In Houston, it's all Texans all the Time

Having been in radio for twenty-one years, you could say that I’ve been around. I started fresh out of college in Buffalo. I’ve worked in New York, Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis and now Houston. In other words, you could say that I am ‘well traveled.’

I have worked in good sports cities and bad sports cities (at the risk of offending anyone I won’t identify which is which). I have worked in cities where all the teams were doing well at the same time and I have worked in cities where all of the teams were experiencing tough times at the same time.

But never have I worked in a city like Houston.

First of all, let me tell you that I really enjoy the city. I enjoy the people. I enjoy going out and doing the many different things that you can do in a city like Houston. Despite the heat and humidity, I enjoy the fact that I do not have to worry about dealing with the cold and snow.

What I don’t enjoy is the apathy that I have found here for the city’s professional sports teams.

That doesn’t mean that Houstonians aren’t passionate about their teams. They are. This city is all about the Texans. The fans can’t get enough. There’s a lot of buzz about the club, as there should be.

The team is one of the better clubs in the AFC. The way I see it, outside of the Patriots and Ravens, the Texans are the only other contenders in the conference. Their defense (outside of some of the linebacker play and one of the corners) is nasty. Their special teams are top-notch (thanks to Trindon Holliday). The only question mark is the health of the offense (Matt Schaub and Andre Johnson). But, if both players are able to stay healthy I don’t see any reason why the Texans cannot make it to the Super Bowl.

But the Texans are the only team in the city that the fans have passion for. I have looked for it with the Astros and Rockets, but I just have not found it.

Not that I blame Astros fans for keeping quiet. The club isn’t very good (again, being kind). General Manager Jeff Luhnow has a major rebuilding project ahead of him. He was left with almost nothing on the big league level and less than nothing in the minor league system. That is why he has been trading off big league assets in order to re-stock the minor league system. It is going to take a number of years for his moves to pay off.

The troubling thing for me is that I have found almost no one talking about the Astros. Forget about how bad they are for a second here. I have been around teams that have been bad before (some of the Milwaukee Brewers and New York Mets teams that I covered weren’t very good at all). But at least the fan bases were passionate about how bad things had gotten. They wanted to see a turnaround, and they wanted that turnaround to occur quickly.

I have not found that same level of passion with Astros fans. This club is so bad that Houstonians don’t even want to talk about them. The subject comes up, and nothing. Crickets. The club is ignored for the most part. Just look at the attendance figures. They are, for lack of a better word, pathetic.

I am not telling Astros fans that they have to care. I’d never force that on anyone. But can the fan base show any signs of life? Can they show that they care, even if it’s just a little bit? It almost seems like the fan base figures if they ignore it, the problems will go away.

And then there are the Rockets. Look, the Rockets aren’t a bad ball club. They just aren’t a very good ball club. The team tried to improve themselves. They tried to acquire Dwight Howard from the Orlando Magic before his trade to the Los Angeles Lakers. They put their best foot forward. They just didn’t land the big fish.

Whether or not Jeremy Lin makes the Rockets a playoff teams remains to be seen. But he hasn’t really moved the needle for many Rockets fans. His signing was met with what I would call a ‘ho-hum’ reaction.

It’s actually been amazing for me to watch. This organization, after all, won a pair of NBA titles in the 1990’s. It’s not like they are an organization that has no history. They have plenty of history, and most of it has been good. Sure, they are in a rebuilding mode. But it’s not like they’ve been doormats for ten years. I went to a few Rockets games this past season and I found the Toyota Center to be as loud as your average funeral home. Where is the passion?

And then there are the two local colleges in Houston. No, not Texas and Texas A&M. Those schools have rabid fan bases all over the state. I am talking about Rice and the University of Houston.

