Hey Everyone:
So the game plan here is two more posts after this masterpiece, and then our summer hiatus till September. Hope everyone has enjoyed their summer so far. It’s going quick. Every year they go by quicker.
Onto the week that was..
The Games of the 32nd Olympiad
I was driving into work on Tuesday when the alerts came over my phone and the guys on the radio were reporting that US Gymnast Simone Biles was pulling out of team competition. She explained that her reasons for pulling out were to deal with her mental health issues.
I'm not going to lie, my very first knee jerk reaction was disappointment. She's arguably the best ever at what she does, and she gave the US an excellent chance at winning gold. I also thought about the young woman who trained and trained for a spot on the team and just came up short,* someone none of us will ever hear about. What must be going through her mind?
But then my mind flashed back to the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. If you're around my age or older, you'll recall two men named Dan O'Brien and Dave Johnson. They were competing against each other as decathletes, and both were expected to medal.
Reebok devised an ad campaign around "Dan and Dave." Starting with Super Bowl XXVI in January 1992, our airwaves were inundated with commercials for Dan and Dave. Reebok reportedly spend somewhere in the neighborhood of $25 million for the ad campaign.
But lo and behold at the Olympic trials in New Orleans, about a month before the Games, O'Brien failed to qualify when he lost in the pole vault. Johnson if I recall had his own issues, but qualified for the Games and won a bronze medal.
More than one knucklehead, either on TV, Radio or in the papers said "Don't feel bad for Dan O'Brien. You should feel bad for Reebok for spending all that money for those commercials."
I don't know if it was because I was less than a year removed from my own track and field career in high school, the fact that I wore Reebok all the time and knew how much their sneakers cost, or maybe I was channeling my inner Phil Mushnick, who loved to point out that those $100 sneakers cost about $10.00 to make by some poor kid in Vietnam making 50 cents an hour, but my heart broke for Dan O'Brien and I thought anyone crying for Reebok was an absolute moron.
To put all that work in for all those years, and miss out because you had one bad day, I mean that just has to tear your heart out. And as I thought about Simone Biles, and all the work she put in for this moment in time, to not be able to go must have been soul crushing. I cannot imagine what is causing her to not be able to compete. And it really doesn't matter.
What does matter is that she get the help she needs and goes on to have a happy productive life. If she can come back in 4 years and compete again, that would just be a bonus.
Hey I get on pro athletes all the time. I'm going to do so again later on in this broadcast. Francisco Lindor is next year going to make more money than many of our lifetime earnings combined. When he hits into a double play, I'm the first one to yell. I'm not proud of it, but I do believe if your pulling in that kind of coin, you gotta produce.
Simone Biles and many of these other Olympians will probably never approach that kind of money, even if they are successful. They don't deserve to be ridiculed, they deserve our respect. And our well wishes that they can overcome whatever adversity they are facing.
Speaking of Lindor and the Mets..
BASEBALL TRADIING DEADLINE
The Mets went down to the wire, but were able to acquire SS Javier Baez from the Cubbies for their first round pick last year, Pete Crow Armstrong.
Baez is a great player, so I'm not complaining about the deal. With Francisco Lindor out, he can fill in at short and give us some stick. My question is what happens when/if Lindor comes back, where does Baez play? He has volunteered to play 2nd in deference to his pal Lindor, which is darn nice of him, except where do you play Jeff McNeil, who has been raking as of late? Third base? OK, what about JD Davis? I know JD's best position is DH, which as I said before is the one stupid rule change from Commissioner Manfred that I wanted them to keep (the NL DH-instead they kept the 7 inning doubleheader and the runner on 2nd in extra innings). I guess these are what are known as good problems to have.
What aren't good problems to have are injuries and it seems like we just have too many of those. Now they are saying that Jacob deGrom is out till September? Man. I was praying we'd get another starter when I thought Jake was coming back in August, now what the fudge? Max Scherzer said he would invoke his no-trade rights to avoid the Mets, so F him and anyone who looks like him. The asking price for the guy I really wanted Jose Berrios was either Dom Smith and prospects or Jeff McNeil and prospects. I love both Dom and the Squirrel, but damn we really could have used another arm. I hope this turns out to be the best trades being the ones you don't make.
