- 11:46 AM
- 12/30/24
| Name: | Mike Dumas |
|---|---|
| Member since: | May 09, 2003 |
| Last visit: | June 03, 2010 |
Motown Mike has posted 8 links and 40 comments to SportsFilter and 0 links and 0 comments to the Locker Room.
Friday Night Football: With Hurricane Wilma bearing down on Miami, Sunday's scheduled Chiefs-Dolphins game has been moved ahead to tomorrow night at 7 ET. Perhaps somebody with a more extensive knowledge of NFL history than I possess can tell us: is this the first Friday night NFL game ever?
posted by Motown Mike to football at 02:21 PM on October 20, 2005 - 20 comments
Voices of the game: USA Today celebrates the timeless magic that is baseball on radio. With Fox and ESPN dragging the sport's network TV coverage to unprecedented depths of suckitude, such an appreciation has never been more timely.
posted by Motown Mike to baseball at 02:51 PM on July 28, 2005 - 12 comments
Steroidgate, Part II: Now it's the NFL's turn.
posted by Motown Mike to football at 05:16 PM on March 31, 2005 - 7 comments
It cost Fox and CBS a combined $8 billion,: but the networks are retaining their broadcast rights to Sunday-afternoon NFC and AFC games, respectively, through 2011. DirecTV has also renewed its contract, and retains exclusive rights to the "NFL Sunday Ticket" package. And the rich keep getting richer...
posted by Motown Mike to football at 10:50 PM on November 08, 2004 - 7 comments
ESPN.com's Jim Caple borrows a page from Tom Boswell and warms the hearts of Pastime partisans everywhere by listing 37 reasons why the World Series is better than the Super Bowl. This seamhead is still applauding Caple's second-paragraph observation; I'm pretty sure Danielle Steel outsells Faulkner, too.
posted by Motown Mike to baseball at 01:49 PM on January 29, 2004 - 9 comments
So, basically, this guy was the Bill Veeck of cricket?
posted by Motown Mike at 11:03 PM on December 27, 2005
The real MNF news is that ESPN can change the games scheduled for the second half of the season thus insuring (or at least helping) we get games worth watching. No, it's NBC's Sunday night package that's getting the flexible scheduling. ESPN's matchups will be locked in place like always. No flexible schedule, no Super Bowls or playoff games, no season openers, no Thanksgiving games...and ESPN's still going to be paying double what ABC did in their last contract.
posted by Motown Mike at 11:00 PM on December 27, 2005
I always thought it was funny that the first time the NFL ever played games on Christmas Day (1971) one of them turned out to be the longest ever played: the epic, double-OT playoff thriller between the Dolphins and Chiefs. What the hell. If baseball and golf can play on Easter Sunday (theologically a far more important event on the Christian calendar), I don't see why Christmas football is so terribly inappropriate.
posted by Motown Mike at 11:01 AM on December 27, 2005
I still think Keith Olbermann would have been a great addition to "MNF".
posted by Motown Mike at 10:52 AM on December 27, 2005
I can't help but be a little amused at the fact that baseball just can't seem to win in this department. If the Yankees and/or Bosox were in the Series, it'd be: "Not *those* teams again! East Coast bias! No competitive balance! Baseball sucks!" But without those teams, it's: "Oh, no! Who cares about *these* teams! Flyover country! No national appeal! Baseball sucks!" Maybe the bottom line is that a lot of contemporary Americans would simply rather watch Terrell Owens prance around in front of a goalpost with a Sharpie in hand than watch baseball of *any* sort. Their loss, I say.
posted by Motown Mike at 08:45 PM on October 29, 2005
Green Bay beat Minnesota on a Friday last year. Ah, yes...the Christmas Eve game. I'd forgotten about that one. I'm curious what the other Friday games (and their circumstances) were, though.
