Fang's Bites

Some Mid-Week Links

Doing some linkage and my computer has been acting up on me. This is all connected with me falling asleep with the lights and my glasses on. I have a feeling I dropped my computer while asleep so I have to deal with it shutting off about seven times today. So while I deal with trying to stabilize the machine, I’ll do some linkage.

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand talks about Peter Gammons leaving ESPN for the MLB Network.

Tom Singer of MLB.com looks at the Gammons move to MLB Network and MLB.com.

USA Today’s Mike McCarthy writes about Gatorade dropping a line of Tiger Woods-theme drinks before the Tiger Slam into a fire hydrant.

The Sports Business Daily looks at the latest Tiger Woods news including the lack of his TV ads since his scandal broke the day after Thanksgiving.

Reed Albergotti of the Wall Street Journal writes that Woods may not be getting the best PR advice.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says now is the time to buy Tiger Woods memorabilia.

Darren talks with Kobe Bryant about his new Nike shoe.

The Boston Globe’s Chad Finn writes about Peter Gammons’ decision to join NESN and the MLB Network.

The Boston Herald’s John Tomase and Michael Silverman also have a story about Gammons’ departure from ESPN.

Jessica Heslam of the Herald has a look at the sports radio ratings.

Will Leitch of New York Magazine wonders if the Tiger Woods story is changing sports journalism.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union is a bit surprised that NBC and the NFL chose to stand pat with its Sunday Night game in Week 15.

Ken McMillan of the Hudson Valley Times Herald-Record says up to 10 college bowl games will be on local sports radio this holiday season.

Ken says CBS Sports will have its top college football announcing team on Army-Navy this weekend.

Laura Nachman says another Philadelphia Inquirer reporter is moving to Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia’s upgraded website.

Sarah Talalay of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel writes that Orange Bowl officials as well as Miami tourism officials are hoping Iowa fans will make the trip to see their team in droves as they did in 2003.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News says it appears Josh Lewin will return to call the Texas Rangers on TV for next season and beyond.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle looks at the local ratings of the college football conference championships as well as high school football.

Over to Ed Sherman of Crain’s Chicago Business who wants to put an end to the Tiger Woods coverage.

Ed writes about a new website devoted to Chicago high school sports.

Ed looks at more shuffling between the Tribune and Sun-Times.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal writes that the Bucks get another shot on national TV this Friday.

Chicago Tribune Olympics reporter Philip Hersh says webcasts are no longer the bane of figure skating.

Barry Stavro of the Los Angeles Times writes that Lakers fans will hear some different voices on the radio calling games this weekend.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has the NFL TV schedule for Week 14.

Tom says the Bowl Championship Series is extremely unfair.

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star looks at the battle between the mainstream sports media and the sports leagues.

William Houston of Truth & Rumours says the Tiger Woods story is inciting both thoughtful and stupid comments.

Glen Dickson of Broadcasting & Cable says the Cowboys will use its huge videoboard to conduct a 3-D test on Sunday during its game with the Chargers.

R. Thomas Umstead of Multichannel News writes that Spike’s Ultimate Fighter season finale drew its highest ratings to date.

Some NFL ratings from the Sports Media Watch.

First, Sunday Night’s Packers-Cardinals game did well for NBC.

Fox saw excellent ratings for Cowboys-Giants.

But CBS experienced a big drop for its regional coverage.

ESPN’s Monday Night Football did very well.

SMW wraps up the ratings from Week 12.

SMW has the weekend overnight ratings.

And the SMW talks with Kenny “The Jet” Smith of TNT’s Inside the NBA.

Chris Byrne of the Eye on Sports Media shows us the new face of Canadian sportscasting.

Emmett Jones of the Sports Business Digest has Ana Ivanovic’s dress for the Australian Open next month (it’s next month?!!!).

Maury Brown in the Biz of Baseball says Bloomberg is making a big push to get a foothold into baseball analytics.

We end with Kristine Leahy doing The Five on WEEI.com.

That’s it for now.

Thursday’s Links

Let’s get cracking on linkage. I’m a bit late on starting this morning.

We start with Breaking News. Erin Andrews has won Playboy’s Sexiest Sportscaster for the second year in a row.

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand talks about Fox Sports airing cartoons of Digger the Gopher before this Sunday’s Daytona 500.

Bill Fleischman of the Philadlephia Daily News says NASCAR was brought into the national lexicon thanks to a fight in 1979 as viewers in the northeast watched during a blizzard.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times says MLB and the NFL are insulated from financial harm as Sirius XM reorganizes under bankruptcy protection.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says there’s now a Guitar Hero ad curse. Darren loves the new Ana Ivanovic ads.

