Watchdog

At first I thought it was a very bad sign for tennis that it wasn't until 44 minutes into SportsCenter this Thursday morning that Justine Henin's retirement was reported in detail.

She's No. 1 in the world, right now!

But later I realized it had more to do with her nationality, which is not American, than it did with her sport.

If Venus or Serena had retired, it would have come up well before the 44-minute mark.

No big deal. Not even a shot at ESPN. Just an observation.

Carry on.

Everyone has been wondering how Newsday will handle covering the Knicks and Rangers and thus risk being critical of our new bosses.

Then, out of leftfield, comes this from ESPN.com's biggest star, Bill Simmons, who evidently is not bashful about being critical of his bosses.

So here we have Deadspin interviewing the Sports Guy, a meeting of two of the biggest brands in Internet-based sports media.

It's a crazy, mixed up media world out there, and WatchDog is here for you, always ready to slobber over it.

What does ESPN have to say about all this?

"Bill is an exceptional talent with a unique voice that we're proud to bring to fans. In any creative environment that features talented people, there will inevitably be differences. As we have in the past, we'll continue to work through them."

I suppose I should tell you more about the goings-on at the ESPN Upfront Tuesday. Frankly, it's all quite overwhelming and it was a challenge to keep all the stuff straight.

I do know that snowboard goddess Gretchen Bleiler was there as a celebrity schmoozer, as were Amani Toomer of Our Giants and Spike Lee.

Mr. Lee on His Knicks: "I was hoping Mark Jackson would get the job, but I'm going to give Mike D'Antoni a chance. You have to.''

Lee said he was spared much of the pain of Isiah Thomas' last campaign. He even was able to resell his pricey season tickets for the games he skipped.

"I missed half the season because I was in Italy shooting a film, so it worked out pretty good," he said.

Lee took 18 cameras to a Lakers game last month, all of them trained on Kobe Bryant. He is going to put together a film based on the footage for ESPN. "When we get it done, it's going to be a very unique vision of a basketball game."

Click below for a bunch of other stuff ESPN promoted during the presentation to ad buyers, other assorted TV industry types and a scruffy handful of business/media journalists.

In the post below, I type impressive quantities of words from Hannah Storm.

In this post, I do the same with her new boss, John Skipper, ESPN's grand poobah of content and one of the people with the most power over the sports stuff you see on TV.

Skipper is from North Carolina (and sounds like it), but he once lived in Huntington briefly. No, he was not a Newsday paper boy.

Click below for his comments after Tuesday's upfront.

Hannah Storm looks in this picture as if she is silently pleading to the camera, "Please, get me out of here and back to sports."

Now she is. ESPN has hired her to host three of the nine new hours of live SportsCenters that will be seen from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. starting Aug. 11.

I'm too lazy to write a coherent story on this subject, as Deistch did today.

So I'm just going to throw massive quantities of unedited quotes against the wall from Ms. Storm after Tuesday's ESPN Upfront and let you sort it out.

Click below for all that.

Tony Kornheiser officially is done (for now) as a full-time newspaper man, having accepted a buyout from the Washington Post.

Here is the news, via his radio show, via DC Sports Bog, via Deadspin.

Tony's wistfulness is understandable, and there is a local connection here, of course, for a kid from Lynbrook who began his professional career at Newsday, inspired by Stan Isaacs, who later founded Newsday's TV Sports column.

But none of this is a surprise. When I spoke to Tony before his "Monday Night Football" debut in 2006, he made it quite clear his work with the Post henceforth would be very limited, and that mostly he was through with newspapers, no matter his nostalgic connection to them.

Paraphrasing, Kornheiser told me he felt he had nothing left to write, at least in that media form.

I am overcome with guilt about not blogging today. Sorry.

I was at the ESPN Upfront early this morning, after which I had a nice chat with Hannah Storm.

The biggest news to come out of the event is the new, live morning and early afternoon SportsCenters that will debut Aug. 11.

There will be nine separate, one-hour shows from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m., with co-anchors working three-hour shifts, including Storm from 9 to noon.

