Fang's Bites

Unveiling The Wednesday Links For You

On Tuesday, I did the links in the evening, but today, the linkage is coming out early. Let’s get to them.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today writes that Fox plans to use its college football sideline reporter more as an analyst on the field, rather than give injury updates.

To the Wall Street Journal where Sam Schechner and Alexandra Berzon write about poker programming falling off TV due to the recent Fed crackdown of offsite gambling sites.

The Sports Biz Miss, Kristi Dosh, writes in Forbes that the settlement of the NFL lockout does not bode well for the NBA players in their dispute with the league.

Cam Martin of SportsNewser notes that former Access Hollywood and Insider host (and Betsy admirer) Pat O’Brien returns to CBS as the host of a new poker series. Pat used to be NBA, MLB and Olympics host for CBS Sports a long, long time ago. I think he’s better known now for his entertainment work than his sports career.

Cam writes that BBC Sport has posted a rather extensive online viewing guide for the 2012 London Olympics.

Ben Grossman of Broadcasting & Cable has Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban being bullish on cable saying it’s the best way to distribute video rather than the internet.

Mike Reynolds at Multichannel News says Universal Sports, which is now available on DirecTV, is airing “One Year To Go” programming as we’re now a year away from the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

Ki Mae Heussner from Adweek says ESPN’s Erin Andrews was among those taking part in an event hosted by Marie Claire magazine.

Tim Nudd at Adweek looks at the State of MLS as it hits its All-Star Game tonight.

Timothy Burke of SportsGrid has the video of the controversial ending between the Atlanta Braves and Pittsburgh Pirates in the 19th inning.

Ken Kerschbaumer of Sports Video Group notes that ESPN.com has reworked its video player to stream 720p clips.

At Yahoo’s From the Marbles blog, Jay Busbee has ESPN’s NASCAR crew telling Dale Earnhardt, Jr. that it’s time to be a man.

The Big Lead notes that ESPN is all over football right now even though baseball is approaching one of its busier times of the season.

Awful Announcing is now at the finals of its Joe Morgan Memorial Tournament. Finalists might surprise you.

All Access says ESPN Deportes Radio has picked up another affiliate, this time in South Florida.

Richard Sandomir from the New York Times the victims of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme are now focusing on the Mets ownership and what they knew of Madoff’s shenanigans and when they knew it.

Tom Spousta of the Times notes that Texas’ rivals in the Big 12 are seeing more than burnt orange in regards to the Longhorn Network.

Pete Tobey at the Glen Falls (NY) Post-Star says local native Dave Strader is leaving his Phoenix Coyotes post to work for the NHL on NBC/Versus.

Bob Smizik of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says CBS Radio is making a hard charge at the Pittsburgh Pirates rights as Clear Channel tries to hold onto them.

Fox Sports Southwest has formally announced that Friday nights will be devoted to high school football programming.

Brent Zwerneman at the Houston Chronicle notes that the Big 12 has called a meeting on what to do about the Longhorn Network.

Steve Watkins of the Cincinnati Business Courier says Fox Sports Ohio is offering some online features as a companion to its Reds game broadcasts.

Robert Feder at TimeOut Chicago says NBC Chicago has hired the replacement for the late Daryl Hawks on its sports staff.

Vahe Gregorian at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes that the Big 12 hierarchy is feeling that the issues surrounding Longhorn Network can be fixed.

Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star says a switching error caused the Royals-Red Sox extra inning game to go off the air on Fox Sports Kansas City late Monday night and a streetball program to go on briefly its place.

Chris Dufrense of the Los Angeles Times says Pac-12 schools remain euphoric about their $3 billion media rights contract with ESPN and Fox, but there are still some issues that hang over the conference.

Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News caught up with Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott and spoke with him about several issues facing the league.

Robert Collias of the Maui (HI) News reports that NBC golf analyst Mark Rolfing is sounding off after being dropped as the Executive Director of a PGA Tour stop.

Susan Krashinsky of the Toronto Globe and Mail writes that Rogers Sportsnet has purchased Setanta Sports Canada and will rebrand the channel under the Sportsnet name.

Erik Spanberg from Scene Daily has ESPN being hopeful that the upward trend on NASCAR’s TV ratings continue as it takes over the Sprint Cup schedule for the rest of the season.

Sports Media Watch has some various ratings news and notes.

The Business Insider Sports Page has its suggestions as who should be cause in the ESPN Book movie.

And I’m done with the links for now.

Sneaking In Some Saturday Linkage

I’m at work on this Saturday and won’t be able to watch the early part of the NFL Wild Card doubleheader today, unless I can find a backdoor website (I’m not encouraging you to send links to me nor am I going to discuss them any further, I have a very good relationship with the NFL). Anyway, I’ll give you linkage as I’m working at the home office.

Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life Magazine says ABC cruised to a ratings win on Thursday thanks to the BCS National Championship Game. 

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News reports that after originally taking off English Premier League games off its schedule, Setanta Sports reinstated them today. Fox Soccer Channel is in talks with Setanta to either purchase the pay channel outright or take over its key soccer rights. We’ll keep you posted.

EPL Talk says some more EPL games have been added to Setanta’s schedule this month. 

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union wants the technical problems at a local sports radio station to stop. Having worked at a radio station, this smacks of automation and having no one at the station. Pete says it’s a Clear Channel station and knowing their policies, the company doesn’t like people to work weekends having a computer insert the commercials for syndicated programming. And many times, this is what you get, programs running simultaneously and no one there to correct them until it’s too late. I know it all too well.

Ken McMillan of the Hudson Valley Times Herald-Record says viewers to Marist basketball tonight will notice a different voice calling the game.

Alan Pergament of the Buffalo News writes that the Bills despite a losing season did well in the TV ratings.

Joe Favorito writing for New Jersey Newsroom notes that the best of the NFL and MLB on TV are being produced in the Garden State.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News talks with NBC’s Al Michaels.

Robert Wilonsky of the Dallas Observer says Fox Sports Southwest and Dish Network continue to battle over airing 20 Dallas Stars games.

Anna Tinsley from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram says ESPN college football analyst Craig James is considering a run for U.S. Senate.

Comcast SportsNet Chicago says Thursday’s Blackhawks game against the Bruins set another ratings record for the regional sports network.

The Chicago Tribune says the White Sox has set its Spring Training TV and radio schedule.

Mike Rogoway of The Oregonian says the Portland Trail Blazers are disappointed with cable rights holder Comcast SportsNet Northwest over its poor distribution of its games.

Pat Hickey of the Montreal Gazette notes that college football beat the NHL Winter Classic in the US TV ratings.

The Sports Media Watch notes that the BCS Championship Game received an audience of over 30 million people.

And SMW says the NHL Winter Classic received a very low 2.1 rating against tough college football competition on New Year’s Day.

Evan Weiner at Examiner.com looks at an NFL anti-trust Supreme Court case that could have wide repercussions for other sports leagues.

The Big Lead noticed that ESPN’s Josh Elliot was co-hosting Good Morning America this morning.

Russell Scibetti at the Business of Sports will have a networking event in New York on Wednesday and if you’re in the area, please attend.

And I’ll end it there for now. I will do my best to post a couple of press releases and breaking news if it warrants.

Our Tuesday Linkage

Let’s do some linkage for you on this Tuesday.

Starting with USA Today, Edward C. Baig looks at ESPN’s planned launch of its 3-D network in June.

Michael Hiestand has the ratings of various weekend events.

EPL Talk reports that Fox is in talks to buy Setanta Sports US. 

SportsbyBrooks reports that the voice of the Anaheim Angels and USC basketball Trojans, Rory Markas died of a heart attack today.

Bil Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times also discusses Markas’ passing. 

The Sports Business Daily is reporting that Captain Blowhard is complaining that daddy doesn’t love him anymore. 

The Huffington Post also looks at Captain Blowhard’s whining.

I was going to write an open letter to Captain Blowhard about his incessant complaining and whining, but decided against it. A day later, I’m happy about my decision. It sounds to me as if Captain Blowhard wants to leave ESPN. Then leave and stop complaining. Captain Blowhard complains that the Mothership did not take his “scoop” seriously. Well, if he wants to be a serious sports journalist, stop writing stupid columns filled with pop culture references. You made your bed, Captain Blowhard, you must lie in it. You had a chance to be taken seriously when you were at the Boston Herald, but because editors didn’t recognize your “talent”, you left because you didn’t want to get stuck doing high school scores. And you decided to break out on your own doing your own niche and you did it well. But no one considers you to be an insider or a journalist. You were a comedy writer at Jimmy Kimmel Live. You’re more of a humorist who latched onto ESPN.com when it was in its infancy. Now you’re complaining that ESPN didn’t pick up your tweet. Do me a favor, Captain Blowhard. Shut up, do your job and write more pop culture references or leave the Mothership and start your own company so you can blow your own horn and pat yourself on the back for your alleged “scoops”.

Ok, so I wrote it anyway. I need to let go of my anger. Back to the links.

Writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times offers four New Year’s resolutions for sports media.

Stuart Levine of Variety says bowl games continue to do well for ESPN.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says a Tiger Woods lookalike is finding business to be awful in 2010.

Frank Juliano of the Stamford (CT) Advocate says Cablevision is adding NESN just in time for the 2010 baseball season. 

Darren says the movie, “The Blind Side” is becoming one of the most successful sports movies ever.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union also discusses the ESPN 3D launch.

Ken McMillan of the Hudson Valley Times Herald-Record says Time Warner Cable in the local area will produce weekly high school basketball games.

And Ken says Versus will air a package of NBA D-League games starting this month.

Keith Groller from the Allentown (PA) Morning Call writes that there has been plenty of football on the airwaves.

Laura Nachman says heritage Philadelphia newsradio station KYW will be outsourcing its weekend sports reports.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner writes that CBS’ NFL Today insider Charley Casserly is saying that Mike Shanahan has already pieced together his coaching staff for the DC NFL team.

Tim Lemke isn’t too thrilled about the ESPN 3D announcement.

Tim says a former Washington Times staffer is joining MASN. 

Sarah Talalay of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel writes that the Lingerie Bowl will be held in South Florida on the night before the Super Bowl.

Sarah writes that the Orange Bowl and South Florida tourism officials are fearful of a college football playoff. 

The Miami Herald uses a wire report that ESPN has won an Eclipse Award for its coverage of the Belmont Stakes back in June. 

From the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Dave Walker says a local radio station will become a Fox Sports Radio affiliate. 

Jim Harris of Arkansas Business recaps an appearance by ESPN college basketball analyst Fran Fraschilla at a local luncheon.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News has the finalists for the Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

John Kiesewetter from the Cincinnati Enquirer talks to a Queen’s City sports anchor who suffered a heart attack during the Christmas holidays.

Ed Sherman in Crain’s Chicago Business says Vanity Fair has a rather interesting Tiger Woods cover.

Ed also has one last interview with the late Chicago sportswriter Bill Gleason.

Greg Hansen at the Arizona Daily Star notes that ESPN/ABC has already picked some Pac 10 football games for next season’s schedule.

Patrick Finley of the Daily Star says the Pac 10 and Fox Sports Net will discuss how to adjust the conference’s basketball tournament in the wake of USC announcing a self-imposed postseason ban. 

Larry Bohannan from the Desert Sun (CA) says while TV will miss Tiger Woods, several West Coast PGA Tour stops won’t.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has the final college football TV schedule until September.

CTV says 4 million Canadians watched the Olympic men’s hockey team announcement last week. 

Chris Zelkovich in the Toronto Star has some Canadian TV numbers.

Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com speaks with Peter Gammons as he gets ready for his MLB Network debut on Wednesday.

Sports Media Watch says the ratings for the NHL Winter Classic were down from last year.

SMW writes that the Rose Bowl’s last airing on ABC did very well.

SMW notes that Fox’s final NFL doubleheader of the season finished strong.

Chris Byrne’s Eye on Sports Media has video of Boise State’s cowbell girl who looked so excited to be at the Fiesta Bowl. For a while, the cowbell girl was a trending topic on Twitter last night. Now we find that she’s blind. Oh well.

Chris shares some thoughts on whether he should have posted the video. 

