Monday, August 31, 2009

A tale of three AFLs

By Rick Morris

Three important institutions, each sharing the initials "AFL," saw milestones of different sorts this month.

^ The American Football League was formed 50 years ago. Within ten years, paced by the exciting, wide-open offenses, it was a legitimate contender with the NFL, such that it forced perhaps the most consequential merger in sports history.

^ The Australian Football League is making a comeback on ESPN airwaves. The staple of 1980s programming, which I watched for many, many years in my misspent youth, can be found as of this month on ESPN 360 and the 2009 AFL Grand Final will be broadcast on The Deuce in late September.

^ The Arena Football League officially bit the dust after taking the 2009 season off to try to wait out the horrid economy. It could not survive. This invented sport, much like Aussie Rules, is an exciting variation of "real football," and is certainly legit enough to come back on a reduced level once the economy turns around for good (whenever that may be).

It is coincidental enough that three important leagues shared the same initials, much less that they shared milestones in the same month. Each of these circuits added a great deal to the history of football, in all of its glorious forms.

Sportsology: Jets-Giants tilt electrifies the Big Apple

By Rick Morris

Here's some great first-hand coverage of New York's big football showdown over the weekend, courtesy of our friend Russ Cohen and Sportsology in The 21st Century Media Alliance.

Russ's Rants - Jets-Giants: The Showdown at the Meadowlands Was Fun
By Russ Cohen

The Jets and Giants have been playing against each other for 40 years and the vast majority of them have been played at the Meadowlands, or "Giants Stadium," where the Jets have been second-class tenants for too many years to count. Well, they played their last game at this old football field over the weekend and the Jets won -- and it meant something, even though it was preseason.

Giants fans were asking: why did the Jets fans care, and the answer is simple. Fans don’t know what to expect from the team this year with a rookie QB, so they were looking to see how Mark Sanchez would fare in his first pro start and this was a good test against yet another strong defensive team. He faced Baltimore the week before and even before he was named the starter, his coach was gushing about what he saw.

“He has earned the reps with the first-team,” says Rex Ryan of his rookie QB. “The guy had to earn his reps, and he’s done that. Without question, he’s done that.”

Sanchez looked poised in the pocket, and even when the Giants had the pass rush going, he was able to avoid trouble and throw for some big gains. The Giants' lack of tackling skills really showed in this game, but again, the rookie slinger had a better game than Eli Manning.

Jets running back Leon Washington was the best offensive player and Jericho Cotchery was a close second. Vernon Gholston, the team's slow-starting first-rounder from last year, had an impressive sack on Giants QB David Carr.

I think the Jets are an 8-8 team, but with a few breaks and a relatively easy schedule, there is some cause for optimism.

For Gang Green fans who are trying to forget about Brett Favre, this quote should make them chuckle: “Each day, things have gotten a little smoother,” says Favre. “It’s now just about football. Business as usual.”

I’ve been coming to this stadium for years, and I have seen a few Giants games, one of them a Monday Night contest when Joe Namath was a part of the broadcast team, and the other on Thanksgiving when PA announcer Bob Sheppard (who amazingly announced Saturday’s game as well even at age of 98) angered the crowd when he announced “Game Over” just as the team’s drive was cut short of the goal line with no time left on the clock. But I will talk about the Jets memories I have, and here they are, not in any particular order:

1) Jets-Jags - 1999 playoffs – The Jets beat the Jags and head coach Tom Coughlin 34-24. We had great seats in the lower bowl, we were wearing Tuna Heads and Curtis Martin and Vinny Testaverde were stellar. It was a great week and a great day.

2) Jets-Pats – 1985 playoffs – It was a 4 PM game. I was wearing after ski boots, and full winter regalia as I sat in the upper level. I had my Sony Watchman for replays and it had frost on it. Tony Eason led the Pats to an easy 26-14 win and I was annoyed, to say the least. Johnny Hector scored a touchdown and then fumbled one that the Pats turned into six. More Jets frustration.

3) Jets-Seahawks – 2000 – Parcells, last game as Jets head coach. They won the game 19-9. Curtis Martin ripped off a 50-yard run and Wayne Chrebet was the best receiver on the field. Ray Lucas won the game and “The Tuna” didn’t make the playoffs and he swore this was his last NFL job. What a joke!

The Giants are a class organization, but I hope the new shared stadium will offer Jets fans more than just a banner with the team’s name covering up the Giants name. It has always rubbed me the wrong way.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Sportsology: Chickenfoot review

By Rick Morris

As we've been telling you, our cohorts in The 21st Century Media Alliance at Sportsology cover far more than the world of sports. Here's a great concert review for a would-be/could-be "Supergroup."

Chickenfoot Still in Embryonic Stage
By Russ Cohen

Atlantic City -- This new collection of musicians includes Sammy Hagar (Van Halen, Montrose and a very successful solo career), Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Michael Anthony (Van Halen), and Joe Satriani, guitar vituoso. They should not be tagged a “Supergroup” just yet because their first album isn’t a smash hit and their first tour isn’t packing big venues.

The House of Blues in Atlantic City is a modest-sized venue and there was plenty of room to walk around. The new band is trying to make a name for themselves off the sweat of their debut album entitled “Chickenfoot”. What this means is that they didn’t play big name songs from the past.

The band opened up with “Avenida Revolution,” and Satriani was on fire for during that song. His solo was memorable and he used his teeth, giving the fans what they wanted. Anthony’s bass solo was the same as his mates, short and sweet. Smith kept the drumsticks flying intermittingly for the first two songs and the crowd really liked what they saw.

The band musically has a lot of promise but it took a few songs until they stopped looking like four musicians playing a gig. At some point, Sammy proclaimed that the venue was “awesome” and then he added, “this room is out of sight, man.” The very talented frontman dated himself a bit with those remarks.

After playing “My Kinda Girl,” the band had hit a high point in the show and they were able to ride that wave for most of the show. “Down the Drain” was the next song and that had a great blues jam. The bass lines were heavy, the guitar was constant, and the stick lights positioned by the band were pulsating up and down with the music; it was a great moment.

At one point Sammy said, “As you people can tell I’m not in charge of this f-in band.” It made total sense, because the band members are all stars, so there was no leader and that suits them.

The crowd seemed to be mixed about the song “Turnin’ Left”. Let's face it, AC isn’t NASCAR country, and honestly how many times can you hear the chorus of “Turnin’ Left?" It was a bit too repetitive.

Right after that song, Hagar still had his guitar on and he was posing for pictures backstage. It was funny and it showed off the singer’s playful side. An old Montrose song “Bad Motor Scooter” followed and then Sammy had a very memorable dual solo with Satriani. Hagar really showed off his guitar skills.

The night ended with a cover of the Who’s mega-hit “My Generation” and the band was mimicking the famous British band. It was fabulous. Satriani was doing windmill lines on his guitar and Smith, very unexpectedly, beat up his drum set, tossing it around like Keith Moon did back in the day. Even after the song ended, Hagar continued to beat the drum and the crowd loved that; it was the only drum standing!

Check out this band. They are fun, the music is great, and they could be on the verge of hitting it big; they are in their infancy.

FDH Fantasy Newsletter: Volume II, Issue XXXIV

By Rick Morris

For the most part, we keep our fantasy content on our fantasy website and fantasy blog and keep this site for content on all subjects. It allows our readers to find specific content more easily that way. However, it has come to our attention that because our new fantasy sports newsletter is published on the older Blogger platform that our readers may be limited in their ability to subscribe to it. There does not appear to be a way to have content on the FantasyDrafthelp.com blog forwarded to an aggregate news reader -- however, we know that we have that ability here. So we will link to that newsletter each week right here when it is published. Here is this week's newsletter.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Googling Atlee Hammaker: The Bretts (Favre/Hart)

By Rick Morris

Courtesy of our new fellow member of The 21st Century Media Alliance, we bring you an awesome transcript between two hugely self-impressed folks who share a first name.

