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Mike In Illinois

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    NFL TV map, week 2

    in The Stadium Wall Archives

    Posted

    My local CBS is showing Cleveland/Indy. Without Peyton Manning that game is less appealing, as if it was slightly appealing at all. (ugh)

     

    Holy crap...Bob Lamp sighting!!!

    As Brick Tamaland would say, "I love Lamp!" (he also loved table but what do you expect from a guy who killed another man with a trident?

    Going to my first NASCAR race Saturday

    in Off the Wall Archives

    Posted

    I've been to several Cup races (Chicagoland) and one Nationwide race (Gateway, outside St. Louis) while I was a photographer in TV news. It was pretty cool to be around/interview some of the guys I watched on TV: Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr.

     

    Is your Pit Pass a Hot Pass or Cold Pass? Hot Passes allow you into the garage while practice/racing is happening; keep your head on a swivel if you're in the garage during Hot segments, as the cars just fly in and out during practice. Kyle Busch almost clipped me during Brickyard 400 practice when he was still at Hendrick a few years ago (my fault, not his). It's not as exciting to be in the garage during the race since most cars are on the track. My guess is you have a Cold Pass, as you have tickets for VIP to watch the race from a suite. When you go to the Garage, be sure to stop by the trailers for some of the drivers. They usually have driver cards (about the size of a regular sheet of paper) and you can get the drivers to sign them- although some people abuse this and grab a whole bunch to be signed and place them on eBay.

     

    Also, most drivers have a merchandise trailer outside the track. I know Tony Stewart (my favorite driver) is selling special merchandise (shirts, die-casts) that compliment his paint scheme this weekend that pays tribute to 9/11. In fact, many of the cars will have special paint schemes Saturday night, so they may have some merchandise at the trailers that show off their schemes. When Talladega Nights came out they had a merchandise trailer for the movie at Chicagoland (they also had a press conference in the Media Center with the stars of the movie: Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Leslie Bibb, Michael Clarke Duncan) and I bought a Ricky Bobby Wonder Bread Racing t-shirt.

     

    Hope you have fun Saturday night! It's going to be wild with so many drivers still fighting to make the Chase for the Cup; Richmond is the last race before the Chase begins at Chicagoland next week, so the pressure is on for many teams.

    Which is the better seat location?

    in The Stadium Wall Archives

    Posted

    The game is in Kansas City, so I don't think a seating chart of The Ralph will help here.

     

    By the way, I'd pick the upper/between the 20's. Just because you're in the end zone doesn't mean you'll make it to the railing IF Stevie scores in that end zone. Plus, you'll be able to see the game a lot better from the side- almost like the TV presentation.

    Can sombody talk me through this Mr Cheapskate (me)

    in Off the Wall Archives

    Posted · Edited by Champaign Mike

    Once you have your DirecTv equipment upgraded, be sure to pick up an HDMI cable for connecting the Plasma TV to the receiver. I have a 42" plasma (720p) in my bedroom that's connected to a DirecTv HD-DVR. Very nice.

     

    Monoprice is a good start.

     

    I agree that you should contact DirecTV.. Since you've been a long-standing subscriber they may do the install of new Slimline dish and HD receivers for free. They did this for me last year (through Mover's Connect) when my family moved into our new home. There was an old DirecTv dish on the roof so the installer replaced it, ran the wiring and setup the receivers.

    Owning Up

    in The Stadium Wall Archives

    Posted · Edited by Champaign Mike

    All apologies.

     

    EDIT: Good point to post entire article to prevent the drive of viewers to that web site. No need to enable him

     

    An Apology To Merriman… And Everyone Else

    Posted on August 26, 2011 by Patrick Moran For the past week, I’ve gotten spit up and chewed out by both the media, and especially fans of the Buffalo Bills. As agonizing as it is to confess— much, far too much of it is well deserved.

