Wednesday Linkage or Day 1 of Surviving Without a TV

During the Red Sox-Toronto game last night, strange noises were coming out of my TV, but because I was mostly focusing on blogging and Twitter, I didn't think anything of it. Then after Jonathan Papelbon did his best to give every Red Sox fan a heart attack, my TV died. The picture went out and it never came back. It's dead. And fixing it would not be worth it so I'm going to have to get a new set.

This is pretty bold and shameless, but if a TV manufacturer would like to send me one or two sets to assess, I'll write a review. I'll also offer the company a free banner ad on my site in exchange for the assessments. The company has to understand that if the TV is not good, I'll say so. If it's good, I'll say so. I'll allow the ad to stay for as long as the company wants. I can be contacted at the e-mail address in my profile to the left.

For now, I'll be watching programs and sports online as long as they're available.

Ok, we're done with the shameless request.

To our links.

USA Today's Michael McCarthy writes that the NFL will unveil super slow motion replays on the NFL Network first, then it could move to other networks.

CNBC's Darren Rovell says the Minnesota Vikings' half-season ticket deals were taken off the table after the signing of Brett Favre.

Darren noticed that Dick's Sporting Goods is not selling a Michael Vick Philadelphia Eagles jersey.

Dan Levy of On the DL tells ESPN's Cris Carter in the Sporting News what meshugenah really means.

New ESPN Ombudsman Don Ohlmeyer writes his first column and it deals with the network's first refusal to report the Ben Roethlisberger civil lawsuit.

I wasn't pleased over the choice of Ohlmeyer at first, but I think he was quite fair in his comments and properly took ESPN to task for not reporting the story. His column was quite long and it took the exact same time to read "War and Peace", but it's a good one. I think Ohlmeyer will do the job properly.

Now let's get to some reaction.

Neil Best of Newsday felt Ohlmeyer did an effective job in his first column as Ombudsman.

Dashiell Bennett of Deadspin says Ohlmeyer went around in circles before getting to his point.

The Big Lead liked Ohlmeyer's column, but it wished the new Ombudsman would have asked a couple of questions.

Now to other links.

Southeastern New England media mogul Keith Thibeault has another in his series of interviews with NFL radio play-by-play men and this one has Wes Durham, the voice of the Atlanta Falcons.

Keith feels the Minnesota media is drinking the purple Kool-Aid when it comes to Brett Favre joining the Vikings.

Marc Beja from the Chronicle of Higher Learning looks at the SEC being all-powerful by banning fans from Tweeting or posting anything to social networks from conference games. I don't know how they're going to enforce that.

John Altavilla of the Hartford Courant says the UConn Women Huskies make history on ESPN in January when College Gameday airs live from Storrs, CT before their game against Notre Dame.

Back to Neil Best of Newsday who talks about Sam Ryan staying with WCBS-TV after station management accommodated her to work part-time.

The New York Times' Richard Sandomir explores a Basketball Hall of Fame exhibit devoted to Michael Jordan that doesn't have a single item belonging to him.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says ESPN College Gameday will visit the Carrier Dome in February for a Syracuse game.

Pete says local sports anchor Andrew Catalon gets a high profile assignment calling a New York Giants exhibition game this weekend.

Tim Lemke of the Washington Times says the deal to sign first round draft pick Stephen Strasburg actually makes financial sense for the Nationals.

Barry Horn from the Dallas Morning News writes that the Texas Rangers got big ratings for its weekend series against the Red Sox.

Barry says the Rangers are already taking playoff media credential requests.

Mel Bracht from the Daily Oklahoman says Showtime and NFL Films are combining for a documentary series on the history of the American Football League.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer writes that Fox Sports Ohio is adding a rare weekday Reds game to its schedule.

Ed Sherman from Crain's Chicago Business is surprised to see such a heavy fan turnout for Solheim Cup practices.

David Wharton in the Los Angeles Times reports that ESPN College Gameday will pay a visit to Pauley Pavilion for a UCLA game.

Diane Pucin of the Times felt "Shaq Vs." dragged and also criticized Charissa Thompson. Hey! No one is allowed to get on Charissa's case on my watch!!!!!

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail notes the rise in popularity of soccer on TV.

The 38Cliches blog is annoyed at Red Sox announcer Dave O'Brien's sudden disappearance during last night's game in Toronto. One note, Dave will be calling tonight's Red Sox-Blue Jays game for ESPN so he won't have to travel far.

The lovely and talented Amanda Bruno in the Batter-up with Bruno blog looks at one of the worst college newspapers.

Christopher Byrne of the Eye on Sports Media talks about life as a golf caddy.

The Sports Media Watch looks at the weekend ratings.

SMW notes that NASCAR got a rare ratings bump on Sunday.

Joe Favorito talks about the Michael Vick situation.

The Big Lead looks at Fox Sports' Jay Glazer going after ESPN.

Kristine Leahy has The Five stories WEEI.com is covering today.

Expect to see the NHL TV schedules later on the blog.