Pull up a keyboard ... more media notes
Expanding today's media column, here's the photo (supplied by the Dodgers) to get an idea of what the old baseball Coliseum baseball press box looked like wedged into the tunnel at the west end.
In contrast, here's a look at both press boxes that existed during the four seasons of bizarre configurations that, with today's multi-purpose architectural ingeniuty, could have been addressed better.
Vin Scully and Jerry Doggett were broadcasting games for radio and TV perched inside the tunnel on the far right, while the football press box on the top ridge of the stadium sat there for spill over media members -- especially those covering the '59 World Series.
Scully will be in the football press box calling Saturday's Dodgers-Red Sox exhibition game, which he says will put him "a million miles away, having to rely on the cameraman" and watching the TV feed to see what's really going on during the game.
Dodgers VP of communications Josh Rawitch said of the decision to use the football facility instead of rebuilding the old baseball press box: "We did a walk through two months ago and realized that the TV booth would actually be pretty close to home plate. We were worried (the football press box) would be too far down the line, but seeing that the sightline was actually quite good made us decide it would be easier to do it there, with all the comforts that they’re used to, than recreating a box above the tunnel that could only hold a few of the people."
Scully, who did NFL games for CBS from 1975 to '82, seems to think the last time he visited the Coliseum was to do a Los Angeles Rams game for the network "many years ago."
Meanwhile, this is the final year of the most recent contract extension he signed a couple years back. Does he have plans on coming back for 2009 and beyond?
"I believe so, but we'll have to talk to the McCourts and see what their plans are, and talk to my wife to see how she feels," said Scully, who turned 80 last November. "Here we are concentrating on Opening Day '08, and God willing, there's always that old Irish expression: Talk about next year and make the devil laugh. So we'll put that in escrow for awhile longer."
More from the media this week:
++BASEBALL (con't):
==KCAL Channel 9 airs a half-hour Dodgers’ 50th anniversary special leading into Saturday’s Coliseum exhibition coverage (7 p.m.). Executive producer Scott Henry said the all-encompassing show, hosted by Gary Miller, includes an interview with team owner Frank McCourt at the Coliseum. During the game coverage, reporter John Ireland will
be updating information from a mini-telethon starting at 7:10 p.m. that allows viewers to call in - 866 554-CURE - and donate to the charity, with former Dodger players taking the pledges. KCAL also has tonight’s Dodgers-Red Sox exhibition from Dodger Stadium; Sunday’s game from Dodger Stadium is not televised. FSN Prime Ticket, the Dodgers’ cable partner that is carrying the season opener Monday afternoon against San Francisco from Dodger Stadium, also plans a hour-long pregame show Saturday (6:30 p.m.) including Kevin Kennedy, Steve Lyons and Patrick O'Neal, followed by a half-hour wrapup, with the Clippers-Memphis contest on in between.
== President Bush is scheduled to join Jon Miller and Joe Morgan in the ESPN booth during Sunday night’s telecast from the new stadium in Washington D.C. between the Nationals and Braves. It’ll be in the third inning, in case you’re planning to TiVo and do the three-arrow toggle forward.
==Gotta say we do enjoy the new Aquafina ads that we started to notice during ESPN's coverage of the Red Sox-A's two-game series in Japan. It's the one with Chicago Cubs manager Lou Pinella running out of the dugout after a close play at third base. Pinella appears to be starting an argument, but he begins to explain to the umpire, in his usual antimated manner, that it "was a great call ... you're doing a fantastic job ... but people expect me to come out here and be upset, so I'm gonna kick some dirt, you understand!" It ends up with Pinella asking the umpire to throw him out -- which happens -- and Pinella heaves the third-base bag across the diamond after he reminds the umpire to "say hello to the misses." During the "discussion," there's the voice of ESPN's own Gary Thorne -- who happened to also be calling the Red Sox-A's game -- exclaiming: "Lou's really giving it to him!"
Doesn't that kind of undercut Thorne's credibility? Or did Thorne already do enough of that by claiming to know during a broadcast last year (on the Orioles' home TV network) that Boston's Curt Schilling faked the bloody sock incident in the 2004 playoffs and World Series?
Thorne is on the call, by the way, for the first game at the Washington Nationals' new stadium. He's on ESPN Radio (carried by affiliated 710-AM here) for the Washington-Atlanta game Sunday (4:35 p.m.). Thorne replaces Dan Shulman on the ESPN Radio package of Sunday night games, unfortunately, as Shulman does NBA stuff. Dave Campbell returns as the analyst.
==At least DirecTV got that "temporary technical problem" fixed for the second game of the Red Sox-A's series early Wednesday morning, after the glitch knocked out NESN and ESPN2 from its live feed of the Tuesday opener, which aired live at 3 a.m. (PDT)/6 a.m. (EDT), and didn't allow viewers to see it until the seventh inning (on NESN) and missed it completely live on ESPN2.
