Turn It Up/Turn It Down: A Weekly Review of the Media

First week of December

Every week I write a media column that sheds some light on a few of the great, strange and/or debatable columns and radio segments from around the country.  Enjoy, and as always, feel free to comment and nominate your favorites too...

Charles Robinson (Yahoo! Sports) – One of the reasons the NFL is so popular is because of the new storylines that develop every week.  Robinson wrote about the Top 5 one-on-one battles between players around the league.

Bart Scott vs. Hines Ward; Bill Belichick vs. the Indianapolis Colts; DeAngelo Hall vs. Falcons owner Arthur Blank; Joey Porter vs. Everyone.  The list is impressive and Robinson does a nice job supplying inside information into each match-up.

Bill Simmons (ESPN.com) – This column was posted a few weeks ago but remains one of the best columns of the year from arguably the most popular sports columnist in the world. 

The Sports Guy explains how the NFL’s home field advantage factor has become almost non-existent in 2008.

Jon Heyman (SI.com) – With baseball’s annual Winter Meetings set to debut next week, Heyman does a nice job breaking down what to expect from numerous teams and players. Is Jake Peavy ever going to be traded?  Heyman wouldn’t be surprised if he wasn’t.

If you prefer to hear his analysis instead of reading it, listen to his interview on The Dan Patrick Show from Friday.

For more Hot Stove coverage, check out ESPN’s Keith Law’s likely destinations and Fox Sport’s Ken Rosenthal’s daily rumor.

ESPN’s Buster Olney, who I consider to be the most correct when it comes to rumors, suggests the Mets will offer three separate contracts to the big name free agent closers (Francisco Rodriguez, Brian Fuentes and Kerry Wood) and sign whichever one bites first.

Rick Reilly (ESPN) – I’m usually not a big fan of his, but his most recent column on how many NFL players don’t know the rules of the game was really funny.  His main purpose was to try and take some heat off of Donovan McNabb for not knowing that games can end in a tie. 

Reilly asks several random questions to players from around the league and one of the best was: “Can the kicking team recover its own blocked punt and advance?”

Jason Whitlock (Fox Sports.com) – Never one to shy away from controversy, Whitlock explains why the Dallas Stars Sean Avery is getting torn apart for no reason.

Whitlock feels Avery is basically doing what Charles Barkley does: speaking his mind publicly.

Bill Plaschke (LA Times) – This is another column written over a week ago, but still is hilarious no matter when you read it.  Plaschke interview Dodger’s owner Frank McCourt’s wife Jamie, who made waves with her recent comment of: "If you bring somebody in to play and pay them, pick a number, $30 million, does that seem a little weird to you?" she said. "That's what we're trying to figure out. We're really trying to see it through the eyes of our fans. We're really trying to understand, would they rather have the 50 fields?"

Translation: “Wouldn’t the money we could pay players be better spent making baseball fields?”

Plaschke almost wet his pants trying to decipher what exactly she was trying to say.

For those of you who love to hate Alex Rodriguez, Yahoo! Sports’ Jeff Passan and the New York Post’s Joel Sherman can help you get your fix.