Fang's Bites

It’s Monday.

Beginning of the work week. It’s hot here in the East. Yesterday, so many people flocked to Rhode Island beaches that they shut down the parking lots and turned cars away. The hot weather that hit the West last week is here in the East so it’s our turn to suffer after a nice start to July. But enough about the weather. This is not a weather blog so let’s get to the Sports stuff.

In May, I wrote about Ninja Warrior on G4. I found that Kaki Sports loves it as well. In fact, the person I linked to in that entry, Kaki Flynn of After Ellen.com, is the keeper of the Kaki Sports blog. Check her out. Kaki links to here so I thank her for that.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today has his Monday column and included is the news that Fox will drop Bill Maas after his arrest this past weekend on gun and drug charges. No official word on the Fox Sports.com site.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post says the MLB steroids investigation by George Mitchell is not strong enough.

Diane Werts of Newsday has high praise for “The Bronx is Burning”. And in the New York Daily News, David Bianculli gives the ESPN mini-series 3 out of 4 stars.

In his blog, Neil Best of Newsday says maybe it’s the right time for Bud Collins to be leaving NBC.

The battles lines have been drawn in the Big Ten Network vs. Comcast fight. Either you’re for the Big Ten Conference to see the football games or you’re for Comcast because you don’t want to pay extra on your cable bill. Frank Bodani of the Evening Sun of Harrisburg and Gettysburg, PA says Comcast is protecting the consumer. Chris Walsh in the Tuscaloosa (AL) News says the Southeastern Conference is watching the launch very closely as the SEC is mulling over whether to launch its own channel.

John Consoli of Mediaweek says ad rates for NBC’s Sunday Night Football are up 25% from last year.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle says Fox Sports Executive Producer Ed Goren is one of several subjects interviewed (including Larry King????) in HBO’s new documentary on the Brooklyn Dodgers that airs this week.

In the Toronto Star, Michael Geist writes a guest column appealing to sports leagues and commissions to give the Internet a chance. Good stuff there. He mentions the stupid NFL restriction on video on websites.

David Snyder sings the praises of Sid Rosenberg, now the morning host of 790 The Ticket in Miami.

John Ryan of the San Jose Mercury News talks about ESPN’s ejection from the All Star Game.

Jason Peterson in the Daily Utah Chronicle, a college newspaper, says ESPN just plain sucks for showing the Rock, Paper, Scissors Championships.

David Neal of the Miami Herald says MLB, NBA NFL and NHL are all dealing with the YouTube era and wondering how to handle clips that end up on the site. Some partner like the NBA and NHL partner up, but the NFL just plain removes them.

Red Sox fans are going to have to deal without Joe Castiglione for the first series after the All Star break. 38 Cliches says Joe C. takes it off leaving us having to deal with Glenn Geffner again. Dave O’Brien will be there, but it’s going to be rough listening to Goof reading off notecards.

That will be it for now. I’ll monitor ESPN Radio at 1 p.m. and I’ll post whatever Dan Patrick says.

Comparing Goofner to Trup

Last night, I was able to listen to both former Red Sox announcer Jerry Trupiano and one of his replacements, Glenn “3 x 5″ Geffner. Thanks to Sirius Satellite Radio, I was able to listen to the College World Series from Westwood One’s NCAA Radio Network. Kevin Kugler and Trup were on the call. For about half an hour, the Oregon State-North Carolina broadcast overlapped with the Red Sox-Padres game on WEEI-FM. The College World Series game was in the 7th inning and the Red Sox-Padres game broadcast was just starting with Goofner and Joe Castiglione at the mike.

Trup was doing color and doing his usual corny jokes, but it was like listening to old friend. Trup was comfortable behind the mike. He was able to pick up certain nuances like pitcher’s arm slots (comes with experience). And it appeared that he meshed well with Kugler who usually works for 1620 The Zone in Omaha.

In the first two innings of the Red Sox-Padres game, Geffner was able to bring some insight into the trading of Doug Mirabelli from the Padres to the Red Sox last season. Instead of reading off 3 x 5 notecards (hence the nickname, “3 x5″), Goof actually sounded authoritative, something he had been lacking all season. But to this blogger, Joe Castiglione went on with his call of the game, not really responding to Geffner (lack of respect perhaps?).

Back to the College World Series, Trup was looking into the possibility of a North Carolina comeback. Down 10-3, the Tar Heels got a home run in the 8th inning and had two men on. Trup said the last thing North Carolina needed was a double play and the next pitch was indeed a 5-4-3 twin killing. Kugler and Trup said for all intents and purposes, the night was done for UNC. Both looked forward for Game 2 and discussed what the Tar Heels had to do to remain in the series. And their chemistry made it sound as if they had been working together for several years. In fact, I enjoyed Kugler and I think he has a potential to make it to the bigs someday.

Over to the Red Sox and the 3rd inning, it seemed Joe decided to take it off and let Geffner do the inning solo. This is where any goodwill that I had for Goof left the building. His play-by-play was weak. He was not strong and did not identify pitches. In fact, he was behind several plays. This is where I could see San Diego Padres lead announcer Jerry Coleman not having any respect for him.