Much more on that and other ESPN plans in the blog Wednesday and the paper Friday.

I had lunch with Deitsch and two ESPN p.r. honchos who shall remain nameless to protect them and me from blogosphere ridicule. Ms. Storm was going to join us but understandably blew us off at the last minute. She has an image to protect.

(End of name-dropping segment.)

Then I walked to the Garden for the Mike D'Antoni news conference and to bask in the warm embrace of my soon-to-be employers.

The funniest moment was Donnie Walsh calling the new coach Mike "D'Antonio," a sure sign he has been listening too much to WFAN's afternoon show.

Anyway, the World's Most Famous Arena truly is a wonderful, magical place.

Did I mention how much I enjoy the poker, boxing and infomercials on MSG Plus?

A couple of things I forgot to mention in my Tuesday newspaper column about "The Zen of Bobby V" and my earlier blog post on that subject:

Bobby V. is so big in Japan that he has a beer, a hamburger and a street named after him. One of the weirdest scenes in the film follows him during a busy commercial shoot.

Another highlight is a scene of Valentine skiing in Sapporo, when he hints at the loneliness of a life halfway around the world from his wife, Mary, who visits every other month.

Valentine also makes several interesting observations about the radically different culture of Japanese baseball, in which umpires actually practice their craft during the season, and when the manager calls an optional practice, everyone shows up.

"At the beginning of practice, you don't have to look around and wonder who's here,'' he says. "They're here early."

(Little or no blogging today. Journalism stuff to do.)

Tuesday's newspaper column comes in three pieces, one about "The Zen of Bobby V" on ESPN2 Tuesday night, one about Terrell Owens' guest appearance on "Under One Roof" Wednesday night and one about how Cablevision's pending takeover of Newsday might (or might not) affect coverage of the Knicks, Rangers and MSG.

Former Newsday baseball writer Larry Rocca makes a guest appearance in the Bobby V portion of the column. He's an interesting dude in his own right, and one of WatchDog's most loyal readers in the Eastern Hemisphere.

Click below for more on him and his thoughts on Bobby V and the filmmakers behind the ESPN2 show Tuesday night.

A couple of ESPN related developments from during my weekend in hiding.

Before heading to Ann Arbor for his fellowship, Deitsch apparently still has some reporting to do. Here he informs us Hannah Storm will front a new morning edition of SportsCenter.

This is expected to be announced at Tuesday morning's upfront presentation, taking away the surprise element. I guess I'll still go for the free donuts.

And TV Week reported back on Friday that ESPN and Tennis Channel will share the cable rights to the U.S. Open tennis tournament starting next year, another step toward simplifying the complicated business of trying to figure out who covers which grand slam event.

And of USA Network getting out of the sports business.

I got invited to the news conference at "21 Club" but I passed on it to stay home and write a Tuesday newspaper column for you nice people.

I kept nosing around for the original link to the amusing Jimmy Kimmel/Bill Simmons spoof of ESPN's recent "ambush" interview of Miguel Tejada, but I finally gave up.

So here's one via The Big Lead.

Michael Kay was not bashful about criticizing Joe Torre on his 1050 ESPN radio show even when Torre was managing the team for which Kay works as a play-by-play man.

With Torre on the West Coast, though, Kay has added another layer to his Torre repertoire, calling him "St. Joe," as he did Tuesday in criticizing the Dodgers manager for having contact this season with former players of his such as Andy Pettitte and Jorge Posada.

I asked Kay about this Tuesday between his radio and TV gigs.

"He’s earned that aura from all his years," Kay said. "He can do no wrong. I don’t think he’s doing anything in his mind that’s wrong. But he shouldn’t be calling players from other teams in my opinion.

"I said I don’t think anybody is going to do anything about it, because it’s St. Joe. You can’t go up against Joe Torre, and I know I’ll be criticized. A caller called up and said, 'You must not like Joe Torre because he was on with [WFAN's Mike Francesa and Chris Russo].'