The Two Bret(t)s
By Platinum Smalls

Brett Favre is an egotistical, self-important overvalued former cornerstone. Bret Hart is an egotistical, self-important overvalued former cornerstone. Two smugger athletes are non-existent, as evidenced by the pair’s recent conversation…

Brett Favre: The Minnesota Vikings called me.
Bret Hart: Curt Henning is from Minnesota and I beat him at Summer Slam ’91.
Brett Favre: The Atlanta Falcons drafted me in 1991.
Bret Hart: Atlanta and Chattanooga are 104 miles apart and I won my fourth championship in Chattanooga.
Brett Favre: I had consecutive four touchdown games in 2003.
Bret Hart: Jim Neidhart and I won consecutive matches at Wrestlemania V & VI.
Brett Favre: I’ve been a five time NFC Player of the Year
Bret Hart: I was a five time WWF Champion.
Brett Favre: I threw five touchdowns against the Vikings in 1997.
Bret Hart: I won the championship twice in 1997.
Brett Favre: I won the Super Bowl in 1997.
Bret Hart: I defeated Steve Austin, the Undertaker, and Vader in one match in 1997.
Brett Favre: Steve Austin and the Undertaker are from Texas, where I’ve beaten Houston twice.
Bret Hart: I beat Skinner at Tuesday in Texas in 1991.
Brett Favre: I threw four passes in 1991.
Bret Hart: I’ve won four United States Heavyweight titles.
Brett Favre: I had four three touchdown plus games in 2004.
Bret Hart: I had four consecutive wins at Summerslam from 1993-1997.
Brett Favre: I threw 19 touchdown passes in 1993.
Bret Hart: I won Feud of the Year with Jerry Lawler in 1993.
Brett Favre: Jerry Lawler is from Memphis, who we beat in 1990.
Bret Hart: Jim Neidhart and I won a match in nineteen seconds in 1990.
Brett Favre: My two touchdown passes won a game 19-13.
Bret Hart: I beat the Undertaker at Wrestlemania 13.
Brett Favre: I had thirteen completions in a win against Tampa Bay.
Bret Hart: I’ve won thirteen singles titles.
Brett Favre: I had thirteen rushing touchdowns as a Packer.
Bret Hart: I won my first WWF title in Saskatoon, which is 1,217 miles from Green Bay.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Rick Pitino is a reprehensible waste of protoplasm

By Rick Morris

“Everything that’s been printed, everything that’s been reported, everything that’s been breaking in the news on the day Ted Kennedy died is 100 percent a lie, a lie ... all of this has been a lie, a total fabrication of the truth.”

So now, after last week's fake sincerity and humility at a news conference, the greasy, sordid liar known as Rick Pitino ripped off his mask and bared his fangs to the world. Apparently pretending to be sorrowful for your sins is harder than winning a national championship at Louisville -- oh, wait, he hasn't done that, either.

I was half-expecting him to break out with: "You want credibility and humanity? Well, Gandhi, Mother Teresa and Albert Schweitzer are not going to come walking through that door!!!"

Apparently he expects the media to take the word of somebody who continuously lied about putting his family first when he was willing to risk a little floor dust on his ween with a local skank. I'm shocked, shocked that nobody is taking his word as the literal truth on what really happened.

The offensiveness of his arrogant attitude aside, I'm not even condemning him so much for his two-timing behavior -- let he who is without sin, yada yada yada -- although sticking to the "sackcloth and ashes" routine for the sake of his betrayed family would have been entirely appropriate. No, my anger arises not even from the act itself but from his gutless response to the consequence of it.

Rick Pitino paid for, and directed through his actions, the violent dismembering of his own unborn son or daughter as a cowardly attempt to cover up his actions. This, this is what makes him so truly vile.

People of character and worth do not scapegoat the helpless and innocent for their own mistakes; they rise to the occasion and show the best of themselves as a means of cosmically rectifying the situation. This so-called devout Roman Catholic instead chose to let his own offspring become a three-point shot into a garbage can at an abortuary.

My new favorite college hoops team is whoever is going up against this pathetic doosher on any given night.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

FDH Lounge Show #70: August 26, 2009

By Rick Morris

Hoo boy, do we have some variety for you on the 70th edition of THE FDH LOUNGE on SportsTalkNetwork.com (Wednesdays, 7-10 PM EDT)!

After our look at This Week in The FDH Lounge and The Opening Statements of The FDH Lounge Dignitaries, we bring you an early version of THE FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER with our our fourth annual college football team draft. It's a really fun and unique way to have an extra competitive interest in this year's college football games.

Towards the bottom of Hour One, we bring in one of the greatest pro wrestling writers of all time, Mike Mooneyham. His three decades in the business, combined with his great love of the game, makes him a very special guest. He just attended the biggest NWA Wrestling Legends Fanfest yet and we'll get his thoughts on that event, SummerSlam, Kurt Angle's issues, AmDrag fleeing ROH for Titan and anything else that is relevant.

In Hour Two, our good pal Russ Cohen from Sportsology comes on to talk all things Michael Vick. He's not just any sports media personality, though: he's based out of the Philly area and he is also an animal-rights activist, so he has thoughts on this story from all angles. And he’s actually just one part of a great panel! Joining him are Philly Fox 29 sportscaster Joe Staszak and New York-based sports attorney and frequent sports radio talk show guest Steve Kallas. Talk about covering a story from all angles!

At the bottom of the hour, we welcome back a charter member of The Dignitaries. Tim Foust is coming back on to break down the MLB pennant races, always a treat for us.

Then, THE FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER resumes at the top of the hour when we break down our fantasy football mock draft and again extol the virtues of FANTASY FOOTBALL DRAFTOLOGY 2009. We then spend the second half of the last hour by welcoming back THE GOON SQUAD for a look at many big summer hockey stories: the hot stove, Patrick Kane, the confirmation of the first hockey game at Fenway Park and the apparent continuing shift in strength from the West to the East in the NHL.

It’s going to be a great program and we hope you can be a part of our audience. As always, we urge you to watch the show live (or listen if you’re on dial-up), but if you can’t catch this as it’s happening, you can always catch the FDH archives 24-7 right here or catch us now on iTunes!

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Transcript: Reggie Miller & Banner Guy

By Rick Morris

TURTLE SIGLER: OK, welcome back to our final segment on HIT THAT OR STAND PAT. As I am contractually obligated to do, I would like to thank my wife for marrying me and for getting a no-talent like me this teevee show. I'd like to welcome in our final guests tonight. The first one is somebody I had no intention of being nice to on account of all of the times he broke my heart at the Garden, Reggie Miller.

[audience applause as Reggie enters]

TURTLE: Our next guest has the very unwieldy name of Alex von Furstenberg, but I'm going to borrow a nickname from my old pal Billy Walsh and just call him Trust Fund Baby, or TFB for short. He's the jerkoff that got so threatened by Reggie that he flew a plane with a banner that told him not to hit on married women. As much as I don't like Reggie, I can tell that I'm going to like this smarmy little A-hole even less. Ladies and gentlemen, TFB!

[audience boos TFB]

TFB: You will call me by my real name!

TURTLE: Yeah, I really feel sorry for you. I'm the one that got glossed by a slow reptile. Grow a pair, rich boy. Anyway, let's hear from the two guys with the beef, start with you Reggie.

REGGIE: Well, I don't understand what the big deal is. I gave this girl a chance to upgrade from this empty suit here and he gets all worked up about it!

TFB: I don't like your attitude! I'm better than you are, you had to perspire on a court for your money and I was born with mine!

[audience boos]

TURTLE: Yeah, way to work the sympathy angle there, TFB. OK, let's go to some text reactions from the audience. Dwight Schrute from Scranton, PA says, "The best way to cuckold another man's woman is to embargo his beet supply, thus depriving him of verility." Strangely enough, our next text message is from Andy Bernard in Scranton, PA, who says, "Dwight is a jerk. Nobody likes beets anyway. The best way to woo a woman, regardless of her availability, is to serenade her with a capella music. May I suggest starting with 'My Humps?'" Wow. Guys?

REGGIE: I got nothing.

TFB: Same here.

TURTLE: OK, moving right along. TFB, why the airplane, don't you realize that it makes you look like an insecure putz to pull something like that?

TFB: Stop calling me that! And I'm not insecure, my capacity to fly banners, combined with my expensive cars and homes more than compensate for the size of my genitalia!

REGGIE [sotto voce]: Ain't a brotha alive that's had to go to that card.

[audience laughs and cheers wildly]

TURTLE: Guys, please! Let's keep this on track here. Reggie, I notice that the banner referred to her being a married woman, but she's only his fiancee.

REGGIE: True! That wudn't no wedding ring on her finger there!

TFB: And what would you know about rings, Stevie Silver Medal?

[audience "ooohs"]

TURTLE: Wow, good one! But it kinda begs the question also about why a guy would want a woman who's so ready to flirt with a rich basketball star.

JOHNNY DRAMA (offstage): Yeahhhhhhhh!

TURTLE: Pipe down, Drama! OK, now answer my question.

TFB: She didn't want the attention! Why would she want to be hit on by somebody who's the second-best hoops player in his own family and more feminine than that sister to boot!

[audience "ooohs" again]

REGGIE: Well, why don't we see what she wants, sucka! Bring her out!

[TFB's fiancee enters the stage]

TURTLE: Well, Mrs. TFB-to-be, what's it gonna be? Is Reggie gonna "Hit That or Stand Pat?"

FIANCEE: Oh, he gonna hit that!

[Reggie and fiancee leave stage as audience laughs and applauds. TFB sits in stunned shock.]

TURTLE: Well, there they go. Word to the wise, Reg, you better wrap that rascal! Chick's been around, I bet. Anyway, we got the results in from our poll tonight. 88% of men thought the Miley Cyrus pole dance was "Hella-Hot" and 12% are pathological liars. Well, come back next week when we get another crew of losers in here to fight over stupid broads!

