Best of WatchDog
Reality strangles invention
Bobby Thomson's recent death naturally led to many replays of Russ Hodges' classic call of Thomson's pennant-winning home run and discussions of its place in sportscasting history.
But the finale of the 1951 NL playoff also inspired one of the most famous opening paragraphs in the history of sportswriting, from Red Smith in the New York Herald Tribune: "Now it is done. Now the story ends. And there is no way to tell it. The art of fiction is dead. Reality has strangled invention. Only the utterly impossible, the inexpressibly fantastic, can ever be plausible again."
Wow. I was going to write exactly that about the 2003 Giants-49ers wild-card playoff game before I learned Red beat me to it!
'30 for 30' on MJ in Double-A
Next in ESPN's "30 for 30" series is Tuesday's "Jordan Rides the Bus," in which Ron Shelton, a former minor-leaguer, revisits MJ's first retirement from the NBA and stunning side trip into pro baseball.
Shelton, writer/director of "Bull Durham,'' "White Men Can't Jump'' and "Tin Cup,'' told me Friday he wanted to explore what in retrospect seems even more improbable than it did at the time.
"It was, 'My God, did that really happen?' " he said. "It would be as if Kobe Bryant said, 'I think I'll play a couple of years in the National Football League.'
"It's so insane what he did that I just wanted to go back for myself and revisit it."
Shelton said Jordan declined to be interviewed, so he pieced together interviews he gave on the subject over time and "tried to weave it together as if it were a narration."
Will Brooklyn land Eagles in 2012?
Many thanks to those who weighed in with ideas for a new name for the soon-to-be Brooklyn-based Nets. They included the Coasters, Knishes, Ballers, Bombers, Brawlers and Bridges.
My favorite, thanks mostly to my bias as an old newspaperman, was the Eagles, proposed by loyal reader Bob Buscavage of Moriches.
It's a tribute to the original daily that served Brooklyn from 1841-1955, and for a time was edited by Huntington's own Walt Whitman.
'Kiner's Korner' is back!
SNY is bringing back a baby boomer fixture with "Kiner's Korner Revisited," debuting Tuesday on SNY.TV.
The show will use surviving footage from Kiner's iconic postgame program to prompt discussions on past and present baseball topics with host Ted Berg.
Alas, little survives from the earliest years, but the nine episodes will feature interviews with Pete Rose, Bobby Valentine, Johnny Bench, Richie Ashburn and Ed Kranepool, among others.
Fox goes wide right, and left
Now that more than half of American homes - not including mine - have an HD TV, Fox has made a bold turn in how it presents NFL games.
If you have a standard definition TV, you might have noticed Fox's exhibition telecasts this past week were letterboxed, yielding a shorter but wider picture.
The network has begun producing games in the 16:9 ratio used for HD, allowing it to put the far ends of the screen to use, rather than making sure everything important fits in the 4:3 dimensions of SD.
So SD viewers will get a more expansive view side to side but one that is squeezed top to bottom. Not a big deal on my 32-inch, vintage 1995 SONY, but probably an annoyance for those with smaller sets.
Young Mara hits it big
Congratulations to Rooney Mara, sister of Kate, daughter of Chris, granddaughter of Wellington, great-granddaughter of Art Rooney, for landing a huge role: Lisbeth Salander in the film "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo."
Ms. Mara's star turn reminded me of a post from last fall in which I challenged readers to come up with creative names built, as hers is, on the last names of two pro sports owners, past or present.
The winner was Bowlen Ball, from Andrew Brandner, originally of Woodmere, who also offered Brush Daley, Murphy Brown and Burns Bright.
Runner-up David Kelly suggested Blank Checketts, Ilitch Kraft and Schott Glass.
Albert is voice of NY
David Halberstam, a sportscasting historian and former voice of St. John's and Miami Heat basketball, recently produced a list of the top 25 New York announcers of all time, which can be read in its entirety at newsday.com/sportswatch.
No. 1 on Halberstam's list is Marv Albert, of whom he wrote, "The accent is redolent of his New York roots, his face as familiar as the Empire State Building."
The rest of Halberstam's top 10: 2. Marty Glickman; 3. Mel Allen; 4. Red Barber; 5. Mike Francesa/Chris Russo; 6. Warner Wolf; 7. Bob Murphy; 8. Phil Rizzuto; 9. Len Berman; 10. Bill Mazer.
