Saturday Links

Sorry for the delay in fresh material. Last night, my computer shut down on me and I thought I would not get it back. And I had to leave my house early this morning and just returned so I give you some overdue links.

First, the Dallas Morning News' Barry Horn writes that the NBC broadcast of Game 5 of the NHL Western Conference Finals marks the last game in which the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex will be able to have 100% access to the series. Versus, as you may know, is not totally accessible across the country and will have the rest of the series.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette says the NHL has recovered nicely after NBC slighted the league one year ago today.

Jerry Garcia of the San Antonio Express-News looks at last night's edition of HBO Real Sports which was re-edited to include Andrea Kremer's interview with former Patriots employee Matt Walsh.

Bruce Allen from Boston Sports Media Watch has the video of Bill Belichick's comments on CBS in response to the Matt Walsh interview on HBO.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch takes a look at some sports radio talk lineup changes in the market.

Timothy McNulty of the Chicago Tribune in an editorial says the sale of the co-owned Cubs can't come soon enough for the Trib, and he has a word of advice for sister paper Newsday as it's being sold to Cablevision which owns the New York Knicks and Rangers.

CNBC's Darren Rovell says the new Speedo swimsuit is going to make a big splash the Summer Olympics in Communist China. By the way, just a word of warning, Darren is pictured in the swimsuit.

The Sports Media Watch has its weekly weekend ratings predictions. The SMW also says ABC's ratings for the NBA playoffs are up 17% over last year.

Jim Williams of the DC/Baltimore Examiner looks at NBC's coverage of the Preakness Stakes.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says last week's bowling event on CBS was a ratings disaster.

Christopher Byrne of the Eye on Sports Media blog says ESPN might do better with other programming in the mornings instead of nine hours of SportsCenter.

John Ryan of the San Jose Mercury News says it's about time Dish Network added Comcast SportsNet Bay Area HD to its lineup.

And that will do it. I'll be here with Sunday links in the morning.

Primetime & Late Night Viewing Picks

MLB
Milwaukee at Red Sox - FSN Wisconsin/NESN, 7 p.m.
New York Mets at New York Yankees - SNY/WWOR, 7 p.m.
Washington at Baltimore - MASN/MASN2, 7 p.m.
Cleveland at Cincinnati - STO/FSN Ohio, 7 p.m.
Kansas City at Florida - FSN Kansas City/Sun Sports, 7 p.m.
Oakland at Atlanta - Comcast SportsNet Bay Area/Peachtree TV, 7:30 p.m.
Tampa Bay at St. Louis - FSN Florida/FSN Midwest, 8 p.m.
Houston at Texas - FSN Houston, 8 p.m.
Minnesota at Colorado - FSN North/FSN Rocky Mountain, 9 p.m.
Detroit at Arizona - FSN Detroit/FSN Arizona, 9:30 p.m.
Los Angeles Dodgers at Anaheim - KCAL/FSN West, 10 p.m.
San Diego at Seattle - Cox 4/FSN Northwest, 10 p.m.

NBA Playoffs
Game 6/Boston at Cleveland - Comcast SportsNet New England/ESPN, 8 p.m.
Game 6/Los Angeles Lakers at Utah - ESPN, 10:30 p.m.

Entertainment
Ghost Whisperer - CBS, 8 p.m.
Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel - HBO, 8 p.m.
The Sarah Jane Adventures - SciFi, 8 & 8:30 p.m.
Doctor Who - SciFi, 9 p.m.
Battlestar Galactica - SciFi, 10 p.m.
The Late Show with David Letterman - CBS, 11:35 p.m.
Ghost in a Teeny Bikini - Cinemax, 12:15 a.m.
20/20 - ABC, 10 p.m.
Dateline NBC - NBC, 10 p.m.

The Friday Media Megalinks

We have a lot of links to get to so let's get to them.

Viewing Picks

Interleague play in baseball and the second leg of horse racing's Triple Crown headline the weekend viewing picks.

NBC Sports will have complete coverage of the Preakness Stakes live from Baltimore starting at 4:30 on Saturday. Luckily, we won't have a silly red carpet show. Big Brown will be the favorite to take the next step towards the Triple Crown. During NBC's show, Bob Costas will hold a roundtable discussion on the dangers of horse racing in the wake of the Eight Belles tragedy at the Kentucky Derby. And ESPN will have the Preakness undercard starting at noon.

As mentioned, interleague play starts this weekend in Major League Baseball. In a rare piece of programming, Fox Sports does not jump on the New York Mets-New York Yankees matchup for its Saturday Game of the Week. Instead, Fox chooses the Brewers-Red Sox, Cleveland at Cincinnati and the Dodgers at Anaheim for its games at 3:55 p.m. WGN has the White Sox at San Francisco Saturday night at 9 and the lone National League series, the Cubs hosting Pittsburgh, Sunday at 2. TBS also has Milwaukee at Boston, Sunday at 1;30 p.m. ESPN will take the Mets-Yankees for the Sunday night game.

Both NHL Conference Finals could conclude this weekend. NBC Sports has two Games Five, Dallas at Detroit on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. NBC is hoping this won't go into overtime to avoid a repeat of last year when Buffalo-Ottawa went OT and shuffled the game to Versus so it could start its Preakness Stakes pre-race show on time. On Sunday, NBC will not have potential conflicts as it will cover Philadelphia at Pittsburgh at 3 p.m.

The NBA schedule is a bit up in the air. ABC is scheduled to carry one game at 3:30 p.m., Sunday and it could be a Game 7 in the Boston-Cleveland series or Game 7 in the Utah-Los Angeles Lakers series or Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

Motorsports is busy this weekend. NASCAR has its annual All Star Race on the Speed Channel this Saturday night at 7. Indy Car continues the Indianapolis 500 Time Trials throughout the weekend on ESPN2 and ABC.

The PGA Tour continues without Tiger Woods with the AT&T Classic on CBS at 3 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

The LPGA Sybase Classic is picked up by ESPN2, Saturday and Sunday at 2.

HBO has Boxing After Dark Saturday night at 9:45 p.m. with three scheduled fights.

ESPN2 begins coverage of the NCAA Division I Softball tournament with regional action on Saturday.

The WNBA begins the Candace Parker era with the LA Sparks visiting the Phoenix Mercury on ABC this Saturday at 3:30 p.m.

And track and field fans can watch the Adidas Track Classic from Carson, CA Sunday on ESPN at 4 p.m.

The TV sports listings can be seen at USA Today. To the links now.

National

ESPN Ombudsman Le Ann Schreiber takes ESPN to task for the Miguel Tejada ambush interview on E:60.

Michael McCarthy of USA Today says HBO's Real Sports interview of former New England Patriots employee Matt Walsh keeps the Spygate scandal in the spotlight.

East and Mid-Atlantic

David Scott of Boston Sports Media Watch was busy keeping track of the John Tomase mea culpa at the Boston Herald as well as following a story involving NESN's Heidi Watney before she joined the network.

Nancy Marrapese-Burrell of the Boston Globe says NESN has hired former Red Sox utility infielder Lou Merloni as a studio analyst.

