Fang's Bites

Late Monday Night Links

As promised earlier today, I’m giving you more links. I was out earlier today and I’ll be out again tomorrow so it’s going to be a bit crazy for me. So let’s get to the linkage right now.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch looks at the media circus that was the Tim Tebow press conference at the New York Jets practice facility on Monday.

Speaking of Richard, he and CNBC’s Darren Rovell were locked in Round 2 of their Twitter feud. This was fun while it lasted as Matt Yoder of Awful Announcing recaps.

Matt notes that Al Trautwig of MSG Network had a slip of the tongue.

And Matt is gleeful that ESPN’s Jonathan Coachman also had a similar slip.

Christina Settimi of Forbes looks at baseball’s biggest local cable TV rights deals.

George Winslow of Broadcasting & Cable says ESPN has promoted an executive to handle its international digital media efforts.

Sam Laird of Mashable notes that the Boston Bruins have launched their own social media portal, believed to the first in pro sports.

Todd Cunningham at The Wrap says with Tiger Woods win this past weekend, CBS now looks forward to having masterful ratings for The Masters^® in two weeks.

Dale Buss of Brand Channel writes that Jockey brand underwear welcomed Tim Tebow to New York as only it could.

Kevin Kaduk of Yahoo’s Big League Stew has one of the funniest on-screen graphics pulled by Fox Sports Midwest during a St. Louis Cardinals exhibition game.

Jesse Sawyer of the Avon (CT) Patch says ESPN’s Kenny Mayne has sold his Connecticut home over half a year after he moved his family to Washington State.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post hates everybody.

Breaking the Bob Raissman ban to note that the New York Daily News curmudgeon feels Tim Tebow is already a pro at handling the Big Apple media circus.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union notes that the ratings for the NCAA Tournament this past weekend took a huge hit thanks to Tiger Woods.

Greg Connors of the Buffalo News writes about ESPN’s three month-long initiative to celebrate Title IX.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call talks about the departure of local native Meredith Marakovits for the bright lights of New York.

Dan Steinberg at the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog tells us that he’s going to have a partner on the blog.

And Sarah Kogod introduces herself to DC Sports Bog readers in her first post.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner talks with Tennis Channel’s Mary Carillo.

Tom Jones from the Tampa Bay Times reviews the weekend in sports television.

Mel Bracht of The Oklahoman notes that the Oklahoma City Thunder set a new ratings record.

John Kiesewetter at the Cincinnati Enquirer says a nationally syndicated radio morning show will be in town for Reds Opening Day.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says Wisconsin-Syracuse in the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 did well in the local ratings.

Scott D. Pierce at the Salt Lake Tribune says BYU basketball coach Dave Rose has a future in TV if he so chooses.

Joe Flint of the Los Angeles Times says an investment bank helped to broker the Pac-12 media rights contract with ESPN and Fox plus other huge sports and entertainment megadeals.

Joe reports that DirecTV and Tribune are in a dispute over the company’s TV stations and this could include WGN America which carries a bunch of sports programming.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail has yet another amazingly uninformed column not realizing that CBS and Turner share the NCAA Tournament and CBS no longer regionalizes games. Many Canadian college basketball fans are aware of this, yet Bruce is not.

Sports Media Watch looks at the lower ratings generated by the NCAA Tournament over the weekend.

SMW has the viewership for the first primetime effort by ESPN2′s First Take.

To Macgasm where we learn that ESPN is teaming with Apple to make sports scores available on the Siri voice platform on the iPhone 4S.

Joe Favorito asks does UFC really needs New York to be successful?

Jim Connelly at USCHO.com wonders if ESPN is doing more to hurt the NCAA Men’s Hockey Tournament than help promote it.

Maury Brown at the Biz of Baseball wonders when MLB Network will hit Canada.

And we’ll end it there. Good night.

Doing Some Friday Megalinks Now

Let’s do some megalinks on this Friday. My apologies for the lack of posts yesterday. The site was swamped with people linking to my post on How to Avoid Paying the $3.99 Fee For March Madness Live and it was down for most of the day. We seem to be ok today, although the site was down for a short stretch in the morning. But we’re back up now and time for some megalinks on this Friday.

The Weekend Viewing Picks are up and running. Lots of sports as the winter NCAA Championships including the basketball tournaments are underway.

Let’s get to your links.

National

Michael Hiestand from USA Today praises CBS/Turner for bringing the NCAA head of men’s basketball officiating back to explain controversial calls.

Reid Cherner of USA Today’s Game On blog remembers a great NCAA Tournmament buzzer beater from 1981 as called by NBC’s Marv Albert.

Sports Business Daily notes the overnight ratings for Thursday’s games from the NCAA Tournament were down, but still considered a win for CBS/Turner.

Matt Carmichael from Advertising Age tells us which two schools were Googled the most during yesterday’s NCAA Tournament action.

Dan Fogarty at SportsGrid has the absolutely hilarious video of a WGN morning news anchor trying to amp up the volume at ESPN’s Dick Vitale while technical difficulties arise.

Karen Hogan from Sports Video Group writes that the National Invitation Tournament may be the NCAA Tournament’s ugly sister, but it still gets major treatment from ESPN.

To Matt Yoder at Awful Announcing who notes another Twitter feud involving CNBC’s Darren Rovell, this one with Bomani Jones.

Sports Media Watch says Thursday’s 2nd round NCAA Tournament games received slightly lower overnight ratings from the year before.

Dave Kohl of The Broadcast Booth wants to know why name calling in sports radio is a more punishable offense than inaccurate reporting.

Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo’s Puck Daddy asks if the NHL’s new Stanley Cup ad campaign to replace the great “History Will Be Made” promos can be as successful.

Laura Northrup of the Consumerist wonders why NBA League Pass hasn’t adjusted to Daylight Savings Time?

All Access says ESPN Deportes Radio in Chicago has picked up the Spanish rights to the White Sox.

La Liga Talk has learned that Al Jazeera has obtained the US TV rights to Spain’s La Liga from Gol TV.

East and Mid-Atlantic

The Boston Globe’s Chad Finn talks with ESPN’s Dick Vitale.

At SB Nation Boston, Boston Sports Media Watch’s Bruce Allen says social networking may have created spoiled fans.

Tazina Vega from the New York Times says the NHL is hoping to lure viewers by airing all of its Stanley Cup Playoff games on various NBC Sports platforms.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post feels the CBS/Turner NCAA Tournament collaboration has become the Home Shopping Network. Whatever.

The Post’s Justin Terranova talks with CBS/Turner analyst Clark Kellogg.

Justin has 5 questions for MSG Network NBA analyst Kelly Tripucka.

Dan Steinberg at the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog notes that the Onion has skewered the DC NFL Team.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner talks with a Turner Sports Interactive executive on how Twitter is incorporated into this year’s NCAA Tournament coverage.

South

Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald says NBC will air this fall’s Miami-Notre Dame football game in primetime.

David Barron from the Houston Chronicle notes that CBS/Turner’s Charles Barkley criticized Baylor’s ugly neon yellow uniforms.

David has the CBS/Turner announcing assignments for Saturday’s NCAA Tournament action.

Mel Bracht from The Oklahoman notes that Cox Cable subscribers can access the NCAA March Madness Live app for free provided they authenticate.

John E. Hoover from the Tulsa World says the Big 12′s new TV deals will ensure the survival of the conference.

Midwest

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer notes that Reds voice Marty Brennaman can be heard in a new UPS March Madness ad.

While Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel enjoys the NCAA Tounament, there are some things he can do without.

Ed Sherman at Crain’s Chicago Business announces he’ll no longer be writing his sports business and media blog for the publication.

Ed says he will be launching a new site on the sports media and I look forward to seeing it when it finally comes to fruition.

Brigid Sweeney of Crain’s Chicago Business notes that Bulls TV analyst Stacey King now has a new fashion line.

Paul Christian at the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin says the national Junior College championships can be seen online.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says the local CBS affiliate didn’t help matters by taking up a large portion of the screen during NCAA Tournament action for weather updates.

West

Bill Center at the San Diego Union-Tribune says maybe, maybe Fox Sports San Diego will launch on Saturday provided MLB approval comes that quickly.

Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star looks at the Erin Andrews network sweepstakes.

Jim says the NCAA Tournament has become predictable.

Jim has his weekend viewing picks.

Richard Horgan of Fishbowl LA says ESPN will not discipline its SoCal reporters for getting a big story wrong on the Dodgers ownership bid process.

We are going to end the links there. Not as many as in past weeks, but still a hefty amount. Enjoy your weekend.

It’s The Linkage! At Long Last and It’s Back!

I think it’s about a week and a half since I’ve been able to do links. Been crazy with me, but you’ve still been visiting and I appreciate that. Time to provide you with sports media news links which is what the site depends on to begin with.

Thanks for your patience during this trying time for me. Onward and let’s do the links.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today writes that NBA analysts aren’t holding back as they get ready for a new truncated season.

Mike Foss of USA Today talks with the new ESPN main soccer analyst Taylor Twellman about tweeting while commentating and concussions.

From earlier this week, Tom Weir of USA Today’s Game On blog notes that “Tebowing” has been officially recognized as a word.

This week’s Sports Business Journal lists the 50 Most Influential People in Sports Business for 2011. I’m not in this year’s list (I’m joking).

Terry Lefton of SBJ says the Stadium Formerly Known as San Diego Jack Murphy will have a temporary name for the holiday season.

Dan Shanoff’s Quickish site lists the Best Sportswriting in 2011. Some good choices and good reading throughout.

Toni Fitzgerald from Media Life Magazine says three of the five NFL TV partners are experiencing lower ratings from last season.

From MediaPost, Wayne Friedman writes that smaller market TV revenues played a huge role in the NBA’s nixing of the Chris Paul from New Orleans-to-Los Angeles Lakers trade.

Brian Steinberg of Advertising Age says hoping to tap into a more health-conscious audience, Dannon Yogurt becomes the first of its kind to advertise on the Super Bowl.

At Adweek, Lucia Moses says Rolling Stone magazine will host its first-ever Super Bowl party in Indianapolis come February.

All Access notes that Milwaukee Brewers radio voice Bob Uecker will be inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

Chris Chase at Yahoo’s Shutdown Corner has a video that has gone viral in which a Washington, DC news anchor said that if Tom Brady had died, the DC NFL Team might have had a chance to beat the New England Patriots last Sunday.

Michael Bradley at the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center says don’t expect journalism from local MLB TV partners as they increasingly fund team’s payrolls.

Dan Fogarty at SportsGrid wonders if Shaquille O’Neal will upset the apple cart that is TNT’s Inside the NBA postgame studio show.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III of Baylor is setting the world afire with his Superman socks.

Matt Yoder at Awful Announcing lists the site’s Top 10 Pammies of the Year.

Gabriel Sherman of The New Yorker magazine writes about sports journalism getting into some hard reporting in the wake of various scandals.

Newsday’s Neil Best writes about tonight’s premiere of HBO’s 24/7 Flyers/Rangers.

The New York Daily News’ Dr. Gloom and Doom reports that YES may hire former MLB manager Lou Piniella as an analyst for next season.

Pete Dougherty in the Albany Times Union says while CBS won the right to keep Patriots-Broncos in Week 15, viewers in the Capital Region won’t see it.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette notes that DirecTV will air a local college hockey game through Fox College Sports.

Ken McMillen from the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record says WGN America will pick up 10 Chicago Bulls games this season.

Laura Nachman has a couple of Philadelphia 76ers announcements.

Dan Steinberg at the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog has gotten a hold of Tony Kornheiser’s high school yearbook picture and yes, he had hair.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner talks with Golf Channel Morning Drive co-host Gary Williams.

Dwain Price at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram speaks with new Dallas Maverick Lamar Odom about his trade from the Lakers and whether he’ll continue to do the Kardashian television abortion.

The Houston Chronicle reports that ESPN college football analyst Craig James is expected to announce a run for the U.S. Senate, a move that would thrill many fans who can’t stand him on television.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman notes that the NFL topped the local ratings in the Sooner State.

Mel says the local CBS affiliate will pick up the rest of the Denver Broncos schedule and air plenty of Tim Tebow.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer says a local sports talk show host has resigned leaving his station in the lurch.

