Watchdog

As usual, here is the vacation blogging plan:

I'm not giving it up cold turkey, but I will not be on the usual pace. Just enough posts to let you know I'm still here so you don't drift away for good to our many other fine sports blogs.

Thanks for reading and for the feedback over the past 14 months.

It's been fun. Mostly.

Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez were unimpressed with Jose Reyes' behavior in the seventh inning Sunday after his errant throw failed to find its way into Carlos Delgado's first baseman's mitt.

Here is what they said on Ch. 11 in the top of the seventh:

Cohen: Reyes has taken his glove off and is standing hands on hips out there, with the glove on the ground. That's something you don't like to see. That's not a good look.

Hernandez: Well, he's got to get over that. Enough babying going on now. He's a grown man, he's been around a long enough time. Take off the kid gloves.

Here is what they said in the bottom of the seventh, following a shot of Reyes picking up his glove and sunglasses after throwing them to the ground, then trotting slowly off the field:

Hernandez: There's one thing you have to do when you're an everyday player. It's not that tough. You run onto the field, and you run off of the field, to start the inning and at the end of the inning, no matter if you hit a triple with the bases loaded or you made an error or you struck out. It's a simple thing to do, just run off the field, don't walk off the field. Nothing looks worse than a team walking off a field.

Cohen: The question is, what was he upset about? Was he upset about making the bad play or about the fact the error was charged to him?

Hernandez: I will give him the benefit of the doubt that he's mad at himself. I'm hopeful that that's what it is.

TBS sent an interesting comment from Ron Darling off today's Yanks-Mets tilt, which viewers in the New York area didn't hear, because TBS' telecast was blacked out here:

On Carlos Beltran being a New York type of player:

“I don’t know if there are New York kind of players anymore because this is a tough town and you’re going to catch a lot of criticism. Also, people don’t begrudge the big contracts of athletes, but they do feel as though that when you sign a player to a historical kind of contract they want that player to be a ‘get dirty’ kind of guy, a leader kind of guy, a vocal kind of person, and Carlos is none of those things. He’s an excellent player, great athlete, but would prefer to be left alone. He’s more Greta Garbo than Big League Star.”

I promise Newsday will be writing much more about PSLs as the Giants reveal more specifics and the Jets inevitably announce they will sell them, too.

But the Giants' announcement didn't come down until late Thursday, and I'm on hiatus for now so I didn't have time to properly tie it all together this week. It's too complicated a subject to cover simply by allowing incensed fans to vent for 750 words in the Sunday newspaper, so I restricted myself to a small comment at the end of my column.

On the other hand, blogs are an excellent place for venting! So to keep everyone busy for now, click below for a sampling from the first round of angry e-mails I received. I am presenting them without names, because I have not had the chance to verify their identities, but I'm only using the ones that at least seem legit.

For more angry fan comments, see my several previous posts on the subject, including the first one.

Keep in mind there are other sides to this. Many in the (relatively) cheap seats are relieved they only will be charged $1,000 for the right to keep buying tickets. And many who have been shut out of season tickets for decades by entrenched, multi-generation subscribers are pleased they might finally get their shot now, a view reflected in e-mail No. 2 below.

My question: Remind me why we needed a new stadium in the first place, when the one that currently stands is a fine place to watch a football game, even if it isn't a fine place to stroll around in wide concourses and spend money in expensive bars and restaurants?

Continue reading "Many Giants/Jets fans not fans of personal seat licenses" »

Given all the unpleasantness this past week with the Mike Francesa/Chris Russo feud and the Giants' announcement that PSLs are on the way, wouldn't it be nice to send myself off on a brief hiatus with a heartwarming Sunday newspaper column about a father and son working in the sports media business, one in the Evil Empire, one in New York?

I thought it would.

If you had been watching the series "Playing for Peanuts" on SNY, you aren't anymore. The producer has pulled it in a dispute with the channel over its lack of promotion for the show.

