On a very rainy Sunday in the Northeast, let’s give you linkage which you have been sorely missing over the last few days. As you might know, I’ve been at a wedding and got back late on Saturday. I did provide some fresh material while I was gone and I thank Sports Illustrated’s Jimmy Traina for including Fang’s Bites in his A.M. Hot Clicks on Thursday and Friday.
Let’s do the linkage.
A strange story came out of Los Angeles on Saturday and it’s very disturbing. ESPN and Fanhouse blowhard Jay Mariotti, best known as Jay The Rat to Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert, was arrested Saturday and eventually released on $50,000 bail following an alleged domestic assault incident involving his girlfriend. Of course, ESPN has no comment, but I would not expect the organization to talk at this point.
According to SportsbyBrooks, this incident could be the death knell for Mariotti’s career at ESPN which was about to take off.
SBB also notes that prior to this alleged incident, Mariotti had been a noted critic of athletes who commit domestic abuse.
Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch tweets that Fanhouse’s editors will continue to monitor the story. We’ll also keep an eye on this story. There are several Mariotti detractors who are privately crowing about this.
Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says MSG Network’s high school sports channel is expected to go high-def by next year.
Mike also looks at the new carriage agreement between the NFL Network and the National Cable Television Cooperative which could bring the channel to Cablevision, Charter and Suddenlink systems.
At the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Dave Kindred says sometimes the best stories suddenly appear out of thin air.
The New York Times’ Richard Sandomir says this year’s ratings declines should not affect talks between the PGA Tour and its network TV partners, CBS and NBC.
Over to the New York Daily News where Bob Raissman feels Jets holdout Darrelle Revis could find himself on TV should he not sign a contract before the new regular season starts.
The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick is making another preposterous argument.
Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union wonders if ESPN’s Jenn Brown should be endorsing beer.
Press Box notes that the Baltimore Ravens have made an agreement to air their regular season programming on both WBAL Plus and Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic.
Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner looks at the Ravens returning to Comcast SportsNet.
Jim talks with Washington Capitals and Wizards owner Ted Leonsis about the possibility of forming his own regional sports network.
Tom Jones of the St. Petersburg Times has a few tidbits from ESPN College Gameday analyst Kirk Herbstreit.
Sarah Talalay from the South Florida Sun Sentinel says the Miami Dolphins are bringing the nightlife experience to fans at whatever its stadium is called this week.
Iliana Limon of the Orlando Sentinel says Conference USA learned from the Mountain West’s mistakes and have plenty of freedom in new rights deals with CBS College Sports and ESPN.
We move to the Dallas Morning News and Barry Horn who talks with former Cowboys coach and current Fox NFL Sunday analyst Jimmy Johnson about his Survivor experience.
Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman says College Gameday co-horts Herbstreit and Lee Corso agree on which teams will play in the Big 12 Championship.
John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer notes that ESPN2 among other networks are showing old footage to show the Queen City’s skyline.
Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune says filmmaker Ken Burns will take a hard look at the steroids era when he premiere’s his addition to “Baseball” this fall.
Bob Wolfley in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel looks at Peyton Manning’s pursuit of Brett Favre’s records as projected by the Indianapolis Star.
In the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Dan Caesar notes that some local viewers will be able to watch SEC Network games.
Dan writes that a Post-Dispatch colleague no longer has a sports radio talk show gig.
Kevin Baxter of the Los Angeles Times looks at the return of Vin Scully to the Dodgers booth next season.
Steve Friess of LA Weekly has a lengthy story about the late Mike Penner, the Los Angeles Times sports writer who became Christine Daniels and later committed suicide.
Steve also looks at what happened to Daniels’ blog and why the records no longer appear at the Times.
Maury Brown of the Biz of Baseball also has a story on Scully’s return.
The Sports Media Watch notes that MLB actually beat preseason NFL head-to-head.
SMW has its weekend ratings predictions.
Steve Lepore at Puck The Media says CBC will air 10 AHL games taking the place of the NBA’s Toronto Raptors which received low ratings.
Over at SB Nation NY, Steve ranks New York’s color analysts.
Joe Favorito says the New York Yankees may be defending MLB champs, but they were really big champions in the local community this past week.
And we’ll end there for now.
