Author: boom booms room staff

Shaq on the Attack

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Last week in our Ten Piece Nuggets we mentioned that Inside the NBA on TNT was hands down the best studio sports show around and second isn’t close.  Not only do we stand by the statement, we are doubling down.  The only negative about the show is that it runs after the second game of doubleheaders which puts it on as late as 1 AM Eastern.

If you missed Tuesday night you missed another run at comedic gold.  We’ve attached a five-minute and change clip that you can see by clicking here.  Yep, it’s pretty long but well worth your time today while on your union mandated break.  Like a fine wine it gets better and better.  It’s must see TV till it’s very end.

The chemistry of the four of Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley is great.  It’s great until Charles goes off of the rails.  Then it looks like your 10th grade science lab gone wrong great.    Shaq had it with the Chuckster.  And, he let him know it.

If you’ve seen the clip it’s worth another look.  We’ve watched it more times than we care to admit and still laugh like it’s the first time.  Besides, your union contractually secured the time for you to do so.

And Justice For All

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Rod Rosenstein(RR) resigned yesterday effective May 11, 2019.  RR went to the White House Monday and personally delivered his resignation letter face to face with the President, according to an administration official and a Justice Department official.  It was only fitting that he do that since in his short stint as Deputy Attorney General he often went toe to toe with President Trump.

On Monday, Rosenstein wrote in his resignation letter to Trump, “We keep the faith, we follow the rules, and we always put America first.”  Sounds like a great idea we suppose.

Regardless of which side of the aisle you prefer it was hard at times to keep the faith in RR because one wondered whether he was following the rules.  It’s hard to put America first if you don’t.
President Trump nominated RR to serve as Deputy Attorney General for the United States Department of Justice on February 1, 2017.  He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on April 25, 2017.  A quick, but very busy, two years later he’s out.
But, in the span of 24 months RR wrote a letter to Trump recommending James Comey be fired, appointed Robert Mueller as Special Prosecutor in the Russia mess, either did or did not want to wear a wire when talking to Trump, attempted to recruit cabinet members to invoke the 25th amendment to have Trump removed from office, and approved along with AG Robert Barr the findings of the Mueller Investigation.  Trump tells us that he sleeps about four hours a night.  Our guess is that RR sleeps about four hours a week.
Research shows he is a registered Republican.  Trump didn’t get that feeling, wanting on numerous occasions to fire him.  Bad idea Trump’s team told him.
Eleven House GOP members filed articles of impeachment against Rosenstein on July 25, 2018, alleging he has stonewalled document requests from Congress and he mishandled the 2016 election investigation.  But they backed down for fear of slowing the Kavanaugh Supreme Court approval process.  Bad idea other congressmen told them.
He was in the very good graces of the Democrats until RR added his signature to Barr’s that Mueller’s investigation found no Trump Russia collusion and felt like any instances of obstruction of justice failed to rise to the level of criminal activity.  Bad conclusion Democrats told him.
So Trump didn’t like him.  Congressional Republicans didn’t like him.  And, now Congressional Democrats don’t like him.  If everyone disagrees with you up there in the swamp maybe you are putting America first?
So Rod Rosenstein went out like he came in-face to face and toe to toe with his biggest of many critics.  Maybe justice was served after all.

Ten Piece Nuggets-Sports

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Leftovers from the NFL Draft, a few appetizers from the NBA, MLB is cooking, and even a bite from a game show highlight today’s ten piece nuggets.  Commence consuming if you wish.

