Newsday: Best: SNY’s Cohen gets to call Mets game from upper deck

Well it’s about time somebody called the g-d Met game!...I sat in the freezing rain with Belth and Lederer the other night for over an hour and a....ohh, announcing.

It was two hours before Thursday’s Nationals- Mets game, and SNY’s play-by-play man was sitting a few rows from the top of Shea Stadium, surveying the vast, red stretches of the upper deck.

Soon Cohen would be fulfilling a decade-long aspiration, calling a game from the cheap seats he used to occupy as a fan, just in time before they tear down the dump. It was a nod to his past, but more so to the others who grew up as fans far from the field, including the 18,000 or so children in the house Thursday for “Weather Education Day.”

“Everybody comes to this job differently,” Cohen said, listing the varied backgrounds of announcers who are former players, or who arrived from other cities as veteran broadcasters. “But Howie and I grew up as fans, in this ballpark, and somehow found our way back here to be play-by-play voices for the team,” he said.

“Ultimately, all of us want to go back to our roots; to me, these are my roots. This is how I got where I am.”

Sun-Sentinel: ESPN’s Steve Phillips fan of interleague baseball play

Yea...but Phillips also thinks forced chicken molting home videos are fun for the whole family! QUARK!

“It’s been great for the game,” said ESPN baseball analyst Steve Phillips. “Not only is it good for the fans, but it creates a good opportunity for the players in terms of free agency because it allows the players to see different stadiums and different markets and get exposure.”

Of course, the main criticism of interleague play is the unbalanced schedule. Critics argue, for example, that it’s not fair that the Mets have to play the Yankees every year. Meantime, division foe Florida gets to play Kansas City, Tampa Bay and Seattle.

“I think the rotation of playing different divisions each year but at the same time maintaining the rivalries works well,” Phillips said. “The integrity of the schedule issue by far is outweighed by the positive impact on the fans.”

Crosscut: Comcast’s high-definition baseball asterisk

Great Truby’s Ghost! Are these Hi-D moments happening elsewhere?

Those Comcast high-def customers who flipped to Mojo (Channel 664) Monday night, May 12, after Kenji Johjima smacked a game-tying, three-run homer in the ninth instead saw George C. Scott starring in The Exorcist III.

While it could be true that only an exorcism will save the M’s season, it was frustrating to discover that Mojo had shut down its super-clear broadcast of last night’s slugfest against the Rangers. The extra-frame affair was still available on normal cable, but only via FSN Channel 30, a big letdown for high-deinition baseball addicts. [....]

An amiable rep explained the facts of life: Comcast leases a four-hour window from Mojo to air each M’s game. Usually that’s sufficient. But last night, for the second time this season, it wasn’t.

tHom Brenneman and Chris Welch May or May Not Be Child Pornographers

Oh, hello. What’s that? You want me to back up my claim that tHom Brenneman and Chris Welch may or may not be child pornographers? Why should I? tHom and Chris weren’t forced to back up their completely ludicrous implication Monday night on a live baseball broadcast that Cub stud catcher Geovany Soto has used performance-enhancing drugs.

THOM: You look at his career numbers, I’m talking about his minor league numbers, he just came to the majors for the first time this season. And you wonder, you know, where did all of this offense all of a sudden come from Geovany Soto?…You look at his minor league numbers, .260 one year, .269, .242, .271, .253…he had never hit more than nine home runs in a minor league season..NINE, until last year when he hit TWENTY-SIX in Triple-A Iowa and hit .353. Now all of a sudden, in his first full-year in the major leagues, granted it’s only a month and a week, but he’s hitting almost .340 and leads the Cubs in runs batted in with 24.

CHRIS: I don’t mean this in a bad way, but before steroid testing, you see a blip in the radar like that you say, well..

THOM: Right…

CHRIS: …one of the possibilities might be he’s juicing, but obviously that’s not the case anymore, everyone’s tested. And you know that doesn’t happen very much with baseball players because usually, whether it’s at the minor league level or the major league level, by the time you’re 28 or so…I’m not sure how old Soto is…he’s only 25, you reach a certain plateau of productivity. You pretty much stay within range. Maybe now that he’s getting closer to the prime of his career…around…he’s 25, so it’ll be a couple years until he’s in that…but maybe he’s reaching a new plateau.

