Let me make this perfectly clear from the start: I am a Josh Hamilton fan and I’m a fan of what he’s accomplished. I’ve followed him from the day he was drafted all the way to his first year out of baseball. I read about him when he first told his story of destruction before he even made it back with the Reds. I think it’s one of the biggest individual turnarounds in sports to go from his low of being a complete drug addict loser to one of the top few hitters in the world and an MVP candidate. I don’t even know why I need to bother giving you all these details — you’ve already heard his story fifty bajilion times by now. And that’s my issue.

At some point you reach over-saturation with a story, and I’ve completely hit that point. I actually am starting to feel bad that Hamilton won’t ever be just an All-Star because his reputation consistently precedes him. His story will forever skew honors and awards as well as the public’s perception of him because they’re always going to want him to do better and receive more than most other players. I also understand why some of the players on the Reds may have grown to resent the guy last year because of all the attention he got. Much of it was created by Hamilton because of the incredible life he’s lived, but a lot of it now is the media taking the story and running with it Forrest Gump-style.

Now you might be thinking at this point: Hey, the guy belted 28 home runs in the derby and was a freaking star, of course we’re going to be talking about him. Very true. But I actually developed this feeling even before the derby began, just hearing the hoards of talking heads on ESPN gush over the guy. Steve Phillips: I’m picking Hamilton to win the derby because he’s such a great story! Ditto pretty much everyone else. At some point Hamilton’s story does not need to be told any longer because everyone will know about it. I know it’s the All-Star Game and the HR Derby and that maybe lends itself to a broader audience, but still, I’ve already hit that point. I feel bad for the guy now because he’s getting so much attention, he’s probably sick of himself. Like the great Frank Cushman said, maybe there’s too much Cush-Lash, Cush-Lash, Cush-Lash, Cush-Lash, Cush-Lash.

The always opinionated and controversial Charles Barkley joined JT The Brick on Fox Sports Radio at the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship in Lake Tahoe. The two got to talking about the way Alex Rodriguez is treated by the media in New York and the paparazzi in general. Sir Charles, as usual, had quite the strong opinion on the matter as he took up for A-Rod. Here’s a snippet of what he said:

Those people are so jealous of him, they got to nothing to do but try to destroy him with his personal business. Why would they follow him on the road to see what he’s doing? They’re trying to get him. There’s so much jealousy around A-Rod. To question this guy’s personal life, that ain’t right at all.
…
First off, we should line all these paparazzi people up and shoot ‘em.

Audio via TMZ of all places, whom I guess Barkley is saying we should shoot. While I admit I’ll post some stuff up here about A-Rod’s off-field biz, I would never seek the stories on my own, much less print them if I saw em. Once they’re already out there however, I join in because, well, let’s face it — it’s funny stuff. I just can’t believe that someone would follow A-Rod around off the field to track his business. That’s really weak and uncalled for and something that shouldn’t be going on. I guess I agree with Chuck here, though executing all the paparazzi is pretty harsh.

Wow, this interview sure explains a lot. In an interview with The Grand Rapids Press, Floyd Mayweather Jr. revealed a lot about himself and his feelings that can really help to explain what’s been going on his career lately. Before I get to the part where Pretty Boy hammers Jim Lampley and calls HBO’s boxing announcers racist, I’ll share some of what I found quite interesting.

Pretty Boy says that he was coerced into pleading no contest in a case where he hadn’t done anything just to clear the incident up so that he could fight on pay-per-view. He also says that he’s made such strong investments that he expects to be a billionaire by the end of the year. Now that’s highly debatable, but it tells us that he doesn’t need boxing anymore because he’s already seemingly set for life. Additionally, Floyd expressed a desire to be in good mental and physical state later on in life, which helps explain why he’s in no need to fight anymore. OK, now on for the real meat.

Read The Full Story…

Maybe this explains why some baseball telecasts aren’t too enjoyable (putting aside what happens on the field). When FOX’s top national play-by-play man says he barely watches sports and doesn’t really enjoy baseball anymore, you know we have a problem. Listen to his conversation with Colin Cowherd on ESPN Radio.

