Freshened up media notes, in black and white
More from the upcoming FSN series "Baseball's Golden Age," featured in today's media column (linked here) as well as scatter shooting about the Versus' Tour de France coverage (especially on its website here) and miscellaneous fireworks:
==A few more screen grabs from the series, like this one of a kid lucky enough to be surrounded by two members of the St. Louis Browns (who became the Baltimore Orioles):
==Joe DiMaggio's and Ted Williams' swings captured in batting practice:
"BGA" creator Steven Stern admits one of his favorite home-movie clips came from Don Larson's 1956 World Series perfect game.
"It starts with a scoreboard shot at Yankee Stadium showing that it's 3:11 in the afternoon on the clock, and the linescore shows Brooklyn with '0-0-0-0' and the Yankees with '2-0-0' and I'm wondering, 'this person waited this long to turn the camera on the game?' "
As for that title of "When It Was A Game" that Stern and partner George Roy produced for HBO starting in 1991 (and concluding with a third version that focused in the 1960s in 2000), Stern agrees that we'll never be able to back to that time when it really was thought of as a game instead of a business.
"We've clearly crossed the line, but as much as we might think of it as just a game back then, there really was a lot of business to it, it was just a different type of business, not in your face," Stern said. "It was just back then, no one ever thought of getting tickets to a game ahead of time, they'd just decide to go the day of the game. It's all changed. But the world has changed."
==A Fox-generated guide to the series (linked here).
==A less-than-enthusiastic response to the FSN series from the San Jose Mercury News (linked here), but this Akron Beacon Journal writer is behind it (linked here), as is the Grand Rapids (Mich.) Press (linked here).
==On this history theme, MLB.com also has a documentary that will somehow make its way into the public domain, either as a theatrical release or exclusive to the website, called "Base Ball Discovered." Its focus is on historian David Block's recent trip to England to try to find the roots of the game through cricket, rounders, stool-ball and -- stumbling onto an amazing discovery -- a reference to it in a Jane Austin novel from 1799, as well as a diary from a lawyer named William Bray from 1755, which so far is oldest reference to the term on record.
(Bray's hand-written version of the word "Base Ball" is used as the documentary's signature title above).
The documentary quickly debunks the theory that Alexander Cartwright or Abner Doubleday "invented" the game in the 1800s, sides more with the discovery in 2004 about how Pittsfield, Mass., could be one of the game's hallowed fields (with references to the game in the late 1700s) and it embraces the sport's English roots as a way to really discover which other sports are closer as cousins or as a more distant releative.
The doc, which is written, produced and directed by Sam Marchiano and copyright by MLB Advanced Media, has a trailer on the MLB website (linked here) to whet the appetite for when it finally figures out where its future will be. It premiered last week in Cleveland at the Society of American Baseball Research convention.
==Noted baseball historian and Brooklyn born Jules Tygiel, who wrote the book, "The Great Experiement" on Jackie Robinson's career in 1983, died Tuesday at the age of 59, according to the New York Times (story linked here). In 2002, his book was ranked No. 50 on Sports Illustrated's list of the top 100 sports books of all time. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. in history from UCLA.
**MORE BASEBALL:
==Fox's Joe Buck , who'll do Saturday's Fox coverage of the Red Sox-Yankees game from New York game for (Channel 11, 12:55 p.m., delivered to the L.A. market as well as 78 percent of the country) admits he's not all that enthralled by baseball any more, and doesn't invest all his time into the game watching it night after night on TV, he'd rather watch "The Bachelorette" ... and no one got the joke?
An interview Buck did with ESPN Radio's Collin Cowherd on Wednesday was rehashed on blogs like AwfulAnnouncing (linked here) and AOL's FanHouse (linked here), a Detroit News columnist and on ESPN's own "First Take" show (go to this link), which led at least these two birdbrains to demand that Bud Selig take him off the air.
Thursday, Buck was in damage control. He told the Miami Herald's Barry Jackson (linked here) and the New York Times' Richard Sandomir (linked here) that he apologized to Selig, his bosses and another MLB executive.
"It was a total joke," Buck said. "If it didn't come across as that, you fault the joke teller. Baseball has been my life forever. ... I said it was wrong and I'm sorry and it won't happen again. I learned a valuable lesson. You have to be careful what you say and I was not careful."
Buck already started this season cutting back on his local St. Louis Cardinals workload (see link here) because perhaps he wanted to recharge the battery. Maybe Joe's just a little cranky that his late-night TV show project that he's been working on with former "Saturday Night Live" writer Matt Piedmont has hit a hurdle and won't happen this year.
