Watchdog

Here is my Monday newspaper column on Jeff Van Gundy, in which he discusses the fact he will be analyzing the NBA Finals for ESPN/ABC while his older brother, Stan, coaches the Magic in said Finals.

Click below for a complete transcript of my phone conversation with Jeff Sunday, in which he talks about Dwight Howard and Shaquille O'Neal publicly criticizing Stan, LeBron James blowing off the media, his biggest regret about the 1999 Knicks and whether he is content as a TV man or is aiming for a return to coaching.

USA Today also got JVG on the horn Sunday. That version of the story here.

Continue reading "Jeff Van Gundy wishes he had smelled roses w/Knicks" »

Spoke to former Knicks coach and current ESPN/ABC analyst Jeff Van Gundy Sunday about the presence of a certain coach on the bench of one of the teams for the NBA Finals.

"I'm going to try to be as objective as possible," he said, "but I want my brother’s team to win; there’s no question about that."

When Stan Van Gundy's Magic took a 2-1 series lead over the Cavaliers, his younger brother discussed the looming potential conflict with his coordinating producer, Tim Corrigan.

“I said, ‘Hey, listen, if you guys don’t think it’s best for me to call the Finals, I’m fine with that, and I understand,’’’ he said. “I don’t want to compromise anything. They said they wanted me to do it.’’

More in Monday's newspaper. That's a wrap. Enjoy June.

Photo: AP

I was going to leave this one alone, but what the heck, I'm a team player, so . . .

Here is something we offered readers this weekend on the subject of the hottest male athletes in the New York area.

I assume this idea was inspired by Mark Sanchez' arrival. Oy. Why couldn't the Jets have drafted an overweight guard or something?

Vote early and often for your favorite at the link above.

I've narrowed mine down to Sanchez, Kerry Rhodes or a write-in for Jeff Feagles.

New York magazine's Will Leitch on nominee Nate Robinson: "It is always nice to date someone you can put in your pocket."

LeBron James, whose off-court behavior mostly has been a model for other young superstars to follow since he joined the NBA, pulled a huge, unacceptable no-no Saturday night when he blew off the news media after the Cavaliers lost the Eastern Conference finals to Orlando.

(He also apparently did not stick around to shake the winners' hands, but that's not my department.)

On SportsCenter, host John Buccigross suggested James be given a break, what with the many interviews he did all season.

Jalen Rose, a former player, offered the opposite - and correct - opinion: disappointing.

All I can say is this: Yo, LeBron, don't be pulling that stuff around here whenever you lose a big game for the 2010-11 Knicks.

Photo: AP

The other day I did the last of my annoying "My Boys" posts for the year - in which I discuss the appearances by two current Cubs and mention past athlete cameos on shows about fictional sportswriters, such as Deacon Jones on "The Odd Couple" and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on "Everybody Loves Raymond."

As we head into the final weekend of another blogging month, let's expand the concept and make this interactive:

Use the handy comments function below to share your favorite athlete cameos on any kind of TV show, and I'll share the best in my Tuesday column.

Joe Namath on "The Brady Bunch?" Kevin McHale on "Cheers?" Yogi Berra on "The Phil Silvers Show?" Keith Hernandez on "Seinfeld?"

This sort of thing usually is Davidoff's bailiwick, but he sticks to baseball.

Our survey is open to all sports. Thanks for participating and have a lovely weekend.

Enjoy the 2004 World Series of Poker on ESPN Classic at 11 p.m. Saturday . . . and midnight Sunday, 1 a.m. Sunday, 2 a.m. Sunday, 3 a.m. Sunday, 4 a.m. Sunday and 5 a.m. Sunday.

Your cable TV dollars at work!

Today's Newsday Sports Blog Post of the Day comes from The Neutral Corner, where Bobby Cassidy makes a case for Manny Pacquiao defending his title on home turf in the Philippines.

My days of cynically exploiting Pacquiao's passionate fans for cheap page views are over. I'm leaving our coverage of the great boxer to the experts henceforth.

As a peace offering, note that I did not mention the Page Views King's name in the headline of this post, nor include a picture of him.

Back to baseball season . . .

A laurel and hearty handshake to Dan Sulzer, 33, of Long Beach, who Thursday night became the second consecutive Long Islander to take top honors at the Sports Spelling Bee at the ESPN Zone in Times Square.

Sulzer outlasted 35 contestants over about a dozen rounds, crossing the finish line by correctly spelling the name of Bills linebacker Paul Posluszny.

As an avid Jets fan, Sulzer said he is familiar with Posluszny as an AFC East foe.

Fair enough. Sulzer also aced names such as Jeff Samardzija, Scott Kamieniecki, Laveranues Coles and John Buccigross.

Sulzer, an inventory manager for a DVD distribution company, said he always has had a knack for spelling, and won a bee in high school.

His prizes included a VIP package for six at the ESPN Zone, a $250 American Express gift card, an ESPN sports almanac and a trophy that caused stares as he carried it home on the Long Island Rail Road.

Second place went to another LIer, Kenny Eisenman of Bellmore, who faltered on Nikolai Khabibulin.

What prompted Sulzer to enter the bee?

"If it weren't for reading about it on your blog [Tuesday], I would not have known about it,'' he said. "It's not like I read the ESPN Zone Web site to see what's going on there."

Photo: Getty

In addition to my main story on SNY, Citi Field and home run replays, my Friday column includes items on Conan O'Brien's effect on the Stanley Cup schedule, LeBron's and Kobe's effects on NBA ratings and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Jeanie Buss joining Twitter Nation.

Photo: Getty

Sorry about very late blogging start. Just returned from having the honor of speaking to students in two sports management classes at Centereach High School.

Some of them even paid attention! (And one asked for my Twitter address.)

I recently read that New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman's standard speaking fee is $75,000 - roughly $75,000 higher than mine.

I need have to have a serious conversation with my agent. Oh, wait . . . I don't have an agent.

Never mind.

Continue reading "Young Long Islanders soak in wisdom of WatchDog" »

Decided to go with something simple and to the point this week, from John H after a post previewing the Champions League final between FC Barcelona and Manchester United:

"Are my tax dollars going to the team pictured with the AIG shirt?"

Thus did John identify the only thing most Americans care about upon seeing a player from storied Man U these days, understandably so given the three letters emblazoned on the players' uniforms.

The answer partly is yes, I assume.

But this was the club's final season under its current lucrative sponsorship deal with AIG, and it will have to seek a new deep-pocketed partner for 2010.

Good luck with that, guys.

Here is the main element of my Friday column, in which I get insights into the recent series of home run reviews involving the Mets from a guy closely involved in generating the videos used in those reviews - SNY producer Gregg Picker.

Interesting, and timely!

One element I did not discuss in the piece is that unlike in the NFL, where all game telecasts are done by national networks, MLB relies on local TV entities.

Some of those, including SNY and YES, are partly owned by the teams themselves.

Doesn't this leave the system open to conspiracy theorists who might wonder if TV types would withhold a replay that goes against the interests of their team?

Sort of. It should help that both telecasts' replays are made available to the umps, and both telecasts usually have access to one another's replays.

But that won't stop people from wondering.

Stay tuned. This new rule gets interestinger by the day.

Photo: AP

Max Seibald of Hewlett and Cornell has won the Tewaaraton Trophy, lacrosse's version of the Heisman. It says so here.

During its coverage of the NBA Eastern Conference finals Thursday night, TNT will show an interview Chris Webber conducted with Rodney Rogers, who was left a quadriplegic after a dirt bike accident in November.

Controversy involving the Mets and outfield walls is nothing new.

(That's a much younger Morgan Freeman as the ump, BTW.)

Thanks to loyal reader Greg Diener for the link.

First, Fran Tarkenton ripped Brett Favre.

Now, he's moved on to Marcellus Wiley. This is getting serious!

Nothing that happens in the Scripps National Spelling Bee finals Thursday can match the above moment from last year, and the subsequent interview of the young man in the video by Erin Andrews.

But the event always is worth watching, just in case.

Ms. Andrews will be back on the job as the sideline reporter, and marked the occasion with interviews here and here in which she discusses the widespread public interest in her clothing choices, her desire to do a guest appearance on "Gossip Girl" and/or "Dancing With the Stars" and other matters of import.

Photo: Getty

The NHL has not officially announced a game time for Game 2 of the Stanley Cup finals Sunday.

Why? Most likely, it has something (or everything) to do with the NBA's Western Conference finals, and the desire to avoid too much overlap with a possible Game 7 between the Lakers and Nuggets.

If the Lakers win it in six, figure on an 8 p.m. NHL start time Sunday.

If the Nuggets take the series to a decisive game, figure on a 7 p.m. NHL start time Sunday.

That is all. Have to focus on Friday newspaper column. Enjoy the Lehigh Valley vs. Buffalo game on SNY at 1 p.m.

Photo: Getty

The Red Bulls announced pricing for some of the priciest real estate in their new stadium, opening next season in Harrison, N.J.

The 30 "skyboxes" will go for $65,000 to $75,000 apiece and include food and non-alcoholic beverages.

The stadium also will have 1,000 club seats at $3,000 per seat per season, also including food and non-adult beverages.

Speaking of Northport High (see post below) and soccer, in 1977 I played with the Northport band at a Cosmos-China match that ended in a 1-1 tie.

But that's another story.

Sure, technically I should complain about SNY's Kevin Burkhardt interviewing Edie Falco in the stands about some new nurse show she's doing for "Showtime" while important things were going on in the third inning of Wednesday night's Mets game, but . . .

I'm not going to be disloyal to a fellow Northport High School alum (Class of '81), plus, Ms. Falco did a fine job with the ceremonial first pitch, almost throwing a strike from behind the pitching rubber.

Speaking of SNY, at 1 p.m. Thursday it will carry a Buffalo Bisons game.

I attended a Bisons game at Pilot Field in 1991, before Camden Yards opened. That stadium, not Camden Yards, began the retro fad of the 1990s and early 2000s. You could look it up.

Photo: Getty

Today's Newsday Sports Blog Post of the Day comes to us from Adam Ronis' fantasy sports site, in which he manages two impressive feats:

Defending Carl Pavano and using a blur of statistics to support his case, some of which I never had heard of before.

I was in a fantasy league once, in 1988, back when it still was called rotisserie baseball.

Picked Jose Canseco in the third round for what turned out to be his 40-40 season.

The NHL's original plan was to start the Stanley Cup finals June 5 - barring sweeps in both conference finals.

But the league wisely has scrapped that idea. After the Red Wings dispatched the Blackhawks in five games Thursday, Games 1 and 2 of the championship round were moved up to Saturday and Sunday on NBC.

Games 3 and 4 will be Tuesday and Thursday on Versus. So it's possible the finals will be over before they originally were scheduled to begin!

Here.

About two minutes in, I began to fear Mike's neck might come apart at the seams. There was some shouting involved.

The Jets and their radio home since 2002, 1050 ESPN, have inked a new four-year deal that starts with the 2009 season.

"MSG Vault" debuts its new season at 10 p.m. Wednesday with a look back at the 1999 Knicks' shocking run to the NBA Finals.

Allan Houston and Mike Breen appear with host Al Trautwig.

The 1990s generally went well for the Knicks. Less so the 2000s.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee is a great event, and comes with a great T-shirt.

Manny Pacquiao, I bow to your page views power and apologize for that jokey post Tuesday in which I exploited your name and fans, whose passion clearly is unmatched.

To make amends, I wanted to follow up with a post containing real TV-related information.

Nearly four weeks after Pacquiao dispatched Ricky Hatton, HBO still has not released the PPV buys the fight produced in the U.S. - because promoter Bob Arum won't let it.

Strange. But a TV biz source confirmed widespread speculation the total was around 850,000, and perhaps a tad closer to 900,000.

That would place it just behind the Hatton-Floyd Mayweather bout at 910,000 as the best-selling non-heavyweight, non-Oscar De La Hoya fight ever. Not bad, especially considering unlike Mayweather, Pacquiao is not American.

A Mayweather-Pacquiao matchup surely would blow past the 1 million buys mark. Now is the time, with Mayweather at age 32 and Pacquiao at 30.

