Author: boom booms room staff

Ten Piece Nuggets-Football, Baseball and a PS

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Significant technical difficulties this AM at the world headquarters of BBR leads to a first.  You’ve been put on a diet.  Less than ten nuggets might be served below in hopes that we can beat the deadline to post.  Enjoy and shed some weight at the same time.

  1. Deep in The Heart of Texas starts with “the stars at night are big and bright.”  Maybe so.  But they aren’t shining on football in the state that brought you Friday Night Lights.  This past weekend the Dallas Cowboys, Houston Texans, Texas Longhorns, and Texas A&M Aggies all spit the bit.  Three of their games weren’t even competitive.   The Longhorns coughed up a fumble from point-blank range late in the fourth quarter to grab defeat from the jaws of victory v TCU.
  2. The Cowboys at 1-3 are only 1/2 game out of first in the woeful East Division of the NFC though.  Philadelphia, thanks to a late road comeback over the 49ers, is at the top at 1-2-1.  The division has the Washington Football Team at 1-3.  The name change didn’t help.  And, the NY Football Giants are 0-4.  That’s a smooth 3-12-1 combined.
  3.  The Texans are 0-4.  Bill O’Brien added GM duties in the offseason to his head coaching position.  He’s as stubborn as a steer headed to slaughter.  He is also the only head coach with such a duel role in the NFL we believe.  He bloated the Texans payroll to $225 million, highest in the league.  Their porous defense has surrendered 126 points through four games.  Only three teams have surrendered more as the season hits the quarter pole.  The Lions (127) and Jets (131) have surrendered more.  But, the absolute worst you wonder?  How bout them Cowboys at 146?
  4.  Tom Herman was the hottest name in NCAA coaching circles four years ago.  Texas threw big money at him.  He’s 1-3 versus in-state TCU and has lost 20 games and counting in 3.25 years.  His agent used LSU to broker a bigger deal with Texas.  LSU “settled” on Ed Orgeron.  In Austin, it’s “pew.”  In Baton Rouge, it’s “whew!”
  5. Texas A&M watched Johnny Football Mansiel run past Alabama eight years ago and thought Kevin Sumlin had something to do with it.  They tore up his old contract and guaranteed him $25 million over the next five years.  Three years later they ate that remaining $10 million.  Undeterred, they guaranteed Jimbo $75 million over the next ten years.  Fisher is a disciple of Nick Saban.  Fisher is 0-3 vs. his mentor now.  Saturday, Saban’s Bama team beat Jimbo’s A&M team 52-24.  In 2019 it was Bama 47-28 and in 2018 it was 45-23.  Seventy-five million doesn’t buy as much as it did previously it seems.
  6. Tom Herman and Jimbo Fisher have combined to take home about $45 million combined so far from the two public Texas universities.   They are still owed another $73 million guaranteed.  Who says you can’t throw bad money after bad money?
  7.  How is your betting going in this season that is but almost never was?  On Saturday college football underdogs went 23-7 v the spread.  Home underdogs were 10-2.  For the season underdogs are now 61.5% against the spread.  Take the points.
  8. A great NFL in-game bet is to take whoever the Detroit Lions are playing when the Lions roar ahead by 10 points or more.  Yesterday they led the N.O. Saints 14-0 five minutes into the game.  By halftime they trailed 28-14.  The Lions have now lost six consecutive games in which they led at one point by 10+.  It’s the longest such streak in NFL history.  This comes from a team that has never won a Super Bowl ever either.  Jeez.
  9. Joe Burrow became the first rookie ever to throw for 300 or more yards in three consecutive games.  He led the previously winless Cincinnatti Bengals to their first victory of the season.   Afterwards, in the Bengals locker room, he was presented with the game ball.  Burrow said the game ball is going back in the ball bag.  He consistently told his LSU teammates game after game in last year’s 15-0 championship run that they had bigger fish to fry as well.  It’s early, but it looks like Cincinnati hit on the first pick of it all.
  10. The MLB division level playoffs begin today.  Every series has bad blood between its opponents.  Oakland hates Houston and knew they were cheating all along in 2019.  The TB Rays and the NY Yankees played beanball recently and Rays’ manager Kevin Cash thinks the Yankees staff fails to police it’s pitching staff.  The Dodgers and Padres don’t like all of the posing each does after taters leave the yard.  And the Atlanta Braves and Miami Marlins have had their own rendition of beanball this year.  Let the gamesmanship and games begin.

