Fang's Bites

The Mid-Week Linkage

Now that I’ve finished my paperwork, I’ll do some links for you.

Beginning with the Nielsen Ratings Wire blog, it says this year’s World Series should give Fox some big market appeal and with that, ratings.

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand talks with Fox Sports MLB director Bill Webb about his approach to this year’s World Series.

The Sports Business Daily recaps an interesting appearance by an official from the DC NFL team on its flagship radio station, attacking media coverage.

Jon Kelly of Vanity Fair has an interview with “Muhammad and Larry” co-director Albert Maysles.

Sean Gregory of Time magazine takes a look at the ESPN vs. Deadspin feud.

Speaking of Deadspin, an ESPN employee leaked an anti-leaking memo to the site earlier this week.

Deadspin also breaks news that ESPN has let go of football analyst Shaun King.

Eric Deggans writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center wants to know why the ESPN Ombudsman has not weighed in on the whole Steve Phillips affair.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell writes that the legal battle over the America’s Cup continues.

Darren says it appears that the Yankees will just about break even this year.

Darren is impressed over the financing for the Cubs sale.

Darren also profiles prolific baseball card collector Marshall Fogel who was one of the few who didn’t lose his shirt when the card market collapsed.

Mary Paoletti of trufan.com talks with the sometimes pretentious Steve Buckley of the Boston Herald.

Clark Hoyt of the New York Times has a letter exchange between HBO boxing analyst Larry Merchant and Times sports editor Tom Jolly about the perceived lack of coverage of the sweet science in the Grey Lady.

Mike Hale of the Times reviews the ESPN 30 for 30 doc, “Muhammad and Larry”.

To Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union who writes that the local Yankees Radio Network affiliate will have to carry the national ESPN Radio World Series broadcast.

Because I didn’t do links yesterday, I didn’t get to this story, that ESPN college football analyst Bob Griese was suspended by the network for one game over his “out having a taco” comment last Saturday.

Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette gives his World Series prediction.

Alan Pergament of the Buffalo News likes Tim McCarver, but Joe Buck, not so much.

Laura Nachman says Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia’s NLCS coverage was a ratings winner locally.

I’m a bit surprised at the number of Yankees fans I’ve befriended on Twitter with me being a Red Sox fan and all, but I’m doing a favor for my Yankee wife, Meg Marshall who was a guest on a podcast for legendary Philadelphia rock station 94WYSP. She talked about the World Series, of course.

Jim Williams from the Washington Examiner says the local ratings for Monday Night Football involving the inappropriately named DC NFL team were very strong despite its pitiful performance.

Jim writes that Joe Buck is ready to call another World Series for Fox.

MASN is looking for Nationals fans to appear in a new reality TV series.

Tim Lemke from the Washington Times is following the Congressional hearings on concussions and football today.

Barry Horn in the Dallas Morning News says the Yankees in the World Series are no match in the ratings for the Cowboys, at least in the Metroplex.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle says Texas A&M football will be back on TV, but not everyone will be able to see it.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer writes that the Bengals garnered their biggest ratings in the ‘Nati in four years.

John writes that Bengals WR Chad “Do Not Call Me Johnson” Ochocinco will be appearing on Letterman on Thursday. Child, please.

Ed Sherman in Crain’s Chicago Business writes that the Bulls will be hard to find on the radio during the World Series.

Ed is looking forward to watching White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen on Fox during the World Series.

Ed has some questions for new Cubs owner Thomas Ricketts.

In the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Bob Wolfley writes that the NFL is the ratings king in Sudstown.

Heading out west, Tom Hoffarth from the Los Angeles Daily News has the college football TV schedule for SoCal.

Tom also has the NFL TV schedule for Week 8 and notes no Sunday Night game due to the World Series.

Tom looks at a new book hoping to get kids interested in sports.

Tom has Bryant Gumbel’s closing thoughts from last night’s Real Sports.

Tom could not believe Bob Griese was suspended for his taco comment last week.

William Houston in his Truth & Rumours blog still isn’t happy with the explanation on why
journalists are participating in the Canadian Olympic torch run.

William says don’t believe the rumors that CTV will try to bail on broadcasting the 2012 Olympics.

Chris Zelkovich in the Toronto Star says hockey continues to rule the ratings roost in Canada.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail looks at one Rogers Sportsnet host who is no longer with the network.

Continuing with the Canadian links, host of CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada Radio on Sirius, Jeff Marek talks with the Stay Classy blog.