Food reviews -- from James E Cornette???

By Rick Morris

Alert the media! One of the most prominent pro wrestling managers of all time is branching out into food reviews! What would Mama Cornette say?

Jim Cornette has launched a sub-site on his mothership (TM Dusty Rhodes) called Now With Tomato where he and his wife share their impressions of eateries they encounter in their many and varied travels. His first review? The original Quaker Steak & Lube in Pennsylvania, home of some absolutely bitchin' wings among other items.

Actually, since he's now branching out into political commentary as well, can we look for some synergy between the two efforts in the form of a plug for Pinko Potatoes? Hey, we kid cuz we love, Jimmy! Anybody willing to take a tumble off of a scaffold is OK in our book no matter how much he carves up our boy J Styles.

FDH Fantasy Newsletter: Volume II, Issue XXXIII

By Rick Morris

For the most part, we keep our fantasy content on our fantasy website and fantasy blog and keep this site for content on all subjects. It allows our readers to find specific content more easily that way. However, it has come to our attention that because our new fantasy sports newsletter is published on the older Blogger platform that our readers may be limited in their ability to subscribe to it. There does not appear to be a way to have content on the FantasyDrafthelp.com blog forwarded to an aggregate news reader -- however, we know that we have that ability here. So we will link to that newsletter each week right here when it is published. Here is this week's newsletter, which details the updates you will find in Version II of our FANTASY FOOTBALL DRAFTOLOGY 2009 free draft guide.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Baseball Purism: An Old Way of Thinking

By Tony Mazur

Baseball has been subjected to much criticism in the past few years. Mainly, the target of criticism has been the steroid issue, which has become an epidemic since the mid-'80s. But baseball's biggest critics are its biggest fans.

These are baseball purists. They are the people who are unhappy with the direction baseball is heading, and have been for many years. They believe in traditional baseball. According to the purists, the designated hitter, interleague play, and domed stadiums should cease immediately.

As a lifelong fan, there are a some aspects of baseball purism that I agree with. I may have been born and raised in an American League city, I love National League baseball. The designated hitter was instilled in the AL in 1973, and has contributed to many high-powered offenses over the years. While I prefer to see the pitchers bat, I won't lose any sleep if Major League Baseball decides to keep the DH.

Another issue that I agreed with the purists was the popularity of "cookie-cutter stadiums". This fad began in the 1960s where stadiums were built to house baseball and football games, along with rock concerts and religious crusades. The sightlines were always poor, and fans were usually too far from the action. This was a bad idea from the get-go, and the majority of those stadiums have since been demolished. In 1992, Baltimore's Oriole Park at Camden Yards was built to remind us that baseball parks are cathedrals, not multi-purpose facilities.

I do not know whose bright idea it was to reward the winner of the all-star game home field advantage for the World Series, but somebody needs a slap in the face. The team with the best record should have home field advantage, plain and simple. Again, I side with the traditionalists.

However, I disagree with the purists on a few angles.

A former co-worker of mine, a self-described purist, told me how much he detests interleague play. He feels that the only time the AL should meet the NL is in the all-star game and the World Series. I comprehend the validity of that statement, but from a marketing standpoint, interleague play is too much of a cash cow to abolish. It brings in fans from everywhere, and it is a novelty to watch teams you only get to see on the recap shows.

NBC Sports' Bob Costas is a devout baseball fan, and he does not believe in the wild card. He feels that it takes away from the other three teams who have won their respective divisions, and the team with the best record should have a bye in the first round of the postseason. I understand where Costas is coming from, but there have been many cases over the years where a wild card winner has won more games that a division winner, but the wild card team contends in a tougher division.

Purists worked themselves in a tizzy now that each team that began play post-1993 have all made it to the World Series. I'm sure they went into a conniption when the Florida Marlins and Arizona Diamondbacks took home titles. Personally, I do not mind seeing these teams contend for titles. However, the recent title winners (Red Sox, White Sox, Cardinals, Phillies) are all traditional teams.

The older purists resent baseball's version of Manifest Destiny. The westward expansion of the 1950s (Milwaukee, Kansas City, San Francisco, Los Angeles), according to the older traditionalist, marked the end of the Golden Age of Baseball. It was bound to happen sooner or later, so I don't see a problem with baseball west of the Mississippi River.

A hot button issue since 1965 is a dome stadium. Traditionalists claim that baseball should only be played outdoors and on a grass surface. While domes are not as trendy as they were in the '70s and '80s, they are a necessity in an wet or sizzling climates. Baseball (or football, for that matter) shouldn't be played in three feet of snow. Target Field, the Minnesota Twins' new ballpark, is an open-air stadium, and it will replace the decrepit Metrodome. However, Minneapolis-St. Paul has an unpredictable climate throughout April and May, which is why they moved in the Metrodome in the first place.

Baseball purists have to except the game the way it is. Just like life, the game changes as well over time. Ebbets Field and Baker Bowl are elements of the past. I love the history of the game, but I find it silly to root against teams that weren't around when Walter Johnson was alive.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

MLB power rankings for mid-August

By Rick Morris

NOTE: Previous rankings are listed in parentheses.

TOP TIER
1 New York Yankees (2)
2 Los Angeles Angels (4)
3 Los Angeles Dodgers (1)
4 Philadelphia (5)
5 St Louis (7)
6 Boston (3)
7 Texas (9)
8 Tampa Bay (6)
9 Colorado (10)
10 San Francisco (8)
11 Florida (11)
12 Detroit (13)
13 Chicago White Sox (14)
SECOND TIER
14 Atlanta (17)
15 Seattle (16)
16 Chicago Cubs (12)
THIRD TIER
17 Milwaukee (18)
18 Minnesota (15)
19 New York Mets (19)
20 Houston (20)
21 Toronto (21)
22 Arizona (24)
FOURTH TIER
23 Oakland (26)
24 Cincinnati (22)
25 Cleveland (27)
26 San Diego (28)
27 Pittsburgh (25)
28 Baltimore (23)
29 Kansas City (29)
FIFTH TIER
30 Washington (30)

BIGGEST RISERS: Atlanta and Oakland (3 spots)
BIGGEST FALLERS: Boston and Minnesota (3 spots), Chicago Cubs (4 spots), Baltimore (5 spots)

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

FDH Lounge Show #70: August 19, 2009 -- or not

By Rick Morris

EDIT: Technical issues beyond The FDH Lounge's control have arisen at the Network. We are very sorry and hope to be back with you as scheduled next Wednesday night.

Variety, variety and more variety is coming your way as per usual on THE FDH LOUNGE on SportsTalkNetwork.com (Wednesdays, 7-10 PM EDT).

After our look at This Week in The FDH Lounge and The Opening Statements of The FDH Lounge Dignitaries, we welcome back a charter member of The Dignitaries. Tim Foust is coming back on to break down the MLB pennant races, always a treat for us. Towards the bottom of Hour One, we bring in one of the greatest pro wrestling writers of all time, Mike Mooneyham. His three decades in the business, combined with his great love of the game, makes him a very special guest. He just attended the biggest NWA Wrestling Legends Fanfest yet and we'll get his thoughts on that event, SummerSlam, Kurt Angle's idiocies and anything else that is relevant.

In Hour Two, our good pal Russ Cohen from Sportsology comes on to talk all things Michael Vick. He's not just any sports media personality, though: he's based out of the Philly area and he is also an animal-rights activist, so he has thoughts on this story from all angles. At the bottom of the hour, we start THE FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER a bit early with our fourth annual college football team draft. It's a really fun and unique way to have an extra competitive interest in this year's college football games.

THE INSIDER continues at the top of the hour when Outside The Boxscore ringleader Ben Chew joins us to break down last week's fantasy football mock draft and to help us again extol the virtues of FANTASY FOOTBALL DRAFTOLOGY 2009. We then spend the second half of the last hour by welcoming back THE GOON SQUAD for a look at many big summer hockey stories: the hot stove, Patrick Kane, the confirmation of the first hockey game at Fenway Park and the apparent continuing shift in strength from the West to the East in the NHL.

It’s going to be a great program and we hope you can be a part of our audience. As always, we urge you to watch the show live (or listen if you’re on dial-up), but if you can’t catch this as it’s happening, you can always catch the FDH archives 24-7 right here or catch us now on iTunes!

The Eagle Vick has landed -- and so has Favre

By Rick Morris

What a freaking circus the silly season of sports has devolved into just as it is coming to a close. First Michael Vick signs with Philly of all teams and now Brett Favre is in Minnesota after all.

