Posted by Joe Zarbano

Tonight on Planet Mikey…..

It’s been a long time since Planet Mikey had a full 5 hour show (6p-11p)! Here’s whats in store for tonight….

-The Planet Mikey legend from the Metro West Daily News, Lenny Megliola will be live in studio.

-HOCKEY TALK! 8P-9P. Boston Bruins forward and points leader Marc Savard will call in at 8:15p.

WEEI.COM’s Joe Haggerty will also be in studio to talk Bruins from 8p-9p

- In the 10p hour catch the Daily Planet with the whole Planet Mikey Crew as we break down the latest and craziest news stories.

-Joey the Fish

Posted by Joe Zarbano

The NFL Pro Bowl Sucks! Everything about it Sucks! I’ve never enjoyed or have had the patience to sit through a whole Pro Bowl game. Today I came to a monumental decision. I will not watch another minute of the Pro Bowl for the rest of my life after Brett “Bleeping” Favre was selected as one of the 3 QB’s to represent the AFC. This guy lead the league in Interceptions! That’s like a MLB pitcher making the All Star team and having the highest ERA in baseball!!! Philip Rivers, Chad Pennington, and Matt Cassel all deserve to have been selected over that old, lousy, cry-baby of a quarterback, Brett Favre.

My Brett Favre hating didn’t begin until this year. I actually respected and was a fan of his prior to his 2008 antics. Then he went on national TV and cried like a little girl as he announced his retirement. At that point I was like, “Ok, I’m kind of embarrassed for him but he did have a great career and he really loves the game so I’ll let him slide on this one.” Then came the whole Brett Favre saga over the summer. Now he wants to come back and play. Every time I turned on ESPN I would be tormented with 24/7 Brett Favre coverage. It was torturous!!! Any sports fan who watched ESPN over the summer had to watch and listen to the analysts bring up questions like…Was he really coming back? Was Green Bay going to bring him back? Did the Packers offer him a 20 million to stay retired? Was he going to get traded to the TB Bucs or the NY Jets? I finally got to the point where I refused to turn on ESPN…All of this contributed to my disgust of Brett Favre.

Today, the Pats finished the season 11-5, without Tom Brady and basically their whole starting defense.

Brett Favre down and hopefully out of the NFL. Photo from Suzy Allman of The New York Times

(Bruschi, Thomas, Harrison, Seymour). It was a remarkable season for a team so “beat up”. The only thing we needed was 2008 Pro Bowler Brett “Bleeping” Favre and the Jets to beat Miami. But what happens?!?! Favre throws 3 INT’s and single-handedly loses the game. SHOCKER! CBS let us hear his pregame speech to his fellow teammates. It was probably one of the most uninspiring pregame speeches I have ever heard. “Just do your best” and “I love you guys”. What kind of football player says that to motivate his team before the biggest game of the season?!?! If that Jackass from Mississippi just stayed retired, Chad Pennington would have stayed with the Jets and the Dolphins would have sucked. I’m guessing Mangini would have probably started Kellen Clemens and the Pat’s would have coasted to another AFC East divisional title.

How can anyone justify Favre’s selection after looking at these numbers?

2008 STATS (Not including last game of season, For Brett Favre’s sake)

Posted by Jason Pothier

"I have a gold glove, killer stats, and a bright future. Wait, the Nationals think I'm playing WHERE next year?"

It’s Teddy, and I wanted to take up a sure to be unpopular position on the Teixeira sweepstakes as the rumors swirled earlier today about how the Sox seemed to fall out of contention, and then miraculously pull back into the thick of the discussion - if they ever in fact left.

Mark Teixeira is an excellent ballplayer, there’s no questioning that.  Solid cornerpiece of any lineup?  You bet.  Incredible asset at first base?  Absolutely.  Worth $180 million?  Debatable, but for what he could do for a team, we’ll say yes.  Hell if we’re giving money to GM we may as well give money to Tex too.

But do the Sox need Teixeira?  It absolutely would be great to have him, especially given what happened to Lowell last season and the uncertainty surrounding his health status entering the 09 campaign (coupled of course with the fact that Teixeira is a beast) but stop and think about the glaring hole the Sox have that tripped them up down the stretch last season - their back end of the rotation.

What do the Traxxas Nitro RC Racer (batteries not included) and Tim Wakefield's pitches both have in common? A top speed of 50mph.

I understand they signed Tazawa, but that doesn’t really mitigate the fact that the basketball team worth of guys who pitched in the 4 and 5 spots last season (Wakefield, Byrd, Colon, Masterson, Buchholz)  together went 26-30 with an ERA approaching 5.00.  Masterson and Buchholz may become solid starters, but there’s enough doubt to cause a fair amount of concern for the Sox, especially for Buchholz given the way he dropped off after last year - I think back to an Orioles/Sox Game I was at this summer where CB went 2.1 with 5 ER on 3 hits. Couple that uncertainty surrounding Masterson and Buchholz with the number of solid pitchers on the market who are being fairly overlooked right now, and there are a huge number of options for the Sox.

Derek Lowe could come back, Brad Penne is solid, but not as solid as Randy Wolf or Ben Sheets.  Tim Redding and Hiroki Kuroda are out there as well.  None of these guys are as exciting - or grossly overweight - as CC, but they would be the perfect short term fix for the Sox at the back end of the rotation, as guys like Tazawa, Masterson, and Buchholz gain some form of consistency from the starter spot (Tazawa will take time to get it together, and the Sox know this).  The pitchers on the market are, for the most part, consistent, solid hurlers who can go out there and deliver the same performance - something the Sox rotation 3-5 could not do last season, especially down the homestretch and into the playoffs.

