6 Pack of Opinions

(Taking a break from my media columns)

All-Star makeover
Man do I hate all star games. I was reminded of that after watching 10 minutes worth of Tuesday night’s MLB All-Star Game. The whole thing is all about making money for corporations and selling add time for Fox. If I was in charge of the MLB All-Star game, I would change up the format and have 2 games. The final 2 teams of last years World Series play the opposing all star teams in each league (Phillies vs AL and Rays vs NL) Do it as a double header starting at 5pm that way kids don’t have to stay up until 11:30pm to watch the game. (BTW-8:45 first pitch is a joke)Heck, I’d do it for MLB, NHL, and NFL All-Star games. As for the NBA, I do a international team vs the Americans. Something needs changing, the ratings stink and All-Star games over the years have become a blur. A Blur of Boredom.

NHL should be watching UFC
UFC’s latest pay per view final numbers aren’t in yet, but UFC reps are expecting the PPV to top 1.5 million buys. Why am I bringing up this staggering PPV buy rate? It’s because the UFC Fighters know how to get the viewer or fan buying into the fights before the fight actually happens. Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir were masterfully with their pre-fight trash talking and hyping up the PPV fight. Brock even punched a wall during a press conference and got in Mir’s face multiple times. When was the last time a NHL Player talked junk about another player to just amp up the hype for a game. NHL players may be nice but their dry personalities don’t go over well with people in the states. Heck, I still can’t get what was so funny about Evgnei Malkin making a joke during his press conference at the Stanley Cup Finals last month.

Obamania is wearing thin
Look, I like President Obama and I definitely consider myself a liberal. But the Barack National tour is getting out of hand. I don’t mind him going on Jay Leno once a year, but I dont need to see him filling out brackets for the NCAA Tournament and throwing out first pitches at the MLB All-Star games wearing a White Sox jacket. Remember what happen to “Bennifer?” Once J.Lo and Ben started doing all the media tours and magazines together, people got over them pretty fast.

Donte Whitner Tweaking on Twitter
No, I wasn’t tweeting with Donte Whitner, but I did see that he was a little pissed on his account at the people at Profootballtalk.com. The website had an article stating that Donte Whitner may be in jeopardy of losing his starting job. Whitner was none to please about reading the post and wrote on his twitter page that Profootballtalk.com wasn’t a credible site and that they should write about better things. All was settled after a few Tweets between the parties with Profootballtalk.com stating that the report came from Fox Sports. Call me crazy, but I wouldn’t be shocked if Whitner lost his job at some point. Whitner is in the 4th year of a 5 year contract and will be up for FA after the 2010 season. Judging from history, Mr. Wilson doesn’t pay for DB’s after their rookie contracts expire. Maybe the Bills are thinking about getting the air apparent ready before Whitner hits FA.

Lindy likes what he sees
In the BTN yesterday, Bucky Gleason wrote that Lindy Ruff was wrong by stating that he was very confident in this Sabres team. What did you expect Lindy to say? It’s evident that Lindy Ruff has fallen in line with the brain washing that is going on at 1 Seymour Knox III Plaza. I’m sure the marketing people will be putting up bill boards across town talking about how Gerebe and Myers are the next big thing and will play up the Buffalo Hometown boys (Kennedy & Keleta) as the hometown heroes. Didn’t Darcy and Mr. Mulligan say they going to make changes at the end of the season? Of course they did, they had to give season ticket holders a reason to be optimistic and buy tickets. Of course, it’s July and they have a 94% season ticket renewal rate and now they don’t have to BS people about changes that will never happen.

Derrick Brooks isn’t a good fit
I was listening to WGR this weekend and the Saturday host was making the case that the Bills should go after Brooks. Hate to break the news but Brooks is done. How do I know without watching any Bucs games last year? Because the guy has been on the market for 4 months and hasn’t even garnered a offer or even a free plane ticket to a NFL ci
ty for a visit. Getting a defensive leader is overrated especially if the guy can’t play anymore. And for all the Brooks’ lovers who are going to say the guy made the pro bowl 2 years ago, you should know that father time in the NFL is a funny thing. Marvin Harrison was a pro bowler one year and the next he couldn’t even run routes or catch passes anymore.