LAZ Sports Radio text

This is Jamie Lazaroff and welcome to the latest edition of LAZ sports radio. Sorry I have not done a blog or video in the last week. I have been busy with lots of irons in the fire. I got a part-time job being the voice on some advertising for 1350 WINY radio in Putnam CT.

One to the sports. This week’s major news story is that the NCAA Men’s basketball tournament is expanding to 68 teams. CBS sports and Turner sports are the home of the tournament for the next 14 years. The interesting part of the deal is that starting in 2016 the Final Four will be on cable. The good news for basketball fans is that all tournament game will be on national TV. It’s good that the NCAA men’s basketball committee recommended expansion of the tournament from 65 teams to 68. Like I said before, 96 teams would be too much. ESPN was also in the running for the right to March Madness but CBS/Turner bid was bigger. Is this a sign that ESPN is going after the Olympics? We will see.

There is sad news to report as former International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch died last week. Mr. Samaranch was the IOC’s top man for 1980 to 2001. After boycotts at the 80 Summer Games in Moscow and 84 in LA Mr. Samaranch make the Olympics in to the global event it is today.

I have talked before about how I think the NFL Draft is one of the most over hyped events in all of sports. The Draft is not an exact science. No one knows how these college athletes are going to perform on the pro level. I was interested why the Denver Broncos took Tim Tebow before better rated Quarterback’s Jimmy Clausen or Colt McCoy. What was Denver thinking? We well see in a few years which team was right. Some times later round picks work better than first round sections. Remember Tom Brady was a six round pick in 2000 draft and he is the best Quarterback in the league right now. We shall see how this year’s class pans out in a few years.

This weekend is the latest fight to save boxing. Floyd Mayweather Jr. will fight Shane Mosley in Las Vegas. I read were Mayweather said he was better than Mohammed Ali. I laughed out loud. First off Ali had national TV in his day and also had Howard Cosell as his antagonist/supporter. Mayweather can’t deliver a promo. No one is in the league of Ali. Just for this I’M going to hope Mosley can shut Mayweather up. I’M going to Foxwoods to watch the fight on a big screen. We’ll give you a report next week.

This weekend is also the first Saturday in May, which means the Kentucky Derby. This year race is more wide open than usual. Last week likely favorite Eskendereya was scratched with a leg injury. The new favorite is Lookin At Lucky with Garrett Gomez aboard. It’s not good to be the favorite in the run for the roses; in the last decade only 4 favorites have won the fastest 2 minutes in sports. We shall see. Post time is 6:24 on NBC.

One final note. On April 17 one of my crazy relatives competed in the “Inferno” pentathlon race at Tuckerman’s ravine, which is on the eastern slope of Mt. Washington in NH. The race consist of a 8.3 Miles run, Kayak for 6.2 Miles, bike 18.2 Miles then hike for 3 miles before the final member of the team skis down the ravine. Their team name was “6 of 1 half dozen of the other.” My cousin David did the kayak, our friends Alec did the run, his father Len did the hike our vacation friend Bruce did the ski and their friend Kelly did the bike. Congratulations to all!! I know I can’t do it. You go guys and ladies. This year my cousin Carley is doing her triathlon in Webster with my aunt Ann and my soccer coach Geri is also competing. I will be their cheering them on and reporting back.
Talk to you next
Jamie Lazaroff

The view form the Chair

The big news this week is the retirement of NFL broadcaster John Madden. After winning the Super Bowl in 1976 with the Oakland Raiders, John started a career in broadcasting and became the best color commentators of all time. John is the only broadcaster to announce for every NFL TV partner; NBC, CBS, ABC, and Fox. He stared his broadcasting career with CBS sports in 1979. In 1981 he was elevated to the network's top team with Pat Summerall, they went on to call footbal games for CBS until 1994 when CBS lost the NFL to FOX Sports, Madden and Summrerall went with them. Madden and Summrerall called eight Super Bowls together, (five for CBS and three for FOX). In 2002 John left FOX and joined Al Michaels at ABC’s Monday Night Football. After Monday Night Football was relegated to cable, John made his last jump to NBC’s Sunday Night Football. On February 1,2009 he became the only person to call the Super Bowl on the “Big Four” TV networks. By the way he did call 2 Super Bowls while at ABC. All this for a grand total of 11 Super Bowls. Madden's lively and flamboyant delivery has won him critical acclaim and fourteen Sports Emmy Awards for Outstanding Sports Event Analyst. He was also the first broadcaster to use a telestrator to diagram and analyzel plays. Madden’s enthusiasm for the game of football is what made him great. What I also liked about him is that his did not talk over the audience by using big words. You knew it was a big game when John Madden was on the call. Before a one-week break last season he had a streak of 476 consecutive weekends calling football. So John, you deserve you retriment, enjoy the grandkids!

