What about Bob?

Really now. Is there no decency left at all on the blogosphere?

Here I am, getting ready for tonight's Jets-Giants game, and I get an e-mail from Ken Fang - he of Fang's Bites media blog fame. He tells me that Best actually mentions my name in an interview about his big scoop on the Mike & the Mad Dog Show breaking up.

So I link to the post, and not only does Best accuse me of having a man crush on him, but that we once shared a room on a Giants' road trip.

Whaaaaatttt???

Oh, just read it.

Basking in the glow of his scoops on the breakup of Mike & the Mad Dog and Chris Russo going to Sirius (never to be heard from again for those of us too cheap and too lazy to get satellite radio), Best had a live chat this morning that lasted for more than an hour. That's if you count the fire drill that forced the moderator to temporarily skedaddle from the Melville building.

Best offered his usual insightful information on the world of sports media, although he answered nearly every query/comment with an exclamation point. I'm not sure if he's aware of this, but I assume he is.

Honestly, I haven't seen that many exclamation points since checking out my pre-teen daughter's recent "live chat" with her friend from fifth grade!

lol!!

bff!!

ttyl!!!!!

(Speaking of live chats, we'll have one of our very own tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m. Can't wait!!!!!)

On a day that saw Best swear off blogging for the foreseeable future, it turned out he couldn't avoid the basement for very long.

The announcement that the Mike & the Mad Dog show was kaput after nearly two decades as a New York sports radio institution put him back the laptop for hours of fine reporting and columnizing. He also did some Olympic stuff.

I will reach out to him later to see what his day was like, although my guess is it was the equivalent of covering a Super Bowl or Game 7 of a World Series.

It does strike me as odd that, on a day when Best swore of blogging to clear his head, the biggest New York sports media story of the year came to its conclusion. Is there some supreme blog being out there who knew in advance that Best needed all his energies late in the day and into the night, and thus his morning post about going into blog detox?

Hmmm.

A troubling post from my man Best, who has - at least temporarily - thrown in the towel on blogging. Evidently, trying to balance work, a family, two new dogs and the popular WatchDog blog has come crashing down on my buddy, who used a picture of burned toast with his announcement of walking away from the blogosphere.

Fortunately for Best-o-philes, he did not mention the word retirement. And, given his penchant for allowing the world to see read about his every waking thought, we suspect he will be back at the typewriter before long.

If you'd care to hazard a guess, go ahead.

My prediction: His next post will be published tomorrow at 9:32 a.m. with a request for forgiveness from his readers.

PS: I have spoken to Best, and he seems fine. I trust he will figure out the Cablevision system of expense filing and fill me in on how to do it. When it comes to complicated stuff like this, I always call on Mr. Minutiae to translate.

In the meantime, Best, enjoy a blog-free life for however long it lasts. He might want to take a drive out to Hofstra and consult with Brett F. for some advice on what he'll do if he gets "the itch" to come back.

Not really. Just some early-week self-deprecating thoughts, which always lead to good blog-post one-liners.

He had a beauty today.

Best also revealed that Will Allen, who is scuffling a bit these days what with an investigation into gambling debts he may or may not have, advised him to stop wearing tube socks in order to stop looking like such a dork.

He made it through a 52-post day. Not only that, but he wrote AND re-wrote his Friday column for the newspaper.

I called today just to make sure his head had not exploded, and he seemed no less wacky than normal. I also got to speak to none other than Charlie Chilkoot, Best's now famous friend from San Diego and an occasional reader of our blog, especially during football season when his beloved Chargers are playing.

Best has recaptured Newsday's single-day post record from yours truly, who made it to 32 posts several weeks ago, just to say I beat his 31. I can safely say that I will not be attempting to scale the heights of a 53-post day for quite some time.

In fact, as I sit here at an IHOP enjoying an egg-white omlette (or omelet, as NKR prefers), I will enjoy the simple pleasures of regular blogging and communicating with the fine people who drop by the Newsday website and its bloggers.

Enjoy the day.

