So what was the final score in the Jerry Sandusky scandal? Who won, the Thoughts or the Prayers? Or was it a tie?
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims.”
Geez, if I heard that — issued in countless statements — one more time I was gonna retch. I had no idea that college football coaches and athletic directors — those who knowingly recruit high-risk characters to their campuses, lest the other guys recruit them to their campuses — were so thoughtful and prayerful.
And college presidents and administrators — academic and social fraud enablers — hired and paid to look the other way while counting the house money, the TV money and the Nike money — apparently now suppose we believe that they’re immersed in thought and bowed in prayer.
Seems that if the authorities in and around Penn State — in and around all football and basketball insane asylums — had been more thoughtful when it counted, they wouldn’t now have to be so prayerful.
And let’s not forget that prayer, along with patriotism and charity, is among the last refuges for scoundrels.
Sandusky was found guilty on 45 of 48 counts of child sexual abuse! And we hadn’t yet heard from his son, who was set to testify that he had been a victim. You can keep the lid on anything if you press — or suppress — hard enough. Almost anything.
But big-time college sports — and the media and the TV and radio deals and the yahoos and freaks who keep it moving lower every day — are accomplished at not seeing what’s impossible to miss.
For crying out loud, the star of this past season’s University of Rhode Island basketball team, a 20-year-old freshman, was wanted for a strong-arm robbery in Florida!
And that was before he entered URI. And that only came to light after he was arrested for videotaping sexual encounters he had with two URI students.
Seems URI, in recruiting 20-year-old Jonathan Holton to be a freshman, was leading with its prayerful side as opposed to its thoughtful one.
Who cared why Holton was available or anything else about him; at 6-foot-9, he was irresistible, the temptation was too great.
Now, no doubt, URI’s thoughts and prayers go out to his victims.
Yep, “This puts everything in perspective.” Yeah, sure it does. What time does Midnight Madness start?
What’s your guess? After dozens of official declarations that “our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims” following the Sandusky explosion, what percentage of those represented in those statements actually spent time thinking of the victims — children — and/or praying for them? Gimme the under.
Magic on the court, dull & slow in the studio
Guys Named Joe: Don’t know how much ESPN pays for Magic Johnson’s presence, and it doesn’t matter how big a promotional push his presence is given, other than the obvious, he just doesn’t have much to say and takes too long to say it.
Or maybe, as with Joe Morgan, Joe Theismann, Joe Namath and Joe Montana, I just prefer to remember Johnson as a great player rather than a lousy broadcaster.
* Poultry In Motion: Frank Francisco should’ve stuck with his first answer, Yankees batters are “chickens,” rather than “whiners.” Or was he counting on everyone forgetting his mid-May ejection for whining about calls?
ESPN’s Sean McDonough in August will have surgery to correct a condition that has created a gap — a hole — between his brain and inner left ear. Forget it; he has beaten all to the wisecracks.
WFAN/MSG’s “Weekday” Boomer Esiason last week made a cheap, easy, vulgar, unfunny sexual crack about the use of K-Y Jelly. “Weekend” Boomer, the fine gent who appears on CBS’ NFL studio shows, would be appalled!
* ESPN’s Stuart Scott, always eager to have viewers perceive he’s an A-lister (and you’re not), addressed Heat coach Erik Spoelstra as “Spo.”
Your cable dollars at work! MSG Network, which has four channels and continues to charge carriers and customers more and more, this time of year — and over nearly five months — isn’t worth 10 cents. Last week’s Movie of the Week was 1980’s “Caddyshack.”
Strange sight for New York eyes: Yesterday, during TBS’ telecast of Braves-Red Sox, MLB Network’s pickups of Rays-Phillies and Twins-Reds and WGN’s Brewers-White Sox, all the seats behind the backstop were filled — with people! One fella looked a lot like Randy Levine.
McCarver won’t knock no hustle
FOX’s Tim McCarver on Saturday after plate ump Tim McClelland was hit in the cage with a foul: “Gosh, I miss that.”
McCarver also noted that Nick Swisher, presuming he would be out, didn’t run out of the box after hitting a fly to right that was misplayed by Lucas Duda.
But “noting” isn’t enough. McCarver, one of three catchers to lead the majors in triples, should bash the epidemic of such minimalist play.
Most of us who watch baseball didn’t have the talent to play big league ball, but if we did, we figure, the last thing we’d ever do is choose to not run to first base. We don’t get it. We don’t understand how any major league manager, let alone most of them, puts up with such things.
We don’t understand how this thing got started, why it grew and why, at the game’s highest level — and at great, proven risk — it persists.
* Mike Francesa, the last guy in town who takes Mike Francesa seriously, doesn’t know how funny he is.
On Friday afternoon, he turned weatherman — And why not? He knows everything — to assert that despite threatening weather, the tarp was on Citi Field’s infield only as a precaution, that night’s Yankees-Mets game would, he proclaimed, begin on time.
The game began after a 53-minute rain delay.
Reader James Hickey of Merrick: “I don’t get it. Francesa refers to Brett Gardner as ‘Gardy,’ Curtis Granderson as ‘Grandy,’ Eduardo Nunez as ‘Nuney.’
“So why doesn’t he refer to his close friend Jim Nantz as ‘Nancy’?”
* We’re going to keep plugging until SNY gets its Mets score/count/inning box right.
First, this season, it was too small, nearly impossible to read. SNY fixed that.
Next, the numeral identifying the inning was too large, making it appear as if it was one team’s score. SNY fixed that.
Now it’s time to eliminate the color-coded balls and strikes dots, which creates unneeded work for viewers. SNY can’t simply provide the count in numerals for instant recognition? Why make easy even slightly difficult?