By the time I switched back to the College WS, the game was over, but Westwood One was replaying highlights. One was Trup’s call of a Oregon State rally. There were no home runs so I could not hear, “Way back! Way back!”, but maybe tonight. If you don’t have Sirius Satellite Radio or have a radio station near you that carries the CWS, you can listen to live streaming from NCAA Sports.com, so you can listen to Trup once again.

I finally decided to turn on NESN to get a quality call of the game rather than subject myself to listening to the Goof. While the game turned out to be a downer, at least I could enjoy Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy without having to worry whether I would hear information read off a 3 x 5 notecard.

Friday Night Update

I’m watching the NHL Entry Draft, something I forgot to put in the Primetime Viewing Choices for tonight. But, Versus has not done a good job in promoting the NHL and getting carriage so I simply forgot to list it. Anyway, thank goodness TSN is doing the coverage otherwise listening to Versus’ analysts might be painful.

A few links tonight, then I’ll move to doing the Weekend Viewing Choices.

The Sports Media Blog posted this on Thursday. It’s about how the announcement of a new TV deal with Disney/TNT has been delayed yet again. Overrated NBA Commissioner David Stern kept saying publicly that June 21st was the deadline to announce a deal, but it appears it’ll be unveiled next week.

I’ll give you two links from the 38 Cliches blog which monitors the activities of charlatan Red Sox announcer Glenn Geffner. First, Geffner returns to his old stomping grounds of San Diego this weekend. Nice find by LC linking to a North County Times article by John Maffei which mentions that Goofboy was forced out from the Padres after he himself was forced upon legendary announcers Jerry Coleman and Ted Leitner. And in previewing the weekend series between the Sawx and Friars, LC links to a San Diego Union-Tribune article which quotes our favorite Goof. I just love the fact that Maffei says that Goofner was “jettisoned” from the Padres organization. I don’t have anything to prove this, but I’m beginning to think Geffner muscled his way into the broadcast booth in a similar fashion as how Jay Leno got the Tonight Show from David Letterman.

I forgot to link to this last night. In his blog, Newsday’s Neil Best mentions that former Boston Bruin Mike Milbury is talking to NBC about replacing Brett Hull. Milbury would be a very good choice. He’s worked at ESPN previously.

Don Walker of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has more on the Big Ten Network-Comcast battle.

And it’s not only Comcast that BTN is having trouble with. The Big Ten Network is also battling Time Warner Cable as Kyle Nagel of the Dayton Daily News tells us.

Jim Carlisle of the Ventury County Times has a news and notes column today and he talks Wimbledon being available online. He also has some raves and rants. One of his raves is listening to baseball on XM Satellite Radio and he enjoys Joe Castiglione and Dave O’Brien of the Red Sox. No mention of Glenn Goofner.

Tom Hoffarth of the LA Daily News reports on ESPN’s “My Wish” series. And he has a story on Shaquille O’Neal’s reality program on getting kids to lose weight.

And Tom Jicha of the Miami Sun-Sentinel wonders why tonight’s Twins-Marlins game was not picked up by FSN/Sun.

Weekend Viewing Choices coming up.

Monday, Monday

Back to work on Monday and one thing I noticed from the sports weekend. It seemed the networks did not want to compete with the U.S. Open on NBC. CBS Sports was mostly dark except for an America’s Cup recap late Sunday afternoon. ESPN decided not to feed ABC anything. No WNBA, no celebrity golf, no figure skating repeats, nothing. Fox had baseball on Saturday and Formula 1 racing on Sunday, but other than that, it was the U.S. Open.

I did like the way NBC covered the Open. It wasn’t the Masters where CBS would not talk negatively about Augusta or the golfers. Johnny Miller was on top of things including Jim Furyk’s choice of driver at 17 which turned out to be disastrous and for all intents and purposes, eliminated him from consideration even though he still had a chance to tie Angel Cabrera. Tiger Woods made just two birdies in his last two rounds and the entire NBC crew was quick to point it out. Kudos to Roger Maltbie for asking Tiger about it in the postgame interview. As Cabrera was making shots, it was perhaps best for him to be playing ahead of Furyk and Woods to put the pressure on. Reaction shots of Cabrera as he made birdie at 10 and made excellent approaches on the back nine were covered. And as he went into the clubhouse, NBC cameras were there as Cabrera was watching the action as Woods and Furyk tried to catch up.

As the drama was reaching a crescendo, NBC hardly cut away to commercial and kept Bob Costas to the postgame interview of Cabrera. Johnny Miller was caught up in the action as he watched Woods miss the final putt on 18 to try to force a playoff. He said it was great drama and as Woods missed, you could hear Dan Hicks and Miller trying to catch their collective breaths. Overall, NBC gets an A for its coverage. You can understand why the USGA has kept the U.S. Open on NBC since 1998.

Entourage returned from a two week break with a pseudo documentary of the making of “Medellin”. The MVP of the episode was director Billy Walsh, played by Rhys Coiro. This wasn’t a typical Entourage episode, but it was good. Funny stuff.

Let’s get to the links.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today praises NBC for the U.S. Open.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times has a story about the fight between the Big Ten Network and Comcast. Sandomir says Comcast has fought this battle before, with the NFL Network.

