Watchdog

Props to CBS' p.r. department for catching my attention with a press release titled "CBS Sports Broadcasts Cowboys Games on Sunday, Dec. 2."

Hmm. Didn't the Cowboys play Thursday night?

Turns out it's the Wrangler Pro Rodeo Tour Championship, taped Nov. 11 in Dallas.

The release says: "This is the final rodeo event of the regular season. Cowboys compete in six rodeo disciplines: Bareback Riding, Team Roping, Steer Wrestling, Saddle Bronc Riding, Tie-Down Roping and Bull Riding, and cowgirls compete in Barrel Racing."

Cowgirls barrel racing? Sounds intriguing.

That's it for me this week. Enjoy the Wisconsin-Milwaukee vs. Marquette game on SNY tonight.

Even Mark Cuban is getting into the fast-growing mixed martial arts world.

Why the heck not? His "HDNet Fights" has jumped into a field dominated by UFC but with a number of other wannabe outfits such as the IFL and World Combat League.

Cuban's partnership with Louis Neglia's "Ring of Combat" will debut tonight with the showing of "HDNet Fights Presents: Ring of Combat" from the Tropicana Casino in Atlantic City.

It beats watching the Knicks.

I forgot to mention this in my post two spots down, but whoever put together the opening sequence for the Joe Benigno and Evan Roberts show on WFAN today did a terrific job.

The station juxtaposed audio of Marv Albert calling Knicks games in 1970 with his call of Thursday night's nightmare.

Extremely cool.

(By the way, it's 2:15 and WFAN's afternoon show hasn't mentioned the Knicks yet. I'm organizing a pool to guess when they do. Get your picks in now!)

(Update: If you had 3:25 p.m., nearly 2 1/2 hours into the show, you won!)

I promised earlier I'd write about Verizon's broadband coverage of NFL Network games, seeing as how it was kind enough to set me up with a password Thursday night.

(I ended up missing much of the game because I couldn't pull my morbid curiosity away from the Knicks on TNT.)

The quality of the picture was excellent. It was far less so when I switched to a full screen, but that's standard for live video.

The service also offers a spiffy drive chart in which every advance of the ball is updated soon after it happens, allowing a fan to follow the progress of possessions as they unfold.

The featured gimmick is the ability to switch the view from the main TV shot to a sideline camera, an end zone camera, the cable-cam camera or a screen that shows all four shots at once.

The novelty of watching different angles is interesting for a while but wears off quickly. It turns out there's a reason networks have been paying directors for decades to make these decisions for us.

As for the "quad'' screen that has four angles at once, it was more disorienting than insightful.

Watching a player travel in four different directions at the same time was cool for a few minutes. Then I got dizzy. Maybe it's just because I'm old.

TNT just sent many of the quotes I was unable to fit into the newspaper about the Knicks' nationally televised meltdown Thursday.

The fact Marv Albert and Reggie Miller worked the game and Charles Barkley was in the studio only added to the tragicomic drama.

Here are the highlights:

Barkley on Isiah Thomas' job security: "He’s about as safe as me in a room full of cookies. If I’m in a room full of cookies, the cookies ain’t got no damn chance."

Miller on being quoted calling the Knicks a "joke": “It was a little chilly as the Czar and I walked through (the locker room). There were a few cat calls and boos from the Knicks players, but understandably so. What the ‘joke’ meant is that their record really doesn’t indicate how good they can be. They are a joke because they really should be better than they have been so far. I like their talent, they’ve got size and they are strong at each position. The big problem and question mark with the Knicks is going to be chemistry. Can this team coexist? So far, through November, they haven’t shown that they can.”

Barkley at halftime: “The Knicks are embarrassing. Their body language is like this is the end of the season and they are playing out their games. They’ve got no energy and no emotion and it’s flat out embarrassing. They are going through the motions, period.”

More from Barkley: “You can’t fake it. The players in this league are too good on the other teams. If you go to the building and your mind and body are not in it, this is what happens night in and night out.”

Albert during the second half: “In all my years of broadcasting, I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Continue reading "Marv Albert never, ever had seen anything like that!" »

Next Saturday's St. Francis-Wagner game, Dec. 8 on MSG, will serve as a benefit for the Aidan Robert Balut Scholarship Fund and a tribute to his father, Bob, a long-time official at both Wagner and the Northeast Conference who died of colon cancer in March at age 32.