Rice hasn’t been a good football program for a long time now, but they play in a mammoth stadium (Rice Stadium actually hosted a Super Bowl in the 1970’s). But as I watched the Owls get drilled by UCLA (not an elite program by any means) I was struck by how many empty seats I saw. The game was nationally televised (OK it was on the CBS Sports Network but still) and you know the director in the truck was cringing every time they went to a wide shot and you saw numerous sections completely empty. Not the kind of thing a television network wants to show its audience. And certainly not what school officials want to see, either.

The other local school in the city is the University of Houston. The Cougars don’t have the tradition of UT or A&M, but they aren’t Rice! Art Briles (now at Baylor) and Kevin Sumlin (now in College Station) have made sure of that (and they’ve had help from players like Kevin Kolb and Case Keenum). But as they get ready to open their season I am hearing nothing about this team. And they are on the verge of moving into the Big East!

The one exception to the apathy I have found here is the Dyanmo of the MLS. They have a brand new stadium. They have a fan base that can’t get enough. But in the big picture, soccer is a niche sport, just like hockey (and yes, Houston has the Aeros but it’s a minor league hockey team). I know that win-loss records have a lot to do with the level of passion a city has for its teams. And I know that two of the three pro teams in Houston have been (at best) mediocre for a few years.

But Houston is a big city. It’s a major city. It’s one of the biggest cities in the country. Unfortunately, it’s also a city that – for the time being at least – is treating its sports teams like an afterthought.

With exception of the Texans of course.

Rocket About to Blast Off Again

I have never been a Roger Clemens fan. I respected his ability as a big league pitcher but I just never warmed up to him. Not as a fan and not as a member of the media. This has nothing to do with the Mitchell Report. This has nothing to do with whether or not I believe Clemens used steroids. It doesn’t even have anything to do with Clemens throwing a bat at Mike Piazza during the 2000 World Series. I was just never a fan.

That said, what he’s doing tonight is pretty damn cool.

If you missed it, and frankly, it would have been tough to, Clemens will pitch competitively for the first time since the 2007 season, when he was with the New York Yankees. He will be on the mound tonight – at the age of 50 – for the Sugar Land Skeeters (an independent minor league team) against the Bridgeport Bluefish. 

I live in Houston, and there is more buzz for this particular game than there is about the Astros and their weekend series with the Mets. There is more buzz about Clemens tonight and the Texans’ pre-season matchup with the Saints (and Houston is just crazy about the Texans). Everyone is interested in seeing whether or not Clemens can pull this off.

ESPN has jumped in as well. The Worldwide Leader will be all over tonight’s game, whether it’s with live coverage on ESPN Classic or live look-ins on any of their other networks. If you are looking for it you will not miss a single pitch of Clemens’ effort tonight.

The question that has been going around ever since Clemens announced his deal with the Skeeters is whether or not he has a bigger long-term goal in mind. Does Clemens want to make a return to Major League Baseball as an active pitcher at the ripe old age of 50?

I had the opportunity to speak with a few guys that might know. Phil Garner managed Clemens with the Astros and knows a thing or two about the guy. He still keeps in touch with him. Larry Dierker is a former Astros manager and broadcaster. If it concerns the Astros, he knows something about it. Jim Deshaies is a former Astros pitcher who is now a popular television analyst for the club. None of them would be shocked if Clemens could pitch in the big leagues, especially Dierker.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he could pitch in the Major Leagues at his age. I think Roger could do it,” Dierker told me.

Deshaies thinks Clemens has designs on making it all the way back to the majors

“I don’t think he would be doing it if there wasn’t the idea in the back of his mind that he would return to the big leagues at some point. I think it’s a test,” Deshaies explained.

And none of them would be surprised if Clemens was effective.

“Don’t underestimate him,” Deshaies said. “I think he has been throwing the ball pretty well. He doesn’t want to go out there and embarrass himself.”

Who knows why Clemens is doing this. Maybe he’s bored now that he has finished his fight with the government. Maybe he wants to give something back to the game after all these years. Maybe he wants to teach something to the next generation of players. Or maybe he’s just that competitive. Only Clemens knows.