Newsday's Neil Best talked with SNY's Mets announcer Gary Cohen before he called yesterdays game against the Washington Nationals from the Shea Stadium's upper deck with analysts Ron Darling and Keith Hernandez. In his blog, Neil talks with Mets announcers Cohen, Howie Rose, Hernandez and Darling about their childhood experiences sitting in the cheap seats.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times talks with ESPN's Doris Burke (and Providence College alumnus) who has found a role on the network's college basketball and NBA broadcasts.

From the New York Post, Phil Mushnick laments the number of young men and women who are entering the professional poker business.

The New York Daily News' Bob Raissman wonders why Fox Sports omitted the Mets-Yankees from tomorrow's MLB schedule and chose Brewers-Red Sox instead.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union writes that Fox Sports Radio updates are truly lacking.

Ray Frager of the Baltimore Sun looks at NBC's coverage of the Preakness Stakes. John Wostendiek of the Sun talks with Dave Rodman, the track announcer at Pimlico, who will call his 17th Preakness Stakes, but you won't hear him on TV or radio.

Jim Williams of the DC/Baltimore Examiner says the Preakness Stakes is an event made for ESPN's Kenny Mayne.

Dan Daly of the Washington Times says sensationalism such as John Tomase's story in the Boston Herald is hurting sports journalism.

Midwest

Heading to the Akron Beacon Journal, George M. Thomas talks about ESPN taking SportsCenter live in the mornings starting in August.

Michael Zuidema of the Grand Rapids (MI) Press also writes about the live morning SportsCenters.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says the Brewers hit the national TV spotlight this weekend thanks to its interleague matchup with the Red Sox.

Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune talks with former Toronto Raptors radio voice Chuck Swirsky who's returning to Chicago as the radio voice of the Bulls.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune's Judd Zulgad tells us that the family of Minnesota Twins owner Carl Pohlad is looking to buy more radio stations.

Paul Christian from the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin says NBC Sports likes the fact that there is a clear cut favorite in this year's Preakness Stakes.

West

Scott D. Pierce of the Deseret (UT) Morning News wonders why some TV announcers won't admit they're wrong after seeing the replay.

Jay Posner of the San Diego Union-Tribune is back from vacation and notes that he didn't miss the umpire bashing on the Padres TV broadcasts. Jay also has the ratings from last weekend in San Diego.

From the North County Times, John Maffei writes about Hannah Storm returning to sports TV as an anchor in ESPN SportsCenter's live morning block.

Over to the Ventura County Star, Jim Carlisle talks about NBC's roundtable discussion of horse racing during its coverage of the Preakness.

John Scheibe of the Los Angeles Times also writes about the NBC roundtable talk about Eight Belles in the weekly Sound and Vision column.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says ESPN feels the need to send out press releases at breakneck speed. In his media notes, Tom says hearing Charley Steiner and Steve Lyons on Dodgers road games makes him yearn for Vin Scully. One side note, Tom has picked up on Hannah Storm's sexy poses, something I noted earlier this week.

Canada

William Houston of the Toronto Globe and Mail writes that Canada's all-sports cable channels are making good money.

South

The State's Doug Nye talks with the long time radio voice of Clemson baseball.

Barry Jackson from the now Dan Le Batard-less Miami Herald says the NBA continues to keep the real NBA Draft Lottery off camera.

Dave Darling of the Orlando Sentinel is a fan of interleague play and finds an ESPN MLB analyst who agrees with him.

Over to the Houston Chronicle where David Barron says colleague Jerome Solomon has been dropped by sports radio station KFNC.

Ray Buck of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram says ESPN is competing against itself with its upcoming live morning SportsCenters in August.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman writes about Hannah Storm joining ESPN (again note the sexy pose). In his notebook, Mel has a few ESPN-related items. Finally, Mel has his viewing picks.

Blogs

CNBC's Darren Rovell says headbands are now a big part of the NBA's sales.

In his Sports Marketing and Public Relations blog, Joe Favorito says there are plenty niche sites to get your sports news.

The Big Lead says Yahoo! Sports was the most visited sports website in April closely followed by ESPN.com.

Awful Announcing likes ESPN's promos for Euro 2008.

In case you missed it from earlier this week, the Sox & Dawgs blog has the video of Manny making a catch in Baltimore, high fiving a fan in the stands, then throwing the ball into the infield for a double play.

That's going to do it. Back later.

Question to John Tomase: Is That All There Is?

Taking the title from a Peggy Lee song, I ask the Boston Herald's John Tomase after reading his mea culpa, is that all there is? And where are the words, "I'm sorry"?

While Tomase's apology reads like he's contrite, he does not talk about who his sources are nor does he talk about what really happened in putting together the story.

Bruce Allen of Boston Sports Media Watch feels the apology does not go far enough.

David Scott ran a live blog (which you can read in its entirety) and got reader reaction to the apology.

Northeastern University assistant professor of journalism Dan Kennedy looks into the apology and asks about several issues that are missing in Tomase's tome.

Steve at the Sox & Dawgs blog says Tomase is whacked for thinking that he'll remain on the Patriots beat for the Herald.

Paul Flannery from the Boston Magazine's Boston Daily blog rightfully asks where were the editors in all this?

Newsday's Neil Best says he felt Tomase's pain for having to write the apology.

That will do it for the Tomase apology for now. Friday megalinks coming up.

A Thursday Night Update

I'll give some more links as I get ready to watch Lost.

Don't forget David Scott will have a live blog when the Boston Herald puts John Tomase's Spygate story explanation on its website.

Bruce Allen of Boston Sports Media Watch writes that the Herald's Tony Massarotti's polarizing column attacking New England Patriots fans did more to widen the disconnect between Boston fans and the city's sports media.

The Sports Media Watch tries to solve the mystery as to why Dallas' TV ratings for the NHL Western Conference Finals are 83% lower than Detroit's.

CNBC's Darren Rovell likes MLB's promotion for this year's All-Star Home Run Derby. But he doesn't like Upper Deck's NBA "Rookie Threads" cards. And Darren wonders if Olympic sponsors are truly getting hurt by this year's games.

Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette writes that NBC has a contingency plan in case Saturday's Game 5 of the Dallas-Detroit series goes into overtime. You may remember last year when NBC cutaway from Game 5 of the Buffalo-Ottawa series in favor of pre-race coverage of the Preakness Stakes. Ken also mentions that local radio station WTMM will pick up the Preakness after Yankees-Mets coverage.

Leonard Shapiro of the Washington Post writes that NBC Sports properly handled the Eight Belles tragedy at the Kentucky Derby.

George Winslow of Multichannel News writes that the Philadelphia Eagles TV Network will go entirely in HD. Mike Reynolds from Multichannel reports that all-soccer network Gol TV will add more programming.

Juliane Smolinski of TV Week writes that ESPN is launching a new brand dedicated to high school sports.

That's going to do it. Don't forget David Scott's live blog tonight at midnight.

Explanations Wanted

If you are so inclined and want to stay up, the Boston Herald says it will post John Tomase's explanation about Spygate and why he ran with his story the day before Super Bowl XLI at midnight tonight. David Scott of Boston Sports Media Watch says he will live blog at his site when the Tomase story is published at Bostonherald.com. David says he will include comments and also conduct a poll as the story is released.

