August 2008 Archives

No media column this week -- a vacation of sorts in the Post-Beijing Olympic coverage -- but had a few scraps of info to pass along for this weekend's viewing/listening/vegatating going into the Labor Day weekend:

**TRANSACTIONS:

==Nothing seemed to send the bloggers (as well as those working at the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago White Sox) into a more gleeful period the last few days than the announcement that Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti has turned in his keyboard, hoping to focus on ESPN's "Around The Horn" as well as other Internet opportunities. Mariotti leaves after 17 years and less than three months after the paper extended his contract into 2011.
Who'll take him?
The Sports Business Daily roundup of stories on the Mariotti news included one from his own paper, where writer Chris De Luca said the reaction from the White Sox clubhouse "could be heard outside. Said White Sox broadcaster Ken Harrelson: "It's about time. I know one thing, when he got that (contract) extension, ... he wouldn't have signed that extension if the things he's saying about the Sun-Times now were true. So he's spinning it again."
DeLuca writes Mariotti "depicted the Sun-Times as the Titantic, and it was clear the self-proclaimed tough guy was knocking over the old women and children to be the first to jump ship."
Even Sun-Times editor Michael Cooke said in a release said: "We wish Jay well and will miss him -- not personally, of course -- but in the sense of noticing he is no longer here, at least for a few days. A paper, like a sports franchise, is something that moves into the future."

Finally, MLB has fixed a broken situation.
With maple bats? Naw. A review system to fix bad calls on home runs and fair/foul decisions. Why do that now, in the middle of a season? Who changes the rules of its game while it's heading into the final month? How moronic can one sport get?
Oh, right.
So as that is implemented this very night, we go back to June -- yes, JUNE -- when the MLB decision makers finally said it saw a problem in the fact that some coaches and fans had been hit by these flying spears, and the potential for something worse was in the making. So it started collecting all the broken bats it could get, then it was going to research it and then ....
Nothing.
At least, no deaths. Yet.
But two fans -- on back to back days this month -- were struck by a broken bat flying into the stands, and captured by a photographer. Below is a frightful sight of a bat flying into the crowd on Monday, Aug. 18, in Chicago in the top of the first inning of a game between the White Sox and Mariners, striking the man who is covering his head:

ESPN reporter Tom Farrey headed over to an L.A. sperm bank the other day. He withdrew a story that makes no sense, and all the sense in the high-tech world.
Over at California Cryobank (link here for more details), parents looking to conceive a baby from sperm donated by a local athlete -- even those from USC and UCLA -- can pick and choose, hoping to enhance the chances of a super-athletic offspring.
(Yes, there's always the option of inviting Matt Leinart over for a cup of coffee, but this has fewer stings attached, and less likely to end up on YouTube.)
In Farrey's report for the upcoming "E:60" show (today, 4 p.m., ESPN2), he discovered that sperm donated by those of basketball, football and baseball players sell fast. He also talks with families who purchased the sperm of a former tight end.
The question raised: How do expectations change when parents know their child is born with the DNA of an elite athlete?
California Cryobank, in business since 1977, is responsible for 40,000 babies getting cranked out. They used to advertise on the local college campuses by handing out flyers, but now they just advertise in the student newspapers. Donors get $75 per sperm sample, with a maximum of three visits a week. That's a net $900 a month if they get the job done.
Farrey is all-knowing about this business. He's recently published a book, "Game On: The All-American Race to make Champions Of Our Children," (find it at this link), using this sperm bank as a starting point.

==Also: Steve Dilbeck's column today (linked here) goes into the subject matter, DNA by DNA.

I go back to the days at the Forum, when I had friends who worked security, and told us that, in order to get into the building for free on the day of a Lakers or Kings game or (better yet) a concert, be at their door at 5:45 p.m., and they'd swing it open for only a split second, and if you were there, you'd get in. If not, you're out of luck.
Aw, the good ol' days.
Today's Staples Center workers could hardly get away with that (or could they?)
Come to find out for yourself at the annual job fair, where some 200 jobs are in play for the facility.
The job fair runs from 1 to 7 p.m. Tueseday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Wednesday at the Figueroa and 12th Street entrance to the facility. Parking is free in Lot 5.
Among the jobs posted (linked here):

==Usher/ticket takers ($11.19 an hour):
"Mr. Usher, let me usher you to your seat." At both Staples and Nokia Theatre. Also involves working elevator shifts. Need at least one year of prior customer service experience, at least 18 and a high school diploma (or GED). And you gotta work at least five events a week, from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m.

==Sales associates ($11.19 an hour):
Selling stuff at the Team LA stores, plus inventory, stocking and "light housekeeping."
This position also requires that you pass a pre-employment credit check. Not that you'd steal anything ...

==Security ($12.50 an hour):
Patroling the building, investigating incidents, and just being courteous. While keeping out the riff-raff dressed as Wonder Women. Need to sit, walk, stand, lift 45 lbs., reach, pull, push, grasp and drag. All at the same time. Must also possess a Guard Card.

All jobs also require passing a background check and drug screening.

There's also a pre-screening location:
3965 S. Vermont Ave.
Roxanna Aguilar: 323-730-7900 x 244

Stuff we've found to pass along from Beijgingville encampment before Becks kicks another ball into the crowd:

==Sports Illustrated says that its Aug. 25 cover of Michael Phelps with his eight gold medals will be commissioned as a poster for global purchase -- the first for SI. The poster is selling through Fine Art Limited (linked here) at 13x18 size ($15) or 18x24 ($19.95).

==Headline on latest NBC press release:
211 MILLION WATCH BEIJING GAMES ON NBC UNIVERSAL THROUGH 16 DAYS, SURPASSING THE ATLANTA GAMES' 209 MILLION

Nielsen Media Research provides those numbers, allowing NBC to claim the Beijing Games, on sheer number of eyeballs, have surpassed the 1996 Atlanta Games, which were viewed by 209 million Americans and zipped past Athens (200 million).
As Michael Heistand in USA Today points out (linked here), the Olympics are considered one event. Which is like the NFL saying its entire season is one TV event.
So, the list of the "most viewed events in TV history" are:
1. *2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, 211 million (*through 16 days)
2. 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics, 209 million (17 days)
3. 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics, 204 million (16 days)
4 . 2004 Athens Summer Olympics, 203 million (17 days)
5. 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics, 194 million (17 days)

As for those fabricated "TAMi" ratings (Total Audience Measurement Index) that lumped together the 3600 hours of programming during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, including Television (P2+ reach), Online (Unique Users), Mobile (WAP unique users and Mobile VOD unique users) and TV Video on Demand (unique users):

=Friday, August 22: 79.8 million
TV: 73.3 million, online: 6.1 million, Mobile 421,000, TV VOD: n/a
=Thursday, Aug. 21: 87.7 million
=Wednesday, Aug. 20: 91.2 million
=Tuesday, Aug. 19: 95.5 million
=Monday, Aug. 18: 94.4 million
=Sunday, Aug. 17: 107.4 million
=Saturday, Aug. 16: 108.0 million
=Friday, Aug. 15: 95.1 million
=Thursday, Aug. 14: 101.6 million
=Wednesday, Aug. 13: 101.0 million
=Tuesday, Aug. 12: 105.1 million
=Monday, Aug. 11: 103.2 million
=Sunday, Aug. 10: 113.1 million
=Saturday, Aug. 9: 97.8 million
=Friday, Aug. 8: 74.6 million

Trying to wean ourselves off the Olympic slow drip, we found ourselves up at 4 a.m. today actually rooting for Iceland to win the men's team handball championship. This is a country that has not won any Olympic gold. Ever. What could they be good at? Nothing in the Winter Olympics, oddly enough, because cod-net fishing isn't one of the events.

Drats, if I could have only planned ahead and asked Iceland for citizenship, so I could have joined their team and shared in the near-gold experience -- a 28-23 loss to, of all countries, France.

We've revisited today's column (linked here) that struggled with this idea of individual free trade -- selling yourself to another country to the highest bidder, in essence, to serve an ego that wanted to be on the big stage, just not for your native land. Becky Hammon and Chris Kaman fell into the trap, and will now have to explain themselves as still being loyal to their homeland, just not to the true spirit of the Olympic movement.

We should have also included the name J.R. Holden, the former Bucknell player who caught a ride with Russia's men's basketball team for the Beijing Games. Here's an ESPN story on him (linked here written a year ago).

There was also Haley Nemra, a native of Washington, competed for the Marshall islands in the 800 meters, because her father was born there. "I'm so excited they even wanted me especially since I've never lived there," she told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (the story is linked here).

Also during our research on this essay, we found this piece headlined "Flag Relay" from the Washington Post written in 2004 (linked here), seeing that this issue was a hot topic then -- starting off because the Greek baseball team was compiled almost entirely by non-native Greeks. But not as hot as it was now.

An excerpt:

Like immigrant workers and multinational corporations, athletes move across national borders in search of better opportunities, a better political climate and, of course, more money. In this age of globalization, some countries import athletes, some countries export athletes and some countries, like the United States, do both.
As a result, fans can no longer tell what country a player comes from by simply looking at his or her uniform. It's far more complicated than that.

