Quickie Tuesday Links

Let’s do some linkage while I can. Again, I’ve been away from the computer for most of the morning. Too busy.

Right after the end of the final Monday Night Football game of 2012 featuring Jon Gruden at the mic, reports surfaced that this ESPN analyst was a candidate for several potential coaching jobs including one in St. Louis. Michael Hiestand of USA Today says ESPN is trying to squash those rumors saying Gruden is committed to remaining at the network. In October, Gruden signed a new five year contract giving ESPN exclusivity and first right of refusal to any coaching offer. The next contract takes effect next year so if he takes an offer now, he would not fall under any penalty. We’ll see what happens here.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch has a take on Dana Jacobsen leaving ESPN First Take and why Skip Bayless seems to be taking more of a role on the show.

The great Jon Bois at SB Nation has the 25 Greatest Sportscasting Moments of 2011.

Bob’s Blitz asks who has the worst voice in sports broadcasting?

Sam Schechner and Christopher S. Stewart from the Wall Street Journal look at why cable programmers try to bundle less popular channels with their heavy hitters and how it leads to big disputes.

The WSJ’s Gabriele Marcotti explains why the English Premier League chooses to play so many games between Christmas and New Year’s Day.

The mysterious Nikki Finke from Deadline tells us what to expect from the new NBC Sports Network in 2012.

Barry Petchesky at Deadspin notes that ESPN omitted the hockey players who died from its year-end remembrances.

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk says Cincinnati Bengals fans are responding to the call to avoid a 7th blackout this season.

Kelly McBride of the Poynter Institute wonders if ESPN can serve the female sports fan.

Glenn Davis from SportsGrid has the video of Betty White’s open for the final Monday Night Football game of the season.

Brian Lowry of Fox Sports notes that the NBA is back in a big way.

The Voice of America’s Tala Hadavi talks with ESPN’s Arash Markazi about beating cancer not just once, but twice.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell wonders if a new and untested ice bath machine might have hurt an NBA player’s chances to return to his team.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times writes about the NBA’s big ratings for its return on Christmas Day.

Evan Weiner of the New Jersey Newsroom says the NBA picture is not as rosy as Communist Sympathizer David Stern would have you believe.

Randy Ludlow of the Columbus Dispatch has ESPN accusing Ohio State of trying to hide the truth in a case being heard in the Ohio Supreme Court.

Bill Dwyre of the Los Angeles Times has a feature inexplicably praising the Perpetually Angry Doug Gottlieb of ESPN Radio.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail has a look at the biggest sports media stories in Canada and the US in 2011.

I’ll end there for now. I hope to bring you more links later.

What the Fuck Does This Mean? Grantland’s Insufferable 2nd Commercial

I guess this is supposed to be a high brow commercial for Captain Blowhard’s site, Grantland. A woman spouting nonsense and the guy allegedly figuring what the hell she’s talking about. There was already an ad for Grantland featuring a bookie taking a bet on how many words Blowhard would churn out in a column which is highly inaccurate since he hardly writes anymore.

Anyway, try to figure out what the hell this woman is saying. Does anyone seriously talk like this? If you do, then expect a punch in the mouth.

It’s late and it’s a holiday weekend. I don’t need a 30 second commercial trying to make me think.

SEC Football TV Schedule For November 6

I’ve been lax on providing the SEC football TV schedule over the last few weeks, but I have next Saturday’s slate of games.

Take a look.

SEC Football Schedule For November 6th Announced

SEC FOOTBALL SCHEDULE FOR NOV. 6 GAMES SET

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (Oct. 25, 2010) – Eight games are on the Southeastern Conference football slate for Saturday, Nov. 6, including three conference games.

CBS Sports will televise the Alabama at LSU game at 2:30 p.m. CT (3:30 p.m. ET). The Crimson Tide (7-1, 4-1 SEC) are sixth in the latest AP, USA Today and Harris Interactive polls and seventh in the BCS Standings. The Tigers (7-1, 4-1 SEC) are 12th in AP, Harris Interactive and BCS Standings and 13th in the USA Today rankings.

The series has been competitive through the years with Alabama holding a 45-23-5 edge in the series, but LSU has won seven of the last 12 meetings. Since 2000, the average winning margin of the series has been 12.6 points, with five games decided by 9-points-or-less. The winner of this game has represented the Western Division in the SEC Championship Game the last three years and five of the last seven years.

ESPN will feature the Arkansas at South Carolina as its primetime game at 7 p.m. ET (6 p.m. CT).  The game pits the schools that started play in the SEC in 1992.  These two teams have met every year since, with Arkansas holding an 11-7 edge.  Since 2000, the average winning margin of the series has been 11.9 points, with five games decided by 9-points-or-less. 

The Florida at Vanderbilt game will be shown on the SEC Network starting at 11:21 a.m. CT (12:21 p.m. ET).  Florida leads the series 32-9-2.  Two of the last five meetings have been within a touchdown including a 49-42 Gator double overtime win in 2005 and a 25-19 Florida win in 2006.  Check the local listings for the affiliates in your area.
               
The Louisiana-Lafayette at Ole Miss game will be televised by ESPNU at 6 p.m. CT (7 p.m. ET).  The Tennessee at Memphis game will air on CBS College Sports as part of the Conference USA TV package at 7 p.m. CT (8 p.m. ET).
               
The games that are on institutional packages on Nov. 6 include:  Chattanooga at Auburn (12 p.m. CT / 1 p.m. ET), Idaho State at Georgia (12:30 p.m. ET / 11:30 a.m. CT) and Charleston Southern at Kentucky (12:30 p.m. ET / 11:30 a.m. CT).  All three games will also be on shown in the outer markets of the home states on ESPN3.com and ESPN Game Plan.

The entire slate of games for Nov. 6 follows:

Florida at Vanderbilt (12:21 p.m. ET/11:21 a.m. CT) (SEC Network)
Charleston Southern at Kentucky (12:30 p.m. ET/11:30 a.m. CT) (Institutional PPV)
Idaho State at Georgia (12:30 p.m. ET/11:30 a.m. CT) (WSB-TV/Institutional Point-to-Point)
Chattanooga at Auburn (1 p.m. ET/12 p.m. CT) (Institutional PPV)
Alabama at LSU (3:30 p.m. ET/2:30 p.m. CT) (CBS Sports)
Arkansas at South Carolina (7 p.m. ET/6 p.m. CT) (ESPN)
Louisiana-Lafayette at Ole Miss (7 p.m. ET/6 p.m. CT) (ESPNU)
Tennessee at Memphis (8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT) (CBS College Sports)
OPEN:  Mississippi State

Now that I’m back at my office, I’ll give you some linkage.

Very Quick Saturday Links

Just found out my day has been planned for me again so I’m going to post as many Saturday links here before heading out.

Milton Kent at Fanhouse says a revamped ESPNews will debut on Monday.

SportsNewser gives you a sports media blog you should read. Unfortunately, it’s not Fang’s Bites. 

Comcast SportsNet New England gives us the “best” of the week.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union has the MLB Network live game schedule for next week.

In the Washington Post, Dan Steinberg’s DC Sports Bog recaps Rob Dibble’s comments on Sirius XM concerning Stephen Strasburg’s injury. As you’re probably aware, before news surfaced about Strasburg requiring Tommy John surgery, Dibble said he should play hurt.

Vin Mannix at the Bradenton (FL) Herald says ESPN got its money worth when it aired a high school football game from town last night. 

Jeff Klinkenberg of the St. Petersburg Times says ESPN will profile a local amputee athlete on Sunday. 

Jon Solomon of the Birmingham (AL) News talks with an ESPN official on the BCS and other college sports issues.

Barry Horn at the Dallas Morning News looks at a busy opening week for college football on ESPN.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News read Steve Lyons blog on Fox Sports West’s website so you won’t have to.

Joe Flint of the Los Angeles Times has Time Warner Cable putting the blame squarely on Disney in its carriage negotiations.

Joe Davidson of the Sacramento Bee says local media and school officials were not happy with ESPN when it aired a high school football game last night. 

Sports Media Watch says Nielsen will be counting an additional one million new TV households in the new season.

The Nielsen Wire blog explains.

Back to SMW where you have some news and notes.

And SMW has a few more ratings notes.

Dave Kohl reviews the week in sports media news at the Major League Programs blog.

In the Biz of Baseball, Maury Brown says the Baseball Winter Meetings will return to Nashville.

And we will end it there. I found more links than I thought I would and that’s good for you.

A Sunday Grind

Now that I’m recovered from my night at Mohegan Sun, I’m back and ready to give you some linkage.