Ed Sherman in Crain’s Chicago Business talks with “NHL 36″ Executive Producer Ross Greenburg about tonight’s series premiere.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail asks if lightning can strike twice with HBO’s 24/7.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog looks at the effect of media giants Bell Canada and Rogers combining to purchase Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment which would be like ESPN and NBC teaming up to buy the New York Yankees, that’s how big the news is in Canada.

John Daly at The Daly Planet explores the continuing dispute between Sirius XM and Turner Sports over streaming NASCAR on the internet.

Sports Media Watch looks at the final ratings for the SEC on CBS.

And SMW also notes the final ratings of college football on ABC.

SMW says the Heisman Trophy Presentation on ESPN last Saturday did well.

And SMW has some ratings news and notes.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media says today is a pretty big day for hockey fans.

And the Big Lead notes that Tim Tebow is on the cover of this week’s Sports Illustrated.

That will conclude our linkage today and I hope that the next set of linkage will come tomorrow instead of another 10 days.

Theo Epstein/Ben Cherington Dueling Press Conference Coverage

Trying to piece together the coverage for the Theo Epstein news conference in Chicago introducing him as President of the Cubs and then the one in Boston formally announcing Ben Cherington as General Manager of the Red Sox.

The Cubs press conference is expected to start around noon Eastern. The Red Sox presser is slated to begin at 3 p.m. ET.

Here is what I have thus far. I’ll add details as I get more information.

National

ESPN — Theo Epstein press conference during SportsCenter
ESPNews — Ben Cherington press conference on SportsCenter

MLB Network — Theo Epstein press conference live at noon ET. Ben Cherington press conference live at 3 p.m. ET.

Boston

Comcast SportsNet — Coverage begins at noon with Theo Epstein press conference. Back at 3 p.m. with Ben Cherington press conference.

NESN — Coverage begins at 2:45 p.m. with live coverage at 3 p.m. of the Ben Cherington press conference. At 6 p.m., there will be a recap of the day’s events.

Radio — Both 98.5 The Sports Hub and WEEI will air both news conferences

Chicago

Comcast SportsNet — Coverage begins at 10:30 a.m. Central Time. Also streamed on CSNChicago.com

WGN — Live coverage of press conference at 11 a.m. Central

Radio — WGN, WMVP & WSCR pick up the Epstein press conference

I have tweets and e-mails into MLB Network and NESN for details on their coverage. When I get them, I’ll be sure to add the coverage plans here.

We’re now up to date on the Cubs/Red Sox press conferences.

It’s A Monday Linkfest

For some reason, I’ve been out of the office a couple of times today and it’s pissing me off. Anyway, I’m back in the office now and barring an unforeseen interruption, I should be able to give you linkage here.

Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand has the local MLB TV ratings for the first half of the regular season and notes that the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets are in trouble.

This next story from Sports Business Daily is behind the dreaded paywall, but you can still get the gist of it as yesterday’s compelling Brazil-USA game at the Women’s World Cup received a 2.6 overnight rating for ESPN. CNBC’s Darren Rovell notes that the rating is better than this year’s NBA Draft!

Eben Novy-Williams of Bloomberg reports that Brazil-USA was the most watched Women’s World Cup Soccer game since the 1999 Final which the USA won over Communist China.

Lacey Rose of the Hollywood Reporter confirms what The Wrap reported over the weekend, that ESPN Classic will pick up the entire Friday Night Lights series.

Anthony Crupi of Adweek writes that the NFL could see as much as a $600 million rights fee for a new 8-game Thursday Night Football package.

Adweek’s Rebecca Cullers has a story on sports apparel outfitter K-Swiss continuing its storyline of utilizing HBO’s Eastbound & Down’s Kenny Powers character in its ad campaign.

USA Today’s Mike McCarthy talks with Fox Sports’ Joe Buck about his vocal cord troubles that have plagued his voice this year.

R. Thomas Umstead of Multichannel News says cable providers could be crowing this year with some big name boxing pay per view fights.

Jon Lafayette at Broadcasting & Cable writes that Golf Channel has relaunched its website.

My good friends at SportsGrid have just launched a redesign of their excellent sports media website. Dan Fogarty explains.

SportsGrid has brought on Timothy Burke of the Mocksession site which provides vidcaps and videos. He’s been providing videos to the under the byline “SportsGrid Video”, but now can reveal himself publicly as of today. Tim has this funny post of the WGN Cubs announcers exposing their cameramen as pervs.

One more from SportsGrid. A look at how it would cast the movie based on the ESPN tome, “Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside The World of ESPN.” The choices are pretty much dead on.

Cam Martin at SportsNewser has video of one of the media cars getting too close to one of the cyclists in the Tour de France and causing a horrific crash.

Also from SportsNewser, Marcus Vanderberg tells us that an estimated one billion people watched last year’s World Cup Final between Spain and the Netherlands. That’s a lot of people.

The London Telegraph has ESPN UK’s English Premier League schedule for the upcoming season.

Chris Fedor from Sports Radio Interviews has a link to Dan Patrick’s interview with reporting bulldog Jim Gray about “The Decision”, one year later.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell talks about Tiger Woods “special announcement” that he made on Golf Channel, that he’ll be following his agent, Mark Steinberg to a new agency.

Paul Devlin at the New Canaan (CT) Patch talks with CBS Sports’ Jim Nantz.

Newsday’s Neil Best notes that YES cleaned up in the ratings with Saturday’s Rays-Yankees game during which Derek Jeter got his 3,000th career hit.

Neil talks with women’s soccer legend Mia Hamm who’s doing work for espnW and ESPN for the Women’s World Cup about USA-Brazil.

Neil has a review of the HBO doc on Curt Flood that airs Wednesday.

David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun loves baseball, but can no longer stand watching the Orioles on MASN.

From the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog, Dan Steinberg looks at the Nationals’ attendance and TV ratings at the halfway point of the regular season.

Dan has Wizards’ TV analyst Phil Chenier explaining why he shaved off his trademark mustache.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner talks with Fox Sports’ Tim McCarver about calling the MLB All-Star Game for the last 20 years.

In the St. Petersburg Times, Tom Jones lists some of the things in sports and sports TV that he has missed.

The Tampa Tribune notes that Rays outfielder Sam Fuld will be working for ESPN tonight during the MLB Home Run Derby.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says the Brewers local ratings are amongst the highest in MLB.

Jim Souhan of the Minneapolis Star Tribune gives praise to former Minnesota Twins manager Tom Kelly who pinch-hit for regular Fox Sports North analyst Bert Blyeven last week.

Jeff Korbelik of the Lincoln (NE) Journal Star says former local sports anchor Dari Nowkhah heads over to ESPNU full-time.

The Dickinson (ND) Press picks up a story from Brad Schlossman on the new college hockey superconference talking with Versus about a TV contract.

Dusty Saunders of the Denver Post reviews the HBO documentary on Curt Flood.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has your SoCal sports calendar.

Peter Hartlaub of the San Francisco Chronicle says Showtime is hoping that “The Franchise” will become a sports franchise for the network.

Cathall Kelly of the Toronto Star is an asshole.

Bruce Dowbiggin at the Toronto Globe and Mail says a CFL on TSN analyst gave a compelling interview on his post-concussion syndrome.

Matt Hartley in the Financial Post says NBC will be handling all US ad sales for the NHL.

Wayne Friedman in MediaPost also writes about the NBC Sports Group/NHL ad sales joint venture.

Sports Media Watch has some news and notes on various sports media personalities.

SMW also has some local MLB ratings news.

That’s going to do it for today.

Some Thursday Links

Ok starting the linkage off late again today, but I hope get a full set in before leaving work later.

Sports Business Daily notes some shuffling of personnel with the NFL TV partners.

Preston Bounds of Sports Business Daily talks about Brad Nessler saying his college football schedule with ESPN/ABC won’t be affected by his new gig with NFL Network.

Sports Business Daily discusses the machinations behind the ESPN-owned Longhorn Network.

Michael Hiestand from USA Today has some of the ratings from the weekend.

At Variety, Cynthia Littleton talks about ABC Studios developing a sitcom based on a book written by ESPN Radio morning drive co-host Mike Greenburg.

R. Thomas Umstead of Multichannel News notes that ESPN has been honored for its World Cup programming.

Anthony Crupi from Adweek says NBCUniversal’s networks are all over the promotion of the Kentucky Derby.

Wayne Friedman at MediaPost notes that Time Warner saw additional ad revenues in the 1st quarter of this year thanks to the NCAA  Tournament.

Wayne says Fox is reporting good ad revenues from the NFL in its fiscal year 2nd quarter.

Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo’s Puck Daddy has the video of a cameraman getting a little too close to the action before Game 3 of the Vancouver-Nashville game.

Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center notes that sports journalism is greatly lacking in diversity.

Kristi Dosh of the Business of College Sports has an excellent look at the TV contracts for all of the BCS conferences.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times notes that embattled Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt is blaming MLB Walking, Talking Conflict of Interest Bud Selig for his financial troubles. Way to help your cause, Frank.

Newsday’s Neil Best says former NFL Network play-by-play man Bob Papa is taking the high road.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union writes that thoroughbred racing from Saratoga Race Course is heading back to national television after a year’s absence.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette says Time Warner Cable will air some local high school baseball.

Keith Groller at the Allentown (PA) Morning Call writes that Matt Millen had a feeling he was going to be blown out of the NFL Network booth.

Jim Williams from the Washington Examiner feels the big Pac-12 contracts with ESPN and Fox could lead the Big East to a huge windfall.

Barry Horn in the Dallas Morning News says the Mavericks saw their biggest ratings in more than 2 years.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer notes that Pawtucket Red Sox and Cincinnati Bearcats voice Dan Hoard will become the voice of the Bengals this season.

John goes into some of the reasons why Brad Johansen will no longer be the voice of the Bengals.

Bob Wolfley from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel looks at Mike Mayock becoming the new analyst for NFL Network’s Thursday Night Football.

Ed Sherman at Crain’s Chicago Business notes that WGN will have a special on Bulls and White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf.

Paola Boivin from the Arizona Republic takes a look at the Pac-12 media rights agreements and what it means for member schools.

Diane Pucin of the Los Angeles Times writes about Brad Nessler coming in to call NFL Network Thursday Night Football.

SportsbyBrooks profiles the US Assistant Attorney General whose looking into the BCS.

Sports Media Watch notes that in Boston this week, the Bruins beat the Celtics in the ratings, but not head-to-head.

SMW says Lakers losses are leading to lofty ratings.

Steve Lepore, the hardest working blogger in the business, says NBC saw a double digit ratings jump last Sunday.

Steve also has the ratings for Night 21 of the NHL Playoffs.

Awful Announcing notes that announcers Victor Rojas and Mark Gubicza understandably went a little goofy as the Angels-Red Sox game went form Wednesday night into early Thursday morning.

Keggs ‘n Eggs notes the irony of Urban Meyer’s daughter complaining about him working for ESPN as he was supposed to spend retirement from Florida with his family.

I’ll end the links there. Finally finish these at 9:50 p.m. Thursday. Lots of things to do on the blog.

Some Mid-Week Linkage

Ok, time for some links on this Wednesday. Let’s provide some for you while I can.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today notes that former CBS college basketball analyst Billy Packer is not enthused about the new TV arrangement for the NCAA Tournament.

I’ve written a story for Dan Levy’s Press Coverage site on what the Los Angeles Lakers’ new regional sports networks will mean for viewers.

Brian Lowry of Fox Sports is not a fan of excess sports coverage like the NBA All-Star Weekend.

Milton Kent at Fanhouse recaps the strange, but very interesting appearances by embattled actor Charlie Sheen on the Dan Patrick Show.

Mark Cina of the Hollywood Reporter also recaps Sheen’s call to DP on Wednesday.

Etan Vlessing of the Reporter notes that ESPN’s new Sunday Night Baseball voice Dan Shulman will return to Canada to provide some baseball commentary for his original network, TSN.

R. Thomas Umstead of Multichannel News reports that Cartoon Network is tapping stars from the sports world to take part in its inaugural awards show.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel takes a look at the new Time Warner Cable/Lakers regional sports networks.

Marcus Vanderberg at SportsNewser recaps Jay Mariotti’s first public appearance since his arrest on domestic assault charges and the subsequent loss of his jobs from ESPN and Fanhouse.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell takes a closer look at St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols and his contract demands.

Darren says Sports Illustrated did a great job marketing this year’s Swimsuit Issue.

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe has the comments from outgoing WEEI midday host Dale Arnold who is the odd man out in a lineup shuffle.

