Fang's Bites

Our Saturday Links

Time to give you some links on this NFL Draft Weekend. Already some news being made as Adam Schecter of the NFL Network reports that the Atlanta Falcons will look to take Boston College quarterback Matt Ryan with the overall third pick. We’ll see if this pans out. If you have your laptop and you have access to Wi-Fi today, you can head over to NFL.com which will webcast the NFL Network’s coverage of the Draft.

Let’s give you some links today.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News wonders what channel viewers will choose for the NFL Draft, ESPN or the NFL Network.

Jerry Garcia of the San Antonio Express-News looks into Bob Costas’ live HBO show on Tuesday which will delve into the sports media.

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Dan Caesar says a quicker NFL Draft will lead to a better telecast.

Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette talks to Albany River Rats play-by-play man Owen Newkirk who called the longest game in American Hockey League history this week.

Neil Best of Newsday does some namedropping from the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival. And Neil wonders how “We Are Marshall” won the vote for favorite football movie at the festival.

The Sports Media Watch has its usual weekend ratings predictions. And SMW has the ratings from the last five NFL Drafts on ESPN. Finally, the blog points out an error on ESPN.com.

Jim Williams of the DC/Baltimore Examiner talks with Fox Sports Radio’s draft guru, Chris Landry about what the Redskins and Ravens might do this weekend.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell looks into who might be the biggest loser financially in this year’s NFL Draft.

The next few links are from Multichannel News:

Todd Spangler writes that NFL Network has picked up carriage on a satellite service. Mike Reynolds reports on the NFL Network’s upfront presentation on Thursday.

Multichannel says SNY will provide extensive coverage of the NFL Draft from the New York Jets’ perspective.

Scott Greczkowski of Multichannel News says he enjoyed DirecTV’s interactive features for a New York Yankees game.

Jim Salisbury of the Philadelphia Inquirer writes about John Marzano’s funeral services which took place on Friday. Tom Singer of MLB.com says Marzano was remembered for his friendship and his humor. And you can see Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia’s coverage of the funeral here.

Multichannel reports that the WWE will release Wrestlemania 24 on Blue-Ray DVD.

Chris Pursell of TV Week writes in his Pressbox blog that ratings for the NBA and NHL Playoffs are strong early in the postseason.

Matthew Futterman of the Wall Street Journal writes that USA Network will drop coverage of the US Tennis Open after this year leaving it for ESPN or other networks. And Richard Vach of the Tennis-X site wonders if this means ESPN will scoop up the tournament giving it a Grand Slam of coverage.

Maria Trombly and Karen Chu of the Hollywood Reporter write an enterprise story on companies hoping to get some business from serving the big media conglomerates coming to Communist China to cover the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Victoria Ho of CNET Networks writes that NBC’s digital media unit plans to showcase Microsoft’s Silverlight technology to webcast more than 2,200 hours of coverage of the Olympics from Communist China.

William Houston of the Toronto Globe and Mail enjoys listening to sports tirades.

Larry Bohannan of the Desert (CA) Sun writes that FSN will air a new celebrity team golf tournament in June.

Jim Moore of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer writes about two sportscasting hotties who have made an impact in the Emerald City.

I found more links than normal on a Saturday, but that’s a good thing. I may be back later with an update.

John Marzano Funeral Clips Plus A Final Tribute

Thanks once again to Laura Nachman, she provides the final moments of today’s Daily News Live from Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia in which Michael Barkann narrates clips of people attending John Marzano’s funeral and then a final tribute from CSN.

Following Daily News Live, there are various commercials and the beginning of SportsNite.

Some Monday Night Stuff

Ok, let’s give you some linkage as it appears the Montreal Canadiens will advance to the second round of the NHL playoffs.

Starting with Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch, he has his weekly Media Circus column.

Bruce Allen of the Boston Sports Media Watch has news from the Comcast SportsNet New England people stating that Game 1 of the Celtics-Hawks series pulled in some great numbers on Sunday.

Joseph Santoliquito of MLB.com says John Marzano’s legacy will live on in his native South Philly. And MLB.com has a nice tribute site for Marzano will really died too soon.

