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Newsday columnist Neil Best
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  • Mex tutors Murph

    1:09 PM By Neil Best

    As Dave Lennon has reported, 11-time Gold Glover Keith Hernandez has been tutoring the Mets' Daniel Murphy at first base in Florida this winter.

    Hernandez will discuss the process on SNY's "Daily News Live" late this afternoon, and the network will show video of the two working together.

    Gotta go. Enjoy South Florida vs. Marquette women's basketball at 9 p.m. on CBS College Sports.

    Tags: Mets, SNY

  • Willie Mays wasn't nervous in on-deck circle during Thomson at-bat

    12:33 PM By Neil Best

    Bob Costas sits down with Willie Mays on the MLB Network at 8 p.m. tonight to talk about Mays' life, career and new autobiography.

    (No, it's not live, silly. It was recorded Jan. 5. Bob is in Vancouver already, helping with the snow-making machines.)

    Here are some excerpts the network sent:

    ON HIS INDIVIDUAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
    I guess I was more of a team player than just an individual player. I liked for the team to win. I would go in the clubhouse, sit in my locker and just laugh and have a good time. The guy would bring me a sandwich over and I would see the guys smiling. That was more fun to me than hitting four home runs and going in the clubhouse and everybody’s mad because we lost the game. So a lot of things happened in baseball that I had a little bit of control over, but I would have rather been known as a complete player, a team player, not showing up anybody on the field or off the field, just, you know, a nice guy.
     
    ON HIS FAMOUS OVER-THE-SHOULDER CATCH:
    When Vic [Wertz] hit the ball to centerfield I never was worried about catching the ball, I was worried about getting the ball back into the infield.  And I’m saying to myself, ‘I gotta get this ball back in the infield or Larry [Doby] is gonna score.’ … But as the ball was coming down, I knew I had the ball, but it was just a matter of getting it back into the infield.  In The Polo Grounds I never had a cutoff man. They never came out.  They’d say, “You’ve got a good enough arm, we don’t need to come out, it’s a waste of time,” so I never did throw it to a cutoff man. I always had the ball back into the infield.  I was the cutoff man, so when a ball goes to left center, I would come to centerfield and be the cutoff man because I had the best arm, which made a lot of sense to Leo [Durocher]. Leo never said anything, so I just kept doing what I had to do, so it was fine.
     
    ON JACKIE ROBINSON:
    But that’s when I thought, boy I got a chance to get out of here and go to the Majors as quick as I can … Before that, I had three guys that I’d look up every Sunday. In Sunday’s paper there was Stan Musial, Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams.  So now when Jackie Robinson came in, that gave me hope, because all these other guys I didn’t know and I didn’t think I was going to ever meet them, but I thought Jackie was my mentor.
     
    ON WHETHER HE WAS NERVOUS BEFORE TEAMMATE BOBBY THOMSON’S “SHOT HEARD ‘ROUND THE WORLD”:
    I thought they would walk Bobby to get to me anyway because Bobby just hit a home run off of [Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph] Branca in Brooklyn, probably the day before. It’s a three-game playoff and I’m saying to myself, ‘They’re gonna walk Bobby to get to me. What can I do?”  I wasn’t nervous, I didn’t get nervous or anything like that, I was always kind of cool, you know, whatever happened happens. So I wanted to go to the plate right quick, but I tell you when you say nervous, when Bobby hit the home run, I was the last guy to get to home plate, and I’m saying to myself, “You’re on deck, fool, get up to the plate right away, so nobody can see you,” but somebody caught it, and I’m just number-24 coming up and when everybody else is there, shouting, and, and, and trying to wait for Bobby to get to home plate and I was the last  guy, so I think I was a little nervous.
     
    ON HIS GODSON, BARRY BONDS:
    I think he’s gonna be in the Hall of Fame and I don’t think he did anything other than what other guys were doing. I don’t even really know that but I don’t like to get involved in things that I don’t know about, controversial stuff, and that’s why a lot of times I don’t even go on shows because they’re gonna ask me the same kind of questions … As far as what he was using, I don’t really know. I really didn’t ask him about his problems because it wasn’t my duty. He never asked me about anything so why should I get involved in what he was doing? So I really don’t know. I don’t get involved unless he calls. I don’t know what he does. If he did something, I’d be right there. I don’t care what it is, I’m never gonna leave someone that I like very much, and I think if he picks up the phone and calls me, I would be right there.
     
