MONDAY, JULY 7th - Meeting Youtube's Chosen One

(EDITOR'S NOTE: I know I am a few days behind on the vacation updates. That was bound to happen when (a) my kids arrived on the scene in Pittsburgh and (b) I became stuck at the Connecticut shore with an internet connection whose speed falls somewhere between "GLACIAL" and "CARLOS LEE". Consider these last few days the equivalent of when Mission Control wouldn't hear from Apollo 13 for a few days while they were orbiting the back side of the moon. I disappeared while orbiting Old Lyme, CT, but now I'm back. My goal is to be all caught up in the next couple days. Enjoy the ride.)

It was with a hangover-induced haze that I left Nashville on Monday morning, wondering how I could possibly top a weekend which included a tour of a distillery, a cheeseburger called "The Gamble", and thought-provoking conversation with the drummer for an 80's hair band. Normally the task of topping that weekend would be impossible. But I was heading to Russellville, KY to meet the Youtube Legend (yes, I capitalized the word "Legend"), Kige Ramsey.

Kige Ramsey. If you don't know anything about Kige, click here for a pretty good Cliffs Notes synopsis of his work on Youtube. He is a third year student at Western Kentucky (although he says he may be taking this semester off), a video generating machine, and an internet sensation (see Hall of Fame nomination, Deadspin).



He doesn't shy away from any topics, whether it's Nicole Richie's "anorexic" ....



or a public service announcement on how to safely deploy bottle rockets.



He doesn't shy away from the spotlight, he embraces it.



THE MEETING

"Every once in a while, a person comes along who defies the odds, who defies logic and fulfills an incredible dream."

These were words actually uttered by the mayor of Philadelphia in Rocky III before presenting the now famous statue of Rocky Balboa with his hands raised over his head at the top of the steps of the Art Museum in Philadelphia.

I would argue that a similar ceremony could easily be held in Russellville in front of Roy's Bar-b-que emceed by the mayor of Russellville speaking about Kige with a statue of Kige wrapped in a Kentucky Wildcats banner. (I am assuming that there is no Russellville Art Museum, otherwise they could hold the ceremony there. I am assuming there is a mayor of Russellville.)

It was at Roy's Bar-B-Que that I finally met the near Deadspin Hall of Famer for lunch before making our way over to Youtube Sports World Headquarters for an afternoon of spirited discussion regarding the future of the broadcasting industry. I am firmly of the opinion that you know you're at an establishment that's serious about its craft when they decide to abbreviate syllables (or sometimes entire words) by using one letter as a replacement. Toys-R-Us .... Stop N Go ... In N Out Burger ... Roy's Bar-B-Que. It's almost as if they've built up so much street cred they're saying "Yeah, we know the whole syllable is actually "be". But we're gonna stick it to THE MAN! Just the letter B and that's all you get!! F-YOU!!!" Who am I to argue? As long as the food is good, they can spell it in Japanese for all I care.

And oh yes, the food was good. I got a pulled pork sandwich where they actually used cornbread as the bread for the sandwich, making it the second most fattening bread for a sandwich behind the Double Bypass Burger at the Vortex Diner in Atlanta! (Yes, those are grilled cheese sandwiches...) It was awesome. The place takes its Kentucky hoops seriously, too, as the wall pictured here is just one of about ten walls covered in UK memorabilia.

I met Kige and his dad, Butch, there for lunch around 1:00PM on Monday. Perhaps thinking that being the "dude who does those Youtube videos at Walmart" would establish some modicum of local celebrity for Kige, I expected many of the Russellvillians to come by our table and pay respects to him as if he were Vito Corleone on his daughter's wedding day. ("Don Ramsey, I am honored and grateful that you are eating barbecue in our home on the day you are recording videos about boating safety and the NBA Draft. And may your first child be a masculine child...") But alas and ironically, Kige's fame appears to have far greater traction around the country than it does in his very own home town as we ate and conversed uninterrupted for over an hour. I will chalk this up to the strong possibility that Kige is the only resident in Russellville with access to the internet, and therefore the rest of the town has not yet seen his videos. It's the only plausible explanation.

THE TOUR

After getting a stroll around the restaurant to gaze at the walls and get my education on all things Kentucky hoops, we zipped up the bypass road to the Youtube Sports World Headquarters, or as Kige's parents like to call it "our house". I was pretty honored to be the second sports media personality to get the tour of these world class facilities. (Deadspin Associate Editor Clay Travis has the good fortune of being the answer to the trivia question "Who was the first?" See Kige's interview with Clay here and here.) It was at HQ that I completed the Ramsey parental exacta and met Kige's mother, Rhonda. Kige's mom is a college basketball freak, and when I found out that she hates Duke, we became total BFF. (That's Best Friends Forever, for those of you who don't text message.)

The studio where Kige films a majority of his videos is called the "Raymond Ramsey Studio", named after his dad (who goes by "Butch" but is named "Raymond"). The RR Studio may or may not be a converted broom closet. The room is a whole lot smaller in actuality than it appears in the Kige videos, which is ironic because at 6'5" Kige is a lot bigger in actuality than he appears in the videos. Big is small, small is big ... it's like Casa de Ramsey is some sort of funhouse at the Jersey shore.

With its trademarked wood paneling, the RR Studio has a definitive 1973 feel -- warm, yet trippy. Truth be told, Kige's parents both indicated they would like to do away with the paneling and bring that room into the 21st century, but Kige fears a backlash among his viewers, many of whom have commented on how much they enjoy the wood paneling. At one point, legend has it that Kige threw himself in front of a wrecking ball to keep the wood paneling intact. That's how much he loves all of you.

Kige has basically imposed the will of Youtube Sports on his parents and their home, as his bedroom is no longer a "bedroom". It's the "production room". The living room is now the "viewing room". The kitchen is the "green room" (Indeed, the kitchen is where Rhonda gave me a bottled water and applied my makeup before doing my interview in the Raymond Ramsey Studio.). You get the idea. Kige is a force of nature that can only be stopped by his parents decorative choices and Youtube limiting the number of uploads a user can have.

While Kige formulated his interview questions for me, I chatted with his parents and his uncle Steve about sports, the South, my brief radio career and life in general. I will say that you will not meet nicer people than the Ramseys -- genuinely warm people who were very interested in my trip and my story. Kige's dad is battling cancer right now and the day we got together he was doing well; he was in between treatment weeks. Certainly, keep him and Kige's whole family in your thoughts and prayers.

