Watchdog

What's wrong with Sports Illustrated? Plenty.

Josh Levin didn't cover the topic quite that succinctly in this piece for Slate, but he did so far more insightfully.

The piece is made more devastating by how sober and thorough it is. He even offers constructive suggestions.

Only once does he resort to a naughty word synonymous with "tush'' that rhymes with "sass'' in describing the frequent kicking done to SI by ESPN.

At ESPN's current rate of hiring editors and reporters from other media outlets, soon I will be the only veteran sports journalist in America without an ID card to get me past the ornery security guards in Bristol.

Sorry so few posts today. I attended a screening in the big city of HBO's latest documentary, on the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry. Plus, it's Halloween.

I will review the HBO show closer to the Nov. 13 debut, but here is a sneak preview, exclusively for WatchDog readers: I thought it was good.

Have a nice night. Enjoy David Wright's appearance with Jon Stewart on the "Daily Show.'' It consistently is the second funniest show on television, after "Curb Your Enthusiam.''

A WatchDog post Tuesday reporting that Nets radio play-by-play man Chris Carrino had signed a contract extension misspelled Carrino's name.

Why? I have no idea.

There is no excuse or explanation, so I won't offer one. Maybe in the future I shouldn't do 20 posts in one day.

My apologies to a solidly professional local basketball voice.

Here is an interesting piece from The Star-Ledger of Newark about the Nets' makeover of the Izod Center - formerly known as Continental Airlines Arena - now that those smelly, dentally-challenged hockey players finally have vacated the premises.

Tell me again why they can't just move into Newark with the Devils, level the old arena and leave Brooklyn available for cool ethnic restaurants and relatively sane traffic flow . . .

Sorry. Did I just write that? Please don't call or e-mail me about this, friends in the Nets public relations office. I know you are WatchDog fans.

I'm just kidding. Sort of.

Someday when I'm long retired and sitting on the back porch catching up on old "Simpsons'' episodes, my grandchildren will ask me what I used to do for a living.

Here is what I will tell them:

"I wrote stories in the newspaper - I'll tell you what those were later - about ESPN annoying the Yankees with how they handled conference calls about baseball managers. Sure, I could have been a hedge fund manager instead, but I did what I had to do to serve the public. Be proud, even if you won't get much of an inheritance from me.''

Here is my latest effort.

Enjoy.

Here's a picture of Pat Priest, who played the freakishly normal Marilyn Munster on a long-ago TV series. This is one of the more tame pictures of her in her prime available on the Web.

What does this have to do with sports . . . or sports media?

Tiki Barber of NBC's "Today'' show this morning is dressed up in a dragon costume, in honor of Spot, the Munsters' family pet. He lived under the staircase at 1313 Mockingbird Lane.

When I was in college in Ithaca there was a persistent rumor that a particular house downtown was the model for 1313 Mockingbird Lane. But I'm pretty sure it was an urban legend. If you can use the word "urban'' for Ithaca.

Never mind. Happy Halloween.

Yankees fans just want to know whether Joe Girardi will win games, er, championships.

That's not my job! I want to know how he is going to handle the big, bad New York media.

Holding his successor to the lofty standard of Joe Torre isn't realistic, but there are some ominous signs that Girardi might not buy into the warm, cuddly media approach.

Check out Jim Baumbach's Newsday.com column for today, in which he interviews three reporters who covered Girardi as members of the big, bad South Florida media.

Everyone knows how intense the coverage of the Marlins can get!

(Glauber was right. This day had 20 posts written all over it from the start. Sick.)

Sports Business Journal has a story this week reporting that Turner Sports was happy with the popularity of its inaugural "TBS Hot Corner'' broadband service.

It logged more than 1 million live video streams during TBS's playoff coverage.

More than half the on-demand views were for features involving actress Alyssa Milano, topped by her tour of the Green Monster at Fenway Park.

Shocking!

Remember the Mets?

Orange and blue unis? Mascot with a really big head? Two championships in 46 seasons?

Well, one of their star players, David Wright, will be on Jon Stewart's "Daily Show'' on Comedy Central at 11 p.m. Wednesday. He is scheduled to appear in the third segment.

Stewart is a big Mets fan. But he'll probably ask him about A-Rod.

Sigh.

It's a new era for the Yankees, with fresh starts all around. Apparently that includes ESPN.

After banning the network's TV, radio, print and Internet reporters from its conference calls with managerial candidates Joe Girardi, Don Mattingly and Tony Pena, the team is expected to lift the restriction and allow ESPN to participate this afternoon as Girardi officially takes the reins.

The Yankees had retaliated against ESPN for the network's decision to televise live on ESPN2 the conference call on which it was announced Joe Torre was leaving.

The NFL Network has decided to low-key its programming related to Sunday's big Pats-Colts tilt.

The will be offering a modest, um, 36 1/2 hours of stuff.

It would have been only 35 1/2, but fortunately for fans anticipating the game the switch to Standard Time Sunday will allow for two separate cracks at the 1 a.m. to 2 a.m. hour that night.

"This is what separates NFL Network,” Charles Coplin, VP of programming, said in a news release.

The release made no mention of programming plans related to the 49ers-Falcons game.

The Nets announced a multi-year contract extension for radio play-by-play man Chris Carrino, a member of the long, proud list of WFUV alums from Fordham populating the local and national sports airwaves.

Carinno is entering his seventh season with the future Brooklyns.

The picture to the right is of Laura Torres, a Dix Hills dental assistant who on May 9 had the honor of being the first person ever to have his or her picture on WatchDog. Keep that in mind when the first edition of WatchDog Trivial Pursuit comes out, just in time for the holidays.

On Monday I waged a silent protest against living and working in Baseball City:

I temporarily sought shelter from the Torre/Girardi/Donnie Baseball/A-Rod/Boras/Hank Steinbrenner Wars at a luncheon in the big city with TNT studio analysts Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith.

Sir Charles' mouth was in fine working order, about 30 hours before TNT's much-praised NBA studio show debuted for 2007-08.

Click below for some thoughts from Barkley on a variety of topics.

Continue reading "Charles Barkley's mouth in midseason form" »

John Feinstein, an occasional panelist on ESPN's "The Sports Reporters,'' takes an entertaining shot at the network's magazine branch in an interview posted today by The Big Lead.

Here is Feinstein on the topic of Rick Reilly leaving SI for ESPN:

"I understand the money - and give Rick credit for being honest about it - but to me, as a writer, leaving SI for ESPN the so-called mag is like leaving The Four Seasons to check into a Hampton Inn."

Touche!

Sunday's Giants-Dolphins tilt was a mostly positive experience, helped by the fact form held, with a pretty good team dispatching an awful one in a blah game.

(Imagine how the event would have gone over with American fans if the Pats and Colts had been playing on a disintegrating pitch on a misty afternoon thousands of miles from downtown Indy!)

Given the harmless novelty of it all, it was surprising how many Sunday TV blabbers hammered the concept.

Fox's Terry Bradshaw: "I just don’t see the point of taking one of our NFL games away from the cities in the United States that count on them week in and week out. Why don’t we try to grow the sport here in Los Angeles where we don’t have a team?''

Fox's Jimmy Johnson: "If I had to coach a regular season game or a Super Bowl in London I would be a basket case.”

Fox's Howie Long: “It is a major distraction. We played preseason games in Tokyo and we also played in London. There are a lot of obligatory functions you have to go to. It’s a vacation for everyone except the players.”

ESPN's Tom Jackson: “It’s a bad idea if you’re a player. I played in Denver, Colorado. I didn’t even want to travel to Kansas City to play the Chiefs.''

ESPN's Mike Ditka: "This is not the time. This is not the place."

NBC's Keith Olbermann: "In England this week, Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga said global expansion may be the only way to grow the NFL - neglecting the fact that there are still plenty of untapped opportunities here in the States. It might be nice, for instance, if the league had a pro team in Miami.''

On the other side was ESPN's Keyshawn Johnson, the best new NFL studio analyst this season: "I don’t think it’s a problem at all. I think the one thing the National Football League is trying to do is promote this game.”

Say what you want about ESPN, but there is no disputing that the Worldwide Leader shows us a lot of stuff, and when it can, it adds extra stuff, as it did with Barry Bonds' home run saga over the summer.

The latest is the addition of Saturday's Arizona State vs. Oregon tilt through an agreement with the Pac-10 and Fox Sports Net.

The game originally was to be televised only in Oregon, Arizona and Southern California. Now you can see it on Long Island, too.

Uh, oh. Glauber is back from London and obsessing over my blog again.

This is getting almost as disturbing as the man-crush every pro football announcer has on Brett Favre.

Glauber works hard on his blog and might yet make a run at me in page views late in the football season, especially if Big Blue doesn't do its traditional November swan dive.

Let's see what happens in May, though.

There's no offseason on my beat, Bob.

I know all loyal WatchDog readers read my Tuesday newspaper column, but you might have missed a sidebar I did talking to Michael Kay about the new Yankees manager.

For that conversation with Kay I asked him to don his YES play-by-play man hat. Then I asked him to switch to his sports talk radio hat and give me his take on the hiring of Joe Girardi:

"I think he’s going to be outstanding, but I also think Mattingly would have been outstanding. I think people mistook class for quiet and maybe being non-aggressive. I know this really hurts him. But I'm thrilled for Joe.''

Kay added it "made me laugh" to hear concerns about how Mattingly would have handled the spotlight, including media demands:

"He was a superstar and the only good player on the team for years and had the media around him all the time. This is bittersweet for me. I knew one of them would get hurt.''

Don't worry, I'll get around to boring you with an NFL Network vs. cable industry update in my column sometime in November.

In the meantime, here is a thorough piece from Sports Business Journal to keep you informed.

(I hope this link works for everyone. I'm a subscriber so it comes up on my computer. Let me know if it doesn't on yours.)

The most amusing/infuriating thing about these disputes is when a cable goliath such as Comcast says it does not want subscribers to have to pay for channels such as the NFL Network that not all subscribers want.

Left unsaid is that customers often do pay for stuff they might not want on basic cable, such as the Golf Channel and Versus, each of which is owned by . . . Comcast!

Sigh.

Jonathan Vilma currently having a pretty good argument with Joe Benigno on WFAN's mid-day show.

This is even better than Boomer and Carton kibitzing with Thomas Jones.

Seething Vilma apparently quite unhappy with speculation about how injured he is - or not. And not shy about confronting Benigno about it.

This reminds me a little of Benigno and Evan Roberts getting into shouting matches with Paul Lo Duca during the baseball season. But they're doing it respectfully, so it's fine with me.

This probably will be archived on WFAN's Web site later this afternoon.

I'm off next week. I'm going to unplug the radio and hide it in the attic just to protect me from myself.

I'n the past we've covered landmark sports appearances on Sesame Street by both Jackie Robinson and Eric Mangini.

Here's one from in between those two, circa 1988, featuring numerous non-sports luminaries but also Keith Hernandez, Mookie Wilson and several of Bill Parcells' Giants.

How did the world function before YouTube was invented?

Newsday's Jim Baumbach tipped me off to this amazing video from the day Joe Torre was fired by the Mets in 1981.

The quality is horrendous, but it is worth enduring for treats such as an old Sasson jeans ad reminiscent of the classic Rangers version, an interview with an impossibly young Lee Mazzilli and some hilarious man-and-woman-on-the-street stuff toward the end.

(YouTube has the Rangers Sasson commercial, too. Because YouTube has everything.)

This is much more fun than Torre's appearance with Letterman Monday night.

Here is a story from our friends at Ad Age that tells you everything you ever wanted to know about the Taco Bell promotion during the World Series . . . and much more.

Bottom line: It was a brilliant, low-risk, low-cost stunt for the fast foodies.

(Maybe Taco Bell should have offered free tacos for everyone in England if Eli Manning completed 10 passes Sunday.)

Anyway, don't forget to pick up your free taco from 2 to 5 p.m. today. And don't fall for their tricks by buying a soda or a second taco or some sort of other gooey, beany treat while there.

Discipline, people! Discipline!

The worse the Jets get the more I enjoy listening to Thomas Jones' weekly Tuesday morning visit to the dentist's chair on WFAN.

On this week's episode, Craig Carton prefaced a question by saying something like, "No one cares because you guys are so bad, but . . . "

Later, Carton and Boomer Esiason discussed with Jones his schedule for errands and such on his off day.

Maybe in private Jones is cursing out his agent for arranging this gig, but on the air he is doggedly patient and respectful.

When it was over Carton wondered on the air what I would say about this week's session. I defer to Boomer, who summed it up better than I can. I think his words were "morbidly fascinating.''

ESPN 1050 has spent the past day promoting Andrew Marchand's report at 11:40 a.m. Monday that Joe Girardi would be named the Yankees' new manager.

I have no reason to doubt Andrew was first, and I've written recently in my newspaper column that the station has made a commitment to its news operation, headed by Marchand.

So why didn't I mention this in my newspaper column today, in which I recount in detail the evolution of the A-Rod opt-out saga Sunday night?

Because I made the bold decision that I would not be dragged into the role of New York sports media referee, trying to figure out who got what first and then bestowing official props.

Marchand did a good job, but by the end of the day the newspapers that cover this stuff doggedly presumably would have had the story regardless.

Maybe the best and most responsible way to handle this new media world is for everyone to focus on accurate information and reasoned analysis and stop worrying so much about who beats who by 10 minutes or 10 seconds.

Sigh.

One of the occupational hazards of this beat is that it generally involves covering the coverage of events, rather than the events themselves.

That can create a rather unhealthy point of view for someone who at his or her core still is supposed to be a sports fan.

And that is why it is important to be reminded every once in a while of what the point of all this really is.

So after a long Monday of talking to TV analysts about the NBA, talking to reporters and TV executives about the A-Rod saga, wondering what Vince Vaughn was going in the "Monday Night Football'' booth in the fourth quarter and nearly gagging on the inevitable Brett Favre worship that comes with any telecast of one of his games . . .

Well, I just wanted to thank you, Brett, for that game-winning overtime chuck late Monday night. That was really, really cool.

I really hate to do this two days before the end of the month, what with trying to wrap up another trouncing of Glauber in the monthly page views race and all of the developments going on in Baseball City.

But I'm going to have to take most of the day off from blogging, as I have a previously scheduled lunch with a famously edgy NBA studio analyst. (I thought once the World Series was over, we get to talk/write about football and basketball. Naive!)

See ya later. Enjoy the A-Rod talk. (Girardi? Big Papi? Eli? Mangenius? Who are they? It's all about the guy Peter Gammons last night said had shown "total disrespect'' for the game with his agent's late-in-a-World Series-game bombshell.)

If you don't know the guy in the picture, ask your great-grandfather. Have a nice day.

Well played, Master Boras. Well played.

Announcing an hour before the end of the World Series that A-Rod would opt out of his contract? As if doing that sort of thing at 11 o'clock on a Sunday night is . . . normal? The fact the Red Sox were about to be re-named champs only made it more deliciously sinister.)

This was the agent equivalent of the Yankees holding a news conference in the seventh inning of the World Series finale to announce they were hiring Don Zimmer as their new manager.

Only unlike Yankees management, there is nothing Bud Selig can do to punish Scott Boras for upstaging the Fall Classic. Brilliant!

I'm having this guy do my next deal with Newsday management for blog compensation. I'll bet he gets me a nice raise from my current . . . um, zero.

(Update: The time on the original A-Rod post by SI.com's Jon Heyman is 10:14 p.m., so I assume he was the first to report the news. Heyman has dominated the Boras beat for years, and broke the original A-Rod-coming-to-the-Yanks story when he was at Newsday.)

Is Gus Johnson still yelling at me, or is the Jets game finally over?

No way I'm turning my TV back on until someone confirms this for me.

The game's not, like, in overtime or anything, is it?

A couple of SNY loyalists, reacting to a followup blog post I did after my column Friday, defended the local channel's approach to covering sports news relative to ESPN's, and pointed to other blogs and message boards that felt the same way.

Back-and-forth dialogue about issues of the day is healthy, and a nice thing about this whole Internet fad.

But this discussion is going in circles now. Here is the deal:

ESPN generally does a fine job covering national sports news, and has the money for snappy production values, expensive plane tickets and experienced reporters, many of whom learned the trade at newspapers, of course.

SNY does the most thorough job outside daily newspapers of documenting local sports news, surely when it comes to sending out camera crews to record events in and around the city.

Each has its attributes. I'm through with this topic. Enjoy the Pep Boys 500 on ABC later.

Here is a picture of the late, great George Best, doing what he did back in the day, when he was a big-time player - on and off the field.

Why? I like his name, of course, but the idea also is to get you in the mood for today's Giants-Dolphins tilt at Wembley.

Here's another thing: Check out Bob Glauber's tale of his visit to a real football game Saturday night.

Naturally, a former Newsday paper boy plays a key role. If we have learned nothing else in our SportsWatch/WatchDog journey together over the past two years, it is this: Former Newsday paper boys run the world.

My newspaper column on Ray Lucas almost had a sidebar, but then Kellen Clemens did not get the nod and the tale of Lucas taking over the Jets at 1-6 in 1999 became less timely.

No worries. That's why blogs were created.

