Cleaning out the box-Passings

I'm finishing up the final cleaning of the inbox with some recent passings and that should tidy it up for a while before it fills back up.

Goodbye to Max Wright at the age of 75 from Cancer.
Wright, who retired from acting in 2005, was a character actor for many years before landing the lead role as "Willie Tanner" in ALF in the 1980s.
One would have thought that Wright would have been happy with a hit TV show and finally getting his big break, but Wright reportedly hated the show and everything about it.
ALF was a difficult show to film as the puppet needed to be moved incrementally and the show maintained a long and grueling schedule in the process of performing.
Wright was so miserable on the set that he rarely dealt with any of his co-stars and reportedly performed his last role in the final scene of filming and walked off the set, grabbed his bags and left the facility.
Wright did realize how happy the show made others as a later interview acknowledged "the joy that the show brought to viewers".

Goodbye to Arte Johnson at the age of 90.
Johnson, who was about ten years older than I would have expected, was most famous for his tenure on "Laugh-In", but I remember him better for his guest-starring roles on anthology shows such as Love Boat and Fantasy Island among others.
Johnson also was a regular on game shows such as Match Game etc and did voice-over work for years.

Goodbye to Tony Barone at the age of 72.
Barone, the head basketball coach at Creighton and Texas A&M before joining the Memphis Grizzlies as an assistant and finishing a season as the Grizzlies interim head coach in 2006-07.
Barone was successful at Creighton, winning over 100 games and leading the then mid-major to two NCAA's before struggling in his seven years at Texas A&M in finishing 44 games under .500

Goodbye to Kerry Marbury at the age of 67.
Marbury rushed for over 1,600 yards in two seasons (1971 and 1972) at West Virginia before leaving a season early in an era when the NFL would not take players before their senior class graduated.
Marbury played two seasons in Canada with Toronto and Ottawa before finishing his career in the WFL with a brief appearance with the Birmingham Vulcans.
Marbury played his high school football on the same team as Alabama head coach Nick Saban in winning two West Virginia state titles.

Finally, Goodbye to Jared Lorenzen at the age of 38.
Lorenzen, who became better known for his girth during his playing career, was an excellent quarterback at Kentucky as Lorenzen broke the school records for passing yards and touchdowns previously held by Tim Couch, before winning a Super Bowl ring with the Giants as the backup to Eli Manning.
Lorenzen had lifelong struggles with weight but had recently lost over 100 pounds before his death.
This ESPN article by Tommy Tomlinson looks at that struggle and how Tomlinson relates it to his own weight struggles.

Road Trip: Lakewood and Trenton

The road trip schedule continued with two ballparks and one of which seems likely to be my only new ballpark for 2019.

I was able to get out of work an hour early on Sunday morning thanks to a kind co-worker and with a waiting Mike Oravec outside work, we were on our way to meet Fred Landucci in Mechanicsburg Pa, where we would then move toward Lakewood New Jersey.
After meeting Fred, I would sleep much of the ride to Lakewood, so I missed seeing whatever was along the way!

The home of the Blue Claws, who we see here in Hagerstown seemingly every few weeks (Not quite true, but they come to Hagerstown four times this year and always are the team that visits most) is a very nice facility.
The Blue Claws, who didn't have a large number of fans on this day, but usually lead the South Atlantic League in attendance, were playing the Greensboro Grasshoppers on this day and since I had a grand total of one card for the Hoppers, I decided to work on a few Blue Claws stragglers for my sets and one that I am working on for Brian Bice, my trader in California.
I had to return to the car though as Lakewood doesn't allow backpacks etc.
That's becoming more and more normal at stadiums and with a nut like me that needs the feeling of organization, I miss that.
I always feel that I'm setting things down, afraid I'll forget them and even more afraid I'll knock something around and ding a card or worse screw up an IPad.
I should learn to get used to this because I think it's going to happen more and more.