Best has just written his 31st post, which is still one short of my record of 32 set a few weeks ago. (The experience remains a blur, so I don't remember the date, only that it was a Friday night, that Best was in the office, and that Jeff W. had my record-setting blog entry performance on screen and pointed Best toward it.)

Best insists that his previous record was 30, but I could swear it was 31 and mine was 32. I don't care. I'm still champion. There are only minutes to go before my reign ends.

Again, the only way I hold onto the title is if Best's head explodes.

I hope that does not happen. After all, he has proven to be a valuable subject for this blog. I don't know there is anything quite like it to take its place.

(I put a picture of the Stanley Cup on this blog post as a reminder of one of the greatest championship trophies in the history of pro sports. I have watched many, many Stanley Cup playoff games in my lifetime, although I will not watch the one tonight between the Rangers and Penguins because the NHL has taken my sport away from me. The game is on Versus, and, like millions of other devoted hockey fans, I don't have it on my cable system.)

As of 12:02 p.m., Best had 24 posts on his way to a record-setting 52 - one for each week he has been a member of the blogosphere.

As of now, I am still currently the single-day record-holder at Newsday with 32 posts, which beat Best's old record of 31.

I would guess Best will hit 33 by around 3 p.m.

Unless his fingers fall off sometime before then.

Or he "goes Abramson."

Or his head explodes.

As Best himself would say at a time like this: oh, my goodness gracious.

My good buddy, former Newsday Giants' beat writer and now the most obsessed blogger I know personally, is celebrating the one-year anniversary of the start of WatchDog by embarking on a day of intense blogging.

He initially had the idea of blogging 24 straight hours, but apparently Mrs. WatchDog talked him off the ledge on that one. So he has decided to write one post for every week of the existence of his blog. That's right, 52 posts by midnight tonight.

That will shatter my personal Newsday record of 32 posts, which had beaten his previous record of 31 posts.

I'm sure Best has been plotting ever since to come up with a good excuse to pound me into submission, and he has done just that.

As of 8:58 a.m., Best had written 13 posts, and even included a picture of himself at the Best Blog headquarters. He did dress for the occasion, because he is not in his jammies. And the picture was taken by none other than Charlie Chilkoot, who goes back to Best's days in Alaska and has become a frequent commenter. CC has even dabbled a time or two with our blog.

Anyway, enjoy the day, Neil. May you get many, many, many page views, my friend.

Best was feeling guilty about not blogging much the last couple days, due to various commitments that included work and jury duty. So he promised to remain in his basement - in his pajamas - all day long today.

What's it all mean? That he will probably threaten our record of 32 posts in a single day, but, more importantly, that he will provide highly interesting material throughout the day. So I suggest you check in with the WatchDog periodically, because we have a feeling it will be one of those special, inimitable Best days of the year. He even has a reference to Spiro T. Agnew in one of his entries.

(If you do not know who Spiro T. Agnew is, the education system in this country has completely failed us.)

As Best would say at a time like this: Oh my goodness gracious.

I guess it's a measure of Best's wildly popular blog, which is one of Newsday's top reads, that some dude out in the blogosphere has created a parody of Best's blog with a blog of Best's blog. Or, as Tom Rock would call it, Best's blog blog.

Take a look. (We were tipped off to the presence of the blog by someone who identified himself as "Doug."

Memo to Best: Yes, your life is officially creepy now that someone besides me is blogging about you.

Memo to Best blog blogger: You capture the essence of Best's slightly whiney self indulgence quite well.

(UPDATE: Best is aware of the situation. And yes, he is indeed creeped out.)

I know, it's a disturbing visual for sure, but it's something our buddy Ken Fang opined about in his own blog post, referring to a blog post from Best about his jubilation at Cornell qualifying for the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

Hmmm. Wonder if any of our Internet gurus want to do a little Photoshop work and put Best's head on a naked man's body.

Ok, we move on.

Neil Best noticed our prolific effort yesterday that resulted in a rare victory over him for blog props. We made it to 32 blog posts, which broke his record by one. He duly noted that accomplishment on his blog ... and then proceeded to post like a maniac.

