Fang's Bites

Some Really Late Night/Early Morning Links

We have some late news for you. Let’s provide a few links.

First, it appears that a Comcast purchase of NBC is getting closer. Tim Arango and Bill Carter of the New York Times report that General Electric has come to an agreement on a purchase price of the 20% of NBC Universal that is owned by Vivendi. This was the main sticking point for Comcast to buy a majority stake in NBCU. Now that this hurdle has for the most part been cleared, this paves the road for Comcast to buy into NBCU. There are regulatory hurdles for Comcast, but for all intents and purposes, the path is clear for NBCU to be sold.

Also from the Times, Richard Sandomir writes that our long national nightmare is over. Chip Caray will part ways with Turner Sports. He will no longer call the Atlanta Braves for Peachtree TV and it also means he won’t be calling MLB games on TBS including the postseason. Caray had come under controversy for miscalling plays and for his constant “FISTED” references.

Alex Weprin of Broadcasting & Cable also writes about Caray’s departure from TBS.

David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution says in essence, Caray was given the boot by Turner Sports.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News certainly isn’t sad to see Caray go.

This means there won’t be someone from the Caray family calling games on TBS for the first time since 1976 when the station was known was WTCG.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell writes that ESPN The Magazine’s The Body issue was a financial success.

Sean Leahy of USA Today’s The Huddle blog noticed that Patriots coach Bill Belichick interrupted Suzy Kolber’s interview of Saints QB Drew Brees after New Orleans win over New England on Monday Night Football.

Matthew J. Darnell of Yahoo’s Shutdown Corner blog lists his 10 biggest professional football flops of the last ten years and they include two sports media issues.

The Albany Times Union’s Pete Dougherty says to no one’s surprise, the NFL kept Eagles-Giants in primetime for Week 14.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News writes that Texas-Texas A&M scored for ESPN on Thanksgiving night.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle has some local ratings news in regards to football.

John Kiesewetter in the Cincinnati Enquirer says the Bengals continue to garner high ratings.

Jeff Korbelik and Ken Hambleton of the Lincoln (NE) Journal Star write that a local sports talk show was taken off the air on Monday with no advanced warning.

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star has some additional thoughts on TSN’s coverage of the Grey Cup that didn’t make it into his Monday column.

William Houston of the Truth & Rumours blog says TSN set a viewership record for the Grey Cup.

Joe Favorito gives praise to the Canadian Football League for staying true to its brand.

Chris Byrne of the Eye on Sports Media says the Sports Information Director of Idaho State apparently scooped the world on the Charlie Weis story.

From the Sports Media Watch, we learn that CBS fared well for Florida State-Florida on Saturday.

SMW says Black Friday college football scored for CBS, but not for ABC.

The SMW notes that the last game for Charlie Weis as coach of Notre Dame gave ABC its highest college football ratings in a month.

SMW says both CBS and Fox did well on their Thanksgiving Day NFL games.

Steelers-Ravens scored for NBC.

SMW says Brett Favre drew good ratings for Fox in the late afternoon slot on Sunday.

But SMW notes that CBS saw a ratings drop for its regional NFL coverage.

SMW has some ratings news and notes.

Lastly from the SMW which was quite busy on Monday, disgraced NBA referee Tim Donaghy will be interviewed Sunday on 60 Minutes.

EPL Talk says ESPN is heavily promoting this Friday’s World Cup draw and what will be known as the Group of Death.

Ok, it’s late or very early depending on your point of view. Time for me to sleep and I’ll be back with you later for the viewing picks and even more linkage.

Friday Night Links

I’ll do some links again during a late night. Things continue to happen in the sports media.

First, Diane Pucin of the Los Angeles Times reports that the TV broadcast team for the Clippers made fun of the only Iranian-born player in the NBA, center Hamed Haddadi of the Memphis Grizzlies and got suspended for tonight’s game.

Sports Illustrated’s Arash Markazi tweets that the Clippers were planning to host an Iranian heritage when the Grizzlies next visited Los Angeles before this incident.

Arash also tweets the reaction from Haddadi’s manager.