We worked our way down the right-field stands where a few pitchers were working under the tutelage of their pitching coach Matt Hockenberry, who we talked to after he was finished working.
Turns out that Hockenberry is from Waynesboro. Pa which is where Mike lives.
I was able to get a few cards signed, most notably the Blue Claws teenage shortstop prospect Luis Garcia on his SAL prospect card.
I still have some cards left over, but with two more visits to Hagerstown on tap, I feel pretty good about getting those finished.

Lakewood isn't one of those "urban" parks that seem to be the current rage (and if Hagerstown ever receives a new stadium, it'll be one of those cramped on top of everyone without decent parking style parks), it's not out of town, but has plenty of space around the field and for parking.
I know the urban stadium looks tremendous on television and the visual effect can be really cool, but give me the easy to get to stadium outside the downtown area any day of the week.
The park that it reminded me of most that I have visited was the Tennessee Smokies Stadium in Sevierville, I asked Fred who has also been to Tennessee (Mike has not) if it reminded him of Tennessee and he agreed,
The view from the concourse was similar and the grassy area beyond the outfield wall made me think of Tennessee as well.
The team store was huge with lots to offer and lots of space, which many team stores lack.
We watched a little, I bought Fred a hot dog that he reported was crap, while I had some nachos that while they weren't awful, they did lack some zip to keep us going before we left for our next ballpark and what looks to be barring a surprise, my only new park of the season,

Lakewood's field has to rank at the top of the SAL fields that I have visited (I am missing the new Augusta stadium, Rome, Columbia, and Charleston) and I've read that when the stadium was built that it was built to AA standards in the event that an opportunity to move up arrived.
I doubt that happens as it would mean either the parent Phillies would have to give up their long-time AA affiliate in Reading or accept a new parent club and I'm not sure either of those things occurs.

We arrived at Trenton to catch a few innings at Arm and Hammer Park and add Trenton to the ballparks that I have visited (number 69 on the list).
The home of the Thunder is literally about 2 miles off an exit directly on the route to and from Lakewood, so the small detour is next to nothing time-wise.
If you do visit the Thunder, there is a huge parking lot in the back of the stadium, but very little in the front and by what I saw, a big crowd might have their problems in post-game traffic.

After getting our tickets and climbing a sizable amount of stairs to reach the grandstand ( if you have issues with step climbing as Fred does, you may want to keep that in mind), Arm and Hammer Park has a feature that I've never seen before- a screened in concourse.
It wasn't really a distraction and it was unusual, but I was surprised to see it covering the concourse.
I'm not sure how I feel about it and it felt like overkill considering the net behind the backstop, but I suppose it doesn't hurt anyone to be a little safer.
Looking around the stadium, I really didn't see anything remarkable or that stood out, other than if you walked along the first base side and looked over the wall, you could see the Delaware River flowing rapidly.
Much like FNB Field in Harrisburg and the Susquehanna River that runs along with the stadium,  the designers of the field might have missed the boat in not facing the field in the opposite direction and cost what could have been a beautiful view beyond the outfield fence.

Photo Credit: New Jersey Amateur Baseball League

While it is possible for a player to hit the baseball into the Delaware in fair territory and it has said to have happened, it could have been so much better for the fan with the river behind the outfield.
This picture shows the field and imagine if the home plate was located in either left or center and what the fans could have seen.

We watched a bit of the game but decided to leave before the game's conclusion.
There was still plenty to drive and the weather was hot, yet windy with the location being closer to the beach than we are used to.
I thought Trenton was a pretty average ballpark, nothing special for a AA level ballpark and although I didn't do any autographing to know how much access is available there, I'm not sure I'd make a special trip to return to Trenton.
I would definitely return to Lakewood though and if I was going there, I'd consider a short stop in Trenton.

In both Lakewood and Trenton, we asked around about a good place to eat on the way home outside of Trenton's traffic, but not far enough to wait too long to eat.
The name that we remembered was JB Dawson's in Langhorne, PA and when we saw Langhorne, looked it up on Trip Advisor and saw it was rated number one, it was the choice for us even though we had to immediately swerve to the next exit to get to JB Dawson's which we could see from the road!