Jim Williams of the DC/Baltimore Examiner talks about honesty making it into sports broadcasts.

Tom Jones of the St. Petersburg Times gives his take on the best and worst of the Sports TV weekend.

In the Houston Chronicle, David Barron says the U.S. Open should garner decent ratings for NBC.

In the 38 Cliches blog, LC notes that writer Chad Finn who is just plain fed up with Red Sox charlatan announcer Glenn Geffner. Who isn’t at this point?

After one season, it appears that Brett Hull is done at NBC. In a news and notes column in the Vancouver Sun, there’s one sentence mentioning that Hull is out. Boy, what a way to make an announcement. Hull did a good job in the studio with Bill Clement and Ray Ferraro.

Funny story of note, CBS and Fox remain uptight about Trojan Condom commercials. The New York Times reports that both networks rejected an ad depicting a condomless pig.

That’s it for now. I’ll be back later with more links.

Primetime Viewing Choices

Slim choices tonight.

First off, I should have added this to the Monday Update entry. 38 Cliches listens to Red Sox announcer Glenn Geffner so you don’t have to. During the team’s west coast road trip, Geffner did all of the games and Sox fans did not get their usual weekend respite with Dave O’Brien. The stretch was cleverly called, “RSN (Red Sox Nation) Held Hostage). And you could tell that LC was getting tired of it. I felt for him, I truly did. I listened to Goofner Friday night in the extra innings win over Arizona and wondered what pictures he has on Larry Lucchino. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, listen to him either through regular radio, MLB Gameday Audio or XM. One listen and you’ll know how Red Sox Nation is suffering with him.

Ok, on to the viewing choices:

Chicago White Sox at Philadelphia – ESPN, 7 p.m.
Making News: Texas Style – TV Guide Channel, 8 p.m.
Big Love (Season premiere) – HBO, 9 p.m.

Thursday Update

Some more links for you today.

Jim Williams of the DC/Baltimore Examiner has the preview of the sports weekend. He also mentions a new show, Fast Cars & Superstars, hosted by ESPN’s Kenny Mayne which premieres before the NBA Finals tonight.

In his Newsday blog, Neil Best reports that SNY Mets analyst Ron Darling has signed a contract extension.

ESPN2 and ESPN360 are showing the MLB Draft from 2 -6 p.m. ET, then MLB.com will pick up the coverage. Watching ESPN’s coverage online, it looks frighteningly similar to the NFL Draft. ESPN’s Karl Ravech, Steve Phillips and Peter Gammons are on hand at Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando. MLB Commissioner Bud Selig is announcing the picks just like NFL Commish Roger Goodell did in April. This being the first year in covering this draft, ESPN is lacking in some video of players, but when they do have video, the network doesn’t hesitate to show it. Plus, Gammons and Phillips give a good perspective on the young players. We’ll see if this becomes successful and goes to the MLB Network in two years. USA Today was live blogging ESPN’s coverage for about an hour.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell has info about Ana Ivanovic of Serbia. Who? She’s a 19 year old tennis player from Serbia and she easily defeated Maria Sharapova today in the French Open semi-finals. She’ll face Justine Henin-Hardenne in the finals on Saturday. If you watched either the Tennis Channel or ESPN2 the last two weeks, you will have noticed how gorgeous she is. Darren linked to some of her pictures from her calendar. I don’t have to link. I can embed it right here.

She’s definitely a rising star.

In our efforts to trash Red Sox announcer Glenn Geffner, the 38 Cliches blog points out that someone made an entry for him in Wikipedia, only to have it removed.

We told you in our Thursday morning links that Versus signed a sublicensing agreement with Fox Sports Net for 5 Big 12 college football games. That agreement also includes 5 Pac 10 games, so Versus basically gets the contract that went to Turner Sports last year (thank you, Sports Media Watch). Now college football fans West of the Mississippi will have the same problems NHL fans have had with Versus and that is finding the channel. Already, I’ve culled the following games to be on Versus, Iowa-Iowa State and Cal-Stanford. Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle says fans of both teams may have trouble finding the channel.

Ron Kantowski of the Las Vegas Sun remains skeptical that the Mountain West Conference can gain wider distribution for the Mtn. channel. Thus far, the Mtn. has a few deals with various cable companies, but nothing major.

DirecTV has announced expanded coverage for the US Open Golf Championships next week including four dedicated channels. DirecTV says:

DIRECTV’s U.S. Open Mix channel (216) will offer four channels on one screen, tunable by remote to full-screen channels that will include ESPN’s weekday national telecast and three channels that will air live from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, June 14, and Friday, June 15.

DIRECTV’s U.S. Open coverage will include:

ESPN National Telecast – The first mix cell will be devoted to the ESPN national telecast of the championship. During the 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. ET window, the channel will feature the NBC national broadcast to coincide with NBC’s national broadcast rights for the event.

“Featured Group” and “Featured Holes” – During the morning and early afternoon, the second channel will feature specific players as they make their way through their round. On Thursday’s opening round, the channel will feature Tiger Woods and his player group; on Friday, Phil Mickelson and his player group will be the focus.

