Monthly Archives: July 2009

What They’re Saying- July 31, 2009

I’m back in the blog chair ready to give you what some of the sports media columnists from around the country are writing this Friday…

Richard Sandomir at the NY Times reports that Madison Square Garden no longer falls under the control of Cablevision…

Phil Mushnick at the NY Post says some media members do get close to officials of the team they cover for potential future considerations.

Also at the Post, Justin Terranova talks Yankees bullpen with MLB Network’s Harold Reynolds…

David Barron at the Houston Chronicle is lobbying for NFL Films founder Ed Sabol to be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame…

Ted Cox at the Chicago Daily Herald reports on one of ESPN’s future cinematic endeavors featuring Steve Bartman…

Chad Finn at the Boston Globe tells us how NESN will handle today’s MLB trade deadline…

Diane Pucin at the LA Times talks with NFL Hall of Fame Inductee and former CBS NFL Today co-host Irv Cross..

John Maffei at the North County Times says the MLB Network could be a valuable resource during today’s trading deadline…

Jim Carlisle at the Ventura County Star says a lack of deals may not bode well for the MLB Network…

Tom Hoffarth at the LA Daily News reports on new technology being used by ESPN at the X Games…

Ray Buck at the Fort Worth Star Telegram gives us a preview of HBO’s latest boxing documentary…

Dan Caesar at the St. Louis Post Dispatch has the story on the return to television of Dan Patrick…this time to DirectTV.  Dal also reports on the latest St. Louis sports radio ratings

Scott D. Pierce at the Salt Lake City Deseret News says fans are still critical of the Mountain West Television Network…

Barry Jackson at the Miami Herald questions how much access fans and the media will have during the preseason workouts of both the Miami Dolphins and the University of Miami…

You don’t care about steroids, right?

Drip, drip, drip … two more names from the infamous 2003 positive drug-test list — Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz. Given Ramirez’s suspension this year, his appearance in The New York Times report can’t be too much of a surprise. Ortiz, on the other hand, had said in February that players testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs should get a one-year ban from baseball.

But I mention today’s report not to open a debate on whether the Red Sox’s 2004 world championship was tainted, but rather to point out something you hear quite a bit whenever a new steroid-related report hits. The argument, particularly on sports radio, is how the media are obsessed with steroids in baseball while hardly any fans care. The media continue to report on steroids only because, the argument goes, it attracts attention and thus sells papers, adds to the broadcast audience or drives up page views.

What I don’t quite understand about that take is how, on one hand, you can say nobody cares about steroids, then, on the other, say the media report about performance-enhancing drugs only to draw more attention. If nobody cares, then how can the media be benefiting by running stories about the issue?

See, this is yet another reason why I could never be any good on radio.

From press box to front office

Mets general manager Omar Minaya went into full blame-the-messenger mode after the club fired team executive Tony Bernazard, whose bizarre behavior first was reported by the New York Daily News‘ Adam Rubin. After Minaya basically said Rubin wrote the stories in some kind of effort to get himself a front-office job, Mets chief Jeff Wilpon said Tuesday his GM messed up and should apologize to Rubin.

Rubin acknowledged he had spoken with Wilpon in general terms about how to approach landing a job in baseball. It’s not unprecedented for a sportswriter to end up with a top position in a club’s front office. A long time ago, I covered Philadelphia Flyers games with Ned Colletti, now GM of the Dodgers. The late GM Harry Dalton began his career writing sports before he moved on to build baseball teams. Former NFL executive Ernie Accorsi wrote for a few newspapers, and while with The Philadelphia Inquirer, got the scoop on the 76ers’ trade of Wilt Chamberlain. Jim Miller, also an NFL executive, mostly with the Saints, covered sports for a couple of newspapers, including Baltimore’s Evening Sun, which once employed Accorsi, too.

And if any team is interested, I’m available.

The naked truth

I suppose I’m somehow duty-bound to write something about the unfortunate Erin Andrews situation, though so many people have written so much since the story broke that I could take up a lengthy entry just by linking to them. Meanwhile, we’ll wait for real news on the matter when an investigation uncovers the individual or individuals who so grossly violated her privacy with the peeping video.

Now, if you want to blame the Internet for what happened to Andrews, blame it only in regard to the delivery system. The technology enabled the video to appear all over instantly. In pre-Internet days, photos might have shown up in some magazine, limiting their distribution and their impact.

Some want to argue bloggers, commenters and others who have drooled over Andrews on the Web made her more of a target, but women with a degree of celebrity are susceptible, regardless of how many times they are mentioned in blogs. And if you hold to the idea of society “objectifying” women, it has been going on long before there were blogs or before anyone had even heard that word.

Go back to Marilyn Monroe’s nude photo in Playboy in the 1950s — from pictures taken before she was a star but not distributed until someone could take greater advantage of them. The same for the photos that cost Vanessa Williams her Miss America crown. More recently — with the Internet up and running — a former lover’s naked photos of talk host Dr. Laura Schlessinger surfaced embarrassingly.

If you want to blame anyone working a keyboard, then blame those who passed along the Andrews video. That’s far beyond the pale from most bloggers, never mind the frat-boy outlook they present.

Another Break in the Action

Good Friday!

I am taking some time off and will be away from the blog for the weekend.  For those of you looking for our weekly What They’re Saying” feature, pay a visit to our good friends over at Fang’s Bites for their megalinks later today.  Ken does the best job of anyone I know posting sports media links.

See ya Monday!