Click below to read Lucas talking early last week (before Eric Mangini announced he was sticking with Chad Pennington) about the day he got the job, which led to the team rallying late that season to an 8-8 finish.

Continue reading "Bill Parcells gives Ray Lucas the job, then adult diapers" »

I wrote a Sunday column about Ray Lucas, SNY's unpredictable Jets analyst, whose work has gotten more entertaining the worse the team has gotten on the field.

Alas, as sometimes happens in the newspaper business, breaking news took up more space than anticipated, causing our able Sunday edition staff to cut off a chunk of the column.

No worries. I sent too many words anyway. Through the magic of cyberspace, watch this trick:

You can read the part of the column that appeared in Newsday here, and read the rest of it by clicking below. What will they think of next, electric can openers?

Continue reading "Here is the rest of my Ray Lucas column" »

Korbel sponsors the last out on ESPN Radio's World Series coverage - no, really - which in this case is the perfect tie-in.

Let us all raise a glass and toast the Sox and Rocks for the greatest achievement yet in the Year of the Endless Playoff Game.

They just set a World Series record by taking 4:19 to compete a nine-inning game.

Now comes the real challenge: Sunday night the teams will try to extend their streak of consecutively longer games, from 3:30 to 3:39 to 4:19 to . . . ?

Good night, North America. Glauber probably is awake already in London.

So what if it came on a very slow Friday night in the sports world . . . and in a loss!

It still was cool to see Cornell football, of all things, featured at No. 1 on the top 10 plays list on ESPN's "SportsCenter'' Friday night.

(Some guy from Princeton ran a long way thanks to the Big Red's failure to grasp the basics of tackling.)

While we're on the subject of Cornell football, it's time for one of those periodic reminders to Pat Sullivan to give back that 1971 Heisman he stole from Ed Marinaro.

C'mon, Pat, you know you should.

I'm no expert on TV technology, but . . . couldn't ESPN have gotten someone to stand with a big umbrella over the camera at the Breeder's Cup finish line Friday?

The last time I saw that many raindrops on a lens at a major sports event was when CBS forgot the squeegees for Super Bowl XLI.

I've only bet on two horse races in my life:

$10 to win on Alydar in the 1978 Belmont Stakes. (Loss. Barely.)
$10 to win on Funny Cide in the 2003 Kentucky Derby. (Win. Big win.)

Congratulations, Dennis J. Droogan!

You have correctly identified Bobby Plump in the picture at right and won the respect and admiration of WatchDog readers throughout North America . . . and probably this week in England as well.

At my first Final Four in 1991, the media party was held at Hinkle Fieldhouse at Butler, where Plump made his famous shot. A black-and-white film of the play ran on a continuous loop on screens in each corner of the court during the bash.

At one point I was having a drink a few feet away from Oscar Robertson, another pretty good high school basketball player.

It used to be fun leaving my basement sometimes.

Oh, man, this is really embarrassing.

I just realized I accidentally deleted the movie in question from the list of films on "Yogi and a Movie'' on which the photo contest referenced below and further below is based.

Yikes. No wonder no one has gotten the answer so far. Sorry. So, so sorry. The movie now is included in the list.

Good luck.

I'm disappointed no one has taken a stab at the high-degree-of-difficulty photo contest from earlier today. I hope it's that you're stumped, not that you're indifferent.

Regardless, here's another picture that should be a big hint.

Try again.

The first person to get the identity of the original photo subject correct wins the ultimate prize: the respect of all WatchDog readers.

Sigh. Three thoughtful readers have written polite notes today to suggest that in my newspaper column I was a tad too kind to SNY's news operation - particularly relative to that of ESPN.

Maybe so. It's true that in addition to its vastly greater resources for covering national news, ESPN has slicker production values and more experienced reporters than does SNY - which you'd expect from a national network with vast riches. (Two million bucks per annum for Rick Reilly!)

The two main points of the piece were that, a) SNY is making an honest effort to present a complete TV news report unlike any other in the market, and, b) it's interesting that in spite of that ESPN's SportsCenter continues to hammer SNY's SportsNite in the ratings when the Mets aren't playing.

That's all. There's room for everyone in our big sports media tent - including the newspapers and their Web sites that still provide the most comprehensive news and analysis of local teams.

For all you ratings-heads out there . . . The results are in for Game 2 of the World Series/Taco Bell infomercial.

Not terrible. Up to 11.1 percent of U.S. households from 10.5 for Game 1. The key, as always, is going to be getting a long series that engages viewers. It's up to you, Rockies.

The rating in New York was 11.9. Baseball is one of the very few major sports events that rates better here than it does nationally.

Thank you to the several blogs that tipped WatchDog off to this, including Home Run Derby, and especially to Jimmy Kimmel, who in this mock PSA nails the unbearable annoyingness of Red Sox fans.

The media went so overboard in chronicling their delivery from the baseball desert in 2004, the rest of us were ruined for life when it comes to hearing another word out of their long-suffering mouths.

Leave us alone, already! You're just Yankees North, with even narrower concourses and longer bathroom lines.

Someone at The Tennis Channel worked really hard on the very cute - OK, too cute - news release below explaining the fact that "The'' no longer is part of the channel's name.

It's just "Tennis Channel.'' Got that?

I'm sharing it here because, well, because I can. It's just the Internet.

Read all about it below, if you have some time to kill.

Continue reading "'The' Tennis Channel is no more" »

YES seems to have upgraded its lineup for "Yogi and a Movie'' this Yankees offseason, which is a good thing, except for being deprived of the morbid curiosity of watching the gloriously awful "Babe Ruth Story,'' starring William Bendix.

Here's the schedule of debuts, the first of which already has happened. (Bonus points for the first commenter to identify the guy in the picture and his connection to one of the flicks.)

A.K.A. Cassius Clay - Oct. 25
Pistol: The Birth of a Legend - Nov. 1
Johnny Be Good - Nov. 15
The Jackie Robinson Story - Dec. 6
It’s Good to Be Alive - Dec. 13
Raging Bull - Jan. 3
Rocky IV - Jan. 10
Pride Against Prejudice: The Larry Doby Story Jan. 17
The Joe Louis Story - Jan. 31
Hoosiers - March 13

Since I gave ESPN 1050 a plug for its Yankees coverage in an earlier post, I might as well add this:

XM Radio is providing daily Yankees updates from Tampa at 7:15 a.m., through the end of the manager search and major free agent signings . . . or re-signings.

The title of the reports (on channel 144) is a tad melodramatic: "Yankee Watch – An Off-Season on the Brink.”

Somehow the Yanks will muddle through, won't they?

XM also will offer Yankees news on it "MLB Post Season" show from noon to 1 p.m. weekdays.

A couple of years ago Sirius gave me a radio to check out its service. But after three months my boss at the time made me give it back.

As we wind down another wacky WatchDog week, it is time to honor the blogs' most important people: you, the loyal readers.

John Philips has been kind of quiet on the commenting front since I barred him from winning the Friday contest again, but rushing in with a strong entry was a commenter named Peter.

Here is what he had to say Tuesday in response to the news the start of the NFL Draft would be moving from noon to 3 p.m. next spring:

"Looks like the Jets will be drafting at about the same time as they did last year."

Ouch. I'm going to write my Sunday newspaper column now. It's about the Jets!

Presumably due to some sort of production glitch, an updated version of an item about ESPN 1050's news operation in my SportsWatch column today did not appear in the newspaper. So I guess I'll take care of that with a couple of notes here.

1) Although ESPN 1050 outdoes WFAN in reporting in some areas, unlike its competitor WFAN does have a reporter with both the Yankees and Mets for all road trips.

2) Reporter/editor Andrew Marchand of ESPN 1050 was the only TV or radio reporter on the scene of the Yankees vigil in Tampa Thursday, along with an AP reporter and three New York tabloid scribes, including Newsday's own Kat O'Brien.

Now you know.

Three hours and 39 minutes. For a 2-1 game. Yo, Bob DuPuy, I think you might be on to something with your concern over the length of post-season games!

I'm going to go out on a limb and predict at least one game in the 2007 World Series will come in under 3:30. But I'm not willing to make a bet on that or anything.

I did make it to the end of Game 2, because no sacrifice is too great for you, the reader. At least it was close, which should make for a much better rating than the not-bad 10.5 for Game 1.

It was another sponsor-heavy night for Fox, lowlighted by Chris Myers' interview with some Taco Bell exec in the stands. I mentioned the Taco Bell promotion in my newspaper column today, along with a bunch of other stuff.

Enjoy!

UFC's long-rumored marriage with HBO is off for now, but Thursday the mixed martial arts powerhouse signed a new partnership with Spike TV that runs through 2011.

The deal includes seasons 9-12 of the reality series "The Ultimate Fighter," 12 live fight cards under the title "UFC Fight Nights'' and two seasons of a new weekly fight series.

"UFC Unleashed,'' another Spike show, will feature past UFC fights in 13 episodes per year in 2009, '10 and '11.

UFC has been a ratings smash in the difficult-to-reach men ages 18-34 demographic, easily beating most major sports events in that group.

I know I promised in the post below I was done for the night, but news is news. Here it is:

ESPN 1050 has named Gordon Damer a host for the 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. overnight slot, starting Sunday night/Monday morning.

Damer has been with the station since its debut six years ago and has held a variety of jobs there.

The news release said Damer grew up on Long Island. Local angle! I'll find out where on Long Island and get back to you Friday.

(Update: Damer is from Seaford.)

Here's a scarily insightful piece from long-time curmudgeon/columnist Ray Ratto on the lose-lose situation athletes face with the media - they're criticized if they answer honestly, and criticized if they don't.

It's as good a note as any on which to sign off for the day.

Sorry there were relatively few posts today. I'm trying to balance blogging with the Job for Which I Get Paid, which is writing a newspaper column.

I appreciate everyone who reads my stuff regardless of the venue. Good night. Maybe the Sox and Rocks can bring it in tonight under the magic three-and-a-half-hour mark.

Unlike last night.

One of the highlights of the dozens of e-mails that arrive in my inbox every week is the blob of Phil Simms observations sent by CBS.

Here is some good stuff from Simms about the Giants' recent success:

"The Giants are absolutely starting to catch the attention of America. They have caught my attention. I am as interested now in the Giants as I am in the Indianapolis Colts and the New England Patriots.

"They have a flare about them. They are playing an exciting brand of football. They have playmakers all over the field – not just guys who can make plays – guys who can win the game. Plaxico Burress can win a game almost single-handedly. The running backs have been tremendous.

"They have one of the best pass-blocking offensive lines in football. Nobody, nobody, in the NFL can rush the passer better than the New York Giants. I would say to all of the NFC teams, there is a new player out there.

"It’s pretty amazing that they held together after losing the first two games because the atmosphere going into the season was not good. The press wants Tom Coughlin fired because going to the playoffs in back-to-back years is not good enough.''

Hey, these playoff games are painfully long for network announcers, too. Check out this tale, courtesy of our friends at Sports Business Daily. The set-up, from SBD:

Fox’ Joe Buck appeared on NBC’s “Late Night With Conan O’Brien,'' where he talked about how during broadcasts, his friends text him words “that I have to fit into the broadcast, and depending on the degree of difficulty, that’s how much money is riding on the bet.” NBC’s Conan O’Brien said after you say the word on-air, “your friend is watching at home and is like, ‘Yeah!’” Buck: “No, then he owes me. He owes $20.” O’Brien: “For $20 he just turned you into a human puppet on national television.” Buck: “It’s fun for me. Baseball games are long, so if you can kind of spice it along the way.” O’Brien said he has been “obsessed” with the word “Jub-Jub” and said if “you can work ‘Jub-Jub’ into the World Series, I will donate $1,000 to the charity of your choice.” Buck: “I’ll do my best.”

Then, SBD on the payoff:

After a report on the weather conditions in Boston by Fox’ Chris Myers in the bottom of the third inning of last night’s World Series Game One, the net’s Joe Buck said, “Our own little Jub-Jub, Chris Myers, playing the role of weather person.” With the use of the word “Jub-Jub” on-air, Buck won a wager with NBC’s Conan O’Brien, who will now donate $1,000 to the charity of Buck’s choice.

Wow. What am I bid from loyal WatchDog readers if I can work the word "pshaw" into a column? Or "galactagogue.'' Or . . . "redonkulous."

Never mind. It's Thursday, when I write my newspaper column before starting to obsessively write blog posts. Have a nice day.

And, by the way, Donny Baseball, you might want to spend the offseason practicing for those pre-game dugout sessions with the media mob. I'm available for consultations. Call me.

So . . . all that stuff about cancelling the 2008 National Lacrosse League season turned out to be just part of the negotiating gamesmanship?

It's shocking, shocking I tell you!

Here's the latest from our friends in the Canadian media, where hockey and indoor lax coverage are really big deals.

Did I ever mention I once spent a week in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories? It was late March, and still really cold. I walked across part of Great Slave Lake. But that has nothing to do with lacrosse. Welcome back, Titans!

Reggie Miller will be a full-time game analyst for TNT this season, joining Marv Albert and Mike Fratello and leaving behind his former role as a dual game/studio analyst.

Miller said he considered then rejected the notion of a comeback as a player because of his wariness of the mental grind. "For eight months, I don’t think mentally I could have done it. Physically, I probably could have.''

Responded Albert: "Reggie, wait until you go through eight months with us mentally.''

Miller on the excitement over the Celtics: "We need Boston. We need New York, and we need the Lakers . . . We need the Knicks to mean something. We don't need them to mean something in a sexual harassment case. We need them to mean something on another court - on the basketball court.''

Check out this astounding blog post dated Oct. 22 from Curt Schilling, who takes a break from his World Series preparations to weigh in on the Joe Torre saga. (Thanks to The Big Lead for the tip.)

The Bloody Sock also offers some opinions on the dreaded New York media, which sports "a hack-to-writer ratio bordering on 100-to-1.''

Wow. At least he noticed my talents standing out from those other 100 guys and gals.

On the on-line version of "Giants On-Line'' posted Wednesday, host Bob Papa takes a direct shot at Newsday for how it plans to deploy personnel for Sunday's game in London.

Then he challenges me to post said criticism on the blog, whose name he botches, probably because he's mad about me making fun of his wardrobe for "Giants Access Blue.''

Yo, Bob, we can take it here at Newsday as well as we can dish it out. Here's the link to Giants.com. The video in question is over on the right side of the page somewhere. The challenge in question is a couple of minutes in.

Say hello to the Queen for me, Bob. And say hello for Arthur, too.

The Yankees have barred ESPN from media conference calls with managerial candidates, a retaliation for the network violating rules covering last week’s call on which it was announced Joe Torre had turned down a contract offer.

Jason Zillo, the Yankees’ media relations director, said Wednesday he told the operators conducting calls with Joe Girardi Monday and Don Mattingly Tuesday not to accept ESPN as an affiliation. He said the same policy would apply for Wednesday’s Tony Pena call.

“If the only dialogue ESPN is going to give me is that, ‘We are going to do whatever we want to do,’ it leaves me with very few alternatives,’’ he said. “I don’t take any pride in stiff-arming people. That is not how I like to do business.’’

ESPN angered Zillo Thursday when it played the conference call with team executives live on ESPN2, violating grounds rules that barred live coverage. He was further annoyed by an ESPN statement on the incident that appeared in Newsday and read:

“The most important thing to our fans was for us to provide this major sports news as it was breaking.’’ ESPN presumably meant sports fans, not fans of the network, but Zillo shot back with this:

“I don’t see many people walking around the streets with ESPN jerseys on their backs. I don’t know what fans they’re talking about.’’

Zillo said the ban applies to ESPN’s TV and radio reporters, including ESPN 1050. But he stressed he does not blame the reporters involved.

“I want to resolve this but they’ve backed me into a corner where I don’t have many options if they think they’re bigger than the organization they’re covering,’’ he said.

Zillo said he was not sure whether the ban would extend beyond Wednesday. “I don’t want this to be a long-term thing but I need the message to get out there. Their answer of ‘we do what we want to do’ is not enough.’’

READ MORE ABOUT THE YANKS' POST-SEASON MEDIA POLICIES BELOW

Continue reading "Yankees retaliate by barring ESPN from manager calls" »

Just in case you thought the Jets' new headquarters in Jersey would be named for something or someone like, say, Weeb Ewbank . . . um, no.

Here is a story in The Star-Ledger of Newark about the corporate sponsor of the place, which will replace Hofstra as the team's training facility in a couple of years.

The Atlantic Health Jets Training Center. Hmm. Just doesn't roll off the tongue, does it?

Wow. T-Rock's blog says Chad Pennington will start at quarterback Sunday.

I'm assuming this is not a typo or a hoax.

The good news is now I don't have to write that sidebar I offered the boss about Ray Lucas' memories of taking over the Jets in 1999, the last time Gangrene started 1-6.

It would have been a good piece. Yup, I'll just dump all that material into the blog later this week, don't worry.

This Chad decision is very interesting, though. And a nice favor from Eric Mangini for sports talk hosts looking for material on a Wednesday in October.

The scariest thing about this video promoting Sunday's Giants-Dolphins tilt is not the Godzilla-sized robot of Jason Taylor threatening to stomp all over London's citizenry.