"I don't care that he was on with them. He had a relationship with them, he got paid by them. That really has nothing to do with it. I just feel it’s improper.

"I never used St. Joe when he was here. I just put 'saint' on it. Even when he got fired it was like you’d gotten rid of Pope John Paul. So now I call him St. Joe.

"I don’t mean it in a derogatory way. I actually think that’s the way he’s thought of, as a saint. A lot of people take that as a negative."

Forbes.com came out with a list last week of the Top 10 most wanted fugitives worldwide, led by you-know-who in the mountains of Pakistan (we think).

Alas, Forbes neglected first to check ESPN.com, which a week earlier had interviewed one of the men on the list, Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov. There even were pictures and video!

Props to ESPN. Find the top guy on the list and we'll really be impressed.

Yes, I am aware I have given the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival enough free publicity by now to have financed a documentary on Tibetan yak polo.

But for those of you unable or unwilling to attend the movies in person Saturday at the AMC on East 19th Street and/or the sports festival Saturday in Tribeca, I wanted to make you aware of a sports documentary marathon this weekend on ESPN Classic.

Beginning at noon Saturday it features "Chiefs," "Hooked: The Legend of Demetrius 'Hook' Mitchell," "A League of Ordinary Gentlemen," "Through the Fire," "Unstrung," and "Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos."

At 7:30 p.m. Sunday there will be a special about the films in the Tribeca festival, followed by two showings of "Hellfighters."

I have seen "A League of Ordinary Gentlemen," which is about bowling, "Through the Fire," which is about Sebastian Telfair, "Once in a Lifetime," and "Hellfighters," which is about a high school football team in Harlem.

I recommend all of them.

Oy. I was so busy monitoring the unfolding Phil Hughes silliness on WFAN this afternoon that I neglected to monitor the ongoing Billy Wagner silliness on 1050 ESPN.

(I also didn't hear Mr. Michael Kay's take on Hughes' injury and the controversy that surrounded it. Sorry.)

Fortunately, Jim Baumbach was listening to Wagner's radio appearance for me. Thanks, Jim.

I need to move to a media market with only one baseball team. Or none.

The wheels are starting to come off.

Sources tell me there has been an unusual spike on Internet searches for "Mike and Mike" and ESPNRadio.com this morning.

Is there a controversy of some sort of which I am unaware?

It can't be because of . . . this, can it?

If anyone knows, let me know.

Happy Birthday in advance to ABC/ESPN's Erin Andrews.

The Most Popular Human in the Sports Blogosphere turns 30 Sunday.

Which reminds me I don't think I've mentioned Ms. Andrews is going to serve as the sideline reporter for the Scripps National Spelling Bee finale May 30.

Watching her interview the young lads in the competition figures to be even more amusing (and uncomfortable) than her interviews with players during the Little League World Series.

If they really want to test these kids' composure, have Erin stand next to them and give them the words to spell.

Why did nothing like this ever happen to me when I was 12? I should have worked harder at spelling or baseball or both.

Tom (Dancing With the Stars) Bergeron is going to host the ABC portion of the Bee, by the way, after Chris McKendry handles the ESPN part of the final rounds.

In my Tuesday column, I promised to follow up with a direct ratings comparison between Mike Francesa/Chris Russo and Michael Kay once the hourly breakdowns from the winter book became available.

The numbers show that from 4-6 p.m., the only complete hours in which the shows were head-to-head, "Mike and the Mad Dog" retained its healthy lead among men 25-54, a key demographic.

From 4 to 5 p.m., WFAN ranked second among men 25-54 with 6.2 percent of the average audience in a given quarter hour, while 1050 ESPN was 18th with a 2.1 rating.

From 5 to 6, WFAN ranked first with a 7.1, compared to 15th place and a 2.4 for 1050.

It will be interesting to see how/if any of this changes now that Michael is on from 3 to 7.

As I mentioned over the weekend, I turned down an interview with Alice Braga Friday night before the premiere of "Redbelt" in order to discuss the mixed martial arts phenomenon with an old boxing guy.

