{"id":80641,"date":"2017-12-27T15:21:07","date_gmt":"2017-12-27T15:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"\/rcntv\/?p=80641"},"modified":"2017-12-27T15:21:35","modified_gmt":"2017-12-27T15:21:35","slug":"sportstalk-shop-2017-year-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sportstalk-shop-2017-year-review\/","title":{"rendered":"The SportsTalk Shop: 2017 Year-in-Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

First of all, props to Morning Call<\/a> sports writer Steven Gross<\/a>\u2014not only did he recently get married and treat his new bride to an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour at Yankee Stadium<\/a> (yes, she\u2019s a die-hard pinstripe fan!), he captured the \u201cBest of RCN-TV\u201d award by receiving the most votes for our \u201cSportsTalk\u201d program during a contest held recently on our website.<\/p>\n

To see Steve\u2019s \u201cwinning\u201d appearance from this past year, tune in to RCN-TV on January 1st<\/sup> for the entire lineup of the top moments from our broadcasting schedule from this past calendar year!<\/p>\n

**********<\/p>\n

Speaking of holiday programming\u2026<\/p>\n

Morning Call Senior Sports Writer Keith Groller<\/a> and I conducted our annual \u201cYear-in-Review\u201d show live last Thursday at 7pm on RCN-TV.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve gotten quite a bit of feedback following the initial airing of the show and invite you to check out the show when it repeats again as part of the holiday\u2019s special programming schedule coming up this week (check out the entire RCN-TV broadcast schedule over the next week here on the website<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Just to give you a little sample of what we talked about, here are a few \u201cbrief\u201d responses to most of the topics we discussed on this program. Keep in mind, there was quite a bit of \u201ccross-talk\u201d and debate about a few of these issues, along with some interesting opinions and some \u201cfun and games\u201d we also had on the show, which we hope you will check out for yourself.<\/p>\n

\u201cYear-in-Review Topics for 2017\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

    1. Best collection of sophomores?<\/ol>\n

    Keith:\u00a0 How about Carson Wentz<\/a>, Doug Pedersen<\/a> and the entire Eagles<\/a> coaching staff? After some first-year mistakes, this crew has definitely avoided any notion of a sophomore jinx.<\/p>\n

    Me:\u00a0 Nazareth<\/a> Football, a team I got to see five out of six weeks in a row this year\u2014and boy did they never disappoint! Anthony Harris (one of several great 10-th grade QBs in the area), Nate Stefanik (who made the catch of the year at BASD setting up a big win), Kyle Paccio (an underrated running back in a pass-happy offense), Jake Wilson (probably the most underrated two-way lineman among any under classmen) and more.\u00a0 Definitely a team to watch for next year.<\/p>\n

      2. 2017\u2019s Sign the Sports Apocalypse was at hand?<\/ol>\n

      Keith:\u00a0 The Yankees<\/a> firing Joe Girardi<\/a>, who took the team within a win of the World Series and hiring Aaron Boone<\/a>, who has no previous managerial experience<\/p>\n

      Me: \u00a0A parent attending a high school sports practice while watching a program (I \u201cthink\u201d it was \u201cThe Walking Dead\u201d) with the volume up while the coach was trying to teach his players<\/p>\n

        3. Biggest sports embarrassment?<\/ol>\n

        Keith: \u00a0The US team<\/a> failing to qualify<\/a> for the World Cup<\/p>\n

        Me:\u00a0 Chip Kelly<\/a>\u2019s hiring at UCLA<\/a>…not necessarily the move itself but one of the comments from their President saying that Kelly would restore \u201crespect\u201d to the program (he\u2019s replacing, Jim Mora, who was a classy guy, while Kelly was on probation while at Oregon, had some major PR issues and a checkered past with Philadelphia and San Francisco and wasn\u2019t really \u201crespected\u201d as an analyst this past fall)<\/p>\n

          4. Worst story of 2017?<\/ol>\n

          Keith:\u00a0\u00a0The tragic<\/a> way Roy Halladay<\/a> died.<\/p>\n

          Me:\u00a0 Continued issues of inappropriate hazing and multiple stories of disrespect between schools, including a few incidents when one football team ran out onto the field showing up another team\u2014and one time an administrator got involved in the back-and-forth of school on Twitter<\/p>\n

