I have a lot of work to do on the blog tonight and was delayed thanks to mom insisting I take her to the mall so she could find something for a memorial the entire family is attending on Friday. Suffice to say the plans I had for this evening have been pushed back to about 4 a.m. with all of the shit I have to do. I understand, mom doesn’t like dad driving at night and she’s not confident with her driving skills at this time so I have to drive to her place to pick her up and take her to the places she wants to go. I grit my teeth, but I do it. Gotta do it. She’s the only mom I have.
Anyway, let’s do some late night links then I have a slew of press releases for tonight, then some housekeeping for tomorrow since the megalinks will most likely be late again with all of the stuff I have to do at work and for the memorial.
Starting with Stephen Wilson of the Associated Press who has a scathing statement from the International Olympic Committee regarding the U.S. Olympic Network.
Seattle Times Olympics beat writer Ron Judd wonders if the USON announcement might undermine the U.S. bid for the 2016 Olympics.
Philip Hersh of the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times says the U.S. Olympic Committee’s actions only stand to hurt Chicago’s chances to host the Games.
Meg James of the Times says USON is already causing headaches just mere days after the formal announcement.
Bruce Allen of the Boston Sports Media Watch, he tells us that long time Voice of your New England Patriots, Gil Santos, will be inducted into the WBZ Hall of Fame. Gil was the morning drive sports anchor at News Radio 1030 WBZ for 38 years. It’s a well-deserved honor. Gil remains with the Patriots and is the longest tenured announcer in the NFL.
Ray Frager of the Sports Media Journal says a Baltimore sports talk show has been told to fix things. Keith Thibeault of SMJ talks about ESPN’s Ball Track technology that will be unveiled at the Home Run Derby.
Ken McMillan of the Hudson Valley Times Herald-Record feels Ball Track could be like Fox Sports’ glowing puck if not used correctly. Ken writes that Army football has a new home in the Hudson Valley.
Laura Nachman recaps the memorial for Philly sports anchor Gary Papa.
Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes that Darren Pang joins Fox Sports Midwest as an analyst for the Blues, moving current analyst Bernie Federko to ice-level.
Norm Sanders of the Belleville (IL) News-Democrat also writes about Panger coming from Phoenix to join the Blues.
Back to the L.A. Times, Mark Medina writes that Candace Parker lands her own SportsCenter promo later this month.
Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says the local ESPN Radio affiliate is making some lineup changes as of Friday.
Fabio Pereira of the Hollywood Reporter says mixed martial arts is growing thanks to UFC and its Ultimate Fighter series on Spike.
The Big Lead gets ESPN’s official statement on Erin Andrews taking a ball to the chin during Wednesday’s Dodgers-Mets game.
Dan Levy of On the DL wonders in the Sporting News if ESPN hates the San Diego Padres.
Dave Kohl from the Major League Programs blog looks at classic offerings on CBS Sports as well as the decline of ESPN Classic.
Maury Brown of the Biz of Baseball makes an announcement of a new content partnership.
That’s going to end our links for now. Stories that will be part of the Friday megalinks are already out so I’ll stop with the links and work on a bunch of press release posts.