Then we have some of the readers who responded to today's column:

What to expect from Sunday's closing ceremonies from Beijing?
Word has already gotten out that David Beckham will be one of the Londoners accepting the IOC flag on behalf of the country that's hosting the next shindig in 2012.
Other than that ... Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt in a stare-down contest?
Frankie Rodriguez is always good for an exciting closing to a game.
Since a record 70 million watched the Opening Ceremony many digitally-enhanced moons ago, more is expected from Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou ("House of Flying Daggers") as he puts his team together one final time.
"There are high expectations for the Closing Ceremony after the amazing spectacle we saw at the Opening Ceremony," said David Neal, Executive Vice President, NBC Olympics, in a prepared statement (that may have first been spoken by a rather unattractive 9-year-old Chinese girl.
"I went to the dress rehearsal the other day witnessed more of Zhang Yimou's unbelievable creative vision. I've been sworn to secrecy but I will say that this will be another visual extravaganza featuring a cast of 6,800 on an unprecedented scale. Even with the high expectations, it will not disappoint."
NBC will use Bob Costas, Dan Hicks and Mary Carillo (sorry, Matt Lauer, but you now mess up the feng shui of the booth) on the closing ceremonies, as well as the network's new "China analyst" Joshua Cooper Ramo.
We say use "The Daily Show" correspondent Rob Riggle, but what do we know?
Andrea Joyce, Bob Neumeier and Marty Snider also hang around to be reporters.
The show starts (again, tape delayed) at 7:30 p.m.
Phelps -- as long as his name came up -- is supposed to be in London as part of the changing-of-the-guard ceremony. We had no idea he was a Brit at heart. Maybe he's already approving the final touches on the Olympic pool.
Anyway, last one out of Beijing, turn out the lights and go back to your totalitarian ways.

It only took (quick look at the watch) six days before Michael Phelps decided he had to reveal all the secrets to his success in actual printed material that you may soon find in a store that sells such bounded things on a shelf.

(And just in time, since his girlfriend Amanda Beard apparently needs something more interesting to read when she's holding her breath in the kids' pool).

Free Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc., announced today it will publish "Built to Succeed," allegedly written by Phelps, to be in stores by Christmas season in December.
In the book, Phelps will (according to the release), "reveal the secrets of his success, taking us behind the scenes of his approach to training, competition, and winning."

None of that, apparently, has anything to do with the fact that he will finally admit to being bred by dolphins, although they promised that "Phelps will also tell anecdotes about his family, his coach, his passion for the sport, and lessons learned from unexpected challenges and obstacles -- raised by a single mother and having overcome a diagnosis of ADHD."

So, there isn't a dad in the picture. We'd have never guessed that with all those camera shots of his mother, Debbie, sitting between two daughters.

Actually, this isn't the first book Phelps has written. We actually remember seeing Bob Costas on the NBC studio set hold up a page or two ripped out from "Beneath The Surface," published in 2005 after the Athens Games, it as he passed along a Phelps tidbit -- so profound, we don't remember what it was.

But if you want, you can also read that book (linked here) and also re-released this week in paperback with an updated cover shot (linked here).
Or, just wait until the new one comes out that you'll just upload to your iPod anyway.

Maybe the books come at a good time for those working on NBC's "Today" show. As this morning's final episode from Beijing was winding down, a golf cart took co-hosts Ann Curry, Meredith Vieira and Al Roker from the set across the Olympic Green to a party. "(And) there's the Water Cube where we saw Mark Spitz get those eight medals," screeched Vieira.
Michael Phelps, she was reminded.
"Mark Phillips?" she replied.

Meanwhile, Phelps might want to start reading the PR backlash that's already begun in his endorsments for Kellogg's Frosted Flakes and McDonalds. Something called the Children's International Obesity Foundation issued a statement today:
"As a role model and Olympic hero to America's children, Michael Phelps -- and all athletes and celebrities -- are asked to reconsider any connection to substances suspected as agents of obesity, including sugary cereals, soft drinks and other foods with refined carbohydrates, saturated fats, trans fats and high fructose corn syrup.''
We hear Phelps crumbled up the press release when handed to him and ate it. Part of the 12,000-calorie-a-day intake.

Lindsay Soto said during one of her brief non-working hours, she was able to get over to visit the Great Wall of China, just about an hour away from Beijing.

"I'm just walking down the wall with my friends from work and I see a guy in SC gear," she said. "And his wife goes, 'Lindsay Soto?!' It was the wierdest experience ever. I can go to the grocery store in Pasadena and no one has a clue who I am, but I go to the Great Wall of China and run into someone who watches 'Trojans Live.'

Spinning off more from Soto from today's media column (linked here), as well as other Beijing-related material that scatters itself everywhere over the last few weeks:

Soto, working freelance these days for FSN West and FSN Prime Ticket, plans to leave China on Sunday, but only for practical reasons -- she has to work the sidelines at the Sparks' telecast on Thursday from Staples Center, fly to Virginia for the USC football opener on Saturday, Aug. 30, then start a three-day-a-week gig for the NFL Network doing updates from their studio show. She'll still cover high school and USC football for FSN Prime Ticket this fall.

And through all that, she probably won't get to use any of the Chinese language she learned along the way.

"It's amazing how little I've had to use here," she said. "Translators go out with the crews any time you're speaking with Chinese people, but those 13 audio CD lessons I went through before I left wasn't enough to get the job done. I can say things like, 'Would you like to have dinner?' You find yourself saying simple things like 'Hi' or 'Thank you' or 'Good bye,' and the Chinese people pick up on that and it shows you're making an effort to connect with them."

The language came in handy when Soto was sent out to do her first story -- interview a Chinese man in a local apartment complex who had been shaving Olympic rings and the Beijing Olympic logo into the heads of local neighborhood boys who wanted to show their pride.

"All those kids were so excited to meet us and show us what little English they knew," said Soto. "A 14-year-old girl who called herself Alice spoke English really well and was excited to interact. When we left, she said: 'Thank you for coming this day, it has been great for me.'

"You do feel a certain amount of responsbility to be an ambassador. These people have not been exposed to many Americans, and we know many Americans at home have not been exposed to China, so we're trying to give the stories a sense of how things are and elminate some of that mystery that always seems to be hanging over everything. You realize that we do have a lot of things in common, aside from the political differences.

"I'm not sure I had that many preconceived notions coming in, but as Americans, we probably didn't know fully what we were getting into. We didn't know how the people felt about Americans being there. It's really intriguing to find so much commonality."

Friday's weekly media column included waking up before the crack of dawn -- was up anyway watching the U.S. softball gold-medal game, followed by the U.S. women's basketball game against Russia, followed by the U.S.-Brazil gold-medal women's soccer contest -- putting in a phone call to NBC reporter Lindsay Soto and NBC beach volleyball play-by-play man Chris Marlowe to catch their take on how the Beijing Games have shaped up for them the last two weeks.

Soto admits: "I'm a sucker for the Olympics. I don't now how you can be a sports fan and not be one. If you understand what goes into the four-year factor -- it's not like you'll go get 'em tomorrow. I can talk to an NBA or a baseball player, and ask them about a loss as being a big deal and they look at you like you're crazy. In the Olympics, it's one moment, sometimes only 10 seconds long, for four years of preparation. You keep that in mind and understand all that's beneath the surface. Every story is compelling. It's really a journalist's dream. Particularily one who's a sports fan."

The FSN West and FSN Prime Ticket reporter/anchor had just come back from the water polo venue, where she was dispatched to interview U.S. players after their (spoiler alert) loss in the women's gold medal game against the Netherlands. Hours before that, she was at the indoor volleyball to talk to the U.S. women after their (spoiler alert) victory over Cuba in the semifinals.

As for those pieces of artwork we came across in our web surfing: A company called SomeCards.com (linked here) -- "ecards for when you care enough to hit send" -- has a slew of Olympic-related postcards you can overload someone's email account with.
More after the jump:

NBC knows how to wrap its fins around a good thing when it sees it.
The network announced this morning that, considering the shelf live of Michael Phelps doesn't have to be every four years, it struck a deal with USA Swimming to carry the 2009 World Swimming Championships from Rome and the 2009 U.S. National Championships for the next three years.
Said Phelps, in a press release, about the deal: "I've said for a long time that my most important goal was to leave swimming better than I found it and this move to network coverage on NBC of our major championships is a dream come true and a big step in that direction."
He says he intends to keep swimming through the 2012 Summer Games in London (which NBC will also carry).
"The whole world watched as Michael Phelps took his sport to a new level and introduced a generation of fans to swimming through his extraordinary achievements," said NBC Sports poobah Dick Ebersol. "His accomplishments transcend sports and, are in fact, a cultural phenomenon. We're greatly looking forward to following the next chapter in his career."
NBC's plan is to do weekend coverage from Rome on July 26 and Aug. 1-2, 2009, with mid-week events going on a newly-launched Universal Sports digital channel.
NBC has averaged 30 million average viewers, 13 percent ahead of Athens in 2004, through the first eight days of the Beijing Games -- the first eight nights, with Phelps competing.

