Sports Scrapple

I watched Alex Rodriguez retire yesterday, and while I've never been a fan, it was a classy performance.  While he will fall short of that 700 home run mark, he stays in the game as an advisor to the Yankees for the next year and a half.  Translation:  he keeps that big contract money.  I'm sure Rodriguez could have requested he be released from that contract and signed with another team.  Rodriguez worked for FOX during the playoffs and World Series last year and showed a lot of promise, but he would have left a lot of money on the table.  I don't blame him one bit.  Would I vote for Rodriguez for the Hall of Fame?  Great stats, but it's the Hall of  Fame, not the Hall of Numbers.  Rodriguez sat out a season for cheating in the form of performance enhancing drugs, and that's a disqualification in my book.

I won't miss John Sterling doing that tired old "A-bomb from A-Rod" home run call.

The NFL Hall of Fame Game was on ESPN last night.  While I'm ready for fall, I'm not ready for football.  I didn't watch.  Moot point.  They decided not to play the game.

FOX does a couple of golf tournaments a year, and it gets a lot of criticism for thinking outside the box.  That's OK.  At least, FOX does the fan friendly thing of keeping the leader board up on the screen most of the time.  CBS and NBC/Golf Channel leave you hanging for big hunks of time.

I've tried to watch the summer Olympics.  I really have.  I'm trying to put my finger on the reasons I don't care.  It could be the lack of compelling stories.  It could be the over the top production, but I think it comes down to this:  everything NBC does has a canned and packaged quality.  It's more reality show, less sporting competition.

NASCAR is pushing back most of its start times to 3:00 PM next year.  I'm sure NASCAR's TV partners are pulling the strings on this one.  A later start means better ratings.  However, it doesn't seem fan friendly to me.  A lot of those races are in the winter and spring, while kids are in school.  Factor in race time, stuck in traffic time, travel time...  and it's a long day for a lot of families.

Admitted drunk driver and former Ezgles/Redskins QB has signed on to work for ESPN Radio.  I used to listen to McNabb on NBC Sports Radio, and he was pretty good.  Not condoning what McNabb did to get a short stint in jail, he deserves another chance.  The man admitted he did something very wrong.