A Tribute To Bobby Bittman

Growing up in this city, I remeber tuning into CityTv (everywhere!) and catching episodes of SCTV.  Everyone my age or a tad older remembers Bob and Doug, or Count Floyd, among my favoirtes were the Schmengie Brothers(cabbage rolls and coffee) and Bobby Bittman (howwwww are yaaaa).  Bittman, played by Eugene Levy was a comedian who often appeared on the Sammy Maudlin show( a take off on the tonight show).  Bittman would come on do a stand up bit and then when interviewed, he would inevitably get very serious.  In doing so, Bittman would say the same thing every time, “As a comedian in all seriousness” and then some nonesense would follow causing me and others to laugh hysterically.

Why the reference?  Well, it reminds me a little bit about Bob McCowan.  McCowan, for the most part owns the sports radio market in this city.  Chuck Swirsky when is had his own show on the Fan used to refer to McCowan as the franchise. McCowan, rumor has it, does very little in the way of show preparation and realizes the fact that part of his appeal is his controversial comments.  I am sure you have seen his ad on sportsnet promoting his show talking about what idiots his fans are.  There are those who firmily believe that McCowan doesn’t believe a lot of what escapes his lips, but rather he says them because he is supposed to, his audience expects him too.  In other words, the theory goes, he is no different then an actor.  He gets paid to almost follow a script.

There is nothing wrong with this.  It works.  To be hones I listen to his show because he gets great guests.  I know what he is going to say, and for the most part his co-hosts too.  Sometimes, however I kind of get the thought that he too needs to use Bittman’s preamble before speaking.  This past week, McCowan crossed the line.  One has to wonder if he did so purposefully or ignorantly (he didn’t realize what he said could be contsrued as offensive to the point of really crossing the line).  This past Wednesday, McCowan theorized that President Elect (and Senator) Obama won the election because he “was black”.  McCowan went evenfurther by using a report out of Harlem as an example of his theory.  Apparently a reporter in Harlem asked african american’s if they would support a specific political platform (mirroring that of John McCain’s) if it were Obama’s platform.  The respondant’s said that they would, ergo people were voting for Obama because of the color of his skin and not the substance behind it.

Just under 2 years ago, Don Imus got fired for referring to the Rutgers University woman’s basketball team as “nappy-headed hos”. Know, I am not going to compare what McCown said to Imus.  However, it is pretty telling the difference in the reaction on this side of the border then down south.  You can bet that if McCowan said what he did in some US markets, the topic would be a lot more then Bill Houson made of it in the bloge and mail here.  You can also rest assured that someone like a Jesse Jackson would come sniffing around too.  Let me make this clear, I am not suggesting McCowan is a racist (as someone else has before me).  Nor am I saying he should be fired for what he said (sorry Howie).  I do however wonder if he couldn’t have done a much better job of clarifying his point as to not make it as offensive as it sounded live.

For some great insight into this story, try and grab some clips of the Brady and Watters’ show from this past Friday.  The guys were really whooping it up, make all kinds of sports realted jokes about things happening only because the were black, like say a hockey puck.  Good entertainment for sure!

Meanwhile, Howie wants me to remind you to sign up:

sign the petition at <a href=”http://firehowardberger.com/”>http://www.firehowardberger.com</a&gt;
join the <a href=”http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=38743531034″>facebook group</a>
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Bills, Bloggers and Trading Beat Writers

I was fortunate enough to be at the TED tonight to take in the Bills/Steelers game. OK, there, I said it. Not trying to be anti-CFL or anti Canadian, but I was there and I had a blast. Truth be told, I lived south of the border for 15 years, with all but 4 of those years in cities with an NFL franchise (If the Leafs count as an NHL franchise then the Detroit Lions count as an NFL franchise too!). I really enjoy the NFL. It’s not the game per se as much as it is “The Show”. Everything about the games is fun. The tailgating, the environment, the fanatical fans and so on.

