Fang's Bites

Your Sunday Links

I hope you set your clocks back one hour before you went to bed last night. For me, it was nice to get an hour extra of sleep. Now that we have our extra hour, it’s time to give you the links for today.

The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick sarcastically calls for an instant replay rule in baseball.

Bob Raissman of the New York Post, without any proof by the way, says the NFL is helping to hide the evidence from Spygate for Patriots coach Bill Belichick. Sounds to me like Raissman is a Jets fan.

Neil Best of Newsday says it’s tough to listen to the New York Rangers at night in certain parts of Long Island. And in his blog, Best adds an anecdote to his column. Finally as Neil is about to go on vacation, he suggests readers take the day off from watching TV especially after an epic sports day yesterday. What about Patriots-Colts, Neil?

The Houston Chronicle’s David Barron writes in his Four DVRs, no waiting blog about one Patriots fan club which is congregating to watch the Patriots-Colts game today. Houston is one of two markets that won’t be getting Pats-Colts. Cleveland is the other.

Greg Johnson in today’s Los Angeles Times tries to explain the complicated NFL “secondary market” rules of which LA is one to San Diego and the nation’s second market sometimes does not get the featured NFL doubleheader game.

Jeff Elliot of the Florida Times-Union writes that college football and the NFL have garnered high ratings in the Jacksonville market.

Dan Coughlin writes in the Chronicle-Telegram of Ohio that sports fans never had it so good especially when it comes to get getting games on TV. Coughlin is talking about the Cleveland market not getting the Patriots-Colts today.

The Chicago Tribune’s Ed Sherman looks at the Chicago Blackhawks’ decision to put 6-8 home games on Comcast SportsNet.

John Harris of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review looks at how Monday Night Football has changed over the years as the ESPN road show comes into the Steel City for tomorrow’s Ravens-Steelers game.

Jeff Smith of The Oregonian writes that Lee Corso of College Gameday continues to show his love for the Ducks.

I’m going to do Videos of the Week now. I’ll be back later tonight with a recap of the first episode of The Amazing Race.

Some Saturday Links

Good morning and I’m in a bit of a rush as I’m trying to do this before I have to head out.

First, Chris Pursell of TV Week in his Pressbox blog gives us his NFL Week 7 broadcast preview.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News writes that the Cowboys are truly a ratings giant. And there’s an editorial in the Morning News denouncing the silly NFL rule allowing only 45 seconds of video on non-NFL approved websites.

Soon, there will one city with every radio station doing a sports format. Don’t laugh. It’s going to happen. Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the Gateway City is getting its 4th all-sports station.

Long time Miami sports radio talk show host Hank Goldberg is leaving WQAM at the end of his contract according to the Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson. Tom Jicha of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel also has the story. You know Hammerin’ Hank from his work on ESPN on both the NFL and horse racing.

Alan Pergament of the Buffalo News shares some of his thoughts on the Bills’ appearance on Monday Night Football two weeks ago (he was on vacation).

Eric Hansen (no, not the creepy reporter of Dateline NBC) of the South Bend (IN) Tribune writes that even though Notre Dame football is garnering low ratings this season, NBC is still happy with its deal to broadcast its home games.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News writes that in a convergence of sports on both network and cable TV last Monday night, the networks won. John Consoli of Mediaweek says Game 4 of the American League Championship Series garnered 12.3 million viewers for Fox.

Maury Brown of the Biz of Baseball website talks with Eric Fisher of the Sports Business Journal.

Alan Schmadtke of the Orlando Sentinel writes even though Monday Night Football doesn’t have as many viewers on ESPN as it did on ABC, the players still feel it’s special.

The Inside Track girls at the Boston Herald wrote a blurb on Thursday about NESN’s Tina Cervasio and her stiletto boots.

Continuing with some more gossip, Fang’s Bites fav Alycia Lane, you know the Philadelphia news anchor who sent sexy swimsuit pics to NFL Network host Rich Eisen, has split up with New York news anchor Chris Wragge.

That’s going to do it for now. I’ll have NFL Picks for Week 7 sometime today. Coming up tomorrow, your Sunday links and Videos of the Week.

Tuesday Night Linkage

Time to give you a few links tonight before heading to bed.