Ray Mancini plays a small part in the movie.

My job is silly, but someone has to do it.

Click below for the transcript of our discussion.

I was fortunate enough Sunday to view seven films in the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival, and now know much more than I did 24 hours ago about homeless soccer, the Bocuse D'Or cooking contest, Ugandan boxing, the history of the New York City marathon, old Nets dancers, steroids and Bobby Valentine.

I will do my best to review all 12 films in the ESPN festival in the blog and/or newspaper before it ends Sunday.

The "Zen of Bobby V," in which three ridiculously young NYU film students spent eight months with Valentine in Japan last year, will be on ESPN May 13.

Sunday was the second-nuttiest movie-watching day of my life, behind only the triple feature of "Dr. No," "From Russia with Love" and "Goldfinger" I saw in 1971 when school was out and my mother had to work.

She left me (age 10) and my sisters (age 9) in a theater in downtown Elizabeth, N.J., with no adult supervision. Those were different times.

Here is my Sunday newspaper column, in which I give free pub to a worth cause - ESPN Films - and quote at length John Sterling lamenting the Yankees' lack of pitching.

Have a nice day.

Enjoy the seventh round of the draft.

I did some journalistic snooping while visiting the Tribeca Film Festival (see post below) and discovered how and why "We Are Marshall" won the vote for favorite football flick - thus earning the right to be shown at the "drive-in" Saturday at the World Financial Center.

Turns out a site frequented by Marshall alumni caught wind of the contest and mounted a vast Internet conspiracy to vote early and often. Hence some of the nutty results, including a 93-7 blowout of "Rudy" in the final.

Too bad Notre Dame doesn't have an active alumni community.

(I'm old school, of course. I would have voted for "Brian's Song.")

I know it's a busy sports weekend, but I won't be blogging. I think the wife and kids have started to notice that I've been ignoring them.

See you Monday. Enjoy college boxing on SNY at 4:30 p.m. Wait . . . college boxing?

Friday night I attended the premiere of David Mamet's Jiu-Jitsu film, "Redbelt" and joined the entertainment media on the red carpet.

While there I turned down an interview opportunity with the woman on the left to talk to the man on the right.

Then Salman Rushdie sat next to me during the movie.

It's a strange job. But it beats my old one, in which I currently would be obsessing over the Saints' trade offers for the Giants' tight end.

Saturday night's "drive-in" movie at the World Financial Center Plaza as part of the Tribeca Film Festival is "We Are Marshall," winner of a fan poll of favorite football flicks in honor of the draft.

(Actually, it's not really a drive-in. This is Manhattan. It's a walk-in.)

It's not a great movie by any means. But it's earnest and well intentioned and I thought the recreation of the plane crash was scary and realistic.

Plus, it features SportsWatch/WatchDog pal Kate Mara.

(For the record, I'd like her father, Chris, and everyone in the Giants and Steelers organizations to know I was extremely well behaved in choosing a picture of the lovely and talented Ms. Mara to illustrate this post, out of respect to all concerned.)

Michael Kay just said Vin Scully will be his guest on 1050 ESPN at 4 p.m.

That in itself is worth nothing here in case you want to listen. But it also reminded me I keep forgetting to give you the ticket info for the event Tuesday at which Fordham will honor Scully for his lifetime achievements.

Click below for the news release and ticket particulars.

It seems Miguel Tejada is still not pleased with ESPN.

On another topic, I believe Chris Russo is scheduled for Letterman tonight.

Dave is on quite a roll. Russo Tuesday, Danica Patrick Wednesday, Brett Favre Thursday.

Effective May 1, Scott Van Pelt will join Mike Tirico as a co-host on ESPN Radio from 1 to 3 p.m.

Van Pelt then will continue nationally for an additional hour from 3 to 4 p.m. - Stephen A.'s old slot - but by then we in New York will be hearing Michael Kay on 1050.

Is all that clear? OK, carry on.

