The volume of critical calls to our station this week on JaMarcus Russell, or as one listener calls him, “The Pillsbury Throwboy”, has bordered on overwhelming. I keep coming back to one thought, despite what I am hearing and even seeing – “he can’t really be that bad, can he?”
There is evidence suggesting he could be. Football Outsiders has a list of qbs who, like JaMarcus, have performed below ‘replacement level’ in the first two years of their careers. It’s full of names like Danny Kanell, and Akili Smith, and... well, Alex Smith for that matter.
So today, with the help of our talented listeners, we started putting together a list of the worst quarterbacks in Norcal pro football history. I’m thinking, once we get this list finished, it’ll be plain to see that as much as JaMarcus has struggled, it could be worse... right?
Jim Druckenmiller has gotten the most ‘votes’ so far. It’s amazing, though, that while the Bay Area has a reputation for being the home of great quarterbacks, there have been many Raider and Niner signal callers who … weren’t (not that playing qb in the NFL is easy, mind you. Not that you don’t have to be supremely talented to even get that far – mandatory disclaimer responsiblilites met). But I have to admit, I’d forgotten about Rusty Hilger … Donald Hollas … Billy Joe Hobert. I’d forgotten how bad Jim Plunkett was as a 49er, or that some San Francisco fans were never that crazy about Elvis Grbac.
So we wish you the best, JaMarcus Russell. I still say he can’t be as bad as everyone says he is right now. If he’s able to lead the Raiders past Denver and into first place this Sunday, I don’t think I’ll be the only one saying it.
Don't Tase Me, Coach!
Friday, September 18, 2009 - by Whitey
With 'Wildcat' offenses all the rage across the NFL, it came as no surprise Thursday on the Rise Guys Show when the Bee's Matt Barrows informed us that the 49ers had thier own version of the spread attack. What did come as a surprise, was what Matt said the 9ers called it -- would you believe, 'the Taser'?
Matt wasn't sure who came up with the name, or why, but I'm guessing it's the brainchild of Coach Singletary. Maybe we'll see 'the Taser' this Sunday against the Seahawks, who of course have their own version of the 'Wildcat'. Last week, the 'Hawks ran the 'SeaCat', with Seneca Wallace tossing the ball out to qb Matt Hasselbeck, split wide right. Hasselbeck then tossed it back to Wallace, who scooted around the left side for 24 yards through the yougurt-soft Ram defense.
I get the feeling NFL defenses are starting to catch up to the 'cat and its various incarnations, but I salute coordinators around the league for trying something different. Thing is, they need to be as creative in naming the play as they are in designing it. A few suggestions, if I may:
Frankenplay... the Spleen Bender... Justine Bateman... the Pillager... Crash and Burn. Venom... the Trouble with Tribbles... Food Poisoning... the Carmichael Dave Show -- and my favorite, simply "AHHHHHHHHH!"
..these are names that are certain to inspire confidence in one's own team, and fear in the hearts of opponents.
Good luck to the 49ers. Did you know that the first game they ever played, in 1946, was against the Seahawks? Only that team was an early AAFC team that was based in Miami, and eventually (sort of) became the Indianapolis Colts.
And by the way, I'm on the Shaun Hill bandwagon with both feet. But when he throws those really funky wobblers, doesn't it look like he's tossing a dead cat instead of a football?
IF NFL QUARTERBACKS WERE BEATLES’ SONGS...
Monday, September 14, 2009 - by Whitey
What a wonderful opening weekend of the NFL season. Lots of good games, a miracle finish in Cincy, and the continuation of two curses – the Madden Curse and the post-Super Bowl Curse (the former took down Troy Polamalu, but the latter seemed to only impact the Cardinals).
Meanwhile, early returns suggest the remastered Beatles’ cds could end up selling between … 500 and 600 thousand copies? These two things have absolutely nothing to do with one another, so let’s see if we can fix that by comparing NFL qbs to Beatles songs, why don’t we …
Kurt Warner – he’s been around a long time, he’s a real feel-good story, he’s got a warmth about him. “Hey Jude” (‘don’t make it bad … take a 20-13 loss to the Forty Niners, and make it better … but good look doing that with your coordinator in Kansas City …’)
Drew Brees – phenomenal but somewhat overlooked. Doesn’t get the credit some others get, which means a George Harrison song is perfect for him. What’s a phenomenal but somewhat overlooked George song? “Taxman”.
