Watchdog

On summer hiatus.

Please enjoy our other fine Newsday sports blogs.

For up-to-the-minute coverage of the sports world, check Newsday.com early and often.

Thanks as always, WatchDog Nation, for another powerful month of page views in June.

We recorded our fifth best month ever - with four of the top five coming in the first six months of 2009.

WatchDog finished third overall behind monthly champ TV Zone and second among sports blogs to a monster performance by Alan Hahn's Knicks blog.

I have a feeling Hahn's blog is going to do even better next June 30/July 1!

This week's winner is Scott E for his comment on my post regarding the sale of Giants Stadium seats at $499 per pair:

"Rather than buy a PSL at the new stadium, can I buy a pair of old seats and take them with me to the new place? They'll perform the same job at a fraction of the cost."

Excellent idea!

Here is another way to look at it: For the price of a $20,000 PSL plus the $700 game ticket to the Giants' first preseason game of 2010, you could buy 84 seats from the old stadium, set them up in your back yard and invite 83 friends over to watch the third-stringers play on TV on an early August evening.

Odd and ends:

NBC has the women's final at 4:30 p.m. Saturday and the men's final at 4:30 p.m. Sunday of the AVP stop at Coney Island. This will be the first time Chris Marlowe and Paul Sunderland call an event together since the Sydney Olympics. The two were teammates on the 1984 Olympic team and have worked three Olympics together. Heather Cox is the sideline reporter.

Fox Sports Net's "Best Damn Sports Show Period" is kaput. Sports Business Journal's John Ourand reports: Fox confirmed that "Best Damn Sports Show Period" taped its final studio show today, and it will be telecast tonight. The show will remain on the schedule through the fall in its "Top 50" format. A few new "Top 50" shows will be produced as well. "Obviously, since the show premiered in 2001, the RSNs have re-focused and added tons of local pro games and locally produced shoulder programs," a Fox spokesperson said in an e-mail. "The need to have a show like 'BDSSP' fill in the gaps isn't what it was eight years ago."

We have only six more months to decide, people. Is it going to be called "twenty ten" or "two thousand ten?"

Photo: Getty

Two important reminders about Neil Best, as we bring another rough-and-tumble blogging month to a close.

First, about a minute in: "Best fears no man."

Second, about two minutes in: "There's a man there who is 100 percent testosterone."

New York ranked third among 56 major markets tracked in "overnight" ratings for Sunday's U.S. vs. Brazil game in the Confederations Cup final on ESPN.

Miami-Ft. Lauderdale topped the list with 5.67 percent of households, followed by Las Vegas (4.28) and New York (4.23).

The rest of the top 10:
West Palm Beach, 3.65
Hartford/New Haven, 3.64
Atlanta, 3.58
Richmond/Petersburg, 3.46
Washington, DC, 3.45
San Francisco, 3.35
San Diego, 3.30

Photo: Getty

Giants Stadium seats are going for $499 a pair, a bargain compared to Shea and old Yankee Stadium seats.

Act fast: It'll be Christmas/Chanukah before you know it.

Or save it for food or college or something boring like that.

It turns out one of the reasons the Panthers canned long-time TV analyst Denis Potvin is that he preferred to summer in, get this: Canada rather than south Florida!

Seems to me that's a sign of sound mental health.

By contrast, SNY's Keith Hernandez summers in Sag Harbor and winters in Florida, which also makes good former jock/TV analyst sense.

The Knicks City Dancers who, like Newsday, are owned by Cablevision, have been holding auditions for the 2009-10 squad.

Over 350 talented young women showed up for Sunday's first round.

Shockingly, the group's Web site has posted pictures of the process. Which works out well, what with this being the final day of my page views month.

Did I ever mention how I watched Game 5 of the '94 Stanley Cup finals with the Knicks City Dancers on a ranch outside Houston? I'm quite sure that I have. So never mind.

Photo: MSG

It is a rite of early summer: The ESPN news release announcing its annual July time-filler on SportsCenter.

Often these concepts get a tad confusing and convoluted. Last year it was "Titletown," whose goal was to identify America's "Titletown," even though Green Bay has used that nickname for decades.

I'm on vacation and don't the patience to figure this year's feature out. So you're on your own. Click below and have at it.

Continue reading "Kobe Bryant fantasizes about playing cricket, I think" »

Finally got around to watching "The First Basket," released on DVD earlier this month (suggested retail, $24.99), whose subtitle pretty much sums it up:

"The Greatest Jewish Basketball Documentary Ever."