THOM: Well another guy that was similar to that was Sammy Sosa…now people can accuse Sosa of “did he do this or did he do that”. To my knowledge he’s never been tested in a positive way for any kind of steroids, whether people believe or not he did is an entirely different question.

But the point being, that Sosa was one of those guys coming up through the White Sox organization who never hit many home runs, then all of a sudden got to the big leagues and started knocking the cover off the ball.

More demoronic Brenneman antics here...at The Cub Reporter.

TRICKS OF THE TRADE (Steve Phillips on the Reds)

4. CALL HANK

Have owner Bob Castellini ring Hank Steinbrenner and tell him you’ve got a way to move Joba Chamberlain into the Yankees’ rotation. Offer Jared Burton, who’s whiffing hitters in bunches, and Jeremy Affeldt for Phil Hughes. Sell Burton as Chamberlain’s eighth-inning replacement and Affeldt as the situational lefty the Yanks lack. Throw in Arroyo if they want. Make it an owners deal. Castellini and Hank will love it; GM Brian Cashman will hate it. The bottom line is that Aaron Harang, Johnny Cueto, Edinson Vólquez and Hughes would give Cincy four very different looks.

I interviewed with Phillips during the last year of his Mets tenure. He’d never heard of Baseball Prospectus. I wonder if that’s still true.

NY BASEBALL Report Card- YES and SNY

Lucha libre bonanza!...Loudmouths vs Michael Kay and his Large Head!

YES does a great job at game coverage minus the fact that their rotating collection of announcers can get annoying. On any given day it can be a combination of Michael Kay or Ken Singleton on play by play with Paul O’Neill, David Cone, Al Leiter and John Flaherty rotating in and out as color guys. It’s hard to hit that rhythm you expect from your broadcast team over the course of 162 game season when every day is a new combination. Neither Kay nor Singleton does the strongest play by play in baseball and they can both be a little bland sometimes but neither makes me want to turn the volume down.

Michael Kay and his large head are not universally loved by fans. He likes to flex his Fordham education by using big words and this turns off much of his blue collar audience. To their credit some of his broadcast partners have done a good job bringing him back down to earth. (Especially Paul O’neill who will make fun of him about his head size, his waist size and his pretentiousness) Almost every partner he has will make a comment like “That’s just my opinion but I didn’t go to Fordham.” It’s these types of light hearted jabs between Kay and the ex Yankees that make me think he doesn’t have as big a chip on his shoulder as some fans think. While the majority of fans like their play by play guys to be some one they think they can go get a beer with: The Vin Scully type who has a good story for every occasion. Michael Kay is more of a game show host. He likes to moderate the chaos of the game and add in a witty line every now and again.

Thanks to Baseball Musings.

Basebology (The Study of Baseball): Tim McCarver making sense

Stop the World - I Want to Get Offed!

Since the Cubs were playing, Joe started rambling on about their supposedly cursed past. That Kosuke Fukudome appeared recently on the cover of Sports Illustrated also served as fodder for Joe’s discussion of famous jinxes. Joe remarked that Fukudome had gone 4-4 the day after the his cover issue hit the stand. After musing over Fukudome’s ignorance of Cubs history and the variety of curses associated with them, he then asked Tim if he believed in curses or jinxes.

Now, it would be normal for Tim to play along with this silly idea. Tim however chose to rather bluntly shoot it down. “No,” he said, “I don’t believe in curses or jinxes or anything like that.”

Buck then decided to bait McCarver by talking about how poorly McCarver had played after his two appearances on the cover of SI. McCarver responded again bluntly: “Can’t a guy just play badly? What can’t a guy just not play well? You don’t need some curse or jinx to play poorly. Haven’t we come far enough as a society not to believe in those things?”

Buck disagreed. He was probably being facetious, but I don’t care. This whole superstitious curse nonsense is junk. It was junk for the Red Sox and it’s junk for the Cubs. Yeah, it’s marginally funny, but only for so long. I’m tired about hearing about the freakin’ Billy Goat. I don’t want to hear about black cats.