But I know this. Having watched the Astros this season, a 50-year old Roger Clemens that can still throw the ball at 87 MPH might be better than any other starter the Astros can put out there.

This ballclub is the worst in baseball. They are 40-86. Outside of second baseman Jose Altuve there isn’t a lot of reason to watch this team. They are playing a lot of kids no one has ever heard of. Outside of Altuve and Jed Lowrie they have traded every household name they had (Carlos Lee, Brett Myers and Wandy Rodriguez to name a few).

Lucas Harrell is the only starter that has a winning record (10-9, 4.04 ERA). Other than that there hasn’t been much to look forward to. Bud Norris, Jordan Lyles and Dallas Keuchel don’t get anyone excited. As a whole, this team doesn’t get anyone excited.

I’ve lived in Houston for six months. No one talks about this team. No one. There are more people talking about the local MLS team (the Dynamo) than there are people talking about the Astros. I have been to about ten games this year as a fan. I haven’t seen a big crowd yet at Minute Maid Park (a gorgeous stadium by the way).

It has been a trying season for fans of this team, so if Clemens shows that there is anything left in the tank, why not give him a start or two in September? Would it be a cheap stunt to get fans to watch the club? Yeah, it would. But there is really no other reason to watch the Astros.

There are some that say Clemens is doing this to re-start the five-year wait for Cooperstown and the Hall of Fame. That’s very possible, too. By then there will be a new batch of Hall of Fame voters, a group more likely to vote him into Cooperstown. But that’s another debate for another day.

Right now it’s about watching to see if this 50-year old has anything left. He isn’t the only old guy to try and pull this off. But he is the only former power pitcher trying to pull it off.

As much as I am not a fan of his, I’ll be interested in seeing if he can pull this off.

Hamilton Needs Help

Josh Hamilton

Last July, when Texas Rangers fan Shannon Stone fell to his death after Josh Hamilton threw him a souvenir baseball, I said on the air that I was concerned about his future. Hamilton, as most everyone knows by now, has dealt with drug addiction and alcoholism for years. When Stone fell to his death I said that I hoped Hamilton wouldn’t relapse. Unfortunately, it appears as if that is exactly what has happened.

According to reports, Hamilton relapsed on Monday night at a local Dallas bar. The reports also indicated that teammate Ian Kinsler showed up at the establishment in an attempt to get Hamilton out of the situation.

The Rangers confirmed the relapse, releasing a statement that said they were "aware of a situation but have no further comment at this time."

The whole situation makes me sad. There are many people who deal with addiction every day. Some of them are able to overcome their problems. Some of them aren’t. But the one thing they all have in common is the fact that they are sick. Addiction is a sickness. It is a disease. It is not a choice, as some would have you believe.

I know of what I speak, at least when it comes to addiction. I watched my father go through it. I watched my father conquer it.

It was late in 1992, and my father was living in Albuquerque, New Mexico at the time. I visited him for the holidays, and when I got off the plane, I was stunned at what I saw. You see, my father was always a big guy. The man that greeted me when I got off the plane was a good eighty pounds less than the man I had last seen the year before. My immediate reaction was to congratulate him on losing the weight. Within a couple of days I figured out how he had done it.

You see, my father would disappear for hours at a time, and when he returned, he was clearly high. I will never forget going to dinner with him, and him saying to me that he was so “zooted” out of his mind. I then found out that my father was using crack.

When I returned home from my trip I was so distraught about the situation that I had called some members of my family and told them what had happened. I was accused of lying, because no one could believe that my father, as straight-laced a guy as there was for most of my life, would fall down that far. The fact that the people I told did not believe me led to some very tense times in my life. There were family members I did not speak to for a while because they would not believe me. That is, until they confronted my father, who admitted he had a problem.

That was in 1992. My father spent the next couple of years on and off the wagon, moving from place to place (fist Mesa, Arizona and then Kansas). The addiction cost him his job and led him to file for bankruptcy.