Balut is survived by his wife, Erica, and 2 1/2-year-old Aidan.

The entire TV crew, including Paul Dottino, Tim Capstraw and Kevin Connors, will donate their game fees. Proceeds from tickets and other donations at NEC games over the weekend also will go to the fund.

Donations can be sent in care of PNC Bank, Church and Greentree Roads, Marlton, NJ 08053. For information, call (732) 469-0440, ext. 6.

(Clarification: Earlier I mistakenly wrote that the game is tomorrow. It's a week from tomorrow. Sorry for the confusion.)

Verizon was nice enough to give me a temporary password to check out its broadband carriage of the NFL Network game Thursday night.

But it turned out to be a struggle running back and forth between the computer and the train wreck unfolding on TNT on my TV.

I didn't have room in the newspaper for all of the colorful quotes about Our Knicks from Marv, Sir Charles, etc., but I'll post them later.

As for Packers-Cowboys . . .

I thought play-by-play man Bryant Gumbel was significantly less bad than when I heard him last year. He's a smart guy and a smooth talker, so I would have been shocked if there were not at least some improvement.

But his understated delivery, unimpressive pipes and uninspiring grasp of terminology and pacing simply are not up to what we're used to from the No. 1 play-by-play men at the other networks.

It's understandable. They all have decades more experience than Gumbel does at the job. He was put into a difficult spot when the NFL hired him last year.

I'll do a separate post on Verizon's service later.

Sure, he works a couple of rivers over, but given the influence NJSEA boss George Zoffinger has had over our sports life in recent years, WatchDog should take note of his last day on the job.

Here's a flattering editorial marking his departure from The Star-Ledger of Newark.

Zoffinger's battles with the Giants always spiced up my life on the Giants and sports business beats. His line calling John Mara a "pig-skinned prince" was mean and unfair . . . and hilarious.

This week's winner is DuMont Burger, who is overdue for the honor, and who joined me in some Newsday nostalgia after I linked to a column from the great Stan Isaacs, who launched Newsday's TV sports column nearly 30 years ago.

(By the way DuMont, it's not "legend" that he stole that Dodgers banner; it really happened.)

Here is DuMont's comment:

Isaacs should be among the lists of Giants, especially as legend has it he stole the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers World Series pennant away from those damned O'Malleys. And for writing a tv-sports column when Cosell ruled the world and Bristol[s] was the preferred euphenism for breasts on the Benny Hill Show.

Good bite from a voice of the old Newsday [pre-Tribune Co.] like Jacobson, Gergen, etc.
And I do agree with his #1 chocolate ice cream favorite. I had mine there [right next to Notre Dame the cathedral, not Notre Dame the Touchdown Jesus] on a hot September day a few years ago.

Better than any Carvel, for sure.

Due to some sort of technical glitch, SportsWatch readers might have had some trouble finding my Friday newspaper column on the Web sports page early this morning.

WatchDog readers have no such concerns. I looked under a cyberspace rock and found it for you.

It features Phil Simms and Troy Aikman talking about Our Eli. Both former quarterback stars said it's not all Eli's fault. But they didn't exactly nominate him for the Pro Bowl, either.

Speaking of Aikman, I included an item in the column that quoted him on the NFL Network situation. Here is the entire quote, which wouldn't fit in the paper. I thought he had an interesting take:

"I think it's a shame. Here's my point on that: We [at Fox] broadcast three nationally televised preseason games, as do other networks. We broadcast all these nationally televised games and we have the stadium half full and people aren’t even interested in the games. It diminishes the NFL brand. It doesn’t represent what the NFL is about.

"Now you get one of the greatest games in the regular season in the history of the game and two-thirds of the country can’t see it. I don’t care how you slice it or present it, that’s bad, yet that’s what it is. I just don’t agree with it."

I'm too lazy to go back on my DVR and find it, so I'm going to take the word of Sports Business Daily on this:

Seems Mike Francesa said on WFAN this afternoon that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones cancelled a scheduled appearance on the station. Why? Apparently because Francesa and co-host Chris Russo have taken the side of cable operators against the NFL Network in their ongoing tiff.

