It may be early for baseball to open the season, but there’s always something special about Opening Day. For Red Sox fans, it means hope springs eternal, but having won two Championships over the last four years, it’s a different feeling. I would have liked to have a quickie review of what ESPN2 and NESN were doing for the Red Sox-A’s early morning broadcast, but DirecTV had an system outage and both channels were out. I could get ESPN, ESPNews, ESPN Classic, but not ESPN2. I could get FSN Bay Area which did not pick up the game as the A’s rightsholder, but I could not get NESN, YES, MSG Network. I called DirecTV for an explanation and got a recorded message about an overnight system outage and the channels would return shortly, but when I left my house at 7:30 a.m. ET, the channels were still out. I’ll send an e-mail to DirecTV to ask what happened.
Let’s get to your links.
Brandie Jefferson of the Providence Journal says Red Sox fans flocked to a popular sports tavern this morning for Baseball and Breakfast.
Richard Sandomir of the New York Times has a story on what will be an underlying theme for NBC Sports throughout the year, having to deal with an authoritarian, oppressive, Communist regime in China, while trying to televise the Olympics. Sandomir mentions in his story that while the situation in Tibet has worsened, NBC Sports President Dick Ebersol has refused to criticize China even though the Commnist government has already begun to censor the network from showing shots of Tienanmien Square during the Games. This is a story Fang’s Bites will be watching. With a situation that could get worse as the year progresses, we’ll see how he handles the broadcasts if things get out of hand in Tibet and protests increase in Beijing.
Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News feels CBS’ Billy Packer does not go far enough in criticizing coaching decisions, in fact, Raissman feels Packer covers for them.
Newsday’s Neil Best who is supposed to be on vacation is blogging on his days off. He looks over the latest figures from ESPN.com’s Tournament Bracket challenge. And Neil says the former Program Director of 1050 ESPN Radio in New York has a new gig in the Steel City. Neil says using split screens to show two games during the NCAA Tournament is not what CBS has in mind.
Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says all three games in the NCAA Men’s Hockey Tournament to be played in Albany will be shown on ESPNU. Pete also has some thoughts from ESPN2’s telecast of the Red Sox-A’s this morning.
Dave Del Grande of the Oakland Tribune reports that FSN Bay Area will be undergoing a name change as Comcast takes over officially on March 31. Del Grande talks with FSN Bay Area GM Ted Griggs about the transition to Comcast SportsNet.
We’re in Day 12 of Darren Rovell’s Minor League Baseball Logo Contest.
Kevin Cary of the Charlotte Observer says after Sunday’s upset of Georgetown in the NCAA Men’s Tournament, Davidson has become media darlings.
Broadcast Engineering reports that Verizon FiOS TV customers will have access to CBS Sports Video on Demand for NCAA Tournament highlights.
From the Akron Beacon Journal, George M. Thomas says CBS announcing crews did a good job during the NCAA Tournament.
Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel talks with CBS’ Dan Bonner about the Wisconsin Badgers.
The Lansing (MI) State Journal has an editorial saying while a deal is close, the Big Ten Network and Comcast have squandered a lot in the interim.
Mike DiMauro of The Day of New London, CT says ESPN explored two stale subjects in regards to women’s college basketball.
Kathy Orton of the Washington Post says the University of Maryland wanted the early slot today in the NCAA Women’s Tournament, but ESPN thought otherwise.
The Charleston (WV) Daily News says the Cincinnati Reds will be seen on local cable systems.
Jeff Richgels of the Capital (WI) Times says Charter Communications will pick up the Milwaukee Brewers HD telecasts this summer.
Keith Groller of the Allentown Morning Call says a new local minor leauge baseball team will get a lot of coverage on TV.
Clarence Hill, Jr. of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram writes that Michael Irvin will have Pacman Jones as his guest on his radio show.
Good story from the Arizona Daily Wildcat, the student newspaper of the University of Arizona. Mark Roy writes that ESPN’s Mark Schlereth is documenting his son’s exploits for the Arizona baseball team for ESPN.com.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that actor Tony Hoty has died. You don’t know that name? Old school NFL fans may remember him from CBS promos in which he would always end with “I’m a biiigg fan!”
The International Fight League will have a weekly Saturday at midnight show on FSN starting next month.
Robin Erb of the Detroit Free Press writes about a Wayne State University science professor who’s a big part of FSN’s Sport Science show and is up for several Sports Emmys.
That’s it for now.