One story that caught my attention this last week, is out of Washington D.C. Wahington Nationals player Elijah Dukes was five minutes late to the stadium. He was fined $500 , suspended, and threaten with demotion to the minors if it happened again. The problem is, he was late because he was speaking at a Little Legue event. Fine a player for being late, but he was doeing something good for his community. The problem was the event was not sponsored by the Nationals so he got in trouble. The Little Legue program is paying Dukes fine. To quote Jim Mraz, President of the Freat Falls LL, “The point is, this guy gave back to our community, and now he's in a hard spot. We need to help him, It's not a question of whether this guy can afford the $500 bucks. We're just trying to send a message to our kids: He was here for us. Now we've got to be there for him." Good for them. The General Manager of The Nationals wants to change the culture of the team, this is not the way to do that.

This Weekend in Sports
The big event of the weekend is round one of the Red Sox versus the Yankees at Fenway. Series started on Friday at 7:10 on NESN in New England or the YES network in New York. By the way, Boston won the first game 5 to 4. Saturday’s game is on FOX at 4:10 and Sunday game is on ESPN 8:05. I know it’s early in the season, but it’s an early indication of where each team is. Should be fun.

The other big event this weekend is the NFL Draft. I will only watch because ESPN is putting Todd McShay up to challenge so called draft expert Mel Kiper Jr. For what I have seen on SportsCenter this week it should be fun. I wish McShay was in New York and not at ESPN studios in Bristol, but I do expect a lot of disagreements. Can you tell I don’t like Mel? Should be interesting.

Talk to you next week.
Jamie Lazaroff

This week in sports

Hi all,

It’s the calm before the summer. The last two weekends have been slow with sports. Don’t get me wrong; the NBA and NHL playoffs are in full swing. I just have not gotten into them. This weekend starts the great month of May with the first leg in horse racing are Triple Crown: The Kentucky Derby. The hype starts at 4 P.M. on the first Saturday in May. Listen for the playing of “My Old Kentucky Home” around 5:30 P.M. and the “Run For The Roses” gets under way at 6 P.M. The Derby is one of the toughest things to pick in all of sports because, all the horses are three years old and this is the first time in their life their running a mile and ¼.

Congratulation to Danica Patrick and Ashley Force for being the first women to win in their respective motor racing series. Danica won two weeks ago in an Indy Car Race in Japan. It was here first win in 52 career starts in the Indy Car Series. Way to good Danica, now go out and win at Indy next. Ashley Force is the first woman to win a NHRA Funny Car National Event. In the final of the Southern National in Georgia over the weekend she beat her father John Force a 14-time series champion. John was going for his 1,000th round win. Ashley is also the first woman to lead the Funny Car points at any time in the NHRA’s 33-year history. Way to go ladies.

This past weekend was the NFL Draft. I have written before about how I don’t like the draft and the fact that it’s a crapshoot. One of the other reasons I don’t like it is all the so-called “Draft Experts” that make mock-drafts and try to predict the first round. I did find evidence on just how bad their so-called experts are. The guys over at Cold Hard Football Facts.com have tracked the records of four experts for first round picks over the past three years. Lets just say the “experts” nail, on average, about 4 percent of the 220-plus players selected in the NFL draft. I don’t see how these people like Mel Kiper Jr. keep their job. Mel is the worst of the lot.

Finally, some sad news to report on the passing of Don Gillis, a longtime Boston sportscaster. I will remember Don as the host of Boston’s Channel 5 Candlepin Bowling program on Saturday mornings. I miss Candlepin Bowling, it was part of my childhood and I remember watching Candlepin Bowling, Candlepin Doubles, The Pro Bowlers Tour, and ABC’s Wide World of Sports. Candlepin Bowling ended on January 27, 1996. I miss those good old days.

I hope to be back with another post this week with my picks for the

Kentucky Derby.

That’s my take: I would like to hear yours

Jamie Lazaroff