SNY says as a matter of policy it does not promote any "barter shows" - shows in which air time is given free to a producer in return for programming. It also says that "Playing for Peanuts" was given more exposure than any previous barter show in SNY history.

(By the way, the team and league depicted in the series no longer are operational.)

SNY garnered Friday comment contest honors during Game 1 Friday (see two posts down), then wrapped up the twin bill by mentioning moi in Game 2!

Click below for a transcript of Gary Cohen, Ron Darling and Keith Hernandez after a shot of WFAN's Mike Francesa watching from behind home plate in the seventh inning.

Note what sounds like it might be a shot from Darling at Michael Kay's frantic 1050 ESPN/YES work schedule.

Unless I'm imagining things . . .

Continue reading "Mike Francesa, Chris Russo saga comes up on SNY" »

Here are two things that have nothing to do with sports, but I'm on vacation so I'm allowed to write about whatever I want:

1. NBC is replaying the debut episode of "Saturday Night Live" from Oct. 11, 1975, tonight, in honor of the late George Carlin, who hosted. (Bonus WatchDog kudos to the first person who can say what is factually incorrect in the previous sentence.)

2. I know there is a separate category for animated best picture these days, but I saw "Wall-E" today and it should be a candidate for THE Best Picture of 2008.

Thanks for your patience with non-sports matters.

I spent all day waiting for the perfect Friday comment contest winner to drop into my lap to properly wrap up an eventful week of news about Mike Francesa and Chris Russo, Michael Strahan and Jeremy Shockey, Bob Papa and the NFL Network, etc.

Not to mention send me out in style for a bit of time off.

It arrived in the top of the seventh inning of Game 1 of the Mets-Yankees double dip, after the SNY announcers discussed what a nice job Alex Rodriguez is doing playing third base.

Take it away, Gary Cohen:

"Of course the thing that the Yankees never talk about is the fact that A-Rod is still twice the shortstop that Jeter is, but you're not allowed to say that here."

Yikes! Fightin' words!

Someone tell Michael Kay to compare A-Rod and David Wright tonight. See ya.

All kinds of stuff going on at Deadspin this Friday afternoon for Will Leitch's farewell.

A new editor (A.J. Daulerio)! An interview with Buzz Bissinger! Assorted tributes to Will!

Too much for individual links. Just go over and check it out if you are interested.

Good night, sweet sports blogosphere prince.

For the first time ever, no reader earned bonus kudos for identifying the sports figure in a picture.

I must be even older than I thought.

This guy used to be the fastest man in the world!

Sorry for the interruption. I'll write my Sunday newspaper column now. You can go back to reading the Mike Francesa transcript in the post below.

I'll be back later with a Friday comment contest winner . . . if I am properly motivated.

Say something funny, Mike!

Click below for the complete transcript of Mike Francesa's on-air remarks at about 1:25 p.m. Friday, the first time he has offered his take on my story last Sunday that the "Mike and the Mad Dog" show could be through by Labor Day and Chris Russo's comments Monday.

At times Francesa sounded like he was giving the first draft of the show's obituary. Wow.

Like he said . . . should be an interesting summer.

Continue reading "Mike Francesa admits future with Chris Russo is murky" »

Mike just acknowledged on the air that "Mike and the Mad Dog" is at a "crossroad."

Wow. Transcript later.

Patrick Munroe of Greenlawn will be featured on ESPN Monday night as part of the "My Wish" series from the TV network and the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

His dream: To meet Smarty Jones. Which he does.

ESPN Radio's Scott Van Pelt on the early carnage at Wimbledon:

"The only American left at Winbledon is Chris Fowler."

Sources deep within ESPN tell me that on the 6 p.m. SportsCenter New York City will be announced as one of 20 finalists for the summertime "TitleTown USA" competition.

The other candidates include Boston (boo!) and Green Bay (which, um, already is Titletown, right?).

Well, it's about time our backwater burg got some national pub! We recently won the Super Bowl! And beat the Packers along the way! So there!

Voting is scheduled for July 24 - 26, after a daily feature on each city from July 4 through 23. The winner will be announced July 27.