Chad also writes about the WEEI lineup changes that smack of desperation.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union writes that ESPN has apparently dropped out of the bidding for the Belmont Stakes, the third leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner wonders if NBC will pick up the Belmont to reunite the race with the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes.

Press Box says WBAL-AM will pick up a slew of Baltimore Orioles spring training games.

David Barron from the Houston Chronicle takes a look at two of the bigger sports media stories from the week.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer has Dancing with the Stars professional dancer Cheryl Burke admitting she had a fling with Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco. I know, it’s not a sports media story, but it fascinates me and I like Cheryl Burke, ok?

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel discovers that the Brewers are not on the MLB on Fox schedule.

Paul Sullivan at the Chicago Tribune says the Cubs have found a replacement for the late Ron Santo on their radio broadcasts.

Steve Rosenbloom of the Tribune wants to know if Cubs fans are ready to hear a traditional radio broadcast from now on.

Toni Ginnetti of the Chicago Sun-Times talks with new Cubs radio analyst Keith Moreland.

Ed Sherman in Crain’s Chicago Business writes that the Blackhawks have extended their deal with WGN-TV.

Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times says the new Time Warner Cable deal with the Lakers may end up hurting the team in the long run.

Bruce Dowbiggin from the Toronto Globe and Mail says one local sports radio station might be left behind in a battle of media titans.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog speculates what the 2012 Olympics will look like on the Canadian Olympic Broadcast Consortium.

Dashiell Bennett from the Business Insider sports page notes that ESPN.com’s Bill Simmons has hired Deadspin contributer Katie Baker (and a Friend of Fang’s Bites) for some unknown project at the Alleged Worldwide Leader.

Matt Yoder at Awful Announcing notes that many people were none too happy over ESPN’s experimentation during the Mississippi State-Kentucky game.

Deadspin has obtained a copy of the Colin Cowherd sitcom script. It’s not pretty, let me tell you.

Brad Cohen at SportsGrid tells us how the extremely overrated Oprah Winfrey got the Michael Vick interview.

Dave Kohl of Major League Programs talks about the new Time Warner Cable/Lakers deal.

I’ll leave it there for now.

More Wednesday Links

Ok, got interrupted today, but let’s finish up the linkage for this mid-week. Lots of good stuff out there.

USA Today’s Mike McCarthy catches up with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman to discuss the Winter Classic and the league’s TV rights.

Sports Business Journal lists some of the best sports tweets from athletes and journalists.

Sports Business Daily has Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson criticizing the NBA for scheduling five games on Christmas Day and has a roundup of other media reaction to two other league’s handling of the Holy Day.

Rachel Cohen from the Associated Press talks about the increased ratings for the NBA, even taking out the ratings for the Miami Heat.

Kurt Helin of Pro Basketball Talk also discusses the higher NBA TV numbers.

At the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Eric Deggans from the St. Petersburg Times shares his thoughts on what could and should happen in the sports media in 2011.

Marcus Vanderberg of SportsNewser notes that the Beef O’Brady’s Bowl on ESPN beat the UConn women on ESPN2 in the overnight ratings last night.

John Eggerton at Broadcasting & Cable says the NBC-Comcast deal will not be voted on by the FCC before year’s end disappointing both parties.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News says cable and satellite providers are happy to learn that pay per view darling Manny Pacquaio will have another fight in May.

Lucia Moses of Mediaweek says Time, Inc. is splitting its combined News & Sports Group into two different entities.

All Access says all-around sports charlatan Max Kellerman will join ESPN Radio’s Los Angeles affiliate after the New Year.

Joseph Tartakoff of paidContent notes that Bleacher Report raised another $10.5 million of capital. 

To Greg Wyshynski at Yahoo’s Puck Daddy and a look at the NHL’s trailer for the Winter Classic.

Mike Florio from Pro Football Talk is crowing about a new iPhone app. 

Nick Caito of the Hartford Courant reports that Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is petitioning the NFL, Fox Sports and ESPN to not black out the Constitution State for New York Giants as it was last week for the G-Men/Vikings game.

The Waterbury (CT) Republican-American says the UConn women got decent ratings for ESPN2, but still did not reach a record for women’s college basketball.

At the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog, Dan Steinberg wonders which Capitals fan started the “We Want Pittsburgh” chant. 

Jim Williams with the Washington Examiner notes that DC and Baltimore had the NFL rank #1 in the local ratings once again.

To the South Florida Sun Sentinel where Sarah Talalay tells us that the latest edition of the LeBron James shoe will be unveiled on Christmas Day.

Sun Sports helped to give an Orlando military newlywed couple a treat during halftime at the Magic game on Tuesday. Thanks to the Orlando Sentinel for the link.

Tommy Hicks from the Mobile (AL) Press-Register says the locally-based GoDaddy.com Bowl has renewed its rights agreement with ESPN.

Shannon Owens of the Sentinel looks at DirecTV possibly dropping Golf Channel by year’s end. 

Kyle Veazey of the Clarion (MS) Ledger looks at three state teams playing in holiday basketball tournaments this week that are all owned by ESPN.

Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune says the Cubs and WGN-AM will begin the search to replace late radio analyst Ron Santo.

Debbie Goffa of the Los Angeles Times writes that NHL Network will be all over the IIHF World Junior Championships starting this weekend.

Jim Moore of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer talks about FSN Northwest undergoing a name change in the Spring.

Bruce Dowbiggin with the Toronto Globe and Mail says Maple Leafs coach Ron Wilson makes his job harder by being confrontational with beat reporters.

Friend of Fang’s Bites Jason Clinkscales of A Sports Scribe explains how he made his national television debut on the “C’mon, Man” segment on ESPN’s Monday Night Countdown.

My former TV partner-in-crime Johnny Crowe at The Crowe’s Nest lists his top five announcers in various sports.

Paulsen at the Sports Media Watch has some ratings news and notes. 

SMW says TNT’s NBA ratings are on the up-and-up.

And Paulsen says CBS had a slight drop for its Week 15 NFL late Sunday game.

Dave Kohl at Major League Programs talks about the NBA smorgasbord of games on Christmas Day.

We’re finally done with the linkage.

Giving You A Monday Linkfest

Let’s do the Monday links. I can’t believe my work productivity since I stopped interacting on Twitter during the workday. I’m now ahead of my work after being a month and a half behind. Who knew? Anyway, let’s do the linkage.

Leading off with the Sports Business Journal and a story from John Ourand that absolutely bears watching. It appears DirecTV after dropping Comcast-owned G4 earlier this year, is targeting another one of its networks, Golf Channel. John says Golf Channel could be removed as early as next Friday.

John also reports that Major League Soccer is seeking $20 million a year from Fox Soccer Channel, a seven-fold increase from what it’s currently receiving. MLS has to be realistic here.

Sports Business Daily’s Austin Karp looks at the overnight ratings for the NFL’s TV partners for Week 15. 

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand says Donovan McNabb provided plenty of fodder for the NFL pregame shows and he notes that tennis analyst Mary Carillo is no longer with ESPN.

At Pro Football Talk, Mike Florio talks about his new deal with NBC.

To the Nieman Journalism Lab where Jason Fry predicts what lies ahead for journalism in 2011.

Lindsay Powers from the Hollywood Reporter writes that fantasy football is helping to spur the NFL’s ratings renaissance.

George Winslow at Broadcasting & Cable notes that Turner Sports has relaunched NCAA.com as of today.

Anthony Crupi of Mediaweek writes that ESPN is making so much money off college football that it can run the games commercial-free and still make a profit. Interesting.

At SportsNewser, Noah Davis writes that American Express is back as an NBA sponsor after a five year absence.

Dan Fogarty of SportsGrid has today’s cover of the New York Post.

Mark J. Miller at Yahoo’s Scoop du Jour notes that CBS’ Bill Cowher may be looking at three teams to coach next season. 

Bill Carter of the New York Times explores the rapid rise in ratings for the NFL. 

Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette writes that Fox Sports Radio is making a change in its morning show. 

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union complains that ESPN is making too much out of UConn’s attempt to break UCLA’s college basketball consecutive win streak.

David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun reviews Fox’s production of yesterday’s Saints-Ravens game. 

To the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog and Dan Steinberg who looks at the rather playful feud between DC Mayor-elect Vincent Gray and DC NFL team radio voice Larry Michael.

Dan says Washington Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau asked HBO’s cameras to leave before his now-infamous 15 F-bomb barrage that was captured on 24/7 Capitals/Penguins. 

Tom Jones of the St. Petersburg Times has a review of the weekend in sports television.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer says MLB Network looks back at the 1975 season tonight which has special meaning for Reds fans.

At the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Bob Wolfley tells us that he enjoys watching NBC’s Football Night in America.

Bob talks about the overnight ratings for last night’s Sunday Night Football game.

Bob says ESPN’s Trent Dilfer has diagnosed what’s wrong with the Green Bay Packers.

In Crain’s Chicago Business, Ed Sherman handicaps the possible replacements for the late Ron Santo on Cubs games on WGN-AM.

The Chicago Tribune reports that Cubs radio voice Pat Hughes has signed a new contract to remain with the team. 

Sean Jensen of the Chicago Sun-Times goes behind the scenes with ESPN’s Monday Night Football.

Dusty Saunders from the Denver Post feels Tim Tebow’s debut with the Broncos should lead to high ratings in the Rocky Mountain region.

John Meyer from the Post says a local triathlete found many friends wanting to watch NBC’s feature on her during its coverage of the Ironman Triathlon this past Saturday.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has this week’s SoCal sports calendar.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail says CBC’s Ron MacLean practically held new NHL Players’ Association Executive Director Donald Fehr’s hand during a rather referential interview on Saturday.

Ty Duffy at The Big Lead has a very good post on how some colleges stand to lose a lot of money over bad mandatory ticket deals for bowl games.

Crossing Broad has the Eagles radio call of yesterday’s Miracle at the Meadowlands II or III, whatever it’s being called.

Awful Announcing has the calls from legendary Eagles voice Merrill Reese of at least three Miracles at the Meadowlands. I’ve been informed there could be as many as four. Do Eagles fans want to give me five?

Over to Sox & Dawgs where Ian Bethune has the video of Patriots offensive lineman Dan Connolly rumbling 71 yards for a kickoff return that changed the complexion of last night’s game with the Packers.

And I’m being rushed by my boss to do something so this will do it for now.

Got Your Linkage Right Here!

We have the linkage for Wednesday. Let’s do it.

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand has details of ESPN Radio hack Colin Cowherd’s sitcom.

George Winslow of Broadcasting & Cable says the Pittsburgh Penguins have purchased new HD cameras for its in-house video system at its new arena.

Mike Reynolds at Multichannel News reports that Comcast SportsNet and Sporting News are teaming up to deliver regionalized sports news through local websites.

Noah Davis at SportsNewser looks further into the Esquire writer who got banned by the Miami Heat.

Adam Fuseld of the Business Insider’s Sports Page notes that Fox Sports is still peeved at MLB Advanced Media for undermining the network during the Postseason.

Matt Norlander of Yahoo! Sports talks about Charles Barkley becoming a part of the NCAA Tournament coverage. 

John Altavilla of the Hartford Courant says ESPN will have a segment on the UConn women’s basketball team’s winning streak. 

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times says a new voting system at the Baseball Hall of Fame might benefit George Steinbrenner’s chances.

Newsday’s Neil Best goes into some of the details of the CBS/Turner alliance for the NCAA Tournament.

The Washington Post’s Dan Steinberg in the DC Sports Bog reprints Redskins voice Larry Michael’s comments about Donovan McNabb and the “media garbage”.

Gil LeBreton at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram says TCU coach Gary Patterson will be all over ESPN’s platforms this Friday. 

Mel Bracht in the Daily Oklahoman notes Versus’ record ratings for Oregon-Cal last Saturday.

Ed Sherman in Crain’s Chicago Business gets legendary sportscaster Chet Coppock to discuss when the Bears used to play at Wrigley Field.

Ed says Cubs owner Thomas Ricketts is looking at possible revenue avenues if the State of Illinois doesn’t approve a plan to fund renovations at Wrigley.

Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Tribune says WGN-AM is making some weekend programming changes including bringing back a beloved sports show that was canceled earlier this year.

St. Louis Cardinals TV voice Dan McLaughlin has been pleaded guilty to DUI charges from last summer. 

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News writes about the NCAA Tournament on CBS and Turner Sports.

