Whether you're at the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt's End
*The scintillating debut of pitcher Matt Garza notwithstanding, the Rangers are going nowhere fast with this offense. We knew it'd be difficult to replace the bats of Josh Hamilton, Michael Young and Mike Napoli, but this is ridiculously anemic. Texas scored only 10 runs in splitting a four-game series with the Yankees' junior varsity. Rangers are now averaging 4.2 runs, their worst output of the millennium. Last club to score less was the 1990 outfit that won 83 games. Help? Lance Berkman and his bothersome hip/knee is pondering retirement and Manny Ramirez ain't lighting it up at AAA. Now imagine if Nelson Cruz gets suspended. Yikes.
*Amused at all the uproar over
Jerry Jones striking a deal to take "Cowboys" off his stadium in exchange for $20 million a year. I'd name my child "AT&T" for that, wouldn't you? Besides, most fans will still call it Cowboys Stadium. Not the media, but the fans. If you missed Thursday's dramatic video unveiling,
I gotcha covered right here.
*Radio waves: With the long-term direction of 97.1 The Eagle being murky (station management is currently pondering a format flip), Russ Martin and his crew are working these days on month-to-month contracts. ... I hear rumblings about yet another local sports station launching this Fall, supposedly on a 50,000-watt AM station. Stay tuned. ... Can't say who or why (yet), but 105.3 The Fan is about to lose a voice that's been at the station since early 2009. ... Also hear The Fan is attempting to attract a former Cowboys player to a regular appearance on the air. But if it ain't a Roger Staubach-Troy Aikman-Jimmy Johnson show, don't bother. ... For all it's b.s., what makes radio an appealing industry is the fame and fortune. At The Ticket recently George Dunham took his family to Hawaii, Craig Miller went to France, Donovan Lewis to Greece and some dude named Jake Kemp went on a multi-country trip through Europe. ... As
we documented a couple weeks ago, The Fan's ratings have never been lower since it hatched in 2008. So the addition of
Dallas' Only Daily columnist Tim Cowlishaw Fridays 4-6 p.m. alongside
Ben and Skin can't hurt, right? ... Internet show I stumbled on that isn't half-bad: The 101 Radio Show on
DeepEllumOnAir, Thursdays 6:30-8:30 p.m. It's got something. Not exactly sure what, but something.
*Trading in my tennis shoes for some hiking boots. One - and, trust me, there are several - of the silver linings to getting fired from a 5-hour radio show is the time I now have to be selfish. I've done more for myself in the last three months than I did in the previous three years.
Hosted a pool party.
Played lotsa golf. Last week took
a trip with Sybil to New Braunfels which included John Newcombe's Tennis Ranch. Planned my wedding/honeymoon to Tahiti/ Bora Bora/ New Zealand/ Australia/ Fiji. And, on Tuesday, I'm crossing off another item on my bucket list - climb a mountain. Going with a an old high-school buddy to hike up the
14,064-foot Humboldt Peak in Colorado. With any luck - pray for me - I will be blogging from the air way up there.
*Remember my infamous "Dez Bryant to IR" Tweet from December 2012? Of course you do. Y'all never let me forget it. When I Tweeted the info I had two sources telling me the Cowboys had decided to end the receiver's season in the wake of his broken finger. And this week in Oxnard Cowboys' head coach Jason Garrett kinda corroborated my story, saying the team fully intended to put Dez on IR until "his will finally convinced us to give him a chance to play." Sorta softens the blow of me being wrong? Nope. Not even close. I still blew it. Close or not.
*After the greatest year in A&M football history, it's been a rough summer for the Aggies. We all know about
Johnny Goofball's exploits. Now Von Miller is facing NFL suspension for drug use and rookie receiver Ryan Swope will never play a professional snap because of concussions. Take heart, Aggies, you can always giggle at
former Longhorn Vince Young having to auction off his athletic assets to pay off debt. Young's first NFL contract, by the way, guaranteed him $26 million.
*
Hot.
*
Not.
(continued from page 1)
*We all remember Ed "Too Tall" Jones right? Dominant defensive end for the Cowboys' in the '70s-'80s. Made three Pro Bowls and won a Super Bowl ring in '77. Some forget, however, that the 6-foot-9 monster also was a badass boxer. He took a one-year sabbatical from the NFL in '79 to box, going 6-0 as a heavyweight with five knockouts before re-joining the Cowboys. These days he likes talking boxing as much as football, evidenced by his visit Thursday with the kids at
the legendary Montoya Boxing Gym in far east Dallas.
*Speaking of boxing, remember
the sorta-scheduled appearance of Floyd Mayweather at the Rockwall Elite Boxing Club I skeptically wrote about? Supposed to be this weekend. Stay tuned Monday for what went actually went down. Or didn't.
*When I'm not filling this blog with
information and entertainment crap, I'm moonlighting as a small-business owner. I'm one of three founders of
Pizza Buzz, a restaurant that will deliver pizza - and, yes, beer! - to northeast Fort Worth beginning in August. We're to the point where we're hiring. Managers. Cooks. Drivers. Counter. The works. Store is located at Basswood/Highway 377. Contact my partner Cliff@PizzaBuzz.com if interested.
