The last 45th ward Debate Live April 3rd 6pm to 8pm CST on SlaminternetRadio.com

April 3rd 2011 from 6pm to 8pm CST the last Debate between John Arena and John Garrido will happen on SlamInternetRadio.com. This will be a huge event for Slam Internet Radio. Please listen to the debate and support SlamInternetRadio.com. This event is so far sponsored by Liberty Tax at six corners, Las Tablas, T Mobile at six corners, PC Here, Ysabel's Grill, Mrs. O' Leary's Pub, Gato and Sons Jewelers, Sandra Maldonado Agency of American Family Insurance,Villa Roma Hair Design, Division 3 Studios, and Singer Factory Distributor. Just to name a few. Tune into Slam Internet Radio for more details.

The Dann & Twan Blog

This is the Dann & Twan Blog for Slam Internet Radio 

Rose pledges $1000 per point

Derrick Rose has pledged $1000 for every point he scores this upcoming weekend to relief efforts in Japan. This has us here at the Dann & Twan Show thinking, what factors could the other Bulls players use to determine their donations to this humanitarian effort?

Brian Scalabrine: $500 for every high five coming into a timeout or dead ball substitution.

Kyle Korver: $300 for every bottle of Hot Sauce sold.

Carlos Boozer: $75 for every time he thinks he gets fouled but doesn’t get the call.

Luol Deng: $5000 for every regulation minute he doesn’t play.

Keith Bogans: $10 for every person who complains about him starting.

John Lucas III: His entire prorated salary for missing that free throw in Denver.

Rasual Butler: $1000 for every “Scal-uh-bree-nee” chant he defuses by entering as the twelfth man.

Kurt Thomas: $250 for every time someone in the media mentions that, despite Thibs calling him the team’s best low post defender, he knows that his role is out of the rotation.

Omer Asik: $5 for every time he drops a pass and gets fouled on the layup rather than dunking.

Joakim Noah: $1000 for every rebound.

C.J. Watson:  $250 for every ill-advised jumper that goes in anyway. $500 when he misses.

Ronnie Brewer: $250 for every “hustle” play, comparable to a white guy “grinder” in MLB.

Jannero Pargo: $25 –poor guy can’t afford any more than that.

Taj Gibson: $1200 for every block or steal.

Preseason All-Star Teams

Opening day approaches, and for Chicago baseball fans that means the Bulls are the top seed in the Eastern Conference with two weeks left in the regular season. But there are some interesting subplots, most involving interesting injuries and confounding contract conundrums. With that in mind, it’s time to explore the most absurd and annoying situations found across the bigs at this early point:

The All-Injured All Stars:

C – Fernando Cervelli, NYY – the most ready of the Evil Empire’s young backstop apprentices is hurt to stat the year, leaving Russell Martin, Posada’s rotting corpse, and a pile of money dangling for a veteran backup backstop. As a Cubs fan, I wonder if Hendry might interest Messrs Cashman and Steinbrenner in a zombie-handed switch-flailer who “handles the pitching staff well.”

1B – Adrian Gonzalez, BOS – coming off of a shoulder surgery, Gonzalez has to prove to Theo Epstein that he can play multiple full games in a row before getting the privilege of signing his name to a nine-figure contract. Considering the BoSox mortgaged the farm for him, one can only hope it blows up in their face.

2B – Chase Utley, PHI – the oft-proclaimed best 2B in the game, Chase has been sidelined all spring. A year removed from a hip surgery, Utley is again experiencing lower body problems. Legs. Get your minds out of the gutter. Anyhow, the Phils are outwardly unworried, but the speed with which they snatched up professional pitch-taker Luis Castillo, who sucks at baseball to the point that the lowly Mets cut him and ate $6 million they owe to Madoff victims, belies their façade of calm.