  1. The  NFL threw an NFL Draft party and everyone was invited.  Quite a few showed up too.  It’s TV ratings were the highest ever as 47.5 million watched.  Over 600k attended in Nashville.  Crazy.  Nashville knows how to do it.   Remember when the NFL TV ratings were down and out and never to return because of Kaepernick, kneeling during the anthem, and disrespecting the flag?
  2. Tampa Bay drafted kicker Matt Gay in the fifth round.  This comes just a couple of years after they drafted their current kicker Cairo Santos.  Apparently they lost confidence in Santos.  Gay said that he was surprised that TB took him so early in the draft.    The one thing you need in a kicker is confidence.  Apparently Gay isn’t too confident either.
  3. The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Toronto Raptors last night in Toronto, taking the home court advantage away.   That evened the series at one game a piece.  Doesn’t this one already smell like a game seven will be needed?
  4. The Portland Trailblazers got worked over by the Denver Nuggets as well.  Damian Lillard complained in-game about the officiating.  After the game he commented that his team complained too much during the game about the officiating.  The Trailblazers trail in the series one game to none.  Doesn’t this one smell already like a game seven will be needed?
  5. Boston shocked and rocked Milwaukee Sunday.  Game two is tonight.  Isn’t this already a must win for Milwaukee?  You bet it is.
  6. Golden State slid by Houston, and all of their complaining about the refereeing, Sunday.  Isn’t this a must win for Houston?  You bet it is.
  7. Suspended and reinstated LSU head basketball coach Will Wade might be in the proverbial soup again.  Late yesterday a video surfaced (which he was not in) that had former Arizona assistant coach Emanuel “Book” Richardson discussing Wade having made a $300k offer to lure incoming freshman Naz Reid to LSU for his now one and done season.  Whether he did, or did not, we don’t know.  If he did, however, we think he grossly overpaid.  Reid has declared for the NBA draft.  He might get his passport stamped for Europe instead.
  8. Who has the best record in baseball one month in?  It’s the Tampa Bay Rays of course at 19-9.  Second?  It’s the Minnesota Twins of course at 17-9.  Third?  It’s the St. Louis Cardinals of course at 18-10.  Who did ESPN broadcast for their national game last night?  It was the 14-17 Oakland A’s at the 12-17 Boston Red Sox of course.
  9. If you like 3 point bombs, watch the NBA these days. If you like home runs, watch MLB these days.  In 2017 a season record 6105 home runs were smashed.  One month in, 2019’s pace is 1.33 dingers a game v. the 2017 pace of 1.26.  Keep up this pace and they shatter 6105 by an additional 358 taters.  Sure, it’s only one month in.  But, the “new” swing that’s being taught through the minor leagues for the last five years is to lift the ball.  Lift it they have so far.
  10. Alex Trebek has never seen anything like this. James Holzhauer’s 18th appearance on Jeopardy was  a rather close call.  But, it was another winning one with $54,017, or $18 dollars more than Adam Levin who amassed $53,999.  This brings Holzhauer’s total take to $1,329,604.  He’s the fastest ever to one cool million in the show’s history.  The per game rake is unlike any previous.  All time money winner Ken Jennings needed 74 wins to get to $2.5 million way back in 2004.

Remember to stay out of the pool for 30 minutes after you eat.

 

Harden’s Safe Space

Posted on by boom booms room staff

James Harden just wants a fair chance.  In fact he said so himself after his Houston Rockets lost game one of the Western Conference Semifinals 104-100 to the Golden State Warriors.

“I mean, I just want a fair chance, man,” said Harden, who scored 35 points but was 9-of-28 from the floor and 4-of-16 from behind the 3-point line. “Call the game how it’s supposed to be called, and that’s it. And I’ll live with the results.”

Harden, who has led the league in free throws attempted and made in each of the past five seasons, gets fouled while shooting his three’s more, far more, than any other player.  It’s largely because his step-back jump shot is so difficult to contest.

Rockets head coach, Mike D’Antoni walked a fine line after the game.  He wanted the world to know that the referees told him that they missed some first half calls.  He faces a potential fine for criticizing officiating. “So, I mean, the response was they came in halftime and said they missed them. That’s what they told me. They missed four of them. That’s 12 foul shots. So be it. They’re trying to do the best they can do.”

Hopefully both Harden and D’Antoni realize that all of the calls that they are referencing above are “after the shot, safe landing space calls.”  The new foul rule is indeed a rule.  However, it doesn’t affect the accuracy of the shot.  The non calls certainly could have resulted in free throws for the career 86% free throw shooter.  Heck, maybe they would have been enough for the Rockets to win.

We wonder more, much more, about the 19 shots from the field that he missed.   And, 12 of those were either from or beyond the three-point line.  Make one more two point attempt and one more three point attempt and you win the game for sure, refs be damned.  Nine for 28 is 32% overall.  Four for 16 is 25% from three.  Phew.

So now the Rockets are down 1-0.  They’ve never beaten the Golden State Warriors in the playoffs during the Harden era.  Make no mistake about it, Harden feels the heat from that.  Now he feels like he needs to beat them and the referees.

And, its going to be tougher for him now.  After all, the refs are taking away his “safe space.”

 

Ten Piece Nuggets-NFL Draft

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Draft Day one is in the books.  It’s Friday and rounds two and three are on tonight’s happy hour menu.  The restaurant business is tough.   We are a competitive bunch.  So we offer you a buy ten nuggets get ten free below.  Enjoy and TGIF.

