Each week, SI.com's Richard Deitsch will report on newsmakers from the world of TV, radio and the Web.
Imagine if Vogue was not only the country's single dominant fashion medium but also produced most major runway shows. Imagine if The Wall Street Journal was not just the nation's only powerful business outlet but it also owned the rights to the listings on the New York Stock Exchange.
In the afterglow of Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice's warm and fuzzy induction Sunday, there is this cold dose of reality: If neither Roger Clemens nor Barry Bonds plays again, both will be eligible for the Hall of Fame for the first time in 2013. No Hall of Fame vote (in any sport) will captivate the public as much as that one.
Each week, SI.com's Richard Deitsch will report on newsmakers from the world of TV, radio and the Web.
LOUISVILLE -- They feel neglected. The trainers, the owners, the jockeys. The players in Saturday's 135th running of the Kentucky Derby are part of one of the great sports spectacles in America, and yet this year the stage feels a little smaller. The spotlight leading to the race feels a little dimmer.
The NFL Draft is the TV equivalent of an open-book test, one taken by professional broadcasters and network analysts. They've know the subject from the inside, and they've been covering it ad nauseam for the past two months, including those final five-hour draft previews Saturday on both ESPN and the NFL Network.
For a riff on the news of Justine Henin's retirement, click here.
On Tuesday, ESPN held its annual upfront presentation in New York City, a 90-minute self-love-palooza designed to razzle and dazzle a room full of media buyers and television insiders.
In a reshaping of the network's signature show, Hannah Storm is joining ESPN as the co-anchor of a new SportsCenter morning edition, SI.com has learned. The formal announcement is expected to come Tuesday morning in New York City at ESPN's upfront presentation -- the annual May event in which giddy television executives unveil to advertisers its future programming plans. Two additional extended morning SportsCenters are expected to follow the Storm-fronted show. "We're declining comment," said ESPN spokesperson Mike Soltys on Saturday.
Less than a month into the regular seasons, MLS teams are far from the finished product as coaches juggle players and alter tactics to find the right formula.
Each week, SI.com's Richard Deitsch will report on newsmakers from the world of TV, radio and the Web.
Imagine if Vogue was not only the country's single dominant fashion medium but also produced most major runway shows. Imagine if The Wall Street Journal was not just the nation's only powerful business outlet but it also owned the rights to the listings on the New York Stock Exchange.
In the afterglow of Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice's warm and fuzzy induction Sunday, there is this cold dose of reality: If neither Roger Clemens nor Barry Bonds plays again, both will be eligible for the Hall of Fame for the first time in 2013. No Hall of Fame vote (in any sport) will captivate the public as much as that one.
Each week, SI.com's Richard Deitsch will report on newsmakers from the world of TV, radio and the Web.
LOUISVILLE -- They feel neglected. The trainers, the owners, the jockeys. The players in Saturday's 135th running of the Kentucky Derby are part of one of the great sports spectacles in America, and yet this year the stage feels a little smaller. The spotlight leading to the race feels a little dimmer.
The NFL Draft is the TV equivalent of an open-book test, one taken by professional broadcasters and network analysts. They've know the subject from the inside, and they've been covering it ad nauseam for the past two months, including those final five-hour draft previews Saturday on both ESPN and the NFL Network.
For a riff on the news of Justine Henin's retirement, click here.
On Tuesday, ESPN held its annual upfront presentation in New York City, a 90-minute self-love-palooza designed to razzle and dazzle a room full of media buyers and television insiders.
In a reshaping of the network's signature show, Hannah Storm is joining ESPN as the co-anchor of a new SportsCenter morning edition, SI.com has learned. The formal announcement is expected to come Tuesday morning in New York City at ESPN's upfront presentation -- the annual May event in which giddy television executives unveil to advertisers its future programming plans. Two additional extended morning SportsCenters are expected to follow the Storm-fronted show. "We're declining comment," said ESPN spokesperson Mike Soltys on Saturday.
Less than a month into the regular seasons, MLS teams are far from the finished product as coaches juggle players and alter tactics to find the right formula.
