DL536: Where Jim Burr, Tim Higgins, Earl Walton & Cowardly Big East Make Me Curse…A Lot

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(THERE IS CURSING IN TODAY’S SHOW. A LOT OF IT.)

Forget impartiality. Today’s show is hot fire directed at the old, out of touch, terrible officials employed by the Big East and the cowardly way the conference handled the screwjob given to Rutgers at the end of their Big East Tournament game against St. John’s yesterday afternoon.

Would Rutgers have won the game? Maybe not, but 1.6 seconds is an eternity in basketball and the refs just quit doing their jobs and got protected by the conference office. This could be a REALLY LONG rant, but just listen. Oh, and if you don’t think the Big East is cowardly for their decision to not do anything, consider them cowardly for how they scrubbed down the AP story on their own website.

Here’s the AP story in full at ESPN. Here’s the version the Big East put up. Yeah…that tells you everything.

An absolute joke.

We must credit the job ESPN did in handling this story. Someone got it right, and the network pulled no punchingREAD MORE

DL535: Joke Referees, Villanova’s Madness, Tressel’s Cheating & Tiki’s TV Failure

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We have four topics today and while Jim Tressel is taking over every show in the world, we decided to start with actual sports first, then get into that whole cheating mess.

• First, Robin Van Persie called the referee that gave him a double yellow in Arsenal’s farewell Champions League match “a joke.” He actually said, “It’s just a joke. He’s been bad all evening. He’s been a joke all evening, whistling against us. I don’t know why he’s here tonight. I think it’s a joke.”

What happens to RVP, or his teammates who sarcastically tweets about how good a job the ref did? Sir Alex was slapped for questioning an EPL referee, but what does UEFA do about it? And how great is it when athletes just don’t care and say what they want? It’s really great.

• Next, we rip on Villanova. A lot. We also talk about ESPN putting the Big East women’s final on the mothership while the Big East men’s first round was on ESPNU. What do youREAD MORE

DL534: Jonah Keri Has A New Book On Baseball, Tampa Bay Rays, Finance & Jews

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You’ve heard of the movie The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh? Well, if Jonah Keri’s new book The Extra 2% – How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First is ever made into a movie, they can call it The Gefilte Fish That Saved Tampa.

Yep, this book is as much about the Tribe as it is the Rays. As Keri explains during our conversation, despite the title, it’s not Moneyball (I think he’s contractually obligated to distance himself from that comparison as much as possible.) This is a story about how a bunch of financial guys (read: JEWS) took their money-making logic and translated it into baseball, getting their team from worst to “first” — we debate that notion, considering the Rays finished second in 2008 to a team lovingly referred to as the Philadelphia Phillies. The idea of “first” is still there, as the Rays did win their division and the pennant with a payroll somewhere around 1/5th of what teams in their own division wereREAD MORE

DL533: There Is No Crying…There is NO CRYING…

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Ah, the bait and switch headlines that are so easy to write are so…easy…to write sometimes.

We do talk about the Heat (cough LEBRON cough) crying after another last-second loss, this time at the hands of the Chicago “Los Bulls.” Is crying a sign of cracking, or is it a sign of caring? Is there something endearing about an NBA team that cares so much about a regular season loss that players would cry — and the coach who’s clearly trying to save his job after a rough few weeks would tell everyone about it? The Heat really are a transcendent storyline to cover. It’s not all hype.

We use the Heat’s (sorry El Heat’s) emotions as a jump into the college game to bask in the glow of my favorite week of the year…conference championship tournament time. To me, this is actually better than the NCAA Tournament, from the early part of the week with teams fighting for bubble slots to the one-bid leagues crowning champions all making way for theREAD MORE

DL532: Jay Busbee on NASCAR! (Actually It’s About Cheering In The Press Box)

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Look, we don’t talk a lot about NASCAR here in these parts, but we did spend the better part of Monday’s show talking about Jay Busbee’s thought-provoking take on media impartiality and whether or not members of the fourth estate should celebrate and congratulate the athletes they cover.

In other words, it’s more talk about cheering in the press box.

This suddenly became more than just a media ETHICS class yesterday when news broke that Tom Bowles was let go from his SI writing gig because, per Bowles, he was one of the writers caught doing all that cheering and congratulating and celebrating last weekend after Trevor Bayne SAVED THE SPORT OF NASCAR FOREVER.

Busbee and I get into that a little bit too…to the layperson, what does the win by Bayne really mean and did it really save anything or was it just the little engine that could (and analogy that could almost be taken literally)?

