Watchdog

Loyal WatchDog reader (I think) Jiggs McDonald e-mailed Tuesday night with the following tribute to Chris Botta, who stepped down as the VP of media relations for Our Islanders Monday:

"Chris Botta raised the bar for not only the NY Islanders but the entire fraternity of NHL PR Directors. He was, and always will be a special person. I wish him only the best wherever he goes and whatever he does in the future."

Chris Botta has resigned as the Isles' VP of media relations, according to this Greg Logan article and an e-mail I got from Botta late Monday night.

I'm not sure what the "personal reasons" are, but I'm assuming based on Logan's article Botta does not want to discuss them publicly.

Fair enough. But Isles fans should know he worked hard over an insanely long stretch to help reporters (and by extension fans) navigate a roller coaster era in the team's history.

Most notably, he was innovative and forward-thinking, with ideas such as the Blog Box. Check out this memorable interview he gave to Deadspin.com on that subject.

Media relations people have one of the toughest jobs in sports.

The hours stink, everyone wants help getting tickets and reporters whine into one ear and owners/coaches/players into the other.

It's a shame they changed that Sean Avery rule before Rick DiPietro got a crack at him.

Asked during his guest studio stint on Versus the following question, "Would you have been able to keep your cool if Sean Avery swung his stick in front of you”?, Rick pondered for a few seconds and said this:

“I highly doubt it.”

DiPietro also said, "probably 90 percent of the league was wishing a slap shot would have hit him in the back of the head.”

Here is a quote provided to me from DiPietro about how his first night in the studio went:

"I thought it went pretty well. The guys on the panel and the crew really made me feel comfortable. I’d much rather be playing, but it’s been enjoyable and it’s a good experience watching all of the games.”

DiPietro is working with Versus through Thursday.

The recent unpleasantness regarding the regular-season competition involving the three local hockey squads has been resolved.

Read about it here.

That's a relief.

Thanks, King Solomon.

OK, so it doesn't quite mach the 1979 playoffs in intensity, but here's a snippet of mild, good-natured controversy between Our Islanders and Our Rangers, courtesy of Isles p.r. poobah Chris Botta.

I had a heck of a time getting the final game of that '79 series on the radio in Ithaca. It was barely audible but I listened anyway.

I was pleased with the outcome. Almost made up for the shock of that first-round series in '75.

Sigh. I am getting older by the day.

The Islanders have partnered with the message board Islandermania on a program that makes it easier for fans to share season tickets without resorting to recruiting relatives or close friends.

Makes sense, given the very high price these days of quality hockey tickets (and basketball tickets, and tickets to pretty much every major pro sport).

Meanwhile, the Giants and Jets still have not said officially whether they will resort to personal seat licenses in their new stadium.

But no one I've spoken to in the sports business world lately doubts that they will.

Maybe they'll get enough dough from a corporate name sponsor to avoid it. Many people have suggested JetBlue Stadium.

Feel free to add your suggestions below. I'll pass them along to stadium officials.

After showing the on-ice ceremony before the Isles' "Core of the Four" celebration Sunday, FSNY will add a roundtable discussion hosted by Jiggs McDonald and featuring Clark Gillies, Bobby Bourne and Butch Goring.

Word is Goring has been stockpiling some of his best stuff for the discussion, so it's probably worth a listen/watch for Isles fans before the game itself.

My Tuesday newspaper column is two mini-columns squashed together, one about basketball and hockey ratings, the other about FSNY's coming re-branding as MSG Plus.

(It's a better name; we'll see if it's a better product.)

In the column, I get all excited about the Islanders' ratings this season, which are up a healthy 85 percent compared to this point last season. (The Rangers are up by even more.)

Still, the overall numbers are rather modest. The Isles are averaging 0.24 percent of homes in the market for their games, roughly 18,000 of them.

Super Bowl XLII did a 44.9 rating in New York, drawing about 3.3 million households.

So it would take 187 Islanders games - more than two full seasons worth - to match the Giants' final game of this past season.