THE INTERVIEW

Before departing for Lexington, I was finally able to cross off "interview with Kige Ramsey at Youtube Sports HQ" from my bucket list. Hell yeah ....

SUNDAY, JULY 6th (Part VI) - Music City Miracle

When you hit the road on a vacation like this by yourself, it's good to have a few stops along the way where you know a friendly face. I say it's even better when the friendly face is a good looking woman. And when that good looking woman has good looking friends, well it's damn near perfection. Oh wait, AND they all like to party? Well, looks like Nirvana has been achieved. It is with this preface that we arrive at the Nashville leg of my trip.

Fresh off my unplanned afternoon with sobriety in Lynchburg, "NashVegas" was the perfect stop to remind myself of what it was like to bat my liver around like an old tennis ball. Fortunately, Heather Venesile, a good friend and a former co-worker of mine in my previous non-radio life (far left in the picture here), lives in the Nashville area and was kind enough to provide me with a chaperone and shelter for the evening. Like me, Heather is someone who decided that life is too short to sell maintenance contracts on telephone systems and decided to chase her dream of becoming a famous jazz singer. Akron, OH was not big enough for both her and LeBron, so she loaded up the truck and headed to Nashville. For a sampling of some of her work, you can click here. Or check out the video below from the BlueBird in Nashville. She can get after it.




So I arrived in Nashville around dinnertime on Sunday. I came into the city on 2nd Avenue just a few blocks away from LP Field, home of the Tennessee Titans. For the first noticeable time on my trip, I really missed having my kids with me; I mean it would've been one of those beautiful father-son moments to be able to tell them "Kids, there's LP Field ... that's where Vince Young barely cracks a 70.0 QB rating every week!" And then they could gaze out the window and act impressed .... "Whooooaaaa ..... coooooool ..... "

I pulled into one of those parking lots where you walk over to the computerized parking attendant machine, put in some money and it spits out a receipt that you leave on the dashboard. That's the new wave of parking lot commerce. All I could think about was all of the poor parking lot attendants that this machine has rendered jobless. I mean sure it's probably less costly for the owner of the lot to run his business by using a receipt-spewing computer to handle the cash, but I miss that personal touch of pulling into the lot and having Ahmed or Gus indifferently grunt at me while I hand them a twenty spot to leave my car in their midst for a few hours. The times they are a-changin'...

With my car parked safely under the watchful eye of Wall-E the parking droid, I walked around the corner to Broadway Street to head over to Rippy's, which is a bar that has some good BBQ and live music. Actually, every bar on Broadway Street has music, and most of it is live. It's like Broadway is one big iPod, with every genre of music represented somewhere on that street. Even those of you who like shitty ten minute dance club beats with the same lyric repeated over and over 150 times can find a home in NashVegas! All inclusive, baby!

I went up to the balcony at Rippy's and was greeted by Heather's friendly face and was pleased to make the acquaintance of her boyfriend/producer, Mike. I wondered what that must be like to date your producer, and decided that I probably would not go ahead and find out for myself any time soon. I mean, my producer Kyle is a good dude and all, but all things being equal, I'll wait until they promote one of our hot female interns to producer before I decide to go down that road.

As Mike, Heather and I split a combo rib/onion ring/wing platter, we gazed across the street at the Sommet Center, which is Nashville's big indoor arena (home of their NHL team and where a lot of big concerts come in). The billboard was flashing with a chronological list of all of the upcoming events, including a Poison/Dokken/Sebastian Bach show coming on Tuesday, July 8. One of us (um, I'm not sure who) made a comment about how that would be a cool show to go to; it may or may not have been me who said it ... I'm just saying. No sooner had that sentiment been expressed when the middle aged fellow next to us at the bar said "I'm playing in that show". I would've called bullshit on him except this dude looked like he played in an 80's hair metal band -- long, scraggly, blonde hair ... laid back, glazed look in his eyes ... I mean, he seemed legit.

He introduced himself as "Jeff Martin, the drummer for Dokken". Now if this were 1986, I'd have happily believed him, bought him a drink, and begin to scramble to remember one Dokken song so I could converse with him for more than 30 seconds. However, in 2008, I'm older, wiser, and more jaded. I did what any self-respecting 30-something male would do -- I pulled out my blackberry and said "Hold on, dude. I need to look you up on Wikipedia." So I did just that, and I have to admit I was hoping against hope that he was legit. Because let's face it, sitting and drinking whiskey with the drummer from Dokken makes for a much better story than sitting next to some dude pretending he was from Dokken. Well, much to my glee, Jeff Martin was legit ... unless it was a lookalike posing as Jeff Martin, but I don't think that's the case. That would be like someone posing as Wesley Wright. "Who?", you're asking (if you're not an Astros fan). "Exactly", I reply.

I was giddy. I mean, when my brother Kevin and I would crack on hair metal bands back in the day and we had to come up with a random one to punctuate our jokes, we always used Dokken as our go-to random metal band. I can't name one of their songs, but I can now name one of their band members! JEFF FREAKING MARTIN!! HELL YEAH!!

So for the next two hours, we proceeded to get ripped with Jeff. The drinks and the Bret Michaels stories were flowing freely, to the point where Jeff had almost convinced our bartender, the lovely Merritt (pictured to the left giving double rods) to cancel her vacation plans which were slated to start on Monday so that she could come to the show on Tuesday and meet Bret Michaels. I don't know if she ever did end up canceling her vacation, but the big board had "YES" as a solid -150 when we left later that night. Jeff was quick to want to take pictures of Merritt because apparently Bret Michaels has some sort of finder's fee that he passes along to other band/tour members who are able to bring in the most, uh, talented "fans". And we're not talking some Michael Scott finder's fee like Chili's coupons either. We're talking legit four figure payouts. I started thinking that if those drones in the Lottery Oasis at the state line were smart, they'd stop buying 50 scratch-n-wins and head to Nashville to try and find Bret Michaels a few pieces of ass. I think the odds and the payouts might be better.

It was time to wrap things up at Rippy's so we said our good byes to Jeff. He asked me if I needed tickets to the show on Tuesday, and I responded casually with "Nah, I gotta head out of here tomorrow to go do some videos in Russellville, Kentucky with Kige Ramsey." Probably not completely familiar with Kige's work, Jeff nodded his head and in a tone of voice that would indicate he was somewhat impressed said, "Sweeeet". I nodded my head and said "Yeah, it's cool man", acting like I was getting ready to film the lead role in the next Ironman movie ... when in fact, I was getting ready to film two three minute videos in my man Kige's wood panel studio at his parent's house. That's how I roll.