Vick is in an interesting spot, potentially furnishing gadget-player contributions while backing up Don McNabb. The team has long refused to pair up Brian Westbrook with a legit move-the-chains back and has shunned the classic #1 WR (aside from the brief TO interlude), so they tend to approach their offense in an unconventional manner anyway. The sense here is that the commissioner got the punishment right; it's not double jeopardy to look for more justice than the legal system handed out (notwithstanding the tired "one love" card that so many talk show callers play, without having the guts to spell out the only reason they are supporting him blindly), but he didn't go overboard either. Given Tony Dungy's elite moral stature, his willingness to vouch for Vick is very noteworthy indeed.

And as for good old #4 ... the determination to skip some of the dog days at training camp at any cost are not going to endear him to the Vikes any more than the Jets. For reasons that cannot be comprehended, he almost seems determined to take all of the respect he earned from fans over the last two decades and shove it back in our faces. He's got to have the year of his life in order to keep his sad, late-career, will-he-or-won't-he garbage to keep from being the first line in his obituary instead of his gutty and skilled on-field performances. Minnesota just moved up in the NFC playoff hunt, and maybe close to the front of the pack, but it's ludicrous to make them the favorites at this point. Looking at what happened to Eric Mangini when the Jets crumbled, it's got to be enough to make Brad Childress wonder if he's going to be taking his "To Catch a Predator" mustache to a less favorable locale in 2010.

RIP Robert Novak

By Rick Morris

One of the greats of journalism and politics passed from the scene today -- one of my favorites, actually. Robert Novak was truly original, a reporter and pundit who spanned many platforms -- newspapers, newsletters and television -- back before today's New Media age made such hop-scotching commonplace.

I always loved his work and was entertained greatly by his TV persona. I have a story that also indicates the common touch that he never lost. One of our FDH Lounge Dignitaries, Chris Galloway, used to be on a cable access political debate show called "Chew The Fat" back in our Ohio University days. Well, when the university brought Bob Novak to town as a speaker, the guys from the program cold-called him at his hotel to invite him as a guest on their program. He accepted! For one night, those lucky individuals got to feel like they were on "Crossfire." That's almost the equivalent of baseball fantasy camp where you get to play against Dodger Hall of Famers.

We have a link to Robert Novak's column archive on Human Events up on our FDH Lounge Ultimate Links page and we will keep it there since it is still in place. Speaking of Human Events, Novak's former deputy Tim Carney penned a great tribute piece to him there today as did the editors. We are also posting a video of Novak at his analytical best, breaking down the late '00s political scene as only he could:



Bob Novak was a giant, leaving behind a legacy the likes few of us will ever touch. RIP to a true legend.

Mad Men season 3 premier live blog

By Rick Morris

The peeps over at Googling Atlee Hammaker hosted a liveblog for the Mad Men season 3 premier Sunday night and we participated in it as fellow members of The 21st Century Media Alliance. We are also replicating the text of the liveblog in its entirety. Enjoy!


