Best of 4 Quarters Radio 2011

Another year of 4 Quarters is in the books, and it's time again for a best-of special. On the 2011 retrospective:

--Scott, Mack, Logan, Bobby, and Drew discuss exactly how much money they would require to stay silent in prison for five years, as Barry Bonds' trainer did. Unsurprisingly, many qualifications arise and the numbers keep increasing.
--Scott and Logan discuss the ESPN documentary on Steve Bartman, first between themselves and later with MTSU broadcast journalism professor Rob Jasso.
--In a look back at some of the show's best Whodaman moments, the fellas go all the way back to January and give it up to the 12th Man in Seattle for their appreciation of Beast Mode. Also, Logan obliquely calls Scott out for rolling on his preseason Super Bowl pick.
--MTSU's loss of murdered women's basketball player Tina Stewart was a subject of lengthy reflection. Most of the fellas didn't have a lot to say, but Scott certainly did.
--An interview with former MTSU cornerback/current Jacksonville Jaguar Rod Issac gives a whole new meaning to worshiping one's team.
--In the Epic Fails, Scott gets to call out ignorance and incompetence in some of his favorite targets: the New York Yankees, the Oakland Raiders, and the misuse of a term like "thrown under the bus."

Year 3 of the show is about to kick off, so check out wmts.org for showtimes and live streaming.

4 Quarters Radio: April 29 4th Quarter

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The fourth-quarter curriculum for April 29:
--The crew resumes NBA talk, spotlighting the best single-player performance of the first round.
--The fellas also discuss whether the Bulls, Lakers, and Spurs should have been removed from championship conversation after Round 1. And yes, obviously, one was completely removed.
--Five problems for potential MLB contenders are spotlighted, and Scott and Mack discuss which one is the biggest red flag.
--The Dodgers' ownership situation is examined, and the biggest question is how quickly Frank McCourt should sign up for Financial Peace University.
--In the Epic Fails, one MLB franchise aids identity thieves everywhere, an NBA icon gets hurt by tripping on a sunbeam, and a baseball manager tweets angry.

Featured music: "Can't Be Satisfied" by the Steve Miller Band.

4 Quarters Radio: August 2 3rd Period

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The third-period curriculum for August 2:
--Bobby calls in to contribute to a belated Whodaman, then offers his picks for UFC 117. The stakes are high, now that there are wings on the line.
--Scott breaks out the Olympic theme for a spirited round of Medal Stand, chronicling the winners and losers at the MLB trade deadline. He manages to find some time to wonder why anyone would ever want to simply hand money to the New York Bankees.
--The Professor also applies the deadline info to examine the state of his playoff picks. For the most part, it's good, but there's also a Bad and an Ugly.
--The Epic Fails are only tangentially sports-related, but they're both cases of guys being total dicks. Hint: one's a legendary game-show host, the other is just a crappy father.
--Excised music: "This Could Be the Night" by Zo! (His exclamation point, not ours.)

Yeah, Yeah, Perfect Game's Great and All, but is Braden Still a Bigmouth?

It's not just SportsCenter that's been gushing over the 19th perfect game in major league history. The women on the Today Show gave some "aww"s over the story of Dallas Braden and his grandmother.

And it's a wonderful story, don't get me wrong in the slightest. Going forward, however, there's exactly ONE thing Dallas Braden needs to do: keep the name Alex Rodriguez out of his mouth.

After the Yankees/A's game April 22, Braden had a lot of people on his side when he bitched at A-Rod to avoid taking a shortcut across HIS pitching mound. It's not like most of us need many reasons to snicker at A-Rod, after all.

Dallas's problem was that he just wouldn't shut up about it. Two weeks later, he did a dugout interview and sounded ready to throw some bones over the Major Mound Matter.



Granted, A-Rod was a dick with the "handful of wins" comment. Of course, we kind of expect that by now. At that point, Braden was the plucky upstart and Rodriguez the arrogant, elitist veteran. Advantage, Dallas.

After this video was shot, though, Dallas was coming off as a punk who wanted to start some shit to...what? Make his rep? Get endorsement deals for Everlast boxing gloves? REALLY make sure people get familiar with the "unwritten rules" of baseball?

Whatever the reason, he wasn't doing his team any favors. The A's were already unlikely to get many calls against the Big Pinstriped Machine next time they play. Now, the slightest miss inside is going to get somebody run, or at least warned, because the umpires are expecting people to be fighting some quixotic battle for Braden and the honor of baseball. Or something.