Shaun Hill – he ain’t pretty, and sometimes when he throws the ball, it wobbles so much coming out of his hand that it looks like he’s tossing a dead cat. But he wins because in the face of pressure, in the face of needing a 15-play, 80 yard drive to beat the defending NFC champs, he knows how to “Act Naturally” (‘well I’ll be you, I’m gonna be a big star … might make the playoffs, you can never tell …’).
Brett Favre – nice opening day, and he also had the hardest hit of the day when he took down teammate Percy Harvin in the endzone after Harvin’s first career touchdown catch. But there’s still something very weird about Favre the Viking. And unless you start plumbing the depths of the White Album, it doesn’t get any more weird than “I Am the Walrus” (’goo goo ga joob, goo goo good job’).
Carson Palmer, “Let It Be”. Jake Delhomme, “I’m A Loser”.
Let’s see what Phillip, Jamarcus, Tommy, and … whoever’s quarterbacking Buffalo these days can come up with tonight.
THE LITTLE ORANGE SKATEBOARD
Monday, August 31, 2009 - by Whitey
Back in 1978, the Giants mounted an unlikely, and ultimately futile, run at the National League West pennant. This was back in the day before wild cards, so you really had to earn your post season berths for the most part, and that year, the Giants were battling the mighty and eventual back to back league champion Dodgers, as well as a Reds' team that had won two of the previous three World Series -- the team known as the Big Red Machine. The Giants had some outstanding pitching, and a line drive hitting third baseman, and not a heck of a lot else. Willie McCovey was nearing the end of the line, Vida Blue had just come over from the A's, Bill Madlock was gearing up to win a title the following year -- with the Pirates. Somewhere, somebody started calling the '78 Giants "the Little Orange Skateboard", and it was a fitting moniker. They finished up at 89-73, 6 games out, but wouldn't actually reach the post season for another 9 years.
This year, the Giants are again making an unlikely run at a post season spot, and in fact entered September in a flat-footed tie with the bewildered Rockies. And this year's team has much more talent than the '78 club, but doesn't have a song like the Little Orange Skateboard did. It was called "Be A Believer (In Giants' Fever)". It was just plain horrible, with lyrics like, "We got Bill Madlock, he'll make that ball rock / and we just can't lose, with the Vida Blues ... Herndon, (someone), and Jim Dwyer / Setting Candlestick on fire!"
It won't be long, trust me, before somebody busts out a Kung Fu Panda song, or maybe a Matt Cain version of "Cocaine" (he throws too hard to see, and he just threw strike three, MATT CAIN!).
Point is, I suppose, that baseball seasons are very long, and they don't always end with games that count for your team. When they do, as they are this year for the Giants, it's an illustration of how baseball is ultimately the most satisfying sport for a fan. With games every day, it demands the most. But in seasons like this one, it gives the most back.
Roll on, Little Orange Skateboard!!!
PUTTING TIGER IN PERSPECTIVE (IN C MINOR)
Tuesday, August 18, 2009 - by Whitey
This is one of the few times I can remember actually thinking about how Tiger Woods lost a tournament. He doesn’t win every week, but he rarely leaves you feeling like... he should’ve won, but lost it. Props to Y.E Yang, I take nothing away from him, but let’s face it, that tourney was Tiger’s, and he didn’t get it done. Did Tiger choke? Mark Kreidler asked that question on our show Monday, and it was hard to even fathom the possibility.
But I wanted to take a moment not to take shots at the fallen Tiger, but rather, to acknowledge his greatness. I mean, who has ever been as good at anything, as Tiger is at golf?
Maybe Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan... maybe. Jenna Jameson has been as good at porn as Tiger has been at golf... maybe. Abraham Lincoln? Possibly.
FDR? Maybe, considering the various fixes he was able to extricate our nation from.
But consider that we are talking about sheer genius here. Otherworldly ability and understanding of the task at hand.
The only guy who comes close to Tiger is Mozart (who by the way, had a terrible short game).
JUST GO AWAY
Monday, August 17, 2009 - by Whitey
So today we hear from Fox’s Jay Glazer that after visiting the Vikings’ camp, he is pretty much convinced that Brett Favre is, in fact, still coming back to play quarterback for Minnesota.
No. Please. No. It’s a vampire of a story, one that just will not die: “Number 4 is coming back!”
I can’t help but wonder, why would the Vikings even want a guy who is as indecisive as Favre has been about playing this year? That’s assuming there’s anything to Glazer’s report, and he says “damn near everybody …” he ran into in Mankato was convinced of it. So does this mean Brett just really hates camp, and the whole “I don’t know if I want to play...“ song and dance was about that?