The Daily quotes Francesa saying that Cowboys public relations man Rich Dalrymple “listens to the show, and he’s smart and he knows what we were saying, and he’s not going to put Jerry Jones in a position where he’s going to get argued with."

This job would be a lot more fun if I could do these blog posts all day and not continually get distracted by my actual job, which is writing a newspaper column, which I now will attempt to do once again.

Good night. Go Rutgers!

There apparently are some blogosphere rumors coming out of our nation's capital about Tony Kornheiser planning to give up "Monday Night Football'' after the season.

I happened to ask Tony about that very thing earlier this week, and he indicated he'd be happy to discuss his thinking on that subject with me - after the season is over.

So I do not have any direct knowledge of his plans one way or the other. But I would be far from shocked if he did decide two years was enough.

If so, ESPN should seriously consider going with a two-man booth of Mike Tirico and Ron Jaworski and streamlining its overstuffed presentation.

We'll see.

Warner Wolf will be joining ESPN 1050 in an expanded role starting Monday, as a morning drive time sports anchor during the week and for an extra hour on Saturday mornings, when his show will run from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m.

Wolf first will be heard at 5:40 a.m. weekdays with overnight host Gordon Damer, then do local updates on the national "Mike and Mike'' show.

Wolf had been heard on WABC on weekdays, but as of Monday that station's morning slot will be occupied by a Mr. Don Imus.

So who will do sports for Imus? I'm working on nailing that one down.

I can tell you Imus is believed to be planning to add two African-Americans to his cast, and that one of those black cast members will be his new sports guy.

I'm assuming the I-man will be officially announcing of all this when he appears on "20/20" Friday night with Barbara Walters.

(Update: My information about when Imus will chat with Babs was WRONG. Here is the right information from Newsday's own Verne Gay.)

One more thing: Happy 80th birthday, Vin Scully, the best ever and still at it.

Here he is calling an eventful inning of baseball in 1986.

OK, one more NFL Network post, darn it:

For those without the channel in their homes, the obvious alternatives tonight are a sports bar or the home of a friend or relative who has it. I'm leaning toward the former.

Keep this in mind, though: The cost of the two pints of an adult beverage I likely would consume while watching said game will be more than the cost per subscriber for the NFL Network for an entire year (about $8.40).

(Reminder/disclaimer: Don't drink and drive!)

Comcast is the only cable company that carries the NFL Network. Its customers theoretically can order the sports tier on which the channel is found at the current discount price of $1.99 per month and then cancel it at their leisure.

I also have heard from several Comcast customers with high def that they have been getting the channel even without paying for the sports tier, an apparent loophole that violates the company's agreement with the NFL.

The game can be heard on WFAN, with Dick Enberg handling the call, as well as on Sirius Satellite Radio, which has the national feed and both teams' local stations.

Finally, NFL.com and NFL Mobile on Sprint will have live "look-ins" at 15 and 45 minutes after each hour as well as select action when a team is inside the opponent's 20-yard line.

OK. I'm done now. I have a newspaper column to write. Enjoy the ACC women's basketball preview show on FSNY at 3 p.m.

One day after revealing an upcoming biopic of Joe Namath, Variety has a story today about an HBO Films project on a more contemporary figure: Barry Bonds.

Both films are in limbo until the writers strike is settled.

I never did see Barry Bonds play for the Alaska Goldpanners when I worked in Anchorage in 1983 and '84. And the days of Tom Seaver and Dave Winfield were way before my time covering the Alaska League.

During my time in Alaska I did cover Randy Johnson, Dennis Cook (who I saw throw a no-hitter), Jeff Brantley, Mike Macfarlane, Joe Magrane, Chris (Tony's brother) Gwynn and many other guys whose names I now forget.

Sigh.

What would Curly Lambeau (right) or Vince Lombardi have to say about the NFL Network vs. Big Cable squabble? Nothing. They'd be getting their players ready for the game tonight.

I've written and said way too much about it already, but others are ready to pick up the ball for me, as in USA Today, which offers another story with more than you want to know on the subject.

For a quicker, vastly more superficial account of the situation, check out this video of a seemingly bored, exasperated sports media columnist trying to explain all this to America Wednesday morning.

(Thanks to reader Show Some Guts for the video tip.)

Here is a report from Variety about an upcoming Joe Namath pic that will feature actor Jake Gyllenhaal.