How about one more link to Canada? Last month I was excited about the return of Peter Puck to television. You can check out the video vignettes to date, there are four produced thus far, that have aired on CBC’s Hockey Tonight pregame show and they are available for viewing here in the States. And you can watch the classic episodes as well.

These are late in getting up so I’ll end here for now. I hope to be back later with some links following World Series Game 1 tonight.

Videos of the Week – Peter Puck

Since last week was the debut of “The Adventures of Digger and Friends” on Fox’s NASCAR coverage, let’s go to one of the cartoons that probably started this whole Fox trend of using animated characters to help promote its sports properties. As a kid, I got to watch Peter Puck when NBC had the NHL in the 1970′s. CBC also used Peter Puck and the little guy actually became popular. Only 9 episodes of Peter Puck were produced by cartoon powerhouse Hanna-Barbera, but as you can imagine, they left a mark.

So let’s take a look at the episodes.

In Episode 1, Peter explains how to play the game by going over the offsides and icing rules.

In the 2nd installment of Peter Puck, he talks about epuipment, officials and players.

In episode 3, Peter discusses pucks, stakes and sticks.

In the 4th episode, Peter explains penalties, signs and fines.

Here’s a quick :30 vignette about the Stanley Cup.

That seems to be all of the episodes that are available for now. If I find more, I’ll put them up. If you’re interested, you can buy the complete series on DVD.

It’s A Wednesday Thing

Time to give you some links today.

First, David Scott from the Boston Sports Media Watch talks about changes at the top of Comcast SportsNet New England, changes to the NCAA live blogging policy and rumored changes to the Patriots radio booth.

Newsday’s Neil Best says his blog is part of a 64 sports blog tournament on Busted Coverage. And here’s the actual link to the tournament. By the way, we appreciate being on the blogroll of Busted Coverage.

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand writes about ESPN’s Dick Vitale being silenced by vocal cord surgery and the passing of veteran sports announcer Don Chevrier.

Chuck Bausman of the Philadelphia Daily News also writes about Vitale’s absence.

Chris Zelkovich from the Toronto Star remembers Don Chevrier. Dave Perkins of the Star says Chevrier could practically call any sport well.

Mark Zuckerman of the Washington Times says the Nationals home opener which will unveil the team’s new stadium will be shown on ESPN.

Veteran announcer Roger Twibell, currently of the Big Ten Network and who has done some time in Boston at WBZ-TV and ABC Sports has a new radio gig according to Jeffrey Flanagan of the Kansas City Star.

Bob McClure of the Tampa Bay Newspapers writes that ESPN was in town to shoot a commercial for Little League Baseball.

Multichannel News reports that ESPN won the ratings on Monday for the Minnesota-Chicago game.

Don Walker of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes that officials from the Big Ten and NFL Networks will be talking to the Wisconsin State Legislature on Thursday.

Robert Dvorchak of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says viewers outside the Pittsburgh metro area won’t be able to see the Pittsburgh-St. Louis game tomorrow night either through the NFL Network or KDKA-TV.

Rich Flowers of the Athens (TX) Daily Review says viewers in the local area will be able to watch the Dallas-Carolina game on Saturday thanks to KDFI picking up the NFL Network feed.

You want more NFL Network news? Darry Madden of BostonNOW says the Patriots-Giants game on December 29 won’t be available in the entire New England region.

Ed Bark of the Pegasus (TX) News says ratings for the Eagles-Cowboys game on Sunday were almost equal to the first matchup this season.

Ben Grossman of Broadcasting & Cable says NBC’s Sunday Night Football will have some interactive features this week.

Ashley Fox of the Philadelphia Inquirer has come out in support of Fox Sports’ Pam Oliver in the Donovan McNabb controversy.

I told you earlier this year that Peter Puck was coming back to TV. It’s now official, Peter is on Leafs TV in Canada.

Laura Nachman has an update on KYW’s reaction to Alycia Lane’s arrest.

And there you have it. Those are the links for now.