During the late afternoon and evening, the channel will feature coverage of championship play specific to either the 8^th and 9^th holes or 17^th and 18^th holes.

“U.S. Open Up Close” – This channel will be a hosted production featuring a mix of player interviews from the Oakmont Country Club driving range, as well as press conferences with players and championship officials as they occur.

“U.S. Open Highlights” – The fourth and final corresponding channel will offer a loop of U.S. Open highlights that will be continually updated as the first two rounds unfold.

Having DirecTV, the expanded coverage for the NFL, MLB, NCAA Tournament, US Tennis Open and French Open has been an absolute joy. I’m sure next week’s interactive golf coverage will be just as enjoyable.

Primetime Viewing choices coming up.

More Wednesday Links

Some more stuff for you on this Wednesday. The end of the day can’t come fast enough for me.

Dan Snyder (yes, the Redskins owner) owns three radio stations to carry his team’s football games. Known as Triple X-ESPN Radio in the DC area, it has had to pick up some other inventory to fill time and today, Synder’s Red Zebra Broadcasting has signed with Virginia Tech to pick up its football and basketball games. In addition, Triple X will carry the ACC basketball tournament.

I admit I’m not into motorsports, but every once in a while, if there’s nothing on, I’ll take a gander at NASCAR. It’s not exciting to me, but I don’t begrudge anyone who’s a fan. Believe it or not, the New York Times has a blog devoted to automotive and it’s done by Jerry Garrett. He critiques the commentary on the races done this past weekend by NBC, Fox and ABC.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post is not enamored with NBA Commissioner David Stern and he correctly takes the Commish to task for stretching out the playoffs for two full months. There was once a time when the NBA Finals actually finished in May. Not anymore.

Also in the Post, a story on Yankee 3rd baseman Alex Rodriguez being seen with a woman in Toronto, while his wife, Cynthia was back in New York with their kids. Now what this means, I’m not certain, but I know the Post is trying to insinuate something is going on between the two. I’m not judging this. Yet. Apparently, A-Rod was with this woman and two other men heading to a Toronto strip club. Decide for yourself if there’s something going on. Here’s the story.

Finally, the bashing of Red Sox “announcer” and I now put that in quotes, Glenn Geffner continues. He continues to mumble his way through Red Sox games. Fans are up in arms and continue to write about his awful calls. Over at 38 Cliches, there are two links, one to a blog that cannot stand Goofner and another which inexplicably likes him. But it’s good to show an opposing view every once in a while. I’m really hoping 2008 will be Geffner-free. Maybe during Presidential campaign season, we ask candidates in both parties to promise to outlaw Geffner from any more Red Sox broadcasts. The first one to guarantee Geffner’s ouster will be promised the entire New England region as a block of votes. Yes, I’m being silly, but I’m operating on just a few hours of sleep.

We’ll be back later with primetime viewing choices. It’ll be tough tonight as it’s mostly repeats on the networks and the cable channels are gearing up for their premieres in June.

Some Stuff I Missed

I can bring you more stuff because it’s fun to do.

The Biz of Baseball website says the MLB Network will have the biggest cable/satellite launch ever, reaching some 47 million homes when it turns the switch on next year. That’s bigger than MSNBC when it launched in 1996. Of course, the cable universe was smaller back then. Here’s a list of operators which will and will not carry the network at launch. When you have heavy hitters Bright House, Cablevision, Charter, Comcast, Cox, DirecTV and Time Warner on board, that’s a lot of customers who’ll be able to see the channel. Among those not carrying are Dish Network and Mediacom. The numbers of those not carrying will likely shrink before launch.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell has some good stuff today. He says the ratings for the NBA Finals, projected to be San Antonio-Detroit has low numbers written all over it and he cites evidence that the Spurs are not a national draw. And Rovell links to this article from Bob Keisser from the Long Beach Press-Telegram saying the NHL’s ratings are lower than among other telecasts, the WNBA and Arena Football.

Joe Davidson of the Sacramento Bee says Comcast is going to be a major player in the Bay Area now having purchased Fox Sports Net Bay Area. FSNBA has the rights to the Oakland A’s, San Francisco Giants, Golden State Warriors and San Jose Sharks. Comcast’s own channel in the area has just the Sacramento Kings so when these two channels are merged, it’ll be a powerful Regional Sports Network.

Over to Milwaukee and the Journal-Sentinel’s Bob Wolfey, who says that the NBA is not on the national radar right now.

The Boulder Daily Camera (strange name for a newspaper, but maybe it’s me) has a story on the Big 12 Conference naming Dallas as host for its football title game in 2009 and 2010. In addition, the conference has decided to move its basketball conference tournament final to a Saturday night. It’s currently on Sunday afternoon.

John Maffei of the North County Times says it may be playoff season in the NBA and NHL, but he says finding the games and the times can be difficult.

Tom Hoffarth of the LA Daily News has his news & notes column which includes his take on the hiring of Keyshawn Johnson by ESPN.

Judd Zulgad from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune has news that Fox Sports Net North has signed the Minnesota Timberwolves to a new contract which means the RSN has all four major teams in the Twin Cities under its umbrella.