Bruce Dowbiggin from the Toronto Globe and Mail looks at the burgeoning story regarding NHL head of discipline Colin Campbell apparently having an axe to grind against the Bruins’ Marc Savard while trying to protect his own son, Gregory.

Sports Media Watch notes from Turner Sports that there are no definitive plans to use Marv Albert, Kenny Smith or Charles Barkley on the NCAA Tournament.

SMW has the weekend overnight ratings.

SMW notes that as NASCAR’s season comes to an end, its ratings remain down.

SportsGrid doesn’t think Tiger Woods being on Twitter will end well. Tiger just signed on today.

And I’ll end it there.

Our Back To Work Monday Linkage

Ok, let’s get some linkage done as most of us return to work from the weekend. Plenty of stuff to go over.

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand says it may be early, but the NFL TV analysts were in mid-season form on Sunday.

The National says former ESPN’er Molly Qerim is joining Versus to become a co-host for The Daily Line.

In the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Jason Fry writes about the power of the pen and notebook.

Georg Szalai at the Hollywood Reporter talks about TBS’ branding of the New York City subway system for the MLB Postseason.

George Winslow at Broadcasting & Cable writes that the NCAA and AT&T have launched a new iPhone social networking app.

Diego Vasquez of Media Life Magazine says advertisers can get their messages across at college basketball Midnight Madness.

Phil Swann at TV Predictions says ESPN will be producing its DC-based talk shows like Pardon The Interruption in HD starting next week.

Joseph Plambeck of the New York Times profiles the controversial Fox Sports columnist Jason Whitock. Thanks to Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch for the link.

Phil Mushnick at the New York Post says tough talk in college football has to be tempered with some disclaimers.

Ken McMillan from the Hudson Valley Times Herald-Record says WGN America will air 15 Chicago Bulls games this season.

Mike Kerwick at the Bergen (NJ) Record reviews ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentary on the Steinbrenner family. 

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner writes that John Riggins’ DC NFL team postgame show on MASN gets some added radio punch.

Tom Jones at the St. Petersburg Times reviews the weekend in TV sports.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News says Bill Cowher’s name will come up for the Dallas Cowboys job in 3…2….

Ed Sherman of Crain’s Chicago Business says the Big Ten Network only stands to get bigger.

Bob Wolfley in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says thanks to the lowly Buffalo Bills, CBS did not send its top announcing team to Lambeau Field yesterday.

Dusty Saunders of the Denver Post says Rockies fans weren’t happy over a local TV blackout on Saturday.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has this week’s sports calendar for Southern California.

CBC Sports announces that it has hired former NHL enforcer Brad May as its analyst for AHL games. This comes from Hockey Night in Canada Radio host Jeff Marek.

Damien Cox of the Toronto Star explains how the erroneous reports on Pat Burns’ death started.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail decides he’s going to lecture the media on the Pat Burns story.

Sports Media Watch says the NFL Today beat Fox NFL Sunday in Week 1 of the season.

SMW says MLB on Fox bounced back with a good rating on September 11, but is still below a 2.0 seasonal average.

Jordan Kobritz in the Biz of Baseball says Ines Sainz is a case of a “poor” journalist actually making a good case for the law.

Dan Fogarty at SportsGrid looks at the new book on ESPN.

Stephanie Wei of Wei Under Par talks with Golf Channel’s Jerry Foltz about the network’s announcing experiment at the Nationwide Boise Open on Saturday. 

We’ll end it there for now. Expect ratings info on the NFL, a couple of media moves and maybe a Fang’s Bites announcement throughout the day.

Cranking Out Sunday Linkage

Let’s give you some linkage on this Sunday of the Labor Day holiday weekend for most of you. I’ve been working so I don’t know what it’s like to have this off. Anyway, here’s linkage.

SportsGrid has the video of WGN sports anchor Pat Tomasulo dunking on a five year old boy, the same kid he dunked on last year.

SportsGrid also has Comcast SportsNet analyst Dan Hampton summoning a Hurricane Katrina reference involving New Orleans. Why not use a 9/11 reference about New York, Dan? 

Aaron Gray of the Virgin Islands Daily News says TBS has signed a deal that lifts a blackout on the islands seeing its coverage of the MLB Postseason.

Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News breaks news in his column today. In a column in which he laments Jet QB Mark Sanchez deciding to tone down his media obligations, Raissman also reports that motormouth Joe Theismann appears to be joining the NFL Network Thursday Night Football booth this season and also reports that Fox NFL Sunday analysts will be joining certain regional games from the studio.

Dr. Doom and Gloom in the New York Post writes about something only he cares about.

In SB Nation NY, Puck The Media’s Steve Lepore notes that the problems over Ilya Kovalchuk’s contract with the New Jersey Devils drew little interest from the New York media. 

Michael Klein of the Philadelphia Inquirer has a few sports media tidbits in his Sunday column (scroll down).

Bob Cohn of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writes that Thursday’s Steelers preseason finale killed the Pittsburgh Panthers season opener in the ratings. It’s not a level playing field as the Steelers were on KDKA-TV locally and the Panthers were on Versus.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner talks with CBS College Sports college football man Tony Barnhart.

The Washington Post’s Dan Steinberg in the DC Sports Bog has the emotional farewell of a Comcast SportsNet anchor’s last night in Washington. 

Dave McKenna in the Washington City Paper looks at the origin of the NFL’s silly blackout rules.

Jim speaks with ESPN’s Rece Davis about the new Capital One Cup.

D. Orlando Ledbetter of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution talks with the NBC Sunday Night Football crew about the NFL season opener. 

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel delved through the NFL Information Guide to find some fun facts on the Green Bay Packers.

Bob McNamaman of the Arizona Republic has the analysts for Sunday and Monday Night Football predicting the upcoming season.

Matt Solinsky of The Desert Sun (CA) answers readers’ questions on a couple of sports TV issues.

Bill Dwyre of the Los Angeles Times says Tennis Hall of Famer Pam Shriver has found her niche on ESPN2′s tennis coverage.

Stephanie Myles of the Montreal Gazette caught ESPN2 analyst John McEnroe actually being friendly with Tennis Channel’s Jimmy Connors. The two have not been the best of friends over the years.

The Sports Media Watch has its weekend ratings predictions.

Sox & Dawgs has a funny NESN promo involving Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield and Wally the Green Monster.

And we’ll finish it there. Have a good Sunday. I’ll be working.

Let’s Do Some Linkage

Yesterday, I just wasn’t in the mood to blog after putting up a few press releases. It’s time to do some blogging now because it’s important that you get linkage and fresh material as much as possible. Don’t want to be dormant for too long. By the way, whatever happened to Awful Announcing? It’s like Brian Powell suddenly disappeared.

Anyway, some big things tonight for your sports viewing including the Major League debut of Stephen Strasburg for the Washington Nationals. It’s so big that MLB Network will air what would have been a meaningless game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. And MLB Network is sending the big guns, Bob Costas, John Smoltz and Jim Kaat to call the game. While Strasburg has had plenty of hype going into this game, he’s been living up to it thus far. Locally, Pittsburgh will have the game on FSN Pittsburgh and DC will see it on MASN2. Game time is 7 p.m. East/4 p.m. West.

And there’s Game 3 of the NBA Finals. Change of venue as the series shifts East to the TD Garden in Boston as the Lakers and Celtics square off. The series is tied at 1 apiece. ABC has the game starting at 9 p.m. East and 6 p.m. West. There is a pregame show starting at 8:30 p.m., but Stuart Scott is hosting so watch at your own risk.

Let’s do your links.

Sports Business Daily says ABC received a final rating of 9.2 for NBA Finals Game 2 and over 15 and a half million viewers.

The SBD says Yahoo! has signed soccer star David Beckham as an international spokesman.

Michael Smith of Sports Business Journal says NASCAR has given up on creating a “NASCAR Wives” reality show. 

Michael Hiestand from USA Today has the ratings from various weekend events.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says the TV math doesn’t add up for expansion by either the Big 10 or Pac 10.

Darren says tonight’s debut for Stephen Strasburg is worth a lot of money for the Washington Nationals.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch has his Sports Media Power Rankings for May.

At the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times notices there’s media apathy towards women’s sports.

Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports has a great column on how the Big 12 by teaming up with the Big 10 and Pac 10 to reject a college football playoff in 2008, is now on the verge of being cannibalized by both conferences. 

Rick Kissel of Variety notes that sports performed well in the TV ratings on Sunday.

Jon Lafayette from Broadcasting & Cable says the NHL is getting hot on TV at the right time.

Jon talks with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman about his TV partners, NHL Network and his league’s TV ratings.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News writes that Univision has scored various platform deals just as the World Cup is set to get underway.

Lucia Moses of Mediaweek says Sports Illustrated has lured away a once-rising star at Conde Nast publications to become the first woman to head sales at the magazine.

Katy Bachman also of Mediaweek writes that Nielsen is planning to launch a new service during the World Cup using BlackBerry devices as mobile diaries.

Toni Fitzgerald from Media Life Magazine says the NHL’s ratings surge continues into the Stanley Cup Final.

The New York Post’s Michael Starr breaks news that SNY is in talks with 2 TV stations to take over their nightly sports reports.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times writes that ESPN and Univision are hoping to tap into increased interest in the World Cup.

Richard adds last Saturday’s Belmont Stakes garnered some its lowest ratings ever.

Over to Bob Raissman at the New York Daily News who enjoys former Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy’s commentary on ESPN/ABC.

Ken McMillan of the Hudson Valley Times Herald-Record reports that a New York-Penn League minor league baseball team will get a new radio announcer when its season begins later this month.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner says MASN2 will expand its Nationals pregame show to an hour tonight for the Stephen Strasburg debut.

Ed Sherman from Crain’s Chicago Business writes that Chicago is helping to drive the NHL’s increased ratings.

Ed adds the White Sox will honor Hawk Harrelson for his 25 years of service as a broadcaster.

The Chicago Tribune notes that after a window was damaged at its facilities, WGN Radio decided to re-do it with a Blackhawks logo.

Phil Rosenthal of the Tribune writes that Stanley Cup Final Game 5 was not only a win for the Blackhawks, but also for the local ratings.

Chris Jenkins from the San Diego Union-Tribune talks with former UCLA voice Dick Enberg about his friend, John Wooden.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says Wooden’s final book is being moved to a July publication date.

Diane Pucin of the Los Angeles Times notes that ratings for live sports events continue to rise.

William Houston at Truth & Rumours says a Toronto sports radio reporter was suspended for doing his job.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail also writes about the reporter’s suspension. 

The Sports Media Watch notes that despite not having big names in the French Open women’s final, NBC still garnered decent ratings.

SMW says the ratings for the final round of the Memorial Tournament on CBS were down from last year, but still decent.

SMW has various ratings news and notes.

And SMW says Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final on Versus actually fell from last year.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media says NBC and CBC’s ratings are up for the Stanley Cup Final from last year.

Greg Wyshynski at Yahoo’s Puck Daddy has found the Stanley Cup Champions winning gear.

And we’re done. Back later.

Truncated Friday Links

I’m not going to do a full version of the megalinks today as I’m getting ready to go to Baltimore on Saturday. I’m meeting a group of Red Sox fans in Charm City so as I’m preparing to head down, I’ll do a shortened version of the links tonight.

Your Weekend Viewing Picks can be found here.

USA Today’s version of Mike & Mike, Hiestand and McCarthy debate the idea of expanding instant replay in baseball.

The Nielsen Wire blog notes that this year’s World Cup will truly be mobile.

Anthony Crupi of Mediaweek says Fox has already sold 80% of Super Bowl XLV’s ad inventory during the network’s upfront sales period.

Anthony writes that TNT has sold most of its ad inventory for NASCAR.

John Eggerton in Broadcasting & Cable notes that ABC got a primetime ratings win with Game 1 of the NBA Finals.

Paige Albiniak of B&C reports that eight Tribune stations including WPIX (NY), WGN (Chi) and KSWB (SD) in various local markets have picked up the rights to NFL Network games.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News talks with Versus president Jamie Davis about the ratings for Game 3 of the NHL Stanley Cup Final on the network on Wednesday.

The Sports Media Watch notes that the NBA Playoffs finished below last year’s ratings for TNT.

SMW says the opening game of the 2010 NBA Finals did very well on ABC.

SMW says they were down on ESPN as well.

SMW tells us that Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final set a ratings record for Versus.