9:29
Platinum Smalls: Good evening everyone and welcome to Mad Men Live.... I'm Platinum Smalls, Rick Morris of the FDH Lounge and friends in a moment...
9:31
Platinum Smalls:
Every so often, a series comes along which redefines the phrase critical acclaim... All in the Family and the Sopranos were this kind of series... And with sixteen nominations, Mad Men certainly falls into this category
9:33
Platinum Smalls: It is one of most exquisitely choreographed and presented shows on television and Platinum Bunny Multimedia is honored to present this third season premiere...
9:35
Platinum Smalls:
As we count down to the show, we will discuss the upcoming season, but first, we are joined by Bridgett Weizer from the Mad Men Benefit for Southwestern City Schools in Columbus
9:36
Platinum Smalls: Bridgett, good evening
9:38
Bridget Weizer Granger:
'Evening! We're getting the party underway after 10tv just stopped by.
9:38
Platinum Smalls:
Congratulations...
9:39
Platinum Smalls: Obviously, I want to talk about the charity with you, but first I would be remiss if I didnt ask you what you are most looking forward to in this season premiere?
9:40
Bridget Weizer Granger:
We're all wondering what will happen after Betty announced to Don that she was pregnant at the season finale.
9:41
Platinum Smalls: From everything I have read, that won't be immediately addressed, which is unfortunate considering how beutifully portrayed a scene that was...
9:41
Bridget Weizer Granger: We're also wondering what will happen between Pete and Peggy.
9:42
Platinum Smalls: I am also... Elizabeth Moss is one of the show's best characters....
9:43
Platinum Smalls: Bridgett, for those inside and outside Ohio watching this broadcast, let them know the situation is with the Southwestern City Schools...
9:45
Bridget Weizer Granger:
In talking with folks who actually live in the Southwestern City Schools district, the situation is very bad for the kids in the schools.
9:45
Bridget Weizer Granger: Overall,
9:46
Bridget Weizer Granger: kids have been looking to transfer to other schools where they can play fall and winter sports (they need college scholarships) or play in the band.
9:46
Bridget Weizer Granger: The
9:46
Platinum Smalls:
It was reported on Friday that they have green lit the levy for another election... Can you speak specifically to what it means for the children of the school district if the levy does not pass?
9:48
Bridget Weizer Granger:
If the levy does not pass, the children in the Southwestern City School district will not have busing, will not play any sports, will not have access to the arts, and will not be able to participate in musical programs.
9:49
Platinum Smalls: Obviously, those are an unfortunate set of cuts you have mentioned, but what do you say to critics who question past pay raises in lieu of approaching tax payers for money?
9:49
Bridget Weizer Granger: Additionally, the property values in SWCS will plummet. The average cost of tax increase per home is $25 per month--what most of us spend on Starbucks every month.
9:51
Bridget Weizer Granger: I think the critics do have a point--there has been talk about how much administrators make in relation to teachers. But this is a bit of a red herring--political problems. What we need to focus on is the fact that innocent kids are going to lose out on a great education.
9:52
Platinum Smalls: We are ten minutes away from the season premiere and as we approach the top of the hour, I want to invite people to take part in our first online poll...
9:52
WHat is the most compelling storyline coming into this season?The Firm Merger
( 67% )Peggy & Pete
( 33% )Betty & Don
( 0% )
9:53
Platinum Smalls:
Bridgett, how can people get involved and help raise awareness of how difficult a situation this really is?
9:55
Platinum Smalls: I should also mention as I ask you that question that we are proud to be joined by Rick Morris, multi-talented interviewer and writer, host of the FDH Lounge, lead contributor for the FDH Lounge Multimedia Magazine, and contributor to Googling Atlee Hammaker
9:55
Bridget Weizer Granger:
We all need to be advocates and make people aware about how dire the situation is. Use social media--knock on doors--get the word out!
9:55
Platinum Smalls:
Rick, good evening
9:57
Platinum Smalls:
Bridgett, let me ask you one last question, what are the chances, given the recent close defeat that the levy can pass this next time?
10:00
Platinum Smalls:
We have hit the top of the hour.... Welcome to season three...
10:01
Bridget Weizer Granger: We were just talking about that--the chances are still very iffy. The Southwestern City Schools have lost a lot of steam, since this was the fourth time the levy did not pass. Additionally, a lot of people are actively looking to leave the district.
10:02
Platinum Smalls:
The situation is very unfortunate... I hope you will keep us posted and we can work together in the interest of the schools again...
10:03
Bridget Weizer Granger: Absolutely. We're already talking about another Mad Men party in the near future to continue to raise awareness and funds. We thank you for all of your help.
10:04
Platinum Smalls:
Absolutely, stick around with us and enjoy the show...
10:04
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: These flashbacks are always confusing.
10:04
Bridget Weizer Granger:
Everyone is wondering what the flashbacks are about.
10:05
Platinum Smalls:
Rick, glad we worked out the glitches and yes to both of you, I was just thinking the same thing...
10:05
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: Eww, not a good visual with the milk.
10:05
Platinum Smalls:
But, the flashback gave us an early nominee for line of the night... Cut your nuts off and boil them in hog fat...
10:06
Bridget Weizer Granger: Touche!
10:06
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: Does the daughter wear flannel shirts also?
10:06
Bridget Weizer Granger: Why is Betty so sure the baby is a "her?"
10:07
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: Perfect? Well, glad to see Betty's still working the Stepford wife thing.
10:07
Platinum Smalls:
Bridgett I thought the same thing...
10:07
Platinum Smalls: Is it a good thing to be using a beach analogy when your wife is the size of a whale?
10:07
Bridget Weizer Granger: Check out Peggy--big woman on campus!
10:08
Platinum Smalls: I miss sixties fashion and the tight dresses...
10:08
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: Ooh, Miss Thang pulling rank.
10:08
Bridget Weizer Granger: I like the role reversal between Lola and Peggy.
10:08
Platinum Smalls: Nice line from Peggy...
10:09
Platinum Smalls: Who indeed with that painting
10:09
Platinum Smalls: Whats with the decoration in the room? Is it English or Oriental?
10:10
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: Another Bert?
10:10
Bridget Weizer Granger: The metaphors about illusions--especially the London Fog--
10:10
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: Unkind, generous and fair?
10:10
Platinum Smalls:
Bert was a common name in the sixties...
10:10
Platinum Smalls: Oh, it's that meeting...
10:11
Platinum Smalls: John Slattery is still the power player...
10:11
Bridget Weizer Granger: We've talked a lot tonight about how the 60's reflect a lot of the changes that we're experiencing now.
10:11
Bridget Weizer Granger: Holy crap, Bert!
10:11
Platinum Smalls: Wait... Who's coming with him to hell?
10:12
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: Uh, there goes the severance check.
10:12
Platinum Smalls:
Limee vulture.... You Americans dont know how to handle unemployment lol
10:13
Bridget Weizer Granger: I thought the Limey was Pete. They look so much alike.
10:13
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: Yeah, they are similar.
10:14
Platinum Smalls: Should THAT secretary really be having a conversation with someone named Mr. Hooker?
10:14
Platinum Smalls: Bert has left the agency? Spin control anyone?
10:14
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: Is that limey related to Fair Hooker?
10:14
Bridget Weizer Granger: A "threesome?" What?!
10:15
Bridget Weizer Granger: Ah, the Peter Principle in motion--they promoted Pete so they could control him.
10:15
Platinum Smalls: Someone pinch Pete, so he knows it's certain...
10:15
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: Splendid. Oh, that Pete and his cheesy lingo.
10:15
Platinum Smalls: Even in the sixties... white people still couldn't dance...
10:16
Bridget Weizer Granger: LOL
10:16
Was Pete's dance...Cheesy
( 33% )Geeky
( 33% )Dorky
( 33% )The worst thing you've ever seen?
( 0% )
10:16
Bridget Weizer Granger: Yeah, drinking at work!
10:17
Platinum Smalls: Bridgett, you work in public relations, do you ever drink at work?
10:17
Rick Morris FDH Lounge:
That's what today's workplace is missing, single-malt scotch.
10:17
Bridget Weizer Granger:
I plead the fifth. :)
10:17
Platinum Smalls: I agree Rick.... Same question to you...
10:17
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: Oh, awesome!
10:18
Bridget Weizer Granger: What the french toast? Another head of accounts?
10:18
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: I make iced coffee at work and a new person I think thinks I'm making White Russians, but that's about it.
10:18
Platinum Smalls: I wouldnt be the financial chief if I wasnt prepared to dissapoint you... OUTSTANDING
10:18
Rick Morris FDH Lounge:
How many heads of accounts will there be? This is sweet!
10:19
Bridget Weizer Granger: "That's not a bottle, that's his date." Love it!
10:19
Platinum Smalls: Does the person in that add resemble Bree Vandekamp or is it me?
10:19
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: Oh, Sal, you fey little swisher you.
10:19
Platinum Smalls: Awww the sixties.... When the skies were much friendlier lol
10:19
Bridget Weizer Granger: Don's at it again--old dog.
10:20
At what point in the episode will the stewardess and him hook up10:30
( 67% )10:40
( 33% )10:50
( 0% )
10:20
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: Stewardess, no. Steward, yes.
10:20
Platinum Smalls: They got trapped in the ugly elevator
10:22
Platinum Smalls:
I cant imagine her being unlady like...
10:22
Bridget Weizer Granger: Oh, naughty girl! Binging on Fritos!
10:24
Platinum Smalls: Isnt the service exquisite? Should she be the one asking that question...
10:24
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: Hey Sal, I think that captain's a go-er!
10:25
Bridget Weizer Granger: I think I'm gonna win the 10:30 bet.
10:25
Platinum Smalls: Bridgett, I am right there with you.....
10:25
Bridget Weizer Granger: Should have put money on it...
10:25
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: Actually, Don may puss out.
10:26
Platinum Smalls:
What are we doin is the wrong question to ask in that situation
10:26
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: Engaged? That's OK, my wife is knocked up!!!
10:26
Platinum Smalls: Engaged or last chance... tough dilemma
10:26
Platinum Smalls: Did he seriously just play the birthday card?
10:26
Bridget Weizer Granger:
"I've been married a long time, you get plenty of chances." Say what, willis?
10:26
Platinum Smalls: Its never worked for me...
10:27
Platinum Smalls: Yeah I didnt expect that would be the bed rattling that ended the scene...
10:27
Bridget Weizer Granger:
Oh, commerical time, boo...
10:28
What grade would you give the opening half hour?A
( 33% )B
( 67% )C
( 0% )D
( 0% )F
( 0% )
10:30
Platinum Smalls: He looks like who??
10:31
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: Anything you wanna take off is fine, toots.
10:31
Platinum Smalls: See here was the problem with this decade... Way to many layers...
10:31
Bridget Weizer Granger: Easy fellas...
10:31
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: Pull them hands down!!!
10:32
Bridget Weizer Granger: Uh, uh oh
10:32
Platinum Smalls: Yes make sure you go all the way through the stack and find the one....
10:33
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: Not what I wanna see, AMC!
10:33
Platinum Smalls:
Those bellman sure are aggressive
10:33
Bridget Weizer Granger: Overheard here: Oh, I am so glad that sal's gonna get some...
10:33
Bridget Weizer Granger: Sal's been outed!
10:33
Platinum Smalls: Usually, trists like that end much better for both parties....
10:34
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: Uh, that mental image is gonna stick!
10:34
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: "Honestly, Don, it was just a deep tissue massage!"
10:34
Platinum Smalls: Did you see that look.... I think a closet door somewhere is swinging wide open
10:35
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: Repellant, reminds me of a doorman. I love Joan!
10:35
Platinum Smalls:
Rick, what you said off air was spot on... Pegs is playing the biatch this season
10:36
Platinum Smalls:
The client may be on your mind, but if he knew what was on Sal's mind, I doubt he'd be a client lol
10:36
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: I have a beard errrrrrrr wife.
10:37
Platinum Smalls: A business has to get bigger... someone tell President Obama that...
10:37
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: You know something about ballsack, don't you Sal!
10:38
Platinum Smalls:
Did she just say Lehman Brothers?
10:39
Bridget Weizer Granger:
Pete is shooting bullets.
10:39
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: Oh, so they're ripping off the JR-and-Bobby Ewing gimmick.
10:39
Platinum Smalls: Distinguish yourself... That's British for get your butt to work
10:40
Platinum Smalls: Hey, if there are any guys in this place holding hands, Sal should be involved, shouldnt he?
10:40
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: Ken and Pete are doing a double-turn in the old rasslin' lingo.
10:40
Bridget Weizer Granger:
lol

10:40
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: "Sal, are you a homo?"
10:40
Platinum Smalls: Are you gay?
10:41
Rick Morris FDH Lounge:
"Sal, do you like to sit on things that are forbidden in 1963?"
10:41
Platinum Smalls:
Rick, quite simply this is why you are on the broadcast...
10:42
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: "You will have a lineup? What is this, Amsterdam?"
10:43
Platinum Smalls:
Evidently, there is a red light special in this agency
10:43
Platinum Smalls:
Pete strikes me more as Dennis Kucinich than Harry Truman
10:43
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: Trudy is so annoying that I'm hoping there's an episode where Jim Brown takes her out on a balcony.
10:44
Platinum Smalls: See this is the difference between you and I Rick... I think she is delightful
10:44
Bridget Weizer Granger:
Trudy is smarter than Pete.
10:44
Platinum Smalls:
I agree Brigett, Pete married up...
10:45
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: I don't know, she just seems smarmy and yappy to me. If you're going to have an attitude, you better be able to back it up like Joan does. Team Joan!!!
10:45
Platinum Smalls: Rick, will those Team Joan shirts be available on FDH tomorrow?
10:46
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: If only. I'd like to make them 3-D, if you're picking up what I'm putting down.
10:46
10:47
Platinum Smalls: Two men were involved for sure...
10:47
Rick Morris FDH Lounge:
"He looks like the luckiest man in the world!!!"
10:47
Platinum Smalls: Cuban cigars? Wonder how the Prez would feel about that one...
10:48
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: Pete, you two-faced goober.
10:49
Platinum Smalls:
What is office lingo for kissing the senior partner's arse...
10:50
Platinum Smalls: Hadn't noticed.... snap...
10:50
Bridget Weizer Granger: Wow, Joan. Way to set Mr. Hooker up.
10:50
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: Gi-nocracy. Nice.
10:51
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: "And I have something to say to you too, sweetheart. I didn't fully get the chance to cheat on Mommy on the road trip!"
10:52
Platinum Smalls: Hey look now my daughter will always have a momento of how I tried to make her an illegitmate sister
10:52
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: "On the day you were born, I was getting the four-dollar treatment from an Asian ho in Jersey."
10:53
Bridget Weizer Granger:
Alright guys...it has been fun!
10:53
Platinum Smalls:
Bridgett, any concluding thoughts before you leave?
10:53
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: Kind of a lame ending. Does stuff always have to revolve around Betty? I find her storylines the most boring.
10:53
Platinum Smalls: Rick, is this your hatred for January Jones showing through?
10:54
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: This reminds me of last year. Episode 2 is where it really picked up.
10:54
Bridget Weizer Granger: I second that emotion, Rick.
10:54
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: Nothing against JJ, I don't hate on her as an actress as a lot of others do, I just find the material less compelling than the office stuff. They're just beating the alienated '60s wife thing into the ground.
10:55
10:55
Platinum Smalls:
Rick, I hope you enjoy our final poll of the evening...
10:57
Platinum Smalls:
As we wrap of the night, Rick what are your closing thoughts?
10:58
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: Good episode, not great. They're clearly pacing themselves as they did last year. They're also clearly going to take a few weeks to reveal all of the fallout from the last season -- just as they did last year. I'd give it a B and not any worse, solely based on the fact that they are going to bring more than this.
10:59
Platinum Smalls: I would agree with that assessment... What do you take away from this episode as a memorable moment... Excluding Sal of course
11:00
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: There weren't many. The limey setting up Pete and Don was nice, as well as the fired guy going off. That's the first scene ever where there's that kind of disruption in the office during business hours.
11:01
Platinum Smalls: Yes, I half expected him to grab a goldfish and start campaigning for a revolution
11:02
Platinum Smalls:
I am very intrigued to see how they use the British invasion angle as we go forward
11:02
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: Next week: needs more Joan, Pete/Peggy fallout revelations, Sal drama, Roger & his young bimbo and continuing restructuring issues.
11:02
Platinum Smalls:
Absolutely agreed....
11:03
Platinum Smalls:
Well, that's Mad Men Live....
11:03
Platinum Smalls: Before we say good night, I want to say a personal thank you to my broadcast partner Rick Morris...
11:04
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: OK, thanks, it's been fun.
11:04
Platinum Smalls: Without him, these broadcasts wouldnt receive so much hate mail...
11:04
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: Or interest!
11:04
Platinum Smalls:
Absolutely....
11:05
Platinum Smalls: CHeck out Googling Atlee Hammaker tomorrow as we release our complete football schedule and show you exactly what we think of Rick Pitino... Until then, good night from Madison Avenue
11:05
Bridget Weizer Granger: Thanks guys!
11:05
Rick Morris FDH Lounge: Outy.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