Tomase has come under fire since former New England Patriots videographer Matt Walsh told the NFL this week that there was no tape of the St. Louis Rams' walkthrough before Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002.

Next, you may have seen this on various blogs and heard it on some sports radio stations. TNT's Charles Barkley is in a dispute with The Wynn Las Vegas casino. The casino has sued Barkley saying he owes $400,000 in gambling debts. Jeff German of the Las Vegas Sun writes that Barkley will be given a chance to make restitution. For his part, Sir Charles says he will pay it back. Reports of Barkley's gambling are nothing new. In 2006, he admitted in an ESPN interview that he had lost $10 million gambling saying that it was a problem he wanted to control. The lawsuit alleges Barkley was extended a total four $100,000 markers during a two day period in October.

Primetime & Late Night Viewing Picks

MLB
Florida at Cincinnati - Sun Sports/FSN Ohio, 7 p.m.
Atlanta at Philadelphia - SportSouth/Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia, 7 p.m.
Colorado at Arizona - FSN Rocky Mountain/FSN Arizona, 9:30 p.m.
Chicago White Sox at Anaheim - Comcast SportsNet Chicago/FSN West, 10 p.m.

NBA Playoffs
Game 6/New Orleans at San Antonio - ESPN, 9 p.m.

NHL Playoffs
Game 4/Philadelphia at Pittsburgh - CBC/Versus, 7:30 p.m.

Entertainment
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - CBS, 9 p.m.
Lost - ABC, 10 p.m.
Late Show with David Letterman - CBS, 11:35 p.m.

Excerpts of the Matt Walsh Interview on HBO's Real Sports

Excerpts of the HBO Real Sports interview with former New England Patriots employee Matt Walsh have been released. This edition of Real Sports will be seen on Friday at 8 p.m. ET. Andrea Kremer conducted the interview.

Now I'm not allowed to give all of the excerpts, just portions of them, but here are some of the more interesting quotes. These come directly from the HBO Sports press release.

Walsh says that because the Patriots continued to use their standard allotment of two “normal” camera operators on game day for traditional filming purposes, he was coached by his superiors on how to evade league rules limiting the number of camera operators allowed per team, and coached on how to avoid getting caught doing what he was doing.

MATT WALSH: “The line of reasoning that we would give to other teams for why we need a third camera set-up was, well, our coaches wanna have a tight shot of the kicker and the holder, you know, exchange just to go over with the guys in meetings. You know, they want a tight shot, you know, of the quarterback, you know, just to go over the quarterback’s footwork and mechanics in meetings. Uh, if I was in the end zone we would say, well, we just wanna have two end zone shots of the game because our coaches like always seeing the view of our players’ backs.”
ANDREA KREMER: “Who was giving you the, the rationales, for… trying to get the extra camera or trying to get a, an extra camera position?”
MATT WALSH: “[Patriots video coordinator] Jimmy Dee had told me what these, would be the explanations that would be -- and, um, you know, if somebody questioned what we were doing, you know, this is what we’d say why we were doing it.”
ANDREA KREMER: “What’s going through your mind as you’re getting all these, uh, these explanations?”
MATT WALSH: “Make sure I don’t get caught. Try to do the best and stay concealed, not let on that this I what we’re doing.”

Walsh says that at the time, he suspected another team of similar illicit activity, and recently reported his suspicion to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

MATT WALSH: “There was only one other time that I ever suspected another team of possibly shooting our signals. Um, both of us were shooting together on the roof of the old Foxboro Stadium. I was filming their defensive coaches sending in their signals, and I would look over when we were on defense, and I’d see him panning over to our sideline, and then going back to the field, panning over and going back. I didn't say anything to him, because I was doing the same thing he was, but you know, after the game I went into our defensive coach’s office, uh, talked with Romeo Crennel, there were a couple of other coaches in there at the time, but I said to Romeo, ‘you know, look, you know, they just, uh, you know, the team we just played, you know, I think was shooting our signals’, or ‘the team we just played I think was doing to us what we do to them. So, the next time we play them we might want to change up our defensive signals a little bit.’”
ANDREA KREMER: “And what team was that?”
MATT WALSH: ”I’d rather not say.”
ANDREA KREMER: “It’s all in the past at this point. What goes around comes around, right? We know the Patriots did it.”
MATT WALSH: “That’s for the NFL to investigate.”
ANDREA KREMER: ”Is it a team in the division?”
MATT WALSH: “It’s for the NFL to investigate, I answered all the questions that they asked me, so hopefully they gained all the knowledge that they wanted from it.”
ANDREA KREMER: “Did you tell the NFL which team it was?”
MATT WALSH: “Hmm? Yes, I did.”

Walsh suggests that Bill Belichick has not owned up to his responsibility in this affair, or admitted his true familiarity with Matt Walsh and his actions.

MATT WALSH: “He was, he was always friendly, you know, when we talked. Um, cordial, he, him and his wife Debbie, bought us a Christmas gift in 2001.”
ANDREA KREMER: “So how does that give with Bill Belichick saying, “I couldn't pick Matt Walsh out of a lineup?” “
MATT WALSH: “Um, it’s funny, the first time I heard that was when somebody in Hawaii brought the quote to me too. And my first hand answer to them was, well, I wonder if he can pick me out on one of the three team pictures we’re in together.”
ANDREA KREMER: “Why do you think he would have said that?”
MATT WALSH: “I don’t know, if I was just that forgettable and he can't remember me, or if he was just trying to distance himself from this whole situation as best as he could.”
ANDREA KREMER: “What do you think?”
MATT WALSH: “I think Bill’s got a pretty good memory.”
ANDREA KREMER: “Bill also has a great knowledge of the game, so when, when Bill Belichick says he misinterpreted the rules of what can be shot during a game, who much do you believe him?”
MATT WALSH: “When I was doing it, I understood what we were doing to be wrong. We went to great lengths to keep from being caught. Just saying that the rules were misinterpreted isn't enough of a, an apology or a reasoning for what was done. I mean, we live, you know, in a very forgiving nation, you know. People, if you come out and you admit a mistake you made or something you did that you shouldn't have done, people are usually very forgiving of that, accepting. When people try to get around answering it, or giving an explanation, or you know, admitting culpability, that’s usually when people start to question your motives.”

MATT WALSH: “Coach Belichick’s explanation for having misinterpreted the rules. To me, that really didn’t sound like taking responsibility for what we had done, especially considering the great lengths that we had gone through, uh, to hide what we were doing.”

That's pretty much all I can give. There's a lot more stuff and it's quite interesting. Again, this edition of Real Sports will be seen this Friday night at 8. I will probably do a real time review of this on Friday so look for it then.

More Amazing Race 13 Stuff

The great TAR Detectives at Reality Fan Forum are at it again. They have practically determined the entire route of Amazing Race 13, getting reports of racers, a few of the tasks and pictures of camera crews along the way.

From what the detectives have been able to determine, the Finish Line is on the West Coast of the US. In addition, they weeded through reports of decoy racers running in the city proper and managed to find out where the final racers finished. It does appear that this edition of the race lasted 21 days and has just completed in the last 24-36 hours.