No, the scariest thing is that the celebrity guest representing American sports fans is . . . Christian Slater!

Didn't these guys get the memo that Slater was the disastrous booth guest that almost brought down "Monday Night Football'' last season? After that, MNF producers swore they only would go with A-list guests, preferably ones who actually had an interest in, um . . . football!

Wow. Next thing you know the Brits will be doing something even wackier like calling soccer "football'' or something.

I left the basement Tuesday on a fact-finding mission in Manhattan, the details of which I'll share in a couple of newspaper stories later in the week. But the excitement of seeing other humans and breathing fresh, New York City air were reason enough to consider it a good night.

First, I ran into a live Michael Kay radio show in the middle of Penn Station. I had a nice chat with producer Ryan T. Hurley. Michael waved, as it Don LeGreca.

They were listening to a phone hookup with my former Newsday colleague, Jon Heyman, whom I assume was talking about the World Series or the Yankees managerial opening or both.

Listening to Heyman's voice boom out over Penn Station, a thought occurred to me: Only in New York.

Later I met former Jets linebacker Greg Buttle in SNY's mid-town newsroom. He said his brother-in-law, Joe Allegro, graduated from Northport High School with me in 1978. Which is true.

Come to think of it, I guess none of that is all that interesting to most of you. But I shared it anyway, because that is what bloggers do.

I never had heard the word "redonkulous'' until Monday, when Rick Reilly used it to describe the amount of money ESPN will pay him to jump from Sports Illustrated.

(It means really, really ridiculous.)

Then this morning Craig Carton used it on his WFAN morning show.

I forget what he was describing, but at least I knew what he meant.

I like this new word!

It's the second-grooviest addition to my vocabulary of 2007, after "chillax.''

It's nice to see I'm not the only one obsessed with the length of post-season baseball games, which have become nearly four-hour observations of players adjusting wrist bands. Turns out MLB president Bob DuPuy agrees with me.

So he told The Washington Post in a story published today. He also said that to Chris Russo and Mike Francesa on WFAN, but I wouldn't know, because I've banned myself from the show, at least for a little while. I'm in "Mike and the Mad Dog'' rehab.

Anyway, there is hope with Mr. Beckett on the mound for the Bosox. The only one of 24 playoff games this season to end in less than two-and-a-half hours was his outing in Game 1 of the Red Sox-Angels ALDS.

Brian Kenny joined ESPN 1050's mid-day show Monday, but where was his co-host, Max Kellerman, who was back on the air Tuesday with his new partner?

Turns out Kellerman was suspended for one day. A reader helpfully tipped me off to the problem a few days ago but I was unable to confirm it until Tuesday.

"There was an incident which I’d rather keep in house,'' program director Aaron Spielberg said.

I have heard stories about what went down, but none that I was able to confirm on the record, and even our blogs do have journalistic standards.

Max does apparently have a bit of a temper, which might have played into the "incident,'' but I'll take Spielberg at his word that all is well at the station again . . . for now.

The NFL just announced that henceforth the NFL Draft will begin at 3 p.m. on Saturday rather than noon, and that on the first day only two rounds will be conducted rather than three, and that teams in the first round will have only 10 minutes to make a choice, not 15.

"We believe these changes will make for a more streamlined and efficient draft,'' Commissioner Roger Goodell said.

Translation: This schedule will make for much better TV . . . and in a much better time slot!

(And might keep those yahoo Jets fans from lining up for tickets at 5 a.m.)

Darn it. Someone just pointed out a poorly worded sentence in my column in which I write that there is no chance the 2007 World Series will "surpass'' last year's record low rating of 10.1.

I meant surpass as in break the record by going even lower, but obviously that can be read as a claim there is no chance the rating will be higher than 10.1.

I'm sorry for the confusion and lousy writing. Maybe if I didn't blog so much these things wouldn't happen.

(Update: I just fixed the wording on the Web version of the column.)

I suppose as long as I'm linking to other people's stories today I should link to my own newspaper column in Newsday.

It contains all sorts of important information about the World Series schedule and ratings, Joe Torre's TV interview schedule and an accusation that Tiki Barber is really into handbags.

There also is a brief item on ESPN's Brian Kenny joining Max Kellerman mid-days on ESPN 1050. The station continues hammering away in an effort to break down the WFAN ratings monolith, but it ain't easy.

The fall ratings book will be an excellent test - much more so than the summer - of where everyone stands.

Kenny is from Levittown. Yup, he delivered Newsday as a kid, as much of the sports media world did.

WatchDog's first ever award for Most Patient Radio Interview Subject goes to the Jets' Thomas Jones, hands-down.

Jones' appearances every Tuesday with Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton on WFAN have become morbidly fascinating, as Carton bluntly attempts to provoke Jones and the running back politely and patiently refuses to fall into his traps.

Such paid weekly radio spots by players quickly can become uncomfortable at best and a waste of time at worst when their teams head south. But this somehow is working, thanks to Carton's dogged irreverance and Jones being a good sport.

But can they pull this off for another two months if the Jets never win again?

As always, it's wise to check WatchDog multiple times per day for information such as this: At 2 p.m., you'll have another chance to buy Rockies World Series tickets on-line.

Here are all the gory details from the Denver Post about the issues with the ticket sales Monday and what is supposed to happen today.

Just think, Mets and Yankees fans: If your teams had not flamed out early and instead made it to the Series, look how much trouble it might have caused. It's better this way.

I'm not quite sure what, if anything, I'm supposed to write about the Breeder's Cup this week.

It's happening this weekend at Monmouth Park, which is in the metropolitan area, but . . . well, just barely.

If I wrote something it would be about the buzz, or lack thereof, surrounding he event.

Fortunately I don't have to bother with that because The Star-Ledger of Newark did it Saturday and you can read the story here.

On a conference call Monday with Rick Reilly - who starts a new gig at ESPN in June - the multi-media sports journalist referred to the "redonkulous'' money the network would be paying him. (Estimates start at $2 million per annum.)

The New York Times translated the word to "ridiculous,'' which certainly conveys the gist of it but is not what Reilly said. Newsday went with "redonkulous,'' but inconsiderately failed to translate that into English for readers not as hip as Reilly is.

Here it is, courtesy of Urban Dictionary.com. You learn something every day on this job. (I checked with my 12-year-old. She'd never heard of the word, either.)

The first time I was around Reilly I could sense the cocky confidence that he has turned into a spectacularly lucrative career. (Good for him, by the way.) It was in the press box at Giants Stadium during the 1985 Kickoff Classic.

I'm not sure whether Reilly still was at the L.A. Times or already had started at SI, but there was no mistaking just from listening to him schmooze with other sportswriters that the guy had a certain charisma.

He was 27.

Someone at Giants Stadium apparently has been reading WatchDog, because in the wake of my post about Saturday's edition of "Giants Access Blue'' on Ch. 9, I received a DVD of the Sept. 8 debut episode. (No note with it. Hmm.)

Turns out the show has more going for it than stuff such as the 10 minutes of old Mike Barrow footage I saw over the weekend. Amani Toomer demonstrated how he drags his feet to stay in bounds, Osi Umenyiora demonstrated just how massive of a house near Atlanta NFL money can buy and Bob Papa demonstrated how to make a middle-aged guy look hipper by failing to tuck in his shirt.

(That's his co-host, Reischea Canidate, in the picture.)

OK, I get it. My old friends in the Giants video department are doing much more than recycling old clips here. The show's target audience might be one-third my age, but in fairness I will check out an entire episode this coming Saturday night.

The show airs at 10:30. That should fall right around the top of the third inning of Game 3 of the World Series and I'll need a break from watching Manny Ramirez adjust his batting helmet. (Speaking of which, will Fox explain to America how the helmet got that nasty looking?)

Sorry I'm off to a late start today. I went to the dentist for a cleaning and got rave reviews from the staff.

Never leaving your house is bad for one's waistline but good for one's dental hygiene, what with easy access to a toothbrush after every meal.

The last time I visited the dentist was April 10. I was in a hurry to leave to get to Rutgers for a news conference featuring a certain women's basketball team in the wake of comments directed at it by a certain radio talk show host.

No, I'm afraid I do not know why Citadel Broadcasting has not yet announced its signing of Don Imus to man the WABC-AM morning drive time slot.

To the best of my knowledge it's still happening, but someone familiar with the process described it to me as "fluid'' on Friday; I'm not sure what that means.

Check out this piece by Bob Kravitz in the Indianapolis Star on Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Tony Kornheiser and "Monday Night Football.''

(Thanks for the tip from Awful Announcing.com.)

It's a perfect warmup for watching Lynbrook's own Tony K. on the Colts-Jags tilt on ESPN tonight.

Enjoy.

I won't be watching. I'm saving myself for all of the midnight vigils I'm going to be holding during the World Series.

Fox's Tim McCarver said on a World Series conference call Monday that he thought Joe Torre would manage again, but not in 2008. If that's true, he will be an extremely hot property as a TV analyst next season.

Fox invited Torre to join McCarver and Joe Buck for the Series but he declined.

Here is Buck on the topic of Torre as an announcer:

"I think he would be sensational, so if he did jump back into the announcing business, whenever it would be, I can't think of a better option for someone hiring than a guy who’s been in the wars here with the Yankees . . . It's certainly not going to pay like the Yankees managing job, but it would be a lot easier life and I think he’d be phenomenal.''

Here's Buck, who lives in St. Louis, on the notion of Tony LaRussa managing in New York and how difficult it would be for him to handle the area's media:

"It’s virtually impossible to get upset with the media in St. Louis and yet he has fights with them periodically throughout the year . . . I don’t think LaRussa ever seriously thought that’s something that he’d want to jump into.''

LaRussa recently said he'll stay in St. Louis.

ESPN just made it official that Rick Reilly will be joining the sports media empire in June, after what its news release called a "sabbatical.''

In plain English it means he has to wait six months after leaving SI before he can come aboard.

The loss of its biggest star has had a huge negative effect on morale at SI, whose readership base is aging by the day. I'm only 47. They must love having a relatively young, cutting-edge subscriber like me on the mailing list.

The news release doesn't mention money, but I've heard from several people in and around SI that he'll be getting at least $2 million dollars from ESPN.

Am I jealous? Heck, no. Sportswriters complaining about other sportswriters getting big dough is as short-sighted and petty as golfers complaining about Tiger getting big dough.

I do think it remains to be seen whether Reilly can make his smarmy cockiness more TV friendly than it has been in the past.

See the entire ESPN news release below.

Continue reading "ESPN makes it official that Rick Reilly is Bristol bound" »

Remember that post below about Joe Torre appearing on Letterman next Monday for his first "national broadcast TV interview?'' Never mind.

Turns out his first "national pay TV interview'' will come well before that, Tuesday night on HBO's "Real Sports'' when he sits down with Bob Costas.

Of course, Torre also did a "local radio interview'' with WFAN Friday afternoon and before that did a "one-hour-and-15-minute news conference with the entire NY media at a Westchester hotel'' before that.

Whatever. Maybe Bob will get something new out of him. Could happen. Bob is good.

He is from Commack, ya know.

Exciting news: Jerry Seinfeld will be a guest on "Late Show with David Letterman'' on Monday, Oct. 29.

Oh, right. Forgot. This is a sports media blog. Joe Torre will be on the show that night, too. The Letterman people are promoting it as his "first broadcast network television interview'' since leaving the Yankees.

This will be his sixth appearance on the show and his first since he was seen on April 10, 2006, pitching to Johnny Damon on 53rd Street.

I thought he was a catcher . . .

Check out Glauber's post on the story from Michael Strahan's book about the time he tried to kill Scott Gragg in practice.

I remember that incident, and remember Gragg, one of the players I was closest to during my decade on the beat. He was/is a great guy, but although he had a nice, long career maybe he was a tad too much of a teddy bear to reach his full potential as a player. Unlike Strahan, as you can tell from the book excerpt.

I also was/am friendly with Kerry Collins, who showed as a Titan Sunday he still can play. Eight field goals! That takes a quarterback driving his team down the field many, many times.

OK, I'm done. Have a nice day. Go Jaguars.

A while back I mentioned in a throwaway line that everything and everyone from Philadelphia scares me.

Mrs. WatchDog was not amused. (She grew up in that city and went to the same high school just outside of town that Reggie Jackson did; but he went there way, way before she did!)

Anyway, it turns out scariness doesn't begin to cover the issues our friends down the Turnpike have.

Check out this link, courtesy of famous NFL blogger Bob Glauber.

(Maybe I should have used a picture of Bobby Clarke, sans teeth, rather than Rocky.)

Good-bye for now, blogosphere. I have to write a newspaper column for Tuesday. (That'll be five columns in five days, boss.)

The Giants are off to a 5-2 start . . . as usual. Congrats, TC! (Wake me up in November.)

But Big Blue still trails the field in one area: Of the area's nine major league pro teams in football, baseball, basketball and hockey, the Giants are the only one without a post-game presence on TV after every game.

Even the Islanders and Devils have post-game shows now. And although the Knicks' post-game procedures are unpredictable, they usually at least have the coach's press conference on "MSG, NY.''

The Giants? Depending on Ch. 5's schedule, they sometimes have a post-game show, but even then it's not nearly as extensive as what SNY does on the gangrenous Jets.

But why the heck am I complaining about this? The less stuff on TV, radio and the Internet after games, the better it is for the next day's newspapers. So I'll stop. Carry on.

I'm no legal expert. If I were I would be out making money somewhere instead of writing blog posts.

But according to my understanding of the New York law passed in the spring that essentially legalized scalping, no team based in the state could do what the Patriots might be thinking of doing: Taking action against season ticket holders who have sold their ducats through StubHub rather than through the team's own approved service.

Here is a story on that in The Boston Globe, plus a followup story.

The Yankees tried to pull this sort of thing last autumn. That in turn helped get the ball rolling on the bill that eventually flung open the doors to the secondary ticket market and at the same time prevented teams from acting against fans who resell their tickets elsewhere.

I could be wrong, of course. But if there are any followup questions, I have a few dozen college friends who did go to law school, so I'm all over this. They are out making money and wearing suits at this very moment. I'm in gym shorts and a T-shirt . . . typing stuff.

Speaking of Giants stuff from olden times when I used to cover them (see post below) . . .

I finally remembered to check out the new Giants magazine-style show on Ch. 9 Saturday night. Well, at least I remembered in time for the last 10 minutes.

Much of that time was devoted to a piece featuring a player who was miked during a game . . . what clearly was a home game against the Rams . . . in 2000! The player in question was Mike Barrow, whose last season as a Giant was 2003.

That was odd.

The rest of the show featured NFL Network analysts talking about the rest of the league.

I'll try to watch the entire 30 minutes next weekend. Maybe in honor of the Giants' trip to London the show will feature highlights of the team's visit to Berlin in 1994.

Watching Michael Strahan and the rest of the Giants defense wreck the hapless Niners of Mike Nolan reminds me of a strange incident in the summer of 1996.

It was then that the Giants moved fourth-year defensive end Strahan from right to left end to accommodate first-round draft pick Cedric Jones (who later would become a close friend of Strahan and a monumental bust).

Defensive coordinator Mike Nolan made the move, and unfortunately for him also announced it to reporters. Head coach Dan Reeves was unamused, and said such news would come only from him, not "some assistant coach.''

Nolan seems to have some work ahead of him with his current squad. But he obviously made the right call on Strahan, who has had some success on the left side over the past 12 seasons.

This has nothing to do with media issues. Just an old football writer killing time because the Giants are so good now their games are a little boring to watch.

(Kerry Collins has the Titans off to a big early lead today, by the way!)

I guess I should mention that in addition to the Torre stuff referenced in the previous post I wrote an additional column in the Sunday paper about the Devils' new building in downtown Newark. (That's four columns in three days, boss.)

What struck me most other than the amazing vastness of the place - and the cool decor in the bar/restaurants for club and suite seat types - was how down to earth owner Jeff Vanderbeek is. (That's him on the left in the picture with some other Devils personnel.)

Vanderbeek spent 45 minutes showing me around, along with a media throng that someone told me included 35 (!) people from The Star-Ledger of Newark, and it wasn't until about 30 minutes in that it started to dawn on me that the friendly, low-key, middle-aged tour guide named Jeff was, um . . . THAT Jeff.

I believe Vanderbeek is some sort of investment banker or hedge fund type. But he seemed like quite the regular guy. He even promised to hang out in the one restaurant in the joint that is open to the common folk with seats in the upper deck.

I'm not naive. I know nobody reads this stuff on weekends, because the point of blogs' existence is goofing off at work. So I'll keep this short and to the point.

Here is a roundup of assorted stuff that might interest you regarding Mr. Torre's situation:

Suzyn Waldman responds in a well-argued, well-written piece in Newsday to those (including me) who were critical of her for crying on the air after the Yankees were eliminated.

Here is a brief companion story to Suzyn's column in which editors asked me to get her reaction to the official end of the Torre era.

Here is an amusing piece from Anthony Rieber revealing his previously little-known identity as the headline writer who long-ago labeled Joe Torre "Clueless Joe.''

Rieber did not mention that the columnist for Another New York Paper That is Not Newsday whose piece inspired that headline was none other than Ian O'Connor, who figures prominently (toward the bottom) in my own Sunday column on Torre's future.

