The Winding Down the Week Links

As it's Thursday and the workweek is winding down, time for some more links. Let's get to them.

USA Today's Michael Hiestand writes about Bob Costas changing cable channels by moving from HBO to MLB Network.

Friend of Fang's Bites LC of 38Cliches blog is not a fan of Costas.

Ed Sherman of Crain's Chicago Business says Bob Costas and the MLB Network are a good fit. Ed talks with a White Sox official about the economy and the First Fan of the White Sox.

Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News says HBO is ready to hire Bob Costas' replacement.

Raissman and Bill Price of the Daily News are starting up the best and worst New York broadcaster debate.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News says HBO did not take long to replace Costas. Barry looks at who is auditioning for Michael Irvin's reality show.

Neil Best of Newsday recaps Joe Torre's final appearance on his book tour at the Late Show with David Letterman. And Neil has the transcript of the interview. While Torre spoke with several media outlets, Neil points out that Torre skipped talking with Yankees play-by-play Michael Kay. And Neil says that Bob Costas will pick and choose his play-by-play assignments for the MLB Network. This means that Bob will be like Joe Buck and call a Yankees-Red Sox game or Cubs-Cardinals and skip Tampa Bay-Texas. I can see this. Victor Rojas will get the scraps.

The lovely Jessica Heslam of the Boston Herald writes that WHDH-TV is not sending anyone to cover Red Sox Spring Training and other TV stations are assessing their budgets as well.

Ken McMillan of the Hudson Valley Times Herald-Record says YES will show 12 Yankees Spring Training games.

Marc Topkin of the St. Petersburg Times says the Tampa Bay Rays are about to put all of their games (except national games on Fox) on cable partners Fox Sports Florida and Sun Sports.

CNBC's Darren Rovell writes that it would not make good marketing sense for Citigroup to back out of its deal to name Citi Field. Darren wonders how much money the owners of the old Spirits of St. Louis lost in Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme. And Darren says Tim Teufel appears to the only New York Met not to invest with Madoff. By the way, you can see the entire Madoff client list which includes former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax, actor Kevin Bacon and his wife Kyra Sedgwick and so many others here.

Keith Thibeault of the great Sports Media Journal has an interview with outgoing ESPN Ombudsman Le Anne Schreiber.

Here's a good move. Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette writes that the NHL Network will show selected AHL games live. Being a puckhead, I'm always into more live hockey.

Jack Bogaczyk of the Charleston (WV) Daily News says ESPN will air the Colorado-West Virginia game in October.

Bill Haisten of the Tulsa World says the Colorado-Oklahoma State football game is being moved to a Thursday night to accommodate ESPN.

Neil White of The State says Signing Day has become a national TV event.

Tom O'Neil of the Los Angeles Times wonders if Super Bowl XLII will win a sports Emmy.

Mark Bowden of The Atlantic went behind the scenes during CBS' production of the Bengals-Giants game back in September. And thanks to one of the members of my Facebook blog network for giving me that link.

The Big Lead says the great Baseball Toaster blogging network is unfortunately no more.

David Tanklefsky of Broadcasting & Cable says NBC aired 84 ads during the Super Bowl.

Toni Fitzgerald from Media Life Magazine the Super Bowl ads that created the most buzz were the movie trailers.

William Houston of the Toronto Globe and Mail says the ratings were down for Super Bowl XLIII on CTV.

EPL Talk wonders if ESPN and Setanta Sports are teaming up for the US rights for the English Premier League to eliminate Fox Soccer Channel.

Charles Sale of the London Daily Mail writes that ESPN's bid for the UK rights for the EPL is definitely a threat to Setanta.

The Detroit Pistons have signed a broadcast rights agreement with WXYT.

Kristi E. Swartz of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution says TNT's long-term NBA rights deal was among the higher costs for parent company Time Warner in 2008.

That's going to do it for now.