If Mayweather gets past Juan Manuel Marquez July 18 . . . let's get ready to rumble!

Photo: Getty

ESPN will go out with a bang this afternoon in its final Champions League final before Fox takes over next year - Manchester United vs. Barcelona.

If this event is soccer's version of the Super Bowl, then this is the equivalent of a Cowboys vs. Steelers matchup - two storied clubs with huge followings and big-time stars.

When those teams met in Super Bowl XXX, 46.0 percent of U.S. homes watched, still the best Super Bowl rating of the past 23 years.

Worldwide, more people will watch today's match than watched that game, I assume.

Photo: Getty

Today's Newsday Sports Blog Post of the Day actually is a series of posts from Jim Baumbach of The Final Score, in which he chronicles and makes some good points about the Hockey Hall of Fame's refusal to update Al Arbour's career coaching stats.

Check it out, in reverse chronological order, here and here and here and here.

It turns out Scotty Bowman's HOF stats have not been updated to reflect the FOUR STANLEY CUPS he won after being inducted. Yikes.

Photo: Newsday

As the number of colleges offering sports administration majors has skyrocketed in recent years, I often have wondered whether such programs serve an actual need or are mostly there as a cool course offering for prospective students pondering fun-ish careers.

I'm sure it's a little of both, but this story should give pause to those considering spending college in pursuit of an assistant GM job in the Pioneer League.

Far be it from me to dissuade young people from following career dreams, but I know what I would advise one of my own children if she were headed in this academic direction.

Photo: AP

It wasn't as cool as Deacon Jones appearing as himself on "The Odd Couple" or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on "Everybody Loves Raymond," but Tuesday the Cubs' Mike Fontenot and Micah Hoffpauir joined the pantheon of athletes playing themselves on shows about fictional sportswriters when they guested on the season finale of TBS' "My Boys."

The script called for Fontenot to be mightily displeased upon learning one of the characters had been canoodling with his girlfriend.

I was just happy to see the show dealing with P.J. Franklin's work life, which in this case included covering a spring training game from the stands, while drinking beer and sitting next to a beat writer from a rival paper . . . whom she is dating.

Yup, that's pretty much what spring training is all about for sportswriters.

Photo: Getty

Sources close to defending champion Jeff Feldman tell WatchDog he is planning to defend his title Thursday in the Sports Spelling Bee at the Times Square ESPN Zone.

You might recall that last May Feldman, originally from Old Westbury, won it all by correctly spelling fellow Long Islander and current Cleveland Cavalier Wally Szczerbiak.

Later, Feldman credited the fact he read the name so often in Newsday when both were in high school.

Other names Feldman spelled: Dick McGuire, Mathias Kiwanuka, Doug Mientkiewicz, Mike Krzyzewski, Mario Lemieux.

The event, timed to coincide with the Scripps National Spelling Bee, will feature up to 50 competitors and offers prizes including a VIP party at the ESPN Zone and a $250 American Express gift card.

To pre-register, email your name, address, phone number and birth year to this address: SportsSpellingBee@espnzone.com.

Walk-up entries will be accepted if space is available. Registration begins at 7 p.m.

An interview with Jordana Spiro of "My Boys" in advance of Tuesday night's third season finale on TBS, via Fang's Bites.

Ms. Spiro, who plays a fictional sportswriter in Chicago, discusses the cast's visit to Cubs spring training for the finale, a trip she talked about right here in March, shortly before leaving for Arizona.

So enjoy that tonight, if you are so inclined and if you are awake at 10:30. Unlike me.

Only four weeks until the latest iteration of "The Superstars" on ABC, this time sans Bob Seagren, Joe Frazier, Kyle Rote Jr. or even Jason Sehorn.

The format for the show involves attractive celebrities partnering with pro athletes, including skier Kristi Leskinen (that's her at left in the picture, alongside snowboarder Elena Hight).

Other athletes on the slate: Jennifer Capriati, Brandi Chastain, Robert Horry, Jeff Kent, Lisa Leslie, Bode Miller, T.O.

So why mention Manny Pacquiao in the headline? Because the dude is page views gold, and barring a miracle our Neutral Corner blog is going to spank me in May, thanks to Manny being Manny.

Who said boxing is dead?

>> See photos of Manny Pacquaio.

Photo: Getty

For those of you who were busy Monday afternoon watching the Yankees or attending a barbecue, or who don't know a lacrosse stick from a butterfly net, ESPN Classic will be rerunning the NCAA lacrosse final at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

I highly recommend the first 56 minutes!

Sonia Sotomayor is Barack Obama's choice for the open Supreme Court spot. Check it out here.

Ms. Sotomayor and I go way back. I was in her courtroom on March 31, 1995, when she kick-started the baseball season with a ruling for the players over the owners.

At the time I was royally displeased to be there, because I was not at the Final Four due to having a very pregnant wife.

In light of today's events, I suppose it was cooler to be in a courtroom in New York that day than at a basketball news conference in Seattle.

(How long ago was 1995? Newsday's Michael Dobie went to the Final Four in my place . . . and simply used my airplane ticket, no security questions asked!)

Today we begin a new feature: Newsday Sports Blog Post of the Day, in which I highlight the work of colleagues and encourage you to broaden your horizons.

I'm sick of reading all the stuff I write about me, so I can only imagine what you're feeling. Queasy, probably.

Today's selection is from baseball columnist Ken Davidoff, who here somehow finds ways to reference "Young Frankenstein," "The Natural," "Cheaper by the Dozen" and "A Few Good Men" in a baseball post.

(WatchDog kudos to first reader to identify the woman in the picture and what she has to do with any of this.)

Fifty years ago today, the Pirates' Harvey Haddix pitched 12 perfect innings, but lost.

A nostalgic reminiscence of that night in the newsroom from Gerald Eskenazi, long-time Times man.

The biggest national sports news Monday at Gillette Stadium was that Tom Brady was seen throwing around a ball before Cornell and Syracuse took the field for the NCAA lacrosse final.

The second-hunkiest quarterback in the AFC East looked pretty good, and is scheduled to join his teammates for official offseason workouts Tuesday.

As for the game itself . . . The Big Lead speculated this morning that I might need to take a personal day to recover. My annoying Cornell fixation has gone national!

But I'm fine - really. It's not like it's hockey. I just felt bad for the players.

Click below for assorted other observations and information from my trip to Foxborough for the lax championship game.

By isolating them, I'm hoping to spare the vast majority of readers who do not care in the least. Enjoy!

Photo: Getty

Continue reading "Tom Brady throws ball at Gillette Stadium, looks good" »

Tidy 18-hour work shift this Memorial Day - up and back to Foxborough, with an overtime NCAA lacrosse championship game sandwiched between drives up I-95.

Congratulations to the Syracuse Orangemen on yet another national title, aided significantly by an epic Cornell meltdown in the final minutes.

Newsday was all over the story, of course. We even provided journalistic balance by having Syracuse alum Bob Herzog write the game story and me write a column, focused mostly on Max Seibald of Hewlett and Cornell.

As I wrote, it was a good day for lacrosse in general and LI lax in particular.

Still . . . brutal loss for the Big Red. Is it hockey season yet?

(More later Tuesday on my excellent lacrosse adventure.)

Speaking of short outfield porches (see three posts down), here is a question I've asked before and never had adequately answered:

Why are baseball outfields deepest in centerfield and shallowest in left and right? Why not a uniform distance all the way around?

In fact, why not have centerfield be the shortest distance from home and the areas just inside the foul poles be the farthest?

This way you reward people for hitting the ball straight, and decrease the benefit for hitting a ball barely fair (home run) versus barely foul (strike).

How about a wall that simply follows a straight line connecting foul pole to foul pole?

Why not? You've got until Tuesday morning to explain all this to me. I'm out until then.

Enjoy the crowning of the first NCAA Division I men's lacrosse champion other than Johns Hopkins, North Carolina, Princeton, Virginia or Syracuse since 1977.

That's 1 p.m. Monday on ESPN.

Photo: AP

Speaking of Barbara Barker's feature on athletes who tweet, I got three tweets in three minutes reporting K-Rod was ambulatory in the Mets' clubhouse this Sunday morning.

Thanks, Lennon, Burkhardt and Davidoff!

(I don't remember how we all muddled through the 20th century without this stuff.)

Oh, lighten up journalism purists. Cleveland hasn't won a major title since 1964. Let's give these nice people a pass this spring.

(On the other hand, anyone actually watching this newscast in the final second of the Cavs game presumably doesn't know a LeBron from an Ehlo, right?)

ESPN's resident Bostonian, Peter Gammons, said here on "Mike & Mike in the Morning" that the new Yankee Stadium is poorly conceived and widely ridiculed. (It's about eight minutes in.)

"I'm tired of people saying, 'It's too early; we don't have enough games,'" he said.

"We have enough games. We know this was not a very well-planned ballpark, and any player that's played there will tell you it has become one of the biggest jokes in baseball."

And that was Friday, BEFORE Alex Rodriguez tied Saturday's tilt against the Phillies with a fly ball that barely cleared the rightfield wall.

Fair enough.

Then again, there was that fly ball by the Mets' Omir Santos later Saturday that barely cleared the shallow, gimmicky green thing at Gammons' beloved Fenway. What a not-very-well-planned joke that place is!

A laurel and hearty handshake to SNY's Gary Cohen, deserving winner of our inaugural TV Voice of Reason Award for this exchange with Ron Darling entering the bottom of the eighth Friday in Boston:

Cohen, after listening to almost everyone in Fenway singing together:

"Fenway Park, where the fans actually like the song 'Sweet Caroline.'"

Darling: "Everyone participates. So loud. One of the million things that are great about this ballpark."

Gary, saying his words slowly for emphasis: "Maybe the folks at Citi Field can find a different song . . . That's what it's supposed to sound like."

Darling: "That was loud."

This week's Sports Illustrated included an article from its "vault" on Tom Seaver's 300th victory, for the White Sox at Yankee Stadium in August of 1985.

It mentioned 54,032 cheered the conclusion of the event, but even if that many tickets were sold, I promise you there were not that many people in the stadium at the end.

The strange thing was that the Yankees-fan regulars had pretty much cleared out of the lower deck by then, but the upper deck still mostly was full - of cheering Mets fans.

That day also was memorable for a Yankees great being run over by a cow.

But that's another story.

Ho, hum. As I was saying the other day, the game against top-ranked Virginia was a mere warmup.

On to the big one Monday: Cornell vs. Syracuse.

What say we ditch Foxboro and play the first half at Schoellkopf and second at the Carrier Dome?

Deal?

(Here is Herzog's game story. True pro that he is, he wrote about Cornell because it was the better story, not about his beloved Orangemen.)

(Here is Bob on Max Seibald for Monday's newspaper.)

Continue reading "Cornell or Syracuse to bring lacrosse title to Central NY" »

What was American's professional jockocracy buzzing about Friday night?

Same thing you were.

Check out the paeans to Mr. James on AthleteTweets.com, including three separate ones from Hofstra's own Speedy Claxton:

"woooooow"

"r u serious:

"thats crazy"

Oh, OK, darn it, one more thing: Giants lineman David Diehl making fun of Brett Favre at a comedy club Wednesday night.

Have a nice day, and enjoy Johan at Fenway.

Oh, snap. I just remembered I'm supposed to be off today. Have to stop before the family notices.

So, let's wrap this up: A week that began with Hewlett High's Tony Kornheiser leaving "Monday Night Football" will end with Hewlett High's Max Seibald leading Cornell into Saturday's lax semis against Virginia.

Dave Ryan, who taught Shaquille O'Neal broadcasting during the big guy's visit to Syracuse this week, will handle play-by-play on ESPN2, with Quint Kessenich and Rob Simmelkjaer as analysts.

After Saturday's warmup against UVa, Cornell will meet the Syracuse-Duke winner for the championship Monday on ESPN.

Watched the five minutes or so of the "Ugly Betty" season finale that was recorded at Citi Field a few weeks ago.

The new yard looked good in its scripted television debut.