Tim McCarver, at least for five minutes, was a stalwart defender of the scientific way of looking at things, of reason and common sense, of not being an idiot.

US Marshals allegedly drove McCarver and Buck to Fenway

Hopefully in handcuffs and matching snaffle split bit pony gags!

Federal authorities are investigating whether the head of the US Marshals Service in Boston assigned deputy marshals, normally charged with tracking fugitives and protecting judges, to ferry Fox Sports broadcasters Tim McCarver and Joe Buck between their hotel and Fenway Park during last year’s World Series.

more stories like thisThe Justice Department’s office of the inspector general in Boston is looking into whether Yvonne Bonner overstepped her authority as acting US Marshal in Boston or violated any ethics rules by allegedly ordering her deputies to essentially serve as private taxi drivers, according to two law enforcement officials and other people familiar with the investigation. They talked on the condition of anonymity, because the investigation is ongoing.

During both home games, on Oct. 24 and Oct. 25, two deputy marshals allegedly watched the Red Sox defeat the Colorado Rockies from the broadcast booth with McCarver and Buck, as well as Joseph Band, a lawyer who works for the US Marshals Service in Washington and occasionally does work for the Fox network, the officials said.

Newsday: Best: MLB.com believes strongly in charging for live games

The premium version costs $119.95 for the season and features amazing resolution for computer video. The regular version costs $89.95.

The recent trend in streaming video, from “Amen Corner Live” at The Masters to “March Madness on Demand’’ at the NCAAs is ad supported rather than fee supported.

Bob Bowman, the head of MLB Advanced Media, says baseball is not ready to go that route. “We believe firmly in charging for premium content,’’ he said.

The percentage of subscribers who opt for the $119.95 level, which features clearer pictures and the ability to watch six games at once, has risen from about 20 percent to about 65.

Overall, Bowman said, the service had about 400,000 subscribers last season and is growing at 20 to 30 percent per year.

Make that 399,999 subscribers...as my MLB.TV Nosaic is still frozen from Sept.!

Bissinger launches a profane, boneheaded attack on the Internet for being profane and boneheaded

King Bees Buzz...On Your Way Down the Drain.

The segment opened with a packaged piece in which Leitch gave a boilerplate defense of his site’s existence, then more of the same between Costas and Leitch live at the round table. Costas, who has recently taken some get-off-my-lawnish potshots at the blogosphere, joked, “To my surprise, I find you very palatable in person.”

After a few moments, Bissinger could take no more. Perched sideways on his chair as though the very act of sharing a planetary atmosphere with Leitch was painful to him, he said, “I’m just going to interject because I feel very strongly about this: I really think you’re full of ####.”

Thus spake the man who says he has “spent 40 years of my life trying to perfect the craft” of writing—which those punk kids on the Internet would never do—and who is offended by the profane tone of the blogs.

That is, in the comment he printed out and brought to the show and read on “Costas Now,” which to Bissinger apparently represents the entire Internet. This routine was very much like holding up a gummy worm and saying, “Food is terrible. I mean, look at this thing.”

What a yutz.

FJM: A Few Words on “The Internet”

And Will Leitch’s take on the Costas/Bissinger disaster....

For what I hope is the last time, but is clearly not: the level of discourse on Athletics Nation, and Baseball Prospectus, and SoSH, and Joe Posnanski’s blog, is every bit as high (if not higher) than what you can read in the best newspapers in the country. Bissinger’s hare-brained attempt to prove Leitch an uneducated oaf by asking whether he had read any W.C. Heinz (which failed miserably when Leitch had, in fact, read some W. C. Heinz) was a perfect example of the old guard’s attitude toward the new guard: you little shits don’t get it. You don’t know how to write. You have no gratitude or appreciation for those who came before you. So: #### you. (P.S. I have never really read your blog.) (P.P.S. #### you, though, anyway.)

There are sports bloggers (and message-board posters) who write very well, in my opinion. There are those who love Ring Lardner and David Halberstam and Robert Creamer and Roger Angell. They try to write well, and entertain, and contribute to the universe of sports reporting. Please read them, Buzz. If you find nothing of interest, you can swear all you want. (For the record, FJM is extremely pro-swearing. We just feel you should be funny while doing it.)

