Watchdog

Like I said, Manny being . . . well, you know. (MLB shut down the YouTube version. Here is the video at MLB.com.)

And, just for the heck of it, check out Neil Best being Neil Best.

Charley Steiner just interviewed me on XM Satellite Radio. He fairly but aggressively engaged me in an interesting (I hope) debate about the existence of sports media columns in general and the approach some people in the job take to it in particular.

Eventually I (figuratively) threw up my hands and told him what I tell everyone:

That as much as I enjoy my current job I never have denied it is silly.

Those of us in the NY area didn't see it due to blackout rules, but guess who turned up as TBS' analyst for Sunday's Mets-D-backs tilt?

Jim Kaat!

Turns out he is working a couple of games this season when Ron Darling and Buck Martinez are unavailable.

Just for old times' sake, click below for excerpts of Kaat's thoughts during the game.

My Sunday column is about Vin Scully, who says in it that he is not sure whether he will be back at the mike for the 2009 season.

Why didn't I rush this information into the paper or onto the Web when he said it to me Tuesday night? Because I had heard him say similar things in a couple of electronic media interviews, and I knew he had said such things in the past without actually retiring.

Still, such is the reverence for Vin that when The New York Times posted a short story about Scully's ambivalence regarding the future, it caused quite a stir in SoCal.

Click below for some of the quality stuff from Scully that didn't make it into the paper, beginning with a poignant description of a painting of the Polo Grounds.

Despite his long association with the Dodgers and thus with Ebbets Field and Dodger Stadium, he retains an emotional attachment to the New York Giants and Polo Grounds, the team and ballpark of his youth.

When I saw the subhead on this story in the New York Post this morning about how Mariah Carey had "Tied Knot With Toy Cannon," I swear, my first thought was this:

Um, isn't Ms. Carey a little young for Jim Wynn?!

It's been a long week. Stick with me on the old-time baseball nicknames, young readers.

I spoke to Ralph Branca Tuesday night before he introduced Vin Scully for his Lifetime Achievement Award from Fordham's WFUV.

Branca was very close with Scully when the former was a Dodger and the latter was a very young Dodgers broadcaster in the early 1950s.

"It keeps him young; it's something that’s very important in his life, a major part of his life," Branca said of Scully still working after all these years.

"For him, it's easy. He's so glib and he’s got such a great voice and he knows the game. And he really doesn’t need a color man. He doesn’t need a baseball player to talk about the game. He knows enough about it so he can do it all alone."

Branca said even in Scully's early years, the players respected his knowledge and skill in the booth.

"They knew Red Barber was tops and Connie Demond was very good and they brought Vinny along and had a top crew. They even had Ernie Harwell as part of that crew. Mel Allen was with the Yankees, a different kind of announcer, more of a rooter. These guys were like reporters; they reported the game rather than root."

Branca said he usually turns down the sound when he watches games these days, but when he sees a Dodgers game with Scully on his out-of-market TV package, he turns it up.

I also spoke to Branca after the premiere of ESPN's "Zen of Bobby V" Sunday.

Branca liked it, but he's biased. Valentine is his son-in-law.

I wrote an item for my Friday newspaper column on my visit to the MLB.com offices Wednesday.

It was for a demonstration of the enhanced version of MLB.TV Mosaic, and an announcement of an extension of MLB's deal with a company called Ensequence that does the technological stuff I don't understand.

The premium version costs $119.95 for the season and features amazing resolution for computer video. The regular version costs $89.95.

The recent trend in streaming video, from "Amen Corner Live" at The Masters to "March Madness on Demand'' at the NCAAs is ad supported rather than fee supported.

Bob Bowman, the head of MLB Advanced Media, says baseball is not ready to go that route. "We believe firmly in charging for premium content,'' he said.

The percentage of subscribers who opt for the $119.95 level, which features clearer pictures and the ability to watch six games at once, has risen from about 20 percent to about 65.

Overall, Bowman said, the service had about 400,000 subscribers last season and is growing at 20 to 30 percent per year.

To break my previous daily posting record of 30, I will fulfill a promise I made a few weeks ago to ask Bob Bowman of MLB Advanced Media why there is not more game action from the MLB archives available on the Internet or TV.

