Prime Time Sports with Bob McCown: Monday, December 21, 2009 (5:00-7:00)

Host: Bob McCown
Co-Host: Stephen Brunt
Guests: Richard Griffin, Jack Armstrong, Michael Boone, Neil Smith, Dennis Herrera, Ed Tait.

McCown: "Saw a great store and found a bevy of excellent products at a store that wasn't cheap."
Brunt: "Luckily you are not poor."
McCown: "I am now..."

...and off we go!

As long as I have been listening to Prime Time Sports, the issue of head shots has been an issue (and a heated one) probably 2-3 times a hockey season, typically after an on ice incident has occurred. While the discussion is always lively and passionate, it always seems as McCown and company are trying to push a stone up a steep hill. Perhaps the hope is that the ongoing discussion will eventually penetrate Fort Knox in New York. Given the history of PTS bringing up these kinds of issues, it seems like a discussion between intellectuals and knuckle-draggers.

Prime Time Sports with Bob McCown: Monday, December 7, 2009 (5:00-7:00)

Host: Bob McCown
Co-Host: John Shannon
Guests: Richard Griffin, baseball writer for the Toronto Star; basketball analyst Jack Armstrong, Al Morganti from Comcast SportsNet, and E.J. Hradek, senior writer for ESPN The Magazine; Colin Campbell, NHL senior VP and director of hockey ops; Graham DeLaet, won tour card for 2010 PGA Tour.

Quiet day at Prime Time...same old, same old...AA not revealing much at the MLB winter meetings. Campbell holding the NHL flag pretty high. The highlight for the day was the story of Canadian Golfer Graham Delaet, who just won his tour card for the upcoming PGA season. Here's a nice story on Graham Delaet for your reading pleasure.

Prime Time Sports with Bob McCown: Monday, November 9, 2009 (5:00-7:00)

Host: Bob McCown
Co-Host: Stephen Brunt
Guests: Dave Andrews, Richard Griffin, Ed Olczyk, Don Banks, and Da'Shawn Thomas.

It's a cross between writer's block and a lack of any content worthwhile of reporting on today's show. While I was on the bench, I did listen to all the shows and was hoping to catch-up on what I missed but there was very little that I was inspired by.

Da'Shawn Thomas was an interesting story who started in the CFL, now at Western and invited to the NFL columbines. Interesting, but not compelling. Even Banks commented to McCown/Brunt wake him up if he makes it past the columbines.

Agassi will be on Prime Time Sports on Wednesday. Two interesting things about this. Firstly, Sportsnet continues to promote the interesting Mike Danton story, but no mention of the Agassi interview anywhere. Secondly, on Jim Rome earlier in the week he trumpeted Agassi's character as being impeccable as this would be the only reason he would "lay it bare" for a biography. What Rome was missing was the hypothesis by McCown late last week - that Agassi revealed his story about drug use, etc due to the story about to come out anyways. It will be interesting if McCown confronts Agassi on this point specifically, and while the show isn't being advertised by Sportsnet should prove to be one on the more interesting interviews of the year.

Prime Time Sports with Bob McCown: Wednesday, May 20, 2009 (5:00-7:00)

Host: Bob McCown
Co-Host: Bruce Arthur
Guests: Writer for the Toronto Star, Richard Griffin; Maurizio Gherardini, VP and assistant GM for the Toronto Raptors; Jim Balsillie, co-CEO of Research in Motion and potential owner of the Phoenix Coyotes; Mike Sunnucks of the Phoenix Business Journal

A day of questions for me:

• Where the heck was Brunt on a day where Balsillie was interviewed?
• Was Brunt off the show due to a conflict of interest?
• Who is Bruce Arthur and why throw a rookie in for such an interview?
• Why was the segment with Balsillie so short - barely 10 minutes in the first segment?
• Is the fact that there was no guest in the segment following Balsillie indicative of the fact that McCown was expecting more time with him?
• Why didn't McCown ask about Balsillie's choice of Hamilton as a destination instead of Toronto?

I did appreciate the question on how to say his name - "Ball-silly" although McCown proceeded to pronounce it wrong two seconds later on the exit ("Ballsly")!!!

McCown has been fiercely protective of his listeners in the past. Not allowing guests to call from cell phones, ending interviews early as the guests aren't answering questions in an open manner, etc. Today I felt a bit let down by the Balsillie interview. Didn't get any more out of it than I already knew, which is less than I expect for Prime Time Sports.

UPDATE: Heard from Ryan Walsh, Producer of Prime Time Sports after I emailed the blog this blog entry post to Prime Time. He responded with the following:
"Brunt was off Wednesday and we knew it was coming. Balsillie's next to impossible to get so whenever he was available, we'd slot him in. Bruce did a great job and is one of the best, most knowledgeable writers in this country. Don't let age fool you. Jim only had 10 minutes for the interview so we took it... We were tight but we did what we could in the time allotted."
Thanks Ryan for the insight.