Watchdog

Bobby Valentine is close to finalizing a deal with SNY to work 10-15 games as a Mets studio analyst this season, probably including the April 1 opener, said a person familiar with the talks.

Valentine was named athletic director at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn., last month but evidently would like to keep his hand in sports broadcasting.

NBC Sports Radio announced Tuesday...

Strip away the non-essentials and let’s face it: SNY exists to carry Mets games. Thus it makes sense to squeeze every possible ounce of programming out of them.

Voila: The network this season will add “Mets First Pitch’’ at 6 p.m. for 7 o’clock games, a half-hour before the traditional 6:30 pregame show.

(The debate program “Wheelhouse’’ will be cancelled effective April 1.)

Like...

SNY is the local cable home of the Big East, such as it is, but that deal is set to expire when ESPN’s does after the current academic year. Beyond that lies . . . uncertainty.

But assuming the Catholic, non-big-time-football schools successfully reassemble a basketball-focused league, SNY – New York's only regional sports network without a pro winter team – would appear to be a logical fit.

Right,...

With hockey on hiatus, the Knicks have picked up the winter sports slack, parlaying their fast start into large TV audiences.

Through their first 13 Nielsen-rated games on MSG, they averaged 3.22 percent of New York-area homes, up 68 percent from last season. (Three games could not be measured in the aftermath of superstorm Sandy.)

That does not include Thursday night's TNT tilt against...

Ralph Kiner turns 90 Saturday, and if he’s up for it he will be back in SNY’s booth on a limited basis in 2013 for his 52nd season working Mets games.

By reaching 90 as a still-working sportscaster Kiner joins an exclusive club currently led by News 12 Long Island’s own Bob Wolff, who turns 92 next month.

Wolff was honored by MLB before Game 2 of the World Series for his long and meritorious...

What has it been like watching the Mets’ fast fade from the TV booth?

Better than watching from the field, according to SNY analyst Keith Hernandez.

“They’ve been difficult, but I always keep it in perspective,’’ he said. “Having played for teams that did not perform well and played the season out it is far worse for them to go out in the uniform. They’re the ones out there performing.

“I...

SNY will unveil a series of ads Monday that will adorn a major city subway stop and promote “Geico SportsNite," a show that vows to cover New York sports more thoroughly than anything else on local TV.

Nothing unusual there, except for the location: 161st Street in the Bronx.

Tweaking Yankees fans, are we? “We’re doing it because that’s where New York sports fans are,’’ SNY president...

Players come and go — other than Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter, of course — but the stars of New York’s local TV baseball crews tend to stay put.

So it is again this year. SNY enters its seventh season with Gary Cohen, Ron Darling and Keith Hernandez calling Mets games, while Michael Kay is in his 11th year on Yankees play-by-play for YES, as is Ken Singleton, who does both play-by-play and...