(Hey, it beats "Who's Now," last summer's big event.)

I'm telling you right now, New York: Vote for Green Bay, or you are a weenie.

Oh, my.

Given the reaction in my inbox to the Giants' announcement about PSLs Thursday . . . I shudder to think what is going on with John Mara's inbox today.

I'd e-mail him to ask, but I don't want to add to the flood.

I promise, my colleagues and I will be writing much, much more about PSLs and tickets in new New York-area sports facilities over the next several years. But for now, one more thing about the issue of PSLs at the new Giants/Jets stadium:

Who asked the Giants to build a new stadium, anyway?

The current one lacks modern, wide concourses, state-of-the-art bathrooms and high-end bars and restaurants, but it's a more than adequate place to watch a football game . . . for event-goers still interested in that sort of thing.

Sigh.

Here is the complete version of my Friday newspaper column, in which I discuss personal seat licenses, Deadspin, WPIX, WWOR and Euro 2008.

As I wrote in the post below, the worst fallout from the rising cost of Giants and Jets tickets and the use of PSLs will be the effect on middle-class fans in excellent seats whose tickets have been priced at below market value for years.

Russell Ash, one of the fans with modest means but prime seats I quoted in the column, had it right. On one hand, he was incensed about the debut of PSLs in New York sports. On the other, he was philosophical:

"Be happy for what you had for as long as you had it."

Click below for the letter on all this that the Giants sent their season subscribers.

Continue reading "Another post about personal seat licences . . . enjoy!" »

Here is the main element of my Friday newspaper column, in which I explain the bad news about PSLs to Big Blue Nation.

There is no getting around the fact this stinks, even though the Giants really did try to lessen the pain, leaving what some industry experts believe was up to $200 million on the table because of their planned pricing structure, in which 5,000 seats will be at the top level of $20,000 and 25,000 will be at the bottom of $1,000.

Here's the crux of the sticker shock that will echo for months and years:

In baseball, hockey and basketball, the middle class was priced out of the best seats long ago. But the Giants and Jets for years have kept the prices of their best seats artificially low - and artificially close to the prices of the cheapest seats.

Now, all of a sudden, the long-time season ticket holders who have had great seats for years are going to get hammered by a double-barrel assault of $20,000 PSLs and higher ticket prices.

That's what John Mara will be hearing a lot about Friday and beyond.

The Giants announced Thursday afternoon what had seemed increasingly inevitable in recent months - that they will resort to selling personal seat licenses to help finance their new, joint stadium with the Jets, set to open in 2010.

The Jets have not made such an announcement, but expect them to make the leap soon. They recently sent a survey on the topic to their season ticket holders.

More later . . . or at least in the Friday newspaper.

(UPDATE: Click below for the news release.)

Continue reading "Breaking news: Giants to sell personal seat licenses" »

Interesting stuff here from JVG (around 1:45 into it) in an interview with SNY's Gary Apple, in which he takes issue with a fellow former Knicks coach.

According to WFAN's Web site, Mike Francesa will be on solo from noon to 1:25 p.m. Friday from Yankee Stadium, then from 4:25 to 7:30 from Shea.

Hmm. Will he join Chris Russo in using a 50,000-watt radio station to reply to my Sunday article about the state of "Mike and the Mad Dog?"

Not sure how he can top Russo's monologue, but I'll certainly be listening to see how/if he handles this matter publicly.

Good thing I've never reviewed one of his books . . .

Here.

Tiki Barber sighting this morning! No, really.

Naturally, this tip came from Mrs. WatchDog, who sometimes watches "Today" and told me Tiki was going to be sprinting against Michael Johnson.

Tiki did look good bursting out of the blocks between Johnson and 400-meter stud Jeremy Wariner. They did not show the end of the race, if there was one, so all I have to go on is the start.

(NBC televises the Olympics, by the way; hence its particular interest in such sports.)

Bashing Tiki has been fashionable for the past year or so, but I think he's fine on TV, and can do it for many years if he so chooses. I just think he'll eventually decide he has more important things to do with himself.