  1.  Too bad it rained on Nashville’s party as the evening wore on.  The only thing that looked better than the setting was the size of the crowd.  Estimated at 150k by most, Commish Roger Goodell thanked the over 200k who attended.  Regardless, that’s one hell of a block party.  NashVegas was in full swing.
  2. The Kliff Klingsbury era is in full swing in Arizona as well.  Taking QB Kyler Murray is King Kliff’s statement.  He chased him and chased him as a high schooler when Kliff was coaching college.  He caught up to him as each advanced to the next level.
  3.  When Goodell read Murray’s name, King Kliff’s lost what little leverage he had in attempting to trade Josh Rosen, the Cardinal’s answer at QB just 12 short months ago.  We wonder if on one level Kliff really cares that much.  Call Rosen a sunk cost.  Arizona is moving forward and will hold a Josh Rosen fire sale today or tomorrow.  Rosen was a polarizing pick last year.  Knocks on him are plenty, with the most damaging being his indifference to his occupation.  A burning desire to compete and win at a leadership position is a must.
  4.  San Francisco said thank you very much, and picked Nick Bosa, pass rusher extraordinaire from THE Ohio St U.   More than a few NFL “insiders” gave him the highest draft grade this year.
  5. Those who did not have their highest grade on Bosa did on Quinnen Williams, the latest interior defensive line disruptive force to come out of Saban’s Alabama based NFL training grounds.  The J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets wisely pounced.  In baseball having a strong up the middle defense (C, 2B, SS, and CF) is a must. NY has Jamal Adams at safety and Williams now plugging the middle.  It is crowded up front on the Jets DL though.
  6.  Then the fun started.  Longtime NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock, turned Raiders GM, selected Clelin Ferrell, DE Clemson.  Ferrell very likely could have been had 5-10 picks lower.  Good player, high motor, high football IQ guys are wonderful but so are more draft picks.  Jon Gruden probably snarled.  He always does.
  7. Tampa Bay at 5 picked LSU LB Devin White.  In today’s NFL LB’s don’t  litter the first round landscape.  However, he was one of two LB’s taken in the top 10 this year.  And he was one of  two LB’s taken this year named Devin.  Devin Bush went at no. 10.  Pittsburgh, who never trades up, traded up to take the Michigan product.
  8. And then the fun really started.  The New York “Football” Giants took Daniel Jones, Duke QB.  Embattled Giants GM Dave Gettleman tied his future Big Apple based employment to this pick.  Around the NFL opinions on Jones vary greatly.  One scout labeled his ceiling as a “backup with pedestrian talent.” Is he Eli II, or is JAG (just a guy)?  Eli I is 38.  We’ll find out soon enough.
  9. At no. 8 Detroit broke the seal on a deep tight end class.  Iowa’s T.J. Hockenson joined a team who now is labeled as the New England of the west.  Detroit is in the east, but it matters not.  Labels are labels.  Head coach Matt Patricia even dons the ever-present pencil behind his ear like his teacher Bill Belicheck.   Is Patricia the next Belicheck?  Is Hockenson the next Gronk?  The answers likely are “hell no” and “hell no.”
  10. Ed Oliver, DL Houston, fell into Buffalo’s lap with the Ferrell and Jones picks coming before them.  Oliver could dominate at the next level.  He’s that good.  But, going to Buffalo from H Town is a bit of a change.  Oh, and Buffalo finished 30th in offense last year.
  11. Pittsburgh jumped, as mentioned earlier, into the 10 hole to grab their coveted LB.  They moved one ahead of Cincinnati who picked 11th.  Cincinnati is used to looking up at Pittsburgh. They’ve had to do so in the same division for decades now.  They took Jonah Williams, OT Alabama.  The Bengals have struck out with three recent high round OL picks.  Is Williams the game changer.  The answer is likely “no.”  But, he is a safe pick as a versatile lineman.
  12. Green Bay followed with the first of their two first round picks.  They worked New Orleans over last year when the Saints moved up a dozen spots and gave up this year’s first rounder that GB used later.  With the 12th pick they took Rashan Gary, DE, Michigan.  Rashan looks the part.  Rashan has the potential.  Potential means you haven’t done anything yet.  Three and 1/2 sacks last year at Michigan isn’t anything.  Rashan might need surgery for a torn labrum at some point as well.  Hmm.  Boom or bust are both in play here we think.
  13. With two QB’s sitting on the board, Miami took the highest player on their board, period.  It wasn’t the highest available. It was the highest coming into the draft. Christian Wilkens, DT, Clemson heads to Miami.
  14. The Atlanta Falcons took two offensive lineman in the first round.  The first of the two is Chris Lindstrom who played guard at Boston College.  The second was Kaleb McGary from Washington at pick 31 via trade.   Both have mean streaks and need them to keep Matt Ryan upright.  Atlanta seems soft to us.  Good moves we think.   GM Thomas Dimitroff needs to better coordinate high fives and hand shakes in the Atlanta war room though.  Owner Arthur Blank dressed in style but lacked style on the bromance moves.
  15. Washington picked a QB, Dwayne Haskins from THE at 15.  The Redskins already have Colt McCoy, Case Keenum, and Alex Smith.  They already had Kirk Cousins, RG III, Rex Grossman, Jason Campbell, Mark Brunell, and Brad Johnson.  Are you picking up what we are putting down?
  16. The NY Giants made Dexter Lawrence, DT, Clemson the third Dabo Sweeney coached defensive lineman taken in the top 17 picks.  Impressive Dabo.  Very impressive.  It’s no wonder Nick Saban was back in his office this week a mere 36 hours after hip surgery.  You have to keep up with the Dabo’s.
  17.  The Packers continued to add defense picking Darnell Savaage at safety with pick 21.  It was somewhat costly for a team that had a lot of draft capital to spend though.  They packaged the Saints pick from a year prior and two early fourth rounders to get him.  Like the Saints Marcus Davenport in reverse of a year ago, it’s not sometimes what you gain (either might turn out to be very good picks) it’s the potential of what you give to get.  Time will tell.
  18. Oakland took the first RB in the draft, Josh Jacobs, from the football factory known as Alabama.  His pedestrian stats in college aside, he runs hard.  Gruden just snarled smiled so it must be a good pick.  We are underwhelmed.
  19. The Redskins might have struck gold with top ten talent Montez Sweat, DE Mississippi St .  His injured past and somewhat troubled past raised his risk.  The reward might be well worth it.  The run on defensive line talent in this draft was impressive.  Getting to the QB and protecting the QB is what makes this league what it is these days.
  20. The NE Pats stood pat and used the final pick in the first round on N’Keal Harry, WR Arizona St.  Belicheck always trades down and around.  Last night he didn’t.  N’Keal rhymes with Shaquille which isn’t easy to do.  The pick seems quite underwhelming to us.  However, Belicheck drafts last every year for a reason.

