On this Monday which is extremely slim pickings for sports and primetime TV, we get ready for the World Series on Wednesday which will be big for this week. Also, I expect to do the 1st ever Fang’s Bites Baseball TV and Radio Awards sometime this week so expect to see that within the next few days, perhaps on Wednesday. We’ll see if I can get motivated to do that.
We have quite a few links today so let’s get to them.
Starting with Michael Hiestand of USA Today who writes that ESPN’s Bob Griese went overboard with his “out having a taco” comment.
Over to the Sports Business Journal, John Ourand talks about NBC’s “roadblock” promotional campaign starting next week to pump the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Daniel Kaplan of the SBJ says the NFL has changed its ownership rules making it easier for teams to remain within one family.
Daniel writes that Mercedes-Benz is a new sponsor of the US Open Tennis tournament.
And Terry Lefton from the SBJ says ING might be changing its strategy in sponsoring marathons.
Over to Brian Steinberg of Advertising Age who writes that Sunday Night Football is the most expensive primetime program on which to advertise.
CNBC’s Darren Rovell writes that the two pitchers from India who made the Pittsburgh Pirates organization from a reality TV show will have their stories made into a movie.
Darren says media organizations will love the short distance between New York and Philadelphia for this year’s World Series.
Evan Weiner says the reasons that Rush Limbaugh didn’t get a football team go far beyond the obvious politics.
Writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Jason Fry suggests young sportwriters go it alone at first.
Dan Levy of On the DL writes in The Sporting News about Steve Phillips, Deadspin and the eventual disappearance of Newsday’s Neil Best from the national lexicon.
Speaking of Neil, he shares his thoughts on Game 6 of the ALCS on Fox.
Neil tells us that baseball crushed football in New York last night.
Neil continues to complain about the length of MLB postsesaon games.
Richard Sandomir of the New York Times talks about ESPN’s firing of Steve Phillips.
In a related note, The Big Lead breaks news that the other party of the Steve Phillips affair, Brooke Hundley, was fired from ESPN today.
We have a rare Monday column from the New York Daily News’ Bob Raissman who has rare love today and it’s for Fox’s production of ALCS Game 6.
Pete Dougherty from the Albany Times Union has the World Series schedule.
Pete has the NFL TV schedule for Week 8 in New York’s Capital Region.
Pete would like to see more highlights on NBC’s Football Night in America and I totally agree with him.
Ken McMillan of the Hudson Valley Times Herald-Record reports that one of my all-time NHL analysts, Bill “The Big Whistle” Chadwick, a mainstay on New York Rangers radio and TV broadcasts passed away at the age of 94. He and Marv Albert were a great team before Marv and Sal “Red Light” Mussina became popular with the Rangers in the 1980’s.
Jim Williams from the Washington Examiner talks with ESPN Radio’s Mike Golic as he enters his 10th year with on-air partner Mike Greenberg.
Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News tells us that the Cowboys ruled the ratings roost in the Metroplex yesterday.
Barry says Fox Sports’ Troy Aikman sees something wrong with the Cowboys’ passing game.
A note to the Morning News, please stop the autoplay of videos on the site. It’s annoying.
David Barron from the Houston Chronicle says Texas A&M fans can see highlights of the Aggies’ game against Texas Tech on Fox Sports Houston this week.
Ed Sherman in Crain’s Chicago Business enjoyed listening to the Bears’ postgame show after a bad loss to the Bengals yesterday.
Ed says the Bulls have an earlier starting time for their games this season.
Bob Wolfley in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel says the NFL Today’s Boomer Esiason noticeably left Green Bay signal caller Aaron Rodgers off his Top 10 QB list.
Dusty Saunders of the Denver Post says less talk from Joe Buck and Tim McCarver is going a long way.
Diane Pucin of the Los Angeles Times gives her assessment of ALCS Game 6 on Fox.
The great Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has this week’s sports calendar.
Bruce Dowbiggin from the Toronto Globe and Mail says CBC’s moving Saturday’s Toronto-Vancouver game from a late starting time to 7 p.m. shows the Maple Leafs
control Hockey Night in Canada.
Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star criticizes the CTV-led Olympic broadcasting consortium for allowing journalists to take part in the Olympic torch relay.
William Houston in his Truth and Rumours blog says the Maple Leafs’ struggles are not being ignored by the media.
Rick Kissell of Variety says sports was on top of the ratings on Sunday.
Here’s a clip from Broadcasting & Cable when Monday Night Football was inducted into B&C’s Hall of Fame.
Toni Fitzgerald from Media Life Magazine writes that Fox took out the competition on Sunday thanks to ALCS Game 6.
Chris Byrne in the Eye on Sports Media asks readers whose credibility took a bigger hit in the Steve Phillips affair.
The great Maury Brown in the Biz of Baseball interviews the lovely Alyssa Milano who has become an entrepreneur with “Touch” sports fashion line.
Steve Lepore of Puck The Media has the national TV college hockey schedule.
And we end today with The Five hosted by Kristine Leahy at WEEI.com.
That’s it for now.