Whew!  We were able to pile ten high on your plate.

P.S.  The NBA Finals between the LA Lakers and Miami Heat is 2-1 Lakers.  We had to look that one up.  LeBron’s new team is beating one of LeBron’s old teams.

Abby Takes Down Vegas, Year 3, Week 2

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Week one predicting isn’t for everyone.

Abby isn’t everyone.  She pawed her way to four bones while giving back two.  Her record was 2-2-1 (Louisville pushed the bet) and her hunch didn’t punch the ticket.  That’s plenty good enough in a week that LSU and Oklahoma went down in flames while others played flat (Texas A&M) and others barely escaped (Texas).

“Enough already, on to week two,” Abby barks.

  1.  Boston College +14 1/2 v. North Carolina- Old Mack Brown has the Tarheels on the right path.  But we’ll take a determined BC at home to cover late.  One bone.
  2. Duke +12 v Virginia Tech- Ditto the above.  One bone.
  3. Baylor at West Virginia +3 –  Dave Aranda’s D will hold WVA down below their usual point production.  But, but we expect the Mountaineers to cover and in fact win outright at home.  One bone.
  4. Ole Miss @ Kentucky -6 – The Rebels defense is offensive.  Kentucky is clearly the better team and angry coming home from a road spanking at Auburn.  Three bones.
  5. Auburn @ Georgia -7 – Abby loves Bulldogs.  Auburn will give it their all and keep it close for three quarters, but Georgia covers late.  Two bones.
  6.  Arkansas @ Mississippi St. -16.5 – Abby loves Bulldogs.  We could see a letdown after the LSU beatdown.  But Arkansas can’t score enough to keep it inside of three scores.  One bone.

The world awakens this AM to the news that President Trump has the coronavirus.  He’s 74.  He’ll beat it like a drum.  He’s nothing if not a fighter.  Take over 74 as the hunch bet lock of the year.  Get well soon, Mr. President.

There it is.  Abby has four home teams, three underdogs, two bulldogs, and one president while chasing nine bones.

Woof!

 

Debating the Winners and Losers

Posted on by boom booms room staff

So, who won the debate last night you ask?  We’d like to ask the question differently.  Who lost?  America.

So, you persist.  Who won the debate, you ask again.  We are at least willing to narrow it down to two people.  We have some obvious clues.

We think the winner was an old white angry male who hurled insults, lies, and zingers before, during, and after his allotted time.  The question is, was it the some of the time “interrupter” or the all of the time “interrupter?”

Spanish speaking broadcaster Telemundo asked it’s viewers an hour after the debate.  Those that hadn’t turned off the TV midway through the donnybrook, nor after it mercifully ended, nor took Pepto Bismal actually selected Trump by a wide 66-34% margin.

The score has little practical meaning, partly because Telemundo’s respondents were not a scientific sample and may have been organized themselves to skew the results.

In 2016, for example, “Hillary Clinton was deemed the winner of Monday night’s debate by 62% of voters who tuned in to watch, while just 27% said they thought Donald Trump had the better night,” according to a CNN poll of voters who watched the debate.  All that proved was who watches CNN.

In 2020, that same instant poll last evening has Joe Biden the winner by a 60-28% margin.  All that proved was who still watches CNN.

Moderator Chris Wallace had to feel like he was herding cats.  But, that stopped neither side’s supporters from criticizing him.

At one point the sometimes interrupter Biden exclaimed, “What was the question? I can’t remember because of all his rambling.”   Wallace retorted, “I’m having some trouble myself.”  And the left screamed that Wallace needed to regain control.

A bit earlier the incessant interrupter Trump spared with Wallace when questioned over the lack of a health care plan.   “First of all, I guess I’m debating you, not him, but that’s okay, I’m not surprised.”  And the right tweeted all night that Wallace was very left minded in his 90-minute task.

That task must have felt like trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube.

So how is a debate winner actually determined?  Ultimately, it’s by how many undecided voters or opponents voters they swayed with their performance.

What was said took a back seat to how it was said for the most part.  Policy, principle, and vision took a back seat to uppercuts, sucker punches, and low blows.

Because of that, we strongly doubt that any MAGA’s or never Trumpers were so moved.

How about the undecided?  Who, in this unraveled, strongly divided country, is undecided?