Round two starts in 10 hours.  It might take that long to digest the above.

 

 

 

Just a Bit Inside!

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Last evening Philadelphia Phillie Rhys Hoskins homered off of NY Mets reliever Jacob Rhame in a 6-0 win.  This came just one day after Rhame buzzed two consecutive fastballs just above Hoskin’s cranium in the meaningless ninth inning of Mets 9-0 blowout.  Hoskins basked in the moment, taking a very long 34 seconds to touch all of the bases.

Joe Biden hopes he hit a home run too.  Just one day after he was supposed to release his presidential campaign announcement video he did.  His video is a good bit longer than 34 seconds(209 to be exact) and he doesn’t touch all of the bases.  Rather it appeals directly to his base.  It buzzes a fastball or two right at the cranium of President Donald Trump.

And so the race to rally the base is on.  In the very first inning of Biden’s video he remembers the conflict (and tragic death of one innocent bystander) between far right-wing groups and anti protesters in August of 2017 in Charlottesville, VA.  He calls out Trump’s comments that there were “a lot of good people on both sides there.”  So the race for 2020 among 20 Democrat hopefuls is joined.  Biden wasted no time telling us that Trump was bad.

Old school baseball at its finest, or at its worst if you prefer, was on display in NY.  “He got me,” Rhame said. “Make a better pitch, he doesn’t get to run the bases.”  Added Mets manager Mickey Callaway: “I really don’t have any thoughts on it. That’s their team. They can do what they wanna do.”  “If a ball goes over your head the night before, the best way to get back at the pitcher is by putting the ball in the seats,” Phillies manager Gabe Kapler said.  Unapologetic it was. Old school it is.