3B – Ryan Zimmerman, WSN

SS – Jose Reyes,

Check out Dann & Twan every Tuesday night from 7pm to 9pm CST only on SlamInternetRadio.com 

The Z Files

The Z Files - Fantasy Sports – 03/18/11

This Saturday is easily one of my favorite days of the year, it is the day of my fantasy baseball draft. Call me a nerd all you want, compare fantasy sports to Dungeons and Dragons for sports fans, I can take you slings and arrows, but don't condemn it unless you've given it a shot. After all, this Saturday, I will be in a room with 11 of my closest friends talking about baseball and its players for 6 hours. Not only that, I will also be constructing a team, a team that I will attempt to turn into a champion. It's like a dream come true!
For sports fans, fantasy leagues are a way to have some fun with your friends, flex your competitive muscles, and, well, to gamble. Also, you will never learn about the players of a particular sport faster than if you join a fantasy league. So go out there and play fantasy hockey, baseball, football, basketball, NASCAR, golf, soccer, whatever (all of which I have played at some point in my life except for soccer, cause, well, I'm an American).
Fantasy football has undoubtedly made the NFL Sunday Ticket on DirecTV a hugely popular package for fans to buy, along with making DirecTV and the NFL a butt load of money. Fantasy baseball is also helping to make MLB Extra Innings a popular package on DirecTV as well. Fantasy sports are more popular than ever and now is a great time to play. You can find fantasy leagues everywhere online. *Okay, enough with the sales pitch, let’s draft some teams!
Dan Zobott
Z Squared, Monday nights from 9-11pm CST
on Slam Internet Radio
slaminternetradio.com


                                     *The author did not receive compensation for his testimony today.

The Z Files

The Z Files - Cubs/Sox – 03/10/11

Well sports fans, baseball season is a mere 3 weeks away. Here in Chicago, that means it's the same, tired old Cubs vs Sox debate. I want to examine this debate more in depth in hopes of killing this stupid, so-called "rivalry". The focus points will be the fans, the teams, the stadiums, the front offices, and a few random tidbits as I see fit to the argument. I will let you know, and I make no bones about it, I am a Cubs fan and always will be, but I will do my best to give an unbiased opinion here and be fair to both clubs.
Let's start with the stadiums. U.S. Cellular Field or "The Cell" and Wrigley Field or "The World's Largest Bar". The Cell opened in 1991 while Wrigley Field opened in 1914. The ballparks are night and day. The Cell has a jumbo-tron and is very modern compared to Wrigley, while Wrigley still has the manual scoreboard and a real pipe organ. There is no doubt that The Cell is "nicer" to the casual fan. Wrigley, along with Fenway Park, are the only two old time stadiums left. Wrigley holds 42,157 fans while The Cell holds 41,432 fans. These numbers are misleading because the Sox have taken out seats while the Cubs have added seats since 1991. Verdict: Cubs win with substance over style.
This brings us to the fans and the real meat of this so-called "rivalry". The Cubs have a seating capacity of 725 more people than the Sox do, yet, since The Cell opened in 1991, the Cubs have averaged nearly 7,200 more fans per game than the Sox. In fact, the Cubs have outdrawn the Sox in attendance every year other than 1991 and 1992 by an average of almost 600,000 fans per season. Ask a Sox fan and they will say those are not real fans going to Wrigley and that all the fans going to The Cell are real fans. First off, every team in every sport has people going to their games who have no idea what is going on. I've been to The Cell and seen complete morons, I've been to Wrigley and seen complete morons. I will gladly admit that there are a lot less "real fans" at Wrigley over the past few years, but it is only because the Cubs front office has priced the tickets out of the everyday fans' price range. The real Cubs fans are stuck watching at home, and it shows in the ratings, since the Cubs have nearly double the TV ratings of the Sox. The craziest thing I have found about Sox fans is their inferiority complex when it comes to the Cubs. Just do a Google search or search Facebook fan pages and you will see, there are so many more websites dedicated to hating the Cubs run by Sox fans than the other way around. Sox fans, just love your team, who the hell cares about a team in the other league that really has nothing to do with you at all. I guarantee, Cubs fans are way more worried about the Cardinals, Brewers, Reds, even other NL teams like the Phillies, Braves, and Dodgers, than they are about the Sox. I think that the luster has gone from the 6 times they play each other every year as well. I think they should play only 3 games against each other, which would allow each of them to play against an extra interleague team every season. The two are closely matched, with the Sox holding a slight lead at 41-37 over the Cubs. Enough already, let's play some different teams. Verdict: Cubs fans win due to not giving a crap about the Sox and supporting their team win or lose.
Let's look at the teams on the field. The Sox, on paper, look better than the Cubs this year, but you never know how that'll turn out. Since The Cell opened in 1991, the Sox have had 14 winning seasons, while the Cubs have had 9. Both teams have had 4 playoff appearances. The Cubs have lost 3 first round series as have the Sox. In 2003 the Cubs won a series and lost the NLCS. In 2005 the Sox won the World Series. I will just throw in one cheap shot before I move on cause I do love this fact, the 2005 World Series was the LOWEST rated World Series of all time, so take what you want from that! Anyway, moving on. The Cubs have not won a World Series since 1908, as everybody knows. Before 2005, the Sox hadn't won a World Series since 1917, quite a long drought. Overall the Cubs have 2 WS wins (1907, 1908) and the Sox have 3 (1906, 1917, 2005) There's not a big difference there, and it's certainly not something to be proud of for either team. Verdict: Sox win with their recent success compared to the Cubs. (Side note: Cubs fans do not give a rat’s ass about Steve Bartman or cursed goats, those are media created and only idiots think they have anything to do with what happens on the field)
Finally, let's look at the front offices for both teams. While the verdict is still out on the Ricketts, Jim Hendry is still the GM of the Cubs. He has done some good things and has led the Cubs to more success than they've seen in a short time since the 30's. Kenny Willliams is a different animal altogether. He has no qualms about going out and getting what he thinks the Sox need to win, whether that's by trading promising prospects or getting a big free agent. Hendry has held onto prospects until they fizzled and got nothing out of them too many times to count. With the Sox recent successes, this is a no brainer. Verdict: Sox win with better management along with a slightly smaller payroll
So there it is folks. Cubs win in stadium and fans, Sox win in team and front office success. If you ask me, that puts the Sox ahead of the Cubs. That doesn't mean this isn't a Cubs town, because it is, and that won't change in my lifetime, but if you ask me the Sox are the better team. As a Cubs fan, I'm fine with that, cause I care way more about the teams in the NL Central than I do about the team across town that doesn't even play in the same league as the Cubs. Sox fans, take my cue and worry about the Twins and the Tigers and stop allowing the Twins to kick your ass every year. (One last cheap shot, why the hell not?)
Dan Zobott
Z Squared - Monday nights 9-11pm
slaminternetradio.com