Five days later, Dallas is making the rounds for interviews about his perfect game, most with his "Stick it, A-Rod"-spitting grandma in tow. (Okay, I can't front, that part's hilarious.)

It's awesome for him, as he joins a list with some distinguished (and some other) names on it. A perfect game is huge, and it needs to be celebrated.

The best thing Dallas Braden can do is go celebrate it until his next start and then move on. Hopefully, he does that better than he's moved on from Alex Rodriguez.

4 Quarters Radio Episode 10: 2nd Half

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On March 23's second half of 4QR, the guys have scheduling issues with their planned guest, so they freestyle a bit. Scott opens a discussion of how fanbases "sell out" to support their teams in the face of some ethical concerns about players or coaches. Moving on to the NFL, the burning question is "WTF is Charlie Whitehurst?" Joseph interjects with a random celebrity ('s relative) sighting, the fellas talk some NFL Draft trivia, and Andy Reid gets compared to Shaft. (Seriously.) Referees' testicles get abused, and that's before the Epic Fails. Excised music: "I'll Be Your Friend" by Bright Eyes/Neva Dinova and "Heart of Steel" by Galactic featuring Irma Thomas.

The New York Galacticos?

$200-plus million is a lot of money. And yes, there is a point to this rather obvious statement.

The transfer fees agreed to by Real Madrid last week for Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka were stunners, even by the inflated standards of world football.

Real's approach for much of the past decade has been the signing of veritable dream teams of world-renowned talents, known as "galacticos." Names like Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo, Luis Figo, Raul, Roberto Carlos, David Beckham, and now Kaka and Cristiano.

It's easy to spot the American equivalent in the one sport that enables its teams to spend whatever they can afford.

Names like CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Mark Teixeira, Jason Giambi, Alex Rodriguez, Johnny Damon, and Gary Sheffield indicate that the New York Yankees can spend what they want, when they want.

But what if Major League Baseball were to adopt the world football transfer system?

For those not familiar with it, one club offers a fee to a player's current team simply for the right to negotiate a new contract with him. Once the player agrees terms with the new club, the deal is concluded and the player relocates.

Think of it as in-season free agency, but with a player's current team being enriched rather than letting him leave for nothing.

The system would greatly enrich the players, as they'd be getting paid like superstars while their breakthrough seasons are still happening, rather than having to wait until the expiration of their current contracts.

Would baseball adopting this system lead to greater economic equality, as smaller-market teams would actually be able to receive large sums of cold hard cash for their top talent, instead of prospects who may be marginal at best?

Or would it simply be one more factor tilted in the favor of baseball's "Evil Empire" large-market teams?

The fact that the Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, Cubs, et al. would have to pay the player a superstar's wage rather than what is quite likely a bargain of a salary may give the big-market clubs a little bit of a pause.

As an example, Zack Greinke's salary is listed at $3.75 million this season, which coincidentally, is the exact amount dug out of Hank Steinbrenner's couch after a drunken weekend bender.

That figure computes to $23,148 per game. If the Yankees wanted to pursue a cash transfer deal for Greinke, it stands to reason that they'd have to pay him like an All-Star with a sub-2.00 ERA immediately, in which case Greinke could easily double or even triple his salary overnight.

Dig, if you will, the picture of a tense Yankees-Red Sox division race coming down to the "transfer deadline."

Suddenly, the entire fate of the AL East could rest on the shoulders of, say, the Kansas City Royals, as both Boston and New York launch a frenzied bidding war for Greinke. Or they try to knock down the Marlins' door for Josh Johnson.

For sums that could conceivably exceed these small clubs' entire ticket revenue for the season, one player could ensure his former team's financial solvency for a decade.

Unfortunately, unlike some world football clubs who have long ago come to terms with their roles as farm clubs for the Premier League/La Liga big guns, fans of the Royals and Marlins (all 12 of them) would like to think their club is in business to win.

Frequent selling of the top talent could help enrich the club, but is there a guarantee that that cash would get put back into the payroll and stadium?

Are there current owners unscrupulous enough to simply ignore the current fan experience and sit back to light a cigar with a hundred-dollar bill brought in by the sale of a Cy Young Award candidate?

Nothing's impossible with exceedingly wealthy men, but if teams had the option between a trade for young players and a trade for dead presidents, which one would they choose?