JB Dawson's was a bit pricey in their steaks, which I really could have gone for, but I settled for a hamburger, which was good enough, but the winner was the appetizer-Philly cheesesteak stuffed into egg rolls!
These egg rolls were so delicious that they were gone so quickly between us that I didn't even have time to take a picture!

The drive home didn't seem to take very long as it was filled with good conversation ( that I took part in unlike the ride there) and before you know it, I was home and ready to get to bed shortly after.
I would definitely go back to Lakewood, where the graphing access is very good, although it does have a reputation for attracting graphers when big prospects come to town.
A fun day with new places to mark off on the list-Good times!

Back later with what will likely be the final inbox cleaning with some recent passings.

More Sports Podcasts

One year ago today, I wrote about some of my favorite podcasts to listen to and I thought I would mention some again in case they might interest you.
Some of them might be repeated from last year and others are new, but here are the sports staples of mine.
I'll have the non-sports list in a future edition.

For Boxing, my favorite still has to be The Three Knockdown Rule with Steve Kim and Mario Lopez.
The show is more than just news and notes, Steve talks to fighters at the gym, the show hosts boxing people in the studio such as Eddie Hearn and Bob Arum and the best part is the opinions, where both Kim and Lopez don't allow promotion affiliation to affect their thoughts.

A new boxing podcast has leaped into the second spot as Chris Mannix hosts the SI boxing podcast.
Mannix, who also works the DAZN broadcasts in various roles, relies more on guests than the Three Knockdown Rule but also isn't afraid to challenge guests with opinions.
Mannix also hosts an NBA podcast entitled the Crossover that I have recently begun to listen to as well.

Scott Dryden's Browns Scout Podcast continues to be my go-to podcast for the Browns.
Dryden watches games, analyzes tape and breaks things down far more than the average media member
As I wrote last year if you are into straight forward football talk without the bells and whistles, this should be the Browns show that you choose to listen to.

The wrestling podcast of choice is still Jim Cornette's Drive-Thru, where Cornette's hilarious takes on questions from fans on old school wrestling are still the funniest of the week.
Cornette's other show, the Experience, is funny, but often strays from wrestling, so if that bothers you, stick to the Drive-Thru.

Conrad Thompson hosts several podcasts, but one that stands above is his What Happened When with former WCW and current Gwinnett Stripers (Braves AAA) announcer Tony Schiavone.
Usually, the pair swaps all sorts of talk while rewatching a past NWA/WCW show with Schiavone's recollections along the way.
It is my favorite of the Thompson family of podcasts.

The other wrestling podcast that I enjoy is the Mid-South Wrestling television review where Brian Last and Mike Mills go chronologically through the Mid-South weekly television shows one at a time.
It doesn't provide the laughs of the above shows, but the Mid-South TV show was, in my opinion, the best of its time and it is great to see episodes that I never saw in their time along with analysis of the show to compare to my own.

I often keep podcasts that are really good downloaded to my IPad just to listen to whenever I want and the show that I have the most retained is easily Tim Hanlon's Good Seats Still Available.
Tim usually has someone on his show that discusses a defunct league or team and items like that are in my wheelhouse.
Still waiting for his show on the Cleveland Barons and Crusaders though!

From the same ilk, Warren Rogan's Sports Forgotten Heroes is another show with discussions on leagues that didn't make or players that were excellent, but not quite Hall of Fame level.
It's the players that were excellent but fell back into time that I love hearing about and if you enjoy that too- You will like this one.

I don't have regular listens for the Indians, Giants or Cavaliers, although I have tried a few from each team, However, I have been listening to a Devils podcast a bit of late.
Devils Insiders Radio has been a interesting listen of late as the off-season progresses, so I'll likely stick around.

I'll be back with the non-sports podcasts soon and the next planned post will cover my road trip to Lakewood and Trenton.

Cleaning out the inbox- Non-Sports version

After cleaning the sports portion of the inbox, we now move onto the non-sports chunk to be tidied up as we begin with some classic television notes.