Michael Strahan, on the other hand, was born to do TV, and I can see him doing it forever.

Which current Giant will be the next eventually to take the network TV plunge? I would not bet on Jeremy Shockey, unless it's for some sort of scary reality series aimed at the young, reckless Oklahoman demographic.

Eli? Um . . . no. Antonio Pierce is a wannabe, but I don't see it.

I've got it! A reality series featuring Tom Coughlin and Chris Snee, a cross between "Coach" and "The Mothers-in-Law" and "All in the Family" and "Patton."

If anyone comes up with a good name for the show, he or she will be a candidate for the Friday comment contest award. "Coach-in-Law?" "Father Knows Football?" "Pulling Your Guard Down?" "NYFG Blue?" I don't know. Give it a shot.

And bonus WatchDog kudos to the first person to identify No. 932 in the picture.

I have a Friday newspaper column to write now. Ssssseee-ya!

Sean Avery of the Rangers enjoyed his internship at Vogue. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Here is his account of it.

I tried (and failed) to pry out of Will Leitch what he has planned Friday for his final day as Deadspin editor. But he promised it will be worth checking out.

In the meantime, he seems to be winding down his term by looking back at key elements of his storied three-year reign.

For example, this essay about his, um, complicated relationship with the Bristol Stompers.

Sam Borden of The Journal News plans to eschew both his car and the subway Friday and walk from Yankee Stadium to Shea to take in both ends of the day-night, two-stadium twin bill.

Partly it's to get a story out of it for the newspaper. But he's also decided to turn it into a fund-raiser for the American Cancer Society.

To join him and/or to donate, go here. He said he plans to leave from the big bat in the Bronx 20-30 minutes after Game 1.

(UPDATE: Turns out Newsday's own Jim Baumbach plans to RUN the distance between the two stadiums, perhaps in less than two hours. Let's see Carlos Delgado try that.)

YouTube god John Philips is at it again. Here is George Carlin on Kiner's Korner.

Wow. As revolutionary comedians go, this guy really knows his baseball.

I can't do any better blogging than this post. So I'm done for today.

Enjoy "My Boys" on TBS. I think on tonight's episode they might actually show sportswriters at work instead of drinking and playing poker.

(UPDATE: Oops. I messed up in a big way. "My Boys" is on Thursday, not Wednesday. My bad.)

Let us put into perspective the technical problems that kept the world from watching much of the exciting last few minutes of today's Turkey-Germany game:

It's the NFC Championship Game. Brett Favre goes back to pass in overtime. Corey Webster seems to have a bead on the ball. Then the picture goes blank.

Wow. Not good. I'm surprised the Earth still is spinning as planned on its axis.

(Bonus WatchDog kudos to the first reader to identify the game in the picture.)

OK, by popular demand, I am posting the infamous book review of June 16, 2006, for which Chris Russo never will forgive me. Click below to read it.

First, though, here is a transcript of Tony Kornheiser talking about the potential breakup of "Mike and the Mad Dog" on "Pardon the Interruption" Tuesday:

"There has been media speculation that the long-time New York sports radio stars are splitting up, but Chris Russo came on the air yesterday with Francesa off this week and denied those rumors. I have no idea where this is going. But as someone who has done sports radio, I've always thought that Mike Francesa and Chris Russo are the best who have ever done it."

Said Michael Wilbon: "What a crushing blow to the culture that would be."

Kornheiser: "I like them, I think they're good."

Continue reading "Here it is: My notorious review of Chris Russo's book" »

The NFL Network wisely has decided to take my advice and hire Bob Papa as its new play-by-play man, replacing Bryant Gumbel, who had held the job for the previous two seasons.

I don't know when the network is announcing this, but three people familiar with the situation said Wednesday that Papa would be the choice.

Other candidates are believed to have included Spero Dedes - like Papa a Fordham alum - and Tom Hammond, who was the presumed leading contender when Bryant first departed.

