The Toronto feed: Charlie V

So tonight, I'm getting the Toronto Raptors feed on my NBA League Pass. Couple of interesting things:

The color guy is really excitable, kinda like Dick Vitale. I can see how it could get a bit much, but most of the color guys I've heard in the league have been pretty personality-less, so this guy actually is a breath of fresh air.

The Raptors are on this network called TSN... but apparently it's their version of ESPN, because they have Sportscenter with the same logo.

Canadians spell center like "centre." Just kinda funny to see Francisco Elson - Centre. And "SportsCentre"

The play by play guy asked the color guy for a Superbowl prediction. The guy said Arizona, and the play by play guy said "Did you son just email that to you?" I always wondered what Canadians think of American football.

They interviewed Charlie Villianueva at halftime... Apparently they still love him in Toronto. They said he did a lot for the community when he was in Toronto, and he gives tickets to kids with the same disease as he has, alopecia areata, where you don't have the ability to grow hair. It was neat seeing his section of fans out there and him signing autographs and bringing awareness to this disease.

OK the color guy's name is Jack Armstrong, and the play by play guy is Matt Devlin. And Jack has this east coast accent, almost Boston like. Weird.

Bucks horrible red uniforms

I'm watching the Bucks and the Pacers on NBA League Pass today, and I'm getting the Pacers announcers. The Bucks are wearing their "alternate" road uniforms, the all red throwbacks:

The Pacers's announcer says the Bucks are in their alternate red road uniforms. The color guy says: "I've never seen this look before... I'm, um, glad they like it. That's all I can say."

Dude, I'd hafta agree with you. These are one of the Bucks worst. If you wanna go old school, stick with the green. Just total lack of brand equity when I can't even recognize my own team.

Where's the defense?

The Brewers signed Prince to a two year deal... probably a good move by the club, we'll be able to keep him in case he has a monster year this year. It still leaves the door open to trading him. I'm on the bandwagon of trading him... I'm really sick of one dimensional players who can't play defense. He'd be a great DH somewhere. Maybe the Yankees.

But the issue is defense... why are teams so willing to sacrifice it? The Brewers made a point last year to improve their defense, which is a step in the right direction. That's why I'm not too down on Mike Cameron. Braun seems athletic enough to be able to handle LF. Hart is great defensively, which is overlooked. He struggled at the plate, but he made it up in his defense.

JJ is great at SS. Kendall is great at C, although he does do a boneheaded throw on a bunt every once in a while. I think we got someone in Rivera. Anyone know how good the catchers we have in the farm system are defensively?

The good news is Alcides Escobar, from what I hear, is stellar defensively. Hallelujah. So why not put him at SS and move JJ to 2B? I hear a lot of 3B, but man there's a gaping hole at 2B defensively (and offensively for that matter with Rickie Weeks... I shall rant on him later).

Then there's the problem with 3B. I've heard moving JJ to 3B, but man having a great fielder at 2B who has pop sounds really enticing. Unfortunately Gamel looks like he'll have the same problems as Braun at 3B. Can he play 1B?

NBA vacuum

My first year in Cincinnati was 2000-2001, the year the Bucks went deep into the playoffs. Of course there's no NBA team in Cincinnati, but I didn't realize just how dead the NBA was to this city. I was watching the deciding game that would send us to the NBA finals on TNT when my cable inexplicably went out. So I really quick got in the car and headed to Willie's, my local sports bar.

Now this is a true sports bar, with maybe 15 TV's scattered in the whole place. I walk in, I think it's a Tuesday night, and all 15 TV's have a NASCAR race on. In fact, I would say it was a replay of a NASCAR race because it was during the day, and I was there at night. I ask the server if they could put on the basketball game, and she says "what game?" I'm thinking, "um, game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals?"

Well I did end up watching the game, and when Glenn Robinson missed that baseline shot, there was no one in the bar to lament too.

Why Joe Alexander should blow your mind

I was telling my friend Eric about some trivia about Joe Alexander, the Bucks' first round pick this year. He actually grew up in China, where his dad worked, so he became fluent in Mandarin. He's also a candidate for the NBA slam dunk contest, but he has to be voted in by fans. (By the way, vote at seejoedunk.com!)

Eric made an interesting observation:

"So he's a white guy who speaks Chinese, and can dunk?"

Yeah, what a country eh?

Bucks Badinage

"Badinage" was one of those random words I learned while playing cranium... It means "banter" basically. Anyways, I'm using it as cool way to say "random thoughts."

Bucks uniform: I always thought they should go blaze orange for home and camouflage for away. Imagine how many uniforms they could sell with that combo! It totally beats the current lame logo, posted here. I guess it's always Christmas with the Bucks! (or maybe always Christmas for the Bucks opponent's offense).