posted by Motown Mike at 07:19 PM on October 20, 2005
Hal Incandenza: It's interesting to note that in 2003, we (as fans) were robbed of what would have been a truly epic World Series- Boston Red Sox vs. Chicago Cubs, one of those matchups that was literally "apocalyptic" joke fodder before 2004. While this year's matchup is nowhere near that level of crazed fandom and history-steeped baseball lore- as insomnyuk wryly notes with his "tv executive's eye view"- it is nevertheless comforting for beleagured fans everywhere that this year, yet again some team will end its long-time suffering. The White Sox haven't won since 1917, and haven't even been in a World Series since 1959; the Astros of course have never even been in the World Series before in their 44 year history as a franchise. This is the World Series in which both participants have had to wait 40+ years to make a Fall Classic appearance. In the entire history of the event, the only previous Series that even came close to such a matchup was 1948 (featuring the Indians and Braves, who at the time were quenching respective pennant droughts of "merely" 28 and 34 years, respectively).
posted by Motown Mike at 02:14 PM on October 20, 2005
The longest postseason games in the major U.S. pro sports: NFL December 25, 1971 - Miami Dolphins 27, Kansas City Chiefs 24 (2 OT) NBA March 21, 1953 - Boston Celtics 111, Syracuse Nationals 105 (4 OT) NHL March 24, 1936 - Detroit Red Wings 1, Montreal Maroons 0 (6 OT) MLB October 5, 2005 - Houston Astros 7, Atlanta Braves 6 (18 innings)
posted by Motown Mike at 12:29 PM on October 10, 2005
I can't understand how or why that oaf makes ESPN's postseason coverage, while Steve Stone does not.
posted by Motown Mike at 12:24 PM on October 10, 2005
tommysands: I was in Pittsburgh when Mazeroski hit the home run to win the series against the Yankees and I don't remember listening to Chuck Thompson. Thompson did indeed call that game for NBC Radio, along with Jack Quinlan who was the Cubs' radio guy at the time. Bob Prince and Mel Allen, respectively the voices of the Pirates and Yankees then, did the NBC TV broadcast. Of course, it's possible that the Pirates also did their own radio broadcast of the Series, so maybe you heard whoever was doing that call.
posted by Motown Mike at 10:52 PM on July 29, 2005
gregy606: fox has consistently put together the worst baseball coverage ever, i want to blow my brains out every time i hear jon miller talk... Jon Miller is an ESPN announcer, it's Joe Buck who's the main Fox guy.
posted by Motown Mike at 10:43 PM on July 29, 2005
geekyguy: We are more alike than we are different and most of the differences are cultural if you can look past the superficial. ... This just in: Men and women are different. We need to celebrate our differences more and bitch about them less. Leaving aside the apropos-of-nothing switch from race to gender, which is it? Our differences are superficial and need to be looked past, or they're intrinsic and need to be celebrated?
posted by Motown Mike at 10:27 AM on June 17, 2005
bluekarma: Tell me you would rather have geeks(like Costas and Michaels) who never played or coached the game at a professional level doing all the announcing and commentating?? Actually, I would rather have professional broadcasters who know how to speak cogently and articulately on the air than idiotic, self-aggrandizing ex-jocks. Guys like Fox's Brian Baldinger are the absolute worst, but Madden demonstrates some of those qualities from time to time as well.
posted by Motown Mike at 10:14 AM on June 16, 2005
yerfatma: (L)ike Greta Garbo, Michaels wants to be alone. ABC will never let him do that, but they will let him work things like the NBA Finals. Plus, even with a little NFL, NBC still seems like a second-tier sports network (not in the same league with ABC/ ESPN, CBS, Fox). Well, I've also gotten the impression that Michaels considers cable to be beneath him (note that he's never done baseball or hockey--sports at which he excels as an announcer--on ESPN), which means these might be the options he's weighing: - ABC: NBA playoffs (plus a handful of regular-season games), maybe some regular-season college football and basketball. - NBC: Sunday night NFL, couple of Super Bowls, Olympic Games, Triple Crown horse racing (a sport Michaels happens to love). I think that Peacock is going to look very attractive to him, and I also think that Dick Ebersol is looking to make as many splashy, headline-grabbing talent acquisitions for his new package as he can. Maybe I'm wrong, but my hunch is that Michaels and Madden will be boothmates again come 2006.
posted by Motown Mike at 10:09 AM on June 16, 2005
Galarraga robbed of perfect game by blown call on last out.
In the ideal world Selig would grant Galarraga his perfect game. Then again, in the ideal world Joyce actually makes that call.
Also, in the ideal world the commissioner wouldn't be Selig but...well, anybody else.