1. Donnie Walsh, press liberator
In the ever-evolving sports blogosphere, where truth and rumor-mongering collide daily and often on the same Web site, TheBigLead.com has found an unlikely ally: the mainstream sports writer. The site has gained traction among the sports media thanks to a near-daily dose of gossipy items about its practitioners and interviews with some of the power hitters of sports journalism, all the while remaining anonymous to its readers and subjects.
SI.com's Richard Deitsch checks in every Monday with the latest doings in TV, radio and the Web.
SI.com's Richard Deitsch checks in every Monday with the latest doings in TV, radio and the Web. Some men are irrevocably linked, be it Redford and Newman, Stockton and Malone or Manning and Leaf. Such is the fate of ESPN reporter Pedro Gomez.
It figures that perhaps the most exciting match of the season wasn't available live on American TV -- unless you have a Turkish feed, of course.
Bob Knight joined the media on Thursday, a career change that reminds one of the Groucho Marx line about not wanting to belong to any club that would have him as a member.
1. W.C. Heinz, writing craftsman: His was the age before sportswriters begged for points for their sports arguments and preened for the cameras. Heinz passed from earth last week at 93, but his words stay aloft forever. There has never been a better deadline sports story than this one.
SI.com's Richard Deitsch checks in every Monday with the latest doings in TV, radio and the Web.
Days like this are dangerous -- there's far too much good soccer on TV. On Wednesday, I subjected myself to a footie mini-marathon from mid-morning through primetime. Starting with the Champions League, I flipped back and forth between Arsenal vs. AC Milan on ESPN2 and Man. Utd vs. Lyon on Setanta. Then I caught Barcelona vs. Celtic on replay on ESPN Classic.
The Deadspin.com editor is the author of God Save The Fan: How Preening Sportscasters, Athletes Who Speak in the Third Person, and the Occasional Convicted Quarterback Have Taken the Fun Out of Sports (And How We Can Get It Back).
1. Darren Cahill, tennis analyst, ESPN: The Australian Open typically attracts two types of television viewers: bleary-eyed insomniacs and tennis fans more diehard than Bruce Willis.
The day the NHL should have recognized that not re-upping with ESPN was a mistake was Aug. 23, 2005.
1. Mark Fainaru-Wada and T.J. Quinn, ESPN reporters: Investigative reporting is hardly a glamorous endeavor. Where sports columnists and television personalities are the gliteratti of the profession, most reporters who specialize in muckraking rarely see the klieg lights of Pardon The Interruption or the seven-figure salaries of Kornheiser-Wilbon Inc. But such reporters are invaluable when it comes to the collective gravitas of a news organization.
1. Jeannine Edwards, ESPN horse racing reporter: Because she works on a sport that's sadly and slowly fading from national television relevance, Edwards is not a household name with viewers.That's a shame because she is superb in her role as a trackside reporter. When the 4-year-old colt George Washington broke down in the Breeders Cup Classic -- he was euthanized on the track -- Edwards expertly handled an interview with Dr. Larry Bramlage, the on-call veterinarian ("In your opinion, Edwards asked, "does the sloppy nature of racetrack, could that have anything to do with him not getting hold of the ground or in any way caused an injury like this?). Bramlage said that there was no evidence that the wet track was predisposed to causing such injuries (George Washington suffered an open fracture of both sesamoid bones.) Watch the polished Edwards at a major event like the Breeders Cup -- her coverage of the death of Barbaro was first rate -- and then compare to her to others who work
Michigan-Ohio State. Yankees-Red Sox. Duke-North Carolina. Cowboys-Packers. When bitter sports rivals backed by massive resources face off against one another, fans are typically the winners.
Michigan-Ohio State. Yankees-Red Sox. Duke-North Carolina. When bitter sports rivals backed by massive resources face off against one another, fans are typically the winners.
Mr. Jim Delany Commissioner, Big Ten Conference Chicago, Ill.
1. Pedro Gomez, ESPN reporter and Barry Bonds survivor: For years he has been ESPN's Dostoevsky, a man imprisoned by Barry Bonds and his quest for baseball immortality. Thankfully, Gomez has handled his baseball Siberia with the utmost objectivity and professionalism. Asked this week to describe his relationship with the Giants outfielder, Gomez called it "extremely frosty, extremely cold." When Bonds finally passes Hank Aaron -- which cannot come soon enough -- ESPN needs to free Gomez from this gulag and offer him a less taxing assignment: covering David Beckham or debating Skip Bayless.
