Happy Wednesday everyone, here's my Top 5 for April 18, 2012 from Len Berman at www.ThatsSports.com.
1. Quick Hits
- Taking "one and done" to the nth degree. The entire starting five of Kentucky's championship basketball team, all freshmen and sophomores, have declared for the NBA draft.
- 49-year old Colorado Rockies pitcher Jamie Moyer becomes the oldest Major League pitcher to win a game. He beat the San Diego Padres last night, throwing seven innings in a 5-3 win.
- 71-year old Larry Brown, who has coached just about everywhere else, will coach at SMU.
- Jessica Dorrell, the former mistress of fired Arkansas football coach Bobby Petrino, has left her university job. She got a $14,000 going away present.
- It's 100 days and counting until the 2012 London Olympics.
2. Scheduling
Have you ever seen such a hoo-hah over the release of a schedule? Does it happen in any other sport? The NFL announced who plays whom and when, and you'd think that the wheel has been reinvented. OK, if you're a season ticket holder it's good to know your schedule. Eat early on Thanksgiving if you're a Jets fan, you've got a home game that night. Gee, I wonder if Tim Tebow will be starting by then? Sorry, I got sidetracked. I like what Justin Tuck of the Giants tweeted last night. "The most important game is the next one." I'm guessing they couldn't begin all those TV specials last night with that quote.
3. Going Digital
Just when you think you've seen it all. An NBA player gets a technical foul for giving a "wet willie." OK, we need a ruling. Was that really a "dry willie?"
4. Vigilante Justice
A study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology says that baseball fans are quite biblical in nature. "An eye for an eye" is most acceptable. Actually, the fans support an even broader approach. "You hurt one of ours, it's OK to hurt a different one of yours." The magazine surveyed baseball fans at various ballparks. They found that a large percentage says it's fine and dandy to try throw a high hard one at the other team, if your team has been beaned first. And you gotta love the partisanship. Of the fans interviewed outside Fenway Park, 43 percent said if a Red Sox pitcher beans an opponent, the opponent can fire back. But if the Red Sox player is hit first, 67 percent thought frontier justice would be appropriate. Justice might be blind. Being a Sawx fan isn't
5. Silence Is Golden
Back in 1982, NBC famously broadcast the announcerless football game. A baseball website, Mike Silva's NY Baseball Digest, is running a poll. The question: Do you want to see a MLB national game without announcers? You can vote.
So here's my question. With all the technology we have, why can't we have a separate audio channel with "natural sounds?" If we don't want announcing, we could hear the crowd, the PA, all the ballpark sounds. Don't tell my announcer friends I wrote this. I'll be banished from the "fraternity." Just once in a while we don't need every little nuance over-analyzed to death. It would be nice if the broadcast could breathe a little.
Happy Birthday: Detroit Tigers star third baseman Miguel Cabrera. 29.
Bonus Birthday: Conan O'Brien. 49.
Today in Sports: Yankee Stadium opened in the Bronx. John Philip Sousa led the playing of the National Anthem and of course the Babe homered as the Yankees beat Boston 4-1. 1923.
Bonus Event: Paul Revere took his famous "Midnight" ride and apparently did not shout "The British are coming!" 1775.
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