There seemed to be some empty seats in sections near the field - has anyone written about that yet? - but otherwise, nice.

What show will first use new Yankee Stadium as a backdrop?

"Deal or No Deal?" "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" "The Big Comfy Couch?"

Photo: Marc Levine/Mets

Following Sunday night's episode of "Summer of '77," MSG will debut a new episode of "T\he Game 365" featuring Yankees beat writers from the wacky old days, including Newsday's Steve Jacobson.

Jake on the job: “I think it was exciting. In a lot of ways it's like getting a big hit in a game. There were stories that you had to do and you had to bust your butt to do and beat a deadline. There was an exhilaration to it."

Other featured writers include Phil Pepe, Moss Klein and loyal WatchDog reader Henry Hecht.

Erik Boland, Newsday's current Yankees scribe, didn't get an invite, perhaps because he's been on the job for seven days . . . during which the Bombers are 7-0.

The Indy 500 was a huge deal in my youth, so I would feel bad not acknowledging here that it is taking place again Sunday, and for the 45th year will be shown on ABC.

(It used to not be shown live, but that's another story.)

In tribute, click below for a transcript of the ABC conference call previewing the big event.

You're welcome, Jim Clark and my other gearhead readers.

Photo: AP

Continue reading "ABC to televise Indianapolis 500 for 45th time" »

I didn't have much choice this week, what with Mrs. WatchDog endorsing Listencat's contribution to this post soliciting nominations for a new ESPN ombudsman.

Among the gems from the Cat, long one of my most diligent and critical readers, was this line complaining that other regulars more regularly get their comments posted than he does:

"It was like they knew the secret handshake to enter, which appears to be that in order to post any comment, one must utilize at least two of the following terms: baby boomer, Alaska, sigh, Glauber, basement, and Cornell."

Regarding the actual nominations for an ombudsman, I liked Anthony's suggestion of Floyd Mayweather.

Below is his amiable chat this week with (Levittown) Brian Kenny.

A source close to Nick Swisher - seriously! - informed me after my post the other day about John Sterling seemingly inventing the nickname "Swishilisious" that in fact Nick has been called "Swishalicious" since his days in Oakland.

Regardless, I like it!

I hit for the cycle Thursday night, by the way . . . thanks to a couple of somewhat generous scoring decisions.

Post suggestions below for a John Sterling home run call for me.

Not "Bestalicious."

Photo: AP

Elsewhere in my Friday column, I regurgitate a blog post about Joba at the ESPN upfront . . .

Offer a mini-review of an interesting new book called "Bottom of the Ninth" about the period between the Dodgers' and Giants' departures and Mets' arrival and . . .

Report that the Giants' famed season ticket waiting list no longer exists, for most practical purposes.

The Giants have contacted as many people as they could on their 140,000-person list and still have not sold out their $20,000, $12,500 and $7,500 PSLs.

It's not the cost of the PSLs that is stopping some potential buyers.

It's the price of the game tickets that come with them.

The Giants officially are confident they will sell out before their 2010 opener in the new building.

So were the Yankees . . .

The primary element of my Friday column concerns one Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees and his media makeover since returning this season.

A-Rod clearly has been studying at the Derek Jeter School for the Chronically Careful (Eli Manning, headmaster).

Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that . . .

Photo: AP

This is weird:

I looked up the word "swishilicious," which John Sterling seemed to invent during Wednesday's Yankees game to honor a Nick Swisher tater, but it turns out it already existed.

It says so here.

Gotta go now. No blogging 'til later, or maybe not 'til Tuesday.

To keep you occupied, please provide nominations (and explanations) for ESPN's new ombudsman to replace Le Anne Schreiber.

Most creative wins Friday comment contest.

My nomination: Jon Gruden, who has not always been a fan of the Bristol Stompers.

Photo: Getty

Lydia Murphy-Stephans, former Olympic speed skater and MSG's executive VP of programming and production, has left that post, two industry sources familiar with the situation said.

As far as I can tell, the parting was amicable. I hear Ms. Murphy-Stephans plans to do consulting work. Will update you if I hear more on this in the coming hours and days.

I'm already working under the Cablevision umbrella, so if the company wants me to step in, it knows where to find me.

My first campaign promise: A panel show featuring Glauber on MSG Plus!

Speaking of Glauber and MSG, here is a blog post in which he quotes Eli Manning on Boomer Esiason's show regarding the timely topic of New York quarterbacks removing their shirts in national magazines while posing with supermodels.

Eli indicates he would not be inclined to join Mark Sanchez in going down that road.

I have seen Eli with his shirt off, but writer/jock locker room confidentiality precludes me from publicly comparing his abs to Sanchez'.

It's put up or shut up time, America: I am trying out for "Idol" next season.

As long as I move to the South and avoid sexual ambiguity issues, I think I have as good a shot as anyone.

Moving on . . . Thanks to all who participated in my first ever live Mets game blog/chat last night/this morning, which rang up huge participation numbers.

Special thanks to the Mets fans who had to put up with all of the sports media questions that came in during the simulcast on my blog and the Mets blog.

I'm thinking of offering to make live Mets and Yankees blogs my full-time job. As long as Newsday agrees to cover the alimony payments, I'm in.

It has been bugging me for a couple of weeks why the name of the horse Rachel Alexandra sounds so familiar. Barbara Barker finally figured it out for me here: I'm thinking of Rachel Alexander, the maiden name of ESPN's Rachel Nichols, whom I knew in her previous life as a newspaper reporter.

(There also is a model named Rachel Alexander and an actress named Rachel Nichols, but I was not thinking of them.)

Nice headline in the Daily News today about the pending Huff/Joba showdown in the Bronx: To Drill a Mockingbird.

Photo: Getty Images Photo

Neil Best, Newsday's sports media and business "Watchdog," will be our guest live blogger for tonight's game.

Two veteran righthanders will face each other tonight in the finale of the three-game series in L.A.

Livan Hernandez (3-1, 5.59 ERA) goes for the Mets against former Yankee Jeff Weaver (2-1, 3.38 ERA).

The Mets will try to avoid matching their season-worst four-game skid from April 19-23 and are now a game back of first-place Philadelphia in the NL East.

Ratings data from ESPN regarding Game 1 of the NBA Western Conference finals:

The Nuggets-Lakers tilt Tuesday was watched in an average of 5.8 percent of homes with ESPN and by 8.1 million people, making it the most-viewed basketball game, college or pro, in ESPN history.

Compared to ESPN's coverage of last year's Eastern Conference finals opener between the Pistons and Celtics, viewership was up 49 percent.

Tuesday's game averaged 16.1 percent of homes in Denver, the highest rating for an ESPN or ABC game in records kept since 2003.

That's all for today, kids. I'll leave you with this story by Darren (Roslyn) Rovell of CNBC about the Lingerie Football League.

Notice how Rovell plays this ultra-straight. Lighten up, dude! It's only, um, a game.

See you again at 10 p.m. for my live blogging of the Mets-Dodgers tilt.

(No word yet on whether we will be live blogging LFL games.)

In addition to Joba Chamberlain (see post below), celebrity guests at the ESPN upfront Tuesday included three Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders and former Giants quarterback Kurt Warner, who said this when asked what surprised him most about New York:

"How quickly fans can go from cheering to booing. I don't think I've seen anything like that, before or after."

One highlight of the presentation was a sneak preview of the second season of the online-only show, "Mayne Street," in which Kenny Mayne decides to spend a day communicating only via Twitter.

By the way, someone on my live chat Tuesday asked whether ESPN plans to hire a successor to Le Anne Schreiber as ombudsman. The answer is yes. Don't be surprised if it is someone with a TV background after two consecutive newspaper types.

Click below for some stuff John Skipper, ESPN's executive VP for content, said after the presentation.

Photo: Getty

Continue reading "Kurt Warner was taken aback by Giants fans booing" »

Joba Chamberlain was one of the celebrity guests at ESPN's upfront presentation to advertisers Tuesday. Some of what he said:

Steve Levy: "As a pitcher what's going on out there in the Bronx [with so many home runs at the new stadium]?"

Chamberlain: "We're not making great pitches all the time, first of all. As a guy who sees all the balls go out there you try to make an adjustment, but you can't really worry about it. Other than needing a GPS to find out where the field is every once in a while, we'll get it figured out."

Levy: "We were talking about the clubhouse in the back there, and you were talking about how you need like a half inning to get a refreshment."

Chamberlain: "Yeah, if I have to go get a hot chocolate on a cool day, I have to tell somebody, because they might start looking for me because I might make a wrong turn."

Levy: "Can you hit, by the way?"

Chamberlain: "Yeah, we actually took pitchers' BP yesterday and I was peppering the walls. I felt pretty strong. After watching those guys throw about 95 I'm pretty sure I'm going to stick to the other end of that."

Levy: "So, warning track power?"

Chamberlain: "No, I got a couple over. I hit the weight room every once in a while."

Levy asked Chamberlain for his preference between starting and relieving.

Chamberlain: "Well, this is the first time I've heard this question. [Laughter.] You know what, they are two different mentalities. As a starter you have to pace yourself and the fact you're going to go seven innings. But my mentality is I like to embarrass people for one inning, but I really like to embarrass them for six or seven. So I'm going to stick to the starting part of it."

Photo: AP

Mark Sanchez in GQ, without a shirt and with a model.

Should be an interesting decade, Jets fans.

I have not listened to this week's Deadspin podcast, featuring Selena Roberts, but based on this summary on the site, it certainly sounds intriguing.

Roberts reacts to some of her most vocal critics quite candidly.

(Parental warning: There are some naughty words in the link above.)

More juicy Selena stuff here, in which she and The New York Times reportedly have not seen eye-to-eye.

The only NCAA lacrosse championship game I have attended was in 1988, when Syracuse got lucky against Cornell.

I am not aware of anyone producing a documentary about that game, but CBS College Sports at 2:30 p.m. Sunday debuts a documentary about the famous '89 final between Syracuse and Johns Hopkins before a then-record of almost 24,000 at Maryland.

Syracuse, which featured the Gait brothers, Gary and Paul, won, 13-12.

Sorry to give away the ending.

Then, at 3 p.m., it's Post vs. Le Moyne for the Division II title on CBS College Sports.

Former WFAN mid-day partners Joe Benigno and Sid Rosenberg both are working on books scheduled to be published next spring by Triumph, Maxx Sports and Entertainment announced Wednesday.

Rosenberg's book, titled “You’re Wrong And You’re Ugly,” will include a foreword by Don Imus and will be written with Paul Schwartz, the New York Post's long-time Giants beat writer.

It is expected to cover, among other things, the on- and off-air controversies that have marked Rosenberg's career.

Benigno’s book, titled, “Rules For New York Sports Fans,” will be written with Jordan Raanan, and was described as "a humorous guide through the do’s and don'ts of what fan loyalty in New York is all about."

Giants lineman David Diehl makes his comedy club debut Wednesday in Manhattan. No, really.

Next thing you know, they'll be giving a former Giants lineman a network TV sitcom.

Oh, wait . . .

Tony Kornheiser discusses leaving "Monday Night Football" candidly and at length in a video posted on the Washington Post's site.

And here is video of him discussing that subject on PTI.

YES' "CenterStage" episode featuring the always interesting Paul Simon debuts after Wednesday night's Yankees postgame show. Clips available here.

Speaking of YES, there was an amusing exchange during Monday's game between Ken Singleton and David Cone, in which Cone hints at an eventful reunion with David Wells, who was in town Sunday to analyze the game for TBS.

You can read it if you click below.

Continue reading "David Cone stays up late; Ken Singleton gets up early" »

Shawn Johnson became the fifth athlete to win "Dancing With the Stars," joining Emmitt Smith, Apolo Anton Ohno, Helio Castroneves and Kristi Yamaguchi.

Lawrence Taylor, eliminated earlier in the competition, appeared on Tuesday's finale.

Sports Business Daily recounted an exchange between L.T. and co-host Tom Bergeron thusly:

Bergeron: “There’s a rumor going around that just impulsively at the 19th hole of some Florida golf courses you’ve been teaching ballroom dancing classes. Is that true?”

