Watchdog

I talked to Terrell Owens today.

Yes, I know I should have asked him about Tony Romo's singing.

Alas, I did not.

Anna Kournikova relaunched her Web site today, sponsored by K-Swiss.

Just thought you might want to know.

Uh, oh. After all that work Tom Coughlin did in improving his news conference demeanor last season, might he be reverting to his old habit of impatiently exaggerating the frequency of redundant questions with which he is presented?

Here he is Friday when asked about Michael Strahan's future:

Q: Do you expect a decision anytime soon?

A: That is the 4,000th time that I have heard that one. It is going to be according – basically when he decides that his term for it is, “Whatever the decision I make I know I am not going to change my mind so therefore I want to be right.”

I learned my lesson last Monday when I failed to post the highlights YES sent of A-Rod's appearance on "YESterdays." I got beaten to the juicy stuff about him turning squeamish during his first child's birth.

So now I'm giving you the highlights of Herschel Walker's appearance on "CenterStage," which debuts Wednesday night after the Yankees postgame.

There is some interesting stuff in here, I think. He covers God's playbook and whether Satan has a copy. And discusses a weird bet with Jason Sehorn. And a new take on the Vikings-Cowboys trade.

I covered Herschel during his season with the Giants. Unusual dude(s).

Click below for the details.

Continue reading "Jason Sehorn wins a bet with Herschel Walker" »

Bill Bradley, Willie Reed and Earl Monroe are scheduled to appear on Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 127 at 1 p.m. Tuesday, direct from the NBA Store on Fifth Avenue and 52nd Street.

The 1972-73 season is bound to come up. Maybe the 2008 Presidential election will, too.

This makes three out of four Knicks-related posts. Uh, oh.

I promise my next post will not be about any team or newspaper Cablevision owns.

Dan Le Batard seems to be having some sort of mid-life crisis.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Good luck to him in re-ordering his life.

I have to watch "Wheel House" and "Loudmouths" on SNY now.

Actor/writer/WFAN caller (and loyal WatchDog reader) Jim Burns phoned Richard Neer Sunday morning and said this:

"It's going to be pretty sad if Neil Best has to blog about the Knicks City Dancers, every day..."

Hmm. I'm not sure what's sad about that.

Those talented, hard-working young women are my teammates now, so why wouldn't I?

How will Cablevision's purchase of Newsday affect our coverage of the Knicks, Rangers, Liberty and MSG?

A very fair question, and one that should be asked, presumably by me.

So I will.

Promise.

Wish me luck.

(UPDATE: Top Newsday editors have not yet met with Cablevision execs, so all of this is quite premature. But here is what editor John Mancini said when I asked about the Knicks/Rangers/MSG concern on the part of many readers:

“We’re pleased that Cablevision in joining with Newsday cites Newsday’s long tradition of journalistic integrity. These are folks who know the paper well, know the market and understand the journalism Newsday has long practiced. So that gives us great hope for a strong relationship going forward, one that respects our traditions here.

“Our readers demand that we portray situations honestly, and anyone who knows Newsday knows that. And anyone who knows Newsday and is investing in Newsday understands the value of that.’’)

Just in time for Wednesday's 10th anniversary (!) of the series finale of Eli Manning's favorite TV show, my Florida "WatchDog" counterpart, Dave Darling, has weighed in with his Top 10 sports-themed episodes of "Seinfeld."

Discuss among yourselves.

Well, my self-imposed, weeklong ban on sports talk radio was a huge success. As expected, it cleansed my mind, body and soul.

I fell off the wagon two or three times, but never for more than a couple of minutes at a time.

I knew I had made the right decision Friday when I checked in on both WFAN and 1050 ESPN and they were discussing . . . what else? Joba Chamberlain pumping his fist after a strikeout.

Click.

A couple of ESPN related developments from during my weekend in hiding.

Before heading to Ann Arbor for his fellowship, Deitsch apparently still has some reporting to do. Here he informs us Hannah Storm will front a new morning edition of SportsCenter.

This is expected to be announced at Tuesday morning's upfront presentation, taking away the surprise element. I guess I'll still go for the free donuts.

And TV Week reported back on Friday that ESPN and Tennis Channel will share the cable rights to the U.S. Open tennis tournament starting next year, another step toward simplifying the complicated business of trying to figure out who covers which grand slam event.

And of USA Network getting out of the sports business.

I got invited to the news conference at "21 Club" but I passed on it to stay home and write a Tuesday newspaper column for you nice people.

I don't pretend to be a lacrosse expert, but one rule of thumb is that when the opposing goalie records the first score of the game, on your home field, and lands in the No. 1 position on SportsCenter's list of Top 10 plays for Saturday . . . it is a very, very bad sign.

Cancel that rematch against Duke.

Oh, well. Remember, people: It's a basketball school.

Sorry for the short (40-minute) notice, but I finally got around to screening the debut episode of "Playing for Peanuts," a new documentary series about the South Georgia Peanuts that debuts at 6 p.m. Sunday on SNY.

