Random Thoughts

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Time for some random thoughts, dashed-line style because bullet points in WordPress squeeze everything into a squished single-line format:
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– Why in the world is the new fad wearing a hat with a flat bill and the sticker still on it? Maybe I’m turning into a crotchety old man, but those darn kids! What is possibly attractive or even comfortable with the flat bill? The price or company sticker still on makes even less sense. I hope this goes way of trends like “sagging” and “zumba pants” by being a short-lived thing.
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– This week begins the minor-league baseball playoffs, something that garners very little attention, even from local fans of the home team. I am always interested during these playoffs to take a look at the box score for the attendance report to see just how much attention and passion these home cities do really have for their local baseball team. Paid attendance figures are always inflated and a terrible gauge for fan support as teams can give away tickets or even just make-up numbers. However, during the playoffs, there are no more firework shows or bobblehead giveaways and the numbers also don’t reflect season ticket-holder no shows. Often times, I find it is a much better depiction of how many fans are at the ballpark. Two teams I’ll be keeping an eye on are Harrisburg and Erie, who I both saw this year.
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– Just about everybody in the sports and soccer buisness has praised NBC for it’s outstanding coverage of the English Premier League and you can count me in that camp. I am a huge fan of what they are doing and am thrilled they have rights to the league for years to come. They are not “dumbing” it down for us Americans, there is no forced laughter or debates and highlight packages include the game commentary. The knowledgeable Rebecca Lowe has done an outstanding job anchoring coverage, the studio analysts have been terrific too and of course the game coverage is exquisite. Incredible they are only three weeks into this and I hope they stay the course, because the whole production is light years ahead of the American Sportz garbage on out there.
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– Which brings us to Fox. I cringe to see what they do with the World Cup after ESPN did wonders with it’s stint (Thank you Ian Darke and Bob Lee). The thought of the NFL on Fox music playing as they go to the studio with Rob Stone and the arrogant Eric Wynalda makes me want to barf. It also is sad to see the USGA sell-out and take all the green that Rupert Murdoch is offering and put the US Open on Fox, taking us away from NBC’s (again) stellar coverage. Fox does not even have a golf team!!! Please NBC, start winning more battles against Fox.
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– Since sports on TV has become the main theme here, we’ll end with that. There are only three more seasons that we have with beloved Rick Jeanneret, the Buffalo Sabres’ play by play announcer. RJ is an institution and I have grown up listening to him both on TV and the radio, adoring and imitating him all the time. Many can’t imagine Sabres hockey without him. Luckily, the terrific front office listened to the fans by getting rid of Kevin Sylvester and have tabbed classy Dan Dunleavy as a replacement, who fans will get used to with him calling occasional games. In the meantime, try to catch a local MSG game on the NHL package and listen to a legend.

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