L.T.: “No, I’ve been doing lap dances”

Photo: Getty

Michelle Beadle will leave 1050 ESPN radio and the YES Network for a new, daily, hour-long show at 4 p.m. on ESPN2 called SportsNation, which she will co-host with Colin Cowherd beginning July 6.

As far as I could tell from a preview at the ESPN upfront Tuesday, it appears to be, um, it's hard to explain. Here is how ESPN described it:

"SportsNation is a live sports television show born from the Internet, fueled by fan interaction and focused on fun."

It's seems sort of like a sports talk radio show, but on TV, which allows for the use of video and Internet buzz and Twitter and stuff.

“Our goal is to bring the fan into our production meetings,'' producer Jamie Horowitz said in a news release. "The fans choose the topics, provide the angles, and decide how much Brett Favre talk is really needed.”

Said Cowherd, who still will do his national radio show, heard here from noon to 2:

“I’m stunned management let me do a TV show. I know what the producers and I find interesting and funny – and it leads me to conclude that we probably won’t be on the air very long.”

Scott Van Pelt will take over the radio show he currently does with Mike Tirico from 2 to 4, and the final hour will be simulcast on ESPN2 to serve as a lead-in to SportsNation.

By the way gang, immediately after the "American Idol" finale Wednesday night, switch over to Newsday.com for another media moment that will bring the nation together:

My first-ever live Mets game blog.

Rather than just sit back and cynically wonder whether our commitment to live blog 324 regular-season baseball games is a profound waste of man (and woman) hours, I decided to experience the phenomenon myself by volunteering to blog a West Coast game so others could catch up on sleep.

So join me for the fun. I'm rooting for another classic like Monday night's tribute to the 1962 Mets, as noted by none other than Vin Scully himself.

Photo: AP

Tony Kornheiser, who lives in Washington, D.C., is off ESPN's "Monday Night Football" in part because of his fear of flying and the network's many West Coast games.

John Madden, who lives in the San Francisco area, is off NBC's "Sunday Night Fooball" in part because of his fear of flying and the network's many East Coast games.

So why didn't ESPN and NBC just trade analysts? Kornheiser once considered such an idea - sort of.

In 2007, the first ESPN preseason game was in San Francisco, Kornheiser said, "and I thought, 'Why are we doing this game?' NBC had two games in the East, so Madden had to travel here. I wanted to call and say, 'Could you guys flip this? It's an exhibition game. Who cares?"

Will Tuesday's distribution agreement between the formerly bitter enemies at the NFL Network and Comcast lead to other big cable companies falling into line - notably Cablevision (which owns Newsday) and Time Warner?

The commish addressed that issue on a conference call to announce the Comcast deal, and you can read about it by clicking below.

Continue reading "NFL Network, Comcast agree; whither Cablevision?" »

Joe Theismann has spent the past two years lamenting that he was bounced from the "Monday Night Football" booth for wanting to talk too much about football.

So surely Joe has to be enjoying the fact that with Tony Kornheiser - whose jokes Theismann declined to laugh at in 2006 - now off the show as well, ESPN is talking about how it wants to turn the focus more to . . . football.

Judge for yourself by clicking below for Theismann's take on the Kornheiser-for-Jon Gruden swap in an interview Tuesday on Sirius XM's "The Sirius Blitz."

In it Theismann calls Kornheiser a "fish out of water" who never "found a comfort zone doing television."

Continue reading "Joe Theismannn on Tony Kornheiser: 'fish out of water'" »

Shaquille O'Neal spent the past few days at Syracuse University studying for a future career in sportscasting, as chronicled here and here.

(Syracuse is known for producing sports broadcasters at a rate almost as impressive as that of Fordham.)

Shaq could be good at it because he is smart and funny - and an excellent Twitterer! - but first he has to learn to speak in something other than a barely intelligible monotone.

In 1989 I had to watch the McDonald's All-America Game because I was on the Kenny Anderson beat at the time. But another kid from the Class of '89 stole the show. Yikes!

Important reading for fans who have purchased or are considering purchasing PSLs at the new Jets/Giants stadium - especially in club areas with pricey game tickets:

Sometimes the value of PSLs goes up over time, and sometimes it goes down, as in Philadelphia in 2009.

Too much blog material, too little time.

Please check back Wednesday for that. Right now I have to dig myself out after attending ESPN's "upfront" presentation to advertisers and write about sports media developments for the newspaper, including the NFL Network and ESPNU striking important deals with Comcast and CBS extending its deal with the NFL.

But I do want to share at least this with you right now:

John Skipper, ESPN's top executive for content, said after the upfront that before leaving "Monday Night Football," Tony Kornheiser asked the network about the possibility of working a limited schedule in 2009 to lessen his travel burden.

Click below to read what Skipper said about that, and about the Kornheiser-to-Gruden move in general, including the more football-oriented focus on MNF.

But not until after you read my Tuesday column on Kornheiser, whom I spoke to Monday night, and this Peter King story about Gruden jilting the NFL Network.

(Peter's story also includes information about Monday night's fundraiser for Paul Zimmerman, a/k/a Dr. Z.)

Continue reading "ESPN turned down limited Tony Kornheiser schedule" »

Neil Best talks sports media and business today in a live chat at 2 p.m.

YES' Kim Jones talks to Ca-Boom about being an innocent bystander in the recent string of brazen whipped-cream attacks in the South Bronx.

OK, I'm done now. Seriously.

Photo: Getty

The second season of "Beer Money" debuts at 9 p.m. Tuesday on SNY, featuring new co-host Alexi Panos and Chris Carlin.

WatchDog has learned exclusively of two new games on the show:

"Clues for Brews," in which contestants can win $100 by identifying a famous athlete after one clue, then $80 after two clues, then $60 after three, and so on.

And "Shootout," in which two contestants go head-to-head on a particular topic - i.e. naming members of the 1969 Mets - until one can't come up with a correct answer.

Breaking this news has me a little tired, and there's a lot going on in the sports media world that I should be writing about for the newspaper.

See ya. Enjoy the 1989 Holly Farms 400 at 6 p.m. on ESPN Classic.

Tony Kornheiser stepped down Monday after three seasons as a commentator on ESPN's "Monday Night Football," where he will be replaced by former Raiders and Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden.

Kornheiser cited the grind of the travel schedule, which from the start has been his biggest complaint about the job. He has an intense fear of flying and tried to avoid doing so whenever possible.

Only six of ESPN's regular-season games in 2009 are scheduled for the Eastern Time Zone (Kornheiser lives in Washington, D.C.), and there are games in San Diego, Denver and San Francisco.

"When I looked at the upcoming schedule it was the perfect storm that would've frequently moved me from the bus to the air," he said in a quote provided by ESPN.

In his three seasons with ESPN Kornheiser has been a lightning rod for criticism because of his unusual style and unusual background as a long-time sportswriter, not a former player or coach.

After a failed partnership with Joe Theismann in his first season, Kornheiser was paired with Ron Jaworski the past two seasons, fostering better chemistry. (Kornheiser was scheduled to play in Jaworski's charity golf tournament Monday at the Atlantic City Country Club.)

Complaints about the ESPN presentation persisted in Season Two but dwindled this past season after the network cut back on extras such as guests in the broadcast booth and sideline reports.

Kornheiser, who grew up in Lynbrook, attended Hewlett High School and began his career at Newsday in 1970, will continue as co-host with Michael Wilbon of the popular ESPN show, "Pardon the Interruption."

In March, Kornheiser told me he wanted to be back and expected to be back. But that was before the complete schedule was released.

At the time he said, "I think I’m back. They always talk to me as if I’m back. I’m the paranoid one. I’m the one who’s always announcing who would be better in the booth than me."

On what he dislikes about the job: "I hate the flying. Nothing changes with that. It’s very difficult to do."

That was in March. Click below for the complete quote ESPN sent from Kornheiser today.

Photo: AP

Continue reading "Tony Kornheiser out, Jon Gruden in on 'Monday Night Football'" »

OMG, MLB and Fox have agreed on weeknight World Series games that begin before 8 p.m.

It says so here and here.

I feel like I've gotten into a DeLorean and taken a wrong turn in the time-space continuum.

No day games yet, but at least we're headed in the right direction.

Photo: AP

The great John Ourand of Sports Business Journal has news of the NFL and Comcast nearing a deal to get the NFL Network on a widely subscribed digital package - in part by finally agreeing to slash its controversial 70-cents-per-subscriber monthly fee.

Extended deals with CBS and Fox are part of the interrelated moves that are of great interest to people who follow this stuff closely, such as Peter King and me. But it makes the eyes of civilians glaze over.

The big news here for the future of the NFL Network and for customers of companies other than Comcast - such as Cablevision, which owns Newsday - is that once the nation's largest, most powerful cable company signs on it will be more likely for other cable companies to carry the network.

A clarification on that post about today being the 70th anniversary of the first televised sports event:

Actually, the Columbia-Princeton baseball game was the first televised event in the U.S.

Nearly three years earlier, the Germans experimented with broadcasting some of the Olympic Games in Berlin.

Just wanted to point that out. Carry on. Enjoy the NBA Game 7s and the "Desperate Housewives" season finale.

Photo: AP

Shaq has passed the 1,000,000 mark in Twitter followers.

Cornell is in the Final Four for the second time in three years.

(UPDATE: Here is Herzog's game story in Newsday.)

Much, much more than you want to know about that subject to come in the blog over the next week.

RIP, Rossie. In this video the pioneering on-course golf reporter Bob Rosburg recalls playing against Ty Cobb when he was only 12. Rosburg, I mean. Not Cobb.

Nets win another court case, vow again to break ground on new arena this year.

ESPN said Thursday's Lakers-Rocket game attracted an average of 7.352 million viewers, making it the most-viewed basketball game in the network's history, surpassing a Heat-Pistons playoff game in 2006.

Delaware has legalized sports betting. Wow. This should be interesting.

This is the biggest thing to happen in that state since the Giants drafted Luke Petitgout in the first round in 1999.

Here is the race that inspired me to put $10 on Alydar to win in the Belmont. Dang. Still the most frustrating 10 bucks I ever lost.

That's a wrap on a solid week of blogging. Thanks for reading and enjoy the Preakness.

Here is the positive review of the first episode of Michael Irvin's "4th and Long" from my Dallas counterpart, Barry Horn.

The 10-part series debuts on Spike Monday night, and features 12 pro football wannabes (six receivers, six defensive backs) competing for the grand prize: a spot on the Cowboys' training camp come mid-summer.

The winner already has been determined, but when I spoke to Irvin Wednesday he refused to admit that, because he is afraid of the Dallas-area media will try to "hunt to find out what's going on."

Click below to read how Irvin came up with the idea, and why he chose Bill Bates and Joe Avezzano to serve as his top lieutenants for the show.

Photo: Getty

Continue reading "Cowboys put roster spot on line in Spike reality series" »

Michael Irvin turned Thursday's premiere party for his Spike reality show, "4th and Long," into a fundraiser for the family of Rich Behm, the Cowboys scouting assistant who was paralyzed in the team's recent practice bubble collapse.

Here is Barry Horn's account of the event, which raised almost $100,000. For further information, see Irvin's Web site here.

Here is what Irvin told me about the fundraiser earlier in the week:

"Of course I understand and empathize with him because I felt that moment of being paralyzed, and the fear that goes through your mind. It’s a paralyzing fear. When I went to see him in the hospital, I said, ‘I admire your spirit, your approach to this whole thing.’

"I laid on that carpet in Philadelphia [in 1999] and I looked up and said, ‘God almighty, what am I going to do?’ And I got up and was able to walk away. I can only imagine what he’s going through, so it touched me."

More evidence it's a shame some team from Tobacco Road bounced the Bruins from the playoffs:

NESN's coverage of Game 7 Thursday averaged 14.2 percent of Boston-area homes, by far the highest rating in network history, surpassing the 11.2 for Game 7 of the 2004 conference quarterfinals.

That translates to an average of 340,800 households.

The rating peaked at 18.6 during OT.