Last week SI writer Richard Deitsch interviewed Dan Patrick for the magazine's Q&A. The 51-year-old broadcaster is leaving ESPN on Aug. 17 after 18 years. Here are additional excerpts from their conversation
The panting started roughly 1.5 seconds into the telecast when ESPN's Rob Stone described David Beckham's American debut with an intro fit for a Jackie Collins novel: "In a town where celebrity rules," Stone said, "today David Beckham is the Pied Piper of Hollywood's star scene."
DENVER -- Now that the summer national-team games are basically over, the attention in U.S. soccer circles shifts almost entirely to Major League Soccer, which is basking in the hype around David Beckham, who is set to attend (but not play in) tonight's All-Star Game here against Scottish power Celtic FC (9 p.m. ET, ESPN2). And while I'm still recovering from Wednesday night's excellent "Pablo Party" -- as it said on the tickets to get into Pablo Mastroeni's fiesta at the club Rise -- I thought I'd throw some news and notes your way.
1. Mike Ditka, ESPN analyst: There are TV tough guys (Mr. Sean Salisbury and Mr. T come to mind) and then there are tough guys. Dikta's very public advocacy for improving disability and pension benefits for older NFL retirees is particularly gutsy given that his network is one of the NFL's television partners. He testified this week in front of a Congressional subcommittee and has been pounding the issue with Dick Butkus-like zeal. It'll be interesting to see how much leeway Ditka gets to address this on ESPN's airwaves. We all know what happened to Playmakers.
The Walt Disney Co.'s ABC and ESPN networks and Time Warner Inc.'s TNT have renewed their contracts with the National Basketball Association in deals extending their TV rights to league games through 2016, the NBA said Wednesday.
Over the past two decades, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany has established himself as the shrewdest executive in college sports. From spearheading the addition of Penn State as the conference's 11th member to brokering the Rose Bowl's integration into the BCS to continually landing the nation's most lucrative television and bowl lineups, Delany has made sure his 111-year-old conference is consistently at the front of the pack when it comes to changes in the collegiate landscape.
1. Dave Revsine, Big Ten Network anchor: You can tell a lot about an ESPN staffer by his or her Wikipedia page. A not-so-perfect rule of thumb: The shorter the entry, the less annoying the personality. Cut in the mold of All-Substance first teamers Brian Kenny and Dan Shulman, Revsine went about his work during his decade at the network with a quiet professionalism. Plug him into any role -- ESPN News, SportsCenter, ESPN Radio's College Game Day -- and viewers were always steered in a smart direction. This fall he becomes the face of the fledgling Big Ten Network, where he will anchor the nightly studio show and do play by play. "While it's tough to leave ESPN, this is the perfect job for me," said Revsine, a Midwesterner whose Big Ten roots include a degree from Northwestern and a sports anchor stint in the Quad Cities. The network debuts at the end of August and will air between 350 and 400 live events.
1. K.C. Johnson, blogger: Arguably, the most important media figure in the Duke lacrosse case, Johnson's Durham-in-Wonderland blog provided exhausting, meticulous and obsessive daily coverage. It was a remarkable bit of citizen journalism, and upon the dismissal of all charges, one of the accused players, Collin Finnerty, cited Johnson for "his diligent work exposing the truth every day." He and Stuart Taylor Jr., a legal columnist for the National Journal who deserves equal acclaim, are a writing a book on the case.
Imagine the sales pitch that might have been delivered in the long hallways of a Ministry of U.S. Sports Culture not very long ago: O.K., how about this for a television event. The commissioner of the NFL stands at a podium in the middle of a stage. Every few minutes he reads out, in a businesslike monotone, the name of a collegian who has been selected to play for an NFL team. "With the first pick ..." and so forth. No music, no special effects. Just the commissioner and the microphone. Trust me. It'll kill.
GAYLORD, Mich. (AP) -- The Par-3 Shootout, which has featured Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Phil Mickelson, has been canceled for this summer but will resume in 2008.