Greg Risling of the Associated Press reports that bail has been set for Erin Andrews’ alleged stalker.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell is awed by a time lapse photography sequence taken before, during and after Game 6 of this year’s World Series.

Ken McMillan of the Hudson Valley Times Herald-Record says get ready to see a lot of classic baseball games over the next week.

Washington Post Nationals beat writer Chico Harlan announces that he’s leaving the beat to be replaced on an interim basis by Chico Harlan. Thanks to the great Maury Brown of the Biz of Baseball for the link.

Sarah Talalay of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel writes that the Florida Panthers will unveil a new third jersey on Monday.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Times reviews the week in sports media.

KCRA-TV in Sacramento is focusing on former Kings star Chris Webber who called his former city a “Cowtown” in an interview with ESPN Radio.

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star has some various news and notes in his blog.

Barry M. Bloom of MLB.com writes that MLB Walking, Talking Conflict of Interest Bud Selig is touting revenues from MLB Network that offset for lost attendance in 2009.

Evan Weiner of MCN Sports asks if Detroit is still a major market.

Amanda Bruno from Batter-up with Bruno notes that former Boston Globe Red Sox beat writer Gordon Edes has officially joined ESPN Boston.

Lynn Hoppes of ESPN.com interviews Gordon.

The Big Lead wonders what’s up with Suzy Kolber.

The Big Lead breaks news that Captain Blowhard, Bill Simmons of ESPN.com has been suspended from Twitter by the network for a tweet he made about Boston sports radio station WEEI.

ESPN.com editor-in-chief Rob King explains why Captain Blowhard was suspended.

Andrew Bucholtz in the Sporting Madness blog has a good post on why the whole thing is silly.

Even the Huffington Post is chiming in on the Captain Blowhard suspension.

paidContent also has a story on this really big non-story.

From the Eye on Sports Media, Chris Byrne goes in-depth on how a blog got credentialed for the Ohio State-Michigan game.

The Sports Media Watch has some idle notes.

SMW notes that the ratings for Thursday’s Dolphins-Panthers game on NFL Network dropped from the week before.

SMW says NFL Week 10 was a mixed bag for Fox.

NFL Week 10, however, was good for CBS.

CBS did not fare so well with the SEC as it slipped below ABC’s offerings opposite Florida-South Carolina.

But SMW says ABC’s ratings for college football continue to show signs of slippage. Or to cut down on the verbiage, I could have written, “ABC’s college football ratings slipped again last week.”

And SMW has various ratings news and notes.

That is going to conclude the links for tonight. I should be back on Saturday provided my day has not been planned for me behind my back.

Just A Few Thursday Links

I’m rushing to finish a project before noon, 11, actually, so I really can’t provide extensive links.

I’ll start with myself today. I have a column at Digital Sports Daily on what else? The NCAA Tournament.

Ray Frager of the Baltimore Sun wants to know what’s the big deal about Suzy Kolber’s hair in HD? Ray says the NCAA Tournament can be heard on the radio in Charm City.

Ed Sherman of Crain’s Chicago Business says a WGN-TV sports anchor decided not to retire this year out of love.

Adam Rose of the Los Angeles Times says the March Madness Sports Illustrated’s cover is out.

Joe Favorito wonders if two other college basketball tournaments that are being played other than the NCAA and NIT have any specific value to the schools playing in them.

38 Cliches again takes MLB Network to task for using the world feed for the World Baseball Classic instead of its own production crew. I’ll agree with this. The production of the world feed has been quite poor and it’s missed key plays.

Maury Brown of the Biz of Baseball says the Dodgers’ Manny Ramirez will be part of DirecTV’s promotional campaign for its CricketTicket pay per view package.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says NBC has renewed with Microsoft for its Silverlight technology to drive its online video streamining for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Mike writes that Gol TV has renewed its rights to show Spain’s top soccer league.

I have to end it there. I’ll be back later.

Late Sunday Links

I’m in a bit of a work jam so let me give you some linkage on this late Sunday evening on the East coast.