Also mentioned in my Sunday column is how cool it was to hear Mike Francesa and Chris Russo rip Yanks prez Randy Levine on a YES Network simulcast. Which reminded me that former Newsday scribe Tom Verducci appears regularly on YES in the offseason yet wrote this blunt critique of the team on SI.com.

Speaking of my Torre column (which mentions his credentials as a TV analyst) and of SI.com, SI's Richard Deitsch has a story today about Torre turning down an invite from Fox to join its booth for the World Series.

Turner Sports president David Levy should pitch a tent on Torre's front lawn and refuse to leave until he signs as a TBS analyst for 2008.

OK, WatchDog fans: I've been checking for this every few hours over the past two days and now the big moment has arrived.

Here it is: Chris Russo's first official take on Joe Torre leaving the Yankees, delivered not on WFAN, where he left Mike Francesa to fly solo Thursday afternoon, but on David Letterman's late night show.

I'm not blaming Chris. He had no way of knowing the Torre story would come to a head at the precise moment he was leaving for a scheduled appearance with Dave.

Anyway, Letterman shows impressive poise not being intimidated by the scary flailing of Russo's arms and the pounding of one hand into the other palm.

There was more to his appearance than this. This clip is just the Torre part.

I should have gone to dental school. Dentists don't spend their Saturdays this way.

Columnist Rick Reilly plans to leave Sports Illustrated when his contract expires at the end of next month, a person familiar with Reilly's situation said Friday.

It is not entirely clear where Reilly is headed, but ESPN is considered a probable landing spot.

Reilly, 49, has been at SI since 1985, and his popular weekly column appears at the end of the magazine.

The news of Reilly's departure comes one day after SI signed Dan Patrick, a former ESPN anchor, for a multi-platform role, including a weekly column near the front of the magazine.

UPDATE: The Big Lead was nice enough to give WatchDog props for breaking this story, so now WatchDog in turn links to a more thorough account on that site. That's the way it works in the blogosphere. Sort of nice, in a way.

ALCS Game 5 continued the trend in which the ratings have improved for every contest during the series, quite impressive for a blowout that ended very late, as usual.

The game attracted an average of 8.5 percent of households on Fox, up from 4.8 to 5.6 to 6.6 to 8.2.

The rating of 9.9 in New York was second-best after St. Louis, if you don't count markets in Ohio and New England, plus Denver (home of the NL champs) plus Fort Myers (the Red Sox' spring training home).

If there is a Game 7 the numbers should get pretty darn good. If the Red Sox survive, even the World Series has a fighting chance.

I just got back from hanging out in downtown Newark with the Devils' owner - no, really - and am catching up on stuff while I wait for YouTube to get some Chris Russo on Letterman video from last night.

Two observations:

1. This Torre guy seems poised and classy and smart and conducts a nice press conference. The Yankees should consider him for their managerial opening.

2. Say what you will about my old pals Russo and Mike Francesa, but you have to give the boys credit for their guts for colorfully ripping Yankees president Randy Levine - even spreading unsourced rumors about him! - while being simulcast on the YES Network.

Levine has been known to offer his input bluntly when it comes to Yankees coverage, so steam surely is rising from his ears listening to this. (Mike just called Levine "clueless.'' He called me that last week!)

Russo and Francesa also didn't hold back in ripping CBS Radio, which owns WFAN, during the Imus Affair.

Wow. I've never ripped the editor or publisher of Newsday in public. Yet.

UPDATE: Now Ian O'Connor is on with Mike and Chris to defend his journalistic credibility after an afternoon of unsubstantiated speculation from the WFAN boys regarding O'Connor's recent interview with George Steinbrenner. Incredibly strange stuff. Ian has been swearing on various stacks of bibles defending himself. Good radio, but also disturbing. I should have been a shoe salesman.

I heard from one reader who misinterpreted an item I wrote today on Mike Francesa and his candidacy for the "Monday Night Football'' booth in 2000. If one person read it that way, others might as well. So let me clarify:

An executive familiar with the process did not doubt that producer Don Ohlmeyer told Francesa at the time he was one of the top three candidates, along with Billy Crystal and Dennis Miller. So no one is accusing Mike of lying about any of this.

The executive merely said that it was not uncommon for candidates to be given somewhat rosier impressions of their chances for the job than existed in reality.

The fact Francesa was a serious enough candidate to have an audition is kind of cool, actually. Which is why I'm bothering with this story seven years after the fact.

I'm still looking for Ohlmeyer himself . . .

I was going to write something about this topic, but Richard Deitsch at SI.com beat me to it and I'm on my way to an assignment so for now I'll just link to him.

It's a story about Joe Torre's prospects as a TV analyst if he chooses to go that route.

Torre got rave reviews on Angels games in the late 1980s.

Hello, TBS: Make the call as soon as the news conference is over today!

What were the chances that last night's ALCS game would INCREASE the average length of this year's ALCS and NLCS contests entering the evening?

Um, I guess around 50-50 come to think of it.

Sure enough, the average was 3:41 through eight games. Last night's marathon lasted 3:46.

Is MLB not concerned about this?

Look, I know the comment below from a reader who calls himself or herself "Blue Collar'' is far from an original thought. And, yes, I'm a capitalist/libertarian from way back. And, yes, I tell my children all the time that life is not fair, so just deal with it.

But on this Friday that the New York sports world will spend debating the merits of a guy who turned down $5 million (or much more) to manage a baseball team, with much more to come about a guy who might turn down many millions more than that to play third base . . . well, it seemed appropriate to give the award to this:

"Baseball is a game, just like every other sport. Every athlete in professional sports is overpaid. How can anyone justify $30 mill a year for playing a game when the law enforcement officers who risk thier lives to protect them, the firefighters who risk their lives to save people from fires and accidents, and the soldiers who defend this country make about 1/1000th of that amount? Our priorities in this country are tragically skewed."

Jeff Van Gundy was his usual, chatty self on the phone the other day, and he said a bunch of stuff for which I did not have room in my Friday newspaper column.

Here's some leftover stuff from him:

On Zach Randolph: "It’s very difficult to get a young All-Star in his prime and they did in Zach Randolph. Not very many times do you see a guy that young average 23 points and 10 rebounds get traded for a guy that the other team eventually bought out in Steve Francis.''

On the balance in the roster: "You can have too little in this business or too much at the same position and I thought having Marbury and Francis and Crawford was a redundancy that they eliminated, which I think can lead to better chemistry and production for the guys who remain."

On Stephon Marbury: "I know a lot has been said and written and You Tubed, but the bottom line is the guy is a very good and sometimes exceptional NBA player and a lot of his problems, as with the Knicks in general, has been injuries. It's been hard for them to put together a cohesive team. They seem to have an inordinate amount of injuries year in and year out.''

On Isiah Thomas: "I think he’s a very good coach, I really do. He gets guys to play very hard. I think they play unselfishly and I think they play to win. And really that’s what you have in your control . . . Sometimes what gets lost because he has so much responsibility there is that he really does a good job coaching the team.''

Continue reading "More thoughts from Jeff Van Gundy . . ." »

I know fans don't care about the problems of sports journalists, as I pointed out in my Thursday post about the treatment of those who staked out Legends Field in Tampa this week.

But I care! As I listened to the Yankees' conference call Thursday and heard Randy Levine drop the bombshell that Joe Torre was gone, my first thought was this:

I'm really, really glad I'm not a baseball beat writer or columnist today. Trust me: Nothing - NOTHING! - is more unpleasant for a New York sports scribe than covering the search for a new manager or head coach.

Then again . . . The people who do it on the Yankees beat have not been faced with this since Boomer Esiason was a quarterback for the Jets rather than a guy on the radio calling Yankees ownership "idiots.''

My regular Friday column has all sorts of fascinating non-Torre tidbits. Well, OK, maybe just mildly interesting tidbits.

But still . . . Check it out. Jeff Van Gundy all but guaranteeing a Knicks playoff berth! Record low TV ratings for Giants-Falcons! Prominent TV consultant laughs off Scott Boras! And, yes, all you skeptics out there: Mike Francesa really was a candidate for the "Monday Night Football'' booth in 2000.

An executive involved in the process filled me in on Francesa's place in it but also some of the other names that were in the mix and not widely known at the time. They included comedians such as Jimmy Kimmel (who also makes an appearance in WatchDog today) and Jon Stewart, neither of whom was as well known then as they are now.

Others included Rush Limbaugh and Tony Kornheiser.

Francesa told me Thursday that then producer Don Ohlmeyer told him at the time that once Billy Crystal backed out, the decision came down to either Dennis Miller or Francesa. I have not been able to reach Ohlmeyer . . . yet.

Our Web site is overwhelmed with Joe Torre stuff, and I wrote two different columns in Friday's newspaper, so my bonus column on the Torre story got a little lost in the confusion.

Here it is. Short story: The Yankees are not happy with our friends at ESPN.

Reading the morning papers this Friday, an important point occurred to me: It's my job to watch and listen to the electronic media coverage of this and other major events.

But the most literate, most thorough, most interesting information on this and most other stories still comes from daily newspapers (and their Web sites).

There, I said it. Now I'll go back to listening to Chris and Kim and Boomer and Craig discuss . . . well, you know what.

I have some time to kill while I wait for the Yankees to return my call - I'm No. 1,870 on the list, I believe - so I might as well take this opportunity to issue an important disclaimer about the blog roll that is part of my redsigned page:

Please keep in mind that many blogs include naughty words and racy pictures and mean personal attacks of a type that do not normally appear in Newsday or on Newsday.com. (Other than in our reader comment areas, anyway.) Our Web man told me that is OK, within reason, but parental guidance is advised.

Also, keep in mind that while sports blogs and message boards often are entertaining and informative and produced by hard-working, dedicated people whom I don't want mad at me, the journalistic standards and procedures on most of them are not what they are in Newsday.

So take what you read with a grain of salt and always read Newsday or Newsday.com for all of your news confirmation needs.

I'll be adding more blogs to the roll as soon as I figure out how to do that.

Have a nice night.

Oh, my goodness gracious! A loyal reader just tipped me off to the fact WatchDog has officially been relaunched with a brand-new design.

There even are ads now! I wonder when my first royalty check will arrive . . .

I knew this was coming, but didn't know it would be today. Enjoy it, but I won't be able to join the fun until Friday.

The timing is awful. I've got a Friday column to write and a Yankees manager to re-sign and radio ratings to sort out.

I'll learn to use the new-look site along with you when I get the chance.

Thanks as always for reading, and for patronizing our advertisers.

Enjoy Manny . . . assuming you care. Unlike him.

Just got off the phone with Dan Patrick and saw that our friends at The Big Lead blog had not been sent the news release detailing his new relationship with Sports Illustrated. (I didn't link to this particular Big Lead item due to naughty word issues.)

I assume it's OK to share it, since it's a public document now. If there's trouble SI's p.r. man used to play pickup basketball with me in Albany when he was a Giants ball boy, so he has my back. (When we played, mostly I saw his back as he ran down the court and I thought about trying to catch up to him.)

So here it is. Just click below.

Continue reading "More on Dan Patrick joining Sports Illustrated" »

Dan Patrick will be joining Sports Illustrated in a variety of capacities, including writing a weekly column for the magazine beginning in January and having his syndicated radio show streamed on SI.com.

SI writers such as Peter King (formerly of Newsday), Tom Verducci (formerly of Newsday) and Rick Reilly (not formerly of Newsday) will make regular appearances on his radio show.

There's a bunch of other stuff involved in this deal, including a partnership involving Patrick's Web site, but I don't have time to go into them now. I have a conference call to participate in . . . with Dan Patrick.

I'll write more about this in the Tuesday paper.

Here is an excellent piece from long-time SportsWatch/WatchDog supporter Richard Deitsch of SI.com. (It even quotes me as a representative of "old media.'' But I'm a blogger!)

The story covers this week's tiff between Sarah Silverman's boyfriend and "Monday Night Football'' in far more detail than I will be able to in my Friday newspaper column.

Speaking of which . . . It's Thursday, the day I try (and fail) to stay away from the blog and focus on The Job for Which I Get Paid.

See ya later. And I hope your leg feels better, Joe.

Sports journalists justifiably are wary of complaining about their jobs publicly, because we know many of our readers/listeners/viewers consider ours a dream job. Maybe not as good as playing centerfield for the Yankees, but better than capping tubes of toothpaste or cleaning dried out gum off the overpasses on the Northern State.

So there's a fine line between whining and legitimately giving people an insight into the wacky, paranoid way we sometimes are treated by your favorite teams while serving as representatives of you, the fan.

Jim Baumbach's piece today on covering the Yankees follies in Tampa falls into the latter category.

This is the same Mr. Baumbach who got roughed up by a member of the NYPD at an A-Rod book signing in February.

Trust me, Jim's just not that scary.

Eric Mangini and his player friends in green are not the only sports figures to appear on "Sesame Street.''

Here is a curiously mesmerizing clip of Jackie Robinson reciting the alphabet, calmly and plainly, long, long ago.

Jackie actually did a not-that-terrible job playing himself in the film the "The Jackie Robinson Story'' in 1950, although he came off far more docile than his real, fiery self.

The movie contains some weird anti-Communist propaganda.

But that's another story . . .

There is only one man who could pull off wearing comically dated clothes while backed by comically dated music and still seem like the quintessence of cool as he spends a minute trying to sell us boots:

Joe Namath, seen here in an ad from a very long time ago.

(Well, OK, maybe there are two guys in this category. I forgot about Walt Frazier.)

Based on this ad it appears Joe enjoys boots, attractive women and breadsticks, more or less in that order.

I talked to Joe on the phone a while back, then wrote a critical review of his book.

Uncool!

Check out this really weird, cheesy ketchup commercial featuring "Rizzuto'' and "DiMaggio.''

These guys sound even less like Scooter and Mr. DiMaggio than Larry David sounded like George Steinbrenner.

Anybody know the story behind this one?

John Philips? DuMont?

It's strange.

If you haven't seen David with Michael Kay on "CenterStage'' reruns you should check it out.

As disastrous as the ratings for the NLCS were, the ALCS ratings have been headed in the opposite direction.

The percentage of households watching has risen every game, from 4.8 to 5.6 to 6.6 to 8.2 for Game 4, the best in 10 years for an LCS game that did not involve the Yankees playing the Red Sox.

Among markets outside Ohio and New England, New York (10.4) trailed only Denver (11.2) and St. Louis (11.1).

The NLCS finished with an average rating of 2.8. That's really, really bad.

Don't take it personally, Rockies. You're just not the Cubs.

My position on loyal WatchDog reader/YES play-by-play man/sports talk radio host/"Sports Reporters'' panelist Michael Kay always has been as follows:

I have no problem with him as a play-by-play man and I have problem with him as a sports talk host. The problem is that he does both jobs, which inevitably must color listeners' perceptions of anything that comes out of his mouth concerning the Yankees.

Still . . . I have to admit it's been entertaining listening to the steam rising from the radio as he comes to a rapid boil discussing the Joe Torre saga on ESPN 1050 this week. (At least until sundown, when I pretty much lose the station's signal.)

Kay has not been shy about critiquing Torre, and today he pointedly questioned how the Yankees - indirectly his employer through his job at YES - are handling the post-season talks about the manager's status.

Is there some sort of agenda behind Kay's opinions, beyond simple sports talk babble? Who knows, given the endless intrigue that hangs over everything that happens in the Bronx and in Tampa?

That's the problem with Kay's dual identity. But right how he's a good listen.

St. John's men's basketball on the radio will move from ESPN 1050 to a combination of WFAN and WBBR for the coming season.

The Red Storm last appeared on WFAN in 2000-01. The station will take the team's games when it can based on its other commitments, such as Nets and Devils games, for a total of about a third of the schedule. The rest will appear on WBBR.

Ernie Accorsi was supposed to be on with Mike Francesa and Chris Russo this afternoon to talk about the recent book by Tom Callahan that focused on the former Giants GM and included some critical shots at coach Tom Coughlin.

Accorsi postponed the appearance, citing a cold.

ESPN sent word Wednesday of its 2007-08 women's basketball schedule, which at 2,008 words weighed in at a good 7,500 words fewer than its men's basketball release.

Hmm.

Click below for all of the details, direct from Bristol.

Continue reading "Imus debuts Dec. 3 . . . Rutgers debuts Nov. 11" »

One more thing . . .

What with the ALCS, Rangers and Islanders off tonight and "Pushing Daisies'' just too darn weird for many viewers, why is the much-more-intriguing-than-usual preseason tilt between the Knicks and Celtics not on MSG to help us fill a long, aimless night?

Because MSG only shows home games in the preseason. The teams meet again Monday at the Garden.

I spoke to ABC/ESPN analyst Jeff Van Gundy yesterday about the Knicks. He's very high on them. Really.

New York sports journalists - me included - remain in a weird state of suspended animation waiting for this Torre thing to be resolved. (Not the football writers. They're busy eating their weekly Wednesday media lunches in East Rutherford and at Hofstra.)

Things are deteriorating by the minute. A caller just suggested to Joe Benigno and Evan Roberts a straight-up trade of Willie Randolph for Joe Torre. He appeared to be serious.