It's 10:15 a.m., and he's already up to 11 posts. I hadn't written my first post yesterday until shortly before noon. So we suspect that he will set another record by the end of today. But at least we had a day to bask in the glow. And if Best does break the record today, he'll have to wait four years to celebrate the first anniversary. Feb. 29 doesn't come around again until 2012.

On to free agency.

I know, I said I'd leave Neil Best alone for the rest of the day. But he did have an interesting blog item earlier on a unique marketing event to be held at Friday night's Harvard-Columbia basketball game and then at Saturday night's Quinnipiac-Wagner game. Fans entering the arenas will be given a free box of TicTacs.

I just thought it was cute. I very much enjoy Best's work. He motivates me as a blogger. I hope I can do half the things he's done in his career. If I'm not mistaken, I believe he once wrote 31 blog posts in a single day. Man, I don't think I'd have a brain left if I did that.

Ok, I'm outta here.

Enjoy American Idol.

Go David Archuleta.

Enjoy free agency.

Cheers.

Ok, this is going to do it for my Neil Best Obsession postings for the day.

But it appears he is getting desperate as the page views battle for February is in its final stages.

First of all, I've noticed that Best is posting like a maniac, which tells me he is indeed troubled by the fact that I am nipping at his heels in terms of page views. (NKR, Charlie Chilkoot, Black N Gold, Hookslide, BBiB!, get busy clicking!!)

Second, it took several days' worth of begging from a couple of his regular readers before he agreed to post a picture of former supermodel Cheryl Tiegs. And when he did post one, it was Tiegs on the cover of Time in a modest pose.

Dude, if you're gonna post, then post what your readers want to see!

Ok, I'm back to football and urinal etiquette for the rest of the day.

I'm just sitting here trying to do my job and write a few blog posts, when all of a sudden a reader tips me off to the fact that Best has written a post announcing that he is 28,000 page views ahead of me for the month of February. Now, I'm not sure if this might seem like a lot or a little to you. But given the fact that Best had previously sent me an e-mail about this situation, it leads me to believe that he is getting a little nervous about this situation.

He even mentions that if I do beat him, then he can simply blame it on the fact that there is an extra day in February this year.

"If he passes me on Feb. 29 thanks to NFL free agency stuff," he writes, "it does not count, as my contract clearly states "28 days hath February."

Memo to Best: I'm over you, dude. You can have the page views title every month, for all I care. I choose not to live my life in the basement in my pajamas, but rather to get out and mix with real life athletes, general managers and the other folks I deal with on a day-to-day basis.

Besides, when the day comes when I do beat you in the page views, just remember this: I have promised to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge alongside WFAN's Craig Carton wearing a Speedo.

Come to think of it, you seem to get along with Carton. You might want to tell him of my blog promise here and get him ready.

In the meantime, Best, let me know if there are any cool discounts with the AARP card you just got.

A few days ago, we ran a contest allowing readers to predict when Neil Best would crack and break his promise to stop posting pictures of attractive young women on his blog.

We got a few predictions, but lo and behold, Best lasted a mere two hours before posting another.

He has since promised again not to post a picture of an attractive young woman until March 1, although on his VERY NEXT POST put up a picture of Christy Brinkley in an Islanders jersey. His excuse was that Ms. Brinkley is now 54, although we're certain the picture was taken long before.

Best also teetered on the edge by posting a pic of a young Marlo Thomas.

So, let's get another contest started to see when Best will crack.

I say - again - that it is inconceivable that he will hold out until March 1.

I will give it until this Thursday, Feb. 21, at 3 p.m.

(I would suggest to Best that he post this contest on his own blog, because the readers here might be sick and tired of his antics and not post many votes.)

Best has just posted yet another in a long line of pics of attractive young women.

The difference with this one, though, is that he vows not to post another one for the rest of the month. To which we say: impossible.

So, without further ado, please submit a date when you think Best will post his next swimsuit model or runway beauty. Include a time, too. That will serve as the tiebreaker in case two folks nail the date correctly.

And remember, it's a Leap Year, so we've got 29 days in February.

I'll start it off: Feb. 21, 3 p.m.

We were treated to a week's worth of Best's company in Phoenix, as he had a chance to leave the basement for a trip to the Super Bowl.