==Back in the day, ESPN might offer up a full slate of July 4th baseball games. Not so today. Best we can do for you is the Dodgers-Giants from San Francisco (1 p.m., Channel 9) and the Angels-Blue Jays from Anaheim (6 p.m., FSN West).
After its hour-long show to announce the All-Star Game rosters, TBS offers up the Chicago Cubs at St. Louis at noon on Sunday with Chip Caray and Buck Martinez. ESPN "Sunday Night Baseball" has the Yankees-Red Sox at 5 p.m. with Jon Miller, Joe Morgan and Peter Gammons.
==Here's a link to a new MySpace page dedicated to Dodgers legendary peanut man Roger Owens.
**TENNIS:
==Ted Robinson, John McEnroe and Mary Carillo clean up the mess at Wimbledon with the men's singles semifinal on tape today (noon to 5 p.m.), then the women's finals between Venus and Serena Williams on Saturday (6 to 11 a.m. live) and men's finals Sunday (6 a.m. to noon live).
"It seems now that order has been restored in women's tennis now that the Williams sisters are back in their favorite playground," Carillo said Thursday.
ESPN2 finishes up with Dick Enberg, Cliff Drysdale, Darren Cahill, Mary Joe Fernandez, Brad Gilbert, Patrick McEnroe, Pam Shriver, Chris Fowler and Luke Jensen somehow converging on one of the men's semifinal today (4 a.m. to 9 a.m.). Bud Collins, heath permitting, will also make an appearance. ESPN has a "SportsCenter at Wimbledon" show set for Saturday (11 a.m. to noon) and Sunday (noon to 1 p.m.) as a post-game for NBC's live coverage.
==Did you notice ESPN's Fowler and Fernandez on different ways to pronounce Elena Dementieva (above) during her semifinal match Thursday against Venus Williams? KNX-AM (1070) morning sports anchor Randy Kerdoon was all over it, and couldn't believe there wasn't a producer or someone telling them between commercial breaks that they should get on the same page -- Dement-TEE-YAY-VA or Demen-TEE-va. He riffs about it on his audio blog on the station website (linked here).
==More criticism of the Wimbledon coverage spread between ESPN and NBC:
A loyal reader emailed Thursday morning to wonder if there can "ever be anything done about getting rid of these ridiculous 'exclusive windows' for sporting events such as Wimbledon? I know that they tape delay matches here on the west coast because they want all of the house fraus to get their full three hours of the 'Today Show.' But if that's the case, then farm it out to another channel for the real sports fans who are watching the event. The past two days I've seen only a few hours of live tennis. I could catch the early part of ESPN's coverage on ESPN2 from 5AM to 7AM. But then I was left with nothing because I have the misfortune of living in the wrong time zone and on the wrong coast. I couldn't get any live tennis from 7AM to 10AM because that was during the Today Show here... but the east coast was getting live tennis on NBC. Then, when ESPN2 picked back up their live tennis coverage at 10AM, I couldn't watch that either. That's because NBC has the exclusive rights from 10-1 in each time zone. ... And I knew the results of the matches on NBC because they were all completed before they even got on the air with their coverage at 10AM. Between the Internet news sites (BBC Sports is my friend) and both BBC Radio Five and Radio Wimbledon, it was all old news and the only reason I watched was to hear John McEnroe and Mary Carillo doing commentary.
"NBC has a family of networks. They have Universal HD and USA HD to use within their own corporate umbrella. There's a dedicated Tennis Channel out there to link up with as well. Why do I, as an actual fan of the sport, have to suffer with tape delayed coverage of one of the sport's premier events?
"I think that there ought to be a mandatory law. I understand the networks wanting the ratings for themselves, but the facts are that the networks are only getting the casual. fan anyway. They're getting the real fans by proxy because we're being held hostage.
"This issue just kills me during events such as Wimbledon and the Olympics, events that NBC loves to tape delays to no end."
Agreed 100 percent.
**OLYMPIC TRIALS:
==NBC's Bob Costas, Dan Hicks, Rowdy Gaines and Andrea Kremer finish cleaning the pool at the Olympic swimming trials tonight (8 p.m.), Saturday (8 p.m. taped) and Sunday (7 p.m. taped) in Omaha, Neb.
==Also, NBC's Tom Hammond, Carol Lewis, Lewis Johnson, Ato Bolden, Dwight Stones, Ed Eyestone and Bob Neumeier try to stay on track for the end of the U.S. Track and Field trails from Eugene, Ore., tonight (11 p.m. to 1 a.m. USA Network); Saturday (2-to-3 p.m. live) and Sunday (7 p.m. taped, overlapping with the swimming).
