Today we celebrate our freedom but most importantly give thanks to those who have fought and given their lives for it. Everyone eat a lot, drink a lot, just don’t blast your pinkly off.
Be safe!
We have been all over the map the last few years on this site and as you probably know we are scaling way back for the next few months.
That got us thinking it would be the perfect time to strategize and define what we truly are. We like to think of ourselves as fans, not writers, and I am sure you are aware of that. We aren’t just another UK website, or are we, we don’t know…
With that being said, what are we? What do you want to see from TGR that we are/aren’t/or should be doing when we return in full force? What do you want to see more of, less of, etc.? Give it to us straight up, man-to-man. Or in Rob’s case, man-to-hermaphrodite.
Your comments are welcome.
As noted in Rob’s previous post he is stepping away from the site for a while and hopefully he comes back in time for football.
With the draft being over now and BBN can start to ease into the “summer” pattern we will be scaling back the site content until football. That doesn’t mean we are going away at all, so don’t get it confused, it just means we will be more selective of the posts we do over the next few months. Our weekly staple posts should remain intact, we just won’t be doing 8-10 a day. I will be around the tailgate contributing as much as humanly possible, but the lake, my family, friends and work will take precedent over the site as we all re-energize our blogging abilities.
Sure, you may feel as if we aren’t writers in the first place, I agree. We are fans, just like you, who have day jobs and families. We still sweat the hell out of Kentucky Athletics but even the coaches and administration step away for the summer to recharge. We are doing the same.
If you have any ideas on how we should spend the time over the next few months or would like to contribute to TGR don’t be scared and email me at ryanf@tailgatereview.com.
We appreciate everything everyone has done for us up until this point and this thang has grown into something too special to just dump it. Not to worry, we won’t let it fade away at all. Just be patient with the site and keep us in your bookmarks.
Facebook and Twitter will remain intact.
Holler back!
Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there, you know who you are. Want to send a special shoutout to my pops, Kenneth Leroy Fertig Jr.. It goes without saying that if it weren’t for you I would not be here. Also, thanks for finally getting that boat we’ve been talking about all these years! Even though I am 30 now and have a kid of my own we can still hit up the lake whenever we want.
If your not a dad you have one somewhere. Tell him you love him even if it isn’t the most manly thing to do.
Even dads need a little love no matter how big-a-hardass they seem to be.
This ends the sentimental portion of our day.
John Calipari will be joined in the green room by Brandon Knight and Enes Kanter according to multiple reports this afternoon. Draftees expected to be taken with picks 1 through 14 are invited to the historical green room for the draft.
BYU legend, and nearly the namesake of my unborn son, Jimmer Fredette, will also be in NYC on Thursday in the green room. This is the list of invites being circulated around the net as of now… Kyrie Irving, Derrick Williams, Enes Kanter, Brandon Knight, Tristan Thompson, Jimmer Fredette, Marcus and Markieff Morris, Kawhi Leonard, Chris Singleton, Klay Thompson, Kemba Walker, Jonas Valanciunas, Jan Vesely, and Alec Burks.
The views and opinions expressed within this post do not necessarily represent the views of the TGR Crew. The author (R.A.) of the post is solely responsible for the content. In other words, holler at your local media!
In the short John Calipari era at UK, he has managed to make a normally ‘dead period’ for UK athletics news, June and July, very alive. Whether it is recruiting win-falls, the NBA Draft, state wide book tours, NBA coaching rumors, trips to the Orient, home buying, or battles with the NCAA over whether or not he has 500 wins, The road goes on forever and the party never ends. Events and issues that would seem to be very miniscule to other fan bases suddenly turn into world changing events when Kentucky’s Cal is involved.
What bothers me about Cal and his issues with the NCAA is not Cal or the issues; it is how Kentucky fans continue to react. Look, we have said it over and over again… We knew what we were getting into when UK hired him. It did not take much research to figure out that cal was considered an “outlaw” by the media and had been continuously targeted by the NCAA. It was said here, there, and everywhere that if you hired Cal, you would have to deal with plenty of rumor and controversy. Yet, when something is written or something is reported negatively about Cal or UK, we lose our minds.