So too is Joe Biden.  Old school politician he is.  The last time he had to raise funds he shook many a hand and hugged and hugged and hugged many a lady.  Today, the world-wide web is your fundraising friend.  Obama’s campaigners ran breathlessly to Beto’s camp. What a breath of fresh air this Beto guy is they said.  He reminds us of a certain guy named Barrack in 2008 they said.   O’Rourke is 47.  Joe turns 77 this year.  He’s old enough to be his crazy uncle.  He could be related, but can he relate?

But Joe is apologetic.  A month or so ago he apologized to all women, saying about the Anita Hill testimony during the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nominee hearings ” I wish I could have done something.”  “To this day I regret I couldn’t come up with a way to get her the kind of hearing she deserved, given the courage she showed by reaching out to us.”  Joe forgot, or forgot to tell us, that he was the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee that ran the hearings then.  And just a couple of weeks ago he apologized for hanging on too long during all of those uplifting hugs.  He said “I will be more respectful of people’s personal space.”  He even noted that today is more about taking selfies.

Hoskins said that the slow homerun jog wasn’t about retaliation. “A couple of guys kind of said the phrase, ‘Don’t poke the sleeping bear,”‘ he said.  And with that baseball continues to slog on with some of yesterday’s traditions.  Perhaps far too comfortable insiders are still running the show.

Today Biden can take a 209 second video trot around the diamond. The 24 hour news cycle will provide the stadium.   Tomorrow he should expect two fastballs high and tight.  Eventually he will have to stop apologizing for his past.  Eventually he will have to stop telling us who Trump is.  Eventually he will have to tell us who he is, won’t he?

Or, he just pokes the bear that President Trump is.  And The Donald never sleeps.

 

 

 

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

Posted on by boom booms room staff

With 5G technology and artificial intelligence on our doorsteps we will very soon be able to see, hear, and do things better and faster than ever before.  So what will America prioritize to see, hear, and do better than ever?

While that conversation, driven by capitalism, evolves in boardrooms and meeting rooms the world over, Wall St. has certainly has bought in.  A record-setting day yesterday had most indices closing at new all time highs.  This writer took a Uber ride Friday night and the driver was eager to give us stock tips.  A good stock tip might be “when Uber drivers give stock tips it’s time to sell stocks.”

Regardless, Main St. seems to have bought in too.  Employment is at all time highs too.  Inflation is low.  Interest rates are tame.

All is well, eh?  Well.  Maybe not.  A quick trip around the newsrooms in the last 24 hours shows us just how bad life really is apparently.

Brick and mortar is dead.  Brick and mortar is dead.  Maybe not.  Kohl’s Department Stores announced yesterday that they are expanding their agreement with Amazon to increase the number of their retail stores from 100 to all 1100 to accept Amazon returns.   Traditional stores teaming up with fierce internet competitors that were going to drive them out of business sounds crazy. It’s about foot traffic, always.  Both stocks rose sharply.  Bernie Sanders called Amazon criminal the other evening in a town hall.  It turns out that they very legally pay less taxes than Bernie wants them to.  Sounds like they help employ a few folks that do pay taxes.  “Crazy Bernie” someone calls him.  We’ll be back after this commercial break.

California wants to eliminate those tiny plastic shampoo bottles that hotels provide.  Turns out that they are being found in the oceans at an increasing and alarming rate they say.  First it was those plastic rings around so many six packs of cola strangling all of the seals.  Once eradicated, the plastic straws that you drank the cola with started floating in the seas.  What could be next?  Could it be all of the plastic syringes lying in the streets that were handed out to drug users up the coast to insure clean needles for all?  More after these commercial words.

A few of the now 20 and counting announced Democrats for president have endorsed giving voter rights to either all Americans 16 and over, or all people living in this country, or all people living in this country that are incarcerated, or all three of the above.  We wonder if the cry for sixteen year olds to vote coincides with them being 18 and of legal age to vote come 2020?  First come, first served.  We wonder when it became a right of a non US citizen to vote, period?  See if you can vote in the country of your choice the next time you travel abroad.  We wonder if the plan is to bring the polling booths to the prisons, or to bring the prisoners to the polling booths?  We’re up against a hard break.  Back in two minutes.