(It will be shown three more times this week, so don't worry if you neglect to check WatchDog every five minutes and thus didn't read this post in time.)

It appears the series will cover the long-familiar territory of life in the minors, but some of the stuff that happens in the bush leagues never fails to amaze, such as an Opening Day parachutist who misses actually landing on the field by thismuch.

Perhaps the biggest draw of the series for New York baseball fans is Mr. Peanut himself, manager Wally Backman, seen here in his first baseball job since his dismissal by the Diamondbacks in 2004, less than a week after being hired to manage in the bigs.

(By the way . . . the independent league in which the Peanuts play has suspended operations for the 2008 season.)

I just watched Lynda Barnes beat a guy in the finals of a bowling tournament on CBS.

This apparently was a historic moment in the history of the sport, as never had a woman beaten a man in a nationally televised game.

(The big event actually happened Thursday in Kansas City and was shown on tape delay. But still, it was cool. I wrote about the unusual tournament in my Friday newspaper column.)

Ms. Barnes won $50,000.

Here is the complete version of my Friday newspaper column, including items about a new SNY show, Michael Kay's hectic schedule and bowling on CBS.

Also make sure to check out this interesting supplementary material for the lead item on Joe Girardi, as well as the comments posted below this truncated version of the column, in which readers bash me for writing about Girardi's media relations, a subject allegedly of no interest to fans.

This happens every time I write about coaches and players dealing with the media, and I am not offended in the least. I am well aware my job is silly. I just wish you wouldn't point that out to my editors.

I'm out until Monday. No blogging. No column. No nuthin'. Family matters to attend to.

You will be in good hands with the many other fine blogs here, most of which do cover matters of concern to fans.

Think about it: As a business, newspapers are facing the most trying times of their existence. But there never has been a better time to be a reader of the material newspapers produce.

There's more of it than ever, and it's mostly free. I don't know how long this model can be sustained, but enjoy it while you can.

This week's winner is loyal reader Ray, for turning my post about Joe Pepitone's hair into a look back at "Ball Four," the most important sports book ever. Here is his comment/excerpt:

One of my favorite moments in Ball Four is the recounting of the tale where, after a grueling loss, Pepitone came out of the shower to blow-dry his perfect coif:

So everyone was tired and angry and upset and you could hear a pin drop in the clubhouse, because after a loss that's the way it's supposed to be. Pepitone came out of the shower and turned his hair-dryer on . Whoooosh! Instant white. He looked like an Italian George Washington wearing a powdered wig. There was talcum powder over everything, his hair, his eyebrows, his nose, the hair on his chest. Of course, everybody went crazy. Loss or no, they all laughed like hell.

The paragraph ends with what may, in my legal opinion, be an admission of guilt by one J. Bouton of Teaneck, New Jersey.

Am I allowed to link to a competing newspaper's Web site if said Web site is running an NCAA Tournament diary by a Cornell lacrosse player?

Silly question.

The lead topic of my Friday newspaper column is Joe Girardi and his early work in handling the New York media.

Click below for thoughts that did not make it into the paper from Girardi, Yankees radio announcer Suzyn Waldman, Yankees media relations director Jason Zillo, Newsday Yankees beat reporter Kat O'Brien and Newsday baseball columnist Ken Davidoff.

I now have written media relations columns about the coaches/managers of the Giants, Jets, Yankees and Mets, plus one about Donnie Walsh vowing to clean up the Knicks' media mess.

As always, I stress the following disclaimer: I know fans care only about winning. But in this market, media matters are not irrevelant to the fortunes of your favorite team(s).

One thing I find interesting in the Girardi media dynamic is that he is a huge football fan, and in fact had several members of the Giants coaching staff attend Tuesday night's game as his guests.

Girardi often looks and sounds more like a football guy than a baseball guy, from the way he walks to the way he gets very careful when the subject turns to injuries.

Continue reading "Joe Girardi has early ups and downs with the media" »

I shared an elevator with Joe Pepitone at the Stadium Tuesday.

Heavens!

I am glad that when I am 67 I will not be under any pressure to maintain a spectacular head of hair (regardless of its color or origin) to preserve my image among my fans.

Great call on YES Thursday by John Flaherty, who predicted big things from Robinson Cano based on how he did NOT swing at a pitch:

"Robinson Cano took the first pitch from Byrd in this at-bat, and it was probably the smoothest take that I have seen him have in a long time. That tells me he's kind of getting comfortable now. Look for good things to happen if he can take pitches like that."

Milliseconds later, Cano hit the ball into the rightfield seats.

Later, Joba Chamberlain pumped his fist after getting the third out in the eighth. Uh, oh. Time for another round of debate on that topic.

David Cone noted Chamberlain still is learning how to be a major leaguer, and also acknowledged he comes by his emotion naturally.

Still, he said this: "I didn’t have any problem with a fist pump here and there but it was more for your team. Never look in the other dugout and fist pump to them. That’s a direct show up. Right to your team is OK, fire up your team.