This question came up when MLBAM pulled the plug on all the great vintage video John Philips was posting on YouTube.

Bowman told me Wednesday during a demonstration of MLB.tv that so far only the stuff most in demand has been digitized, but that more is sure to come, especially when the MLB Network launches in January, providing a new place to show such content.

"More needs to be done and it will be done,'' he said. "So far we've creamed it and just done the ones that make the most sense."

I asked Bowman about MLB getting its hands on the great stuff collectors have. He said deals have been made with collectors and more are likely once the TV channel is in place and all of MLB's media arms can coordinate the project.

I'm going to take a break now and write a newspaper column for Friday. More posts later. Only 21 to go.

OK, here is my last Lee Elia link. The guy certainly is embracing The Rant on its 25th anniversary. I promise I have it out of my system now.

It's appropriate to remember Lee on this day when much of New York sports commentary has been devoted to another guy (perhaps) taking on the fans - Mr. Carlos Delgado of the Mets.

On one hand, the fans always win in the long run because they're the ones who never leave. On the other hand, the athletes and coaches they torment always leave with much of their cash.

By the way, a birdie told me WFAN hoped to have David Wright on this afternoon to discuss Curtain Call Gate, but he declined.

Wise move, sir.

Here is another wrinkle on Lee Elia, the blog gift that keeps on giving, from Roslyn's own Darren Rovell, now of CNBC.

Tuesday, as you all know, is one of the most sacred dates on the sports media calendar, more so this year than most.

Yes, it's been 25 years since Cubs manager Lee Elia unleashed the greatest manager/coach rant in sports history, at least among those captured for posterity by journalists.

Here is the story from my venerable Tribune teammate (for now) Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune.

Here is Elia talking about it, 25 years later.

Here are links to some other famous rants. But not Tommy Lasorda's classic, in which he uses profanity as liberally as Elia did.

Here is how the Tribune covered the story in the next day's paper.

And here is the audio. Even with the bleeps, it's R-rated.

Just got back from a day of journalism adventures in Big Town and discovered this, from the venerable John Ourand of Sports Business Journal: Tony Petitti, Sean McManus' right-hand man at CBS Sports, is about to be hired to run the MLB Channel, which launches early next year.

You might not care, but it's really big news in my corner of the world. And it begs the question of whether Mr. McManus now will be tempted to leave troubled CBS News, which he also runs, and return full time to sports.

We shall see. For now, click below for Ourand's story:

Thank goodness other bloggers are keeping up with the Ric Bucher-Mormons rivalry and the Charles Barkley/Dan Patrick-ESPN rivalry while I slog through my Sunday column.

(UPDATE: Bucher and ESPN already have apologized for his unfortunate choice of words.)

Thank goodness other bloggers are keeping up with the Reds-Cubs rivalry while I slog through my Sunday column.

A laurel and hearty handshake to Jeff Idelson, who has been named the new president of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Idelson survived one of the toughest jobs in sports p.r. from 1989-93, when he ran media operations for the Yankees.

Later, he worked with the 1994 World Cup people, then moved to the Hall and was VP of communications and education at the time of his promotion.

My daughters and I visited him in Cooperstown in late March, the day after he learned he would be interim president after Dale Petroskey resigned under pressure.

No one has dug up any ripped Willie McCovey unis from Chavez Ravine (yet), but other than that, the Dodgers seem to be having more fun with the baseball season so far than we here in Big Town.

Here are links to stories about the Bums inviting bloggers to a pre-game schmooze that included Tommy Lasorda AND Alyssa Milano, plus more on their ongoing controversy about non-rich kids briefly being barred from getting autographs.

Or something like that.

Plus, they've got Joe Torre!

You'll never get me to admit to not enjoying baseball, as that is a fireable offense for a sportswriter in this town.

But how can the sport justify this: The Mets game Sunday slogged on for three hours and 42 minutes, which made it a sprint compared to the Yankees game Sunday, which lasted three hours and 55 minutes.

The Giants managed to beat the Phillies, 6-1, in 1919 in only 51 minutes. Granted, there were no TV commercials between innings, but still . . .

It's beyond time for Bud Selig and his friends to get serious about speeding up the game.

The Red Sox are scalping their own tickets. Sort of.