Newsday’s Neil Best says Brett Favre may be retiring (allegedly), but the sales of his jersey continues. Neil writes that Favre’s Jets uniform is the number one selling NFL jersey through January. Neil jams a bunch of news and notes into one blog post. And Neil writes that Howard Stern successfully provoked WFAN’s Mike Francesa yesterday.

Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News says Favre was a bust in New York.

Rich Cimini of the Daily News has Jets owner Woody Johnson’s comments on the Favre situation during an interview on WFAN.

The Dallas Morning News’ Barry Horn is not pleased with TNT changing the famous H-O-R-S-E game to the letters of an insurance company. It appears Barry isn’t feeling enthusiastic about Fox’s Digger cartoon. Barry says Rangers studio analyst Mark McLemore will be on MLB Network today and tomorrow.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says 16 New York Mets Spring Training games will be seen on SNY and WPIX.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer goes into the Reds Spring Training TV and radio schedule.

Ed Sherman of Crain’s Chicago Business has some more thoughts on the A-Rod mess. Ed writes that Sports Illustrated’s journalistic scoop on A-Rod was tempered with this week’s swinsuit issue.

John Ryan of the San Jose Mercury News reports the Oakland A’s are moving to a new cable TV home.

Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle says the A’s will have 147 games aired on Comcast SportsNet California.

Eric Young of the San Francisco Business Times has more on the A’s move to its own channel.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media has news that Monday’s Sharks-Bruins game drew the highest NHL regular season viewing audience in Versus’ history.

Anthony Crupi of Mediaweek writes about the Golf Channel’s new 10 year rights deal with the LPGA.

The Desert Sun (CA) reports that the new LPGA deal will not affect the Kraft Nabisco Championship which is on ESPN2 and CBS.

Here’s the Golf Channel’s release on the LPGA deal.

That’s going to do it for now. Check back later for more

It’s Back! The Friday Megalinks are Here!

After a week’s absence and the start of my massive computer problems, I give you the Friday megalinks. I appreciate your patience during this tough stretch for me. About another week and I should be back on track.

Let’s go over the viewing weekend before we get into the megalinks.

Weekend Viewing Picks

There are plenty of sporting events to watch to avoid taking your significant other to “Sex and the City”.

As far as major events are concerned, the Stanley Cup Finals are in full swing. NBC and the CBC have Game 4 of the Detroit-Pittsburgh series Saturday at 8 p.m.

Tennis fans can watch the French Open on Tennis Channel and NBC this weekend. Tennis Channel has coverage starting at 5 a.m. with NBC starting up at 1 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday.

The NBA Playoffs potentially have the weekend off if the Celtics win at Detroit in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals tonight. ESPN has tonight’s game at 8:30 p.m. If the Pistons win at home tonight, then Game 7 would be played Sunday night on ABC at 8:30.

Fox has its usual slate of three MLB games on Saturday with Joe Torre returning to New York as his Dodgers take on the Mets, Atlanta travels to Cincinnati and the Detroit Tigers travel out west to take on Seattle. All games begin at 3:55 p.m. On Sunday, TBS carries Florida at Phialdelphia (1 p.m.), WGN has the Cubs hosting Colorado (2:10 p.m.) and the ESPN Sunday night game will be the Dodgers at the Mets (8 p.m.).

NASCAR heads over to the Monster Mile in Dover, Delaware and the Nationwide Series race, the Heluva Good! 200 will be on ESPN2 this Saturday at 3. Fox has its last race of the NASCAR season, the Sprint Cup Best Buy 400, Sunday at 1:30 p.m.

The Indy Car Series is in Wisconsin on ABC, Sunday at 4.

The PGA Tour continues without Tiger Woods as the Memorial Tournament will be on both the Golf Channel and CBS throughout the weekend.

NBC has the LPGA’s Ginn Tribute hosted by Annika Sorenstam at 4 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday.

If you’re a softball fan, the Women’s College World Series is on the ESPN family of networks from Oklahoma City.

ESPN 2 will have the Reebok Grand Prix track & field meet Saturday night at 8.

And I would be remiss if I did not mention the primetime network TV debut of Mixed Martial Arts as Screamin’ Gus Johnson will call the Elite XC Xtreme Combat bout which will include Kimbo Slice on CBS, Saturday at 8 p.m.

Now to our links.

