The Best of Neil's Watchdog
Lucky 13th Series for Buck
The current World Series is Joe Buck's 13th as a play-by-play man, breaking a tie with Vin Scully and the late Curt Gowdy for most career Fall Classics.
At 41, he eventually could put the record out of reach.
What does the mark mean to him? "It means Fox has a lot of money ,'' he joked.
But seriously . . .
"I'm flattered that that's even brought up,'' Buck said. "Those are titans of the industry. When I think of baseball broadcasting, I think of those voices. I certainly don't put myself in that category.''
Dog is mad for Giants
Chris Russo called Friday on his way from the airport to the Sirius XM studios after returning from a triumphant week in San Francisco.
The famously passionate Giants fan said the city is far more "juiced up'' than it was in World Series seasons of 1989 and 2002, because this postseason run has been a surprise and because this is a more likeable group.
"It's a cozy, nutty, ragamuffin, misfit team,'' he said.
Russo said call volume to his show has been heavy as listeners react to his self-described role as the "loudest'' Giants fan in America.
The team itself treated him as "Mr. Giant,'' he said, giving him access to A-list guests and setting him up to work from Willie McCovey's personal suite.
"It's a fun team,'' Russo said. "They can taste it.''
Marion Jones restarts her life
"Marion Jones: Press Pause,'' Tuesday's ESPN "30 for 30'' entry, updates us on the life of the disgraced former track superstar and more recently a role player for the WNBA's Tulsa Shock.
Director John Singleton's account is light on what led Jones down a steroid-strewn path in the first place and generally sympathetic to his subject.
But it doesn't take long to see that through it all, Jones has retained her powerful charisma.
The film is at its best offering behind-the-scenes looks at Jones' new life and insights into her six months in prison in 2008.
It included a 49-day stay in solitary confinement after a brawl with a cellmate. Yikes!
After previously cutting back on his Nets work for YES, this season, Marv Albert stopped doing "Monday Night Football" for Westwood One radio.
"I had withdrawal at first,'' he said, but he added there are no regrets. Now in his late 60s, he wanted a saner lifestyle.
"But I do like doing a local team. also,'' said Albert, who called Heat-Celtics for TNT on Tuesday and will work Heat-Nets for YES on Sunday. "It's a good balance.''
Albert's son, the ubiquitous Kenny, now is pursuing the kind of manic schedule Marv once did.
"My wife said, 'When you think back, how did you do that?' '' he said, referring to his days working local TV news, the Knicks, the Rangers and national events. "And you think: It was nuts. I loved it, but I love my life right now.''
Versus jettisons Jenn's show
Versus has canceled "The Daily Line,'' a sports roundtable that included Jenn Sterger, a former Jets game-day host now better known for, um, allegedly attracting the attention of Brett Favre.
The publicity did not help the 7-month-old show. Sports Business Daily reported the audience averaged a mere 53,000 viewers nationwide.
Stoudemire has ball in New York
Amar'e Stoudemire took another step toward becoming an official New Yorker on Friday when he read the top 10 list on CBS' "Late Show with David Letterman.''
The topic? Reasons he is excited to be playing basketball here. No. 5: "If I played in Miami, I'd never get to touch the damn ball.''
Namath feeling Super
When I spoke to Joe Namath about his new media presence, I couldn't resist asking him about early talk of a Jets-Giants Super Bowl.
"That would be wonderful,'' he said. "We would even take it somewhere besides that new stadium. We will take it this year rather than 2014.
"Wouldn't that be a kicker, the Giants and Jets in the Super Bowl in Dallas, Texas?''
Shannon was one of a kind
Most fans never had heard of Bill Shannon before Tuesday, when the venerable official scorer died in a house fire in New Jersey at age 69.
But the emotional reaction from the baseball world offered a glimpse of one of those colorful behind-the-scenes characters who enrich sports.
Shannon's passion was evident in a quirky 48-page booklet he wrote several years ago called "Official Scoring in the Big Leagues.''
It includes everything from scorer trivia - J.G. Taylor Spink worked a record 11 World Series from 1910 to 1920 - to philosophy:
"Popularity is not an objective for a scorer; objectivity is.''