Let's face it, people: We have come to the point where the fairest, most economically efficient way to distribute sports tickets is to auction every single one of them off to the highest bidder, period.

This will create some very expensive tickets and some very inexpensive tickets. Supply and demand. America. Let's just do it.

Here is my Sunday newspaper column, in which Chip Caray discusses returning to your television and Stephen A. Smith discusses leaving your radio.

I keep forgetting to post the lyrics to the oldies classic "You Talk Too Much" that Paul Shaffer and his band cleverly (and slyly) played as Jose Canseco walked onto the stage on David Letterman's show Monday night.

Here they are, by Joe Jones and Reginald Hall:

You talk too much
You worry me to death
You talk too much
You even worry my pet

You just talk
Talk too much

You talk about people
That you don't know
You talk about people
Wherever you go

You just talk
Talk too much

You talk about people
That you've never seen
You talk about people
You can make me scream

You just talk
you talk too much

[Instrumental Interlude]

You talk too much
You worry me to death
You talk too much
You even worry my pet

You just talk
Talk too much

You talk about people
That you don't know
You talk about people
Wherever you go

You just talk
Talk too much

You talk about people
That you've never seen
You talk about people
You can make me scream

It's Roger Angell.

Writing about baseball, 2008.

Always worth reading.

Here is an interesting article about MLB Advanced Media, which has been a spectacular financial success for baseball.

What's also interesting is the byline. Will Leitch? Current King of Sports Bloggers?

The piece seems kind of, um, straight. Mainstream, even. What's up with that?

(That's Nap Lajoie in the picture. He has nothing to do with anything.)

It appears NESN has found a replacement for Tina Cervasio, the Jersey Girl who left Boston to be closer to home at MSG.

Whew. I'm glad that's settled.

Speaking of female Boston sports media figures . . . Jackie MacMullan is out at the Globe.

Buyout, naturally. We've had some of those, too.

Well, friends, it was great fun while it lasted, but at least we'll always have that one, glorious late-March week in which our dusty, baby boomer memory banks were jump-started back to life.

Say it ain't so, Bud!

MLB and YouTube have nixed the trove of TV baseball video that loyal reader/commenter John Philips has been posting since last week.

I will give MLB a call to follow up on some of the issues John raised in his announcement of the sad news, but I'm assuming it won't change the bottom line.

No more George Kell, Curt Gowdy, Joe Feliciano, Ed Kranepool, Lindsey Nelson, etc., etc.

Click below to read John's official word.

From the perspective of 40 years later, it's astounding that Jose Feliciano's soulful rendition of the national anthem was considered scandalous when he sang it before Game 5 of the 1968 World Series.

Here it is, part of the pre-game festivities as posted by John Philips. This all started about a week ago when I prodded John into posting his video of Lenny Dykstra on "Kiner's Korner."

Now he's got 17 videos on his YouTube page and rapidly is becoming a hero to nostalgic baby boomer baseball fans.

(Check out George Kell about a minute in, where he seems to be doing a parody of sportscasters by stringing together a series of cliches, only he's serious. At least I think so.)

Speaking of my visit to the Baseball Hall of Fame this week (see post below), I got a tour of the vast library facility from Tim Wiles, the director of research.

Wiles (pictured at right) also is one of three authors of a book about the history of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" that should be in stores any day now.

The other two authors - Robert Thompson and Andy Strasberg - will be appearing in a segment on the book and the song that will be shown on CBS's "Sunday Morning" show this weekend.

I took my daughters for their first visit to Cooperstown this week and my first in more than a quarter century.

I recommend it, especially during weird times of year when you can avoid the summer mobs.

As enjoyable as the Hall of Fame and museum itself is, one of the best attractions is the remarkable array of baseball-related stuff available in the shops that line each side of Main Street.

It's enough to make even the most shopping-averse person - notice how I avoided writing "shopping-averse man," which might have been construed as sexist - willing to spend hours browsing.

I had a brief chat with former Yankees p.r. man Jeff Idelson, the long-time p.r. man at the Hall whose job had included following players such as Barry Bonds around and asking for stuff after they set records or reach milestones.

Idelson learned earlier this week that he was the interim president of the whole place after Dale Petrosky resigned under pressure. So he seemed a little busy when we saw him Wednesday.