Were the reporters cheering for Bayne or were they simply just cheering for the idea of him — for theREAD MORE

DL531: Madness, DWTS as B/R, FanHouse, Bordain, Sheen & Is Being What It Is

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Somehow today’s show includes the following topics:

• Villanova’s free-fall and whether or not they’re playing themselves out of the NCAA Tournament,

• Dancing with the Stars including Sugar Ray Leonard and the idea that Bleacher Report would be smart to adopt a DWTS model to enhance its profile AND the profile of its writers,

• The death of FanHouse, whatever Sporting News is calling FanHouse now and if anyone will even remember it — or any of this — in a decade,

• Anthony Bordain v. Charlie Sheen last night at 9pm, what watching one instead of the other might say about you, and them and why it’s okay to turn off our brains to watch the occasional car wreck play out on TV.

Thanks for listening.

DL530: Oscars, Sports & The Line of Media Impartiality

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We all root for things. We root for our favorite sports teams growing up. We root for our favorite movies or actors to win awards. We root for our bets to pay off.

We all root…and therefore, we all habitually cheer when our rooting interests come through. Heck, even if you’re one of those writers who “roots for storylines,” you may still find yourself cheering when a good one comes along.

Today’s show is about the Oscars, sports and when the media should or should not feign impartiality. I say that because much of this discussion is centered around the question of WHEN (not if) it’s okay to cheer or celebrate or congratulate or, yes, ask for an autograph.

We talk about how voting for the Oscars (non-media) or events like the Golden Globes (Hollywood foreign Press) is not too dissimilar to voting one into the Hall of Fame. Are we supposed to believe that any of this voting is done impartially?

We promise this is more about sports than movies. After the DaytonaREAD MORE

DL529: Down The Jim Calhoun NCAA Violation Rabbit Hole (Wait, That Sounds Bad)

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We spend (almost) the entire show talking about the NCAA’s ruling to suspend Connecticut head men’s basketball coach for three Big East…next year…for his role in a series of major recruiting violations.

We also take a look at some of the national reporters and pundits. Read along with us, friends!

• Here’s the official ruling from the NCAA.

• Let’s start with Jeff Goodman of Fox Sports:

No postseason ban.

That’s honestly all that matters.

Sure, UConn coach and Hall of Famer Jim Calhoun, he of two national championships, took a whack from the NCAA when the organization finally rendered its decision Tuesday afternoon, after a nearly two-year investigation.

Maybe a light slap on the wrist is a more appropriate term.

• Here’s ESPN’s Pat Forde:

On Tuesday, the NCAA Committee on Infractions knocked a chunk out of the Cult of the Head Coach by suspending Connecticut’s Jim Calhoun for three Big East games next basketball season. As penalties go, it’s not a haymaker — especially when you consider what all transpired at UConn in its recruitment and enrollment of formerREAD MORE

DL528: Carmelo, All-Star Ratings, Bissinger v NBA Fans, Wahl v Blatter (v Simmons), Me v Me

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We talk about Carmelo going to the Knicks and wonder if the Dolans were reading Bleacher Report last week and saw the headline that had him going to the Lakers and thought “what…when did that happen?” which ultimately got a deal done in New York. Hey, it could happen. I mean, it’s entirely plausible they’d read B/R, so that’s a start.

I kid. They probably don’t even read. But is this a good trade for NY? Of course it is.

This trade seems to fit into the grand master plan that has NBA teams becoming good — and relevant — in the right markets again. That can, and will, help ratings as much as the product on the court. Of course, not everyone agrees. Enter Buzz Bissinger, who penned (typed?) a column for The Daily Beast ripping the NBA, claiming the league is losing popularity because white fans can’t root for black athletes.

I swear this wasn’t written eight years ago. Or in the 50′s.

My editor thinks I should write something about professional basketball.READ MORE

DL527: Kevin Kaduk on Spring Training, Phillies Aces, Pujols, Miguel Cabrera, Mets, More

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It’s officially Spring Training! With Kevin Kaduk of Yahoo’s Big League Stew!

!!!

We talk about the big talking points heading into Spring Training which, for the first time I can remember, do not include the American League East or steroids. It’s kind of amazing, actually.

That’s not to say the Yankees and Red Sox aren’t great and the Rays signing Manny Ramirez and Johnny Damon, or the Orioles annual attempt to become relevant, aren’t big stories, but let’s face it, there are four major topics as camp opens. We take them in this order.

• The Phillies pitching staff. Are they as loved by national media members as they are by fans of the team? This actually includes an interesting conversation about tickets and how the Phillies are literally making money on top of money with all their sellouts. Can’t find a ticket? Go to StubHub, where the team and MLB get a cut of the markup. We also get into a pretty long debate that includes Cole Hamels and whether or not heREAD MORE