National

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand profiles Mary Carillo who is doing the French Open for ESPN and NBC as well as working for HBO and CBS.

Now, I’ll start our links in the South, go up the East Coast, then move across the country and into Canada. It’ll make sense when all is done.

South

From The State in Columbia, SC, Doug Nye says baseball fans won’t be able to watch the University of South Carolina’s quest to go to the College World Series this weekend.

Barry Jackson in the Miami Herald says CBS officials are having mixed emotions about showing Mixed Martial Arts.

Dave Darling of the Orlando Sentinel also writes about CBS’ first venture in the MMA arena.

Tom Jones of the St. Petersburg Times says the local NBC affiliate will be pre-empting tennis and LPGA action on Sunday because of a telethon.

David Barron in today’s Houston Chronicle writes that FSN Houston is ready to move to new headquarters in the downtown area.

Ray Buck of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram talks about some announcing musical chairs in the Texas Rangers’ TV and Radio booths as analyst Tom Grieve leaves temporarily due to medical reasons.

Mel Bracht of the Oklahoman talks with ESPN’s John Kruk who is saying he lobbied for the assignment to call the Women’s College World Series. Mel writes that ESPN is bullish about softball’s ratings. In his notebook, Mel discusses MMA moving to CBS. And Mel has his weekend viewing picks.

East and Mid-Atlantic

In the Boston Globe, Nancy Marrapese-Burrell writes about the annual Hot Dog Safari hosted by long-time talk show host Eddie Andelman.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times talks with CBS’ Gus Johnson who will call Saturday’s Mixed Martial Arts event. And Sandomir says the NHL outrated the NBA in Detroit on Wednesday.

From the New York Post, Phil Mushnick says it took ESPN too long to fire Pittsburgh talk show host Mark Madden for his comments about Senator Ted Kennedy.

The New York Daily News’ Bob Raissman did not like the Mets’ dog and pony show on Monday.

Newsday’s Neil Best also discusses the Mixed Martial Arts event on CBS. In his blog, Neil says the NBA’s ratings are soaring in this postseason. And Neil talks with Fox Sports’ Tim McCarver who’s enjoying doing a schedule of national MLB games.

The Baltimore Sun’s Ray Frager talks with Orioles’ radio voice Joe Angel.

West

Scott D. Pierce of the Deseret (UT) Morning News says CBS is wrong to pick up MMA.

Jay Posner of the San Diego Union-Tribune says the Padres are not concerned that their TV ratings have slipped this season. And Jay has the ratings from last week in San Diego.

John Maffei of the North County Times also discusses the CBS/MMA telecast.

Over to the Ventura County Star where Jim Carlisle wonders what CBS was thinking when it signed to carry four MMA events.

In the Los Angeles Times, John Scheibe in the Sound and Vision column talks about TV covering Joe Torre’s return to New York with the Dodgers.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News talks about CBS and MMA. Tom also has his extensive media news and notes in his Farther Off the Wall blog. And just to make you sick, Tom has pictures of various celebrities attending the Spurs-Lakers game on Thursday.

John Ryan in the San Jose Mercury News says the MMA event on CBS could get ugly.

Midwest

George M. Thomas of the Akron Beacon Journal writes that Browns left tackle Joe Thomas will be co-hosting a fishing show on STO.

Mike Zuidema of the Grand Rapids (MI) Press says MMA has hit the primetime.

Bob Wolfley in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes that NBC is hoping for a star-studded French Open this year.

Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune says former Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly is ready to hit ESPN with a big bang starting Sunday.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Judd Zulgad says the Timberwolves’ return to KFAN also means the return an adversarial relationship between the two parties.

Canada

William Houston of the Toronto Globe and Mail says Hockey Night in Canada’s dislike of Sidney Crosby is now bordering on the ridiculous.

Crash Cameron of the Edmonton Sun says legendary CBC NHL voice Bob Cole still has got game.

And Don Brennan of SLAM! Sports says despite his advanced age, Cole is not ready to leave the Hockey Night in Canada broadcast booth.

Blogs

From the Women’s Tennis Blog, there’s a great spread of Ana Ivanovic in Hello! Magazine.

Maury Brown from the Biz of Hockey blog says NBC saw a huge increase in the ratings for Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals from last year.

In his sports marketing and public relations blog, Joe Favorito liked the way the Reebok Grand Prix track & field meet tried to get some pub.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell wonders if a meaningless last second shot in last night’s Spurs-Lakers game cost bettors some money.

The Sports Media Watch now with the Lakers in the NBA Finals, the league can be assured of good TV ratings.

