Time to give you the Saturday links. It’s NFL Draft Day. It’s Day 2 of Yankees-Red Sox and Cubs-Cardinals. The NHL and NBA Playoffs continue. There’s a lot of action today. Can’t ask for anything more on a beautiful day in the Northeast. And what do I have on? The Zurich Classic of New Orleans on Golf Channel! It’s because I can’t bear to watch pre-Draft shows and MLB won’t allow subscribers to MLB.TV to watch any of the early Saturday afternoon games because of silly Fox blackout rules. I can understand exclusivity from 4 – 7 p.m., but from 1 -4 p.m. That’s out of hand.
Ok, to your links
First, the regular Saturday columns, then to other various stuff.
Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News says there’s plenty of draft coverage to choose from. Barry also has an NFL Draft TV guide for Dallas viewers.
The San Antonio Express-News talks with University of Texas baseball and football commentator Keith Moreland.
Three stories from the great Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner. First, he writes about the dueling NFL Draft coverage between ESPN and NFL Network. Jim writes about Yankees-Red Sox on Fox. And Jim says NBC is happy to be televising Game 6 of the Capitals-Rangers series tomorrow.
To Alan Pergament of the Buffalo News who says NFL Network’s Mike Mayock is well-respected throughout the league for his Draft expertise.
Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette says it’s no fun to watch an NFL Draft prospect fall down from a top pick to the middle or lower first round. I have to admit it was kind of fun to watch Brady Quinn squirm two years ago.
That was the Draft I attended and all of us were screaming when the Browns first chose Joe Thomas, then Miami pick Ted Guinn, Jr. We all started to chant Brady’s name until my Browns worked out the deal for him.
Richard Sandomir of the New York Times writes about Michael J. Fox remembering the late Jack Buck as he taped a public service announcement with Joe Buck and Tim McCarver for Parkinson’s Disease.
I don’t know how I omitted the New York Daily News’ Bob Raissman from the Friday megalinks, but I did. Here’s his Friday column in which Raissman gleefully hopes that the Giants and Jets are blacked out in 2010 due to the sluggish economy and high ticket prices.
Newsday’s Neil Best writes that Yankees President and attack dog Randy Levine is certainly not shy when it comes to defending his team.
Neil links us to Newsday colleague John Jeansonne’s review of the ESPN documentary depicting Luis Tiant’s emotional return to his native Cuba.
The Nielsen ratings wire blog looks at the increased viewership for the NFL Draft.
Joe Favorito says tying Under Armour to Ripken Baseball is an excellent marriage of the two brands.
Ken McMillan of the Hudson Valley Times Herald-Record writes that Yankees fans can listen to the team’s Triple A affiliate if they stretch their radio antennae.
Tom Coombe of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call looks at the replay of a 1993 high school Thanksgiving Day game that is looking to break the results which ended in a tie. Keith Groller of the Morning Call says the original game will be shown on local TV this weekend.
Jeff Rice of the Centre (PA) Daily Times looks at Chris Fowler’s appearance at Penn State University.
Luke DeCock of the Raleigh (NC) News & Observer says NBC was not at fault for the Carolina Hurricanes not being chosen for a Sunday afternoon slot. Thanks to Puck The Media for the link.
Speaking of PTM, Steve Lepore says Versus will air the first period of Calgary-Chicago tonight, then switch to its regularly scheduled airing of Anaheim-San Jose at 10 p.m.
Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman talks in depth with TNT’s P.J. Carlesimo about Oklahoma City’s first NBA team, the New Orleans Hornets.
Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News reviews his week in blogging.
Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star says 24 Blue Jays game originally set for CBC and picked up by Rogers Sportsnet are available to fans at an extra cost.
The Sports Media Watch notes that the Blackhawks are beating the Bulls in the Chicago ratings, but is quick to point out one caveat. SMW says the ratings for the NBA Playoffs on the league’s TV partners are even with last year through Wednesday night. Paulsen says NASCAR on Fox fell to its lowest rating ever last Saturday. And SMW tells us that the NHL on NBC saw a mixed result last weekend.
Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News watched the right team lose in last night’s Yankees-Red Sox game.
Adweek looks at the new Peter Gammons/Baseball Tonight promo that is very well done. In case you haven’t seen it, here it is:
Michael David Smith of AOL Fanhouse says look for ESPN to expand its YouTube presence soon.
I’ll end it there for now. If anything breaks, you know I’ll be here.
