It’s a rainy day here in Southern New England and not a nice day, but not a bad day for linkage!
I’m switching back and forth from the Wimbledon Centre Court exhibition match showing off the new roof on ESPN Classic and the Madrid Open men’s final between Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal on the Tennis Channel and this final looks like it could be another classic between the two.
It’s great to have Sunday morning tennis on TV. We’re in that season right now so it’ll be fun to watch tennis from France and the UK in the next few weeks. And Federer has beaten Nadal in straight sets, 6-4 and 6-4. We’ll see what this does for Rog’s confidence when the French starts next Sunday.
Time for some linkage.
There’s a reason why I’m on Twitter. When CNBC’s Darren Rovell drops a tidbit like, “NBC Preakness overnights: Second highest race ratings in 19 years. Expect drop for Belmont,” or this from Howard Bloom from Sportsbusinessnews.com, “Preakness ON (overnight) ratings: Race portion 6:00-6:45 p.m. 7.9/18 a gain of 27% over last year’s race (6.2/14)“ or getting links, while there are imposters on Twitter (Erin Andrews, Kelly Ripa), when you find someone you know and trust, it can be an excellent networking and marketing tool.
To the Sunday links. Newsday’s Neil Best notes that the very first televised sporting event was the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News gets on the NBA for not scheduling today’s Lakers-Rockets game in primetime to protect ABC’s schedule. I think that has to do more with ABC than NBA, but I digress.
The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick is angry at missed opportunities. Phil also pays tribute to the late lengendary Brazilian soccer coach Julio Mazzei who headed up the old New York Cosmos in the old North American Soccer League.
This next link comes from Radio Insight which says ESPN Radio may be purchasing a New York Times-owned FM radio station based on the company’s registering a web domain. And that link came from a communication I received from its Twitter page.
Ron Coderre of the Norwich (CT) Bulletin profiles NESN fishing charlatan Charlie Moore.
Jackie Majerus of the Bristol (CT) Press writes that ESPN is expanding its headquarters even further.
Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette gives us his NHL Conference Finals predictions.
Phil Jasner of the Philadelphia Daily News says Bob Salmi won’t return to the 76ers as TV analyst.
Jim Williams from the Washington Examiner writes that Turner Sports is quite busy today. And Jim says NBC will air the first game of the NHL Western Conference Finals today.
Barker Davis of the Washington Times looks at the PGA Tour trying to maintain its sponsorships and then some during a sluggish economy.
Gordon White of the Southern Pines (NC) Pilot writes that televised baseball is celebrating 70 years today.
Steve Hummer of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution profiles TBS/TNT Sports host Ernie Johnson, Jr.
Totally apropos is Awful Announcing having the funny video of Saturday Night Live skewering TNT for its promos during NBA basketball coverage.
Philip Hersh of the Chicago Tribune writes that the US Olympic Committee is working towards creating its own TV channel.
Patricia Babcock McGraw profiles Sarah Kustok of Comcast SportsNet Chicago.
Mark Tupper of the Decatur (IL) Herald & Review writes that college basketball analyst Stephen Bardo has carved himself a niche at ESPN.
Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has Michael Irvin giving some advice to Brett Favre (scroll down).
Artie Gigantino of the San Francisco Examiner says a new sports radio station is set to shake up the area airwaves.
Mike Penner of the Los Angeles Times says TBS hopes it’s found another personality in David Wells.
Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News notes the very first sporting event ever to be televised in the United States some 70 years ago today.
Loren Nelson of the North County Times says he enjoys the JoeSportsFan site.
Joe Favorito says MLS is working in the great Northwest.
The Sports Media Watch says the Players Championship saw a ratings uptick last week. And here are the SMW’s weekend ratings predictions.
38Cliches feels Dave Roberts is not doing much on NESN in subbing for Jerry Remy.
That’s going to do it for today. I have work to do around the house and I have to get to it.
