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Denny gives stretch run call
Thursday night's AllNight Guests with Todd Wright
All Times Pacific
* 11:10 Lisa Salters, ESPN She was at the Devils Rays-Angels
game and on her drive home called in to talk about the Angels
win, unruly fans, the latest strike news, and what the players
in the club house were saying about the strike postgame.
* 11:27 & 11:47 Denny Hocking, Twins SS The Twins
player rep had to change his voicemail message today after receiving
a 100 strike related calls. He changed the message to basically,
"I have no new strike update, nothing to report, go watch
ESPN." He was amused when Jayson Stark called and said,
"I am ESPN." Todd wants him to change it to, "...go
listen to ESPN Radio or watch ESPN". Denny promised he would.
To the larger issues, he feels after "saving baseball in
Minnesota", he's all of a sudden been cast as a villain.
He gets booed every time he goes to the plate. Today, when he
came up to bat the fans chanted, "No strike! No strike!"
Denny turned to the umpire and asked, "Are they talking
to me or you?" He explained what a strange day it has been.
Since he actually played nine innings today, he told the many
reporters surrounding his locker postgame that he didn't have
his cell phone on the field so they should tell him what the
latest news was. Denny vows if there is a strike he will stop
working out or playing catch and will sit around the house all
day. In part two, right as the segment started out, Denny got
a call on the other line from the Players Association (caller
id). He wasn't going to take the call until Todd insisted he
did! Denny came back with these two updates: The Cardinals-Cubs
game time has not been changed on Friday and there will be a
conference call set up first thing in the morning for the player
reps.
* 12:07 Strike Update: Denny Hocking called in off the
air to say the players association asked that he not speak publicly
anymore as it might change negations, but he could tell us two
bits on information: They are still bargaining tonight and the
new cut off time is 11AM Central Time, which is the time the
Cardinals would have to board their bus to go to Wrigley Field.
No players are to go to stadiums until/if a deal is done for
fear of hostile environments there with fans.
* 12:47 Todd's Grandmother Knows More About Football Than
You Do Todd's Grandmother is back for another season of picking
football games, against the spread of course. How much football
does she actually watch? "I'm not really into football as
much as people think I am." But, she does watch her fair
share and is favorable to the college scene. Why? "There's
not as much money involved." But, she does concede it's
getting harder to keep track of the kids on teams because players
seem to be coming and going earlier in the their careers. Before
heading into this week's picks, Todd checks in to see how much
Gram has been listening to the show. "I don't listen to
it all the time." Todd says he should buy her and his grandfather
a computer and set it up with internet so she can listen to Todd's
show at her leisure. Would she listen more frequently? "No.
I still wouldn't listen." They run through all of the gifts
Todd's given them that they still don't use, except for the fake
fish. "I don't have to feed 'em and I don't have to walk
'em." Gram also mentions her ongoing run with the Turtle
Education Committee about saving sea turtles. She loved the Fear
the Turtle t-shirt Todd snagged for her after Maryland's run
the NCAA basketball crown. She hasn't worn it yet, but donned
the Arena League's Dallas Desperados t-shirt Thursday. "It
does fit well in the shoulders, but it's a bit long...I wore
it." On to her picks...She takes Maryland at a +2 1/2 over
Notre Dame. She Fears the Turtle. Oregon over Mississippi State
by minus 8 1/2. Never a fan of the Bowden's but always a fan
of UGA, she takes Georgia over Clemson with at - 8 1/2. Virginia
Tech beating LSU by 7..."They're supposed to have this great
quarterback, aren't they?" Lastly, Todd's grandmother loves
those Bearcats...she picks Cincinnati over TCU at minus 2.