Neil Best of Newsday embeds the last 38.1 seconds of Saturday’s Cal-UCLA game in which Brent Musberger seemed to be oblivious to the Bruins’ winning shot which came from behind the backboard and had to have Steve Lavin point out what happened. Neil also recaps what occured when WFAN’s Mike Francesca went beserk on a producer who would not stop talking into his headset.

The LAist blog goes over the two controversies from the Cal-UCLA game including that over the backboard shot.

The Eye on Sports Media blog remembers University of North Carolina student President Eve Carson who was killed in a carjacking last week.

Ray Frager of the Baltimore Sun writes in his Medium Well blog about Suzy Kolber giving birth and the infamous “Speedo Guy” caught by ESPN cameras at the North Carolina-Duke game.

And the AOL Fanhouse blog has the video of “Speedo Guy” doing the crotch chop gesture on ESPN.

David James of KUTV in Salt Lake City, UT wonders now that the mtn. will be on DirecTV this fall, will the channel actually go out and televise all Mountain West Conference games instead cherrypicking a select few to air.

Bob Larson Tennis News says FSN will be the new home of the Indian Wells tournament coming up later this month.

Those are the links for tonight.

Yo! It’s Friday and the Megalinks are Here

Time to do the megalinks. Before I get started, I want to announce that Fang’s Bites and Boston Sports Media Watch will be teaming up. Every Friday, I’ll be doing a similar service for BSMW. I’ll do the links here first and then I’ll be sending them over to BSMW. Bruce Allen has been doing a great job at his blog and has been providing links on the Boston media since 2002. It’s one of the most established blogs around and I want to thank him for the work he’s done and will continue to do. So you can visit both sites and find the links.

Let’s start with Michael Hiestand of USA Today. He has an interesting story about the staffers who update ESPN’s Bottom Line, the scroll you see at the bottom on all of its family of networks. Hiestand also touches on ESPN’s and CBS’ plans for the upcoming plethora of college basketball games as well as Major League Baseball putting restrictions on websites that publish pictures of in-game action.

Now let’s go East to West with the media links.

East and Mid-Atlantic

David Scott of Boston Sports Media Watch writes about ESPN 890 General Manager Jessamy Tang misuing tickets originally donated for a charity event.

From the Boston Globe, Nancy Marrapese-Burrell talks about CBS entering the Mixed Martial Arts fray.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times says YES analyst Bobby Murcer and International Fight League President Jay Larkin have something in common, even though they’ve never met.

The perpetually angry Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News goes after the Mets for entering the spin cycle as injuries continue to ravage the team in Spring Training.

A Few More Thursday Links

I wasn’t planning to do a Thursday afternoon update, but I saw a few stories that captured my fancy so here we are.

First, thanks to Jeff Bercovici of Conde Nast’s Portfolio.com Mixed Media blog for linking to my post on Tuesday sarcastically discussing Peter King’s manlove for Brett Favre in the wake of the World’s Longest Retirement Announcement. Bercovici writes that Sports Illustrated will publish a special commemorative issue devoted to Favre next week. You can expect an article or two from Peter. To be honest, I’ve tried to avoid the coverage of Favre’s retirement whether it be on ESPN or NFL Network. The news surfaced Tuesday and today, two days later, Favre holds a press conference? Is he going to announce next week that he’s moving to Hawaii or something to that effect? This is getting a bit out of hand. I know Favre was great for the NFL, but do we really have to drag this out? What is this? The Democratic Presidential race?

Neil Best of Newsday writes that Favre pulled a Tiki Barber reference in his press conference. Neil teamed with Katie Strang on a story on how the New York Rangers are really gouging fans by raising the roof on ticket prices for the playoffs. Neil has a bit more on this in his blog as well.

Did you have any idea that Suzy Kolber was pregnant? Well apparently she was since last summer. Michael Klein of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Suzy gave birth to a girl on Wednesday and will be a single mother.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union writes in his blog that all Mets games on SNY will be seen in HD.

In the New York Times, Richard Sandomir writes about YES analyst Bobby Mercer’s biopsy results.

Fiona Morgan of Independent Weekly in North Carolina wonders if MASN will ever be available on Time Warner cable systems in the Tobacco State.

