Fang's Bites

People You Should Follow On Twitter, Part 9 & The Last One

Ok, this is the final installment of this mini-series that took much longer than I thought. I began this on July 17 and with a few stops and starts, finally finishing this in August. You’ve had quite a few categories, sports media, sports business, sports TV PR, MLB, NFL, NHL, Tennis, college basketball, college football, and Olympics. You can check out my previous installments here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Today, I’m calling this the Best of the Rest. I’ll provide some of my favorite tweeps in sports and those outside of sports. This will be rather long, but I want to finish and get on to other projects I have planned for the blog. I hope you find this useful.

BEST OF THE REST — SPORTS

ESPNBook — This is the official Twitter account of the co-author of the book “Those Guys Have All The Fun: Inside the World of ESPN”, James Arthur Miller. When the book was coming out, Jim was tweeting very good information and as he prepares for the paperback edition, he’s still churning out good stuff. And he engages with tweeps who ask questions about ESPN. This has 9,923 followers.

kevinspaul — Kevin Paul is a freelance writer having written for FoxSports.com. He currently maintains the site, The Wife Hates Sports which is devoted to all sports and to guys whose wives control the TV remote. Kevin is a funny guy and a person who will tweet about anything. Follow him, ok? Kevin has 980 followers.

SBJSBD –The official account of the sports industry magazines Sports Business Journal and Sports Business Daily, this provides links to articles that are published in both publications. Some articles are behind paywalls as both are subscription-based, however, there are times when articles are opened to the public and if you follow sports media, sports business, sports arenas and stadiums, agents or other industry news, then this is for you. It’s one of the most influential sports industry publications. This has 20,636 followers.

JimmyTraina — The editor of SI.com’s Hot Clicks page, Jimmy Traina is like The Godfather of the Internet. Treat him nicely and you can get your blog or site linked in Hot Clicks and get increased traffic for days. Or you can anger him and not get linked to at all. A link in Hot Clicks can increase pageviews tenfold or even twentyfold. I’ve had the pleasure to be mentioned several times in Hot Clicks. While Jimmy is a Yankees fan, I can overlook that. He has some good observations in his Twitter account. He has 19,007 tweeps.

BobsBlitz — This represents Bob’s Blitz, a site that is a mix of sports, pop culture, videos and anything Bob wants to publish. Bob constantly posts videos from New York sports radio station, WFAN and keeps up with the station 24/7. I don’t know where Bob gets the pictures of hot chicks on his site, but I’m not complaining. It’s a very good blog and do yourself a favor and follow Bob. Be part of the 2,060 and more who follow him.

blogswithballs — This is for Blogs with Balls, an event for sports bloggers that has been held three times since 2009. The 4th incarnation will be held this fall. I follow this for news, projects and general tweets regarding BwB. This is a very good account to follow. Blogs with Balls has 2,312 followers.

asportsscribe — Jason Clinkscales was one of my first friends on Twitter. He maintains A Sports Scribe, a general sports blog and he also co-hosts The Exchange on Blog Talk Radio with Sumit Dasgupta. Jason’s claim to fame was being misidentified by Tom Jackson as a student at Eli Manning’s press conference on C’mon, Man on ESPN. C’mon, Man! Anyway, Jason is a very good writer and provides excellent observations on his Twitter account. And listen to The Exchange every Tuesday night at 9 Eastern time. Jason has 654 followers. Do your part to increase that.

kathleenhessert — Kathleen Hessert is the CEO of Sports Media Challenge and Buzz Manager. Kathleen helps her clients understand the power of the media and social media. She steered Shaquille O’Neal to Twitter to take control of several fake Shaq accounts and he has been an extreme Power Tweeter ever since. I had the pleasure to hear Ms. Hessert speak at Blogs with Balls 1.0 in 2009 and have followed her account ever since. If you’re looking to get into social media management, Kathleeen is a must follow. She has 7,295 followers for good reason.

katrinakaye — This is the account of Katrina Younce, a founder of Pro Sports Communications, a sports public relations firm, and one of the authors of the Pro Sports Communications blog. Katrina’s account has plenty of links to the blog and other sites in regards to sports media, sports PR and sports social media. Katrina and her firm’s partners are always updating the blog writing articles and giving advice to readers. Katrina has 2,022 followers.