But he turned his life around. He stopped using drugs, and for the last fifteen years of his life he was clean and sober. I don’t know how he did it. I never asked him (to be honest I was afraid to). But I know that he did it, and to this day I am proud of him for doing so.

I don’t know what triggered his addiction. I do know that there were certain traumatic events in his life that led him to relapse. Relapsing was his way of dealing with whatever pain he was going through at the time. I never condoned it, but I understood it.

Thank goodness he conquered his demons. There were other traumatic events in his life that occurred between 1995 and 2010 (when he passed away from a staph infection), but he never fell back into doing drugs.

When I first heard that Hamilton relapsed, I took to twitter to express how sad I was that he had fell off the wagon. One of my followers (who shall remain nameless) tweeted back to me, and was pretty insensitive about the whole thing. The guy made a joke about Game Six of the World Series and how that could make anyone drink if they were a Rangers fan. Naturally, I told him how much I disagreed with him.

We’ll probably never know what caused Hamilton to walk into that bar on Monday night. But try this on for size. For the last number of months, Hamilton was dealing with the fact that a kind act that he did led someone to fall to his death. On top of that, the man fell right in front of his young son.

I’ve obviously never had something like that happen to me, but I can see and understand how it would weigh on someone’s mind. I could understand how guilty Hamilton must have felt. Somewhere along the way he probably thought it was his fault that Shannon Stone died. Try dealing with that kind of guilt.

Again, I am not condoning what Hamilton did by going to that Dallas bar on Monday night. If he felt he was about to go back to alcohol, he should have reached out to someone. He should have turned to one of the many people he has in his support system. But he didn’t.

I am fond of telling people that they cannot live their lives in the rear view mirror. I am a firm believer in looking forward, not looking back. Hamilton cannot change what has happened in the past. But he can do something about his future.

He can get himself the help he needs. How he does it is up to him. Every addict that is able to overcome their issues does it differently. Some can do it by themselves. Some need rehab. It doesn’t matter how Hamilton does it, as long as he does it.

His very life is at stake here.

Irsay About to Take a Huge Risk

Colts Owner Jim Irsay

There is a theory in the business world that in order to have big success you cannot be afraid to take big gambles. Based on that theory, Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay is about to take one of the biggest risks in the history of the National Football League.

By now you know what’s going on with the Colts and Peyton Manning. No one knows, not even Manning himself, if he will be able to play in the 2012 season. Normally, teams would wait and see if their superstar would be able to make it on to the football field. The Colts do not have that luxury.

The team owes Manning a $28 million dollar bonus on March 8^th. Those who are ‘plugged in’ feel that Manning isn’t going to push that deadline back, nor should he have to. The problem is the Colts don’t want to give Manning that bonus if he isn’t going to be able to play.

In fairness to the Colts, they have every right to be apprehensive about giving Manning that check. It would be an absolute disaster if they gave him the money and he wasn’t able to play in 2012. It would be the kind of move that could set the franchise back for years.

So when it’s all said and done, the Colts will let Manning go. And that move would be the biggest gamble that Irsay could make.

There are two ways it could go wrong for the Colts. The conventional wisdom says they will draft Andrew Luck, Stanford’s star quarterback, with the No. 1 overall pick in the April draft. Reports have been circulating for weeks now that Luck will be the name on the card when it is handed to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. But what if Luck doesn’t pan out?

It’s not out of the realm of possibility that Luck will bust out. There have been many highly drafted quarterbacks that didn’t make it. I can give you a list of quarterbacks that failed to make it despite the fact they were drafted with high first round picks. Ryan Leaf comes to mind. So does Tim Couch. Akili Smith and David Klingler were two quarterbacks drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals that never made it. Would you like me to keep going, or do you get my point?

