Prime Time Sports Pantload Open Thread

1) My favourite PTS moment was when McCown hung up on the mayor of Hamilton in the mid 1990’s (honourable mentions go to Jim Hunt’s last show as c-host and to the McCown versus Doug MacLean screaming match from a few years ago,)

2) Shulman did a fine job as PTS host for a year or two but when McCown was in his prime there was no one even close

3) My favourite PTS co-host has always been Brunt

4) I think Brady filled in for McCown between Christmas and New Year’s a few years ago so I will go with him

5) I’d like to see Mitch Melnick eventually be the one to take over for McCown, assuming they could ever convince him to leave Montreal

To borrow a phrase from Bob McCown, that documentary put my feet to sleep: too much focus on Bob, too much reverence for Bob, and too long.

Wow as if Bob’s Ego couldn’t balloon anymore he goes and produces that self serving shrine to himself that he called a documentary. I was embarrassed for sportstnet for having to put that on the air. He must be in contract negotiations again.

Can’t disagree with Sal, Rob in Aurora and Bob Canuck. At one time many years ago PTS I thought was a rteally good show. Since then sportstalk radio and competition has grown and has PTS behinf.
The BobCat hes evolved in the FatCat!

I just caught the last half hour of it, but wow, what a Bob love-in. As I have said here many times, years ago I was a big fan of PTS – back in the Jim Hunt days and some time after. But gradually, the the quality of the show (and Bob’s effort) has eroded. He’s now a man resting on his laurels with a supporting cast of sycophants. Much has been written here about his lack of good co-hosts and guests, but again, when you’re running the show as Bob does, you tend to have your buddies on. Anyway, I don’t listen to PTS anymore unless Brunt is the co-host, but even then…

It was interesting to relive the whole Cito drama. That was big at the time. But it got me thinking about Jerry Howarth. I never really cared much for his work (Tom was definitely the real talent), but in that interview with Cito he asks if he thinks the criticism he gets is racially motivated. Now I wonder, did he ask that on his own or at the behest of Cito (certainly the Blue Jays wouldn’t want to go there). If he did ask it on his own, was he trying to burn Bob and others who were critical of Cito? Or was he asking because Cito had wanted him to. Either way, it was a low moment for Jerry in my opinion. He does seem to have issues with media who are critical of anything Blue Jays – remember Jerry taking issue with Zaun and Hayhurst over the whole Arencibia fiasco? He always seemed a little weasely to me.

The doc was good, would have been better at 1 hour. There was a terrifying moment when they showed that photo of a young Dan Shulman. He looked like the Son of Sam’s younger, crazier brother.

I thought Walker might take over for Bob in 6 or 7 years, but then I heard his rant against the space program. This Luddite might also be against antibiotics and modern medicine so might not be alive in 6 years.

“Stop Progress” Walker did make up for it as he and Brady had a great segment yesterday at 6:20am. Brilliant hockey knowledge from both.

I noticed in the end credits mention that the production had funding from the Canadian government. I guess David Braley left some tax payers money for Bob.

Why doesn’t Mike Toth fill in on 1050 during summer vacations? I think 1010 is also a Bell company. If Bob chose him to host PTS I don’t see why he can’t sub for Hayes, Tati and co.

Speaking of docs, waiting for the Steve Spurrier one from ESPN….

….and is Tiger Back???

Tuned in to PTS at 5:02 PM and rode out a couple mins of Bob yakking about his Pacos Red River Chili recipe he stole from some Mexican place in Vegas 20 years ago and how he fudges with it every year ( I think this is 5th time I’ve heard this story ). So I flip over to Naylor on TSN- he’s talking golf and it is a big golf day, British Open and all – after 10 seconds I realize he’s reading another one of his soporific essays. Death knell. So the failing newspaper-radio guy thinks he’ll win over listeners by giving them what got him there – his writing.

I turned back to Bob to hear another 5 minutes about the Pacos Red River Chili.

C’mon TSN Radio, Naylor and your ‘Producer’, find yer game.

The documentary was just a FOB Fest. Yawn.

@Zeb – don’t believe so, I’ve never heard him on the show since. Very difficult to get out of the “black book.” For his last show he should read the names off the black book as a final kick.

RE Bob’s chili ramblings.

He MAY have stolen the recipe from some Vegas joint (I have no idea) but the original recipe for Pecos River Bowl of Red can be found in a terrific cookbook called ‘Chili Madness’ by Jane Butel. page 52. published in 1980.

1. Anytime the late Burt Randolph Sugar was on, but especially the night he spoke of the out-of-ring friendship between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling. Absolutely riveting. Mr. Sugar was a master storyteller; whether the story was always accurate or not, who knows nor cares? Miss him greatly.
2. Dan Shulman is the best in the business at what he does regularly, but show hosting is not that. McCown wins out, even on his laziest days.
3. The late Jim Hunt. Never a dull moment. Never knew what would come out of his mouth next. Kinda like the crazy old uncle every family has.
4. Mike Toth. At least he’d try to poke a bear every so often.
5. Toughest question by far. I don’t think a replacement show will be the same; will probably go to a more formal approach. Personally, I like Jeff Marek, who can combine sharp wit with good knowledge. He clearly does the hard work off the air to always be ready to mix it up on the air. Bright kid.

Since theres no weekend thread this week…

Naylor’s anti-soccer gimmick is really grating on me. He complained about people calling it “football” and then starting the world cup “the world cup of soccer.”

