I have to be honest with you. I’m a bit slow in getting the megalinks up to you today because of various issues. Yes work is one of them, but another is just being slow to get to the blog. Another issue was piecing together the premiere episode of The Amazing Race Asia 3 of which I plan to do a recap this weekend. Since my usual source of getting episodes appears to have dried up, I had to find a creative way beyond finding my usual creative manner of finding episodes. But it’s been done and you can expect a recap coming either Saturday or Sunday. And the earlier posts of College Football Viewing Picks and NFL Viewing Picks were completed last night (yes, I can publish things ahead of time). Let’s get going with the Megalinks and we’ll start with our Weekend Viewing Picks.
Lots of football action this weekend and on Saturday, the action will be highlighted with Ohio State taking on USC at the Los Angeles Coliseum in primetime. ESPN on ABC’s Brent Musberger, Kirk Herbstreit and Erin Andrews will all be on hand to call the action starting at 8 p.m. Other games on TV can be seen in the College Football Viewing Picks.
In the NFL, some of the more interesting matchups include the Colts at Minnesota, Pats at Jets, Bears at Carolina and San Diego at Denver. The full Sunday lineup along with coverage maps, DirecTV and Sirius Satellite Radio channel assignments and announcing teams can be seen in the NFL Viewing Picks.
Turning to baseball, Fox has coverage of three games with some very funky announcing assignments. It’s September, you have some important games, but with Fox putting precedence on the NFL, people like Joe Buck, Thom Brennaman, Dick Stockton and Josh Lewin are all away while Fox has to depend on Best Damn Sports Show Period host Chris Rose and two local announcers to get by. Anyway, the action starts at 3:55 p.m. on Saturday.
On Sunday, TBS will carry the Blue Jays at Boston at 1:30 p.m., WGN has the Cubs at Houston at 2 p.m., weather permitting and ESPN’s Sunday night game pits Detroit at the White Sox.
The first installment of NASCAR’s Chase for the Sprint Cup starts in Loudon, NH on Sunday with the Sylvania 300. ABC hopes to light up your TV when it starts its coverage at 2 p.m.
The Formula 1 circuit is in Monza for the Italian Grand Prix. Speed has it Sunday morning at 7:30.
Both HBO Pay Per View and Showtime have boxing on Saturday both at 9 p.m. Showtime has Nate Campell and Joan Guzman fighting in the squared circle for the IBO/WBA/WBO/ABCDEFG Lightweight Championship.
HBO PPV has Joel Casamayor taking on Juan Manuel Marquez for Ring Magazine’s Lightweight Championship plus one other bout.
Turning to golf, the PGA Tour is taking the week off as it gets ready for next week’s Ryder Cup at Valhalla in Louisville. The women are in Mobile, AL for the Bell Micro Classic which the Golf Channel covers throughout the weekend at 3:30 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday.
And if you care about the WNBA, ESPN2 has the Seattle Shock taking on the Los Angeles Spark, Sunday at 4:30 p.m. so bag those plans to watch the NFL and switch to ESPN2.
Let’s do your links.
National
USA Today’s Michael Hiestand has ESPN/ABC’s Kirk Herbstreit putting his Ohio State allegiance aside in order to be objective for Saturday’s Buckeyes-USC game.
CNBC’s Darren Rovell says tennis hottie Ana Ivanovic could sign a lucrative lifetime shoe contract when her current deal with addidas expires next year. Darren talks with one company that has signed an autograph deal with Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps. Darren writes that Forbes magazine may have overvalued some NFL franchises.
ESPN has a preview of its features on Sunday NFL Countdown and Monday Night Countdown.
Multichannel News says TBS will be using Bon Jovi once again to promote its coverage of the MLB postseason.
Maury Brown of the Biz of Baseball says tickets for the last game at Yankee Stadium are reselling as high as $18,000.
Deadspin’s AJ Daulerio goes out on a date (not that kind of a date) with ESPN’s Linda Cohn.
West
I’ll go from West to East today. Starting with Scott D. Pierce of the Deseret (UT) Morning News, he feels FSN went over the top in crying over the strange unsportsmanlike conduct penalty at the BYU-Washington game last week. Scott even says FSN is biased towards the Pac 10, but Scott is sounding a lot like a BYU apologist.