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media notes that Versus got its own NHL matchup wrong.

That’s it for now.

Developing the Tuesday Links

I keep getting news or releases that I need to post, thus delaying my gathering of the links. Well, I think I have a window to get these done now.

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand has the ratings of various sports programs from the weekend.

The Sports Media Watch notes that HBO Real Sports host Bryant Gumbel revealed this morning that he had lung cancer surgery.

The Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame has announced its Class of 2009 and it includes legendary broadcasters Dick Enberg and Keith Jackson.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell writes that the Heisman Trophy ceremony doesn’t necessarily attract viewers because of close votes.

On The DL’s Dan Levy writing in the Sporting News that the holiday season has been one for media buyouts and internet shutdowns.

Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times has an open letter to Comcast executives regarding the purchase of NBC at the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center.

At his regular place of employment, Eric writes about how the Tiger Woods story is forcing the mainstream sports media to play catchup with TMZ and US Weekly.

Eric also talks with TMZ’s Harvey Levin about the Tiger Slam.

Comcast SportsNet New England reports that NESN Red Sox analyst Dave Roberts is leaving the network to join the Padres front office.

From the New York Times, Richard Sandomir writes about Showtime airing a show devoted to NASCAR starting in February 2010.

Michael Shain of the New York post wonders if the NCAA Tournament will become an all-cable affair.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call says two Sunday programs did not shy away from sensitive topics.

Dan Gross of the Philadelphia Inquirer writes that despite getting arrested the night before, former Eagles wide receiver Freddie Mitchell began his new radio gig on Monday.

The Baltimore Sun’s David Zurawik liked how ESPN called out the Ravens on Monday Night Football.

From the Bradenton Herald, John Lembo writes that ESPN’s Dick Vitale continues to raise money for the battle against cancer and will mention two Florida residents who lost their lives to the disease.

Sarah Talalay of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel says NFL Commish Roger Goodell once again warned Miami to keep the Stadium formerly known as Joe Robbie current to risk not seeing the Super Bowl for a while.

Sarah says Dunkin’ Donuts is providing free tickets for the Dolphins’ home game against the Houston Texans on December 27.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News says his newspaper and a local sports radio station have signed a new content sharing agreement.

Barry says the Cowboys will be the featured game on CBS this Sunday.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer discusses the addition of Ohio State announcer Paul Keels to the Reds TV team.

Ed Sherman from Crain’s Chicago Business says despite playing a bad game in their win over St. Louis, the Bears garnered good ratings on Sunday.

Ed says it’s apparent that the Chicago Tribune won’t be hiring Jay The Rat.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says ESPN heaped praise on the Packers during Monday Night Football.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News is trying to get the hang of this Twitter thing.

William Houston in Truth & Rumours says not only will the Winter Olympics be aired in English and French in Canada, but also in aboriginal languages.

Reuters reports that ESPN has won the rights to air 23 English Premier League games in Ireland starting next season.

Owen Gibson of the Guardian says ESPN has been awarded the rights to air a majority of FA Cup games next season.

BBC Sport says ESPN picks up the slack for Setanta Sports which collapsed earlier this year.

Louisa Ada Seltzer of Media Life Magazine looks at the possibility of the NCAA Tournament expanding and going to cable.

Back to the Sports Media Watch and some college football ratings news.

The Big 12 Championship drew good numbers for ABC.

Opposite the Big 12 Championship, the ACC Championship on ESPN dropped.

SMW notes that the game that decided the Big East title, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, also rated well for ABC.

And the BCS Selection Show on Fox dropped again.

Bill Gorman at TV by the Numbers says last week’s Patriots-Saints game steered ESPN to a cable primetime win.

We conclude with Kristine Leahy and today’s edition of The Five at WEEI.com.

That’s it for now. Lots of links on this Tuesday.

Some Sunday Links

Doing a Sunday linkage thing for you today. Let’s get to the links now.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News writes that the Versus-DirecTV dispute remains at an impasse, but talks could get jump started soon.

Mike reports that Setanta Sports US has signed for exclusive rights to several worldwide rugby tournaments.

Wayne Friedman of Mediapost says sales for the 2010 Winter Olympics got off to a slow start, but NBC could be seeing a change of momentum now.

Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News has a second straight column critical of MLB Network, this time for not using Bob Costas more.

Phil Mushnick in the New York Post feels ESPN’s Sunday conversations are promos for upcoming programming. So what?

Pete Dougherty provides the college football TV schedule and adds that ESPN/ABC is cheating viewers.

Carl Kologie from the Indiana (PA) Gazette writes that a local native was instrumental in bringing Fox NFL Sunday to Afghanistan this week.

Terry Toohey of the Delaware County Daily Times says someone swore into an open microphone at the end of yesterday’s Richmond-Villanova game on Comcast SportsNet.

Here is the clip:

Michael Kruse and Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times write that the NFL is seeing an increasing number of Hispanics watching football.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News points out a stat that gives Cowboys fans hope.

Bob Wolfley in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has ESPN college basketball analyst Fran Fraschilla’s comments about Wisconsin’s chances.

Brian Murphy of the Idaho Statesman appeals to ESPN’s College Gameday to pay a visit to the Potato State.

The Statesman’s Chadd Cripe says ESPN is considering bringing Gameday to Boise State.

Brian Gomez from the Colorado Springs Gazette writes that Gameday’s visit to the Air Force Academy brought an electric atmosphere to the campus.

The San Francisco Examiner’s Artie Gigantino for the most part enjoyed Fox’s coverage of the World Series.

The Sports Media Watch has its usual Weekend Ratings Predictions.

And SMW has some news and notes.

Joe Favorito says Mixed Martial Arts is hoping to gain a foothold in the mainstream.

Steve Lepore has the video of last night’s Satellite Hotstove on CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada which certainly made some waves due to a demonstration of a new helmet.

That’s going to do it for now.

Wednesday Evening Links

Let’s do some linkage this evening. Lazy night for sports, but never a lazy night for blogging. Let’s do the links then I have some housekeeping to do later. Blog housekeeping, not house housekeeping. That’s for later.

I’ll start with Friend of Fang’s Bites and fellow puckhead Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette who is thrilled over his Flyers coming to Fenway Park to take on my Bruins at Fenway Park for the 2010 Winter Classic.

David Goetzl of MediaPost says ESPN used SportsCenter anchor Scott Van Pelt in several tongue-in-cheek videos to sell upfront ads.

David looks at NBC’s deal with the NHL and IMG selling the international rights for the NFL.

Steve Lepore’s Puck The Media has the potential NHL on NBC schedule for next season. Steve speculates on the possible CBC Hockey Night in Canada sked. And Steve looks at what Versus could air next season.

In the Biz of Hockey, Maury Brown talks about the extension of NBC Sports’ revenue sharing agreement with the NHL.

Maury in the Biz of Baseball looks into his crystal ball at the sites for the All-Star Game in the next few years.

The Hollywood Reporter picks up a story from Mediaweek’s Anthony Crupi about the MLB All-Star Game hitting a ratings home run for Fox last night.

THR also picks up a Mediaweek story from Mike Shields about AOL buying an MMA website.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union provides the times for coverage for all four days of the Open Championship.

Glen Dickson from Broadcasting & Cable says this will be the last year we’ll have to put up with watching the Open Championship in old school standard definition.

Tim Lemke of the Washington Times writes about DirecTV providing expanded coverage of the Open Championship.

Chris Byrne of the Eye on Sports Media has the BBC TV and radio broadcast schedule for the Open Championship. Chris says the PGA Tour’s Facebook page got embroiled in a mini-controversy over the Open Championship.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review says Stan Savran will remain on FSN Pittsburgh while losing his nightly talk show.

Ray Frager of the Sports Media Journal gives major props to a Baltimore sports talk show host for coming clean about his painkiller addiction.

Here is the piece that Ray refers to in the Baltimore-centric Press Box site.

Also in Press Box, Dave Hughes of DCRTV.com says news/talk WBAL-AM still holds a big piece of the local sports pie.

SECSports.com has the official announcement from Fox SportsNet about its agreement with ESPN to air SEC football, basketball and other conference sporting events in the conference footprint.

Tim Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution says Fox Sports South will be part of the SEC cable syndication package.

Tom Jones of the St. Petersburg Times writes that Sun Sports will pick up the same SEC package in Florida.

Tom writes about the worst days in sports.

Patrick Finley of the Arizona Daily Star says after failing to make a deal with Fox Sports Arizona, the University of Arizona is starting its own syndicated TV network.

Radio Online says veteran play-by-play man Bill Rosinski joins ESPN Radio for college football games.

Paul Kuharsky of ESPN.com reports that none of the Jacksonville Jaguars’ home exhibition games will be aired on local television.

Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Tribune looks at Don Ohlmeyer who will be the ESPN Ombudsman starting next month.

Joe Flint of the Los Angeles Times also writes about Don Ohlmeyer.

Chicago Tribune and LA Times Olympics reporter Philip Hersh finds out why the International Olympic Committee is on NBC’s side in regards to the creation of the US Olympic Network.

Steve Silver from the Las Vegas Sun takes a behind the scenes trip with ESPN for its preparation for the World Series of Poker.

Ben Klayman of Reuters writes that the Tour de France is steering Versus to high ratings this month.

The Sports Media Watch looks at the 50 most watched sporting events on broadcast TV through the first half of 2009. And the SMW has the 50 most watched sporting events on cable in the 1st half of the year.

The Two Cents from Beantown blog looks at a new monitoring system that will be installed at every ball park that will measure every player’s defensive capabilities.

Fashionistas Cameron Frye and Wrap Around Curl get catty over Erin Andrews’ dress that has caused a stir on the sports blogosphere.

Phil Lowe of the i365Fight blog says ESPN is close to picking up the rights to air UFC programming in the UK.

Ciaran Hancock of the Irish Times says Setanta Sports picked up a key package of English Premier League games in Ireland helping it stay afloat after it lost a series of games to ESPN earlier this month.

The EPL Talk blog says Fox Soccer Channel will pick up three “friendlies” involving Liverpool starting this month.

That’s going to do it for tonight. Back later with some press release stuff.

Doing a Sunday Link Thing

Time for some links on this Sunday. I watched a fun South Africa-Spain match in the 3rd place game at the Confederations Cup on Univision this morning and kept up through Twitter with the coup in Honduras that CNN, Fox News and MSNBC are all ignoring today. News never stops just because it’s the weekend. I’m surprised not to hear any mention of it.

Anyway, time for some links.

Dave Solomon of the New Haven Register talks with CBS Sports’ Peter Kostis about golfer Kenny Green who had part of his leg amputated following a serious car accident two weeks ago.

Newsday’s Neil Best says the YES crew did a good job of filling time during last night’s Yankees-Mets blowout.

The New York Daily News’ Bob Raissman didn’t like Greta Van Susteren’s visit to the Fox Sports booth during last week’s game between the Mets and Tampa Bay.

Paul Mrozek of the Batavia (NY) Daily News speaks with author Curt Smith about his book on Vin Scully.

Laura Nachman says Brian Baldinger will no longer be an NFL analyst with Fox Sports.

Brian’s brother Richard who has done work for CBS Sports, was involved in a fatal car accident in the Kansas City area.

Joe Logan in the Philadelphia Inquirer reviews a new book that NBC’s Jimmy Roberts has written about golf slumps.

Bob Molinaro of the Virginian-Pilot looks at one sports radio talk show host who’s firmly entrenched at his radio station.

Tim Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes that the University of Georgia is expanding its football game coverage on radio.

In a related note, Chip Towers of the AJC says the Bulldogs will have two primetime games this fall on ESPN.

Tom Jones of the St. Petersburg Times lists the Top 10 Most Influential Figures in Sports and there are sports TV executives included.

Barry Horn from the Dallas Morning News previews the next episode of “4th and Long” and has found out an interesting spoiler.

Howard McEwen of the Cincinnati Enquirer says a college student announcer is being recognized for his work.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel talks with ESPN’s Dick Vitale about last week’s NBA Draft.

The Los Angeles Daily News’ Tom Hoffarth looks at some of the intersting blog posts on various SoCal sports issues. And Tom provides some links to said blog posts.