Before I provide the links, I’ll tell you that my experience at Bobby’s Burger Palace was really disappointing. I went because someone recommended the place to me and I decided to break my personal ban from hamburger joints for this one night (trying to lose weight). Number one, I’m not a fan of Bobby Flay, I think he’s arrogant and a self-promoter. Number two, the person who recommended the place is someone I trust. Number three, the burger I had, “Bobby’s Blue Burger” with blue cheese, bacon, lettuce and tomato was not only not hot, but it was too salty (most likely the blue cheese) and his sweet potato fries were not that good. Very disappointed, but not too surprised since Bobby Flay is all-talk. I’ll never go there again. I’ll just head to the trusty buffets at Mohegan Sun.

To your links now.

Newsday goes over the best of Neil Best’s blogs from the last week.

The New York Daily News’ Bob Raissman is already plotting to bring John Madden back to the broadcast booth .

Phil Mushnick in the New York Post admits that he missed WFAN’s Mike Francesa.

Alan Pergament from the Buffalo News caught up with Shaquille O’Neal who begins his reality show later this month.

Jason Lewis from the Tuscaloosa (AL) News writes that the SEC is instituting a new media policy thanks to its new contract with ESPN. Thanks to the Big Lead for the link.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Bob Wolfley mentions that former Packer WR Sterling Sharpe is mentioned in an NFL Network program and the Packers brought in NBC’s Cris Collinsworth to talk about their media duties.

Phillip B. Wilson of the Indianapolis Star says ESPN’s Chris Mortensen took a side trip from his bus ride across the country to visit Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The daughter of Chicago sports radio personality Dan Jiggetts got married yesterday.

Artie Gigantino of the San Francisco Examiner says ESPN’s Chris Mortensen has a dream gig this summer.

The Los Angeles Times’ Diane Pucin profiles NBC’s Cris Collinsworth who begins his first season as game analyst on Sunday Night Football tonight.

Diane urges the Tennis Channel to update some of their features that have been taped as many as two years ago. Diane and I exchanged Tweets about this last night.

The Tri-Cities (WA) Herald says Washington State and FSN Northwest have extended their rights deal for the next 8 years.

John Eggerton of Multichannel News writes that MASN appears to have lost a huge battle to get carried on Comcast systems in PA and VA.

The Sports Media Watch notes that the ratings for last week’s Pennsylvania 500 fell, but coverage of last Sunday’s rain delay drew the highest sports TV ratings.

SMW has some news on some various names including where Mike Vick will grant his first interview.

SMW has more ratings odds and ends.

And the Sports Media Watch has its usual ratings predictions for the weekend.

Joe Favorito says a public relations stunt done correctly can help expand a “global” brand.

The AfterDawn blog says NBC Sports is moving its HD programming online using Microsoft’s Silverlight technology. That includes the 2010 Winter Olympics.

That will do it. Expect a review of “The Lost Son of Havana” sometime today.

Even More Monday Links

We have a bunch of links this evening and let’s get to them before I start watching Weeds on Showtime.

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe gives his impressions on NESN’s Jim Rice who finally got into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Neil Best of Newsday notes that Mets GM Omar Minaya called out a New York Daily News beat writer during a press conference to announce Tony Bernazard’s firing. Following that on Twitter, people were commenting on what a train wreck the press conference was. You can see video of Minaya calling out reporter Adam Rubin and Rubin’s reaction to SNY right here.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says backup Orlando Magic center won’t be wearing Reeboks next season after criticizing the company for not paying him enough.

Darren writes that Jack Nicklaus is not optimistic for golf course design next year.

Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette looks at MLB Network’s upcoming schedule of live games.

P.J. Harmer of the Oneota (NY) Daily Star says Baseball Hall of Fame broadcaster Tony Kubek totally winged it during his induction speech yesterday.

Joe Reedy of the Cincinnati Enquirer writes about the Bengals getting ready to be on HBO’s Hard Knocks this summer. Thanks to Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News for the link.

Richie Witt of the Dallas Observer says popular sports personality Dale Hansen is dropping his radio show.

Baxter Holmes of the Los Angeles Times says fans can Tweet questions to the Pac 10′s football coaches during the conference media days.

Zennie Abraham of the San Francisco Chronicle cannot believe that Erin Andrews topped a media listing on Mediate.

Ryan Leong of the San Francisco Examiner raves about Comcast SportsNet Bay Area’s SportsNet Central programs.

Evan Weiner warns that Jacksonville could be losing the Jaguars to Los Angeles down the line.

Mike Fleming of Variety reports that ESPN Films, NFL Films and a Hollywood production company are teaming up on a feature on the late Packer coach Vince Lombardi.

Rich Thomaselli of Advertisting Age says with newspapers reducing their motorsports coverage, NASCAR is handpicking 28 motorsports blogs and credentialing them to help cover races starting this month.

The Sports Media Watch has caught ESPN. A week after refusing to initially report the civil suit against Ben Roethlisberger saying it doesn’t report on civil suits, ESPN is now reporting the civil lawsuit against Indianapolis Colts WR Marvin Harrison.

SportsbyBrooks reports that Fox Sports Radio demotes J.T. the Brick and replaces him with Tony Bruno.

Jay Busbee of Yahoo! Sports wondered why Golf Channel did not air the entire rain-delayed final found of the Canadian Open today.

Mike Bailey of World Golf says the estranged son of former New York City Rudolph Giuliani will be on the next edition of Big Break.

Deadspin says USA Today’s Christine Brennan continues to make statements against Erin Andrews.

MLB Network’s Victor Rojas who has his own MLB.com blog called “The Spoils”, talks about his experience at the Baseball Hall of Fame over the weekend.

Joe Favorito talks about Affliction getting out of the event production business to do what it does best.

Christopher Byrne of Eye on Sports Media talks about legendary Georgia football voice Larry Munson writing about his days in the broadcast booth.

Rafat Ali of paidContent.org talks about Fox Sports buying a stake into OpenSports and furthering its commitment into fantasy sports.

A photographer is suing ESPN for using one of her images without her consent.

Amanda Bruno (linked twice in one day!) of the Batter-up with Bruno blog discovers the actual height of Red Sox All-Star and reigning American League MVP Dustin Pedroia.

This has nothing to do with sports media or my Browns, but I promised Steelergurl I would link to her training camp preview if she would put me back in her blogroll after she redesigned her site. She did and thus I give you the link.

I found more links than I thought. That’s it. See you back here tomorrow.

Crazy Thursday Linkage

Well, where do I begin? There’s the Erin Andrews story which continues to pick up momentum. And we have ESPN finally acknowledging the Ben Roethlisberger civil lawsuit story two days after other media outlets have been reporting it. Personally, I found some Harry Chapin albums on iTunes and videos on YouTube so expect to see those in a future edition of Videos of the Week.

Here’s one video before we go to links. Harry Chapin doing “Mr. Tanner” with bassist John Wallace doing the baritone backup. Great song.

After that, it’s time to delve into the links.

Yesterday, I did an interview with 16 year old Alex Reimer of the Without A Curse podcast. We talked about the WEEI/WBZ-FM competition. Click here and you can forward the podcast to about the six minute mark and we talk for about ten minutes or so. Adam does a good job. He knows his stuff.

Starting with Sean Leahy of USA Today’s The Huddle blog, he writes that ESPN finally reported the Roethlisberger story last night.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times writes that ESPN for whatever reason played it cautious with the Roethlisberger civil lawsuit.

I’m warning you before the link that Newsday’s website underwent a major redesign so you may be a bit shocked when you see white fonts on a blue background instead of dark fonts on a white background. Anyway, Neil writes about ESPN’s decision to come out of its ivory tower and report on Roethlisberger.

Christopher Byrne of Eye on Sports Media writes that ESPN is taking a hit to its integrity to which I say it hardly has any for its reporting of this story.

Kevin Blackistone of Fanhouse believes ESPN swung and missed by joining the coverage late.

Excellent article from the great Ed Berliner, a former sports TV anchor himself, saying ESPN did not do itself any favors.

Dan LeBatard writing in the Miami Herald says ESPN showed restraint by not reporting the story originally. I don’t think it was restraint, it might have been protecting an interest.

To the Erin Andrews story.

Bob’s Blitz which has done a tremendous job following the story says the New York Post is hitting back at ESPN banning its reporters from its network and radio stations for publishing pictures of the creepy video, saying Erin Andrews’ lawyer is to blame for all this putting the name of the website on its complaint.

Here’s the New York Post Page Six article referred to in Bob’s Blitz post.

The Big Lead asks now that New York Post reporters are banned from ESPN, will Fox News be next after Bill O’Reilly ran the video on his show last night.

Jay Mariotti of Fanhouse fires shots at everyone over the video.

The Rookies blog fires back at Jay.

The Buffalo News reports the video may have been shot in Western New York, although that is rather sketchy.

Steve Johnson of the Chicago Tribune says the coverage of Erin Andrews has hypocrisy written all over it.

Jerry Brewer of the Seattle Times wants all of us to grow up.

