Monday, June 4, 2018

Outta' My Monday Mornin' Mind


HT to the late, great Bob Talbert for today’s post title.  Even though he was the biggest liberal that ever wrote for the Freep, I enjoyed reading his column when newspapers were still a “thing”.  Imagine that, you could read something or someone from the other side and not lose your sanity over it.  I guess things were more civil then?  Anyway, today feels like one of those Monday’s with everything that’s going on.  Specifically:

Beilein Interviews With The Pistons

This often-used clip (on this blog) immediately came to mind when I heard the news on Friday:





So, after a lot of careful thought and contemplation over the weekend (like – I would be so pissed if JB went to the Pistons, but I guess I would be interested in the Pistons again), IMHO, this is a way for Beilein to figure out his open market value actually is.  Let’s face facts:  Two NCAA Championship Runner Ups in a 5-year span (One to Louisville that was cheating and had to forfeit the NCAA Title).  Sweet 16 and Elite 8 Appearances.  More wins in the NCAA Tourney in last 5 seasons than any other active coach (24-12 overall NCAA record).  Creates NBA talent after 3-4 years that comes in to Ann Arbor as “development projects”.  Yes, you’re going to get the attention of the pro owners. 

But Beilein’s style is NOT that of a pro coach.

I panicked at first, but then I realized that this was just an exercise for JB in order to get more money for him and his lieutenants.  Warde better cough it up. 

JB is worth every penny. 

“It’s Emphasized”

I wasn’t going to comment on this because it pissed me off when Charles said it initially.  But now the press won’t let it go.  I’m hoping that Harbaugh put it to rest when he responded to the question, “So, how do you feel about Woodson saying that the game isn’t emphasized?”


Harbaugh was asked if he was aware of Woodson’s remarks.
“It's been emphasized," Harbaugh said.
He was then asked if he took exception to the comments.
“It’s been emphasized,” he said.
Harbaugh then returned to the subject to make a final comment.
“And that’s coming from somebody who’s been there for every single day,” he said.

“It’s Emphasized.”  Should have been the End of quote. 

My Thoughts:  Pretty much what Harbaugh WANTED to say: “F%$cking Eh its Emphasized!!!  And if you ask me again, I’m going to emphasize this cleat right up your ass!” 

‘Nuff Said. 

LNU Hasn’t Addressed The Real Problem…And There’s No Remorse
LNU is in the news again for its arrogance and lack of remorse as a result of the “settlement”.  I have a feeling, even though LNU is trying to put this behind them, that we may not have heard the final word on all of this.  John Bacon weighs in with his opinion and he hits the nail on the head:
Observers such as John U. Bacon, an author of 10 books on college athletics, said it reflects poorly on MSU that the school did not include an apology in the settlement.
“They have shown no compassion, no understanding, no sense of urgency in fixing what is wrong,” Bacon said. “The very qualities that led them into this mess are the very qualities that they are displaying now, which is arrogance.”
Typical reasons for not offering an apology is to avoid vulnerability to more lawsuits, and a higher settlement, Bacon said. But, he added, MSU had already reached a monetary figure.
“It's just mean-spirited,” Bacon said. “MSU should have apologized because they were wrong. Their employee assaulted their students. People at Michigan State knew about this and did not act appropriately … Turns out human beings like being treated by human beings and that is what is missing here.”
Uh…Yep.  Kind of what I’ve been saying all along.  LNU needs to atone and FIX THE PROBLEM!   That includes the Regents. 
I hope everyone who votes remembers this when the time comes….
Mailbag, Tweets and Texts
No OC For Michigan
“Does it bother you that Michigan isn’t naming and offensive coordinator?”
From what I remember as a student manager, there really was never an offensive coordinator that ran the entire offense and called the plays under Schembechler.  Ultimately, I recall several individuals making general suggestions regarding down and distance and then Bo more or less okaying or making a decision.  The image of one guy running the offense (or defense) doesn’t burn in my brain.  Yeah, Moeller was the guy that sat in the booth.    
But Cameron (QB’s and Receivers), Hanlon & Miles (O-Line), and Moeller (OC) were more or less the collection of offensive gurus that made the offense click.  But even Moeller would admit that he didn’t “Run the Entire Show” on the offense.  That was more or less Bo himself and I think that’s kind of how Harbaugh considers himself.  Everyone pretty much had an equal say, but the buck stopped at the top. 
To answer the question:  Does it bother me?  It will BEGIN to bother me if the problems on the offense still have not been corrected.  But everything coming out of the Spring Practices lead me to believe that’s not the case.    
SuperFan and Boycotting
Hi Russ,
    I must fully agree with your assessment that the most effective tactic is to boycott the advertisers rather than the channel.  After all, unless you are a Nielson family, nobody knows you are boycotting.
    However, I think that to be effective, it must be an active rather than passive boycott.  Thus we must make note of the advertisers and actively contact them letting them know that as long as they are a sponsor of X channel or program, you will NOT buy their shit.
    At the height of the Anthem protest last season, I was about to try to launch a preemptive boycott of any Superbowl advertisers.  The idea being that it would take very little effort to cause a reduction of ad rates.

Good idea.  And viewers are leaving overly-liberal, far left political views behind
We’re in a very interesting cycle as far as television is concerned.  The majority of the public is speaking with their remotes.  CNN has lost 35% of its viewership due to “Fake News” and didn’t land program in the top 25 of news programs.  All the networks are suffering from a lot of “political” views that aren’t popular with Americans.  Comcast (Xfinity) is watching as millennials et al are beginning to request a drop of the ESPN library of channels and are “Cutting the Cord” as other options of watching programming and sports in particular become available.   And if they continue to politicize and create policies that turn the majority of people off, well, the financial impact will become an even greater burden. 
It will be interesting to see where Television goes in the future.  But yeah, I remember who advertises where and try not to spend my money there…
ETC
Satan And The Team Run Out of Gas!!!
This is classic and couldn’t have happened to a nicer team!!!
Alabama’s “Lake Day” on Lake Tuscaloosa ended up as a slight disaster when Satan’s boat ran out of go-go juice.  I find it hard to believe a guy that anal didn’t have enough gas to last the trip!!!
RALLY GOOSE!

I’m really not sure how to feel about this because I HATE CANADIAN GEESE!  They shit all over, ruin decks and lawns, and are generally a nuisance.  However, after this bird-brain crashed into the scoreboard at the CoPa, Tiger’s Management and Fans have proclaimed it to be the “Rally Goose”, since the Kitty Cats had won 4 in a row after the incident (until yesterday’s loss to the hapless Blue-Jays).   And now the Tigers are saying they’re not dropping the “Rally Goose” meme after 1 loss. 
Lovely.  Just ducky. 
A Canadian Goose is now the Tiger’s motivator. 
All You Want is to Have A Nice Career With a Few Perks…
Mark Reuss, a locally well-known auto exec, has now become immortalized as “The Driver” of an Indy Race Pace Car CRASHES into the wall right before the start of the Detroit Gran Prix.  His crash delayed the start of the race by nearly 40 minutes while the track crews cleaned up the mess.  Reuss will now be forever known as “That GM Guy” that piled a Corvette into the wall. 
Classic. 
I have to admit that I bet there are a LOT OF SUPPLIERS that were cackling with glee over all this as GM has been somewhat challenging to deal with at times. 

Baseball Scheduling In a Nutshell…

Why don’t we see the Yankees at the CoPa as much as we used to?  Divisional races and interleague play. 

Get rid of the Interleague and bring back traditional rivalries.  It would be better for the game.



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