Fang's Bites

Gary McCord and David Feherty To Appear on CSI. Do They Play Dead?

Sometimes, the sports media extends into the entertainment world and next Thursday will be no exception. Next Thursday, CBS’ golf announcers Gary McCord and David Feherty will play themselves on a new episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. I can already hear the “Jump The Shark” comments about this.

Although I notice golfers Rocco Mediate and Natalie Gulbis there as well, so maybe this won’t be as bad as I’m perceiving right now.

THE CSI TEAM INVESTIGATES THE MURDER OF A GOLF PRO AT A HIGH- PROFILE TOURNAMENT, ON “CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION,” THURSDAY, JAN. 21

Professional Golfers Rocco Mediate, Gary McCord, Duffy Waldorf And Natalie Gulbis Guest Star As Themselves

Former Golfer-Turned-Broadcaster David Feherty And Hair Stylist/Reality Television Star Jonathan Antin (“Blow Out”) Also Guest Star

“Long Ball” —  The CSI team delves into the world of professional golf when the body of a legendary player is discovered during a high-profile tournament, on CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION, Thursday, Jan. 21 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

SERIES REGULARS:

Dr. Raymond Langston…… Laurence Fishburne

Catherine Willows………….. Marg Helgenberger

Nick Stokes………………………….. George Eads

Captain Jim Brass………………….. Paul Guilfoyle

Sara Sidle………………………………….. Jorja Fox

Greg Sanders………………………… Eric Szmanda

Dr. Robbins……………………. Robert David Hall

David Phillips……………………….. David Berman

Hodges………………………….. Wallace Langham

Wendy Simms…………………………… Liz Vassey

GUEST CAST:

Rocco Mediate……………………………… Himself

Gary McCord……………………………….. Himself

Jonathan Antin……………………………….. Himself

Duffy Waldorf……………………………….. Himself

David Feherty……………………………….. Himself

Natalie Gulbis………………………………… Herself

Henry Andrews……………………….. Jon Wellner

Russell Huntley…………………. John M. Jackson

Michelle Huntley…………………… Rosalind Chao

John Dudek………………………. Steven Eckholdt

Danny Nagano……………………… Jason Dohring

Rocco’s Caddy………… Michael Eric Strickland

Erin Nagano………………………….. Melissa Tang

WRITTEN BY: Christopher Barbour

DIRECTED BY: Alec Smight

GENRE:  CRIME DRAMA, MYSTERY, SUSPENSE

RATING:  To Be Announced

I haven’t watched CSI since William Petersen left. Maybe I’ll check this out.

Friday Night Update

Time to give you some links tonight and then I’ll start working on the recap for the Amazing Asia 2.

First, Newsday’s Neil Best says Fox made the right call in protecting three late season Giants games from NBC. Best also says the earth’s rotation did not stop when the NBA decided to mic coaches last night on TNT. And Neil made his podcast debut with the Sports Media Journal today talking about the media coverage of the Sean Taylor story among other things and it was quite good.

USA Today’s NHL Beat Columnist Kevin Allen says Commissioner Gary Bettman needs to get the league on ESPN. Now.

TV Week’s Chris Pursell in his Pressbox blog previews Week 14 in the NFL on TV.

CBS Sports wants you to know that ratings for SEC football games on the network went up this season. And CBS previews the season premiere of NCAA Basketball this weekend. Finally, CBS previews Week 14 of the NFL with Phil Simms, Dan Dierfdorf and Rich Gannon.

I usually don’t put WWE news here, but the organization has signed for two more years on USA Network.

Ted Hearn of Multichannel News writes that Massachusetts Senator John Kerry has written a letter to the National Cable & Telecommunications Association trying to get the NFL Network on cable. Mary McNamara of Multichannel News blogs that a Comcast subscriber in Pittsburgh called the cops when he could not watch the NFL Network.

The Sports Media Watch looks inside the numbers of this season’s college football TV ratings.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch talks with race car driver and this season’s Dancing with the Stars champion, Helio Castroneves.

Awful Announcing points out this strange exchange on ESPN2′s First Take between Skip Bayless, Fang’s Bites fav Sage Steele and Jay Crawford.

The Big Lead reports that Washington Times Wizards beat reporter John Mitchell was suspended after making comments about the Washington Post’s Leonard Shapiro for a column about Sean Taylor.

Sports by Brooks says University of Arizona basketball coach Lute Olsen has extended his leave of absence for the entire season due to an impending divorce.

The Love of Sports says Anna Rawson is going to give Fang’s Bites fav Natalie Gulbis a run for her endorsement money on the LPGA Tour next season.

That will do it until tomorrow morning for the links.

Some Sunday Links

Hello on a scorching Sunday. Hot here in the Northeast, but it’s hot everywhere in the US as well, so I hope you’re running the air conditioner or at least heading to the beach today. Let’s give you some links so you don’t have to do a lot of physical activity (but don’t get stuck to your seat).

Neil Best of Newsday talks with Keith Hernandez who has managed to become of the better local MLB analysts. His work on SNY during Mets games is getting notices.

Bob Raissman in today’s New York Daily News lobbies for Tony Kubek to gain entrance to the Broadcasters’ Wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame. I have to agree. Kubek did excellent work with NBC, TSN and MSG as both an analyst and play-by-play. I feel his best work came in the late 1970′s-early 1980′s when he was first teamed with Joe Garagiola then Bob Costas.

In the New York Post, it looks like Phil Mushnick wrote this particular column in a bad mood. He says if the NFL wants to clean up its image, it had best start with its own NFL Network.

Today is Baseball Hall of Fame inductions in Cooperstown, NY where Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken will see their plaques for the first time. Richard Sandomir of the New York Times writes about the woman who has been responsible for making those plaques since 1995.

And today is finally the day when ESPN returns to airing Nextel Cup races for NASCAR. If you click on your TV sometime before 1 p.m. ET today, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNews and ESPN Classic have all been hyping the return and it’s to the point where you want to avoid the channels. Anyway, despite this ridiculous hype, Paulsen in the Sports Media Watch blog points out the ratings for NASCAR have been in a slump over the past year. Larry Stewart in the Los Angeles Times says the Draft Track feature that will be unveiled today was named out of thin air.

Two entries from Jim Williams in the DC/Baltimore Examiner. First is on the bells and whistles ESPN will offer in the NASCAR race today. Second is a guide on where to watch and listen to today’s Hall of Fame induction ceremonies.

The 38 Cliches blog has been quiet this weekend. That’s because Glenn Geffner is not doing the Red Sox radio broadcasts and Dave O’Brien is leading to joy all over Red Sox Nation. LC does have a funny entry from Friday on what Dave was doing while Glenn was broadcasting 15 Red Sox games in a row.

Big Ten fans will be able to see the conference’s annual media day live on ESPN this Tuesday.

Fang’s Bites fav, Natalie Gulbis has won her first LPGA title in France. To celebrate, we offer one of her hotter pictures from her FHM shoot.

Ok, I don’t think we can do any more today. Enjoy your Sunday.

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.