Our complaint, however: When watching the 11 a.m. replay of the game Tuesday and Wednedsay on ESPN2, they kept the live scroll at the bottom with updated scores -- including the final score of the game we were watching. No way to pull back on that one for those who didn't want to know the outcome?
==A reason to sign up for XM Satellite Radio:
For 48 hours between Saturday and Sunday, the company is using Channel 120 as the "Play Ball" channel to air 412 songs about baseball, 27 songs about players, seven dramatic readings (like "Casey at the Bat") and classic calls of historic plays (such as the "Shot Heard Round the World)
==OnionSports baseball story of the week:
==For its new "Sunday MLB on TBS" series that begins April 6, TBS has hired Ron Darling as the primary analyst with Chip Caray. Darling, the former Mets pitcher, does games on the Mets-owned SportsNet New York cable channel. In games Darling can't make, former major-league catcher and ESPN analyst Buck Martinez will fill in. Martinez currently works on Baltimore Orioles telecasts. The 26-week schedule of TBS games starts with Boston at Toronto on April 6, 10 a.m. (Caray and Martinez).
++COLLEGE BASKETBALL:
== Taking the "Gus Factor" to another round of the NCAA Tournament: CBS' Gus Johnson, our focus of a media column two weeks ago about this, that and other stuff as it relates to his doing games in March Madness, has been dispatched to Detroit for this weekend's games, meaning he's got No. 1 seed Kansas against No. 4 Villanova and No. 3 Wisconsin against No. 10 Davidson in the Midwest Regional semifinals. So why even guess who's going to win between the Badgers of the Big Ten and the Whatever they are from the Whichever conference?
In Richard Deitsch's SI.com "Media Circus" column, it was noted that Tim Brando, with partner Mike Gminski, were the ones in the upsets last weekend in Tampa (Friday/Sunday), which included 12-seeded Western Kentucky's shot-at-the-buzzer to down five-seed Drake, No. 13 San Diego's upset of No. 4 UConn (in the clip above), No. 13 Siena knocking off No. 4 Vanderbilt and No. 12 Villanova stunning No. 5 Clemson -- all in the first round. In Sunday's second round, Villanova outlasted Siena and Western Kentucky outlasted San Diego to reach the Sweet 16 in less-than-stunning fashion. "The running joke in the industry is Tim Brando is this year's Gus Johnson," said Brando.
==You don’t feel bad for Greg Gumbel having to pop up during the last commercial break of “60 Minutes” on Sunday night to deliver the ultra streamlined “CBS Sports Update Presented by Viagra” segment?
++MOTORSPORTS:
==Unless the networks can promise more brush-ups between Danica Patrick and Dan Weldon, don't expect a lot of attention turned to ESPN2's live coverage of the season opening event of the Indy Racing League season -- Saturday at 5 p.m. with the XM Indy 300 from Miami. ESPN will carry every race this season in high-def, including the on-board cameras. “For the viewer at home, it’s going to be spectacular,” said lead broadcaster Marty Reid. Scott Goodyear is back as the lead analyst, with pit reporters Jack Arute, Brienne Pedigo and Vince Welch. A one-hour IRL preview show airs on ESPN2 today at 4 p.m. -- a primer many will need with all the former big names (and their actress wives) gone from the sport to try out NASCAR.
++ONLINE MEDIA:
==We have no idea who Joe Lavin is, or how he got an advanced copy of Jose Canseco's new book, Vindicated, or how his name was included on the ESPN2 scroll of breaking news... But this item from Will Leitch's Deadspin.com probably says more about all this than we could if we tried.
For those who haven't learned how to click on highlighted words, Leitch writes:
"People who take the time to read a sports blog all day, actual sports fans, could not care less. The steroid mess is for the casual, just-peek-in-every-once-in-a-while fan. Which, we think, bodes poorly for the current state of "mainstream" sports journalism. They're freaking out over stories that, frankly, their core customer doesn't really care about all that much. But good luck finding substantial fantasy baseball coverage in your local newspaper."
++MISC:
==Whatever happened to ....
Dennis Miller?
Starting last November, Versus ran eight episodes of his weekly show, "Sports Unfiltered With Dennis Miller," that was same-day taped in Santa Barbara before a live studio audience before the writer's strike seemed to knock it down the foul line and out of play. Since then, many shows have returned, but not Miller's.
Why?
Katie Bradshaw, a spokesperon at Versus, said the network has not made a decision as to if or when it's coming back. "It's still up in the air," she said. A link on the Versus Website allows people to continue to submit questions to the show for a segment where ... Miller read questions submitted by viewers.
A month ago, a former show staffer told the Santa Barbara News-Press: “Frankly, it doesn’t look good. They were going to do eight shows initially to see how it went, and we were going to hear by the end of January if it was going to be renewed.”
Miller probably has a much snarkier response to that, but we'll just have to keep our britches on.