Our call?  Wallace lost. He had no chance.  Trump didn’t convert anyone.  He missed a chance.  Biden held serve.  He needs to stay upright twice more.

And, America took it on the chin yet again in 2020.

 

The Gamble

Posted on by boom booms room staff

It was way back in 1978 when Kenny Rogers was singing and Democrat Jimmy Carter was President.

Rogers song, The Gambler, advised us to know when to hold ’em, and know when to fold ’em.   Carter advised us to raise our thermostats to 78 degrees to help overcome the global oil supply shortage caused for the most part by the Iranian Revolution.

Carter misread his hand and the American people as well.  America wanted a solution to the problem, not a bandaid.  Ronald Reagan steamrolled Carter in the 1980 election.

And now we wonder if the Democrats are overplaying their hand in their effort to remind us of all that is wrong with America today, and blame it all on wretched Donald Trump.

If you believe the polls, it’s working.  Biden is leading Trump in the overall likely popular vote and in several key electoral college swing states.  If you believed the polls in 2016 Hillary Rodham Clinton was doing the same.

But if you believe the recent polling data on a few key issues, you might wonder if they are doubling down on the wrong hands.

The first was the “defund the police” cries from the citizens and woke mayors going along with city budgets aimed at doing the same.  Polls told the Dems that this was a no-no and even Joe Biden realized that he needed to get out of the basement to speak against it.  But, some damage surely was done.  Police unions nationwide agree.

The more recent was Jerry Nadler speaking out loud about what the Dems should do if the Senate Republicans approve Amy Coney Barrett and then the Dems reclaimed the Senate in November.  Nadler’s handlers tweeted under his name, “Filling the SCOTUS vacancy during a lame-duck session is undemocratic and a clear violation of the public trust in elected officials. Congress would have to act and expanding the court would be the right place to start.”  If you don’t like the game, then change the rules.

Pack the court he screams.  But a proposed “Keep Nine” amendment popped up last week.  It’s objective is in its name.   A survey, conducted by McLaughlin and Associates from Sept 23 – 27 among 1,000 registered, likely voters, found that 62 percent favor the amendment, as opposed to the 18 percent who do not.  Oops!

And, lastly, a mom of seven with a sterling bench record, a strong constitutionalist view, and an even stronger belief in her Catholic faith is about to get grilled by Senate Dems over those very beliefs.  But a Scott Rasmussen poll might give them pause.  The poll found that 37 percent of voters favor Barrett’s confirmation by the United States Senate, while 30 percent oppose her confirmation, for a net approval of plus seven for confirmation. Thirty-three percent were undecided.

It should give them pause, but it won’t.  The grilling will be bigger than a Nadler barbeque.

Polls, polls, polls.

The only one that ultimately matters is the November 3rd election day polling booth.  Well, actually you can mail it in before, during, and after as well, but we digress.

Are the Dems reading the cards right?  How loud will the so-called “silent majority” sing?

“You gotta know when to walk away, and know when to run.”

 

Ten Piece Nuggets-Life

Posted on by boom booms room staff

We debated.

Usually, Mondays in the fall are dedicated to a rundown of the top 25 in NCAA football.  But, only half of the country is playing football right now.

And during our debate, we wondered how we could ignore the fact that the most anticipated debate, you know the one, is but 36 hours away.  So, the crossover between sports and politics these days has us doing the same.   While unfortunate, it’s reality.   Therefore, we chose to bring you a serving of Ten Piece Nuggets randomly chosen from all that is fit to virtually print.

