Ben Axelrod talks Cavs, Cardale, Chuck Booms and more – WFNY Podcast – 2015-05-07
May 8, 2015Video: Cardale Jones shoots back at Joakim Noah
May 8, 2015Happy Friday everyone. It’s time to get in on some more Cavaliers playoff action and hopefully some nice weather events in Cleveland. Who knows? Maybe drag that TV out to the back yard and get the best of both worlds? While we’re waiting…
Are the Cavs worn out?
I had an amazing time at Game 2 against the Bulls. Watching the Cavs come out fast and just destroy the will of the Bulls almost from wire-to-wire in an NBA playoff game was probably worth three times the price of admission. That being said, and I don’t want to be some kind of negative Nancy about the whole thing, I came away with some largely negative observations about the Cavs and their body language.
LeBron James looked positively worn out and beaten down. Yes, he willed the Cavaliers to victory, but boy did that game seem to take a toll on him. Additionally, Iman Shumpert hurt his groin, as we all saw. But Kyrie too, was sluggish by game’s end. He almost looked like he was coming up a bit lame and it reminded me just how much basketball Kyrie Irving is playing this year compared to any other time in his life.
In his first three seasons in the league, Kyrie Irving played just over 1500 minutes, about 2000 minutes and almost 2500 minutes total for each of the seasons starting in 2011-12. This year, Kyrie played 2730 in the regular season and has added another 241 in the first six games of the playoffs. We’re officially in uncharted waters with Kyrie, and we knew that was going to happen, but the implications of it all really just started to hit me as the Cavaliers wore the clock down in the series-tying game on Wednesday night.
There’s no conclusion coming, but I sure hope a well-rested J.R. Smith can have some phenomenal impact to help take the pressure off of LeBron James and Kyrie Irving, because the load is starting to show on the Cavaliers’ two remaining superstars.
A farewell to Chuck Booms…
I always hate to see most anyone get fired. It’s especially easy to look at people you disagree with and secretly – or not-so-secretly in some of your cases – hope they get fired. That’s not the way I feel about Chuck Booms a day after he was let go by 92.3 The Fan, despite the fact that he would occasionally have me screaming at my radio in the mornings when I didn’t agree with him. The fact that I wouldn’t really consider myself a fan is exactly the point when talking about someone getting fired.
Too often when someone gets fired in entertainment, it seems that it’s at the behest of people who weren’t fans begin with. Those are exactly the wrong people to focus on. If those people were the focus then every show would get cancelled and every personality would get fired. Chuck Booms had plenty of fans and they’re the ones who are left without something they loved, regardless of what the detractors thought of the show or Booms himself. That’s inherently sad. It didn’t cost anyone anything to not listen to the show, and that goes for myself as well.
In this day and age with literally millions of options at our disposal, there’s no reason to celebrate someone’s firing because you didn’t like the entertainer or their show. All that we’ve really accomplished is the removal of one option that a pretty big number of people enjoyed. So you won’t see me celebrating.
I’m going to make you cry now…
I had @nominataur on the podcast before and I saw this link via him and I read it and it made me cry, but it’s just too great and beautiful not to share. The same way we let sports and athletes and teams and fellow fans into our hearts is the way little kids do with characters like Big Bird from Sesame Street. Because there’s a new documentary on Caroll Spinney, the puppeteer responsible for Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, there was a Reddit AMA.
The question was, “What has been your most meaningful interaction with a child?”
Okay, here’s one.
This is a very sad story, but it’s real.
I got a letter from a fan who said his little boy, who was 5 years old, his name was Joey, he was dying of cancer.
And he was so ill, the little boy knew he was dying.
So the man, in his letter, asked if I would call the little boy. He said the only thing that cheered him at all in his fading state was to see Big Bird on television.
So once in a while, he wouldn’t see Big Bird on some days, because he wasn’t necessarily in every show. So he asked could I telephone him, and talk to the boy, tell him what a good boy he’s been.
So I took a while to look up a phone, because this was before cell phones. And they got a long cord to bring a phone to the boy.
And I had Big Bird say “Hello! Hello Joey! It’s me, Big Bird!”