Writer/producer/director David Vyorst and narrator Peter Riegert cover the influence Jews had on the early decades of basketball - including their domination of the first Knicks lineup in 1946-47 and the fact one of them, Ossie Schectman, scored the first basket in the history of what is now known as the NBA.

The subject of Jews in sports often requires a tricky balance of self-deprecating humor and justifiable pride, and this documentary strikes it well.

Bottom line: For the first half of the 20th century, hoops at its highest levels - especially in New York - was the Jewish-American national pastime.

Kevin Kennedy offered an interesting anecdote Monday on his daily Sirius XM baseball show regarding being in the opposing dugout as the Red Sox' manager one day early in Mariano Rivera's career.

(Derek Jeter makes a guest appearance in it.)

Click below for that, via Sirius XM.

Continue reading "Mariano Rivera has been very good for a very long time" »

In today's Newsday Sports Blog Post of the Day, Jim Baumbach of The Final Score links to a classic 1992 video featuring Michael Jackson and Michael Jordan at the peak of their powers, in which MJ teaches MJ how to moonwalk.

More random, pre-hiatus stuff:

Mike Francesa has agreed to terms with WNBC-TV to continue his Sunday night TV show for at least another couple of years, a New York TV industry source said.

Ken Rosenthal will join MLB Network's roster of insiders effective Tuesday in addition to his Fox duties, joining Tom Verducci and Jon Heyman of SI in the precarious position of both covering and working for MLB.

YES should follow SNY's lead and offer post-game shows even for games on ESPN, Fox or Ch. 9.

Random stuff:

Sports Business Journal reports the Padres and Cox Communications soon will follow the Yankees and Cablevision in offering in-market live streaming of games. The Mets? They're working on it, but nothing close, apparently.

I confess to missing the U.S.-Brazil game in the Confederations Cup final - I was at Northport High School watching my niece graduate at the time - but the highlights were enough. Wow. American soccer, on the verge! Speaking of soccer, the Red Bulls' new stadium in Harrison, N.J., is almost completed and will make it much easier to take that franchise (and league) seriously. That, and having them win the occasional game.

Paul Maguire will have a reduced role on ESPN this autumn.

Even John Feinstein has a blog now!

Turns out Boland wasn't the only journalist to identify Lucas Glover as a golfer to watch before the U.S. Open. Check this out.

The real test of baseball announcing teams is whether they can make late-innings blowouts watchable.

It's a standard SNY's much-praised trio reaches on a regular basis.

But YES' Michael Kay, Al Leiter and David Cone showed Saturday they can play that game, too, now that the Subway Series has become hopelessly lopsided.

In the sixth, they engaged in a long, interesting discussion of Sandy Koufax' pitching arts.

In the ninth, they used Darryl Strawberry's assertion that the 1986 Mets were better than the '98 Yankees as a jumping off point, including a side trip into Keith Hernandez' playing days persona courtesy of David Cone.

Enjoy Game 3 of the series tonight on ESPN. I'm off this coming week, but use the comments section below to vent about Joe Morgan and Steve Phillips if you are so inclined.

Photo: Getty

If Newsday.com's coverage of three important local stories of the past week - the U.S. Open, NBA draft and NHL draft - was not sufficiently compelling and additive to warrant readers paying extra for the privilege, then there really is no long-term hope for any of this.

I suppose we will find out soon enough.

Speaking of the Internet, USA's largest newspaper Friday identified me as "Newsday blogger Neil Best."

If you had told me 30 years ago that was what I would be when I grew up, I would have said, "Huh?"

Photo: Getty

Does TSN not offer continuous, ESPN-style graphic updates on the NHL draft, or for some reason does the TSN feed via Versus have the graphics stripped out of it?

(Help me out here, hockey people.)

Either way, very annoying! I watched the draft for 30 minutes and finally had to resort to checking Newsday.com to find out which player the Isles took No. 1 overall.

Time to vote on the eighth-inning sing-a-long, Mets fans.

Check toward the bottom of the Mets.com home page for your ballot.

Speaking of Sid Rosenberg, I spoke to his agent, Mark Lepselter, about Sid's recent candidacy to join Mike Francesa on WFAN and about rumors he is ticketed for Miami's WQAM to succeed the retired mid-day host Neil Rogers.

Here is what he said:

"At one time there was significant interest and Sid appreciated Mike's interest in potentially bringing him back to FAN. Unfortunately, it wasn’t able to come to fruition.

"Sid and I have discussed it at length. Sid lives in Boca Raton. He is rooted in South Florida and that is where his career, we hope, will continue. Sid has moved on.