Jerry Tipton obviously gets his rocks off by attempting to get his name on the radio or on blogs like this one. He is employed by a dyeing newspaper and his only shot at survival in Lexington is writing outrageous opinionated pieces on Kentucky athletics. He has to do things like contacting the NCAA to inquire about why UK was celebrating Cal’s 500th win when the NCAA had taken wins away from him. A story n what UK is doing wrong would probably sale more papers than an article about what they are doing right, right Tipton? Don’t look at it as Jerry trying to bring down the organization that has helped him make a name for himself by writing about them, look at it as Jerry trying to support his family.
Bottom line; let’s pick and choose our battles BBN! Cal is targeted and we have to deal with it. C! A! T! S!
With the NBA set to begin its lockout on July 1st and the NFL currently in a lockout, the burning question is which of these major sports can ill-afford to have its 2011-2012 season postponed or cancelled totally. Of course we have seen a work stoppage before in the NFL (1982 & 1987) as well as the NBA (1998-99) so it is not as if a fan of either of these sports has not endured this issue before.
The problem is the timing of the lockouts could not be worse for either sport, considering both ended their respective season with a thrilling finale, the Super Bowl and the NBA Finals. More so than ever, both of these sports are providing an outlet as well as a ray of hope for a nation that is still feeling the effects of an economic down-turn. So it is just not the fact that one or the other could have a shortened or cancelled season, it is the fact that both could, leaving only the collegiate version of both sports to try and fill the void.
The issues surrounding the NFL Lockout are simple on the surface but yet complicated at its core. The major issue of course is simply money…the Player’s Union is lobbying for the owners to give up a “bigger piece of the pie”; the Union is basing most of its argument on the revenue the owners make from the television deals. The main problem is simple and yet one most Americans cannot sympathize with given our current economic problems….millionaire players vs. billionaire owners, who has the upper hand?
The American public and the majority of the NFL fans would consider this point to be ridiculous and something that smells of greed on both sides. The argument could and has been made that every NFL team has at least a few players on it that are probably over-paid anyway based on their production year in and year out, especially some players with less than 3 years of tenure. Critics have long sense felt that the rookie wage scale is out of whack and way to high; on the flip-side, the players feel like it is fair if not a littler under- scaled based on the average playing life of a NFL player today.
Aside from the “who gets more issue”, there is also discussions focused on the money (or lack there of) received by a retired player, injury issues with an emphasis on the concussion problem and of course the issue about whether to move from a 16-game to 18-game regular season. The obvious is that the players do need better overall health and that means trying to limit the number of concussions and there severity. The 18-game schedule will probably not make it into effect as the players are generally opposed to it across the board. Now the money for the retired players may be a little touchier and a lot trickier to iron out. Guys that played the game 15 – 20 years ago made no where near what the players today make.
So the argument about those players and how they managed their money compared to today’s players has no merit. So many of yesteryear’s players eventually end their lives with little if any money but they have the pain, the battle scars and the “through the roof” medical bills to deal with.
In terms of the NBA and its impending lockout, it is no surprise that money is at the forefront here as well. NBA commissioner David Stern is saying that almost 90% of the teams have finished in the “red” the last 3-5 seasons economically. He is citing the rookie pay scale as the main reason for this, thus he wants to cut that by about 40%. The NBA players Union is fighting this issue hard with certain players such as New York Knick, Carmelo Anthony asking that team owners open up their “books” for the players to see.
Anthony has been very outspoken in saying that “he finds it hard to believe that many if any team at all finishes a season paying out more than it takes in”. Stern is adamant about it being true and says the national economy may have an overall effect on this, particularly for the small market teams. Stern believes that if the rookie pay scale was cut, then more teams would finish in the positive; once again this is geared more toward the smaller market teams. Also the free-agency format and its pay-scale will be a target of adjustment by Stern but he feels that starting with the rookie scale is the first step.