**GOLF:
==They can't escape Tiger Woods. The PGA Tour stop that he hosts, the AT&T National in Betheda, Md., goes on without him on CBS this weekend (Saturday; noon to 3 p.m. and Sunday, noon to 3:30 p.m., Channel 2) with Jim Nantz and Nick Faldo in the 18th hole tower, Peter Oosterhuis (17th), Gary McCord (16th) and Ian Baker-Finch (15th) stationed at holes and David Feherty and Peter Kostis on the course.
This is the first event for Nantz since the passing Saturday of his 79-year-old father, the inspiration for his latest book, "Always By My Side."It has been a long grieving process," Jim Nantz, whose father, Jim, was diagnosed with in 1995 with Alzheimer's, told the Houston Chronicle. "We're now ready to celebrate my father's wonderful life. We bear his message in our hearts, and I'm glad that he can be whole again in heaven and at peace. We celebrate his life and his message of how life should be lived every day."
Also, read more about Feherty's visit with U.S. troops covering at Water Reed Hospital in Wednesday's USA Today (story linked here).
==CBS also squeezes in the LPGA event this weekend, the P&G Beauty NW Arkansas Championship (Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to noon and Sunday, 10 a.m. to noon, Channel 2) with Bill Macatee and Beth Daniel at the 18th hole, Bobby Clampett (17th), Mary Brant (16th), Val Skinner and Billy Kratzert on the course.
**NBA:
==Close the book on the professional basketball league's championship series locked in as the most-watched television programs for the past month of June. Not the greatest month for TV watching or competition -- you're really not watching the latest incarnation of "The Mole," are you? -- but at least it's something to brag about.
The top network TV programs last month:
1. NBA Finals Game 5 (ABC) - June 15 (10.2 rating; 17.4 million viewers)
2. NBA Finals Game 6 (ABC) - June 17 (10.7; 16.9)
3. NBA Finals Game 3 (ABC) - June 10 (9.2; 14.5)
4. NBA Finals Game 4 (ABC) - June 12 (8.7; 13.8)
5. NBA Finals Game 2 (ABC) - June 8 (8.5; 13.5)
6. NBA Finals Game 1 (ABC) - June 5 (8.7; 13.4)
7. Belmont Stakes (ABC) - June 7 (8.2; 13.1)
8. "America's Got Talent" (NBC) - June 17 (7.8; 12.8)
9. U.S. Open Golf (NBC) - June 15 (7.5; 12.0)
10. "America's Got Talent" (NBC) - June 24 (7.1; 11.7)
That list was issued by the NBA.
However, a list issued later by ESPN/ABC had its own episode of "Lost" from June 29 cracking the Top 10 at No. 9 (7.3; 12.3) and pushing U.S. Open golf to No. 10.
The NBA Finals also set an all-time traffic record for NBA.com with nearly 70 million visits and more than 15.5 million video streams.
**MISC.
==The NFL Network pops up with a series of "Top 10" shows starting today at 3 a.m. (subjects include worst teams, foul ups, power backs, draft steals, draft busts, weather games) and continues on Saturday at 3 p.m.) Interrupting the proceedings is a "Total Access" show at 4 p.m. today that includes NBC's Al Michaels, Fox's Joe Buck, CBS' Phil Simms, ESPN's Mike Tirico and the NFL Network's Deion Sanders discussing their network's schedules.
==SportsbyBrooks.com links to a blog that reveals the latest apparent career non-achievement for Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton (not his real name), who may or may not even have a show left on KLAC-AM (570) on the weekends. Brooks (linked here) finds out that 'Saw was passed over for the play-by-play football gig at Boise State.
==Marty Reid and Scott Goodyear do the IndyCar League race from the road track at Watkins Glen, N.Y., for ABC (Sunday, 12:30 p.m., Channel 7).
==Bill Weber, Wally Dallenbach, Marty Snider and Kelli Stavast cover NBC's taped presentation of the Championship Off Road Racing (COOR) event from the L.A. County Fairplex (Sunday, noon, Channel 4)will be covering the event.
==The Fox Soccer Channel has Max Bretos, Christopher Sullivan and Christian Miles at the Chivas USA-San Jose MLS match from Home Depot Center (Saturday, 7 p.m.), following its coverage of Columbus-Chicago at 5 p.m.
==Sparks star Lisa Leslie is the latest for a "In My Own Words" special on FSN Prime Ticket (Sudnay, 8:30 p.m., following coverage of the Sparks-Phoenix contest).