Andrew Malcolm of the Los Angeles Times says it didn’t take long for Conan O’Brien to make fun of the Clippers.

From the San Francisco Examiner, Artie Gigantino has some observations on various sports TV topics.

James Robinson of the London Observer says the worldwide credit crunch led to the downfall of Setanta Sports in the UK.

The Sports Media Watch has the ratings for three sports series. And the SMW has its usual weekend ratings predictions.

The great Maury Brown looks at the second MLB team that will be streaming its games online in-market.

Joe Favorito looks at how teams and athletes can use the Draft to their branding advantage.

The Daly Planet NASCAR blog says TNT’s Bill Weber was suspended for today’s race at Loudon, NH over an incident at his hotel on Friday. No specifics are available. John says Ralph Shaheen will call the race in his place.

The Bundesliga Talk blog talks with ESPN’s soccer announcer extraordinaire Derek Rae about the German soccer league and international football in general.

I’ll end it here for now. I might be back later. Keep it here.

Thursday’s Linkage

Time to do a Thursday link thing for you. There will be a major announcement about Fang’s Bites and its future coming in the next day or two. I’ll give you that when the time is right. In the meantime, let’s get to the links.

Starting off with the Nielsen ratings Wire blog, it says EA Sports will have a major impact on the NBA Draft tonight.

Newsday’s Neil Best looks at the new in-market online streaming deal between the Yankees, YES, MLB.com and Cablevision. Neil feels other teams will most likely follow suit. Neil previews a new SNY documentary on the 1969 Miracle Mets.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times also looks at the Yankees-Cablevision deal.

David Kohl of the Major League Programs Blog tells us what’s wrong with the deal.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says you can buy actual U.S. Open scorecards at auction. Darren wants to come up with a new nickname for Shaquille O’Neal now that he’s a Cleveland Cav. Darren notes that golfer Vijay Singh still stands by Stanford Financial despite the company’s CEO being in tremendous legal trouble.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says TNT will continue airing the PGA Championship through most of the next decade.

Alan Pergament of the Buffalo News says Terrell Owens and supermodel Joanna Krupa will see another day at The Superstars. Apparently T.O. has shot a mock apology for his performance.

Rob Rossi of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review says the Steel City watched Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals in record numbers resulting in a 42.2 rating! Thanks to Steve Lepore at Puck The Media for the link.

From Crain’s Chicago Business, Ed Sherman talks with former Bear Steve McMichael about being a part-owner and coach of a local indoor football team.

Bob Wolfley in today’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes about Packer Al Harris’ interview on Sirius NFL Radio.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News advises us that ESPN and TNT will air the Cleveland Cavaliers as much as possible next season.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman has ESPN.com’s mock top five NBA Draft choices.

Adam Rose of the Los Angeles Times looks at the first episode of The Superstars.

Chris Zelkovich from the Toronto Star says Setanta Canada is safe for now, but what about in years to come?

Steve Clarke of Variety says ESPN is considering launching a new UK channel in the wake of obtaining the rights to the English Premier League this week.

Kevin Downey from Media Life Magazine writes that the NCAA baseball postseason drew well for the ESPN networks.

The Sports Media Watch says the U.S. Open’s ratings were washed away this past weekend. Paulsen has some various ratings news and notes. SMW says Joe Buck and Tim McCarver will host a baseball movie marathon on FX on the Sunday before the MLB All-Star Game. SMW also has the NBA Draft ratings since 1999.

Chris Byrne’s Eye on Sports Media has the Mid-America Conference’s football TV schedule for this season. Chris also has the early TV schedule for the Big East Football Conference.

The Gamecocks on TV blog has found another affiliate for ESPN Regional TV’s syndicated SEC football and basketball package.

My phone is ringing off the hook for some reason. It’s driving me crazy so I’m leaving the office and shutting off my iPhone. See you later.

Our Tuesday Linkage

Let’s do some linkage for you on this Tuesday.

One sad piece of news for me at least, is the departure of David Scott of Boston Sports Media Watch. Lately, he’s been working on a book with Kentucky coach John Calipari so his blogging has been sparse in recent weeks, but when he was at his peak, David was constantly a fun read. He always had something to say about Boston sports media and I looked forward to his Friday posts. Now, David has bigger fish to fry and he’s taking the opportunity to leave while the iron is hot. I’ll definitely miss David and I hope to have him here when the book with Calipari is published. So David writes his farewell to his loyal readers and tells us what he was hoping to accomplish with his blog.

I hope to have an announcement on whom will take David’s place at BSMW down the road.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell wonders if steroids user Sammy Sosa altered his Cubs jersey to make his arms look bigger.

Joe Favorito likes one particular Minor League Baseball promotion that’s geared just for the ladies.

The great Richard Sandomir of the New York Times says viewers could tell what golfers NBC was rooting for during its U.S. Open coverage.

Newsday’s Neil Best also takes a look at NBC’s coverage of the Open.

Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News feels Michael Kay took long enough to get a point right on YES.

From the Albany Times Union, Pete Dougherty writes that the ratings for the final round of the U.S. Open on Monday were off by 50% from last year’s Monday playoff.

Keith Groller looks forward to tonight’s HBO Real Sports interview with Jim Brown and Bill Russell. Keith talks with a TV anchor competitor of Gary Papa about their friendly rivalry.

John Gonzalez of the Philadelphia Inquirer is amazed that Dallas Mavs owner Mark Cuban is actually beating up on bloggers.

Tim Lemke of the Washington Times talks to the great Maury Brown from the Biz of Baseball. You can also check out their conversation at the Biz of Baseball.

Jim Williams from the Washington Examiner says there are plenty of ways to catch Wimbledon online if you’re stuck at work while the matches are on.

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog has Tony Kornheiser talking about his former employer, the Post, Monday Night Football, his radio future and anything else TK could think of during a 17 minute radio interview today.

Justin Anderson of the West Virginia Record, a legal journal, writes about lawyer Mike Florio making the big time with his Pro Football Talk and its partnership with NBC Sports.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has information from ESPN analysts Fran Fraschilla and Jay Bilas about whom the Bucks may or may not pick in the NBA Draft on Thursday.

Lorene Yue of Crain’s Chicago Business says the co-founder of the now-defunct Windy City internet sports station has been arrested.

Ameet Sachdev, Becky Yerak and Gary Marx of the Chicago Tribune have more details about the arrest. The three also write a story about the rise and fall of David Hernandez.

Phil Rosenthal of the Tribune has an interview transcript involving Mike North and the co-founder of the internet station.

Ed Sherman from Crain’s has Mike North’s statements on the co-founder’s arrest. Ed writes about one local sports anchor losing his job. Ed says one long-time sports radio personality returns to his former shift.

Mark Warner of the Duluth (MN) News Tribune writes that Fox Sports North has chosen next year’s site for Hockey Day in Minnesota.

The Chattanoogan reports that Comcast is making MLB Network available in that part of the Volunteer State.

Dave Walker of the New Orleans Times-Picayune looks at a new Golf Channel show that makes its formal premiere tonight.

Barry Horn from the Dallas Morning News says one local sports radio station is making a lineup change. Barry reviews last night’s “4th and Long” episode.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News previews tonight’s HBO Real Sports episode.

I have a feeling Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star hates American networks because he goes after Al Roker on NBC and Chris Berman on ESPN. Chris also looks at the Canadian TV ratings for the sporting weekend. Chris writes about an NHL broadcasting executive who’s leaving his post.

Bruce Dowbiggin from the Toronto Globe and Mail feels NBC had a subpar U.S. Open telecast.

Mimi Turner of the Hollywood Reporter writes about ESPN gaining rights to the English Premier League.

Kate Holton of Reuters says ESPN is not just stopping at the EPL for programming in the UK.

Aaron O. Patrick of the Wall Street Journal writes that the EPL is going to give ESPN a big foothold in the UK.

One other ESPN soccer move. Ronald Blum of the AP writes that ESPN has signed an agreement with Gol TV to share rights of Spain’s La Liga. Those games will be seen the U.S.

BBC News says Setanta Sports has ceased operation in the UK.

In a related note, BBC reports that the FA Cup now has to find a new rightsholder in the wake of Setanta’s collapse.

EPL Talk wonders what will happen to Setanta Sports’ profitable US operation.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says the Big Ten Network will gain some viewers in New York thanks to a carriage deal with Cablevision.

Scott Greczkowski of Multichannel says DirecTV customers will get the full Wimbledon experience thanks to several channels dedicated to the outer courts as well as Centre Court.

The Sports Media Watch discusses the overnight ratings for the final round of the U.S. Open.

The Gamecocks on TV blog tells us about some more stations that have picked up ESPN Regional TV’s syndicated SEC package.

Steve Lepore of Puck The Media has some very valid suggestions for Versus in covering the NHL Draft.

Joe Haggerty of WEEI.com reports that the Flyers may take on the Bruins at Fenway for the next version of the outdoor Winter Classic.

And that, my friends will conclude the links for today. Press releases will be posted later tonight.

ESPN Finally Gets The Rights to the English Premier League

ESPN was disappointed earlier this year when it fell short in the bidding for the rights to televise the English Premier League. But what a difference a couple of months make.

In the wake of Setanta Sports failing to meet a payment deadline last Friday, the EPL terminated its rights agreement with the Irish pay service and then opened the bidding for its current package of 46 games and its package of 23 games starting in 2010-11.

Then today came news that the Premier League awarded Setanta’s rights to ESPN giving the Alleged Worldwide Leader a footing in arguably the world’s most popular soccer league.

James Robinson of the Guardian newspaper in the UK writes that ESPN paid considerably less than Setanta’s original bid.

BBC News says ESPN takes over Setanta’s packages for Saturday afternoon and Monday night games this season.

This means that EPL fans in the United Kingdom will be watching ESPN for games starting in the fall of this year.

In the U.S., the Setanta Sports USA is a separate entity from the UK version and has a separate deal to show English Premier Games on various platforms including DirecTV and various cable providers. It says it will continue to show EPL games this season and beyond.

UPDATE, 11:13 p.m.: I don’t know why ESPN did not send me this press release, I guess it’s selectively sending me certain items and omitting others. But I found this off their public relations website. It’s the official announcement of ESPN obtaining EPL rights.

ESPN AWARDED EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS PACKAGES FOR PREMIER LEAGUE IN UK

ESPN will Show Live 46 matches until 2010 and
23 a Season From 2010-2013

The Premier League today awarded ESPN two exclusive live media packages for the 2009/2010 season, and one package from August 2010 for the following three seasons. The agreement means ESPN will deliver fans in the UK 46 Barclays Premier League matches this coming season and 23 matches each season after that until May 2013.

We are clearly delighted that our bid for exclusive media rights to the Barclays Premier League matches in the UK has been successful,” said Lynne Frank, ESPN Managing Director in Europe, Middle East and Africa. “This is a huge step for our business, and we look forward to working with the Premier League, football clubs and distributors to bring UK sports fans all the excitement they expect in Premier League football.”

“Premier League football is one of the world’s most sought after sports properties, and we are very excited to be expanding our business in the UK with England’s top football product,” said Russell Wolff, Executive Vice President and Managing Director, ESPN International. “This move demonstrates our commitment to British sports fans and our ongoing commitment to delivering football to fans around the world across a variety of media.”

Premier League Chief Executive, Richard Scudamore, said: “The Premier League is extremely pleased to have added ESPN as a UK rights holder. They have a formidable worldwide reputation and experience in sports and I am sure we will enjoy a long and fruitful relationship with them.”

ESPN plans to make its Barclays Premier League coverage widely available across multiple pay-TV platforms. As a first step to this distribution strategy, ESPN has reached an agreement for its coverage to be retailed by Sky to residential and commercial customers.

So the network is hell bent on World Domination.

Links for Your Saturday

Doing the links for you today. Just relaxing after having a late lunch.

Starting with Newsday’s Neil Best who talks with a Golf Channel official about the Bethpage Black course. Neil writes that with Golf Channel unable to show go live during the U.S. Open, it does what it can before and after NBC’s coverage.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times goes inside NBC’s main production truck at Bethpage Black.