If there is anything tangible and helpful to take away from Mr. Bissinger’s performance—and it takes a good deal of chaff-sorting to get anywhere near this little nugget—I think it’s this: a lot of the discourse and sub-discourse (commenting) on the internet is, in fact, pretty shitty. This is not news, though, really. A lot of newspaper writing and editorial writing and every kind of writing is shitty. It’s just not as immediate and anonymous and easily-accessed as Internet writing is. Thus, the net has this reputation, now, as being a nihilistic and thoughtless meetingplace for people to spew venom. Partially deserved, partially not, whatever—point is, the part that is deserved can be altered. We can all probably do a little better in this realm, by making sure that whatever we write has an actual point, and some thought behind it. So, there’s that.

Okay. I guess that’s it. As the kids would say: [/serious and unfunny discussion of Internet journalism standards]. Coming soon: more swearing!

Dodger Thoughts: Weisman: Vincent Scully ‘49

If I’m not mistaken...Scully was an original member of The Concords.

I was saving this for a special occasion, but when I read that Vin Scully’s Fordham alma mater was going to honor him tonight, it seemed like the right time to run it. Earlier this year, I had contacted the Fordham sports information department to see if there was anything fun they could find in their archives about Vinny, and they were kind enough to send me his yearbook photo.

Fordham’s radio station, WFUV 90.7 FM, is celebrating its 60th anniversary this evening in New York.

“I’m deeply grateful for these honors and consider myself extremely fortunate,” Scully said in the press release. “I was at Fordham when they started their FM radio station 60 years ago so I consider it a real privilege to have been there at the beginning.”

Sports media will be analyzed on HBO’s “Costas Now”

The sports media will take center stage on a special live, 90-minute edition of “Costas Now” at 10 p.m. Tuesday on HBO. There will be five segments on the show, and it will be conducted in a town-hall setting.

“On [Tuesday], we’re going to take stock of the sports media landscape,”HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg said. “We look forward to a comprehensive and opinionated evening of discussion.”

Segment One: Sports Talk Radio. Video package interviews: Chicago radio host Mike North, Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti and WFAN radio hosts Mike and the Mad Dog. Live Panel: N.Y. Giants defensive end Michael Strahan, best selling author and radio host Mitch Albom and WFAN radio host Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo.

Segment Two: The Internet and Impact of Bloggers. Video package interviews: deadspin.com editor Will Leitch, TV writer and media critic Michael Schur and Washington Post columnist and PTI host Michael Wilbon. Live panel: Pulitzer Prize winning author Buzz Bissinger, Will Leitch and Cleveland Browns wide receiver Braylon Edwards.

Segment Six: Eight town drugdrunks (including Glocko the Swill) will discuss how embarrassing it is for a grown man to be caught carrying a Mickey Mantle baseball card while receiving full depantsiation rights in a hobo alleyway.

My Pinstripes: Michael Kay, Yea or Nay?

A nice piece of hitting by Mantlemurcer! (Vote Early, Vote Coffin!)

Repetitiveness

Kay definitely has a penchant for repeating himself. We don’t mean the kind of repeating that Tim McCarver does, where he’s still dissecting a play from three innings ago. We’re referring to his constant mentioning of certain things. Some examples:

The size of Kevin Mench’s head; Every time the Yankees play the team Mench is on, Kay goes on about how large Mench’s melon is. Okay, we get it. It’s a throwback to the ‘70s when Frank Messer couldn’t stop talking about how Carlos May had half his thumb blown off.

The repeat use of phrases, especially corny ones. “He’s like the girl with the curl. He’s either very good or very bad.”

The “Martini Glass” defense to describe the shift when Jason Giambi comes up.

Asinine gimmickry -“QuanGorMo" to describe the Yankees 7th thru 9th inning relievers, or is overly obnoxious and loathed, “Generation Trey” to lump Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, and Ian Kennedy together. What makes that one worse is David Cone has picked it up. On the bright side, no one else has.

CStB: Raissman : Wilpon TV Is Leaning On MetsBlog

Jeesh, for a station that shows “Scream Benigno Scream” at least three times a day...you’d think they wouldn’t care about this stuff.