* 1:07 Chad Kreuter, Dodgers Catcher Chad's in Houston,
hopefully preparing to play the Astros Friday. "We're preparing
to play and plan on some sort of deal" that allows us to
do so. What about making travel plans? Teams have definitely
found themselves in a bind in certain instances, but the Dodgers
met collectively and decided "to go Thursday night as planned...Heaven
forbid we were all late and we had to forfeit the game...We are
prepared to play a game tomorrow." Still, the deadline is
looming and Chad feels the owners had stalled long enough. "We
set this strike date to spur the owners to negotiate...This labor
thing expired last year...it wasn't so we could go home. This
is in the best interest of America. We are living the dream of
every American boy and we want to preserve that." Todd wants
to know if the players union waited too long to get the owners
to the table? Chad says no. He explains that the players waited
because of September 11th..."We are very sensitive to the
issues of September 11 and the economy." The union didn't
want to push the focus of Americans away from the priorities
of re-building America's pride. "Baseball made this country
come back together after September 11th." Over to the actual
issues being discussed at the labor talks. Chad admits that "the
players have moved farther than anyone would have expected,"
on issues like revenue sharing and the newest concept, the luxury
tax. He explains that players are noticing a breakdown in revenue
used to attract players that are supposed to even out the competitiveness
of teams. Chad thinks that 24 teams made profits last year, but
that most of that money wasn't put back into the team. In fact,
"revenue has skyrocketed (from the early 90's to today),
and salaries have risen on both sides of the table." Economics
aside, Chad says that if indeed a deal is made, "We need
assurance that it won't be vetoed by owners in a week."
And if a deal isn't completed? "I expect most everybody
will head home."
* 1:27 Pedro Gomez, Arizona Republic Strike talk is in
the limelight. Is a walkout going to happen or will a deal be
reached? "To me, baseball is all about track records...they're
batting 1000 between the two sides...Until these guys have gone
through one of these things without heading into a work stoppage,
I'm going to assume there is going to be a work stoppage."
Ok...so if the players do walk, how long is too long before there
is a loss of momentum in the baseball community? Pedro thinks
that if the strike goes on past Labor Day, things will get really
messy. For example, the "logistics of getting a team back
together in a 24 hour period" become really slim. And then
there is the fans; The disappointment they feel will go through
the roof. But, what about those fans? Do they have a right to
be so angry at the players? After all, as one AllNight listener
wrote to Todd via email, fans know what players make, but they
don't know what owners make. Pedro thinks that's a viable point,
but counters that fans "don't pay to watch owners work."
Todd wants to know if those fans are tied to actual players or
just the jersey? "A lot of people are tied to the players...the
fans feel a certain affinity for specific players." That's
certainly true for Arizona fans who love guys like Luis Gonzalez
(an AllNight regular), but may not be the case for Red Sox or
Cubs fans who may like the franchise better than individuals.
Finally, is one day of stoppage enough to do some damage? "No.
But I definitely think a week would hurt," mainly because
football is just around the corner. Todd and Pedro agree that
baseball and football share a fan base more so than the NBA
and NHL, therefore fans may depart baseball early to watch football.
* 1:47 Andrea Mallis, Sports Astrologer Andrea was first
featured on ESPNs SportsCenter. Her calling is making and reading
players' astrological charts and determining what certain athletes
signs have in store for the players. Andrea lives in Berkeley,
California and is a huge Oakland A's fan. In fact she's just
a huge baseball fan in general, especially regarding this new,
younger crop of players. "We're talking a whole new generation
of baseball players...they are very philosophical and spiritual."
But, why so much love for the A's? Andrea thinks they have the
best starting pitching in baseball and were just waiting for
the hitting to start smoking, which it did. She likens Oakland
to the "little green engine that could." She adores
their GM Billy Beane..."He's like a wizard." And, according
to Art Howe's Sagittarius chart, "His laid -back attitude
corresponds with the A's because they're a young ballclub."
More on Howe in a bit. Andrea's favorite Oakland player is Barry
Zito, who we all know as a regular guest on AllNight. Zito is
"the most eccentric Taurus as I've ever seen. He's got incredible
endurance and is hard-working, but is rebellious and unique."
For instance, "he follows his pre-game ritual to a 'T',
but gets mislabeled a flake" for his apparent oddities.