Papa, the Giants' radio play-by-play man, received national attention during the team's Super Bowl XLII run. He is a veteran broadcaster who has done extensive work outside New York, but having his calls replayed over playoff highlights introduced him to a wider audience. He also calls boxing for HBO.

The NFL Network games, primarily on Thursdays, will not conflict with his Giants or boxing duties.

Hiring Bryant, who hadn't done play-by-play in decades, was a risk that flopped. Hiring Papa, who called the most recent NFL game played, is a no-brainer that will be a hit.

Oh, heck, I might as well be the last blog in North America to post Shaq's rap from Sunday night.

The naughty words are beeped out, but parental guidance suggested anyway.

I'm trying to remain neutral and open-minded on the latest round of Imus stuff, just as I tried to do last year, because I am not good at assessing the shifting winds of political correctness.

I do know this: Whether you are a supporter or a detractor, Imus did nothing to help his credibility with this ridiculous take on Adam Jones' character Tuesday as he explained his controversial comments from Monday:

"My point was there's no reason to arrest this kid six times. He's a football player. He's a lovely kid. He's out having fun. He doesn't need to be arrested six times. We know why he gets arrested six times. That was my point."

Pacman a "lovely kid?" Oy. Maybe that was more sarcasm. Gosh, I hope so.

(Did I mention that for the entire 1981-82 school year I worked in the game room of the student union, immediately adjacent to the Pac-Man machine, and still can hear that stupid song playing in my head after listening to it 100 times a day for eight months?)

Fox Sports chairman David Hill said Tuesday that despite the addition of a new pregame mouth in Michael Strahan, the other elements of the show will remain in place, including Frank Caliendo, Jillian Reynolds and Barry Switzer.

That's a lot of stuff to cram in an hour. Hill said Fox would like to expand the show to 90 minutes. But that is a complicated process, and it most likely would take at least two or three years to make happen.

That was interesting; this was strange: Hill tried to make the case that because they bring new fans into the sport, the pregame panelists are doing greater things now than when they were winning multiple Super Bowls, getting inducted into the Hall of Fame and football stuff like that.

"As important as they were to the NFL when they were coaching and playing, they’re far more important now,'' Hill said, "because what they have managed to do over the years, God knows how, is to explain the inexplicable, to break down plays and personalities, to viewers who might never think of watching football and convert them into fans, and our research has shown this year in and year out."

Here is my Wednesday newspaper article about Michael Strahan's introduction by Fox, in which he suggests the Giants grant Jeremy Shockey his wish to depart. And here is a complete transcript of his remarks about the grumpy tight end.

This seems to have created a bit of a message board stir during a very slow time of the year in the NFL world.

Fox's feelings about the magnitude of the Strahan hiring were illustrated by the turnout for its announcement in Manhattan Tuesday. The other four pregame show panelists - none of whom lives in New York - were on hand, as were Fox Sports' top two executives - neither of whom lives in New York - as was Fox information man Jay Glazer, who lives in Arizona. (Strahan was in Glazer's wedding party and gave a speech at the reception; Glazer is the godfather to one of Strahan's young daughters.)

Click below for much more from Strahan that didn't fit into the newspaper column.

Continue reading "Michael Strahan does new job, expressing opinions" »

I admit it. I'm a sucker for Barry Melrose. The guy did all he could to make hockey fans forget ESPN doesn't carry the sport anymore. It wasn't enough. But like I said, he tried.

Here is the Bristol Stompers' tribute to Mullet Man.

(About 12 seconds in is a clip of Barry sitting next to Bob McKenzie, the guy who in 1982 offered me a job as assistant editor of The Hockey News, only to snatch it away just because I am an American citizen, thus depriving me of a bucolic life covering hockey in Toronto and sentencing me to become a middle-aged shut-in listening to New York sports talk radio in a suburban basement all day. But this isn't about me. Good luck, Mr. Melrose.)

Yo, ESPN: I patiently tolerated your T.O. interview addiction with minimum complaint. At least he has been a very important player on very important teams.

