The Rangers Report
Building for the future since 2001
June 4, 2008 at 11:16 am
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JASON BOTTS UPDATE!!!!!
The Rant is below, but first, a Ranger related nugget.
Jason Botts’ career as a Texas Ranger is over.
Botts has been acquired by the Nippon Ham Fighters and will now continue his career overseas.
It’s tough to see Botts go. I realize he may or may not have been given a fair shake by the Rangers. But he never did much to solidify a hold over a big league position. Now, hopefully, I hope he carves out a career similar to Tom Selleck in Mr. Baseball.
Good luck big man! Hopefully, whenever I get the chance to go to Japan, you’ll have become the star you never were able to become in Texas.
Sayonara!
Back to the rant, already in progress.
Hate On ESPN
I hate ESPN.
The bias, the way they try to push their own agenda, their special little programs that take up useless time like “Who’s Now” and all that crap. And while there is some excellent content at times on their programs and websites (John Clayton and Jeremy Green aren’t bad, and Keith Law and Rob Neyer are both excellent and entertaining), for the most part their content is bad. Sportscenter, for example, hasn’t been the same since the former “Big Show” of Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann broke up in the late 1990’s.
But it’s the personalities that I despite most of the time. With that said, here are five ESPN Personalities that I make me want to go off on a Bill O’Reily on Inside Edition rant.
Sean Salsbury (TV)
I can’t stand the greatest backup quarterback of all time. Salsbury’s schtick is one of cosntant annoyance, a barrage of “You never played the game, so you’re unqualified to speak of football” and of a whole lot of testosterone. And much of the time, he just sounds so uninformed when he speaks about the NFL, especially when he’s placed next to someone like John Clayton (who famously responded to Salsbury’s “You never played in the NFL” attack to “Neither did you!) or Jeremy Green. And didn’t he take a picture of his junk and send it to another female employee? Look, I realize that not all football players are mental midgets. Some like Joe Montana, Tiki Barber (much as I hate to say it), Ron Jaworski, Jim Brown, and many others are able to talk football without sounding like idiots. Unfortunately, Salsbury seems to reinforce the stereotype.
Eric Kusillias (Radio, TV)
Former radio host Eric Kusillias is another guy that just gets on my balls. While I do like him pointing out that what Mike Golic on Mike and Mike actually brings to the table (not much), I find him irritating as hell. Everything from his rather lame takes to his constant love letter to the NFL gets me irritated. And let’s not forget his constant man love for the Boston Red Sox. Then again, that last one may just be my own fatigue with all things Boston.
Colin Cowherd (Radio)
Colin Cowherd is quite possibly one of the most arrogant people to host a radio show. Aside from his usual hype about how he hosts “Big Boy Radio” and his dismissal of callers and emailers that disagree with his opinion, Cowherd often times gets himself in trouble with his own opinions that are made without much thought or research, in spite of his own claims that he has research to back up what he says. With the Sean Taylor story breaking, Cowherd pushed how he felt that it was releated to Taylor’s past, and that it was simply “Payback From The Hood.” Needless to say, in spite of his constant hammering of the point, Cowherd looked completely stupid. Cowherd has also hammered the bloggisphere under the typical “guys who live in mom’s basement” as well as taking material from blogs and not giving credit where it was due. When the M Zone, a Michigan Blog, had a mock wonderlic test, Cowherd read it on air and didn’t give credit to the blog. When the writers asked Cowherd to give credit where credit was due, Cowherd simply responded with how he had just found it, but wasn’t going to give credit now because of the whining. Cowherd later gave a half ass admission nearly two weeks later. And the sad thing is, Cowherd actually could be capable of a great radio show. He does a solid job at covering college football (not so much the NFL, as he typically lets his own admiration of certain franchises, players and coaches cloud his judgement) and he also delviered one of the best all time takes about the importance of relevance in sports when Red Sox fans were up in arms because Manny Ramirez simply expressed that “life goes on” when the Red Sox were near elimination in last years ALCS. Cowherd is an example of what a potentially great radio show host could be. However, Cowherd is simply too deeply ingrained in his own opinions and bias that he’ll never take that step.
Mike Tirico (TV/Radio)
I have nothing against Tirico the play by play guy. That guy is fine. Tirico the radio host is just plain boring. I’m serious, you could fall asleep to Tirico’s radio show. Adding Scott Van Pelt makes it slightly better.
Kenny Mayne (TV)
What the hell does Kenny Mayne exactly do than look tall and creepy at the various assignments he is given? I’m serious, I half expect to see Kenny Mayne to walk in on a showing of “To Catch A Predator” and sit down to enjoy a glass of the Sweet Tea that always seems to be on every tabletop counter before the cops rush in to arrest him. I mean, come on, I realize that he was once a Sportscenter anchor, but can’t they find any other use for him that doesn’t involve him looking ridiculous? Or maybe that’s just a part of his bit now, much as Bill Simmons’ constant yammering about the glory of Boston Sports. However, while Simmons is able to play his bit into something relevant (as Simmons himself is actually a fairly astute basketball analyst), Mayne just doesn’t seem to have a use at all for the four letter.
Permalink
miracle wrote @ June 4th, 2008 at 11:31 am
I can’t really name 5 people on ESPN that I like. But I whole heartedly agree with your list.