So Luck isn’t a lock to be the next best thing since sliced bread. And if he doesn’t live up to expectations, the Colts (especially if they part ways with Manning) will be behind the eight ball. A quarterback drafted No. 1 overall that doesn’t succeed can set an organization back for a long time. If the Colts miss on Luck, it will cripple the franchise.

The other thing that could go wrong for the Colts would be to watch Manning go somewhere else and pick up where he left off when he was still healthy. There is a very good chance that could happen. Manning has not displayed any signs that he has lost a thing on the field. There is every chance in the world that he could get healthy and continue to produce at the level we have been accustomed to seeing over the years.

There also is a good chance that he could hook up with a team that isn’t far away from putting it all together and winning it all, like he did at the end of the 2006 season, when the Colts beat the Bears for the one Super Bowl they won with Manning under center.

Let’s just say that Manning winds up with the San Francisco 49ers (the best spot for him in my opinion). The Niners have a very good defense. It’s a championship level defense. They also have a damn good running back in Frank Gore and a coach that knows how to push all the right buttons in Jim Harbaugh. If they add Manning to the mix (with apologies to Alex Smith), they would have to be considered one of the favorites to win it all in 2012.

Of course, the Colts could release Manning, draft Luck, and wind up having success. That is possible. The 49ers dealt Joe Montana to the Kansas City Chiefs and wound up winning a Super Bowl in 1994 with Steve Young. But the difference between that situation and what the Colts have to deal with is that Young was already established as one of the better quarterbacks in the league when they traded Montana. Luck, like every other young quarterback, is going to have his share of growing pains. And the Colts were 2-14 this past season. They have bottomed out. They need to rebuild. The Niners of the early 1990’s were contenders every single year.

Make no mistake about it. The decision that the Colts face regarding Peyton Manning is a monumental one. They will likely release one of the best quarterbacks the NFL has ever seen in order to go with an unproven kid. It is not just a big gamble. It is a humongous gamble.

But like I said before, if you want to have big success in business, you cannot be afraid of taking big risks.

It’s your move, Jim Irsay.

Doing Super Bowl Radio Row Shows is an Art

Radio Row

Chances are that you have either heard or seen one of the sports radio shows that you listen to every day do their show live from what they call Radio Row at the Super Bowl in Indianapolis this week. All three national radio networks are there as are many local stations (and from what I understand the number of stations that are there is up from the last few years).

For all of the people connected to the hundreds of shows that go to the Super Bowl, this week is the highlight of the year. I know it was for me. I’ve been doing radio for twenty-one years now, and I have had the pleasure of going to five Super Bowls (in Atlanta, Tampa, New Orleans, San Diego and Detroit). I’ve produced shows from Super Bowls and I’ve hosted shows from Super Bowls. It’s a fun week. There is a lot of work that goes into it (it’s not all parties, trust me), but it is a fun week when all is said and done.

That being said, not every listener enjoys the shows that are done from Radio Row. Every year, without fail, I see someone lodge the following complaints:

1.       My team isn’t in the Super Bowl. Why is my favorite radio station spending so much time on it?

2.       Most of the guests are great but I wish they’d stop plugging all these different products. I don’t want to hear these guys do commercials.

3.       My favorite station is put guests on that I’ve never heard of before (whether they are NFL players that aren’t stars or other ‘celebrities’).

4.       My favorite station seems to ignore the top stories and the teams that I care about when they do their shows from the Super Bowl.

These are all valid complaints. Granted the majority of listeners are totally fine with shows emanating from the Super Bowl. These complaints come from a minority of listeners. But the complaints should not be written off. Not by hosts, producers or Program Directors. There is an art to doing shows from Radio Row. If a station or show isn’t executing well, you are likely to hear the complaints that I went over a moment ago.

So the question begs to be asked. How do you pull it off?

Like I said, doing shows from Radio Row is an art form (like all radio to be honest with you). Let’s see if I can’t help those who don’t like what they are hearing this week by going over the big four complaints.