The rest of the night was gravy. Heather, myself, and her lovely friends Anne and Whitney (pictured at the top of this post with Heather flashing double rods) consumed many drinks and endured many crappy ten minute dance mixes at another bar down the street whose name escapes me. The music there was mind numbingly brutal, loud, and repetitive. Now if they had played some Dokken .... now that would've been totally sweet.

GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY...

....THAT'S THE SPORTS KOLACHE'S THEME MUSIC!!!

After a prolonged absence, I'm getting the blog cranked back up again. I figure since I went on hiatus, the price of gasoline has gone up about another 50 cents a gallon, so maybe if I start blogging again, the oil barons will stop raping all of us. I realize on the surface the two things (my blog and oil prices) would seem to be unrelated, but at $4.29 a gallon for premium, I'll try anything at this point.

As a gift to try and buy my way back into your hearts, I give you this video -- nearly ten minutes of deliciously hilarious interaction between Chrissy Moltisanti and Paulie Walnuts. You don't even need to be a "Sopranos" fan to enjoy this one:



I am two days into my two week cross country vacation, stopping in college towns throughout our great country to sample food, purchase gear, and ogle the local talent. I'll be sharing pictures and thoughts throughout the next couple weeks.

So welcome back. Make yourself at home. Just put the toilet seat down when you're done, that's all I ask.

The Greatness That is Kige Ramsey

If you don't know who Kige Ramsey is, learn the name. He's the new face in sports commentary, rocking his opinions for about a year now for Youtube Sports, the one man media conglomerate that Kige founded right around the same time he found out how to upload video from his camera. Headquartered in his parents' basement, here is an example of the no-nonsense greatness that is Kige Ramsey ....



Notice the 9 second dramatic pause! Awesome. I was totally on the edge of my seat. His prediction turned out to be wrong, but still the drama was amazing.

And Kige is about so much more than just sports. Check out his spring break advice, courtesy of Youtube Travel, which I can only assume is a wholly owned subsidiary of Youtube sports ....



Does it stop at travel tips? Hell no! Having problems with acne? Kige is right there to help you clear up that pizza face ....



I agree, Kige! I "don't think none of them work neither". So good.

Staying with the medical theme, Kige takes us on a journey back to where it all started -- the hospital in which he was born!



Diet tips ....



Exercise tips ....



There's nothing he can't do!





All hail, the KIGE-STER!!!

Cornell puts on their DANCE shoes! Let the Madness BEGIN!!

Forget pitchers and catchers, this weekend the REAL sign that spring is almost here took place. Every March (sometimes sooner), the Ivy League champion clinches their conference title and thus enters automatic access to the Big Dance, firing the first of 64 Big Dance salvos that will be unleashed in the next two weeks. You see, the Ivy League is the last of the D-1 basketball leagues to crown their regular season champion as their true champion. All of the other conferences crowns their champion with a (sometimes ... ok, rarely) lucrative conference tournament. Ivy Leaguers are too busy with splitting atoms and slicing open cadavers to bother with a conference tournament so they kick it old school and actually have a regular season that matters. Personally, I am a fan of having the student-athletes play as many games as possible for my enjoyment, classwork be damned, but that's just me.

(For the record and for those of you who think I should have referred to "65 Big Dance salvos" above not 64, I don't count the two play-in game participants as part of the field until one of them leaves the court in Dayton on that fateful Tuesday night with a W. Then the 64th salvo is finally fired. On this there can be no debate.)

Oh by the way, major ups to the Cornell Big Red for winning the Ivy League. I can think of one fictitious Cornell graduate who has to be ecstatic ....



BRACKETOLOGY CENTRAL

Here are links to some of the latest mock brackets from around the web. We at the Sports Kolache will be tracking every tiny little tremor in the world of brackets and bubbles over the next couple weeks.

ESPN Bracketology (Joe Lunardi)
ESPN Bubble Watch (Andy Glockner)
CBS Sportsline Field of 65 (Gary Parrish)
CNNSI Hoop Thoughts (Seth Davis)
March Madness All Season
March to Madness
Sporting News (Ryan Fagan)

Stone Cold Bloggin', 3/2/08

Ok, I'll admit it. I'm starting to become a believer in the Yao-less Rockets. The wins over Washington and Memphis were nice (and necessary), but the fact is neither of those teams has a big guy that puts any sort of scare into you. Brendan Haywood? Kwame Brown? Whatever. In other words, a frontcourt of Dikembe for 20 minutes and the dreaded, two-headed Sco-Landrinator is more than enough to get you to the pay window. This Nuggets win is an obvious cut above the first two, for a couple reasons. First and foremost, the Nuggets are in that mix of teams (along with Golden State, Dallas, Phoenix, and New Orleans) that the Rockets will be presumably duking it out with for survival at season's end, so a win against anyone in that group takes on larger importance than beating up on the Grizz or the Wiz. Second, this was another game where the Rockets got a first half lead and proceeded to put their foot on the opposition's esophagus, and in this case an opponent who has the weapons to mount a second half charge. That charge never came.

I probably need to stop waiting for Shane to quit hitting three's, for Rafer to turn into a pumpkin, and for the team to issue a press release saying T-Mac will miss the next ten games with a floor burn, and just enjoy this ride. The seeds are being planted for a pretty sweet NBA story if the Rockets can make a run into the post season. Except for the Lakers, Spurs, and maybe the Jazz, you can make a case for the re-conifigured, post-Yao Rockets being a better team than any of the other teams in the West. Hell, it looks like the Suns (clearly) and Mavericks (possibly) have actually made themselves worse with their big trades. I'm not saying the Rockets are definitively better than these teams, it's too early to tell. I'm just saying there is an argument, which frankly is a lot more than most of us (my hand is raised) were willing to concede a few days ago.

Circle March 6. The Rockets go to Dallas on the tail end of a back-to-back. If we're talking about win #17 in a row in Thursday night, it's on.

Now for some Monday time wasters ...