As I was reading another classic television piece, I stumbled upon this one which was very well done on a long time TRS favorite "I Dream of Jeannie".
CloserWeekly.com is the host for the long and well-written article on the show, which I have loved since a toddler.
"Jeannie" is one of those 60s shows with a silly premise that much like pro wrestling that you have to set aside the ridiculousness and enjoy a show that just makes you laugh.
Sure, Barbara Eden is downright gorgeous (For my money, using sports style drafting such as I'd take 1968 Bob Gibson as my pitcher in any game, etc, 1966-70 Barbara Eden in Jeannie is my first selection in the beautiful actress draft without a doubt. Call me out now.), but Larry Hagman was terrific in his role as the leading man and pratfall taker and with several talented character actors in Bill Daily, Hayden Roarke and Emmaline Henry to name a few, Jeannie makes me smile and laugh as very few shows do.

What brought me to CloserWeekly was a similar article on "Nanny and the Professor", a show that I remembered faintly from my childhood.
While Jeannie ended in the 1969-1970 and my memories are all from syndication,  my limited memories of "Nanny and the Professor" were mainly from its placement on the ABC schedule in 1970-1971, exactly in between "Brady Bunch" and "Partridge Family".
The ratings in between those shows were good, but an FCC decision for the 1971-72 television season doomed this show which starred Juliet Mills (a long time TV veteran in the United States and the United Kingdom) and Richard Long ( who was a star on the 60s western The Big Valley).
Pre-1971, prime time television started at 7;30, not the current eight o'clock.
The change in prime time meant something had to go and despite Nanny being the eight o'clock program, it was the show bumped from the kid-friendly lineup.
After a move to the more adult Monday schedule, Nanny and the Professor didn't last long and was gone after that season.

We move to the Alzheimer's Association website as the daughter of the late Glen Campbell writes about some of the problems that her father struggled with.
Ashley Campbell writes of the battle and how Alzheimer's is such an insidious disease.
I cannot imagine what an afflicted person and their families have to go through when something like a brain disease strikes a person.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer writes of the recent 50th anniversary of the Cuyahoga River "catching fire" in 1969 and looks back at the event, the River's past and its present.
Even though the Cuyahoga didn't really catch fire (it was floating pollution on the top of it put there by industrial factories) and it was far from the first time that pollution had ignited, it was the 1969 fire reported nationally by Time magazine that woke people up to just what was being done to natural resources and in many ways could be regarded as the start of the environmental movement.
Today, the Cuyahoga has been improved significantly through regulation and cleanup to the point that in March, the Ohio EPA declared fish caught in the river between Cleveland and Cuyahoga Falls safe to eat for the first time in fifty years.

Two political notes that I found interesting with the first being an opinion piece in Politico by Republican commentator Amanda Carpenter on newly resigned White House press secretary Sarah Sanders.
Carpenter discusses Sanders role in not answering right-wing smears from the 2016 campaign from the Donald Trump team that Carpenter, who formerly worked for then-Trump rival Ted Cruz's Senate office and a "Never Trump" Republican, had slept with Cruz.
Carpenter rightfully calls out Sanders' remarkably high number of lies and then claims she is writing the column to place her version of the story to "warn the voters of Arkansas about Sanders".
Arkansas is where Sanders is rumored to be running for Governor in 2022.

The second goes to Vogue, who followed the controversial left-wing congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for 36 hours.
"AOC" has already become a polarizing figure in American politics and it is not difficult to figure out why that is with her ability to find cameras and her age, which has attracted many and repelled others.
No matter your opinion of her politics, it's interesting to see just how busy she is over a specified time period.