We are back.   Elizabeth Warren one upped Bernie Sanders’ free tuition giveaway.  She wants free college too, but first wants to forgive 50k of student debt per individual that had to pay.  Meanwhile, Maxine Waters, Chairperson of the House Finance Committee, wants to know what the big banks are going to do help these million or so yearly student loan defaults.  She “grilled” several bank CEO’s  two weeks back asking what they were going to do about this crisis.  After the third CEO in a row reminded her that the government took over the loan program from these greedy bankers in 2009, she relented.  Awkward.  To summarize, the debt isn’t being repaid.  Warren wants to forgive and forget about it anyway.  It’s our government that is running the loan program even though the Finance Chairperson doesn’t know it.  Lets just make college free.  Banks are bad.  We’ll be back with some final words right after this important message from our sponsors.

We wind down our 5G broadcast to you tonight on a lighter note with a look at this brief video of the latest advances in robotic programming.  Wow.  Artificial intelligence is creepy.

And, just before we close we have breaking news.  It is confirmed that Joe Biden, who has been bidding his time, will announce tomorrow that he is entering the crowded Democratic field of announced candidates for president in 2020.   Wow.  How ironic is it that we mentioned Biden, artificial intelligence, and creepy all at the same time?

Thank you for watching.  Good day.

Ten Piece Nuggets-NFL Draft

Posted on by boom booms room staff

In two days the NFL Draft extravaganza begins in Nashville, TN.  However, there was a problem  The original indoor/outdoor event plans needed a few cherry blossom trees cut down moved.  When this became public knowledge, the locals weren’t happy.  The league altered its plans to work around the problem, in essence passing the political football.   All is well again.  The league that prints George Washington’s can politically correctly have their annual draft.  And, the Washington Redskins can have their annual bad draft as well.  What about that nickname though?

The draft is but sixty hours away.  Here are ten draft nuggets to tide you over.

  1.  Speaking of the Tide, Alabama leads the NFL in total players drafted since 2010 with 73.  That’s not a surprise.  The SEC has had the most players drafted in each and every year since 2010 as well.  That’s not really a big surprise either.  LSU is second and Florida is third.  THE Ohio State University breaks the SEC run with a close fourth place.
  2. In 1975, the draft consisted of seventeen rounds. In 1977 it was dropped to twelve rounds.  And, in 1994 it was skinned to seven rounds.  This may surprise some politically correct millennials.   A seventh round pick was once considered pretty good.  It’s really not a wonder why so many free agents stick is it?  Less rounds means cheaper labor for the NFL.
  3. Until 2014’s draft each team had 15 minutes to make their first round selection.  If they traded the pick, the clock started anew.  Yawn.  It’s now 10 minutes per.
  4. Who has the most picks in this draft?  A team that desperately needs them, the New York “Football” Giants have 12 selections.  Tied with them is a team that does not desperately need them.  The Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots have 12 as well.
  5. How does Bill Belicheck do it?  Several of his extra picks are compensatory.  That means the league awarded them an extra pick in a certain round based on other teams grabbing their players in free agency under certain “non match of offer” guidelines.  He coaches them up, others take them.  He drafts newbies.  He coaches them up.  He wins it all.  Having Tom Brady is a big head start.  But others have franchise QB’s too.
  6. If you have the number one pick overall you can pick anyone you want. Anyone.  College scouting, combines, film study, pro workout days, individual interviews, Wonderlic tests, and countless other interviews should make the pick a sure-fire bet shouldn’t it?  The “modern”‘ NFL draft has been taking place yearly since 1960.  Of all of those first pick first rounders, only 15 (including Peyton Manning being a soon to be shoo in) have made it to the Hall of Fame.
  7.  In modern NFL history, there have only been two drafts without a Hall of Famer selected.  The years were 1984 and 1992.  Obviously recent drafts could fall into this category.  Time will tell us.  The 1984 draft gets a pass though.  In June of that year, the NFL held a special supplemental draft for players who had already signed with either the USFL or the CFL.   From that unique draft, Steve Young, Gary Zimmerman and Reggie White were wisely taken.  The 1992 draft has no excuse at all.  The top five picks that year were Steve Emtman, Quentin Coryatt, Sean Gilbert, Desmond Howard and Terrell Buckley.  Phew.
  8. The lowest drafted quarterback to win a Super Bowl is Bart Starr, who was taken at no. 200 way back in 1956. That’s but one spot lower than Tom Brady.  He went No. 199 in the 2000 draft. Finally, there’s Kurt Warner.  He wasn’t taken at all in 1994, and won a memorable Super Bowl six years later.
  9. Has one team ever had four first round picks in one draft?  Yes they have, and only once.  The New York “Not Football” Jets had four picks in round one of the 2000 draft.  Shaun Ellis, John Abraham, Chad Pennington and Anthony Becht were all hand-picked by the Big Apple team.  That was a pretty good one day harvest.
  10.  Way back in 1944, the Philadelphia Eagles picked Syracuse fullback Norm Michael in the way later rounds.  They were unable to contact him because he had enlisted in the Army right after college.  Fifty five years later an elderly Michael saw a list of Syracuse players selected by the NFL and learned that he had once been drafted.   We guess he thought it was better to enlist with the Army who could draft you than to be listed as drafted by the Eagles back then.