Jay Posner of the San Diego Union-Tribune says the general manager of the local CBS affiliate is still trying to defend himself for not carrying the US Open men’s final on Monday. In fact, several CBS affiliates across the country chose to shuffle the final to their other channels, either co-owned CW or Fox affiliates or even their digital channels in order not to blow away their lucrative local programming. Jay also has a look at last week’s sports TV ratings in San Diego.
John Maffei of the North County Times says ESPN/ABC’s Kirk Herbstreit won’t wear his Ohio State ties on his sleeve during the school’s game against USC tomorrow.
The Ventura County Star’s Jim Carlisle also has quotes from Herbstreit about the game.
Steve Springer of the Los Angeles Times talks with the 80 year old Keith Jackson who has no intention of attending the Ohio State-USC game.
Here’s another story on ESPN/ABC’s Kirk Herbstreit. Tom Hoffarth of the LA Daily News says Ohio State fans don’t like it when Kirk doesn’t go all out for the Buckeyes either on College Gameday or during his game broadcasts. Tom has more from Kirk in the first part of his media notes. And here are some more of Tom’s media notes in his Farther Off the Wall blog.
John Ryan of the San Jose Mercury News is appealing to the Bay Area to vote for the late Oakland A’s announcer Bill King for the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Gary Washburn of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer discusses the new book written by the lovely Linda Cohn of ESPN.
Midwest
George M. Thomas of the Akron Beacon Journal says Ohio State has some things to prove on national TV against USC.
The Grand Rapids (MI) Press’ Michael Zuidema talks with Fang’s Bites fav Charissa Thompson who’s been quite busy these days.
Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes that despite the hype, not everyone watched Brett Favre’s Jets debut last Sunday.
Ted Cox of the Chicago Daily Herald is appealing to fans to vote for a Cubs and a White Sox announcer for the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Paul Christian of the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin talks with ESPN’s Cris Carter and Keyshawn Johnson about Ohio State-USC.
Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says the Rams had their lowest rated game ever last Sunday.
Jeffrey Flanagan of the Kansas City Star writes that the Chiefs expect their home opener to be sold out in time to lift the TV blackout for this Sunday.
South
Doug Nye of The State says Time Warner Cable subscribers get ESPNU in HD as of today.
The Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson analyzes the NFL analysts’ performances from Week 1.
Dave Darling from the Orlando Sentinel is happy to hear one local sports radio talk show host back on the air after a two year hiatus.
Ray Buck of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram catches up with a former Dallas TV sports anchor who has made it to ESPNews.
David Barron of the Houston Chronicle says former Alabama and Texas A&M coach Dennis Franchione is enjoying his gig with ESPN Radio this season.
The Daily Oklahoman’s Mel Bracht talks about Michael Phelps hosting Saturday Night Live. Mel says officiating should be a hot topic on Saturday’s College Gameday program on ESPN. Here are Mel’s news and notes for this week. And Mel has his Weekend Viewing Picks.
East and Mid-Atlantic
David Scott of the Boston Sports Media Watch plugs his own appearance on CN8 tonight.
Nancy Marrapese-Burrell of the Boston Globe has several NFL TV analysts feeling all is not lost for the Patriots even though QB Tom Brady is out for the season.
Newsday’s Neil Best says the YES Network will not come down on Michael Kay for his harsh statements about the Yankees this week. In his blog, Neil has more from Kay who says he’s free to say whatever he wants on the Al-Yankzeera network (one good name that Bob Raissman came up with). Neil also has more from his discussion with ESPN’s Linda Cohn that didn’t make it into his Friday column.
The New York Times’ Richard Sandomir writes about Allianz dropping its bid to purchase naming rights for the Giants-Jets stadium after a controversy arose about its ties to Nazi Germany.
Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News wonders why it took so long for Michael Kay to criticize the Yankees on YES. Nothing is ever good enough for Raissman.
Phil Mushnick of the New York Post wonders when fans will say enough and not pay such exorbitant prices for tickets.
Justin Terranova of the Post talks with CBS’ Rich Gannon about Pats-Jets. Justin has five questions for ESPN’s Lee Corso.
Ken McMillan of the Hudson Valley Times Herald-Record lists the college football games on national and local TV on Saturday.
The Baltimore Sun’s Ray Frager likes CBS’ Kevin Harlan.
Tim Lemke of the Washington Times lists his five viewing best bets and five worst stadium naming rights deals.
And that will do it for today. I’ll be back later with Primetime and Late Night Viewing Picks, Weekend Viewing Picks and other stuff. Keep your RSS feeds updated.
