Questions of the Day (10/27/09)

In St. Louis, the Cardinals have named Mark McGwire their hitting coach......

Is this a good move for the organization?

With questions of his steroid use and cheating still surrounding McGwire and his record setting home run battle with Sammy Sosa years ago, will this bring unnecessary heat to a relatively quiet team??

Will this open the door for players like Barry Bonds, Curt Schilling, Roger Clemens, Juan Gonzalez, etc, to possibly obtain coaching positions??

Thoughts of the Day (10/27/09)

ESPN has had some really great and creative commercials in the past five years. Whether they involve the College Football Live crew, the Sportscenter anchors, the Baseball Tonight crew, but some of the most memorable ones were with the Pro Athletes. Recently there have been ESPN/NBA commercials, where the analysts and commentators are all riding in an RV across the country to each arena they are calling the next game at. Jeff Van Gundy, who never cracked a smile while coaching in NY, has been involved in a lot of these ads and he has been hilarious. The latest one has Van Gundy in the passenger seat and the Gorilla mascot from Phoenix in the driver seat of the RV, parked waiting for the #1 overall draft pick, Blake Griffin, to get back on the RV via the side door with his fast food in hand. Van Gundy is hanging out of the window yelling to Griffin to get in and let's go! Of course, as Griffin grabs the handle, the RV pulls away and they begin laughing at the rookie, urging him to hurry up. They get Griffin two more times, hysterical and acting like little kids, on the last attempt to trick Griffin, the RV hits an electrical pole and knocks it over and the next shot is of the Gorilla and Van Gundy just looking straight ahead and now they look like two kids who just broke a vase in their mom's house. Brilliant use of all the people involved!
When ESPN decided to use their analysts and commentators and ex-players in their ad campaigns, they looked like marketing geniuses. They have reenacted scenes from sports movies using them, they have simulated fake newscasts and all the while not taking themselves too serious. This is one of the reasons why ESPN is so widely successful. They are a credible sports news source, but at the same time they realize that they are covering sports, not the war in Iraq. Having fun becomes an integral part of ESPN's broadcasts. It was laugh out loud funny, when Peter Gammons and Karl Ravich did the Baseball Tonight parody of the "Bull Durham" scene and when John Andersen switched chairs with Lebron James, giving him the desk chair, taking his "thrown" and pretending he has no idea where Lebron's chair, it makes you wonder how many takes that took. Seeing stars like Albert Pujols, Lebron and Steve Smith dressed in their uniforms, working in the ESPN office cubicles and copy rooms seems almost normal, like it would happen in your office and of course, at work you always have to watch out for Terry Tate "Office Linebacker". He was the funniest creation from the ESPN marketing team.
So, when girlfriends and wives ask their men how can they watch ESPN all day long, over and over again, its because no other channel taps into the male psyche like ESPN. Men love comedy and sports. With the addition of all of these funny and creative ads, parodies and promos, turning off ESPN is now nearly impossible for men to do. ESPN is doing a fine job counteracting the influx of shows like "Real Housewives of Somewhere", "So You Think You Can Do Something", "Bitchy Brides", "Make Me Into Something I am Not" and so on and so on. Women can no longer sit there and say to their significant others, "you have to watch one my shows since I sit through hours of sports for you", because it's not just sports, it's entertaining comedy.

Questions of the Day (10/26/09

Can the New York Yankees keep the powerful Phillie lineup in check in this year's World Series?

Will Joe Girardi be able to handle the pressure of managing in the World Series?

Cliff Lee vs. C.C. Sabathia....who wins this mighty matchup in Game 1 at Yankee Stadium?

Who wins the 2009 World Series?

What a Game! AL Central Tiebreaker 10/6/09

There have been some big time collapses at the end of a baseball season. The New York Mets have become experts at blowing it the last weeks of the season, after leading their division by more then a comfortable amount of games. Tonight there was a new addition to the choke chapter of Major League Baseball. Not only did the Detroit Tigers blow the division lead they had with less then a month to go, they also blew the "extra" game that decided the division Tuesday night. On September 6th, the Tigers had a 7 game lead in the AL Central and looked as if they were cruising to the playoffs. As most Mets fans know, there is no such thing as cruising or as a "cushion" when it comes to winning a division. And as the Minnesota Twins began to heat up and win 17 of their last 21 games, including the division tiebreaker, the Tigers were going .500 and leaving the door open for the Metrodome Monsters to escape with an AL Central crown. Then, one of the best games in a long time played out and the "Twinkies" stole the final playoff spot. The 163rd game of the year for the Tigers and Twins went 12 innings. There were home runs, plays at the plate, pick offs, web gems, clutch pitching, bad base running and general mayhem in the twin cities. The game was a spectacular way to send off the Humphrey Metrodome to the demolition wrecking ball. In the end though, the Twins showed the resiliency they have shown season after season under Ron Gardenhire, they overcame injuries to their stars (Mourneau, Mauer) and gave 57,000 screaming fans a reason to believe that the Yankees might not sweep them in the first round of the 2009 MLB Playoffs. The Twins organization, their players and their coaches deserve a lot of credit. They kept playing past all of the obstacles and for that, the payoff was a historic game, a champagne bath in the locker room and a ticket to NYC to play at the house that Jorge Posada built, the new Yankee Stadium. Baseball has learned a valuable lesson these past seasons, don't ever write off the Minnesota Twins.

Mets Moving Forward (10/6/09)

First Base. Left Field. Catcher. Starting Pitcher. These four positions will be the main focus of the New York Mets' management and ownership. The Daniel Murphy project at first base needs to be scrapped. Adrian Gonzalez has always been or should always be on the Mets' radar as a replacement for Delgado. Left field can no longer be a platoon situation, the Mets need to spend money and get a power hitting left fielder. Jeff Francoeur was one of the only bright spots this season and he deserves a nice contract to stay on as the starting right fielder. The catching situation is tough because it is difficult to find someone that hits for power or average and can call a game and can throw out base runners. Mike Piazza was half of that, he hit well and was clutch, but he threw out 12% of base runners. Schneider and Omir Santos combined couldn't fill Piazza's shoes offensively and neither were outstanding behind the plate defensively. Before they bring in a catcher though, they HAVE to get a starting pitcher who will complement Johan Santana. Maine, Pelfrey and Perez are all number 3's and lower in a starting rotation. Roy Halladay can be had, but the Mets might have to part with a player they say is "untouchable". The Blue Jays have to trade him now because he will be a free agent after this upcoming year and is going to demand an enormous amount of money when he signs with a team. Jason Marquis and John Lackey are also options, even though they will have to be overpaid. This off-season does not showcase the crop of free agents and players it did last year, so Omar Minaya will have to really earn his paycheck and go out and make some deals to fix the Mets' problems. By now the management and ownership know they built too big of a stadium, with too many outfield gaps and awkward spaces, so their only option is to get players that adhere to the specs and dimensions of the stadium and to work heavily with the stars getting them more acclimated to Citi Field. The Mets must be aggressive with their pursuit of free agents and trades and they have to address the way the medical staff handles injuries and prepares the guys physically for each game. Omar Minaya also must look past his the decisions he made this year like letting Pedro sign with the Phillies, trading away Billy Wagner, the only healthy pitcher at the time who could compete out of the bullpen, signing Oliver Perez, signing Tim Redding and bringing up Fernando Martinez way before he was ready for the big leagues. Minaya did let Luis Alicea, the first base coach, go, stating that he was one of the reasons the Mets had so many base running blunders, but that is really a minor move and a decoy to take the focus off of the real issues. Fix the Mets!! Fix the Mets!! Come to the park and fix the Mets!!