Once a prime-time segment, NBC's Mary Carillo has cozied up to Bob Costas in the studio and brought forth another human element of the Chinese culture to the Beijing Games telecast. Whether it be the art of kite flying, the mating habits of panda bears, the man who created the Olympic logos, or accupunture treatments complete with what looked like a joint smoking on top of the needles to add to the room's aura, the pieces have been insightful, compelling and given us cloistered Americans another look at the Chinese culture that we might have not otherwise seen.
So where's the stories on protestors and human rights violations?
Not on Carillo's watch.
"I haven't done any hard-news stories that others have been doing," Carillo said this morning, before going to bed (it was about 10:30 p.m. Beijing time). "I can't say I've shied away from them, but I was never really assigned to them."
Carillo said she'd been to China twice before arriving for the Beijing Games -- last September, she was in Beijing, Shanghai and down to the Yangtze for two weeks, and last spring she traveled to some of the other providences.
"Many of my friends are print writers, and they knew I was making those trips and getting stories, and so many of them would say, 'Aren't you doing something on that?' I think a lot of sportswriters came here with a real agenda and had to drop them because they've seen the people and there's just to many random acts of kindness around here. It's amazing. You'll find taxi drivers who are not only willing to take you somewhere but will walk you to the shops if you're still confused about where you're going."

(Maybe one of those with an agenda who stuck with it is Sports Illustrated's ESPN's Rick Reilly, who spun this Onion-looking story for a column this week (linked here).

Carillo also noted that Dr. Nancy Snyderman, the "Today" show physician, came over intending to do stories on steroid issues and the pollution problems, "but those stories went away."
Cris Collinsworth, NBC's other prime-time feature reporter, chimed in on the conference call and added that this is the second time he's been to Beijing -- the first was with his family on a vacation three years ago.
"I have yet to come across an unpleasant situation," he said. "And I'm not just talking about the Olympic crowd. When I was here two or three years ago with my family and going in through some very small villages and mingling with people, they knock themselves out when they know you are a Westerner. They try and accommodate you and make you feel welcome and make you feel comfortable. So you do get a little bit of a unique perspective on it. It's easy to question politics, but it's much tougher to question the people here. They've been wonderful."

It's not one that many knew before these Olympic Games started, but after Henry Cejudo won the gold medal for the United States in the men's freestyle 55-kilogram wrestling, his story needs to be told.
By NBC. In prime time.
We've got no guarantees that the network will do so. It covered it during its CNBC coverage of the sport in the middle of the day on tape delay Tuesday.
But tonight, when the 8 p.m. to midnight hour is filled, in part, by a non-scoring gymnastics exhibition, you'd think Bob Costas, Cris Collinsworth -- someone -- could give Cejudo a few minutes of their time.
In brief: Cejudo, 21, was born to undocumented Mexican parents in South Los Angeles. At the age of 4, his mother left his father, moved to Arizona, and basically lived in more poverty.
He rose out of it, and became an Olympic champion.
Hollywood, are you listening?
"The United States is the land of opportunity, and I'm so glad I can represent it," he said after winning.
Collinsworth said he has heard Cejudo's story, but isn't sure how it could be handled by the network in the near future.
"Rulon Jones (the former gold-medal winning wrestler now working as an NBC analyst) was filling me in on that, and he was very emotional about it -- he was selling it hard," said Collinsworth on Wednesday night (Beijing time). "It is a tremendously exciting story, and to see a 350-pound guy so emotionally broken up over it ... he was speaking with such pride. I saw him in the lunch room and he was selling me hard on it again the next day ... it was like his son had won the gold."

==More on Cejudo from San Diego Union Tribune columnist Tim Sullivan (click here).

==From Norm Frauenheim of the Arizona Republic (click here).

==From Pete Fimrite of the San Francisco Chronicle (click here).

==Yes, the L.A. Times had it on the front page of today's paper, a column by Bill Plashke. The L.A. Daily News may have made a pasing reference to it. Somewhere. Deep in the sports section. Sorry.

By LuAnn LaSalle
The Associated Press

Global cellphone users are "snacking" and "sipping" their way through the Beijing Olympics but what they're doing is consuming content: watching bits of events, checking medal counts or finding highlights on the go.

The Olympics are not just a living room experience and people are using their mobile phones to find out what they want to know in real time, said Nic Covey of U.S.-based Nielsen Mobile, which tracks the behaviour of what it calls mobile consumers.

"It's clear to us that the Olympics have been a watershed moment for mobile media," Covey said Wednesday from San Francisco.

"The time-sensitive nature of the Olympics and the around-the-clock schedule of events have led many mobile consumers to view their phones as the place to stay connected."

How much of the Beijing Games have you been consuming online? Gotta admit, our attention has turned much more to the TV coverage. But we aren't stuck in an office somewhere with no access to a flatscreen.
NBCOlympics.com (linked here as if you need the link) is, as expected, No. 1 among all Olympics websites in total users, page views and average visit time out delivering No. 2 Yahoo's site in each metric, according to the most recent available data provided by Nielsen Online for week ending Aug. 10, according to an NBC press release just sent out.
After 12 days, NBCOlympics.com has drawn nearly 42 million unique users, viewing 912 million pages and watching more than 56 million video streams.
We're not sure what that actually compares to -- the 405 between 5 and 8 p.m. on any given weeknight -- but that sounds like a heck of a traffic jam.
More of the data shows that NBCOlympics.com was the No. 1 destination among Olympics-related sites out-delivering Yahoo! Olympics by 389 percent in page views and eight percent in average unique users for the week ending Aug. 10.
You'd think NBCOlympics would be the biggest Olympics site, wouldn't you?
They also say visitors to NBCOlympics.com throughout the Games spend 15:50 minutes per average daily visit versus Yahoo's Olympics section (6:49 minutes). Again, makes sense.
Care to compare it to, say, the number of people who visit ESPN.com each day?
Didn't think so.

Focused in on the U.S. baseball team playing in the quarterfinals of the Beijing Games against Japan currently on MSNBC, and a flash back to yesterday's U.S.-Chinese Taipei contest.
As the Americans were finishing off a 4-2 victory, Kevin Jepsen (linked here) came in to pitch the final inning, replacing Dodgers farmhand Mike Koplove.
Two pitches in, broadcaster Eric Collins exclaimed: "Whoo, that is crisp ... 151 kilometers per hour!"
Collins and analyst Joe Magrane, mind you, are calling this game from a studio in New York, watching the TV monitors.
Magrane: "What's that, 93? 94 (miles per hour)?"
Collins: "95! One of the best we've seen."
The next pitch: 152 kph.
Magrane: "He's just playing country hardball right now. ... He's throwing the seams off the ball."
And who is Jepsen? An Angels minor-leaguer, who has been at the Triple-A Salt Lake City level this season. Born in Anaheim, Jepsen had 13 saves with a 1.84 ERA with 51 strikeouts in 49 innings before leaving to join the Olympic team. The Angels converted him to a reliever in 2005, drafting him in 2002 out of a high school in Sparks, Nev.
And why don't the Angels seem to care so much any more about letting Frankie Rodriguez head into the free-agent market? Maybe there's the answer, in some small part.
It can't hurt that the U.S. team pitching coach is Marcel Lachemann, the former Angels manager and pitching coach, and current Colorado Rockies front-office assistant.
Keep an eye how U.S. manager Davey Johnson uses Jepsen for the rest of the tournament, which concludes with the semifinals Friday and gold-medal game Saturday in Beijing. Jepsen, who got the save in that game against Taipei, has made three appearances: 3 2/3 IP, 1 hit, 1 BB, 3 Ks, 0 runs, 1 save.
The IOC is taking baseball away from the Olympic movement, in part because Major League Baseball won't release its players in the middle of the season (and give the Games some extra star power). That's the real shame. There won't be this stage for up-and-coming minor-leaguers to play on.

What if ESPN did the Olympics. Live. Everywhere.
America seems ready for the challenge, since NBC isn't up to it.
A story in today's New York Times (linked here) makes it pretty clear that the Disney appendage has every intent to bid -- most likely on ABC's behalf, with ESPN's networks providing most of the live stuff -- has interest in the rights to the 2014 Winter Games in Russia and 2016 Summer Games, which could be in Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, Madrid or Tokyo.
"Our DNA is different than theirs," John Skipper, ESPN's executive vice president for content said, referring to NBC. "We serve sports fans. It's hard in our culture to fathom tape-delaying in the same way they have. I'm not suggesting it wasn't the smart thing for them to do, but it's not our culture. We did Euro 2008 in the afternoon. We've done the World Cup in the middle of the morning. We have different audiences."
In 2003, the Disney bid for ABC and ESPN on the 2010 and 2012 Games against Fox and NBC. NBC won the bidding at $2.2 billion. Fox bid an estimated $1.3 billion and ESPN/ABC offered a revenue share, without any upfront money.
ABC, if you remember, did10 Olympics between 1964 and 1988.

One of the promos that NBC has been airing during its Beijing Games is for the new season of "The Office" (Sept. 25), our favorite show for some crazy reason. Assistant (to the) Regional Manager Dwight Schrute has been promoting his idea for the "centathlon" -- 100 sporting events by one athlete -- because "the decathlon is for wimps."
In the Schrute Games, the centathlon would include:
-Broadjump
-Side jump
-Front jump
-Back jump
-Animal mimikry
-Wall climbing
-Cup stacking
-Hole digging
-Hide the hamster
-Boat repair
-Projectile spitting
-Q-tipping
-Fugitive tracking
-Pizza making
-Hair cutting
-Murderball
-Murder checkers
That's 17 down, 83 to go. What would you add?