That will do it.

Videos of the Week – Some Tennis Stuff

Since the Australian Open is about to begin this weekend, I’ll give you some interesting tennis videos.

I have to thank SI.com for this one. Here’s a video of tennis couples past and present.

Here’s Maria Sharapova imitating Andy Roddick’s serve as Andy’s charity event.

And here’s Andy imitating Maria

Here’s a preview of the Australian Open. Nice for the Aussie Open to have a channel on YouTube.

From Australia’s Channel 7, this is a feature on Ana Ivanovic during last year’s Aussie Open.

Contrast that feature with one the BBC did on Ana during Wimbledon.

Finally, here’s a slideshow of Maria Sharapova.

That’s it.

Friday Megalinks, Finally

I managed to get back from the jobsite earlier than expected so I can do some links plus a few more things for you today.

So let’s do our megalinks first and go from there.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today says humor has helped Fox NFL Sunday to be a success. And here’s the weekend TV schedule from the Nation’s Newspaper.

Today, we’ll go from west to east so we’ll start our local links with the LA Times’ Christine Daniels and her weekly Sound and Vision column. Today, the NFL playoffs top her viewing suggestions.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News feels the response to Kelly Tilghman’s inadvertent slur last week on the Golf Channel was too swift. And here are some media notes from Hoffarth in his Farther Off the Wall blog.

The Ventura County Star’s Jim Carlisle says it’s nice to have some meaningful NFL games to watch this weekend.

John Maffei of the North County Times says the San Diego Chargers’ Phil Rivers stirs talk on the sports radio stations.

The San Diego Union-Tribune’s Jay Posner says it’s obvious CBS wants the Colts and Patriots in the AFC Championship game next Sunday.

Scott D. Pierce of the Deseret (UT) Morning News says University of Georgia President Michael Adams appealing for a college football playoff is just grandstanding.

Jeffrey Flanagan of the Kansas City Star writes that Monday’s BCS Championship Game between LSU and Ohio State garnered the third lowest rating in the history of the BCS.

Paul Christian in today’s Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin says talks are ongoing to bring the Big Ten Network to Comcast.

Judd Zulgad in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune writes that the NHL’s Minnesota Wild and radio station 8-3-0 WCCO are close to renewing their broadcast deal. And here are some of the ratings for the Minneapolis-St. Paul market from last weekend.

Ed Sherman of the Chicago Tribune says even Tiger Woods defending Golf Channel’s Kelly Tilghman could not save her from being suspended.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle writes that Roger Clemens’ appearance on 60 Minutes last Sunday was the third most watched TV program of the week in the local market.

Ray Buck of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has the most colorful comments from Fox Sports’ Terry Bradshaw about Cowboys QB Tony Romo.

The Orlando Sentinel’s Dave Darling says NBC’s annual special on the PGA’s Q-School is always high drama.

Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald also discusses the Kelly Tilghman suspension by the Golf Channel.

The State’s Doug Nye says it was obvious to him that Fox announcers Thom Brennaman and Charles Davis were rooting for Ohio State in the BCS Championship Game. Nye also has some notes from the weekend. And his TV best bet is the last NFL playoff game of the weekend, the Giants and Cowboys on Fox this Sunday.

Jim Williams writes in his Watch This! blog at the DC/Baltimore Examiner website that MASN deserves Rookie of the Year for its local programming.

Ray Frager of the Baltimore Sun has a tongue-in-cheek look at how a barroom ful of announcers would fare. And in his Medium Well blog, Frager says Comcast SportsNet outrated MASN in its Joe Gibbs retirement coverage.

The Bitter Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News writes that the New York Football Giants don’t resonate in the national ratings.

Justin Terranova of the New York Post is writing a blog on sports media and one of his first entries this month is on the increased ratings for the NHL in New York. Also from the Post, Terranova talks with Fox Sports’ Troy Aikman about the Giants’ chances against the Cowboys and he has five questions for Fox Sports’ Terry Bradshaw. Phil Mushnick talks about Roger Clemens, Kelly Tilghman and Fox Sports’ coverage of the BCS.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times delves into the suspension of Kelly Tilghman.

Newsday’s Neil Best talks with Fox Sports’ Troy Aikman about him not being anti or pro-Cowboys. In his blog, Best says while Jessica Simpson has been a no-show at the Cowboys’ camp this week, Ines Sainz, a Mexican TV personality has certainly made her presence known.

Nancy Marrapese-Burrell of the Boston Globe writes about former Northeastern assistant hockey coach Brendan Walsh doing work for NESN on Hockey East broadcasts.