Arizona, you’re on the clock.

Ten Piece Nuggets-Sports

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Didn’t get enough protein on your three-day Easter weekend?  We have some early morning nuggets to help.  No dyed eggs though.  We’ve had enough already till next year.  Ten nuggets to add to your basket are below.

  1.  The San Jose Sharks scored a goal in a second overtime over the Vegas Golden Knights in the sixth game of their very entertaining, road to the Stanley Cup playoff match up.  Sharks win 2-1.  It forces a game seven.  There are few more energetic, frenetic, and passionate sporting events than an NHL game seven playoff final.  Perhaps it’ll go to overtime to put it further in overdrive.  We can’t name a player on either team, but it won’t stop us from watching.
  2.  Note to self.  Don’t fight with Alex Ovechkin.  The 33-year-old Alex and 19-year-old Andrei Svechnikov decided to drop the gloves last week.  You can see the quick work Alex made of Andrei here.  The Washington Capitals team captain, multi time all-star, and HOF first ballot lock showed the youngster a thing, not two.  Respect your elders must have been the message.  The Carolina Hurricane must have felt like a, well, hurricane hit him.  If you don’t like violent knockouts, don’t hit the link.  Game six is tonight. The Caps lead 3 games to 2, and 1 TKO to zero.
  3. The Tampa Bay Lightning, an NHL record-tying 62-win team, became the first Presidents’ Trophy winner to be swept in the first round. The Columbus Blue Jackets, the last wild-card qualifier to get in the Eastern Conference, flat-out shocked the Lightning.  Defense, defense, defense.  We guess it’s why we watch sports.  We never failed to be amazed.  Competition produces outcomes that make us shake our heads on a near daily basis.
  4. Charles Barkley tripled down last evening on his pronouncement that the Portland Trailblazers are headed to the NBA finals.  They lead the Oklahoma City Thunder 3-1 and can wrap up the first round matchup on Tuesday at home.  Damian Lillard might be on the verge of taking his game and his team to yet another level.
  5. Is there a better pregame or post game or sports studio show than the NBA on TNT in any sport?  Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith, and Sir Charles know the game, like to jab at each other, enjoy what they are doing, and are downright hilarious.   Ernie Johnson is masterful at setting the stage and pressing go.  How can you not like Barkley?  What you see is what you get.   Ask a question and you get an answer.  Research is optional.
  6. We fully admit that the NBA regular season isn’t must see TV for this writer.  However, the brief view of these playoffs make us wonder if there is finally balance in the top four accross the  conferences.  For years, Lebron aside, the East hasn’t been all that.  It seems very legitimately four deep now.  Boston, Philly, Toronto, and Milwaukee are the top four.  Boston swept and is in.  The three others lead their respective series 3-1.  Two of those will go home in the next round.   It says here that they will be two good teams watching from home like we are now.
  7. Here is your PGA golf quick quiz.  Two parts.  Part one.  Who won the tournament last week, and on what course, and in what tournament?  If you said Tiger, Augusta National, and The Masters we aren’t impressed.  Part two.  Who won the tournament that ended yesterday, and on what course, and in what tournament?  If you said C T Pan, Harbour Town Golf Links, and the RBC Heritage we are impressed.  It’s a beauty of a course, but on Easter Sunday, and a week after the Masters, it had a tough, tough act to follow.
  8.  The sample size admittedly is small, but the surprising Seattle Mariners lead all of baseball in runs scored.  They’ve crossed home 160 times or 24 more than the second highest (Dodgers, 136) team.   That’s an average of 6.4 runs per game and about one more run a game than LA.  You can win a lot of games scoring like that.  They’ve given up 128 runs. That’s fourth worst in the league.  It’s an average of 5.1 runs allowed per game.  You can lose a lot of games getting scored on like that.
  9.  The Miami Marlins have scored an anemic 60 runs in 22 contests.  That’s a pitiful 2.3 runs a game.  You can lose A LOT of games scoring like that.  Does CEO Derek Jeter have a clue?  Apparently so.  His rather newly assembled front office is teeming with talent that knows how to spot, draft, and develop talent.  Four folks that are over personnel are ones that he poached from his former team, the Yankees.  Two are from the Bahstan Sox, and one is from the Golden State Warriors.  Coming from winning franchises all of them, they must now rebuild an organization that has to be close to rock bottom.  The Astros were there six years ago and the Braves were there three years ago.  Still, it’s a steep hill.
  10.  With about 12 percent of the MLB season gone, you knew that Tampa Bay, Minnesota, Seattle, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Los Angeles (Dodgers) would be leading their divisions didn’t you?  Advanced analytics will tell you that at least four of these teams won’t get to the wire.  They may not, but this spring hope springs eternal for a quite a few surprised fans in a few cities that have started out well.  If they get to the quarter pole the chatter will grow an octave.