SportsTVjobs — A former sports TV insider, Brian Clapp maintains the site, Sports TV Jobs, which provides advice from professionals on how to get a job in sports television. Brian also blogs at his site and interviews current TV insiders on the state of the profession today. His Twitter account has good observations as well. This has 693 followers.

StacyCason –Stacy is a Production Assistant at Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic and a Digital Media Producer at CSN’s two websites, CSNBaltimore and CSNWashington. She’ll post links to videos on both sites and preview what’s coming up on CSN Mid-Atlantic. If you live in the Baltimore-Washington area, then follow Stacy to see what’s going on. And she also provides some personal observations too. Give Stacy a follow. She’s at 343 followers.

ttiana — The very sexy Ttiana is part of ESPN’s NASCAR technical crew. She provides pictures and insights on each ESPN NASCAR stop whether it be during the Nationwide Series or the Sprint Cup Series. The things I love about Ttiana’s account is that she’ll talk about traveling to each NASCAR destination, engage her followers and give some behind the scenes information on the ESPN telecast. One of the nicer people on Twitter, she’s also not afraid to mix it up if someone pisses her off. I’m surprised she has 1,404 followers because that number should be much higher.

texas_gal — A transplanted Texan now living in Boston, Texy as she’s known on Twitter is a huge Red Sox and Bruins fan. She knows her sports and is a very quick study. She’s been all over the country attending baseball and hockey games. Texy has been a regular at both Fenway Park and TD Garden. And she’s well-known by many of the hockey tweeps I recommended you follow a couple of weeks ago. Oh, and if you want to remain on Texy’s good side, don’t ever rag on her Texas Longhorns. She has 1,645 followers and counting.

Stefmara — For equal time, I’ll put a Yankees fan in here. Actually, Jimmy Traina’s a Yankee fan too. I think I need to equal that out with another Red Sox fan. Anyway, if you’ve followed the news, then you know Stefanie Gordon for the famous Space Shuttle launch picture she took from her airplane seat. I knew Stefanie on Twitter long before she took that picture and she’s a very good follow. She loves her Yankees and New York Rangers. I don’t fault her for this. And if you’re in the sports industry, hire Stef. She has 4,928 followers.

Jackie_Pepper — For former Comcast SportsNet New England anchor Jackie Pepper. She keeps tabs on her former New England beats and she’ll also exchange tweets with followers. And Jackie will tweet general observations as well. And if you’re in TV, view her video and hire her. You’ll get a hard worker. Jackie has 1,519 followers.

bruceallen — Why I’ve omitted the webmaster of Boston Sports Media Watch is beyond me. Bruce Allen should have been on my list weeks ago. I’ve been associated with Bruce doing a mirror site at BSMW since 2009. One of the inspirations for Fang’s Bites, Bruce’s media links on Boston sports plus acting as a check on the beat writers has made Bruce’s site a must visit for New England sports fans. He tirelessly puts out his links way before I do and is a very good clearinghouse for Boston sports links. Bruce is a diehard Patriots fans, but I don’t hold this against him. He has 1,665 followers.

BobLeyESPN — Another oversight. Mr. Ley is a tremendous follow. While he hasn’t tweeted since July, Bob has been on vacation since hosting the Women’s World Cup in Germany so he’s given a pass. Bob has tweeted about soccer, Bruce Springsteen, news events and so much more. He’s very well-read and I’m sure when Bob returns to work, he’ll be tweeting once again. Bob is a very good person to exchange tweets with. He has 39,972 followers.

That will wrap up the sports tweeps and with the 17 I’ve recommended tonight, overall that makes 165 accounts I’ve recommended.

Now let’s move to non-sports. There will be a lot more when all is said and done here.