Dave Kohl at the Major League Programs blog looks at the NFL’s efforts to get its Red Zone in every football stadium across the country.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media tells us that CBC host Ron MacLean prevents suicides on his days off.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell feels the Triple Crown needs a new TV model as the current one is not working.

The Boston Globe’s Chad Finn wonders why disgraced NBA referee Tim Donaghy has suddenly become a go-to source for sports radio stations on predicting the outcome of games.

The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick says don’t be so fast to bring in instant replay to baseball and he also accuses YES announcer and ESPN Radio New York host Michael Kay of lifting stuff from newspaper columns word for word.

Try to decipher Bob Raissman’s argument in the New York Daily News without getting kidney stones.

Dave Hughes of DCRTV.com writes in Press Box that a new nationally syndicated sports TV show will be produced in Baltimore.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner likes the way ESPN2 and Tennis Channel work together during Grand Slam tennis events.

Barry Jackson from the Miami Herald talks with Dolphins radio analyst Jim Mandich who’s been battling cancer.

Ray Buck in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram writes that ESPN/ABC NBA analyst Jeff Van Gundy is a very entertaining listen.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle notes that the story of Armando Galarraga’s non-perfect game bid has grown legs even on cable news shows.

In his blog, David notes that Marv Albert will no longer do Monday Night Football on Westwood One Radio.

Mel Bracht in the Daily Oklahoman says MLB Network will pick up pitcher Steven Strasburg’s Washington Nationals debut next week.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says ESPN is getting it right by hiring British soccer callers for the World Cup.

Ed Sherman in Crain’s Chicago Business explains why Game 3′s rating of the Stanley Cup Final fell below Game 2′s stellar numbers.

Ed has his winners and losers in sports business and media.

Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Tribune writes that WGN in Chicago will air the Bears-Miami Dolphins game on November 18 that will be carried on NFL Network.

Paul Christian of the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin says the quality of webcasts for one particular minor league baseball organization is improving with each passing year.

Tim Buckley of the Deseret (UT) News says Miami sports radio host Sid Rosenberg was reprimanded by his bosses for ragging on Mormons.

Jay Posner in the San Diego Union-Tribune writes that MLB Network picked up a coup in getting Steven Strasburg’s major league debut on Tuesday.

John Maffei from the North County Times says the Strasburg debut and the NBA Finals on Tuesday will be must see TV.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has pictures of the beautiful people attending the Celtics-Lakers game on Thursday.

Tom talks with Jeff Van Gundy.

Tom has his media news and notes.

Bruce Dowbiggin in the Toronto Globe and Mail says NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman didn’t acquit himself well during an interview on CBC on Wednesday.

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star says the Blue Jays’ fortunes are matching their ratings.

And Chris tells Gary Bettman to stay off television.

To end the links tonight, William Houston in Truth & Rumours also discusses the Bettman appearance on CBC.

We are done. I’ll blog next from Baltimore on Saturday.

Back with Thursday Linkage

Due to the clean up to from the Great Flood of 2010, I wasn’t able to give you linkage on Tuesday and Wednesday, plus I had to postpone the recording of this week’s edition of the Sports Media Weekly Podcast. Things are slowly getting back to normal, but I’m going to be applying for disaster relief as will many Rhode Islanders. I’ll let you know how that goes, but driving to work today was quite the experience as Route 95 was shut down. Hopefully by this time next week, we can get back to operating at 100%.

Let’s do some links for you.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times reports that Augusta National will allow ESPN to air Tiger Woods’ first shot at The Masters next week, but not much after that unless he falls into the live coverage window at 4 p.m. ET.

Richard says 3-D will add a new dimension to The Masters.

Glen Dickson of Broadcasting & Cable says a select few got to see a preview of next week’s 3-D production of The Masters.

Alex Weprin of B&C writes that there will be more live streaming from The Masters.

Also from B&C, David Tanklefsky says ESPN will be unveiling plans for its 3-D network later this month.

Anthony Crupi of Mediaweek tells us that TNT will be using the star power to promote the 2010 NBA playoffs.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell asks how much will Indianapolis lose by having home team Butler play in the Final Four.

Darren looks at the new Nike contract signed by LeBron James.

Ken McMillan of the Hudson Valley Times Herald-Record says 11 NFL exhibition games will be aired nationally this summer.

Jim Williams from the Washington Examiner writes that long-time Wizards/Bullets analyst Phil Chenier will be honored before Friday’s game with the Bulls.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer says the Bengals get some national attention during NFL exhibition season.

John writes that a local radio station is picking up Notre Dame football games this season.

Ed Sherman in Crain’s Chicago Business says a long term deal is in the works between WGN Radio and the Blackhawks. 

Ed adds that WGN-TV will be airing back-to-back specials on the White Sox and Cubs this Sunday.

Jim O’Donnell of the Chicago Sun-Times talks with former CBS college basketball analyst Billy Packer about the expansion of the NCAA Tournament.

To the Los Angeles Daily News and Tom Hoffarth who reports that the Dodgers and flagship station KABC are about to announce a one year contract extension.

Tom says the Anaheim Angels’ flagship radio station has signed a deal to simulcast some 60 games on another area station to improve the team’s coverage.

In the Toronto Globe and Mail, David Shoalts says NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman is optimistic that he can garner big money in the next TV contract. Thanks to Steve Lepore at Puck The Media for the link.

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star is amazed that curling continues to do well in the Canadian TV ratings.

In Truth & Rumours, William Houston says CBC’s biopic on Don Cherry rated well in Canada.

From the Sports Media Watch, we have some various news and notes.

I will say that SMW almost got me with his April Fool’s story this year. Almost. This year’s story was really good.

Speaking of April Fool’s, Joe Favorito remembers some of the best fake media stories on April 1.

Maury Brown at the Biz of Baseball launches this year’s Autism Awareness Campaign across his Business of Sports Network as International Autism Awareness Month begins today. Please do what you can to donate to Autism Speaks to help in the treatment and prevention of autism. Maury not only has a son with autism, but I also have a friend who’s daughter has it. I’m happy to say that my niece is healthy, but it can happen to anyone so do what you can to give. Doesn’t have to be a lot. Every bit helps.

That does it for the links today.

The Friday Megalink Thing

Ok, it’s time for the Friday megalinks. Wasn’t able to do them last week and now it’s time to bring them to you while I can. There’s a new look here and I’m experimenting with the template and colors. Let me know what you think either via a comment here or through a quick e-mail. I like to hear your comments.

You can always check your Weekend Viewing Picks for sports and primetime TV.

Now to your links.

National

Michael Hiestand of USA Today talks with CBS’ Dick Enberg who will call his final NCAA Tournament game tomorrow before embarking on a new phase of his broadcasting career.

Also in USA Today, sports broadcasting historian David J. Halberstam looks at the large number of veteran play-by-play men, including Enberg, who continue to call their respective sports well into their 70′s and some into their 80′s

And USA Today’s version of Mike and Mike, Michael Hiestand and Mike McCarthy debate the value of expanding the NCAA Tournament from its current 65 teams.

Alex Weprin of Broadcasting & Cable says MLB is rebranding its Home Plate channel on Sirius XM Satellite Radio to MLB Network Radio and will simulcast its programs at night.

Multichannel News looks at the life of former NBC Sports and ESPN President Chet Simmons who passed away Thursday at the age of 81.

R. Thomas Umstead of Multichannel notes that Spike and UFC have put together a website for their Ultimate Fighter reality series which archives all ten seasons of the show.

Katy Bachman of Mediaweek looks at ESPN launching a New York-centric website.

Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life Magazine says the NCAA Tournament steered CBS to an overnight ratings victory on Thursday.

The Nielsen Wire blog notes that Louisville in basketball-crazy Kentucky is the top rated market for the NCAA Tournament through the first two rounds.

Writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Dave Kindred says it’s important to see both sides of the story. 

The Sports Media Watch says Tiger Woods is shooting a new commercial.

Joe Favorito writes that the New York Jets made the right decision in participating in this season’s Hard Knocks program on HBO.

Gail Sideman in Sports Networker provides 5 proactive public relations tips for athletes to prevent them from getting into trouble.

Len Berman has his top five stories of the day.

East and Mid-Atlantic

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe compares and contrasts the ESPN and Golf Channel interviews of Tiger Woods.

The New York Times speculates that HBO could be ending “Joe Buck Live” after three mostly lackluster shows.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post isn’t a fan of MLB Walking, Talking Conflict of Interest Bud Selig’s job on steriods.

Over to Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News who writes that the Jets are taking a stab at HBOs Hard Knocks after turning a request last year.

Writing in Baltimore’s Press Box, Dave Hughes from DCRTV.com has the latest on the Charm City’s sports radio ratings wars and other media moves.

In the Washington Examiner, Jim Williams asks his readers which is the best sports radio talk show in DC?

South

The Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson looks at an upcoming ESPN 30 for 30 documentary on Dolphins running back Ricky Williams.

Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel takes Florida football coach Urban Meyer to task for verbally attacking one of his colleagues this week.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News has the latest ratings for the sports radio stations and they’re not good for the local ESPN Radio affiliate.

Ray Buck from the Fort Worth Star Telegram says the national media spotlight will be on Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington after last week’s admission that he took cocaine.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle writes that CBS’ Jim Nantz returns to Houston to call the NCAA Tournament this weekend.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman talks with a national women’s college basketball analyst about Oklahoma’s play in the ladies NCAA Tournament.

In his media notebook, Mel discusses the upcoming season of Hard Knocks and the recent Sports Emmy Award nominations.

Midwest

Michael Zuidema of the Grand Rapids (MI) Press looks at former Michigan State star Mateen Cleaves who’s hoping to start a new career on TV.

Bob Wolfley from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has the Fox Sports’ NFL analysts’ reaction to the new overtime rules.

In Crain’s Chicago Business, Ed Sherman says WGN-AM has eliminated a long-running talk show in place of more Cubs programming.

Ed also has his weekly winners and losers in sports business and media.

Paul Christian in the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin has a whole bunch of media stories in his Friday column.

To Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch who writes about Verne Lundquist’s return to the Gateway City where it’s memorable for a very big reason.

West

Scott D. Pierce of the Deseret (UT) Morning News says despite having two NCAA Tournament games in town last night, CBS beamed the games from Syracuse into the local market.

Jay Posner of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports on a continued contract dispute between a local sports radio station and its morning show. 

And John Maffei of the North County Times says on-air auditions for potential replacements have turned out to be disastrous.

Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star explores why ESPN and Golf Channel accepted interviews with Tiger Woods and why CBS did not.

Jim looks at how CBS handled the first four days of the NCAA Tournament.

John Scheibe in the Los Angeles Times says upsets have not hurt CBS’ ratings for the NCAA Tournament.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News writes about the new social networking venture by new Angels TV voice and Friend of Fang’s Bites, Victor Rojas.

In his blog, Tom expands on Victor’s venture.

Tom also has his extensive media news and notes.

Canada

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail previews the CBC mini-series on Don Cherry.

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star is puzzled as to why the Blue Jays have yet to release their TV schedule.

In Truth & Rumours, William Houston says the Don Cherry movie is definitely worth watching.

And that will conclude the megalinks.

Thursday’s Links

After a day in which I dealt with a flooded basement and buying filters for my wet vac, it’s time to bring back the linkage.

USA Today’s Game On blog looks at a new PBS documentary on legendary New Jersey high school basketball coach Bob Hurley.

Bob Velin of USA Today profiles an announcer who will call his 20,000th consecutive horse race over a span of almost 36 years.

Georg Szalai of the Hollywood Reporter says Univision will be airing all 64 World Cup games this summer over a variety of platforms.

Sports Business Daily compiles reaction to the MSG Network’s 3-D production. 

Glen Dickson of Broadcasting & Cable says Cablevision and MSG executives are declaring last night’s 3-D production of the New York Rangers-New York Islanders game a success.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News says Versus received its highest NHL audience of the season on Monday.

Dan Lamothe of the Red Sox Monster blog at the Springfield (MA) Republican looks at recent NESN hire Jade McCarthy quickly becoming a favorite on the channel by taking over the anchoring duties on SportsDesk.

John Altavilla of the Hartford Courant says UConn’s women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma will be profiled on ESPN’s Outside the Lines this weekend. 

John Koblin of the New York Observer notes that the Wall Street Journal will launch its sports section next month.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times reviews MSG Network’s first 3-D telecast.