It appears that the NFL’s TV partners will not have to deal with the silly 45 seconds of online video rule for their websites. The Sports Business Journal’s Eric Fisher, Dan Kaplan and John Ourand report that the 45 second rule does not apply CBS, ESPN, Fox and NBC, but other sites such as newspaper and TV station websites still must adhere to the rule. According to the article, the networks feel that their exorbitant rights fees should buy them rights to online video. The 45 second rule is of course, supposed to direct fans to NFL.com. We’ll see if the league eventually relaxes this silly rule down the road.

Michael David Smith of the AOL Fanhouse blog reports that ESPN will lower the amount of silly guests in the booth on Monday Night Football. Kamau High of AdWeek says ESPN has begun a new promotional campaign for MNF and I have to say it’s actually not as obnoxious as other ESPN campaigns. TV Week’s Chris Pursell in his Pressbox blog talks with Keyshawn Johnson who begins his first season as an NFL analyst for ESPN. Advertising Age’s Andrew Hampp has a story on the networks scoring profitable ad deals on the NFL.

The great Gregg Easterbrook has the latest edition of Tuesday Morning Quarterback which includes railing against the Preposterous Punt, his all-haiku predictions and a look at the Appalachian State-Michigan game.

The Sports Media Watch blog has the announcing teams for college football on the Disney Sports Networks.

Kira Bindrim of Crain’s New York Business writes that ratings for the US Open are down compared to last year while attendance at the National Tennis Center is up.

Randy Petersen of the Des Moines Register reports that Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz doesn’t have the Big Ten Network at home meaning his family can’t watch his games through Mediacom. Centre (PA) Daily Times’s editor Bob Heisse in his “Back in Happy Valley” blog wonders what if Comcast decided to settle up with BTN? And Heisse adds one more post regarding overflow games. Michael Zuidema of the Grands Rapids Press says the Appalachian State upset is the first shot from BTN in its battle with Comcast.

The Appalachian State athletics department says ESPN is in town to tape a segment on the upset for College Gameday.

Last Friday, NBC Universal announced it would no longer sell shows for download on iTunes saying prices were too low. Tonight, it’s announced a deal with Amazon.com to sell downloads on that site and for higher prices.

That’s a lot of links for a Tuesday night and I like it. I’ll have more Wednesday morning.

Friday Morning or Day 5 of the D & C Lockout

Day 5 of the WEEI/Dennis & Callahan lockout. It appears that there’s no end in sight to this. Over at Boston Sports Media Watch, David Scott says WEEI’s parent company, Entercom has trumped John Dennis & Gerry Callahan and their options are for the most part, limited except for a return to WEEI. Jessica Heslam of the Boston Herald says Entercom pulled a out all the stops to sign an agreement with Nassau Broadcasting to form a regional sports network and possibly end D & C’s dream of competing against WEEI. In the Boston Globe, Christopher Rowland says D & C have been boxed out (his words). And Rowland’s collegue, Susan Bickelhaupt writes that Dan Patrick will host WEEI’s morning show, Thursday & Friday of next week (scroll to the bottom) and also focuses on ESPN’s coverage of the Little League World Series. With this story changing so frequently, we’ll continue to monitor this throughout the weekend.

Let’s check the other media columns today.

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand says Fox is going Hollywood for the Super Bowl by using Ryan Seacrest to interview celebrities as they enter the stadium. Great.

Newsday’s Neil Best talks with Boomer Esiason who will co-host WFAN’s morning show starting in September. Best reports Esiason will do all but three Monday Night Football games for Westwood One Radio. In his blog, Best says the wall-to-wall coverage of the Little League World Series by the Disney sports networks is too much. I agree with him.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times summarizes the fans’ love for Phil Rizzuto.

Bob Raissman in today’s New York Daily News says MLB’s network partners are hoping the Yankees are in the pennant race down the stretch.

In the New York Post, Phil Muschnick says Dan Patrick is leaving ESPN at the right time. Also in the Post, Keith Terranova has 5 questions for SNY Mets analyst Keith Hernandez. And Terranova says the move by David Beckham to the MLS’ LA Galaxy has been good off the field in ticket sales and TV ratings, but it has yet to translate on the pitch.

Laura Nachman of the Bucks County Courier Times talks with Comcast SportsNet’s soccer analyst Phil Andrews who’s hoping Becks will have a huge impact on the sport here in States. Nachman also has an assessment on the Philadelphia Eagles’ first preseason telecast.