    ON HIS NEW AUTOBIOGRAPHY Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend:
    This book was a book for the people. I travel a lot and when I’m getting on planes or going through the airport, there always was someone saying, ‘You did this for me, you did that for me, and I’m saying, ‘I don’t remember all of these things,’ and so I said that maybe there’s a book in this, so these people can tell their stories …  So if you look at that book … it’s probably four or five hundred different things that people tell you that I did for them and I didn’t know anything about it. So that’s the type of book I wanted, not just me talking about me, because I have like four or five books already out and how much can you talk about baseball when you’re doing things? … Most all the money is going to the foundation that I have for kids. I take care of battered wives, I take care of the police department around my house, the fire department, everybody around there because they’ve been so good to me that I have to do all these types of things a lot.”

    Tags: MLB Network, Bob Costas

  • Alan Alda is happy for New Orleans

    10:34 AM By Neil Best

    Leftover Super Bowl odds and ends:

    Alan Alda spoke to AP Monday about Super Bowl XLIV surpassing the "M*A*S*H" finale to become the most-viewed TV program in American history. Here is what he said:

    "If the 'M*A*S*H' audience was eclipsed, it was probably due in large part to the fact that the whole country is rooting for New Orleans to triumph in every way possible. I am, too, and I couldn't be happier for them. I love that city."

    Alda did wonder, though, whether Nielsen might have underestimated the "M*A*S*H" audience because many people watched in large groups. Of course, the same is true of Super Bowls. (I watched both shows alone. But I'm anti-social.)

    "Not to say I'm competitive, but in part we are talking about sports," Alda said. "And I actually am competitive."

    Meanwhile, in Canada, the Super Bowl also attracted its biggest audience ever. Maybe fleur de lis solidarity between old Quebec Nordiques fans and the Saints helped.

    It was amazing that the game ended well before 10 p.m., given the record 48 minutes of ad time CBS squeezed into the program - three more than last year.

    NOW president Terry O'Neill criticized the Tim Tebow Super Bowl ad - in which he jokingly is seen tackling his mother - for glorifying violence against women. Oy vey. That is really, really silly.

    Here's the thing about Jim Fassel stripping Sean Payton of playcalling duties for the Giants in 2002: In sounds stupid in light of recent events, but at the time it was brilliant. The Big Blue offense quickly caught fire and didn't slow down until late in the third quarter of a wild-card playoff game against the 49ers. But that's another story.

    One last thought on Super Bowl XLIV: Newsday's venerable lead football scribe, Bob Glauber, provided first-rate coverage despite being badly outnumbered by the competition while attempting to cover a sprawling, multi-day event that generally requires huge manpower.

    He did such a good job I say we send him to Vancouver for the next two weeks to keep an eye on Lindsey Vonn and Shaun White. Bon voyage! 

    Tags: Super Bowl

  • Trapper John on Super Bowl: 'Records meant to be broken'

    Monday February 8, 2010 9:53 PM By Neil Best

    Actor Wayne Rogers, who played Trapper John on "M*A*SH" for the show's first several seasons, accepted the news graciously Monday upon learning the series' 1983 finale at last had been eclipsed as the most-watched program in U.S. TV history.

    "Records are meant to be broken and we were lucky at the time that we did 'M*A*S*H' there weren't all of these competing networks," Rogers told Fox Business Network.

    "The fact the show did as well as it did - I was very excited about it and I think it's terrific that it did.  I'm excited for those guys at the Super Bowl."

    (Sandomir of The Times got an email from Alan Alda on this subject.)

    The Feb. 28, 1983, "M*A*SH" finale averaged 106 million viewers in a nation with about 75 million fewer people than today. Super Bowl XLIV averaged 106.5 million Sunday, according to Nielsen.