It’s no coincidence that some announcers are better than others, or that some telecasts are more enjoyable than others. When the announcers are excited about their team or the game, it comes out in the broadcast. When they could care less, you can hear it, and it makes the game less enjoyable. Additionally, it irks me to no end when I hear guys on the radio or on TV who clearly aren’t sports enthusiasts but are just working a job. Why are you doing it? It’s just sad that one of our iconic broadcasters on the sports landscape says he barely watches sports. BP at Awful Announcing captures my thoughts on the matter pretty well …

Read The Full Story…

I didn’t really mean to post this up, but when there’s a guy broadcasting on a large stage like Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN just filling the airwaves with nonsense, he needs to be called out for it. Such is the story with Joe Morgan, who continues to prove once again why he needs to be put on mute. If you remember last year, Morgan was caught telling a blatant lie on air. He placed himself in a historical context that never existed. Yes, he fabricated a story. Which brings us to Sunday night when Eric Patterson hit a home run at Wrigley Field that landed in the netting in left field, barely clearing the fence. Morgan essentially called it a cheap home run but went even further to say the basket of netting was placed there when Ernie Banks played and that it was called “Banks Boulevard” because he hit so many home runs there. Unfortunately I was duped like many other saps into believing the story, though I should have known better. Luckily Awful Announcing is here to correct things, giving the explanation from Bleed Cubbie Blue:

“There are many reasons virtually all of us criticize Joe Morgan’s “broadcasting” (the quotes are there for obvious reasons; he may be among the worst sports broadcasters in history). However, when he invents “facts” to back up his biases, I think he needs to be called on it and shown that doing this isn’t just wrong, it’s irresponsible. I speak here of his continued carping about the Wrigley Field outfield wall basket and his contention that Ernie Banks deposited “many” home runs into the basket.

Ernie Banks was nearing the end of his career when this basket was installed. I went through Ernie’s game logs. After April 26, 1970, he hit 8 home runs at Wrigley Field. Eight. The first one he hit after that was one I personally witnessed — his career #499, hit on May 9, 1970. That one didn’t go in the basket. Video exists of his 500th, hit three days after that, on May 12, 1970 — you’ve probably seen this video, and know that one didn’t go in the basket, either.

That leaves six others. It’s possible that all of them landed in the basket, but I doubt it. And even if that’s true, that’s six of 512 — a little over 1% of his career total, maybe 2% of all he hit at Wrigley. The basket was never, ever called “Banks Boulevard”, nor nicknamed after any other player.”

Cub Hub has more details correcting Morgan, and Awful Announcing even has the video if you want to hear the b.s. for yourself. I don’t know why this guy feels the need to make up stories. Why can’t he just shut up when he doesn’t know what the eff he’s talking about? Someone, someone, please get this guy off the air!

I love how this stuff works sometimes. Last year Doc Rivers was the guy who deserved to be canned after his team did the nosedive into last place like they had a two-ton anchor attached to them. You even had guys like Ryan Gomes all but admitting they were tanking. Many people were calling for Doc’s head — it was nuts. The guy had no players, especially when you consider his big gun, the Finals MVP, Paul Pierce, was hurt. But all those sicko results-oriented freaks just look at the bottom line and say the team was the worst in the league so the coach deserves to be gone. I can’t tell you which people did 180s from saying he should be fired to praising the guy, but I can tell you I didn’t jump on Doc as a poor coach, giving him leeway because he had no players.

Now, in ‘07-’08, he gets KG, Ray Allen, and Paul Pierce comes back healthy, and all of a sudden it’s a different story. Basketball, because it’s only a five player game and because it’s easy for one player to take over and dominant, makes it tough for a coach to look good when he doesn’t have good players. At the same point, it can make a decent, or even a bad coach look good. Doc wasn’t a bad coach because his team was bad last year, and he’s not a great coach because his team was great this year. He’s obviously a good coach who needed the proper tools to deliver the goods — just like pretty much any other coach would. So just remember all the chants you heard for Doc’s head last year when you hear all the great stuff about him this year. Do you really think he suddenly became a genius over the offseason? Doubtful. It’s the players, for the most part, that define the coach. Not the other way around.