Best Bets: Knicks get hockey traffic

Knicks fever grips Gotham!

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 doesn't include Thursday night's TNT tilt against the Heat, which averaged a healthy 5.9 in New York.

And get this: MSG's Knicks postgame, starring former Newsday scribe Alan Hahn and former Cold Spring Harbor star Wally Szczerbiak, is up 105 percent over 2011-12. (Note to TV executives: Hire more writers!)

But that is not my favorite postgame-related ratings tidbit of the week. This is: Mike Francesa's simulcast on YES averaged 0.1 percent of area homes from 3:30 to 3:45 p.m. Tuesday.

In the ensuing quarter hour, during which SNY's postgame crew joined Francesa in-studio for some spirited Jets-bashing, the rating rose 400 percent, to 0.5.

Brilliant programming suggestion: Francesa on SNY's Jets postgame show. I'd watch that.

'Playing for Keeps' weds soccer and rom-comCritics were not kind to the new romantic comedy, "Playing for Keeps,'' which opened Friday and stars Gerard Butler as a charming middle-age guy from Scotland with nice abs who is irresistible to women -- just like in real life!

But that is not the only true-to-life thing about the role. Butler plays a former European soccer star, and he credibly looks like an aging player when kicking balls in the movie.

I tried to ask Butler about that during the premiere's after-party Wednesday, which I attended mostly so I could tell people I was at the same party as Justin Timberlake and his new bride, Jessica Biel, who plays Butler's former wife.

Alas, just as our very brief chat was getting around to soccer, a handler dragged him away. But I was directed to a promotional video in which he talked about his soccer background.

"That was my sport,'' he said. "I was a great player, but I was never a skillful player. I wasn't a guy who could do tricks and keep [the ball] up. Now I'm a guy who can do tricks and keep it up.''

Butler, 43, said practicing for the movie left him "hooked all over again. I want to play soccer all the time now.''

Bo knows food shopping

In "You Don't Know Bo,'' the ESPN "30 for 30" that premiered Saturday night, Bo Jackson comes off as a blend of confident jock and humble regular guy, always part of his unique charm.

At 50, he mostly is a private person these days, and many young sports fans know nothing about him. But the documentary reminds us of the cultural phenomenon he once briefly was, notably through his iconic Nike campaign.

So, Bo, what was the most difficult thing about playing both pro baseball and football at an All-Star level back in the day?

"Simple: Going to the supermarket, shopping and trying not to be recognized,'' he said Wednesday. "I don't allow my wife around sharp objects, so I do all of the cooking. So in turn, I have to go to the grocery store, because I know what I need, I know what to get and so forth and so on.

"Sometimes back when I was doing both sports, that got a little hectic going to the supermarket in Kansas City, going to the supermarket in Los Angeles, and that was about it. Everything else was just fine.''

Yankees are pretty in pinstripes

The most effective owner in baseball is Hal Steinbrenner of the Yankees. The least? Fred Wilpon of the Mets.

So sayeth the 1,300 people who responded to Sports Business Journal's eighth annual reader survey, which though unscientific, does reflect the collective opinion of a mighty well-informed audience.

New York-area teams and personalities were well-represented on the lists, as usual -- for good and bad, as usual.

For example: The Yankees were named the team respondents would most like to work for, and the team with the best uniforms and best logo.

The Nets were credited with the most business innovation among NBA teams. The Islanders' Charles Wang was named least-effective NHL owner.

New York-area natives were all over the best play-by-play list, such as Turner's (and Brooklyn's) Marv Albert on the NBA, former Newsday paperboy Al Michaels of NBC on the NFL and Commack's own Bob Costas of MLB Network on baseball.

The two biggest announcer blowouts were former Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy of ESPN getting 42 percent of the NBA analyst vote and ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit scoring 57 percent among college football analysts.

Alas, Herbstreit grew up in Ohio. But his wife, Allison, is from Smithtown! So there.