NON-SPORTS/NEWS/TV/ENTERTAINMENT

johnsberman — A general assignment reporter for ABC News, John Berman is also an avid Red Sox fan. He tweets a lot about the Red Sox, but he’ll also tweet about the stories on which he’s reporting, but his account is mostly sports. A very good follow, John also has his own Facebook page which you can “like”. John has 16,794 followers.

brianstelter — Brian Stelter reports on TV and digital media for the New York Times. He contributes to the Media Decoder blog and appears on various cable news shows when there’s a big story like the News Corp. phone hacking scandal. He’s well connected and uses Twitter to compliment his reporting. Brian also has a personal Twitter account which discusses his 90 pound weight loss. His professional account has 70,808 followers.

michaelausiello — He loves Snapple, the Smurfs and Lauren Graham. Overall, Michael Ausiello, the Editor-in-Chief of TV Line is one of the best and entertaining TV beat writers. His Ask Ausiello column is widely read by fans. His Twitter account is always chock full of information. If you don’t like spoilers, then by all means, don’t read his columns, but Michael’s always on top of the industry. He has 1,149,569 loyal tweeps.

tdogmedia — The T Dog Media Blog follows Chicago TV and Radio and quite well. Terence Henderson keeps on top of all things in the Chicago market. Because of the competition in the Windy City among radio and TV stations, there’s always plenty of news to write about. Terence’s stories are well-written and well-thought out. His Twitter account is full of TV industry news. Only 280 followers so you can help increase that to a higher number.

bostonradio — This is for the excellent blog, Boston Radio Watch, which you can imagine follows the Boston radio scene. The blog is constantly being updated and so is the Twitter account which not only contains Boston radio news, but personal insights. Boston radio has 1,813 followers.

radioinsight — Lance Venta runs the very good sight Radio Insight which like Boston Radio Watch follows radio, but on a national level. The account has links to the site, and also engages with followers. I’ve found Lance to be a very good resource on ownership changes, format flips and the latest news on a medium that remains very near and dear to my heart. This has 2,181 followers.

ShandiMissUSA — For former Miss USA, Lingo co-host and Quiznation host Shandi Finnessey. A lot of people use Twitter for angst and complaints. Shandi’s account is very positive. I love her tweets. Plus, Shandi has her own site. She’ll engage with followers and be very supportive. Shandi has 4,283 followers.

chrissyteigen — For Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Chrissy Teigen. She’s an avid sports fan and will tweet about sports, but she will also tweet about anything that comes to mind. She’s constantly mixing it up with tweeps. Chrissy has her own blog as well. Chrissy has 59,262 followers.

kayhanley — I love Kay Hanley. The former Letters to Cleo lead singer and Boston native is now out in Los Angeles. She’s a big Red Sox fan and will tweet about the game she’s watching. And when she gets angry about the Red Sox, look out! I love following Kay Hanley. You can find her music on MySpace. Kay has 9,514 followers.

rajskub — If you’ve followed this blog for a while, then you know that I needed to get a 24 tweep somehow on this list. If you watched 24, you’ll know Mary Lynn Rajskub played “Chloe” from season 3 until the end of the series. And she’ll most likely be in the movie whenever it comes out. A comedian by trade, Mary Lynn tweets very funny thoughts and she’ll give some aspects of what happened during her time on 24. Mary Lynn has 65,102 followers.

allialexander/amomknowsbest — These are the Twitter accounts for former WLNE-TV anchor Allison Alexander and the lead writer and editor of the Mommy blog, A Mom Knows Best. Allison became a popular anchor during her time in Providence and started her site shortly after becoming a mother. Unfortunately, a management change at WLNE led to her being let go, but I’m sure Allison will be getting a gig soon. A very positive person, her accounts are full of good tweets from her site and her own thoughts. Allison’s account has 3,275 followers while A Mom Knows Best has just over 1,500 tweeps.

ebertchicago — The official Twitter account of Pulitzer Award-winning Chicago Sun-Times movie critic Roger Ebert, this isn’t just about movie reviews. Roger tweets on a whole plethora of subjects. Sometimes they can be political, other times he’ll link to interesting stories. It’s a very good account and the tweets are high quality. Roger has 510,879 tweeps.