    Still, Rogers noted, "That Super Bowl is never going to earn what 'M*A*S*H' earned, that's for sure, because there's no reruns for that Super Bowl. Nobody's going to be interested in that and 'M*A*S*H' reruns have been on for 30 years."

    Rogers said he does not lament losing the record.

    "No, not really," he told Fox. "I'll tell you why.  There is so much advertising leading up to the Super Bowl. If we had had that, by the way if anybody had that kind of advertising leading up to it and all of the hoopla that goes on before it . . . "

    I was living in Anchorage in 1983, when most entertainment programs in Alaska were shown two weeks after the Lower 48 saw them.

    An exception was made for "M*A*S*H," because of the huge interest in the finale.

    We got to watch it later the same night everyone else did.

    I'm through writing about Super Bowl XLIV now. Except for answering emails from all the readers over 45 who are furious with my less-than-kind assessment of the Who.

    I'd bet the house the NFL will hire a younger act in 2011. Young America's punishment for the behavior of Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson has gone on long enough.
     

    Tags: M*A*S*H, Super Bowl

  • Super Bowl smashes M*A*S*H

    Monday February 8, 2010 1:55 PM By Neil Best

    After 27 years, it finally is time for the venerable series finale of M*A*S*H to say goodbye, farewell and amen to its status as the most-watched American television program.

    The NFL capped a season of record-shattering viewership by attracting an average of 106.5 million people for Super Bowl XLIV, surpassing the Feb. 28, 1983, episode of M*A*S*H, which attracted 106 million in a nation with about 75 million fewer residents.

    The figure easily surpassed last year's Super Bowl, which had been the previous record holder for an American sports event with 98.7 million viewers.

    The rating, which measures the percentage of homes tuned it, averaged 45.0, the best such figure since 1996, when the Cowboys and Steelers averaged 46.0 in a less fractured media environment.

    (The M*A*S*H finale’s rating was 60.2, a percentage likely unapproachable today.)

    Between 9 and 9:30 p.m., the game attracted an average of 114.1 million viewers, 48.5 percent of all U.S. homes and 70 percent of those with a television in use.

    A record 153.4 million viewers watched at least six minutes of the game.

    Tags: Super Bowl, CBS

  • Super Bowl was a TV hit

    Monday February 8, 2010 10:54 AM By Neil Best

    Early Super Bowl ratings returns are beginning to roll in. Here is the latest from the "overnight" ratings that measure only 56 major markets:

    The average of 46.4 percent of homes that watched was the highest such figure since the 47.8 recorded for Super Bowl XXI between the Giants and Broncos in 1987. It was up 10 percent from last year's 42.1.

    The figure peaked at 50.6 between 9:30 and 9:45 p.m.

    Below are the top 10 markets. (Why Washington, D.C.? One word: snow.)

    1. New Orleans (56.3)

    2. Washington, D.C. (56.0)

    3. Nashville (54.4)

    4. Indianapolis (54.2)

    5. Columbus (54.0)

    6. Dayton (53.7)

    7. Norfolk (53.1)

    8. Knoxville (52.0)

    9. West Palm Beach (51.8)

    9. Pittsburgh (51.8)

    New York? We finished 51st out of 56, with a rating of 41.1.

    Tags: Super Bowl

  • ESPN's resident Saints fan Stan Verrett picks a winner

    Monday February 8, 2010 10:21 AM By Neil Best

    Only 12 of 37 on-air ESPN personalities picked the Saints to win the big game, and the one closest to getting the score right was perhaps the biggest Saints fan of all among the 37: Stan Verrett, who picked a 31-24 final.

    My prediction was 37-10 Saints, with Drew Brees as the MVP. But that was not enough to win the Sports Business Journal's contest, which attracted 199 entries.

    Turns out you need to pick the winner, the MVP AND the winner of USA Today's ad meter rankings. I went with Bud. The dude who won correctly picked Snickers.

    You can watch all of the Super Bowl ads here.

    I'll be back later with Super Bowl ratings news. Other than that, though . . . on to the Olympics!

    Enjoy Brees and the unveiling of SI's Swimsuit Issue cover on Letterman tonight.