I don't know what to make of this, but obviously I'll be curious when the movie comes out.

Namath has plenty of acting experience. I'm assuming he's too old to play himself, though.

Jake currently is shooting a film with Syosset's own Natalie Portman.

Playboy.com - sorry, I ain't gonna link to it - announced that to the surprise of, well, no one, ESPN's Erin Andrews squashed the field in its "America's Sexiest Sportscaster 2," winning with 40 percent of the vote.

I don't want to make a big deal about this, just in case this contest is vaguely sexist, but news is news. WatchDog reports, you decide..

At least Andrews is a respected, hard-working sports media figure. I could have posted a picture of one of Tony Romo's girlfriends - Carrie Underwood, Sophia Bush, Jessica Simpson, etc. - if I were merely looking for a gratuitous reason to feature an attractive woman.

Someone - not me! - needs to organize an equivalent contest for male sportscasters. No, I'm not going to speculate about possible nominees.

I'll let my appearance on ESPN2 this morning speak for itself.

Tom McCarthy was calling a college basketball game Tuesday night and thus was unable to get back to me about his departure from the Mets' radio team until after my newspaper deadline.

That's why God created blogs.

"It was too good of an opportunity to turn down," McCarthy said of his decision to give up the Mets gig after two years to sign a more lucrative, five-year deal to cover the Phillies on TV. He will do some pre- and post-game work as well as three innings of play-by-play.

There has been speculation McCarthy - a loyal WatchDog reader, by the way - will be groomed eventually to succeed Harry Kalas, the Phillies' long-time voice, who will do the play-by-play for the other six innings.

McCarthy had another year left on his WFAN contract, but the station let him out of it, knowing the Phillies were offering an opportunity for career advancement.

"I can't tell you how much I enjoyed my time with WFAN," he said.

Against my better judgment, I finally caved in to the wishes of some of WatchDog's more rabid Imus fans and asked WFAN operations manager Mark Chernoff the following:

Will his station's personalities be allowed to appear on Don Imus' new WABC show, which debuts Monday?

Chernoff was kind enough to respond, telling me there have been no such requests from WABC and that thus to this point there has been no need for a policy on that subject.

On Saturday I went to the Garden to research a column on the depressing, bitter, unhappy world of the Knicks beat.

Later, I decided (in consultation with my editor) against stepping into that quagmire at this time, mostly because of the awkwardness of trying to do a fair, unbiased job on a story that involves my own paper and its direct competitors.

I was hoping some sort of independent media outlet would tackle the subject and take it off my hands. Turns out John Koblin of The New York Observer was there the same day I was, asking some of the same questions.

Here are the answers he got.

It's an interesting read, even though it did not delve into some of the more delicate, complicated areas of intrigue behind the scenes on this sorry subject.

Maybe the Knicks will beat the Celtics Thursday and the team and the reporters who cover it will be one, big happy family. Or not.

As it turned out, the delay in an important FCC meeting that I wrote about Tuesday afternoon lasted only until Tuesday night.

The result was not so good for my soulmate, FCC chairman Kevin Martin, and not so good for the NFL Network (see the last paragraph of the linked story).

The NFL has been hoping to force big cable companies into binding arbitration, which it believes is one of its best chances for a resolution of the ongoing carriage dispute involving the NFL Network. Now it looks like that will be more difficult.

Sigh. In the long run, the NFL is going to win this war, because it controls the content. The question is how long the war will last, and how bloody the battles will be.

I'm back from my visit to ESPN2's "First Take" and will let you know if there was a ratings spike once I get the data back later in the week.

What did WatchDog the media critic think of WatchDog the national TV personality?

I've seen sportswriters do worse, even the great Oscar Madison.

And I've seen sportswriters do better, notably "First Take" regular Bob Glauber.

The biggest challenge was trying to condense an incredibly complex (and boring) topic - the NFL Network vs. Big Cable - into four minutes or so of TV time.

Hence the occasional stammering as my brain moved faster than my mouth.

Hence my failure to mention cable's anger at not having access to "NFL Sunday Ticket," which will annoy my cable industry friends.

Hence my failure to mention cable's disingenuousness in saying its customers shouldn't have to pay for channels they don't want, which will annoy my NFL Network friends.