I used up so much of my space in the Friday column on Chris Russo's excellent quotes that I didn't get a chance to convey what I thought of his Sirius XM show after listening to it for five hours Wednesday.

Here's one thing I found interesting: When they were "Mike and the Mad Dog," Russo and Mike Francesa enabled each other to push the outer limits of their designated personae - one an amiable goofball, the other an arrogant know-it-all.

As solo acts, both have moved more to the middle of the personality continuum.

At least on the day I listened, Russo was a somewhat more sober version of his old self - not there's necessarily anything wrong with that.

Partly it is a function of the much different pace of a Sirius XM show compared to that on WFAN, where there are far more breaks for ads and updates and traffic and whatnot.

What is both good and bad about Sirius' format is it allows time for, say, a 12-minute interview with Ed Olczyk. That is good news if you are interested, less so if you are not.

Russo and his callers did a good job offering a broad overview of the events of the day. Over the five hours, it's a huge plus - whether you are hosting or listening - to not have to get bogged down in New York baseball issues du jour.

On one hand, I didn't care that much about the Magic-Celtics game, on which Russo spent a big chunk of his first hour.

On the other, it was nice to be reminded there are other teams in pro sports than the ones that play in new stadiums in the Bronx and Queens.

This week's winner, for the third time in four weeks, is Islander505, for his reaction to the biggest news in sports cyberspace this week:

Glauber now is twittering, and picked up 186 followers in his first 24 hours, including Islander505 (second to sign up) and NFL commish Roger Goodell (24th).

"Geezus....following Glauber on twitter is like watching an 8mm black and white movie of 505 on Christmas morning circa 1961 after Robot Commando was located under the tree. And now I know how the family dog felt after I got my hands on Robbie."

Sports Illustrated's venerable Paul (Dr. Z) Zimmerman needs financial help to deal with the aftermath of strokes that have left him in a bad way, and the sports world has stepped up by donating auction items that are available through Monday here.

Bid early and often. Interesting stuff on the list so far.

A chance to go to a Red Sox-Yankees game in August with Mike Francesa is going for $4,001, while lunch with Zimmerman's former prognosticating partner, model Brooklyn Decker, is a mere $1,100.

Hmm. Ms. Decker even will bring an autographed racquet from her husband, Andy Roddick. That's fine, I suppose. As long as she doesn't bring Roddick himself along.

Photo: Getty

It would have been very cool to have three Original Six teams plus the Penguins in the Stanley Cup semifinals.

But despite the best efforts of Byron Bitz (Cornell '07), who scored the first goal for the Bruins in Game 7 Thursday night, Boston blew it by allowing the Hurricanes (yuck) into the party.

At least we have Red Wings vs. Blackhawks. The latter's resurrection as a franchise is one of the NHL's biggest stories in recent years.

Seventy years ago Sunday, NBC carried the first televised sports event - Princeton's 2-1 baseball victory over Columbia at Baker Field.

Even at the time, it was recognized as a historic moment. NBC's TV program manager, Thomas Hutchinson, told The New York Times the event would "signal the beginning of an important development in the art of pictures through the air, for outdoor sports will furnish much of the most interesting material we could televise."

Bill Stern was "assigned to identify players and interpret the play," which was important given the primitive technology and uneven picture provided to the 400 or so people in New York with TV sets who might have been watching.

The day after the game, naturally, brought another milestone in the history of sports TV - the first nitpicking review from a second-guessing media critic, proving again nothing ever changes.

Click below for excerpts from that historic Times review.

(Trivia question: Who played shortstop for Columbia on the big day?)

Continue reading "Televised sports made its debut 70 years ago Sunday" »

In addition to my lead item on Christopher (Mad Dog) Russo, my Friday column includes items on an excellent new documentary about the origins of baseball, HBO's announcement the Bengals will be the latest team featured on "Hard Knocks" and Spike Lee (sort of) admitting he was rooting for the Lakers against the Knicks Feb. 2 at the Garden.

If you are short on time and have to choose only one show among "Base Ball Discovered," "Kobe Doin' Work" and "Hard Knocks," I'd go with the first, written and directed by Sam Marchiano, an alumna of the famously talented high school and local college sports staff of New York Newsday's Kew Gardens office in the late 1980s.

It premieres at 6 p.m. Sunday on the MLB Network.

(Who's the guy in the picture?)

What does Michael Irvin think of the Giants parting ways with Plaxico Burress?

Not much.

Click below for what he told me about that Wednesday while picking the fruit off his waffles in a midtown hotel conference room.

Photo: Getty

Continue reading "Michael Irvin is not a fan of the Giants punting Plaxico" »

The Yankees Thursday announced new procedures for batting practice that will allow fans without tickets near the field to get close to it - but not in the Legends Suite.

The Yankees' policy is now similar to the Mets'. As several readers informed me after I joined the media chorus complaining about the lack of access to the Legends Suite during BP, fans mostly just wanted any area where they could get close to the field. Now they have it.

I wasn't that big on autographs as a kid, and I'm still not.

Once I asked Bonnie Bernstein to autograph something at the Super Bowl because as a child she studied at the gymnastics academy my daughter was attending at the time.

By the way, Bernstein's contract with ESPN is up in July. I talked to her agent, Tony Burton, who said nothing is definitive either way regarding her future at the network.

Photo: Getty

In my Friday column, I catch up with Christopher (Mad Dog) Russo, late of WFAN's "Mike and the Mad Dog," now of Sirius XM Satellite Radio's "Mad Dog Unleashed."

Russo says that while he enjoys his new gig at Sirius XM and has no regrets about leaving WFAN, there are things about his old job he misses.

If the 700-plus words in the newspaper aren't quite enough for you, click below for another 2,000 on a variety of topics, including Francesa, Howard Stern, Sirius' financial situation, Russo's sore throat on November and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember now from the blur of an hour I spent transcribing Dog's famously rapid delivery.

Continue reading "Chris (Mad Dog) Russo still adjusting to life at Sirius" »

Legends Suite seats empty again, this time for . . . NYU graduation?.

Click below for HBO's news release about the Bengals being named the latest team to be featured on "Hard Knocks."

Yes, the Bengals.

Continue reading "Ocho Cinco to appear regularly on HBO this summer" »

I just signed up to be Glauber's second Twitter follower.

If he adds another 340 or so I'll start to feel threatened.

Speaking Twitter, Drew Rosenhaus has taken the leap in a big way.

Can't wait until six months from now to see what the next social / business networking fad will be.

How about one more Michael Irvin post before I leave you nice people alone for a while and write my newspaper column?

Click below for the Playmaker's explanation of some of the reasons he and ESPN parted ways two years ago.

Irvin said there are no hard feelings between the company and him, as evidenced by the fact he has a daily radio show in Dallas on an ESPN station.

Continue reading "Michael Irvin says ESPN works its TV analysts hard" »

Looking forward to reading Michael Shapiro's new book, "Bottom of the Ninth," about the pivotal period between the departures from New York of the Dodgers and Giants and the arrival of the Mets, including the attempt to launch a third major league.

Above Branch Rickey talks about the Continental League on "What's My Line" in 1959. And here is a blog post in which Shapiro discusses the period.

For the heck of it, here are other sports-related "What's My Line" moments, featuring Duke Snider, Robin Roberts, Ford Frick, Jimmy Piersall, Bobby Murcer, Jesse Owens, Wilt Chamberlain, Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Roy Campanella, Frank Gifford and Sal Maglie - with Phil Rizzuto as a guest panelist, the night before Maglie lost to the Yankees and Don Larsen in a somewhat memorable 1956 World Series game!

Hey, wait a minute . . . The show was seen on CBS at 10:30 p.m. Sundays, and I'm assuming it was on live.

Shouldn't the Scooter and the Barber have been in bed resting for Monday's day game?

Hall of Fame receiver Michael Irvin - whose off-field exploits and on-field dedication make him a star of Jeff Pearlman's 2008 best-seller, "Boys Will Be Boys'' - told me Wednesday during an interview to promote his new Spike reality show that he has not read the book.

But he certainly has been made aware of its contents.

Unsolicited, he brought up the passage describing the sordid, early 1990s, Irvin-led orgies on the private plane used by the Hoopsters, the Cowboys' offseason basketball team.

I can't recount all of it on a family friendly blog, but Pearlman quotes Irvin's assistant / gofer, Anthony Montoya, saying:

"To call those flights 'off the hook' doesn't do anything justice. I don't think there's a word for what went on. We filled those planes with more women than we did players, and they were willing to do anything."

Click below for Irvin's (partial) denial.

Photo: AP

Continue reading "Michael Irvin denies organizing private plane orgies" »

If you are a sports fan who does not normally follow the National Hockey League, you really should strongly consider watching Game 7 of Penguins-Capitals Wednesday night.

Thank you for your consideration, and have a pleasant evening.

Photo: Getty

(UPDATE: Oops. I guess you should have watched one of the first six games. At least I called the winning team right in the picture.)

Michael Irvin has gotten to know new Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez a bit, and he gave me some thoughts on him this morning:

"He has something very few quarterbacks have. Quarterback is such an elite position and it's always kept separate, almost next to the coach. This guy has that I'm-one-of-the-guys thing going, and if ever you get a quarterback with that I'm-one-of-the-guys thing going, you've got something, because now the guys say, 'I'm playing with him,' not, 'I'm playing under him,' or, 'I'm playing for him.'

"'I'm playing with him and that's my guy.'

"Give him a year, because it will be important to see how he comes in and takes over after Brett left and everything. He's a new guy. He's smart enough to be repsectful but also be able to be assertive, and that's a key thing. That's what grabbed [the Jets]. I love him."

Photo: Getty

SNY's Gary Cohen properly took note of Jose Reyes not running hard out of the box in the 12th when he hit what he thought was a game-tying home run this Wednesday afternoon but which (barely) was not, and which then turned into a double. And eventually a Mets loss.

Might Reyes have made it to third if he were hustling?

Maybe, maybe not. Guess we'll never know.

My Tuesday column on the secondary baseball ticket market has inspired many readers to tell me about bargains at Yankee Stadium and Citi Field.

Kevin Kurz of Freeport and the blog Major League Jerk paid $7.99 apiece for $15 face value seats in Section 525 at Citi to see Johan Santana against Derek Lowe Monday.

Lisa Swan of the blog Subway Squawkers wrote she has been to two Yankees and one Mets game this season, each time paying well below face value. That includes $12 for a $60 face value seat for a Yankees-Athletics game.

David Champa of Sunnyside, Queens, who described himself as a "former season ticket holder" made the point that the Yankees effectively forced many of their fans to sell on the resale market by pressuring partial plan holders to buy full packages to avoid being pushed into lesser seats in the new stadium.

Reluctant full season subscribers have flooded the market in an effort to make back some of the money they laid out. With prices falling, they are in a difficult position.

Speaking of empty, expensive seats in the Bronx, Keith Olbermann (Cornell '79) had a fascinating post on all this on his blog a while back.

I'm a couple of days late on this, but I like it anyway.

Another illustration of baseball's place in the Boston sports firmament, via the ratings for three games Sunday night:

Rays at Red Sox (regular season), ESPN: 10.8 percent of households

Celtics at Magic (Game 4, second round), TNT: 10.0

Hurricanes at Bruins (Game 5, second round), Versus: 6.7

Photo: AP

One of my best cheap, page-views-boosting tricks is posts ranking sports movies or baseball movies or lacrosse movies or whatnot and inviting reader discussion.

But here is a site that specializes in sports cinema. A couple of years back I bought a book on the subject by the guy who runs the site and steal from it frequently.

Here is a post he did on celebrities' favorite sports movies.

One of Sly Stallone's was . . . "National Velvet?"

Pete Rose, appearing on Dan Patrick's show, said he would vote for Alex Rodriguez for the Hall of Fame, and that the recent allegation that A-Rod tipped pitches in the early 2000s is a "farce."

Also from Patrick, an interview with Isiah Thomas in which the former Knicks coach bluntly describes how bummed out he was to flop in New York.

Click below for an interesting transcript of part of that interview, courtesy SportsRadioInterviews.com.