  1.  One of the two BCS Playoff semifinal games in 2019 pitted LSU v. Oklahoma.  Before we hit October both teams are all but eliminated from the 2020 playoff conversation.  LSU debuted a new QB, Myles Brennan.  It mostly looked like his first game.  But he did manage to throw for 345 yards.  DC Bo Pelini’s new, more aggressive defense debuted as well.  It has miles to go.  Miss St. shredded the overmatched secondary for an SEC record 623 passing yards.
  2. Oklahoma managed to lose from ahead.  Leading 17-7 after one quarter, they trailed 24-23 by halftime.  Then their defense, which has always had miles to go, slept through quarter no. 3 and for a minute in the fourth as well.  Unranked Kansas St roared to a 48-23 insurmountable advantage and held on at the end for a 48-41 victory in Norman, OK.  Everything on defense is not OK in OK nor BR.
  3. What’s the main reason that we opted out (that’s a popular phrase these days) of a top 25 rundown? The Big 10 and PAC 12 will not kick off until late October at the earliest, but the AP decided all FBS teams planning to play in the fall would be eligible for inclusion (that’s a popular word these days) in the Top 25.  Most voters put the most highly regarded teams from those late-arriving conferences back into their rankings, but not all did.   That’s so 2020.
  4. Is there any truth to the rumor that if you Google search “PAC 12 football” the word “follower” pops up?
  5. On the football COVID front,  Georgia State didn’t need to postpone its game on Saturday at Charlotte after all.  On Sunday, the school announced that the postponement was the result of COVID-19 tests that were read incorrectly.  The incorrect results showed four positive individuals and contact tracing identified 17 others, including one coach, who would require quarantining.  According to Georgia State AD Charlie Cobb, those in question were retested on Friday, and that night all their results came back negative. Thursday’s swabs were retested and came back negative as well.
  6. We ask out of ignorance, “how do you get four tests of four different individuals all wrong all at the same time all independent of one another?  We ask out of further ignorance, “how do you retest the same four and get four negatives the next day?  People stand in line to get a Q Tip roto rootered three-quarters of the way to their cranium for this?

  7. Illinois State offensive coordinator Kurt Beathard quit his job Wednesday, over his apparent dislike for the Black Lives Matter movement’s intrusion into the locker room.  On his way out, Beathard admittedly left a note on his office door reading “All Lives Matter to Our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ.”  From his comments, it seems that Beathard, the son of four-time Super Bowl Champion Bobby Beathard, may have become a suspect for tearing down a BLM sign in the locker room.  “That locker room crap is wrong. I took the sign down somebody put on my door,” Beathard told the paper. “I didn’t take anything off that wasn’t put on my door.”  Cancel culture works in mysterious ways.  He walked before it worked on him, we speculate.

  8. The New York Times published details Sunday of what it claimed were President Donald Trump’s tax returns to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), going back more than two decades, showing “chronic losses and years of tax avoidance,” it said.  And?  We ask a simple question.  Did he and his cadre of CPA’s do anything illegal?  And, the paper added that no evidence of any Russian collusion was uncovered.  Shocker.

  9. “Donald J. Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the presidency. In his first year in the White House, he paid another $750,” the story continues.  And, Hollywood roared at the reveal.  Bette Midler was succinct, “that son of a bitch!”   Jane Lynch, whoever she is tweeted, “a clown living on credit.”  And Rob Reiner had the hottest take, “President Donald Capone.”  We ask again. Did he or his cadre of CPA’s do anything illegal?  Does anyone in Hollywood purposely pay more in taxes than they owe?

  10.  Mybookie.ag has the very latest presidential odds.  Joe Biden is favored.  He’s a $13 to win $10 bet.  President Trump is even money.  You bet $10 to win $10.  Want a long shot?  Kamala (remember pronounced “comma la”)  Harris returns $500 on a $10 plunk down.  Has anyone seen her since she was nominated for VP?  She’s been a scarce as Joe.  Does it matter?

That’s all folks!

Abby Takes Down Vegas, Year 3, Week 1

Posted on by boom booms room staff

It’s hard to believe but Abby begins year three already of her doggone good picking prowess for BBR this AM.  And she’s been doggone good indeed.  Take a look at last year’s final picks and overall standing here.  Bow wow wow!

This year’s picks start a month later than usual.  Thanks a lot COVID-19.  Break a leg why don’t cha already?

As a refresher, consider each bone equal to an $11 wager to win $10.  Damn bookies and their juice, Abby growls.

  1. Central Florida v East Carolina under 77 1/2- UCF is good again this year.  East Carolina is bad again this year.  Seventy-seven and one-half points is a lot in any year.  UCF wins handily, but the total is spared.  One bone.
  2. Tenessee -3 at South Carolina- Who gave up the fewest points in the last six games of their schedule last year in the SEC?  Ala who?  LS who?  It was the Volunteers.  Jeremy Pruitt has something started in Knoxville.  Plus, Abby is a sucker for a blue tick hound.   Three bones.
  3. Louisville +3 at Pittsburgh-  Louisville ran into an inspired Miami team last week.  Pitt is good, but never that good in the ACC.  This is a nice bounce-back spot for the Cardinals.  Two bones.
  4. Kentucky +8.5 at Auburn- Kentucky is to the SEC as Pitt is to the ACC.  Is this year different?  Stoops’ team is more talented than any since he arrived in Lex.  Auburn wins, but it will be closer than the experts think as Lee Corso says.  One bone.
  5. Florida -14 at Ole Miss- Florida returns a lot of talent and a solid to darn good QB in Kyle Trask.  Abby loves home dogs but thinks that the Rebels/Black Bears are just outmanned here.   One bone.

