After beginning the Sunday Thoughts two weeks ago, little would I know that I would get kicked off my server (massive Web Hub Hosting assholes) the following week. So after a one week absence, time to bring you the Sunday Thoughts again. I promise to make this weekly instead of bi-weekly. Let’s go.
A Dormant Spring & Summer Season
CBS Sports is once again on a busy streak that really began last August with the PGA Championship to the US Open, the NFL, SEC Football, college basketball to March Madness ending this weekend with The Masters®. And after Sunday, I don’t get to blog about CBS Sports unless it’s talking about the ratings for one of its many golf tournaments it will be televising from now until August. In the 1980’s, CBS had a pretty formidable lineup every year starting in January with the Cotton Bowl, the NFC playoffs, then the NBA All-Star Game in February, March Madness, The Masters in April then the NBA Playoffs in May and ending in June with the NBA Finals and the Tour de France.
The lineup was adjusted in the early 1990’s with the Winter Olympics, Major League Baseball, losing the NBA, then the NFL, gaining it back, losing college football and signing the SEC.
Since Sean McManus was signed by CBS back in 1996 to lead its Sports Division and restore its luster, he’s worked hard to get the NFL, SEC, retain the NCAA Tournament, the US Open, PGA Championship and The Masters. But there’s a real dearth of sports for CBS from April through September. It’s mostly the PGA and whatever niche sport CBS can sign for the CBS Sports Spectacular.
From here until September, NBC with the NHL, Triple Crown and tennis along with ESPN/ABC and TNT with the NBA dominate the sports landscape.
Can CBS break into this lineup? It could if showed interest in the current bidding for the NHL, but there’s no indication of this. NBC just signed all of the Triple Crown for five years so that’s out. ESPN and TNT appear to be solidly in the NBA’s camp so CBS’ chances to re-enter the NBA market appear to be slim. And the network doesn’t seem to be interested in Wimbledon or the French Open, but then again, NBC has had them for so long that it doesn’t seem likely that it would go to another network.
So will CBS get a major Spring or Summer event to add to its inventory? Not for the foreseeable future, but it would be nice.
MLB.TV and Twitter Was Made For Nights Like These
While I was writing this morning’s post, the Toronto Blue Jays and Anaheim Angels played an extra long, extra innings game. I checked my Twitter feed which was full of tweets about the contest which did not end until the 15th inning with the Angels finally winning, 6-5. Thank goodness for my MLB.TV subscription and the MLB At Bat 11 iPad app as I joined in the 13th inning. This not only kept me awake, but kept me entertained. In addition, tweeting about the game with my friends from all over the US and Canada made the experience so much more enjoyable.
This part of the night was best summed up by my lovely Twitter friend, Rebecca Glass.
I feel like Twitter was invented solely for games like these.less than a minute ago via Tweetie for Mac 
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Rebecca
rebeccapbp
So true. Many people got to see Blue Jays-Angels thanks to MLB Extra Innings being on a free preview until today so the audience for the game was bigger than normal. Even so, this shows that if baseball can really tap into social media, it can raise its profile to the point it could leap over the NBA in popularity. There’s nothing quite like a communal tweeting experience.
Hanna is An Awesome Movie
Finally, I went to see the movie Hanna last night. Very impressed with Saoirse Ronan who in her young career has showed she can display a lot of acting range. This movie about a dad who raises her daughter, Hanna to carry out a mission is a non-stop roller coaster ride. Joe Wright directs the movie to show the unlocking of Hanna’s secrets as we find out that she’s led a very sheltered life in the Finnish Lapland with her father played so well by Eric Bana.
As we see them pursued by a CIA operative played so deliciously by Cate Blanchett, we notice that Hanna may have fighting skills, but she doesn’t know music, she’s overwhelmed by electricity and gadgets we take for granted.
After escaping from a CIA secret location in Morocco, Hanna takes up with a roving family who adopt her without question and she has her first encounter with a girl her own age. But overall, Hanna really can’t get close to anyone, but she admires how the family can be so close.
The soundtrack by the Chemical Brothers transition us from scene to scene. It’s a very good fit with Wright’s direction. I loved this movie and it’s very different from your usual cookie cutter Hollywood movie with a happy ending. There are several loose ends, but that’s done on purpose to make you decide where they should fall. Hanna is a very good weekend movie.
And we’re done with the Sunday thoughts for today.
