Archive for October, 2006
As far as radio station websites go, I think 790theticket.com is an example of a really good one. It has a great mix of current sports news, great archived radio moments, and photos from station events. You can read all about the air personalities histories… You can listen to every Frank Caliendo show heard on The Dan LeBatard Show… and you can access all the football picks the experts make on the various shows. It’s a well done, well kept website.
But there is ONE MAJOR problem with the 790 The Ticket website. There is not one mention- NOT ONE- of any of the producers. That’s right. The backbone of each show- the producer- is not mentioned once on the website. Where’s the respect?
There can’t be a small photo and a little bio of Sid Rosenberg’s producer Cintia DeLeon somewhere on the website? Is her work so inconsequential that it doesn’t even merit a small something somewhere? The producers make sure the shows sound good… flow well… have good guests. The producers ultimately can make the show great or terrible. So where’s the love on the website? In this day and age, job validation can be measured in whether or not you’re mentioned on your company’s website. Validate the producers, 790 management!
There are lots of great producers (and interns) and 790 The Ticket. Jeremy Marks Peltz, Zach Krantz, Jonathon Zaslow, Brandon Guzio, Adrian Baste, Andy King, Cintia DeLeon, and the list goes on and on. Do you think you would hear all that cutting edge Pearl Jam music coming into Boog’s segments if it wasn’t for Zas? Do you think you’d hear from all the top name Dolphin greats during the Dolphins Show if it wasn’t for Brandon? Do you think Dan LeBatard would be spewing incorrect facts if it wasn’t for Andy?
I am publicly calling for a brand new button on the 790 The Ticket website. A button that simply says “Producers.” On that page you’ll see photos of the producers, bios of the producers, and you’ll be able to feel the heart and soul of those that make 790 tick. C’mon people. Stand tall with the producers. Demand your producers page on www.790theticket.com NOW!
October 30th, 2006
I am annoyed by this World Series. Not because two teams that I don’t care about are playing. Not because I’m jealous of the amount of hair Magglio Ordonez has. Not because I can’t figure out why the Tigers are there rather than my White Sox. I’m annoyed by the 1970’s sunglasses that Tony Larussa wears, even though these are NIGHT GAMES.
The entire concept behind sunglasses is protection from the sun. Last time I checked, there’s no sun during baseball games at night. No one close to Larussa has the courage to tell him he looks ridiculous wearing sunglasses during night games? And they’re not even cool, hip sunglasses. They look like sunglass Ralph Garr would be wearing back in 1976. C’mon Larussa. Lose the glasses. I can’t even concentrate on the games, because I’m fixated on your glasses.
I’m annoyed by more than just Larussa’s sunglasses, though. Why do NFL head coaches refuse to make quarterback changes even when it’s obvious to EVERYONE that a particular quarterback isn’t playing well? I have never understood why NFL head coaches will stand by and watch a quarterback ruin a game (a season) and not make a change. Sometimes players have bad games. Quarterbacks have bad games too. If a quarterback is having a particularly lousy game, why not get the second stringer in there and try a little something different? NFL head coaches treat making a quarterback change like it’s an admission of failure.
I say if a quarterback is having a bad game, PULL HIM. I don’t care if it’s Brett Favre, Tom Brady, or Aaron Brooks. If a quarterback is stinking up the joint, get him out of there. At least for a series or two. If a safety is continually getting beat… if a running back is constantly getting tackled for no gain… if a receiver keeps dropping passes, they get replaced. Not permanently. Just replaced for a while to get some new blood in there. Why not with quarterbacks?
I’m assuming Joey Harrington will be the starter when the Dolphins play the Bears on November 5th. If the Bears go up by a couple of touchdowns and the Dolphins offense doesn’t seem to be working… then bring in Cleo Lemon. And if he can’t get anything done after several series, then bring in Marcus Vick. And if he can’t get anything going (or if he gets arrested) then bring Harrington back in. Don’t be afraid to sit a stinking quarterback.