That's about it for my lame excuses. Oh, one more thing:

Why the rumpled collar? Negotiations for a clothing endorsement between my agent and Armani have hit a snag, alas.

We'll work that out before the NFL and cable resolve their differences.

The blogs were down again early this morning (thanks for your patience), so I'm a little behind on postings and now have to leave the laptop briefly to appear on ESPN2's "First Take" and talk about . . . what else?

The NFL Network vs. the cable companies.

Fire up your DVR or VCR!

Thanks to our friends at MetsBlog.com, I just learned that WFAN's Tom McCarthy is returning to Phillies coverage after two solid years of work on Mets games opposite Howie Rose.

Here is the official release on the Phillies' Web site.

Tom was a welcome addition to the New York sports media roster. Good luck back in Philly and in your future endeavors, sir.

Not surprisingly, FCC chairman Kevin Martin - my pal as a fellow member of the radical, a la carte cable, lunatic fringe - postponed today's scheduled meeting with his fellow commissioners when it became obvious he lacked the votes to implement some of his plans.

That's good news for Big Cable and not so good for independent outlets such as the NFL Network and the Hallmark Channel.

Oh, well. It was too late to do anything about Thursday's Pack-Pokes game anyway. Speaking of which . . . for those of you out there who have Comcast, there is a short-term solution to this problem.

Comcast is the nation's largest cable operator and also the only one that has the NFL Network on a sports tier for an extra charge. (The NFL is fighting that situation in court.)

So Comcast customers simply can sign up for the sports package in time for the game, then cancel it soon thereafter if they are so inclined. Simple.

(Cablevision and Time Warner customers do not have this option. Sorry.)

Oh. My. Goodness. Gracious.

This was one you could see coming straight down Broadway (the one in Astoria). In the wake of Sean Taylor's death, Mike Francesa and Chris Russo are discussing . . . social issues.

Hello? Why didn't someone at the station take charge and tackle them before they got to a microphone?

It took less than 12 hours for the late Mr. Taylor to go from dying from a gunshot wound suffered in his own home to being the latest symbol of what is wrong with America's athletic youth on WFAN.

It began with an hour-long discussion of how Taylor's anger, his love of guns and his loyalty to imagined bad influences from a troubled youth had led him inevitably down the path of . . . um, having someone break into his house and shoot him.

The comedic moments included Russo explaining why these things don't happen to hockey players and Francesa discussing his neighbors, who include Moises Alou, Jose Reyes and "Asian doctors."

The clincher came at around 2:15 p.m., when a caller informed the hosts that Taylor's father is a police chief, and that Taylor evidently did not grow up in inner-city squalor.

"Are you sure about that?" Russo said. "I wasn't aware of that. So we're using the wrong guy here to talk about dysfunctional homes is what you're telling me."

(My wife told me she read about Taylor's police chief father at 7 o'clock this morning.)

Even after that, callers kept at it, prematurely drawing conclusions about Taylor that were insensitive at best, wildly irresponsible at worst.

Sigh.

John from Whitestone called in at 2:51 to suggest a possible "rush to judgment."

You think?

I haven't forgotten about you, Imus supporters.

In six days, when he officially becomes a non-sports guy for good, maybe I will. But not yet!

If this has been written somewhere else, I apologize for the non-scoop, but I believe based on logic, logistics and vibes I've gotten from Fuse-land that Mr. Imus' RFD-TV simulcast will emanate from the studios of Fuse, across Seventh Avenue from WABC radio's studios.

This would enable him to do three hours of TV on one side of the street and his last hour from the other side. Interesting.

I guess we'll know for sure Monday.

Speaking of Fuse, although I've never actually watched the channel, it played an important role in the evolution of my thinking on the NFL Network vs. Big Cable battle.

That's because it illustrated the mutual back-scratching on which the basic cable system is built.

In the autumn of 2005, Cablevision (which owns Fuse) had Versus (then known as OLN) on its sports tier. Comcast (which owns Versus) wanted it on digital basic, especially with the new NHL package kicking in.

Solution? Simple: Comcast agreed to carry Fuse. Cablevision agreed to move Versus. End of problem. And more channels on basic cable.

The Knicks' victory over the Jazz Monday was a tough break for Eli Manning, who now must spend at least three more days as New York's Greatest Sports Concern.