Prior to the start of the season, Matthew Cerrone joined forces with the Mets and SportsNet New York in a deal to have MetsBlog.com appear on SNY’s Web site. This was followed by a lot of yap-flapping out of Metsville (and MetsBlog) about MetsBlog being able to continue doing its thing.

On Thursday, MetsBlog posted a YouTube video of Joe Smith going mouth-to-mouth (”You ain’t s— … I’m in the big leagues you idiot”) with Cubs fans. Spies say when a Mets official was made aware of the video’s presence, he had it immediately pulled off MetsBlog.

For MetsBlog, and its fans, that’s called livin’ in a corporate world.

If SNY is hellbent ridding itself of any questionable associations, where’s the censors for Chris Cotter’s haircut?

Petitti Exits CBS Sports to Lead MLB Cable Channel

Reet Petitti and Gone…

Tony Petitti is leaving CBS Sports to head the new cable channel being set up by Major League Baseball, a CBS Sports spokeswoman confirmed.

Mr. Petitti has been executive VP and executive producer at CBS Sports. He reported to CBS News and Sports President Sean McManus, leaving him little career upside.

Major League Baseball plans to launch its channel next year. It originally was going to be launched by DirecTV as part of a deal giving the satellite carrier exclusive rights to baseball’s out-of-market games package. But after a series of protests and political wrangling, major cable operators also got to offer the package and acquired stakes in the channel, which they will carry as well.

That means the channel will avoid the challenge of getting distribution that has stunted the growth of the NFL Network and NBA-TV.

Harold Reynolds joins SNY as baseball analyst

Drinks all around!

SNY, the television home of the Mets, today announced that former MLB All-Star Harold Reynolds has joined the network as a baseball analyst. Reynolds will primarily work with Lee Mazzilli and Matt Yallof on SNY’s Mets pre- and post-game shows. Reynold’s first appearance on SNY will be in-studio on Friday, April 25 at 6:30 p.m. when the Mets take on the Atlanta Braves. In addition to his new role with SNY, Harold will continue his analyst role at MLB.com.

“Harold’s studio experience, keen insight and strong relationships with current and former players will enhance our baseball coverage and add a new dimension to our shows,” said Curt Gowdy, Jr., Senior Vice President of Production and Executive Producer of SNY. “We’re excited to have him join our team, and look forward to him sharing his in-depth knowledge of the game with our viewers.”

“This is a great opportunity, and I am excited to join SNY as I’ve admired their exceptional baseball coverage in New York,” said Harold Reynolds. “I have great relationships with the Mets, SNY and MLB.com, and I’m looking forward to working with the SNY team.”

MLB: Astros: Tejada says he, family were misled by ESPN

Not since Stuttering John interviewed Ted Williams...have I seen such outrage!

Tejada says that during that interview, ESPN reporter Tom Farrey surprised him with a copy of his birth certificate while on camera. Tejada reacted by walking out of the interview.

“They called me about two days before the interview and told me it was going to be more about baseball,” Tejada said. “When I got there, I thought it was about baseball and they throw me a 98 mph fastball inside.”

“E:60,” an hour-long investigative show on ESPN, plans to air its report on Tejada on Tuesday at 6 p.m. CT.

Tejada said he was particularly disappointed with how his family was treated.

“They went to my father’s house,” he said. “They got the camera everywhere in my father’s house. I don’t know what they tried to find. They interviewed my father, and they interviewed people from my neighborhood and everything. They [ate] in my father’s house. They make my sister cook for them. That’s why I feel mad. ... I had an enemy inside of my father’s house, and my family treats you nice. And look at what they did to me. My family is really mad right now.”

Dugout Central: Moore: Baseball’s Best Announcers

Yeeerch!...Some of the names on this list makes me want to feel someone’s throat with a pair of super-vanadium bolzenschneider pincers!

10 – Marty Brennaman

Certainly not to be confused with his son Thom, who too often shows displeasure for the antics of the 21st century athlete, Marty is a classic voice who has done multiple sports on the national stage, but still shows his passion for his beloved Cincinnati Reds.