So he said “Is it really you, Big Bird?”
“Yes, it is.”
I chatted a while with him, about ten minutes, and he said “I’m glad you’re my friend Big Bird.”
And I said “I’d better let you go now.”He said “Thank you for calling me Big Bird. You’re my friend. You make me happy.”
And it turns out that his father and mother were sitting with him when the phone call came. And he was very, very ill that day. And they called the parents in, because they weren’t sure how long he’d last.
And so his father wrote to me right away, and said “Thank you, thank you” – he hadn’t seen him smile since October, and this was in March – and when the phone was hung up, he said “Big
Bird called me! He’s my friend.”
And he closed his eyes. And he passed away.
And I could see that what I say to children can be very important.
And he said “We haven’t seen our little boy smile in MONTHS. He smiled, as he passed away. It was a gift to us. Thank you.”
Of course for me, reading that in the same week where my five-year-old was off on a trip with his grandparents and my wife and I and our two-year-old are at home missing him desperately, was a double-whammy.
Stipe Miocic against Mark Hunt…
Cleveland’s UFC representative Stipe Miocic is due to battle Mark Hunt in Australia on Saturday. It is going to be an extremely dangerous fight for Stipe Miocic with a whole lot of upside if he can win. He’s going five rounds against knockout specialist Mark Hunt. Stipe is currently ranked fourth in the UFC heavyweight division and Mark Hunt is ranked fifth with what’s essentially a “home game” for Hunt in Adelaide Australia.
Can’t wait.
Your weekly moment of soccer zen…
In basketball they talk about breaking ankles all the time. I don’t know what the term is to what Lionel Messi does to the defender here in the box before scoring, but it’s a dirty, dirty deed.
Brent Kirby and His Luck…
I am one of many Cleveland people who has been lucky enough to get to know Brent Kirby. He’s a phenomenal musician and an even better dude when you meet him. He is a prolific writer and performer and while he’s not from Cleveland, he’s as much a part of its current musical fabric as anyone I can think of. He’s a human hub of musical activity – a supreme enabler for a great number of Cleveland musicians – that it just must be recognized. He is about to release an album called “Patience Worth” under the band name Brent Kirby and His Luck, and it feels like the culmination of something great that’s been brewing for a long time.
That’s not to put down Brent Kirby’s previous solo work, or his work with The Jack Fords, but to recognize the achievement of this new album. It’s material that feels very much a part of the Brent Kirby catalog, and it isn’t really breaking new ground from that standpoint, because it very much fits in with the tone and style of previous material. Still, there’s just something to this collection of performers and these songs that feels complete, in control, at ease and exactly what it’s supposed to be and nothing that it’s not. There’s no awkward moment or even anything that feels like it doesn’t belong as a part of this collection of tunes.
I’ve already picked a favorite and it’s called “Tell Me Something.” I can’t wait for you all to hear it.
It’s worth celebrating and I hope that you consider it. Brent Kirby and His Luck are doing a CD release show at the Music Box Supper Club on Saturday May 16, and I’m kicking myself that I’ll be out of town for it.
Also, I’ll be chatting with Brent on the Scene Podcast this week, so make sure you check it out via my Twitter sometime probably by Friday afternoon.
24 Comments
Was Chuck fired because people asked for him to be fired, or was he fired because people like me stopped tuning in? Radio lives and dies by its ratings. After a strong first year in which he was named Sports Talk Radio Host of the year by Scene, the ratings starting sliding (arguably due to him) and it was cutting into Baskin and Phelps. More and more people voted with their radio dials until they were forced to make a change. Should we celebrate Booms being fired? No. Should sports fans who had a hole in their commute that will now have a local sports-related option celebrate? Yes.
Well put. I agree with the sentiments of the post: We should (almost) never celebrate someone being fired from their job. I think people forget this with athletes and other entertainers as well – a ‘bad’ rookie LB who doesn’t make the cut goes from a chance at a big paycheck to $0, and that’s hard for him and his family.
