ATTN WNBA AND MLS EXECS: USA TODAY has this comment from NBC NASCAR Producer Sam Flood: "In Year 1, we got killed. Fox set the table and clearly had the advantage. I agree that the entertainment value on our show was an issue (at first). But this year we have (instituted) Operation Entertainment. Every 10 minutes of the telecast, there has to be a production element."

KAY’S STRAY DOESN’T PLAY: FireJoeMorgan.com gives insight into why ESPN 1050 has put nary a dent in WFAN’s stranglehold on NYC’s sports radio ratings.

The website reports 1050 host and Yankees TV announcer Michael Kay started his show last Friday by declaring "the Red Sox officially are dead.”

But instead of Yankee fans calling up to agree and revel in his proclamation, he was instead chastised by listeners for putting a jinx on the team.

A caller later in the show piled on, complaining that Kay also jinxed a potential no-hitter by Yankee Pitcher Chien-Ming Wang earlier in the season by pointing out the possibility on-air.

While Kay correctly responded that on-field baseball etiquette shouldn’t apply to the broadcast booth, he also used the occasion to shout down the listener and then somehow, some way, ended up comparing the misquided baseball custom to the Holocaust and enslavement of blacks(!).

Kay to caller: "Why can’t I say it (mention a no-hitter)?! It used to be etiquette to have black people as slaves, it’s over. Tell me why?!"

Caller: "Whoa …"

Kay: "… Baseball etiquette?! There’s a lot of rules that don’t make sense, that’s why there was Nazi Germany. Why did they march people into ovens? Well that’s what they told them to do, it’s a stupid, stupid reason!! "

You do have to give Kay some measure of credit though, since has done the impossible: make Chris Russo look like a voice of reason in the wilderness.