LINKS

• Many a tale from NFL Combines past [The Sports Hernia]
• Bas Rutten has an e-card for everyone that is interested in the new movie "Never Back Down", a/k/a Karate Kid 2008 [Never Back Down]
• Rutgers tries to maintain its spot in college football relevancy via the old fashioned way -- new fangled mouthguards. [Wizard of Odds]
• Pittsburgh's PNC Park, last in baseball, first in eating! Yes, those four magic words -- ALL YOU CAN EAT! [Bugs and Cranks]
• WWE Action Figure test (sadly, I scored 100%). [Mental Floss]
• Early gauge on the Coach's Hot Seat -- it's Ty Willingham in the lead! [Coaches Hot Seat]
• The Koncak League! An idea that is long overdue. [TY Sports]
• A Boise high school football player is suing Hawaii over revoking a scholarship offer. Believed to be the first time this has happened. What took so long? [Wizard of Odds]
• Breaking down the Terrelle Pryor sweepstakes [Detroit Free Press]
  

VIDEOS

This one is an oldie but a goodie. Be patient, there is a pay off at the end, and it involves a heavy set reporter wailing like Chewbacca in a bondage rack.



And here is the animated version ...



And the remake ...



How to get ahead in the weatherman universe? Act the fool, like Mark Mathis ....



I love old Sopranos clips. This is one of the greatest scenes in the history of the series. Actually, if you think about the whole Mitchell Report saga, imagine Clemens as Tony, Pettitte as Paulie Walnuts, Chuck Knoblauch as Silvio, and McNamee as Big Pussy. Don't you think there is part of Roger that wishes he found out McNamee had ratted him out to the Feds early enough to take him boat shopping?



Borseth vs Gundy rants. I think rants have now jumped the shark, don't you?

Where Does it Happen? It Happens at 1560...

Happy Birthday Chuckster!

ON this day, 45 years ago, Charles Barkley emerged from Charles Barkley's mother's womb, and the world would never be the same. I will come clean and admit that the Chuckster is my favorite athlete of all-time. No bandwagonning going on here, others will corroborate that I've been a stark, raving Chuck-o-maniac since he came into the league in 1984 as the Round Mound of Rebound. From the Olympic snub in 1984 to his MVP season in 1993 to his newly found career as the most entertaining studio analyst in sports, it's been a crazy ride.

For all of you Charles fans out there, here's a little birthday salute from the archives (and the ground breaking NBA Superstars video from the late 1980's) ....



Damn, you forget how ridiculous Chuck's skills were for a guy his size. Supreme rebounder at 6'4", and great in the open court at nearly 300 LB's. Awesome.

Just when hell had thawed out from Eli's Super Bowl win ...

I'm not sure if I've conveyed this sentiment in my blog yet, but I hate Duke basketball. While I'm sure that most of the players (current and former) are good people and productive members of society, the fact of the matter is when they are brought together on the hardwood and put on the DUKE uniform, they all turn into a bunch of floor slapping, leg humping, overly dorkified spazzes. While I don't feel the need to list all of the reasons I hate Duke (nor do I have the time, as that process would take a solid three hours), at or near the top of the list is the slack that they are given by the referees. Seriously, the average Duke game makes WWE officiating look like the bastion of integrity. I know that soon the day will come when DeMarcus Nelson says "screw it" and reaches underneath the standard holding up the basket, pulls out a sledgehammer and channels his inner Triple H by decapitating Tyler Hansbrough (thereby finishing what Gerald Henderson started).

So it was indeed rather bizarre tonight when I got home from doing Sports Sunday on Channel 2 (thank you Adam Clanton and Randy McIvoy for the invite) and saw this graphic on my TV screen ...



















(Photo courtesy of Awful Announcing)

Yes that's right ... ALL FIVE FREAKING DUKE STARTERS .... FOULED OUT! Honestly, I expected to see Calista Flockhart discussing the allure of all-you-can-eat buffets on the Food Channel before seeing this. Truly a thing of beauty. In fact, I'm not sure what made me happier -- seeing Duke's entire starting lineup on the bench, or knowing that their best player on the floor was the personification of Duke hoops himself -- the overrated, underathletic, scattershot defensive liability named Jon Scheyer.
















Good times indeed.

Ande because you can't make fun of Scheyer's spastic face enough, for your viewing pleasure ...

One Guy, One Bird ....

Back tonight with some posts (FINALLY!), both sports and non-sports related. I promise.

NBA All-Star Reserves, One Man's Opinion

The NBA All Star Game takes place in a just a few weeks in the ever rebuilding city of New Orleans. We all know about last year's well publicized long weekend in Vegas, highlighted by an NFL player named after a video game encouraging a member of his entourage to fire semi-automatic weapons into a strip club when the strippers would not give him back the money he threw on stage ... at a place where the performers' primary form of income comes from people throwing money on stage. Go figure.

Now if I were David Stern and I wanted to keep it conservative this year so as to avoid any chance that something bad could happen, I might have looked at some sleepy midwestern cities to host this year's game. Indianapolis, Milwaukee, and ... uh ... Indianapolis come to mind. So naturally this year's game will be in the one city where sex, booze, crime and gambling are just as prevalent as (if not moreso than) Vegas -- New Orleans! Awesome! What could possibly go wrong?

Anyway, the purpose of this post is to give you my opinion on who the reserves for the Eastern and Western Conference All-Star teams should be. The starters have already been chosen by the fans and, in case you haven't read a sports page or visited a sports website in the last week, it goes like this:

EASTERN CONFERENCE

GUARD - DWYANE WADE, Miami
GUARD - JASON KIDD, New Jersey
FORWARD - KEVIN GARNETT, Boston
FORWARD - LEBRON JAMES, Cleveland
CENTER - DWIGHT HOWARD, Orlando

WESTERN CONFERENCE

GUARD - KOBE BRYANT, Los Angeles Lakers
GUARD - ALLEN IVERSON, Denver
FORWARD - CARMELO ANTHONY, Denver
FORWARD - TIM DUNCAN, San Antonio
CENTER - YAO MING, Houston

Before I give you my take on who the reserves should be, a word or two on the starters. I don't have a big problem with any of these selections being a part of the All-Star rosters. The only one I would say is a marginal call is Jason Kidd whose shooting percentage has dropped so low that if I'm an opponent, my face lights up with orgasmic glee if I see him squaring up to shoot. He probably still deserves a spot on the team, but I wouldn't have him starting (and you could make a strong case to leave him off the team altogether for Jose Calderon; who would have believed that in October?)

As for the rest of the starters, I love Dwyane Wade as a player, but a starter on the All-Star team from a team who has lost 15 in a row (and counting)? Eh, whatever. And I'd have put in one of the true point guards in the West (Nash, Paul) over A.I., but that's nitpicking. The rest looks fine to me.