1. Ron Jaworski, ESPN Monday Night Football analyst: Rare is the broadcaster who appeals to both football wonks and casual fans but Jaworski isn't just another analyst: He's the best football analyst at ESPN. During his 17-year tenure at ESPN he's built a reputation as an X's and O's savant who can breakdown film for fans in a palatable way. The best news is he could be in the MNF booth for some time. Jaworksi has four years left on his ESPN contract. He told SI.com this week that he and new partners Mike Tirico and Tony Kornheiser will do a practice game before the preseason. "I'm pumped and ready to go to work," Jaworski said. One cool bit of symmetry: Jaworksi's longtime producer on his NFL Matchup show is Greg Cosell, the nephew of Howard Cosell.
Enough of the last second would-be-game-winning missed free-throws. Enough of the buzzer-beating 3-pointers. Enough of the seemingly impossible go-ahead 10-0 runs. I want to see a 60-year-old man and 22-year-old woman take each other on in a game that requires as much skill as Justin Cage at the foul line. In other words, when the chips are down, it's about 50-50.
If the person or persons who coined the phrase "Selection Sunday" happen to be reading this column, please contact SI.com immediately. I'd like to send you something nice from the gift closet (an autographed photo of Seth Davis?) for birthing such an alliterative title. As best as I can find, the phrase dates back to 1985 when Chicago Tribune writers Skip Myslenski and Linda Kay used it in a college basketball column two days after the tournament draw was announced. "Some lucky teams are granted this home-court luxury every year on Selection Sunday," wrote the Tribune reporters, referring to those fortunate souls playing opening round games in their campus gyms.
1. Verne Lundquist, CBS: In the history of Vernes, he'd rank below both Jules Verne and Verne Troyer but it's a good time to recognize the veteran CBS sportscaster after his election this month to the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame. His five-decade résumé is remarkable. Lundquist has called among other notable events: Jack Nicklaus winning the 1986 Masters; the 1992 Regional Final between Kentucky and Duke (a.k.a. the first time Christian Laettner really annoyed you); Tiger Woods' fourth Masters victory in 2005 and George Mason's upset over Connecticut last year. Lundquist has long been the voice of CBS's Southeastern Conference football coverage and he's one of a handful of broadcasters you can honestly call underrated. "One of the reasons the [Hall of Fame] hit me like a bolt is because I'm not one of the lead guys even at our network," Lundquist told SI.com this week. "But I have a versatility to our network and I think CBS values me as an employee. So I suppose the c
SI.com's Kevin Armstrong went behind the scenes with the ESPN College GameDay crew last Saturday. From production meetings, to 15 minutes with Erin Andrews and everything that goes into preparing the gang of Rece Davis, Jay Bilas, Hubert Davis and Digger Phelps, he saw it all. Here is his report.
If television is indeed the drug of the nation, as the hip-hop band Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy once declared, then we're all doomed with our dependence on the NFL. No programming is more popular among Americans -- more people watched this year's AFC championship game than last year's Academy Awards -- and the NFL enjoyed record viewership in 2006.
1. Brad Daugherty, ESPN Nascar analyst: While John "Hot Rod" Williams clearly owns the better name for a racing analyst (at least among former Cavalier big men), Daugherty is the broadcaster to watch when the green flag drops on ESPN's live coverage next month. By virtue of his assignment, he becomes the most visible African-American media member in the sport's history. When SI interviewed him last month for a Q&A, he stated his desire to bring more people of color to racing. "I don't know any other way to have an impact on the sport other than getting out and being a voice, and speaking to some of the issues that are there," said Daugherty, a former Craftsman Truck Series team owner. "I'd like to open some eyes. Will it happen? I don't know. Am I going to try to make it happen? Heck, yeah. Without a question."
After sifting through hundreds of e-mails relating to last month's 2006 Media Awards, the following four themes emerged:
As the NHL floats the idea of cutting its six divisions down to four to save on team travel costs and juice TV ratings by keeping broadcasts in the same time zone as often as possible, here are my wishes for making the game more fan-friendly in new years to come.
It looks like I'm not the only one who isn't ready for some football on Monday nights.
I'm a huge New York Giants fan. Yet, I'm not looking forward to watching their next game.
