Watchdog

My Sunday column and sidebar offer highlights of a 90-minute interview with Mike Francesa in which the big guy recalled the events leading to the breakup of "Mike and Mad Dog," his current relationship with former partner Chris Russo and the future of the afternoon drive slot in the post-Russo era.

Even 1,000 words only skimmed the surface of our conversation, so check the blog Monday for much more, including how Francesa feels about people who make fun of his weight, his admission he and Russo were behind the curve on new media technology and his thoughts on taking over the office once occupied by Don Imus.

I would have liked to include Russo's side of the story, especially about Francesa's revelation that the Imus succession saga might have played a role in the breakup.

Alas, Russo declined to comment through a spokesman.

My impression was he didn't want to revisit the past (fair enough) and even if he had the laryngitis that knocked him off the air on Thursday and Friday would have made it impossible for him to do so (fair enough).

Friday, he spoke to the Daily News anyway.

On Chris Russo's first day on the job at Sirius XM Satellite Radio, he expressed concern about how his voice would hold up given the rigors of working solo and on an outlet with less commercial time than WFAN.

Whether all those hours caught up to him or it just was one of those things, he was sidelined Thursday and Friday by laryngitis. Scott Wetzel and Bill Lekas sat in for him Thursday and Andy Gresh (right) Friday.

Russo, who had at least one serious bout with laryngitis during his WFAN days, is expected back in the saddle Monday.

His show, "Mad Dog Unleashed," launched in September, but he has not yet filled in the other 19 hours of sports talk on his Mad Dog Channel.

Sirius XM's goal for doing so was sometime this autumn. When might it happen? "Soon," a spokesman said.

Al Michaels, Jim Nantz, Joe Buck and their pals are coy (or mum) on the air when it comes to the delicate issue of NFL gambling, as we saw again last weekend.

Not so Oscar Madison.

Check this out, about 4:20 in. And for a preseason game, no less. Yikes!

"Outside the Lines" has what sounds like a great story for Sunday about the 1958 University of Buffalo football team that turned down a Tangerine Bowl invitation - its first and still only bowl bid - because its black players were unwelcome to participate.

Here is a text version of the story.

I found out about this not from the ESPN p.r. machine but from a friend from Buffalo who forwarded an email alert that went out to UB-affiliated people.

Which makes this post cooler.

I often talk about moving someday to Buffalo, one of my favorite cities. Mrs. WatchDog promises to call me regularly to say hello if I do.

(UPDATE: The p.r. machine saw my post and pointed out it did send something earlier this week on the Buffalo segment. Click below to read it.)

Continue reading "'Outside the Lines' to look back at 1958 Buffalo team" »

I heard Thursday night that venerable NBA scribe Jack McCallum had accepted a buyout from SI, but I forgot I am a sports media reporter/critic and didn't post it.

I guess I should have, because The Big Lead once again has beaten me to disseminating information important to our insular little sports media world.

Here it is.

Good luck in your future endeavors, Jack, and good work, TBL, darn you!

TBL also has interview today with ESPN's Grown-Up in Residence, Bob Ley.

Dang, I'm starting to almost feel bad for the Jets and Giants, what with being stuck looking for a stadium sponsor in an environment in which banks, insurance companies, auto makers, airlines, newspapers, media companies and outfits who were cozy with Nazis all pretty much are out of the mix.

What now? Beer always sells well during recessions, especially cheap beer, and Bud, Miller and Coors already are in the naming rights business. I don't know, though. Genesee Cream Ale Park? Doesn't have a ring to it.

I have it: An inexpensive food product that is selling better than ever, is made in America and even has dual meanings, one old school and one hinting at the high tech vibe the teams are looking for in their new yard:

Spam Stadium!

Chew over that for a few hours while I write my Sunday newspaper column.

WatchDog has learned the Red Bulls will play for the MLS title Sunday. No, really.

I took the family to the team's opener way back in early April, so I feel like I'm a part of this historic run. Sort of.

Click below for a very detailed news release from ABC/ESPN about its coverage plans. Drink a Red Bull before you read it; it'll be over faster.

Continue reading "Red Bulls to play for championship! ABC to show it!" »

Normally I would have had no interest - other than fantasy-football related - in Thursday's Bengals-Steelers tilt on the NFL Network, which is not available at WatchDog headquarters.

But I knew it was supposed to snow, and everyone loves snow games, so I checked in via NFL.com. Sure enough, it was scenic stuff.

It also was interesting to observe the unusual service offered on the site to fans who can't get the game on TV.

The network periodically checks in on live action, but the rest of the time sticks with guys in the studio - including analysts Jamie Dukes and Rod Woodson - talking about the game as it is going on on their monitors.

Check it out next Thursday if you need to get away from food and family. It's better than nothing, I suppose, but really weird.