     

    I published a report late last week, citing a source that Bills linebacker Shawne Merriman was detained at the border by United States Customs and busted with having steroids in his possession.

     

    My report, and specifically my choice of words — was inaccurate.

     

    For that alone, I must man up with some apologies, and it begins with Merriman personally. While I did initially report Merriman was never charged and arrested for the incident, that’s not good enough.

     

     

     

    He was not caught with steroids on him, yet that’s what I wrote. The article was atrociously worded. Upon reflection, it ranged from amateurish to flat-out irresponsible.

     

    However, before going any further if for no other reason than my sanity—– what I published was NOT completely untrue. Though my erroneous coining of the word “steroids” is emphatically wrong, this was more than just the “routine” border incident most of us have experienced ourselves.

     

    I know there’s a large smattering of people waiting to see what I’m going to write next. Will I provide new information, a much better effort than the initial story, as to what fully went down at the border in order to save my own backside.

     

    It’s not happening, folks.

     

    For the past week, I’ve wrestled daily, almost hourly over further exploiting what actually happened. At the end of the day, however, does it really matter? Merriman wasn’t arrested and re-hashing things now would be beneficial to absolutely no one. Not Merriman, not the organization, not my (shot) credibility…. no one.

     

    Here’s the bottom line and after taking a long look in the mirror, I’m not ashamed to admit this— I’m not an investigative reporter and had no right to imitate one. Truthfully, I’ve never broke this kind of story before, as anyone who read can easily attest. Although I did speak to multiple people regarding the incident, I failed to use it in my report, mainly out of fear that I’d give a source clue away.

     

    As a critic correctly identified, it was the classic case of “Hack Journalism.”

     

    I learned through this. I learned that I don’t have the conscious to potentially bring someone down who doesn’t wholeheartedly deserve it. I don’t have the stomach nor conscious to deal with what comes after you break something of this nature and frankly, don’t have the necessary talent to articulate an investigative article the way it needs to be properly written.

     

    I promise in the future this type of reporting will be left to the real pros who do ground-breaking, investigative work for a living. It won’t come from me, that’s for sure.

     

    Over the past two years at Buffalo Sports Daily, I’ve accumulated a growing number of supporters and naturally what comes with it… more than my fair share of critics.

     

    But love or hate anything I’ve produced, to a man anyone would say this isn’t the type of story I indulge in.

     

    I first learned of the incident three weeks before reporting it. Honestly, I went back and forth at least once per day on if I should publish a story. I weighed the pros and cons and always concluded it was something to stay away from. Truth be told, last Thursday I got a tip that another site was in the process of running the story after learning of similar details.

     

    Regrettably, I rushed to judgment, decided that since I knew about the incident before anyone else and discussed it with trusted media colleagues weeks ago,no one was going to take “my” story away from me.

     

    So I hit the “post” button on a story that was cued up for almost three weeks.

     

    Along the way, I forgot the primary rule of being a good writer, which is “It’s always better to be right than first.”

     

    When I say I rushed to judgment, I mean I really did. I knew without question Merriman was going to deny the allegations, because I knew there was no arrest. I was certain no one from Customs would comment on the record to acknowledge such an incident without an arrest. They couldn’t if they wanted to– not without losing their job anyway.

     

    And with no proof, I recognized a strong majority of fans and media would react with haste towards me.

     

    Trust me— you didn’t disappoint.

     

    As I stated earlier, I don’t have the stomach to potentially ruin someone’s life whether they’re guilty or not and therefore, had no business being in that line of reporting.

     

    To prove at this point my story was accurate other than the using the word “steroids”, I’d essentially have to compromise and potentially even “out” my sources. If there’s one journalistic item I’ll continue to do right by it’s that I’ll never under any circumstance turn on a source.

     

    The story was written poorly and irresponsibly by me, therefore I refuse to bring anyone else down or cause grief to cover my tracks and prove myself (mostly) right.

