by John Scanlan
To set the record straight, for all those months I was absent from the Mid Valley News, I was hiking the Appalachian trail along the Argentine coastline.
When I was on the award-winning Mid Valley Sports Show exclusively on midvalleysports.com last night, I was asked about Joe Morgan and Steve Phillips’s comments about Juan Pierre needing to play even when Manny Ramirez returns.
One thing I have tried to become better at as a sports fan over the years is tuning out analysts. Most of them bring absolutely nothing to a telecast and really serve no useful purpose other than to make things entertaining, recycle axioms that have been proven to be wrong and appeal to the lowest common denominator. There’s this perception that people who watch sports want to feel like they’re watching a game with one of their buddies and they don’t want their buddies to be smarter than they are.
So when people like Steve Lyons say, “Home runs kill rallies” or Morgan and Phillps advocate the benching of Matt Kemp or Andre Ethier for the sake of getting more playing time for Pierre, I just try to ignore it and take it with a grain of salt. I do, sometimes though, ask my television, “What the flip are you talking about?”
The Minnesota Timberwolves walk into Thursday’s NBA draft with four first round picks. Isn’t that akin to walking into Big Lots with a wad of hundred dollar bills?
I don’t see anything wrong if Phil Jackson decides to only coach home games this year. More so than in any other sport, I think what a basketball coach does in terms of preparation during the preseason and practice is more important than what they do in-game. I’m sure Kurt Rambis can figure out substitution patterns and that Kobe Bryant gets the ball at the end of close games.
I can’t wait for the over saturation of media with Dallas Cowboy stories ready to come down the pike.
Things to look for over the coming weeks in baseball: the employment of Royals manager Trey Hillman, the Nationals’ negotiations with #1 overall pick out of SDSU Stephen Strasburg and when the fire sale will begin for the Arizona Diamondbacks once ace Brandon Webb is ruled out for the year.
Quick Scans wastes your time Monday-Thursday exclusively on midvalleysports.com
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