Nice timing by the Dodgers to stage its annual Chinese American Community Night in the middle of the Beijing Olympics.
Kim Ng, the team's assisant GM, whose parents are both of Chinese descent (see this link), will receive a certificate of recognition from Chinese Chamber of Commerce during the pregame ceremonies Wednesday night starting at 6:30 p.m.
Norm Chow, the new UCLA football offensive coordinator, will also throw out the first pitch. Chow is an Hawaiian native of Chinese descent.
As part of the celebration, the mascots from the Beijing Olympics (who apparently like the Blue Man Group -- there's many more of them than just in Vegas) will make an appearance.
It might be a nice time to activate Chin Lung Hu (OK, we know he's from Taiwan) but maybe it's best to avoid any extra shortstops on the roster. At least bring Hong-Chih Kuo in from the bullpen.

NBC announced today that, based on its kick-butt coverage of the Beijing Olympics, it's going to be even richer for the experience.
And you're carrying the freight.
NBC Universal has sold $25 million in Olympic advertising since the start of the games -- including an additional $15 million in the last seven days. This is on top of the more than $1 billion the network soaked advertisers sold leading into the event.
You get to pay more for those products down the line, of course.
There's no such thing as a free lunch.
"The Beijing Olympics have truly captivated the American public, generating record performance across all of our platforms," said Seth Winter the senior VP of Sales and Marketing for NBC Sports and Olympics in a statement. "In addition to the ratings success, the Games have also provided a valuable environment for our advertisers to deliver their messages. The feedback from our partners has been tremendous and we're already actively engaged in discussion with many of them for the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver and London in 2012."
More than 100 companies have advertised during NBC's Olympic coverage. We could tell you, maybe, one or two. Like the buff guy ironing his clothes, planning his anniversary celebration six months ahead, and they scrubbing the toilet -- he's promoting a car that's "attractive and dependable." I guess the ad is targeted to disgruntled housewives and the San Francisco TV market.

Finally got to catch a segment of the Olympic programming in the afternoon on the Oxygen channel.
Avoided it purposely for various reasons. Napping, usually, from 3-to-5 p.m. Realized I had deprogrammed it from my TiVo "favorite" channels and had no idea where to look for it. And ... I can't come up with another excuse. I had to see what women want to watch.

Lindsay Czarniak, the host. Very easy on the eyes.

Equestrian events. More equestrian. And even more equestrian. Why not just put "National Velvet" into the DVD player and kill two hours?

Finally, there's a segment at the end of the window called "Ask Bela," and that's a real showstopper. Mary Carillo, apparently done eating her deep-fried scorpion sandwich, has a gong next to her that she warned she would smack if Bela Karolyi's answers went too long.
Here's a query from Sue of Washington, D.C.: Why are all the female gymnasts so small?
Bela: "Why are basketball players so tall? For the same reason."
No need to gong him there.

It happened again far after most of you went to sleep last night, as the dumbstruck judges were still explaining to Marta Karolyi and Nastia Liukin's dad how a tie-breaker works and Bela Karolyi had stopped blaming everyone.
At about 11:45 p.m., as the rooster was clearing its throat, NBC's Bob Costas went from a report about the women's pole vault to something that apparently the writers from Jay Leno's on-hiatis show decided to submit:

"Changing subjects -- we're getting reports that our broadcasts may be causing some issues with your sleep back in the states. And we just wanted you to know -- we feel your pain."
For Costas, a few minutes before noontime where he sat, the only pain was deciding what to have catered in for lunch.
Then it went to a taped feature, with Costas narrating:

"America, we are listening. We're listening to your stories of Olympic dedication ... we know you stayed loyal as Nastia and Shawn dueled for their title in the wee hours ... and of course, there was the hypnotic power of Michael Phelps ...
"America, we know your'e tryig to cope with these sleep-challenged Olympics as best you possibly can ... We hear you, America and ..."

We've agreed to change the prime-time window? Adjust the schedules so more of it is at a normal hour? At least show what's really "live" to the West Coast as well as to the East?
Naw, we're just jerking you around ...

"We want to offer some advice," Costas said, setting up the "gag."
(Maybe it's so late to be acceptant of jokey material at this point, but considering we're just a little on the cranky side, why couldn't they have presented this at the start of the show, so people could have actually seen it?)

The graphic goes up on the screen: "Top Olympic Viewer Tips by Dr. Nancy Snyderman."
1. Stay hydrated.
2. Tell yourself you only need four hours sleep -- really.
3. Wear sungalsses to hide red eyes.
4. Crank up your iPod and listen to anything Michael Phelps listens to.
5. Skip work (you're never going to see an Olympics like this again anyway).

No. 1, we've done. No. 2, we've tried. No. 3, we do on a daily basis, day or night. We're just that cool.
No. 4, we have no iPod (we barely have eye lids right now) and No. 5, this is work for us, but on behalf of the rest of the American population -- hardy har har. So we have a big chuckle together, and all's good. Right?
Right?

Costas later provided the inadvertant punch line after brining Cris Collinsworth onto the set for some other non-essential segment (you think a 10-minute highlight of the U.S. men's basketball team would have deserved some prime time aside from its 5 a.m. original air time?)

"Did you know that the repeat (of prime time) in the 3 a.m. broadast on the East Coast (again, no mention of the West) is -- no lie -- presented by Ambien. There's irony there somewhere."

Yeah, it's Carlin-esque.
Like Costas, the jumbo shrimp.
He's got shows tonight and through the rest of the week, and should be at the Shanghai Funny Bone after the Games end.
You've been a great audience. Really.

The cover of the upcoming Sports Illustrated, which should arrive to subscribes by Wednesday or Thursday, and on newsstands by the end of the week, pays homage to Mark Spitz by having Michael Phelps pose with each of his eight gold swimming medals around his neck.
The photo was taken on Sunday by SI's Simon Bruty before Phelps left home back to Baltimore. The New York Post reported that it was taken inside an ancient temple in Beijing, and quoted SI Group Editor Terry McDonell: "This one being the first (photo) of him with all eight medals, we hope that our cover will stick in everyone's mind." SI did not pay Phelps for the picture.
Thankfully, it was shot from the waist up.
Phelps will now have made an SI cover five times -- the most by any swimmer. Spitz is second, again, with three.
In the "Point After" back page column, writer S.L. Price asks the question: Is Michael Phelps the best athlete ever?
"Fact is, Phelps has ruled his sport for six years, breaking more than 30 world records in various disciplines against the deepest competition in history, thriving as much in a team construct as he has alone .... Give Phelps four more years, and then we can have another conversation. If he stays healthy and clean and continues to break records through the 2012 London Games' end. It won't matter in which category - Olympian or athlete - you place him. There will be nothing left to discuss"

It only cost NBC about $894 million in rights fees for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, plus another $125 in production costs. Advertising is supposed to be exceeding $1 billion, so maybe it'll all be a wash.
Just in case, it has a plan that sounds like it's just come out of the sit-com "30 Rock."
Push those DVD sales, my friend. Order now. While the iron is hot.
In addition to already offering a two-volume set that covers all four hours of the Opening Ceremony, and a "General Highlight" DVD to "relive the drama and excitement," the network was pumping another one, "Michael Phelps: Greatest Olympic Champion, the Inside Story" almost after he won his eighth medal on Saturday.
Go to the NBCOlympics.com site (click here), and you'll find it only costs $80 to own all three of those issues (the 2 DVD set is $29.99, versus the $19.99 on the other two). The shipping date isn't expected to be until Sept. 15, and they aren't guaranteeing arrival until another 10 days later. Meaning, it'll be right around Week 4 of the NFL season.
Which, at that point, the Summer Games will likely to already be an afterthougth.
Maybe if sales go well, they'll already start taking pre-orders for the 2010 and 2012 Games highlights.

By STEPHEN WADE
AP Sports Writer

BEIJING -- Sorry, Michael Phelps, but it may take more than eight Olympic gold medals to make you a household name in China.

In a walking survey of a traditional Beijing hutong, a neighborhood made up of narrow streets with carved and painted roof beams, Phelps still lacked some name recognition on Sunday, hours after winning his record eighth Olympic gold medal.

As Phelps got closer to No. 8, he got more live television coverage on China's state-run CCTV. But, like NBC, it devotes most of its coverage to its own athletes and their remarkable success. Likewise, Chinese sports papers have dedicated 90 percent of their space to Chinese athletes.

However, the biggest obstacle for Phelps is -- well -- the name.

When his family name is pronounced in Mandarin, it comes out something like: "Fei-er-pu-si." Even a perfect rendering by a native speaker can draw blank stares.

Take Wang Zhan, for example. Sitting on the edge of a small deep-freeze, squarely behind the cash register at his food shop, Wang was asked about Phelps. The name didn't register, until he was given an added point of reference -- an American swimmer.

"Oh yeah, I know the face," he said. "But the name is hard to remember. To me he looks like a big, strong horse."

Sports Illustrated's website has posted a sequence of underwater photos taken by Heinz Kluetmeier (linked here) -- eight in all -- that illustrate even better than the NBC video how incredible it was that Michael Phelps (left) even had a chance to win the 100 meter butterfly race earlier today (Friday night in the U.S.) against Serbia's Milorad Cavic, (right), who appears to have it wrapped up.

The New York Times has also posted two photos (linked here) from EPA's Patrick B. Kraemer that tell the story somewhat the same way.

The New York Times' Richard Sandomir (linked here) also has a column posted that looks back at how ABC and Keith Jackson called Mark Spitz's seventh gold-medal swim at the 1972 Games -- without all the high-tech cameras and replays available today.