Oops, forgot to include the reference in the post below that explains why I included the picture I did. Here it is:

The officials, including then back judge Scott Green, botched the end of the Giants-49ers playoff game in 2003 because they failed to huddle and fully discuss the matter.

The officials, including now referee Scott Green, botched the end of the Chargers-Steelers game Sunday because they huddled and discussed the matter too fully, with Green eventually being talked out of the correct call he already had made.

Sigh.

Where's the traditional Friday link to the newspaper column? Sorry, there is no newspaper column.

I had good stuff, but Steinbrenner-related space limitations prompted a delay until Sunday.

If I'd known that in advance I would have attended the tour of the new Giants/Jets stadium, still awaiting a naming sponsor in the form of a company with the chutzpah to spend millions on getting its name up in lights while stock prices plunge and people lose their jobs. (Sorry, "Citi.")

Fortunately, Katie Strang went and wrote this story. (I saw Katie before the Rangers game Wednesday. She said she was OK with me lauding her "spunk" in a recent post. I was afraid it might have been sexist or disrespectful or something. I mostly was looking for a cheap Lou Grant/Mary Richards reference to keep the baby boomers awake.)

Hey, check this out: Newsday also has video from the new ballyard.

Looks like it'll be nice. That didn't stop me Sunday from wondering the following as I walked into Giants Stadium: Remind me again what was wrong with this place?

A WatchDog tribute to George Steinbrenner on this day when control of his beloved Yankees officially transferred to son Hal:

It's the "Seinfeld" cameo that eventually was deleted from the broadcast version of the episode.

How long ago was it? The Bronx Bombers had won only 22 World Series!

Sad, bizarre tale via Deadspin of a Buffalo sportswriter who has died as a result of injuries he sustained earlier this month mounting an ancient press box.

Jim Nantz also made an appearance at the SBJ event (see post below), reiterating he plans to retire from golf broadcasting after working his 50th Masters in 2035, and confirming there is an "unwritten rule" at CBS against discussing NFL betting lines on the air.

Click below for the possibly illegal cut and paste from Sports Business Daily.

Also below, read an amusing (and legal) excerpt from Friday's new "CenterStage" with Nantz on YES in which he tells a story about his encounter with the Queen of England at the White House.

Continue reading "Jim Nantz plans to walk away after 2035 Masters" »

MLB Network boss Tony Petitti and high-ranking MLB exec Tim Brosnan appeared Wednesday at the Sports Business Journal's Sports Media & Technology conference, sponsored by the Fantasy Sports Association, to talk about the new network, launching Jan. 1.

Apparently the first show will be the first televised re-run of Don Larsen's 1956 perfect game.

I haven't gotten over being inadvertently overlooked for an invite to a fund-raising showing of that game at the Yogi Berra Museum in February, 2007.

Larsen and Yogi Berra were in attendance, both seeing it for the first time since it happened, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a sports media critic. Sigh.

Click below for highlights of the Brosnan/Petitti thing. I cut and pasted it off Sports Business Daily, which is a subscription site. If that's illegal, I trust my friends at SBJ/SBD will tell me so and I will take it down forthwith.

Continue reading "MLB Network to open with Larsen's 1956 perfecto" »

Inspired by the item four posts down about Barry Horn's list of the markets with the lowest percentage of pay TV customers, I wondered about the top 10, figuring New York would be in it.

Sure enough . . . here's a list of the top markets, courtesy of a source close to Barry.

Percentages indicate the households that have only broadcast TV.

1. Palm Springs, Calif. 3.4%
2. West Palm Beach, Fla. 4.3%
3. New York 4.4%
4. Johnstown-Altoona Pa. 5.1%
5. Fort Myers-Naples 5.1%
6. Honolulu 5.3%
7. Boston 5.3%
8. Bluefield, Beckley, Oak Hill 5.6%
9. Hartford-New Haven 5.7%
10. Springfield, Mass. 6.1%
10. Atlanta 6.1%

One day after Don Wakamatsu was named manager of the Mariners, the MLB Network named Joe Magrane, Wakamatsu's teammate on the 1983 Alaska Goldpanners, as an analyst.

Another '83 Goldpanner, Barry Bonds, is a long-shot for a managing or TV job.

It has been a while since we honored the great John Philips, who dominated the early days of the comment contest. But I could not ignore his contribution to the recent look back at the 1978 play on which Herman Edwards returned an unfortunate Giants fumble for a late touchdown.

Click below to read it in all its glory.

This week's honorable mention goes to "Rupert," who concluded a comment about Warren Sapp with this zinger:

"Also, I must admit Neil I have sampled the Glauber blog and may have moved it up as a favorite - Glauber, like you is sharp and funny without all the vacations and whining about writing a column."