Commissioner Goodell needs to step in and put Favre on indefinite suspension. This has been an insult to every forward-thinking fan of the game. What could possibly explain this strange hold Brett Favre has over the football nation? He was vastly over-rated towards the end of his career (thanks John Madden), and has made a mockery of the notion of his retirement.
Please Brett, just go away. And take Kate Gosselin with you.
AUGUST ALREADY???
Friday, July 31, 2009 - by Whitey
August brings many wonderful things. NFL preseason games. Peaches. Increasingly meaningful baseball games. The end of the WNBA season a little closer. And it inevitably brings that whole ‘where did the summer go?’ feeling.
August also brings the new NBA schedules, which should be out next week. As Sactown Royalty points out, checking the schedule for those long road trips and back-to-backs was much more interesting when the team was competitive.
I was reading some other blog this week, forget which one, and they asked a great question – why is it nearly impossible to keep score correctly in a pick up basketball game? We’ll be playing Sunday morning, and I know that I am wrong about the score at least 67% of the time, even though I am really determined to get it right. Hopefully with 6-8 guys on the floor at a time, we can figure it out. But the key pickup basketball point is this – games that count two point baskets as one, and three pointers as two, screw up the entire game. There is no way a three point shot should be worth twice as much as a two pointer. Ruins the entire structure of the game.
Have a good weekend and a great August.
FLAGS DO FLY FOREVER
Thursday, July 30, 2009 - by Whitey
Freddy Sanchez, the newest Giant, is certainly an improvement at the keystone sack. But did the Giants give up too much to get him in sending Tim Alderson to the Steel City?
Probably, but hey – when ya have a chance to win something in baseball, you have to take your best shot. The Giants had more than 37 thousand at the yard for a midweek day game against the Pirates yesterday. Why? Because they are contending for the first time in what, 5 years? Even if this trade comes back to bite ‘em in the ass, ya ultimately can’t blame them for making it.
By the way, their issues at second base to me really underscore how underrated Ray Durham was …
Big weekend series, Giants and Phils. Could be the two reigning Cy winners going head-to-head if Lincecum and Cliff Lee hook up.
Don’t know why, but I can’t shake the nagging feeling that despite their best efforts, this whole thing is going to end once again in heartbreaking defeat for the Giants. Isn’t that just their way? Is it the Balco Curse, or some other jinx that goes back to the Candlestick days? One thing’s for sure, Brian Sabean’s doing everything within his power to snap that jinx, whatever it’s cause, this season.
Today's Show
Wednesday, July 29, 2009 - by Whitey
So today, D.P. called our show to bemoan the Kings’ lack of free agent activity. Then we got into a whole Tyreke Evans debate, with another caller – Jeff – pointing out that the Kings did not necessarily get the true point guard they need. Back and forth we went, more calls from fans – some supporting the Kings’ pick, others criticizing it. That prompted a call from Jerry Reynolds, who – like just about everybody else in the front office – is crazy over Tyreke Evans. Says Jerry, “He might not be that pure Chris Paul-type point guard, but that’s okay, too. Look at all the good teams that don’t have a pure point guard.”
So I asked Jerry, was Ricky Rubio ever ‘the guy’ the Kings wanted? There’s only so much J.R. can say about things like that, but he paused a moment, then gave us point-blank, “No. Ricky Rubio to me will be another Luke Ridenour.” Now, nothing against Luke Ridenour, who Kings’ fans will remember, outplayed Mike Bibby in the playoffs a few years ago, but you don’t want to use the fourth pick in the draft on him.
So will Ricky Rubio ever play in the NBA? Or a better question, perhaps – how is he already in a commercial with Tiger Woods and Derek Jeter??? You’ve seen the one, for Gilette I think, where Ricky’s getting ready to shoot a free throw? How does anybody know who he is yet?
I will say that Tyreke Evans, based on what I saw in Vegas a few weeks ago, already has an undeniable presence. And Jerry was a little more kind to Tyreke in his comparisons that he was to Rubio, saying Evans reminds him of a young Walt Frazier. Clyde, baby!
I don’t know how many more games the Kings will win this year, but they should be much more relevant, and infinitely more interesting. Unless Tyreke Evans is nothing more than another Luke Ridenour. But I don’t think he is.
LL HAIL GARKO
Tuesday, July 28, 2009 - by Whitey
Hard to see much, if any, downside to the Giants’ acquisition of Ryan Garko … but let me try, anyway. He cost very little, and he gives the Giants another right-handed bat. Garko has proven he can hit with power, but … he hasn’t proven he can do that in the National League, in a pitcher’s park. Also, you could tape a first baseman’s mitt to the back of a blind pig and tie it to a stake around first base, and you’d probably get comparable defense. But still, all signs point to this being a very, very nice move. Anything else in the works for this week, Mr. Sabean? The Giants have apparently been scouting the likes of the Nats’ Josh Willingham, but his asking price may have gone up last night when he hit a grand slam … and then hit another one.