Doug Nye in the State (SC) says even though the University of South Carolina left the ACC for the SEC, TV execs still consider Columbia as an ACC market. Nye says this sometimes causes problems.

Thanks to the 38 Cliches blog, we have another anti-Glenn Geffner article, this one from Barstool Sports, a Boston free magazine. From its Random Thoughts for yesterday, the writer has some pretty harsh words for Goofie. If you want to scroll from that post, you can check out some pretty nice pics of Lindsey Lohan, another Fang’s Bites fav.

That’s it for the time being. I’ll be back with primetime viewing choices and maybe some more goodies later. Long weekend so have fun.

More Thursday Stuff

Some more links for you this afternoon.

It’s been five days since NBC’s fateful decision to dump the thrilling Ottawa-Buffalo game going into overtime to Versus which hardly anyone gets in favor of the Preakness Stakes. Newspaper writers and bloggers have all attacked both NBC and the NHL for allowing this to happen. Al Strachan who has made appearances on CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada has written a column on Fox Sports.com and he takes NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman to task for ruining the league going back to 1994. I have to agree. While the NBA has fallen to new TV rating lows, the NHL has sunken even further. Strachan says the league had quite a bit of momentum after the New York Rangers won the Stanley Cup in 1994, but it’s now struggling to get viewers.

Maybe this is a bit of justice, but the final ratings for the Preakness Stakes were down 9% from last year.

Jim Williams of the Baltimore/DC Examiner writes about IRL’s Indianapolis 500 and NASCAR’s Coca Cola 600, both of which are run this Sunday.

Our friend, LC in the 38 Cliches blog says Red Sox radio announcer Glenn Geffner may not do 100 games as he was quoted before the season. I certainly hope so. In fact, I hope the Red Sox brass take Geffner off the radio for the rest of 2007.

Canadians will be watching the French Open on TSN for the next four years.

That’s it 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.

More Monday Links

As I continue to scour the internet for stuff, here are some more good articles for you.

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star scolds NBC for leaving the Ottawa-Buffalo game in favor of the Preakness. Zelkovich also says the NHL isn’t even making a big stink about it.

David Neal of the Miami Herald says this is similar to the 1968 Heidi Game when NBC pulled out of the Oakland Raiders-New York Jets game before the ending.

In his column, Phil Mushnick takes a few people to task including NBC for cutting away from the hockey game.

William Houston of the Toronto Globe and Mail also has some harsh words for NBC.

Even with the cutaway from the game, ratings for the Preakness were down from last year.

I enjoy reading Darren Rovell’s blog on CNBC.com. Today, he talks about how difficult it will be for ESPN to promote the Belmont Stakes next month without a Triple Crown candidate.

Over the weekend, I have to admit that I didn’t pay much attention to the Braves-Red Sox series. I did catch some action on NESN here and there when I was switching away from the Ninja Warrior marathon on G4. I did go out late Sunday afternoon and Dave O’Brien was doing the game on radio with Joe Castiglione. I again reiterate how enjoyable the two work together as compared to when laughingstock Glenn Geffner is in the booth. O’Brien who has experience in the radio booth from his days with the Florida Marlins, gets the basics down; Pitch, count, ball or strike, then the count again. Geffner gives us something else. What exactly that is, I’m not sure. But realize this, O’Brien and Castiglione have already established an excellent chemistry. Geffner is choppy and even though he’s worked a great number of games with Joe C, has yet to mesh with Castiglione.

It did take about 30 total games (spring training and regular season) for Jerry Trupiano to mesh with Castiglione when they were first paired together, but they got their act down to form a very good radio team. O’Brien and Castiglione have not worked a full schedule as of yet, but they seem to enjoy working together and have formed a potentially strong team when Dave gets to work full-time next season. I don’t hear that with Geffner and I feel he’ll always be perceived as a third wheel as part of the Castiglione-O’Brien team.

We’ll have prime time viewing choices later.

Friday Links

Well, now that the network upfronts are over, we can decompress, and get back to the focus of this blog. But I’ll have an analysis of the schedules later today. First things first, the links to the sports media columns as there are usually a ton of them across the country.

We’ll go from East Coast to West Coast as usual. Starting off in Boston and the Globe, Susan Bickelhaupt writes about the changes in ESPN programming, plus mentions the troubles some disenfranchised Red Sox fans in Connecticut who can’t get NESN on their cable systems.

David Scott from Boston Sports Media Watch has his Friday column in which he criticizes NESN announcers Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy for not asking hard questions to MLB Commish Bud Selig last night. The Commish was asked about whether he would be on hand to commemorate Barry Bonds breaking Hank Aaron’s home run record and Selig was wishy-washy as usual. I don’t think there was much more Orsillo or Remy could have done in that situation in my opinion, but again, NESN is not there for journalism as it is mostly owned by the Red Sox.

Scott also gives this tidbit on my favorite whipping boy, Glenn Geffner. If it’s true, then it gives me plenty of joy this drab and rainy Friday morning in New England.

(Scott) has been told that it’s no coincidence that Dave O’Brien is being used in conjunction with Joe Castiglione on the in-game Giant Glass radio spot (and alone for O’Brien’s deck builder spot) instead of those advertisers choosing Castig’s other part-time partner, Glenn Geffner.

