Bob Ley, at a network that's decended into shtick and flash he's the voice of sanity.

Strange to see a sober, intelegent look at sports.

Interesting to hear the Baseball HoF arguments. If a player has HoF credentials, does it matter if he goes in on 1st ballot or not? Blyleven argued that this is a distinction only sportswriters make, and it's a good one. Nobody walking through the museum can tell that DiMaggio went in on 3rd ballot, so why do the voters care?

There is a very good argument to be made that voting rules (and who does the voting) could stand some change.

Well, the nauseatingly repeated steroid coverage will be shown tonight on Sportscenter, BBTN, and OTL, thanks to Baltimoron Rafael Palmeiro. I know it's newsworthy, I know it's the media's responsibility to basically be the sole watchdog on this subject (since many fans don't care). Normally, I look forward to OTL when it's featuring something interesting, but I won't be watching tonight.

ETA: I wonder what Vegas will set the over/under on this: The number of times (not including repeats or the 6pm S/C, just the 11pm) that Palmeiro's Congress testimony will be replayed between S/C, BBTN, and OTL. My take? I'll go with 6 times.

Bob Ley is a gem and I loved the Outside the Lines segment on Cooperstown that aired yesterday (Sunday) morning. I visited that hallowed town last September and can now die happy.

Ooh, Aim, was it good (i.e. not choked with people) in September? Or worse, was it deserted? I want to go, but I'd rather avoid summer crowds of little-leaguers. Can you get a good meal in town or is it too ball-park-oriented?

Topic: Bob Ley works very hard to make his program balanced without being all Crossfire-y. This is unalloyed good.

Attica, I was there Labor Day weekend so it was probably jam packed with people but it didn't feel that way. We had no problem finding a place to park and the HOF is big and well laid out so even with a large crowd we didn't feel rushed or cramped. The town itself is absolutely quaint and as mentioned on OTL yesterday (topic :) most of the shops are baseball related. I remember seeing one fancy-ish restaurant and we ate at a small sandwich shop, but I don't think the restaurants were baseball related or, aside from the fancy place, anything to write home about. Just basic and decent food. I loved sitting in the rickety old bleachers of Doubleday Field and feeling the history of the place. The Hall and museum are incredible, a must visit for even the casual fan.

Back to topic, OTL is always informative and well done. It's the cream of the crop in terms of ESPN programming.

Got to agree with that. Ley's round tables are discussion instead of two idiots screaming at eachother or a bunch of laughing backslapping idiots.

Bob also is about the only one who doesn't equate loud with provacative.

You're right about that. Most of the time the guests aren't all trying to talk/scream/yell over each other and they are each given a fair amount of time to make their point.

Watched today's show with debate about whether or not Jason Giambi deserves to win Comeback Player of the Year. Comeback from what? An embarassing season last year that was played steroid free? How do we know he's not juicing again. I loathe Jason Giambi almost as much as I loathe Barry Bonds. I agree with the guy who said that Giambi deserves no recognition whatsoever from MLB.

Woohoo - first OTL post in a year and a half!

So, I don't know if anyone out there is still watching this show, but I just have to say that today's segment on "storming the court" with the profile of Joe Kay really struck a nerve with me. I was especially irked by Larry Perkins' assertion that one can have a "controlled approach" to court-storming. I'm sorry - maybe I'm just underinformed and I need to go snatch up his book "Crowd Safety And Survival" immediately ('cause as Larry told us, he "wrote the book on crowd management"), but to my ears, the phrase "controlled storming of the court" sounds like an oxymoron.

And I agree with the Stanford guy who said that another injury is inevitable - not a question of if, but when. But if he feels this way, then why doesn't he take more aggressive steps to prevent it? I also enjoyed the way-too-jolly-for-the-subject-matter Orlando Sentinel columnist's analogy of everyone enjoying a U2 concert so much that they rush the stage and mosh with the band.