But I must take a stand in the case of Chad Johnson.

You have reached your limit on interviews with Ocho Cinco. I think you're up to ocho cinco of them now.

Please. Stop. Thanks.

Here is the video of WFAN's Craig Carton playing with high school girls Tuesday night, plus post-competition interviews.

(Click on it in the upper left corner of the sports area of the page.)

Newsday.com is here for you, people. Sometimes in ways you didn't know you wanted or needed.

So sorry about lack of blogging today. I really needed to get out of the basement, so I went to Fox's news conference introducing Michael Strahan as the newest member of its pregame cast.

You can read all about it by buying Newsday Wednesday or by reading Newsday.com and clicking on a bunch of ads. We really need the dough. Thanks.

To whet your appetite, click below for Michael's comments when I asked him about Jeremy Shockey. Interesting stuff.

Continue reading "Fox's Michael Strahan suggests Giants ditch Shockey" »

I thought Chris Russo handled himself well in a tough spot Monday as he addressed my Sunday article about the potential breakup of the "Mike and the Mad Dog" show this summer.

Here is the transcript of what he said, and here is my Tuesday newspaper article updating the situation.

I have been told by readers that after Chris' initial remarks screeners did not allow callers who wanted to talk about my article through, which is understandable in this situation.

Really, the only thing that bothered me about Russo's non-denial denial was his obsession with my negative review of his book two years ago. I thought he and I had talked all that out at the Super Bowl media party!

Click below for more on that.

Continue reading "Is satellite in Chris Russo's future? Sirius ain't sayin'" »

Jemele Hill of ESPN.com recently made the age-old mistake of using Hitler in pretty much any comparative context, then she got in hot water for it, then she spoke to AOL Fanhouse about it.

Uh, oh. Maybe this Imus thing is not going to go away . . . just like the last time.

Pacman Jones has weighed in by expressing concern over Imus' remarks. Here is that link from AOL Fanhouse, and here is the link to this morning's Imus audio.

I'm not getting sucked in this time!

Maybe Verne Gay will keep up with this saga on his blog.

I've got current WFAN personalities to worry about!

Here is my small story in the Tuesday newspaper about Michael Strahan joining the Fox pre-game crew.

I am sure he will have entertaining things to say about all this today, and his comments will appear in the Wednesday newspaper.

Probably even Tuesday night, if you check Newsday.com.

Question No. 1, obviously: In light of all the ---- Tiki Barber took for commenting on the Giants last season, how do you plan to handle that delicate topic, especially if they struggle?

I think Strahan is going to be good at TV, and in the long run he should go to the game booth.

Studio shows will not fully take advantage of his abilities.

Monday's Imus brouhaha was a bolt out of the blue, and out of the past, a reminder of those heady days of 2007, when Imus fans helped make WatchDog the worldwide new media sensation it is today.

Here is the story about it to which I contributed in Tuesday's newspaper, and here is a story about Imus addressing the matter this morning.

After Imus explained himself, Warner Wolf weighed in and reiterated what he told me Monday night, which was somewhat different from what Imus himself said.

Imus said he was making a statement about blacks being unfairly targeted for arrest. Wolf's interpretation was that Imus was making a satirical joke about blacks in serious legal trouble crying racism, a point seconded this morning by Karith Foster, a member of Imus' cast.

Either way, it certainly seems unlikely that Imus was saying black people are more prone to get into or cause trouble than others. He's not a moron. Right?

Barry Melrose officially has become the Lightning coach.

Who might replace him as ESPN's lead hockey analyst? Hmm. How about Mike Milbury?

I suppose I should ask NBC if that's even contractually possible, but I have no reporting juice left. It's all been used up on Francesa and Russo.

Yo, NBC, is this even contractually possible?

(UPDATE: Turns out this is contractually impossible. Never mind.)

Busy day for Deitsch.

It began with him praising me.

It ended with him breaking the news that Strahan has signed with Fox.

How the heck did he beat Jay Glazer to that news?