LSU hosts Miss St. and new head coach Mike Leach and his Air Raid O Saturday.  LSU lost plenty of offensive weapons.  But, LSU has plenty of new offensive weapons.   Leach loves to throw the ball.  The o/u line is 57.5.  It looks low.   But it’s game one for both.  Expect LSU to run the ball a bit more than last year.  We’ll zig when others zag here.  Take under 57.5.

There you have it-four roadies and an under and a hunch on another under to start the year.

Win or lose, at least it’s a start.  Are you listening PAC 12?

 

 

Peek a Boo

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Driving over 3000 miles in four days gave us plenty of windshield time to see it more clearly.  But, to see it more clearly you need to close your eyes.  No peaking.  Ready?

Pretend that you had absolutely no idea who Joe Biden was running against for the highest office in the land, and therefore, in the world.  Would you vote for him?  Eliminate your emotions of the moment.  You’ve had it with COVID-19.  You’ve had it with Trump you say?  You just cheated.  Remember, you have to play along and pretend that you have no idea who the current President is.

Try once more.  And, when you do honestly ask yourself if you can mail in, write in, pull the lever for a man that his own party is hiding.  Can you vote for a man who actually cannot even read from a teleprompter without messing it up and then telling you he is reading his lines?

Further, he’s a career-long politician telling you what’s wrong with government and that he’ll fix it.  He’s been at it for almost a half a century.  How long does it take? America cast aside Bush, Rubio, Graham, Romney, and Sanders before it pushed Hillary out of the door four years ago.  Do you want to go back to the future?

What is Biden running on?  Besides fumes, it’s “here’s what’s wrong with Trump.”  It’s not what’s right with him.  He’s flip-flopped more times in his political career that Jimmy Buffet has worn a pair.

If you still say yes we think you cheated again in our pretend test.

It must be because you hate Trump.  It has to be.  Don’t feel bad, he gives you plenty of reasons to hate him.  His demeanor and loose tongue are but two.  And, he was/is lost at times trying to guide the country through the ongoing pandemic.  Although given the medical community’s ever-changing advice, maybe we all were/are lost.

But what if?  What if you judged him on his accomplishments?  Do actions speak louder than words?

If they do, he’s done a bunch of good all the while having the other side of the aisle impede his every step, or impeach him altogether.  Pre COVID-19 was the economy great?  Was the lowest unemployment regardless of your gender or race since post-WW II good?  How many manufacturing jobs did we add?  Were his new trade agreements good for America?

Is his continual push to get China straight the right thing?  When he signed the “Three Strikes” program out of law was it a good step?  How quiet is Kim Jong Un?  He’s withdrawn tens of thousands of American troops from foreign soil.  ISIS, who?  And, now with his son in law running point, he’s forged agreements in the middle east the likes of which are previously unheard of.

Did you think he spent too much before the China virus sprung loose?  We did too.  Bush I, Bush 2, and Obama did too.  But, now is not the time to tighten.

Next Tuesday is the debate that will be heard (and watched) around the world.  Trump can’t wait to get into the ring.  The Democrats hope Biden can walk and not be carried out after 90 minutes.  That unto itself is telling.

It’s hard to hate Biden. You almost feel sorry for him.  It’s hard to like Trump.  He’s an acquired taste at best.

We asked above for you to pretend for a minute.  Is Biden capable of leading the U.S now, much less for the next four years?  What is the logical answer to the previous question?  It’s beyond obvious.

You can stop now.  Open your eyes.  Please.

 

It’s a Dangerous Intersection

Posted on by boom booms room staff

With so many working from home you’d think the traffic would be far lighter.  But, on the corner of Sports Street and Life Lane, it’s busier than ever.  And once again yesterday, to make matters worse at rush hour, that damn train rolled through as well.

