Monday, July 27, 2009

PTI - July 27, 2009

Day one of Pundit Tracker and we start with the show that gave me the idea in the first place, Pardon The Interruption. I did not want to start with the likes of Dan LeBatard and J.A. Adande on the set, but now that Mr. Tony and Mr. Wilbon are back from their vacations, it is time to get cracking. In addition to summing up their views on said topics, Pundit Tracker will be keeping track of said predictions and comments and scoreboard the analysis when appropriate

Opening Drive - "Headlines": Vick, Rose, Tebow, Armstrong, Beckham. The slow summer months are evident with these topics.

Michael Vick, "thoughts on reinstatement": The early reports have the NFL suspending Vick for perhaps the fist five games, but he can sign and practice with a team right now. TK: "If he miss behaves, throw him out forever. but I think he did two years in real jail and I think that was his debt to society and that the NFL is piling on (by suspending him)." Wilbon agrees, as do we.

Pete Rose, "being reinstated"?: Bud Selig is rumored to be moving closer to letting baseball's all-time hit leader back in baseball (they discuss how Hank Aaron wants as well) and thus, making him eligible for the HOF. Both say yes and TK adds that an asterisk of some kind be placed on the plaque to explain the circumstances. No disagreement here, though all radio talk show hosts musts be freeking a little because Rose is one of the great slow summer topics around.

Tebow, "All-SEC snub or...virginity"? The question is which issue is the bigger story, Steve Spurrier/SC not voting for Tebow or the Heisman winner answering a "are you saving yourself for marriage" at a press conference with an A.C. Green like answer. Wilbon goes with the SEC and TK focuses on the "foul" question at a press conference. Eh...man, this is a slow segment, though I'm just thrilled Tony is back so I don't really care. Oh, TK also called Wilbon out for backtracking on and now slurping Tebow after years of ripping him. Shocker, the change in tone came after the star-pucker met Tebow recently. Let's all welcome Tebow to the Michael Ray Wilbon Star Pucker All-Stars!

Armstrong, "Focused on next year already?: Basically Alberto Contador, the winner of the Tour and teammate of the seven-time champ, ripped Armstrong and stated that the tension was so high that "on this tour, the days in the hotel were harder than those on the road". Ouch. TK loves Lance and said he thought "(Lance) was a good teammate. Hmmm. I prefer Wilbon's "if this happened in the NBA, we'd be ripppppping his face off because he behaved selfishly and self absorbed" angle on Lance's tude towards being a teammate. The best part of this story is that for now we are done with racing and Lance, who is moving on to Team RadioShack. Great, now we'll have to see his mug in every mall in America.

Beckham: the only real notable thing on this version of "did the Beckham experiment fail" is that TK once again calls Wilbon out for changing his tune. Mr. Tony portrays Mr. Cub's previous position on Becks as "he will come and save the sport of soccer" and now wants him to get an "exit visa from America". Wilbon says he was more neutral, but now he agrees with TK that Becks is just a hired gun. Mr. Tony has been right on this issue from the start.

Middle Innings: Halladay, HOF speeches, kids and curveballs

Roy Halladay, might not be traded?: Both guys take the rational approach of why are the Blue Jays willing to move one of the top pitchers in baseball. TK says the Phillies should make the move for Halladay because they "should try to win this year. Of course, Mr. Tony did get in his daily required Brett Favre reference, though at least this time it was a jab as he said Halladay has handled this situation "graciously", unlike the free agent QB.

Ok, the rest of this section is rather dull unless you care about Wilbon's little league days, so let's move on to the equally meh "Goal to Go".

Goal to Go - "Mail Time": Crashes, Lasers, Hole-In-One, Starbury

I mean...some talk about race car crashes from this weekend and whether the powers that be are concerned enough about safety (both say yes), fans pointing lasers on to players at the plate ("throw them out" says Mr. Cub), getting a car for a hole-in-one that occurs when it hits another ball and last but certainly least, Stephon Marbury had a 24/7 show last week. Next...

Happy Haps and Overtime:

ARod turns 34, Arena Bowl stuff and a "meloncohly" Happy Trails to former boxing champ Vernon Forrest, who was tragically killed over the weekend in an apparent attempted car-jacking

Rose was the topic of the SC part of the show with comments on the Matt Holliday trade (Mr. Cub is bummed), Tom Watson, US Soccer, Eagles, Greg Oden, Plaxico (the DA wants him in jail) and Pete Sampras saying he could have beaten Roger Federer at Wimbledon back in the day.

Ok, day one is in the books. Let's hope for some better topics this week..peace