This is your conscience. It knows that $180 million is too much to pay for Tex with the pitching issues the Sox have. Don't ignore it. It has lots of amo. And an automatic.

So, returning to Mark Teixeira - I can’t see how the Sox can pursue him for this much green when they really need to worry about their pitching.  If either Lowell or Papi doesn’t get hurt next season, and Pedroia stays consistent, they’ll have more than enough offense (and more than last year…when it was enough).  Teixeira will add to it, but what’s the point if you don’t have consistency past the number 3 starter - and even then Beckett’s performance last year was shaky. 

So go ahead.  Call me insane.  But I just don’t see the merit in pursuing Tex when the back end of the rotation is dicey at best.  Which would you rather see?  Pitching or the Sox landing the bigtime Tex signing?

–Teddy Ballgame

Posted by Jason Pothier

Mikey knows his way around Vin and Eddie's

I haven’t posted in a while due to some chronic laziness!!! However, Planet Mikey had its share of memorable moments this week worthy of mentioning. So type away…

Starting on Sunday, Vin and Eddie’s (in Abington) hosted the annual Planet Mikey Dinner.  MIkey, myself, Ryder, the Fish, Christina and her boyfriend Bob enjoyed a full menu of Shrimp, Pork, Steak, Pasta and of course Lobster Bisque.

It was a fun filled couple of hours with the gang and some great food involved as well. I ordered and recommend, the pork medallions with risotto which I noticed John Ryder eyeing all night long.

At Saloon (L-R: Mikey,Ryder,JPod,Christina,Joey)

 After Vin and Eddie’s we had to walk off our spare tire so we enjoyed a few pops at a local saloon! Yeah right I wish, I just wish that old western saloon’s still existed.  I mean Mikey with spurs on his green New Balances’, and The Fish being enforced by the local Sheriff. I think we are on to something, The Planet Mikey’s Old Western Saloon.

 On Sunday during dinner, Christina brought up the idea of a Yankee Swap on the show, so Tuesday we had our first Planet Yankee Swap!

It was interesting to say the least! We had a five dollar minimum and as you know the cast, well some went towards the minimum side.  Gift givers ended up being Mikey, Ryder, Joey the Fish, Christina, Bill “17 Catches in one game” Meuse, Teddy Ballgame or Teddy Ball-more, Bernie Red Sox/Celtics Executive Producer, and Me. As you can count there was 8 gifts from 8 people. However, whoever wrote the numbers and shook them in the hat wrote 9 numbers!!!

Presents under the Christmas Tree

 GIFT HIGHLIGHTS…

Not many! First off, all of us cannot wrap gifts. I wrapped mine in a McDonalds bag and stapled the top. Numerous gifts were wrapped in newspaper, in fact Meuse wrapped his gift of Windshield Fluid in the Auto section. Very Clever!

After the order was selected we all went up and grabbed the gift we liked. Now if you are not sure about Yankee swaps, you pick numbers out of a hat. #1 and the last # are the best positions for the best gifts. Check here for actual rules and less confusion from me…

Joey ended up with #1 and selected Teddy’s Rock and Roll Reindeer doll which ended up being passed around. The plush Reindeer sang “Grandma got run over by a Reindeer” on a rocking chair, a very festive gift! From there we opened all of the gifts and swapped. The worst gift was a box of Trojans Magnum sized condoms which I got(no comment), of course given by Joe! Ryder gave 5 quick picks for the Mega Bucks drawing which Bernie got, but didn’t win the jackpot. Mikey gave a generous gift of $50 gift certificate to the infamous Vin and Eddie’s that Christina ran away with.

Planet Mikey, the show that keeps on giving!

 Christina gave a smorgasbord of gifts which included, a holiday 5 pack of ‘gansett beer, ipod speakers, and a female condom. As I mentioned earlier, Big Bad Bill Meuse graciously spent big bucks for brand name windshield fluid… what a gift. I gave a pet for beginners. I  bought a 1 gallon fishbowl, fish food, and one goldfish named Joey… I’m glad Mikey’s little son Andy ended up with Joey the Fish! The best gift however, was a mini Heineken keg given by Bernie. Ryder had selected it early but Joey with the #1 spot was able to steal the keg from Ryder leaving the True Professional with the rock n roll reindeer!!!

If you want to hear this madness unfold on air go to WEEI.com/PlanetMIkey/audiovault

TEXT US…

WEEI and Planet Mikey started a new texting option to our listeners and boy was it a hit in day one. Mikey enjoyed some of the loony tune texts we got from some people but here are some that were missed! Thanks again for the text and keep’em coming just text 42540

is mikey just readin my texts as his own words? ” his 20 wins would replace mussina“

Too bad the sox didn’t sign C.C.He’s almost fat enough to be a host on the big show

I’m lost in Pelham trying to get home to Athol from Belchertown. Luckily I can still hear Planet Mikey

Now I’m lost in Wendell

Why did mikey cross the road? Cause hazel mae was on the other side

Muck Fanny

and my personal favorite and I swear its not my Mom… Jason poth is the man you are lucky to have him

 Text 42540

LAST BUT NOT LEAST…

Teddy Ballgame and Mikey

As many of you know or not know Teddy Minch, aka Teddy Ballgame/Ball-more has finished his duties here on the Planet Mikey show and is moving on to his next endeavour. Teddy a Baltimore transplant and current Tufts student is studying abroad next semester in London and I’m a little nervous.

I’m afraid that we have forever tainted the bright future of young Mr. Minch. Taking dating tips from Ryder and political views from Mike and I probably aren’t the best tools to take with him to Europe.

After many, many sessions with a shrink Teddy will be fine and will keep in touch with us via Twisted Pair.

-JP