 |
|
The latest comeback in sports now belongs to ESPN’s Hannah Storm.
Storm, who has been with THE EARLY SHOW on CBS, will join ESPN as part of a morning edition of SPORTSCENTER, her first sports assignment since leaving NBC’s sports department in 2002. Read more…
WE ARE THE POSTMEN, who can call us Flower if they want to, have found that ESPN has hooked up with UEFA and Coldplay for a three-way marketing fluid exchange to drop songs from Coldplay’s upcoming record into Euro 2008 coverage in June.
(What do you mean, “But Bob’s not coming out with a new album any time soon”? Just make it happen)
Someone crunched numbers and ran Q1 numbers to conclude U.S. soccer fans like their adult contemporary rock. Considering we know a certain member of UNPROFESSIONAL FOUL spent a lot of time with Wilco earlier this spring, we’re not sure we can disagree with any conviction. (We’re also fairly sure we’re the first to combine Coldplay and Wilco since Austin in 2005.)
Read more…
In order to bring some flash & flair to their March Madness coverage, ESPN invited Bob Knight to set his butt down at the Bristol anchor desk. Now, the Worldwide Leader is hoping to repeat the same success with the NHL playoffs (or at least the same media buzz) by bringing aboard Don Cherry.
(SbB Girls Colene, Alex & Crystal stay healthy with Cherry)
The TORONTO GLOBE & MAIL reports that the CBC hockey hothead and 7th Greatest Canadian Ever will be adding his analysis and aggravations to SportsCenter (or as they call it up north, “SportsCentre”). Don makes his debut this Friday, but he won’t be carrying on from the Connecticut studios.
(Wild wardrobe gallery from the Don Cherry collection after the jump.)
Like all of us, I like Kenny Mayne. I think his deadpan delivery belongs on TV, and I hope he stays good and long at ESPN. I like mentioning him because it gives me the opportunity to roll out a Buster Keaton reference - which is who he reminds me of (next up: Scott Van Pelt as Harold Lloyd!).
(Buy it, we dare ya)
Kenny also reminds me of that quirky rock band that every major record label once had. No one bought their albums, but because that was a time when record companies actually made a lot of money, the add-on ensemble was a feather for those occupying the company penthouse.
I also want you to buy his new book, “An Incomplete and Inaccurate History of Sport“. At least if you want to. I’m not here to deter you on that whatsoever (notice the pained, mixed signals?).
The last few weeks, a lot of us bloggers were emailed 3-4 times by Kenny’s publisher’s PR outfit, which cooked up some semi-lame gadgets to promote the book (ex. one email had Kenny declaring himself eligible for the NFL Draft). We mention this not to mock Kenny. If we were trying to move a book, we’d probably try something similar. Something, anything to get people to notice our offering in the now-noisy, well-read blogosphere. Read more…
You would assume ESPN is in full backpedal mode over its absurd E:60 hit piece on Miguel Tejada.
I’m not so sure the WWL’s suits really care though about the laughable reax to the Tejada thing. For that reason, as AA points out, don’t look for this on E:60 anytime this century.
Dan Le Batard interviewed ESPN NBA analyst Tim Legler on WAXY-AM in Miami this week (audio starts at 5:36), and asked him, “What one thing would you change that bothers you about the (sports) media?”
Legler’s response: “The thing that bothers me the most is what has become a very blurred line between a journalist and ex-players as analysts - people that actually played the game.”
(*Mystery*: A “writer” spouting “inaccurate” analysis who “isn’t qualified”?)
“That’s not to say that everybody that’s an analyst who was an ex-player is good at this job, because we both know there’s a lot of guys out there that probably shouldn’t be on TV or radio.“
“But more and more journalists (sportswriters) now cross over into doing real, hard analysis and trying to get into what’s going on on the court and what should go on on the court and a lot of times, I just don’t think a lot of (those) people are qualified to do that.“
Then Legs gets a smidge more specific. Read more…
We received this photo of Jim Gray’s star on Hollywood Blvd. shortly after we posted last Friday that he’s out of work.
We’ve also heard from several, well-connected media moles that no one will now hire him (just check out the hacks roaming the sidelines during the NBA playoffs). Read more…