Again, I will not give out any route information. There have been other blogs that have made sightings and published them. I do want to give props to the RFF for their hard work in culling the information.

Of course, they could not have done it without people on the ground keeping a sharp eye out for camera crews, clue boxes, closed streets and shops and of course, the racers themselves.

If you wish to see the spoiler information, you can go to this thread.

NHL - Dallas vs. Detroit, Game 4 Highlights

Here are the highlights from last night's Game 4 of the Dallas-Detroit series, won by Dallas, 3-1 to extend the series to Detroit this weekend.

A Thursday Link Thing

I'm here. And the fallout from the John Tomase/Boston Herald/New England Patriots/Spygate story continues as fans wait to hear the explanation from Tomase as to why he chose to run his story the day before the Super Bowl.

David Scott of Boston Sports Media Watch who's been doing a great job in covering this from the media's perspective goes through his own analysis of the story.

Boston Herald editor Kevin Convey issues another apology on behalf of the paper. But the Herald's Tony Massarotti throws salt on the wound.

Scott Benson from Patriots Daily hopes that John Tomase will do the right thing on Friday.

Newsday's Neil Best has excerpts from the Matt Walsh interview that will be seen on HBO's rebroadcast of Real Sports this Friday. Neil also has a rare Thursday column in which he talks about Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown and its successful marketing plan.

Ray Frager of the Baltimore Sun wonders if Pats coach Bill Belichick will watch HBO tomorrow night.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle remembers a local sportscaster who recently passed away.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Bob Wolfley has comments from Tony Kornheiser who has left the Washington Post (scroll down).

The Biz of Baseball site reports that MSNBC's Keith Olbermann will write a five part series on Topps baseball cards for Sports Collectors Digest.

Michael David Smith of the AOL Fanhouse blog looks into the ESPN.com-Bill Simmons dispute.

Tom Kubat of the Lafayette (IN) Journal & Courier says he wishes ESPN would end its obsession with the Red Sox.

Awful Announcing is not a fan of the new HBO Hard Knocks promo.

ESPN says it will have extensive coverage of the NCAA Division I Softball Championships starting tomorrow.

NBC Sports has announced a new service allowing fans to watch live sporting events on cell phones. And NBC Sports talks about its coverage of this Saturday's Preakness Stakes.

CBS Sports is back on the PGA Tour this week with the AT&T Classic.

That's it for now.

Wednesday Evening Links

Our busy Wednesday is continuing. News just keeps coming out of the woodwork.

David Scott of Boston Sports Media Watch says the Boston Herald's John Tomase will finally come out of hiding and give his explanation later this week as to what happened with his mysterious source in the Patriots videotape story.

And David Heuschkel of the Hartford Courant says former Patriots employee Matt Walsh will be working with HBO Sports on a story about Spygate. No word if this will be for Real Sports or Costas Now.

Ian over at the Sox & Dawgs blog has the video from today's Red Sox-Orioles game in which Manny Ramirez makes a great running catch, then high fives a fan, then throws the ball into the infield for a double play. The video has to be seen to be believed.

Who knew that ESPN.com's Bill Simmons is a disgruntled employee? Will Leitch of Deadspin has the e-mail exchange between him and Simmons as to why the former Boston Sports Guy hasn't been writing as much for the website.

The following link comes courtesy of Neil Best of Newsday. Daniel Kaplan and John Ourand of Sports Business Journal report that YES Network is not for sale. Last August, Fortune Magazine reported that YES was for sale, a story that was quickly denied by the New York Yankees, but it appears that any sale is definitely off the table.

Another link courtesy of Neil, the Big Lead has a guest post from former Miami Herald columnist Dan Le Batard.

Speaking of Neil, he has a complete recap of ESPN's network upfront presentation from Tuesday. Neil writes that SNY's Mets announcing crew will do Thursday's game from the upper echelons of Shea Stadium.

CNBC's Darren Rovell says some Olympic sponsors may be pulling back their plans for hospitality suites for the Summer Games in Communist China. And Darren talks to the owner of a website which keeps track of celebrity endorsers and the products they actually use.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News writes that Monday night's Game 2 between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia was the highest rated NHL game on Versus. And Reynolds writes that thanks to the NBA Playoffs, TNT has won the cable primetime ratings for a second week in a row. Linda Moss of Multichannel clarifies some confusion over the Outdoor Channel's status on DirecTV.

Rick Kissell of Variety writes that TNT's NBA Playoffs telecasts on cable even beat NBC's American Gladiators in the ratings.

Joseph De Avila of the Wall Street Journal talks with NBA Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer Adam Silver about the NBA's increased TV ratings and digital rights.

Awful Announcing says ESPN will devote two hours of coverage to the NBA Draft Lottery which is one hour and fifty minutes too long.

Sports Illustrated's Jon Wertheim gives his opinions on the new US Open contract with ESPN in his weekly tennis mailbag.

David Brauder of MinnPost.com writes that ESPN has hired Minneapolis Star Tribune Vikings beat reporter Kevin Seifert continuing a trend of hiring writers from established newspapers.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle talks with Hannah Storm about her move to ESPN.

Tim Wilkin of the Albany Times Union did not enjoy watching the Preakness Draw on ESPN.

The Orbitcast satellite radio blog says XM will carry six major college conference baseball tournaments starting May 21st.

That will do it for tonight.

Primetime & Late Night Viewing Picks

MLB
New York Yankees at Tampa Bay - YES/FSN Florida, 7 p.m.
Oakland at Cleveland - Comcast SportsNet Bay Area/STO, 7 p.m.
Washington at New York Mets - MASN/SNY, 7 p.m.
Atlanta at Philadelphia - ESPN/FSN South/Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia, 7 p.m.
Florida at Cincinnati - Sun Sports/FSN Ohio, 7 p.m.
Detroit at Kansas City - FSN Detroit/FSN Kansas City, 8 p.m.
Toronto at Minnesota - Rogers Sportsnet/FSN North, 8 p.m.
LA Dodgers at Milwaukee - FSN Prime Ticket/FSN Wisconsin, 8 p.m.
San Diego at Chicago - Cox 4/WCIU, 8 p.m.
Pittsburgh at St. Louis - FSN Pittsburgh/FSN Midwest, 8 p.m.
Colorado at Arizona - FSN Rocky Mountain/FSN Arizona, 9:30 p.m.
Chicago White Sox at Anaheim - Comcast SportsNet Chicago/FSN West, 10 p.m.
Houston at San Francisco - FSN Houston/Comcast SportsNet Bay Area, 10 p.m.
Baseball Tonight - ESPN, 10 p.m.

NBA Playoffs
Game 5/Cleveland at Boston - TNT, 8 p.m.
Game 5/Utah at Los Angeles Lakers - TNT, 10:30 p.m.

NHL Playoffs
Game 4/Detroit at Dallas - Versus/TSN, 8 p.m.

Entertainment
'Til Death - Fox, 8 p.m.
Back to You - Fox, 8:30 p.m.
The Ultimate Fighter - Spike, 10 p.m.
Late Show with David Letterman - CBS, 11:35 p.m.