Ken Davidoff is breaking down the lunch options in Manhattan, Tampa and Ann Arbor on his blog.

When I wrote for The Rag at Northport High School, just for the heck of it, I used to work the words "pastrami on rye'' into every column.

I'm going to stop now before this gets any worse and try not to blog anymore until there is definitive word out of Tampa.

Have a nice day.

So far I've mostly been laying low in reporting on the ongoing legal dispute between Stephen A. Smith and the Philadelphia Inquirer, which apparently grew tired of having one of its columnists stretched thin between Philly and New York and between the newspaper and national TV/radio.

But here is a link to an update, just to keep you officially informed.

Why have I not written much about this?

1. Even though I know people on both sides, neither is saying much because of the legal issues involved.
2. Now that I'm a blogger, it's much easier to link to stuff than do messy work like, um, reporting. Yuck.
3. Everyone in or from or associated with Philadelphia scares me.

Through eight games, the NLCS and ALCS are averaging three hours and 41 minutes per contest.

Of the 21 playoff games played so far, only four ended in less than three hours and only two of those ended in less than two hours and 52 minutes.

The debut Tuesday night of ESPN's "E:60'' showed promise.

It bent over backward to be faster paced and more youth-targetetd than HBO's "Real Sports'' or CBS's "60 Minutes,'' but it found time for a long, moving piece on the North Carolina basketball mascot who became an organ donor after dying in a car accident in March.

The show ended on a sour note, though, with a weird, not-particularly-funny segment in which ESPN.com columnist Bill Simmons participated in a shoot for a video game. It appeared to be more of an infomercial for EA Sports than a newsmagazine story.

Sources deep within Newsday's Web department whispered in WatchDog's ear last night the news that October page views already have far exceeded the previous record for an entire month.

Thanks as always to WatchDog Nation for reading.

I'm giving the Yankees until the end of the day Wednesday to resolve the status of Joe Torre and Alex Rodriguez to give me a shot at catching up to our Yankees blog to grab the top overall spot for October.

I also have to somehow get past our popular mixed martial arts blog.

And, of course, Glauber could always catch me from behind. Just kidding.

The Broncos and Rockies both have home games Oct. 29 - assuming the World Series goes at least five games - despite the best efforts of the Broncos to get out of their Monday night commitment. Check out this story in the Denver Post on that subject.

This is bad news for Denver traffic coordinators, but could be excellent news for rest of us, because as everyone knows, Colorado is known for the occasional October snowstorm.

If one of those storms comes on Oct. 29, it will make for a highly entertaining TV evening.

It took some digging, but I turned up my story today on NLCS ratings on our Web site and now am happy to share it with WatchDog Nation. (It's the second item; scroll down.)

The numbers are amazingly grim. Apparently the Rockies have not quite captured the imagination of America, or at least that portion of America that goes to bed before 1 a.m. on a work/school night.

The national rating for Sunday's Pats-Cowboys game was more than seven times bigger than that for Game 4 of the NLCS. Wow.

Mike Francesa said on WFAN this afternoon that in 2000 the three top candidates to join the "Monday Night Football'' booth were as follows:

Billy Crystal
Dennis Miller
Mike Francesa

Yes, Mike appeared to be serious.

No, I don't have any clever remarks to add to that at this time.

Yes, you are welcome to comment below if you are so inclined.

No, I'm not going to post anymore stuff today now that the Yankees have tabled their decision on Mr. Torre's future.

Enjoy Manny being Manny.

Here is a story from Eric Fisher of Sports Business Daily/Journal about the latest setback for Major League Baseball in its effort to control what appears on independent sites catering to fantasy sports fans:

CDM Fantasy Sports today gained another legal victory over the MLBPA and MLBAM when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed an August '06 summary judgment in Missouri allowing the commercial use of MLB player names and statistics for fantasy games without a license. In a 2-1 decision, the court ruled, "The facts in this case barely, if at all, implicate the interests that states typically intend to vindicate by providing rights of publicity to individuals . . . We hold that [CDM's] first amendment rights in offering its fantasy baseball products supersede the players' rights of publicity."

"We're obviously thrilled. Our client is happy, but more than that, an entire industry is celebrating," said Rudy Telscher, an attorney representing CDM.

Continue reading "Independent fantasy sites score legal victory over MLB" »

Here's an amusing clip from Keith Olbermann's MSNBC show (scroll down 'til you find it) from our friends at Awful Announcing via our friends at The Big Lead via our friends at Mike Francesa.com.

The part that has attracted most of the attention nationally is Olbermann's shot at Stephen A. Smith, but what caught WatchDog's eye was the fact Newsday was one of the other two media entities Bill O'Reilly noted for having treated him fairly in the wake of the recent Sylvia's restaurant controversy.

Then . . . Olbermann had a long chat about O'Reilly with none other than Marvin Kitman, the venerable former Newsday TV critic who along with Stan Isaacs was an inspiration when WatchDog was a pup in the 1970s.

That was kind of cool.

Chris Russo was just telling Mike Francesa on WFAN about the recent Giants game before which Demi Moore was hanging out on the field along with her husband . . .

"Aaron Kushner.''

Sigh.

Yesterday, Francesa coined a phrase I actually thought was pretty cool. He said South Florida is "out-Rutgerring'' Rutgers this season.

I really, really need to get out more.

I guess I should say something about "Monday Night Football'' last night.

I thought it was interesting on the pregame when both Keyshawn Johnson and Chris Berman took shots at poor Chris Mortensen for his erroneous report after Week 1 that Eli Manning would be out for a month.

Tony K.'s opening monologue, in which he held an Eli mask and imagined some of the things Eli would like to say, was amusing, especially the part about his overrated parents.

As for the game . . .

It's difficult fairly to assess a telecast when the game is a blowout in the second half. But one thing that struck me was how difficult it is to avoid the feeling of endless chatter when you have to work in three guys in a booth, two women on the sideline and a booth guest.

Most annoying was how the MNF crew latched onto the topics of Eli Manning's and Tom Coughlin's psyches and simply would not let go.

Jimmy Kimmel had the best line of any guest during the 2006 season, asking Joe Theismann, "How's the leg?''

This time he came off as a tad obnoxious and overbearing, tossing out cringe-inducing cracks about Theismann and Mormons, among other targets.

Kimmel's girlfriend, Sarah Silverman, specializes in outrageous political incorrectness. But she's funnier than him. And cuter.

Here's a piece from The Boston Globe by Anita Hill on Anucha Browne Sanders.

It also references the 30-year-old case of Melissa Ludtke, then of Sports Illustrated, that opened Major League Baseball locker rooms to women for the first time.

Here's my column on that subject from last month.

It's always nice to have the Canadian press keeping an eye on hockey issues for all of us south of the border, but now they're all over indoor lacrosse, too.

Here's a shocking story from the Toronto Star about the NLL season teetering on the brink.

First, Our Titans blow off Nassau Coliseum to schedule all of their home games at the Garden. Now this!

As a union man, I'll make the sacrifice and honor the picket lines if they try to bring in scab box laxers.

(Did I ever tell the story here of how I had an editor job at The Hockey News in Toronto locked up in '82, until my case got bogged down in citizenship issues? I didn't buy Canadian beer for a decade in protest.)

UPDATE! Here's a quote from Titans COO Tim Kelly about this: "We were looking forward to playing our sophomore season at the Garden in front of the greatest fans in the world. We want to apologize to all of our fans, and we’re looking forward to coming back stronger and better than ever in 2009."

The Titans said ticket refund information will be sent out shortly. Fans also can call 1-888-8TITANS for information.

Or maybe all this is just a negotiating ploy . . .

ABC/ESPN announced Tuesday that Jeff Van Gundy would join Mike Breen and Mark Jackson on its No. 1 NBA announcing team, including for The Finals.

Van Gundy worked with Breen and Jackson as a guest analyst last season, and now is free to be a permanent member of the trio; the Rockets decided they no longer needed his coaching services.

"I am thrilled to be able to work along side of Mike and Mark as we cover the NBA," Van Gundy said in a news release. "Together, we hope to impart some insight, analysis and humor as we cover all the games, great players and the storylines that arise during the season."

I was skeptical when ABC/ESPN added Van Gundy to what was a solid duo last spring, but he made it work. It helps that Breen, Jackson and Van Gundy have known each other for years through the various connections to Our Knicks.

Speaking of Sports Business Journal (see post below), it had another interesting piece in this week's issue regarding Scott Boras' laughable linking of Alex Rodriguez to the soaring value of the YES Network.

Reality check: If A-Rod signs elsewhere this offseason and is replaced at third by Celerino Sanchez, the value of the YES Network will be reduced by approximately . . . zero.

Sigh.

I really wish I had read my Sports Business Journal before writing the item in my Tuesday column about the obscene length of baseball playoff games.

That's because the SBJ has a fascinating piece on a related topic: the age-old issue of really late games and how that impacts young fans.

The statistics strongly suggest plenty of people watch games after 11 p.m., even if they live in the Eastern Time Zone and even if they are under 18 and even if it's a school night.

Fine. But logic strongly suggests that these statistics are misleading, and if they are not, then the parents of those children need to be hit over the head with a wooden ruler.

Would all of the TV and MLB executives quoted in the story please e-mail me the names and phone numbers of the 12-year-olds in the East who watched the Rockies win the pennant early Tuesday morning?

I'm waiting . . .

Here's a link to my Tuesday newspaper column. I guess I buried one of the most interesting pieces of information in it, since the Sports Business Daily linked to it this morning:

It's a quote from Marc Fein, Versus' senior VP of programming, saying the network would be happy to listen if another network approached it regarding its exclusive cable rights to the NHL.

Yo, that means you, Bristol Stompers! Pick up the phone!

I'd be surprised if there were not some sort of NHL presence on ESPN in 2008-09, in addition to the Versus package. We'll see.

Citadel Broadcasting still hasn't made an official announcement about Don Imus signing a contract to return to radio on WABC-AM, but plans are underway for his debut show, which is expected to take place on Monday, Dec. 3.

Imus likely will make his return at the Beacon Theatre in Manhattan, with a guest list that has yet to be determined, according to a person familiar with the plans.

Thereafter Imus presumably would work out of the ABC studios, backed by a cast that has yet to be finalized.

Other than checking in every week to see what interesting video has been leaked to Fox's Jay Glazer, I'm starting to lose interest in NFL pre-game shows after 13 years as a football beat writer and media columnist.

Fortunately, every network that produces such a show is kind enough to send me quotes, saving me the trouble. Here is an exchange on NBC Sunday regarding Our Tiki:

Bucs coach Jon Gruden on Tiki Barber: "We have a guy on our team who has a brother who I think was a good back. He's on the 'Today' show. If you're listening, Mrs. Barber may be able to help us out."

Olbermann's reply: "Take a number pal."

Cris Collinsworth on Tiki: "Jon Gruden's begging our partner to come play in Tampa."

Barber to Collinsworth: "So is my brother and so is my mother. I'm happy where I am."

Collinsworth to Bettis: "I may have a used 'Bus' that you can get cheap."

ESPN sent a 9,486-word press release today regarding their 2007-08 college basketball schedule.

Yup, that's a record. And it only covers men's games!

The network will be showing Pac-10 home games for the first time since 1995.

Other than that, well . . . I guess you can just read it all yourself. Below is the actual release, direct from Bristol. It will give you an insider's look at the glamorous life I lead in my basement.

Enjoy.

Continue reading "ESPN is showing a lot of college basketball in '07-08" »

If Joe Torre were single . . . and he married Jessica Alba . . . and they had a son . . . and they wanted their son to have a last name that honored both of their families . . . and they gave him a first name of Yorvit . . .

Then they would have been very excited about that three-run home run Sunday night that helped give the Rockies a 3-0 series lead in the NLCS over the Diamondbacks.

Sorry, I'm just procrastinating.

I'll write my newspaper column now.

CBS said the overnight rating for the Patriots-Cowboys game Sunday was its highest for a regular-season game since it returned to the NFL in 1998.

It was watched in an average of 18.5 percent of homes in the 56 largest TV markets, and attracted 35 percent of homes with TVs in use.

Ratings from the NLCS and ALCS have not yet been released. Turner plans to release the final numbers once the NLCS is over.

Earlier I did my obligatory Imus post for the day, so why not the daily Suzyn Waldman post? Here it is:

Steiner Sports currently is selling through an on-line auction a unique piece of Rat Pack memorabilia that was consigned by none other than Ms. Waldman.

It's a "religious register of marriage'' for Sammy Davis Jr. and May Britt. It includes signatures from Davis pals Frank Sinatra and Peter Lawford.

The document was issued by Temple Israel of Hollywood in 1960.

Waldman had had the item for 30 years after receiving it from a friend. She used to be a theater actress and singer and is a long-time fan of the late Davis, who converted to Judaism in the 1950s.

Now you know.

Sometimes on autumn Mondays I feel a little guilty reading all the weekend observations from my blogging counterparts around the nation, who really, really watch a lot of sports.

I just want to make it clear to the boss, though, that I at least get the important stuff on my DVR. Why, just now I caught this gem on SNY's post-game show from Ray Lucas, who sometimes seems to take Jets losses harder than Fireman Ed does.

Said Ray: "It's hard for me to do my just due and stick up for Chad when he is playing and making decisions with his mind that are bad; he doesn' t do that.''

I missed most of Saturday's LSU-Kentucky game. Newsday sports copy desk poobah Jeff Weinberg said CBS's Verne Lunquist and Gary Danielson were their usual, solid selves on that game.

Instead I saw the new movie "Michael Clayton,'' starring George Clooney. It's good.

I have to write my Tuesday newspaper column now. Enjoy the Giants-Falcons game. Yeah, I'll be watching. It beats six or seven hours of watching baseball players take leisurely strolls outside the batter's box between every pitch.

This is one of those days when all readers should give thanks for WatchDog's strict prohibition against whining about fantasy team rosters.

Otherwise, you'd be reading about how I benched Adrian Peterson this weekend.

Only once have I played fantasy baseball, which used to be called rotisserie baseball. In 1988 I got Jose Canseco in the third round, and he ended up with 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases.

If I had a blog back then, I wouldn't have mentioned that on it either, because no one cares.

Why post this clip from the epic tug of war at the 1978 "Battle of the Network Stars?''

Three reasons:

1. Why not?

2. It gives Robert Conrad a chance to show off his shirtless, 43-year-old physique; let's see 43-year-old Vinny Testaverde try that on national TV!

3. Joel Stein, the guy whose name you see embossed on the screen during the clip, went to high school in Edison, N.J., with Newsday baseball columnist Ken Davidoff, as did current Edison mayor Jun Choi, who once inspired racially insensitive remarks from then New Jersey radio personality and current WFAN morning co-host Craig Carton (see post below), for which Carton later apologized.

Thus does a 29-year-old clip of Frank Gifford and Howard Cosell calling a tug of war neatly tie itself back to the present, completing another strand in the circle of life.

The Drudge Report is reporting this Monday morning that Don Imus will debut on WABC-AM on Dec. 3.

The story is labeled an "exclusive," which is strange because Newsday reported a week ago that Imus would be back "on or about Dec. 3'' and more importantly was the first to report two weeks ago that Imus was close to a deal with Citadel Broadcasting.

That's OK, though. Imus no longer is a sports story and I have successfully dumped him in the laps of our capable news and entertainment reporters.

I'm busy listening to Carton and Boomer talk about Chad Pennington. Don't tell the boss, but I didn't see a minute of the Eagles-Jets game.

I was at a fair at Columbia to promote and celebrate children's reading. My daughter and I heard police commish Ray Kelly read "Green Eggs and Ham.'' Which is the best book ever written, by the way.

One more thing about Mike Chernoff's rapid rise up the baseball executive ranks that I didn't mention in Sunday's newspaper column.

In case all you aspiring whiz kids out there think all you need to be a young baseball executive is smarts and some experience as an Ivy League middle infielder, think again.

Mike Chernoff also was and is good at math, and his mother, Sally, is a math teacher.

So study up, youth of America.

I technically was studying at an Ivy League school when Mike Chernoff was born, yet he already has made up his 21-year deficit and blown right by me in his professional life.

Moral of story:

Less beer and fewer pickup hockey games at 1 a.m. More calculus.

Am I allowed to link to a story in a newspaper that competes with a fellow Tribune paper in another market, and that references a story in a competing paper in Newsday's own market?

Whatever. It's just a blog, and I thought you might find this piece on the televising of the 1947 World Series interesting.

So there. Enjoy the Titans-Eagles game today. See ya Monday.

WatchDog does not advocate illegal wagering on sporting events. But if you happen to be a loyal reader living in Las Vegas and happen to glean valuable information from reading the blog and then act upon said information legally . . . good for you!

Check out this prescient post from Monday of last week:

Time to stop ignoring the e-mails from Versus about their college football package, even if there are 1,869 other games on every darn weekend.

Versus lucked into the ultimate stunner Saturday with Stanford's mega-upset of USC, much as the Big Ten Network did last month with Appalachian State over Michigan.

So you never know where and when these things will happen.

Versus is reshowing the Stanford victory at 4 p.m. Monday.

Next up for the channel: Oregon State at Cal Saturday. Look out, Bears!