Reid Cherner and Tom Weir of USA Today’s Game On! blog has Christine Brennan clarifying her comments about Erin Andrews.

Jessica Heslam of the Boston Herald says NESN’s Heidi Watney has chimed in on the video.

To the SEC Network.

Tim Griffin of ESPN.com says the Big 12′s fears came true when it was announced that the SEC Network’s footprint extended into Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.

Marc Weiszer of the Savannah (GA) Morning News says the SEC just got bigger thanks to ESPN’s power.

Andy Bitter and David Hale of the Columbus (GA) Ledger-Enquirer write that ESPN will air 23 more SEC football games this season thanks to the SEC Network.

Tim Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution tries to sort out the new ESPN/SEC contract.

Bill King of the AJC says Georgia fans can sit back and turn on their TV to see every game this season.

Tommy Hicks of the Mobile (AL) Press-Register says the SEC has released the TV schedule for the first three weeks of the season.

Let’s move on to other links now.

This might have been a lead story had it not been for Erin Andrews, Ben Roethlisberger and the SEC Network. ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit is suing the Internal Revenue Service for not allowing him to claim a tax deduction after he donated his house to the local fire department. Is suing the IRS a good idea?

Writing in the Baltimore-centric Press Box site, Dave Hughes of DCRTV.com has several local news and notes including the departure of the long-time WBAL-AM vice president and station manager.

From the DC Metro Weekly paper, Sean Bugg interviews Tennis Channel analyst and World Team Tennis player Rennae Stubbs.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner writes that the Capitals will remain on its current radio flagship station.

Back to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and TV/radio writer Rodney Ho who reports the Braves are changing their radio flagships next season.

John Royal of the Houston Press says the Texas Bowl made the right move in going to ESPN after not being seen on the NFL Network for the last three years.

Ed Sherman of Crain’s Chicago Business has his winners and losers a day early.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes about tonight’s ESPN Homecoming show starring former Rams QB Kurt Warner.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News digs into the Sports Illustrated vaults and finds an article from 1979 about a small cable TV network that was hoping to show sports 24 a day.

John Ryan of the San Jose Mercury News asks what’s the big fuss over the LeBron James dunk video which was no big deal after it was released yesterday afternoon.

Erica Ogg of CNET.com looks at the MLB At Bat iPhone app which now has every game available on streaming video.

Maury Brown of the Biz of Baseball has an excellent article on the top 10 Marketing issues facing MLB right now.

Evan Weiner writing at the MCN Sports site calls on Congress to change the cable TV laws that allowed networks like ESPN to get too big.

David Goetzl of Mediapost writes about Fox Sports taking a stake in Open Sports Network for fantasy sports.

Wayne Friedman of Mediapost says NBC Universal putting on the USA-Mexico World Cup qualifying match on a little-known and barely seen channel is all about business.

Colby Hall of Mediaite talks with ESPN.com’s Bill Simmons. The less I say about him the better.

Chuck Hanf of the Two Cents from Beantown blog lists his five top sports stars of all time in the Hub. I like his top choice.

I would be remiss if I didn’t link you to the latest edition of The Five on WEEI.com hosted always by the lovely Kristine Leahy.

Wow. Lots of links. I need to clear my head so I’m taking a walk. See you later.

Some Required Linkage for Late Night Wednesday

There are just too many stories that cannot be ignored until Thursday so let’s get to them.

First, after waiting two days, ESPN finally acknowledged the Ben Roethlisberger story. Gregg Rosenthal from Pro Football Talk is all over it.

Newsday’s Neil Best says ESPN decided to hit back at the New York Post for publishing pictures from the creepy Erin Andrews video.

Kate Nocera of the New York Daily News says ESPN is now investigating whether one of its own employees shot that video.

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star feels the internet should be regulated in the wake of the Erin Andrews video. I wouldn’t go that far.

David Whitley of Fanhouse plays the blame game.

Chris Byrne in the Eye on Sports Media says CBS is being hypocritical when it comes to the Erin Andrews story.

Chris tells you how to keep track of the SEC Media Days this week.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell writes that the NCAA is facing another lawsuit.

Darren talks with Mrs. Andy Roddick, better known as Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Brooklyn Decker.

The Sports Media Journal’s Ray Frager writes about shrinking sports coverage in newspapers.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union goes over the ESPN family of networks’ college football schedule.

To Ken McMillan of the Hudson Valley Times Herald-Record and his story on Army moving its home football games to CBS College Sports from ESPN’s platforms.

Steven Goff of the Washington Post has an update on the efforts to get the US-Mexico World Cup qualifying match on a network that most Americans can access.

The Sports Media Watch has some news and notes.

That’s it for now. I have some press releases to post next.

Now You Can Star in Your Own ESPN Highlight Reel

First, it was ESPN The Microphone. Then, it was ESPN The Spelling Bee App. Now, it’s ESPN The Highlight Reel starring …. YOU! Yes, you!

ESPN is now allowing you to submit your own personal photos at ESPN’s website or at Walmart photo kiosks (ooooohhhhh, good for you!). Check out the press release. I noticed ESPN did not send this me, I happened to find it on its public relations website. I think they’re a bit tired of my sarcastic comments whenever something like this hits my inbox. And it’s $24.95???

ESPN Consumer Products Launches myESPN Highlights™

Star in Your Own SportsCenter Photo Highlight Reel Featuring Karl Ravech

ESPN Consumer Products announced the launch of “myESPN Highlights,” a “customizable” SportsCenter branded, digital photo product that allows fans of all ages to showcase their favorite personal sports photos in a “highlight reel” featuring ESPN’s Karl Ravech. Produced in conjunction with aVinci Media Corporation, a leader in easy-to-use personalized photo products which helps consumers celebrate life’s events, myESPN Highlights is available at myESPNhighlights.com and Walmart photo center kiosks and will soon be available through other leading retailers for $24.95 SRP.

Creating a myESPN Highlights DVD is simple – fans visit myESPNhighlights.com or the photo department at the select retailers, upload their digital photos, choose a sports theme, and personalize with their name and other information. The completed custom DVD can be picked up at the store or is delivered directly to the consumer.

“ESPN continues to develop products that allow consumers to interact with our brand in an authentic and personal way,” said Steve Cipolla, vice president and general manager, ESPN Consumer Products. “SportsCenter is an essential piece of sports culture and myESPN Highlights gives our fans the chance to become a part of the action.”

The myESPN Highlights suite of products includes DVDs, photo books and posters. Boxed versions of the products will be broadly available at retail by Fall 2009.

“We’ve all dreamed of playing in the big leagues or being featured on ESPN SportsCenter. Through our collaboration with ESPN we can live the dream!” noted Chett Paulsen, CEO aVinci Media Corporation. “Our proprietary technology replicates the SportsCenter experience for fans in an emotional and exciting way.”

In celebration of the launch of myESPN Highlights, for a limited time only, fans who order their customized DVD at myESPNHighlights.com will receive a free personalized 8.5”x11 poster.

A sample reel of myESPN Highlights is available on YouTube

Can this be any more generic? I wonder what Karl Ravech was thinking when he had to tape it. Hoo boy.

ESPN The Microphone

Just in time for holiday shopping season comes “ESPN THE MICROPHONE“. Yes, you too can buy that ESPN-aholic a microphone of his/her own complete with mic flag. I’m not kidding. You can buy this as a Christmas gift along with a lot of other ESPN items including ESPN the Hoodie and your own X Games MotoBike.

You can’t make this stuff up.

Monday Afternoon Links

I see that there’s enough linkage out there on this Monday to warrant an update.

One of the pioneers in sportswriting died on Sunday. Terry Olberle, sports editor emeritus of the Winston-Salem (NC) Journal remembers Mary Garber who died yesterday at the age of 92. As far as anyone can determine, Garber was the first full-time female sportswriter at a daily newspaper and her career spanned six decades. Lenox Rawlings of the Journal says Mary might have been just five feet tall, but she stood way above many of her colleagues. And Bill Cole of the Journal says two of college basketball’s greatest coaches have great fondness for Mary. Finally, Mary’s co-workers share some of their stories.

Ed Hardin of the Greensboro (NC) News-Record says “Miss Mary” Garber was a great influence on many sportswriters in the region.

Claire Noland of the Los Angeles Times also remembers Garber.

We move on. CNBC’s Darren Rovell has received confirmation from Nike that it is getting out of the swimwear business.

From the Sports Business Journal, Steve Donohue writes that the tough economic times are forcing newspapers to scale back their sports coverage.

And Eric Fisher from the SBJ says while attendance and revenue projections are going to fall short for this season, MLB is still bullish on the sport.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union feels ESPN was a bit intrusive during last night’s Yankees-Orioles game. And Pete has ratings news from certain sporting events over the weekend.