Mike Comrie reportedly will be staying with the Isles after all.

Good.

(UPDATE: Here is more on this from our Islanders blog.)

Sorry about the lack of blogging this Wednesday.

It was a long, ultimately symmetrical day. I started it in the control room at WFAN listening to Craig Carton and Boomer Esiason mercilessly make fun of Mike Comrie's attire for a recent evening out with his female friend.

It ended with Comrie scoring the winning goal in a shootout for the Isles.

All sorts of other stuff happened in between. But they are stories for another day. Tomorrow.

Islanders fans have been weighing in via e-mail all morning in response to today's newspaper column about the gap between the team's weekday and weekend attendance.

I'll respond to everyone individually eventually, but one consistent theme from fans trying to explain the disparity has been the difficulty of getting to the arena on a weekday in terms of both traffic and the 7 p.m. starting time, which is a big challenge for commuters.

Anyway, thanks for reading. The column also includes items about Chris Russo turning into a political lobbyist, Fox planning to bury cameras in the asphalt in Daytona and a guy fishing in Central Park on Versus.

(Ms. Brinkley is 54, so I have not technically violated my vow, Glauber. Hah!)

Newsday started a new Web only feature today called "Islanders Insider" by beat writer Greg Logan.

It's another example of our commitment to unique Web content. You should read it religiously.

(I learned how to cross-promote from covering ESPN for more than two years now.)

Logan is one of a select few Newsday sports scribes ahead of me on the seniority list, based on the vacation week request e-mail sent out earlier today.

Gergen is No. 1, of course, followed by Jeansonne, Zipay, Logan, Herrmann and me. I believe I would be ahead of Herrmann if I hadn't taken that detour to Anchorage between my debut in the fall of 1982 and my return in the summer of 1985.

Sigh.

My contract clearly states that any time a TV p.r. person alerts me to a show related to Our Islanders, I have to give it a free plug.

So . . .

Fran Healy sits down with Mike Bossy on the latest episode of "Halls of Fame,'' debuting at 8:30 p.m. Monday night on FSNY.

If you'll be busy watching the LSU-Ohio State game, the show repeats several times, next at 8:30 p.m. Friday and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, by which time the Giants should have a large enough lead against the Cowboys that you can start flipping for other TV options.

As promised, I did watch the 1994 PBA Greater Detroit Open on ESPN Classic Saturday.

The most interesting thing about it: Some of the hair and clothing styles of the female fans in the background bore a scary resemblance to the 1980s, which means 1994 was longer ago than I imagined, which means . . . I'm really, really old.

In today's newspaper column, which for now appears in two pieces on the Web site, I wrote more about the price rises in Yankees tickets, as well as a story about the TV rights deal for which we have to thank the existence of Our Islanders.

Go Dolphins.

I found it very frustrating writing in my Friday newspaper column about two Plainview Kennedy juniors who have their own blog and Internet-based talk show about their beloved Islanders.

For one thing, it's such an Internet-oriented story that it requires links and doesn't translate well into print. For another, I didn't have the space to properly pay tribute when my new pal Steve had this to say during an interview Tuesday:

"Every single day I’m watching 'Mike and the Mad Dog' when I get home and reading your WatchDog blog."

You had me at "every!"

Click below for more about "Hockey Night on Long Island" and BlogTalkRadio.

The Islanders not only are way up on TV so far this season (see post below), they also are doing boffo business at the box office.

Their 34 percent attendance increase leads the NHL. They're up from a 10,902 average in '06-07 to 14,605.

The Devils also are doing nicely, riding the new Prudential Center to a 21.1 percent increase relative to this time last season.

Imagine what the Islanders' numbers will look like when their revamped building opens! That's supposed to be any decade now, right?

Umm . . . It seems Jim Baumbach's column Monday on Al Arbour's 1,500th regular-season game as the Islanders' coach generated a bit of a reaction.

Yikes. I've never gotten feedback this voluminous - and this nasty - for any topic, including Suzyn Waldman!