Dan Martin of the New York Post says the 3-D production was popular with fans and players alike.

Peter Botte of the New York Daily News has a similar story on the fans who watched the Islanders-Rangers game in 3-D.

Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette has the NCAA Hockey Tournament TV schedule.

The Washington Examiner’s Jim Williams says CBS is back with the NCAA Tournament tonight.

John Boyette of the Augusta (GA) Chronicle says Tiger Woods will be talking to reporters at The Masters on April 5.

Noell Barnidge of the Savannah (GA) Morning News says ESPN’s Outside the Lines is in town to do a story regarding an incident at Savannah State University. 

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News looks at one person who has a perfect NCAA Tournament bracket.

Stefan Stevenson of the Fort Worth Star Telegram says TCU has chosen a new flagship radio station for football and basketball.

General John McClain of the Houston Chronicle says the Texans and the New York Jets want to be the Thanksgiving Night game on NFL Network.

Mel Bracht in the Daily Oklahoman writes that TNT plans to go interactive tonight for the Miami-Chicago game.

Tyler James of the Columbus Dispatch says a local teenager tops ESPN.com’s NCAA Tournament bracket challenge. 

Anthony Schoette at the Indianapolis Business Journal feels Bob Knight is mellowing in his old age.

Curt Cavin of the Indianapolis Star writes that Good Morning America co-host and former ESPN anchor Robin Roberts will be driving the Indianapolis 500 pace car on May 30. There’s no corporate synergy in that decision as ESPN/ABC airs the Indy 500 that day.

In Crain’s Chicago Business, Ed Sherman feels the NCAA should allow arena advertising during its games.

Jim O’Donnell of the Chicago Sun-Times laments the potential end for a long-running WGN-AM sports show.

Bob Wolfley in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has ESPN’s Orel Hershiser and Rick Sutcliffe talking about various MLB issues.

Bob Mayhall of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat talks with CBS’ Verne Lundquist who will be calling the NCAA Tournament’s Midwest Regional this weekend.

The Denver Post reports that the MLS’ Colorado Rapids are moving a majority of its games to free TV this season.

Joe Flint of the Los Angeles Times interviews Fox Sports El Jefe del Mundo David Hill about bidding for the Olympics, the MLB All-Star Game in 3-D and trying to get a younger halftime act for the Super Bowl.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News previews his Friday column on Friend of Fang’s Bites Victor Rojas and his new social networking project, Yakcy.

Kevin Iole of Yahoo’s Cagewriter blog writes that an ESPN.com MMA show is moving to ESPN2.

The Sports Media Watch says MLB has eliminated the off day between Games 4 and 5 in the League Championship Series.

SMW has some various news and notes.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media feels that last night’s Pittsburgh-Washington game should have been on Versus and not NHL Network. Agreed.

The great Maury Brown at the Biz of Baseball says the MLB At Bat iPhone/iPod Touch app finally has live streaming video of Spring Training games as of today.

Phillip Badger of EPL Talk gives us an update on the latest with Fox Soccer Plus and Fox Soccer Channel HD.

We’ll end it there for now.

MLB Spring Training TV Schedules: National League Central

We now go to the NL Central. Again, all times Eastern.

Chicago Cubs (WGN or Comcast SportsNet Chicago)
Saturday, March 6 – Chicago White Sox vs. Cubs at Mesa, AZ, 3 p.m. (WGN)
Sunday, March 7 – Cubs vs. Chicago White Sox at Glendale, AZ, 3 p.m. (WGN)
Friday, March 12 – Chicago White Sox vs. Cubs at Las Vegas, NV, 10 p.m. (Comcast SportsNet)
Sunday, March 14 – Cubs vs. Anaheim Angels at Tempe, AZ, 4 p.m. (WGN)
Monday, March 22 – Cleveland Indians vs. Cubs at Mesa, AZ, 4 p.m. (Comcast SportsNet)
Friday, March 26 – Oakland A’s vs. Cubs at Mesa, AZ, 4 p.m. (WGN)
Saturday, March 27 – San Diego Padres vs. Cubs at Mesa, AZ, 4 p.m. (WGN)
Thursday, April 1 – Colorado Rockies vs. Cubs at Mesa, AZ, 4 p.m. (Comcast SportsNet)
Saturday, April 3 – Cubs vs. Arizona Diamondbacks at Phoenix, AZ, 3 p.m. (WGN)

Cincinnati Reds (Fox Sports Ohio)
Friday, March 5 – Cleveland Indians vs. Reds at Goodyear, AZ, 3 p.m.
Thursday, March 18 – Cleveland Indians vs. Reds at Goodyear, AZ, 4 p.m.
Monday, March 22 – Colorado Rockies vs. Reds at Goodyear, AZ, 4 p.m.

Houston Astros (Fox Sports Houston)
Tuesday, March 9 – Astros vs. New York Mets at Port St. Lucie, FL, 1 p.m.
Thursday, March 18 – Astros vs. Detroit Tigers at Lakeland, FL, 1 p.m.
Saturday, March 20 – New York Yankees vs. Astros at Kissimmee, FL, 1 p.m.
Monday, March 22 – St. Louis Cardinals vs. Astros at Kissimmee, FL, 1 p.m.
Saturday, April 3 – Toronto Blue Jays vs. Astros at Houston, TX, 2 p.m.

Milwaukee Brewers (Fox Sports Wisconsin)
Monday, March 8 – Seattle Mariners vs. Brewers at Phoenix, AZ, 4 p.m.
Monday, March 15 – Cleveland Indians vs. Brewers at Phoenix, AZ, 4 p.m.
Saturday, March 27 – Texas Rangers vs. Brewers at Phoenix, AZ, 4 p.m.

Pittsburgh Pirates (FSN Pittsburgh)
Wednesday, March 10 – Baltimore Orioles vs. Pirates at Bradenton, FL, 7 p.m.
Sunday, March 14 – New York Yankees vs. Pirates at Bradenton, FL, 1 p.m.
Sunday, March 21 – Tampa Bay Rays vs. Pirates at Bradenton, FL, 1 p.m.
Friday, April 2 – Pirates vs. Philadelphia Phillies at Philadelphia, PA, 7 p.m.

St. Louis Cardinals (Fox Sports Midwest unless indicated)
Saturday, March 13 – Houston Astros vs. Cardinals at Jupiter, FL, 1 p.m. (KSDK)
Friday, March 19 – Cardinals vs. Florida Marlins at Jupiter, FL, 1 p.m.
Saturday, March 20 – New York Mets vs. Cardinals at Jupiter, FL, 1 p.m. (KSDK)
Monday, March 22 – Cardinals vs. Houston Astros at Kissimmee, FL, 1 p.m.
Wednesday March 24 – Baltimore Orioles vs. Cardinals at Jupiter, FL, 1 p.m.
Thursday, March 25 – New York Mets vs. Cardinals at Jupiter, FL, 1 p.m.
Friday, April 2 – Cardinals vs. Minnesota Twins at Minneapolis, MN, 6 p.m.

MLB Spring Training TV Schedules: American League Central

Here are the Spring Training TV schedules for the American League Central Division. Again, all times are Eastern.

Chicago White Sox (Comcast SportsNet Chicago unless indicated)
Saturday, March 13 – Chicago Cubs vs. White Sox at Las Vegas, NV, 4 p.m.
Monday, March 15 – Kansas City Royals vs. White Sox at Glendale, AZ, 10 p.m.
Friday, March 19 – Chicago Cubs vs. White Sox at Glendale, AZ, 4 p.m.
Saturday, March 20 – San Diego Padres vs. White Sox at Glendale, AZ, 4 p.m. (WGN)
Wednesday, March 24 – Arizona Diamondbacks vs. White Sox at Glendale, AZ, 4 p.m.
Monday, March 29 – Anaheim Angels vs. White Sox at Glendale, AZ, 10 p.m.

Cleveland Indians (Sports Time Ohio)
Wednesday, March 10 – San Diego Padres vs. Indians at Goodyear, AZ, 3 p.m.
Friday, March 12 – Anaheim Angels vs. Indians at Goodyear, AZ, 3 p.m.
Sunday, March 14 – Indians vs. San Diego Padres, 4 p.m. at Peoria, AZ, 4 p.m.
Tuesday, March 16 – San Francisco Giants vs. Indians at Goodyear, AZ, 4 p.m.
Thursday, March 18 – Cincinnati Reds vs. Indians at Goodyear, AZ, 4 p.m.
Friday, March 19 – Indians vs. San Francisco Giants at Scottsdale, AZ, 4 p.m.

Detroit Tigers (Fox Sports Detroit)
Monday, March 15 – Toronto Blue Jays vs. Tigers at Lakeland, FL, 1 p.m.
Thursday, March 18 – Houston Astros vs. Tigers at Lakeland, FL, 1 p.m.
Sunday, March 21 – Tigers vs. New York Yankees at Tampa, FL, 1 p.m.
Thursday, March 25 – Toronto Blue Jays vs. Tigers at Lakeland, FL, 1 p.m.

Kansas City Royals (Fox Sports Kansas City)
Tuesday, March 23 – Chicago Cubs vs. Royals at Surprise, AZ, 4 p.m.

Minnesota Twins (Fox Sports North unless indicated)
Saturday, March 13 – Twins vs. Philadelphia Phillies at Clearwater, FL, 1 p.m.
Sunday, March 21 – Tampa Bay Rays vs. Twins at Fort Myers, FL, 1 p.m. (WFTC)
Tuesday, March 23 – Boston Red Sox vs. Twins at Fort Myers, FL, 7 p.m.

Some Friday Night Megalinks

Let’s give you some linkage this evening. I’m going to weed out the Tiger Woods previews so this may not be as extensive as past editions. Your Weekend Viewing Picks has your sports viewing including college basketball and Olympic viewing guide.

Let’s get to the links.

National

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand tells NBC it’s time to go live with Olympic events.

Seth Livingstone of USA Today says NBC will not be showing the USA-Canada men’s hockey game on the main network relegating it to MSNBC instead. 

Eric Fisher of the Sports Business Daily/Journal says NBCOlympics.com and Yahoo! Sports are battling it out for online traffic this month.

Tripp Mickle of SBD/SBJ writes that NBC Sports Emperor Dick Ebersol sent a letter to his staff Thursday congratulating his employees for beating American Idol in the ratings this week.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News says NBC is averaging almost 25 million viewers a night for the first seven days of the Olympics.

Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life Magazine says as Americans win gold medals in the Olympics, ratings for NBC keep going up.

My Twitter trophy wife, Amanda Rykoff in the OCD Chick compares Dick Ebersol’s production of the Olympics to American Idol.

Etan Vlessing of the Hollywood Reporter says it appears that after initially expecting losses, the Canadian Olympic Broadcast Consortium will break even on the Vancouver Games.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell writes that multiple medal-winning skier Julia Mancuso could turn out to be a marketing gold medal winner.

Darren says for sponsors, Tiger Woods’ refusal to set a timetable to return to golf is most troubling.

Jimmy Traina of Sports Illustrated has the very funny video of Golf Channel analyst Charlie Rymer crying after Tiger Woods make his robotic apology in the Friday afternoon edition of Hot Clicks (scroll down).

Marisa Guthrie of Broadcasting & Cable has various golf analysts reactions to Tiger Woods’ wooden apology.

Anthony Crupi of Mediaweek writes that the PGA Tour’s TV partners will just have to wait for Tiger Woods’ return. 

Gail Sideman writing in the Sports Networker blog says Tiger’s announcement was bad timing as far as public relations are concerned.

The Sports Media Watch looks at how the networks covered the Tiger Woods announcement today.

SMW also has some idle notes.

SportsbyBrooks says Tony Kornheiser has apologized to Hannah Storm for saying she dresses like a harlot.

AJ Daulerio at Deadspin says ESPN has actually banned some of Hannah’s wardrobe.

East and Mid-Atlantic

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe defends NBC’s handling of the Olympics.

Bill Doyle of the Worcester Telegram also compares the Olympics to American Idol.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times, a frequent critic of NBC’s tape delayed Olympic coverage, is begrudgingly learning to live with the delays in the Vancouver Games.

Bob Raissman in the New York Daily News feels Mets manager Jerry Manuel is helpful in feeding the media beast with soundbites.

The Albany Times Union’s Pete Dougherty critiques some of NBC’s announcers at the Olympics.

Ken McMillan of the Hudson Valley Times Herald-Record has some spring training TV schedules. First, the Yankees, the Mets, MLB Network, ESPN and WGN America.

