SPECTATOR BIRD
October 1, 2006
By: Andrew Dengler

Commentary from a sports enthusiast with a bird’s eye view of spectator sports:

General Manager for a Day – If I were in charge of the Kansas City Royals, I would hire Don Mattingly as my baseball manager this off-season. Mattingly is currently the hitting coach for the New York Yankees. The Royals are a team with hope for the future in 2007 and beyond due to some recently acquired young talent on the roster ( Ryan Shealy-1B; David DeJesus-OF, Mark Teahen-3B, Joey Gathright-OF, Emil Brown-OF, John Buck-C; Esteban German-2B; Alex Gordon -2005-#1 Draft Choice-3B). By bringing in a respected former player and hitting coach like Mattingly as the manager, you are gaining a former All-Star player who carries himself with class and dignity. He would provide much needed leadership and a winning attitude to a franchise that has been sorely missing both.
Mattingly is from the Midwest ( Indiana ) and would be able to demonstrate to the young and talented players, how to play Major League Baseball. Under Mattingly’s tutelage, he could really help promising young hitters like Shealy, Teahen, DeJesus, et al, develop. Hiring “Donnie Baseball” Mattingly would be step 1 in turning the Royals franchise around; step 2, is acquiring better pitching and some veteran position players for added leadership and depth.

The Bronx Raspberry Awards- Each week ‘The Bronx Raspberry Awards’ are given to those Division I-A football programs who continue to schedule a clearly inferior Division

I-AA opponent in hopes of getting a cheap win, pad statistics and a sense of false bravado. This week’s recipients, Texas versus Sam Houston State - c’mon Texas , your fourth string could beat Sam Houston State . Boston College versus the University of Maine , - Boston College , you will not earn any respect or recognition for beating the Black Bears of Maine. Wake Forest versus Liberty – Wake Forest , what’s the matter, Slippery Rock Teacher’s College wasn’t available?

His Time is Now – Note to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays management, I think that super prospect Delmon Young has had enough “seasoning” in the minor leagues by now don’t you? Young has been playing in right field for the Devil Rays recently as a call-up when the Major League Baseball rosters were expanded. Young has been on fire, feasting on opponent’s Major League pitching, he was 31 for 87 (.356) recently. He should have been brought up a lot sooner, maybe even as early as last season. What are the “basement dwelling” teams like the Devil Rays waiting for?
When you have a talented player like a Delmon Young in your organization, he should be playing on the Major League team. Look at Ken Griffey, Jr. and Alex Rodriguez, both were starting for the Seattle Mariners at 19 years of age. With Young as an every day starter, hopefully from day one of the 2007 season, the Devil Rays fans may actually have something to cheer about next year. The Devil Rays have the potential for an awesome outfield in 2007 with Carl Crawford in left field, a healthy Rocco Baldelli in center field and Delmon Young in right field.

Change the Uniform, win a Super Bowl - note to the Spanos family, owners of the San Diego “Super” Chargers in the NFL. Please change your football teams uniforms back to the ones worn in the “old days”, the 1960’s, by then wide receiver Lance Alworth and quarterback Johnny Unitas. The powder blue jerseys and white helmets with the lightning bolts are the stuff fashion icons are made of in the world of pro football uniforms. Let’s Go “Throwback Uniforms” Chargers! I’m not guaranteeing a Super Bowl or anything, but did you see what happened when the Broncos changed their uniforms? Two Super Bowl titles for Denver . When the New England Patriots changed their uniforms, they won three Super Bowls. Think about it, if the Chargers change their uniforms, maybe this could be their year…..

The Dream Coaching Team or an Athletic Director’s Worst Nightmare? – At Rutgers University a few years ago, an interesting situation could have developed when both Bill Parcells and Bobby Knight were simultaneously out of coaching. Parcells was out of football voluntarily, and Knight had just been very publicly fired as the basketball coach by the University of Indiana . Rutgers could have tested the waters and looked into a tandem deal to hire the two mutual admirers, Parcells, the self-proclaimed “ Jersey guy” as head coach of the Rutgers football team and his close buddy, Knight, as the head coach of the Rutgers basketball team. What a combination the two would have made - Knight and Parcells, two giants of the coaching world, at the same university! Not that I would want to be the Athletic Director to supervise those two volcanoes, but they would have changed the landscape of Northeastern collegiate athletics and really put Rutgers on the national sports map.