Continue reading "Pete Rose supports A-Rod, Isiah sorry for Knicks flop" »

I had breakfast with Michael Irvin Wednesday during his whirlwind promotional visit to the big city for his new Spike reality show, "4th and Long," debuting Monday.

Mostly, he just let his food get cold while he talked, something he is very good at.

Plenty of stuff coming from Michael later in the week, but for now click below for his rambling but positive take on the Giants' first-round draft pick, Hakeem Nicks.

Continue reading "Michael Irvin hears good things about Hakeem Nicks" »

I promised after writing that column the other day about the secondary ticket market that I'd have related tidbits later in the week. Such as . . .

Through Monday, here are some teams with noteworthy drops in the average resale price of tickets on StubHub compared to this point last year:

Yankees, $84 to $79.

Red Sox, $113 to $94.

Phillies, $68 to $61.

Astros, $71 to $57.

Nationals, $69 to $56.

Diamondbacks, $54 to $43.

Pirates, $54 to $37.

The one that shocked me was the Rays, from $70 to $44. How is that possible after the season they had in '08?

I am told there is so much more interest and activity and availability on the Rays ticket market the effect has been a slide in resale prices. Interesting.

(Mets tickets are up slightly, $70 to $72.)

Photo: Getty

Fifty-five years ago, it was Joseph Welch speaking for an entire nation in losing patience with Joseph McCarthy.

In our time, it is Philadelphia sports talk host Mike Missanelli, here providing the same service with ESPN's Skip Bayless.

(Right now, Missanelli is No. 6 on Google's Hot Trends. Apparently him daring Bayless to Google him worked on the general population as well. Golly. Even Maxim's new Hot 100 list ranks only 26th.)

(UPDATE: Now it's 5 p.m., and Maxim is No. 13 and Missanelli No. 14. It was a good run while it lasted, Mike.)

While I was busy annoying Lonn Trost Tuesday in the Bronx (see posts below), Glauber was marking the final working day of the venerable Giants Stadium press room.

I spent more of my professional life there than anywhere other than my basement - which unlike its East Rutherford counterpart at least has a couple of windows.

Read Glauber's column on the subject, but go through his blog post to get there to help him with page views.

He writes of olden times, when Bill Parcells still was a regular Jersey guy who'd come down to shoot the breeze with writers . . . and other stuff.

Farewell, old friend! (The room, I mean. Not Glauber.)

(UPDATE: Here is the complete version of Glauber's column, before the editors had to cut it down to make it fit into the newspaper without creating a special section for it. It includes the part about me and how I used to handle transcribing Jim Fassel's loopy news conferences.)

OK, one last post on this:

In fairness I wanted to offer a complete transcript of the brief exchange at Yankee Stadium Tuesday between a small group of reporters and Yankees COO Lonn Trost regarding the policy of not allowing all fans into the Legends Suite during b.p.

His tone was not really angry or defiant, nor was it defensive.

I'd say he sounded mostly baffled about why this has become such a big issue.

Click below for that.

(UPDATE: Here is an online fan petition urging the Yankees to alter their b.p. policies.)

Continue reading "Yankees executive discusses b.p. policy with scribes" »

Back from the Bronx. I missed you.

Here is my newspaper story that offers comments from Yankees COO Lonn Trost on the subject in the post below as well as others involving the new stadium, such as wind, ticket prices and fans interfering with questionable home run balls.

And here is the article I wrote about memorabilia from the old stadium going on sale.

Here is the Web site where the stuff is being peddled.

And here is Davidoff's story about Roger Clemens' interview on ESPN Radio this morning, in which he either told bold truths or displayed ongoing delusions.

In either case, he did an excellent job promoting the new book about him and the steroid era, "American Icon," which I waded through before I read Selena Roberts' A-Rod book and which I mini-reviewed toward the end of this column last week.

Davidoff has good items in his blog about Clemens and about a new book about Bobby Thomson's home run ball that the publicists sent him but not me.

Strangest moment in the Clemens interview this morning was when he suggested he is concerned about a family history of heart disease because his stepfather suffered from it. Hmm.

Yankees COO Lonn Trost made it quite clear about an hour ago that the team has no current plans to reconsider its policy of not allowing fans into the Legends Suites area during batting practice to seek autographs or simply to get close to their heroes.

I asked him the rationale behind the policy. His blunt comment on that:

“Well, if you purchase a suite, do you want somebody in your suite? You purchase a home, do you want somebody in your home?’’

Just listened to Rog - sounding as agitated as he did in that news conference a while back - on ESPN Radio's "Mike & Mike in the Morning," dismissing the very long, very detailed, very heavily researched new book, "American Icon," as a big pile of misremembering.

Wow. You have to give the guy credit for consistency, I suppose.

Here is a column I wrote for Tuesday's newspaper about the unprecedented doings on the resale market, where (relative) bargains for Yankees and Mets tickets abound.

The market is awash in availability, even more so since the Yankees started handing out free extras to some season ticket holders in ultra-expensive sections.

I had way, way more information on this topic than I could fit in the newspaper, so I will be offering more as the week unfolds and as I have time to do so.

Which will not be anytime Tuesday.

(For example, the dude from StubHub told me a ticket to the May 2 Bruce Springsteen concert in Greensboro, N.C., sold for . . . $1.99!)

Programming notes:

MLB Network's "MLB Tonight" will debut a cool-sounding feature between 6 and 8 p.m. Monday in honor of the 50th anniversary of Roy Campanella Night - a May 7, 1959 exhibition game between the Yankees and Dodgers in L.A.to raise money for Campanella's medical bills.

More than 93,000 people showed up at the L.A. Coliseum. The Yankees flew cross country for the one game, and Sandy Koufax pitched for the Dodgers.

Also . . . Roger Clemens is scheduled to be interviewed on "Mike and Mike in the Morning" at 8:25 a.m. Tuesday on 1050 ESPN and ESPN2.

About all that stuff written and said last week about the possibility of Cablevision selling Madison Square Garden . . . never mind.

I've gotten several requests to post this, so here it is: Gary Dell'Abate, Howard Stern's long-time producer, throwing out the first pitch Saturday at Citi Field.

It did not go well.

Highly amusing video of Pat Burrell flinching as Red Sox fans start cheering out of nowhere upon Celtics' last-second victory.

No much blogging rest of today. Or Tuesday or Wednesday.

Read our other fine sports blogs.

(Oh, more one thing: Anyone out there get a great deal lately on Yankees or Mets tickets on the resale market? If so, email me at nbest@newsday.com with a contact number. Thanks.)

Interesting article asserting that the Opening Ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics attracted the largest live TV audience in the history of Earth. (Thanks for the link, Sports Business Daily.)

I participated in a conference call last week with film director Spike Lee about his new documentary, "Kobe Doin' Work."

It veered off into some non-Kobe directions. Such as . . . What team does Spike believe will win it all this season?

"As long as it’s not the Celtics, I'm happy," he said. "But I’d like to see, along with the networks, a Los Angeles Lakers-Cleveland Cavaliers final, LeBron against Kobe. I think that’s what everyone is hoping for if you don’t live in those other cities, like Houston and Boston and Orlando. I know I'm leaving out a team. Atlanta."

Speaking of Houston, "Ron Artest is from Queens, New York," Lee said. "He's crazy - I'll just put it bluntly. I love my brother, but the brother's off."

Then there was the Brazilian reporter who asked Spike, on the 20th anniversary of "Do the Right Thing," whether he would make that film the same way today.

Click below for his response.

Photo: Getty

Continue reading "With Knicks out, Spike Lee roots for anyone but Celtics" »

How much will seats from the old Yankee Stadium cost?

Darren (Roslyln) Rovell reports here the price will be announced this week, presumably more than the $869 per pair the Mets charged for Shea seats, but presumably less than the cost of two of the best seats in the house for a single game at the new park.

In 1979, a friend gave me a seat from the pre-renovation Yankee Stadium that had been rotting in his back yard since 1973. I had it fixed up and gave it as a wedding present in 1986.

Haven't asked for it back . . . yet.

Check out the last four paragraphs of this Dave Anderson column about the era of train travel for sports teams.

It's a great story about the lengths sportswriters sometimes had to go to to file their stories in the middle of the 20th century.

While it's not as cool as Dave's story, I did once file a high school basketball story on a TRS-80 Model 100 from a pay phone on a Brooklyn sidewalk on a 10-degree night by balancing the computer on my right knee as I used my hands to keep the telephone pressed into my couplers.

I had not yet been issued my company BlackBerry at that time.

Good summary here of golf analyst/reporter David Feherty's moronic recent writings in a magazine article - starring Nancy Pelosi, Osama bin Laden and the U.S. armed forces - as well as the ongoing aftermath.

As USA Today's Hiestand points out, the most bizarre part of it is that unlike most TV announcer gaffes, this one did not occur on a live broadcast, but rather in print, where we theoretically have a chance to think before we scribble.

While trying to stay awake for the end of the Rays-Red Sox game Sunday, checked in with Channel 4 at the top of the 11 o'clock hour to get a quick recap of the news of the day.

The "newscast" led with three minutes on the finale of "Celebrity Apprentice." No, really.

Later the "newscast" offered another three minutes worth of interviews with two of the cast members.

It's the end of the world as we knew it, and I feel queasy.

A source with direct knowledge of the situation informs WatchDog that Anna Benson has had early discussions with VH1 about a potential reality series.

(I originally broke the news on Twitter, then remembered I work for Newsday, not Twitter.)

Face it: They just don't make New York baseball wives like Anna anymore.

Newsday headline writers discussed a different headline for this back page that would have been an all-time classic, but politically correct heads prevailed, and it never happened.

No, I will not tell you what it was.

Have a nice little debate going on my Facebook page after praising John Sterling's call of the A-Rod A-bomb Friday and asserting that for all of his well documented faults, no one is better at a dramatic, over-the-top home run call.

Your thoughts?

Oh my goodness gracious. The technical term for this in the journalism business is One Helluva Story.

Michael Kay's call on YES was good, but if any readers out there know of a link to John Sterling's calm, understated call on WCBS radio, please provide it in the comments section as a service to your fellow members of WatchDog Nation.

I will go out on a limb and predict YES' ratings for this one are going to be astronomical for a Friday night in May.

Speaking of YES, I noticed that the network and Mike Francesa's WFAN simulcast demonstrated a new level of partnership when Kim Jones appeared live from Baltimore during Francesa's 6 to 6:20 p.m. segment.

It was the second time Jones has been so deployed - it also happened once in Boston - and confirms what Francesa said in an interview a while back about integrating her Yankees reports into his show, which is a fine idea.

Just before going to YES at 6:05 or so, I watched the first few minutes of SportsCenter on ESPN. When Jeremy Schaap reported that now Brett Favre has NOT decided not to return, I checked the calendar to make sure it wasn't April 1, then turned the channel.

Oh, what the heck, let's wrap up the blogging week with Jason Whitlock's latest, in which he carpet bombs much of the sports media business - ESPN in particular - with a mishmash of good points, questionable points and everything in between.

The opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of WatchDog, Newsday, Cablevision, any other media organization or anyone who might get mad at me for linking to it.

Entertaining read, though, as in . . .

"I'm occasionally hostile toward ESPN because it's an arrogant, reckless, destructive monopoly, and I still enjoy being a journalist from time to time. American journalists, last I checked, should be occasionally offended by arrogant, reckless, destructive monopolies. They're generally seen as threats to democracy and our way of life."

Brandon Jacobs' mouth is in mid-season form.

Here he is (starting around 10 minutes in) talking to 1050 ESPN's Brandon Tierney and predicting 13 victories and a Super Bowl berth for the Giants, and saying he wants no part of Braylon Edwards.

Regarding the first point: "It's just a fresh year, and I think that we're going to have a great season and going to win at least 13 games and I'm putting us in that big dance early and whoever's listening to it, I really don't care if they don't like it or not."

Regarding the second: "I love Braylon and think Braylon is a great guy and a great player. But we don't throw the ball enough for that.

"I don't want him. There are great players in the league that I don't want. I just think the chemistry between the teammates that I have now is great we don't need to add a new veteran to the whole group.