Ok, now onto my picks to round out the other seven spots on each team. In case you don't know the selection process the NBA uses for the All-Star reserves, it goes like this: Each coach is asked to fill out a ballot for seven reserves in their conference. They are not allowed to select players from their own team, and they must choose two guards, two forwards, a center, and two "wild card" spots. The positions of the players on a coach's ballot don't have to line up exactly with what position a player was on the fans' All-Star ballot; in other words, if a coach has to stretch the definition of a player's postion so we get the "best seven reserves", then so be it. (i.e. calling Chris Bosh a center so we don't have to see Ziggy Ilgauskas trudging up and down the floor on February 17) Also, it's asked that the coaches rate their selections 1 through 7 so as to assign a point value to each pick.

So with that in mind, I will now pretend I am the coach of the New York Knicks and I will fill out my ballot. (Why the Knicks? Well, it's the one team where I know I am in no danger of snubbing someone because they are "on my own team". Also, I think making me the coach of the Knicks is an immediate upgrade to their current situation. Actually, making my son's dachsund the coach of the Knicks is an immediate upgrade to their current situation.)

EASTERN CONFERENCE

GUARDS - CHAUNCEY BILLUPS, Detroit; RICHARD HAMILTON, Detroit. Billups is a no brainer. A late bloomer who just signed a big contract extension in the off season, he's one of those rare breeds who got the big money and has actually improved in nearly every statistic. And just check out his +/- rating on 82games.com to see how valuable he is to the Pistons (+9 higher than the next Piston). It was a coin flipper for me between Hamilton and Ray Allen for the other guard spot. I went with Hamilton because at this stage in his career, Allen is mostly a long range jump shooter (a damned good one, don't get me wrong) while Hamilton can beat you in different ways, whether it's catch-and-shoot, that little curl into the lane, or in transition. He is constantly moving, and end to end he is one of the fastest players in the league.


FORWARDS - CARON BUTLER, Washington; ANTAWN JAMISON, Washington. It's almost impossible to take one of these guys and not take the other. Fortunately, the East is thin enough this year and both of these guys are deserving, so doing so shouldn't spark too much debate. The fact of the matter is when Gilbert Arenas went down with his injury early in the season, most everyone wrote off the Wizards as a lottery team. But Jamison and Butler would have none of that. The Wizards are safely in the playoff mix, and playing much better defense than last season. Butler is arguably the top small forward in the league behind LeBron, and Jamison (20 and 10 guy who can go inside or outside on you) has one of the most versatile floor games of any power forward in the league.

CENTER - CHRIS BOSH, Toronto. I'm taking creative license here and calling Bosh a center. Either we do that, or we vote in Zydrunas Ilgauskas and watch him comically try to keep up with all of these thoroughbreds. Admittedly, it would give Yao someone to talk to while the rest of the guys on the floor zip past him at warp speed. (Now that conversation would be a youtube moment for sure.) As for Bosh, he deserves to be on the team based on the strength of this video alone:



Indeed, it is free to vote for you, Chris! I've seen enough, you've got my vote!

WILD CARDS - PAUL PIERCE, Boston; JOSH SMITH, Atlanta. With all of the hype over Garnett and Allen making their way to Boston, it's easy to forget the one guy out of the Big Three who was already there. Pierce has been rejuvenated this year and can still beat you in a variety of ways -- posting up, in transition, or from three. Smith is one of the top young talents you may have never seen play. He's dealt with some attitude issues in his first couple years in the league, and it helps his chances of making the team that the East is not nearly as deep in talent as the West, but this kid's game is explosive. In addition to putting up 18 a game on the offensive end, he's second in the league in blocked shots and 11th in steals. For those of you who are into the Hollinger stats thing, he actually rates ahead of guys like Jamison and Shawn Marion at the power forward position. And in case you're wondering how well he'd fit into the whole "alley oop every other play" thing that the All Star Game typically turns/degenerates into, well here you go ....


TOUGHEST OMISSIONS:

• RAY ALLEN, Boston - Although my guess is he'd want to rest his ankles and feet for the weekend anyway
• JOSE CALDERON, Toronto - There's a reason Toronto hasn't skipped a beat with T.J. Ford out nearly the whole season; probably deserves Kidd's spot on the roster
• RICHARD JEFFERSON, New Jersey - Also probably more deserving than Kidd, although admittedly the All-Star Game is tailor-made for Kidd's passing skills

WESTERN CONFERENCE

GUARDS - CHRIS PAUL, New Orleans; STEVE NASH, Phoenix. Along with LeBron and Kobe, no two players are more valuable to their respective teams than these two. Paul is my league MVP for the first half of the season. To have this New Orleans team at the top of the Western Conference was unthinkable at the beginning of the season, and every time I find myself waiting for the six game losing streak, they seem to rattle off four or five more wins. As for Nash, the Suns record without him the last few years speaks for itself. Not only does he take good players like Amare Stoudemire, Shawn Marion and (to a lesser extent) Leandro Barbosa and make them borderline great, but he takes average players like Boris Diaw and Raja Bell and makes them vital parts of the offense with his distribution skills. Paul and Nash are the two easiest reserve picks.

FORWARDS - AMARE STOUDEMIRE, Phoenix; DIRK NOWITSKI, Dallas. Next to Nash, Stoudemire is the most indispensable piece on that talented Phoenix team because of the inside presence he brings (and how little of that they actually have on that team behind him). Plus, he's the one guy to fully recover from microfracture knee surgery and not run like he has a club foot, so bonus points there. At the other forward slot, it came down to Nowitski and Carlos Boozer, and while Dirk is not quite performing at the MVP levels he's been at the last few years, he's still one of the toughest matchups in the league because of his outside shooting and his nearly unstoppable fadeaway jumper. Boozer has been a double-double machine, so he's deserving, but the tie goes to the guy who didn't screw over a blind man who trusted him. Sorry Boozer.

CENTER - MARCUS CAMBY, Denver. One underrated subplot to this season has been the rebirth of the center position in the NBA, particularly out west. Seriously, look at the names at the "center" position on the All-Star ballot. They range from nearly great (Yao, Stoudamire) to very good (Camby, Kaman) to vastly improved (Chandler) to vital cogs (Okur, Miller) to young lions (Jefferson, Biedrins). And we get Greg Oden next year! So why Camby for the All-Star team? Well, he's leading the Western conference in rebounding and blocked shots, and while Camby doesn't do much except collect garbage on the offensive end, the fact is Dennis Rodman made multiple All-Star teams by being the best in the league at rebounding and defending. So should Camby this season.

