A view through my eyes

Hi Fans, sorry for no update last week. Been working hard to get back into the work force and other big projects in progress. Will share with you when I have more details. As they say in the business, “stay tuned”.

This has been a very sad week on the UCONN Campus. Last Sunday around 12:30 in the morning (October 18^th) after the UCONN football team beat Louisville. Some of the players went to a school-supported dance at the Student Union. After a fire alarm was pulled that forced every one out of the building, a fight broke out between students and non-students. Football player Jasper Howard was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was stabbed to death. One of the many sad parts of this story is that “Jazz” was from a tough part of Miami and was the first person in his family to go to collage, he was also about to be a father for the first time and his girlfriend was on campus for the Homecoming festivities, she was not at the dance, she was back at the dorm. The other sad part of this story, to me is that about 200 people and the police were at this event and no one saw what happened? It came out Thursday October 22^nd in the Hartford Courant that the witnesses to this crime are being threatened online with violence if they come forward with evidence in this case. According to the Hartford Courant, Maj. Ronald Blicher told the student newspaper, “The Daily Campus”, that police are looking into these threats. He said authorities are still urging people to submit videos, photos or other information. I hope they do so and we can find who killed this popular player. On Tuesday October 27^th three young men were changed in connection with the murder of Jasper Howard. John William Lomax, 21, of Bloomfield, was charged with the murder. Hakeem Muhammed, 20, also of Bloomfield, was charged with conspiracy to commit assault and Jamaal Todd, 21, of West Hartford, is accused of pulling the fire alarm. This information is from NBC Connecticut News, Channel 30.

One of the great things about this story is how people are coming together, even UCONN’s opponent on Saturday West Virginia honored “JAZZ” before and after the game. West Virginia students will sell arm bans with his number 6, and all money will go to Jasper’s family. His teammates from Miami, in schools around the country wore arm bans to honor “JAZZ”. Like I said just a sad story over all.

Sports Media Madness

A lot going on in Sports Media in the past few weeks, so lets get to it.

The only thing I will say about TBS coverage of baseball’s postseason is that Chip Caray is the worst play-by-play man in the business bar none. I don’t know what TBS sees in him? Just say I’M glad the Phillies are in the World Series and the National League Championship Series is over, he’s that bad. FOX is doing the World Series (staring Wednesday) with the crew of Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, not great but better then Caray.

The story that did catch my eye this week coming out of Bristol Connecticut (ESPN) is that they have hired renowned soccer announcer Martin Tyler to call World Cup games next year in South Africa. Tyler is the best in the business. He has attended every world cup since 1978. I’m glad ESPN hired a real soccer announcer, four years ago, they assigned baseball announcer Dave O’Brien to call matches. He did a terrible job. Soccer is a difficult assignment for even a seasoned announcer, so this is a very good choice. I’M ready for South Africa, qualifying is almost over.

In Olympics news last week, Rugby 7’s and golf have been added to the 2016 Games in Rio. I’m a little split on the inclusion of these two sports into the Olympics. Rugby 7’s, I have no problem with, it’s an exciting sport and the fastest version of Rugby. It can be played in two days and is very TV friendly. On the other side is golf, don’t get me wrong, I love golf, but I just don’t think it’s an Olympic sport. First, the Olympics won’t be the pinnacle of the sport. The major championships will still be played and those tournaments are the ones the players want to win. The first Olympic event will have the worlds best like Tiger, Phil, Rory, Sergio and Y.E. just to name a few, but after the glow of the first events, than what? Take a look at Tennis in the Olympics; no one talks about it out side of the games because the Grand Slam tournaments are the be all and end all. Tennis includes the Olympic event in it’s ranking to attract the best players; hopefully golf will do the same. Golf is not a TV friendly sport compared to other Olympic sports. They are going to have a 74-hole (4 day) stroke-play tournament, and not a match play tournament that would be (I think) more TV friendly and existing to watch. We will see in 2016.

See you again soon.

Jamie Lazaroff

2016 Olympics host city is

Rio de Janerio Brazil will be the host city for the 2016 Summer Olympics Game. Rio beat Madrid 66 to 32 in the final round of voteing after Chicago was knoted off the the frist round, Tokyo went out in the next round. I can't belive I pick Rio to win and it did. I will have a full report next week.

Have a great weekend

Jamie Lazaroff

The view from here

This week’s major news is the countdown to the announcement of the 2016 Summer Olympic host city on Friday. The four finalists are Madrid, Rio, Chicago and Tokyo. Here are my thoughts on how each city, I think, will do in the vote.

4. Madrid: Since 1952 the Summer Games have not been held on one continent back-to-back. The next Summer Olympics in 2012 will be held in London and the Winter Olympics in 2014 will be held in Sachi, Russia. The IOC is not going to change this just for King Juan Carlos. Sorry Madrid.

3. Chicago: You can call me un-American but I never thought Chicago was fit to host the Olympics. Chicago does not have a very good political history. That could hurt them here. Crime is also a big problem for the city. This Chicago organizing committee has it all wrong; its plan is to win the bid then start building stadiums and arenas for the games. I also think economics play a big role. Chicago and the US as a whole can’t afford the games. I think President Obama and First Lady Michelle’s presence in Copenhagen will help but the long-standing dispute the US Olympic Committee has with the IOC will hurt their chances. I hope Chicago doesn’t win and repeat what happen to Denver. In 1970 Denver was granted the 1976 Winter Games: The city had to give up the Games after Colorado voters rejected a $5 Million bond issue to finance the undertaking. Don’t let history repeat it’s self.

2. Tokyo: I think Tokyo has a good plan and would be a good host; they have not held the games since 1964. Tokyo could suffer from the fact that Beijing hosted the Games last year. It will not be the first time the games have been staged on the same continent within eight years. According to the BBC, of the 34 planned venues, 23 already exist with many venues used during the 1964 Games are set to be refurbished. As Japan is one of the first countries to come through the recession, the government has already put the budget for construction and infrastructure aside. The city has also successfully staged the 2002 World Cup Final and has a ton of experience hosting other worldwide championships, including the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano.

1. Rio: I would love to see the Olympics for the first time in South America. Can you imagine Beach Volleyball on Copacabana Beach? Rio hosted the 2007 Pan-American Games, which was called the “best in history” it will also host the World Cup in 2014. According to the bid website, they plan to stage all the competitions inside the city that will make it easy to get to for fans and media alike. I think it would be fun to go to Brazil.

Sunday was week 3 of the NFL season and was one of two weeks that the NFC played teams in the AFC teams stadiums, because of this the Patriots played on the FOX network. Usually they are televised on CBS. FOX usually shows the New York Giants. This week the Pats and Giants played at the same time and according to Doug Stewart of FOX61 in CT the network in New York decided that the station got the Giants. This meant I don’t see the Pats beat the Atlanta Falcons. As you can expect, I was furious. Doug did say that they made every attempt to satisfy the wishes of their viewers and sometimes they have been successful, but, not this time. I should have caught that FOX61 was going with the Giants game earlier in the week, the schedule come out on Wednesday, I should have made alternate plans, like going to Massachusetts to my cousin’s house. This is the only time this situation will happen this season. Thank god.

This Weekend

This weekend the event I am looking forward to is the National Rugby League Grand Final from Australia @11 A.M. Sunday October 4 on Spike. I have watched a little of the first few weeks of the playoffs and I’ve got to tell you it put football to shame. Rugby League is one of the toughest sports in the world, the players don’t wear any protection. I don’t understand all the rules yet but it is a very exciting sport. Check it out, I know I will.

See you next week, if not before

Jamie Lazaroff