The Athletics, meanwhile, have many scratching their heads. Trade Greg Smith, Carlos Gonzalez, and Huston Street to the Rockies for Matt Holliday, and then, a few months later … turn around and trade Holliday to St. Louis for third baseman Brett Wallace and two other prospects? If you’re constantly rebuilding, how can you ever get anything built? Looks like the Moneyball days are long gone. Still, with the young pitching hopefully taking root, maybe there is hope for Oakland fans. Maybe.
WHO'S TO SAY?
Monday, July 27, 2009 - by Whitey
Rickey Henderson's Hall of Fame acceptance speech was tremendous Sunday. Almost good enough to make everybody forgot that Jim Rice, also inducted, doesn't really belong in the Hall.
Almost good enough to make everybody forget what Hank Aaron said Saturday, when he suggested that players linked to steroids should have asterisks placed next to their marks in the record book. The Hammer even said he believes some Hall members would walk off the stage if a known steroid user were inducted anytime soon.
And that begs the question ... who's to say there aren't already steroid users in the Hall of Fame? That notion may sound ridiculous to anyone who believes what baseball wants us to believe, that the Steroid Era started around 1998 with McGwire and Sosa, and ended about two years ago. Wow, that's a funny one!
Anectodal evidence suggests to me that players were doing ... something as early as 1979. What kind of evidence? Noticeable increases in muscle mass, unusual injuries, sudden and dramatic performance improvements, late career surges ... if I had to bet, I'd wager that at least 3 current HOFers were juicing. But I doubt we'll ever know.
As a Philadelphia writer suggested this week, with LA fans going crazy for Manny bobbleheads, and some people criticizing Kaiser Permanente for dropping their sponsorship of the bobbleheads, it's pretty clear that fans don't care about steroid use.
And if the fans don't care, why should anybody else?
YOU KNOW I’M BAD, I’M BAD... (REALLY REALLY BAD)
Friday, July 24, 2009 - by Whitey
Can’t figure out why Michael Jackson’s death is not getting any media coverage, ya know?
I kinda started in radio about the time MJ was becoming the King of Pop. “Thriller” came out just before I finished up at SF State, and so the first station that I worked for, KYUU in San Francisco, played tons of Michael for many, many years. To me, taking nothing away from Michael, but the key to those records was how good Quincy Jones was at producing them.
Anyway, I remember a few years later, when “Bad” came out, and I always wondered about that line, “Your butt is mine …”? Waitaminute, what now? But that song is, as far as I’m concerned, the perfect theme song for the big series that starts tonight in D.C. – the Padres visiting the Nationals.
The Padres nearly moved to Washington in 1974, before Ray Kroc swooped in and saved them. They were terrible in the ‘70’s, posting one of the worst by-decade won-loss records in baseball history. They are as bad as they’ve ever been right now. And the Nationals? Misspelled names on the backs of jerseys is one thing, but … having the team’s named misspelled on the front of two jerseys? That’s hard to even imagine. That said, the Nats could probably stick the Racing Presidents in the starting lineup, and still prevail in this series. I’ll take the Nats to win two out of three. But what these two clubs are doing to the game right now? Worse than anything Mammy (you know, like breasts) Ramirez could do
TOP FIVE REASONS WHY THE ALL STAR GAME BLOWS
Friday, July 11, 2009 - by Whitey
5. The All Star game is a relic, an anachronism. With interleague play, the all star game (I shall use only lower caps in describing it from now on) really ain't that special.
4. It's added the sizzle while providing less steak. Take the homerun derby ... please. Oh boy, another one over the fence? Wow, who saw that coming? I just about threw up when I saw them replaying last year's homerun derby on espn this weekend. It didn't matter the first time -- why replay it?
3. Joe Buck announces it. And Chris Berman does the HRD. Not to mention McCarver, who can spend, oh, 30 minutes explaining things like "the baseball glove is worn on the hand ... to protect the player's hand ... when fielding a ball. For example ..."
2. The fact that there are no criteria for what constitutes an 'all star' renders all of the tired debate about who was snubbed, and who should be on the team, ridiculously meaningless.
1. and the number one reason the all star game blows -- it was created as a treat for the fans, a game for the fans. Now it's all about the players, who don't care enough about the fans to do anything more than try to get through the game without getting hurt.
Can you tell I just got back from vacation, and wasn't happy to see it end???