The Sports Media Watch says the NHL playoffs saw increased ratings this weekend for NBC. And despite making anti-Mormon comments, ESPN has assigned Ric Bucher to the sidelines for Game 4 of the Houston-Utah series this Saturday. Whoa, check that! ESPN has re-assigned Bucher to Atlanta. Good move.

Clare Farnsworth of the Seattle Post Intelligencer goes over the NFL Network’s schedule for Draft Weekend.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union writes that WTMM has solved its problems over conflicts between the New York Yankees and the Albany River Rats.

Friend of Fang’s Bites Christopher Byrne of the Eye on Sports Media (and thanks for the link, Chris) wonders how CBS and ESPN will replace its aging sportscasting corps (and I would include Mike Patrick in the group that Chris mentions).

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says Day 1 of the NBA Playoffs scored big for ESPN.
Soccer-oriented Gol TV has obtained the rights to the Italy national soccer team according to Mike Reynolds.

Jeremy Speer of the Gaylord (MI) Herald Times feels E:60′s ambush interview of Miguel Tejada was a disservice.

Here’s an interesting press release from NBC Sports, it will air a one hour special this Sunday featuring footage from its archives of Hank Aaron, Muhammad Ali, Howard Cosell and Joe Namath. I think I’m going to record that.

Ed Bark of the Pegasus (TX) News writes that sports dominated the Dallas-Fort Worth TV landscape this past weekend.

The Hollywood Reporter says Golf Channel has a new vice president of programming.

The Orbitcast satellite radio blog says XM Satellite Radio will have Danica Patrick on as a guest on one of its channels on Tuesday (XM is one of her sponsors).

A bit light on the links this evening, but we’ll have more on Tuesday.

Patriots Day Holiday Links

As I’m in my office in Massachusetts, most of the building is empty as many businesses in the area took Patriots Day off. My office chose not to take it off and it’s actually nice not to have the other offices around today. And it also means the Boston Marathon is underway and the Red Sox play their traditional early morning game at Fenway Park, so lots of stuff to keep track this morning. But it also means one of my employees is here and won’t shut up slowing my blogging today. I’ll try to provide links in between his inane conversations.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today cleans up the weekend issues including ESPN/ABC NBA analysts Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy discussing the New York Knicks coaching job.

The Philadelphia Inquirer says funeral services for John Marzano will take place this Friday. Paul Hagen of the Philadelphia Daily News says Marzano is remembered for his passion for baseball and for his friends.

My employee just left. I’ve been trying to blog for two hours and also get some work done and haven’t been able to. Now that he’s gone, I think I can get today’s entry done. Man, he won’t shut up.

Boston Sports Media has its daily media approval ratings and today is WEEI Dictator Jason Wolfe.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell has a Danica Patrick-themed blog today. He first wonders what’s next for her after her first win in the Indy Racing circuit. And Darren talks to Danica about her win.

Evan Weiner of the New York Sun reports that the protests of the Olympic torch could have an economic impact on the Summer Games in Communist China for NBC and its sponsors down the road.

A couple of things from Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times-Union. First, he wonders why WTMM did not go to Albany River Rats playoff coverage during the Yankees-Orioles rain delay sooner than it did. And Pete talks about the NFL Draft moving to a later time, but having less time in-between picks.

Charles Bricker of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel says the NFL Network’s Mike Mayock is giving ESPN’s Mel Kiper, Jr. a run for his money as draft guru.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says despite paying a much lower rights fee than ESPN, NBC got the more attractive schedule from the NFL.

Dusty Saunders of the Rocky Mountain News enjoys listening to Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy debate basketball during ABC’s NBA telecasts.

The Sports Media Watch reports that the ratings for the NBA playoffs this weekend got off to a big bang.

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star says perhaps one good thing for CBC with potentially no Canadian teams in the NHL playoffs will be the disappearance of perceived anti-US bias.

Maury Brown of the Biz of Baseball wants to hear your MLB Extra Innings blackout stories and I know there are many of them.