NHL - Philadelphia vs. Pittsburgh, Game 3 Highlights

Here are highlights of Game 3 of the Philadelphia-Pittsburgh series from last night.

A Busy Wednesday

There's a lot of news today so let's get to the links right away.

First, the Boston Herald apologized today for the erroneous story John Tomase wrote just before Super Bowl XLI that former Patriots employee Matt Walsh taped the St. Louis Rams' walkthrough the day before Super Bowl XXXVI.

Bruce Allen of Boston Sports Media Watch looks at the history of this story and wonders if the Herald's apology goes far enough.

David Scott from BSMW does a great job in recapping Tuesday's events including Tom Brady's interview on WEEI in which he castigates ESPN.

The Sox & Dawgs blog has a couple of items including an entry stating that the Herald and Tomase need to be held accountable. And the blog has video of Patriots owner Robert Kraft stating he's happy with the apology.

CNBC's Darren Rovell has the transcript of the Kraft interview.

Newsday's Neil Best also looks at the story and notes Tom Brady's comments about the Giants and Jets in the WEEI interview.

Let's move from Spygate to ESPN's live SportsCenter block in the mornings.

Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated looks at the ESPN upfront presentation to advertisers in New York.

Shahnaz Mahmud of Adweek and John Consoli of Mediaweek combine on a story saying that ESPN is trying to broaden its appeal with the live SportsCenter in the mornings.

I've never separated Neil Best links, but I have to today. First, Neil has comments from Hannah Storm about her move to ESPN. And Neil has some stuff from ESPN's John Skipper about going with 9 live hours of SportsCenter.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times also has a short story on the ESPN SportsCenter morning block.

Richard also confirms what Neil Best wrote earlier this month, that the NFL Network was interested in having Al Michaels call Thursday Night games, but he has apparently turned down their offer. And Neil also has a suggestion to the NFL Network on who should call the games.

Roger Van Der Horst of the Raleigh News & Observer writes that the NFL Network and Time Warner Cable are no closer to an agreement than last month. And Van Der Horst says MASN and Time Warner are also locked at an impasse.

Mike Lucas of the Capital Times writes that NFL Films is putting together a new series on teams that fell short of winning the Super Bowl.

You want more news? Of course you do. From the Washington Post's DC Sports Bog, Dan Steinberg reports that Tony Kornheiser is leaving the paper having accepted a buyout last night. That link came courtesy of Deadspin and Neil Best.

As you can see, this is a busy day. And this is a rare day when I have the USA Today media column buried midway in the links. Michael McCarthy says blog hater Bob Costas will host another roundtable discussion, this one on NBC during the Preakness Stakes about the pitfalls of horse racing.

And another post from Neil Best, this one on HBO's segment on the slaughter of some horses that was outlined on Real Sports on Monday. By the way, I owe you a real time review of Real Sports and that will come later in the week.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette says Versus' ratings are on the rise.

The Sports Media Watch says the NHL's ratings on Versus shows that people are indeed watching the playoffs. The SMW has the final weekend ratings. And the blog says the NBA Playoffs have steered TNT to its second straight victory in the Cable Primetime ratings.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says NBA Commish David Stern is not a fan of the pregame histrionics at various arenas.

Tom Hoffarth from the Los Angeles Daily News has a preview of this week's Sports Illustrated.

Awful Announcing has the video of Erin Andrews' interview on "The Big Idea" with Donny Deustch on CNBC. Erin looks rather lovely.



That's it for now. A busy day. If anything else breaks, I'll let you know.

Is Hannah Storm Sexing It Up?

When the news broke that Hannah Storm would be returning to sports television by becoming an anchor on the new live SportsCenter block from 6 a.m. - 3 p.m. ET on ESPN, her picture has been all over the internet. Now no doubt, Hannah is an attractive woman, but I don't quite recall seeing her dressed in sexy outfits or making sexy poses. Here are a sampling of pictures I have seen over the last few days.
















This picture was in Neil Best's Watchdog blog on the ESPN network upfronts.




How about this picture that was in ESPN's own press release? Granted, she did not pose for ESPN, this came off the jacket from her book, Notre Dame Inspirations. A fan blowing her hair to add an effect. Do you ever recall Hannah looking like this during her days on CNN Sports Tonight, the NBA on NBC or The Early Show on CBS?



And then there's this pic at Wikipedia. And a similar one is posted in the New York Post's TV Sports blog.

Not that I mind them, but I hardly recall her looking like this on TV. Then again, this pic and the first one I posted are from various events so you would not see these dresses on The Early Show.

That's it for now.

SportsCenter Live from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. ET

In advance of the ESPN network upfronts today, the Alleged Worldwide Leader announced that it will get rid of the taped editions of SportsCenter and will go live for 9 hours between 6 a.m. and 3 p.m. Eastern Time.

During that time, two anchors will work in three hour shifts and that will include former NBC Sports and CBS Early Show anchor Hannah Storm who will be in the 9 a.m. - noon rotation.

The new live 9 hour morning edition of SportsCenter will debut on August 11 during the first week of the Summer Olympics in Communist China.

ESPN officials say that a taped edition of SportsCenter no longer fits in the changing landscape of sports.

It appears the other anchors of the morning editions will come from the ESPN ranks. Ms. Storm is the only hire from outside the company.

Primetime & Late Night Viewing Picks

MLB
Red Sox at Baltimore - NESN/MASN, 7 p.m.
New York Yankees at Tampa Bay - YES, 7 p.m.
Oakland at Cleveland - Comcast SportsNet Bay Area/STO, 7 p.m.
Washington at New York Mets - MASN2/SNY, 7 p.m.
Florida at Cincinnati - FSN Florida/FSN Ohio, 7 p.m.
Atlanta at Philadelphia - SportSouth/Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia, 7 p.m.
Detroit at Kansas City - FSN Detroit/FSN Kansas City, 8 p.m.
Toronto at Minnesota - Rogers Sportsnet/FSN North, 8 p.m.
Seattle at Texas - FSN Northwest/FSN Southwest, 8 p.m.
San Diego at Chicago Cubs - Cox 4/Comcast SportsNet Chicago, 8 p.m.
Los Angeles Dodgers at Milwaukee - FSN Prime Ticket/FSN Wisconsin, 8 p.m.
Pittsburgh at St. Louis - FSN Pittsburgh/FSN Midwest, 8 p.m.
Colorado at Arizona - FSN Rocky Mountain/FSN Arizona, 9:30 p.m.
Chicago White Sox at Anaheim - WCIU/FSN West, 10 p.m.
Houston at San Francisco - FSN Houston/Comcast SportsNet Bay Area, 10 p.m.

NBA Playoffs
Game 5/Orlando at Detroit - TNT, 7 p.m.
Game 5/San Antonio at New Orleans - TNT, 9:30 p.m.

NHL Playoffs
Game 3/Pittsburgh at Philadelphia - CBC/Versus, 7 p.m.