I will be writing much, much more about ESPN Films and its participation in the Tribeca Film Festival over the next couple of weeks.

But for now I wanted to alert you to the start Tuesday night of ESPN's series of four world TV premieres of sports documentaries.

The first offering (at 9 p.m. on ESPN2) is "Hellfighters" a story of a high school team in Harlem that I saw at last year's Tribeca festival. I recommend it.

Here is the description from the ESPN release:

Harlem's only high school football team, the Hellfighters, are a long way from Friday Night Lights. The bleachers are empty, practice space scarce, and the Board of Education bureaucracy ruthless, but under the perseverance of coach Duke Fergerson, the Hellfighters are fighting to overcome it all, one touchdown at a time.

(Actually, it's a lot more complicated than that.)

Next Tuesday's film is "The Streak," about a high school wrestling program in Tampa with a record-breaking winning streak. Its executive producers are Kelly Ripa and her husband.

I was invited to a reception and screening where I would have had the opportunity to hang out with Ms. Ripa. But I had to pass.

Insane, I know.

Here's a nerdy media question that has bugged me since I took this assignment and which I'm sure DuMont Burger can help with . . . since he's named after a defunct TV network:

Isn't the meaning of the term "TV network" an aggregation of affiliates across the nation that are united under the umbrella of a "network?"

In other words, how can the YES "Network" be a network? Same goes for SNY or the NFL "Network" or any other single entity channel. Aren't these "channels" or "stations" and not "networks?"

ESPN is another example, although maybe they now are a "network" in the sense that they have multiple channels.

I always try to avoid using the term "network" for anything other than a broadcast TV network or, for example, the Yankees radio network, which has affiliates and thus fits the definition.

Can you help on this DuMont? I assume no one but you and I cares. Maybe John Philips does. I don't know.

(And another thing . . . the only time I use the term "on the air" is for a broadcast TV or radio station, not a cable channel, which is not transmitted over the air.)

(Bonus kudos for first reader to identify the guy in the picture.)

OK, I'll stop now.

There is much I miss about covering the NFL.

The Draft is not one of those things.

Rather than think of something clever and obnoxious to write about the parade of pre-draft e-mails I get this time of year from ESPN, the NFL Network and Sirius Satellite Radio, I refer you to the end of this column from Richard Deitsch at SI.com.

I did consider listening in on Mel Kiper Jr.'s pre-draft conference calls and writing an amusing column in which I describe the dozens of highly specific questions and answers.

Then I slapped myself on the forehead, came to my senses and did not.

"E:60" is not Miguel Tejada's favorite ESPN show.

Here is my career plan:

Soon, I will be the only print sports journalist left in America.

Everyone else will be working for ESPN.

And I will critique them.

In case you missed it, Harold Reynolds and ESPN have settled their legal differences.

At last, we all can get on with our lives.

Just in time for Jackie Robinson Day, ESPN has announced it is joining with Robert Redford and others to produce a theatrical film about Robinson and Branch Rickey.

Redford will star as Rickey, which presumably will require him to put on a lot of weight and become less handsome.

ESPN said the film has the blessings of Rachel Robinson, Branch Rickey Jr. and MLB.

No word yet on a title or release date.

Uh, oh.

ESPN ombudsman Le Anne Schreiber has written her second consecutive mostly positive column about the Bristol Stompers.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. She's still an interesting read, as always.

Here it is.

Does former Newsday columnist Mike Lupica read WatchDog, or do great sports journalism minds just think alike?

Here's me at 7:47 a.m. Tuesday:

But the ESPN crew, led by Bob Knight himself, really went after Memphis and coach John Calipari on SportsCenter. It was good stuff, and they were right, of course.

Just wondering, though: Would they have reacted the same way if the same sins had been committed by a more popular member of the coaching fraternity, say, Coach K?

Thinking . . . thinking . . . thinking . . . um, NO!

Here's Mike in Sunday's Daily News:

I wonder if some of those TV guys who were so quick to jump John Calipari the other night would ever be as quick to jump somebody like the sainted Coach K.