Jim Williams of the DC/Baltimore Examiner is happy that Fox is doing a full slate of MLB games this season. Ken Schott of the Schenectady Daily Gazette is too and even more so that the games are in High Def.

Ben Grossman of Broadcasting & Cable magazine says all MLB games on Fox will be broadcast in HD as I told you earlier today. Grossman also writes that the NFL Network has hired a new Director of Communications.

Chris Reidy of the Boston Globe writes about a Boston ad agency that developed the campaign for ESPN’s Fantasy Baseball using soap opera stars interacting with baseball stars.

Gene Policinski of the First Amendment Center writes a column for the North County (NY) Gazette about the tighter control MLB is taking over images posted on websites.

A couple of posts from the Business of Sports Network. From the Biz of Baseball site, Maury Brown reports that baseball fans here in the States may see some Japanese promotional ideas this season. The thundersticks which were first seen in Japan are now a fixture here so why not? From the Biz of Basketball site, Bill Johnson writes that the Los Angeles Lakers easily dominated the ratings last weekend on ABC.

The Business Journal of Phoenix reports that the Suns are setting ratings records despite losing of late.

Comcast SportsNet New England is pulling an ad that made fun of the Massachusetts town of Athol. Pronounce it and you’ll know why.

Friend of Fang’s Bites, Busted Coverage, has been all over the resurfacing of internet sensation Allison Stokke and breaks the story that the University of California is now trying to cash in on the fact that she’s attending the Berkeley campus by selling her picture. I don’t believe that Allison is making any money off that venture or gave her permission for it, but that’s me.

And that is all.

Our Sunday Linkage

Let’s give you some links for today.

We’ll start off with Newsday’s Neil Best, but before that, let me me gaze at Giada De Laurentiis on Everyday Italian for a moment.

Ok, Rachel Ray is on. That’s where I draw the line.

Where was I? Oh yes, Neil Best of Newsday has a column celebrating the 100th birthday of the late, great Hall of Fame announcer Red Barber, who still has an influence on announcers today. In his blog, Neil notes that he’s doing another historical piece for next Sunday. And Neil also says that he’s cutting back on posting during the weekends. He’s made this announcement before, so let’s see if he sticks with it this time.

The New York Daily News’ Bob Raissman says when TNT’s Kenny Smith is doing games on MSG, he’s sounding like he’s making a pitch to become the coach of the Knicks.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post picks a strange battle here, defending Big East referee Bob Donato for making a gutsy (and wrong) call in the Villanova-Georgetown game last Monday.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has a post in his blog about some Black History Month programming and books.

Shannon J. Owens of the Orlando Sentinel says ESPN’s Suzy Kolber should get a better gig now that her role has been reduced on Monday Night Football.

Jeff Rabjohns of the Indianapolis Star looks at the atmosphere in Bloomington, IN when ESPN’s College Gameday crew descended upon Assembly Hall yesterday. And Rabjohns writes the crowd was plainly against embattled Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson during College Gameday’s live show.

Steve Wiseman of The State in South Carolina says CBS Sports has begun promoting its online March Madness on Demand service.

The Washington Post has a laundry list for NASCAR’s TV partners to improve upon this season.

Eric Ransom of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram writes about former canoe gold medalist Joe Jacobi doing work for NBC during the Summer Olympics in Communist China this August.

The Sports Media Watch gives the weekly ratings predictions. And we have the ratings for the Daytona 500 and NBA All Star Game over the last four years.

Joseph Whip of TVPredictions.com asks Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia to provide more programming in HD.

Good friend, Joe Favorito writes in his Sports Marketing and PR blog about sports leagues’ global expansion and the English Premier League’s plans to go overseas.

The 38Cliches blog has some people who look back on the Glenn Geffner era in Red Sox broadcasting in anger.

That’s it for now.

Monday Evening Update

I’ll give you a few links tonight.

First, ESPN Ombudsman Le Anne Schreiber looks at Monday Night Football and feels the reduction of roles for sideline reporters Michelle Tafoya and Suzy Kolber are the least of its problems.

Newsday’s Neil Best is back blogging after taking the weekend off. He writes about NBC adding Oxygen to its Olympic family of networks. And Neil says CBS putting all of the NCAA Tournament games online and lifting local blackouts will definitely lower work productivity.