At the same time, I am also happy for 92.3 and the listeners, who should both gain from this change. After months of changing stations on the way to work due to absolutely terrible arguments and points, where I could only listen when Ken Carman was filling in for at least one of them (and even then), to the point that I fully stopped listening to sports talk radio on the way into work, it’s hard not to understand this move. If you aren’t producing at your job, you very likely will end up not having one – that’s no less true for Chuck Booms than it is for me or you or anyone else. I’ve had to suggest that people be let go and I’ve had to let people go, and it sucks for everyone, especially the people being let go and their families. But it’s still good for the company, and in turn the other employees and the people it services.
Come on Craig! It’s Friday and you’re making me cry…
I tuned out on every show that had Chuck Booms as a guest, commentator, panelist or attempted humorist. Not even the mild mannered Les Levine could handle Chuckie back in the day of his MS@LL show before enough was enough. Oh well good luck with the “comedy” Booms!
How about this for soccer zen back2back bicycle kicks for the goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooal? Gooooooooooal!!
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/highschool-prep-rally/seniors-combine-for-tremendous-double-bicycle-kick-goal-170650242.html
My heart has been hardened into Diamond, yet that Big Bird story caused the tears to well up.
All of this. Up until today, I had no local sports talk during morning drive to listen to. This was disappointing to me. Now I do, and 92.3 gets a new listener.
I agree with your sentiment but find Kiley equally unlistenable. That problem remains. My celebration is hopeful but muted.
I think I’m allergic to Big Bird. Eyes won’t stop watering.
Did this actually happen in the ratings? I don’t have access to books, but nobody’s said this anywhere else about the ratings. And if you have a hole in your commute, may I recommend the WFNY Podcast? 🙂
http://media.giphy.com/media/C1gEvbqAOBSzS/giphy.gif
I feel like the whole morning lineup on 92.3 needs revamped.
http://radioinsight.com/community/topic/the-fan-losing-steam/
TL:DR;
92.3 the Fan started slow but had gradually increased its listener base. That trend is now reversing. The Fan went from an overall 3.8 share in the holiday 2014 book to a 2.8 in the February 2015 book.
I sincerely hope it ends up Kiley and Carman. Those two have good chemistry.
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Full accord. Live by the blowhard/interruptor/yelling shtick, die by it. His act seemed more about contrived arguments with his on-air partner than substance. And that’s just boring after a while, especially now, when Cleveland has decent teams to talk about in both summer and winter.
Obviously, it’s wrong to wish him ill personally if you don’t personally dislike him. But this is business. His is entertaining, mine is being entertained. If I’m at a concert and the band sucks it’s perfectly acceptable for me to wish for a better band.
Speaking of employment changes Bill Simmons and ESPN part ways – yea!!!
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/the-turnstile/bill-simmons-and-espn-part-ways-after-failed-contract-negotiations-144805002.html
All of this. A big part of Booms’ job was to get people yelling at the radio or arguing with him. It works for a lot of radio personalities. He couldn’t pull it off in the long-term.
Kiley said today ratings remained steady, so I’m not sure what happened then. Eventually shows become stale though.
It was his only move his best schtick that’s why he wears out welcomes so fast.
Just curious, Craig: thought I remember your expressing regret – maybe in a podcast?- that at one time you bought into the NFL’s glorification of head shots, until we began to learn more about the resulting head injuries. I know I bought into it to a large degree.
Are you ok with the glorification of head shots in the UFC? Personally, I cannot separate the sports and consider ultimate fighting or boxing different because it’s essence is the rendering the opponent unconconscious. Hard for me to say fighters assume the risk and it’s ok to cheer brain injury, but linebacker and centers and running backs not so much.
It’s something I’ve thought a lot about and I don’t have a good answer, really. My instincts were against UFC initially, and then through a lot of different methods, I ended up being a fan. So, I guess I could probably retro-fit a bunch of justifications that make it different than football for me, but I am afraid that it might just end up being an intellectually dishonest justification.
I love Stipe Miocic. I’ve met him a few times and some of his friends as well. I still like watching two guys fight MMA. All the icky feelings I get about the head injuries in football don’t come to the surface the same way in MMA. I don’t know why it’s that way for me, but it is.
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