Alan Pergament of the Buffalo News says the first network analysis was kind to Tiger Woods. 

David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun is not happy how NBC has stopped mentioning the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili during its coverage.

Dave Hughes of DCRTV.com writes in Press Box that advertisers were sad to see Baltimore sports radio host Anita Marks leave last month.

Tim Lemke doesn’t quite understand NBC’s Olympic philosophy.

South

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle writes that ESPN Radio’s Mike & Mike will be back in town next month.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman says Oklahoma University baseball games will be seen on local cable TV.

Mel says two Australian TV commentators are in trouble for making homophobic comments about US figure skater Johnny Weir.

Midwest

Michael Zuidema of the Grand Rapids (MI) Press wants the tape delayed Olympics coverage on NBC to stop.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is puzzled why Milwaukee is on top of the nation’s ratings for the Olympics.

Ed Sherman in Crain’s Chicago Business has his weekly winners and losers.

Ed notes that the White Sox will be part of a new reality show on MLB Network.

Ed also analyzes Tiger Woods’ apology.

Charles F. Rouse of the Kansas City Examiner says Big 12 fans want Brent Musberger and Bob Knight removed from the conference’s basketball games.

Dan Caesar at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wonders if the Cardinals could be heading to the FM dial this season.

Dan writes that part-time Redbirds analyst Jack Clark will return for another season on Fox Sports Midwest.

West

Scott D. Pierce from the Deseret (UT) News says the reconstructed arena football Utah Pride have a TV deal in place.

Jay Posner of the San Diego Union-Tribune doesn’t like how the local NBC affiliate is playing coy about the Olympic delays.

Jay writes that Padres voice Jerry Coleman will be working less this season, but be doing more.

John Maffei of the North County Times says the West Coast is to blame for the Olympic delays.

Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star writes about the Olympics finally beating American Idol in the ratings.

Jim says the Olympics are bringing down the ratings for the Daytona 500 and the NBA.

Over to Diane Pucin of the Los Angeles Times who reports on Tiger Woods’ apology.

Diane adds that NBC’s Cris Collinsworth was critical of Woods. 

Phil Rosenthal writes in the Times that MSNBC will put the politics aside on Sunday and air the anticipated USA- Canada men’s hockey game which will be seen live in all time zones.

The Times publishes several readers’ complaints about the Olympic delays to the West Coast even though the Vancouver Games are taking place in their time zone.

Canada

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star says it’s no surprise that hockey is tops in CTV’s Olympic coverage.

In Yahoo! Canada, William Houston critiques CTV’s coverage to date.

In his Truth & Rumours blog, William has a few columns in one.

Bill Brioux of the Canadian Press wonders if CTV’s all-out approach for the Olympics is too much of a good thing.

And that will complete the links.

Some Nighttime Links

I’m seeing a few stories I can link to tonight. My new TV is acting up and the audio keeps cutting in and out. I’m going to have to call Vizio about this. Not happy. I shouldn’t have to keep changing channels or press the “AV” button on the remote for the audio to come back. POS.

Anyway, here are a few links this evening.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell wonders if the public is getting tired of the Tiger Woods stories.

Steve Czaban of Fox Sports Radio announces on his blog that his show is being dropped in favor of one hosted by Steven A. Smith. Thanks to the great John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal/Daily for the link.

Kyle Belanger of the Springfield (MA) Republican reports that ESPN and Comcast SportsNet will air games from a high school basketball tournament next month.

Ken McMillan of the Hudson Valley Times Herald-Record says Sunday’s Cowboys-Giants game drew excellent ratings for Fox.

Ken writes that ESPN has made its assignments for TV and radio for the BCS National Championship Game.

Mike Waters of the Syracuse Post-Standard writes that ESPN Radio is changing affiliates come March.

Ed Sherman from Crain’s Chicago Business says the Blackhawks are scoring for WGN.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News looks at the potential interviewers for Tiger Woods.

Chris Zelkovich in the Toronto Star says hockey is back on top of the ratings in Canada after giving way to the Grey Cup last week.

ESPN UK continues to pick up soccer rights. Owen Gibson of the Guardian reports that ESPN has picked up the FA Cup beating out the BBC.

MASN has announced the launch of MASN2 HD for next season.

The Cincinnati Reds have announced that the voice of Ohio State football and basketball, Paul Keels will be calling 45 games on Fox Sports Ohio starting next season.

The Sports Media Watch sits down with TNT Inside the NBA host Ernie Johnson, Jr.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media wishes CBC would do a split telecast for its late game on Hockey Night in Canada as it does for its 7 p.m. ET slot.

Steve urges fans to watch Versus (those who have the channel unlike us with DirecTV) this week as it carries three NHL games instead of its usual two.

Joe Favorito says coaches are an untapped source for brand activation.

Chicago media blogger Robert Feder, formerly of the Sun-Times, looks at some moves by local columnists from the Tribune to the Sun-Times and vice-versa.

Katharine Rust writes in the Huffington Post that ESPN is bad for sports.

Randell Mell of Golfchannel.com says it’s time for Tiger Woods to talk.

Evan Brunell, the owner of blogging network MVN.com, has decided it’s time to shut down. I’m sorry to hear about that. Thanks to Dan Lamothe of the Red Sox Monster blog for the link.

Dumont Walker of the Bleacher Report claims that Fox Sports plans to bid for the rights to the Atlantic Coast Conference. I have not seen this reported in other outlets.

I’ll end it there for now. Time for me to sleep.

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.

Continuing The Friday Megalinks

Before I was interrupted and called away from the office, I was in the midst of doing the Friday Megalinks and was on a roll. Unfortunately, I had to stop where I was. Well, I have time now and I’ll finish what I started.

I’ll see if I can add to the National and Eastern links.

National

NBC’s Bob Neumeier has been hospitalized in Lexington, KY after collapsing during NBC’s production of the Kentucky Oaks on Bravo today.

With the Kentucky Derby coming up, CNBC’s Darren Rovell talks horses. Darren also talks with the lovely Danica Patrick.

Joe Favorito says companies that donate equipment for certain causes is one of the best methods of branding.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says CBS College Sports will be Tweeting at the same time it’s airing certain events.

Over at Puck The Media, James writes of his horror stories trying to find Versus during his travels across the USA.

The Associated Press says ESPN and ABC will be using a new Rob Thomas song for its NBA package.

East and Mid-Atlantic

Adam Kilgore of the Boston Globe reports that NESN Red Sox analyst Jerry Remy has flown home from Tampa after contracting symptoms that kept him out of the booth earlier this spring. Remy missed several games during Spring Training and also missed last night’s game. Buck Martinez is filling in for him for the series.

Dan Lamonthe of the acclaimed Red Sox Monster blog will make an appearance on WEEI and Comcast SportsNet come Saturday morning.

Newsday’s Neil Best writes that Michael Strahan is becoming more of a TV personality rather than remaining an ex-football player. Neil writes that SNY has debuted its closed captioning during tonight’s Mets-Phillies game.

Stu Hackel from the New York Times says NHL officials are hiding under their desks, not commenting over Versus’ refusal to air the end of the Devils-Hurricanes Game 7 after its coverage of the Rangers-Capitals game.

A Pittsburgh sports radio host was told to stay home over fears he has the Swine Flu.

Tim Lemke of the Washington Post says the NHL is happy over its TV ratings and visits to its website for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner writes that NBC loves broadcasting the Kentucky Derby.

South

Bob Molinaro of the Virginian-Pilot feels the hype for the Kentucky Derby is too much.

Joseph Person of The State says the University of South Carolina is looking for a new basketball and baseball play-by-play man.

Barry Jackson in the Miami Herald writes that Dolphin Stadium is about to get a new name and I can already hear the jokes.

Andrew Adler of the Louisville Courier-Journal says NBC is now marketing the Kentucky Derby to women.

Ray Buck of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram says Texas Rangers star Josh Hamilton is in a new “This is SportsCenter” promo.

Barry Horn from the Dallas Morning News writes that Mavs fans will have to put up with TNT and ESPN if they want to watch their team in the second round of the NBA Playoffs. Barry looks forward to watching Game 7 of the Celtics-Bull series on Saturday.

Jerome Solomon of the Houston Chronicle says a former Rockets TV analyst has passed away.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman says former Oklahoma City Thunder coach P.J. Carlesimo has praise for his replacement. Mel has his weekly sports media notebook.

Midwest

George M. Thomas of the Akron Beacon Journal says Fox Sports Ohio has a reason to love the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Marc Katz of the Dayton Daily News waxes poetic about Gillette’s sponsorship of various sports.

Michael Zuidema of the Grand Rapids (MI) Press is worried about ESPN’s Chicago-centric website.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes that the Brewers have extended their TV deal with Fox Sports Wisconsin.

Ed Sherman from Crain’s Chicago Business talks with WGN-TV’s sports production chief Bob Vorwald. Ed says White Sox TV analyst Steve Stone would like to continue to work on sports radio station WSCR. Ed also talks with Steve.

Paul Christian in the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin writes that a local cheerleading team having various disabilities will be featured on the Big Ten Network this weekend.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says the newest sports radio station in the market is last among the three in the ratings. Dan has the local sports radio numbers from the last ratings period.

West

John Maffei of the North County Times says local blackouts of the Anaheim Ducks are only hurting the NHL, not helping it.

Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star says KLAA Lakers analyst Dean Merrill also has a higher calling. Jim also goes over ESPN’s and NBC’s coverage of the Kentucky Derby.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News writes about his experience calling a minor league baseball game for the first time this week. Tom has more thoughts on how he did in his blog. Tom talks with Jim Rome as he was about to watch the horse he owns race at Hollywood Park. Tom reviews the week in blogging.

Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times writes that two of the University of Washington’s first three football games have been picked up by national TV.

Canada

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star says there’s potential for another black eye for hockey with a possible NBC switch away from the Pittsburgh-Washington game on Saturday. Chris writes that TSN will actually air the CFL Draft for the first time on Saturday.

And we’re done.

Just A Few Thursday Links

I’m rushing to finish a project before noon, 11, actually, so I really can’t provide extensive links.

I’ll start with myself today. I have a column at Digital Sports Daily on what else? The NCAA Tournament.

Ray Frager of the Baltimore Sun wants to know what’s the big deal about Suzy Kolber’s hair in HD? Ray says the NCAA Tournament can be heard on the radio in Charm City.

Ed Sherman of Crain’s Chicago Business says a WGN-TV sports anchor decided not to retire this year out of love.

Adam Rose of the Los Angeles Times says the March Madness Sports Illustrated’s cover is out.

Joe Favorito wonders if two other college basketball tournaments that are being played other than the NCAA and NIT have any specific value to the schools playing in them.

38 Cliches again takes MLB Network to task for using the world feed for the World Baseball Classic instead of its own production crew. I’ll agree with this. The production of the world feed has been quite poor and it’s missed key plays.

Maury Brown of the Biz of Baseball says the Dodgers’ Manny Ramirez will be part of DirecTV’s promotional campaign for its CricketTicket pay per view package.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says NBC has renewed with Microsoft for its Silverlight technology to drive its online video streamining for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Mike writes that Gol TV has renewed its rights to show Spain’s top soccer league.

I have to end it there. I’ll be back later.

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.

Some Mother’s Day Links

I hope you’re treating your mom to a nice lunch or dinner today. As we get to our links, don’t forget who helped to put you into this world. Of course, we’ll remember dad next month too. He had a role as well.

Getting to our links, Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News says NBC’s Bob Costas failed to bring the proper emotion to the Kentucky Derby coverage after Eight Belles was euthanized.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post feels the cost of Yankees collectibles is getting out of hand.

From the Albany Times Union, Pete Dougherty writes in his blog that he enjoyed today’s edition of The Sports Reporters on ESPN as Mike Lupica was not on.

Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette writes that there will be plenty of college sports on the radio today.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says Fox Sports Jeanne Zelasko has plenty of reasons to enjoy Mother’s Day.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says TNT’s studio crew for Inside the NBA will go barefoot tonight for a good reason.

John Ryan of the San Jose Mercury News also has a blurb on the TNT crew going barefoot.

Aileen Voisin of the Sacramento Bee profiles TNT NBA studio host Ernie Johnson, Jr.