Meanwhile, those who claim conspiracy are coming out the Beijing woodwork, starting with Chicago Sun Times windbag Jay Mariotti (linked here).

A "back of the book" graphic in today's Sports Business Daily has revealed the shocking news: In an ESPN Sports Poll asking PGA Tour fans to name their favorite professional golfer, Tiger Woods came out ... kinda on top.
The poll surveyed 13,706 people, nine percent who said they were an "avid fan" and 35 percent who admitted to just being a "fan." Our math right there indicated that more than half of those bothered to answer this had no interest in the tour at all to start with, so it's even tougher to gauge who's really hot ..... OK, now this is starting to sound like an ESPN summer "SportsCenter" filler.

Woods ended up with 64 percent (1,795) of the 2,804 number of people who responded to the question.
In second place -- None: 597 (21.3 percent)
Third: Phil Mickelson with 155 (5.5 percent).
Fourth and fifth are two guys who aren't even playing: Jack Nicklaus (23) and Arnold Palmer (21), both with 8 percent, tied with Annika Sorenstam and Vijay Singh (both with 21).
Which makes anyone below this level even less appealing.
But we give you the rest of it anyway:
Fred Couples:19 (0.7%)
Sergio Garcia: 11 (0.4%)
John Daly: 10 (0.4%)
Zach Johnson: 9 (0.3%)
Lorena Ochoa: 7 (0.3%)
Fuzzy Zoeller and Greg Norman: 6 (0.2%)
Ernie Els and Mike Weir: 4 (0.2%)

Where's Rocco Mediate?
Chi Chi Rodriguez?
Michelle Wie?
Stevie Williams?

We'd be cool with a "Phelps Phan" T-shirt (linked here). But for others, there's more value in something you can stick between the spokes of your bike:

By PAUL J. WEBER
Associated Press Writer

DALLAS -- Chalk up another remarkable feat for Michael Phelps: somehow making swimming trading cards popular.

An autographed 2004 trading card of the record-shattering Olympian was trading for as much as $500 on Thursday, just two weeks after industry experts say the collectible could be easily had for $25.

"It's pretty good," a grinning Phelps said Friday when informed of the price in Beijing, where he won his sixth gold medal.

The trading card is only a part of Phelps' long-stated effort to elevate interest in swimming to more than once every four years.

"I heard the (TV) ratings are the highest back home for people watching the Olympics and watching swimming," he said. "My goal of raising the bar in the sport of swimming is coming along nicely, but it's still going to take time for me to really get it to where I want it to be."

Lance Armstrong's 1.1-acre Mediterranean-style villa pumped 222,900 gallons -- the equivalent of 26 households -- according to records obtained by the Austin American-Statesman (linked here).

That makes him Austin's No. 1 water user. His bill for June was $1,630.

"I'm a little shocked," said Armstrong, who has been in California since early June. "There's no justification for using that much water."

Armstrong said the electric bills seemed high when he moved in several years ago but the water usage had not been brought to his attention. His finances and bills are handled by a management company.

"I need to fix this," Armstrong said. "To use that much more water (than most residents) is unacceptable. I have no interest in being the top water user in Austin, Texas."

By DAVID BAUDER
AP Television Writer

In the shadow of Olympic venues, Brian Williams has anchored NBC's "Nightly News" this week in a city he calls Bay-jing.

Yet Bob Costas, Meredith Vieira and many of NBC's sports announcers seem to be working in a different, more exotic place: Bay-zhing.

So which is it?

Williams is right, if you talk to experts in the Chinese language. He's even recorded something about the pronunciation puzzle for NBC's Web site, although it doesn't seem to be required viewing for everyone at the network.

"It's been annoying me for quite awhile, honestly," said S. Robert Ramsey, a college professor and author of "The Language of China."

Considering that the women's all-around competition ended just before 1 a.m. this morning (that's PDT, it was early afternoon in Beijing), and the medal ceremony and more Bela Karoyli pump fisting pushed it closer to 1:30 a.m., a release sent out by the network today reads:

BEIJING - Aug. 15, 2008 - The Women's Gymnastics all-around gold medal final that saw the USA's Nastia Liukin capture the gold medal and Shawn Johnson take the silver ran late into the night. The exciting competition will be recapped tonight in primetime, 8:00 p.m. ET/PT at the top of the show. The recap will run approximately 20 minutes long and will feature highlights of the gold and silver medal performances and Liukin and Johnson's interviews with NBC's Bob Costas and Bela Karolyi as they discussed their performances from last night and talk about their futures, including the possibilities of them competing in the Olympics in London in 2012.

And by the way:
If you want your kid to be just like Nastia Liukin, why not fork out now the $175 to get an official Liukin pink foldup mat (available at this link) with her official autograph on it.
Yes, that's her spread eagle on top of it.

There's even more to buy at her official website (linked here), where she's all dolled up in some photos...

(AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

Australia's Victoria Mitchell holds up her hands after her heat of the 3000-meter Steeplechase at the athletics competitions in the National Stadium at the Beijing 2008 Olympics in Beijing on Friday.

Jennifer S. Altman for The New York Times
Marcelo Balboa, left, and Matt Vasgersian offered men's soccer analysis on the Beijing Olympics from the NBC studios in New York.

The flap-to-do over NBC employing more than just a handful of broadcasters in New York to commentate on the Beijing Games events has plenty of merit. Viewers don't know any different -- just as they're not sure what's live and what isn't. Ethically, the NBC reporters freely admit they're not at the event. There's nothing hidden.

Matt Vasgersian shed some light on that, which we included in today's media column (linked here), saying that the biggest obstical is trying to keep up with a director picking pictures that don't necessarily match up with that the broadcasters want to discuss. That's the biggest problem.

The New York Times' Richard Sandomir did a piece on that aspect (linked here), able to go into the 30 Rock studios, which are home to "Saturday Night Live," and see first hand how it all goes down.

"For a former soccer player, it's difficult to do this off a monitor," Marcelo Balboa, who played in three World Cups, said during halftime of Nigeria's 2-1 victory over the U.S.. "You can't see plays developing. You want to be where everyone is screaming."

When asked via email for an explanation again of why NBC has stockpiled some 800 employees in New York, this paragraph was forwarded:

As part of our negotiations with the IOC in 2003 for the rights to the 2010 and 2012 Olympics, we agreed to quickly move toward a 25% reduction in our on-site personnel and facilities for future games. That process began with the 2006 Torino Olympics. As our coverage plans for the '08 Beijing Olympics expanded to more than 3,600 hours, covering all 34 summer Olympic sports, we decided to develop a significant broadcast and digital operation based in (N.Y.) to handle cable and online coverage of 13 of those 34 sports. In those cases, our firm plan is and always has been to have our on-camera hosts identify their location as being at NBC's Olympic headquarters in (N.Y.), and to have our play-by-play commentators not only identify which Chinese city that each competition is taking place in, but also to say that they are broadcasting from our (N.Y.) Olympics headquarters.

Vasgersian, a huge fan of "Saturday Night Live," doesn't seem to have a problem with the fact he's stuck live in New York rather than on tape in China.

"I'm a complete SNL-file comedy geek, so I don't see going to work on the SNL set getting old any time soon," he said. "All the stage managers, audio techs ... they're all from SNL and have great insights. They're not dishing dirt on anyone, but for the history of the building and telling me about things that have happened there, it's great."

==Got your FOB T-shirt yet? That's in, Friends of Bob (Costas), through Awfulannouncing.com (linked here). It'll make the Olympic viewing go much better.

==And about this "LIVE" graphic that keeps showing up on NBC coverage, even when it's not: Why be lazy and continue to dupe viewers? An NBC spokesperson told the Hollywood Reporter this week to the "LIVE" tag: "The audience makeup of the Olympics is very much like that of 'American Idol' and 'Dancing with the Stars' which have 'live' season finales presented in much the same way. You assume there's a large amount of intelligence in the viewing audience, so when they see those twice-an-hour time stamps they'll understand what is being presented."

But that's a TV show. This is a sporting event, something people are used to seeing live 99 percent of the time.

CNET.com blogger Chris Matyszczyk wrote (linked here): "If you followed NBC's impeccable commercial logic, then surely Costas' favorite event, the World Series, should be on tape delay on the West Coast. Same goes for the Super Bowl."

More, more, more ...

There has come a point, far too early in this 17-day television viewing sprint, where team handball starts to merge with "Hardball with Chris Matthews" on MSNBC, where we can't tell if CNBC is airing "Squawk Box" or a boxer squawking about a decision that went against him, where Matt Vasgersian starts to morph into "Monk" star Tony Shalhoubon USA Network -- and is that the Tori Spelling reality show on Oxygen or some story telling about the equestrian event.
And wait -- is that horse actually a unicorn?

Friday's media column will focus on Paul Sunderland taking the storyline of the death of the U.S men's volleyball coach's father-in-law through NBC coverage this week, and how Vasgersian is surviving in New York, thousands of miles away from Beijing but just as crimped having to be in bed every night by 7 p.m. so he can do the early morning shows. Sunday, the plan is to catch up with Lindsay Soto, who we just spotted on the USA Net doing an interview with James Blake after he upset Roger Federer at the U.S. Open. No wait, it was in Beijing. So it was an even bigger deal?
Until then, why do we have this constant urge for Panda Express at 4 a.m.?