(Thanks to all. I'm amazed and appreciative any of you contribute anymore given the annoying features of our commenting system. Half the time my attempts to answer or comment on your thoughts get rejected, too, so I feel your pain.)

Continue reading "Friday comment contest winner" »

OK, this is weird: Tuesday's Cavs-Knicks game was selected by fans on NBA.com to appear on NBA TV over four other games as part of the network's "Fan Night" promotion.

America is catching Knicks fever! Or maybe it had something to do with LeBron. Whatever.

In the wake of the BCS' announcement that it will move its bowl games to ESPN in January of 2011, here is an interesting list from our friend/rival Barry Horn in Dallas of the markets with the least pay TV penetration.

(For comparison purposes, last time I checked the New York market's figure was at around 95 percent, well above the national average.)

Texas is well represented on the list, but the least cable/satellite-friendly market of all is Fairbanks, Alaska, which is a shame because people there tend to have time to kill indoors in winter.

I visited Fairbanks several times during my two years working in Alaska, and was at the famed Elbow Room on a couple of occasions.

But that's another story.

Tennis Channel pitched me a show at 7 p.m. Sunday in which fans were asked to name the best-dressed male and female tennis players, on and off the court.

Surely, they expected me to use the opportunity to post an exploitive picture of female winner Maria Sharapova, or maybe runner-up Ana Ivanovic.

(Roger Federer won the male title with more votes than the top five women combined.)

But no!

Instead at left enjoy the fashion stylings of Bethanie Mattek, who with Dominic Hrbaty and Vince Spadea made the Worst Dressed list.

Versus will carry the 125th Harvard-Yale game Saturday, with loyal WatchDog reader Rich Ackerman on play-by-play.

This also is the 40th anniversary of the famed 29-29 tie of 1968, which is the subject of a film that made its New York debut Wednesday night.

The distributors forgot to invite me to a screening, most likely forgoing thousands of dollar worth of free publicity. But the sense I get, including from The New York Times and Rotten Tomatoes, is that it is good stuff.

Now Comcast has won a round in its never-ending dispute with the NFL Network.

If one of my daughters ever mentions the possibility of following in my career footsteps, I first will cover my ears and make loud humming noises.

Then I will calm down and say this: You have my blessing, but only if the NFL Network and Big Cable resolve their differences before your first day on the job.

During my travels around New York City Wednesday I stopped at the Sports Business Journal's annual Sports Media and Technology conference.

There I ran into Jeff Ma, one of the stars of the book "Bringing Down the House," upon which the movie "21" was loosely based. Ma said he read my blog post in the spring referencing my lunch with him and his portrayal in the movie and confirmed the film is very, very loosely based on reality. (But he thought it was well done, as did I.)

Anyway, Ma's company, ProTrade, now has become something bigger called Citizen Sports Network, which has to do with social networking and which was the subject of an article in the Journal this week.

Alas, it's all way over my head. I will ask my daughter to explain it to me.

SBJ is a subscription site, but I'm hoping the author, Eric Fisher, and his superiors will let me get away with cutting and pasting it below as a service to my readers.

(Mr. Fisher and I share a hobby that is in no way kinky or illegal, but I am uncomfortable sharing it here without his permission because it involves the production of a product geared exclusively to adults. Thirsty adults.)

Continue reading "'Citizen Sports Network' does stuff I don't understand" »

While waiting to speak to Mike Bair (see post below), I ran into all sorts of interesting people in the Garden press room, including my venerable predecessor on the Newsday sports media beat, Steve Zipay, as well as loyal WatchDog reader Kenny Albert.

Mr. Albert reported that his voice was a bit strained, no surprise after a Sunday and Monday during which he became the first play-by-play man in history to call a full five periods of an NFL game (he worked the Eagles-Bengals tie) and an NHL overtime and shootout.

Remember, friends: The last time there was a tie in the NFL, there were no NHL shootouts. These are the kinds of things you can learn nowhere other than here.

(By the way, Kenny is calling each of the next two Giants games, vs. Arizona and Washington.)

Speaking of scoops (see post below), I broke the news in the Thursday newspaper that as of the end of the calendar year, "MSG, NY" will cease to exist as we have known it lo these past two years. (As will "Hockey Night Live" on Saturdays.)

Basically, the ratings were poor, and the network figured it could better serve and attract viewers by "blowing out" the show on Knicks and Rangers game nights and turning it into something more like a postgame show and less like a peculiar mishmash of hockey and concert highlights.

(Once, when I was in a wiseacre mood, I wrote the show was apparently targeting the "Barbra Streisand/Sandish Ozolinsh demographic." I kind of liked that one, if I do say so myself.)

