Prime Time Sports with Bob McCown - Tuesday, July 21 (5:00-7:00)

Host: Bob McCown
Co-Host: John Shannon
Guests: Tuesday: President and GM of the Toronto Raptors, Bryan Colangelo; Pat Gillick, advisor to the Philadelphia Phillies; SportsBusiness Journal writer, Bill King.

Yet another great co-host in John Shannon. Great behind the scenes discussion regarding sports television production and direction. For anyone interested in sports broadcasting, particularly hockey, the first segment is for you.

Interesting times in Toronto - Bosh and Halladay could easily be gone this time next year. These moves will be critical for both the Jays and Raptors.

I was waiting for McCown to tell Gillick that Beeston may need the ultimate convincing from Gillick himself in coming back to the Jays as GM, something that Bobcat has espoused on fadoo.ca and on Prime Time Sports.

Hey Bobcat, there are no "wimpy easterners" in Ottawa...we LIVE cold here!!! Saskatchewan ain't got NUTTIN' on Ottawa with regards to winters!

The Bill King interview was great. Hope he returns! McCown quipped on blogs, "Blogs are opinion pieces, they are not information pieces. Any information that has been gleamed off of a blog has been usually ripped off of someone else, traditional media. What are bloggers? Amateur columnists!" Thanks Bob - I take that as a compliment, although I am not ripping off
anyone...and you won't see profanity here!!! :)

As these are the dog days of summer, I've compiled a top 5 list of Bobcat's Public Enemies:
1. Gary Bettman
2. Tom Watson
3. All-Star Games
4. Soccer
5. Cito Gaston

What/Who am I missing? Post below!!

Prime Time Sports with Bob McCown: Monday, April 20, 2009 (6:00-7:00)

Host: Bob McCown (welcome back!)
Co-Host: Stephen Brunt
Guests: Doug Smith

Welcome back Bobcat…and with Brunt no less! LOVE IT!

As great as Prime Time Sports is, at the heart of it, the show is really about the "perimeter" of sports - money issues, business, legal, management etc. If you really think about it, the game is discussed very little. The great thing about the NHL playoffs is we actually talk about the game itself. The first segment was completely on this subject, and it was great (but fast) radio.

Canadiens continue to be scary bad, even in the post season. They really look identical to the Sens demise of 07-08. None of it makes sense. …and following this, it looks like the Habs will continue to do what the Sens did after last season's collapse - NOTHING. It looks as if the Habs will think that this year was a 'blip' and leave everything status quo. Gainey = Murray?

In the second segment, my ears were bleeding after hearing the high-pitched Smith defending the Raptors holding onto Bosh this year. Hey Smith, is Martin in Florida a genius for holding onto Bouwmeester?

I was waiting for McCown to give his BURKE-SPIRACY theory on Fadoo. Surprisingly he didn’t. I wonder why? This smells of Fadoo-ghost writing, dare I suggest!

Prime Time Sports with Bob McCown: Tuesday, April 7, 2009 (6:00-7:00)

Host: Bob McCown
Co-Host: Stephen Brunt
Guests: Jeff Hunt, Bert Sugar, Alondra Johnson

Jeff Hunt came on in the first segment. I've heard Hunt on Over the Edge radio show in Ottawa on the Team 1200, and Hunt's candor on today's show was much more open…maybe it's *who* he was talking to.

Hunt was right when he said that this debate amongst residents of Ottawa has turned into a soccer/Kanata vs. a football/Ottawa debate. As mentioned earlier here, I'm a resident of Kanata (and for that matter Ottawa too.) I have no problems with building infrastructure in the Ottawa region as long as tax dollars aren't spent. What the City of Ottawa is doing is downright laughable. The City is currently spending $4/million a year to maintain the dump that is Frank Clair and Lansdowne. They will also have to spend $25 million to keep this dump up . I'm not sure what the plans of the City could be that would deal with this eye sore and "massive problem" that as little as a few months ago needed to be partially imploded due to safety concerns.

Hunt's plan can be found here.

McCown/Brunt love listening to Bert Sugar…so do I…what a legend!

Friday, March 6 - 5:00-7:00

Roundtable with Bob McCown, Stephen Brunt, James Deacon, and John Wells
"Due to your performance Brunt, you are getting exactly what you are worth…NOTHING!" - Bob McCown.

(I really have to start a javascript quotation generator with Bob McCown's quotes!)

A wonderful exchange off the top (which turned into an entire segment) between Brunt and McCown on Brunt wanting to talk about "Tobogganing". McCown maintained he's going to be excited about the games, but don't expect him to be excited up until a week before and a week after. As this "unholy alliance" continues, it's going to be really interesting to see how McCown's mood is going to affect what the network wants to achieve. A lot is at stake, and I'm sure Bobcat will get a talking to as we get closer to put on the pompoms and do the rah-rah-rah thing more and keep the comments against the alliance to a minimum! (Anyone from Prime Time Sports want to email me on that hypothesis, feel free and bobcat_idol@hotmail.com!)

Hey Deacon in response to your comment "Imagine the Ottawa fans thought about Gerber's win?" - we thought exactly what Bob McCown said 2 seconds later…we hope he takes the leafs RIGHT into 9th place! Go Gerber GO! The highlight of my season will be when Gerber looses the last game of the season and costs the leafs from getting into the playoffs for the first time in 5 years. (Of course, there is an alternative which my mind mentally cannot go to!)

Then, shock of shocks, the roundtable started to discuss my hometown Kanata. Lots of guessing here and not much of homework done by the panel. For the record, the links to both proposals are located below:

Ottawa's MLS bid
and
Ottawa's CFL bid
Melnyk is asking for land to be donated by the City that he wishes to build MLS Soccer on. I hate Bob McCown's take on the CFL not returning to Ottawa based on it's previous failures. I have heard this time and time again, and to hear the 4 guys from Toronto take shots against what's happening in Ottawa. Truth is Bobcat, as a former Renegades Season Ticket holder, we have had attendance that was equal to the product on the field. SI was going to write an article the year the Renegades folded that the Ottawa CFL team was the most "loosing-est" (Bobcat, you may cringe now), franchise of all time. You can't continue to go for support to the public when the ownership is so incompetent.

In terms of the relationship between the CFL and MLS, what is happening is all part of negotiating, the EXACT same way it was with the Leafs and Raptors looking for facilities. I'm not saying necessarily that it will work, but the posturing is the same. Where I have been influenced by Bobcat is, as long as my public money doesn't go into the franchise (land or otherwise), I'm a-ok.

Not sure of Wells said more than 10 words the entire 2 hours. (In a loving way, of course!)

...and Prime Time Sports, brought to you by Harvey's? Very cool shout-out Bobcat!