The Toledo (OH) Blade’s Ryan Autillo speaks with ESPN First Take host Jay Crawford.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Bob Wolfley talks with former Chicago Bulls TV voice Wayne Larrivee who was droppped from WGN-TV broadcasts.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle asks his readers how important are Rockets radio broadcasts.

Wendy Carpenter of the Tacoma (WA) News Tribune says the players from Central Washington University and Western Oregon have gone on a whirlwind media tour ever since the story broke of the sportsmanship they displayed.

Ron Green, Jr. of the Charlotte Observer writes about Jim Nantz’s new book.

Tom Witosky of the Des Moines Register says it doesn’t appear that Mediacom will be picking up the Big Ten Network anytime soon (scroll down).

Christopher Byrne of the Eye on Sports Media says Buzz Bissinger just doesn’t get it if he continues to defend his swearing on Costas Now.

The Sox & Dawgs blog has good video of two NESN Red Sox promos currrently airing on the network.

The 38Cliches blog says Dave O’Brien tried to instigate Uncle Joe Castiglione during last night’s Red Sox-Twins game.

Awful Announcing has the video of CBC’s Don Cherry calling Detroit a “redneck town” during his ESPN debut.

That’s going to do it. I’ll have the Week Ahead in Sports coming later today. Enjoy your Mother’s Day.

Saturday Quickie Links

As I’m back home after being away for most of the day. I’ll give you some linkage. By the way, I recorded Cubs Forever: Celebrating 60 Years of WGN-TV and the Chicago Cubs which looks back at the longest relationship between a sports team and a television station. From what I’ve seen, it’s very good.

First off, thanks to Neil Best of Newsday for wishing Fang’s Bites a Happy Birthday.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News says the Playmaker, Michael Irvin has made a smooth transition as a sports radio talk show host.

Jerry Garcia of the San Antonio Express-News wonders if anything was learned from the Buzz Bissinger vs. blogs segment on Costas Now.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Dan Caesar writes that a former sports radio talk show host has sued his former station for wrongful termination and may go after the Cardinals next.

Alan Pergament of the Buffalo News has some thoughts on TV sports.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News writes that former ESPN anchor and current KCAL sports anchor Gary Miller embraces blogs.

Andy Tarnoff of On Milwaukee talks with the lovely Trenni Kusnierek of FSN Wisconsin.

Thomas Zambito of the New York Daily News writes that ESPN is being sued by the publishers of the Saturday Evening Post for using a Norman Rockwell painting in “The Bronx is Burning” without permission. Rut ro.

The Sports Media Watch has its weekend ratings predictions.

Jim Jordan of the Lexington (KY) Herald-Leader writes that NBC Sports will air 6 hours of the 2010 World Equestrian Games.

Paul Vigna of the Philadelphia Daily News writes that FSN will look at the one year the Eagles and Steelers combined to form one football team.

Kevin Robbins of the Austin (TX) American-Statesman says golfer Dana Quigley had a very good debut as analyst on the Golf Channel this weekend.

Judd Zulgad of the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that the Western Collegiate Hockey Association is thinking of forming its own TV network and that’s making Minnesota hockey fans a bit nervous.

Keith Reed of the Cincinnati Enquirer writes that Bengals fans may not be able to see the November 20 game against Pittsburgh unless the major cable providers get an agreement with who? The NFL Network! We’re back to playing this game again and it’s not even football season!

And I’ll be back on Sunday with more links.

Some Wednesday Links

I’m back from running errands so it’s time for some links on this Wednesday.

First, I’m seeing increased traffic the last two days. It’s all for my post last year on Hot Chicks, formerly in Sports Broadcasting, who should be back in Sports Broadcasting. It’s mainly for this picture of Jillian Reynolds.

If anyone knows why people are searching for this picture, please let me know.

On to the links.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today says the vacant New York Knicks coaching and GM positions could throw a monkey wrench in the NBA TV analyst world.

Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy spares his usual venom and pays tribute to WBZ-TV sports anchor Bob Lobel who signed off for the last time on Tuesday night.

Adam Leetch of the Portsmouth (NH) Times Herald profiles local resident Dave O’Brien who has his dream job as secondary radio voice of the Red Sox.

Doug Doughty of the Roanoke (VA) Times says the Voice of the Virginia Cavaliers has resigned.

Jeffrey Flanagan of the Kansas City Star writes that the Voice of the Chiefs is not leaving the booth and nor is he moving to TV.

Maury Brown from the Biz of Basketball blog says TNT is still seeing double digit ratings increases for the NBA Playoffs.

Langston Wertz, Jr. of the Charlotte Observer likes Inside the NBA on TNT (scroll down).

From CNN Money, Time Warner is selling off its cable unit which includes CNN, TNT, TBS and HBO.

Greg Augman of the St. Petersburg Times writes that says organizers from the city, ESPN, the Big East and Conference USA are making a presentation to the NCAA for yet another college football bowl game.

The Chattanoogan of Tennessee tells us that FSN’s Amazing Sports Stories will feature a 17 year old girl who struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in 1931.

Chris Dufrense of the Los Angeles Times writes that Fox Sports is not standing in the way of the BCS changing format.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says ESPN Deportes Radio is coming into town.

Len Ziehm of the Chicago Sun-Times reports that the Blackhawks apparently will move to WGN-AM next season.

That’s going to be it for now.

Hello, It’s Wednesday

Time to give you some midweek linkage.

Starting with USA Today, Michael Hiestand writes that The Masters has reached the digital age with live streaming video on cell phones.

Judd Zulgad of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune says ESPN promises not to go overboard when it airs The Masters starting today.

Stan Awtrey in a story picked up by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes about The Masters Par 3 Contest being televised for the first time ever.

Steve Uhles of the Augusta (GA) Chronicle says the Par 3 Contest will be a family affair.

Del Milligan of The Ledger (FL) looks forward to watching The Masters this week.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says despite what’s being reported, he feels the Olympic torch run will continue as planned.

David Scott from Boston Sports Media Watch has the post-mortem from Memphis following the NCAA Men’s Tournament.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle talks about the ratings for the Final Four.

Awful Announcing feels it’s time for Billy Packer to go. And the blog has the Yankees upset at ESPN’s scheduling.

Justin Terranova of the New York Post blogs that SNY plans to continue with phone calls during Mets games during blowouts and rain delays.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times talks about SNY hiring Darryl Strawberry as a studio analyst for Mets games.

The New York Daily News’ Bob Raissman also writes about the Darryl Strawberry hire.

Neil Best of Newsday also talks about Strawberry joining former teammates Keith Hernandez, Ron Darling and Lee Mazzilli as an analyst for SNY. In his blog, Neil has some additional items that did not make his column. And Neil reports that WCBS-TV has cut its Sunday sports wrap-up show as a result of the wave of cuts by the parent company.

Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune writes about some technical difficulties that plagued WGN’s broadcast of Monday’s Cubs-Pirates game.

Jim Williams of the DC/Baltimore Examiner talks with the voice of the Washington Capitals, Steve Kolbe about the Caps-Penguins series.

From the Rocky Mountain News, Aaron Lopez has seven questions for ESPN NHL analyst Barry Melrose.

The Consumerist blog looks into why Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia is not on DirecTV.

William Houston of the Toronto Globe and Mail writes about TSN’s Chris Cuthbert climbing Mount Kilimanjaro earlier this year.

Roger Van Der Horst of the Raleigh News & Observer writes that while Time Warner Cable will now be able to see the Charlotte Bobcats on FSN South, they still cannot watch Orioles and Nationals games on MASN.

Robert W. Dalton of the Spartanburg (SC) Herald-Journal says a South Carolina House subcommittee refused to take up the NFL Network vs. cable dispute.

The Columbus (OH) Dispatch reports that the Big Ten Network will show Ohio State’s spring football game on tape delay.

That’s going to do it for today.

Tuesday Night Linkage

Since I was not able to provide you with links this morning, I’ll combine morning and evening updates to make one huge update tonight. You deserve it.

Starting with Newsday’s Neil Best, he writes that Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain’s weekly radio guest spot on 1050 ESPN Radio was rejected by the higher ups. And Neil writes with Tom Rock that Yankees fans were baffled by the decision to cancel’s Monday’s season opener. Neil reports in his blog that SNY did well in the ratings with the Mets season opener in Florida.

Multichannel News talks about the good ratings for the MLB season openers on ESPN and SNY. John Consoli of Mediaweek says the Sunday night opener on ESPN drew well across the board in most of the the key male demographics. And Julianne Smolinski of TV Week has a version of the ESPN story as well. Alex Weprin of Broadcasting & Cable writes in his blog that Johan Santana’s debut for the Mets scored for SNY on Monday.

The constantly angry Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News criticizes the Yankees for postponing its season opener on Monday with nary a drop of rain.

Friend of Fang’s Bites David Scott of Boston Sports Media Watch says NESN appears to have found a replacement for Fang’s Bites fav Tina Cervasio.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell is down to the Final Two in the Minor League Baseball Logo Contest.

Tim Lemke of the Washington Times writes in his $ports Biz blog that the Washington Nationals opening their new park Sunday night against Atlanta was the highest rated Opening Night on ESPN. Ever.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News looks at the mystery that is Sidd Finch.

Don Ketcham of the Arizona Republic catches up with original Diamondbacks manager Buck Showalter who returns to ESPN this season as a studio analyst.

The Allentown (PA) Morning Call’s Keith Groller talks with Phillies broadcaster Chris Wheeler about another Opening Day.

The San Jose Mercury News picks up a story in which viewers in Santa Cruz County will have trouble finding tonight’s Giants-Dodgers game.

Jeffrey Flanagan writes in the Kansas City Star that FSN had an inauspicious debut on Monday televising the Royals’ season opener.

Josh Hoke of the Myrtle Beach (SC) Sun News tells us that Atlanta Braves fans will have a hard time seeing all of the team’s games this season.

Skip Weaver in the Lebanon (OH) Western Star says Monday’s season opener for the Reds was tough without the late broadcaster Joe Nuxhall.

And the Chicago Tribune reports that the widow of Harry Caray is not happy with AT&T ads having an actor portray the late White Sox and Cubs announcer.

Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune writes that blowouts in the NCAA Tournament have hurt CBS’ ratings.

Paul Gough of the Hollywood Reporter says CBS is hoping for monster ratings in the Final Four with all four #1 seeds intact.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Bob Wolfley says putting North Carolina in primetime for the Final Four makes sense.

Chris Foster of the crosstown Los Angeles Times says ESPN has moved the Tennessee-UCLA football game to open the season on Labor Day. Brian Bennett of the Louisville Courier-Journal says Kentucky and Louisville will play their annual rivalry game the day before Tennessee-UCLA on ESPN.

Paul Costanzo of the Port Huron (MI) Times Herald talks with NBC’s/Versus’ NHL voice Mike Emrick who has been nominated for a Sports Emmy for Play-by-play.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the Blackhawks will be split all 82 games between Comcast SportsNet and WGN-TV for the next three seasons. Teddy Greenstein of the Tribune says WGN-TV will broadcast about 20 games a season. Phil Swann of the TV Predictions site says Dish Network is in talks to carry WGN in HD.

Bob Matthews in the Rochester (NY) Democrat and Chronicle feels ESPN should be getting better matchups for Monday Night Football.

Tony Grossi of the Cleveland Plain Dealer speculates that my Browns could host a Thanksgiving Night game on the NFL Network this season.

Matt Watson of the AOL Sports Fanhouse Blog suggests the NBA take a page from March Madness and run its playoffs like the NCAA Tournament.

William Houston of the Toronto Globe and Mail says it’s unlikely that Canadians will see ESPN on their cable systems even though there’s talk of opening up Canadian TV to more American networks.

Jeff Duncan of the New Orleans Times-Picayune has NBC’s Johnny Miller enjoying last week’s dustup between Bubba Watson and Steve Elkington during the PGA Tour’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

We have two things from CBS Sports. First, we have the rundown for “The Final Four Show” on Saturday, that will run two hours before the first tip. Before “The Final Four Show”, Seth Davis of Sports Illustrated will host a show called, “Road to the Final Four: Outside the Games.”

ESPN says Bob Knight will be heavily involved in the Alleged Worldwide Leader’s coverage of the Men’s Final Four this year. And the Bristol Behemoth tells us that it will have “multiplatform” coverage of the first two rounds of The Masters this year.

Awful Announcing has the video of Tony Kornnheiser and Michael Wilbon pulling an April Fools joke on Pardon the Interruption.

That will do it for tonight.