With little expectations I headed down to the TED around 530 to see what was going on around the stadium. In all honesty, it was not the same tailgating I am used to seeing in an NFL parking lot. Having said that it was really fun. There were people all around the dome in various parties. The smell of beer and BBQ was impossible to avoid. People were behaving. It was a great atmosphere. Was it perfect? No, of course not (but what is), it was fun though.

Inside the stadium, the game was as good as exhibition anything gets. To my surprise the starters lasted 3/4 through the first half. Unfortunately the roof was closed about 15 minutes before the game started and it was uncomfortably hot inside throughout the game. I expected to be marketed to death and I wasn’t. There were no promotions, not freebies. The only real sponsor of the event was Rogers. There was one give away for a Samsung MP3 player (stop laughing), but other then that it was Rogers, Rogers, Rogers. The dome wasn’t filled with 10,000 vendors selling over priced food, always in your face. All in all a great night for a sportsfan in Toronto. Wouldn’t it be nice to not have to read or hear the predictable NFL vs. CFL analysis tomorrow?

I have to stick to a fellow blogger. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but man is the guy off base. Check it out here at your leisure but here is the gist:

The guy makes some predictions for the upcoming season, keep in mind the article was written last night but still…

He lists seven questions all on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being low probability of that item occurring and 10 being the most likely to happen. On the issue of McCabe playing for the buds, Jeff Finger’s signing being viewed as bad and Luke Schenn playing this year for the Buds, Lukas Hardonk the “analyst” rates the probability of each of those occurring at 5 out of ten. Here is the rationale:
“The reason that the Luke Schenn, Jeff Finger, and Bryan McCabe questions are a 5 is because they are all 50/50 propositions”

Ummmm, yeah, they are 50-50 propositions. Either Schenn will play for the leafs, or he won’t, similarly, McCabe either will play for the leafs or he won’t (unless he gets traded mid-season) and well, the Finger question is just plain dumb. McCabe won’t be a leaf this season, I would say the odds on Schenn are less then 50-50 and the Finger signing is already being viewed by all the pundits as being brutal (which I think is a tad premature given how few games of his any of these geniuses actually saw)

The Analyst rates the odds of Sundin coming back as a 6 out of 10 and the odds of Matt Stajan being named Captain in the event #13 is elsewhere is 7/10. The rationale:
“Mats Sundin is a 6 because he has been with the Maple Leafs his whole career and says that Toronto is like a second home to Sweden. Matt Stajan would be likely to become captain because he just seems like the perfect choice.”

On Sundin, he is wrong on the facts. He has not played his entire career in Toronto. The rationale for Stajan is silly.

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I was really happy to learn today that Doug MacLean and Jack Armstrong are collectively the replacement for Chuck Swirsky. I can’t speak to Armstrong’s work on basketball, I have no clue if he is good or not, on the basketball issues. I do like listening to him, and on issues I have an opinion on I respect his point of view. I think hiring MacLean is a home run for the Fan 590 and fans in Toronto. Unfortunately they are in the death valley 2-4 slot, where next to now one listens. MacLean, is smart, he is credible and he has no reason to constantly bash the hell out of the buds unlike a certain someone who was fired by them not so long ago. He brings a unique perspective having been a GM and coach in Florida and Columbus. He doesn’t seem like a dumb jock, and having done call in shows in every city he worked in he is polished enough to sound professional. Great hire Nelson.

I have to laugh, I am watching prime time sports on replay on sportsnet as I write this and MacLean is being interviewed about his new gig and issues in hockey in general by McCowan and Ed McMahon (I mean Jim Kelly). Maclean was saying how a friend of his just got his invoice for his season tickets in Columbus and it was $16,000 and MacLean was saying how $16,000 for hockey tickets is a tall order given the state of the US economy right now, and Kelly starts to laugh and said that $16,000 would pay for medical school! Ummmmm, Jim, what planet are you on? $16,000 wouldn’t cover the labs fees for medical school…..He then said how great Sundin would look in Vancouver centering the 2 Sundins!

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For those of you out there who don’t believe we leaf fans are suffering given our current hockey blogger, take a gander at this example from THE beat writer for the Florida Panthers. How great would it be to have someone who wrote like this covering the Buds on The FAN? Can we throw Howie into the deal with McCabe and get George back too?

