How much TV do you watch?? I work in television but find myself watching less and less which isn’t a bad thing, but in the process I’m certainly falling behind the TV times??!!
Breaking Bad—haven’t seen an episode? The same for Mad Men, Boardwalk Empire and Game of Thrones??! Not by choice, its not a boycott, just feel like I’m so far behind that its impossible to catch up…..
I never latched on to those vampire motif’s and then you have Duck Dynasty?? My wife loves it and she’s not alone—the duck callers have swept the nation soaking in an astonishing 95% increase in viewers where they average 8.4 million now! Maybe I haven’t seen enough but I just don’t get it?
My point–I don’t think I’ll ever have enough time to catch up. Don’t know about you but my DVR is full of things I never have time to see and as the months pass on with work and the kiddos, it just gets worse. I make time for Hard Knocks, the Newsroom and the occasional Rays game but that’s all I have time for?
Reality TV sent me into network hibernation a few years back as I can’t stomach the Bachelor, Dancing with the Stars and haven’t seen American Idol since Simon left?? I loved and kept up with Curb your Enthusiasm, Friday Night Lights, Entourage and the Sopranos but it seems like those shows are a dying breed—-I gotta get a new favorite but am so far behind it may be a lost cause???
Falling behind —one of many subjects in our quick sprint around the Naborhood……thanks for stopping by!
MY FAVORITE GOLFER: The P in PGA has never stood for personality. It seems like they clone most of these golfers, but I have finally found my favorite— none other than the Dufinator himself. Jason Dufner, your PGA Championship champ is my kind of guy.
The Spalding look alike from Caddyshack probably hasn’t touched a treadmill in years, most likely gets a haircut once every three months but breaks the mold when it comes to the usual PGA stiff. What other pro sleeps with the Wanamaker Trophy and knows exactly how many beers fit into it??? OK maybe John Daly but I digress. I love this Auburn grad who took some acorns from the Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester NY and gave him to his wife so they can replace the oaks at Toomer’s Corner.
It must drive Tiger insane watching Dufner bring home a Major. Tiger works out 8 days a week, eats right, works overtime and watches the laid back former walk on bring home a major title that has now alluded Woods for five years. Add to that Dufnering has replaced Tebowing as an American Phenomenon. Keep it up Dufner—I finally have more of a reason to watch golf.
CLUB “10”: The average career of an NFL player is just over three years–so making it in the league 10 years or more is rarified air. It got me thinking how rare is it, so I did some digging? Well on the current “active” ENLARGED Training Camp rosters only 142 players in the entire league have gained admission.
Breaking down those in Club 10—Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri has the most tenure of any player with 18 years followed by Peyton Manning, Tony Gonzalez and Charles Woodson with 16 each.
You have a few wildcards as “Mamas please let your Babies grow up to be Long Snappers”– Bears LS Patrick Mannelly (16th year) and Cards LS Mike Leach (14th year)—not bad work if you can get it.
Speaking of the Cardinals they have the most members of Club 10 with 9. The Ravens, Steelers, Lions and Niners have 8.
The Bucs, Dolphins, Browns Packers and Seahawks only have one while the Titans are the only team with not a one. Shows how unique it is to acquire a double digit career in the NFL.
SHORT DRIVERS: Its one of the very few surveys in which I’m too tall for the target audience (albiet barely.) How bout—“The best cars for Short Drivers ” from our friends at Edmunds.com. In a unique study, they sought out vehicles for those 5’6 and under that can “let them see out properly and in which they can adjust themselves to fit comfortably and safely behind the wheel while reaching controls and pedals.”
I never knew this was such an issue but the study results in a wide assortment from the BMW 3 series to the Honda Accord, the KIA Soul, the Mercedes Benz S-Class and the Volkswagen Passat. Short people “do have reason” and now they have custom cars!
WE LOVE BEER! To borrow a phrase, I don’t drink much but when I do—I love a goodbeer, it seems I’m hardly alone. Recently received an email from About.com who came up with some interesting stats on how much our country loves having a cold one.
How much does the USA love beer?? If you stacked all the beer cans consumed by Americans in one year it would reach the Moon…..20 times. How they figured that I have no idea but let’s take their word for it?!
California leads the U.S. with the most breweries (219) and the average price for a beer is 3.87 in our country unless you’re in New York its seven bucks!
Super Bowl Sunday is the big beer day where 325.5 million gallons of beer are consumed (in case you wondered that would fill 493 Olympic sized swimming pools)
But there is good news for you beer drinkers—drinking a brewskie over a mixed drink can save you over 150 calories according to this study.
WILL THE THRILL: Tough run for my Rays of late (I still believe!!) so let’s focus on the silver lining—rookie Will Myers. A big reason I love the Rays are they are the classic underdogs: small market, low payroll, low attendance. Another example is the little attention their stud rookie is getting nationally, which is a shame.
While everybody is drooling over the Dodgers Yasiel Puig and for good reason, Myers is swinging in the shadows putting up nearly as impressive numbers. In 17 fewer games and 65 less at bats—Will has 5 more RBI’s than Puig and only 2 fewer HR’s. Both rooks lead their team in hitting, batting well over 300—still Myers doesn’t come close to garnering the national headlines as the Dodger sensation. You know what –who cares? That’s how the Rays roll, besides Longoria and David Price most around the country probably couldn’t name two more guys on the roster??! Soon they will hear more about Will the Thrill who has lived up to every ounce of the hype.
NOBODY ASKED ME BUT: Looking forward to the SEC Network debuting in a year but you can already see signs of its kickoff on ESPN which has been great. One of them is giving more daily updates on the SEC teams especially daily post practice interviews where nobody is getting more airtime than the Head Ball Coach. Steve Spurrier love him or hate him is always entertaining unlike many of his boring counterparts. When I covered him back in the 1990’s he would make every presser a “what will he say next” experience whether it was previewing New Mexico St or Florida St. Don’t slow down coach—we can’t get enough!
EXTRA POINT: For you frequent flyers out there–this may be hard to believe. According to the USA Today–from January to June, the top 16 airlines got flights to destinations within 15 minutes of schedule 78.1% of the time. Its the sixth highest total in the last 19 years—impressive. Now that we’re on a roll, how about we put in a federal law making Atlanta install two airports—one for Delta and the other for everybody else???
UNTIL NEXT BLOG,
Mike