Before I even got around to reading Glauber's column this morning, Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton directed me to it by giving him props on WFAN for getting the Giants' GM to use the word "skittish" about his quarterback.

Rule of thumb in the NFL, as I once learned in the aftermath of a Jim Fassel news conference: The use of the word "skittish" never is a good thing in the macho world of pro football.

Meanwhile . . . I somehow managed to pry some thoughts on Eli out of his former teammate, Tiki Barber. You know how shy Tiki is about public speaking, so this was a coup!

Some of it is in my newspaper column. Click below for more from my Sunday sitdown with the NBC analyst.

Continue reading "Giants GM calls his quarterback 'skittish' . . . uh-oh" »

The more I think about it and (unfortunately) write about it, the more I think the NFL would have been better off if Thursday night's game had been a big one - say, Cowboys-Giants - rather than a ginormous one.

That way the NFL would have made its point about the value of the NFL Network without it generating the kind of anger and frustration that is being directed at the league this week.

Peter King had an interesting item in his SI.com column in which he hints at how the NFL's dispute with Big Cable eventually might be settled if it goes to arbitration, as the league hopes.

It could simply come down to finding a middle ground on price. Duh!

As the late, great George Young said in his finest contribution to sports quotations: "When they say it's not about the money, it's about the money."

Two more things about Cornell hockey, then I'll move on to less interesting sports:

1. I heard about this last week but didn't get around to writing it, and now College Hockey News has beaten me to it. It's about the cheesy manner in which CSTV covered Saturday night's sold out Cornell-BU game at the Garden.

A CBS spokesperson told me Friday it is not unusual for events to be covered with announcers in a studio rather than on location, complete with a production truck, but in this case the studio in question was just a mile or so from the game itself!

Weak.

2. During my visit to NBC's "Football Night in America" studios Sunday, I finally got my chance to confront Keith Olbermann over a mistake he made in an entry for Eric Mirlis' recent book, "Being There."

Olbermann identified the Providence player who missed an empty net in the 1979 ECAC quarterfinals as Behn Wilson. In fact, it was Randy Wilson. (Cornell came back from a 5-1 third-period deficit to win in overtime - a feat it failed to repeat against BU Saturday.)

Keith (Class of 1979) was properly contrite and humbled. (No, really.). Apology accepted.

Sorry for the slow pace of posts today. We continue to have technical difficulties with the Newsday blogosphere, but we're working on it.

The NFL announced today that it again will be flex-free in Week 14, sticking with the night game scheduled for Dec. 9 on NBC: Colts at Ravens.

The Steelers will visit the Pats, who have maxed out on their prime time allowance, at 4:15 p.m. that day in a CBS ratings-grabber.

Speaking of ratings . . . To no one's surprise, the Eagles' near-upset of the Pats Sunday night was a winner for NBC. In overnight ratings from 56 large markets, 15.6 percent of homes were tuned into the game on average.

That's the best mark in the two years of NBC's Sunday night package.

Due to an apparent scoreboard malfunction or typographical error, Boston University was credited with a 6-3 victory over Cornell Saturday night in the first major-college hockey game at the Garden in nearly 31 years and what was believed to be the first college hockey sellout in MSG history.

It was an extraordinary event, although an early streak of blind luck by B.U. that produced three quick goals took the steam out of a crowd that was about 70 percent Cornell-oriented.

Among the luminaries on hand were Ned Harkness, 86, who coached Cornell's 1967 and '70 national championship teams, and members of those teams including John Hughes, Class of 1970, a co-captain and the father of Long Island's skating Hughes girls.

Emily Hughes herself was on hand during an intimate pre-game Cornell party for 1,700. So was Joe Nieuwendyk. No sign of Dryden. Maybe he was busy running Canada or something.

During the second intermission B.U. honored three of its alumni who played for the 1980 Olympic team: Mike Eruzione, Jack O'Callahan and Dave Silk.

The game orginally was the idea of B.U., but it might make more sense to turn it into a Thanksgiving weekend tradition for Cornell, which could use the event to generate alumni goodwill (and cash) and as a recruiting carrot for players.

If B.U. can sell 5,000 tickets to its fans, surely Boston College, Michigan and other hockey powers could do the same.

Next time, let's get that scoreboard problem straightened out, though.