Outside of this, the only other pieces of importance would be a review and revisit of the current “1 year out of high school” to be eligible for the NBA draft and the jump to expand the league by possibly adding teams stateside or maybe even overseas. Of those two, more attention will probably be paid to the NBA and its “loose” partnership with the NCAA as they try to figure out a fair but equal way of making both of their brands competitive without violating a player’s right to play in the NBA once they are out of high school.
Many experts have different opinions of what should or can be done but most agree that the “one & done” format still leaves both the NCAA and the NBA games a little “watered” down with kids departing one and arriving at the other before they are ready.
So with two major sports facing important showdowns between their owners and the player’s unions, what are the prospects that neither get things resolved in time to start the regular seasons on time? If either or both are forced to miss a portion of their seasons, how will the fans react to this? With some NFL teams already laying off office personnel you have to wonder whether or not some NBA teams are staring at this same prospect. Regardless of what you see on TV, there are far more people who work behind the scenes and in the front offices that may feel the brunt of these work stoppages before the players and owners do.
If I had to guess, I would says it is the NFL that can least afford to have the lockout cut into the regular season simply because the last two work stoppages in the NFL left a really bad taste in the fans mouth. Remember, the NFL even tried to play thru the strike of ’87 by using “scab” players and that did not go over so well. I don’t think they will make that mistake again but you never know.
The NBA doesn’t take as long off as the NFL so they have less time to work with but probably fewer total issues to iron out. The NFL’s popularity may be at an all-time high but the longer this lockout goes on, the more the fans become unsettled and unsatisfied. Also with the NFL holding down Sunday afternoon as “its time”, there would be nothing to fill that time slot in terms of sports (all be it the PAC-10 conference in college football has discussed moving its games to Sunday should the NFL lockout continue into September). So, tell me what do you think, NFL or NBA, who can least afford to let money rob them of their season?
Sometimes in life, you get exactly what you deserve. As much as a lot of us like to say “life just isn’t fair”, most of the time it is more than fair. For example, let’s look at my Belmont Stakes wager yesterday.
I did well in the previous two Triple Crown races. I had a “little” money on both Animal Kingdom in the Derby and Shackelford in the Preakness. After gambling on all of the races on the card on Derby day and a few on Preakness weekend, I had $107.00 in my Twin Spires online account before the race yesterday. In a very lazy, half-assed, lackadaisical moment, I decided to submit what can only be described as the most passive- aggressive and girly man wager of my life. I put $100.00 on Animal Kingdom to ‘show’. Not to ‘win’, not across the board, not in an exotic bet, just to freaking ‘show’, like the woman that I am.
I assure you that when Animal Kingdom came out of the gate and his jockey damn near fell off, it was not because the jockey or the horse did anything wrong. It was not because the trainer had not taken the time to educate the horse to the best of his ability. It certainly was not any fault of the horse’s owners who did all they could to provide Animal Kingdom with the best money could buy. No, my friends, this entire mishap can only be blamed on one miserable person in this world, numero uno.
I apologize to all of the Animal Kingdom connections. I knew as soon as I made my decision that it was probably the wrong one, and I was correct. I hope to redeem myself as soon as possible, starting with that $7 I currently have in my account. I continue living life without ever witnessing a Triple Crown winner. As Cubs fans are so good at saying…maybe next year.
If I Could just have you make that motor boat noise one more time ma’am. A little slower and louder if you don’t mind…
You barely have to be breathing to know it is much more fun to be outdoors this time of year. I know some of you have a hard time pulling yourselves away from World of War Craft and Fantasy baseball, but you should try occasionally. This evening my nephew, Blake, and I are going to walk down to our favorite honey hole for some bluegill fishing. It will be my first opportunity of the summer to “wet a line” and I am looking forward to pulling a few pond monsters out of that muddy water. If you are not sure, no, I am not referring to a fictitious character from World of War Craft when I say “pond monster”.
Here is the Kentucky Fishing Report for Mid-June brought to you by the fine folks at Kentucky Afield…
