The "new" triple x ESPN Radio in Washington has a show that preempts Colin Cowherd during football season.  It's called "Redskins Lunch" with Larry Michael and Braham Weinstein.  It should be noted that Larry is the play by play man for the Redskins.  Many hold some ill will toward the guy because he politicked his way to the job by ousting longtime broadcaster Frank Herzog.  Braham Weinstein is always entertaining and a great critical voice.  Larry is a homer. So we've set the scene.

The Redskins and Ravens had a scrimmage on Saturday.  By all accounts, the Ravens looked like a 13-3 team whilst the Redskins looked a little better than the 5-11 team of last year.  Now the lunacy begins.  In the midst of all the breakdown, Larry suggested, nee declared that the Redskins had more talent.  Go back and read those records again.  Oh wait, you don't think that the play by play guy would possibly toe the company line and blindly support any old player that donned the "burgundy and gold" do you?  Nah!  Thankfully, Braham went position by position, which was fun.  Larry thought Brandon Lloyd was a better number 2 receiver than Clayton.  He of the 23 receptions is apparently better than the receiver many pundits are predicting will break out as the next star receiver in the league. 

Hmmm....then we had the linebackers.  Apparently Larry liked the Redskins linebackers more.  Braham had to remind Larry that the Ravens lost a pro bowl linebacker, and didn't care because they draft well.  Redskin fans may remember the draft.  It's that day on the last Saturday in April when the other 31 teams get together and decide who will take the players that have yet to play in the NFL, but would like to play in the NFL.  It's a pretty interesting process.

But wait there's more!  When sizing up the QB situation, Larry posed the question "What has Steve McNair ever won?"  Slightly fair, since he has been to 3 AFC title games in his career, but has yet to win it all.  Of course it doesn't stack up to Jason Campbell's national title.  No I'm being sarcastic, Larry Michael said with a straight face that Jason Campbell won the national title at Auburn.  For those out of the loop, that simply did not happen.  I'm not even talking minor versions like AP, USA Today, ESPN the mag, etc.  It flat out didn't happen, period.  In any form.  Is this what the Redskin company line has become?  Use your PR guys to embellish your personnel's resumes?  Has George O'Leary taught us nothing?

So I spent two weeks drinking decaf coffee and no "Mike and Mike in the Morning."  That makes me a sad panda, as I was left with a headache and no sports radio Tom foolery about which to blog.  Now I'm back, so consider this an itch to that I needed to scratch.  During my short commute, I listened to Mike Greenberg's birthday segment.  He's forty today.  Bill Walton left a clahhhsic (Who let Jim Rome type my blog?) message.  Then Grenie (Can I call you Greenie at this stage of our relationship?)  did a rundown of the famous people with whom he shares a birthday.  Greenie lamented the fact that he shared a birthday with Geri Haliwell, the least known/important Spice Girl.  In an IJWMFTT first, I rank the Spice Girls in order of importance:

Ginger Spice: Ambassador for the UN population program who did fine work in the Phillipines and Zambia.  She is also an advocate for fighting breast cancer (though who here is pro breast cancer?)

Posh Spice:  Married to the more famous David Beckham.  She also becomes less attractive with each pound lost.  Hey Vickie, the scales here are not in kilograms.  It's okay.  You aren't fat.

Scary Spice: Eddie Murphy's baby's mama.

Baby Spice: Had a kid?

Sporty Spice: There was a sporty spice?

So yeah, too bad there was no NBC special about the Haliwells coming to Zambia.  Maybe then she'd be more relevant. 

When it comes to sports talk radio, Mike and the Mad Dog on New York's WFAN are the gold standard.  That said, my favorite show is on Sportstalk 980, and it is cohosted by a Francesa disciple.  I'm speaking of "The Sports Reporters" with Andy Pollin and Steve Czaban.  These guys are homers, but they know when their beloved teams are the butt of a joke.  They keep it balanced, which is why I thought they would never appear on this little slice of the Internet.

On this afternoon's edition of TSR, Andy Pollin was discussing the turnout for the upcoming Hall of Fame induction.  It is expected that 75,000 people will flock to the two hotel town of Cooperstown to see Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn enshrined in the HOF.  This is a record, and Andy points out that this is not likely to be broken until Derek Jeter is inducted.  But we won't have to worry about that "for another six years."

Let's do a little math.  Players must wait five years to be inducted into the HOF.  That means that Andy has Jeter retiring after next season.  Derek Jeter is 32, and he collected his 2000th hit this season.  He'll be playing for six more seasons, at the very least.  There is talk of him reaching 4000 hits.  I don't quite believe it, but if he's close, teams will keep giving him jobs.

Then there's the other matter of what if Jeter actually does shock the world and retires after next season.  People would be quick to say "First ballot HOFer who knew when to get out."  But I have a feeling that after five years, someone will look at the list of 2000 hit guys who are closer to 3000, and not in the HOF.  Buckner, Hernandez, and Baines quickly come to mind.  Why would Jeter leapfrog these guys?  Okay, I know the reason why, it's rhetorical.  Nonetheless, I see the first scenario being more likely, and as such, there will be no doubting his HOF status.  I was just confused by what Pollin was trying to theorize.  Some part of his equation is wholly inaccurate.  I was just trying to guess which part was likelier to be wrong. 

Former MLB umpire Fred Brocklander is in studio today with Baltimore's Mark Viviano.  I normally nitpick opinions if I can quantify the inaccuracy of it.  This critique is qualitative in nature.  Brocklander is entitled to his opinion, but it's flawed.  He starts out by saying that Pete Rose should be enshrined in the HOF based upon the fact that Ferguson Jenkins is in the HOF.  After all, (paraphrasing Brocklander) "If we asked 100 people what the bigger danger to society is between drugs and gambling, 98 would say drugs."  That is highly flawed because it's only a hypothesis.  The other flaw is that he is trying to justify varying degrees of wrong.  Does a wife only get 40 percent if the husband commits adultery, versus the 50 percent she'd receive for emotional abuse?  Would the family of an addicted gambler think it's not such a big deal that daddy just gambled away his hime equity?  It is a big deal.  Pete Rose is not above the rules just because he happens to have 4,000 hits.

The other point that Brocklander and others make is that Rose bet ON the Reds.  This should somehow absolve him of wrongdoing.  Here's the problem.  What does it say about the games in which Pete had no action?  Did Pete only use his best resources when he had action on games?  Did John Franco sit out a ninth inning when Pete didn't have a bet?  These are fair questions to ask.  The rule is in place because the league doesn't want to deal with all of these "what ifs."

Ask the NBA right now how they feel about the implications of gambling.  People have whispered for years that the NBA games aren't always on the up and up.  How do you get the Spurs to lose?  Eject Tim Duncan of course.  You have to give fans the impression that what they are seeing is real.  It's what got Mark McGwire only 25 % of the HOF vote.  And it's what has Pete Rose hawking junk on QVC.

The new Yankee Stadium will cost a reported $1.2 billion.  He says there are 300 million people in America.  The Yankees have given so much to America.  If each American would give 33 cents to the cause, the stadium would be fully funded.

Colin Cowherd is bad at math.