And here’s the CBS press release about March Madness on Demand for the NCAA Tournament. Don Walker of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes in his Business of Sport blog about March Madness on Demand.

The Ventura County Star’s Jim Carlisle has reader reaction to his Friday column about tape delayed Lakers game in his blog.

Chris Pursell of TV Week reports that ESPN has hired Damon Phillips, the founder of SportsTVInsider.com, as the Vice President of ESPN360.

John Feinstein has a very nice column in the Washington Post about the return of Dick Vitale to ESPN.

There are a couple of more Chris Berman videos. One is him talking about the Canadian deux deux deux or codeine. And the other is him trying to get a table for three of his friends at the ESPN Zone in Baltimore. This is funny stuff.

Good friend, LC, has reaction to Dale Arnold and Jon Rish joining the Red Sox radio broadcast booth.

And Fox Sports tells us that the Budweiser Shootout on Saturday the NASCAR season to a fast start.

BUDWEISER SHOOTOUT GETS 2008 NASCAR ON FOX

SEASON OFF TO FAST START

Season Opening Event Powers FOX to Primetime Win;

Posts +6% Increase Over Last Year

The 2008 NASCAR on FOX season got off to a strong start Saturday night by notching a 5.1 household rating and a 9 share (8.5 million viewers) for the Budweiser Shootout from Daytona. Saturday’s 5.1/9 is a +6% gain over last year’s 4.8/9 for the Shootout, according to Nielsen Fast National ratings released today.

The Budweiser Shootout powered FOX to primetime wins for the night in both household rating and the Adults 18-49 demographic. Among all homes, FOX’s 5.1/9 for the Shootout scored a +19% win over second place NBC’s 4.3/8 and FOX’s 3.0 rating in Adults 18-49 was good for an impressive +30% win over ABC’s 2.3. The Shootout also saw ratings increases among Men 25-54 (+6%, 5.1 vs. 4.8) and Men 55+ (+8%, 5.6 vs. 5.2).

Viewing of the Budweiser Shootout peaked at a 6.1/11 from 10:00-10:10 PM ET as over 10 million viewers saw Dale Earnhardt Jr. take the checkered flag in his first outing in the No. 88 car for Hendrick Motorsports.

That will do it for now.

The Monday Links

Here we are, back to work and time to give you some links.

First, David Scott of Boston Sports Media Watch tells us that Tina Cervasio was seen on NBC Sports this weekend. I wish I had seen her. By the way, Boston Sports Media Watch is going through a redesign and a new server. The new web page looks quite good and Bruce Allen who runs the site does a fantastic job running the site and was the first to provide links to stories relating to Boston sports. He’s the website that many of us amateur bloggers aspire to be.

Next, Michael Hiestand of USA Today tells us that the roles of sideline reporters Suzy Kolber and Michelle Tafoya on Monday Night Football are going to be reduced.

Phil Swann of the TV Predictions website says ESPN plans to expand its HD coverage in 2008.

The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick says it was wrong of several Congressmen to have had their picture taken with Roger Clemens, several days before he was to testify in DC this week.

Ray Frager of the Baltimore Sun gives us a couple of recommended links in his Medium Well blog.

Rocky Saunders of the Rocky Mountain News laments the end of Inside the NFL on HBO.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell gives us the top selling NFL jerseys.

CBS Sports says all 63 games of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament will be available online for the first time ever.

John Dempsey of Variety says Oxygen will air 20 hours of gymnastics coverage during the Summer Olympics.

You may have seen the video and Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union certainly has, but he says ESPN used restraint when showing the horrific moment when Florida Panthers defenseman Richard Zednik had his throat accidentally cut during the game against the Buffalo Sabres last night.

Laura Drake of the Ottawa Citizen writes that a Canadian band is trying to confirm one of its songs was used in the Fox Super Bowl pregame show.

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star says NBC is looking to produce a new reality show on curling featuring rock stars. You read that right. And Zelkovich says CBC was on its game during Hockey Day in Canada.