            5. Favorite Lehigh Valley story?<\/ol>\n

            Keith:\u00a0 The two nights the PPL Center<\/a> rocked with high school or college sports fans \u2013 the District 11 6A semifinals<\/a> packing the place for basketball and the Lehigh-Penn State<\/a> match bringing all the wrestling fans out.<\/p>\n

            Me:\u00a0 All the LV state champions we had this past year on our \u201cSportsTalk\u201d show \u2026the fact we had zero this fall shows how rare and how special it was to have so many during the \u201817 school year<\/p>\n

              6. Biggest \u201cNational\u201d Question Mark of 2017?<\/ol>\n

              Keith:\u00a0 With the national anthem controversy taking hold and the continuing concerns about concussions and other major injuries, is the sport of football headed for a big dip in popularity \u2013 both from fans and participants<\/p>\n

              Me:\u00a0 Phillies<\/a> new manager<\/a> and the \u201cnew direction of baseball\u201d\u2026trend is towards analytics and I love stats, but we\u2019re losing the personality of baseball and some of the traditions of the sport (first time since 1970 the Phillies don\u2019t have a former player on their coaching staff)<\/p>\n

                7. Most underrated sports program?<\/ol>\n

                Keith:\u00a0 Southern Lehigh<\/a><\/p>\n

                Me:\u00a0 Northwestern Soccer<\/a> is one of the single sports programs that gets overlooked the most. If you look district-wide and across all sports\u2026 Bangor comes in second<\/p>\n

                  8. Most overrated team\/personality?<\/ol>\n

                  Keith:\u00a0 LaVar Ball<\/a>. A poster boy for everything that\u2019s wrong with sports parenting.<\/p>\n

                  Me:\u00a0 Roger Goodell<\/a>\u2026new deal\/extension for over $25-million … acts like a czar one minute for things like over-inflating footballs by an ounce, then hides on other issues, including the awful brutality of NFL players against women<\/p>\n

                    9. Most underrated head coach?<\/ol>\n

                    Keith: \u00a0Freedom football<\/a> coach Jason Roeder<\/p>\n

                    Me:\u00a0 Joe Stellato\/Joe Arndt\/Eric Snider \u2013 all three have issues they had to overcome this past year, yet all are overly welcoming when I come to their practices and games, year after year<\/p>\n

                      10. Best national sports story?<\/ol>\n

                      Keith:\u00a0 The Houston Astros<\/a>, just a couple of months after the city was ravaged by a hurricane, getting its first World Series title.<\/p>\n

                      Me:\u00a0 My answer to this was pretty descriptive and you really need to check out the show to hear my response to this in its entirety.<\/p>\n

                        11. Nicest Sports Group of 2017?<\/ol>\n

                        Keith: \u00a0Tie between three groups. Enjoyed our shows with the state champs from Moravian Academy<\/a> field hockey, CCHS<\/a> volleyball and Becahi<\/a> girls basketball \u2013 all great kids as well as well as great athletes.<\/p>\n

                        Me:\u00a0 Pen Argyl<\/a> girls soccer. A great turnaround story that made the district playoffs for the first time in a long time.\u00a0 They were a very classy group and great to speak with when our cameras were up at their place to do a story on them\u2014and it certainly was nice of them to promote us on their social media pages this year as well!<\/p>\n

                        For more \u201cyear-in-review\u201d comments, topics and opinions, make sure you watch the show on RCN-TV, on RCN On-Demand and our podcast, found here<\/a> on the RCN-TV website!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                        First of all, props to Morning Call sports writer Steven Gross\u2014not only did he recently get married and treat his new bride to an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour at Yankee Stadium (yes, she\u2019s a die-hard pinstripe fan!), he captured the \u201cBest of RCN-TV\u201d award by receiving the most votes for our \u201cSportsTalk\u201d program during a contest…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,5],"tags":[879,881,880,417,418],"class_list":["post-80641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-sports","category-the-sportstalk-shop","tag-2017-year-in-review","tag-lehigh-valley-sports","tag-morning-call","tag-philadelphia-eagles","tag-philadelphia-phillies"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe SportsTalk Shop: 2017 Year-in-Review - 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