FDH Fantasy Newsletter: Volume II, Issue XXXII

By Rick Morris

For the most part, we keep our fantasy content on our fantasy website and fantasy blog and keep this site for content on all subjects. It allows our readers to find specific content more easily that way. However, it has come to our attention that because our new fantasy sports newsletter is published on the older Blogger platform that our readers may be limited in their ability to subscribe to it. There does not appear to be a way to have content on the FantasyDrafthelp.com blog forwarded to an aggregate news reader -- however, we know that we have that ability here. So we will link to that newsletter each week right here when it is published. Here is this week's newsletter, which covers in its entirety our sixth annual fantasy football mock draft from our most recent FDH Lounge program (the audio archive is embedded in the newsletter, but is also directly available here).

Friday, August 14, 2009

2 years of The Multimedia Magazine online!

By Rick Morris

On January 14, 2007, The FDH Lounge launched in the form of a "nothing is off-topic" Internet TV show on SportsTalkNetwork.com. 69 episodes later, we are continuing that original form of The Lounge in a multitude of unique ways.

But two years ago today, on August 14, 2007, the stage was set for The FDH Lounge to really become the all-around force that it continues to evolve into. Originally titled "The FDH Lounge Blog," the online publication now known as The FDH Lounge Multimedia Magazine took the concepts of the show to another dimension equally suited for them.

As the managing partner of the parent company, FDH Enterprises, LLC, I am so very proud of the work done by all of us: my partners, our contributors and yes, even moi! Our relatively new association with fellow content syndicators under the banner of The 21st Century Media Alliance is also working out well for all parties involved as we collectively chart new horizons together.

If you are relatively new to our work across several platforms, let me list the ones other than this fine Multimedia Magazine you are presently perusing:

^ The FDH Lounge home page, with descriptions of all Multimedia Magazine topics, links to the monthly Multimedia Magazine archives, all Lounge show rundowns and links to past Lounge show audio archives.

^ The FDH Lounge on Twitter: bite-sized nuggets of our tasty Lounge goodness.

^ The FDH Lounge Ultimate Links Page: presently up to 1,612 links in every area of life, laid out in 51 simple categories. If you were stranded on a desert island, this is the only web page you would ever need!

^ The FDH Lounge on Facebook, where we are able to interact with our good friends -- more of whom are always appreciated!

^ The FDH Lounge MySpace page, one of the oldest representations of our brand.

^ The FDH Lounge message board, where all feedback is always welcomed.

^ The site that started it all for FDH Enterprises, FantasyDrafthelp.com, which has the spirit of the anything-goes FDH Lounge within the world of fantasy sports.

On a personal note, because of the capabilities and energy of everyone involved, this has been the greatest creative project of my life. I always envisioned bits and pieces of what would eventually become The FDH Lounge, but I never knew exactly how they would fit together -- and frankly, even after we launched it, I can't say that I had a 100% idea of where this was headed. But the evolution has been thrilling to witness and coordinate. We are putting together something special and timeless and we appreciate how much it means to those of you who follow us in all of our different forms. As we get bigger and bigger, you'll truly be able to say "You knew us when!"

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

FDH Lounge Show #69: August 12, 2009

By Rick Morris

This week’s edition of THE FDH LOUNGE on SportsTalkNetwork.com is completely given over to the sixth annual FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER Fantasy Football Mock Draft.

This event, which will feature participation from FDH, STN and Outside The Boxscore personalities, will provide you all the help you need to get ready for your own drafts this season. Well, all the help you need aside from the free download FANTASY FOOTBALL DRAFTOLOGY 2009, that is!

This week’s program will be the final one in the 7-10 PM EDT timeslot as we move to 6-9 PM EDT on Wednesday, August 18. The season premier of the show-within-a-show THE GOON SQUAD will be in its new location of the first half of Hour One and THE FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER will occupy the second half of that hour – leaving the 7-9 PM EDT timeslot available for the “classic Lounge free-for-all style” just as it was when these segments occupied the 9-10 PM EDT hour previously.

So be sure to tune in; it’s going to be a great program and we hope you can be a part of our audience. As always, we urge you to watch the show live (or listen if you’re on dial-up), but if you can’t catch this as it’s happening, you can always catch the FDH archives 24-7 right here or catch us now on iTunes!

Monday, August 10, 2009

Obama’s Ahmadinejad moment on health care

By Rick Morris

Perhaps we now see why President Obama reacted in such milquetoast fashion towards the Iranian crackdown on protesters back in June – because now we are seeing his own “Supreme Leader Power Grab” on the subject of health care in America.

The parallels are striking and are most troubling to those in this country who fear that the Democratic congressional supermajority and an administration raised on Saul Alinsky and Daley family politics are colluding for ultimate and permanent control over the American populace.

^ Former “journalist” Linda Douglass, who is now paid openly to propagate the same point of view she put forward on ABC News for all those years, is putting together an Orwellian, enemy-of-the-state database comprised by the results of citizens snitching on one another to Big Brother in the White House.

^ House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appears to be setting the stage for a Kristallnacht-type event staged to discredit citizens fervently opposed to the federal takeover of all health care based on her scurrilous lies about congressional town hall protesters carrying swastikas.

^ Shock troop thugs under the banner of the SEIU union are rapidly becoming the domestic equivalent of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, attacking citizens exercising their right to free speech. Talking-points enforcers who host MSNBC prime-time programs are stepping up the propaganda, denouncing as un-American the peaceful protesters who are making the allegedly unreasonable demand that our congressmen actually read this bill before remaking our country and economic system so completely.

This power grab has been years in the making. The leftist movement in this country softened the ground somewhat by denouncing allegedly totalitarian moves by President Bush. Yes, the same President Bush who couldn’t coordinate a federal response to Hurricane Katrina, couldn’t safeguard our southern border, couldn’t stop Congress from spending like drunken sailors and couldn’t fashion a surge in Iraq until four years of a bloody stalemate was allegedly going to pull together a dictatorship-without-end. However, as laughable as the allegations were, they did lull the American people to sleep though the dangers of transforming America into a “collectivist paradise.” Witness the fact that Obama is the first president to be elected since LBJ as a fairly open leftist and the only one aside from LBJ in U.S. history.

While legitimate market-based reforms that would expand access to health care and deliver greater consumer protection are actually of great importance, the collectivist drivel in the proposed Democratic bill accomplishes just the opposite and will destroy our peerless medical innovation and quality of care. Those who do not understand the present stakes need to inform themselves about the provisions in this threat to our way of life before it is too late. Future generations will not forgive those who stood by and let this happen.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Lil Wayne & Rascal Flatts: Proof that Music is in the Toilet

By Tony Mazur

In my experiences, August typically brings out the worst in some people. Whether they worked or slept through the first two months of summer, August is the time where people try to cram everything from tearful goodbyes to Corona Light before school starts. Luckily for the feeble minded, they partied their rear ends off this past week in the nation's North Coast.