6 – Joe Buck

Buck certainly has his detractors, and often interjects too much of his own opinion into the broadcast when facts would better serve his listeners, but his classic voice coupled with a strong knowledge of the game make a good package for someone who is also asked to split his time as the top football announcer for Fox. More importantly, he manages to maintain his composure and professionalism while being stuck next to the incredibly long-winded and often incorrect Tim McCarver. The sheer fact that he hasn’t stopped in the middle of a broadcast to ask McCarver what the heck he’s talking about is a testament to Buck. I’d rather hear Buck’s opinion, as out of place as it might be during a baseball game, than hear McCarver say something completely untrue.

HALL OF FAME RESEARCHER TO APPEAR ON ‘JEOPARDY!’

(In best Art Phlegming voice)...Yes, Jeeks Rajagopal..."Uhh, who is James Yasko?” BZZZZZZZT!...You, Frank Spangenberg..."Errr, who is Bruce Markusen?” BZZZZZZZT...Go, Mr. Chuck Forrest..."Who is Gabriel Schechter? DING! DING! DING!“

In the category of current events, the answer is: National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum Library researcher and Otsego County resident who will appear on the national broadcast of “Jeopardy!” this Friday night, April 18.
Question: “Who is Gabriel Schechter?”

Alex Trebek would declare this answer correct, as the broadcast featuring Schechter hits the airwaves Friday, two months after Schechter taped the show in Los Angeles on Feb. 6. On Time Warner Cable in Cooperstown, the show is scheduled to air at 7:30 p.m. ET on WKTV, the local NBC affiliate.

Schechter, who has been in employment with the Museum since 2002, can’t reveal any details of the actual taping until the show airs but had quite a story in getting to the actual taping, capping a process that started early in 2006.

Harold Reynolds, ESPN settle ‘wrongful termination’ lawsuit

Harold Reynolds and ESPN have settled Reynolds’ “wrongful termination” lawsuit, which he filed after being fired by ESPN in 2006 after 11 years as an on-air analyst.

ESPN, which fired Reynolds in July 2006 as their baseball analyst on Baseball Tonight, was scheduled to go to trial with Reynolds in February 2009.

Reynolds claimed he was wrongly fired after a female intern complained about what he called a “brief and innocuous” hug.

Details will remain private. But Reynolds, in a statement, says that “my wife and I are very happy to have achieved an amicable settlement with ESPN. I feel my goals were satisfied, and I look forward now to concentrating on the game I love.”

Klismaphilia Twister Nights are a gas!

Raissman: Tim McCarver, Joe Buck whiff with silent treatment

“Whiff-a-ree and whiff-a-rye
Gonna keep on a whiffin’, boys, ‘till I die.
Ho, ho, honey take a whiff on me.”

This was the perfect opening for McCarver to chime in. Instead, he continued to invoke his right to remain silent. Maybe T-Mac left the booth for a bathroom break. Maybe he split to get a hot dog. Or maybe McCarver left Fenway altogether so he could catch the start of that NASCAR race Fox was airing Saturday night.

The fact McCarver’s voice could be heard, and his mug seen, during what turned out to be a long afternoon, proved the latter was not the case. So, after Ramirez hammered Mussina’s first pitch to right-center, driving in both runners, it became even more glaring an omission that the subject of Girardi’s controversial decision was not broached during the broadcast.

McCarver, baseball’s premier analyst, has always been a passionate first-guesser. That said, he still should have offered his take on Girardi’s “strategy” even after Ramirez proved it to be bogus. Buck comes up small here, too. If McCarver wasn’t going to talk about it, or was reluctant to second guess, Buck should have simply asked him: “Why do you think Girardi allowed Mussina to pitch to Ramirez?”

Timmermann: MLB.tv, I can’t say I wasn’t warned (updated with less interesting information!)

I want my Bob Tv!

UPDATE: I called MLB.com today and became a former MLB.tv subscriber. Back to the world of Extra Innings. Television as seen on television! What a concept!

UPDATE 2: MLB.com’s email support says that “Bob Timmerman” has a different e-mail address than what I gave them and I can’t have my account cancelled. And people wonder why I tell people to spell my name correctly. Also, MLB.com’s Mosaic support team will be glad to help you if you send them a DXDIAG report or a NetStat report. Because that’s something that I’ve always expected to do to get my computer to work.