There’s one more thing that annoys me. Eddie Vedder (lead singer of Pearl Jam) annoys me. Why is he friends with Peter Gammons? Why was Eddie Vedder dedicating songs to Peter Gammons during Pearl Jam concerts when Gammons was in the hospital? It is so apparent to me that Eddie Vedder just thinks it’s cool to “befriend” the fifty-something baseball guy who happens to like Pearl Jam. Eddie Vedder is a fraud. Do you think he’d befriend a fifty-something fan if that fan wasn’t a nationally respected baseball reporter? He just happens to get along so well with Peter Gammons? What a joke.
Eddie Vedder is the brooding, sour MILLIONAIRE ROCK STAR. Sorry that I don’t buy into his act. Sorry that I don’t buy into his fraudulent friendship with Peter Gammons.
Well, those are three things that annoy me. I feel a little better now.
October 25th, 2006
What a great day to wake up and be a Chicago Bears fan! Sure, the Bears certainly didn’t look like Superbowl contenders Monday night, but they won. They won in dramatic fashion. The won in a way that gives all us Bears fans hope of that 16-0 season that proved so elusive in 1985. I, like every other Bears fan, thought Chicago would walk into Arizona and kick the Cardinals collective asses. I was wrong. But we got the victory… and we’re 6-0… and the next game is against San Francisco. Things are looking good.
There’s something deep inside every Bears fan that really wants to steal that “only undefeated team ever” title from the Dolphins. 1985 was our year to do it and only the Dolphins stopped us. As I watched Devin Hester return a punt for a touchdown last night… and then as Neil Rackers missed a 40 yard field goal to win it… I could only think of the disappointment coming across Jim Mandich’s face. He was probably getting ready to pop open the “bubbly” when the Cardinals were leading 20-3 in the third quarter. Just a half hour later, old Jim Mandich was slowly moping back to the refrigerator and chilling that champagne for a later date. Or so he hopes. (Yes, I know Indianapolis is still undefeated, but does anyone really think they’re going to go 16-0?)
The Dolphins will have their chance against the Bears this year. November 5th they travel to Soldier Field, and in all likelihood will be facing the only undefeated team in the NFL. You can just picture the phone calls the Dolphins will be getting all week long leading up to that game. Don Shula will call Nick Saban and tell him to protect the legacy. (He’ll probably also tell him not to have Ronnie Brown pass the ball in a crucial situation.) Bob Griese will call Daunte Culpepper… or maybe Joey Harrington… or maybe even Cleo Lemon, and say “save our legacy.” Larry Csonka will call Ronnie Brown, but Ronnie Brown will hang up on him because he’ll think it’s just a cranky old white guy with the wrong phone number. November 5th in Chicago is shaping up to be something special.
So I woke up a Bears fan and immediately turned on SportsCenter. I was still on a high from the incredible victory Monday night. I watched the highlights again… felt the euphoria again… and again am thinking about how many friends and relatives from Chicago are going to call me for Superbowl tickets. (Most people think that if you work at a sports radio station, you have a TicketMaster machine that prints as many free tickets as you need for any given event.)
Is this the magical season Bears fans have been longing for since 1985? I’m not certain, but I’m going to relish this feeling as long as it will last.
October 17th, 2006
Every show we try to balance sports with entertainment with typical “guy talk.” Sometimes we get a little too sportsy… sometimes we’re not sportsy enough. But, hey, that’s what you get. We’re an imperfect show. Why am I telling you this? Well, on the “entertainment” side of things, we’ve been putting together a list of guests to go after and I thought maybe you could help.
Who do you want to hear on the Dan LeBatard Show? Here are some of the “offbeat” guests on our list:
Wink Martindale (We’ve had a caller do a Fake Wink Martindale, and it’s really funny. It put me in the mood to hear what the real Wink is up to.)
Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka (We’ve had on so many wrestlers… we need Snuka.)