Meanwhile, he continues to do his radio show -- which had its first anniversary on Wednesday and included Al Michaels as a guest -- and has an appearance at the Orleans Hotel in Vegas in May. We thought he was doing a gameshow called "Grand Slam" for GSN (Game Show Network) but we're baffled by the lack of information available on it.
==More OnionSports headlines with a disturbing photo of Pat Riley:
==The last two regular-season games that NBC will carry:
Sunday: New York Rangers at Pittsburgh, 9:30 a.m.
April 6: Chicago at Detroit, 9:30 a.m.
==TVG has hired Hall of Fame jockey Chris McCarron as a race analyst, starting with the April 4 card at Keeneland Race Course. McCarron retired in 2002 as the leading all-time money winner in thoroughbred racing history, with over $264 million in purse earnings. He's sixth all time with 7,141 wins. McCarron, who has done color work for ABC, ESPN and NBC, is executive director of the North American Racing Academy, a jockey and racing school that he founded at Kentucky Horse Park and Thoroughbred Training Center in Lexington in 2006.
==ESPN and Showtime announced a deal that will allow the WWL in Sports access to the premium cable channel's boxing library for a package called "Showtime Championship Boxing on ESPN," except it'll run on ESPN Classic, with the first episodes airing Thursday.
One of the upcoming episodes: April 3: Diego Corrales vs. Joel Casamayor II and Evander Holyfield vs. James Toney for the WBO junior lighweight title.
==NBC officially announced it was getting onboard with mixed martial arts, following up CBS' decision to do four shows a year in prime time on Saturdays starting in April. NBC's schedule, partnered with promoter Strikeforce, has a weekly half-hour series that airs at 2 a.m. starting April 12.
"It's truly an honor to have the opportunity to bring the Strikeforce mixed martial arts product to one of the longest-standing and most well-respected national television platforms," said Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker said in a statement. "NBC has a history of popular late Saturday TV and in the 80's NBC's 'Saturday Night's Main Event' show helped catapult the popularity of professional wrestling. Strikeforce is looking to follow in suit and establish a legacy of its own on the network."
"Strikeforce on NBC" will air immediately following NBC's "Poker After Dark" (1-2 a.m.), hoping to keep that core 18-to-34 male audience.
==GolTV, which Wednesday aired the rare matchup of Argentina vs. Egypt, has announced it will have exclusive U.S. and Canada coverage of the German National Soccer team 2010 World Cup qualifying matches starting in September. In addition, it will air six of Germany's friendly games, including live its match against England.
==HoopGurlz.com, one of the top girls basketball sites on the Internet, is the latest take-over site by ESPN Industries, the network said. Glenn Nelson, the site's founder and editor of Scout Media, will continue to manage the content and editorial voice.
==A new guy to complain to: Burke Magnus has been promoted to ESPN senior vice president, college sports programming, since Chuck Gerber, who had that job, announced he's retiring next month. Magnus has been the VP and GM of ESPNU. Gerber, once upon a time the station manager at KNBC Channel 4 in L.A., was head of ESPN's college sports programming, getting deals done with the Big Ten, Big 12 and Big East, plus driving a lot of the content for ESPNU. Magnus is now in charge of steering the direction of college football, college basketball and NCAA Championships on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN360.com, ESPN Classic and everything else with an ESPN logo.
==And finally:
We're not laughing at Geoff Witcher as he's dressed in a tuxedo acting like a boxing ring announcer but doing play-by-play on a weed killer commercial that's getting a bunch of prime-time play.
We're laughing, period.
Probably making some good money for it, which is great, considering his last employer, KWFB, told him, Joe Calla and Bob Harvey they weren't needed any longer as sports anchors, and Witcher hasn't really done much in the play-by-play field that's noteworthy since ... a Dodgers game for ON-TV? As a voice in the "Bee Movie"?
Roundup, the brand he's pitching, ain't really all that great to be associated with, if you really need to know. There's plenty of information out there about the pollutants this stuff causes in the environment, and how it can be a health hazzard for humans who feel the need to spray the stuff around the yard.
Just be careful who's cutting you a paycheck. Even if you do look sharp in a tux.
Comments
I am happy to know what the snafu was with DirecTV's feed of the first Sox game. I actually woke up in the middle of the night to catch a little, and got some cryptic message about "satellite not available" bla bla bla. Didn't know if it was just that one TV, and was hoping my Tivo was doing its job on another TV. Checked the recording in the morning, and found nada. Totally forgot there was a rebroadcast at 11 AM... and at that point, I didn't really care. Thanks for the info, Tom.
Posted by: JoanSimms | March 28, 2008 1:16 AM
A single writer cannot see everything - and I try to be fair with the ()writers. Witcher was doing play-by-play on the Big West basketball games on KVMD television during the recently completed season. He did the key game for his alma mater as Cal State Northridge defeated Cal State Fullerton which gave the Matadors a share of the Big West title.
Posted by: GregB | March 28, 2008 9:05 AM