==Part of the job of a 24-hour sports network is filling in programming, so FSN Prime Ticket tries to do so this summer with replays of games from the past in no particular order. Tonight, it's the Notre Dame-Canyon high school football game from Sept. 8, 2006 (9:30 p.m.), followed by Hart-Canyon from Oct. 12, 2007 (11:30 p.m.). Saturday, it's the Ducks-Kings game from Jan. 22, 2003 (when Anaheim rallied in the last 10 minutes to win 6-5) at 7 p.m., followed by Ducks-Red Wings from April 10, 2003 (a triple OT playoff game) at 9:30 p.m.
For the Tivo, future replays include:
-Saturday, July 12, 7 p.m.: Kings-Red Wings from Oct. 6, 1988 -- Wayne Gretzky's first game at a King;
-Saturday, July 12, 9:30 p.m.: Kings defeat Toronto on May 29, 1993 to reach the Stanley Cup finals.
-Saturday, July 19, 7 p.m.: Lakers vs. New York Knicks on May 7, 1972: The Lakers' first title in L.A.
-Saturday, July 19, 9 p.m.: Lakers vs. Toronto: Kobe Bryant's 81-point game.
-Friday, July 25, 9 p.m.: Hart vs. Los Alamitos high school football from 2002
-Friday, July 25, 11 p.m.: Loyola vs. Long Beach Poly high school football from 2002.
-Friday, August 1, 11 p.m.: Notre Dame at St. Paul high school football from 2003.
-Friday, August 15, 11 p.m.: Westlake at Hart high school football from 2003.
-Saturday, August 16, 7 p.m.: Kings at Edmonton on October 15, 1989 when Wayne Gretzky sets the all-time points record.
-Saturday, August 16, 9:30 p.m.: Kings vs. Dallas on Nov. 10, 2007 when they scored four goals near the end of regulation to tie and then beat the Stars in OT.
-Friday, August 22, 11 p.m.: Thousand Oaks at Westlake high school football from 2001.
-Saturday, August 23, 7 p.m.: Lakers at Boston, June 9, 1987: Magic Johnson's hook shot wins Game 4 of the NBA Finals.
-Saturday, August 23, 9:30 p.m.: Lakers at San Antonio from May 13, 2004, on Derek Fisher's game-winning playoff shot with 0.4 seconds left.
==For those closely watching the ESPN "SportsCenter" created "TitleTown, USA" contest, a look at the 20 cities "competing" will start today with the focus on Green Bay, and including Los Angeles (on Wednesday July 9), as it peters out runs through July 23. The other 18 cities under scrutiny: New York, Chicago, Boston, Detroit, Pittsburgh; Columbus, Ohio; San Francisco; Palo Alto, Calif., Massillon, Ohio; Lawrence, Kan., Louisville, Ky.; Gainesville, Fla.; Williamsport, Pa.; Chapel Hill, N.C.; Ann Arbor, Mich.; Knoxville, Tenn.; Valdosta, Ga.; and -- the city that'll get our vote, for no other reason than to rock the apple cart -- Parkersburg, W. Va.
Fans vote online from July 24-26, and the true, official champion is announced on the Sunday 8 p.m. "SportsCenter" on July 27.
As an accompanying programming when L.A. is profiled on Wednesday, ESPN Classic replays the 1988 World Series Game 1 (11 a.m. to noon), the 1982 Lakers NBA Finals highlight reel (noon to 12:30 p.m.), the 2002 Lakers NBA Finals highlight reel (12:30 to 1 p.m.) and the 1988 NBA Finals Game 7, Lakers vs. Detroit (1 to 3 p.m.)
**AND FINALLY:
==Is it queer that ESPN "Monday Night Football" analyst Ron Jaworski can do an interview with the Philadelphia-centric Dan Levy's "On The DL" podcast (linked here), and cover all kinds of things like the ESPN "MNF" coverage, his video preparation, his thoughts on how quickly some ex-NFLers have been given an analyst position ... and the only thing that gets circulated around the Internet machine is his take on the deal with his glasses.
"You know, it's amazing, after 17 years in broadcasting I get more blogs and emails about my glasses then about anything I've ever done on television," he said. "I look at it this way - at least people are watching."
Or, look at it another way -- they're a distraction.
And, yes, for what it's worth, Jaworski is a member of the blog Men Who Look Like Old Lesbians, along with Bruce Jenner, Al Franken, Bret Michaels, Brian Setzer and Drew Carey -- and it's mostly because of the glasses.
"I change them up every year, so I'll have a new look this year," Jaworski promised.
Then maybe everyone will look at him in a whole new light.
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