Jack Bell of the Times wonders what happens to some of Setanta Sports’ programming with the demise of its English Premier League package.

ESPN has reportedly put in a substantial bid for English Premier League games.

David Goetzl of Mediapost reports that ESPN Radio will pick up some of next year’s World Cup tournament and may do them from the network’s headquarters in Bristol, CT.

Jon McGrath of the Westborough (MA) News does not miss having Jerry Remy on NESN’s Red Sox broadcasts. Wow.

Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette writes about the local New York-Penn League team having its games streamed online on the net.

Alan Pergament of the Buffalo News says this year, viewers are guaranteed to get a live match from Wimbledon every day of the Fortnight.

Ellen Gray and Christine Olley of the Philadelphia Daily News say Gary Papa fought very hard against the prostate cancer that eventually took his life.

Ray Parillo of the Philadelphia Inquirer talks to a Phillies PR official about the death of his friend, the late sports anchor Gary Papa.

The Philadelphia Daily News’ Eagletarian blog picks up Iggles’ QB Donovan McNabb’s thoughts on Papa’s untimely passing.

Gary’s station, WPVI-TV, has a special section on his life, career and an area to leave your thoughts.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner writes that Interleague baseball has some intriguing matchups this weekend. Jim says ESPN Classic will have live coverage of a heavyweight championship boxing match tonight.

Tim Lemke from the Washington Times says Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic plans to expand its web presence.

Mike Casazza of the Charleston (WV) Daily Mail says Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio is ready for his closeup with NBC.

If you want to see how the opening of Monday Night Football is shot, head to Nashville on Monday and Tuesday to see Hank Williams, Jr. do his famous “All My Rowdy Friends” video.

The Sun-Sentinel out of South Florida catches up with Fox Sports’ Chris Rose who will host a Hooters swimsuit competition tonight. Interesting.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News says rain will be the star during the U.S. Open this weekend.

Lewis Lazare of the Chicago Sun-Times writes that the Cubs are not helping WGN-AM’s ratings.

The Vancouver Sun picks up a Reuters story from Paul Thomasch that NBC plans to crack down on piracy for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

The Pac10 conference has announced its TV schedule for the football season.

Joe Favorito writes that MLB has two important messages this weekend.

Steve Lepore of Puck The Media has a good essay on whether the aging hockey writing corps is getting too old for the game.

Dave Hughes of DCRTV writes in Press Box that there will be plenty of NFL games to listen to on Baltimore radio this fall.

The 38Cliches blog which was originally founded to blast all things Glenn Geffner when he was a Red Sox announcing hack, tries to ignore the fact that Goofner returned to Fenway this week with the Florida Marlins.

California Golden Blogs had someone attend Blogs With Balls last week.

Famed HBO boxing judge Harold Lederman (“Heh, heh! O.K., Jim!”) celebrates 23 years with the network.

That does it for today. If there’s anything new on NBC’s start time for the U.S. Open on Sunday and further scheduling changes, I’ll have it here. So far, it appears NBC will begin at 1:30 p.m. Sunday as scheduled.

An Extremely Late Night Megalinks

Well, here we are doing the Friday megalinks well into the late night.

As usual, we have the Weekend Viewing Picks for you.

The U.S. Open has been pushed back a day and possibly more with some rainy weather expected in New York this weekend. NBC has announced it will start its Saturday coverage of the second and possibly third round at 10 a.m., four hours before it was originally scheduled to come on the air. Should the weather cooperate and the final round is played as scheduled on Sunday, NBC will begin its coverage at 1:30 p.m.

Interleague baseball continues this weekend. Fox’s Saturday matchups include Tampa Bay at the Mets. MLB Network has the Civil Rights Game in Cincinnati. TBS has Atlanta at Boston. Check out what your national baseball games are in the “Baseball This Weekend” post.

NASCAR heads to Sonoma, CA this Sunday and TNT has the race at 5 p.m.

The IndyCar series is on ABC, Sunday at 1 and the Formula 1 circuit, most likely on its last legs, is in the UK for the British Grand Prix. Fox has same day coverage starting at 3 p.m. Sunday.

Soccer fans have the Confederations Cup with the US taking on Egypt on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. on ESPN2.

And for fans of Ninja Warrior, there’s the weekend marathon taking place all weekend on G4 leading up to the new Sasuke 22 competition that airs Sunday night starting at 6:30 preceeded by the American Ninja Challenge at 5:30.

The Weekend Viewing Picks have everything in sports and primetime you need to see.

National

Starting with USA Today’s Michael Hiestand, he looks at a new ESPN2 show to be co-hosted by ESPN Radio no-talent hack Colin Cowherd.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell is surprised that golfer Vijay Singh is still wearing the logo of embattled Stanford Financial Group despite its CEO being indicted on Federal fraud charges.

Darren has an interview with Tiger Woods’ agent.

Joe Favorito likes the move to set up a new office for Olympic, Paralympic and Youth Sport.

Leo Baraclough of Variety says the English Premier League has terminated its relationship with Setanta Sports after it failed to meet a deadline to pay part of its rights fee. ESPN is now the frontrunner to pick up Setanta’s 23 game package that begins next season.

Marc Graser of Variety says the WWE punked the media with a fake press release saying Donald Trump purchased “Monday Night Raw”.

Claire Atkinson of Broadcasting & Cable writes that Tennis Channel is gearing up to air Wimbledon starting on Monday.

The Sports Media Watch looks at the ratings for the PGA Tour this year to date. The SMW says the ACC Football Championship Game heads to primetime, but will be on ESPN after spending its first four years on ABC. The SMW has some various news and notes. SMW also has news on various sports personalities.

The Big Lead interviewed ESPN SportsCenter anchor Josh Elliott.

Steve Lepore of Puck The Media has some suggestions on how to improve the NHL Awards Show.

Chris Byrne of Eye on Sports Media wonders why NBC Sports used baseball lingo to promote the U.S. Open. Chris notes that there’s the same small group of volunteers who help the media at the U.S. Open every year.

East and Mid-Atlantic

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe looks at Matt Millen’s two NFL broadcasting gigs this upcoming season.

Bill Doyle of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette hears from the NBC golf crew about the U.S. Open.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times says there was little for ESPN and NBC to do when the rains started falling at the U.S. Open on Thursday.

Newsday’s Neil Best says NBC is set to start its U.S. Open coverage early on Saturday morning. Neil namedrops from his day at Bethpage Black. Neil says a scheduled Friday appearance by Sid Rosenberg on WFAN was nixed at the last moment.

Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News is amazed at how Mets manager Jerry Manuel manipulates the media.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post weighs in on the Joe Buck Live/Artie Lange controversy.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says the U.S. Open provides plenty of intrigue for the viewer.

Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette writes that a local New York-Penn League team will have its games webcast on the internet this season.

Laura Nachman says a popular Philly sports anchor, Gary Papa, passed away on Friday. Laura has a statement from the Papa’s former TV station. And Laura links to some clips that paid tribute to Papa.

Michael Klein of the Philadelphia Inquirer also writes about Papa’s death.

The 700 Level blog also pays tribute to Papa.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner writes about NBC starting its U.S. Open coverage some four hours earlier than planned on Saturday.

South

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle talks with ESPN/ABC’s Jeff Van Gundy about his experience calling the NBA Finals with his brother on the sidelines.

Ray Buck of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram doesn’t feel this year’s U.S. Open and Wimbledon tournaments will be as dramatic as last year’s.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News unveils the identity of the mysterious quarterback in 4th and Long.

James Corley of The Oklahoman writes that ESPN will showcase former OU Sooner standout Blake Griffin during the NBA Draft.

Midwest

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer writes that Fox Sports Ohio plans limited commercial interruptions for the Civil Rights Game on Saturday.

Michael Zuidema of the Grand Rapids Press says HBO generated the wrong type of buzz for Joe Buck Live.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Bob Wolfley talks with author Curt Smith about his new biography about Dodgers voice Vin Scully.

Ed Sherman from Crain’s Chicago Business lists his winners and losers of the week. Ed also sets the record straight about who broke the story about the now-defunct Windy City internet sports radio station.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Judd Zulgad says TV is the most likely step for former Timberwolves General Manger Kevin McHale.

Paul Christian in the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin writes that rain will make for interesting viewing at the U.S. Open this weekend.

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Dan Caesar says Joe Buck might have taken hits for a bad show and the Artie Lange controversy, but his show did pull viewers for HBO.

West

Scott D. Pierce of the Deseret Morning News says the only ways to catch the Salt Lake Bees are on the radio or the internet.

Jay Posner from the San Diego Union-Tribune writes that long-time local personality Lee “Hacksaw” Hamilton returns to the area airwaves for a week.

John Maffei of the North County Times says rain or shine, the U.S. Open will go on.

Diane Pucin from the Los Angeles Times also writes about the waterlogged U.S. Open that’s wreaking havoc with ESPN and NBC.

Austin Knoblauch of the Times feels the NHL shot and missed by holding its Awards show in Las Vegas.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says rain makes for a difficult telecast at the U.S. Open. Tom has his usual news and notes. Tom looks at the week in sports blogging.

Canada

Bruce Dowbiggin from the Toronto Globe and Mail says NBC’s Johnny Miller is honest to a fault.

And we’re done.

Our Monday Links

After hemming and hawing over how to organize the links today, I’ve decided I’m going to do a post based on just sports media links, then one on reaction to Blogs With Balls. I know many of the readers are probably sick of my posts on the conference, but it was a good event to attend and there was a lot of good things that came out of it. But if you want to skip over the upcoming BWB post, then go right ahead.

Let’s do the regular sports media links there and there are a lot of them as usual on Monday.

Starting with USA Today’s Michael Hiestand, he writes about the Dan Patrick Show moving to DirecTV and not necessarily being a simulcast of his radio show.

Michael also has a profile of Joe Buck in anticipation of the premiere of his new HBO show tonight.

Tripp Mickle of Sports Business Journal says ESPN is sending SportsCenter to South Africa to cover the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell notes that Kobe Bryant is the NBA’s most marketable player again after almost five and a half years.

The Sports Media Journal’s Ray Frager talks about Matt Millen getting his second TV gig in just a few short months.

Newsday’s Neil Best who will spend the week at the Bethpage Black course covering the U.S. Open has a rare interview with ESPN’s Chris Berman who will be in the 18th tower to the chagrin of many golf enthusiasts. In his blog, Neil has the entire transcript of his interview with Berman. Fascinating stuff.

Apparently the real Phil Mushnick has returned to today’s New York Post. Yesterday, he wrote a preview piece on the U.S. Open that turned out to be quite well done. Today, the mean Phil is back and he’s after ESPN for not recognizing a pitching performance from Friday. Let it go, Phil.

In the ever-changing world of the Chicago internet sports radio station, Ed Sherman of Crain’s Chicago Business reports that Mike North was back on this morning, but the financial backer was not. Ed writes the station is still on the air today, but it’s not known for how long. Apparently North wrote his own personal checks to cover those that bounced last week.

Armeet Sachdev of the Chicago Tribune’s Breaking News Center says the owner of the internet station has been charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission for running a Ponzi scheme. Wow.

Dusty Saunders from the Denver Post says a weekend TV sports anchor is the victim of a numbers game by the parent company.

The Los Angeles Times’ Sam Farmer who broke the Pro Football Talk/NBC story yesterday has more on their partnership.

Philip Hersh of the Times writes that MLB officials making the pitch to the Olympics are willing to make major concessions in its TV schedule to help reinstate the sport to the 2016 Summer Games.

Maury Brown of the Biz of Baseball also has highlights of MLB’s and the International Basebal Federation’s presentation to the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail feels CBC focused too much on Sidney Crosby while not picking up that Evgeny Malkin on the Conn Smythe Trophy in the Stanley Cup Finals.

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star asks Blue Jays announcers Rod Black and Pat Tabler to take it easy during the games.

Rick Kissell of Variety says the NBA Finals Game 5 won the primetime ratings last night, but will most likely be one of the lower rated games of the series.

