Well, after watching two World Series games go past midnight (especially Saturday’s which went beyond four hours) this weekend, Red Sox fans in New England and across the Eastern and Central time zones are a bleary eyed on this back to work day. Usually, I’m not like the Eastern media writers who constantly complain about long postseason games, but to be honest, going four hours and nineteen minutes is out of hand. MLB should really consider cracking down on Fox which starts the games past 8:30 p.m. ET and has over two minutes of ad time in between half-innings.
But as I’m on Cloud 9 over the Sox World Championship, I will say it was a disgrace for baseball uber-agent Scott Boras to release news that his all-about-himself client Alex Rodriguez to release the fact that he was opting out of his Yankees contract during Game 4. Silly.
Time for some links, though. David Scott of the Boston Sports Media Watch reviews the Boston TV reporters some of whom again showed some bad behavior during the postgame coverage (i.e., Butch Stearns of Fox 25) and some whom did not (Don Orsillo of NESN). I especially liked David’s line about Tom Ellis of NECN (those who have seen Tom Ellis do news in Boston since the invention of TV know that he’s anchored news in the area since the invention of the medium … kidding!).
Neil Best of Newsday blogs that Boras played the media game to a T by releasing the A-Fraud news while the World Series was in progress.
The Sports Media Watch blog notes the ratings for Game 3 of the World Series.
Phil Mushnick from the New York Post gives praise to Fox’s Tim McCarver for his analysis while pounding ESPN’s Tony Kornheiser.
Dusty Saunders in the Rocky Mountain News writes that with the end of the World Series, Monday Night Football has tonight all to itself.
Emily Bryson York of Advertising Age says Taco Bell got a bargain due to its “Steal A Base, Get a Free Taco” World Series promotion.
Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star writes that Fox overdid the promos during the World Series.
Michael Hiestand of USA Today looks at the Fox coverage of the Giants-Miami game in London plus how the pregame show analysts deviated from the party line on playing international games during the regular season.
The Oregonian reports that ESPN’s College Gameday will return to Oregon for the second time this season.
Jerome Richard of the Burlington (NC) Times-News profiles ESPN’s college football analyst Jim Donnan who will be honored in his native North Carolina.
Sacramento Kings fans will see a new sideline reporter on TV broadcasts this season. Meet Angela Tsai (nice to see an Asian sister getting a job).
NBC Sports.com will be the official sports channel for MSNBC.com. John Consoli of Mediaweek has more on this story.
Adam Mertz and Jeff Richgels of the Capital (WI) Times report that the Big Ten Network will pick up the Ohio State-Wisconsin matchup this Saturday. The Columbus Dispatch also has a blurb on this. While fans in Ohio and Wisconsin will have to scramble to watch the game, fans in Michigan are rejoicing that the Michigan-Michigan State game will be on ABC. Terry Foster of the Detroit News couldn’t be happier. The Detroit Free Press reports that Michigan-Michigan State will be aired at 3:30 p.m.
Those are your links for now.