Entertainment
E:60 - ESPN, 7 p.m.
NCIS - CBS, 8 p.m.
Hell's Kitchen - Fox, 9 p.m.
Frontline: Storm Over Everest - PBS, 9 p.m.
Deadliest Catch - Discovery, 9 p.m.
The Zen of Bobby V - ESPN2, 9 p.m.
Mega Disasters: Mega Tsunami - History Channel, 9 p.m.
Big Break: Ka'anapali - Golf Channel, 10 p.m.
A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila - MTV, 10 p.m.
Forbidden Temptations - Cinemax, 11:30 p.m.
Late Show with David Letterman - CBS, 11:35 p.m.

News
West Virginia Primary Coverage - CNN/Fox News/MSNBC, 7 p.m.

NHL - Dallas vs. Detroit, Game 3 Highlights

Here are the highlights of Game 3 of the Detroit-Dallas Western Conference Finals. Mike Emrick and Ed Olyczyk had the call on Versus.

A Tuesday Link Thing

I'm here to give you your links for this morning. Let's get to them.

Starting with Michael Hiestand of USA Today, he has the ratings of selected events from the weekend.

CNBC's Darren Rovell talks with Coca-Cola about why it chose Kobe Bryant to endorse Vitaminwater.

David Bauder, TV writer for the Associated Press, says Hannah Storm will join ESPN in August.

Neil Best from Newsday talks about the ESPN documentary on former Mets manager Bobby Valentine who's thriving in Japan these days. And Neil has a bit more on the doc in his blog.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times also talks about the Bobby Valentine documentary which airs on ESPN2 tonight.

Bob Raissman from the New York Daily News says new Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni was greeted with plenty of skepticism from the media.

Laura Nachman has the video of a Philly sportscaster who got emotional after watching a story on Eagles' coach Andy Reid visiting a cancer ward.

Keith Groller from the Allentown (PA) Morning Call says thanks to the Celtics and Lakers, the NBA's playoff ratings have gone up.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says the Brewers drew well in the ratings with its weekend series with the St. Louis Cardinals.

John Ryan from the San Jose Mercury News says his Morning Buzz column will go into summer mode.

Dave Del Grande of the Oakland Tribune profiles host Scott Ferrall who's hosting a show on Howard 101 on Sirius Satellite Radio. And Dave writes about KRON-TV airing a local road race which is also a battle of the sexes.

William Houston from the Toronto Globe and Mail says Don Cherry has certainly struck a chord during his ESPN appearances.

Nick Rousso from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer writes about ESPN's Kenny Mayne.

That will do it for now.

It's Your Monday Night Update

Time to give you an update this evening.

First, thanks to Neil Best, I give you the farewell column by Dan Le Batard as he leaves the Miami Herald. In his column, Le Batard mentions that he's also leaving ESPN, but will return from time to time.

Speaking of Neil, he mentions that Sirius Satellite Radio will have a reunion of sorts as three members of the 1972-73 New York Knicks that won the NBA Championship will be heard on channel 127 tomorrow.

Some ratings news from the Sports Media Watch. First, the Players Championship's ratings were down on NBC, but not by as much as you would expect with Tiger Woods not in the tournament. And the SMW says the overnights for the NBA on Sunday were pretty good.

Awful Announcing has the NBA Playoff announcing schedule for this week.

Here's a piece of news for you. Fox Sports is reportedly trying to convince Brett Favre to be part of the Fox NFL Sunday pregame show to replace Barry Switzer.

Tim Lemke of the Washington Times looks at ESPN's side of the new US Open cable deal.

Chris Casavant of the Connecticut Post laments the end of USA Network's airing of the US Open.

A couple of posts by Friend of Fang's Bites, Christopher Byrne of the Eye on Sports Media blog. He says former ESPN/ABC football analyst/sideline reporter Lynn Swann looked out of place on CBS' bowling broadcast this weekend. And Christopher laments the end of the ABC era in figure skating.

Michael David Smith of the AOL Fanhouse blog has found video of some interesting comments former Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly made about ESPN. Of course, Reilly is scheduled to start working for ESPN in June.

Mike Masuda of the Orlando Sentinel writes in his blog that ESPN needs to stop showing the Red Sox. Wait a minute!

Speaking of the Red Sox, the Providence Journal reports that NESN's Red Sox Report will be re-edited and re-recorded in Spanish so it can appear on Telemundo stations in New England (scroll down to the bottom).

You want more Red Sox news? LC at the 38Cliches blog says Red Sox radio voice Uncle Joe Castiglione will be appearing at the Grand Opening of a new L.L. Bean store in Maine this week.

John Eggerton of Broadcasting & Cable writes that ESPN has tapped a new VP of ad-sales from NBC Universal.

Linda Moss of Multichannel News reports that DirecTV has moved the Outdoor Channel to its sports tier reducing its subscriber base.

That will do it tonight.

Primetime & Late Night Viewing Picks

MLB
Red Sox at Minnesota - NESN/ESPN/FSN North, 7 p.m.
Toronto at Cleveland - Rogers Sportsnet/STO, 7 p.m.
New York Yankees at Tampa Bay - YES, 7 p.m.
Washington at New York Mets - MASN/SNY, 7 p.m.
Florida at Cincinnati - FSN Florida/FSN Ohio, 7 p.m.
Seattle at Texas - FSN Northwest/FSN Southwest, 8 p.m.
San Diego at Chicago Cubs - Cox 4/Comcast SportsNet Chicago, 8 p.m.
St. Louis at Milwaukee - FSN Midwest/FSN Wisconsin, 8 p.m.
Chicago White Sox at Anaheim - Comcast SportsNet Chicago+, 10 p.m.
Houston at San Francisco - FSN Houston/Comcast SportsNet Bay Area, 10 p.m.

NBA Playoffs
Game 4/Boston at Cleveland - TNT, 8 p.m.

NHL Playoffs
Game 3/Detroit at Dallas - TSN/Versus, 8 p.m.

Entertainment
Bones - Fox, 8 p.m.
How I Met Your Mother - CBS, 8:30 p.m.
Two and a Half Men - CBS, 9 p.m.
House - Fox, 9 p.m.
Jon & Kate Plus 8 - TLC, 9 p.m.
Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel - HBO, 10 p.m.
Late Show with David Letterman - CBS, 11:35 p.m.

NHL - Philadelphia vs. Pittsburgh, Game 2 Highlights

Here are the highlights from last night's Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Joe Beninati had the call on Versus.

Monday Linkage

Time to give you some links on this Monday.

USA Today's Michael McCarthy says Versus is interested in tracking pucks during NHL coverage next season.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times has details of the ESPN/Tennis Channel contract with the US Open. John Ourand and Daniel Kaplan of Sports Business Journal have a story on the new US Open rights deal as well.

Neil Best of Newsday writes that he was happy to have gone through with his moratorium on listening to sports radio last week.

The Sports Media Watch says overnight ratings for the Celtics-Cavs Game 3 broadcast on ABC Saturday night were very low. And the SMW is not happy with ABC's Celebrity Watch during the Lakers-Jazz game yesterday.

Dusty Saunders from the Rocky Mountain News feels TNT's Doug Collins remains the best NBA analyst on TV.

Here are notes from TNT's coverage of the San Antonio-New Orleans game last night.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post feels the Mets' Seven Pack ticket plan is a fraud.