Steve Clark of Vareity writes that the English Premier League has given cash-strapped Setanta Sports until Friday to meet its payments or have its TV rights sold off to competitors. Look for ESPN to try to swoop in here.

R. Thomas Umstead of Multichannel News says HBO has had to postpone the Floyd Mayweather-Juan Manuel Marquez fight due to an injury to one of the boxers.

Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life Magazine says the Lakers are steering ABC to higher ratings in the NBA Finals than last year’s series.

Chris Byrne of Eye on Sports Media says the Pro Football Talk/NBC Sports partnership is evidence that new media and mainstream media can co-exist.

I’ll end it here for now. I’ll have a post with links from various blogs wrapping up the Blogs With Balls conference.

Making The Friday Megalinks Count, Part II

As I have the Red Sox-Phils on NESN on my TV and Stanley Cup Finals Game 7 from CBC on my computer, I’m finishing up the Megalinks so I can go to bed early and head for NYC tomorrow for the Blogs With Balls conference.

Let’s update some of our earlier links.

National

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says vacating games is just plain silly.

The Eye on Sports Media’s Chris Byrne wonders if the NCAA is making the right decision if it rules to eliminate printed sports guides.

Joe Favorito says NASCAR making a media stop in New York is a good move for the sport.

Steve Lepore of Puck The Media plays “One of These Things Is Not Like The Other”.

Stuart Levine of Variety says the NBA Finals propelled ABC to a ratings win in both primetime and late night.

Keith Thibeault of the Sports Media Journal laments no real internet access from Blogs with Balls.

The Nielsen ratings Wire blog tells us that a Game 7 is an automatic ratings winner no matter the sport.

East and Mid-Atlantic

Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette talks about the Rose Bowl moving to ESPN in 2011.

The Washington Examiner’s Jim Williams says Mets-Yankees headlines the national baseball broadcasts.

Jim notices that Sirius XM radio will have international events like the 24 Hours of LeMans and cricket this weekend.

South

Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald has some suggestions for ESPN.

Ray Buck from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram says Joe Buck will get to show his comedic touch on HBO.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News looks at MLB Network’s new reality series premiering this weekend.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle writes that today’s digital conversion will help the MLS’ Dynamo.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman says the long streak of Texas Rangers voice Eric Nadel came to an end earlier this month. Mel also has his news and notes.

Midwest

Bob Wolfley from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says Joe Buck doesn’t want to reinvent the wheel for his new HBO show.

Ed Sherman of Crain’s Chicago Business lists his winners and losers in sports business and media this week.

Ed says the Chicago internet sports station is in trouble.

Carol Slezak of the Chicago Sun-Times hopes Frank Thomas’ return to the Windy City as a broadcaster means some healing for him and the White Sox.

Paul Christian of the Rochester Post-Bulletin says Game 7 is what sports are all about.

Dan Caesar from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says local resident Joe Buck is ready to go on HBO.

West

Jay Posner in the San Diego Union-Tribune says Padres fans will be able to watch the team’s road games on the big screen at Petco Park.

John Maffei of the North County Times feels the new MLB Network reality series might be Must See TV.

Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star reviews Curt Smith’s book on Vin Scully.

Jim looks at Joe Buck’s new HBO show.

Chris Dufresne of the Los Angeles Times writes about the Rose Bowl moving to ESPN in 2011.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News talks with ESPN/ABC’s Mark Jackson about what this next move will be. Tom has more with Mark in his blog. Tom has his usual extensive media notes. Tom reviews the week in blogging.

The San Jose Mercury News’ John Ryan says the Oakland A’s are adjusting to a new TV home.

Canada

John Doyle of the Toronto Globe and Mail says the financial problems with the UK’s Setanta Sports could affect the Canadian version of the channel.

And we’re done. I’ll be back on Sunday. I’ll Tweet from the Blogs with Balls conference and I may be able to get a mobile post here from my iPhone. I’ll see how it goes.

Thursday’s Link Stuff

Now that I’ve finished my work for the day and walked five laps around my office building, I’ll do the links. I’ve found that I’m more productive in my new office than the last building. Perhaps it’s the setting, perhaps it’s the honeymoon I have with the new landlord, perhaps I just have found this new place to feel like home, whatever it is, I’m doing more work here than I ever did. And I’m finding the time to blog here as well. I hope I can keep up this production.

Anyway, here’s your links for today.

USA Today’s Michael McCarthy writes about ESPN The Magazine now doing ESPN The Nude Issue meaning athletes will be posed “tastefully” in the buff. Whatever.

The lovely Christine Brennan of USA Today appeals for viewers for the NHL Stanley Cup Finals.

Chris Littman of the Sporting News says Kevin Garnett and Stephon Marbury actually foresaw ESPN The Nude Issue 13 years ago.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell has his list of athletes who he thinks will pose for ESPN The Nude Issue. Darren likes the fact that this year’s viewership for the NBA Finals is beating last year’s.

BBC News reports that ESPN is saying it has no plans to buy the cash-strapped Setanta Sports.

Ainsley Thompson of the Dow Jones News Service writes that ESPN does not ruling out buying Setanta’s rights to the English Premier League, however.

Newsday’s Neil Best notes that the Mets are discounting tickets for this week’s key series against the Phillies. Neil says the New Jersey Nets still plan to break ground for their proposed arena in Brooklyn. Neil writes that NBC Sports is gearing up for Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union writes that local viewers will be able to see John Smoltz do a rehab start for the Pawtucket Red Sox later this afternoon.

Laura Nachman will miss listening to Philadelphia’s Channel 6 on the FM dial due to the digital TV conversion.

Chico Harlan of the Washington Post’s Nationals Journal blog says fans tuning to MASN2 on certain Comcast systems had trouble watching last night’s Reds-Nats game.

Dan Steinberg of the Post’s DC Sports Bog chronicles what exactly happened as the game was suddenly pulled off Comcast.

Paul Farhi of the Post talks about CBS Radio’s plans to challenge Redskins owner Dan Snyder’s Red Zebra group of sports radio stations.

Tim Lemke of the Washington Times delves into the Nationals’ negotiations with draft pick Stephen Strasburg. Tim also looks at the Nationals TV issues with Comcast last night.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer writes that the local ABC affiliate will delay its digital conversion until after Game 4 of the NBA Finals is complete.

Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune writes about Frank Thomas talking with his former White Sox teammates for Comcast SportsNet Chicago.

Bob Wolfley from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says a former Packer is taking part in the NFL Broadcast Boot Camp.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch says former Rams coach Mike Martz will be on NFL Network today and tomorrow.

Barry Horn from the Dallas Morning News feels the Phoenix Suns’ Steve Nash is doing a great job as an NBA Finals reporter for David Letterman.

Lisa Dillman of the Los Angeles Times says it’s a taste of TNT’s Inside the NBA on NBA TV.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News wonders what Mark Jackson’s next move will be after calling this year’s NBA Finals on ABC.

John Ryan from the San Jose Mercury News likes one NFL Network Top 10 program with one exception.

Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times gets into the debate over reporters vs. bloggers, especially in the wake of the Raul Ibanez controversy that began in the Midwest Sports Blog.

As a follow up, Jerod Morris of the MSB has what he hopes are his final thoughts on the whole thing.

The CBC says Hockey Night in Canada analyst Marc Crawford goes back to coaching next season with the Dallas Stars.

Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life Magazine writes that an advertiser actually got its message across by unfurling a huge banner at a Brazilian soccer game.

Ryan Berenz of Channel Guide Magazine talks with Joe Buck in advance of his new HBO show which premieres on Monday.

The Sports Media Watch says TNT also saw a ratings drop for NASCAR last Sunday. SMW has a quarter-hour breakdown of the ratings for the NBA and NHL from Tuesday.

Chris Byrne’s Eye on Sports Media says the Boxing Writers Association of America will webcast their annual awards on Friday. Chris says CBS’ Tim Brando will be honored by college Sports Information Directors. And Chris feels the NCAA’s new rules on social network go beyond any logic or common sense.

Maury Brown from the Biz of Baseball says MLB.com has delayed the wait for archived games by double the time as requested by its TV partners.

Some good video from Sox & Dawgs, two of which I forgot to post yesterday. First, there’s a video of a woman slapping her ass during NESN’s Red Sox montage from Tuesday’s Red Sox-Yankees game. Also from Tuesday’s game, NESN analyst Dennis Eckersley admits he’s clueless. One of the reasons why Eck is so refreshing in the booth. And here’s a screengrab from last night’s Yankees-Red Sox game showing a woman laughing at Nick Swisher for failing to make a catch.

Dave Kohl of the Major League Programs blog looks into the Celtics possibly streaming their games online.

Tim Conneally of BetaNews.com says a group of smaller cable providers is asking Congress to
limit ESPN’s cost for its broadband 360 site.

CBSSports.com has an excerpt of Jim Nantz’s book, “Always By My Side”.

Plenty of links. I have a press release post coming up.

A Mid-Week Linkfest

Let’s do some linkage today. Then I’ll do a massive press release post or two.

Starting with Jon Show of the Sports Business Daily, he writes that DirecTV will have three dedicated channels to the U.S. Open complimenting the ESPN and NBC coverage for all four rounds.

Austin Karp of the SBD says five of the top six rated network TV programs this year to date are sporting events.

Tripp Mickle of the SBD reviews what happened in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Phoenix regarding the possible Coyotes move to Southern Ontario and the setting of a relocation fee to the NHL.

The Sporting News picks up a Sports Business Journal story from Daniel Kaplan stating that NBC Sports Emperor Dick Ebersol is countering company claims that the network lost money on the Super Bowl.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today says MLB Network will begin its own reality series this Saturday (I’ll have more on this series coming up later).

The USA Today Game On! blog says Selena Roberts’ book on Alex Rodriguez is not selling well after initially debuting on the Best Sellers List in its first week of publication.

Neil Best of Newsday writes that last night’s Super Tuesday of Sports certainly lived up to the hype. Neil says Game 3 of the NBA Finals beat out baseball and hockey in the New York ratings last night.

The New York Post says ESPN’s Rick Sutcliffe has cleared the air with Yankees Mark Texeira and Alex Rodriguez after he said A-Rod was tipping pitches for Texeira.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell goes over some of the more marketable names from last night’s MLB Draft. Darren says the Bodog sportsbook stands to lose a lot of money if the Lakers win the NBA Finals.

Keith O’Brien of the Boston Globe says the New York Times is looking to sell the Globe.

From the “What the Hell?” Department, Bruce Allen of the Boston Sports Media Watch has a headscratcher of a press release from NESN stating that a morning personality from a Boston urban radio station will join the network’s Red Sox postgame show to read comments and e-mails. What? Couldn’t host Tom Caron do this? Talk about a waste of money.

On the other hand, NESN is actually airing something that might do some good. Frederick Ellis Dashiell, Jr. of the Bay State Banner says NESN will pick up a series of episodes from Northeastern University’s Sports in Society center.

Laura Nachman says there’s cause for concern over the health of a popular Philadelphia sports TV anchor.

Leonard Shapiro of the Washington Post wants to institute some new rules in sports broadcasting.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner has part two of his series on how the Lakers went Hollywood.

Bob Molinaro of the Virginian-Pilot says ACC football fans will overdose on a lot of games on TV during the first three weeks of the season.

Jeff Schultz of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution wonders how ESPN can keep getting the Brett Favre story wrong.

Jeff Woods of the Nashville Scene feels ESPN is engaging in “Gotcha” journalism with Lane Kiffin and the University of Tennessee.

Evan Grant from “D” Magazine writes that Texas Ranger radio voice Eric Nadel has been given the go ahead to return to work after having retinal surgery. Thanks to Barry Horn for the link.

Barry has the overnight ratings from the Metroplex for the sports action.

Ed Sherman of Crain’s Chicago Business talks to the President of the MLS Fire who went to a game incognito as a fan to learn what the paying customer has to endure. Mad props to him.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has the video of the Angels’ Ervin Santana telling Fox Sports West, “Fuck it! Let’s pitch!”

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star writes that TSN hopes to add some color to its CFL studio show.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says the AVP Beach Volleyball Tour has signed rights deals with Comcast and Universal Sports.

