Dan Moriarty: September 2007 Archives
ESPN reports that Mike Tirico and Stephen A. Smith will take over the
time slot vacated by, the recently retired, Dan Patrick. "The Mike
Tirico Show" will be broadcast from 1-3 p.m. and "The Stephen A. Smith
Show" from 3-4 p.m. on ESPN Radio. Tirico is the current
play-by-play man for "ESPN Monday Night Football" and will debut his
radio show on Thursday._______________________________
NEW YORK -- Mike Tirico, one of the original hosts when ESPN
Radio launched in 1992, will take over part of the daily sports-talk time slot
previously held by Dan Patrick.
"It is a thrill to return to my roots in two different
ways," Tirico said in a statement, "as radio is the medium where I
started my career during my college days at WAER in Syracuse, and I remember
being part of the team the first weekend ESPN Radio hit the air in January of
1992. I am really looking forward to returning to the day-to-day sports
conversation that is talk radio."
According to SportsBusiness Daily Pepsi's AMP energy drink will be the title sponsor for the game between the Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins. The game will be held at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, NY on January 1st. This is the second NHL game to be held outside and the attendance could reach 74,000 people. The game will start at 1pm and will be broadcast by NBC in the United States and CBC in Canada.
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Conde Nast Portfolio:
The citizens of Buffalo will probably need more than energy drink during the scheduled New Year's Day outdoor National Hockey League game at Ralph Wilson Stadium.
Pepsi's AMP energy drink will title sponsor the outdoor affair on Jan. 1, the league said.
"We're making history with a game that is sure to generate great interest and excitement," said Ralph Santana, VP of sports, media and interactive marketing, Pepsi-Cola North America. "The incredible energy, power and speed of hockey will be on display, making this event a perfect fit for AMP Energy."
The AMP NHL Winter Classic will feature the Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins and be televised by NBC.
"Many of our players have great memories of playing outdoors when they were growing up," NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said today. "This game provides a wonderful opportunity to showcase our great players, honor hockey's heritage and ring in the New Year with the best fans in sports."
Bob Nightengale of USA Today is reporting that Major League Baseball could soon be adding Human Growth Hormone testing to their drug program. Major League Baseball has been dealing with a drug problem in what has become known as "The Steroid Era" and they are trying to strengthen their drug testing program. As of right now, HGH is not being tested in MLB and because of this they are subject to some scrutiny. The testing of HGH would give Major League Baseball one of the top drug testing programs in all of sports.
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"Human growth hormone is a problem for all sports," said Rob Manfred, MLB's chief labor lawyer. "I know the other leagues are concerned about it, too."
The commissioner's office, Manfred said, plans to meet with three players who recently were identified by the Albany, N.Y., prosecutor's office for allegedly being involved in a Florida pharmaceutical company providing performance-enhancing drugs: Jay Gibbons of the Baltimore Orioles, Rick Ankiel of the St. Louis Cardinals and Troy Glaus of the Toronto Blue Jays.
Los Angeles Angels outfielder Gary Matthews Jr., who was identified by SI.com in March as receiving HGH several years ago, may also be summoned when he is no longer targeted in a criminal investigation, Manfred said.
MLB has also met with officials from the Albany district attorney's office, offering its cooperation. Former senator George Mitchell's steroid investigative team met once with Albany investigators, Manfred said, and plans to meet again in an attempt to seek additional names.
The Chicago Tribune reports that Tiger Woods is making the PGA Tour and the FedEx Cup meaningful during a time when the NFL is dominant. This past weekend Tiger Woods won the BMW Championship, which is the third of the four FedEx Cup tournaments and took over the FedEx points lead. This tournament came at the same time as the opening weekend of the NFL and the ratings were surprisingly respectable.
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Even if Tiger Woods doesn't pocket the $10 million bonus for winning the FedEx Cup, they should give it to him anyway. He is carrying this thing.
The power of Tiger was revealed again Monday when the TV ratings came out for the BMW Championship. Sunday's final round did a 3.2 national rating on NBC; one national ratings point is worth more than 1 million households.
That wasn't as high as the 4.0 NBC had done for the last round of the previous FedEx Cup event, the Deutsche Bank Championship. But that tournament didn't have to go up against the NFL, and it had the drawing power of Woods battling Phil Mickelson down the stretch.
Still, Sunday's 3.2 rating was significantly higher than the 2.1 for the final round of the first playoff tournament, The Barclays, in which Mickelson was in contention with Woods sitting out.
For the final 30 minutes, the BMW did a 5.0 national rating, a decent number considering the competition.
Locally, the Bears obviously ruled, doing a 26.9 rating on WFLD-Ch. 32; one local ratings point is worth 34,550 households. But at the same time, golf ranked second in the market from 3-5 p.m. with a 4.2 rating. The tournament actually picked up viewers down stretch, peaking at a 6.9 rating in the final 15 minutes.
