Watchdog

A high-profile friend in the sports media business who I respect today advised me to stop posting page views results every month, calling it "bad form."

But really, it's just my way of thanking loyal readers and sharing the blog joy with them.

OK, it's also to stroke my own ego.

Whatever. In April I finished third among non-WWE blogs, behind only the Rangers, Yankees and Mets.

So I/we finished first among blogs not about teams currently in the playoffs or currently causing their fans to fear a playoff-free New York baseball October.

I beat Glauber again, too.

Thanks for reading.

Check out this really cool, really scary live blog Glauber is doing at the draft.

Yikes.

One question: When is Glauber going to get around to writing his article(s) for the Sunday newspaper?

Assuming he is writing article(s) for the Sunday newpaper . . .

First, Rieber and Baumbach started posting media news on their new blog.

Now they're looking for lame excuses to post pictures of attractive young females.

Pretty soon there will be nothing left for me but lists of words Chris Russo has mispronounced.

Sigh.

I should do a book on athletes dating females celebrities. It goes back to the dawn of time, or at least to 1887, when the Giants' John Montgomery Ward married actress/babe Helen Dauvray. But I probably won't. Don't have time due to blogging addiction.

Not in the mood today.

Please enjoy the many other fine Newsday sports blogs.

UPDATE: Here is a comment contest contender in response to this post from a loyal reader, quoting George Costanza in "The Deal" episode:

"You ask me to have lunch, tell me you slept with Elaine, and then say you're not in the mood for details. Now you listen to me. I want details and I want them right now. I don't have a job, I have no place to go. You're not in the mood? Well you get in the mood!"

Excellent! By the way, here is Newsday's most recent update on the developing Joba situation, which again has me wondering why I didn't become a trapeze artist like my mother advised me to.

I'll go back to writing my newspaper column now.

Looks like my friends at The Final Score are encroaching on my territory.

That's OK. We're all one, big happy blogging family here at Newsday. And now I can stop blogging for the rest of the day without feeling guilty.

But I must say I am shocked and disturbed by Jim Baumbach's admission that he never has watched an episode of "The Odd Couple" or "The Honeymooners."

Which means this guy is either too young for his own good or grew up in Idaho.

Sheesh. At least Glauber is older than I am, much like Flavor Flav.

During the weird, separated-at-birth meeting between Glauber and Tom Crean at the Garden after a recent Marquette shootaround, Crean spoke at length to Glauber and me about his strong interest in and connections to football.

He married into the Harbaugh family, and he said he is friendly with Bill Parcells.

Parcells, of course, has been a close friend of Bob Knight for decades.

So is it possible somehow Knight worked behind the scenes to support Crean's candidacy for the Indiana job?

I have no idea. I'm just wonderin'.

The scary thing is now we'll be seeing Glauber's long-lost identical twin on TV more than ever.

We're getting Donnie Walsh from Indiana.

Indiana is getting Glauber from us.

A trade that helps both sides.

Maybe Glauber will take Isiah with him.

Thank you, as always, loyal members of WatchDog Nation for another strong month of page views in March.

I think the total was our third-best ever, and the gap over Glauber widened from February despite this amazing statistical achievement:

Glauber has increased his page views for six consecutive months.

With the draft coming up in April, there is a good chance he will pass WatchDog at last and run across the Brooklyn Bridge naked. Or in a Speedo. Or holding hands with Carton or some such thing.

We ranked third or fourth among sports blogs in March, depending on whether you consider pro wrestling a sport. Our new wrestling blog came out of nowhere to finish first . . . if it's a sport. I considered it one circa 1973 but lately am not as certain.

Next in line were the Rangers and Mets, the latter with an all-time high. The Jets blog and boys high school basketball also set new highs.

Thanks again, readers of all Newsday blogs.

Glauber has gotten almost as much mileage out of his visit with Michael Strahan in the Wienermobile as I did from my sitdown with Will Ferrell a couple of weeks back.

Here.

And here.

And here.

And here.

And here.

I hope Strahan comes back. I made a bet in 2001 or 2002 with Paul Schwartz of the New York Post that No. 92 still would be in the league in 2009.

I think he's starting to sweat. Schwartz, I mean. Not Strahan.

It's official. The end of civilization is at hand.

Turns out there now is a parody of WatchDog.

Glauber broke this story.