It appears the buyers weren’t comfortable with the understated Geffner and felt much better with the booming voice of O’Brien. The thinking also lends some support to the notion that Geffner is a one-and-done Sox broadcaster, who is being given the chance to get some audition reels together and will be encouraged (if not helped) to seek a gig in a smaller market, where he can further polish his skills. (Geffner is certainly a capable booth man, but, as we’ve opined before, he pales in comparison to the ultra-talented Obie, who is beginning to develop a nice rapport with ‘Stig. Geff would be well-served with a three to five year stint in a smaller market, followed by a possible return to Fenway if his guy, Larry Lucchino is still around by then. For Geff, there’s no shame in being less noteworthy than Obie – the guy’s a major national commodity.)

I wouldn’t go so far to say Goofner is capable. He’s not the type of announcer that Red Sox fans are accustomed to and after the enjoyable Jerry Trupiano was forced out last season, listening to Geffner has been a unenviable task.

Our friend, LC, who runs the 38 Cliches blog listened to both Red Sox-Tigers games yesterday. It appears that Dave O’Brien made it in for the second game while Goof did the afternoon session. LC says the game with O’Brien at the mike was a much better listen.

Over to New York, Neil Best has been energized by doing his blog. He has a very good story today on Lee Mazzilli, the former Met and the former Yankee coach (and Orioles manager to boot), getting adjusted to his new role as studio analyst at SNY for Mets games. In his blog, Best says he’s going to review an episode of MSG Vault, focusing on Game 6 of the 1979 New York Rangers-New York Islanders series that changed hockey in the New York area for the next decade.

Tonight begins Interleague play in baseball, a gimmick which I have hated from Day 1, but as long as Selig is Commissioner, it’s not going to change. New York fans think the Subway Series between the Yanks and Mets is the biggest story in baseball this weekend and Fox and ESPN will show their games this weekend, but fans across the country don’t care as much as the networks think we do. Anyway, Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News says this weekend’s series is different for the Yankees as compared to previous years.

The New York Times’ Richard Sandomir says fans may not like the networks force-feeding Yankees-Mets to most of the nation, but he says the numbers spell out good ratings for these games.

Over to the New York Post where curmudgeon Phil Mushnick says the NBA got it right for handing down suspensions for the Spurs-Suns brawl this week. The Post’s Pat Reichart writes that Yankee fans can see Roger Clemens’ first minor league start live on ESPN2 tonight or via taped highlights during the Yankees-Mets game tonight on YES.

In Philadelphia, 76er fans won’t have Steve Mix on Comcast Sportsnet telecasts next season.

Laura Nachman says it’s a waiting game for some minor league baseball announcers hoping to get the call to do major league games.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today has four mini-columns in one, but his most entertaining focuses on TNT’s Craig Sager who has found himself in some of the strangest places when it comes to the greatest moments in sports history.

The big sporting event in Baltimore this weekend is The Preakness Stakes, the second jewel in horse racing’s Triple Crown. Ray Frager of the Baltimore Sun talks about NBC’s coverage which will end the network’s coverage of major horse racing for the year.

Jim Williams of the Baltimore/DC Examiner wonders if the Preakness has the legs to continue as a national event.

Down to Miami where Barry Jackson of the Herald has a nice story on Dr. Jack Ramsey who’s battling cancer and caring for his wife who has Alzheimer’s Disease. As many of you know, Dr. Jack does work on ESPN Radio as an analyst for the NBA.

Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune gives his weekend viewing picks for Chicagoans. Greenstein also has a story about a minor on-air incident involving Cubs radio analyst and homer (lovable I should add), Ron Santo.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle talks with Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy who’ll be working the Spurs-Suns game tonight on ESPN.

To the left coast, Larry Stewart of the LA Times has a story on the interactive network, TVG which focuses on horse racing. TVG has been shut out of the Preakness Stakes and not allowed to take bets on the race. In his news & notes column, Stewart has stuff on this weekend’s Preakness, the Speed Channel’s foray into its very first NASCAR race and the lack of high definition in the LA area.

More links later.

I Feel for Red Sox Fans Listening on the Radio Tonight

I really do. That’s because Glenn Geffner returns after being away for a weekend as Dave O’Brien was in the booth with Joe Castiglione. Goofner was on NESN Saturday night doing the Pawtucket Red Sox game. TV is not a good medium for him either. He was just as bad on TV as he is on the radio. Right now, there is no medium safe from him.

He’ll be doing the entire Detroit-Red Sox series that runs from tonight through Thursday.

Friday Links

Lots of stuff for the upcoming sports weekend. We have the NHL and NBA Playoffs in full swing. The Players Championship continues. There’s MLB on Fox and ESPN plus the decision that came down late Thursday against the NFL Network. Let’s get to the national links.

First from Boston, Dave Scott of Boston Sports Media Watch continues to look into Ron Borges of the Boston Globe. Good article from Scott looking into possible conflicts of interest with Borges covering the De La Hoya – Mayweather fight last week while he may or may not have been on the payroll of De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions. Borges returned to the Boston airwaves this week hardly sounding contrite or remorseful for being caught plagiarizing a football notes article two months ago. The Globe isn’t commenting and the Boston Newspaper Guild is defending Borges (why?). Scott goes into the entire matter and certainly does his due diligence in asking Golden Boy why Borges was working for them.