Here is a special bonus treat for long-time Newsday readers who recall Stan Isaacs - one of the most memorable figures in the paper's history and the man Tony Kornheiser says he aspired to be when he began in the business.

Stan just posted his 47th annual ratings, a Newsday staple for decades and now a feature in Isaacs' new on-line life at The Columnists.com.

As always, pay special attention to Isaacs' thoughts on chocolate ice cream.

Enjoy.

So sorry for the long, long delay since my last entry, but my excuse fits in perfectly with this post:

I was busy working!

It began at Saturday's Knicks game, the highlight of which came at halftime, with the first, long-awaited, face-to-face meeting between your favorite actual Newsday sports columnist who works in his basement and your favorite fictional Newsday sports columnist who works in his basement.

When I introduced myself to Ray Romano on celebrity row and explained who I was and what I did, he said, "So basically you do what I did on the show? I hope I depicted it accurately.''

Absolutely, Ray, except for the part about how your character NEVER ACTUALLY WORKED! Or hardly ever, anyway.

Then Ray told me to say hello to Newsday TV columnist Diane Werts for him. And that was that.

Truth be told, it wasn't nearly as cool as my interview last year with the greatest of all fictional sportswriters, Oscar Madison/Jack Klugman, but it'll do.

Ray didn't mention the new complete DVD set of "Everybody Loves Raymond,'' but it's out now if you are interested.

I have to get back to work now.

I'm taking the weekend off from both the blog and the newspaper column. Thanks for reading, as always, and please check back Monday.

I checked for Ned Harkness video on YouTube. No dice. (Although I did find this clip about the guy in the picture.)

Absent Ned, maybe Cornell players should settle for this fellow to fire up on their laptops before taking the ice tonight at Madison Square Garden.

There the Big Red will fulfill the promise of an old cheer I can't repeat here when it faces the hapless Terriers of Boston University.

If you can't make it to the game or watch it on CSTV, enjoy the rest of the sports day, including Kansas-Missouri, a battle of two good journalism schools not previously known for football.

(Speaking of college football, I usually do my duty as a lifelong New York-area type by mostly ignoring the SEC, but watching Friday's LSU-Arkansas epic was a reminder that Verne Lundquist and Gary Danielson are the best in the college business right now.)

And don't forget to watch Our Knicks, of course. Remember, booing is impolite.

Why is everyone so bummed out about the three Thanksgiving NFL blowouts?

If there is one time when blowouts are welcome - unless your favorite team is at the wrong end of one, obviously - it should be Thanksgiving, when family (and eating) obligations make it difficult to focus on every play.

Thanksgiving football works best as background noise, not as down-to-the-wire thrillers.

Be thankful. There was no need to watch the fourth quarter of Jets-Cowboys.

Or the first, second and third, come to think of it.

(The early buzz is that Bryant Gumbel of the NFL Network did not magically turn into Al Michaels during the offseason, but I'll reserve judgment until I hear him myself.)

I found it very frustrating writing in my Friday newspaper column about two Plainview Kennedy juniors who have their own blog and Internet-based talk show about their beloved Islanders.

For one thing, it's such an Internet-oriented story that it requires links and doesn't translate well into print. For another, I didn't have the space to properly pay tribute when my new pal Steve had this to say during an interview Tuesday:

"Every single day I’m watching 'Mike and the Mad Dog' when I get home and reading your WatchDog blog."

You had me at "every!"

Click below for more about "Hockey Night on Long Island" and BlogTalkRadio.

Continue reading "LI teens talk LI team . . . on the Internet" »

Tough week for the Jets, whose players flopped in Texas after their fans flopped even more embarrassingly last weekend at the instantly infamous Gate D.

Our comment contest winner, loyal commenter Phil from LI, weighed in on the latter subject with this post:

"I'm 29 and I never understood the lunkhead drunks I see at every game. What is it with everyone?

"Why does everyone complain about how high the ticket prices are yet they seem willing to pay any amount of money for a beer.

"The sad part is a lot of these idiots actually drive home.

"Tell me again, please, is the game better when viewed through inebriated eyes? And, what gives half the people at these games the right to behave like imbeciles? Yelling, screaming, cursing...that's all part of a game. But the drinking has gotten out of hand.

"Do people go to a game to get drunk or watch the contest? When you all figure this out, let me know."