The top guns at Walt Disney Co. had every reason to think they had a winner when they launched a wireless service, Mobile ESPN, on Super Bowl Sunday earlier this year.
[HIT] Getting Sirius. Everyone from the competition to the media to Wall Street ridiculed Sirius Satellite Radio for spending $500 million to land Howard Stern--but the King of All Fart Jokes seems...
Walt Disney is paying almost as much money for only half the pro football this season. And it should be damn glad to be doing so.
Are you ready for some fantasy football?
All Web sites are alike. Regardless of their owners, they can all do the same set of things. In that fact lies the profound crisis facing all aspects of the media industry.
The mobile phone is among the most intimate of personal technologies. The owner whispers secrets into it, caresses it and holds it to a cheek, tickles it with flirty text messages, and sprinkles it with the occasional tear. So it's a shame that most people lavish this intimacy on generic Can't Tell 'Em Apart handsets from the usual Bucket o' Minutes mobile service carriers.
The mobile phone is among the most intimate of personal technologies. The owner whispers secrets into it, caresses it and holds it to a cheek, tickles it with flirty text messages, and sprinkles it with the occasional tear. So it's a shame that most people lavish this intimacy on generic Can't Tell 'Em Apart handsets from the usual Bucket o' Minutes mobile service carriers.
You can watch ESPN on cable at home. You can visit ESPN online at work. You can listen to ESPN radio. You can read ESPN the magazine. You can play ESPN video games and, if you live near one, you can eat and drink at an ESPN restaurant.
The next great frontier for the business of sports is probably in your pocket right now: your cell phone.
Walt Disney Co. is close to winning broadcast rights to the last half of the season of Nascar, the nation's No. 2 spectator sport, according to a published report.
Could the home of Lance Armstrong and professional bull riding be the next home for the Tom Brady and the Detroit Red Wings?
Comcast Corp., the nation's largest cable operator, may be weighing a sports network to challenge the leadership of ESPN, according to a published report.
ESPN, which has already extended the brand beyond its six cable networks, is now looking to put its name on television sets, according to a published report.
For those who hate the shift of sports from free broadcast to pay television, this week was definitely good news/bad news time.
The long running "Monday Night Football" has found a new home, moving from the Disney-owned ABC network to the company's sister cable channel ESPN in 2006, according to a news report Monday.
Entertainment Weekly's daily guide to notable shows.
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Television's leading sports network and the leading maker of sports video games have signed a long-term deal that could signal the end of an era.
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The players are lining up on this year's virtual gridiron, but there are a lot fewer teams this time around. Last year, five video game publishers had football games. The 2004 season will only host two: Sega and Electronic Arts. But the battle could be the fiercest we've ever seen.
It's a sport where the major stars often aren't around for the biggest games. Its games are shown weeks, if not months, after they're played. And the viewers exert almost as much energy as the competitors, which is to say, not much at all.
Professional athletes who pay to play.
ESPN, Walt Disney Co.'s most attractive asset, is now a bit less attractive to Comcast Corp., the cable operator bidding for the entertainment conglomerate.
Hey, sports fans, remember when you were a kid and you'd make up sports leagues? That professional dart association in your basement could now be a thriving business and not just a childhood fanta...
Got my deal signed in blood And there ain't no turnin' back. Cost me all of my money And my pink Cadillac. --Brian Setzer Orchestra, "Hoodoo Voodoo Doll"
We canvassed mutual fund operators about the nature of calls to their customer service lines and learned that some investors view their fund companies as combinations of Dear Abby, the Shell Answer...
Meet Daniel A. FitzSimons, would-be cable programmer. FitzSimons is the founder and chairman of the Puppy Channel, a startup network that promises wall-to-wall puppies, relaxing instrumental music,...
If you happen to be of a certain age and a certain temperament--if, say, you're the sort of person who gets a catch in your throat remembering the '69 Mets--and you ever want to feel really old, re...
In their rush to do business on the Internet, many media companies have left common sense behind. Strange as it seems, TV networks and publishers are spending millions of dollars to give away conte...
Feeling blue because football season is drawing to a close and baseball is months away? Join the millions of other armchair jocks who are increasingly tuning their TVs to ever more popular alternat...
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