Flip Bondy of the New York Daily News says ESPN asked the Yankee Stadium Bleacher Creatures to delay their famous lineup roll call, to which the Creatures told the Alleged Worldwide Leader to stick it. Good for them.

Some great stuff from Neil Best of Newsday who attended last night’s Yankee Stadium farewell. First, Neil spoke to Baseball Hall of Fame announcer Bob Wolff who called many great moments at the Stadium. And Neil caught up with current Yankees announcer John Sterling who talks about his favorite memories. Neil says ailing ex-New York Football Giants GM Ernie Accorsi made it to last night’s festivities. Neil talks with former Yankees first baseman Chris Chambliss who thought ex-2nd baseman Willie Randolph slipped when he actually slid during the ceremonies. Neil says Reggie Jackson helped out ESPN’s Jon Miller in the booth last night. Finally, Neil writes that the Yankees beat Sunday Night Football in the ratings in New York, but football beat everyone else nationally.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News has the ratings for Cowboys-Packers in Big D. And Barry has a money quote from Brett Favre that ESPN’s Ed Werder got in advance of tonight’s Jets-Chargers game.

John Ryan of the San Jose Mercury News likes the latest Sony ad featuring Peyton Manning.

Bob Diddlebock of the Denver Examiner liked Troy Aikman’s analysis of yesterday’s Saints-Broncos game.

I got this press release earlier today. NBC says Cowboys-Packers ran all over the Emmy Awards telecast on ABC on Sunday.

Two more press releases to pass along. Here are some quotes from Rich Eisen, Deion Sanders and Steve Mariucci from last night’s NFL Gameday Final on the NFL Network.

And CBS Sports says its ratings for Week 3 went up from last year.

From the Kansas City Star, Jeffrey Flanagan reviews the comments from the TV and radio announcing crews during yesterday’s Chiefs-Falcons game.

Christopher Byrne at the Eye on Sports Media blog tells us that CBS has selected Kentucky-Alabama as its SEC national game on October 4.

Charles Goldberg of the Birmingham (AL) News says as a result of CBS’ pick, ESPN has chosen to air Auburn at Vandy at 6 p.m. on the same date.

And completing the SEC TV lineup for October 4, Raycom will show Arkansas-Florida in the early afternoon slot.

And in primetime on October 4, ESPN has selected Nebraska-Missouri.

A while back, I linked to a fascinating story in which Al Michaels told the Los Angeles Daily News’ Tom Hoffarth about his brief cameo appearance on Hawaii Five-O. Leave it to Awful Announcing to find Al’s scene.

The Big Lead has Chicago Sun-Times columnist Rick Telander taking a massive shot at ex-colleague Jay Marrioti.

Joe Favorito says Action Sports America’s larger-than-life marketing puts the company in a unique spotlight.

That will do it for now.

Tuesday Evening Links

I’ve been having trouble with the computer tonight. Mostly memory issues, but I’m hoping that my computer will be able to get through them so I can give you a full update.

We begin with Newsday’s Neil Best who notes in his blog that SNY’s announcers got on Mets manager Willie Randolph who has issues with the regional sports network.

The New York Post’s TV Sports blog also has comments from SNY’s Keith Hernandez about Randolph’s problems with SNY.

Paul Newberry of the AP writes that ESPN’s Rick Sutcliffe returns to the booth Wednesday night after being diagnosed with colon cancer in spring training.

Jessica Heslam of the Boston Herald writes that the Celtics outrated the Red Sox on Sunday.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News says viewers in Big D watched the NBA Playoffs over the Dallas Stars in Game 6 of the NHL Western Conference Finals on Sunday.

The Sports Media Watch has the final ratings from the weekend. And the SMW says the NBA Playoffs are dominating the Cable Primetime Ratings.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell writes that the Lakers and Spurs could find themselves scrambling for transport as their charter airline goes out of business at the end of this month. And Darren says while the NHL has its dream Stanley Cup Final, he wonders if it will translate to TV viewers.

Ben Grossman of Broadcasting & Cable says Yellowbook will sponsor TNT’s NBA Playoffs online video player plus features that will be seen online and on the network.

Paul J. Gough of the Hollywood Reporter says after reaching record low ratings last year, both the NBA and NHL are looking to rebound to bigger heights this season.

John Consoli of Mediaweek says ratings for the NBA on ABC and ESPN through the conference semifinals are up 28% and 27%, respectively. Consoli adds the ratings for the NBA on TNT are up 14%.

Beverly Keel of The Tennessean profiles Liz Allison, the widow of NASCAR driver Davey Allison, who now reports on the sport for a Nashville radio station.

Ray Frager of the Baltimore Sun writes that CN8 will air high school lacrosse championship games on Wednesday.

Clifford Coonan of Variety writes that the Communist government in China will attempt to allow the world’s media to cover the Summer Olympics in Beijing without restrictions.

The Portland (OR) Business Journal says FSN has signed a deal to show the Gorge Games, an adventure sports competition.

Fox Soccer Channel has signed a deal to show England’s FA Cup in the US. Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News goes into detail on the new rights deal.

ESPN will have extensive coverage of Wednesday’s Champions League final from Moscow.

ESPN Regional Television has announced the date of the new St. Petersburg Bowl pitting teams from Conference USA and the Big East.

Here’s more reason to hate ESPN. The Gizmodo eletronics gadget blog says the Alleged Worldwide Leader is trying to control your TV through its “Ultimate Remote”. David Carnoy of CNET takes a closer look at the ESPN remote and what makes it the ultimate.

That’s going to do it for now.

Giving You A Wednesday Update

Having gotten some important work done, it’s time to give you some linkage on this Wednesday afternoon on the East Coast.

Three things from the Sports Media Watch. First, Paul Sen says the joint decision by the NFL and NBC to move the league’s season opener on September 4 from 8:30 p.m. ET to 7 p.m. so not to conflict with the Republican National Convention will most likely result in a lower rating. Next, Paul says NBC’s ratings on the NHL might have been hurt by showing just one game a week instead of providing regional coverage. Finally, Paul has the ratings from action that isn’t related to the NCAA Tournament.

Newsday’s Neil Best reports that the long time Director of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown has been replaced.

The Awful Announcing blog has video of ESPN2′s Gary Thorne totally confusing the author of Jose Canseco’s new book.

XM Satellite Radio listeners will finally be able to access its MLB Home Plate channel online as the Orbitcast blog tells us.

Ray Frager from the Baltimore Sun says in his Medium Well blog that ESPN did not plan to have Chris Berman on its Masters coverage from the beginning. Mike Tirico will be the only ESPN staffer on The Masters next month as the weekday telecast will be produced by CBS Sports.

The Eye on Sports Media blog says CBS College Sports Network plans to re-air six NCAA Tournament 1st and 2nd round games starting today.

Fox Business picks up an article from Drew Armstrong of Inc.com who shoots down the idea that March Madness on Demand is hurting worker productivity.

Chris Faulkner of the Fort Madison (IA) Daily Democrat says local viewers were angry they could not watch the Drake-Western Kentucky NCAA Tournament game last Friday. And in a follow-up, the Democrat says the size of the market doesn’t help either.

Joe Favorito’s Sports Marketing and Public Relations blog looks at how the power of an athlete’s celebrity can actually pay dividends.

The Boston Sports Media Watch has another edition of its Media Approval Ratings and today’s candidate is Comcast Sports Net’s Gary Tanguay.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell has the NBA’s Top Ten List of Jersey sales over the last ten years and I’ll give you three guesses for the top selling one and the first two guesses don’t count.

Brett McMurphy of the Tampa Bay Tribune writes that ESPN wants to create a college bowl game to be played at Tropicana Field in December.

Mike Vandermause of the Fond du Lac (WI) Reporter isn’t happy with ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio.

Matt Elliser of the San Francisco Examiner says a new era is ready to begin as Comcast takes over FSN Bay Area next week.

From the Self-Serving and Over the Top Department, ESPN announces that the host of this year’s Self-Serving and Over The Top ESPY Awards will be the Self-Serving and Over the Top Justin Timberlake.

Get ready to see Firestone Tires all over Fox Sports’ coverage of Major League Baseball.

That will do it for now.

I’m Right! ESPN Announces It Received the Most Emmy Noms

Just as I predicted in my post earlier today, ESPN has put out a press release that it received the most Sports Emmy nominations of all networks when it combined its 31 nominations with its other family of networks (ABC, ESPN Classic, ESPN2). Here’s the press release:

ESPN, Inc. – 37 Sports Emmy Nominations

NASCAR, Football & Studio Programming Lead the Way

ESPN, Inc., earned 37 Sports Emmy Award nominations, the most of any submitting company for the seventh time in eight years, it was announced today by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. ESPN networks garnered 27 nominations, ESPN on ABC programming four, and ESPN.com six. The winners will be announced Monday, April 28.