I'm flattered.

And scared.

I was a little blue - as opposed to Big Blue - earlier today (see two posts below), but was revived by the excellent news about Bobby Murcer (see one post below) and then (much less importantly) by the monthly blog report from our Web desk.

Thank you, as always, WatchDog Nation, for your support.

We were down a smidgen from January, when we ranked No. 1 among all sports blogs, but were still a solid fourth, behind the Rangers, Islanders and Mets, each of which had news to deal with last month.

The big development is that Glauber set a personal high for the fourth consecutive month and has narrowed the gap with WatchDog to an alarming extent. His total page views were only 22 percent behind ours.

Yikes.

Congrats to our high school hoops and wrestling blogs, which also set all-time highs.

I just got back from a rare visit to the office, during which I got a less-old laptop to replace my antique model, learned that while I was away Glauber had blind-sided me by breaking my single-day posting record and commiserated with colleagues about some difficult developments in Newsday Land.

Tune back later this morning for leftover material from Will Ferrell that didn't make my Friday column on him, plus other assorted stuff.

(Dear Sunday editor: I'll write a column for you, too, if I get around to it.)

By the way, WatchDog Nation, I have a 28,000 page views lead on Glauber for February, but just in case he rallies late I want to make one thing clear:

If he passes me on Feb. 29 thanks to NFL free agency stuff, it does not count, as my contract clearly states "28 days hath February."

It turns out this dude Eric Deskin whom Glauber has identified as my latest look-a-like grew up in East Meadow and used to deliver Newsday.

More evidence for my theory that the world is run by people who used to deliver Newsday.

I'll have to check out one of Eric's upcoming comedy appearances.

I have to write a Tuesday newspaper column now.

Everyone please leave me alone.

Glauber finally has come up with a look-a-like for me that I can live with - with the help of a former Giants beat buddy of mine.

(I actually look more like him in real life than I do in the awful picture of me we use in the paper and on the Web. I even wear this style of eyeglasses these days. Wow.)

Now we all can get on with our lives, thank goodness.

I know I promised to be done with this Glauber/Crean stuff, but blogmeister Mark La Monica put this into my blog himself and told me to write something clever about it.

In honor of the late, great Karl (Sign Man) Ehrhardt, I'll just leave it at this: "There are no words."

Here is the first of what figure to be several posts on Glauber's blog - not to mention scary video to be posted later - commemorating the historic meeting at the Garden Wednesday between Glauber and his long-lost twin, Marquette basketball coach Tom Crean.

I had an hour to kill so I stopped by the shootaround to witness this, and I can confirm the resemblance is truly scary, that Crean was a great sport about it and that Marquette's players found the entire thing thoroughly hilarious.

One of them said when he first saw Glauber he didn't understand why Crean was dressed for the game already. (Glauber was wearing a suit.)

ESPN2 got into the act by showing a picture of the two during the St. John's-Marquette game.

Maybe you had to be there. Anyway, it was more entertaining than anything going on this winter with either men's basketball squad that calls the Garden home.

This will be my last post on the Glauber/Crean phenomenon. Promise. Keep checking Glauber's blog for updates.

Uh, oh. Glauber is obsessing over me and my blog again.

At least he wrote a worthwhile news story also.

It seems Tom Coughlin might be staying after all, despite my Dec. 26, 2006, column calling for him to be fired. Go figure.

I hope Glauber has not forgotten his promise to visit Marquette coach Tom Crean the next time he is in town to prove once and for all that they are not the same person.

This is your chance, sir.

Crean and his squad will be in Madison Square Garden Wednesday night to play St. John's.

Glauber could do the Red Storm a favor by scaring/distracting Crean before the game.

I am overcome with guilt over ruining the contest Glauber was running on his blog to see when I'd crack and break my Thursday promise not to post pictures of attractive young women until March 1.

(I didn't make it until the end of the business day. Darn you, Jill Arrington!)

To punish myself I have reinstated my pledge. I don't expect anyone to believe me or sponsor another pool on this subject. But I mean it this time.

See you at 12:01 a.m. March 1. Really.

Thanks for your patience, loyal WatchDog readers.

I am back in the basement but still unburying myself post-SBXLII. Things will be back to normal Thursday.