Dusty Rhodes (We’d like to interview him live from the Omni in Atlanta. By the way, if you keep listening to the show, you’ll hear another brand new fake… Fake Dusty Rhodes debuted last week, and it was hysterical. I think I’m going to post it on our myspace page at www.myspace.com/danlebatardshow.)
Joe Namath (We’re trying hard on this one. We need to find out from him if he can still score hot chicks just like he could when he was in his 20’s.)
Jay Leno (He’s coming to perform at the Hard Rock Live, so what the hell… let’s give it a shot.)
So who do you want us to go after? Don’t say people like Jerry Seinfeld and Eddie Murphy, because they aren’t going to do a local sports talk radio show. Think of the offbeat… the media friendly. Please post your ideas below. (Remember, it was a listener walking up to Stugotz in a restaurant and handing him the Iron Sheik’s phone number that got the Sheik on our show. Quite possibly the most memorable guest we’ve ever had on.) And if we don’t like any of your ideas… or we can’t get any of your suggestions to agree to come on, then we’ll just keep having Bob Ryan, David Samson, and Max Kellerman on all the time.
October 11th, 2006
I’m a bit confused over all the hoopla surrounding the Joe Girardi firing. (Hoopla— great word.) I understand that it’s rare, almost unheard of, to fire someone in sports who exceeds expectations. Usually in sports winning trumps everything… but not always. Terrell Owens was a proven talent, but he was fired from his job in Philadelphia. Keyshawn Johnson was a proven talent, but he was fired from his job in Tampa Bay. The bottom line is: the owner can fire or hire whomever he chooses. And that’s what happened, in my opinion, with Joe Girardi.
All the people that are calling his firing a “huge mistake” confuse me. If you owned a business and no longer wanted a certain employee working for you, would you keep them around? If you were a multi-millionaire and you realized someone you hired a year ago didn’t “fit” with your style of management, would you keep them around? Why would Jeffrey Loria employ someone he no longer wanted as part of his team? Especially an employee whom he felt could be replaced. It’s the same reason Bill Bellicheck traded Deion Branch; he figured he could replace him. Bellicheck is the boss… he couldn’t come to an agreement with his employee (Branch), so he replaced him. (In the New England case, it seems like a mistake because Deion Branch is probably not as easily replaceable as a baseball manager.)
But that’s the bottom line… The employer and the employee could not get along, so the employee was replaced. It happens all the time. It happens to deserving employees and undeserving employees, but it happens all the time.
How important was Joe Girardi to the success of this year’s Marlins team? My opinion is not very much. What did Joe Girardi do to make Dan Uggla great? If you give Joe Girardi credit for making Dan Uggla great, then you also have to blame Joe Girardi for making Pokey Reese disappear. If anyone deserves credit (or blame) for a baseball team’s performance, it’s the general manager. He’s the one finding the talent and making the personnel decisions. Does anyone really think that if Tony Larussa was managing the Marlins last season they would have won more games? What could Tony Larussa have done to make them win more games? Why did the Chicago White Sox win the World Series last year? Many would attribute it to Ozzie Guillen’s leadership. I guess he forgot how to lead this year.
People will always default to the baseball manager as being the motivator. What on earth could Joe Girardi say in the clubhouse before a game that would cause Dontrelle Willis to pitch a complete game and hit two homeruns? If a baseball manager could motivate a team through words to play better or harder, wouldn’t they do that every game? Why would the Marlins have ever lost a game this year if Joe Girardi could motivate them? I guess the games that they lost were because he didn’t motivate them well that day.
It all seems silly to me. Joe Girardi did a good job doing whatever it is that baseball managers do. He’ll probably earn the manager of the year award; and good for him. But when next season rolls around, it doesn’t matter if it’s Joe Girardi, Fredi Gonzalez, or Freddy Krueger managing the team. If the players hit well, and the pitchers pitch well, they’ll win. If they don’t, they won’t. And there is no manager on the face of the earth that can change that, though Freddy Krueger would probably motivate pretty well.
October 4th, 2006