Bob McCowan and Jimmy Carson share a sidekick

First of, let me say that it is fantastic to have McCowan back. Man the drive home on the Fan 590 is pretty week without him. Having said that, I am continually disappointed with the his choice of a co-pilot, specifically Jim Kelly. McCowan has followed Carson in his choice of sidekicks. Kelly ads about as much value to the show as McMahon did to the Tonight Show.

Kelly is an improvement over Cox, who was just so freaking negative (much like McCowan). Stephen Brunt is good when he is on, but they ramble so much about nothing its hard to listen. Kelly is pretty brutal. With the exception of kissing McCowan’s butt, which he does at least 10-20 times per show, he ads no value. You don’t miss him when he isn’t there and you never think to yourself, hmmm, I wonder what Jim Kelly would say about this (which I do sometimes think about Brunt)

I will say that I did like Doug MacLean when he was on last week. I thought he was balanced, didn’t kiss too much ass and brought good insight. The only time I thought he was off base was when he opined that Roy Halladay shouldn’t have told the media that he wants to win, and that playing for the jays was a little like groundhog day, instead Halladay should have gone to JP or Godfrey… MacLean’s GM insight is great, we don’t get that type of insight down the dial at 640 form Watters, but in this case he was bitching for the sake of bitching. Halladay said that which we want every athlete to say, I want to win….wouldn’t it have been nice for the Muskoka 6 to have had that opinion?

Come on Bobcat, you can do better then Kelly, get a quality co-host on a regular basis…

Howard Berger’s blog, all that is wrong with the negative scribes in Toronto

For a guy who earns a dime off of reporting on the Buds Berger certainly doesn’t mind biting the hand that feeds him.  That is somewhat surprising.  A long time leaf fan himself, he is clearly conflicted as to what to do.  If he root, root, roots for the home team ( as I am sure he would like to do so) he will be labeled a homer and even worse, he will be left behind by the others he so wishes to compare to, Cox, Simmon and Mccowan.
The shocker to me is that the guy hasn’t figured out how to be balanced.  No one wants to hear rah rah all the time.  The flip is also true.  Cox’s constant negativity coupled with McCowan’s made the pair unlistenable.   So far, in all that Howard writes he has yet to demonstrate how to do it.

His latest blog is a prime example of what plagues the toronto sports media in general:

“As we speak, though, he is the subject of intense scrutiny and analysis on numerous hockey Internet sites. Rabid debating of the Hollweg deal will continue for days. It’s the kind of ravenous overkill that Leafs Nation is known for.”

Um Howard, if there wasn’t this “ravenous overkill” you wouldn’t have a job.  Why do you constantly beat up on the Leaf nation.  If people didn’t listen, watch or care you would be working at the grocery store you site to in your story!

“There has long been a feeling among the most passionate supporters of the Maple Leafs that the hockey media in Toronto somehow affects performance. It’s a classic, popular method for disappointed fans to divert frustration from the source – in this case, an entertainment/sports monolith that is characteristically incompetent.”

Howard, you can’t be this naive.  on multiple occasions the media has run both players and management out of this city.  People are, for the most part sheep.  They believe what they are told.  If you, the media keep bashing a guy, the ravenous public will start to listen, you create enough of a fervor and the team is bound to act.

That however is not why people blame the media in this city.  The blame is for the car crash mentality that folks like Howard seem to think they need to live by.  No matter what a Toronto team does, the daily scribes seem to think that they are no longer reporters but rather critics.  Not every single thing that every Toronto team does is wrong.  For someone reason a strong collection of the daily crew seem to think that is their role; that is what sickens people, that is why people react and treat the media the way they do.    People listen to the likes of McCowan, read Cox and Simmons because it gets them upset.  Why do you think so many democrats listen to Rush Limbaugh?

Howard, if you tried to be a little more balanced and stopped biting the hands that feed you, perhaps the quantity of hate mail would start to decrease