I spoke to Jeff Idelson, the Baseball Hall of Fame's long-time p.r. man and former Yankees p.r. man, on the phone Tuesday. He sounded strangely distracted.

Now I know why. Yikes!

Good luck running the place, Jeff.

SCP Auctions will be selling Barry Bonds' 762nd home run ball between March 31 and April 12, and is expecting bids approaching $1 million.

The seller is a guy named Jameson Sutton, 24, of Boulder, Colorado, whose family has had Rockies season tickets since the franchise debuted.

Bonds hit the ball Sept. 5 at Coors Field off Ubaldo Jimenez.

MLB stopped authenticating Bonds balls after he broke Hank Aaron's record, but SCP has taken steps to make sure the ball is legit, including subjecting Sutton to a polygraph test.

Bonds' 756th home run ball went for $752,467.

I would be really ticked off to spend $1 million bucks on this thing, then have the Mets or some other team sign Bonds. Assuming he still is capable of hitting home run No. 763.

I'm with Sam - my very own CEO - on this Wrigley naming rights issue.

Yo, Wrigley, pay up!

The gum industry is healthier than the newspaper industry right now; it's only right.

The Wrigleys do not necessarily agree with me on this, it seems.

An interesting story about the cost and availability of tickets in Evil Empire North.

I remember when there used to be thousands of empty seats at Fenway, Yankee Stadium and Shea.

I remember when it was difficult to get tickets to SkyDome, Camden Yards and Jacobs Field.

I remember when Rangers playoff tickets cost less than the gross national product of a small African nation.

The hottest trend in sports marketing is all-you-can eat seats.

I haven't gotten around to writing about it yet and don't know when I will, but here is a thorough story from USA Today on that subject.

This is a tricky area.

On one hand, sports teams want to serve their customers.

On the other hand, isn't it counterproductive in the long term to contribute to a customer's premature demise?

The Pirates usually are happy to take the money of any ticket buyer who comes along.

But when ducats went on sale Saturday for the late June visit by the Yankees - their first since 1960 - the Bucs limited purchases to eight per person.

The idea was to keep large numbers from landing on secondary market sites. And maybe also to limit the number of invading New Yorkers.

I was 10 days old when Maz beat the Yanks the last time they were in town. Cool way to start out life as a sports fan. But I don't remember the game very well, alas.

My story Sunday on the history of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" caused such a nationwide outpouring of interest that the publisher of the upcoming book on the subject has moved the publication date from June 10 to April 2.

Or maybe it was just to get it closer to Opening Day.

Either way, look for "Baseball's Greatest Hit: The Story of Take Me Out to the Ball Game” in your local bookstore soon.

I'll read and review it before then.

Here's my boss, Sam Zell, with one of his typically shy, non-responsive interviews, this time on CNBC.

He discusses his plans for unloading the Cubs.

He does not discuss any plans to unload me . . . so far.

(Mr. Zell, or Sam, as he prefers, also discusses the news media business.)

Below are links to vintage audio and video to go along with my feature for Sunday's paper on the 100th anniversary of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game."

There are links to more versions on the Web page where the column is located, as well as a sidebar on a real, live version of the song's famous baseball fan, Katie Casey. (Check out the YouTube link to Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly singing the obscure 1927 rewrite of the lyrics.)

First, here are the three versions that each hit No. 1 on the charts in the fall of 1908, by Edward Meeker, the Haydn Quartet and Harvey Hindermyer.

My personal favorite is Harpo Marx's version, here in a clip from "I Love Lucy."

Click below for the MLB press release regarding its "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" promotion, in which fans will be invited to compete for a chance to sing the song at the All-Star Game in the Bronx in July.

(UPDATE: Here is a later version of the story from the Sunday paper in which Ball Game is properly written as two words. It also includes the lyrics.)

Here is a link to NPR and a bunch of Red Barber audio. Barber was born 100 years ago Sunday.

I wrote a column about Barber for Sunday's newspaper that I was afraid would have limited appeal, but it inspired an impressive number of e-mails from readers who remember Red's era clearly.

Who said old people don't use the Internet? Hah! SportsWatch/WatchDog is helping make our nation stronger by bridging generations. Or something like that.

I'm starting to get a little emotional now.