Luke Ridnour: Man, he's got a really sweet running teardrop shot. Run into the lane and ease it up there before anyone can jump to block it. And he's playing really well lately. I was a big Ramon Sessions fan for a while, but Luke's doing so well even I hafta admit it's the right move.

Luc Richard Mbah a Moute: What a find in the second round! A Bucks guy who plays defense? Wow. One of the downsides of watching the Bucks on the NBA cable package is you get other team's announcers sometimes. And they all say the same things... i.e he's a prince of a village in Cameroon. I guess that is pretty cool. Plus it's really fun to keep saying "Mbah a Moute."

I must admit, the team is almost bearable to watch now...

Thank god your logo doesn't look like this

Check out this logo that the Mets are using to commemorate the first year in their ballpark.

Contrast it to the best logo in all of sports (even one of my Boston Red Sox fans thinks so). BRING IT BACK!

We have a Marty Conlon sighting!

Saw this on a recent Bucks broadcast (thank goodness for the NBA League Pass!). Marty Conlon was one of those names that you could say to weed out real Bucks fans from fake ones... the real Bucks fans wouldn't be able to hold back a laugh. (Other names: Fred Roberts, Paul Mokeski, Randy Breuer. Maybe I should be a little more diverse in my choice).



Marty was actually a fan favorite... if I remember right, he had the most awkward looking jump shot where his left elbow swung straight out. But he was a dead accurate shooter.

Any other fan favorites out there? Any other names that you would throw out if I held a gun to your head and said "Prove that you're a Bucks fan?"

Trevor Hoffman... much better than Gagne!

Top 10 Reasons Why Trevor Hoffman is a Great Signing

His ERA is almost a run and a half lower than Gagne
He's $2.5-4 million cheaper than Gagne
We might actually consider offering him arbitration, and some team might actually consider signing him, so we can get a draft pick and get the next Ryan Braun
He hasn't taken HGH
He didn't STOP taking HGH
We haven't had a good closer song since "Wild Thing"
I don't hafta listen to my Red Sox fan friends laugh at me anymore for signing their garbage for $10 million
We can trade Cameron to the Yankees now
He can teach Tony Gwynn Jr how to hit pitchers other than himself
We get to see his SportsCenter commercial again

Gotta love them cookies

So one Milwaukee secret is Midwest Airlines... They have a nice flight out of Dayton, Ohio to Milwaukee (they have a hub in Milwaukee) so I can head home for the holidays for a decent price. What's the big secret? Well they serve fresh baked chocolate chip cookies right on board. You gotta love it when they give you two cookies with the chocolate chips still gooey. I usually take a nap on the flights, but I manage to stay awake on Midwest flights!

That's our Brett

Just finished watching an ESPN Sportscenter story on Thomas Jones criticizing Brett Favre... Well welcome to the Brett Favre roller coaster ride that us Packer fans all know about. He's always been the gunslinger, risk-taker type. I call it the "Brett Favre chuck and duck." He seems to be playing within himself, managing the game, we might be down, and then it's almost as if he gets bored and decides to chuck it. But dang, he was fun to watch. I'd take Brett any day over the 21 QBs the Bears went through while he was the Packer QB.

I was shocked when he announced his retirement... and then when we traded him to the Jets I refused to picture him with a Jets uniform. But I can honestly say, after a week or so, it didn't really matter anymore... Brett was just a veteran QB trying to lead another team. Plus I think Aaron Rodgers will be awesome. I'm actually tempted to get myself a Favre Jets jersey since I can probably get it pretty cheap and it'd be neat to have.


Just for fun, here's the list of QBs the Bears went through in the Favre era:

Henry Burris, Chris Chandler, Will Furrer, Brian Griese, Rex Grossman, Jim Harbaugh, Chad Hutchinson, Erik Kramer, Craig Krenzel, Dave Krieg, Shane Matthews, Cade McNown, Jim Miller, Rick Mirer, Moses Moreno, Kyle Orton, Jonathan Quinn, Steve Stenstrom, Kordell Stewart, Steve Walsh, Peter Tom Willis.

Wisconsin claim to fame: Packer bikini girls

My friend Morris has a blog where he posts about random stuff that he’s thinking about. He has no other niche or strategy, but he says he gets a few hundred readers a day. Sometimes he randomly is in the top results of certain Google searches… one of them turns out to be a posting on the Packers bikini girls. I’m happy the zaniess of fans of my hometown team can provide traffic to his blog! Looks like he’s at it again with a follow up post on the Packers bikini girls…