In The State newspaper in Columbia, SC, Doug Nye says the good ol’ days of sports TV were good, but today is pretty good too. And Nye says the Detroit-Yankees game tomorrow is the weekend’s best bet.

Charles Elmore of the Palm Beach Post says ESPN is the big loser in Dan Patrick’s departure.

Dave Darling of the Orlando Sentinel writes about the NFL trying to restrict the media’s coverage of its sport.

Barry Jackson writes in today’s Miami Herald that a promo by WQAM has led to one of the Miami Dolphins players canceling a show on the station.

Bob Wolfey of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes that the picture of the Big Ten Network being seen in Wisconsin is very fuzzy.

In the Chicago Tribune, Teddy Greenstein writes a Q & A about the potential of BTN to appear in Chicagoland.

George M. Thomas in the Akron Beacon Journal writes that SportsTime Ohio is garnering excellent ratings for Cleveland Indians games.

Over to the San Deigo Union-Tribune where Jay Posner says no one has been hired to work with Ted Leitner on San Diego State University football radio broadcasts and the first game is three weeks away.

John Maffei in the North County Times says ESPNU is making inroads in the San Diego market.

In the Los Angeles Times, Larry Stewart says former New York Giant Tiki Barber is making career inroads in his first year away from football.

According to Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News, Clippers play-by-play announcer Matt Pinto is leaving the team to go to the Seattle Supersonics. Hoffarth writes that ESPN has made poker a legitimate sport. And Hoffarth has a long follow up entry in his Farther Off the Wall blog.

In Canada, the Toronto Star’s Chris Zelkovich says CBC plans to pull out all the stops for its coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the last it will broadcast until at least 2014.

William Houston of the Toronto Globe and Mail says the Score will attempt to expand its distribution across Canada.

I’ll be back later today. My plans to blog Dan Patrick’s final hour on ESPN Radio may have to be scrapped as I have to get out of work early. The Patriots play two miles from me and I want to get out before traffic gets too heavy. Check back with me.

Friday Update Linkage

I’m thoroughly enjoying the online coverage of the PGA Championship from Southern Hills. I do wish CBS would allow its coverage to be made available online, but seeing TNT’s first and second round simulcast is enough for me. Again, I’ll provide the link for you here.

Let’s provide some more links this afternoon before I head home from work.

The Big Ten Network is still having trouble signing deals with the major cable companies in the Midwest, but Time Warner may come to the rescue so fans in Ohio can at least see the first two Ohio State games. Mike Pramik and Molly Willow of the Columbus Dispatch have that story. Kevin Freeman of the Lancaster (PA) Intelligencer writes a general story on the dispute between BTN and the cable industry.

Paul Christian of the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin hails the return of the Minnesota Vikings to local TV.

Evan Weiner in today’s New York Sun reports that the NHL has hired an executive from the NBA to help the league increase its exposure on cable TV.

Thanks to Neil Best who linked to it on his blog, the Awful Announcing site has a funny clip of Fox Sports’ Pam Oliver not only having to deal with a cockroach placed on Cowboy QB Tony Romo, but also being rather feisty to her producer. We like Pam.

The Sports Media Watch blog gives its ratings predictions for the TV sporting weekend.

Ethan Skolnick of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel has an entry in his blog about the shuffling of lineups on Miami’s sports radio stations.

In his mailbag, Bill Simmons of ESPN.com answers various questions including one about Fox Sports, MLB and DirecTV blacking out Saturday afternoon games on local RSN’s.

Former New York Islander GM and Boston Bruins defenseman Mike Millbury will be busy this upcoming season. Not only will he do work for NBC in the studio, he’ll work selected games for NESN on Bruins’ telecasts.

Jeffrey Flanagan of the Kansas City Star says Brian MacRae is hopeful to do Royals games next season despite a change in outlets in both radio and TV.

The Dallas Morning News has an editorial criticizing the NFL for its silly web video restrictions.

Terry Jones of the Edmonton Sun writes about Craig Simpson leaving his assistant coaching position with the Oilers for a return to TV as an analyst on Hockey Night in Canada.

Those are the links for now. I’ll be back later with the Primetime and Late Night Viewing Choices.

The Wednesday Night Update

Good evening. Barry Bonds isn’t playing tonight so there’s no need to watch the Braves-Giants game on TBS. So instead, I’m watching Ninja Warrior on G4. Very entertaining indeed.