And why is that? Because Lil Wayne (or as I prefer to call him, 'Lil Weezy'!) and Rascal Flatts came to town!

Oddly enough, both acts performed at the same venue (Blossom Music Center), and, by taking a look at the photo albums on Facebook, pretty much the same people showed up to both shows.

Thursday was Lil Wayne. Now, I have never once listened to Lil Wayne and enjoyed myself. I'm usually confused as to why people find him entertaining. My girlfriend once told me "Lil Wayne's voice makes people want to have sex". No, his voice makes me want to apply a screwdriver to my eardrums. And what is the fascination with auto tune? He makes Max Headroom's voice sound realistic.

I took a gander at the crowd in some of those concert photos. For a hip hop act, I was surprised that there was that many white people in attendance. I don't understand the Lil Wayne hype, and I hope him and his auto tune are on their final minute of fame.

Friday night at Blossom was Rascal Flatts. For some unknown reason, country music and hip hop are huge in a town that bills itself "The Rock N Roll Capital of the World". Rascal Flatts is anything but country. I would categorize them closer to R&B than country, and they aren't the least big soulful. Their music is poppy and nauseating, and their songs typically sound alike with a faint utterance of twang. Their biggest songs are covers.

Darius Rucker, the former lead singer of Hootie & the Blowfish, opened up for Rascal Flatts. Apparently people were sick of hearing "Time" and "Hold My Hand", so Rucker decided to hop on the country bandwagon, just like Jessica Simpson and Michelle Branch.

Again, the youth of Northeast Ohio came out in droves to see this faux country group. The girls arrived to the venue in plaid button-down shirts, jeans skirts, ponytails, and cowgirl boots, and the guys dressed up in similar plaid shirts with ratty jeans, cowboy boots, and a cowboy hat. Why do people feel the need to dress up like hillbillies and farmers? It's completely phony. It's not Halloween.

I have been to hundreds of concerts in my short lifetime, and I can tell you that I was myself. I didn't dye my hair maroon and put in a lip ring for Green Day, I didn't smoke joints and wear ghetto hats with the sticker still on them for Cypress Hill, and I didn't sport tight jeans and poof my hair when I saw Poison.

I had this argument on my former radio show with a female co-host, and she said that dressing up for country concerts is the same as wearing your favorite team's apparel at a ballgame. The flaw in her logic is that I actually don my team's gear away from the ballpark. The people who wear redneck clothing to the country music show would not wear it anywhere else.

What I found interesting was that the same people who portray hillbillies at a concert are the ones who typically mock them in real life. They're the same people who called George W. Bush a redneck throughout his tenure, and will mimic a southern dialect just to poke fun at them.

Lil Wayne and Rascal Flatts prove what is truly wrong with the music industry. This is like a flashback to the 1980s where it was all about style rather than the quality of the music. We have returned to the days of Aha and Cinderella. I just hope that a Guns N Roses or Nirvana come from nowhere and smack us off our chairs.

Shame on Tribe suck-ups who abetted failure

By Rick Morris

We have long believed at FDH that the phrase “patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel” should be revised for sports purposes to “blind homerism is the last refuge of the phony, better-fan-than-thou jerk.” This applies in spades to the mismanagement which has been applied for most of the last decade to the Cleveland Indians.

Now, the Indians are my hometown team, the squad that I have rooted for my entire life. After waiting in vain for the first two decades of my life, the team finally progressed into contention in the 1990s under the tutelage of team architect John Hart. Clearly sensing disaster when the Dolans bought the team at the turn of the decade, Hart wisely jumped ship and matters deteriorated sharply, never to rebound.

The disingenuous honks in the front office, led by General Manager Mark Shapiro – whose insane self-worth derived from having attended an Ivy League school would put Andy Bernard to shame – have drunk their own Kool-Aid ever since, strutting around as though they invented baseball while propagating the wisdom of their “great plan” to all who would listen. Meanwhile, as this “brain trust” thumbed its nose at Hart’s last few draft classes, they themselves went on to produce more guano from first-round picks than the gardens of America can currently utilize.

Unbelievably, many important voices in the national media who should have known better were taken in by their Potemkin village. Peter Gammons has pretty much singlehandedly made it official ESPN policy that all who work there must bow before The Temple of Wise Shapiro. Ken Rosenthal picked the Tribe for the freaking World Series in 2008!

But while their failures in judgment about this regime should have been apparent at the time and are wounding to me in the sense that they lent unwarranted legitimacy to this crowd, I do not take them personally. No matter how great the professional resume, we all make mistakes and the fact that theirs helped prop up the bumblers who destroyed my favorite team is a cross I must bear without malice towards them.

However, I have plenty of wrath to spare for the Vichy turds in the Tribe blogosphere who spent the last few years resolutely refusing to speak truth to power, but choosing to enable their “benevolent overlords” as they dismantled this town’s baseball tradition brick-by-stinking-brick. I refer you back to these past classics from The FDH Lounge, penned when so many unseeing eyes could not see the 2007 playoff run for the fluke and Mother of All Anomalies that it truly was:

http://thefdhlounge.blogspot.com/2007/10/alcs-post-mortem.html

http://thefdhlounge.blogspot.com/2007/11/sorry-larry-dolan-facts-are-facts.html

http://thefdhlounge.blogspot.com/2008/02/how-to-talk-like-blind-homer.html

I’m particularly fond of the last one, where the pomposity of the Amen Crowd was held up to justifiable ridicule repeatedly. I cited numerous examples time and time again of complete and utter garbage talking points from the front office recycled through willing puppets like Paul Cousineau and Tony Lastoria (one of the prime perpetrators of the grand lie that Jim Thome stabbed Tribe fans in the back – when in fact the truth is that the front office revoked the offer once he accepted it and demonstrated their cowardice and complete lack of character for all these years by letting him take the heat for a falsehood).

So again, for all of the head-scratchers in the “Gee, how could this happen crowd?” I would note that these columns were written in late 2007 and 2008 and contained material consistent with points I had been making on SportsTalkNetwork.com since 2003! Clearly, SOME of us saw this coming! By the way, fellow FDH Lounge Dignitary Tony Mazur also was not fooled by the Three-card Monte operators down at the corner of Ontario and Carnegie.

Sadly, though, as we all learned in school, history repeats itself. Cousineau and Lastoria are doing their Stalinist best to push the vision of the latest Five-Year Plan from Dear Leader Shapiro. This is to be expected; the thought that somehow the scales will fall from their eyes at this late date is fanciful indeed.

Unfortunately, however, even after everything that has transpired over the past eight seasons, all of the false grand promises and absolute gaga about “waves and waves of young talent being generated,” this regime is still sucking in those who should know better. I refer to the talented young scribe who penned this article, which I will generously refer to as most credulous indeed. It saddens and troubles me that even after scores of player development failures this decade that leave the certainty that Ross Atkins possesses pictures of a higher-up with a farm animal that this organization still retains the ability to buffalo those above the Cousineau-Lastoria trough. Because I respect his overall body of work, I retain much hope that this particular journalist will eventually rise above the propagation of rosy scenarios on the public.

Ultimately, nothing will save this franchise except ownership who will understand the truism that “you have to spend money to make money” and commit to at least mid-level payroll year in and year out and a front office without this poisonous level of pomposity and an inability to admit their mistakes. The absolute best that this team can hope for as presently operated is a “win the lottery” type year where all the stars align as they did in 2007 – and the team still came up short in the World Series when the luck that they borrowed against for an entire season ran dry in the final three games of the ALCS. Again, that is the absolute best that can be generated and that is once a half-decade if the team is lucky. Don’t believe me? Ask Paul Dolan, who foolishly admitted publicly what I have been claiming for all of these years – words that branded me a hater by his yes-men!

If you’re an Indians fan – and to an extent, this analogy can be applied to fans of any extremely mismanaged franchises – and you don’t feel that you deserve any better than that kind of treatment, then, hey, enjoy your Stockholm Syndrome. We the outraged real fans will continue to press for the liberation of our franchise from those who hold it hostage and will try our best according to the dictates of our respective religions to forgive you for continuing to sell us down the river just so that you can feel morally superior in your own fandom.

