Short Late Thursday/Early Friday Update

I still have a couple of things to do and I don't want to be doing links at 2 a.m. when I should be sleeping, so this is going to be a quickie update.

Newsday's Neil Best previews an ESPN Outside the Lines story which chronicles Dr. J, Julius Erving's reunion with his daughter, tennis player Alexandra Stevenson.

CNBC's Darren Rovell breaks news that Major League Baseball has initiated a hiring freeze. says he hasn't received as many greeting cards this year as last. Darren says sports merchandise sales are taking a hit during this sluggish economy. Darren praises NBA teams for some economically sound ticket deals.

Joe Favorito gives praise to the New York Mets for communicating with their fans shortly after news of the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme broke.

Ken McMillan of the Hudson Valley Times Herald-Record reports that ESPN 1050 in New York and WFAN will both carry college bowls during the holiday season.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News feels the Cowboys-Eagles game in Week 17 will be delegated as a late game for Fox and not be put in primetime for NBC.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News previews his Friday column.

The Sports Media Watch has a series of college football ratings posts. The first one deals with the final college football ratings on broadcast TV. For cable, the SMW says ESPN was down, but Versus was up in its Big 12/Ivy League/Mountain West/Pac 10 package. And the SMW has the week-by-week breakdown for the college football season. Shifting to the NFL, Paulsen says despite the hype for the Sunday night game on NBC, CBS still had the most watched program of the week for Steelers-Ravens. And the SMW has the Week 15 primetime ratings.

Christopher Byrne of the Eye on Sports Media blog notes a profile of CBS' James Brown in this month's Washingtonian magazine. Chris has the broadcast information for this weekend's Las Vegas Bowl. Finally, Chris lists the college bowl schedule for Sirius Satellite Radio.

Steve Lepore's Puck The Media blog goes into the second round of his NHL Tournament of Announcers with the latest matchup pitting the best hockey voice bar none, Mike Emrick against Chicago Black Hawks voice Pat Foley. Steve wonders why Versus did not pick up the World Junior Hockey Championships. And Steve laments the lack of hockey doubleheaders on TV.

Maury Brown's Biz of Baseball reports that JetBlue Airlines and the Red Sox are about to announce a partnership. As long as they don't leave the Red Sox on the runway for 8 hours, I'm all for it.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News writes that the San Jose Sharks and the Boston Celtics are enjoying success on the ice, on the hardwood and on TV.

And that will do it. Tomorrow, we expect snow in Southern New England so the posting of the Megalinks may not happen until late. In the meantime, you will see NFL Viewing Picks and College Basketball Viewing Picks at their regular times.