*Most of us live check-to-check, and day-to-day. Thankfully, via long-term contracts and upcoming events, sports constantly reminds us that there will indeed be a future. Hence, this week Oklahoma extended the contract of head coach Bob Stoops through ... 2020.
*Once upon a time in 1998 Donnie Nelson was hand-picked by his Hall-of-Fame father, Don, to be the next head coach of the Dallas Mavericks. Now? Stripped of power via this week's hiring of Houston Rockets' VP Gersson Rosas to be the team's new general manager. Love Donnie, but the move is warranted. Flat out, teams like
the Spurs have done more with their crappy draft picks than the Mavericks have with theirs. Mavs re-signed Brandan Wright and traded guard Nick Calathes this week, but still don't see anything to convince me they are a legit threat for more than an 8th seed in 2014.
*Twitter and social media be damned, the English royals
announced this week's baby arrival via Town Crier reading aloud from a scroll and ringing a bell. There's tradition. And there's stubborn stupidity.
*Speaking of Donnie, he was this town's forgotten GM. I see Jerry everywhere with endorsements and this week there was Rangers' GM Jon Daniels doing a (horribly awkward) commercial for James Wood Chevrolet. Donnie is great, but most of his work is done out of sight.
*What's Rangers' stranger: Reliever Jason Frasor's follow-through high-kick? Or the fact that Berkman has the same number of stolen bases - 0 - as Jurickson Profar?
(continued from page 2)
*For my money, Fox 4's Fiona Gorostiza is one of the hottest, bestest reporters on local TV. Animated. Energetic. Informative. And did I mention extremely banana-ish?
*You'd think a movie featuring Bruce Willis, Vince Vaughn, Catherine Zeta-Jones, sports gambling and
Laura Prepon's boobs would be great. You'd be wrong. Sybil tricked me into
Lay The Favorite last night. Awful. Not surprised it cost $20 million and only earned $20,000.
*Swear this happened at Big 12 Media Day this week: Baylor stud safety Ahmad Dixon was asked if the Bears could really win the conference. His answer: "Can God save a hooker?" I smell T-shirts!
*I think we're just trained to complain. Walked into Tom Thumb this week and got the obligatory "Hot enough for ya?" from a cart-gatherer. Honestly, no. It was 94 degrees. Born and raised in Texas, I'm accustomed to the heat. Love the heat. In fact, the hotter the better. (Conversely, I'm a wimp when it comes to winter.) But this is by no means a hot summer. Only one day in the 100s so far and twice this week I've awakened to morning rain. Relatively speaking, this summer is mild. So far.
*Garrett was this week asked if he was a boring person. Expect to hear that during Super Bowl Media Day, but not during the early days of training camp. Only the Cowboys. By the way, I believe it was the
Star-Telegram's Mac Engel who authored the query.
*Speaking of Garrett, I got no problem with the Cowboys agreeing to allow
Sports Illustrated/NBC's Peter King to tape and broadcast his pre-camp speech to players. If Garrett signed off on it, that is. And I know what you're thinking, this was Jerry
telling Garrett to allow it. If that's the case, horrible idea.
(continued from page 3)
*Last week's death at Six Flags reminded me of the woman who died on
the old Roaring Rapids water ride back in 1999. If you had to choose, you taking a 75-foot plunge off a roller coaster or drowning in three feet of water trapped under a giant raft?
*Chris Davis since the All-Star break: 7 games, .214, 0 homers, 13 strikeouts. The fact that his slump coincides with Ryan Braun's suspension will do nothing to mute the skeptics crowing that the former Ranger's rise is steroid-fueled.
*I'm retro-actively pissed at Noah. Why didn't he do us all a big favor and just slap those two mosquitoes instead of welcoming them aboard?
*Aaron Hernandez is a pretty big dude at 6-foot-1 and 245 pounds. But have you seen the bailiff that escorts him in and out of the Boston courtroom? Dwarfs the NFL player. Gotta be 6-5 and about 275. And the fact that he wears a buzzcut and black horn-rimmed glasses makes his look even more menacing.
*Take your work seriously. But not yourself.
*Dwight Howard this week took a photo with the great centers in Houston Rockets' history: Elvin Hayes, Ralph Sampson, Hakeem Olajuwon and Yao Ming. Wondered what that Mavs' photo would look like: James Donaldson, standing beside Tyson Chandler. That's it.
*Circle Saturday night, Sept. 7 on your (smartphone) calendars. I'm hosting a
DFWSportatorium Launch Party at Baby Dolls in Dallas. I'll handle the cover, the suite and toss out some T-shirts and caps and goodies, you guys take care of your liquor and your lap dances. Should be lots of college football on the TVs and some decent "entertainment" in our suite. See you there.
*This weekend? For the first time in a long time ... nada. Just sit back and relax and ... Oops, take that back. Tennis Saturday morning and a grudge-match golf outing with long-time family 'n friends at Eldorado Country Club Sunday afternoon. Other than
that, rest and Pizza Buzzin'. Don't be a stranger.