But he's back in the dungeon today, and who knows when he'll emerge again. We're frankly a bit worried that breathing fresh air and seeing people might leave him a bit overwhelmed at the prospect of returning to his solitary existence.

So visit his site often, help him get re-acclimated and give him a bunch of page views so he can endlessly obsess over his immense popularity.

Incidentally, we should be getting the January page views numbers any day now, and we're fairly certain Best cleaned our clock yet again. But the more important news, sources have told us: We set a Glauber Nation record for page views for the third consecutive month.

We're also told that we actually kicked Best's booty in page views over the weekend. That's a career first, too.

So, it looks as if we won't be walking across the Brooklyn Bridge in a Speedo alongside WFAN's Craig Carton just yet. But if and when we ever do beat Best in the monthly page views, we'll keep our promise.

You think I'm kidding?

I vowed in a previous blog post that I would walk across the Brooklyn Bridge in a speedo alongside WFAN morning talk show host Craig Carton if I beat Neil Best in this month's page views.

Best threw down the gauntlet after we relayed a look-a-like of him and Uncle Leo of Seinfeld fame, saying that the gloves are off and he's looking to crush me like a bug in the January page views.

Well, Best, my gloves are off, too, and I will do everything in my power to kick your ever-loving tush. Again, the world is your oyster when it comes to blog post material, so I cannot weigh in on such controversies as Imus or Roger Clemens or whatever the hot news of the day is.

I have football, and I dabble in look-a-likes, and that's about it. You want to gloat over beating an NFL guy in page views when you've got TV producers falling all over themselves to get you to write their tidbits in your blog? Fine. Go right ahead.

You may beat me in January yet again, Best, and if you do, I'm sure you'll try and humiliate me with some more blog smack talk.

But if I do somehow pull this off, Newsday will enjoy the greatest public relations stunt in the paper's glorious history, and you will be left to wallow in your own misery in the basement.

Bring it on.

NKR, BBiB! you are my official co-campaign managers. I will hold you personally responsible for making this thing work.

Not sure if the folks here cross-blog and check out Neil Best's work on the media beat, but he came up with a brilliant stat, courtesy of ESPN analyst Ron Jaworski.

Jaws, the former Eagles quarterback, might be the best x's and o's analyst in the history of sports television, and his prolific pre-game work at NFL Films is legendary. Best actually got out of the basement and drove down to the Cherry Hill, NJ offices to check out Jaws' work, and the former QB offered a tremendous stat in the process:

In two playoff games, Eli Manning's statistics against blitzes are 14-for-15 for 171 yards and two TDs, with no interceptions. His rating is 153.8. "Incredible numbers,'' Jaworski told Best.

One other stat Jaws offered up for Best: Amani Toomer has been thrown to 12 times in the playoffs and caught 11 passes for 154 yards and three touchdowns. "Scary,'' Jaworski said.

... btw, if you are just checking into Best's work, please revisit his blog regularly. He is obsessed with getting page views, which happens when you spend most of your time in the basement blogging in your jammies. There is probably some sort of Pavlov's dog syndrome here.

Best used to cover the Giants for Newsday. One of his favorite expressions whenever he said goodbye after a day's work was, "See you in (insert site of wherever that year's Super Bowl would be played.") I think it pains him not to be able to say this. However, if the Giants win on Sunday, then he might actually go to the Super Bowl, so every time we communicate next week, he can say, "See you in Glendale." Thus, I have a feeling he'll be rooting for Big Blue.

Neil Best made a rare appearance at Giants Stadium yesterday, and while he was here, Katie Strang snagged him for some Newsday.com video. Best put the video up on his blog, with a still shot of him talking to Giants' beat writer Arthur Staple.

Upon seeing himself in the still shot posted below, Best quipped: "If I’d been given fair notice, I would have made sure to lose 20 pounds and experiment with hair plugs.”

(This is why Best and I are such good friends. He is as self-deprecating as a human can possibly be, and he consistently indulges my juvenile behavior. As Best has said several times when I fear I might have said or done something to hurt his feelings, "I'm not easily offended." In fact, when I told Best that I awarded him "quote of the week," he replied in an e-mail, "Thanks.")