     

    Though there’s sure to be plenty of naysayers, I’ve built up a nice little following over the past few years. Let this serve as a lesson to any young aspiring writer/blogger out there— It takes a long time to build support, and just one stupid mistake to lose it.

     

    From this point forward, I’m going back to what I take pleasure in exclusively. I love covering and blogging about sports… not being a tabloid style life-changer. I enjoy breaking down games and players, doing interviews, expressing opinions and reporting on actual sports news— such as signings, trades and team beats.

     

    For the most part sans this idiotic blunder of epic proportions, most say I’ve done a decent job at it.

     

    I understand I’ve had skeptics before this who’ve never enjoyed a thing I’ve produced. There’s now more, perhaps plenty that will never move past this erroneous mistake I put squarely on myself.

     

    That’s just the way it goes.

     

    Regardless of anything else, I’m sorry to Merriman for causing him unnecessary grief, forcing major media outlets to investigate him further and causing anyone to question his character due to an inaccurate report. He’s worked hard to get ready for this season and deserves the unwavering support of all Bills fans.

     

    For what it’s worth, I also apologize to the Buffalo fans. There’s already plenty of negativity flowing with Bills nationwide and my article, accurate or not, only piled on to the pessimism. As someone who’s actually been a long-time fan of the Bills, I know how frustrating it can be when the rest of the nation dumps on your team, much less than when it comes from your own backyard.

     

    Even if Merriman did get busted with actual steroids at the border, to the extent needles were sticking from his arms and neck veins as he was being pulled over— and had an “I love steroids” bumper sticker, I regret reporting it and if I had to do it over again— would not.

     

    Seriously, I’m more disturbed at myself for publishing the report than it not being completely accurate. The best investigative reporters in the business put the story as their priority and whoever goes down with it, goes down.

     

    Within minutes of publishing, I felt awful about the possibility of changing someone’s life for the worse, whether he deserved it or not. I’m not comfortable being the judge, jury and executioner and by putting out what I did, that’s what I instantly became.

     

    Lastly and most importantly to me, I want to apologize to media members and some Bills players themselves that I know were let down. Trust me, they definitely know who they are.

     

    Many understandably are disappointed at how poorly I presented my report to the reading public, and surely lost some respect along the way.

     

    Hopefully over time, I’ll earn some of that respect back.

     

    Regardless, I’m moving on from this for good— starting right now.

     

     

    ** HURRICANE PREPARATION: NEED ADVICE **

    in Off the Wall Archives

    Posted

    Good luck! Those oaks probably seen the last one! Was it in the 1940's or 1950's? I want to say the storm began with an "A"... Maybe before they started naming them? I vaguely remember my father talking about it... He worked on the Erie-Lakawanna back in the day... He talked about a hurricane that came up the seaboard and debris wrecked tracks and structures... I think the Delaware-Lackawanna infrastructure was affected... Anybody know the storm/name/year? Really wrecked havoc on the east coast...

     

    ???

     

    Again... Good luck! Just noticed the cone is swiping right up the whole coast... Times like this, I am glad I am in the midwest!

     

     

     

    :lol: Jeeze Louise! That is funny

     

    Yeah, we get stuck with tornadoes here in Illinois. Also, if you lived further south like I do (Springfield) you are near the New Madrid Fault Line. So if the twisters don't get us the earthquakes will!

    Jackson upset is not good

    in The Stadium Wall Archives

    Posted

    Rumors (so take them for what they are worth in the wake of Pat Moran last week):

     

    @SaviorEdwards Savior Edwards Source: Fred Jackson wants out of Buffalo and trade talks have begun with 2 unnamed teams. The good news keeps coming.

     

    @SaviorEdwards Savior Edwards Source: Several veteran players have already 'tuned out' Chan Gailey and questioning some of the recent personel moves. Yikes.

     

    Again, take them how you want, especially when it's someone posting on Twitter.

     

     

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