What the heck are Boomer and Carton doing on WFAN this Friday morning?

Did someone forget to give these guys the memo about the four-day weekend?

But seriously, folks, give the boys credit for working long and hard as they continue trying to establish themselves in morning drive.

The early ratings have been promising, but it will be interesting to see whether the station's old pal Don Imus has an effect when he returns Dec. 3 a few spots up the dial.

Kim Jones and Chris Carlin, who over the summer developed excellent on-air chemistry, are scheduled to work afternoon drive time today, which is a good thing for listeners who haven't been dedicated (or insane) enough to listen to their regular 5 a.m. to 6 a.m. show.

But I'd give up Jones/Carlin in a minute in favor of this idea for some holiday weekend fun:

WFAN executives should draw straws, with the loser assigned to call Mike Francesa at home and inform him that in light of Boomer/Carton showing up for work today, would he and Chris Russo please schlep into Astoria as well? After all, there's a Jets game to talk about!

After eight consecutive posts looking deeply into the past, here's something as recent as Wednesday night:

Skip Bayless' long descent into sports TV mania officially was confirmed when he seemed to render even Stephen A. Smith temporarily speechless and maybe even a little afraid as Skip screamed at him during a segment of "Budweiser Hot Seat" on SportsCenter.

I don't have a clip to link to; maybe my younger, savvier, blogosphere friends can find it. But it was compelling and disturbing at the same time. (Much like the subject of the debate: Our Knicks.)

That's it for me for today. I have to write my Friday newspaper column, then pretend to talk to relatives while keeping an eye on Brett Favre, Tony Romo and Bryant Gumbel.

Oh, wait, I don't get the NFL Network on Cablevision. Cancel that last reference.

I hope you enjoyed the Thanksgiving YouTube fun below, but if you check out only one thing, have it be the final post of Wednesday, in which Felix Unger (or Ungar, according to some sources) shows Bryant how it's done with a vintage piece of football play-by-play.

(Update: Sure enough, our friends at Awful Announcing are on the Bayless video case.)

This picture reminds me of the day I first saw it come over the wire, when I was part of our skeleton office staff on Christmas Eve, 1982.

Late the previous night, Chaminade had recorded an epic upset of Virginia and Ralph Sampson in Hawaii, too late to make our Christmas Eve editions.

There was no Christmas Day paper.

So Dec. 26 was the first time Newsday reported to its readers that Chaminade had upset UVa on Dec. 23. And for many Newsday readers of the era, the paper did not arrive until afternoon!

Twenty-five years later, I can tell you RIGHT NOW that Chaminade beat Princeton last night, 74-70.

What, how and when will sportswriters be telling you things 25 years from now?

Something about Thanksgiving and football put me in a Marty Glickman mood, so here is the man himself, talking . . . basketball.

Check out this video of a teenaged Wilt Chamberlain, for whom Marty predicts big things to come.

The first pro basketball game I ever saw was Lakers-Knicks at MSG in 1971. The Knicks were better then than they are now.

Why was I a huge Redskins fan as a kid? I don't really remember. But I do know that an entire generation of fans who grew up in the 1970s without a family allegiance to one of the New York teams ended up adopting a team from elsewhere because the Giants and Jets were awful for most of that decade.

Many landed with the Cowboys or Steelers or Raiders and remain loyal to this day. I went with the Redskins. (Darn you, Clint Longley!)

Here is a classic moment from the 'Skins-Pokes rivalry in the 1970s. Enjoy.

Enough baby boomer nostalgia. Here's one from the summer the 1927 Yankees were ripping it up in the Bronx and the Cyclone opened in Coney Island.

It's a tribute to Coney Island's own Stephon Marbury in his time of need, and to sportswriting giant Grantland Rice, who lends his name to this fascinating look at summer amusements of 80 years ago.

I assume the roller coaster featured is the Cyclone itself, which opened that June.

I also assume the insurance industry was far less picky about amusement park ride protocols than it is now.

While we're on a Cosell-related nostalgia kick, here's one that will make baby boomers get all weepy and wistful.

It's the classic "Monday Night Football" theme from the show's glory days, back when the booth guests were John Lennon and Ronald Reagan - on the same night! - rather than Christian Slater and Drew Carey.

Sigh.