It’s one thing to not be a soccer guy and just not talk about it. It’s another to be antagonistic, which seems out of character for his good guy, meat and potatos on-air persona.

Maybe all the angry soccer tweets pushed him too far.

Everybody knows I’m the giant Bob fangirl who loves listening to him and is fascinated by his stories about his life, but I found this documentary really disappointing. Sam’s point above is exactly how I felt too. :\ The focus was too scattered. I wasn’t sure if this was supposed to be a documentary about Bob’s life, about Prime Time Sports, or about talk radio in general. I’d be okay if they focused on the latter too, and talked about how PTS fits into the greater scheme of talk radio and how it influenced other shows, but it didn’t. Instead it just seemed like they would jump around from the 3 topics with no real link. Also, I was hoping for more of a history of Prime Time Sports and the discussion behind the scenes, how they decided on the co-hosts in various eras, maybe some controversies or lawsuits we’ve never heard of. But they didn’t. The whole thing was incredibly superficial, and yeah, came off as kind of a hagiography about Bob at times too. I got pretty tired of the “he’s such a badass persona who antagonizes people” comments from the friends of Bob. :\ I guess this is the problem with a documentary that’s made by his employer and his own company. (In that case they should have just focused on the show rather than the personality that they can’t actually give us a true look at.)

Also, I thought it was meaningless to have a segment about the Cito controversy if they weren’t going to bring in Cito or Jerry Howarth to talk about it. Why even bring it up if it’s just going to be telling one side? Again, “Pantload” keeps coming off like it’s a promotional vehicle for Bob and they wanted to bring up the Cito thing just to defend him in case any current/potential fans had heard about the controversy and they wanted to allay our fears.

The only thing I liked about it was cartoon Bob. I think they should make video shorts of cartoon Bob and air it as filler. Like have stuff happening in the background while he’s talking, like a dinosaur is chasing Brunt or something. xD

In the background I’m listening to a CBC radio summer quiz show called “Newshounds” right now and one of the guests is Don Landry, whom they introduced as the in-house announcer for the Argos.

I thought that some of you might find this interesting, for what it’s worth.

There seems to be a lot of promotions on Rogers lately. I don’t think anyone is gullible enough to fall for these long shot appeals to avarice.

“jonah @yyzsportsmedia · 17h
I just entered the #RogersAlerts contest for a chance to WIN $5,000!”

I think Don Landry did call some curling for Sportsnet this past winter, so some people must like him to bring him back for that.

Mike George was on Macko on Cauz today. Searching for more info on George and CIA Basketball came across this excellent piece in the Globe:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/basketball/nbas-canadian-contingent-can-thank-unity-behind-cia-bounce/article19321611/

From the article:

“Mike George started a basketball program for teens called Christians in Action (CIA) in the late 1990s, run out the back of a church in Malton, Ont. George was studying at York University to become a teacher, and he had many players in his program from low-income homes.”

“George, a teacher at Cardinal Newman elementary school, and McIntyre, an operations manager for a pharmaceuticals company, figure they each pitched in about $20,000 in the early years. But they needed more. On a lark, George applied to be a contestant on the game show Deal or No Deal, when it filmed some episodes in Toronto, vowing he would give half of any winnings to CIA Bounce.

The gregarious coach got onto the Howie Mandel-hosted show in 2007 and picked the cash-filled suitcases according to numbers of his favourite NBA players. He won $144,000, and lived up to his promise.”

“CIA Bounce has sent more than 40 players to the NCAA. Their alumni also include 2013 first-overall draft pick Anthony Bennett. In addition to Wiggins and Ennis….”

Are there any soccer programs like this?

@MiB – it was the last or second last segment … roughly an hour into the show.

Of course, that statistic doesnt mention almost half the cable providers are not carrying the dodgers channel.

The recent Toronto Indy weekend may have been the last one, and the Toronto media seem slow to understand this. Even during the heyday of Molson years from 1986 into the 1990s, apparently it never made money but was seen as worthwhile promotion for the brewery and city. Molstar/Molson got out of it in 2005, and there seems to be little doubt that since then revenue from sponsorship and ticket sales has not been enough to keep it going. After being canceled in the year of the IRL and ChampCar merger/buyout, the Toronto race returned in following years only with “economic incentives” from all three levels of government.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/toronto-indy-event-will-return-in-2009-1.769968
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Pantalone said it was his understanding that Tourism Toronto and the provincial government have agreed to economic incentives to allow the race to proceed.
Exhibition Place certainly has, though he would not say to what extent.
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http://www.wheels.ca/honda-roars-in-to-rescue-race/
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… provincial tourism minister Peter Fonseca, who revealed that Ontario would pony up $1 million in support for each of the next three years.
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http://www.thestar.com/sports/2010/07/05/honda_indy_gets_federal_infrastructure_funds.html
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Honda Indy gets federal infrastructure funds
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The most recent contract with the city was for three years, and has expired without being renewed at the conclusion of the 2014 race weekend. The city’s lack of interest is displayed by their planning over the last year or two for a bunch of temporary Pan Am Games facilities to occupy Exhibition Place thoughout the month of July 2015.
http://www.toronto2015.org/venue/pan-am-park

Dean McNulty of the Sun makes a generous attendance estimate of 12-15,000 (as opposed to the 60 or 70,000 on raceday in the 1980s and 90s) and points out “not many of the folks running for office are willing to campaign on a promise to subsidize the Honda Indy to the tune of about $2 million a year”.
http://www.torontosun.com/2014/07/21/pan-am-games-throw-a-wrench-into-indy-dates