WILD CARDS - BARON DAVIS, Golden State; BRANDON ROY, Portland. It pains me not to put Manu Ginobili on this All-Star team because of everything he does for the Spurs, but there's just no way I can (a) talk myself into lying and calling him a forward (and thereby booting Nowitiski) or (b) keep Davis or Roy off this team. Baron Davis is to Golden State what Steve Nash is to Phoenix. He's the heartbeat of the team, the guy who dictates the pace, and the guy who takes all of the big shots. He's strong enough to take smaller guards into the low block, and quick enough to take most others off the dribble. He's without peer at the point guard position when it comes to finishing a fast break or a drive to the hole, and is strong enough to where if he doesn't finish he usually gets to the line. As for Roy, he might be the most important player to arrive in Portland since they drafted Michael Jordan in 1984 .... oh wait, never mind. Seriously, it's not a reach to say he's the most important Blazer since Bill Walton. This is a franchise that had lost all public goodwill because they kept signing and drafting bad character guys, to the point where it almost appeared as though they intentionally were trying to put together a cast for some sort of strange prison flick about really tall criminals. They finally got rid of the last of the bad apples last summer when they traded Zach Randolph to New York for Channing Frye and the right to pay Steve Francis $30M to go home. They drafted Greg Oden, who was promptly diagnosed with a bad knee. The team appeared headed for another lottery season, yet somehow with a lineup that includes Steve Blake at point guard, Joel Przybilla at center, and Martell Webster at the three, Roy has this team in line to make the playoffs. We'll see if they can sustain it for 82 games. I say they can't, just not enough talent. But the fact that they are in the mix this deep into the season is a testament to the precocious Roy's leadership skills and his clutch shooting. Roy is also leading the Blazers in assists, which as a two guard tells you he doesn't have anyone even moderately decent at the point setting him up, he's having to make it happen for himself and set up his teammates. He's having to do it on his own, not unlike the role Tracy McGrady plays for the Rockets (although the next time Przybilla is confused for Yao will be the first). Basically, the West better brace itself because Roy-Oden will be Kobe-Shaq circa 2000-2002 within the next five years. Once the window has closed on Duncan, Nash, Nowitiski, Yao/T-Mac, and Kobe. And that day is coming ....

TOUGHEST OMISSIONS:

• MANU GINOBILI, San Antonio - I still reserve the right to change my mind and boot Nowitski off the team in favor of the stone cold killa' from Argentina.
• CARLOS BOOZER, Utah - Tough omission from a numbers standpoint, but he screwed over Gordon Gund and he went to Duke, so he gets the sucker punch in the junk
• DAVID WEST, New Orleans - Overshadowed by Paul, maybe the most underrated player in the West
• RUDY GAY, Memphis - Just mentioning him because he will be going to this game someday and probably soon ... and the Rockets traded the pick Memphis used to draft him for Shane Battier. I'm just sayin' ....

Stone Cold Bloggin', 1/25/08

QUESTION: What do you get when you cross a ridiculously self-indulgent event like the Mike and Mike Roast with a somewhat horse-faced ESPN host and a full bottle of vodka?

ANSWER: A whole lotta f-bomb laced vitriol for Notre Dame, a one week suspension, and lots of public ridicule.

Dana Jacobson was suspended by ESPN last week for a drunken tirade that included the words "F--- NOTRE DAME! ... F--- TOUCHDOWN JESUS! ... F--- JESUS!" Naturally, this raised the ire of pretty much everyone outside of USC and Michigan fans (who all wholeheartedly agree with her even if they contend that they don't ... I know better ... liars!!) My favorite parts of this whole fiasco:

(1) ESPN actually came up with an idea (the Mike and Mike Roast) that was executed even more poorly than "Who's Now?"

(2) Jacobson's apology, which included this doozy:

"I am sorry. My remarks about Notre Dame were foolish and insensitive. I respect all religions and did not mean anything derogatory by my poorly chosen words. I also deeply regret the embarrassment I've caused ESPN and Mike and Mike."

Yeah, because the last thing that Mike and Mike would ever do is get near anything that would embarrass them ...


No, not at all ....

Ok, now some time wasters for those of you who are looking to either extend your weekend or work your way back into the job slowly on a Monday ...

LINKS

• Check out the automatic complaint letter generator, a real time saver! [Scott Pakin]
• Some riff-raff found their way onto the Big East coaches' conference call this week. Uh oh ... [Awful Announcing]
• Amazing story about Dax Crum, a one-handed college basketball player. [The Big Lead]
• The 1972 Dolphins are a bunch of delusional old men ... it's now confirmed. [FoxSports]
• A comprehensive list of all of the things that made Dr. David Bruce Banner "hulk out" on "The Incredible Hulk". Informative. [KennethJohnson]
• The Cubs marketing department needs to do some more research. [Deadspin]
• Mike Adamle of American Gladiators fame is going to be joining the WWE as a backstage announcer. Kick his ass, Mean Gene! That's YOUR gig!! [411mania.com]
• When someone puts together a list of reasons to hate the Utah Jazz? Well, count me in! [The Dream Shake]
  

VIDEOS

Got this one from Deadspin, this might be the worst (and by worst, I mean best) athlete car endorsement commercial of all-time ....



I mean, Papelbon is close ....



Ah, who am I kidding? NOBODY beats the DC area athletes pimping Eastern Motors!!



And speaking of horrible advertisements, let's take a trip in the WAY BACK machine and check out a young George Costanza gallivanting around the streets of some happy city and telling us about the McDLT ....



I guess that's an improvement over the original McDonald's commercials. And people wonder why kids are afraid of clowns ...



Enough with the ad's. Now a public service announcement. Kids, DO NOT try this at home!!



Had this one sent to me by no fewer than a couple dozen listeners. The downfall of the Cowboys. Very funny ....

I'm BACK! .... with a short post ... literally.

I want to first apologize for the infrequency of posts in the last few days. Between a trip to the great white North (Chicago), a 39th birthday, and that little show that I do, I've been jam packed. The good news is that I have a ton of items to post and will do so in the next 24 hours.

The first one I wanted to get onto the blog was this story about a fraternity at Northwestern University (or the "University of Northwestern", as Coach Holtz calls it) that is under disciplinary review for booking a midget wrestling group called the Half Pint Brawlers for a rush event.