It’s Monday.  You’ve been off for three or four days.  Get back to work.

 

Ya Gotta Believe!

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Back when the 1973 New York Mets, aka “The Amazins,”  were making their very improbable run all the way to the World Series, team member Tug McGraw coined a phrase.    It was “Ya Gotta Believe.”  And believe the Mets did, going from last place in their division on a very late in the season August 30th all the way to a 4 games to 3 World Series loss to the Oakland A’s.  Tug’s tug on his teammates passion to unite behind a cause was a winning formula.

So too it is in politics.  Tell people something enough and eventually they will accept it as the truth and a way of life and unite behind a cause.  Just a few months back, and several hundred billions less in debt, the US Senate held a hearing to either approve or reject Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court.  Quickly Christine Blasey Ford became the centerpiece of the effort to block his confirmation.  She claimed a then teen Kavanaugh about 30 odd years ago  attempted to rape her at a party.  Where?  She didn’t know where.  When? She didn’t know when.  Her friend that she said was with her at the party said she wasn’t.

It mattered not.  You gotta believe her some said.  Kamala Harris, Democratic Senator on the Confirmation Committee said she did. She is now a candidate for President.  Others did too.   Hawaii Senator Hirono went so far as to state that Ford needed to believed, she believed Ford, and that men needed to shut up.  This was before the testimony to reveal any credible evidence.  You know, everyone is guilty if they are on the wrong side of the argument until proven innocent.  When the hearings concluded, the unconvinced of guilt lefties felt like yet another “victim,” who just came forward, needed to be heard.  She was represented by the honorable, but now indicted for attempted bribery of nike, Michael Avenatti.  Nothing credible came of that either.   Shocker.  Another delay.

Eventually Kavanaugh was confirmed.  But, that was only after the delay and the narrative could be heard and heard and heard.  After all, what better free advertising for the party attempting to regain control of both houses in 2018?

Enter the Trump Collusion Mueller Investigation.  Enter Adam Schiff, Chair of the House Intelligence Committee (House and the word Intelligence together, like politicians, make strange bedfellows).  Pencil Neck, as someone calls him, claims to have evidence that Trump colluded with the Russians.  Twenty-three months of Mueller, his cadre of lawyers, investigators, over 500 subpoenas and over one million pages of info requests of Trump’s team later, we have the Attorney General Robert Barr echoing Mueller that there was no collusion.  And, Mueller stated no legal reason to think Trump obstructed justice.  Barr said, too, that it fails to meet the legal bar for it.

Harry Reid said that he had evidence that Mitt Romney cheated on his income taxes.  Give em hell Harry.  No evidence yet.  None ever coming.

“We need Mueller to testify before the Oversight Committee,” comes the cry.  “Surely there is more to this,” comes the cry.  “What’ll we do with all of these pitchforks and lanterns,” comes the cry.

We now have government officials asking for government officials to interview under oath a government appointed special prosecutor who investigated the executive branch of our government for two years and came to no legal wrongdoings.  Ya Gotta Believe says Adam and others.  Adam, show us your evidence.  It was your civic duty, not political hay to make, 23 months ago.

Don’t let the facts get in the way of a good narrative it seems. Oh, and if we can keep this up till, say, 2020, we can use this cloud hanging over Trump to beat Trump, can’t we?

Seems like one party would rather try to win running on what the other party did wrong (ya gotta believe) rather than what that party did itself right.  Right?  Wrong?  The American citizens lose either way.