However, William Houston of the Toronto Globe and Mail feels CBC went too far. The Globe and Mail reports that Red Wings TV analyst Mickey Redmond is going surgery to remove a tumor on his lung.

That’s going to do it for now.

The Thursday Stuff

Hello, time for some links. Pretty busy morning at work so I’m trying to squeeze in some information for you in between tasks.

First, ESPN Radio has made its announcer assignments for the MLB postseason. While ESPN TV no longer has the rights to the League Division Series as it once did, ESPN Radio will have complete coverage. The teams are as follows:

Divisional Series

Dan Shulman-Dave Campbell

Jon Miller-Dusty Baker

Gary Thorne-Steve Phillips

Jon Sciambi-Buck Martinez

LCS

Shulman-Campbell

Jon Miller-Joe Morgan

World Series

Miller-Morgan; Shulman, Campbell and Peter Pascarelli pre- and post-game analysis and interviews.

While ESPN TV may not have a presence for Baseball Tonight and SportsCenter at the games, ESPN Radio will. Thanks to the ESPN Public Relations Department for making a quick response to my e-mail.

Over to the Worcester Telegram & Gazette where Bill Doyle writes that New England Patriots defensive back Ellis Hobbs is the star of a new furniture commercial airing locally.

In the Sports Media Watch blog, Paulsen writes that ESPN SportsCenter anchor and hockey maven John Buccigross has predicted that the Alleged Worldwide Leader will return to the NHL. Here’s Buccigross’ column from ESPN.com.

And thanks to Paulsen who links to the story on his blog, Tim Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes that Skip Carey is angry with TBS for not selecting him for the MLB postseason coverage. I did find that odd. And Neil Best of Newsday blogs that leaving Skip off the TBS playoff roster isn’t a big deal.

Jack Bogaczyk of the Charleston (WV) Daily Mail writes about TBS coming into the MLB postseason game for the first time.

Stuart Crosby in the Newnan Times-Herald laments the end of the Braves on TBS.

Mel Bracht in the Oklahoman (also home to Jenni Carlson) writes about the Atlanta Braves on TBS era sadly coming to an end. Bracht has some news and notes in his media notebook.

Another era coming to an end in Kansas City tonight where RSTN airs its last Royals game. Fox Sports Midwest takes over the Royals TV rights next season.

John Ryan of the San Jose Mercury News writes that FSN Bay Area caught an incident between the Padres and Giants, but didn’t show it.

Best writes that ESPN2′s Julie Foudy ripped US Women’s Soccer coach Greg Ryan for his strategy for switching goaltenders for today’s USA-Brazil game (notice the lovely pic of Julie with Brandi Chastain). Brazil won 4-0 today. And Best says Heather Mitts (Neil has a rather steamy pic of Heather) is chiming in as well.

Mike Murphy, an Indiana State Representative, has written an anti-Big Ten Network piece in today’s Indianapolis Star. From Business Week’s Sports Business special issue, Geoff Gloecker has a feature on Big Ten Commissioner James Delaney saying the conference has now become big business. Todd Milewski of the Capital (WI) Times writes that even with less games being picked up by FSN Wisconsin and two games on rarely seen the Big Ten Network, the University of Wisconsin men’s hockey coach is not concerned over the reduced exposure.

And also from the Business Week Sports Business issue, Geoff Gloecker and Tom Lowry have a profile of what the magazine calls the most powerful man in sports, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

The Inside Track girls in the Boston Herald write that ESPN will poke fun at the Patriots spygate scandal during the open on Monday Night Football next week.

Bill Fleischman of the Philadelphia Daily News writes in his NASCAR notebook (scroll down) that ESPN’s Suzy Kolber is enjoying her dual role as host of NASCAR Countdown and sideline reporter on Monday Night Football.

Scott Long in the Baseball Toaster blog says ESPN.com is no longer relevant. I agree.

Dish Network will pick up four Regional Sports Networks channels in HD.

The microsite for NBC’s Sunday Night Football has won an award for website design.

TSN has announced its features for its 70 game NHL national schedule in Canada. Bill Clement who lost his NHL studio hosting jobs on both NBC and Versus has picked up a gig with Rogers Sportsnet.