As many of you know, Neil Best runs a comment contest each week, an idea we ripped off shamelessly several months ago to honor our loyal readers.

Best is a bit more selective than we are, and only chooses one winner per week. (We like to honor more of you because of the numerous quality comments you deliver.) Anyway, Best did the unthinkable today.

He chose our comment about one of his blog items as the winner!!!

Best had posted a table top hockey video from years and years ago, and it brought me back to my childhood growing up with four brothers playing hours and hours of table top hockey. I also played the real sport, too, and it delivered some of the best memories a person could ever ask for.

Anyway, Best's honor is one of the greatest moments of our fledgling career as a blogger. We thank him for the award, and we thank him for indulging us by continually commenting on his blog posts. He is a terrific blogger, and an even better friend. You should read him regularly, if you don't already.

We'll be back a bit later in the day with our comment contest winners.

Now that Bill Parcells has ruined yet another workday - keeping a streak alive that now extends through all 23 years of my career covering the NFL - we have some time between telephone calls and other news-gathering responsibilities to catch up on Neil's world.

Apparently, he has been chosen for a Sports Blog of the Year competition featuring a 64-blog bracket, and he needs your vote. That Best was chosen for this competition, created by Busted Coverage, is a tribute somewhere along the lines of his Publisher's Award for his Newsday blog, but now he needs your help.

In Best's bracket, he's up against blog powerhouse Deadspin, so Best is at a major disadvantage here, simply because Watchdog isn't yet in that national stratosphere. It will be one day, of course, but not yet. So do your part and cast a mouse click for Best while you're anxiously awaiting the next move in Parcells' latest employment soap opera.

Mr. Best has been very kind to us in recent days, and we'd like to return the favor by giving him a blog shoutout.

Neil has done some serious investigative journalism in uncovering the truth about a suspicious Internet ad supposedly from Giants tight end Jeremy Shockey. The ad was enlisting beautiful women to a New Year's Eve party Shockey was supposedly hosting.

Well, Best discovered that the ad was a hoax - although Shockey is hosting a party that night - and in the process interviewed former Playboy playmate Natalia Sokolova to get the scoop.

Best says at one point during the interview, Sokolova invited him to a party she hosted Thursday night called “December Baby Bash.’’ The dress code was listed as “sexy and trendy.’’

Best declined ... or so he says.

We were wondering if Neil Best would ever acknowledge our contributions to the media world - be it print, radio, television, or Internet. But after reading his shoutout from this morning, I think it's safe to say that I've reached the pinnacle of my career.

What can be better than to be on the receiving end of a Best shoutout, without even a hint of sarcasm. So what that he resumed taking shots in the very next post. We'll always have this one to cherish.

Right back at you, Best.

We also noticed Big Ben is Back!'s suggestion that we pursue a career with Boomer and Carton, or else with just Boomer on CBS, and we've decided to take action. We've been invited onto the B & C show tomorrow morning, and we're eagerly awaiting our maiden voyage with the WFAN dudes.

(One last note: Black N Gold let us know that we can actually get some page views with hard news, not just pictures of look-a-likes and scantily clad women - although he doesn't mind them either. We appreciate the thought. Scantily-clad women are here to stay. Best has taught us well.)

Just took a gander at Best's blog to see what's up in the world of sports media, and lo and behold, he has an item on attendance at New Jersey's sports venues. But rather than put a picture of Jason Kidd - hey, he had a migraine last night and couldn't make the game against the Knicks - or Martin Brodeur, he put one of none other than Scarlett Johansson in!

Best has had several readers implore him to post pics of Miss Scarlett, but has instead used tired old shots of Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders and Alyssa Milano. Alas, he has no doubt seen our Woody Allen-Scarlett J. pic and has been shamed into using her picture.

On behalf of your readers, Best, I say: It's about time.

Scrolling through the reams of pictures of Scarlett Johansson to further narrow down her look-a-likes (yeah, right), I came across this one of Scarlett and Woody Allen. It's how I would picture Best if he ever happened to be on the beach at the same time as Ms. Johansson. (Allen directed Johansson in the movie "Match Point.")