The Delta Upsilon fraternity is facing sanctions up to and including its complete annihilation for violating the university's hazing policy which clearly states that the term hazing means:

"any action taken or situation created, whether on or off university premises, to produce mental or physical discomfort, embarrassment, harassment, or ridicule for the purpose of affiliation with a group, team, club, or their organization."

Yeah, that's hazing all right. Thing is the people experiencing the discomfort and ridicule were getting paid to do so and (I'm pretty sure) are not members of the Delta Upsilon frat. In fact, if you ask the little guys, they had a freaking BLAST!!

One of the performers from Half Pint Brawlers, "Puppet the Psycho Dwarf," wrote in an e-mail to The Daily that the show was booked about one month ago.

"Little Justice (another performer) and myself had a great time at the event," he wrote. "The kids really seemed to enjoy the show."

The whole thing is exacerbated by the fact that Dean Wormer had these guys on double secret probation before this whole thing started. (SEVEN YEARS OF COLLEGE DOWN THE DRAIN!!!)

Personally, I'm a huge fan of midgets. Midgets are on the short list of things that always -- and I mean, ALWAYS -- make any situation they are inserted into automatically better. (For the record, I would include pizza, chicks in thongs, and honey roasted nuts on that list as well.) And they are ALWAYS funny; I'm talking laugh out loud, can't miss funny. The only other thing you can say that about is Claymation characters.

But don't just take my word for it .... see for yourself!



And if you think I'm getting Puppet booked for my show next week ... well, then you know me too well.

See! It's Harder Than It Looks!

My career path is not a normal one. I spent fifteen somewhat successful years in the corporate world before finally realizing that my calling in life was to make wisecracks on the radio about Rafer Alston, Eli Manning, and vasectomies. I was fortunate enough to find someone (God bless you, John Granato!) who agreed that this was my calling. A new radio station is born and - VOILA! - the dream is alive! Because I was handed the keys to a drive time radio show (actually one set of keys, John Harris has the other set), I think people assume that getting on a microphone and spewing a coherent thought or two is pretty easy. To those people, I give you the following video of Tom from Huntington University as a cautionary tale .... (granted, this video is TV and not radio, but you get my point)



[Video courtesy of Awful Announcing.]

Somewhere, Brian Collins of Ball State University feels vindicated ...



Worth mentioning, Ball State and Huntington are 59 miles apart. Must be in the Indiana water.

Tom Cruise Has All The Answers .... Somewhere

Below you will find the much discussed Tom Cruise Scientology video. Take a look, then read on .... (NOTE: One hour after I made this post, the video below was pulled from Youtube. Best I can do at this point is tell you to click here, sit back and be enightened.)



For fear that it might elicit a knock on my door followed by three of his people coming into my domicile and smashing my computer to pieces (and handing me a defamation lawsuit), I am not going to say anything derogatory about Cruise or Scientology. I find Tom Cruise to be very lucid and clear in this video about his vision for Scientology and the answers to all of the worlds problems -- so much so that the next time I am in a meeting, I am just going to respond to everything with "but I KNOW .... but I KNOW" and then others in the meeting will know that I can personally solve all of their problems and eliminate their character flaws. Done and done.

Also, I find Scientology and its teachings to be fascinating and logical, in particular anything involving Xenu and meteorites and the end of the world. My posting of a General Zod video from "Superman 2" in this blog entry is mere coincidence.



KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!!!!!

Kenny Mayne as AJ Soprano

I will be the first to say that I hate pretty much everything about NFL Countdown on ESPN. From the fabricated debates to Emmitt murdering the English language to Chris Berman himself, I have no use for it. Not even Hammerin' Hank Goldberg's picks. I mean, if I want to go 40% on my picks, I'll just keep doin' what I'm doin'. But I will admit that I like Kenny Mayne, one of the few at the WWL with actual comedic timing and a self-deprecating sense of humor. This past Sunday gave us this outstanding spoof of the "Sopranos" series finale starring Kenny Mayne and Cowboys assistant Tony Sporano. (ROMO ALERT: There will be a Tony Romo sighting in this video. Let's have some fun and blame the Cowboys losing on Romo deciding to do this bit. The Jessica stuff is sooooo December 2007.)




And now your basis of comparison ....



And for the record, I think Tony died. If you don't believe me, read this.

Roger on 60 Minutes: My Take

Ever since it was announced several days ago that Roger Clemens would be appearing on "60 Minutes" to address the allegations in the Mitchell Report, my contention has been that the only way the interview would be considered a success for Roger would be if he did two things -- (1) address at least some of the specific allegations of Brian McNamee (like the ones with dates and places), and not just give us the blanket "I never took steroids" and (2) tell us specifically why we shouldn't believe Brian McNamee. I mean, according to Roger, as lies go McNamee is telling some whoppers. Under oath, no less! So if this guy's character is so questionable, Roger, give us SOMETHING from your decade-plus of knowing Brian McNamee that would help us connect the dots from "I didn't do steroids" to "Here's why McNamee's lying". He fibbed on a reply to jury duty ... he skipped out on a bar tab ... he knows all the words to "Mmm Bop" by Hanson but won't admit it. Something. ANYTHING.

So if you saw the interview on "60 Minutes" tonight, you know that Roger graded out thusly on each of my two assignments for him:

(1) D-
(2) F-

There were specific things that Roger said in the interview that would and did perturb me, regardless of whether or not I believe he is innocent (and we'll get to that shortly). Here they are (my thoughts are preceded by SP - yes, very creative, I know):

"CLEMENS: I'm angry that that what I've done for the game of baseball and the personal, in my private life, what I've done that I I don't get the benefit of the doubt The stuff that's being said, it's ridiculous. It's hogwash for people to even assume this. 24, 25 years Mike. You'd think I'd get an inch of respect. An inch. How, how can you prove your innocence?"

SP: I am very uncomfortable with (if not insulted by) the insinuation that someone's performance on the field and good works off the field (of which Roger has many in both categories) should automatically exonerate them from accusation of any wrongdoing when the fact of the matter is there has been enough innuendo and now testimony, along with the circumstantial evidence of body types and durability, to at least wonder if Roger has been using anything at any point in his career. To me, this defense (or complaint) from Roger is a variation of the "Do you know who I am?" defense that athletes will use when getting pulled over for a traffic violation. "He won 354 games, he's been very generous with his time and money, therefore he is above reproach when it comes to the use of performance enhancing drugs even though there is testimony from a guy who trained with him for ten years and even though Roger's body type since leaving Boston has always raised at least some suspicion in an era where many of the stars DO use steroids." To me, the accomplishments/charitable works are mutually exclusive from the allegations.