Why do they insert Kusillias whenever somebody is on vacation? That guy sucks, funny that they tried to insert him as the “Nascar guy” a guy that knows nothing about cars is a great choice.
I’m not to crazy about Tony Kornholer these days, but his radio days on ESPN were really good. And they replaced him with a douchebag know it all like Cowherd, I think I’d rather paint my house than listen to that twerp.
And everytime I hear Tirico’s voice I’m reminded that I need to call my insurance agent. Thank’s Mike!
morisato wrote @ June 4th, 2008 at 11:51 am
I don’t know, maybe Kusillias just lives there on the Bristol Campus, just in the even that he has to go in. I remember that his old show, the Sportsbash, was nearly unlistenable. As for him as the NASCAR guy, that experiment ended pretty quickly.
I liked Kornheiser at ESPN. Cowherd, well, my thoughts are about.
That’s true, Tirico does sound almost like the Allstate Guy!!!!
shooterb wrote @ June 4th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
I’m not familiar with the radio guys…but I do agree that most of the ESPN personalities are annoying as hell. I absolutely can’t stand Salisbury, who is so condescending even though he displays very little intelligence to back it up. Steven A.(hole) Smith is about the same.
Joe Morgan bugs the shit out of me, too.
I think Kenny Mayne was funny for about 10 seconds when he was an anchor…but he could very well be the lamest of the bunch.
I try to watch as little ESPN as possible. Sportscenter used to be a daily requirement (several years ago)…now I can barely stand to watch more than 5 minutes at a time. At least the Krukster & the Baseball Tonight crew aren’t too terrible…so that program is somewhat watchable.
morisato wrote @ June 4th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Baseball Tonight is okay, though I hated “That’s Nasty”. That was just stupid.
The Radio Guys are a mixed bag. Jason Smith of “All Night” is pretty good. A couple of the “Gamenight” guys are alright as well. For the most part, ESPN Radio is a shadow of what it once was. I stopped listening regularly when Dan Patrick left last year.
Morgan talks out of his ass most of the time, but he doesn’t bother me much. I still think that the Sunday Night Baseball Radio Crew, as well as the weekday baseball crew from Monday and Wednesday Night Baseball are excellent.
Salisbury (thanks for the correction) is just an imbicile. Stephen A. is actually better as a radio host than he is as an analyst. When he’s forced to branch out outside of basketball, he can actually be sort of engaging. When he’s just penciled in as a basketball analyst, then it seems the train gets derailed.
THis is far from the last of this little bit of Hatorade. More will soon come.
miracle wrote @ June 4th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Freddy Coleman is probably my favorite on ESPN radio, the “All Night” guy is good too. Much better than trying to listen to JT the Prick(brick) on Fux’s late program.
Tirico does State Farm Commercials on the radio.
I can’t stand to listen to Steve A Smithy, have you ever noticed how far his chair is adjusted up. They try to get their heads to an even level on TV, they have to jack little Stevie’s chair up on blocks to achieve that.
morisato wrote @ June 4th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
That’s hysterical, about Steven A needing a booster seat. I dig Freddy Coleman a lot. As for J.T. the Brick, his show is just unlistenable. I understand that he wants to give a voice to the fan. But then again, there is a reason that the man that gave him his career, Jim Rome, has limits to the type of callers he has on his show. Too many burn the motherfucker down.
I didn’t know that Tirico did State Farm Commericals (or I didn’t pay attention to them.) That’s almost as hysterical as Dan Patrick endorsing Lifelock to “Preserve his good name” (hopefully he wasn’t one of the many that had his identity stolen.)
thedan wrote @ June 5th, 2008 at 12:11 am
I agree with your list. The All-Time douche bag for me is Keith Olbermann. Hate him more than anyone on your list, but who cares? Jason Botts is playing in Japan. That’s huge, just like him.
demonicume wrote @ June 5th, 2008 at 6:12 am
Ron Jaworski. I fucking hate Ron Jaworski. I hate his gay little rants. I really hate how he loses his tempter and pounts whenever anyone disagrees with his point of view. I don’t even know who that white guy with the jew-fro is sitting next to him. I’m thinking that he must have been a running back the way he goes down on NFL RBs all show. But Jaws is a hater. He makes a moral stance and then - depending on who we’re dealing with - changes his stance. Guys like him are why NFL QBs are the worst athletes in all of sports. in a 50 yard dash, I’d put any college softball player against Jaworski’s favorite QB.
Sean Salisbury is a dick and John Clayton is prolly the ugliest guy on TV, he even beats out Sam Cassell. UG LEEEE.
tophat wrote @ June 7th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
morisato
The house that Disney built and has now under its wings the Entertainment Sports Programming Network . Who knew that the level of talent and programming would at times be so mediocre ?
But then again it’s surely better than the a-holes at the Fair and Balanced network ?
tophat………..
morisato wrote @ June 7th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Anything is better than the Fair And Balanced Network. Even the suckage at ESPN.
tophatal wrote @ June 8th, 2008 at 12:10 am
morisato
I’ve shied away somewhat from watching anything sporting or political on the Fair & Balanced network. Their so called experts are about as knowledgeable as the a-holes seated up in Congress. At this juncture that’s not really saying a lot.
And the guys at the ESPN have such a high opinion of themsleves that it’s become farcical.
All I ever want from those is to be informed at not much else beyond that.
I know the game of basketball and Kobe loves me.
tophatal ………..
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