Despite all this, I could watch NCAA Tournament games on CBS Sportsline with no problems. And I didn’t even get charged for that.

Why didn’t I just sign up to get beaten up by Bud Selig and Bob Bowman with a sack of door knobs instead?

UPDATE 3: The door knob beatings commence. MLB.com won’t even display a login screen for my Gameday audio, which I still pay for. I was told it was a website issue. But I was also advised to make sure I have Silverlight installed. That apparently will make the door knob beating more enjoyable.

NY Daily News/Price and Raissman:  Fox Picks NASCAR Over Yanks Finish

Heidi-heidi-heidi-ho!

Fox spokesman Dan Bell, who said the network had to show the entire NASCAR race, said Fox apologized for the switch, but added it had warned viewers of the Yanks-Red Sox game several times of the upcoming move.

Bell also said when the game resumed at 8:30 p.m., play-by-play man Joe Buck told viewers the game was also being simulcast on FX, giving them plenty of time to switch over before the plug was pulled. Bell said Buck gave the last warning at 8:53 p.m.

Bell said Fox’s MLB contract only calls for a required 4-7 p.m. Eastern time slot.

“We had two great events we thought we would be able to air in their entirety,” Bell said. “It’s not the way we planned this out. We apologize to viewers.”

Bell said Fox did all it could, even asking NASCAR to push the start of the race back from 8:45 p.m. to 8:53 p.m. - which it agreed to - thinking the game would be over by then.

But the two-hour, 10-minute rain delay meant the game - which, according to Bell, was being shown to 97% of the country - didn’t resume until 8:30 p.m., and couldn’t finish before the start of the race.

“We understand if viewers are upset,” Bell said.

N.Y. Daily News: Fox picks NASCAR over Yanks finish

And it wasn’t even for the junkifried “For a Heluva Good Time Call Shane Hmiel! 200” race!

The Fox network, in a move that no doubt gave local sports fans awful flashbacks to a Jets-Raiders game on Nov. 17, 1968, bailed from the Red Sox-Yankees game Saturday night with two outs in the top of the ninth and the Bombers trailing, 4-3.

Instead of showing the end of a fierce at-bat between Robinson Cano and Jonathan Papelbon, Fox switched to the start of the Subway Fresh Fit 500 - a 312-lap race - at 8:55 p.m.

The rest of Cano’s at-bat was broadcast on FX - Fox’s cable outlet - while viewers on Channel 5 got to see the green flag drop in Phoenix.

What fans who don’t have cable - or couldn’t find FX on their cable system - didn’t see was Cano ground out to end a game that was delayed by rain for two hours.

..."We understand if viewers are upset,” Bell said.

Klapisch: Cone dwells on new career

Uhhh...Paid plugger for The Random Masturbation Synonym Generator?

His voice is a little thicker, not quite crisp enough for prime time baseball. Still, Cone has his arms wrapped tightly around this experiment. After a five-year hiatus from the sport, he’s committed to a 50-game schedule with YES this summer, even if meant living with the requisite growing pains.

Cone is getting a fast education in broadcasting: it’s not that easy, even if the action in front of him is as pitching-centric as Chien-Ming Wang’s 4-1 victory over the Red Sox on Friday. Cone himself admits he’s fumbled for the right description, the proper timing, the right inflection – all the elements of the job he never considered as an active player.

As he put it, “It’s one thing to sit on a couch in the middle of the clubhouse, watching “SportCenter” and saying, ‘Why did [the announcer] say that?’ Or, ‘I would’ve never said something like that.’ It’s a whole different thing when you’re on the other side.”

The Biz of Baseball: Yahoo! & MLB.com Reach Video Distribution, Ad Sales Deal

Might MLB.TV actually become cheaper? Don’t count on it!

Yahoo! and MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM), the interactive media and Internet company of Major League Baseball, today announced a three-year video and advertising partnership that includes access to out-of-market MLB games on Yahoo! Sports.

[...]