GailSimone — This is the account for DC Comics writer Gail Simone. The former head writer for Wonder Woman, Birds of Prey and Secret Six, this is full of tweets to her fans talking about her characters, links to interviews and personal observations. Gail will be taking over the Batgirl series as DC Comics does a massive reboot of its entire line. I became familiar with her writing for the Birds of Prey series. If you’re into graphic novels, Gail is a good account to follow. She has 15,824 followers.

SU2C — For the cancer research fundraising organization, Stand Up 2 Cancer, this provides information on the latest news the group and retweets followers who do their part to spread the message about cancer. While founder Laura Ziskin recently lost her battle to cancer, it doesn’t end her efforts to wipe out the disease. Stand Up 2 Cancer has 64,107 followers.

mariamenounos — For the extremely lovely Access Hollywood host and sometimes NBC News reporter (and soon-to-be Extra co-host) Maria Menounos, a Massachusetts homey. Maria’s tweets are not full of entertainment gossip. There are other accounts for that. This is for Maria’s personal tweets about her dog, personal pics of various appearances and for taunting Lakers fans as Maria is a huge Celtics fan. Maria has 130,322 followers.

And that’s going to end this series. It’s finally done. With an additional 15 non-sports tweeps, this make for a total of 180 accounts you should follow. I’m finally glad this is over. Now I can move on to another project that I hope to finish before the NFL preseason begins.

My New Favorite Site

I rarely do Hot Chick posts here. There will be one coming up later this week, but I have one for you now. Go to Shandi Finnessey’s site. That’s all. Oh, and here’s a pic for you if you’re not sure if you should.

That’s all for now.

Time for Another Shandi Finnessey Pic

I have noticed the hits for this site have gone way up tonight, especially after 9 ET tonight when ABC aired something called, Wanna Bet. I’ve never seen the show let alone knew it was on. But one of the celebrity judges was Fang’s Bites fav, Shandi Finnessey. Shandi was host of the late, great quiznation on GSN and also a contestant on Dancing with the Stars a few seasons back.

Mentioning Shandi means that it’s another excuse to put up one of her pics, this one from when she was Miss USA, competing for the Miss Universe crown in 2004.

She is gorgeous, isn’t she? Last year, I mentioned how she and former Poker After Dark host Shana Hiatt should be the next big star. I still believe that. I’m glad that she had some network exposure and I hope we’ll see more of Shandi down the line.

Videos of the Week

I haven’t done anything on Fang’s Bites fav Shandi Finneseey for quite some time. The last video I posted of her was back on May 23 and the last picture I posted of her was on May 19, so it’s time that I give Shandi her due and devote an entire post to her.

This demo video is from her website:

This is from her Miss USA 2004 photo shoot. She says she’s hot and she truly is.

I’m not a fan of Dancing with the Stars, my parents like to watch it so when I’m at their house for dinner, it’s usually on the TV, but when Shandi was on, I could not help but to stop and stare.
This is from her first week.

Who could resist watching her especially when she wore the outfit that she had on this night.

I think this appearance was her last on the show. I don’t watch the show, but judging from the videos, I think she was eliminated. I wish there were more.

And this is Shandi and her partner from Dancing with the Stars on GSN’s quiznation.

That’s it. Maybe next week, I’ll devote an entire post to Shana Hiatt of NBC’s Poker After Dark.

Friday’s Links

Hello. Memorial Day Weekend here in the US and it means that warm weather is finally coming. Here in New England, 90 degree temps are expected and it nice to see. Also, it means summer movies and we’ll keep an eye on them here in the blog. But, we’ll always keep an eye on what the sports media is doing.

One other thing, I hope Shandi Finnessey will be on Quiznation this weekend on GSN. I have to admit after seeing her for the first time while flipping channels, I’m a bit smitten. Hey, she’s in Los Angeles, I’m in RI. Stranger things have happened, but I know the reality. We’ll continue our efforts to make her and Shana Hiatt the Next Big Star.

Ok, enough silliness, on to the links.