"At one time there were discussions with both New York [sports] radio stations. Sid realizes now that he needs to have it clear to the listeners in South Florida that he is committed to that market.

"In the near future there will be an announcement as to where he is going next."

Neither Francesa nor Lepselter would say so, but it seems evident there was opposition at the corporate level to Mr. Rosenberg returning to CBS Radio/WFAN.

Thus ends our blogging week. Enjoy the Islanders' draft party.

I asked HBO about this Deadspin report that "Joe Buck Live" would ditch the comedy stuff next time around.

HBO's official response: "No comment."

Hmm.

Looks like I scheduled my vacation a couple of days too soon.

Sunday the Knicks City Dancers will hold open auditions at the Garden, with registration from 10 to 11 a.m., followed by tryout activities.

At right is a picture from last year's tryouts. I sure hope the woman in the picture made the team. She deserves it, no?

(Cablevision owns both Newsday and the Knicks City Dancers.)

Photo: MSG/Chad Batka

Meanwhile, former Jets game day hostess Jenn Sterger is scheduled to appear along with Packers running back Ryan Grant Monday night as part of the "12 Angry Mascots" show at the Comix Comedy Club in the Meatpacking District.

Previous athletes/guests in the show have included the Giants' David Diehl and the Jets' Kerry Rhodes.

Photo: Getty

Today's Newsday Sports Blog Post of the Day is a live chat with Greg Logan in advance of the Isles picking No. 1 overall Friday night.

It's going on RIGHT NOW! Hurry!

Strange media scene before Thursday's Cardinals-Mets game:

Future Hall of Fame St. Louis manager Tony LaRussa holding court on the field surrounded by . . . six reporters!

One of whom was Ron Blum from the AP. Another was WFAN's Ed Coleman.

Let's just say that is not the way it works before games for Yankees or Mets managers.

Photo: Getty

I believe I have done enough now to torture readers who don't care about Mike Francesa or New York radio wars.

So this will be my last post on my chat with Francesa Thursday.

Click below as I empty my Francesa quote bag on topics from why he does not consider Russo's Sirius XM show to be his competition, to facing up to the challenge of ESPN to how he has had to tweak his persona as a solo act to his respect for the audience to why Bob Heussler has not become a regular on his show to the future of terrestrial radio to predicting a raise or bonus for me.

Wait, what? "You have by your own blatant self-promotion created a successful Web site and you are a fanatic about it,'' he said. "It will turn out to be very good for you financially, I’m sure, in the next couple of years."

I explained to Mike that these days in the newspaper business, merely keeping your job is reward enough.

Photo: Getty

Continue reading "Mike Francesa: 'I will never be warm and cuddly'" »

This is a little strange: While I was at the Open last week, Mrs. WatchDog was at the Andrews Institute near Pensacola meeting with famed athlete-fixer-upper Dr. James Andrews about some sort of project she's working on related to her marketing gig.

I'm not sure what it's about, frankly, or whether I'd be allowed to say if I did, but I was impressed that she met the world's most famous athlete doctor before I ever did.

Unless . . . Is Victor Conte a doctor?

TNT will continue to carry the first two rounds of the PGA Championship through 2019 in a deal announced this week.

My newspaper article on Mike Francesa includes his thoughts on the pressure he felt in the post-Dog era that began in September.

But click below for a more expanded version of that discussion, as well as Francesa's take on why his ratings were not as good in the fall as they have been more recently, and his thoughts on the differences between a one-man and two-man show.

One more thing: Upon hiring Russo in August, Sirius XM boss Mel Karmazin said this: "If I was one of [Francesa's] competitors, I would be very happy today."

Francesa's response Thursday: "It shows Mel is in a big slump lately in a lot of ways, because Mel’s prediction there wasn’t too accurate, either."

Continue reading "Mike Francesa: 'Mel [Karmazin] is in a big slump lately'" »

Hey, gang, the NHL draft is Friday night, and the Islanders have the No. 1 pick!

Newsday.com will cover this matter thoroughly, of course, and it will be televised live on Versus beginning at 7 p.m.

MSG plans a special edition of "Hockey Night Live" Saturday night to review the event. Friday night at 8:30, the network will debut "Fans' Most Wanted Rangers: Rangers vs. Islanders Playoff Rivalry."

John Davidson on not being selected for that year's infamous Sasson commercial:

"I can tell you the truth about that. Well, they asked me to, but their waist lines only went to 34 and I was a 36. Well, at least that’s what I’m told and I’m sticking to it."

Wow, so Espo was only a 34 in those days?