Friend of Fang’s Bites, David Scott of the Boston Sports Media Watch, has some of the media pitfalls for Patriots playoff coverage this weekend. To be honest, it’s not going to be pretty, especially when watching know-nothing news anchors trying to talk sports.

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star weighs in on the Kelly Tilghman controversy.

William Houston of the Toronto Globe and Mail says the fact that viewership for hockey is up in the US should be an encouraging sign.

With the Australian Open coming, CNBC’s Darren Rovell starts his Ana Ivanovic watch for the next two weeks with a story on her switching endorsements from Wilson to Yonex rackets.

The Sports Media Watch notes that the Boston Celtics are getting two national appearances on ABC.

That will do it for now. We’ll have other stuff including NFL picks, Primetime and Late Viewing Picks, College Basketball Viewing Picks and Weekend Viewing Picks. Keep it here.

Time for the Tuesday Update

Kind of slow on this Tuesday afternoon, but I still try to find links for you because you’re a loyal visitor.

Well, CNBC’s Darren Rovell is officially smitten with Ana Ivanovic. He has another post on her, this one on her sponsor on the WTA Tour. And in case you’re skeptical about Ana’s beauty (you really shouldn’t be by now), Darren has put together a slideshow of some of her best pics.

Jeff Bell of the Business First of Columbus paper has Ohio State University Athletic Director Geoff Smith telling fans to find another way to watch his school’s first two games. Smith is skeptical of the Big Ten Network reaching an agreement with cable companies before Thursday’s launch.

Iowans will be able to see the University of Iowa’s season opener on Mediacom cable this weekend. It will be on ESPNU.

A while back, I reported on ESPN being made available at gas pumps so it can reach the disenfranchised viewer. Well, the device called “Gas Station TV” will use Hughes Network Systems (the first owner of DirecTV) to send signals to the pump.

Tim Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes about an era coming to end in September, the Braves on TBS. I have truly enjoyed watching the Braves on TBS, but the channel will be showing MLB games on Sundays next season rather than just one team as it has for three decades. In addition, TBS will begin a promotional pitch for the MLB postseason which will be airing for the first time this year. Bon Jovi will be featured as part of that pitch.

Over at ESPN.com, Gregg Easterbrook has his TMQ column and today, he gives his NFC preview plus he gets on colleges that schedule cupcakes for out-of-conference games.

That’s it for now. I’ll have the Viewing Picks coming up.

Monday Update

I have to start out by saying the US Open has got to work with rightsholders CBS and whomever will hold the cable contract next year (USA Network, Tennis Channel, ESPN) to allow live streaming of its matches. Right now, trying to find streams from other rightsholders has been quite difficult. EuroSport from Spain and its regular English feed are available if you know where to look, but the commentary in Spanish is non-stop and is giving me a headache. USOpen.org only has highlights for the time being. It may stream a match or two sometime during this year’s tournament, but not at the current time.

Let’s go to the links. With this being the first day of the US Open, CNBC’s Darren Rovell finally admits that Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic is his current fav far outpacing Maria Sharapova. Rovell sits down with Ivanovic for an interview as well.

The recent stretch for the Boston Red Sox and their fans has been good. Going 6-1 for the first 7 games of a 10 game road trip is more than what the Doctor ordered. But the bad thing has been Glenn Geffner in the booth for all 7 games. First in Tampa Bay, he shrieked like a woman when a mouse, rat, skunk or whatever it was crawled near him last Tuesday. Then he went to Chicago where he was on hand for the entire White Sox massacre this past weekend. And it was at US Cellular Field where he continued to butcher his broadcasts and continued to give many a Red Sox fan ulcers. All of the links come from the 38 Cliches blog which does a great job in keeping up with the Goofster. Here’s hoping Dave O’Brien returns to do the Yankees series starting tomorrow.

Going to the Big Ten Network links, Adam Smeltz of the Centre (PA) Daily Times’ Centre Squawker blog says there has been an increased interest in D & E Communications in State College since it announced it would be picking up the BTN in time for the Thursday launch. Frank Rigas of the Sheboygan (WI) Press says chances of seeing BTN in his town are remote at best. Bob Wolfey in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says BTN is making a big play to get on basic cable.

Darrell Dickson of the Utah Daily Herald says the mtn. is going to be making a big marketing push asking fans of the Mountain West to call DirecTV and the cable companies demanding the channel gets carriage. Good luck.

