Navratilova and Graf but in today's game she's clearly one of the better players.

[RDF]

My issue with her is more in terms of the favorable draw she receives-especially this year--it was a joke how the USTA seeded this tournament--for both men/women. For Sharapova to lose when Williams sisters, Henin, Ivanovic, are all on upper part of the bracket seperate from her--it's a joke. How are the title holders of 3 majors this year all on the same side? Sharapova has 2 majors--and her first one took everyone by surprise.

Andy Roddick hype is beginning to stir up again--oh joy.

[hoyarooter]

"Andy Roddick hype is beginning to stir up again--oh joy."

Not to worry. This won't last past his next match.