The graphic sometimes says "live," but we know better. Still, we want to believe. We tell everyone we know, yes, it was live. At some point. On some day. Just not today. And probably not tomorrow. Live is only a state of mind. And our mind is like a omlette. A French omlette, that keeps telling us how it's sooooo much better than an American omlette.
We flip to a cable channel where we know a live event is happening, but it's a replay of a game that we were under the impression didn't start until two days from now. Maybe it really did.
And we're not sure if the Opening Ceremonies have ended, because we keep seeing stories about fake fireworks and lipsynching kids that just don't make any sense. Shouldn't those kids be at a Nike factory?
Debbie Phelps is grabbing Cris Collinsworth's knee. Collinsworth is now talking to Dara Torres, who is bouncing her young daughter on her knee. Neither of his interviews with those two mention where the father figure is in the family. Too touchy a subject? Or is Cris the surrogate dad now?
Mary Carillo is explaining the birth rate of giant pandas, how beavers build dams and snacking on deep-fried scorpions. She gets paid for doing this. You don't.
Bob Costas is in deep discussion about foreign policy with President Bush. Yet we're sychronized the TiVo to record a Jet Li movie on Cinemax to kill a few hours between more synchronized swimming.
Rowdy Gaines is rowdy. Julie Foudy is pouty. And Al Trautwig ... when did he replace John Tesh on gymnastics?

We read that a women's weightlifting gold was awarded to Prapawedee Jaroenrattanatarakoon of Thailand. Thank goodness she's not having her name engraved on the Stanley Cup.
Craig Sager is looking a little punch drunk at the U.S.-Mali women's basketball game that turns into a 72-31 blow out in the third quarter, leading Mike Breen to tell viewers that, "to spice things up at some point in the fourth quarter, we're going to have Ann Meyers talk about her top five embarassing moments in her life." And she comes back with: "You mean, working with you?"
There's a shot of Brandi Chastain, who we swear was just in a studio in New York with JP Dellacamera doing the call off a TV screen of the U.S. men's soccer game against Nicaragua, now standing on the field talking to American player Brian McBride after the loss that knocked them out of the tournament. Or wait, that's Foudy. How'd she get to Beijing so fast?
Michael Phelps throws his goggles aside because water got into them and he couldn't see. If only our goggles were full Visine.
Are we watching synchronized diving again, or is it just one diver with our blurred vision?
And Jimmy Roberts is starting to look too much like Jim Gray. And sound like him. And act like him.
Fred Roggin has popped up again on boxing. Why isn't he at the curling venue?
We also can't tell if that's a commercial for the new KNBC Channel 4 weather girl, or guys in the office are really going up to Elita Loresca and asking for the seven-day forcast because they're too intimidated by her storm front.
Prime time after prime time, it's the same menu: Swimming, gymnastics, beach volleyball, Costas, Andrea Kremer talking to Phelps, and archery. Not really archery. Just put that to see if you'd been paying attention. The day NBC puts archery on the 8 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. window is when Geena Davis tries to make the team again.

At some point, even Bela Karoyli starts to make sense. As we fade into another break for local news, we can hear Bela in our ear: "You can do it!" So we plunge on.
By this point, we actually feel bad for Mary, the "Phelps Phan" who doesn't have enough cellphone bars. Hope she at least has a TV set that works. Because over on NBC's "Today" show (which is actually tonight in China), Mark Spitz is on to talk about Phelps. Spitz is actually in New York, explaining that he'd really like to be in Beijing but a sponsor he's working for piled on some extra work and he won't be able to go. So it's not NBC's fault that he's not there. Nor the IOC's. But some sponsor -- which he refuses to name. Kind of defeats the purpose of a sponsor hiring him, doesn't it?
And then Meredith Viera admits that, as a school girl, she had a crush on him and wanted to marry him. Maybe it's better Spitz is in New York instead of sucking Beijing smog.
Back to water polo. Angola versus France. Bombo Calandula twists her knee and has to come off. No, wait, it's team handball. We just didn't recognize there was no water. Please, Bombo. Take care of yourself. And learn the backstroke.
As Costas signed off recently, with a nod to the movie "The Truman Show," it's good morning, good afternoon and good night all rolled up into one. We're not sure when reality crossed over into fantasy.
Yes, it all looks the same after a while. That's part of the endurance test. Can you overcome the mental edge? It's a marathon, not a sprint. And Sprint -- that's what the Phelps Phan should switch over to on her cell plan. Either that, or rent "Kung Fu Panda" for the rest of the morning/afternoon/night before trying to find out how many home runs Manny Ramirez has hit that day/tomorrow/yesterday.

It's the Total Audience Measurement Index, or TAMi (with a small "i" for whatever reason) that NBC's head counters have come up with to determine how many people are consuming the Beijing Games on all mediums -- TV, the Internet, mobile phones and video on demand.

Today, NBC release that figure: 103,048,165.

What it means, in the grand picture: A lot of people are using a lot of media in a lot of ways.

Despite all the suit-speak, this is really simple addition, taking Neilsen's numbers for TV viewership, and the other standard measures for the other four categories. Add them up, throw in some analysis, and the network says it can now tell just how awesome things are out there.

"After just a few days (of the Olympics, our expectations are true to our wildest dreams," said Alan Wurtzel, the NBC Universal President of Research, said earlier today (Thursday in Bejing) after the numbers were release to the media.

As expected, TV is driving the viewership success, but use of mobile phones and the Internet are only fueling interest rather than cannibalizing it, said Wurtzel.

Tuesday's prime-time on NBC -- where Michael Phelps set the record for most Olympic gold medals ever -- went to 82 million total viewers and posted a 19.9 rating and 34 share.

In our book, this one has been logged as the early leader for the gold medal in the Most Poignant/Warped Comment Made by an NBC Employee competition during the Beijing Games.
You more than likely missed it -- it came at about 1:30 a.m. today in the NBC late-night portion that had been pushed back about a half hour because of the extended "live" prime-time coverage of the women's team gymnastics competition.
Andrea Joyce is interviewing U.S. team member Alicia Sacramone (above, trying to avoid another hug of condolence from coach Marta Karolyi). About an hour earlier, poor Sacramone had some missteps in her beam and floor routine that may (or may not) have cost her squad a gold against China.
Sacramone is trying to hold it together, but the anguish and emotions were evident in her face as Joyce asked her to explain her feelings.
After a couple of very painful minutes, NBC goes back to late-night host Mary Carillo in the studio. Carillo is equally as distraught by the whole exchange and says: "It's a killer watching (that) ... I mean, they're just kids ... as a parent ... "
Carillo catches her breath and finishes her thought with a sort of throw-away line that was hardly insincere:
"This is why some people just raise chinchillas."
Moments later, a commercial for the upcoming movie, "Beverly Hills Chiuahua."

Even though NBC's prime-time coverage of the Beijing Games have averaged 30.4 million viewers (17.1 rating) by the network's meters -- which is five million more than the first four days of the Athens Olympics in 2004 -- there are those of us who need to know what happens before the three-hour delayed coverage comes to the TV set at 8 p.m.
Without being online, we found a nice source when car-bound.

During Monday's Steve Mason radio show for Westwood One aired on 710-AM, Michael Phelps' 200 freestyle event was live at 7:15 p.m., with Steve Futterman and David Wallechinsky on the call.

Phelps' two races tonight -- the 200 butterfly and 4x200 freestyle relay -- air again on KSPN's show at 7:20 p.m. and 8:20 p.m. respectively.

Meanwhile, online, NBCOlympics.com has reportedly already surpassed its viewership totals from the 2004 Athens Games, as far as page views (291.1 million vs. 229.9), video streams (13.5 million vs. 2.2 million) and unique users (16.9 million vs. 11.1).

Beijing + jingoism = Beijingoism.
A word combo we came up with for the media column last week about what we expected from NBC's coverage, but it will permeate through all media as storylines develop, and this U.S.-vs.-China theme seems to take place more often than not in key Olympic events.
Here's a sports magazine cover you won't see in Great Wall Illustrated:

In this week's SI, an excerpt of the cover story by Susan Casey, following up on the men's 4x100 relay victory that got Michael Phelps his second gold:
"Then [Jason] Lezak did something we all dream of seeing when we watch the Olympic Games: He pulled off a miracle. He regained the lost ground, pulling even with [Alain] Bernard at the 95-meter mark, and then he had a perfect finish, his hand tripping the timer without the slightest deceleration....The Americans had beaten the French by .08 of a second....This was not just fast; this was a new definition of fast. And for swimming, the stakes have never been higher."
The story continues with more on how performance science and technology director Jonty Skinner is high above the rafters at the Beijing Water Cube observing the technical monitoring, flanked with laptops.
"I'm looking at the race in terms of mathematics," he says. "How many strokes and how fast the strokes are, all about the turns, those kind of things. Every meter in the pool is covered in terms of analysis. We do a comprehensive blood analysis on them to look at what I would call the metabolic cost, the energetic cost of the performance as well as how they recover. We're mapping him [Phelps] all the way. With so many races we really want to stay on top of things, to make sure he's staying on track and not getting too fatigued."
How does the viewer at home battle fatigue? That's our next mathematically pursuit.