Highlights of ESPN’s nominations:

• NASCAR returned to ESPN and ABC in 2007 and resumed its great tradition in the Sports Emmys with three nominations. (ESPN won 17 Sports Emmy Awards for NASCAR in the 1990s.) In addition, ESPN2’s NASCAR Now was nominated in the Studio Show – Daily category.
• ESPN’s football coverage received eight nominations, five for NFL programming – Monday Night Football in Live Series, Sunday NFL Countdown’s feature “Fear” (with author Stephen King) in the Short Feature and Editing categories and the show’s Tom Jackson (Studio Analyst), and the NFL Films documentary Super Bowl 360 (Edited Special) – plus two for College GameDay (Studio Show – Weekly, Short Feature for “Martel Van Zant”) and one for Arena Football (Live Sound).
• NBA coverage was nominated in Live Series and in the Graphic Design category for ABC’s open to the NBA Finals.
• ABC’s 2007 British Open was nominated in Live Special.
• ABC received two nominations in the Open/Tease category, in which it received two Sports Emmys last year, for the National Spelling Bee and the Indianapolis 500.
• ESPN took three of the five nominations for Studio Show Daily – SportsCenter, Pardon the Interruption and ESPN2’s NASCAR Now.
• ESPN garnered three of the five nominations in Short Feature (from College GameDay, Sunday NFL Countdown and MLB 2007: Never Miss a Game) plus two more for Long Feature (from Outside the Lines and E:60).
• The new E:60 received two nominations, one in the Writing category for a feature on Gunnar Esiason and one in Long Feature for “Ray of Hope” about the University of North Carolina mascot. He was killed in a traffic accident and, through donations, his organs gave new life to many people.
• College basketball’s Jay Bilas received his second straight nomination in the Studio Analyst category
• ESPN.com received six nominations in the three “New Approaches” categories – two for fantasy sports programs (Fantasy Focus Baseball and Fantasy Football Now) in the Coverage category, plus “Ray of Hope” in Long Form and three entries in General Interest (“An UnAmerican Tragedy,” “Death Race 2007” and “Don’t Be Like Mike”).

Then ESPN goes on to list all of its nominations, every single one. If you want to read them, go here. You just knew ESPN would go all out on this. That’s all.

Some More Wednesday Links

I’ll give you a few more links today.

We have some good news from Neil Best of Newsday. He tells us that a biopsy on Bobby Mercer was negative, that his MRI last week showed only scar tissue and not a recurrence of a brain tumor. Mercer will rest at home for a few more days.

John Eggerton of Broadcasting & Cable reports that the NFL and Time Warner Cable clashed on Capitol Hill today as executives from both sides testified before Congress.

Darren Rovell from CNBC says one legacy that Brett Favre leaves is that his NFL jersey is the best selling of all-time.

Bruce Allen of the Boston Sports Media Watch has some suggestions on how to improve the local mainstream sports media blogs

In his Medium Well blog, Ray Frager of the Baltimore Sun writes that on March 12, Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic will devote its secondary channel completely to Alex Ovechkin during the Washington Flames-Calgary Flames game.

The Orbitcast satellite radio blog says XM will offer full coverage of the Indy Racing League for the fourth consecutive year.

Sports anchor Brendan O’Reilly of WBNG-TV in Binghampton, NY, has an open letter to ESPN about how the Alleged Worldwide Leader treated the station when Cornell University won the Ivy League title this past weekend. And thanks to Deadspin for the link to the story.

Leonard Shapiro of the Washington Post feels Brett Favre will eventually come back.

In his Morning Buzz blog, John Ryan of the San Jose Mercury News thinks NBA Commish David Stern watches a lot of Golden State Warriors games.

Good news from The Masters. CBS Sports.com says the 15th and 16th holes from Augusta National will be added to its online coverage.

Ina Fried of CNET.com says NBC will use Microsoft’s Silverlight technology to show the Summer Olympics from Communist China online.

Dave McNary from Variety says the Directors Guild of America ratified a three year contract for its members who work news, sports and operations for the TV networks.

Joe Favorito’s Sports Marketing and PR blog gives kudos to a Minor League Baseball team for developing a Leap Year promotion.

Christopher Byrne from the Eye on Sports Media blog has a quick look at what is known and what is unknown about this year’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament on CBS.

That’s all. Primetime and Late Night Viewing Picks coming up.

Some Monday Night Linkage

Let’s give you some links this evening.

From Newsday’s Neil Best, he writes in his blog that the NHL on NBC on Sunday involving the New York Rangers actually outrated the Yankees on YES.

Justin Terranova from the New York Post’s NYP TV Sports blog says the YES Network’s Bobby Mercer is resting after undergoing a biopsy earlier today.

In his Parting Schotts blog, new Friend of Fang’s Bites Ken Schott of the Schenectady (NY) Gazette writes about the rebranding of FSN New York.

The Los Angeles Daily News’ Tom Hoffarth in his Farther Off the Wall blog says KABC won’t be broadcasting every Dodger Spring Training game from Vero Beach, FL.

Tom Jones of the St. Petersburg Times writes in his Two Cents blog about the best press conferences meltdowns.

Our hearts go out to WEEI’s Glenn Ordway who’s dealing with a very difficult family matter. Bruce Allen of Boston Sports Media Watch sends his thoughts to Ordway as well.

Christopher Byrne of the Eye on Sports Media blog has some pictures from ESPN2′s production of last night’s Tennessee-Georgia game.

Joe Favorito’s Sports Marketing and Public Relations blog looks at the comeback of the Harlem Globetrotters, the connection of Presidential hopeful Barack Obama to sports and Mark Cuban’s take on foreign ownership of our sports teams.

Jim Williams of the DC/Baltimore Examiner says Comcast will put MASN’s Orioles and Nationals games in HD on MOJO.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says we’ve reached a new era in season ticket sales, auctioning them off to the highest bidder as the Chicago Cubs are doing.

Gail Schiller of the Hollywood Reporter says NBC Universal-owned iVillage.com will show several webisodes on Olympic athletes and their families as they get ready for the Summer Games in Communist China.

NBC Sports has selected the Philadelphia Flyers-Pittsburgh Penguins contest for its flex NHL game on March 16. After this broadast, NBC will have two more regular season telecasts.

John Ryan of the San Jose Mercury News wonders in his Morning Buzz blog why the Boise State win over Oklahoma was chosen as No. 2 in ESPN’s stupid feature, the Greatest Highlight.

Some of you may be familiar with the Gil Thorp comic strip, which follows the fictional high school sports coach. The Chicago Tribune reports the strip will have a new artist.

That will do it for tonight. See you Tuesday.

More Tuesday Links

I’ll give you some more links for tonight.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union gives us the Yankees TV Spring Training schedule on YES. And Pete has a funny “Separated at Birth” comparison regarding Brian McNamee.

The Sports Media Watch blog notes the coverage of the Congressional Steroids Hearings today on the network news broadcasts.

Melissa Guthrie of Broadcasting & Cable magazine looks at how Roger Clemens performed during the Congressional Steroids Hearings today.

I linked to Laura Nachman’s site earlier today, but now she’s split the news about the Philadelphia Eagles staying on radio flagship 94WYSP for the next few years into a separate post.

From his Farther Off the Wall blog, Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News points out that ESPN sent out a press release regarding SportsCenter by the numbers for no good particular reason.

You had a feeling this was coming. Jason Fell of Folio magazine says ESPN the Magazine will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a one hour TV special … on ESPN.

Just a day after announcing a rebranding of CSTV, Jon Lafayette of TV Week writes that CBS Sports has laid off 40 of its employees.

John Consoli of Mediaweek lets us know about Fox Sports’ plans to unveil what’s known as the Gopher Cam during the Daytona 500 this weekend.

FSN gives us its programming for the week including a salute to Black History Month.

NBC Sports hypes the Detroit-Dallas rivalry which will be the showcase for the NHL Game of the Week this Sunday.

USA Today’s Jon Saraceno talks with TNT’s Kenny Smith about the efforts to help New Orleans overcome Hurricane Katrina.

The Big Ten Network says it will air seven conference championships starting February 29.

Jeffrey Flanagan of the Kansas City Star looks at a new TV sports reporter in the market.

The Washington (GA) News-Reporter reports that legendary Atlanta Braves announcer Pete Van Wieren will participate in a luncheon honoring Hall of Fame announcer and Washington native Ernie Harwell.

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star says TSN has hired former Toronto Maple Leafs GM John Ferguson as a guest analyst.

That will do it for the night. Back tomorrow.

It’s a Saturday Morning Thing

Time to give you some links this morning. I’ll have the NFL Wild Card Playoff Picks coming up.

Starting with Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, he writes that despite their poor season, the Rams still manage to get the ratings.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News has some tongue-in-cheek predictions for sports on TV in 2008.