"I'm glad with where we are. I'm glad we didn't go forward and get him or Boldin. I'm not interested in that idea."

SNY got funky again Thursday, sending Keith Hernandez around Citi Field to watch the Phils-Mets tilt from various locations, including the restaurant in deep leftfield and next to the home dugout.

I understand why some purists don't like this sort of thing, but I thought it worked well and made me watch what was at the time an apparent blowout longer than I normally would have on a night when "30 Rock" and the imploding Yankees were on.

For example, .Hernandez made an interesting, I-never-would-have-thought-of-that point about how as a player he preferred dugouts closer to the plate than the one at Citi so he could better analyze the action.

There are 162 of these games, so what's wrong with mixing it up at times?

Your thoughts?

Photo: Getty

I am awaiting official confirmation before I do anything crazy like put this in the newspaper, but for now I will link here to the shocking news that Jenn Sterger is leaving her post as the Jets' game day host after one season to pursue an acting career.

The news first was reported by the Post's "Page Six," so it has to be true, right?

Acting? Hmm. Wasn't that what she was doing when she was getting excited at Jets games last season?

(UPDATE: Mantz reports here that Post report was premature. Stay tuned!)

(ANOTHER UPDATE: Page Six was right in the first place. The Jets confirm she is kaput. Said a team spokesman: "She will not be returning. We are reviewing the role of the in-game host but will most likely stick with a similar approach this coming season.")

Photo: Getty

Denis Potvin is out as the Florida Panthers' TV analyst after a very long run with the team.

It says so here and here.

"This is new to me," he told the Miami Herald. "I've never been fired."

Wow. Islanders fans send their condolences. Rangers fans send a different message.

Photo: Newsday/Bruce Bennett

The week's winner is Brian, for his reaction to a post in which I told of going to both Yankee Stadium and Citi Field Wednesday, and mentioned Bondy of the Daily News challenged me in the Citi press box to take the train BACK to the Bronx to catch the end of the game at which I started the night.

Here it is: "Bondy's idea of you going from Yankee Stadium to Citi Field and then back to Yankee Stadium all during the same game would be amazing. The question is, are you important enough that the Yankees would waive their no re-entry policy for your attempt to make history."

Other items in my Friday column include a look at ESPN's and MLB Network's coverage of the unfolding Manny Ramirez scandal, the fact that NBC will skip the NHL playoffs this weekend because of its prior commitment to The Players and Cablevision's announcement that it will consider spinning off Madison Square Garden as a separate company.

Manny was New York Newsday's 1991 City Player of the Year. He hit two home runs in each of his last two games, even though he was thinner then and, unlike Alex Rodriguez, I am not aware of any of his high school teammates at George Washington in Manhattan accusing him of juicing.

I took two shots at No. 17 at TPC Sawgrass at a Super Bowl party in January of 2005. The second one landed a few feet short of the green. I was satisfied with that.

The Cablevision/MSG thing is extraordinarily complicated and in its very early stages, but from what I can tell from people who know more about it than me, it appears highly unlikely CEO James Dolan will give up his control of the Knicks and Rangers anytime soon. (Cablevision owns Newsday as well as MSG.)

Photo: AP

While talking to Joe Girardi about his media relations efforts, I asked him about his most peculiar media moment of 2009 - when he expressed bafflement Sunday about why anyone would want to write a book such as the one Selena Roberts wrote about Alex Rodriguez.

Girardi took plenty of abuse for his seeming cluelessness, which was exacerbated when the game was rained out and his defense of A-Rod filled the void, dominating Monday's tabloid back pages.

While discussing the episode with me, Girardi veered off into a surprising take on the balk rule, of all things.

"I find it interesting I did [get so much attention], because I didn’t say whether it was right or wrong. I said I just didn’t understand it, that’s all. I didn’t say anything about Selena; I made no judgments on her.

"But that’s part of life. There’s a lot things I don’t understand in life. There are rules in the game that I don’t understand. I mean, just for example, the balk move. I’ve never understood it. They say you’re trying to deceive the runner. Well, you’re surely not telling him you’re coming over. I mean, you’re trying to pick him off!

"I even made the point, and I said it right away, people might think I’m shortsighted, but that’s just the way I grew up and the way I feel." [About the book, that is . . . not the balk rule.]

The lead item in my Friday column concerns beleaguered Yankees manager Joe Girardi and his efforts this season to improve his relationship with journalists.

Periodically I do these types of columns on New York coaches and managers, given what a big part of the job dealing with the media is in this market.

Then readers bluntly inform me fans don't care about this sort of thing. It's kind of a tradition now. But I don't mind. I figure one article per year on this topic out of the hundreds we write about the Yankees and their manager is not excessive.

Click below for leftover comments from Joe G. and others.

Photo: Newsday/Alejandra Villa

Continue reading "Joe Girardi smooths rough edges of media relations" »

Steve Mills, who had been serving as MSG Sports Teams President of Business Operations, is leaving the organization after 10 years to work for Magic Johnson Enterprises.

Scott O’Neil replaced Mills as MSG Sports President last summer, ending Mills’ term overseeing the Garden during the tumultuous period late in Isiah Thomas’ stewardship of the Knicks.

A news release said Mills also will collaborate on a course at Princeton called “Dilemmas in Athletics’’ that will “explore selected ethical, educational and economic dilemmas in athletics.’’

Another analyst scoop before I sign off for the day:

WatchDog has learned Fox will add John Lynch to its game analyst stable, probably in place of Massapequa High's own Brian Baldinger.

By the way, NBC is talking to Rodney Harrison and Tony Dungy about joining its studio analyst squad, WatchDog has learned.

Enough goofing off. I'll write my newspaper column now.

Enjoy the wall-to-wall Manny coverage on ESPN and MLB Network.

Speaking of which . . . Good job by the L.A. Times breaking this story, but wouldn't it be easier for them to further pursue it if seemingly their entire staff wasn't being interviewed by ESPN and MLB Net this afternoon? Just wondering.

On April 8, Jose Canseco wrote this on Twitter: "Of the 103 unnamed players on the list who tested positive for steroids in 2003, Manny Ramirez's name is most likely on the list, 90%."

I know today's Manny bombshell is not about the 2003 tests, but still . . . Canseco's tweet at first seemed irresponsible. Now?

Cablevision, which owns Newsday, is considering spinning off the Garden.

I attended both the Yankees and Mets games Wednesday.

Why?

1. Because I could, and thought it would be cool to see both 2008 pennant winners on the same night.

2. Because by leaving the basement only once, I could show my face to two separate groups of executives and media people, thus creating the illusion I get out more than I do.

3. I wanted to witness for myself much-discussed phenomena such as empty premium seats, quiet crowds, bad sight lines and long lines at the Shake Shack.

4. I had an interview scheduled for my Friday column.

Click below for assorted observations and adventures based on all of the above - if you can stomach another tiresome round of my cloying, self-referential babbling.

If I were you, I'd be sick of me.

Continue reading "Citi Field more full, more alive than Yankee Stadium" »

Jerry Remy, a very-well-liked Red Sox TV institution, is out indefinitely at NESN as he recovers from lung cancer surgery. A statement from Remy. Get well soon, sir.

Saturday's Kentucky Derby averaged 16.3 million viewers from 6:09 to 6:57 p.m., the best such figure for the race portion of the telecast since 1989 (18.5 million). As usual, female viewers outnumbered male ones - by about 2 percent.

Bonds sold in 2006 to finance Citi Field might be downgraded to junk status.

HBO replays the Pacquiao-Hatton fight at 9:30 p.m. Saturday. I don't want to give anything away, but I strongly recommend you not miss the first 6:38.

Scott Boras, in an interview with Playboy, says that he warns young players a child can cost $2 million over the first 18 years. (Of course, that figure depends on the quality of the lawyer hired by the mother in question.) Here is the link. (Parental discretion advised. For the site. Not the interview.)

Photo: AP

Toward the end of this video, a Yankees executive urges fans to act quickly if they want to buy into the "scarce" available inventory of premium seats at the new stadium.

This was in October.

That's it for me today, people. Read our other fine Newsday sports blogs, and enjoy "Rangers in the '70s" at 2 a.m. on "MSG Vault."

I hope they don't show that Parise goal from April 11, 1975.

Still haven't gotten over that one.

If you asked me to pick the two sportswriters I would least want to author a critical column about me, I'd go with Selena Roberts and Jason Whitlock.

When so moved, each can eviscerate a subject as effectively as anyone in America - whether or not you agree with his or her take.

So what would happen if one of them took aim at the other? This.

(UPDATE: Here is more from Jason, this time expanding his criticism of sports journalism to . . . well, pretty much everyone.)

Here is former Newsday sportswriter David Steele on the experience of getting laid off by the Baltimore Sun while in the middle of covering an Orioles game - the SECOND time he lost his job in the middle of covering an Orioles game. (Via Awful Announcing.)

What I remember most from Steele's time at Newsday was when he and I headed back to the Knicks locker room after Game 7 in Houston in '94 while most New York scribes still were writing and joined a shockingly tiny group of reporters who had waited out John Starks' long post-game shower.

Starks then discussed his somewhat cold shooting night.

Anyway, good luck, Dave . . . and everyone else in his situation. Sigh.

A real time Twitter account of this morning's panel discussion involving the major sports commissioners.

Justin Tuck of the Giants co-hosted ESPN Radio's "Mike and Mike" show Tuesday in place of Mike Golic.

I often see Tuck out and about in the big city when I attend screenings and social gatherings and such. The guy is a very good player and seems like a good guy, and he also is taking full advantage of life as a young sports star in New York.

Speaking of important Giants . . . 1050 ESPN has re-upped with Eli Manning and Brandon Jacobs to appear regularly on "The Michael Kay Show" and "The Brandon Tierney Show," respectively.

Video of the spots from SNY's new campaign to promote the fact it covers all New York sports . . . here. Cute.

Speaking of SNY, I checked on its closed captioning again Tuesday. Much better than it was Friday when it debuted. For one thing, speakers now are ID'ed. Readers with hearing loss continue to express gratitude and joy over the addition of the CC feature.

SNY is holding a contest for children ages 7 to 15 to win the right to join its broadcast team during a game.

The Yankees say henceforth they will do a better job of keeping fans informed with official announcements during rain delays. Alas, that is about the best fans can hope for in this era in which teams will do anything and everything to avoid doubleheaders, and thus will do anything and everything to avoid rainouts.

An unnamed Phillie or Cardinal told a St. Louis columnist Monday A-Rod indeed engaged in some fishy signaling during his days as a Ranger.

The Bulls-Celtics classic helped boost first-round NBA playoff ratings, including 6.99 million viewers for Game 7, which TNT said was the most for a first-round game in the history of the NBA on cable television.

Sure, I could have made all of the above individual posts, making it easier for you to digest and improving my page views at the same time. But I was too lazy to do so.

I guess it's official now. Carton and I both were wrong about who was first to give the "assume" lesson on a blackboard on TV or in the movies.

It wasn't Felix Unger or Morris Buttermaker. Benny Hill, for one, beat them to it - about 2:50 into the above video, assuming this video is from before 1973. (I don't know where Mantz comes up with this stuff.)

Now . . . Can anyone out there find the alleged video of Tom and Jerry doing the routine in animated form?

Kat O'Brien is leaving the Yankees beat - the toughest job in the sports department, always - after two years to further her education at Penn.

That is the equivalent of 14 non-baseball sportswriter years, I believe.

Tuesday night's tilt against the Bosox will be her last.

Ms. O'Brien will be missed. Sources who witnessed the farewell cake he was served at Jets headquarters say that Kat's successor most likely will be Erik Boland.

Usually the Yankees play Sundays at 1 p.m., so the transition should be easy for Mr. Boland . . . except for the fact they usually play six other times in a given week.

Mostly at night. Sometimes in the rain. Often for around four hours. And, of course, there's A-Rod . . .

Good luck, sir.

(UPDATE: This one fits better with an earlier post on overbearing Yankee Stadium security, but I figured you'd be more likely to see it here. It's Barbara Barker expressing exasperation with the vibe at the big ballpark in the Bronx.)