Dan O’Brien of the Daily Item of Lynn (MA) writes that contestants attempted to get a shot on NESN’s horrific reality dating series, “Sox Appeal.”

Joe Favorito wonders if a Joey Gathright vs. Kobe Bryant carjump-off could become a reality.

That’s it for now.

Video Tributes to John Marzano

From Laura Nachman, she posted Comcast SportsNet’s Philadephia’s coverage of John Marzano’s death on Saturday.

And she also provides this link to MLB.com’s tribute to Marzano.

Sunday Night Links

Once again, I have my day planned for me. I have to leave the house at 10 a.m., then stay at the office until 5 p.m. without any computer or internet access, then go get groceries, eat dinner and it’s 9 p.m. when I start blogging. This just won’t do. I’ll give you links, but my apologies for the tardiness of this post.

Jim Salisbury of the Philadelphia Inquirer says the late John Marzano always brought his tough Philly upbringing to the game of baseball. And the crew from Flyers Post Game Live remembered Marzano Saturday on Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia.

The increasingly bitter Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News writes that Billy Packer may be shown the door at CBS.

The always bitter Phil Mushnick of the New York Post says Personal Seat Licenses are nothing but a money grab. He’s actually right on the money there.

The never-bitter Neil Best of Newsday says NBC’s/TSN’s/NESN’s Mike Milbury isn’t afraid to speak his mind no matter what network he’s on. Neil has some more on Milbury in his blog.

Self-proclaimed hockey expert and perpetually bitter Stan Fischler writing for the Kingston (NY) Daily Freeman says the media is biased against the NHL.

The Sports Media Watch has its weekend ratings predictions.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News talks with ESPN legal analyst Roger Cossack. In his blog, Hoffarth expands on his conversation with Cossack.

Tim Lemke of the Washington Times writes in his blog that Danica Patrick’s win in Sunday’s Indy Japan 300 will have a big impact on Indy Racing.

After spending a week away from blogging, Christopher Byrne of the Eye on Sports Media site is back with a vengeance. He republishes a post in which he explained how Tiger Woods ruined the PGA Tour. Christopher tells us that WCSN.com will offer a free webcast of the Boston Marathon. In the New England region only, WBZ.com will also stream its TV coverage of the Marathon. And Chris has embedded the entire 2008 BCS National Championship Game involving LSU and Ohio State at his site.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle will be going on vacation and in his blog, he previews some of the TV sporting events and primetime programs that will air during his absence. And David says Fox Sports’ Kevin Kennedy admitted his real age during the MLB pregame show yesterday.

Jerry McDonald of the San Jose Mercury News writes that the NFL Draft is going primetime.

Mark Curnette of the Cincinnati Enquirer says the NFL Draft has come a long way from its beginnings to a now-must see event.

Yvette Kim of the Sarasota (FL) Herald-Tribune writes that ESPN’s Dick Vitale is fulfulling a promise to his friend, the late Jim Valvano.

Tim Arango of the New York Times explores the issue of who actually owns sports media coverage.

David Lauderdale of the Hilton Head (SC) Island Packet talks with CBS Sports’ lead announcer Jim Nantz.

That’s it. I’ll be back on Monday.

MLB Analyst John Marzano Dead at Age 45

In what can only be described as a shock, former Red Sox, Mariners and Rangers catcher John Marzano was found dead Saturday in his Philadelphia home. He became quite popular as a TV analyst for Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia and was doing work for MLB.com on its webcasts.

Marzano had made an appearance at Comcast SportsNet just last Thursday and his death came as a total shock to the network’s staff. John R. Finger of CSN Philadelphia says Marzano had a larger-than-life personality.

John Schelgel of MLB.com has the story of Marzano’s death. Ken Mandel, Phillies beat reporter for MLB.com says Philadelphians are saddened by the loss of their native son. And MLB has released a statement from the Office of the Commissioner.

Right now, all we have is just the preliminary reports on Marzano’s death. We know that police are investigating how Marzano died. We’ll have more on this story as it develops. A truly sad story as I just watched Marzano on MLB.com just a week ago. He was developing into a very good broadcaster.