Both Todd and Andrea agree that Zito enjoys the fact that he
keeps people guessing, especially since he's a pitcher. Back
to Art Howe..."He's of the Pluto and Leo generation...very
happy-go-lucky, very philosophical...is even keeled and has a
lot of class...but, has been having conflicts with authority
figures (like umpires)." Todd's curious if Andrea has ever
read a chart that surprised her because it didn't seem to fit
the type of guy he is? She said she's dying to read Corey Lidle's
because he's an Aries and has "nothing (in his stars) that
would knock my socks off" about why he's having such a stellar
year. Lastly, Andrea has read that the A's have a great outlook
until the end of October.
* 2:07 Holly Rowe, ESPN Holly is hanging out in State
College, Pennsylvania gearing up for the Central Florida/Penn
State match-up on ESPN Saturday at noon ET. What's there to do
in State College? "I'm doing what any self-respecting, single
gal would be doing on a Thursday night...watching two college
football games." Getting right down to business - is the
NCAA football season starting too early? Holly says yes and no.
Yes, because there is a "dead environment" when classes
haven't started and there's no fans to cheer on the teams. And,
also because of the increased "risk to injury. These are
not the pansies of some seasons past." From an academic
standpoint the answer is no. "We're kidding ourselves,"
if we think college football athletes really care about missing
classes. Over to some scheduling controversies. Todd thinks it
was pretty shameful that Ohio State begged off Pittsburgh. Holly
thinks "it's embarrassing to do it publicly" but understands
the Buckeyes motivations because Pitt is definitely a stronger
team this year and that can be scary. Take Florida State for
example. Holly caught an interview with Coach Bobby Bowden talking
about what team he is fearing on his schedule. Surprisingly,
it's Louisville because they "are a team (we) don't know
with a potent offense and a killer quarterback." Lastly,
Todd wants to know what's up with the Humanitarian Bowl inviting
the 8th team in the Big-12 to participate? "It's not right"
but it's better to have the number eight team from a stellar
conference like the Big-12 than the top team in the Atlantic
10.
* 2:47 Scott Van Pelt, ESPN Todd and Scott meet up for
some golf talk. Starting with Rich Beem, winner of the International
and PGA Championship. Scott says, "I was remarkably impressed
with what Beem did." Especially considering, as Scott described
it, there is usually a big hangover after a huge win. Nonetheless,
two weeks after wrapping up the International, Beem was victorious
at the PGA and two weeks after that had a stellar showing at
the NEC Invitational. Beem "played fantastic golf the following
week." In fact, if you add up Beems' last three rounds of
the NEC, they are actually better than Tiger Woods' scores. Both
Todd and Scott agree that Beem is great for the game of golf
right now. He's adding a new athlete for people to cheer for,
not to mention giving the media some new angles to work with.
Scott notes that "people criticize Tiger for not saying
anything, but he says a lot of the same things because he's asked
a lot of the same things." Hopefully with Beem, there can
be a new rivalry and he doesn't turn out to be a 1-hit wonder
like David Toms played into last year. Things should be different
with Beem..."he's out there to have a good time and embrace
the whole thing, plus he's not afraid to fail." Todd wants
to know Scott's opinion on how things will turn out at the Ryder
Cup. Will it be a low-talent bust or will guys who've been struggling
really show up to play? And, should the rosters have been changed
to accommodate the best players of 2002? "In being fair
to those people who earned a right to compete it isn't fair to
kick off guys who've lost their form a little bit...you'll still
have a couple of remarkable days (of golf)." Furthermore,
Scott harks back to 1995 when the European side won at Oak Hill
with a bunch of no-name guys. Finally, Todd asks if another Captain
Selection should have been added? "The competition is what
it is because you've got 12 matches on Saturday and 4 on Sunday."
Besides, Scott adds, the event may not be what it could have
been a year ago, but our nations focus will undoubtedly be turning
back to thoughts of September 11th anyway and that's more important.
-- Notes by Louise Cornetta & Trish O'Connor
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For more information on Andrea Mallis and her services,
visit www.virgoinservice.com or e-mail andrea@virgoinservice.com. |
