Why I hate Detroit sports talk radio: Reason #26,873
As I have nothing better to do while I'm working on a blog post, 97.1 FM - The Ticket, is playing in the background. I realize it's just asking for trouble, but what the Hell, at least they are talking local sports. (Jim Rome, playing on WDFN at that time, grates on me to no end. Then there is Rome's callers, all of whom seem to believe they are auditioning for Last Comic Standing)
It being after 2 PM, the tolerable Doug Karsch and Scott Anderson are replaced on-air with Terry Foster (whom I normally like) and the absolutely moronic Mike Valenti.
Why would I call him moronic? Thanks to a couple of things he said over the air during the first half hour of the show.
One, he actually watched the ESPY's. Watching ESPN masturbate all over itself while handing out utterly meaningless sports "awards" is the biggest waste of time ever created on this planet. When the 4 Letter announced their creation back in 1993, I resolved to never watch the useless and inspid ESPY's. 15 years later, I'm proud to say I've yet to see a second of them. (Maybe I'll make that my epitath, "He refused to watch the ESPY's") Most any knowledgable sports fan has better things to do. Hell, even staring off into space is a better use of time than watching an awards show celebrating all that is wrong with sports and the ESPN.
The ESPY's admission was bad enough. But what really sent me over the edge was Valenti claiming that Justin Verlander is not a true number one starter, and he has not been "great" over the past 6 weeks. Has he even watched any of Verlanders starts? Probably not, if he spends time watching outright crap like the ESPY's.
Let's look at Verlander's stats since June 11th:
G: 8
W-L: 6-0
ERA: 2.30
IP: 54.2
ER: 14
H: 36
K: 47
BB: 19
The Tigers are 7-1 in those 8 starts. If that's not great, then I don't know what the definition of "great" is. To be on the safe side, let's look up great in the dictionary!
Great:
wonderful; first-rate; very good
being such in an extreme or notable degree
notable; remarkable; exceptionally outstanding
If we go by the literal definition of the word, and not just what our eyes and the stats have been telling us, I think we can safely say Justin Verlander has been a "great" number one starter...At least over the past month and a half.
Is this excusing Verlander for his awful start? Of course not. He didn't deserve to lose a few of those games during his 2-9 start, but he wasn't the Verlander the Tigers needed. But you cannot deny Verlander has turned his season around, and is one of the best starting pitchers in baseball.
For all the bile the MSM spews about blogs and bloggers, I hear more moronic and asshole-ish opinion from both hosts and callers during one day of local sports talk radio than you'll ever get from any self-respecting blogger.
I've come to a conclusion....Mike Valenti is the Rob Parker of Detroit sports talk. I'm just not sure which hack should be more offended.
Just a thought...the absolutely coolest words in sports, "Ladies and Gentlement, the Champion Golfer of the Year..."
ReplyDeleteI live near Lansing so I don't get Detroit radio out here but I have heard it a bit this season. I go to a lot of Tigers games so quite often on the way home from the game I listen to the game recap from Dickerson and Price which gives way to Sports Talk radio. I really dislike all talk radio but whatever is usually on in Detroit after Tigers games is the bottom of the barrel.
ReplyDeleteValenti should never talk baseball. EVER. He embarrasses himself every time.
ReplyDeleteAnd you're almost giving Foster a pass. He's terrible when it comes to open lines, and at a time of year when there aren't many sports to talk about.
Brass, I'm giving Foster a partial pass because he's one of the few columnists in Detroit who is readable, he actually updates his blog often, and I used to enjoy him on WDFN when he was part of "The Sports Doctors" with Art Regner. Valenti drags Foster, who's a fairly decent broadcaster when paired with a solid partner, into the gutter.
ReplyDeleteBlake, I totally agree with you. The Tigers postgame is usually hosted by either Dennis Fithian or Jeff Riger, and neither are of major market quality. It's a Mickey Mouse production. But I bet they work cheap.
Omar, you're right on the money, as always.
Mike Valenti ruined every bit of his credibility after his meltdown on the radio after MSU lost to Notre Dame in epic fashion a few years ago.
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