Ray Buck of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram talks to Pat Summerall about Michael Irvin’s return to the airwaves and about his own performance in the Cotton Bowl.

Newsday’s Neil Best says the college football bowl season is really irrelevant.

Jim Williams of the DC/Baltimore Examiner is back on a regular writing schedule and we’re glad for that. In his blog, Williams has quotes from NBC’s John Madden about the Wild Card playoffs and has more about ESPN’s and Comcast SportsNet’s coverage of the Redskins.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany (NY) Times Union writes in his Best Seat in My House blog about ESPN reporting scores from events it covers and failing to provide scores from events it does not.

Alan Pergament in today’s Buffalo News has some leftovers from the NHL Winter Classic. In his story, Pergament refers to “A guy with a raspy voice who appears on cable’s SportsNet New York” and that guy is Scott Ferrall who appears nightly on Sirius Satellite Radio on Howard 101.

Katie Walsh of the Sandusky (OH) Register writes that a local sports bar is suing DirecTV for charging him to show the Patriots-Giants game while the game was free all over town on CBS and NBC. And the bar’s owner says he lost money because the game was no longer exclusive to the NFL Network and not as many patrons came into his place because of it. I don’t see other sports bar suing.

Michael Learmonth of the Silicon Valley Insider blog explains why the TV networks pay so much money to air the NFL.

An editorial in today’s Berkshire (MA) Eagle criticizes the NFL Network for playing games with cable.

Rick Bozich of the Louisville Courier-Journal talks with CBS’ Billy Packer about the Louisville Cardinals’ chances of advancing into the NCAA Tournament.

Paul Kenyon, college basketball writer extraordinaire for the Providence Journal, writes that next Wednesday’s game involving my University of Rhode Island Rams and the Dayton Flyers, a matchup of two Top 25 teams, will be on TV in both markets. It originally was not scheduled to be televised anywhere, but A-10 conference TV rights holder CSTV has finally relented to having the game carried locally.

Ben Grossman of Broadcasting & Cable has some requests for TV networks and sports leagues for 2008.

Anthony Crupi of Mediaweek tells us that USA Network topped all cable networks for viewing in 2007, but ESPN and TBS finished in 3rd and 4th based on Monday Night Football and the MLB postseason respectively.

Gayle MacDonald of the Toronto Globe and Mail previews a new drama on CBC called “MVP” which is described as a sexy, primetime soap opera based on life in the NHL, with a few added twists.

And that’s it for now. NFL Picks coming up.

Some More New Year’s Eve Links

Let’s give you some more links today before I work on some other things.

First, Neil Best of Newsday writes that Patriots-Giants on Saturday was the most watched program of 2007. Not an easy task considering that Saturday are the least watched day of the week.

The Boston Herald’s Jessica Heslam writes in her Messenger blog that WCVB was the winner of the Patriots-Giants ratings sweepstakes easily outpacing WBZ and WHDH.

In his Medium Well blog, Ray Frager of the Baltimore Sun writes his thoughts about the NFL Network production of the Patriots-Giants game.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle writes about the overnight numbers for Pats-Giants in his Four DVRs, no waiting blog.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell tells us the winner of the copyright infringement battle between Western Kentucky University’s mascot, Big Red and beloved Italian TV character, Gabibbo. I’m not making this up. It’s a funny story.

Drew Houff of the Winchester (VA) Star hung out at various sports bars on Saturday to watch the Pats-Giants game with sports fans (many of whom are Boston haters I might add).

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel liked the way the Fox crew called the Lions-Packers game on Sunday.

William Houston of the Toronto Globe and Mail gives us some of the more interesting sports quotes of 2007.

Glen Dickson of Broadcasting & Cable says Tennis Channel has moved into new production facilities to accommodate its High Definition broadcasts.

The Sports Media Watch blog has named Kansas City Star columnist Jason Whitlock as the Worst of Sports Media 2007. And here are Paulsen’s runners up for Worst of Sports Media. Paulsen is working on his Stories of Sports Media for 2007 and when they’re up, I’ll link to them.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News follows up on some of the people he’s met in 2007. And Hoffarth goes even further on this in his Farther Off the Wall blog.

We have some quotes from the last Football Night in America broadcast for the season on NBC last night.

ESPN’s self promotion goes into overdrive with a new “This is SportsCenter” ad starring the always-flamboyant Richard Simmons.

And that will do it for now. Look for Amazing Race and Amazing Race Asia recaps as well as my look into the Best and Worst of Sports Media in 2007.

Primetime & Late Night Viewing Picks coming up.

Our Saturday Linkage

A bit of snow covering the ground this morning. Not much as we got enough snow to wreak havoc on the afternoon commute on Friday, but as I look out my window, the snow actually leaves a pretty picture. Perhaps I’ll take one and post it here later. But first, time to give you some links. Also, I’m halfway through my Amazing Race Asia 2 recap for Episode 3 so expect that coming sometime today.

To our weekly Saturday media columns, we start with Dallas Morning News columnist Barry Horn who writes that the Bowl Championship Series, no matter how flawed the system is, will draw ratings. Horn also talks with HBO Boxing judge Harold Lederman.

Over to the San Antonio Express-News and Jerry Garcia. He previews the “Best of ‘This is SportsCenter’” self-serving special that ESPN will air next week.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has two gift suggestions for the sports fan.

Neil Best burned the midnight oil and posted an entry in his blog about Rutgers football coach Greg Schiano not only turning down the Michigan job, but WFAN’s Mike Francesca and Chris Russo as well.

Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald writes that Kevin Garnett of the Boston Celtics is none too happy with an ESPN.com poll.

John Sharp of the Peoria (IL) Journal-Star writes that ESPN is apologizing, not for that poll, but for showing a map putting Peoria, in of all places, Indiana.

Scott Fitzgerald of The Southern (IL) talks about some Southern Illinois University students getting the opportunity to work on a live ESPN broadcast.

Would you ever think you would hear Led Zeppelin on an NFL broadcast? Well, you did during the Patriots-Ravens game last Monday, and apparently there’s a reason for that. The band signed a deal with ESPN and NFL.com to showcase its music.

It appears that the Big Ten Network is talking with Charter Communications. We get the story from Adam Mertz of the Capital (WI) Times. Tom Mulhern from the Wisconsin State Journal also has a version of the story.

Jeff Smith of the Rocky Mountain News reports that the NFL Network vs. cable dispute hits Colorado as the Denver Broncos-Houston Texans game next Thursday won’t be on TV outside the Denver area. And Rush Wood from the Beaumont (TX) Enterprise says Texans fans in the area won’t be able to see two games this week.

Gary Baines of the Boulder (CO) Daily Camera gives his Best and Worst awards for local sports TV and Radio.

Tom Gaffney says the University of Akron’s men’s basketball team will be appear 7 times on local TV.

Mike Jensen of the Philadelphia Inquirer writes about A-10 Commissioner Linda Bruno stepping down after 13 years and just in the wake of the conference signing a new TV syndication package.

And Deron Snyder writes about Kyle Logrosso, the five year old golf prodigy who lost an eye to cancer and was profiled on HBO’s Real Sports back in July, making a big splash at the Merrill Lynch Shootout in Naples this week.

Those are the links for today. Coming up, the Episode 3 recap from the Amazing Race Asia 2, NFL Picks for Week 14, Videos of the Week and anything else I can think of.

Additional Wednesday Links

I’ll give you some more links this afternoon.

From USA Today, Jorge Ortiz writes about the increased profits for Major League Baseball Advanced Media which has grown by leaps and bounds since its inception in 2001. The Biz of Baseball which was quoted in the article also has its reaction. MLBAM has led all of the US sports leagues in providing online video. MLBAM also has aligned with CBS Sports in providing video for the NCAA Tournament and with World Championship Sports Network to stream Olympic sports.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle writes in his Four DVRs, no waiting blog about his tour of the networks in New York.

The Chicago Daily Herald lets us know that the Big Ten Network will carry conference wrestling meets and college hockey games this winter.

Brian Powell of the East Valley (AZ) Tribune writes that ESPN has applied to have its Super Bowl headquarters in Scottsdale rather than Glendale where the game will be played.

Ed Bark of the Pegasus (TX) News says Monday Night Football which had the Patriots coming back against Baltimore was the most watched show on Monday. Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News blogs about the MNF game and also says it had a 12.2 overnight rating.

ESPN says it will have its next edition of E:60 next Tuesday.

Jon Lafayette of TV Week previews ESPN’s self-serving (my words, not Jon’s) “The Best of ‘This is SportsCenter’” special next week. And the publication also looks at the effectiveness of the in-stadium signage that was shown on TV during the World Series this year.

Greg Hardwig of the Naples (FL) Daily News writes that NBC and Golf Channel take over coverage of the Merrill Lynch Shootout this weekend after the unofficial PGA Tour event was on CBS Sports for the last 18 years.