First of all, only two cities are represented in the Super Bowl. But there are many more cities that have radio stations doing shows from the Super Bowl. You know why that is? Because football is king. Whether you like it or not, the NFL is the most popular sport in this country.

Nearly everyone will be watching on Sunday night when the Giants and Patriots match up at Lucas Oil Stadium. Most people will be watching for the game. Some people will be watching for the commercials. Another segment of the audience will be watching for the halftime show. But most everyone will be watching and they’ll be talking about it the following day when they get to the office.

That’s why radio stations go to the Super Bowl every year. It’s not just a game. It’s a cultural phenomenon. Even if your team isn’t playing on Sunday, I am sure you will be watching. Sports radio is about the hot stories and hot topics. This week’s hot story/topic is the Super Bowl.

Now let’s talk about the guests. Every guest you hear this week is plugging something. Some are plugging products. Some are plugging shows. Some are plugging movies. The fact is these celebrities are paid by different companies to be there and do these interviews.

I am not the biggest Jim Rome fan in the world, but one thing that he does well is how he handles the guests and what they are plugging. Many hosts go right into what the guest is there to promote, thinking that once they get the question out of the way they can go on to doing an interview. Unfortunately, and this happens a lot, one question leads to another and before you know it, half of the interview is wasted on what amounts to a commercial.

This is where Rome is terrific. A guest will stop by, and Rome will tease what the guy is there to promote without getting into a conversation about it. Then he does his interview, and with the last question, he gets the plug in. So he gets good content and gets the promotion taken care of. And the listener doesn’t feel like half of the interview is about some product, show or movie.

There are different types of guests that are available to the stations doing shows on Radio Row. Some are superstars. Some are stars. Some are just filler, to be honest. The key is getting the right guest on the radio station.

That means producers and hosts shouldn’t automatically put someone on because some PR guy is offering them up. If it’s not a big name guest, you don’t have to put the guest on. If you want to put a ‘B’ level guest on because there is a local tie-in and your audience knows who the guest is, that’s fine. But don’t put on a guest just for the sake of having a guest.

Here’s another thing I wouldn’t do. Some PR companies go down there and actually have porn stars make the rounds on radio row (others actually have strippers do the same thing). Stay away from those guests. The audience can’t hear how good looking the guest is. So putting on a ‘hottie’ does nothing for the guy listening in his car.

Here’s a good example of this. At the Detroit Super Bowl a few years back, I put on a couple of guests because the host I was working with at the time wanted to talk to them. He wanted them on because they were good looking women. You know what happened? The interviews stunk (these girls could not put a complete sentence together). One of them – literally – lifted up her shirt and asked my host, ‘What do you think of my boob job?’ It was funny as hell to see, but I’m not sure anyone that listened to it without having the benefit of the visual was really entertained.

Now let’s deal with the fourth and final complaint. Local stations doing shows from the Super Bowl should never ignore the stories their audience cares about. For instance, St. Louis listeners this week want to hear about the future of the Rams, the Blues and their playoff chances and Missouri’s recruiting haul. Every show should leave themselves some wiggle room to talk about the top stories of the day.

That simply means that not every segment has to be filled with a guest. The best shows that are done from Radio Row don’t have wall-to-wall guests. They have open segments that they can use to talk about the stories their listeners want to hear about.

The worst thing a local show broadcasting live from Radio Row can do is take their eyes off the prize. Unfortunately that happened to me in that very same Detroit Super Bowl. Brett Favre’s future was the hot topic in Milwaukee (where I was working at the time) at the end of the 2005 season. The problem was we didn’t do enough on the Favre saga because we got too wrapped up in getting guest after guest after guest. On the one hand having those guests was great, but on the other hand, we didn’t do our job because we ignored the top local story.

So there is an art to doing shows from Radio Row. There is a method to the madness. Done correctly, Super Bowl shows can be compelling, entertaining and a great listen.

Done incorrectly, it can become a jumbled mess.