Maury Brown of the Biz of Baseball has comments from TBS' Chip Carey and Ron Darling as the game between the Yankees and Cleveland was being rained out.

Tom Jones of the St. Petersburg Times looks back at the weekend in televised sports.

CNBC's Darren Rovell is amazed that the Wii gaming system has a Major League Eating video game. Darren looks at the ranking of sports monnikers in the listing of most popular baby names.

Sports Business.com says the US Olympic Committee is planning a new TV channel, but it won't debut in time for the 2008 Olympics.

Greg Tarr of TWICE says Dish Network has added several HD channels including Comcast SportsNet Bay Area and New England and ESPNews.

ESPN2 and Tennis Channel are Your New Homes of the U.S. Open

The United States Tennis Association, ESPN and the Tennis Channel have all announced a new deal that gives the U.S. Open a new home starting in 2009. Just as ESPN2 and Tennis Channel have sharing agreements on the first three Grand Slam tennis tournaments of the year, the two entities will also share the rights for the U.S. Open.

In a press release, the USTA says combined with over the air broadcaster, CBS, the U.S. Open will have 200 hours of TV coverage. ESPN says the deal will last until 2014.

From the press release, here is breakdown of the coverage starting next year:

US Open Television Coverage

ESPN’s US Open coverage will include approximately 100 hours, including weekday afternoon coverage and exclusive weekday primetime broadcasts. Tennis Channel will broadcast more than 60 live hours from the US Open, including exclusive primetime broadcasts on Saturday and Sunday evenings of Labor Day weekend. Below is a summary of the schedule and a full US Open TV schedule is attached:

First Week

• ESPN2: Live every weekday from 1-6 p.m. and primetime from 7-11 p.m.
• Tennis Channel: Live every weekday from 11-2 p.m.; live outer court coverage from 2-6 p.m.; daily Preview Show from 10-11 a.m.; nightly Highlights Show at 11 p.m. followed by encore of matches until 10 a.m. the next morning.

Labor Day Weekend

• CBS: Live coverage from 11-6 p.m. on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
• ESPN2: Live coverage on Monday from 7-11 p.m.
• Tennis Channel: Live coverage on Saturday and Sunday from 7-11 p.m.; nightly Highlights Show at 11 p.m. followed by encore of matches until 10 a.m. the next morning.

Second Week/Quarterfinals

• ESPN2: Live Tuesday - Thursday from 11-6 p.m. and live primetime quarterfinals from 7-11 p.m.
• Tennis Channel: Live outer court coverage from 11-6 p.m; daily Preview Show from 10-11 a.m.; nightly Highlights Show at 11 p.m. followed by encore
  of matches until 10 a.m. the next morning.

Finals Weekend

• CBS: Live coverage during Finals weekend on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, including the Men’s Doubles Final, the Men’s and Women’s Semifinals, the Women’s Primetime Final on Saturday night and the Men’s Final on Sunday.
• ESPN2: Live coverage of Women’s Doubles Final at 1 p.m. Sunday; US Open Wrap-Up Show from 8-10 p.m.

Of course, ESPN gets the digital rights to the US Open which allows the Alleged Worldwide Leader to stream the tournament online. USA Network usually streams one night of coverage and that's usually due to a conflict with WWE Raw. Now, the entire tournament will be seen on ESPN360. Here are the details of the online rights.

US Open Digital and Extended Platforms

The components of this multi-platform deal include cable television, broadband, mobile properties, and Spanish language distribution via ESPN Deportes.
Highlights include:

• ESPN360.com, ESPN’s signature broadband network, can present action from all TV courts during ESPN2 windows, plus simulcasts of ESPN2’s coverage, totaling more than 300 hours.
• ESPN.com will provide blanket coverage of the US Open, with the latest news and scores, as well as commentary, photos and daily video news and summaries from ESPN commentators.
• ESPN Mobile Properties will present live action, press conferences and highlights.
• ESPN has the right to display a multi-court mosaic platform during its TV windows.
• Tennischannel.com will have rights to stream live match action on a non-exclusive basis.
• ESPN International, which has been a US Open broadcast partner for several years, will continue to provide US Open broadcasts to Latin America and sub-Sahara Africa.
• USOpen.org also plans to stream US Open matches and will continue to feature exclusive live scoring.

In addition, the agreement covers the US Open Series which is a month-long run of tournaments leading to the US Open in New York.

Olympus US Open Series TV Coverage

• ESPN2 will remain the lead broadcaster of the Series and provide nearly 100 hours of consistent live weekly coverage, including back-to-back Men’s and Women’s Finals on Sundays from 3-7 p.m.
• Tennis Channel will continue to provide nearly 150 hours of Series coverage, and weekly encore telecasts of Semifinals and Finals.
• CBS will continue to provide live Finals coverage from select Series events.
• Since its launch four years ago, the Series has doubled television viewership, increased event attendance and generated new corporate partners for the sport.
• In 2008, Olympus became the first Series title sponsor, with the Series renamed the “Olympus US Open Series.”
• In total, the 2007 Olympus US Open Series -- including the US Open -- generated a record 1.7 million attendees, more than 120 million TV viewers, and over 32 million website visits in the 8-week period.

USA Network which had been the cable home of the US Open since 1984 will drop coverage of the tournament and is getting out of the sports business.

The Week Ahead

Coming up this week, the major sporting event is the second leg of horse racing's Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes. NBC Sports which has had a nice run of sporting events this month which started with the Kentucky Derby and will continue through mid-June's U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, will air the race with its venerable crew led by blog hater Bob Costas, co-host Tom Hammond, Bob Neumeier, Mike Battaglia, Tom Durkin, Donna Brothers and others will be at Pimilco on Saturday. NBC's coverage begins at 4:30 and apparently, there will not be a red carpet show so we will be spared of Billy Bush's ugly mug.

In Major League Baseball, one interesting mid-week series will be the Yankees traveling to Tampa Bay to take on the Rays. This could be one of those series that could signify a change of power in the American League East. In the National League, it will be a rematch of the National League Championship Series as the Colorado Rockies who have been struggling in the early going, visit the Diamondbacks. Then interleague play starts during the weekend as the Mets and Yankees square off as do the Angels and Dodgers. Other interesting series include the Battle of Ohio as the Indians and Reds meet.

The NBA and NHL playoffs continue. By this time next week, we could have perhaps one or possibly both participants in the Stanley Cup Finals.

The PGA Tour heads to Georgia for the AT&T Classic. Golf Channel and CBS will have the coverage.

NASCAR does its annual All Star Race and Speed Channel will get its lone opportunity to air a race this Saturday night at 7.

And the Indianapolis 500 continues its qualifying for the race coming up on Memorial Day.

That's the look at your week ahead.

Boston/New England Sports Emmy Award Winners

The Boston/New England Emmy Awards were handed out Saturday night at the Marriot Copley Place Hotel in Boston.

I am going to list the winners in the sports category. For those who want to find the complete list of winners in Newscast, Spot News and other categories, you can go the Boston/New England Emmy website.