The agreement will make MLB.TV available on Yahoo! Sports, bringing Yahoo! users more than 2,400 out-of-market Major League Baseball games each year, live and on-demand, through the 2010 season. Additionally, Yahoo! will exclusively manage online advertising sales for MLB.TV in the 2009 and 2010 seasons. This deal represents a continuation of Yahoo! Sports’ commitment to delivering the most compelling sports content on the web while significantly increasing the amount of high-quality video advertising inventory available to Yahoo! advertisers.

[...]

Yahoo! Sports will offer MLB.TV to fans in 11 countries, including the United States , Canada , Mexico , UK , Philippines and Germany . The games will be available through a co-branded player on Yahoo! Sports at http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb and MLB.com. During the first year of the deal, Yahoo! and MLBAM will jointly sell advertising for the video inventory, using Yahoo!’s advanced video ad format, Clickable, in addition to traditional pre-roll and post roll formats. For the remaining two years of the agreement, Yahoo! will be solely responsible for selling video advertising inventory for MLB.TV. All of this will be powered by Yahoo!’s industry-leading advertising management platform, AMP! from Yahoo!.

DORIS DAY’S SECRET AFFAIR WITH SPORTS STAR MICKEY MANTLE

With sex you get eggroll on your face…

Singer/actress DORIS DAY once embarked on a whirlwind affair with late American baseball player MICKEY MANTLE, according to an upcoming book.

American author David Kaufman clams in his tell-all tome Doris Day: The Untold Story of the Girl Next Door that Day met Mantle on the set of 1962 movie That Touch of Mink.

He writes, “A notorious womaniser, Mantle boasted to friends that not only had he slept with Day at his regular suite in New York’s St. Moritz Hotel, but that she was ‘one of the best f**ks of his life.’”

However, a spokeswoman for Day has refused to comment on the reports.

CStB: Buck : Jose Reyes’ Handshakes Not Nearly As Offensive As Randy Moss’ Butt

And Mark Grace’s all-knowing “I don’t wanna know jackshiit about Reggaetón and neither should you!” leer after the flashy Jose Reyes video intro...was riddimlessness at its best.

Fox’s Ken Rosenthal provided the obligatory note about how Mets SS Jose Reyes will be “toning it down” this year, yet another reference to the speedster’s penchant for funny handshakes, supposedly excessive celebrations, etc.

Just in case we didn’t know what Rosenthal was talking about — and perhaps for the benefit of blind viewers, unable to see Fox’s clips of Jose doing-his-thing in years past — Tim McCarver launched into a lengthy diatribe about Reyes’ uncouth behavior, the degree to which he’s pissed off opponents (the Marlins in particular) and all but held the shortstop responsible for the Mets’ September collapse.

“So…,” mused Joe Buck. “Other teams play harder against the Mets because…they don’t like his handshake?”

An audibly frustrated McCarver replied, “It’s about decorum. It’s about being a professional. You don’t see David Wright doing that kind of thing.”

After a slight pause, Buck chimed back in. “It’s just Week One. I’m only yanking your chain.”

Back in Black: Extra Innings and MLB.TV Blackouts

Here’s how the blackout policy for nationally broadcasted games works, as defined by MLB.com:

* Local Live Blackout: ALL LIVE MLB.TV games will be blacked out in each applicable Club’s home television territory (except for certain home television territories for which MLB.com may offer in-market subscription services) or in Japan.

* National Live Blackout (Regular Season): Due to Major League Baseball national exclusivities, each Saturday until 7:00 PM EST (beginning May 17, 2008 and continuing for remaining Saturdays during the regular season) and each Sunday night (for games that begin after 5:00 PM EST), all scheduled webcasts of games played within such time period will be blacked out.

* National Live Blackout (Post Season): Due to Major League Baseball national exclusivities, during the MLB postseason, if you live within the following nations or territories, webcasts of all postseason games will be blacked out: United States, Canada, Guam, US Virgin Islands, South Korea and Japan.

* NOTE: Due to broadcast restrictions, new MLB.TV and Condensed Game archives are limited to a playing time of five minutes in duration until 6 am ET on the day following that on which the applicable game commenced play.

Confused? You’re not the only one. And that’s just the national blackout policy.