Bill Vander Weele of the Sidney (MT) Daily Herald says football fans are the losers when the NFL Network carries big games.

I’ll have primetime viewing choices coming up.

Brief Saturday Afternoon Update

Here’s a few links for you on this Saturday afternoon.

It’s been a strange morning into afternoon. First, ESPN reports that it had learned that LSU coach Les Miles would leave to go to Michigan, then there was a turnaround. What happened? Bruce Allen of Boston Sports Media Watch says ESPN.com got its signals crossed even linking to two different stories at the same time on its website.

The DC/Baltimore Examiner’s Jim Williams writes in his Watch This! blog about the conference championship games today.

Over to the Sports Media Watch blog which reports that coaches and players will be miked on NBA nationally televised games. We’ll see how this goes over.

I noticed during the MAC Championship game on ESPN2 today, there were some audio technical difficulties preventing Pam Ward and Ray Bentley from broadcasting live. Stan Jarrett and Jesse Palmer took over the play-by-play and color from the Bristol studio and Awful Announcing noticed that Pam did not know that the studio threw it to her when the technical difficulties were fixed.

And apparently, Awful Announcing noticed that ESPN edited out Miles’ comments about the Alleged Worldwide Leader when the press conference was played back. However, CBS gleefully played it in its full glory on its SEC pregame show.

UPDATE AT 6:00 P.M. ET - Awful Announcing is really on the case today. The website managed to find the tape where CBS’ Tracy Wolfson talked to Miles about staying at LSU and also had studio host Tim Brando throwing a shot at ESPN. Good job.

That’s it for now.

Some Additional Tuesday Links

Let’s give you some more links today.

More reason to hate ESPN. They plan a huge New Year’s Eve special complete with motorcycle jumps, truck flips, fiery explosions, musical acts and plenty of hype. This will run for three hours so ESPN can mark the New Year on both coasts. I can’t make this up.

Dave Del Grande of the Oakland Tribune writes that Bay Area TV stations are preparing their slate of legal analysts for Barry Bonds coverage next month.

Buffalo Business First reports that Western New York has a regional sports network to finally call its own since the demise of the Empire Sports Network.

Neil Best of Newsday posted in his blog that WFAN’s Craig Carton made an anti-Newark, NJ remark during the Boomer and Carton in the Morning Show today. This is the second anti-Newark remark in a month after ESPN’s Barry Melrose had to apologize for making one on ESPN.com.

Larry Dobrow writes in Advertising Age magazine that ESPN SportsCenter is no longer “Must See TV”. I agree.

Darren Rovell of CNBC writes that the stronger Canadian dollar is helping the Toronto Blue Jays’ bottom line.

Peter Schwartz of Forbes magazine looks at the Top 20 Most Valuable College Football Teams and included on that list is Notre Dame for its contract with NBC. You can look at the rankings through this slideshow.

John Ryan of the San Jose Mercury News says New York Jets fans are among the lowest of the low. It comes in the wake of the New York Times story I linked to last night in which the Jets fans conduct their own halftime show in Gate D of the Giants Stadium concourse.

Ted Hearn of Multichannel News reports that Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter is appealing to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin not to get involved in the NFL Network vs. cable dispute. And Linda Haugsted of Multichannel News writes that the NFL Network has the support of two North Carolina legislators in attempts to get the channel on cable systems in the Tobacco State. Fortune magazine talks with Comcast CEO Brian Roberts about the NFL Network among other topics.

In the wake of the Writers strike and the news writers at CBS calling to strike, there’s actually some good news out of Hollywood. Dave McNary of Variety reports that the Directors Guild of America has come to an agreement with the networks for news, sports and other operations.

The NFL says there will be no change in the Sunday Night Football game for Week 13, December 2, but there will be one change for the Fox doubleheader game:

The final Week 13 NFL schedule was announced today with the originally scheduled Cincinnati at Pittsburgh Sunday night game on NBC remaining in place. The only game time change is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at New Orleans Saints game on Sunday, December 2 moving from 1:00 PM ET to 4:15 PM ET on FOX.

CBS Sports’ Charley Casserly explains why Dallas and Detroit get the traditional Thanksgiving Day games.

Leonard Shapiro of the Washington Post notices the migration of reporters leaving the print world for TV.

Rick Bird of the Cincinnati Post says a local TV station will air a series of interviews with the late Red pitcher and announcer Joe Nuxhall starting next Monday.

Elliot Harris of the Chicago Sun-Times would like to nominate the Big Ten Network’s and FSN’s Charissa Thompson to be in Playboy’s Sexiest Sportscaster poll (scroll down).

William Houston in the Toronto Globe and Mail laments the absence of big market teams in the CFL Grey Cup which will be CBC’s last for at least the next five years.

There you have it. Plenty of links for today. Primetime Viewing Picks coming up.

Your Wednesday Night Links

While I’m watching Game 1 of the World Series and chatting with fellow Red Sox fans online, I’ll give you some links.

First, Neil Best breaks the news that the Yankees are banning ESPN from future conference calls after it aired the Joe Torre announcement live despite the team’s request not to. This is not a good year for the Alleged Worldwide Leader. It got banned from the MLB All Star Game for breaking the All Star Game announcement embargo and almost got banned from the World Series. Now this. It’s these incidents that have people thinking ESPN is arrogant.

And Best writes about Reggie Miller joining the NBA on TNT “A” announcing team with Marv Albert and Mike Fratello.

Darren Rovell of CNBC starts a series of blog entries on the Business of the World Series. And speaking about Business of the World Series, the Sports Media Watch Blog reports that Fox and MLB couldn’t be happier to have the Red Sox in the World Series. This is echoed by Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated.

Some Big Ten Network news for you now. Former Purdue coach Gene Keady and his infamous combover will join the channel as a studio analyst. USA Today picks up an AP wire story. Former Ohio State standout Jim Jackson will also be part of the Big Ten Network’s college basketball studio team. And Jon Lafayette of TV Week has the full trio of analysts who will join Dave Revsine on BTN. Randall Yakey of the Oakland (MI) Press says if the Michigan-Michigan State game is picked up by BTN on November 4, a majority of fans could miss the game.

From the TV Predictions.com site, Joseph Whip advises the NFL to stop complaining about the Comcast-NFL Network battle.

CBS Sports has announced its college basketball lineup for the 2007-08 season and Chris Pursell of TV Week has it for you.

Jeremy Mullman of Advertising Age wonders if ESPN can stem the tide of declining ratings for the Breeders’ Cup which starts this Friday.

I’ll have more links tomorrow. Enjoy the rest of your Wednesday.

Jimmy Kimmel Responds to ESPN

Earlier today, Richard Sandomir of the New York Times reported that ABC late night host Jimmy Kimmel would not be returning to Monday Night Football after he made a comment referring to the fired Joe Theismann. For his part, Theismann was amused by the comment, but was not watching the game at the time Jimmy was on.

Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated managed to get in touch with Kimmel earlier today and for his part, Jimmy was actually surprised that ESPN went that far to ban him from the MNF booth. In Deitsch’s story, Kimmel is quoted as saying, “I was on for twice as long as I was expecting to be on,” Kimmel said. “There was no set time on how long I was supposed to be in that booth and they could have removed me without me even knowing there was a problem.”

Having read the comments and not hearing them directly, I don’t think the comments were all that bad.

And Deitsch writes that and ESPN spokesperson did not rule Kimmel from returning to MNF in the future so we’ll see. For his part, Jimmy is handling this well and he’ll probably make reference to the whole thing on his show, “Jimmy Kimmel Live” tonight on ABC. It will make for interesting viewing.

Wednesday Night Update

You’re probably sick of me talking about The War, but I have to say this installment was very good. Episode 4 dealt with D-Day in Europe and the Battle of Saipan in the Pacific. Unbelievable footage that Ken Burns obtained for this part. Plus, the stories of the contributions of the Japanese and African American soldiers show us how diverse the military became in World War II. And Senator Daniel Inoye’s story of him rifle butting a German soldier thinking he was reaching for a gun, but was going to show him a picture of his wife shows us how brutal war can be. I’m just riveted to the TV. The next part is Sunday night.

Let’s give you a few links tonight.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell reviews Business Week’s Sports Power 100 and he notes those who made it and those he feels should have made it. If you’re wondering, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is number one. I read the articles in the issue published in cooperation with ESPN the Magazine and they’re very good.

Newsday’s Neil Best blogs about WFAN’s Mike Francesca singing Cat Stevens. What?

Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star has a blog entry about the ESPN/MLB feud.

CSTV has announced that former Florida State QB Peter Tom Willis will be a guest analyst on the SEC Tailgate Show before CBS’ broadcast of Alabama-Florida State at Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville.