The Radio Business Report reports that the MLS’ FC Dallas soccer team will have its games broadcast on the local ESPN Deportes radio affiliate.

Radio Online says CBS Radio plans to flip WJFK-FM in Washington from talk to all-sports in July.

The BBC reports that Setanta Sports has stopped taking subscriptions.

The Sports Media Watch says Game 3 of the NBA Finals drew strong numbers last night, but are still off from last year. SMW says Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals drew its high overnight ratings of the series, but are still down from last year.

Steve Lepore of Puck The Media says Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals drew decent numbers against Game 3 of the NBA Finals last night.

Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo’s Puck Daddy blog says despite the good numbers, NBC is blaming the NHL for bringing down Conan O’Brien’s ratings against David Letterman last night.

Bob Mantz from the great Bob’s Blitz blog writes that the NHL.com store jumped the gun by declaring the Detroit Red Wings the winners of the Stanley Cup.

That’s going to do it for now. Lost of good linkage for you today.

Some Tuesday Links

Let’s do links for you now. I may have to leave early so I’ll do what I can for now.

Starting with Michael Smith of the Sports Business Journal, he writes that TNT made a little “dig” in its NASCAR coverage by e-mailing a video to viewers signifying the beginning of its six race season.

John Ourand in the Sports Business Daily writes that the annual Army-Navy game is going to be on a three city rotation starting next year.

Ray Frager of the Sports Media Journal says ESPN/ABC’s Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy appear to be not convinced of the Magic’s ability to win the NBA Finals.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says Roger Federer may be a winner on the court, but not necessarily in the endorsement court. Darren says projected 1st pick in the MLB Draft Stephen Strasburg is already a winner in memorabilia. Darren writes that Starter is pinning its hopes on resurrection on Tony Romo.

Newsday’s Neil Best says Tiger Woods set New York abuzz with his practice round at the Bethpage Black course on Monday.

Neil adds that there are still plenty of seats available for the Mets-Yankees series this weekend.

In his blog, Neil laments about the possible demise of the Boston Globe. Neil asks readers to pick the ratings winner of what will be a busy Tuesday night in sports. Neil reports that Verizon is in line to be a sponsor of the new Giants-Jets stadium. Sometimes, Neil attends events so you don’t have to. And Neil says NESN’s ratings for the Red Sox are slowly getting back to normal after the Celtics and Bruins playoff runs.

The New York Daily News’ Bob Raissman rips SNY’s Keith Hernandez for not ripping Carlos Beltran.

Pete Dougherty from the Albany Times Union writes that the Belmont’s ratings weren’t great, but not bad either. Pete says golf showed the biggest ratings gain over the weekend.

Keith Groller from the Allentown (PA) Morning Call writes that a local cable TV company is gearing up for the state high school baseball championships.

Laura Nachman says two Philly sports personalities will be signing their books this weekend.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner has the first part of an enterprise story on how the Lakers went Hollywood.

Shelly Darby of the Detroit Free Press says the NHL is not allowing Joe Louis Arena to show Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals on the big screen.

Ed Sherman of Crain’s Chicago Business says golf and basketball were ratings winners this past weekend. Ed says former White Sox slugger Frank Thomas will be an analyst for the Cubs-White Sox series.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes that the NBA Finals finished a close second to the Brewers in the local ratings (scroll down).

I don’t know who wrote this article for the Bradenton Herald, perhaps the writer is hiding under his or her desk, but whomever wrote it feels the MLB Draft should not be in primetime. Whatever, dude.

This is interesting. Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News is also asking readers to pick ratings winners tonight.

Diane Pucin of the Los Angeles Times says ESPN/ABC’s Jeff Van Gundy is admitting he’s pulling punches on his brother.

John Ryan of the San Jose Mercury News wonders if anyone will watch the MLB Draft on MLB Network tonight.

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star says the NHL Stanley Cup Finals are a ratings dud for CBC.

Steve Clarke of Variety writes that ESPN may be a bidder for the cash-strapped Setanta Sports channel which is in dire financial straits.

BBC News says Setanta is on the verge of collapsing.

Bill Wilson of the Beeb explains why Setanta is in so much trouble.

Christopher Byrne of the Eye on Sports Media wonders about IBM sponsoring the Colin Cowherd show. Chris says there’s something big brewing among the SEC schools.

Joe Favorito says USA Wrestling is making a big move to solidify the sport for the Olympics.

The Sports Media Watch says the WNBA and LPGA did not do well in the ratings over the weekend.

Maury Brown in the Biz of Sports says he’s all aTwitter.

NESN’s Naoko Funayama went along for a taping of the network’s new show, “Pocket Money” based on SNY’s “Beer Money” show.

The Towleroad blog says on Sunday, ESPN’s Outside the Lines will cover the University of Nebraska wrestling gay porn controversy.

The MLS Talk blog says the English Premier League and Women’s Professional Soccer are ratings winners for Fox Soccer Channel.

That’s going to do it for now.

More Links For Your Wednesday

Well, I can provide some more links now that I put out that fire out.

From David Bauder of the Associated Press, we find that CBS is now considering teaming up with Time Warner to bid for the 2014 and 2016 Olympic Games. If successful, CBS would put the Games on its own network plus have TBS and TNT provide supplemental coverage. It would not be the first time CBS and TNT have teamed up on an Olympics. In the 1990′s, CBS and TNT televised the Winter Olympics three times in 1992, 1994 and 1998. Roger van der Horst of the Raleigh (NC) News & Observer says if CBS and Time Warner follow through on a combined bid, it would lead to a battle of media giants for the Olympics.

Newsday’s Neil Best talks about the guest list for tonight’s Costas Now.

Maury Brown’s Biz of Baseball blog has the schedule for the second day of programming on the MLB Network.

Diane Pucin of the Los Angeles Times says 3-D broadcasts are going to offer a new dimension to sports television.

In Maury’s Biz of Football blog, he writes that Fox and Sony are teaming up to present the BCS National Championship Game in 3-D HD. Wow.

In the Eye on Sports Media blog, Christopher Byrne has put together a list of theaters on Google Maps that will carry the 3-D presentation of the BCS National Championship Game on January 8.

Ray Frager of the Baltimore Sun has Deion Sanders’ comments on the Ravens’ chances for the playoffs.

Steve Lepore’s Puck The Media blog says the NHL has found a sponsor for the Winter Classic. And Steve discovers that for last night’s Caps-Islanders game, the press box did not have access to the televised feed because Nassau Coliseum doesn’t get Versus??????

Paul Kelso of the Telegraph in the UK says the English Premier League welcomes ESPN as a potential bidder for TV rights.

And the EPL talk blog says the English Premier League is considering launching its own channel if the bids from ESPN, Setanta Sports, BBC, Sky Sports and others don’t reach its liking.

That will do it for now. I’ll have more stuff tonight.

Wednesday Night Links

I wasn’t planning on an evening update, but I think I’ll give you some linkage as I stare at the very lovely Kate Walsh on “Private Practice”. I may no longer endorse “Grey’s Anatomy”, but I can support its spinoff. And for those who watched “Private Practice” last season, you’ll know that this season is a whole lot better. One complaint, don’t play Belinda Carlisle’s “Mad About You” in a key scene. But you don’t want my review of “Private Practice”, you want linkage.

Some late breaking news from Multichannel News. Ted Hearn reports that an FCC Administrative Law Judge has thrown the NFL Network for a loss saying he cannot meet a deadline on the NFL Network-Comcast dispute. This means that Comast can keep the NFL Network on a sports tier for the rest of this season.

In the meantime, R. Thomas Umstead of Multichannel writes that the MLB Network is looking forward to 2013 when MLB’s current cable deals with ESPN and TBS expire and when it could possibly air more than the 26 games it will show starting next season.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel reports that thanks to college and pro football, ESPN topped the cable primetime ratings last week.

Multichannel says Versus received its highest college football ratings ever last Saturday.

One more from Multichannel, Kent Gibbons writes that Setanta Sports is getting a pickup on Comcast cable systems in Boston.

Neil Best of Newsday says Warren Sapp’s mother thought the big boy came across too harsh on last week’s Inside the NFL and he has apologized to Keyshawn Johnson. And Neil says Warren found out that the Ravens played the wrong defense against the Giants last Sunday.

George Vescey of the New York Times appeals to President-elect Barack Obama not to get involved in the college football postseason debate.

The Chicago Sun-Times’ great columnist Rick Telander writes that ESPN is so big and powerful that no one is around to criticize the network unless it pays someone (Ombudsman Le Anne Schreiber) to do it. Thanks to Deadspin for the link.

ESPN’s Erin Andrews tells The Sporting News’ Chris Littman that she’s not going to be an entertainment reporter.

CNBC sports producer Tom Rotunno, guest blogging for Darren Rovell tells a Red Sox fan to drop her lawsuit against Jordan’s Furniture over a promotion that did not even reach its climax. Tom says despite the sagging economy, Lexus plans to continue with its golf and tennis sponsorships next year. And one more guest blogger for Darren, Kathy Connors, Sports & Entertainment Publicity Consultant tells athletes not to worry about branding, become an identity instead.

Maury Brown of the great Biz of Baseball blog says team owners hope to hash out MLB’s silly territorial blackout rules. Maury points to Las Vegas which is claimed by six, count ‘em, six different teams.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union has an update on this weekend’s college football TV schedule. And Pete has a look at next week’s college football TV schedule.

Alan Pergament of the Buffalo News writes that ESPN’s Outside the Lines will look at the 50th anniversary of the University of Buffalo’s football team’s refusal to play in the Tangerine Bowl after it was told not to bring two African American players.

Michael C. Lewis of the Salt Lake Tribune says the Mountain West Conference and The Mtn. plan to use the Utah-BYU game as a tool to help market the channel.

Tom Jones of the St. Petersburg Times says former Tampa Bay Lightning coach Barry Melrose should have named names during his Hockey Night in Canada interview last Saturday.

Steve Lepore’s Puck the Media blog continues his NHL Tournament of Announcers.

Christopher Perez of TV Week says the NHL Network will have a 20 part series on team captains.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says a local sports radio station has premiered a show hosted by a sports psychologist.

Diane Pucin of the Los Angeles Times has highlights of a Dick Vitale media conference call. By the way, if Diane is the new sports media reporter for the Times, then it’s welcomed at this end because she’s been doing a bang-up job over the last few weeks. The Times has been a bit of flux over the position ever since Larry Stewart left the beat last year.

Lance Pugmire of the LA Times tells us that mixed martial arts is coming to ESPN Deportes.

The LA Times picks up a Bloomberg story that ESPN is facing allegations that its international X Games logo is similar to a clothing trademark. Oops.

Anthony Crupi of Mediaweek writes that CBS College Sports has received pickups in major markets over the last week.

That’s going to do it for tonight. I’ll see you on Thursday.

Some Press Release Information

I have a few more press releases for you on this Thursday.

First, ESPN’s Chris Berman will interview both Barack Obama and John McCain at halftime of the Steelers-Washington game on the eve of Election Day.

John McCain and Barack Obama on ESPN’s Monday Night Football

Chris Berman to Interview Presidential Candidates on Eve of Election for Halftime of Pittsburgh Steelers at Washington Redskins Game November 3

On the eve of the presidential election, ESPN’s Monday Night Football game November 3 will originate from the nation’s capital when the Pittsburgh Steelers meet the Washington Redskins. Before the polls open the next day, ESPN’s audience will hear from the candidates when Chris Berman interviews both major party presidential nominees, Republican Senator John McCain and Democratic Senator Barack Obama, during halftime of the MNF game.

The candidates will be on the campaign trail and have agreed to participate one-on-one, pending last-minute schedule changes, via satellite with Berman from the ESPN studios in Bristol, Conn. The conversations will be taped earlier in the day and will air at approximately 10:15 p.m. ET. The Steelers-Redskins game will kickoff at 8:30 p.m. on ESPN and ESPN HD with the Spanish-language telecast on ESPN Deportes.

“We worked with our partners at the NFL to schedule a Monday Night Football game in Washington on this special night, and this presents a unique opportunity for John McCain and Barack Obama to reflect upon the last few months and address a large primetime audience on the final day of the campaigns,” said Norby Williamson, ESPN executive vice president, production.