If it was funny, we'd be laughing. If it was disguisting, we'd be laughing.
But the only real response after watching this video of the L.A. Times' Bill Plaschke and the Chicago Tribune's Kevin Pang visit a Beijing restaurant for the sole purpose to sample the vast selection of animal penis, we're not sure if this whole streaming video delivery system needs to be re-examined.
The Internet has now officially jumped the shark.
"I guess I like penis, it's very tasty," Plashke says after his meal.
At least they drew a line -- they won't eat a dog penis.
"It doesn't work for me," Plashke said after the ox and sheep penis experience.
Now, I'd like to see how they list this on their expense report, espeically after all the layoffs the paper has had to go through. Someone lost their job so Plaschke could sample an animal's wee-wee.
The video is linked here, from The Big Lead via Fire Joe Morgan.

******************************

In a completely unrelated related story, we read in the LA84 Foundation's latest sportsletter that the World University Winter Games set for Harbin, China in Feb. 2009, have a mascot picked out.
His name is Dong Dong.
Says the newsletter:
Organizers are expecting a lot from the official mascot. Dong Dong "manifests strong local features of North China and gives prominence to the special characteristics of the host city and winter sporting events by personifying the basic element of the snowflake. As a carrier of Winter Universiade vision and the Olympic Spirit, the mascot, with an angelic smile and pure, innocent, lively and adorable image, will spread passion and joy, health and wisdom, luck and happiness, together with wonderful blessings, to the youth and peoples around the world ... The mascot inherits and carries forward the tradition, culture and humanism of the host city."
Bill, meet Dong Dong.
Dong Dong, meet Bill.
Bill, put down that fork.

AP Photo/Thomas Kienzle
Members of the U.S. relay team show their medals during an awarding ceremony after setting a world record to win the men's 4x100-meter freestyle relay final at the Beijing 2008 Olympics on Monday. From left: Cullen Jones, Jason Lezak, Michael Phelps and Garrett Weber-Gale.

A followup to our story (linked here) and blog (linked here) on the L.A. inner city swim program that former Olympian Lenny Krayzelburg is trying to get off the ground:

Cullen Jones, the African-American from Brooklyn who was apart of that amazing U.S. 4x100 freestyle relay victory for the U.S. today in Beijing, also promotes a nationwide program that funds swimming lessons for children in urban areas. Jones' incentive: He nearly drowned at age 5, and, as Krayzelburg said, recent statistics show blacks ages 10-19 drown nearly three times more often than whites.
The 24-year old Jones, who now lives in Raleigh, N.C.,became the second African-American swimmer to win a gold, after Anthony Ervin, the former Hart High and Cal standout, did it in 2000.
A story that moved today on the Associated Press wire service covers how Jones' gold has already made an impact:

The time change: It can't be stopped, we can only try to contain it.
But online what's happening at about the 7 p.m. mark (when it's 10 a.m. local time), then glide into the dark hours of the post-prime-time array of events -- it's not such a difficult task staying up to speed on the Beijing Games and its 15-hour head start it has to every calendar day. Not if you put your mind to it.
A rule of thumb: When host Jim Lampley throws it to Tim Ryan and Yaz Farooq for the women's lightweight double sculls' first heat on the NBC coverage, it's nap time.

Initial reactions:
=We asked for more live events -- we got it, sort of.
Whenever it says "LIVE" on your NBC coverage, remember it's not. Unless you've got access to an East Coast feed (DirecTV does have NBC-E, but is very restrictive in giving it away in any package). That's a deceptive practice that isn't going away any time soon, for whatever reason. So knock it off. We thank the New York Times' Richard Sandomir (linked here) for stating the obvious as well from an East Coast perspective. The false "LIVE" events really become curious when you take into account that, on the weekend, us West Coasters are more flexable and could actually be awake at 8:30 p.m. to see the men's relay gold Sunday night, rather than wait until the 11:30 p.m. delayed showing.

Monica Almeida/The New York Times
Lenny Krayzelburg opened a swim school at the Westside Jewish Community Center in after he helped reopen its pools in 2005.

Lenny Krayzelburg's blast last week onto Jim Rome's syndicated sports-talk show (heard locally on 570-AM from 9 a.m. to noon) sparked interest in expanding on what he was saying about trying to improve the quality of life for L.A. inner city kids. Hopefully we did it some justice in today's column (linked here).

It's also worth wondering: If only Krayzelburg could jump into the pool this week in Beijing and swim against Michael Phelps.

If only ...

"It's a very awkward situation, to be honest," Krayzelburg said about his trip to China, where he'll be meeting with USOC officials to seek help in developing his swimming schools and non-profit prgrams.

"I've been swimming for this country since 1996. Now, it's a weird feeling. I'm a little jealous that I'm not there as an athlete. It's a little bittersweet. It'll be an incredible eight days of competition and we should be witnessing some legendary performances."

Living in Studio City, Krayzelburg burst upon the swim scene when he was at USC, a backstroke specialist who won gold at the 2000 Games in Sydney in the 100 and 200 meters, then participated on the 4x100 medley relay winning squad. He took gold again at the 2004 Games in Athens on the relay team, and had designs of perhaps competing for the U.S. team at these Beijing Games until shoulder injuries caught up with him.

In Phelps, who beat Krayzelburg a few times in the backstroke once he took up the discipline in 2003, there's no question who rules the pool today.

"When you're a 15 year old making the Olympics (in 2000), we all knew he was special," said Krayzelburg. "I saw him finish the 2000 fly in fourth place, and the next day, he was training -- that's when I knew he was for real. I knew he had the right state of mind and there were things he wanted to accomplish. At this level, you understand that people are willing to make sacrifices to be the best in the world. When you put his tremendous natural talent together with his work ethic, and his feel for the water, that's going to produce scary results."

The Big Lead, who we gotta admit has replaced Deadspin for consistent content quality for sports-related snarkiness by a blog and/or Internet service provider, is conducting a poll to determine the best Fantasy Football Team name.
Polling closes Monday (linked here).
Here are the prime choices in alphabetical order (noting references to actual players, a pop culture smack and alliteration always move to you the front of the line):

==2 Guys 1 Cup
==Brady's Bündchen
==Children of the Zorn
==Cougar Bait
==Ike Turner's All-Stars
==John Wayne Gacy's Day Parade
==Kim Kardashian's Reggie Bush
==Multiple Scorgasms
==Pimpin' Aint Brees-y
==The Lofa Tatupu Platter
==Two and Half Mendenhall
==Victorious Secret
==Yancy Pigskin

We're not against a company exploiting a deceased musician's rendention of the National Anthem for its own commercial purposes.
Wait, we are.
Especially after seeing Nike attach itself to the 1983 version that Marvin Gaye performed before the NBA All-Star Game at the Forum.
This is either genius, or bound to backfire. We suspect at first the euphoria of seeing it again will be cool, but then the heart of the song will be challenged as the 30- and 60-second spots start hitting the airwaves, cutting the original 2-minute plus version down into a convenient package.

Here's the new entire Nike clip, interespersed with the 2008 Olympic basketball team footage:

And one last time, the Gaye performance in full, in context:

To get your body clock around what's going on in Beijing 15 hours ahead of us versus what NBC will actually show you on its time schedule, take the Opening Ceremonies actually happening at this moment as a launching point.
That's an Associated Press photo above from the event, which moved on their service at 10:04 a.m. EDT/7:04 a.m. PDT. So we have plenty of visual evidence it's on.
At 6:56 a.m. on KNBC-Channel 4's local insert into the NBC network "Today" show. The local anchors throw it out to reporter Ted Chen, who's live, standing in the dark, outside the Olympic stadium.

Someone please send me a message at 8:08 AM (and 8 seconds) this morning and we'll see how lucky that number really is.
Meanwhile, feeling lucky already after skimming today's media column (linked here), you've got a shot at reading this NBC-released quote from Bob Costas setting the stage for tonight's Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony:
"I think what gives the Olympic Games its special cachet, is that they happen only once every four years. For most of the athletes, it's their one and only chance. For a handful they might have two or three chances, but they have to wait four years. Despite the disappointment, Tom Brady and the Patriots are about to go right back at it and Eli Manning and the Giants will have to prove it all over again. And the Lakers are already making plans for how they can unseat the Celtics. And there will be another World Series coming up as soon as this October's World Series is over with. Not so in the Olympics. It's once every four years at most; for many of these competitors, once in a lifetime. And many of the events go by in an eye blink. So you think of the drama involved in preparing your entire life and then intensely for several years prior to this event, and maybe you're in an event that lasts 10 seconds or less or lasts just a few minutes. And it is this which will define you for your entire career. I think that raises the stakes and raises the drama, and it's why so many people around the world, Americans included, pay attention to events at the Olympics, pay close attention."
And give it up the sponsors who've put up the big bucks to finance NBC's efforts as well.

Obviously running out of adjectives to describe the impact that Manny Ramirez has had on the Dodgers since joining the team last Friday, the team-approved broadcast team on Thursday's telecast from St. Louis found a new phat phrase to put it in a way that may even escape Vin Scully 's vocabulary depth.

"You know all year long I've been calling Matt Kemp 'The Tinkle Guy,' 'cause you don't want to use the men's room when he's hitting," Dodgers TV analyst Steve Lyons said during the FSN Prime Ticket broadcast, "but maybe Manny's 'Tinkle 2.'"

"The sequel," chimed in Charley Steiner.