The Sports Media Watch blog has a good entry today on the NBA referee gambling scandal. While some media pundits feel this spells the end of the league, Paulsen says it’ll take more than this to doom the NBA.

LC has more on the fool that is Glenn Geffner. Tuesday night was the 100th game of the season as pointed out by the Goof. Plus, LC publishes an e-mail from one reader. I can’t stand listening to a Red Sox game as long as Goofie is on the mike. I feel he is an affront to all of Red Sox Nation.

USA Today picks up a story from a fellow Gannett newspaper, the Des Moines Register, saying that the Big Ten Network has conference officials looking to add a 12th team, possibly as soon as next year. I can tell you it won’t be Notre Dame. You knew this was coming. In addition to the games it will televise this season, BTN will air 24 “Classic” football games. From the Herald Times (IN) online blog about Indiana University sports, Doug Wilson and Chris Korman give the scoop on the Big Ten Network and what it means for Hoosier fans.

ESPN will unveil what it calls “Draft Track” during its NASCAR debut on Sunday. John Andretti will part of the radio team broadcasting the Brickyard 400. And SI.com picks up an Associated Press story on ESPN’s return to NASCAR.

Broadcasting & Cable’s John Eggerton says The Radio and Television News Directors Association (of which I used to be a member) has lodged a protest with the NFL in regards to its silly 45 second video rule for websites.

And Eggerton also writes about TBS.com having streaming video of every Barry Bonds at-bat until he breaks Hank Aaron’s home run record.

Jim Williams of the DC/Baltimore Examiner gives us an article about how Cal Ripken successfully created his own brand.

Those are your links for tonight. I will probably have links later tomorrow.

I’m here. Your Links are Safe and Sound

Ok, back from the jobsite. I’ll give you as many links as possible today.

Let’s begin with David Scott from Boston Sports Media Watch.com. He has been away for a while so he catches up with a mega-column today featuring stuff about WEEI/WRKO Program Director Jason Wolfe’s troubles, NESN doing its own PTI, Dale Arnold being dropped from NESN and ESPN.com’s Bill Simmons running for President of Red Sox Nation.

Susan Bickelhaupt of the Boston Globe writes about ABC covering the Open Championship this weekend. George M. Thomas of the Akron Beacon Journal has a story on ABC’s announcing crew for the Open Championship, Mike Tirico and Paul Azinger. Nick Faldo of CBS and the Golf Channel joins them in the 18th tower.

Michael Hiestand in this morning’s edition of USA Today wonders where Dan Patrick will land on TV.

From CNBC, Darren Rovell wonders which NBA referee is being investigated for ties to the Mob. Murray Weiss of the New York Post has the original story.

The Sports Media Watch blog has some good stuff this week. It had a post on PETA protesting the NFL offices today over the Michael Vick issue.

As we get closer to Barry Bonds breaking Hank Aaron’s home run record, we’ll have a new radio call from the San Francisco Giants radio network (could be Jon Miller or Dave Fleming), the opposing team’s radio network, a national TV call (Fox or ESPN) and even the local TV networks. I have heard all three of the calls for Hank Aaron’s home run that broke Babe Ruth’s mark of 714 home run back in 1974. Curt Gowdy called it for NBC on Monday Night Baseball. Vin Scully called it for the Dodgers and it was a very gracious call noting the history of an African American being cheered in the deep south. And calling it for the Atlanta Braves was Hall of Fame announcer Milo Hamilton. Jeremy Cothran of the Newark (NJ) Star Ledger talks to Hamilton and Joe Garagiola who was working with Gowdy on NBC.

Neil Best of Newsday writes about ESPN’s Who’s Now segment which is being killed across the country.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post just can’t stand ESPN’s Joe Morgan.

In the New York Daily News, Bob Raissman says the NFL and its network partners are going to start feeling the pressure about Michael Vick from the Human Society.

In Philadelphia, Laura Nachman of the Bucks County Courier Times says local sports radio station WPEN plans to offer more local programming for fans.

Ray Frager in the Baltimore Sun says there will be plenty of archival highlights of Cal Ripken for Orioles fans to watch before he goes into the Baseball Hall of Fame next week.

Jim Williams of the DC/Baltimore Examiner says it’s too early to judge Michael Vick. And Williams talks with Sirius Satellite Radio’s Giorgio Chinaglia about David Beckham.