"CLEMENS: And if if if I have these needles and these steroids and all these drugs, what, where did I get ‘em. Where is the person out there gave ‘em to me? Please, please come forward."

SP: This was the most ridiculous thing that Roger said in the interview. Distributing steroids is illegal and punishable with serious fines and prison time. So we're supposed to believe that because no one has come forward, admitted a felony, and said "I gave Roger Clemens steroids", then there's no way he could have taken them? I should've used this one back in high school when my mom caught me with beer on my breath. "Where is the person that bought me the beer, Mom? Huh? Please, please come forward."

"WALLACE : Why would Brian McNamee want to betray you?

CLEMENS: I don't know. I'm so upset about it, how I treated this man and took care of him.

WALLACE: I imagine he's watching the two of us right now, wouldn't you?

CLEMENS: I hope he is.

WALLACE: Okay. Anything you want to tell him."

SP: Ok, here it is ... your big chance, Roger. Time to take down Brian McNamee. Time to take him down to Chinatown ....

"CLEMENS: Yeah. I treated him fairly. I treated him as great as anybody else. I helped him out!"

SP: Huh? That's it? This guy, according to you, Roger, is LYING and accusing you of unthinkable cheating. He is personally denying you of your legacy. And that's it?!?

"CLEMENS: My body never changed. If he's putting that stuff up in my body, if what he's saying which is totally false, if he's doing that to me, I should have a third ear coming out of my forehead. I should be pulling tractors with my teeth."

SP: Awesome hyperbole from Roger. If you take steroids like wrestlers from the WWE, you end up with a third ear or pulling tractors with your teeth (or giving nonsensical interviews like this). Nobody is accusing Roger of taking steroids in monstrous amounts or even long cycles. There was a very specific number of injections mentioned in the Mitchell Report, and I'm no doctor but I think that number is far from the amount that would qualify Roger as a "freak". That said, I'll send a 1560 THE GAME t-shirt to the first person to email me a photoshopped JPEG of Roger Clemens with a third ear growing out of his forehead. I would think there has to be one out there by now.

"TRACK: BUT HE DID ASK CLEMENS FOR A FAVOR JUST A FEW DAYS BEFORE THE MITCHELL REPORT CAME OUT.

CLEMENS: He emails me and asks me where all the good fishing equipment is down at Cabo that I bought so he can go fishing. Thank you very much. I said, Have a good time, go fishing. Doesn't say a word that you, that you know I'm fixing to bury you with all these accusations and what do we do about it. Didn't say a word about it. That's what pisses me off."

SP: Holy shit, if this is true, Brian McNamee has cajones the size of church bells. Are you kidding me? See now if I were Roger, I'd have honed in on this. He'd have at least gotten the sympathy of the male population out there because that shit just completely violates the guy code which states specifically in Section 2, paragraph (a) "Thou shalt not ask to use one's fishing equipment in Cabo if thou art about to trash one's Hall of Fame baseball career with accusations of steroid use". Honestly, if Roger had just used this as his character assassination on McNamee, and said "I know what Brian McNamee said, Mike, but honestly how can you believe a guy who would ask to borrow your fishing gear after accusing you of steroid use and not even having the decency to tell you about it?!?" I seriously think 90% of the guys in the United States would've been nodding along like "Yeah, no shit! Fuck you, McNamee!! RAT FUCK!!!" Upon further review, I revise my grade of Roger's Brian McNamee character assassination from an F- to a solid D for at least bringing up this story. He should've stuck with it longer, though. If the interview was twenty minutes long, he should've focused on this "fishing gear" story for eighteen of them.

"WALLACE: What, hold, what did McNamee gain by lying?

CLEMENS: Evidently not going to jail."

SP: McNamee committed perjury to stay OUT of jail? My head is spinning. I guess I need to go commit some felonies to make sure I don't wind up in the clink. Honey, pass me that plate with all of the white powder on it, and get my bookie on the phone .... thanks. Now let's go beat up some old people!!

"WALLACE Why would Brian McNamee tell the truth about Andy Pettitte and lie about you?

CLEMENS: Andy's case is totally is, is totally separate. I was shocked to learn about Andy's situation. Had no idea about it."

SP: Actually, Andy's case is not totally separate from yours. Let's take inventory:

1. You are both named in the Mitchell Report.
   
2. You have the same trainer (who happens to be the same accuser)
3. You've played for the same teams the last decade.
   
4. You work out together.
   
5. You eat together.
   
6. You seemingly don't make a move career-wise without mentioning Andy, to the point where it feels almost uncomfortable discussing it.
7. He is your best friend in baseball.
   

But you had no idea what Andy was doing. Ok then.

"WALLACE And never anabolic steroids?

CLEMENS Never.

WALLACE Swear?

CLEMENS Swear."

SP: I've checked the Swear Handbook and because Roger didn't pinky swear or swear on anyone's soul or grave, this swear is not valid. So I still have my doubts about his innocence .... I mean, if it were a pinky swear I'd be ready to send Brian McNamee up Shit's Creek. I mean, it's a fucking PINKY swear. But just "Swear"? Weak.

Roger went on to discuss the concept of being "guilty until proven innocent" in the United States (which is actually very true), then considered the possibility of taking a lie detector test, and finally wrapped up the interview by retiring for the fourth time in his career.

For the sake of baseball, I'd like to believe Roger Clemens, although I think the era we are in right now is so tainted that to start dissecting everyone's legacies and who may or may not have used something becomes mind numbing and frankly isn't a lot of fun. I'm at the point now where, when it comes to Clemens and McNamee, I'm ready to believe whoever decides to flinch first and take the other guy to court. Seemingly that would be the person who least fears putting his hand on the Bible and speaking truthfully (or perjuring themselves, which Barry Bonds has proven is always a possibility). And it's been said over and over again, but bears mentioning, if Roger is so innocent, then why did he wait so long to speak up? (one of about 20 questions that Mike Wallace failed to ask that should've been asked)

So to be continued, I guess ...

Roger gets one more public forum here in Houston tomorrow before going to Congress on January 16, assuming he can break free from his golf commitments. For Roger's sake, he better hope the people asking him the questions tomorrow throw him some softballs like Gilbert did ...



Somehow, I don't think they're going to ...