ESPN’s Monday Night Football is the most-watched series in cable television history. Now in its third season on ESPN, Monday Night Football has registered nine of the top 10 all-time biggest household audiences in cable history, led by this year’s Philadelphia Eagles-Dallas Cowboys telecast (Sept. 15), which attracted cable’s largest audience ever (13.0 million homes and 18.6 million viewers).

The Big Ten Network will televise three fall conference championships in November.

Big Ten Fall Championships to Air on Big Ten Network in November

Coverage to include cross country, field hockey, men’s and women’s soccer

CHICAGO – When Big Ten champions are crowned this fall, the Big Ten Network will be there to provide television coverage. The network will televise live the semifinals and finals of the upcoming Big Ten Field Hockey Tournament, Men’s Soccer Championship and Women’s Soccer Tournament and will also cover the Big Ten Cross Country Championships.

Coverage begins at 10 PM ET on Sunday during Big Ten Tonight with highlights and reaction from the 2008 Cross Country Championships, hosted by the University of Michigan. The Big Ten has four men’s teams ranked in the top 20 led by No. 6 Wisconsin. On the women’s side, four Big Ten teams are ranked in the top 10 and seven are ranked in the top 25, paced by No. 7 Minnesota.

The Big Ten Network will be in Bloomington for the semifinals and final of the Big Ten Field Hockey Tournament. The games will air live at 10 AM ET and 12:15 PM ET on Friday, Nov. 7, as will Sunday’s final at noon ET. Four Big Ten teams are in the top 20 and defending tournament champion and No. 9 Iowa figures to be challenged by No. 8 Penn State, No. 10 Michigan State and No. 18 Ohio State.

Immediately following the field hockey semifinals, the action continues in Iowa City with the semifinals of the Big Ten Women’s Soccer Tournament. Those games will air live at 2 PM ET and 4:30 PM ET. Sunday’s championship game will be live at 3 PM ET. Last season, Penn State won the Big Ten title, but Purdue captured the tournament title. This year, the Nittany Lions are the Big Ten’s highest-ranked team at No. 21 with Minnesota following closely behind at No. 25.

The Big Ten Network will televise live the semifinals and finals of the Big Ten Men’s Soccer Championship, hosted by the University of Wisconsin. Semifinal coverage begins at noon ET and 2:30 PM ET on Friday, Nov. 14. Sunday’s final will be carried live at 1 PM ET. Ohio State will be out to defend its 2007 title and will be joined by four teams currently appearing in the national polls, including No. 6 Northwestern, No. 17 Indiana, No. 18 Michigan and No. 25 Michigan State.

Entering this week’s action, the Big Ten has 31 nationally ranked programs in the fall season, including top-10 teams in men’s cross country (No. 6 Wisconsin and No. 9 Michigan), women’s cross country (No. 7 Minnesota, No. 8 Michigan, No. 9 Michigan State and No. 10 Illinois), field hockey (No. 8 Penn State, No. 9 Iowa and No. 10 Michigan State), football (No. 3 Penn State), men’s soccer (No. 6 Northwestern) and volleyball (No. 1 Penn State).

2008 Big Ten Network Fall Sports Championships

Big Ten Field Hockey Tournament

Friday, Nov. 7 at Indiana 10:00am ET Semifinal #1 (LIVE)

Friday, Nov. 7 at Indiana 12:15pm ET Semifinal #2 (LIVE)

Sunday, Nov. 9 at Indiana 12:00pm ET Championship Game (LIVE)

Big Ten Women’s Soccer Tournament

Friday, Nov. 7 at Iowa 2:00pm ET Semifinal #1 (LIVE)

Friday, Nov. 7 at Iowa 4:30pm ET Semifinal #2 (LIVE)

Sunday, Nov. 9 at Iowa 3:00pm ET Championship Game (LIVE)

Big Ten Men’s Soccer Championship

Friday, Nov. 14 at Wisconsin 12:00pm ET Semifinal #1 (LIVE)

Friday, Nov. 14 at Wisconsin 2:30pm ET Semifinal #2 (LIVE)

Sunday, Nov. 16 at Wisconsin 1:00pm ET Championship Game (LIVE)

The NFL has a statement on Pennsylvannia US Senator Arlen Specter’s letter to the league seeking further free TV coverage of NFL Network games.

Statement from an NFL Spokesman:

We received a letter from Senator Specter’s staff last night.

Senator Specter knows that our television policy regarding the eight primetime games on NFL Network this season will be identical to the broadcast pattern we have followed for more than 20 years with our ESPN primetime games.

That same television policy makes the NFL the only league that has all of its regular season and playoff games on free TV, including our limited number of cable games that also are televised on free TV in participating team markets.

The goal of our NFL Network games is to show them to a national audience. However, that goal has been undercut by several of the largest cable operators that are discriminating against our Network by either refusing to carry it or placing it on a much more costly tier than the sports networks that the cable operators themselves own. These cable operators are denying their consumers fair access to this popular NFL programming.

The Federal Communications Commission Media Bureau earlier this month ruled that we indeed had demonstrated that our discrimination charge had merit and rejected the arguments of Comcast, the nation’s largest cable operator based in Pennsylvania. The FCC Bureau also found merit in our complaint that Comcast retaliated against NFL Network, thereby also punishing consumers.

We continue to seek a negotiated agreement with Comcast, Time Warner and several other major cable operators so that our fans will not be deprived of our package of eight Network games in the next two months.

Any help that Senator Specter or his colleagues could lend to encourage Comcast or other cable operators to reach a fair agreement with us would be in the best interests of their constituents and our fans.

And ESPN360 will be showing more soccer online thanks to a new agreement reached with Setanta Sports.

ESPN, Setanta Ink Deal for Live US Broadband Coverage of The Football League and Carling Cup Soccer

ESPN and Setanta Sports have agreed a new deal to bring US soccer fans extensive live broadband coverage of England’s Football League and Carling Cup tournaments, featuring many top English soccer teams including Leeds United, Wolves and Sheffield United. The Football League consists of competitions from The Coca-Cola Championships, League One, League Two and the Carling Cup, which is the annual tournament that matches Football League and Barclays Premier League teams.

The deal will bring live coverage (and replay availability) of nearly 100 English soccer matches on ESPN360.com, the company’s signature broadband sports television network. ESPN360.com’s schedule will include up to two Football League matches per week (totaling up to 84 matches this season), Football League playoff and final matches, and will feature five matches from rounds 1-5, four semi-final matches and the finals from Carling Cup competition.

“We have established ESPN360.com as one of the leading destinations for U.S. fans of global soccer. Adding matches from the Football League and Carling Cup to our lineup further adds to that leadership,” said Damon Phillips, vice president, ESPN360.com. “These competitions feature some of the highest-level clubs and players in the world, which have an enormous, passionate base of fans around the globe and in the US.”

Shane O’Rourke, president of North American and Australia Operations, added, “Setanta is committed to increasing the exposure of the Football League and the Carling Cup alongside our other key properties and working with ESPN360.com is a great way to achieve this.”

Some Thursday Night Links, Not A Lot

I’m actually doing some work tonight, but in between tasks, I’ll give you some linkage.

Tripp Mickle of the Sports Business Journal has five off-the-ice issues to watch for the NHL this season.

Neil Best of Newsday, through the LA Times, has UFC President-for-Life Dana White blasting Elite XC and CBS.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says the NHL has begun its Center Ice free preview on satellite and cable. And Pete felt that Tim McCarver really looked old during his appearance on ESPN’s Outside the Lines yesterday.

From Ken Schott’s blog at the Schenectady Gazette, he provides us with this link to his appearance on FoxSports 980 from Thursday. Ken tells us that Albany River Rats fans can only catch the team’s season opener on Saturday on the net.

The great Jim Williams from the DC/Baltimore Examiner writes that the Senior Players Championship from the Baltimore Country Club can be seen on Golf Channel and NBC.

John Ketzenberger of the Indianapolis Star says the dispute between Bright House Cable and a local CBS affiliate is all over money.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News reports that the Dallas Stars broadcast team has signed a new long term contract.

Tony Jones of the Salt Lake Tribune says Utah State University is cherishing a rare opportunity to be on national TV this coming Saturday.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News previews his Friday media column.

The Sports Media Watch has some ratings news and notes.

Multichannel News says Setanta Sports has signed its first cable carriage deal with Cox Communications.

John Consoli from Mediaweek writes that the NFL is off to a solid start in the ratings, five weeks into its season. John says NASCAR is revving up an awareness campaign involving the digital TV switchover.

Rick Reeno of BoxingScene.com reports that ESPN will drop its Wednesday Night Fight series to focus its priorities on ESPN2′s Friday Night Fights.

That will do it for now.

Tuesday Evening Links

Let’s give some more links on this Tuesday evening here on the East Coast of the States.

First, Bruce Allen of the Boston Sports Media Watch transcribes a segment on WEEI’s The Big Show with the Big Fat Tub of Lard, Glenn Ordway in which he attacks fantasy football and those who play it. That’s like oh, millions of football fans Ordway is alienating.

A few things from Neil Best of Newsday. Neil tells us that Showtime/CBS Sports has hired a new correspondent for Inside the NFL. Neil has some comments from Chris Russo assessing his first show at Sirius XM. Finally, Neil has Mike Francesa’s rant on Russo leaving and on the New York Daily News’ Bob Raissman. It’s great stuff.

Tim Lemke of the Washington Times talks about MASN expanding its HD programming.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell delves into what happened to the Magic Johnson co-sponsored Washington Mutual loan centers that eventually closed. And Darren wonders if the Spanish language version of Madden video game has a curse as well.

Joe Favorito likes how the NFL handled the Vince Young situation.

The Los Angeles Daily News’ Tom Hoffarth has the NFL schedule for Week 3 in SoCal and he wonders where are the Raiders?

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union lists the college football games available in the New York State Capital Region this weekend.

A few things from the Sports Media Watch. Last night’s Eagles-Cowboys game set a record rating for ESPN. SMW says even with a blowout, Ohio State-USC still garnered good ratings for ABC on Saturday. And the blog states that NASCAR ratings on ABC got double digit increases from last year, but are still low.

Laura Nachman says Eagles-Cowboys cleaned up in the ratings in Philadelphia.

Maury Brown of the Biz of Football breaks down the record Monday Night Football ratings.

Todd Archer of the Dallas Morning News says the Eagles-Cowboys will be re-aired on NFL Network on Wednesday.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says Green Bay QB Aaron Rodgers is gaining some national attention.

The Capital (WI) Times tells us that the Big Ten Network will be going political this week.

Fred Mitchell of the Chicago Tribune says the Chicago Tribune Live show on Comcast SportsNet Chicago is reaching a milestone.

Sergio Ibarra of TV Week reports that WGN-TV and WGN America will re-air Carlos Zambrano’s no-hitter of the Houston Astros this Friday night.

Craig Harris of the Arizona Republic says the Diamondbacks’ strategy of fewer sponsors and one lone TV partner instead of two is paying off with a better product on the field.

Jeffrey Flanagan of the Kansas City Star has Marty Schottenheimer saying his picking the Raiders over the Chiefs was all for show. What? Jeffrey has CBS’ Rich Gannon saying the Chiefs are far from the worst in the NFL. Finally Jeffrey says Kansas and Missouri football did well in the ratings this past weekend.

The Gainesville (GA) Times reports that ESPN will pick up Georgia-Alabama in primetime on September 27.

Tom Kensler of the Denver Post says ESPN’s Chris Fowler returns home to the University of Colorado Thursday to call the Buffaloes against West Virginia.

Jayda Evans of the Seattle Times caught up with ESPN’s Linda Cohn as she was promoting her book yesterday.

Mike Hutton of the Gary Post-Tribune says former Indiana University basketball coach Dan Dakich will be hosting a sports radio talk show in Indianpolis starting next month.

Del Milligan over at The Ledger (FL) says there will not a shortage in TV coverage of the Ryder Cup this weekend.