And I'm not sure I totally trust the Mets in regards to DeGrom. I'm more convinced now than ever that his arm is worse than they are letting on. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm not buying the elbow inflammation explanation. Maybe I'm just preparing for the worst, but if he's pitching in September, I'll be surprised.
The Yankees went out and bought as if the old man was still in charge, bringing in Joey Gallo, Anthony Rizzo, and Andy Heaney. Unlike George Steinbrenner, Hal Steinbrenner only signed off on these deals if the Rangers and Cubs respectively picked up the majority of the remaining salary. That's pretty un Yankee like, but good on them for pulling it off.
Gallo and Rizzo give the Yanks something I can't believe they didn't have, left handed power. I can't remember a good Yankee team that didn't have at least one left handed power hitter. Now they have two. They still have a tough road to hoe, as both the Red Sox and Rays ahead of them, and the Blue Jays behind them made moves to improve. But they have some more weapons to play with now.
Should be a roller coaster two months.
SAME OLD JETS?
Football training camps opened this week and it took but one day for the Jets to piss me off. Every other team had their number 1 pick signed, hell, there's not even that much to negotiate, as the salaries have already been collectively bargained and slotted. But the Jets, who could make a hot fudge sundae taste like rotten cauliflower, decided they didn't like some of the language in QB'S Zach Wilson's contract. Namely, that if Wilson flames out, gets cut before his contract runs out and signs with another team, the Jets were trying to make it so that the other team has to pick up the remaining money on the deal.
Well that's what Stuart Smalley referred to as Stinkin Thinkin. Are we already convinced that Wilson is going to be a bust so we are covering our a$$es now? What the hell? Maybe it's good business, but to me it smacks of bad optics. Unless I'm misunderstanding the situation, which is entirely possible.
HAPPY 40TH BIRTHDAY
To MTV. August 1, 1981 was the launch date for what was originally supposed to be a 24 hour channel dedicated to music videos. For those of you lucky enough to have cable tv back in the 80's, you got to watch Hungry Like the Wolf 20 times a day.
On Sirius/XM 80's Channel, three of the original MTV VJ's serve as the station's DJ's. Mark Goodman, Nina Blackwood and Alan Hunter are still on, always talking about their time on MTV. Martha Quinn retired from the biz a few years back, and JJ Jackson passed away in 2004.
Every week, the three remaining VJ's do a Top 40 Countdown from that week in any given year between 1980 and 1989. Coincidentally (or not) this week they are counting down 1981.
Goodman has the most contacts and information when he is on the air. He keeps in touch with many 80's performers, even the obscure ones. Blackwood is pretty knowledgeable as well, her voice is deeper than most truck drivers. Hunter is the Ralph Kiner of the trio, constantly getting artists confused and making blunders, but still has a great radio voice.
MTV is now mostly reality shows, and nothing like what it was when it first came on the air, playing what video........ yes, Video Killed the Radio Star (something all three of them never fail to point out whenever they play it). For another trivia question, what was the number song in America on 8/1/1981?**
Anyway Happy 40th MTV
I don't want to get into it too much here, but I would be remiss if I didn't say this: If you watched any of the testimony of the cops that were defending the US Capitol during the terrorist attack of 1/6, and weren't moved and disgusted by what took place that day, then I really don't know what to tell you.
On a lighter note, Barney the Bull is still on the loose out in Suffolk county. They were talking about it on Boomer & Gio, and someone who claimed to be a farmer pointed out that the plan to catch Barney with a horny cow was doomed from the start as Barney had already been fixed.
The latest brainstorm was to lay out cow manure hoping to lure Barney out of hiding. The thinking goes that if Barney smells something familiar, it will attract him.
Sounds like a bunch of bull$hit to me😁
Stay Safe
and Have a Great Week
*Herb Brooks who coached the 1980 Miracle on Ice, was supposedly the last player cut from the 1960 Men's Olympic Hockey team, that ended up winning the gold medal in Squaw Valley, CA.
**Jessie's Girl-Rick Springfield
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