You know the train by name.  It’s a passenger train outbound to nowhere.  It’s called the Cancel Culture Express.  Except for this time a passenger that The Movement was trying to throw off decided to step right in front of it and dare the engineers to hit him.

If you’re an NFL fan you’ve heard of Luis Moreno, Jr. haven’t you?  He’s with the Carolina Panthers.  He has been for 10 years and counting.  Well.  It’s ten years and counting until yesterday.

No, he doesn’t play linebacker and he doesn’t kneel when the National Anthem is played.  Moreno is a Spanish-language broadcaster for the Carolina Panthers and a darn good one.  He says felt pressured to leave his job because the team is upset that he is a supporter of President Donald Trump.  In our “all-inclusive” society we only are inclusive if you choose to be included in the cause.

Moreno told the Charlotte Observer that he began openly supporting Trump on his personal Twitter account this Spring.  Shortly thereafter he was contacted about his tweets by Eric Fiddleman, the Panthers’ radio and television affiliate manager.  Fiddleman asked Moreno to delete any affiliation with the team from his personal Twitter account.

Fair enough.  The Panthers clearly feel the need to be on the right side of BLM and the NFL office nowadays.  It’s their brand and they should choose their messaging.

But, Fiddleman continued to fiddle.  He reportedly contacted Moreno (who actually is an independent contractor for them, hence even further removed) again in the summer, but this time to tell him to stop his political tweets. “If what they want me to do is stop supporting the president, I’m not gonna do that,” Moreno told Fiddleman.

Moreno further charged that Steven Drummond, the Panthers vice president of communications and external affairs, refused to speak with him about the “issue” of his social media posts and support for Trump.  Ten years of loyalty won’t help you cross the intersection these days when the ole’ Cancel Culture Express is blowing its horn.

“I’m hurt,” Moreno told the paper. “Because this has nothing to do with my performance on-air.  I’m one of the best, and I’ll put myself against anybody in the country when it comes to what I do in Spanish. None of my support for the president was done on any of their social media pages, it was never done on any of the airtime. This was solely on my personal time on my personal accounts.”

Moreno added that he won’t return to work unless the team says he is free to advocate for whomever he supports politically. “I am not OK with them censoring my freedom of speech in support of the president,” he added.

And with that, he put his hand up and stopped the Cancel Culture Express before it ran over him.

“Silly him,” you say.  “He’s the one out of a job,” you say.

It’s rare these days, but refreshing when it happens.  Someone spoke up for common sense, dignity, and most of all freedom of speech.

Moreno was a member of the “silent majority.”

He’s not anymore.  He spoke up.

Ten Piece Nuggets-Life

Posted on by boom booms room staff

If you like your sports straight or neat like you like your whiskey, 2020 is producing bad barrels to pour.  Sadly, the two are intertwined far too much.  But, at least you can enjoy the Ten Piece Nuggets below where we give the zaniness to you straight if not neat.