The Boston Globe’s, ESPN’s and the Tennis Channel’s Bud Collins will be honored by the International Tennis Hall of Fame at a dinner in Boston next week. It’s well deserved.

NBC Sports talks about the Sunday Night Football matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants. And NBC’s Johnny Miller and Roger Maltbie headlined a conference call on the President’s Cup which takes place in Montreal starting tomorrow.

XM Satellite Radio begins its first year as the exclusive satellite home of the NHL. William Houston of the Toronto Globe and Mail talks with NHL analysts Nick Kypreos of Rogers Sportsnet, Glenn Healy of TSN and Pierre McGuire of TSN and NBC about the upcoming season which begins this Saturday, believe it or not.

That’s it for this evening. Back on Thursday.

MLB and ESPN Fighting Again

Remember back in July when ESPN was punished by MLB for breaking the embargo on the All Star game announcements? The announcements were supposed to be made by TBS on its own exclusive program and ESPN was to wait until everything was done, but instead, the Alleged Worldwide Leader made them as the TBS program was ongoing. So MLB punished ESPN by not allowing Baseball Tonight to have a set at Pac Bell Park during All Star Weekend. In fact, Neil Best of Newsday was among the first reporters to break the story.

Today, Best points to a Sports Business Journal story, written by John Ourand, that says ESPN and MLB are fighting again, this time over postseason promos that the league feels the network is supposed to air. MLB says the promos are supposed to say Fox and TBS are carrying the playoffs, but ESPN argues its policy prevents it from promoting other networks. MLB states ESPN carries promos for the NBA playoffs on TNT, but ESPN counters saying its NBA contract requires cross-promotion and its current contract with MLB does not. ESPN’s contract with MLB runs until 2013 and does not include any postseason coverage.

We’ll see how this plays out. Regular readers know how much I enjoy conflicts involving ESPN.

Monday or Day 8 of the D & C Lockout

It’s Monday, August 20 and our friends, John Dennis & Gerry Callahan are still out from WEEI, termed a “vacation” by the station’s public relations firm. Sitting in for D & C today were FSN New England’s Greg Dickerson and Fox 25′s Butch Sterns. And it was the first Patriots Monday for the station. Dickerson is abrasive and Sterns is also so you can imagine the stellar radio we heard today. Thank goodness I have Sirius Satellite Radio so I could listen to Howard Stern via the wireless connection.

Let’s get to your links.

Mike McCarthy of USA Today says communication between the coach’s booth and the sidelines in the NFL have reached the 21st Century. My question is with the new technology, will teams now hire hackers to tap into this new system to steal plays?

From the DC/Baltimore Examiner, Jim Williams writes about the debut of former New York Giant running back Tiki Barber on NBC’s preseason NFL game last night. Williams wrote the story a day before Tiki’s debut just so you know. Bob Molinaro of The Virginian-Pilot says Tiki’s debut went well.

The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick says ESPN Radio in New York had to play the ESPN self-promotion game when paying tribute to the late Phil Rizzuto. Mushnick may be stretching here. Joe Deacon of the Bloomington (IN) Pentagraph says ESPN could lose its strong following with its incessant self-promotion and what he calls the “Eastern Seaboard Programming Network”.

Peter Grant and Adam Thompson of the Wall Street Journal write about the battle between the NFL Network and cable TV. I gave you this story in the Sunday links, but John Consoli of Mediaweek picks it up as well. The NFL Network is close to signing an agreement with MyNetworkTV to air an exclusive edition of NFL Total Access on Saturday nights during the regular season.

From Chris Lempesis of The Forum newspaper in North Dakota, he writes about the Big Ten Network which won’t be available in the Fargo area either. In the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Ron Musselman says Comcast isn’t budging in its standoff with BTN.

Shannon Shelton of the Detroit Free Press says ESPN was ready when rain forced the delay of the NASCAR Michigan 400 yesterday.

In the St. Petersburg Times, Tom Jones gives his recap of the sports TV weekend including stuff on ESPN’s The Sports Reporters and Monday Night Football.

Dusty Saunders in the Rocky Mountain News had a rare opportunity to compare CBS 4 to ESPN’s Monday Night Football in the Dallas-Denver game last week nad says CBS4 had a better production than ESPN.

Mel Bracht of The Oklahoman says Oklahoma City is a hotbed for sports talk radio.

Chris Zelkovich in the Toronto Star says CBC had its own “Heidi Game” moment when it cut away from a CFL game due to a weather delay and subsequent electrical problems late Saturday night, but never went back and missed the exciting ending. And William Houston of the Toronto Globe and Mail has head of CBC Sports Scott Moore taking full responsibility for not returning to the game.

Those are your links for now.

Thursday Afternoon Linkage

The PGA Championship is in full swing. There is online coverage and PGA.com is simulcasting TNT from 2 – 5 p.m. ET. You can go here and watch the coverage if you’re so inclined. There is also one “Pipeline” or channel devoted to certain groups and you can watch that as well.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle has a short blurb on NBC’s broadcast and online plans for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. John Eggerton of Broadcasting & Cable magazine writes that the demand to watch the Olympics online next year could cause a major crunch on the internet.

In the Detroit News, Joanne C. Gerstner says her readers are fed up of ESPN and they want to see a challenger arise to take on the Alleged Worldwide Leader.

Fox Soccer Channel will premiere two new shows as the new season of the English Premier League begins on Saturday.

Centre (PA) Daily Times editor Bob Heisse writes in his blog that the Big Ten Network is really turning on the screws to try to get its channel carried in the Keystone State. Greg Chalfin of the Midland (MI) Daily News says BTN is still in talks with Charter Communications to get its channel carried in Michigan so Wolverines and Spartans fans can watch games. The Big Ten Network has announced a program called “Friday Night Tailgate” to be hosted by former ESPNU host and the first winner of ESPN’s Dream Job, the one and only Antichrist, Mike Hall.

Scott Wong of the Arizona Republic writes that media outlets are protesting the NFL policy forcing photographers to wear vests with a sponsored logo.

John Ryan of the San Jose Mercury News says FSN Bay Area received high ratings for the Barry Bonds record breaking 756th home run on Tuesday.

Tonight begins the first of five consecutive nights of NFL nationally televised exhibition football games. The Biz of Football blog previews the games for you.

There you have it for this afternoon. I’ll check back with you later tonight to see if there are more links.

Some Saturday Linkage

Good morning. Let’s give you a few links on this Saturday morning.

Let’s start with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch where Dan Caesar says ESPN is helping its ratings by continuing to show the Barry Bonds home run chase. Over to the San Antonio Express-News where Jerry Garcia gives the outline for Bonds coverage tonight. The LA Times reports that the Bonds chase is forcing the ESPN family of networks to shuffle its schedule for the Acura Classic.

Yesterday, Neil Best was blogging like crazy posting 18 times. I’ll give you a few of his entries from Friday. First is on Joe Theismann who was unceremoniously dropped from ESPN’s Monday Night Football after last season and will just be on ESPN Radio for a few call-ins. Another mentions the fact that ESPN will continue to invite actors into the booth for silly interviews on MNF. Neil also blogged about a new partnership between the New York Giants and Fox New York for programming and other initiatives. And I’ll choose one more entry, this one on the New York Knicks making only one national TV appearance this season. Thank you, Neil for making Friday enjoyable.

Jacques Steinberg in the New York Times writes that sports radio station WFAN in New York is about to hire Boomer Esiason to replace Don Imus, and that a proposed sidekick, Chris Carton has the potential to go down the same slippery slope that Imus did.

I keep forgetting to link to Richard Deitsch of SI.com every week. He has an interview with Dan Patrick who will do his final shows on ESPN Radio the week of August 13-17.

Michael Zuidema of the Grand Rapids Press says the Big Ten Network still doesn’t have a deal with the major cable companies as the August 30 launch is fast approaching. However, Jeff Richgels of the Capital (WI) Times says BTN is extending an olive branch to Charter Communications in hopes of gaining carriage. Ryan Suchomel of the Iowa City Press-Citizen says Iowa fans may have to get used to see their school’s games at different days and times so to accomodate BTN.

Just one race into NASCAR Nextel Cup coverage and already ESPN is making enemies.

Jason Schneider of the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville is none too happy that ESPN is making up another list. In the Dayton Daily News, Mark Govaki says ESPN seems to be content in making up news. In Deadspin, Will Leitch tries to pinpoint the moment when ESPN literally Jumped the Shark. And continuing the ESPN bashing here, Jon Caramanica in tomorrow’s LA Times writes that “The Bronx is Burning” doesn’t do justice to New York.

Luke DeCock of the Raleigh (NC) News & Observer says Capitol Broadcasting is switching its country station into sports.

Those are your links this morning. Lots of them for a Saturday. I’ll have Weekend Viewing Picks next.