Now I understand why baseball organizations keep hiring such insanely young people - such as Mike Chernoff, the subject of my Sunday newspaper column - to run things.

It's because no one under 30 who is not actually in uniform is able to stay up late enough to watch the ends of these absurdly long playoff games.

Sorry to sound like a cranky old fart.

Of course, I'd be even crankier if I'd made it to the end of the Indians-Red Sox game.

I did stay up until the end of the Mets-Braves game on July 4/5, 1985, by the way. But I was younger then. Even younger than Mike Chernoff is now.

When I heard the creepy monotone of Scott Boras on Michael Kay's ESPN 1050 show late Friday afternoon, I knew I was in for an interesting 20 minutes of radio.

Sure enough . . .

First Boras rationalized Alex Rodriguez' mediocre post-season history by comparing him to other baseball greats in the playoffs, from Jackie Robinson to Mickey Mantle, rattling off the stats with his usual cold efficiency.

Then Boras turned to the voodoo economics he has been using all week to illustrate A-Rod's uniqueness.

The agent linked Rodriguez to the rise in Yankees attendance, to improving TV ratings for YES and to the spectacular increase in the estimated value of the YES Network itself.

No one is exactly sure what the network is worth, but Boras said it has gone from about $1 billion to $3 billion during A-Rod's time here. (Kay said it is worth $3.5 billion.)

Why quibble over the particulars with a representative as scary and prepared as Boras? The Yanks should just give A-Rod the additional $2 billion in a lump sum and be done with it.

Click below for what Braves president John Schuerholz had to say about all this earlier Friday on Colin Cowherd's ESPN radio show.

Continue reading "Scott Boras believes Alex Rodriguez is worth quite a lot" »

ESPN 1050 announced it no longer will carry the radio broadcasts of St. John's basketball.

Making such an announcement at 7:30 on a Friday night is strange, and invites all sorts of followup questions, none of which I have the time or inclination to pursue at this hour on a Friday night.

Which often is the point of Friday afternoon or evening news releases in the first place.

Hmmm.

The local baseball nines are history and the Giants have a winning record and are playing on Monday night. Which means . . .

Time for me to start paying attention to "Monday Night Football'' again.

Dan Dierdorf took a public shot at Tony Kornheiser two weeks back. Now it's the turn of Tony's former official ESPN buddy, Joe Theismann.

Here it is, toward the bottom of Barry Jackson's sports media column in the Miami Herald.

A fitting way to end another wacky week in the world of sports media - and sports media coverage.

As a middle-aged guy with two children in middle school, this beat helpfully keeps me in tune with the adolescent vibe that I was hoping I had left behind at East Northport Junior High back in the Ford Administration.

Sigh. Have a nice weekend. Go Cornell. Beat Colgate. Yay.

Note to readers: I had a cool, big picture of a flying dog here, but for some reason it was messing up the type on Internet Explorer, but not on Mozilla. So I took it down. Sorry.

Anyway, Sept. 18 I stopped by Bryant Park to check out an exhibition of something called "DockDogs,'' in which dogs that know how to jump very high and/or very far compete in events that measure their ability to do both of the above.

How do they avoid getting injured? They land in four feet of water.

It's as strange and compelling as it sounds, and it can be seen in a series on the Outdoor Channel that began last week and features a new episode every Thursday at 9 p.m.

The channel is popular and widely distributed in some parts of the country, but less so around here, because its focus is all that icky hunting and fishing stuff.

Cablevision customers, for example, can get it only via the company's Sports Pak, which costs $4.95 per month and also includes NBA TV and (soon) the NHL Channel.

Continue reading "Flying dogs: More interesting than the NLCS!" »

SNY has hired former ESPN anchor Kirk Gimenez to serve as an anchor and reporter. He will debut on "SportsNite'' Thursday.

Gimenez - a native of Venezuela who grew up in Miami - spent the past four years at ESPNEWS. Before that he worked at local stations in Miami and Washington, D.C.

As we approach Thanksgiving and the NFL Network's second season of live regular-season games, the league again will be turning up the heat to get its network more fully distributed.

That should be fun.

In the meantime, the NFL Network wants me to tell you about some of the stuff you're missing if you're a Cablevision or Time Warner customer. Here's one:

Saturday night at 8, the network is offering what sounds like an interesting special on last weekend's Ravens-49ers game in which 10 coaches and players are wired for sound, and NFL Films offers extra footage from 12 of its cameras.

No matter what WFAN's afternoon hosts (see post below) say about my treatment of Suzyn Waldman, I believe I have been quite fair and balanced in covering and commenting on her since taking over the media beat.

One exception to that was pointed out to me this week, and this is as good a time as any to set the record straight. On July 2, former WFAN boss Jeff Smulyan took issue with a quote Waldman had attributed to him in a story in the newspaper the previous day.

Waldman said that after she did the first update in WFAN history on July 1, 1987, Smulyan said, "Get that smart-ass broad with the Boston accent off my air in drive time.'' (Only she recalled him actually saying a word that was meaner than "broad.'')

Rather than present Smulyan's recollection as differing from Waldman's I essentially took his word for it and accused Waldman of faulty memory in a blog post July 2.

That was wrong, and I apologize. I should have just offered each side of the story and left it at that.

It's amazing what the eliminations of the Yankees and Mets can do in October for that other sport that plays during the week this month.

Versus reported that its telecast of the Rangers-Islanders game Wednesday night attracted 1.8 percent of households in New York, making it the highest-rated cable network in the market that night.

A Rangers-Isles game last season got a rating of only 0.7 in New York. The previous best rating for a regular-season Versus game in New York was an 0.9 for Rangers-Pens in March.

Speaking of Stuart Scott's latest "Poetry Jam'' - something about Kevin Garnett, as far as I could tell . . .

Look, I know I'm supposed to be disturbed by this kind of weird, self-indulgent time-wasting on SportsCenter, but c'mon, people, loosen up! It lasted only 44 seconds. And no matter how annoying you consider Stu's act after all these years, you have give the guy credit for taking chances and turning himself into a unique media brand.

I've spoken to several ESPN types who, while Scott might not be their cup of tea, admire his chutzpah.

Here is something fellow SportsCenter anchor Steve Levy said in August, speaking generically and not necessarily about Scott (although Scott surely was one of the people he had in mind):

"Shtick has worked for a lot of people. It's made stars of a lot of people. I'm not one of them.''

Levy wasn't complaining at all. Just telling it like it is. And what it is is show biz.

(None of this excuses Stu for his notorious embrace of Ray Lewis after a Super Bowl XXXV news conference, which forever marred his reputation among many of fellow journalists. But that's another story for another day.)

It's been another interesting week for the WatchDog, including eating a $34 salad near Dr. J, being called "clueless'' and "stupid'' by the two most influential local sports talk radio hosts in the world and writing articles about Suzyn Waldman and Don Imus that confirmed their status as the two most reliable lightning rods in the history of the column/blog.

To cap it off, I'm going to do something radical with the Friday comment contest, which I will never do again, out of respect to the many clever and dedicated commentors on this blog:

I'm giving the award to someone on an entirely different blog, our friends at The Big Lead. (I'd link to it, but there are some major no-no curse words there, and we're a family paper.)

Why? Because it made me laugh out loud. It's from "Lenn Sakatas Media Assassin,'' whatever that means, in response to a post making fun of Stuart Scott's latest "Poetry Jam'' on ESPN's SportsCenter Wednesday.

Here it is:

"That was fantastic! I can’t wait for Beano’s!''

I only watched an out or two of the NLCS Thursday night, because, well, as I wrote in today's newspaper column, the Cubs aren't playing in it!

Anyway, in those five minutes I heard Chip Caray refer to a pitcher as a flamethrower, which means that he either doesn't read my stuff, or that he is intentionally using that cliche over and over again just to make me mad.

Whatever. The Red Sox are playing tonight. I'll watch that.

Just for fun, Joe Buck should figure out a way to mention Bayonne on the broadcast, and pronounce it correctly!

WFAN operations director Mark Chernoff said Thursday that the YES Network's Kimberly Jones will join Chris Carlin beginning Friday morning for the station's 5 a.m. to 6 a.m. show preceding Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton.

It is not clear how long Jones will partner with Carlin in that time slot. For now there are no plans to have her participate in the Esiason/Carton show, other than to fill in for Carlin Tuesday after he works late for the Giants-Falcons Monday night game.

Oh, man.

I just listened to Mike Francesa call me "clueless'' and Chris Russo call me "stupid'' in reference to my column Wednesday on Suzyn Waldman's now infamous crying episode on the Yankees' postgame Monday night.

In the past I've always been honored to be ripped by the boys, but in this case . . .

Guys: I never suggested that Suzyn was being unprofessional for crying over the loss itself; I understood it was a sentimental reaction to the apparent end of the Torre era, and told Suzyn directly when we spoke Wednesday that I agreed many had misinterpreted the reason for her emotional reaction.

Also: Suzyn didn't call me to vent. I called her.

And I did listen to the entire post-game, not just the sound bite of her crying.

Sigh.

On "Late Show with David Letterman'' last night, Dave did a bit on how the Yankees are spending their offseasons.

It included a shot of a shirtless Alex Rodriguez getting sunscreen rubbed in by stage manager Biff Henderson.

Would A-Rod have been so public relations unsavvy that he would tape such a piece less than two days after the Yankees' were ousted?

No. It was taped during spring training and aired originally at that time, a show spokesperson said.

(Update: Yes, I know that's the late, great Larry "Bud'' Melman in the picture, not Biff. I was just honoring a TV legend since I was mentioning Letterman today.)

OK, I'm done here for today. I have a newspaper column to write and Suzyn Waldman comments to read.

ESPN will be televising the first two rounds of The Masters beginning in April, taking over from USA.

I was remiss in not reporting that sort-of interesting news on the blog yesterday or in the newspaper today, but I got caught up in the Suzyn Waldman situation as well as helping out with an Imus story Verne Gay did for the newspaper today.

I also had a luncheon appointment in the city, where I had a $34 salad.

Julius Erving was sitting a couple of tables away, almost justifying such prices.

But not quite.

I'm thinking of moving to Boise.

Holy cow.

As of 7:53 a.m. Thursday, we already were up to 162 comments on the latest Suzyn Waldman article from the newspaper.

Suzyn's ability to generate opinion and passion is unmatched - at least on my beat. (Well, OK, maybe Imus is in that category, too.)

So far the anti-Suzyn comments outnumber the supportive ones, but there are plenty of the latter.

Keep the comments coming everyone, at least those among you who have the respect for the process, for Suzyn and for fellow readers to keep it clean and reasoned rather than sexist and stupid.

I should have been clearer on this in my article on Suzyn Waldman in today's paper (see post and links below), but I'll clarify now:

I referred to Waldman being upset with criticism of her on the radio in general and WFAN in particular, but to get even more particular, she was displeased with WFAN morning host Craig Carton.

The afternoon team of Mike Francesa and Chris Russo had big fun with her reaction in May to Roger Clemens' return, but this time around said they had no problem with her emotional moment after the Yankees were eliminated Monday night.

Waldman screamed at Russo before an interleague game at Shea Stadium earlier this season. Evidently he didn't want to go through that again.

Well, folks, here is the latest in the saga of Suzyn Waldman, who cried in the Yankees' clubhouse after Monday night's loss and has been paying for it ever since in the media funhouse mirror.

I didn't mention this in the story linked above because it wasn't the place, but I did tell Waldman when we spoke Wednesday that I have been critical of her myself, and as you can see here I did call her brief breakdown "unprofessional'' in my newspaper column Tuesday and poked some fun at her in a related sidebar.

Still, in Waldman's partial defense she was not crying specifically because the Yankees lost a game, as has been suggested in some places on the air and the Internet. She was crying in response to the emotional scene she witnessed in Joe Torre's office after the Yanks were eliminated, and the sense that the end of an era was at hand.

Waldman's tone in discussing Monday's incident was far different from when I talked to her about her famously over-the-top reaction to Roger Clemens' return in May.

Then she was defensive and terse, and the conversation lasted less than 10 minutes. This time she was eager and expansive in lambasting the media reaction to her and calling it sexist, and we talked for more than a half hour.

Waldman is one of the most complicated, controversial figures in New York sports media, and one of the most reliable lightning rods for people who do what I do for a living. Same goes for her partner, John Sterling.

Feel free to comment here or on the newspaper article itself. You also can vote on the Web site for what you think of Waldman's on-air crying.

The good news is that ESPN ombudsman Le Anne Schreiber is out with another brilliant essay on the state of ESPN in particular and sports media in general.

The bad news is every time she does this I get bummed out, because she is so much better at this job than I am.

The Diamondbacks are having trouble selling tickets for the NLCS, which should make all right-thinking baseball fans feel even worse about how the 2001 World Series turned out.

Sigh.

ESPN's John Anderson had a good line on the late SportsCenter this morning regarding the tepid response in Arizona to hosting Games 1 and 2:

"Apathy? Perhaps. But it's a dry apathy.''

That's funny.

Anyway, enjoy the NLCS, everyone.

Maybe Chip Caray will pronounce Tucson as "Tuckson.''

One nice thing about Boomer Esiason is that far more than the average former pro jock he understands - and cares about - news media issues.

(Yeah, I know you don't. But I do. It's my job.)

For example: This morning he talked about the fact that reporters and columnists often are frustrated by headlines that don't quite match what they wrote in their stories.

Too true. One of these days I'm going to get around to producing and marketing a line of T-shirts, sweatshirts and underwear for reporters emblazoned with a logo that reads: "We Don't Write the Headlines.''

(Come to think of it, I do write the headlines for the blog. But not in the newspaper.)

Here's what Tommy John had to say about Alex Rodriguez on XM Satellite Radio's "Baseball This Morning'' show yesterday:

“You can’t do what he does during the season [then come into the playoffs and not meet expectations] . . . A-Rod tried to hit five-run home runs every time up. He knows he's on a stage and people are looking at him. He wants to be recognized as one of the best players in baseball and he is.

"He puts so much pressure on himself. I remember when George said, ‘I had Mr. October [Reggie Jackson], now I have Mr. May [Dave Winfield].’ Dave was one of the best players in the game; he just had a bad World Series. When you try and do more than what you’re capable of doing, it’s tough.''

Tuesday was a day to celebrate the Yankees' demise by clearing out the TiVO stockpile. ("Pushing Daisies'' is a really weird show, but in a good way.)

So thank you to "Sports Business Daily'' for keeping an eye on stuff like the book tours of Michael Strahan and Tiki Barber and the TV humor at the Bronx Bombers' expense.

Some highlights from SBD's "morning buzz":

David Letterman on the Yanks: "Boy, you folks are here on a great night. The entire balcony tonight is filled with prospective Yankee managers. Good to have you here!''

More from Letterman: "You folks see the game last night? Oh my God. Bad game [for the Yankees]. During the third inning, Yogi Berra said, ‘It’s over.’ The Yankees’ $200[M] payroll collapsed. For once I’m not the most overpaid disappointment in New York. Thank God for that!"

Barber on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart": As Barber came on-stage, Stewart said to him, “You should be much bigger than me.” Barber: “Just a little bit. Only where it counts.” After a groan from the audience, Barber said, “I meant legs, biceps.”

More from Stewart on Barber: “This book is nice because it gives you advice for other unbelievably physically-gifted valedictorians out there that you too can make something of yourself.”

Strahan on NBC’s “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,'' on the Giants sharing the Meadowlands with the Jets and how Jet fans treat the Giants: “They’re angry. They say Jets fans are Giants fans who couldn’t get Giant season tickets so they became Jet fans.”

Strahan on Barber on ESPN's Pardon the Interruption: “I think that’s an unfortunate thing that he’s being known more now for the guy who hates against the Giants more so than a phenomenal player and a good guy.''

OK, people, here is the link to my sidebar in the newspaper about Suzyn Waldman's memorable post-game performance Monday night.

And here is the link to the main part of my newspaper column.

Only Don Imus rivals Waldman in the ability to generate massive numbers of comments on both the blog and the newspaper column itself. So go for it.

I thought John Sterling did a good job Monday giving Suzyn time to compose herself by jumping in with a long speech just as she was losing it on the air.

Which is not to say the Yankees' radio partnership is as warm and cozy in reality as many assume it to be from listening.

Suzyn now has a reputation for extreme emotion - out of both happiness and sadness - on the air. But she also has shown admirable restraint over the years in not tossing Sterling out of the booth and onto the field.

Not yet anyway.

Thanks to commentor Ken Fang for this link to an article in the Cleveland Plain-Dealer that confirms what I wrote in the post below.

(Well, sort of. Actually it contains a mix of opinions about TBS' alleged pro-Yankees bias.)

Let's go over this one more time: The national announcers for every network in every sport do not care who wins, beyond rooting for long, interesting series.

Really. Stop it. Please.

How can Chip Caray be a Yankees fan when he can't pronounce Bayonne!

One more thing about Chip Caray and TBS before I finish my newspaper column, toast the start of the football season and go to bed early after staying up for the bitter end of YES's exhaustively thorough postgame show last night . . .

There was a lot wrong with TBS's division series coverage, but despite the inevitable e-mails I got from readers the crew did NOT tilt its calls to one team or the other.