FDH Fantasy Newsletter: Volume II, Issue XXXI

By Rick Morris

For the most part, we keep our fantasy content on our fantasy website and fantasy blog and keep this site for content on all subjects. It allows our readers to find specific content more easily that way. However, it has come to our attention that because our new fantasy sports newsletter is published on the older Blogger platform that our readers may be limited in their ability to subscribe to it. There does not appear to be a way to have content on the FantasyDrafthelp.com blog forwarded to an aggregate news reader -- however, we know that we have that ability here. So we will link to that newsletter each week right here when it is published. Here is this week's newsletter, which contains a complete rundown of our first annual FDH Fantasy Sports Summit.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

FDH Lounge Show #68: August 5, 2009

By Rick Morris

The 68th edition of THE FDH LOUNGE on SportsTalkNetwork.com (Wednesdays, 7-10 PM EDT) brings you more of the variety that only we can deliver.

Even before The Opening Statements of The Dignitaries of The FDH Lounge and our look at This Week in The FDH Lounge, we welcome in the author of a provocative new novel. Kathryn Fraser penned the tome A Journey, A Reckoning and A Miracle, which imagines an alternate-reality post-presidency in which George W. Bush changes his mind about the correctness of the Iraq War and thus embarks on a new path. She moves very familiar figures about on the canvass in ways that we are not used to seeing them and intermingles some interesting characters that she creates.

After we speak with her, we begin an extended FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER, first focusing on our brand-new free download, FANTASY FOOTBALL DRAFTOLOGY 2009 and all of the contents within. Such as? Well, only our FDH Draft Board, Top 60 Overall, Senior Editor Jason Jones’ position-by-position player rankings and notes, 2009 FDH Mock Draft & Analysis, 2009 Fantasy Overview, Don’t Be That Guy, Injury Analysis, Projected Breakthroughs, Rookie Player Rankings, Overvalued & Undervalued Players, Suggested League Guidelines and bonus non-fantasy coverage. Is that enough for you? That’s obviously a rhetorical question!

From there, in the second hour, we convene the First Annual FDH Fantasy Sports Summit with some of the biggest names in the game joining us:

^ Cory J. Bonini, Managing Editor of KFFL.com
^ Dave Richard, Fantasy Football Writer at CBSSports.com
^ Mike Harmon, Fantasy Guru at FoxSports.com
^ Kelly Perdew, CEO of Rotohog

NOTE: More names may be joining us and we will work to keep this rundown updated prior to the show to reflect that. We’ll be talking state of the industry, the 2009 football season and anything else that is relevant. It will be a lot of fun and very informative to have this meeting of the minds.

In Hour Three, we bring back the very well-connected sports columnist Neil Best of Newsday. If there’s a sports or sports media story you care about, he is covering it, so we are guaranteed to have a great segment.

We close with a new guest on the program and somebody who we feel will fit in very well with us. Jonathan Mayo, the minor league columnist for MLB.com, will be coming on to help us take a look at the prospects involved in the baseball deadline deals.

It’s going to be a great program and we hope you can be a part of our audience. As always, we urge you to watch the show live (or listen if you’re on dial-up), but if you can’t catch this as it’s happening, you can always catch the FDH archives 24-7 right here or catch us now on iTunes!

MLB trading deadline winners and losers

By Rick Morris

TRADING DEADLINE WINNERS
1 St. Louis: Matt Holliday is proving what we said, that he got a bad rap by those who forecast much poorer production from him once he left Coors. If the pitching is for real, and there's no reason to believe it isn't, the lineup can now hold up its end of the bargain.

2 Philadelphia: Getting Cliff Lee -- the legitimate second half of a 1-2 punch that you generally now need to win playoff series but the team did not have anyway in its world championship campaign last year -- while still holding onto the team's most prized prospects? Thievery.

3 Chicago White Sox: The Sox are long-term winners with Jake Peavy regardless of his availability this year. They have a pitcher who makes a case for being the best in the game when healthy for a few more critical years. Sure, they gave up top prospects and he's a tad iffy to be ready anytime soon, but you take a franchise player when you can get one.

4 Boston: They didn't shore up their starting pitching, but nobody has a deeper lineup now that Victor Martinez & Company are on board. If the team can avoid the juvenile temptation to keep running Old Man Winter out behind the plate day after day and actually use Martinez back there more than once in a blue moon, they'll be set from top to bottom with the lineup. They should have looked at another starting pitcher, though.

5 Detroit: Jarrod Washburn helps their rotation, but he wasn't an impact addition on a team that frankly still doesn't look able to stand up to the best of the West and East in the playoffs.

6 New York Yankees: They say they didn't need much and that's why they didn't do much. Jerry Hairston helps their versatility, but could this aging team have added one more piece? That's the question they'll be asking themselves this winter if they don't win it all.


TRADING DEADLINE LOSERS
1 Los Angeles Dodgers: It's a heck of a calculated risk to pass on another top arm for a team without the aforementioned 1-2 playoff punch that the Phils now boast. George Sherrill in the bullpen can now help to make games a seven-inning affair and if he succeeds, the risk will pay off in the end. But you have to have leads to defend and we will now see if the Dodgers present themselves as another great regular season team that can't finish in October.

2 Chicago Cubs: Granted, they were victims of circumstance with the payroll already tied up in this lineup, but a team as disappointing in terms of punch as they have been really needed an infusion somewhere -- especially with Matt Holliday moving down near the arch.

3 San Francisco: How a team has made it this far with seven holes in their lineup is amazing -- and a testament to the greatness of the front end of the rotation. However, the fact that Ryan Garko and Freddy Sanchez are now considered upgrades in the lineup is a testament to how pathetic the hitting still remains.

4 Tampa Bay: Honestly, there wasn't room for the cheap ownership to make one more move? We called it a year ago at the trading deadline when we said that the team failed to acquire the one additional stick that would put them over the top. This time around, another DH bat or a relief arm would have helped, but the price to be paid may be sitting at home as the third-best team in the AL -- and also, unfortunately, their own division.

5 Minnesota: Orlando Cabrera? That's it? Sorry about that.

6 Cleveland: As a rule, sellers can only make this list if they behave in an exceptionally stupid manner. The arrogant and clueless Mark Shapiro, who thinks he invented baseball -- why, just ask him -- managed to leave the top prospects of the Red Sox and Phillies in their respective organizations when he gave away Cliff Lee and Victor Martinez. What a putz.

Monday, August 3, 2009

MLB power rankings for start of August

By Rick Morris

NOTE: Previous rankings are listed in parentheses.

TOP TIER
1 Los Angeles Dodgers (1)
2 New York Yankees (3)
3 Boston (2)
4 Los Angeles Angels
(5)SECOND TIER
5 Philadelphia (4)
6 Tampa Bay (6)
7 St Louis (7)
8 San Francisco (8)
9 Texas (10)
10 Colorado (11)
11 Florida (12)
12 Chicago Cubs (17)
13 Detroit (9)
14 Chicago White Sox (14)
15 Minnesota (13)
16 Seattle (16)
17 Atlanta (21)
18 Milwaukee (15)
19 New York Mets (18)
20 Houston (19)
21 Toronto (20)
THIRD TIER
22 Cincinnati (22)
23 Baltimore (23)
24 Arizona (24)
25 Pittsburgh (27)
26 Oakland (26)
27 Cleveland (29)
28 San Diego (28)
29 Kansas City (25)
FOURTH TIER
30 Washington (30)

BIGGEST RISERS: Chicago Cubs (5 spots), Atlanta (4 spots)
BIGGEST FALLERS: Detroit and Kansas City (4 spots), Milwaukee (3 spots)

Sunday, August 2, 2009

FANTASY FOOTBALL DRAFTOLOGY 2009 online!

By Rick Morris

We've got the only fantasy football guide you need for this year, squeezed into 18 very vital pages. FANTASY FOOTBALL DRAFTOLOGY 2009 is now online, with the following features:

^ FDH draft board with: industry compilation rankings, our UQB "Ultimate Stat," dollar figures for auction leagues, bye weeks and four key statistical categories per position along with rankings in each category

^ FDH Top 60 Overall

^ FDH Senior Editor Jason Jones' rankings by position, along with notes for each player

^ Draft Philosophy Overview

^ 2009 Fantasy Overview

^ 2009 FDH Mock Draft & Analysis

^ Don't Be That Guy

^ Injury Analysis

^ Projected Breakthroughs

^ Rookie Player Rankings

^ Overvalued Players

^ Undervalued Players

^ Suggested League Guidelines

As a bonus, we've also got some non-fantasy aspects for you as well:

^ 2009 FDH Standings/Playoff Predictions

^ 2009 NFL Draft Notebook

^ 2009 Donruss Football Classics Review

FDH Fantasy Newsletter: Volume II, Issue XXX

By Rick Morris

For the most part, we keep our fantasy content on our fantasy website and fantasy blog and keep this site for content on all subjects. It allows our readers to find specific content more easily that way. However, it has come to our attention that because our new fantasy sports newsletter is published on the older Blogger platform that our readers may be limited in their ability to subscribe to it. There does not appear to be a way to have content on the FantasyDrafthelp.com blog forwarded to an aggregate news reader -- however, we know that we have that ability here. So we will link to that newsletter each week right here when it is published. Here is this week's newsletter.