Ah, yellow journalism.

Maybe before the next homestand, Lyons will try to quantify Ramirez's production by habla'ing some Espanol.

Friday's media column resumes with a look at some important numbers that NBC will throw at you during the next two weeks during coverage of the Beijing Games -- everything but the parts per million of soot in the air.
To get you in the proper mindframe, The Associated Press has issued a sport-by-sport guide to watching the next 17 days, assuming you can navagate through NBC's tape-delayed prime-time stuff and mouse your way through NBCOlympics.com for everything's that going on (here's a link to stuff that already happened today):

It only took Manny Ramirez six days to get his Dodgers' batting helmet so gooped up that you can't see the L.A. logo any longer.
From Wednesday's game in St. Louis, during his trot around the bases on a second-inning HR:

How much more Lakers-Celtics can you handle?
TV, let 'er rip.
As TNT, ESPN and ABC release their 2008-09 schedules this morning, it's evident that the Lakers and Celtics, launching off their 08 NBA Finals appearance, are still TV gold.
They'll face each other on Christmas Day, for starters, 2:15 p.m., ABC, Staples Center.
The Celtics have 16 ABC/ESPN appearances; the Lakers have 15.
The Lakers show up 10 times, the Celtics 9, on TNT.
Add 'em up: 25 times each.
(Phoenix and Cleveland also have 25 exposures, but who's counting?)

Four other games will be played on the High Holy Day as well. It's a collision of greed we could only happen because TNT's exclusive Thursday night window falls on the holiday. But they're all spaced out for your convenience.
Oh, as for Los Angeles' other team -- only one appearance on any network. Because they play the Lakers. So the Clippers are tied with Atlanta, Memphis, Milwaukee, New Jersey and Oklahoma City with one lousy appearance, which is one more than Charlotte, Indiana, Minnesota, New York (!) or Sacramento.

The Lakers-Celtics Christmas matchup comes after ESPN carries New Orleans at Orlando (9 a.m.) and ABC has San Antonio at Phoenix at 11:30 a.m.
ABC (18) and ESPN (72) combine for 90 games on their schedules that starts Oct. 29 with the Lakers-Clippers matchup (7:30 p.m.). TNT, with 53 games, launches a day earlier, Oct. 28, with the Lakers hosting Portland. It also has a Christmas Day doubleheader and the NBA All Star Game on Feb. 15 in Phoenix.
We got it all formated for your consumption below:

Maybe it's just Jimmy Being Jimmy, but underage drinking is no way to establish street cred at Notre Dame.
The latest on the former Oaks Christian quarterback's off-the-field activities came more to mainstream light in today's Chicago Tribune (linked here), following up on a blog item on The Big Lead (linked here) that shows Jimmy Clausen and a couple of teammates competing in the "Beer Olympics."
Coach Charlie Weis is supposed to look into it. The assumption is this is a violation of some school code of ethics.
At the very least.
Sure, we drank beer when we were in college. Maybe someone took some pictures. We weren't 21 yet. The big difference: None of us were the school's starting quarterback. And the Internet was only a gleam in Al Gore's eye.
This is a story that will have some shelf life, based on Clausen having some alcohol-related stuff before. And it made for some talk fodder on today's Dan Patrick syndicated radio show, likely to snowball more.
The Big Lead also has a followup today (linked here) from a columnist in the South Bend Tribune (linked here) that basically says, at least they were fully clothed, not barfing, and, compared to the stuff going on at Penn State, what's the story?

If Fenway Park is "an interesting corner church," in the words of a friend born and raised in New York, "then Yankee Stadium is a cathedral."
He adds: "Of course, what does an atheist know about churches?"
Fugetaboutit.
The truth is, a nervous subway ride to this Yankee Stadium, especially as they're ready to tear it down, has to be on any "to do" list for a Southern Californian venturing into Manhattan who's already seen Times Sqaure, the Guggenheim, the Empire State Building, Central Park and St. Patrick's Cathedral. It's part of the grand tour, straight from Grand Central Station.
But we gotta tell you, and we're only being honest here, that if you ask our opinion, and I mean this sincerely ... wait, I forgot what I was saying ... New Yorkers should embrace the new Yankee Stadium. Not that the current one shouldn't be grinded up and sold off as parts to sappy collectors so quickly. It's hallowed ground. It's just not all that its cracked up to be.
We were underwhelmed.
There are only about 20 home games left on the Yankee Stadium schedule -- not counting playoffs (again, fugetaboutit) -- so the chances of actually seeing the place one last time probably aren't that great.
If possible, get over there. If not, save all your money and try to score a ticket to the new place when it opens in '09.
Again, the pictures will try to tell the story:

A side trip through all that is Boston somehow became Ted Head's Excellent Adventure.

A long time ago, we picked up a GI Joe action figure of Ted Williams, celebrating the Boston Red Sox's Hall of Famer's service to our country as an Army fighter pilot. In cleaning out our stuff one day, we came upon it and decided it didn't make the cut. But before tossing it, we carefully removed Ted's head, in hopes of ... nothing really. It just seemed the thing to do.

Up on the shelf next to the San Diego Chicken bobblehead, a jar of dirt from Wrigley Field and a baseball cap from the Hanshin Tigers, Ted's Head sat in all its spendor. A trip to Boston, however, was reason enough to take him for a tour of the old place, maybe jog his frozen memory ... who knows what the inspiration was at that point.

As we circle some of the more famous sites of Beantown, Ted's Head became a thing to whip out and share in the moment. So, we have these photos. First, that's Ted (above) on the Fenway Park Tour, returning to his home. We tried to get him to sit in his red seat out in right field, but he kept falling through.
At left, that's my good pal, Pat Dunne, a Mass. native, Fenway frequent flyer and employee at the Hartford Courant, employed on this day to help Ted enjoy the mass celebration outside the park before a recent game.

And before we go to hell, we'll show you more pictures:

In his book (review linked here), "101 Baseball Places To See Before You Strike Out," Josh Pahigian lists Fenway Park's Green Monster at No. 7, noting that the 37 foot, 2 inch sculpture that spans about 200 feet across and contains about 15 tons of iron is one of the chief attractions that draw fans to Boston's "little lyrical bandbox of a ballpark," in the words of John Updike.
If only the Mansta could talk.
That's what happens when you quietly sit in Fenway Park during batting practice and watch the line drives clank off it, surely denting it. Or if you're among the 300 or so who win a lottery right to buy a $160 ticket to sit atop it during a game.
We're getting ahead of ourselves, but that's the rush of baseball history you'll have when stepping into the living, breathing baseball organism for the first time (a link here to the Wikipedia entry on Fenway).
A year ago, it was a virgin visit to Wrigley Field (blog story linked here). This year, the $2 green line (one way) to Kenmore and the Fenway Park walk, and then the $2 No. 4 train to Yankee Stadium. Ballpark trips that need to be taken before someone gets greedy and decides it's time to tear down the old and bring in a (luxury box-filled) new facility.
The pictures probably tell things better:

==Start by walking around the place and soaking in the banners, plaques and other pieces of flair that the old brick building has to offer.
Better yet, on the day of the game, get down there and buy a $12 adult ticket for a Fenway ballpark tour (also given on days when there's not a game). The 9 and 10 a.m. tour tickets can be bought at the unofficial team store across the street on Yawkey Way. Tours at 11 a.m., noon, 1, 2, 3 and 3:30 p.m. are at the park ticket office. We took the 3 p.m. tour but at that point, they weren't allowing a walk on the field, and we barely got to ride atop the Monster because batting practice was almost ready to begin, and those who buy the Monster tickets get the right to sit there during BP. A nice perk.

A week in Boston and New York, to visit Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium during the Angels' recent road trip, will be chronicled here -- perhaps as early as later this afternoon. Actually got to see Manny Ramirez's second-to-last game with the Red Sox -- the one where he got a round of boos for failing to run out a hard-hit ground ball during John Lackey's near no-hitter -- and Ivan Rodriguez's first game with the Yankees.
The Angels created a lot of East Coast buzz during that roadie -- even with their last two games losses on Fox and TBS national coverage -- and the Dodgers are on definitely the radar as well as New Englanders continue to watch the ManRam saga unfold.

A small preview of the upcoming travelogue blog: Cleaning out some stuff recently I came across a Ted Williams special-edition GI Joe action figure in my stash. It must have been some tribute to his Korean War days.
Anyway, before I tossed it, I had to do the honorable thing and remove his head.
During the trip, I took Ted's Head to many places around Boston for some photographic enhancements. Before leaving Boston, my intent was to toss Ted's Head into the Charles River -- giving him a somewhat proper burial. It was either that or put him in the hotel minibar refrigerator.
I ended up leaving him in the backpack, so it returned home (getting through TSA airport screening, somehow) and I'll have to find another appropriate way to eventually send it off into the great beyond. Maybe a trip down Interstate 15 to the Ted Williams Bridge near San Diego....
Stay tuned.
This is Ted Head (taken with a cell phone camera) atop a bottle of Sam Adams beer in the Bleacher Bar at Fenway Park, in front of a display of Williams' photos. Hard to see, but you get the idea. The Bleacher Bar, by the way, is a former storage closet in the center field section of Fenway that was recently cleaned out and converted into a bar that has full viewing access to the game from the large garage door near the 379 marker. Amazing thing to see and be inside.
Plenty of more photos to come....