NESN won four Boston/New England Emmys, but Comcast SportsNet got the big prize of Best Live Sporting Event winning for its production of the Boston Celtics.

Here are the winners:

Sports Series - Sox Appeal - NESN (This I just don't understand)
Sporting Event/Game-Live/Unedited - Boston Celtics Basketball - Comcast SportsNet
Sports One-Time Special - Champions Again: The Story of the 2007 Boston Red Sox - NESN/Major League Baseball Productions
Sports Feature/Segment - UConn's Little Fan - WTNH, New Haven, CT
Editor Program - Red Sox Report Composite; 2007 Season in Review - NESN/Red Sox Productions
Graphic Arts Program - Boston Bruins Open 2007 - NESN
On Camera Talent Reporter-Sports - John Holt - WFSB, Hartford, CT
News Specialty Report Sports News - Street Stories: Backyard Wiffleball - WPRI, Providence, RI

Again, the entire list can be seen over at Boston Emmyonline.org.

Some Mother's Day Links

I hope you're treating your mom to a nice lunch or dinner today. As we get to our links, don't forget who helped to put you into this world. Of course, we'll remember dad next month too. He had a role as well.

Getting to our links, Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News says NBC's Bob Costas failed to bring the proper emotion to the Kentucky Derby coverage after Eight Belles was euthanized.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post feels the cost of Yankees collectibles is getting out of hand.

From the Albany Times Union, Pete Dougherty writes in his blog that he enjoyed today's edition of The Sports Reporters on ESPN as Mike Lupica was not on.

Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette writes that there will be plenty of college sports on the radio today.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says Fox Sports Jeanne Zelasko has plenty of reasons to enjoy Mother's Day.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says TNT's studio crew for Inside the NBA will go barefoot tonight for a good reason.

John Ryan of the San Jose Mercury News also has a blurb on the TNT crew going barefoot.

Aileen Voisin of the Sacramento Bee profiles TNT NBA studio host Ernie Johnson, Jr.

The Toledo (OH) Blade's Ryan Autillo speaks with ESPN First Take host Jay Crawford.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Bob Wolfley talks with former Chicago Bulls TV voice Wayne Larrivee who was droppped from WGN-TV broadcasts.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle asks his readers how important are Rockets radio broadcasts.

Wendy Carpenter of the Tacoma (WA) News Tribune says the players from Central Washington University and Western Oregon have gone on a whirlwind media tour ever since the story broke of the sportsmanship they displayed.

Ron Green, Jr. of the Charlotte Observer writes about Jim Nantz's new book.

Tom Witosky of the Des Moines Register says it doesn't appear that Mediacom will be picking up the Big Ten Network anytime soon (scroll down).

Christopher Byrne of the Eye on Sports Media says Buzz Bissinger just doesn't get it if he continues to defend his swearing on Costas Now.

The Sox & Dawgs blog has good video of two NESN Red Sox promos currrently airing on the network.

The 38Cliches blog says Dave O'Brien tried to instigate Uncle Joe Castiglione during last night's Red Sox-Twins game.

Awful Announcing has the video of CBC's Don Cherry calling Detroit a "redneck town" during his ESPN debut.

That's going to do it. I'll have the Week Ahead in Sports coming later today. Enjoy your Mother's Day.

NHL Highlights - Philly-Pittsburgh and Dallas-Detroit

Forgot to give highlights of Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Flyers and Penguins so here they are. Joe Beninati called the game for Versus.



And here's Game 2 of Dallas-Detroit with Mike Emrick on the call.



I'll have the Game 2 highlights of Philadelphia-Pittsburgh on Monday.

Videos of the Week: NFL on NBC Opens

Last week, I showed you various ABC Monday Night Football Opens. Today, it's NBC's turn. We can go back to 1973 to show the various opens and closes of and go to the present day. This will actually be quite fun so let's get started.

This is the open from 1973 with some pretty funky music. Actually, NBC used this music for baseball, hockey and college basketball. Back then, NBC had a pretty good lineup for sports. Note the use of filmed footage for the open.



In 1978, NBC broadcast the AFC Championship Game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Houston Oilers. Note the late Curt Gowdy calling the game with John Brodie and Merlin Olsen. This was the era when the Steelers were in the midst of their dynasty. The one thing I remember was the freezing rain that plagued this game.



By 1981, both CBS and NBC were embroiled in a bitter battle for viewers to their respective pregame shows, the NFL Today and NFL '81. Bryant Gumbel and Mike Adamle were co-hosts of NFL '81 and I thought it was the better show, but the ratings did not bear that out as the NFL Today on CBS regularly slaughtered NBC, but that was mostly due to the NFC having bigger markets than the AFC, something that bears out today between Fox NFL Sunday and the NFL Today. This video is of poor quality, but as you'll note, it's the open for NFL '81 right before the Miami-San Diego AFC playoff game. The music is the same as the 1973 open.



Here's the lengendary Charlie Jones at the open of the 1983 AFC Wildcard Playoff game between the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos at the old Kingdome. Yes, Bob Griese actually did NFL games before becoming a college football analyst for ESPN/ABC.



Here's a promo for the NFL on NBC and at the end, the team for NFL '85, Bob Costas, the late Pete Axthelm and Ahmad Rashad. That was it. There was no need for three analysts and a host.



In 1988, NBC Sports got to air one of the greatest NFL games ever, Super Bowl XXIII in which Joe Montana engineered a comeback for the San Francisco 49ers over the Cincinnati Bengals. NFL Live host Bob Costas gives his thoughts on the game, then Dick Enberg closes the broadcast with thoughts on the previous six months on NBC Sports which included the 1988 Summer Olympics in South Korea, the World Series between the Dodgers and A's (and Kirk Gibson's miracle home run) and the Fiesta Bowl which decided the college football national championship for Notre Dame. Great video montage and one of the best I've seen produced. Note Tom Brokaw at the end.



From 1993, the AFC Championship pitted the Miami Dolphins and the Buffalo Bills and this was the time when the Bills went to four straight Super Bowls and lost them all. Dick Enberg and Bob Trumpy were the announcers for the game.



In 1994, Jim Lampley replaced Bob Costas as host of NFL Live on NBC and only did one season. The following season, Greg Gumbel came over from CBS to host the show. Here's Jim's open for Super Bowl Live just before Super Bowl XXVIII.



In 1995, NBC had to try to get viewers to the Pittsburgh-San Diego AFC Championship Game so Dick Enberg wrote a very good open.



Here's the intro for Super Bowl XXX between Dallas and Pittsburgh narrated by Dick Enberg. Great stuff. You'll like the music, trust me. And note the announcing team, Enberg, Paul McGuire and Phil Simms.



Here's the NFL on NBC theme from 1995 to 1997 and tigernike who composed this video added the announcer pairings with Dick Enberg.



In 2006, NBC returned to the NFL with Sunday Night Football after losing the rights to the AFC to CBS in 1998. This is the open for the New York Giants and Indianapolis Colts featuring Pink. Come to think about it, I prefer this intro to the Access Hollywood open featuring Faith Hill that was used last season.



And here's the Football Night in America theme composed by John Williams.



That was fun to research and to bring these to you. Enjoy them. Sunday links will be coming up later.