Deep down inside, I love people calling into the afternoon show....let's face it, without the callers and e-mailers, it would be like we were talking to ourselves.....but when I say I love callers, it's more 'cause most of them make me laugh with their goofy and uneducated comments more than useful ones....
Ask any producer or show host in the business and they'll tell you that in the evolution of a good show, every show has its go-to callers or e-mailers that help the show get to that next level, but more often than not, the memorable ones tend to be ones that call once, say something really stupid and become the subject of ridicule....
One caller in particular today made a comment that just couldn't get out of my head....he was actually making a good comment about the fact that Jim Balsillie would be one of the most stable owners the league could have, but he then hurt his credibility by claiming that hockey has worse ratings in the U.S. than truck pulling....
I agree that ratings for hockey are nowhere near as good in the U.S. as it would be in Canada....it's just not a part of their culture.....Americans would much rather watch baseball, football and basketball.....However, would they really be worse than a truck pulling weight for a maximum of 300 feet?
So, here's what I've decided to do.....I'm gonna allow each and every one of you to make the decision on what you would rather watch on a weeknight by putting a video of each sport/activity back to back.....I won't be able to give you exact numbers on what the general public decides on what.... :-)
I've chosen each video by heading to everyone's favourite virla video site, Youtube, then typed in "classic hockey" and "classic truck pulling" and chose the best video out of the options that are given in the first page of each search.....both videos are nice and short and I think represent the best that each sport has to offer.....so, here are your options:
Option 1 - Classic Hockey
Option 2 - Classic Truck Pulling
Of course, I put my first pick up on the blog last night and Ana Ivanovic squashes the pick by losing the first set of the match.....LOL.....So, I'll try and make it up by putting up another pick less than 24 hours later.....What can I say? I'm chasing some dead money here.....We'll look to baseball for this one...
New York Yankees (-1.5) over Oakland (-150)
C.C. Sabathia should be able to handle a light-hitting Oakland lineup and the Yanks will be looking to avenge a shutout loss to the A's last night