I did want to share this breaking news, though:

The January page views are in, and for the first time in its nine-month history, WatchDog topped all Newsday sports blogs and was third overall, narrowly behind second-place TV Zone.

It appeared with two days left the Giants blog was going to charge into the lead - apparently the team was preparing to play a big game in Arizona - but a record-tying 30-post day Jan. 30 held off our version of Big Blue more effectively than the Patriots held off the real one.

The Rangers blog was a close second to WatchDog, and the Giants blog a close third. Both set new monthly highs. So did Glauber, by the way.

Congrats to all of the above, especially Staple and Glauber for all the work they did during the Giants' amazing run, and thanks most of all to our blogs' readers.

(Bonus WatchDog kudos to the first reader who correctly comes up with what this picture has to do with any of this.)

Tom Rock just left the room to investigate the news that Tom Brady is not on the Patriots' injury report at all, which is hilarious given the fact Brady ALWAYS is on the Patriots' injury report.

(UPDATE: Rock now says the ANKLE is not on the injury report. We're not sure about the shoulder. Check the Giants blog for updates during the night. Thanks.)

So I'm going to wrap this up at a record-tying 30 posts and get out of his way so he can have some privacy. Some records are not made to be broken.

On his way out he warned me not to call Antigua or anything. Which reminded me that I haven't posted any exotic bets from Antigua-based Bodog lately.

Who will have the largest market share in TV Ratings?
New York -130
Boston Even

(Note from WatchDog: Bet the house, and your neighbor's house, on Boston.)

Will the entire Fox pre-game team pick the Pats to win the Super Bowl?
Yes -175
No +125

What Song will Tom Petty sing to end his halftime show?

Free Falling 5/6
Don’t Do Me Like That 5/1
Learning to Fly 12/1
Great Wide Open 9/1
Last Dance with Mary Jane 4/1
Runnin’ Down A Dream 9/4

Will one of these cities win double championships in their respective sports in 2008?
Pats/Celtics 2/1
Pats/Red Sox 3/1
Giants/Yankees 10/1
None 1/2

(Note from WatchDog: Now that Johan Santana is on his way, how about Giants/Mets?)

Good morning, people of cyberspace. Sorry about the lack of posts Tuesday, but Media Day duties called.

It now appears that despite WatchDog’s near record pace in January, the Giants blog is going to nip us at the page views finish line before midnight Thursday.

Super Bowls can do that sort of thing.

No problem. It’s all good. The Yankees blog will blow past me from February through December, but I’ll be back to try again next January.

I’m not going down without a struggle, though. I was up at 3 this morning to visit Chris Carlin and Kim Jones in their WFAN “studio’’ at the Airport Marriott, and now I’m geared up for a busy day.

Thanks for reading.

My favorite moment from Day One in Arizona: I went out to dinner late Monday night with Glauber and a couple of friends, one from a rival publication, one from the NFL.

The discussion eventually came around to Jalen Rose (the much beloved former Knick) and the promise he has shown as a fledgling TV analyst.

Someone noted he is the son of Jimmy Walker.

Glauber: Jimmy Walker the actor?

OK, so he's an idiot. But he wrote a nice story in the paper today.

I was all set to go into Super Bowl week as a team player, willing to give up my best chance ever to win a monthly page views title for the sake of the greater good by promoting our Giants and NFL blogs religiously.

Then this insult from Crean, er, Glauber. (By the way, much as I like "Seinfeld," the only true Uncle Leo is the one in "The Honeymooners" Christmas episode.)

The gloves are off now.

Here's a guarantee:

If I don't beat Glauber in January page views . . . I will ask Craig Carton to walk the Brooklyn Bridge in a Speedo again.

(UPDATE: Newsday's own Joe Manniello just made an excellent observation. Glauber is my very own . . . Newman.)

Speaking of new Tribune CEO Sam Zell (see post below), he revealed Tuesday he has not yet had an opportunity to explore Newsday's Web site.

I guess that explains why he seemed to have no idea who I was when he introduced himself. I was hoping for a hug, maybe, or at least a complaint about Aikman's pro-Dallas bias. But no.

I got to rebuild my ego shortly thereafter, though, upon learning that midway through the month I am on pace to finish first in page views among Newsday sports blogs for the first time.

This is my only shot, people. Once pitchers and catchers report in February, I'm toast. So forget what I wrote below about conceding January to Glauber and Staple.