NBC’s Bob Costas speaks to the AfterElton site about why the network did not mention that Australian gold medal-winning diver Matthew Mitcham was openly gay.

The Gaffer at EPL Talk wonders why Setanta Sports doesn’t air in HD in the States.

Louisa Ada Seltzer of Media Life Magazine looks at the premiere of Whatever, Martha featuring two of my favorite radio co-hosts, Jennifer Koppelman-Hutt and the extremely lovely Alexis Stewart.

That will do it tonight. I’ll put up a review of the latest edition of Real Sports later this week.

Wednesday Night Update or Why Joe Buck Needs to Stop Doing Baseball

Well, I leave my office for several hours and then all hell breaks loose.

We start off with Awful Announcing which goes off on Fox Sports’ Joe Buck. Buck was on the Colin Cowherd show on ESPN Radio this morning and said he doesn’t watch sports during the week and no longer enjoys doing baseball games.

I’ve contended since last year that since Buck doesn’t want to do the entire baseball season, get someone else to be the main voice of baseball. Even last year, Buck in an interview with Richard Sandomir of the New York Times said he would rather spend time with his family than do sports. Interviews like these don’t help. Imagine Mike Breen being interviewed on Cowherd and saying he doesn’t like doing the NBA. How fast would commish David Stern seek the removal of Breen from ESPN/ABC? Bud Selig should be doing the same with Fox, demanding that Buck be removed from the network’s broadcasts.

Awful Announcing can’t believe it and neither can I, but Skip Bayless on ESPN2′s First Take was actually a Voice of Reason on this and even before I watched the video clip on the AA site, Bayless says the same thing as me in the last paragraph, that Bud Selig should demand Fox take Buck off the games.

Deadspin has its take on Buck’s comments.

The Sports Media Watch also feels that Fox should replace Buck if he doesn’t want to do the games.

Keith Thibault of the Sports Media Journal says Buck should take a little more interest in the sports he covers.

Newsday’s Neil Best agrees with many of Buck’s takes on the length of baseball games. That’s fine, but Buck would rather watch “The Bachelorette” than the Red Sox-Rays series? I don’t think Joe likes doing sports anymore.

Buck is taking a beating in the blogosphere and deservedly so. If you want to spend more time with your family than cover sports, then by all means, get out of the sports business and do what you want. Don’t complain that you’d rather be doing something else and that the sport that gave you your start no longer interests you. Get out and change your focus. It’s complaining like this that make people who love sports angry. The world has turned upside down. Skip Bayless is the Voice of Reason.

Ok, moving on to other subjects, Aaron Barnhart of the Kansas City Star writes in his TV Barn blog that FSN’s Frank White does a great job on Royals broadcasts.

Dan Lamonthe of the Red Sox Monster blog has the video of Red Sox fans flipping the bird at Tropicana Field during Tuesday’s loss to the Rays.

LC over at the 38Cliches blog says Jon Rish is doing a very good job in the Red Sox radio booth as he subs for Dave O’Brien tonight.

Chris Pursell of TV Week writes in his Pressbox blog that Tuesday’s Red Sox-Rays game was the most watched show in the Tampa market.

Maury Brown of the Biz of Baseball writes that the Tampa Bay Rays are seeing higher TV ratings this season. Maury also has highlights of a TBS conference call involving Harold Reynolds, Dennis Eckersley, Cal Ripken, Jr., and Ernie Johnson, Jr.

Over to the Biz of Football blog, Maury has a story on XM Satellite Radio picking up all of the SEC’s football schedule this fall.

Alan Schmadtke of the Orlando Sentinel wonders now that the Big Ten Network and Notre Dame have their TV deals settled, will the SEC be next? Tim Stephens of the Sentinel looks at what could be next for the major BCS conferences as far as TV and the economy are concerned.

The Detroit News has the Big Ten Conference TV schedule for the first four weeks of the college football season.

Angelique Chengelis of the Detroit News writes that the popular 33 year old “Michigan Replay” will not be on the air this fall.

The Des Moines Register reports that this year’s Iowa State-Iowa game will be on the Big Ten Network which is not available in most of the Hawkeye State.

But Jenni Glenn of the Fort Wayne (IN) Journal Gazette reports that Verizon Fios will pick up the Big Ten Network in the local area.

Here’s the Big Ten Network’s schedule for the first four weeks of the college football season.

Bob Molinaro of the Virginian-Pilot says it’s amazing that the media is just figuring out that Communist China wants to control news during the Olympics.

John Eggerton of Broadcasting & Cable says he would rather watch the real action of the U.S. Olympic Trials than the canned action on American Gladiators or WWE RAW.

Larry Barrett of Multichannel News writes that ESPN Deportes scored with its Euro 2008 games.

The Gaffer over at EPL Talk has some suggestions for Fox Soccer Channel, Setanta Sports and GolTV on how to attract viewers in the Premier League’s offseason.

Dave George of the Palm Beach Post writes that longtime local sportscaster Jim Gallagher has died of cancer.

Newsday’s Steven Marcus profiles Fox Sports’ Brian Baldinger who remembers his days at Nassau Community College.

And before I wrap things up, congratulations to Bruce Allen of Boston Sports Media Watch whose wife gave birth to a healthy 7 lb., 8 oz. baby boy on Monday. Best wishes, Bruce.

That’s going to do it for tonight.

Some More Wednesday Links for You

I’ll give you an evening update here. I wasn’t planning on it as I was at an event in East Greenwich, RI, but I got back earlier than expected.

One observation, Marv Albert’s toupee really looks unnatural tonight. If you’re watching the NBA Western Conference Finals on TNT, you know what I mean. What is that thing on his head? A raccoon?

From Neil Best of Newsday, he writes that Yankees radio voice John Sterling might be hinting that the Bronx Bombers are a bad team. Neil also gives a suggestion to Mets manager Willie Randolph the next time he thinks of spouting off to the media. And Neil links to an interview Randolph did with WFAN apologizing for his remarks.

The Sports Media Watch says the NHL Stanley Cup Final will be a hit, but perhaps not in the first two games as they will be on Versus.

NBC Sports gives us highlights of a conference call previewing the Stanley Cup Finals.

Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette writes in his blog that the NBA Draft Lottery on Tuesday drew its highest ratings ever on ESPN.

Darren Rovell of CNBC looks at NBA Commish David Stern’s comments about the OJ Mayo investigation before the NBA Draft Lottery. And Darren goes behind the marketing of “Let’s Get Ready to Rumble”, the famous phrase made famous by ring announcer Michael Buffer.

Michael David Smith of the AOL Fanhouse blog notices that Bill Simmons continues to take shots at his ESPN.com editors on his own personal blog.

Charles Warner in the Huffington Post blog says it’s a bad idea for media conglamorates to own sports teams.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle says Jim Nantz of CBS Sports is in town to promote his new book, but it’s also a chance for him to visit his father who has Alzheimer’s Disease.

John Consoli of Mediaweek goes in-depth on the new CBS College Sports Media which will be an interactive ad network.

Bobbie Whiteman of Variety says Fox Soccer Channel and Setanta Sports will share rights to England’s FA Cup.

Awful Announcing has the penalty kick phase of the Champions League final between Manchester United and Chelsea.

CBS Sports previews the Crown Plaza Invitational at Colonial, the next stop on the PGA Tour.

LC over at 38Cliches is wincing at the notion that Glenn Geffner is trying to stir up memories of calling Clay Buchholz’s no hitter last season.

The Sox & Dawgs blog has the cover of this week’s Sports Illustrated.

That’s it for tonight.

Tuesday Linkage

Time to give you some more links today.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today looks at the ratings of selected events from the weekend.

Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News says not everyone will be riveted to ESPN’s coverage of the Congressional Steroids Hearings on Wednesday.

Bill Ordine of the Baltimore Sun writes in his blog that plans for televising the Congressional Steroids Hearings tomorrow are shaping up.

Newsday’s Neil Best gives over his column to the original sports media writer for the paper, Stan Isaacs. Neil says Stan covered practically every sport for Newsday. And Neil has a few more anecdotes about Stan in his blog. Finally, Neil says former Giants coach Jim Fassel was passed over for a chicken magnate for the Redskins coaching job.

Dave Del Grande of the Oakland Tribune writes that the AT&T Pebble Beach golf tournament and the Daytona 500 are perfectly placed on the sports calendar.

Mark Alesia of the Indianapolis Star writes that the Big Ten Network is paying out a lot of money to member schools for little to no TV exposure.

In the meantime, FSN and the Big Ten Network are teaming up for two sports and entertainment specials on spring football.

Bob Wolfley from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel looks at the scientific approach to the NCAA Tournament.

The Sports Media Watch says the Anaheim-Detroit NHL Game of the Week matchup performed poorly for NBC.

George M. Thomas in the Akron Beacon Journal says NASCAR is suffering from lower ratings.

William Houston of the Toronto Globe and Mail writes that TSN will air a one hour documentary on the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary on Wednesday. And Houston looks forward with CTV, the host broadcaster, to the Vancouver 2010 Olympics Games.

There’s yet another embarrassing video of Chris Berman doing the Monday Night Football halftime show from 8 years ago. In this one, he calls Al Michaels a nasty word. Awful Announcing has this one.

And Awful Announcing has a review of Darren Rovell’s documentary on Nike which airs on CNBC tonight.

ESPN has announced the start times and networks for BracketBusters Weekend.

Andrew Edgecliff Johnson and Ben Fenton of the Financial Times write that Setanta Sports is considering buyout offers, but is not formally starting a bidding process. And from Scotland, the Edinburgh Evening News has Setanta insisting it’s not for sale possibly dashing ESPN’s hopes of breaking into broadcasting the English Premier League.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says in his blog that a reverse dunk by a University of Albany player made ESPN’s SportsCenter.

Cedric Golden of the Austin (TX) American-Statesman says there’s a big soap opera in local sports talk radio.

Gamers will be happy to know that EA Sports has extended its exclusive video game contract with the NFL through the 2012 season.

Glen Dickson of Broadcasting & Cable says CBS Sports is beefing up its multi-platform offerings.

That will do it for now.

Our Sunday Links

Let me give you some links from the Sunday papers. I’m a bit tired this morning, but you don’t want to hear that so let me get to the linkage.

Neil Best of Newsday writes about the 40th Anniversary of the venerable Madison Square Garden.

The New York Daily News’ Bob Raissman feels HBO canceled the wrong show.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post has a nice, heartfelt tribute to retiring Associate Sports Editor Dick Klayman.

Jim Williams of the DC/Baltimore Examiner writes that the DC media is scrambling to cover the Redskins’ announcement of its new head coach today.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Bob Wolfley has some news and notes today.

The CNN Money site picks up a story that ESPN and a couple of other countries are interested in Setanta Sports, a network that has the TV rights to the English Premier League and is a pay per view channel here in the States. Michael Kleinman of the Daily Telegraph in London says Setanta put itself on the block after an unsolicited takeover bid came to surface.

Dave Weekley of the Charleston (WV) Gazette says ESPN2 is showcasing women’s basketball today in the name of cancer research.

Michael Grant of the Louisville Courier-Journal writes about ESPN’s College Gameday coming to the Louisville campus yesterday and the good-natured ribbing Jay Bilas took from the fans at Freedom Hall.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News writes that Univision had higher ratings for the US-Mexico soccer match than ESPN2 which carried the game at the same time.

The Kansas City Star’s Jeffrey Flanagan says FSN’s Frank White will call the Royals games as he sees them. The Topeka (KS) Capital-Journal talks about the increase of local programming on FSN Kansas City.

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star writes about the legacy of the 1988 Calgary Winter Games on the Canadian Olympic movement.

Bill Redekop of the Winnepeg Free Press writes about the CBC coming to Manitoba for its 8th Annual Hockey Day in Canada broadcast yesterday. Patrick Maloney of the London Free Press decided to see what the hockey day was like in London, Ontario while the CBC focused on Winkler yesterday.

While yesterday was a celebration of hockey in Canada, Jeff Z. Klein and Lew Serviss write in the New York Times that enthusiasm for the sport is waning in the Southeast region as attendance and TV ratings are down.

That will do it. If there are any updates, I’ll put them here.