MSG Media president Mike Bair was nice enough to invite me into his office late Wednesday afternoon to discuss this after I inquired about a tip from a diligent, well-connected reader.

Click below for his comments.

Continue reading "'MSG, NY' to ditch current format effective January, '09" »

Oh, snap. Our friends at The Big Lead beat us to the news ESPN will not be having a company-supported holiday party this year, what with the money troubles affecting Planet Earth.

I asked ESPN about this Nov. 1 but hadn't gotten around to writing it. There is an old saying in the newspaper business: "Write it or read it." I didn't do the former, so Wednesday I did the latter.

No worries. The Big Lead was nice enough to link to my Warren Sapp item today, so it's all good.

Here's the statement ESPN gave me about its party pooping a few weeks back: "The holiday party decision was an appropriate step in the process of managing smartly in these challenging times. We are focused on managing costs efficiently."

The Newsday sports department had a popular holiday party back in the early and mid-1980s that was well attended by star reporters who rarely showed up in the office, such as Marty Noble, who covered the Mets for us back then.

I was young an impressionable and easily impressed by star journalists.

Now I'm old and cynical and nothing would impress me short of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein showing up in my basement and revealing that Deep Throat was not Mark Felt but actually Hal Holbrook.

We don't have a sports department holiday party anymore. Or at least I haven't been invited lately.

Speaking of Warren Sapp and "Inside the NFL" (see post below), check out this interesting tidbit from Wednesday's show regarding the Ravens' defensive strategy against Our Giants last weekend:

Sapp: "I had to call a friend of mine, Mr. Ray Lewis (after that game), and he said, 'I hate to tell you this, but we were playing pass. We were playing pass first.' And I dropped the phone."

Phil Simms: "When you are playing the Giants, on defense, you better put those big boy pants on because they are going to bring it. Hearing that story, here’s the first thing that came to my mind: If you’re playing the New England Patriots last year with their high flying offense, it’s like saying, 'Let’s be ready, Tom Brady might run the option.'"

It turns out I (and other sports media critics) was not alone in expressing concern last week about Warren Sapp finally going too far in his one-sided war of words with Keyshawn Johnson.

Sapp called Key a "bitch" on "Inside the NFL," then heard about it from Mom, who presumably has more influence over him than I do.

Here is what Sapp said on the "Inside the NFL" debuting on Showtime Wednesday night:

"A week ago I took a shot at an old teammate of mine and I really felt like I crossed the line. My mother was watching that show and she gave me a buzz and said, 'You know what, that’s wrong, because you and that boy and the kids and all of your families have played together and won together and you’ve got to apologize.' And I said, 'You’re right.' I am so wrong for crossing that line with Key and I apologize to my man out there and good luck to you on your show."

Here's Sapp on Donovan McNabb not knowing regular-season overtime rules:

"When I heard him say it I almost passed out. I thought, 'This will follow you for the rest of your career.' Your legacy in the league, Donovan, will be throwing up in the Super Bowl, Rush Limbaugh and now, 'I didn’t know there were ties in the NFL.'"

Mom!!!

Little or no blogging today.

Busy playing newspaper reporter. Old school!

Read our other fine Newsday blogs instead.

And click on some of our Web ads to support the cause if you have a spare second or two.

Random morning thoughts:

The teams led by the three still-active current or former Giants starting quarterbacks are a combined 26-4, and all three are in games featuring the Giants or Jets Sunday.

Ben Roethlisberger suggested Tuesday 50 percent of NFL players were just as clueless as Donovan McNabb about the way regular-season overtime works. Can that be true? Wow. ESPN's Steve Levy said this after watching the clip: "Ben, 50 percent? C'mon."

I covered new Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu when he played for the Alaska Goldpanners in 1983.

I am getting more reader emails than ever and having trouble keeping up. Not that there's anything wrong with that, except that I assume it is partly because many readers have become fed up with trying to use our maddening comments function.

I am told by Newsday.com sources they are working on getting the comments thing fixed, and more importantly that by March or April we likely will have an entirely new blogging system in place that will be more reliable and less annoying.

Cornell bounced back from Monday night's loss to St. John's by winning Tuesday and in the process causing Loyola (Md.) coach Jimmy Patsos to exhibit some mighty peculiar behavior.

At one point he watched the game from the stands.

The Big Red is back!

When is the NCAA Tournament selection show?

Readers who listened carefully to the recent post linking to video of "The Fumble" in 1978 noted that someone named "John Mara" was credited as a spotter.

Sure enough, it was THAT John Mara, as Glauber tells us here.

Also in honor of the play's 30th anniversary Wednesday, my fellow former Newsday Giants beat writer John Jeansonne, who covered the game, recalls it here.

By the way, it's not called "The Fumble" in Philly. It's called the "Miracle at the Meadowlands" there.