Dr.Lisa Alexander sent me this article from Rich Lowry and National Review on Oriole Park at Camden Yards and how it began the retro ballpark process for new stadiums.
The article reviews the new book "Ballpark" by Paul Goldsberger (who is an architectural critic and not a baseball writer)  discusses stadiums along the way and the impact that they have had on the urban surroundings.
One interesting note was how Oriole Park almost didn't become the standard bearer for ballparks as it was originally slated to be another concrete two-team stadium (having the ability to house a football team as the Ravens hadn't been stolen from Cleveland at that time) and might have been placed in a Baltimore suburb.
Count me out on the former and in on the latter- I like the television look of an urban ballpark, but despise all the traffic and urban issues that come with it.

We wrap up with a sad note on satire that's not satirical as it appears that Mad Magazine is about to be the latest casualty of the internet and all the choices that one has and will be printing its final magazine later this year.
I think almost every boy of a certain age read Mad or at least tried it with its satire on about everything from film and television to society at large and like so many things from childhood can be better remembered through memory.
My brother and I used to read Mad with some variation of its iconic face, the gap-toothed Alfred E, Neumann all the time and I remember passing around Mad (and its lesser selling challengers Cracked from 1958-2007 and Crazy 1973-1983) between just as we would the latest issue of World Boxing or Pro Wrestling Illustrated.
It's sad to see an icon of over 67 years go away, but Mad wasn't just another iconic magazine to go away, it was a sign of our changing culture.
I love the internet and all that it offers, but Mad was an object of a simpler time where kids ( and adults too) needed a satirical release that other outlets didn't cover.
I haven't read an issue in lord knows how long and I don't remember if even by Ryan's childhood that he was reading Mad, but I still feel like something tangible was lost today.
Changing times claims another.

Man, that was a lot of heavy lifting, but the inbox is now lighter.
I still have to put together a post that peeks at some recent passings and a recent day trip to a new ballpark, but without a boxing challenge this week, I might have the time to do something different as well.

Cleaning out the inbox- Sports version

It's been a busy time here at TRS when I'm able to post that is and the result is an inbox that's straining to keep itself in order with items from sports, non-sports, and passings.

We'll start with a Terry Pluto note on an upcoming appearance in Cleveland for Rocky Colavito.
The 85-year-old "Rock" will appear Thursday with a few former teammates at an All-Star fan week event as well as promote an upcoming book about the former Indian slugger.
Colavito, who I place firmly in the "Hall of Very Good" hit 374 homers in his fourteen-year career with 190 of them in his eight years and two stints with the Indians has been struggling with health issues in recent years that cost him his right leg (below the knee) from circulatory issues and diabetes in 2015.

The Athletics Tom Reed writes a tremendous article on former Browns tight end Gary Barnidge and Barnidge's life after football, which is a template for players today on how to prepare for their post-career.
Barnidge, who put up the best two seasons of his NFL career with the Browns, was then released in 2016 and would never play again in the league, will turn 34 before this season and could very easily still be playing football.
The article looks at Barnidge's various interests including studying the Bible and Koran as an agnostic, living in a home twenty minutes from almost anything in any direction and his friendship with wrestling legend Jerry "the King" Lawler among several interesting items on the former Cleveland tight end.

ESPN is working on a recurring series during the college basketball season titled "Chasing Ghosts" that looks at programs that possess plenty of tradition, yet for various reasons have struggled and slid from once-exalted status.
The edition that caught my eye was the N.C. State version ( I also had interest in the UNLV article as a fan of the Runnin' Rebels of the Jerry Tarkanian years) that looks at the peak of the program, coaches that contributed to the decline and the chances of the program returning to prominence.
I have written before of my fondness for the Wolfpack, who ranked behind only Maryland in my college basketball fandom under the late Jim Valvano and even today (since the sad defection of the Terrapins to the Big 10) battles with Wake Forest as my favorite school in the ACC and I do not completely agree with the article where they don't believe the Pack can ever return to past status.
Where there is a commitment to winning, there are possibilities of glory, it simply comes down to making the correct hire for your program and as the article notes, N.C.State hasn't been able to land that coach since Valvano's departure.