I seem to recall making an Allen-Best look-a-like a while back that was generally acceptable. Even Best admitted to being linked to him years ago.

I'm sorry, Neil. I really do think you are an exceptional person, and I'm glad to call you my friend ... that is, if we're still friends after this post.

... ok, I really, really, really have to write a column on Donovan McNabb for tomorrow's newspaper.

No wonder Best's page views took a dip last month. His faithful readers have been clamoring for pictures of Scarlett Johansson, but all Best does is continually post pics of Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders and Alyssa Milano. And don't forget, the Imus well has run dry now that he's back on the air.

We're here to help. Not that Ms. Johansson has anything to do with football, but we do the look-a-likes game around here, so I figured there might be some good calls. She's difficult to pin down (as far as look-a-likes, you perverts!) but I do see a little Madonna and Annette Benning, with a hint of Marisa Tomei.

Ken Fang, Phil from LI, and anyone else who frequents Best's blog, welcome aboard.

(btw, terrific work on Hank Steinbrenner look-a-like suggestions below. We learned earlier today that baseball scribes have given Hammerin' Hank another nickname, and it's somewhat related to our contest. The nickname: "Hankenstein." Oh, my goodness.)

Best was beating himself up yesterday for stammering during his appearance on live national television, but he's certainly not alone.

Best tells us he felt a little better watching the tape of his segment on ESPN2's "First Take," a complicated discussion of the NFL Network's problems getting its product onto cable systems across the country.

But if it makes him feel any better, we've had our share of stammers while appearing on the program. On one particular segment when the show was called "Cold Pizza" and was produced in Manhattan, we had an item on the future of Bills receiver Peerless Price.

It didn't come out quite as smoothly as hoped, however, when Jay Crawford asked about it:

"P-P-P-P-P- ... Peerless Price ..." was how it came out.

Welcome aboard, Neil ... and tell Mrs. Watchdog hello. Actually, we owe a huge debt of gratitude to Mrs. W. for the TV stuff.

Neil Best is so excited about getting out of the basement and into the city that he has announced his appearance later this morning on ESPN2's First Take

Of course, if I made an announcement every time I was going on ESPN2's morning show, I wouldn't have much room to write anything else on this blog, since it's a pretty regular gig. But I understand Best's excitement, and I'm delighted for him. He now gets to join in the world that Dana Jacobson and Jay Crawford have so ably hosted over the years.

They are terrific people who will now get to talk to my good buddy Best about the most boring subject on earth: the NFL Network's battle with local cable companies on the eve of tomorrow night's Packers-Cowboys game that will be seen by no one. Relatively speaking, anyway.

Break a leg, Neil!

Been asking around a bit about whether folks have heard of Neil Best - the rugby player, that is. Despite our own Mr. Best's repeated attempts at self-aggrandizement over the success of his blog, Londoners have never heard of our Watchdog.

But there is a Neil Best who has dabbled in rugby in these parts, and he's had a solid career. Just not sure he's in the stratosphere of the world's rugby elite.

... by the way, they showed some rugby highlights on the flight over, and these guys are absolutely phenomenal. It's essentially tackle football in shorts and a t-shirt. Makes you wonder whether the Brits will ever truly respect the NFL, because their lads are playing a similar game with almost no equipment. A couple guys wear headgear to ward off the cauliflower ear, but that's it.

It's full speed, in-your-face, run-you-over tackle football.

... not much outcry here about Eric Mangini sticking with Chad Pennington.

... ok, I really need to sleep now.

If you read very carefully on Neil Best's blog, he admits that he is not always fully clothed when he blogs. (search "shorts" and you'll find it)

We've accused Best of blogging in his jammies in the basement, and while we're fairly certain that is the case - at least some of the time - Best does admit today that he wears gym shorts and a t-shirt while blogging.

Best has been very kind in his frequent references to our blog, and we're very appreciative. It's a record-setting month for both of us in terms of page views, so it's all good.

Some of Neil's loyal readers have even crossed over into our blog, thanks to his shoutouts. Our very own NKR, who is kicking our tail in the "Beat Bo