I'm in it to win it. But I need your help. Two weeks to glory!

Thanks to DuMont Berger for finding this, thanks to Newsday's own Corris Little and Mark La Monica for teaching me to embed videos and thanks to Bob Glauber for denying the existence of Ben Grauer, the subject of my final post of 2007.

This is Ben after he moved from NBC to CBS, on New Year's Eve, 1976, which turned out to be the final Dec. 31 in the lives of both Grauer and Guy Lombardo himself.

Four years earlier a new New Year's Eve show debuted called "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve,'' clearly a cheesy gimmick designed to attract young people that never would last.

Speaking of page views (see post below), the Newsday sports blog juggernaut took seven spots in the top 50 last week among all Tribune Company blogs.

Pretty good. Thanks for reading, as always. WatchDog ranked 41st, far behind our blogs on the Yankees (14th) and mixed martial arts (25th) and slightly behind the Mets (37th). No sign of Glauber.

Yo, Joe Fernandez, I'm coming for you. I'm tired of getting thumped by MMA. I don't care if I have to make Matt Serra my (unpaid) guest blogger for a week.

In fact, I'd be happy to. Matt? Matt? I know you're reading. It's all yours. Just let me know when you want to start.

It took 25 years in the business, but now I finally, officially have seen and heard everything.

At about 9:54 a.m., Craig Carton referred several times to Bob Glauber as a "great reporter" on a 50,000-watt radio station.

Dude, he can't even beat me on blog page views!

Seriously, though, Glauber is a great reporter, most recently evidenced by two exclusives cited by Carton: Jerry Reese calling Eli Manning "skittish" and today's story with Tom Rock about the flip side of Spygate. (Glauber repeatedly made me look good during my decade on the Giants beat.)

Carton suggested having Glauber on WFAN Thursday morning, but as Boomer Esiason noted, it's possible Glauber will be unavailable because he is a regular on ESPN's "First Take," and ESPN generally bars its personalities from appearing on competing stations in markets where there is an ESPN affiliate.

Is Glauber a big enough ESPN name to actually fall into that category? Let me know, ESPN. I know you're reading!

Better yet, just invite Rock onto the show and let Glauber spend his time working on his blog.

Newsday's blogmeisters have unveiled the November page views, and WatchDog readers again came through in a big way.

The page views were down a bit from a record-breaking October, probably because I took a week off. (No more vacations, ever!) But the total still was nearly double the old record mark set in September.

Overall, WatchDog finished fourth among sports blogs - behind high school football, mixed martial arts and the Yankees - and sixth among all blogs. Pretty darn good. Thanks to all for reading.

The total views for all Newsday blogs quadrupled - thanks mostly to cartoonist Walt Handelsman - and Glauber's NFL blog hit a new all-time high.

I had better stop promoting Bob. Next thing you know, he'll catch up to me in the standings. Hah! Just kidding. Never!

Uh, oh. Glauber is back from London and obsessing over my blog again.

This is getting almost as disturbing as the man-crush every pro football announcer has on Brett Favre.

Glauber works hard on his blog and might yet make a run at me in page views late in the football season, especially if Big Blue doesn't do its traditional November swan dive.

Let's see what happens in May, though.

There's no offseason on my beat, Bob.

Here is a picture of the late, great George Best, doing what he did back in the day, when he was a big-time player - on and off the field.

Why? I like his name, of course, but the idea also is to get you in the mood for today's Giants-Dolphins tilt at Wembley.

Here's another thing: Check out Bob Glauber's tale of his visit to a real football game Saturday night.

Naturally, a former Newsday paper boy plays a key role. If we have learned nothing else in our SportsWatch/WatchDog journey together over the past two years, it is this: Former Newsday paper boys run the world.

Check out Glauber's post on the story from Michael Strahan's book about the time he tried to kill Scott Gragg in practice.

I remember that incident, and remember Gragg, one of the players I was closest to during my decade on the beat. He was/is a great guy, but although he had a nice, long career maybe he was a tad too much of a teddy bear to reach his full potential as a player. Unlike Strahan, as you can tell from the book excerpt.

I also was/am friendly with Kerry Collins, who showed as a Titan Sunday he still can play. Eight field goals! That takes a quarterback driving his team down the field many, many times.

OK, I'm done. Have a nice day. Go Jaguars.