The Athletic makes the inbox again with an article on just what the San Francisco Giants would be losing when the likely trade of Madison Bumgarner at the trade deadline goes through.
Bumgarner's the type of old school pitcher that guys like me love and would have fit right in with the past eras of baseball.
He's grouchy, cantankerous and everything that modern baseball is not, which is exactly why the Giants and their fans will miss him so much.

Deadspin discusses a new pro wrestling promotion that has jumped the first hurdle that infant wrestling promotions have placed in the path to success- gaining a major television outlet.
The new All-Elite promotion that is funded by Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Khan has agreed to a deal that begins in the fall with TNT.
Wrestling was a major portion of the success of the "Turner" networks from the early days with Georgia Championship Wrestling to their time with Jim Crockett Promotions and then World Championship Wrestling after the network bought the promotion from the Crockett family before selling the library and assets to the WWE and folding everything else.
This is an excellent article that covers the history of Ted Turner and his network's involvement with pro wrestling and even offers a piece of information that I never knew.
In 1970, Turner's then WTCG did not televise the local Georgia promotion which was on another network but wanted to televise wrestling.
What program did WTCG broadcast for a year before GCW moved over to them?
Capitol Wrestling- the WWF show promoted by Vincent McMahon Sr.
The WWF didn't run shows there, but this shows how long the Turner networks and their current descendants not owner by Turner have owned a relationship with wrestling.

We wrap up with the oldest item in the inbox from May as SI.com takes a deep look over two articles (found here and here) at the short life of the Alliance of American Football.
As some of you remember we covered the leagues and (mainly) the Arizona Hotshots and the league not surviving was a disappointment to me.
However, when you read these articles (and two podcasts that I'll mention soon in a podcast post), it is easy to see how the mistakes of the league sealed its doom.

I'll be around later with another inbox version with either recent passings of note or cleaning the non-sports version of the inbox.

Devils ink Simmonds in Free Agency Start

The free agency period started Monday in the National Hockey League and the New Jersey Devils added one player to their roster thus far, one that their fan base has a less than fond relationship with through the years in right winger Wayne Simmonds.

The soon to be 31 years old Simmonds split last season between Philadelphia and Nashville scoring 17 goals (five on the power play), added eleven assists for the season and signed a one year deal for five million dollars.

Here's basically what you get with Simmonds- a big, physical player that had scored twenty-four or more goals every season before last season, except for the strike-shortened one, he's not a sieve defensively, will provide plenty of toughness (want to bang around Jack Hughes? Get ready to meet Wayne Simmonds) and will help on the power play.
However, Simmonds did see his statistics decline last season (Much like his latter season teammate P.K.Subban) and as All About The Jersey wrote "players that play a physical game typically don't tend to age well, as in the decline of (TRS favorite) Milan Lucic" and that's a great point.
Rough and tumble players will see their bodies break down quicker, usually aren't fleet skaters, to start, and often become albatrosses, unable to keep pace with speed and unable to overpower as they once could find themselves quickly obsolete.

However, the Devils have plenty of cap space remaining as the deal for Simmonds barely brings them to the floor of the cap, the one year contract allows them to see if Simmonds is in the twilight of a career or his numbers dipped simply because he wasn't a great fit with what Nashville does and can easily subtract him should the latter be true.
It is a semi-low (no matter the cap situation, it's still five million) risk, with the chance of a substantial reward.

On a personal level, I know Devils fans (especially Rachel, who short of the Devils signing Scott Hartnell might have preferred signing anyone else in the game) may have some issues with Wayne Simmonds being a former member of the Flyers, where he seemed to often play extremely well (often aggressively so) against the Devils.
I get it.
However, think of Wayne Simmonds in the same way Devils fans did about David Clarkson as in the type of player that you love playing for you and more than likely despise playing for the opposing team.

It'll be interesting to see what Wayne Simmonds has left, but I know one thing for sure- It might take a few games to get used to seeing Wayne Simmonds with red accenting black rather than orange being the supporting color!

Boxing Challenge: Somnambulant Middleweights

On a night filled with uncompetitive matches and not even in the same universe as compelling, two of the middleweight titles were on the line on two networks and neither was remotely interesting to watch.