In The State of South Carolina, Doug Nye says “The Bronx is Burning” doesn’t do much for him.

Dave Darling of the Orlando Sentinel writes about a bunch of announcements from ESPN.

To the Miami Herald where Barry Jackson discusses the various shows both on TV and radio devoted to the Dolphins this season.

Jason Lieser in the Palm Beach Post talks to some sports bloggers and notes their influence on reporting these days. Lieser didn’t talk to me.

There are three sports radio stations in Houston and soon to be a fourth, but David Barron of the Chronicle says only one registered in the local Arbitron ratings.

Bob Wolfey in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel speaks to ESPN’s Jon Anderson who grew up a Packers fan.

In his weekly Friday media column, Paul Christian of the Rochester Post-Bulletin says many Minnesotans won’t have access to guess what? The Big Ten Network.

In the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune, Judd Zulgad has the University of Minnesota officials fuming mad at local TV station, KSTP for running pictures from the Facebook and MySpace accounts of several school football players.

Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune says many newspapers aren’t happy with a new NFL policy calling on photographers to wear vests with prominent product logos.

In the San Diego Union-Tribune, Jay Posner writes about Cox 4 expanding its local sports commitment beyond the Padres. And here are the ratings for sports on TV in the San Diego market.

John Maffei in the North County Times says ESPN will show the LA Galaxy-Chelsea match even if David Beckham doesn’t play. Whatever.

In the LA Daily News, Tom Hoffarth says soccer-football terms get lost in the translation. And Hoffarth really expands on Beckham and other media notes including Dan Patrick in his blog.

Larry Stewart only has one story in today’s LA Times. This one is about the US Open Series which is a bunch of tennis tournaments leading up to next month’s US Open in Flushing Meadow.

I’ve spent two hours looking for links for you. If I have time, I’ll do some more links later.

The Wednesday Links

Back on a Wednesday and time for the links.

The Big Ten Network has set its studio lineup and most of its game announcing crews. Michael Hiestand of USA Today has the story. Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune says the announcing crews will have a Fox flavor. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s Bob Wolfey also has a story on the Big Ten Network announcement. Judd Zulgad of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune says former University of Minnesota football coach Glen Mason will be an analyst for BTN. The Columbus Dispatch also has a story on the hirings.

Yesterday, the Big East football coaches held their annual media day in Newport, RI and we have some links for you. Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review says the Big East Conference is not interested in forming a channel of its own (scroll to the bottom). Good idea. The Northeast is not a hotbed for college sports unlike the Midwest and South. Kevin McNamara, the excellent college sports writer of the Providence Journal, has a story on the Big East football conference growing in popularity thanks to its appearances on nights other than Saturdays on ESPN.

In the DC/Baltimore Examiner, Jim Williams says there’s a British invasion with David and Victoria Beckham coming to America, but in turn, there’s an American invasion of the UK for the Open Championship this weekend.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle has an update on Richard Justice who will join KILE when it launches an all-sports format later this summer.

J.P. Pelzman of the Bergen Record of New Jersey piles on the criticism of “Who’s Now” on ESPN.

Chris Freud of the Vail Daily (CO) newspaper says despite ESPN’s dog days, there is some good sports TV programming out there.

John Marshall of the AP has a story on the NFL’s silly 45 second online video rule.

Paul Christian of the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin profiles KTTC-TV sports anchor Pat Lund who has lost almost 90 pounds.

Neil Best of Newsday caught up with an ESPN executive this week who told him that the network didn’t mean to break a MLB embargo on the All Star Game selections.

That’s it for now.

Back to Work Links

If you’re back at work, this is a grind. But if you’re on vacation, I don’t want to hear about it. LOL. Anyway, time to check the links to see what’s going on.

The big sporting event this week will be The Open Championship at Carnoustie. I don’t know if anyone will be providing online coverage, but if anyone does, I’ll let you know. TNT provides the live early round transmissions starting at 7 a.m. going until about 5 p.m. ET, then taped coverage until 7 p.m. I do hope we see something online whether it be from TNT.tv or The Open’s website.

Over the weekend, we didn’t have much to speak of other than MLB on Fox, PGA on CBS, the WNBA All Star Game and the ESPY’s.