The Globe’s Susan Bickelhaupt writes about the transition of the Red Sox from Entercom’s WEEI to WRKO this season. WEEI/WRKO Program Director Jason Wolfe said he’s received positive feedback regarding Glenn Geffner. I find that hard to believe. In fact, the anti-Geffner blog, 38 Cliches calls Bickelhaupt’s article “rose colored” and I agree with that. Today’s entry says,

“Let’s deconstruct this a little bit. First, we know that Geffner in particular has not been “very well received”. The undersigned writer plumbs the depth of the digital and print opinions on the subject and offers both the good and bad on a daily basis. There is very little positive said about Geffner.”

Some disclosure here, I’m a member of the Remy Report Message Board and I started a thread titled, “The I Miss Jerry Trupiano Thread”. I thought it would get just a few replies, but I find a new complaint there almost every day. And when I’m in chat with members who listen to the games via the internet, there are complaints about Geffner’s style. And the complaints are getting louder. I put a link to 38Cliches on my site and I will continue to support it as long as it’s in existence.

As mentioned, golf’s “5th major”, the Players Championship, is taking place this weekend. Michael Hiestand of USA Today has a feature on NBC’s coverage and the 17th hole in particular, which is the TPC at Sawgrass’ signature hole. You’ve seen it, the island green that has caused the indigestion of many a golfer yesterday. Hiestand also has a blurb on a story that former US Women’s Soccer team member Julie Foudy will have on pregnancy and women’s college sports for ESPN’s excellent Outside the Lines program. From what I’ve read, the fact that some student-athletes are getting abortions to avoid losing their scholarships is quite alarming.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times has a story about Roger Mayweather considering broadcasting as a new career.

The New York Post’s Pat Reichart has 5 questions for YES analyst Al Leiter.

Neil Best of New York Newsday has updated his column from last night.

Bob Raissman is showing his colors a bit. He has some harsh words for Roger Clemens.

Jim Williams of the Baltimore/DC Examiner has a feature on “When Good Broadcasters Go Bad”. Two examples, Gary Thorne on MASN making his comments about Curt Schilling’s bloody sock being faked, and Rick Dempsey really digging a hole for himself by using domestic abuse references on Jay Gibbons while interviewing Gibbons’ wife as she promoting a drive by the Baltimore Orioles’ wives on behalf of a battered women’s shelter. To Laura Giuliani’s credit, she just sat quietly. When will people ever learn?

Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune writes about Fox using microphones for umpires and giving them an opportunity to show their humorous side.

The State’s (South Carolina) Doug Nye writes that the NBA is struggling to find viewers. To be honest, I’m finding myself less interested in the NBA since 1999 and really don’t care who wins.

The Toronto Star’s Chris Zelkovich says a new TV rights deal between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Rogers Sportsnet will have widespread implications across Canada.

Marc Narducci of the Philadelphia Inquirer is not supportive of an idea to spread the NFL draft over a three day period and have the first round on Friday in primetime.

Staying in Philly, Laura Nachman of Philly Burbs.com has a profile on Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports.

The NFL says it will appeal the ruling handed down yesterday that Comcast could put the NFL Network on a sports tier.

Jay Posner of the San Diego Union-Tribune applauds NFL Commish Roger Goodell for opening up access to the media.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has an additional article about Fox miking MLB umpires.

Larry Stewart of the LA Times has more on NBC reducing the amount of commercial breaks in the Players Championship, plus he writes about the increased high definition coverage of sporting events.

And John Maffei of the North County Times has an extensive media column today and he has info on NBC and the Players Championship, review of ESPN’s reworked First Take (formerly Cold Pizza), and the son of the late “Voice of God” voiceover artist, John Facenda, suing over the use of his dad’s voice in ads and video games.

We’ll have the primetime viewing choices and perhaps some more links later.

Wednesday Afternoon Links

A couple of news items for you today.

Embattled Boston Globe writer Ron Borges appeared on the Michael Felger show on ESPN Radio in Boston today. Bruce Allen of Boston Sports Media Watch has the story including some updates on the Curt Schilling comments on Barry Bonds. Bruce’s site is one of the best watchdog media sites in the nation and he usually keeps a sharp eye on the hypocrisy that is the Boston sports media. For those of you who are interested in media matters, bookmark his site or subscribe via RSS. You won’t go wrong.

The 38 Cliches blog continues to monitor Red Sox radio announcer Glenn Geffner. Last night, it blogged the broadcast from Toronto and it wasn’t pretty as I noted in my post below. Not pretty at all.

Later this month, the miniscule Tennis Channel begins its coverage of its first Grand Slam tennis tournament, the French Open. Currently, it’s available in only 10 million households, but it will go up to as many as 50 million viewers thanks to DirecTV which will carry its coverage. The Tennis Channel will team with ESPN to bring the French Open to the US. The New York Sun has more on the story.

Racing fans will be able to watch the Indianapolis 500 in Hi Def. This will be the only Indy Racing League event to be in HD, however.