    Tags: Super Bowl

  • Steve Phillips: 'I'm totally responsible for everything I did'

    Monday February 8, 2010 10:04 AM By Neil Best

    Matt Lauer interviewed former Mets general manager and ESPN analyst Steve Phillips early Monday morning on NBC’s “Today” show.

    It was Phillips’ first interview since being fired by ESPN last year in the wake of a sex scandal and a subsequent 45-day stay at a Mississippi sex addiction clinic.
     
    Here is my transcription of what Mr. Phillips said during the five-minute sitdown:
     
    Phillips: “It was hard to watch that lead-in. There was a lot of sadness there. I take a look at it and I think that what people need to understand is that what I want to do is take ownership. I made some mistakes. People look at sex addiction as an excuse. It’s not an excuse. I’m totally responsible for everything I did and accept responsibility for that. Sex addiction is a diagnosis. It’s when you recognize the problems that you have and that you have to go and get some help.’’
     
    On whether sex addiction “is kind of a modern-day get-out-of-jail-free card":
     
    “I recognized in August that I had a little problem, that I was a sex addict and I needed to get help. I starting calling facilities in August, well before everything blew up and there was a problem where I ended up losing my job. I ended up making the decision to go and get treatment on the Friday before the Sunday when I got fired. I was going to get help. I knew I had a problem where I had to get help. I think the compulsion is where you can’t help yourself where you understand the consequences. You know, the first step of the 12 steps is that you’re powerless over your addiction and it gets unmanageable. It wasn’t anybody else. It was me. I couldn’t stop myself from doing the things I was doing, even knowing the consequences: married, great job, great career. I risked all of that to act out the way that I did.’’
     
    On listening to his wife’s 911 call during the lead-in:
     
    “It’s sad. I think of all my family’s gone through. When you think about the victims in all of this, people chose to participate in the relationship, but my wife and kids didn’t. What my wife and kids have gone through, the trauma they’ve faced, not only from having a father and husband who’s a sex addict, but the trauma of the media attention afterward and me going away for 45 days, they’ve been through a lot.’’
     
    On whether he has spoken to Brooke Hundley, the young ESPN staff with whom he had an affair:
     
    “No.’’
     
    On what he would say to her:
     
    “I don’t think it would be appropriate. The way I look at it, all of that is in the past. My focus is trying to move forward, trying to save my family. I’m not wishing ill on anybody. I think everybody needs to move on with their lives and try to put the pieces back together.’’
     
    On what goes on at the clinic, which reportedly also has treated Tiger Woods:
     
    “People who go there are broken people. That’s really the essence of the addiction is that you’re broken inside. You’ve got a hole that you need to try to fill, whether it’s with alcohol or drugs or sex or gambling, whatever. You’ve got a lot of broken people there that are struggling to find answers and really that’s what you do. You go there and they try to get to the basis of why did you do what you did. For most addicts, whether it’s alcohol or sex or whatever, it’s that you have that hole inside based upon shame and trauma that occurred from childhood.’’
     
    On whether this will work better than when he was treated in 1998:
     
    “The first time back in ’98 you’re referencing with the Mets, when I had another scandal, I didn’t go to a clinic. I just got some local therapy and really didn’t get diagnosed properly. So I tried to manage everything on my own. I didn’t get in a system, didn’t get in a program, didn’t get the appropriate help. It was my issue. I didn’t realize it then. [This time] I did get to the basis of my issue, that reality that when I made a mistake it wasn’t that I made a mistake. I thought it was a mistake. When I failed, I thought I was a failure. When I disappointed someone, I internalized it that I am a disappointment. That hole is something that I looked for some way to medicate and fill. And most addicts that I’ve been around, it’s been a similar story. So I’ve gotten to the basis but I need to try to resolve those issues on my own.”
     
    On the state of his marriage:
     
    “I’m working my tail off to try to save my marriage. I’ve broken my wife’s heart and she’s had to deal with so many different issues trying to keep a family together. We went to therapy together and we’re working hard to try to do that. I don’t know what the ultimate result will be because I’ve damaged her and our relationship in a terrible way.”

    Tags: ESPN, NBC, Steve Phillips, Mets