My first e-mail along those lines arrived before Game 1 even was over, and it claimed Chip was too excited about the Indians' blowout.

Oy. This kind of thing has been going on since cavemen fans thought the national announcers were biased in favor of the woolly mammoths, and vice versa.

Or at least since Red Sox fans were incensed at Vin Scully for favoring the Mets in '86 . . . and Mets fans were incensed about him favoring the Red Sox.

Here's a hint for following this: The announcers often sound more excited when they are calling plays that favor the home team, because in such cases there tends to be noise and energy in the building that is not present when the visiting team is scoring runs.

Oh, never mind. I'm tired, and I have to go. Enjoy the Islanders-Rangers game tomorrow.

Speaking of the Caray family (see below), has Skip cooled down at all after being initially furious with TBS for bypassing him for a division series assignment?

Here is what son Chip told WatchDog before Sunday night's game:

"He's fine. He’s disappointed and I’m disappointed for him. He’s my dad and I love him. But he doesn’t nor do I make the decisions. If it ever became the Caray Broadcasting Network we’d probably be in very big trouble.

"But the worst possible thing I could say about my dad is he’s a true professional. You go where they tell you to go and broadcast the games they tell you to broadcast and do the best possible job

"It's kind of bittersweet for me. I would love for my dad to be calling the game between Boston and Anaheim today, certainly I would. I’m happy he’s feeling better [physically]. I know he’s doing games next year.

"I just hope he’s able to rest up a little. We need him in that [Braves] booth as long as he wants to be in that booth.''

I guess now I won't be needing my cute story about TBS' Chip Caray serving as a bat boy for Joe Torre's Braves after all.

Sounds like a good candidate for a blog post, then!

Here it is:

Caray, now 42, whose parents were divorced, lived in St. Louis with his mother when his father, Skip, was broadcasting Braves games in Atlanta during Chip's teenage years. He would serve as a bat boy during the summer as well as for the Braves' final road trip of the year.

He said he remembers working primarily in 1981 and 1982, the latter being Torre's first season as the Braves' manager. He said Torre has not changed a bit since he knew him long ago.

"That's the amazing thing about Joe Torre. With all the success he’s had, all the news he has made, to me he’s still the same guy who said, 'Welcome to the Braves' when I put on a uniform at 14 or 15 years old and went out and shagged fly balls with Phil Niekro.''

Caray hadn't seen Torre in years when the Yankees came to Chicago for an interleague game and Caray stood toward the back of the media pack during Torre's pre-game interview session.

"He looked up and saw me and I smiled and he said, 'Geez, I’m getting old,''' Caray recalled.

Caray remembered being the bat boy for the sub-.500, pre-Torre Braves of 1981.

"I was bat-boying when they had Preston Hanna and Biff Pocoroba and Bill Nahorodny. I was going to get the bat a lot, you know, from guys who were grounding out or striking out. There weren’t a whole lot of happy greetings of the bat boy at home plate after home runs.''

No blogging today. Sorry.

Too busy focusing on Yankees fallout.

Check back Wednesday.

Thanks for reading.

(Update: If you just can't wait until Wednesday's newspaper column for an old-school transcript of Suzyn Waldman's post-game comments Monday night, reader Ben has posted a link to the audio in the comments section of this post. Thanks, Ben.)

Cheer up, New York!

It's football season!

OK, Imus fans, here's another update for you, scheduled to run in the Tuesday newspaper. (WatchDog readers have earned a sneak preview.)

It won't be long now.

Thanks for supporting the blog through all of this, and enjoy the show, whatever form it might take.

I'll check it out but I'll mostly be busy listening to Boomer/Carton and Mike/Mike. Sorry. WatchDog watches and listens to sports.

It's a tough job, but someone has to do it.

Oh my goodness gracious . . .

WFAN currently is streaming the Devils game live on its Web site rather than "Mike and the Mad Dog'' from Yankee Stadium.

Thanks to reader Vincent V. for the tip.

I hope this has something to do with contractual obligations and not with WFAN operations director Mark Chernoff trying to play with the heads of Yankees fans. (His son, Mike, is the Indians' director of baseball operations. I saw the elder Chernoff at Yankee Stadium Sunday night and told him I'm keeping a close eye on him during this series.)

I got my copy of the new book by Michael Strahan in the mail today, but I signed an agreement saying I wouldn't write anything about it until Oct. 9, so I'm out of commission for eight more hours or so.

No worries. I'll probably watch the Yankees game tonight rather than read about Michael's disagreements over the years with Tiki Barber, Tom Coughlin and Jean Strahan.

Meanwhile, Tiki's book tour continues on SNY at 7 o'clock tonight and again on Jon Stewart's "Daily Show'' on Comedy Central at 11 p.m. Tuesday.

When is David Diehl going to come out with his hardcover take on the '06 Giants?

NBC sent a news release today trumpeting its overnight ratings for Sunday night, in which it attracted 12.3 percent of households in major markets for the Bears-Packers game, compared to 10.8 percent for "Desperate Housewives'' on ABC.

The rating in Milwaukee was a mind-boggling 46.1, with 63 percent of the sets actually in use turned to the game.

Many New Yorkers were busy watching baseball at the time. We ranked dead last among the 56 measured markets with 5.7 percent watching the football game. Hartford was 55th at 5.8 and Boston was 54th at 6.0.

I wrote an item in my Friday newspaper column about how strange it was to have the Jets and Giants play a regular-season game for the first time ever during the baseball playoffs and only the second time ever during any part of the baseball season.

Now, after watching a highly entertaining Giants-Jets game unfold and mostly be ignored in Baseball City, it's more clear than ever. It was strange . . . and silly.

Memo to NFL: In 2011, try November.

Just got two pieces of news from TBS, one good and one bad.

Good: Turns out Ron Darling (see post below) is joining the TBS studio not just for Monday night but for the rest of the postseason, meaning through the end of the NLCS. Credit TBS for knowing when a studio announcing team needs help.

Bad: While tonight's game start was pushed back from 6:30 to 7:30 - understandable given that there are no other division series going on - Game 5 if necessary will be at 8:30, the dreaded time slot that inevitably leads to midnight finishes in the East.

Sigh.

Memo to self:

Time to stop ignoring the e-mails from Versus about their college football package, even if there are 1,869 other games on every darn weekend.

Versus lucked into the ultimate stunner Saturday with Stanford's mega-upset of USC, much as the Big Ten Network did last month with Appalachian State over Michigan.

So you never know where and when these things will happen.

Versus is reshowing the Stanford victory at 4 p.m. Monday.

Next up for the channel: Oregon State at Cal Saturday. Look out, Bears!

By the way, I saw Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani at the Yankees-Indians tilt Sunday night.

I was waiting for an elevator to the press room and he was en route to a suite, perhaps that of Mr. Steinbrenner himself.

It's comforting to know that the endless presidential campaign season - and a 2-0 series deficit - isn't enough to keep a true fan away from a big game.

I did not see Hillary Clinton there, although I suppose it's theoretically possible she was present and I missed her.

At least now that the Cubs are out of it, she won't have to deal with being torn during a World Series involving her co-favorite teams.

(Reminder from a post a couple of weeks back: I never, ever, since 1968 have supported and/or voted for the winning candidate for U.S. President. I think it's an impressive stat, if I do say so myself.)

Here is an important programming note:

Please do not assemble an angry mob to march on Newsday headquarters in Melville Tuesday if you do not see a SportsWatch column in your morning newspaper (or 24-hour-a-day Web site).

With the Yankees teetering on the brink Monday night, it made sense to wait until Wednesday's newspaper to either wrap up the debacle or set up the Game of the Century that night.

You still should read Tuesday's newspaper. Newsday has many other reporters and columnists worth reading. Be flexible!

Is that Indians manager serious about this Paul Byrd thing, or is he just playing with the Yankees' minds to get them overconfident?

It's a good thing you check this blog multiple times per day, because at 2 p.m. this Monday afternoon Phil Simms will be appearing on "As the World Turns'' on CBS.

He will be taking a big risk for an inexperienced actor: He's playing himself.

I've always been more of a "General Hospital'' guy. At least I was on Nov. 16, 1981, when I watched Luke and Laura get married on a TV in the student union.

Now the only daytime drama I watch is "Mike and the Mad Dog'' on YES.

Sigh.

I had a nice chat before Sunday night's game with TBS play-by-play man Chip Caray.

Neither one of us brought up my negative review of the TBS crew in the Sunday newspaper.

Not sure why. Maybe he was being polite. That would be better than if he didn't read it at all. Hmm. Then again, maybe he was appreciative, since a number of readers thought I was way too easy on him.

Whatever. I can't write what Chip and I talked about here, because I have to have some material in the bank for later in the week if the Yanks keeping winning.

The happy TBS news is that SNY's own Ron Darling, who has worked the Cubs-Diamondbacks series, will shift to the studio Monday night to rescue what has been a struggling operation.

Sorry I'm off to such a slow blogging start this morning.

Was up late at Game 3 of the ALDS. If you have a big, high def TV, you might be able to make me out leaning over the first row of the loge level in the auxiliary press box in right to watch Johnny Damon's home run bounce near Jeffrey Maier's seat.

I'm the guy in the dorky, suburban-dad, short-sleeved, reddish plaid shirt.

Anyway, here is the most important thing I learned Sunday, especially valuable to anyone who might be planning to attend Monday night's game and sit on the loge level:

I never, ever have seen longer men's room lines at a public event. Please, please take my advice: no beer, no soda, no bottled water.

Go when you get home, or you'll miss two or three innings of the Yankees' extended batting practice session tonight against Paul Byrd.

I was a little tough on the TBS boys in my newspaper column today, but I tried to be fair and stay away from reciting every last thing I noticed - such as Chip Caray twice mentioning the "winning run'' was on base Friday when he meant the "go-ahead run.''

It's always dangerous for newspaper writers to nitpick TV people, because every once in a great while we make a mistake, too. For example, I have no idea why the headline on my column mentions the NLDS instead of the ALDS. I'll call the office and ask about that later.

Bob Brenly actually has had some pretty good moments in the TBS booth. But Yankees fans have to be wondering whether he brought with him a curse from the 2001 World Series.

LeBron James has created quite a stir in Cleveland by openly rooting for the Yankees during the ALDS.

Flying under the radar has been a prominent New York sports figure who has gone in the opposite direction.

Mark Chernoff, WFAN's operations director, has a strong rooting interest in the Indians. Why? Because his son, Mike, is the team's director of baseball operations.

He's one of those Ivy League (Princeton) wunderkinds who has made a ridiculously fast rise up the baseball executive ranks. Seems like he knows what he's doing so far.

If the Earth seems to be spinning more smoothly on its axis this Sunday, it's because order was restored to the cosmos - no, not the soccer team - Saturday afternoon when a team mostly made up of current and former Giants beat reporters mashied their Jets counterparts, 7-0, in the annual Writer Cup golf tournament, this year held at Inwood Country Club.

Traditionally the event is held before the teams' preseason meeting, but rumor has it the Giants and Jets will be interrupting the baseball playoffs with a regular-season showdown, so I guess that's why it was played this weekend.

It was the first shutout in the history of the tournament and ended a streak of four victories in a row and a stretch of six of seven for the Jets scribes.

No word yet on whether Tom Coughlin will invite the winning players to the locker room to deliver inspirational pre-game words this afternoon.

For months there have been reports of promising negotiations between the mixed martial arts powerhouse UFC and HBO Sports, known mostly for boxing. But the marraige is not to be for now.

Said HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg in a statement:

"After lots of discussion it became apparent that the business model doesn’t make sense for either one of us. So, we agreed to go our separate ways. You never know what the future holds. We have enormous respect and admiration for the executives we dealt with at the UFC. We wish them well.''

No more e-mails, please, hockey fans!

Cablevision announced an agreement Friday to offer the NHL's "Center Ice'' package to its digital customers who want to watch out-of-market games.

The package features up to 40 games a week and is available now for $149 for the season. (The price rises to $169 Oct. 16).

Also Friday, Cablevision added the NHL Network to its sports tier, which costs an additional $4.95 per month and includes the NBA's league-run network. The NHL's channel should be available on the iO Sports Pak by the end of the month.

One more thing: My newspaper column was a little difficult to find on the Web site earlier today, what with all of the more pressing matters regarding the Bronx Bombers filling the page.

So here's a link to it.

I talked to Jiggs McDonald.

What more do you need to know?

Would the TV, radio, Internet and print people who keep calling the Mets' collapse the worst in baseball history PLEASE stop?

It was the worst collapse in baseball history for a team with a seven-game lead and 17 to play.

There are many other comparable collapses that just happened to involve different combinations of games back and games remaining.

As a writer, I understand the desire for dramatic declarations such as "worst collapse in baseball history.'' But it's not.

Now that that's clear . . . enjoy Game 2, Yankees fans. I'll write a review of TBS's coverage in Sunday's newspaper column.

I'm done for today.

Don Imus could sign a contract with Citadel Broadcasting as soon as next week that would return him to the radio airwaves, likely in the morning drive time slot on WABC-AM, a person familiar with the discussions said Friday.

Imus has been in talks with Citadel and its CEO, Farid Suleman, aimed at a comeback that would reunite his old morning crew, probably with a debut before the end of the year.

CBS Radio, which owns WFAN in New York, fired Imus April 12 in the wake of remarks aimed at the Rutgers women's basketball team that many considered racist and sexist.

Citadel has a vast network of stations around the nation, some of which likely would pick up the Imus program. But many have formats that would not easily be compatible with Imus' show.

A TV simulcast also is possible; Imus used to be seen on MSNBC.

The current morning hosts on WABC are Ron Kuby and Curtis Sliwa.

Outside Penn Station Wednesday for a Guardian Angels event, Sliwa was asked whether he had heard anything lately regarding potentially being replaced by Imus.

He said he had not.

Sorry about the picture. No, Doug Mientkiewicz's foot is not broken, thank goodness.

But his accidental pre-game run-in Thursday with a freelance cameraman working for YES certainly was newsworthy - at least every newspaper covering the team and TBS thought so.

Strangely, though, YES itself did not reference the incident during Kim Jones' pre-game report. Huh?

A YES spokesman said that because Mientkiewicz was slated to be in the starting lineup and said he would not be affected by having his foot stepped on, it was not necessary to include the story in the pre-game roundup.

Hmm. Would YES have made the same decision if an SNY camera had done the damage? Guess we'll never know.

Bob Lorenz did mention the incident after the game, saying, "You may have heard this story by now.''

Yeah, we did. Just not from YES!

Michael Strahan's book is coming out Tuesday, but I couldn't get the guy at the local Barnes & Noble to sell it to me today because the publisher sold exclusive excerpt rights to, well, someone other than me.

As a consolation prize here are some excerpts from the "diary'' he will be doing on Fox's pre-game show Sunday:

"A lot of people thought I was joking about retirement, and just wanted a month away from training camp, but to be honest with you, I really considered it, and it’s very hard when you are in California, and the beach is right outside your door, the waves are crashing, and you think, umm, do I really want to give this up? Or do I want to go somewhere and get beat up and get sore?"

"The last two weeks, we’ve picked it up, we’ve won two games. Now everyone’s on top of the world. You go from being in the doghouse in New York . . . see they were ready to put us with the rats in the gutter, in the basement in the sewer system. And now, we are on top of Trump Tower.''

"When I got the sack on Sunday to become the Giants franchise all-time sack leader . . . it felt great! I wanted them to stop the game. I’m celebrating, and then the Eagles run another play! What happened?!? Stop the game! Give me my minute. Give me my moment! I wanted it! Then they ran for about 30 yards on the next play, so it wasn’t too good. The celebration was a little too long."

For the next four Sunday mornings at 9, MSG will be showing tapes of games from earlier in the weekend involving Long Island teams.

It begins this Sunday with the West Islip-East Islip tilt that is being played in real life on Saturday.

Next week it's St. Anthony's against Holy Trinity, then Brentwood against Floyd on Oct. 21 and Chaminade against St. Anthony's on Oct. 28.

I was there when Northport hammered West Islip, 21-6, for the AAA title in 1976.

I was all-state . . . in tenor sax.

Last Friday I permanently retired John Philips' Friday comment contest award to give others a chance to win the prestigious title.

Then he announced 15 minutes after the Mets' elimination Sunday that he was through with sports forever - yeah, right - a memorable rant excerpted below that caused me to give it to him one last time. NO MORE, THOUGH!

Here it is, complete with a Carl Sandburg reference:

"I'm done. When I think of all the time, money, and emotion invested into a stupid game and team, I feel like a complete idiot. So many times, I went to weddings and family functions only to think of ways to sneak to a radio or TV and find out what a score was. All of the video tapes and DVD's of complete game broadcasts that I have collected and archived in the belief that I will someday want to watch these things again suddenly seem even more ridiculous that my wife told me they were. I have spent almost 20 years trying to forget Game 4 of the 1988 NLCS even though there is no rational reason why I should have been upset in the first place. I must simply give it all up. My 40 year run of Mets yearbooks, my copy of Dick Schapp and Paul Zimmerman's The Year The Mets Lost Last Place, my framed poster from Tom Seaver Day in 1988, my Lets Go Mets video - I'm putting it all up on ebay tomorrow along with an equally disturbing collection of Jets memorabilia.