The Big 12 Conference may have some of its Saturday night football games sold to ESPN from current rights holder Fox Sports Net. FSN has the cable contract to televise football games. For the past few years, FSN has subleased games to TBS, but Turner opted out this year to concentrate on the MLB postseason. According to the San Antonio Express, talks are heating up between FSN and ESPN. The over-the-air contract is held by ESPN. The Express reports that other possibilities are the NFL Network, Versus or even FSN itself.

Speaking of the NFL Network, starting this Thursday, it will delve into its library and televise some of the original broadcasts of the league’s classic games. It will be called NFL Classics, of course. Here are the schedule of games for this month:

May 10 at 8 p.m. ET
Chicago Bears vs. Arizona Cardinals (ESPN, 2006)

May 17 at 8 p.m. ET
Indianapolis Colts vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (ABC, 2003)

May 24 at 8 p.m. ET
Miami Dolphins vs. New York Jets (ABC, 2000)

May 31 at 8 p.m. ET
Houston Oilers vs. Buffalo Bills (NBC, 1993)

You can more details on the games at the link above.

Primetime Viewing

Red Sox at Toronto – NESN, 7 p.m.
Jericho (season finale) – CBS, 8 p.m.
Lost – ABC, 10 p.m.

Glenn Geffner is getting worse

Last night, I listened to the Red Sox-Toronto radio broadcast as I was out and about. I truly believe that the Red Sox have made a grave mistake in hiring this man as the third announcer. Dave O’Brien was hired from ESPN to be Jerry Trupiano’s replacement, but he is unable to work a full schedule because of his commitments to Monday Night Baseball and Thursday Night Soccer. To make a long story short, Geffner works when O’Brien can’t.

Main announcer Joe Castiglione must be pulling his hair out when Geffner works in the booth. Red Sox fans truly deserve better as Geffner obsesses on certain points and doesn’t let go. Last night, he was talking about some nude beach in Toronto and asked Castiglione if he visited it. And he wouldn’t let go either. I don’t care. Talk about the game. He’s terrible. When O’Brien is with Castiglione, the broadcast flows. When Geffner is on, I change the station.

One link for you. The Players Championship is on this weekend. After a month and a half of CBS covering the PGA Tour, NBC takes over. This means Johnny Miller will be in the 18th tower with Dan Hicks. But the thing is, Miller is not popular with the pros as he’s very blunt. Mike McCarthy of USA Today cites Sports Illustrated 6th Annual PGA Tour Player Survey in which Miller is extremely unpopular. McCarthy says while the professionals don’t like Miller, viewers do.

We’ll have updates as they warrant.

Political Potpourri

This does not mean I’m going political, but stealing a phrase from John McLaughlin, I’ll do a mishmash of links on Fridays from the various media columns across the country. Depending on the time, I can do it early on Fridays or in the case of today, I’ll update things as the day progresses.

First, the return of Ron Borges to the Boston Globe and unfortunately, to the public airwaves. He was suspended two months ago for plagiarizing a football notes column from the Tacoma (WA) News Tribune. Cold Hard Football Facts chronicled the entire debacle when it happened two months ago. Before the incident occurred, Borges was notorious for being a contrarian and getting under New England Patriots fans’ skin. His prediction that the Pats would lose 73-0 to the St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI is an example. Blogger Dave Scott of Boston Sports Media Watch has some suggestions for Borges as he comes back from disgrace this weekend.

Red Sox fans have not been too thrilled with Glenn Geffner as one of the replacements for ousted Jerry Trupiano. Trup was known for his calls of “WAAAAAAY BACK! WAAAAAAAAY BACK! FFFFFFFOOOOOWWWWWWLLL BAAAAAAWWWWWLLLLL!” on Red Sox radio broadcasts for 15 seasons starting in 1993. His contract was not renewed by the Red Sox in favor of a two man replacement, Geffner and Dave O’Brien, who’s been doing work for ESPN and the New York Mets. The general consensus among fans on message boards and the media is that O’Brien is more polished of the two. Geffner’s calls have sounded forced to this blogger. And because of O’Brien’s schedule with ESPN, calling Monday Night Baseball and Thursday MSL, Geffner has been getting the majority of games. One blog, 38Cliches has been tracking Geffner and has been critical. I think it’s deserved and I don’t think Geffner’s going to get any better.

If you’re wondering, here’s a list of Red Sox Broadcasters dating back to 1926. I kid you not.

To the national front, the NBA Playoffs may be compelling, but they’re not necessarily translating to eyeballs in front of the TV set. Yes, great upset by Golden State, the 8 seed out West upsetting No. 1 seed Dallas, but that means Dirk Nowitski is out along with Shaq and Kobe. The lack of marquee names could hurt ABC/ESPN and TNT in the long run. Michael Hiestand of USA Today says the lack of true rivalries in this year’s playoffs could lead to record lows for the NBA’s network partners. I agree. The NBA has seen record ratings in the regular season. I don’t mean record highs, I’m talking record lows for ABC which at one point this season, tied the NHL. It hasn’t hit the notorious zero-point-zero yet, but give the NBA a year or two and it just might.

We’ll have more later.