Quarterback Depth - the New York Giants should sign former Yankees farmhand and former Dallas Cowboys “QB of the Future” Drew Henson. Henson was cut by the Cowboys and is now looking for a new team. Henson would be a perfect fit behind franchise QB Eli Manning. Henson would be a great pickup for the Giants and an immediate upgrade to the other backup quarterbacks on the roster, Tim Hasselback and Jared “Biscuit” Lorenzen. Hasselback is at best a journeyman player. “Biscuit” Lorenzen unfortunately is known more for his girth (weighing in at a reported 285 pounds, a.k.a. “Biscuit” because he is usually a biscuit or two shy of 300 pounds) than for his skills as a quarterback. Henson is 6’4, 225 pounds, runs a 4.7 forty, and has all physical tools of a prototype NFL quarterback. In Dallas , it appears that Coach Bill Parcells destroyed Henson’s confidence. With Eli Manning firmly entrenched as the starter, and a mellowed Coach Tom Coughlin, this would be the right environment to develop a player like Drew Henson. Henson can practice and learn behind Eli Manning, without the pressure to be the “QB of the future”. Henson is enormously talented, but needs a disciplined and focused coach, like Coughlin, to bring out his true abilities. Henson has the talent to be a starting quarterback in the NFL. He is the perfect second string quarterback and a solid replacement in case of an injury to Manning.

Come Back Shane (Don) - Don Meredith, please come back to football broadcasting! Your perspectives, humor and insights are sorely missing. Football fans need you. Come back Don (Shane)! Meredith should come back to broadcast either the new Sunday night game on NBC or the Monday night game on ESPN. Note to ESPN, has anyone contacted former color commentator extraordinaire, “Dandy” Don Meredith? The presence of Dandy Dan as the color commentator automatically would make any football game worth tuning in to watch and listen. Alternatively, note to NBC: what about Don Meredith joining John Madden and Al Michaels for the Sunday night game. Meredith and Madden in the same broadcast booth make any game a “happening.”

The Best Pure Football Player in the 2006 NFL Draft – Note to 49ers fans, your front office did a great job in drafting former Penn State football player, Michael Robinson, in this year’s draft. Robinson is 6 feet 2 inches tall and 215 pounds, has played quarterback, running back, wide receiver, and punt/kick returner for the Nittany Lions. The 49ers have him playing at the running back position. He is an awesome physical specimen and he really could be something special as a feature back, running and catching the football 20-25 times per game. His strongest attributes are not his unusual combination of strength, speed and pass catching ability, but rather, his work ethic and leadership abilities. The 49ers have a super star in the making. The front office personnel of the Browns, Texans, Jets and many other teams in need of running back help, should be kicking themselves for not drafting Robinson. He could start at running back for all of these teams.

Something to Prove - Can New York Yankees manager, Joe Torre, win a World Series championship without Don Zimmer as his bench coach? Also, what about Dallas Cowboys Head Coach, Bill Parcells? Can Parcellswin a Super Bowl (or get to a Super Bowl?) without Bill Belichik as his defensive coordinator?

Failing Upwards – current college head coaches, Skip Holtz-East Carolina; Ron Zook-Illinois; Mike Price -Texas El-Paso;Hal Mumme-New Mexico State; Bill Callahan-Nebraska and Dave Wannstedt-Pitt. All went from the outhouse (being fired, Skip Holtz was so bad his own father had demoted him at the University of South Carolina ) to head coaching jobs on the Division 1-A college level. It is a shame because there are many other coaches that are more deserving that should have been hired at those schools. It is sad to see that the “old boy” network is still alive and well.

What’s in a Name? - Some of the ALL-TIME great names and nicknames from the world of pro baseball – Al “the Mad Hungarian” Hrobsky; Rich “Goose” Gossage; John “the Count” Montefusco; Jim “Catfish” Hunter; Covelli “Coco” Crisp; Alan “Inky” Strange; Joe “Ubbo Ubbo” Hurung; Ron “The Penguin” Cey; Bill “Spaceman” Lee; George “Possum Belly” Whitted; Ron “Louisiana Lighting” Guidry; and Frank “Easter Egg Head” Shellenback.

-Thanks for flying with the Spectator Bird.

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