USA Today’s Michael McCarthy is a bit late to the party, but he has praise for ESPN Ombudsman Le Anne Schreiber. This blog was all over it from her first column, but better late than never. McCarthy also has some notes on Jose Canseco pitching a reality show and the emergence of Mixed Martial Arts into the mainstream sports media. Again, McCarthy is a bit late to the party on MMA, but with UFC on the cover of Sports Illustrated this week, there’s an increased focus on the sport.

Dave Scott of Boston Sports Media Watch says the Boston Globe is running a double standard criticizing Boston talk station, WRKO for trying to bring in embattled Don Imus producer Bernard McGuirk to audition (WRKO eventually backed down and scrapped the audition before it started), but keeping silent on the Ron Borges affair. Scott also has praise for Globe columnist Bob Ryan who has started a blog. To be honest, for Ryan who’s one of the best writers in the country, I say welcome to the blogosphere, Bob. Nice to have you join us.

Susan Bickelhaupt of the Globe has another story about NBC cutting off last week’s Ottawa-Buffalo game, but she defends the Peacock. She says it’s a matter of ratings and the numbers do show that the pre-race show got more viewers than the game, but it’s the principle. If it were an NFL or Notre Dame college football game, you had better believe there would be no cutting away.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times also writes about MMA’s growing popularity.

New York Post curmudgeon Phil Mushnick has some criticisms for ESPN’s Joe Morgan. I have to say I agree with them. Morgan is not a very good analyst and his constant harping on how the 1975-76 Cincinnati Reds were the best team of all time grates on me. Then again, Morgan must feel he knows everything because his manager Sparky Anderson knew everything. Now I totally respect Sparky as the man won three championships in two different leagues, but Joe can only go so far. Besides, I have always respected Walpole Joe Morgan, former manager of the Red Sox, much more than ESPN’s Joe Morgan. ESPN’s Joe Morgan is not worthy of any links.

Do you care that the former “Bachelor” Jesse Palmer has retired from the CFL for a television career? Me neither.

Bob Raissman says the YES Network was unsurprisingly quiet on the Jason Giambi affair and also criticizes Peter Gammons for questioning the validity of the New York Daily News report that the “Geeambeeno” (as John Sterling calls him) failed a drug test.

Neil Best of New York Newsday looks at former New York Giant Phillipi Sparks whose daughter, Jordin won American Idol this week.

Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune looks at a new documentary on minor leaguers trying to make it to the Show and the Big Ten Network making ESPN’s Dave Revsine or “The Rever” it’s first on-camera hire.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle talks to former Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy about widening the court in the NBA. I’m sure team owners would just love to lose those courtside seats in which they overcharge fans by the thousands of dollars.

Continuing to talk NBA here, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald says the ratings for the early games of the NBA Conference Finals have not caught fire nor will they.

Dave Darling of the Orlando Sentinel writes about the Stanley Cup Finals getting top notch coverage from both Versus and NBC. Now if NBC would find a way not to shuttle overtime games to Versus.

Jay Posner of the San Diego Union-Tribune has his take on the NBC switch from the hockey game to the Preakness.

Do you notice how much this move by NBC has given the NHL some actual juice going into Monday’s Game 1? I do hope the NHL can capture this momentum, but knowing Commissioner Gary Bettman, he’ll probably lock out the players and delay the start of the season. He’s such an incompetent.

Greg Johnson of the LA Times talks about how hockey is struggling to find an audience in US.

Also from the Times, Larry Stewart says Versus has a negative connotation among hockey fans. And in his notebook column, Stewart says ESPN and the Tennis Channel will have plenty of coverage from the French Open which begins Sunday. He also mentions Ninja Warrior on G4!!!

Odds and Ends

A few things for you on this Wednesday afternoon.

First, someone did an ode to NESN SportsDesk anchor Hazel Mae:

Second, as I try to get Shandi Finnessey to become the Next Big Star, here are two vids from her on Quiznation/Playmania on GSN. Yes, the guys are hitting on her. Wouldn’t you?

And my other Next Big Star, Shana Hiatt of NBC’s Poker After Dark here from her World Poker Tour days.

More later.

Two Women who should be the Next Big Star

Shana Hiatt – Host of NBC Poker After Dark

Shandi Finnessey, former Miss USA and Host of Quiznation on GSN