The best performance was that of WBO middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade, who charged from his corner and for one round seemed interested in changing his reputations for dominant and yet dull performances when he dropped challenger Maciej Sulecki in the first minute of round one and delivering a round filled with power punches that dazzled the challenger from Poland.
Andrade then returned to his corner to be told by his trainer and father, Paul Andrade that they "didn't come here for a war and to box".
Andrade then controlled every round, won them all on my card (120-107), cruised to a unanimous decision to retain his title and yet didn't do a thing to make fans want to see him against Canelo Alvarez or Gennady Golovkin.
I've always liked Andrade, and back in the old days of the FightHeads podcast ( Selfish Plug-If you are reading this and would like me to appear on a podcast, ask!) I even picked Andrade as a possible top star, if he would only fight more.
Now, he's fighting more often but isn't exciting anyone in the process.
It looks to me that Andrade is in the same position that Gennady Golovkin once found himself in- A fight against him is a low reward and high risk.

The DAZN undercard wasn't exciting either as former WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker pounded Alex Leapai for ten rounds before the merciful end in the tenth.
Parker looked good, but it would have been hard not to against a retreating heavy bag that would occasionally toss a looping counter right.
The best I can say about this is that Parker threw more punches, punch output has been something Parker's been criticized for, and Leapai's chin is pretty dam strong.
Kal Yafai won a boring unanimous decision over Norbelto Jimenez that left the crowd booing and me wondering why I watch boxing sometimes.
Yafai scored a late knockdown to win going away (118-109 on my card) and hopes for a unification fight against WBC champion Juan Francisco Estrada next in which he'll need to put forth the best effort of his career to win.

And then there was Showtime, home of the best announcing team and production in boxing and suddenly finds itself showing B level shows from the PBC.
This three fight card was one better suited for another network and I felt bad for Showtime watching it.
I've always been someone that campaigned for boxing to have network television, but it appears that PBC is shoveling better fights to Fox and considering the broadcast quality of Fox, who schleps the non-boxing guy Chris Myers out for their fights- that's not a good thing.

Jermall Charlo, who had been gifted the WBC middleweight title earlier in the week, defending his newly handed title with a unanimous decision over Brandon Adams in a sloppy, awkward fight.
No knockdowns and little excitement for Charlo, which was expected entering into the fight and with the fight becoming a full title fight during fight week, it just seemed like a second class event.
I've always been a "belts matter" (copyright Steve Kim) guy, but this is so silly for a fighter to have wins over Jorge Heiland, Hugo Centeno, Matt Korobov, and now Brandon Adams and claim to be the champion of the world.
I've been critical of Jermall Charlo's competition (he really only possesses three wins of note- the KO of Julian Williams, which was impressive and close decision wins over Austin Trout and last-minute replacement Korobov) and that's a fair one, but the real villain here isn't Charlo, it's the WBC for putting their champion in such a place.
I plan on taking them on later this week.

The co-feature predictably saw Erickson Lubin hammer Zakaria Attou for four rounds before the fight was ended with mercy.
I could have written that result and saved Attou the beating.
We still don't know how much Lubin has recovered from his one round loss to Jermell Charlo and we won't until he fights someone that fights back- which is a question so often uttered when dealing with PBC promoted fighters.

The first bout saw Claudio Marrero win a unanimous decision over Eduardo Ramirez to become mandatory for Leo Santa Cruz's WBA featherweight title.
This wasn't exactly a barnburner, but at least it was competitive, which was rare on this evening, no matter your network.
I scored Marrero a 115-113 winner and despite losing his previous fight to Tug Nyambayar, will now eventually face the oft-protected Santa Cruz.

Just a tedious night of boxing and one that showed the worst of the game.

In the boxing challenge, I outscored Ramon Malpica nine to seven with the difference being the bonus point for calling the round of Erickson Lubin's KO and Demetrius Andrade winning by decision.
I lead the overall challenge 163-147