Tuesday Links

I’m still sad over the replacement of Jerry Trupiano from the Red Sox Radio Network. I’m one of those Red Sox fans who don’t like change and I grew accustomed to listening to Joe Castiglione and Trup every year. Last season, I started to hear inklings that he could be replaced and I was hoping he would come to terms with the Red Sox, but I guess the Sox wanted to go in a different direction. So Dave O’Brien was signed (good move) and Glenn Geffner was signed (bad move) to replace Trup. Regular readers of this blog know how much I’m not enamored with Goofner and his horrible style of broadcasting. O’Brien has been quite smooth in the booth while Goof has been very bad. There hasn’t been a game where he hasn’t made me roll my eyes. Because Jerry was let go late in the offseason, he couldn’t find another baseball play-by-play gig. He has picked up work here and there. Thanks to the 38Cliches blog, Steve Buckley of the Boston Herald has an update on Trup.

We continue to hear fallout of NBC’s decision to drop the NHL Eastern Conference game Saturday in favor of the Preakness Stakes. Richard Sandomir says this should not happen to a major sport in the playoffs and I totally agree.

Neil Best of Newsday kills NBC for its decision calling the cutaway to the Preakness, “one of those historic low moments that someday might be viewed as a turning point for its league — for better or worse.” Neil is a good writer and again, I totally agree.

And because I like his stuff, I’ll give a plug to Best’s Watchdog blog. He’s been quite prolific in his writing.

Bob Raissman of the New York Daily news has a couple of items, one, the Torre watch and two, a story over which Suzyn Waldman confronted Chris Russo (part of Mike and the Mad Dog on WFAN in New York). Russo and his partner, Mike Francesca, have been playing Waldman’s overzealous call of Roger Clemens return a couple of weeks back. I linked to it as well. Let’s just say according to Raissman and Best, it was an expletive laced tirade by Suzyn.

Jim Williams of the Baltimore/DC Examiner reviews the sporting TV weekend in the Baltimore/DC area.

Pat Hickey of the Montreal Gazette continues the criticism of NBC for cutting away from Saturday’s game.

And NBC, rather weakly I might add, tries to defend its decision to throw the NHL game to Versus.

Finally a positive story on the NHL, another link to the return of Peter Puck.

Here’s a story on ESPN.com being the most visited sports website.

This has nothing to do with sports business, but it’s a chance for me to link to a story on a hot chick, golfer Natalie Gulbis who has her own reality show on The Golf Channel. What’s that? You want pictures? You ask and you shall receive.

Very nice to see.

The Portland Trail Blazers has signed a new contract with Comcast to create a new sports channel in the Northwest.

St. Louis Cardinals fans can rejoice. Some 19 games picked up by Fox Sports Net Midwest will be seen on Mediacom Cable.

The new President of The Golf Channel, Page Thompson, answers questions from the Philadelphia Inquirer.

That’s it for now. I might be back a bit later on.

The Return of Peter Puck!

Old school NHL fans (like me) will remember when NBC and CBC ran a cartoon feature in-between periods explaining the nuances of hockey. It was a short called “Peter Puck” and intermission host Brian McFarlane would introduce the cartoons. Peter taught us about icing, offsides, tripping, checking, etc. The idea of Peter Puck was for NBC to introduce hockey to a Southern U.S. audience. Now, there are teams in the Southeast, but in the 1970′s, NBC affiliates in the South were wary of small audiences so they pre-empted the NHL in favor of other programming. Thus, Peter Puck was born in 1973.

The features ended in 1980 and have been barely seen since. But McFarlane did a smart thing, he bought the rights for Peter Puck from Hanna Barbera and has been working to bring the cartoon back. McFarlane is working to have Peter make his re-emergence in DVD’s, clothing and possibly, a new TV show. There’s even talk of having Peter Puck come back on Hockey Night in Canada next season.

As a kid in the 1970′s living in Rhode Island, I liked having Peter Puck around. I know purists hated Peter Puck, but it helped me understand the game.

Toronto Maple Leafs fans will have to deal with more games on Leafs TV and less on TSN and Rogers Sportsnet. They’ll also have to pay more to see the Leafs in person.

Today begins the Players Championship at the TPC in Sawgrass and the Golf Channel will broadcast the first two rounds. Kelly Tilghman will be in the 18th tower with Nick Faldo for TGC. This feature by her hometown Myrtle Beach Sun describes her typical day as she prepares to cover a tournament. She’s the first woman to have a premier play-by-play position for a major sport.

NBC’s coverage of the Players Championship will include shorter and fewer commercial breaks similar to the Masters on CBS.

And with Fox airing Super Bowl XLII in February, the network is giving advertisers an opportunity to widen their audience by providing them a presence on MySpace.

Finally, thanks to 38 Cliches for referencing this blog today.