And CBC has signed a deal with YouTube to share content. Good move. I like this.

Those are your links for today.

It’s Thursday. I’m Here and it’s Time for Some Links

Finished my work over at the jobsite so it’s time to provide you with some links.

Over to the SOX & Dawgs site which has a petition seeking to have Glenn Geffner removed from the Red Sox Radio booth.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell has a story on Dale Earnhardt, Jr. who yesterday announced his new number for next year’s NASCAR Nextel Cup season and his new sponsor.

Neil Best of Newsday blogs about that MSG Network has not covered the Isiah Thomas sexual harassment trial. Best also mentions that Fox’ Troy Aikman doing a Giants game usually means a loss for the New York team (Best also works in a shot of Jessica Alba posing with Aikman).

Bill Doyle of the Worcester (MA) Telegram & Gazette writes about the NFL TV analysts taking their shots at Bill Belichick and FSN New England changing over to Comcast SportsNet New England a week from this Monday. And here’s a press release from Comcast about the FSN New England takeover in time for Celtics season.

Jim Williams in his Examiner blog breaks news that the Washington Nationals have decided to drop Bob Carpenter from the TV booth. Bad move in my opinion. Carpenter is a very good announcer and should be able to pick up a job for next season. Mark Zuckerman of the Washington Times has more on the story.

Thomas Boswell of the Washington Post writes about the end of RFK Stadium.

ESPN announces that Scott Van Pelt will be Mike Tirico’s replacement host and be a regular contributor along with Kirk Herbstreit and the lovely Michelle Tafoya. The Tirico show premieres on ESPN Radio today. Judd Zulgad of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune talks about Minnesota native Tafoya joining the Tirico show.

Mike McGraw of the Chicago Daily Herald talks with Big Ten Network anchor Mike Hall. And McGraw has six questions for the Antichrist.

Joanne C. Gerstner of the Detroit News advises readers not to blame the media when negative stories about sports surface.

The Louisville Courier-Journal reports that last Saturday’s Louisville-Kentucky game was the highest rated program ever on ESPN Classic.

David Hinckley of the New York Daily News talks with the new Program Director of ESPN Radio New York.

Shawn Gauby of the Drexel University school newspaper, the Triangle, talks with Drexel alumnus Chris McKendry of ESPN.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Bob Wolfey notes it’s been 25 years since the Packers, Wisconsin and the Brewers have all had winning seasons at the same time plus he talks about Donovan McNabb’s comments on Real Sports.

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star has a story on former “Bachelor” star Jesse Palmer who’s doing TV analysis work with TSN, ESPN and CTV.

Jeffrey Flanagan of the Kansas City Star talks with ESPN’s Suzy Kolber about sideline reporting and her role on NASCAR broadcasts.

Dave Weekley of the Charleston (WV) Gazette says the West Virginia-Maryland game on ESPN last Saturday did well in the ratings.

Carroll Rogers of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution blogs about the return of Chip Carey to the Atlanta Braves booth. And here’s Rogers’ story on Carey.

AT&T cellular customers can see the College Gameday guys, Chris Fowler, Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit on their phones.

Tim Povtak of the Orlando Sentinel writes that Bright House cable customers may not be able to see 35 Magic games on FSN. Some 42 games will remain on Sun Sports.

Dana Pennett O’Neil of the Philadelphia Daily News says she can relate to Donovan McNabb’s comments on Real Sports.

Erik Boland of Newsday talks with WFAN’s Ann Liguori who starts a new golf interview show on WLIU Radio this Saturday.

Sam Amick of the Sacramento Bee says 74 Kings games will be broadcast on Comcast SportsNet and KXTV.

That’s it for now. Check back for an update later.

Hot Chicks in Sports Broadcasting

1. Erin Andrews – ESPN
2. Shana Hiatt – Poker After Dark, NBC
3. Bonnie Bernstein – ESPN
4. Tracy Wolfson – CBS
5. Kathryn Tappen – NESN
6. Hazel Mae – NESN
7. Tina Cervasio – NESN
8. Suzy Kolber – ESPN (I’ll admit Suzy has looked better)

Edited at 10:10 p.m. Pictures and links added.