I have never read Faulkner's Absalom Absalom, Carl Sandurg's American Songbag, or Robert Frost's North of Boston collection, but I will now. I am breaking free of this cursed affliction of sports and try to redirect whatever free hard drive I have in my brain towards better pursuits. Farewell sports and while I'm sure Faulkner's prose will initially sound like it being read by Lindsay Nelson and Ralph Kiner in my brain, it will eventually cease and I will become a better person."

The arena formerly known as Continental Airlines Arena will be known as the Izod Center, effective Oct. 31.

I'm too busy to think of a clever nickname for the newly named building. (Alligator Alley?) So please feel free to post suggestions below and I'll pass it along to my friends in East Rutherford.

The Nets worked closely with the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority to sell the naming rights. They'll be playing there until their new building in Brooklyn is completed.

Izod signed for five years. The Nets do not intend to be in the Meadowlands that long.

Speaking of arenas across the Hudson, I happened to be in downtown Newark at noon Wednesday, 47 years to the minute after I first arrived in the world in that very town.

I saw the new Prudential Center, home of the Devils, for the first time. From the outside it looks like a typical modern mega-palace of the type sprouting up all over America. But then you remember it's in downtown Newark, of all places.

Strange. But true.

(Update: According to reader "flubby,'' Izod and Lacoste split a while back - 1993! - and this no longer is the Izod logo. Whatever. I don't know. I'm old and I'm busy answering e-mails from Imus fans.)

Now I'm hearing that Don Imus might get back on the air before the end of the year. Either way, his deal with Citadel should be coming along any day now.

It appears the plan is to get the entire old crew back together, including engineer Lou Rufino (pictured).

Beyond that, I don't know much more. I appreciate all of the thank-you e-mails overwhelming my inbox from people all over the continent, but please tell all of your friends I do NOT know what the plan is for nationally syndicating the show on the radio and/or simulcating it on TV.

Sorry.

What was the strangest birthday gift I got yesterday - not counting the 100 e-mails from Imus fans from Alberta to Atlanta wondering about possible syndication as he nears a deal with Citadel Broadcasting?

It was the signed Cole Hamels baseball from my mother-in-law. It wasn't a gag gift. She figured I'd like to have it, so she cornered him at a bank opening in suburban Philly where he was signing stuff.

(Important life lesson for young New Yorkers: Think long and hard before agreeing to marry a Philly gal or guy.)

Anyway, it seemed like a better idea before yesterday. Newsday sports copy desk honcho Jeff Weinberg said it was too bad she didn't get me a Jeff Francis signed ball instead.

Thanks for reading. I'm out until later this afternoon. Henceforth on Thursdays I am going to do things backward, writing my Friday newspaper column first and then seeing what's left over.

Better luck this afternoon, Phils fans.

I only had room for a fraction of my exclusive chat with Alyssa Milano in today's newspaper column that mentioned her new gig on "TBS Hot Corner,'' so here are some leftovers:

Milano said Turner sports president David Levy reached out to her, aware of her interest in baseball from her blog on the sport.

"I met with David in New York probably five or six months ago now and he quizzed me. I think he wanted to see how much of it was part of my vernacular. I held my own. He said they'd try to figure out a way to utilize me.''

Milano will file reports for the broadband service on mlb.com during the playoffs. "My initial concern was I don't want this to be a Dennis Miller-for-the-NFL type of situation. If I do something for this I want to be represented as the voice of the fan.''

Milano was born in Bensonhurst to a die-hard Dodgers fan father, and used to watch games on his lap while living on Staten Island from ages 4 through 11. Then she moved to California for her job on "Who's the Boss?'' and became a Dodgers fan herself. (She still has a grandmother in Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn.)

She does speak the language of an avid sports fans.

"I think that was [Levy's] reason for quizzing me in the meeting. He wanted to know it was part of my being in a way that was believable. I think he knew I was an intelligent woman from how the blog was written. You can always tell when someone is faking.''

The relentlessly classy Tom Glavine just wrapped up a very interesting radio interview with Mike Francesa and Chris Russo on WFAN.

The tone was civil on both ends, but the pertinent topics all were addressed.

You should check it out when it is presumably archived on WFAN's Web site later this afternoon.

And before you rip Francesa and Russo for not screaming AT Glavine the way they have screamed ABOUT Glavine, chillax.

Yeah, it's annoying, but that's just the way it works in the awkward world of sports talk hosts who comment on athletes and coaches and later have to interview them.

It's better this way. Screaming at a low-key future Hall of Famer is not a very effective technique for eliciting useful information.

The shocking news on the media front in the wake of the Isiah Thomas/MSG decision Tuesday was this:

"MSG, NY,'' MSG's nightly sports and entertainment, sort-of news show, actually acknowledged the existence of the suit.

Earlier, MSG's take on that subject was that it is not a pure news show and therefore left coverage of it to other programs.

There was a strange wrinkle, though.

While MSG posted the Garden's and Thomas' official statements on the screen, it did not use the video of Thomas speaking outside the courtroom that pretty much every other sports news show in North America did.

(Update: I just realized MSG, NY did not use anything from Anucha Browne Sanders. Uh, oh . . . )

Oh my goodness gracious.

Thanks for the avalanche of blog comments, on-line article comments and e-mails in the wake of my story about Don Imus being close to an agreement with Citadel Broadcasting, which owns WABC-AM and WPLJ-FM in New York.

If my boss gives me a week off, I'll be sure to catch up on all of them and give my loyal readers and commentors the courtesy of a personal response.

I don't have anything new on Imus this Wednesday, as I've been busy doing my day job, which is covering sports media. I did hear that there is a good chance Imus won't actually be on the air until January, even though a deal should be done sooner than that.

I did have this weird experience, though: I was in Manhattan for a press conference and ran into Curtis Sliwa just outside Penn Station. I introduced myself, told him about my article and the speculation that Imus could replace Sliwa and Ron Kuby on WABC and asked him if he had heard anything lately about the Imus situation.

He said he had not.

It's not as, um, juicy as the news coming out of the Knicks these days, but the always sponsor-aggressive Nets this week announced another innovative deal:

Wrigley's, which sponsored the team's offseason, now is sponsoring its preseason, henceforth officially known as "Before the Buzzer.”

"The Nets are always looking to provide marketing platforms for our best partners and to activate Nets’ basketball year-round,'' Nets CEO Brett Yormark said in a news release.

There is nothing like an epic collapse by a local squad to drive people to TV, radio, the Internet and newspapers.

Take Mike Francesa's Sunday night "Mike'd Up'' show on Ch. 4.

Presumably boosted by Mets fans looking for Mike's first take on their elimination, the show recorded the highest rating in its five-year history for the important men ages 25-54 demographic, with 4.7 percent of the audience.

Its 3.2 for men 18-49 was its second-best figure ever, as was the 2.8 for all adults 25-54.

(Obviously it also helped, as reader "Tom'' pointed out, that the Giants-Eagles game provided a lead-in for the show.)

Imagine what a sweep of the Yankees by the Indians would do for this Sunday night's numbers!

This is a re-written, re-posted version of a story from Tuesday that I since have gotten further clarification on:

The most recent spat between MLB and ESPN has been resolved, with ESPN agreeing to make regular references to the fact the division series will be on TBS in addition to ESPN radio.

In return, ESPN will be allowed to have its customary on-site set at the World Series, unlike at the All-Star Game, when it was banned during a different disagreement with MLB.

The details of how it will work - including references to TBS on both SportsCenter and Baseball Tonight - is spelled out in amusing detail in a staff memo sent Monday and obtained by WatchDog Tuesday.

I'll spare you all that, but apparently it's important to get it all right. That staff e-mail warns: "We have to be very detailed on this because 'one mistake' and we're done.''

Bud Selig is watching!

(Update: Here's ESPN's statement on all this:

"Every time we cover a major event, we work with our partner to determine set location. We offered to MLB that we would provide network references, including ESPN Radio, as part of reports on the Division Series and LCS. We continue to work productively and in concert with MLB to serve fans.'')

Citadel Broadcasting is close to finalizing a contract with Don Imus that would bring the controversial radio host back to the airwaves, a person familiar with the discussions said Tuesday.

It was not immediately clear on what station or stations Imus would be heard, but Citadel owns WABC in New York, making its morning slot a logical destination. (Citadel owns a number of other stations, including WPLJ-FM in New York.)

Currently that spot is occupied by Ron Kuby and Curtis Sliwa.

Citadel and its CEO, Farid Suleman, have been rumored to be interested in Imus for months, and WABC long has been considered a logical platform for him to launch a comeback.

He would bring along his long-time newsman, Charles McCord, who last appeared on WFAN Aug. 31. Less clear is what role, if any, a more controversial member of Imus' old crew, Bernard McGuirk, would play. One possibility is a non-speaking role as a producer/writer.

Imus was fired by CBS Radio and removed from WFAN April 12, eight days after making comments directed at the Rutgers women's basketball team that many regarded as sexist and/or racist. His show also had been simulcast on MSNBC.

As of Monday night, TBS became a baseball channel for all teams, not just the Braves.

Here is a piece from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on what the Braves era on TBS meant in the history of the sport on TV, for better and worse.

Ted Turner had the idea of owning a baseball team to provide TV content for a station long before regional sports networks such as NESN, YES and SNY existed.

By the way, thanks to MLB and TBS for those shockingly fan-friendly starting times for the Yankees in the coming week.

Wow . . . In bed before midnight? During the playoffs? Talk about old school.

I wrote a newspaper column today about the TV, radio and Internet reaction to the Mets' elimination, but I didn't have room for one thing that occurred to me Sunday night as I listened to Chris Russo's rant on WFAN:

Chris (and plenty of other radio yakkers and other humans) insisted it is time for Tom Glavine to go - immediately!

Fifty-one weeks earlier, Chris was similarly vocal about it being time to move on for another future Hall of Famer playing in New York: Alex Rodriguez.

Yeah, I know. Very different situation. Chris is right this time. Never mind.

The WFAN morning show featuring Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton is starting to grow on me, even in the couple of weeks since I gave it a mixed review in the newspaper column.

Since everyone at WFAN seems to read WatchDog, I might as well throw out one potentially negative thought I didn't mention in that review because it hadn't occurred to me then:

Now that Esiason and Carton clearly have established they are 90 percent about sports, will that have a negative effect on Mike Francesa and Chris Russo in the afternoon?

In the Imus days, the sports issues of the day still were relatively fresh come 1 p.m. Now, anyone who listens all morning might be a tad sick of those issues by 1.

Then again . . . Normal people don't listen to WFAN for as much of the day as I do.

Do they? Please say no.

I only made it through 11 innings of Padres-Rockies. Sorry. But here's an early suggestion to TBS for its score graphic:

Make the yellow much bolder to indicate when someone is on base. Right now it's hard to tell when a base is or is not occupied.

The cutest moment in TBS's coverage was studio analyst Cal Ripken Jr. bringing up Jeffrey Maier in discussing proper umpire technique for judging whether or not a ball cleared the wall.

In a conference call last week, Ripken was asked about replay in baseball and also brought up Maier.

It appears 11 years has not been quite enough time for Cal to get over that one. Thanks, Jeff.

The whole point of this blogging thing is to engage you, the reader. Here is your chance.

I have an interview scheduled for this morning with Alyssa Milano of "TBS Hot Corner,'' the new broadband service on MLB.com that will offer special playoff content.

If you have any questions for her, post them in the comments section and I'll try to get them in. (Keep it clean. I have the power to delete naughty stuff.)

I forgot to watch Game 6 of the '77 World Series on YES tonight until there were two outs in the ninth and Reggie had to get a batting helmet to protect himself from fans throwing stuff at him in rightfield.

(Memo to people too young to remember New York in the '70s: Back then, people threw crap at you even if you hit three home runs in your home ballpark.)

The weirdest thing was seeing fans sitting on the rightfield wall with their legs dangling into fair territory, and seemingly no one doing anything about it!

The post-game was familiar from the re-enactment on "The Bronx is Burning.'' Billy Martin and Thurman Munson did an amazing job of looking and sounding like John Turturro and Erik Jensen, the latter a confirmed member of WatchDog Nation, by the way.

ABC's camera had huge trouble getting a clear shot of Reggie in the madness. Apparently network TV hadn't yet figured out how to isolate itself in a corner away from all the print journalism schlubs.

(One of the writers who got the most face time was a shockingly young Dan Shaughnessy, at the time a novice baseball beat writer for The Baltimore Sun.)

Standing outside missing all the fun was SI's Melissa Ludtke. But that's another story.

I used to cover football.

In doing so, I got to talk to some players who played under Norv Turner as a head coach about that experience.

Result:

When the Chargers hired him to take over the sweet-running Porsche that Marty Schottenheimer led to 14 victories last year, I thought the men who run the Bolts were insane.

They were.

MIke Francesa asserted on WFAN this afternoon that only DirecTV - not cable providers - will be offering TBS in HD for the playoffs.

Then 15 minutes later he said Cablevision and Time Warner had announced they would, in fact, offer TBS in HD, as if the information was hot off the presses.

I'm crushed. Mike, weren't you reading the blog when I was following all this in excruciating detail last week? A reader actually caught Mike reading WatchDog on the air recently, so I know he's a closet member of WatchDog nation.

To make a newspaper guy feel even worse, Chris Russo credited Kevin Burkhardt with the information on Hanley Ramirez that Burkhardt himself credited to Newsday's Anthony Rieber on SNY Sunday. (See item on that below.)

Sigh.

Normally I have no interest in expert picks for sports events, because the truth is, your pet turtle has as good a chance of picking the World Series champion as Chip Caray does.

But I thought the list of World Series champion picks TBS sent today was interesting for one reason: The NL is getting almost no love at all.

It says one thing to me: Bet the house on the Diamondbacks.

(Ron Darling is not on this list. TBS still hasn't announced he is joining their roster for the Cubs-Diamondbacks series. They will do so any minute now, I guess. Yo, TBS, send an addendum with Ron's picks. He better pick the Phils.)

Chip Caray: Angels
Tony Gwynn: Yankees
Bob Brenly: Red Sox
Dick Stockton: Red Sox
Ted Robinson: Yankees
Steve Stone: Indians
Don Orsillo: Red Sox
Joe Simpson: Angels
Ernie Johnson: Indians
Cal Ripken Jr.: Red Sox
Craig Sager: Cubs
Joe Mota: Angels
Marc Fein: Indians
David Aldridge: Angels

The September blog traffic numbers are out, and my page views were up 26 percent from August and set a new monthly record - narrowly surpassing the July numbers.

Interpreting the figures is difficult, as I was off for the final 14 days of August and the first nine days of September, but it's clear that WatchDog Nation is growing by the day, and I sincerely appreciate every page viewer out there.

It's not for me to say exactly how my August numbers compared to those of Bob Glauber's NFL blog. But let's all have some mercy on the guy. Here's a link. Please help get him off to a respectable October start. He's a good friend and he does a good job for a blogger born when the Dodgers still played in Brooklyn.

Thank you, SNY's Kevin Burkhardt, for giving props Sunday to lowly newspaper scribe Anthony Rieber of Newsday.

Burkhardt quoted Rieber quoting Marlins teammates quoting Hanley Ramirez saying that the real reason he was so furious at the Mets Saturday was that he feared he had an injury that would prevent him from being a 30-30 man.

It's unusual for TV and radio types to credit newspaper people by name. It makes us feel important. Feel free to do it more often.

Marv Albert just told Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton that he does not disagree with the criticism of MLB for eliminating the requirement that playoff games be simulcast on an over-the-air station in the home markets of the teams involved.

This even though during the basketball season Albert works for Turner calling games on TNT. (Turner bought the division series and NLCS and will show it on TBS this month.)

Good for him.

It's true that a relatively small percentage of avid sports fans - especially in New York - does not have pay TV. But there are many thousands of them out there, and they will not be able to see Thursday's game against the Indians.

Fans have been able to see their home team in the playoffs for free since baseball on TV first came into existence many decades ago. No more.

LeBron James is rooting for the Yankees over the Indians, as SportsWatch reported Friday.

Not surprisingly, famously cranky Bob Feller is unamused. But a prominent Cleveland columnist is OK with it. Read about that here.

It's so weird that there will be a New York team involved in the playoffs this week.

It's so weird that it's not the Mets.

I was in Bryant Park May 30 when the Yankees game was shown on a big screen in an annual event. They were down 14 1/2 games going into that one, which they won.

I wrote a column for that Friday's newspaper wondering what the heck the YES Network was going to do in August and September with nothing but meaningless games to show.

YES executives declined to discuss the matter with me at the time because it was a long season and hey, you never know.

You never do.

I haven't seen "The Game Plan'' and probably never will, but I deputized my 12-year-old to check it out Saturday, specifically to find out how Boomer Esiason did in a challenging role: depicting himself.

She said he was good. (She liked the rest of the movie, too, unlike most grownup critics.)

I was busy at the time ignoring college football and watching a DVD of "The Departed.'' I now have seen every winner of the Best Picture Oscar, starting with "Wings,'' and can name them by year.

It's mostly a tragic waste of brain storage capacity. But it's a good way to win money on bar bets.

If you go to really dorky bars.