Woods, obviously, was the draw on television as he was on the course, accounting for the big crowds at Cog Hill over the weekend. Try to imagine where the FedEx Cup would be without him.
USA Today reports that the NFL has made new media restrictions that are already causing controversy. In an attempt to clean up their image the NFL is limiting where fans can get their media content and videos. Non-NFL websites are only allowed to show 45 second videos starting this season. If fans want to watch highlights or press conferences they need to go to a NFL sanctioned website to see it.
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The nation's richest and most powerful sports league has launched a behind-the-scenes effort to seize greater control over what fans see, read and hear -- and chart an even more lucrative course for itself in the process. It's taking a series of steps to drive more fans and advertisers toward its own NFL Network cable channel and NFL.com website. And at a time when the NFL is trying to clean up its image by cracking down on team personnel who have off-field conduct problems, the league also is imposing new -- critics say onerous -- restrictions on how the independent media cover its players, coaches and teams.
Among the new and controversial restrictions this year: News organization websites not affiliated with the NFL are limited to 45 seconds of video/audio clips a day of team personnel at team facilities. This includes material from interviews, news conferences and practice footage.
The New York TImes reports former "Baseball Tonight" analyst, Harold Reynolds believes that race played a factor in him being fired from ESPN. Reynolds was a popular analyst for ESPN and is now working for MLB.com. He was fired from ESPN over a complaint of sexual harassment from a female intern. Reynolds is now playing a large role in MLB.com launching their new BaseballChannel.TV.
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Harold Reynolds, the former "Baseball Tonight" analyst who is suing ESPN for wrongful termination, said in a court filing yesterday that the network treated him more harshly over a sexual harassment complaint than it treated white employees who engaged in similar types of misbehavior.
ESPN and Reynolds, who is black, had been in settlement discussions that did not work out, said Daniel Alterman, a lawyer for Reynolds.
Reynolds's filing in state court in
"ESPN's rush to its decision to terminate Mr. Reynolds was affected by racial bias," the filing said.
SI.com reports that the Boston Red Sox and Oakland Athletics will start the 2008 Major League Baseball season in the Tokyo Dome. MLB has started the season in Japan in 2000 and 2004. A draft of next years schedule has been sent to the Major League Baseball Players Association on Monday for approval.
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NEW YORK (AP) -- The Boston Red Sox and Oakland Athletics are lined up to meet in a Tokyo Dome opener next season.
Major League Baseball gave the players' union a draft 2008 schedule on Monday, and the Red Sox would open the United States portion of their schedule at Oakland, according to Gene Orza, the union's chief operating officer.
Baseball officials have spent several months formulating a plan in which the Red Sox -- with Japanese stars Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima -- would start the season in Japan against an AL West opponent, then return to the United States for a series at that same AL West team.
Orza said that while Boston and Oakland are leading candidates, it's not a done deal yet.
"Nothing is fixed. Nothing is certain. Obviously, that's one of the things we're looking at," he said.
Jason Krause is the newest member of the Sunday NFL Countdown show on ESPN. Krause is a 10 year old that was hired by ESPN to do a weekly segment on the show. He made his Countdown debut this weekend talking about the Raiders and Lions game. Krause will follow up with weekly installments throughout the rest of the season.
From ESPN Press Release:
"In a new weekly feature, 10-year old Chicago boy Jason Krause will provide commentary while exploring various NFL topics. The first installment will debut this weekend with Krause opining about the long-awaited Lions-Raiders match-up and about quarterback Jon Kitna's off-season 10-win guarantee."
USA Today reports:
"TV rookie Jason Krause, in his debut on ESPN's Sunday NFLCountdown, offered historical perspective on Detroit quarterback Jon Kitna guaranteeing the Lions would win 10 games: "I haven't heard a guarantee that crazy since Joe Namath. Frankly, Kitna, you're no Joe Namath."
In case you missed it, Krause is 10 years old. Really. Next week, Krause might note current coaches that fall short of Vince Lombardi's standards."
The Olympian is reporting that the "Monday Night Football" chemistry test begins tonight. Ron Jaworski makes his "MNF" debut alongside Mike Tirico and Tony Kornheiser when the Baltimore Ravens take on the Cincinnati Bengals at 7pm.
"You want everybody who's watching to want to be in that fourth chair," said John Skipper, ESPN's executive vice president for content.
Viewers feel that way when the commentators enjoy a comfortable rapport. That wasn't always the case during ESPN's MNF debut last season with the team of Mike Tirico, Joe Theismann and Tony Kornheiser.
"We felt we had a better chance for the fourth chair to be attractive with a little different chemistry," Skipper said.