You knew this one was coming: The best sports-related TV moment ever.

OK, it's out of my system now. I'll return to the 21st century Wednesday.

In the meantime, enjoy the "Russo and Steele Car Auction" at 11 p.m. on ESPN Classic.

Actually, on the other hand, don't.

Yo, ESPN: Either put me in charge of programming Classic or get it off my TV.

If the channel is of little or no interest to a nostalgic baby boomer such as myself, who exactly is interested in it at this point?

This has absolutely nothing to do with anything - certainly nothing to do with sports - but the earlier post about "The Odd Couple" caused my mind to drift to other classic television moments, and I ended up here.

One of the best 70 seconds in TV history, from 7:50 to 9:00. Enjoy.

Sorry about Posada, Yankees fans. Face it: Your team is old.

Interesting story here about a near-riot Monday night as fans tried to re-enter Yankee Stadium upon learning the game against the Bosox was not rained out.

Here's the thing: There are very good reasons for the no re-entry policy, and said policy clearly is stated on tickets and signs.

BUT it also is true the Yankees - and many other major league teams - do a poor job keeping fans informed about the status of rain delays. (Did I ever mention that in 1990 I was present for the longest rain delay in MLB history at old Comiskey Park?)

Why do people who run baseball teams, airlines, trains and other businesses that involve schedules not realize that an informed customer is a customer infinitely less likely to become frustrated during a delay?

The Yankees, Mets and every other team should announce official updates every 15 minutes, put weather radar maps on the video board and do whatever else is necessary to avoid the kind of misinformation that apparently led to Monday's troubles.

In the bigger picture, from everything I have heard about the vibe at the new building, it appears the overbearing mood of security/paranoia at the old stadium has transitioned across the street.

(WatchDog kudos to first reader to write what is going on in this picture.)

Photo: AP

Davidoff finally got around here to asking an actual MLB umpiring official about my long-time assertion that umpires are much less forgiving to batters on checked swings now than they were when I was a young fan/viewer.

Only he got mixed up and asked the guy whether umpires are MORE forgiving now.

Sigh. Either way, Mike Port, MLB's VP of umpiring, said, "I don't think there's any different definition in recent years. It's still in the eye of the beholder. There's no specific defintion."

If by "recent" years, Mr. Port means the past decade or so, he's probably right. But check a recording of a game from the 1970s, sir, and you will see that checked swings that today are clear strikes once upon a time were considered clearly to be balls.

(Or maybe I am crazy. A little help here, fellow baby boomers.)

But thanks for trying, Ken.

Newsday turf scribe Ed McNamara had this to say about Mine That Bird in last Thursday's paper:

"No figures and no hope; please stay in the barn on Saturday."

Oops. Well, he wasn't the only one who was wrong about the horse. And he usually knows of what he writes.

Calvin Borel's latest stunning, along-the-rail victory led me to re-read the chapter on him in McNamara's book, "Cajun Racing," a look at that culture's rich, colorful history in the sport.

Last year it appeared McNamara's timing was good in writing about that topic in the wake of Borel's first Kentucky Derby victory in '07. Now it seems even better. Check it out if you have an interest in the subject.

One of the worst things about blogging over the past two years has been that my brief, shining year or two as the most prolific reviewer of sports books in America has turned into a depressing pile of unread works. Sigh.

I'm trying. Click below for my takes on four other books I recently have read. Well, to be honest, they are books I recently have scanned. Like I said . . . blogging calls.

Continue reading "Calvin Borel is a one-of-a-kind racing character" »

Craig Carton asserted - dare I say "assumed" - Tuesday on WFAN that the famous line, "When you assume, you make an ass of you and me," originally was uttered by the character played by Walter Matthau in the baseball film "Bad News Bears."

Um, no. Perhaps Carton was confused by the fact Matthau played sportswriter Oscar Madison in the film version of "The Odd Couple," which later became a TV series, in which in February of 1973 Oscar's apartmentmate Felix coined the phrase in the courtroom scene above.

(Best TV shows ever: "Seinfeld," "The Sopranos," "The Odd Couple," "The Simpsons," "Twilight Zone," "SportsCenter." This list might be different than the one I posted on Facebook. I'm making all this up as I go along.)

Here is the mixed review I wrote about Selena Roberts' new book about Alex Rodriguez.

Here is the sidebar in which I discuss with her Joe Girardi's remarks about the book Sunday as well as her coverage of the infamous Duke lacrosse case in 2006.

Neil Best talks sports media and business today in a live chat at noon.

The Kentucky Derby averaged 10.2 percent of homes in major markets, up from 9.5 last year and the highest such figure since 1992.

It's Throwback Monday in the basement.

Blogging . . . no.

Reading a book . . . yes.

(I thought about getting a mullet to give me that pre-Internet Era look and feel, but was stymied by an unfortunate shortage of hair.)

In the meantime, here is the author of the aforementioned book in interviews with the MLB Network and WFAN.

Saturday was WatchDog's second anniversary.

Unlike last year, I did not do 52 posts in one day to mark the occasion. But thanks to all for reading - then, now and into the future.

Click below to read the first-ever post, in which I wrote "I will try to post at least once a day."

Whatever else you might think of the blog, I believe it's fair to say I have achieved that goal.

Continue reading "WatchDog turns 2, gala birthday weekend party ensues" »

Two years ago at the Tribeca Film Festival's annual street fair, I saw Jon Stewart. My only brush with greatness this year was running into Sparky, the Islanders' mascot.

If I had known about Jim Baumbach's story about Charles Wang at the time, I would have asked Sparky for a comment.

Mr. Wang admits to buyer's remorse about the hockey team that has cost him many millions of dollars and much angst.

"Racing Dreams," 95 minutes

The final Tribeca/ESPN movie I screened was this documentary about three stars of the go-kart circuit - ages 11 to 13 - who aspire to NASCAR while testing their families' budgets and dedication.

What makes it work is the personalities of the racers - two boys and a girl - as they navigate the sharp turns of racing and of growing up.

The film won the festival's award for Best Feature Documentary.

Director Marshall Curry was nominated for an Oscar for his 2005 "Street Fight," and some insiders believe this work has a chance, too.

First step: Securing a distribution deal so you actually can see it.

As promised, SNY debuted closed captioning for Mets games this Friday night - a move three-plus years in the making and a victory for fan and media pressure.

I have been getting emails from grateful viewers with hearing loss, and am happy to have played a part in this. But SNY deserves credit, too, for finally budging.

What's next? The Yankees reducing tickets prices? Oh, wait . . . never mind.

The person doing the job for whatever company SNY hired has some work to do in terms of speed, accuracy and identifying speakers.

But, hey, it's the first time out, so we'll cut him or her some slack.

(YES' captioning is far superior on the Yankees game, but they've been doing this for seven years now.)

Time for a new cause. Any suggestions, WatchDog Nation?

(UPDATE: The emails Saturday morning continue to be unanimously ecstatic simply to have the service, so so far no one is complaining about the quality but me. But I had Mrs. WatchDog check it out Friday to make sure I wasn't crazy. She confirmed I am not. At least on this matter. I'll keep monitoring the situation.)

It appears Super Bowl XLIV will be played at . . . Land Shark Stadium.

No, really. It's a beer, apparently.

I never have heard of it. Maybe that's the point.

The details behind the naming rights deal are even weirder than the name itself, including the expected duration (one season) and a driving force behind it (Jimmy Buffett).

Read about it here.

But there's more, like this from Sports Business Journal's Terry Lefton:

"Sources close to the deal said Buffett will help pay for the deal by playing two shows at the stadium at little or no cost. That would allow the Dolphins to cash in on a huge gate, whereas Buffett normally takes the lions share – one source said 90% – of tickets and concessions for his popular shows."

The last time Gary Carter worked for Newsday, the World Wide Web didn't exist, the Yankees were the second most popular baseball team in New York and David Wright and Jose Reyes were working on their toilet training.

Now Carter is back . . . and blogging!

I was wondering what happened to that guy. I just figured he was down in the Newsday cafeteria on a really long coffee break or something.

It hasn't even been a year since Michael Strahan retired from the Giants, and it's been only eight months since he considered making a comeback after fellow end Osi Umenyiora suffered a season-ending injury in preseason.

But with every passing week, Strahan becomes more a current TV personality and a former football player.

"Sometimes I do go, 'Man, I played football?''' he said Friday. "But that set me up to do all the stuff I’m doing now, so I can never forget that. Had I come back [to play] I wouldn't be doing all the stuff I do now."

That includes "Pros vs. Joes," the Spike reality show he is hosting with his close friend and Fox colleague, Jay Glazer. Its eight-week run began last Monday.

It also includes "Brothers," a sitcom pilot he shot Tuesday that Fox will decide whether to pick up for a full season sometime in the coming few weeks.

Click below for the stories behind both those stories.

Continue reading "Michael Strahan: from studio to reality show to sitcom" »

This Saturday reminds me of May 5, 2007, a throwback sports day and night on which the Kentucky Derby and the Mayweather-De La Hoya fight provided a reminder of when two of the three biggest sports in the nation were horse racing and boxing. That was circa 1950.

Two years later, the Derby on NBC will be followed later that night by Hatton-Pacquaio on HBO pay per view.

Pacquiao is cool on two levels: He has four consecutive vowels in his name, a rare feat, and he is a proven producer of huge numbers of page views on our boxing blog.

So I'm rooting for him. As for the Derby, um . . . I'm going with a exacta of Mr. Hot Stuff and Hold Me Back, in honor of Brad Benson.

Ray Frager's farewell blog post as the Baltimore Sun's sports media writer.

Sigh.

Well, on the bright side, at least he doesn't have to cover the NFL Network vs. Big Cable saga now.

WatchDog's April page views predictably dipped from the previous three months - what with a week of vacation, a week of attending new stadium openers and a week of watching subtitled sports movies - but they were down far less than I thought they'd be.

I am humbled by and grateful for your readership, as always.

A laurel and hearty handshake to my media column predecessor and our able Rangers beat reporter, Steve Zipay, for squeezing past me for first place in sports blogs like a Fedorov wrist shot to Lundqvist's short side.

Our Giants, fantasy baseball and high school softball blogs all set new highs.

Newsday.com overall had a big month, led by ridonkulous numbers for our American Idol blog.

I usually only watch the audition shows to see the wacky people, then lose interest.

Photo: AP

Some interesting observations from Jeff Brantley, a teammate of Alex Rodriguez on the 2001 Rangers, in an interview with Sirius XM's Chris Russo in the wake of the latest A-Rod allegations.

Brantley is extremely skeptical that A-Rod was engaging in pitch-tipping with opponents - which doesn't necessarily make it untrue, of course.

Click below to read it all.

(Did I ever mention I interviewed a very young Brantley when he was with the Mat-Su Miners of the Alaska League in the early 1980s? Probably so.)

Continue reading "Jeff Brantley dismisses A-Rod pitch-tipping charge" »

Some interesting observations from Jeff Brantley, a teammate of Alex Rodriguez on the 2001 Rangers, in an interview with Sirius XM's Chris Russo in the wake of the latest A-Rod allegations.

Brantley is extremely skeptical that A-Rod was engaging in pitch-tipping with opponents - which doesn't necessarily make it untrue, of course.

Click below to read it all.

(Did I ever mention I interviewed a very young Brantley when he was with the Mat-Su Miners of the Alaska League in the early 1980s? Probably so.)

Continue reading "Jeff Brantley dismisses A-Rod pitch-tipping charge" »

Congratulations to Islander505 for his second consecutive comment contest award - and not surprisingly his second consecutive PG-13 rated one.

His response to my mini-review of a subtitled Mexican soccer movie:

"I'd rather watch The Vagina Monologues with Mandarin subtitles in a wheat grass bar at 4 o'clock in the morning in downtown Ulan Bator than sit through a soccer movie. (downfall of the American civilization)."

This brings him within in one of John Philips' record three victories in a row, which earned John a brief ban from winning the award.

Good luck next week, I-505!

(WatchDog kudos to first reader to identify the woman in the picture and what she has to do with any of this.)