Remember Philadelphia local news anchor Alycia Lane? When I restarted this blog in May, the story of her e-mailing her own bikini pics to NFL Network host Rich Eisen became fodder. Well, Alycia apparently has begun an affair with New York local news anchor Chris Wragge. Why do we care? Because Chris is married to former Playboy playmate Victoria Silvstedt and Chris was spotted walking out of Alycia’s house while Victoria is in Europe. Now unless there’s a smoking gun, this proves nothing, but it allows me to mention Alycia again. And I still want to see those bikini pics!

That’s it for now. Primetime and Late Night Viewing Picks coming up.

Thursday Update

Some more links for you today.

Jim Williams of the DC/Baltimore Examiner has the preview of the sports weekend. He also mentions a new show, Fast Cars & Superstars, hosted by ESPN’s Kenny Mayne which premieres before the NBA Finals tonight.

In his Newsday blog, Neil Best reports that SNY Mets analyst Ron Darling has signed a contract extension.

ESPN2 and ESPN360 are showing the MLB Draft from 2 -6 p.m. ET, then MLB.com will pick up the coverage. Watching ESPN’s coverage online, it looks frighteningly similar to the NFL Draft. ESPN’s Karl Ravech, Steve Phillips and Peter Gammons are on hand at Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando. MLB Commissioner Bud Selig is announcing the picks just like NFL Commish Roger Goodell did in April. This being the first year in covering this draft, ESPN is lacking in some video of players, but when they do have video, the network doesn’t hesitate to show it. Plus, Gammons and Phillips give a good perspective on the young players. We’ll see if this becomes successful and goes to the MLB Network in two years. USA Today was live blogging ESPN’s coverage for about an hour.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell has info about Ana Ivanovic of Serbia. Who? She’s a 19 year old tennis player from Serbia and she easily defeated Maria Sharapova today in the French Open semi-finals. She’ll face Justine Henin-Hardenne in the finals on Saturday. If you watched either the Tennis Channel or ESPN2 the last two weeks, you will have noticed how gorgeous she is. Darren linked to some of her pictures from her calendar. I don’t have to link. I can embed it right here.

She’s definitely a rising star.

In our efforts to trash Red Sox announcer Glenn Geffner, the 38 Cliches blog points out that someone made an entry for him in Wikipedia, only to have it removed.

We told you in our Thursday morning links that Versus signed a sublicensing agreement with Fox Sports Net for 5 Big 12 college football games. That agreement also includes 5 Pac 10 games, so Versus basically gets the contract that went to Turner Sports last year (thank you, Sports Media Watch). Now college football fans West of the Mississippi will have the same problems NHL fans have had with Versus and that is finding the channel. Already, I’ve culled the following games to be on Versus, Iowa-Iowa State and Cal-Stanford. Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle says fans of both teams may have trouble finding the channel.

Ron Kantowski of the Las Vegas Sun remains skeptical that the Mountain West Conference can gain wider distribution for the Mtn. channel. Thus far, the Mtn. has a few deals with various cable companies, but nothing major.

DirecTV has announced expanded coverage for the US Open Golf Championships next week including four dedicated channels. DirecTV says:

DIRECTV’s U.S. Open Mix channel (216) will offer four channels on one screen, tunable by remote to full-screen channels that will include ESPN’s weekday national telecast and three channels that will air live from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, June 14, and Friday, June 15.

DIRECTV’s U.S. Open coverage will include:

ESPN National Telecast – The first mix cell will be devoted to the ESPN national telecast of the championship. During the 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. ET window, the channel will feature the NBC national broadcast to coincide with NBC’s national broadcast rights for the event.

“Featured Group” and “Featured Holes” – During the morning and early afternoon, the second channel will feature specific players as they make their way through their round. On Thursday’s opening round, the channel will feature Tiger Woods and his player group; on Friday, Phil Mickelson and his player group will be the focus.

During the late afternoon and evening, the channel will feature coverage of championship play specific to either the 8^th and 9^th holes or 17^th and 18^th holes.

“U.S. Open Up Close” – This channel will be a hosted production featuring a mix of player interviews from the Oakmont Country Club driving range, as well as press conferences with players and championship officials as they occur.

“U.S. Open Highlights” – The fourth and final corresponding channel will offer a loop of U.S. Open highlights that will be continually updated as the first two rounds unfold.

Having DirecTV, the expanded coverage for the NFL, MLB, NCAA Tournament, US Tennis Open and French Open has been an absolute joy. I’m sure next week’s interactive golf coverage will be just as enjoyable.

Primetime Viewing choices coming up.