Anyway, I'm glad that Stanford honored Joe Kay's scholarship and that he's beaten the odds with such a successful recovery, but I'm really fearful that something even worse looms just around the corner, as crowds need less and less incentive to storm the court these days and administrators seem to largely have a *wink wink* tacit advocacy of the practice.

p.s. John Amaechi was great on last week's(?) show. And I agree that Giambi shouldn't be Comeback Player of the Year - heh!

Can someone tell me what the big fricking deal is with LaRussa keeping Pujols out of the All-Star Game. Yes it was a bad move by LaRussa but they are making it sound like it is some big conspiracy. I am suprised they haven't brought up Jack Ruby and the grassy knoll in Dallas. Give it a rest.

I'm Wrong, I still watch OTL. I thought yesterday's OTL report/round-table on Hank Aaron was really well done (well, Dusty Baker was Dusty Baker, but even he wasn't so bad). Thankfully, they didn't dwell too much on the "will he or won't he" be there when Bonds breaks the record -- as has been reported previously, he won't, which is perfectly good by me (not that he needs my validation).

Bob Ley is really getting pretty useless on this show. He's really just managing the issues and not doing any thoughtful journalism.

When they showed Marbury's response to LeBron trying to say his Nike show was so much better quality - "I'd rather own than be owned", I thought that was a really interesting statement. Of course the show didn't delve into that idea at all, instead spending an inordinate amount of time focusing on how the Starbury shoe might be affected by Marbury's testimony in the Isaiah trial.

How about talking to NBA players about that statement, about ownership? Media types love to drum up the "ZOMG, TOO MUCH HIP HOP IN SPORTS" charges. Well Marbury is as hip hop as they come. Tatted up with a New York drawl that rivals some members of Wu-Tang. Here he is talking about ownership. He was also doing things during the time of Katrina - yet all I see about him on OTL is them trying to denigrate his shoe. And I don't even like Stephon.

Here's a tip, Bob. How about instead of getting random guys who write newsletters and others to give their opinions, you report on the quality of the shoe by doing some sort of actual comparison? All the show was filled with conjecture about whether it was or wasn't a performance quality shoe. How about getting some athletes and doing some blind tests or something, instead of this constant solicitation of opinions that aren't based on testing and evidence? I've ripped up Nike shoes and I've seen other players with major-brand shoes literally come apart on the court in the last few months. It would be nice to see some better shows.

Doom,

Apparently you aren't aware, but among the other disgusting and sordid things that came to light during the recent Isiah Thomas trial was the fact that Marbury on numerous occasions had sex with several of the Knicks female employees, ranging from cheerleaders to front office personnel at the same time and in public view.

Athletes sexually promiscuous? That's a story?

In the context of the trial, yes. And the details are very, very sordid, apparently at least one of the women was underage, but has since disappeared.

Ew. That's really bad. I don't know if you saw today's episode, but the report touched on that but then spent the rest of the time trashing his shoe. I would have liked if the story was about what you describe, which sounds despicable, but they just spent time trashing his shoe.

Marbury's been a complete and total douchebag since he was at Georgia Tech, hell probably since it was first noticed that he had "a gift for basketball," and his whole, "Look at me I have a basketball shoe that's actually affordable and isn't made in a sweatshop," was just a failed effort to cover up his douch wafflosity and take attnetion away from the shit he was pulling under Thomas's watch. He's been a complete pain in the ass everywhere he's played.

That's nice and all - I'd just like OTL to actually do some quality reporting instead of whatever crap it is they're doing now where they just say "hey random dude at random basketball publication - do you think the Starbury is a good shoe?" And the guy says "eh, I don't know, I guess it could be okay to play in, but I don't know about it being NBA ready." And then they ask the next guy the same question and basically get the same answer.

Hmmm...maybe ask players? Maybe ask people who play basketball to try them out?

Maybe Nike & Reebok are paying off Ley, because it's ridiculous that they keep making it seem like the shoes are trash with no empirical evidence to say so. And showing Lebron babbling through how his shoe was better, basically "Just Cuz!" was just pitiful. Hang it up, Bob.

OTL story about Al Joyner, the late FloJo, and their daughter Mary

I totally forgot they had a daughter and she's a sprinter.