  1.  Joe Biden, months back when asked, said the most important thing that he was looking for in a VP candidate was “the ability to take office on day one.”  It didn’t sound like a ringing endorsement of his own longevity.  Kamala Harris got the job and apparently is taking his concern to heart.  Yesterday on the stump she said, “A Harris administration together with Joe Biden as President of the US will provide 100 billion dollars in low-interest loans and investment to minority business owners.”  Biden’s hiding low and Kamala’s riding high.
  2.  Will the VP candidate, or based on the above the Presidential candidate, take time to visit the two LAPD officers who are recovering from the blatant assassination attempt Saturday?  She visited Blake and his family in Wisconsin and even had effusive praise for him.  Cali’s her home state.  Wisconsin wasn’t around the corner.
  3. Trump visited Kenosha, WI last month and met with law enforcement officials, but not Blake nor his family.  Do you think the battle lines for 11/3 could be drawn any more clearly on the above the law and total disorder front?
  4. Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva on Monday challenged NBA star LeBron James to match the reward money being offered for information on the gunman who ambushed and shot two deputies over the weekend.  Villanueva said the reward money reached $175,000.  “This challenge is to Lebron James. I want you to match that and double that reward,” Villanueva said. “I know you care about law enforcement. You expressed a very interesting statement about your perspective on race relations and on officer-involved shootings and the impact that it has on the African-American community.  “And I appreciated that,” he continued. “But likewise, we need to appreciate that respect for life goes across all professions.”
  5. Speaking of Cali, the record heat forced Governor Newsom to ask for thermostats to be raised or in-home power to be turned off altogether to minimize the widespread brownouts.  You wonder what happens in a year or three when millions more battery operated cars will need recharging in the citizen’s garages.
  6. Today is 49 days or exactly seven weeks till election day.  Do polls mean anything anymore?  If so, President Trump is doing better by 4% points with probable Jewish voters at this moment than how they exit polled in 2016.  He has the support of 30%.  It’s the highest since George Herbert Walker Bush in 1988 for a Republican.  The Jewish community has supported Democratic nominees every four years since Calvin Coolidge.  They are nothing if not very consistent.
  7.  Turning to sports, if you missed it, 54-year-old golfer John Daly announced Sunday that he has bladder cancer.  He’s quite the optimist about his recovery, saying that it was identified early.  BBR identified early on that Daly was one of our staff’s favorite people.  He’s plenty flawed like all of us, but he owns who he is and rarely apologizes for it.  We often say the same about Charles Barkley.  They put the “real” in keeping it real.
  8. “Caddyshack” turned 40 years old this summer. It’s abundantly quotable and features a cast of 1980s comedy titans including Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, and Rodney Dangerfield.  But Academy Award nominee Michael O’Keefe played the main character, Danny Noonan, a caddy at the fictional Bushwood Country Club.  Last week, O’Keefe wrote an open letter on Golf.com asking to be allowed to return to his caddying craft and be on a bag at Winged Foot this week.  O’Keefe got his wish Monday. He caddied for Danny Balin during practice rounds. O’Keefe even wore a Bushwood CC hat.
  9. Here comes the Tom Brady “can’t play any more stories.”  One week does not a season make.  With no preseason games it’s hard with a new cast assembled to have live bullets coming at you in week one.  In our overreactive media world, who must fill 24 hours everyday, it’s what they do.  And they do it poorly.  Brady is definitely not who he was, but let’s give it a few weeks in Tampa before we are convinced his world is ending shall we?
  10. Here’s more unsolicited advice.  A local respected NFL analyst noted that 12 of 14 teams that won through Sunday had the more mobile quarterback.  He went on to say that you cannot win in the NFL anymore without one.  Dropback passers are so yesterday.  Sure.  Like Brady’s missteps in week one, let’s let the season progress a bit before we head down every rabbit hole that can be written or spoken about.

You’ve been served.

Don’t Shoot the Messenger.

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Any sophomore student majoring in communication can tell you that there are many parts that need to work together for there to be good communication.  But, two of the most important are the message itself and the messenger who delivers it.

After all, it’s who is selling, what is being sold, and how.

The Movement was selling social justice, race equality, and police reform at the outset, just shortly after George Floyd perished in Minneapolis.  Some criminal behavior, when you look back on the outset of it probably could be understood or at least overlooked.  Emotions were running as hot as the fires that the protesters were setting.

Buring cars in March and spray painting walls in April seem like so long ago.  It seemed like the nation was listening then or at least trying to.

But, what good became of it?  The message seems lost now in the continued bad behavior of a few but of a few too many messengers.

How bad is it?

Rochester, New York, police officers have received permission to cover their name tags in an effort to avoid harassment from far-left protesters.

Rochester Police Chief La’Ron Singletary who is set to retire soon, approved the move after protesters targeted a number of officers who shouted out their home addresses, the names of their children and their schools, and made phone calls to their parents.

Bad.

As you know by now two LA police officers, sitting in their marked patrol car were targets of a seemingly random assassination attempt.

What else can you call it but an assassination attempt?  So, you might ask, “could it be totally unrelated to The Movement?”  “Don’t jump to conclusions,” you say?

The “jump to conclusions” ship sailed long ago.  What America sees on video suffices for judge and jury, unfortunately, today.

Bad became worse.

But worse was about to become the worst.

Word spread in the LA community of Compton of the attack and of where the officers were taken.  Outside of Lynwood Hospital “peaceful protesters” shouted, “we hope they die.”  They chose the up ramp to the emergency room to deliver the less than positive well wishes.  This blocked the path for other emergency transport vehicles and their very ill occupants, utterly unrelated to this crime, to quickly and safely enter the hospital.

Indeed, worse behavior became the worst behavior.

And with it, logic left the conversation once more, and perhaps forever.

The message has value.

But, the messengers have no values.