The Z Files

The Z Files – NBA Eastern Conference on the Rise 03/03/11

The NBA is as popular now as it has been for a while. A huge reason for this newfound popularity is the development of new stars mixed in with the usual stars. This may be the most star studded the NBA had been since the days of Jordan/Magic/Bird/Barkley etc.

In the current NBA landscape, there seems to be a shift of power happening from the Western Conference to the East. Since the end of last season, Amar’e Stoudemire (PHX to NY), Carmelo Anthony (DEN to NY), Carlos Boozer (UT to CHI), and Deron Williams (UT to NJ) have all defected from the west to the east. No big stars have gone from the east to the west in that time.

The teams in big cities in the east are loading up on talent. Miami, Boston, Chicago, New York, Orlando, and Atlanta are all very good teams that are collecting talent and pushing to be NBA powers. Contrast this with the smaller markets in the west that are losing players and shedding payroll like Utah, Denver, Houston, and Phoenix, and you have the making of a fundamental power shift in the NBA. Overall, the west may still have a higher amount of quality teams than the east, but the east is assembling some great teams at the top of the conference. In either case, it’s great news for the NBA and will make for compelling stories for years to come.

Dan Zobott – Z Squared, Co-Host

Listen to Z Squared every Monday night from 9-11pm on Slam Internet Radio

slaminternetradio.com

Z Squared's Blog also known as The Z Files

Z Squared, which plays on Slam Internet Radio every Monday night from 9-11pm
Central Time, is hosted by Mike Zemke and Dan Zobott. The show covers all
things sports, focusing on professional Chicago sports teams, but also
branches out to sports headlines from all around the world. Mike and Dan
take great pleasure in bringing you quality sports coverage with the help of
their producer Josh Modaressi, who can often be heard on the show as well.
This weekly show is sure to entertain, with its often comedic, and always
knowledgeable approach to the sports talk radio scene.