The main subject of discussion on various sports radio stations was the Andrea Kremer interview of Gary Sheffield on HBO. The interview hasn’t even aired yet, but WFAN in New York, WEEI in Boston and ESPN Radio nationally all touched on the bites. Neil Best of Newsday was the first to review it, then other writers followed. USA Today’s Michael McCarthy follows up on the discussion.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post reviews Ralph Kiner Night.

Richard Sandomir writes about Joe DiMaggio’s Diary. That’s right. Joltin’ Joe kept a diary and it’s going up for auction. There are links to page scans from the diary in the story.

Tom Jones of the St. Petersburg Times has his review of the sporting TV weekend.

Ben Grossman of Broadcasting & Cable magazine says the success of last week’s streaming of the All Star Game batting practice has prompted Fox to stream more events including next month’s NFL Announcer’s seminar.

Variety magazine talks about the rise in MLB TV ratings on Fox and ESPN (be careful, there are a lot of popup windows and the site could be infected by spyware).

Oscar Dixon of USA Today has more on Disney’s deal with the WNBA.

If you think ESPN is getting too big, you may be right. It wants to build another office building on its Bristol, CT campus.

Jason Fry of the Wall Street Journal says newspapers not only have to compete with blogs, but sports leagues who have set their own rules on content. The main subject is the silly NFL 45 second rule on video clips. Once again, I’ll post the video from General John McClain of the Houston Chronicle poking fun at the silly rule.

Those are your links for now. I’ll be back later with an update.

Some Sunday Links

Let’s give you some Sunday links just before we head back to work on Monday.

The New York Times’ Richard Sandomir picks up Neil Best’s Newsday story on Gary Sheffield’s HBO interview that will air on Tuesday. Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News also looks at the Sheffield interview.

And in his Sunday news & notes column, Raissman says the networks should be shooting their focus on Hank Aaron in the Barry Bonds home run record chase, not Bonds.

Neil Best has a story today on the Yankees, but as the subject of many a Hollywood movie, TV show or other medium.

Phil Mushnick in the New York Post says while Fox was being nice to umpire Bruce Froemming in the All Star Game last week, the Post curmudgeon says it should have remembered an anti-Jewish slur he made four years ago.

For the first time, the WNBA has received a TV and digital rights deal. It’s with ESPN, naturally. And the Sports Media Watch blog wonders why the WNBA would sign such a deal when it basically reduces the number of appearances on ABC, a network that could help promote the league. In the AP story put forth by Forbes.com, WNBA President Donna Orender says the deal is a tremendous vote of confidence, but is it?

Devin Gordon in the latest issue of Newsweek magazine calls ESPN, the World’s Biggest Cheerleader at the risk of its news reporting operation. Ben Grossman in his blog on the Broadcasting & Cable website says he has a love-hate relationship with the Alleged Worldwide Leader. Ethan Skolnick in his blog at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, suggests a new category for the ESPY Awards tonight.

In the Dallas Morning News, Barry Horn says Big D was last of all rated markets for the All Star Game.

You remember the silly NFL policy banning video no more than 45 seconds on websites not directly affiliated with the No Fun League? Well, more attention is being focused on it and I hope this will eventually force the NFL to reverse its decision.

Jeff Elliot in the Florida Times-Union says the Jacksonville Jaguars still don’t have a local TV home for exhibition games that begin next month.

It appears that Vince Cellini has left the Golf Channel.

Lenox Rawlings of the Winston-Salem Journal says Orioles fans in North Carolina are the victims in the MASN-Time Warner Cable dispute.

I’ll be back Monday with more links. Now time to watch Entourage.

Late Thursday Night Linx

Ok, I wasn’t going to provide an update, but since I have no schedule, why not?

First, Neil Best of Newsday has found out a bit more on MLB punishing ESPN for breaking the All-Star Game announcement embargo while TBS was doing it on the official MLB show on Sunday. He got an update late Thursday afternoon and while ESPN wouldn’t own up to it, the Alleged Worldwide Leader’s reporters will not have a set inside AT&T Park as it usually does as a network partner, but reporters will have to do stand-ups or have the set outside the park. As someone who has been in the news business as a reporter, when someone tells you there’s an embargo, you don’t go and break it in the guise of breaking news. You adhere to it because you’ve been asked and so you do. This is part of ESPN’s arrogance as it thinks it’s the Sports almighty. I really think ESPN has to be knocked down a peg.

