Had an hour or so to kill on Saturday morning before hunkering down for the NFL Draft, so I thought I’d put a rant (or two) together.
Some random thoughts …
** Not sure how long I’ll be able to take Chris Berman and Mel Kiper Jr., but I will be watching. I’m so, so tired of Berman’s dorky nicknames that you don’t even know.
How long before we hear: So the Browns take Brady “the mighty” Quinn? Ugh.
It’s funny: I’m not a huge NFL fan, but every year, I’m drawn to the draft.
But they do need to make a new rule – the 15-minute time limit in the first round is way too long. If these teams need 15 minutes to make their first-round pick, then they really are clueless.
The first round should take about an hour, tops. In fact, if they tweaked the times, they could do the whole shebang in one day.
Oh, that’s right, the whole thing is produced for TV. Silly me.
**Speaking of ESPN talent … if you’re anywhere near a radio from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. on weekdays, tune in Colin Cowherd. He’s easily my favorite talk-radio personality. He’s beyond funny and has some great opinions on sports. Trust me on this one. He’s a riot. And while I’m at it, if you can get WIP-AM 610, Howard Eskin is on from 3 p.m. until 7 p.m. His banter with callers is always interesting. When it comes to sports talk-radio, those guys are my favorite.
**It’s funny, Part 2: I haven’t watched an NBA game in literally 10 years, but I also enjoy the NBA Draft. It’s always fun to see which European guy or stiff the Sixers select.
**Hear me now and believe me in a year or two: Brady Quinn will be a complete bust, especially if he gets stuck somewhere like
Cleveland, where he’ll have no shot. He is Joey Harrington.
**Hear me now and believe me in June: I know, I know. Dallas trails (gulp) Golden State 2-1 in a first-round series in the west. But the Mavericks will be in the NBA finals. Mark it down.
**Hear me now and believe me next week: If the Red Sox sweep the Yankees (in the Bronx) this weekend, Joe Torre will be fired.
**Speaking the Red Sox … this whole Curt Schilling/bloody sock thing sure got a lot of play this week. Gotta admit that back when it all happened, the thought definitely crossed my mind that Schilling did indeed paint those socks (especially in the second game, which everyone and anyone was tuning in to watch … remeber the K ALS he wrote on his shoe?). Orioles’ announced Gary Thorne said (on air) that he heard Schilling painted the sock red for PR. Schilling went bananas. If you didn’t know it, Schilling has his very own blog. And he has a mighty interesting post about the whole sock issue. You can check it out here.
**This whole Penn State thing looks messy. I’ve heard about a million stories since all of this (allegedly) went down. Wasn’t sure who to believe. And Paterno wasn’t chirping last weekend during Blue/White Game festivities. My only comment is this: football officials have really clamped down lately on guys who are doing goofy things away from the team. So don’t be surprised if the guys (allegedly) involved in this latest fiasco aren’t in uniform for either a good chunk of next season, or ever again. These charges sound mighty serious.
**Wow, Phillies are hot. Bats are warming up, including the bat belonging to Aaron Rowand. That guy is on fire. Which leads me to …
**Hear me now and believe me in, oh, a month or so: Brett Myers will be the Phillies’ closer this season. Book it. Flash Gordon was always better as an 8th-inning guy, anyway (he used to set up Mo Rivera in New York, remember?). I don’t think that would be a bad move at all.
**Just an FYI: The countdown clock is on. The Atlantic League champion Lancaster Barnstormers open the season on Friday in the Clip against the Road Warriors. Pregame ceremonies should be a lot of fun. Don’t miss it. And don’t miss our Barnstormers’ blog. Jason Guarente covers the heck out of the Barnstormers. In fact, he recently won a pair of writing awards for his outstanding coverage. If you’re a Barnstormers’ fan, pick up the New Era every day (especially Monday, which features our popular Barnstormers’ page). Or visit his blog. Great, great stuff.
**Hope you’re enjoying those Orioles games on ESPN-1600.