The Sports Media Watch blog suggests that with all of the Dan Patrick Leaving ESPN speculation, he might be heading to NBC to pair up with Keith Olbermann on Football Night in America. Olbermann is already joining the show to add some much needed energy. Having Patrick there would reunite him with Keithy on TV and give NBC’s show some juice. That would leave Bob Costas out in the loop, but while he’s been a very good host in MLB and the Olympics for NBC, the new Football Night in America isn’t what he’s cut out for, strangely.

Also from the Sports Media Watch blog, ESPN plans to overhype …. errrrrrrr…. promote David Beckham’s first game with the MLS’ Los Angeles Galaxy on July 21st.

Variety reports on NBC’s renewal of rights to Wimbledon, including what? Yes, digital rights. The Hollywood Reporter’s Paul Gough has his version of the story and ESPN looks like it will renew its deal as well, but nothing official as of yet.

Gough also reports on MLB’s TV partners planning for Barry Bonds’ chase of the all-time home run record.

And a very good column in the OBR or The Orange and Brown Report, which is devoted to my favorite NFL team, the Cleveland Browns, about the danger of blogs and cyberjournalists selling out, plus more on the silly NFL policy restricting independent websites to soundbites totaling no more than 45 seconds a day and not being made available for more than 24 hours. This is one of the dumbest policies I have seen, along the lines of restricting local TV stations from being on the sidelines of games recording game action for highlights on news programs. That policy was relaxed for this coming season. I’m hoping after negative media and blog backlash, this new policy will also be relaxed.

NBC Sports is busy in London with Wimbledon this week, but it’s also doing another USGA event, the U.S. Senior Open, from Wisconsin.

The New Haven (CT)Register’s David Borges has a story on NESN director Mike Narracci who does great work in calling the shots on Red Sox TV games.

We’ll have lots of Friday links in the morning. For now, enjoy the links tonight.

The Day Before the 4th of July

I’d rather have the 4th of July holiday on either a Monday or Friday and next year, being a leap year, the 4th will fall on a Friday, but this year, it’s in the middle of the week so we all have to deal. But as many have taken the week off, some of us are still at work so in the meantime, I provide you with links.

I don’t know why I’m so upset over the Bud Collins firing by NBC. Bud will still work for the Globe, but I guess it’s the fact that someone I’ve grown accustomed to seeing on tennis tournaments every year is not going to be there next year. I’m hoping that will change. Susan Bickelhaupt of the Globe has a short story. Larry Stewart of the LA Times has NBC denying it fired Collins. In the Palm Beach Post, Charles Elmore has Collins saying he’s not retiring.

The New York Post follows up on its own story of Cynthia Rodriguez wearing a t-shirt to Sunday’s game saying, “Fuck you” on the back. She had her kids with her at the time.

Over to the Midwest region where the Big Ten Network continues to make news. It’s launch on August 30 is fast approaching, but the channel still doesn’t have agreements with Bright House, Comcast and Time Warner. Two days after the launch, the channel starts televising games. Carol Slezak in today’s Chicago Tribune says the Big Ten Conference is arrogant thinking fans will flock to watch what she calls “a D-list football game”. Harsh. But she may be right. Over in Bloomington, Indiana, fans there are wondering if Bloomington-Normal cable and Insight cable will pick up the channel. Centre Daily Times editor Bob Heisse says Comcast is right to want to put the Big Ten Network on a sports tier. And Variety says the Big Ten Network will have fewer subscribers at launch than it had hoped for.

Former Vermont men’s basketball coach Tom Brennan has signed a contract extension with ESPN.

The Follow the Media site has a good feature on the rising price of digital rights for sports leagues like the NBA and events such as the Olympics.

And in the story, there’s mention of the NFL imposing a 45 second rule on websites showing video of player interviews. That’s right, we’re not even talking game footage, we’re talking about interview of players at mini-camp or press conferences. This is because the NFL wants you to go to its website where it will get all the web hits. Thanks to Deadspin which picked up the story from Foul Balls.net, we find tht the NFL is enforcing this silly rule.

The great Houston Chronicle columnist John McLain shows you how silly this rule is.

Those are the links for now. I’m not sure I’ll be back with an afternoon update. I will have primetime viewing choices and maybe something tonight. If I don’t see you here later, have a great 4th.

Ken