"You don’t want to become a freak show, though. You don’t want to be known for your act. You want to be known for your pitching."

One way in which people who write blogs and people in the "mainstream media" are alike is their endless fascination with examining themselves and their colleagues/counterparts.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, if you are interested in such things, which only media people are.

For those of you in that category, here is an essay examining whether or not the blogosphere is an overly chummy place.

Some belated ratings stuff from the Rangers-Pens series last week:

Game 4 was Versus' highest-rated and most-viewed NHL telecast ever, drawing 1.1 percent of homes that have the network and 1.2 million viewers.

In New York, the game attracted 2.1 percent of homes, the highest-rated NHL game Versus has shown here. The network also was the top-rated cable channel in the New York market for that time period.

I keep meaning to do a feature on TNT studio host Ernie Johnson, but I keep waiting for a more timely opportunity, such as when the Knicks are in the conference finals.

I really should do it sooner than that, though, because Mr. Johnson is wildly popular. Here is a Deadspin post on that topic that offers an amusing YouTube clip of the TNT boys in action.

And check out the related link to the standings for Deadspin's media approval ratings. (As always, parents: Beware of naughty language in the comments sections of blog posts.)

All you need to know is that Johnson and Charles Barkley are the only sports media humans more popular than two titans of the industry: Erin Andrews (see post below) and Vin Scully.

Friday column time. Ciao.

This article says Derek Jeter has dated six of the women on Maxim's Hot 100 list - including Vanessa Minnillo, left - which begs an obvious question:

Only six?

Also, this: Don't they know there are problems with his VORP? So wrote Davidoff here.

ESPN's Erin Andrews, respected TV professional, is not known to have dated Jeter, thank goodness. But she is scheduled to appear on Donnie Deutsch's "Big Idea" at 10 p.m. Thursday on CNBC.

I was invited to spend the day hanging out with Ms. Andrews in New York before and after she taped the show. I declined, passing up enough cheap page views to keep Glauber in my rear view mirror at least until training camp.

Why?

Because I wrote about her recently, because I have a newspaper column to write, because I have to mow the lawn and because I am out of my mind.

I was going to write this item for my Friday newspaper column, then I said to myself, "Self, no one cares about this other than people in the media or media junkies, so why not stick it in the blog, which is predominantly read by people in the media or media junkies."

So here it is: Did you know there are fewer than 10 newspapers in the nation that employ a full-time sports media and/or business columnist? This is way, way down from 10-20 years ago, presumably because as newspapers attempt to get leaner and meaner, the media beat is among the first things to go.

So there are fewer people doing my job than there are United States Senators or NFL head coaches. We're roughly as common as Supreme Court justices.

All four New York papers have full-time people in the role, perhaps no surprise in the media headquarters of the galaxy.

Check this out, though: Since Newsday was the second newspaper with a full-time TV sports writer (Stan Isaacs, 1978) and since the first (The Boston Globe) no longer has one, that makes Newsday the paper with the oldest continually appearing full-time sports media column.

That's all. Carry on, members of the media and media junkies.

I finally got around to watching my DVD of Wednesday's night's YESterdays, in which Cynthia Rodriguez' dishes her already infamous description of A-Rod's squeamishness during the birth of their first child.

As I figured from reading the transcript, Cynthia's tone is playful and affectionate, and after an initial look of concern A-Rod himself warms up to the story and, smiling, confirms of his behavior/reaction, "It was terrible."

That doesn't make me less ticked off at myself for not posting the A-Rod-fears-doctors-and-blood-and-stuff information Monday (or mentioning it in the Tuesday newspaper), thus allowing the venerable Peter Abraham to post it Tuesday and reap perhaps 10,000 or more page views when Deadspin and other blogs linked to him.

Life lesson: Our time on Earth is short, and you can never get those page views back.

Here is a page on the Mets' Web site that features various players - and Mr. Met! - in brief public service announcement videos regarding the team's community work and encouraging others to get involved.

The Mets asked me to tell you about it. I said I would.

Why not?

Don Imus' 19th annual radiothon will be held Thursday and Friday, now on WABC rather than WFAN. Here is the info if you are interested in contributing.

At the prodding of a loyal reader, I asked WFAN operations manager Mark Chernoff whether the station or its personalities would have any formal role in helping the radiothon, given the 18-year history of the station carrying the event, or whether such participation/contributions would strictly be a personal matter.

Chernoff said it would be a personal matter. But I'm guessing some of Imus' old friends at WFAN will pitch in financially for what remains as worthy a cause as ever.

I hope so, anyway.

Don't blame Joba for that blown game against the Indians Tuesday, Yankees fans.

I was in the stands for part of the night, and I know what went wrong. The Wave. Really. With the Yankees up, 3-2, not in some boring blowout.

And the inebriated young men sitting next to me were among the ringleaders. Strangely, they were not abusive or cursing or throwing stuff or any of the things commonly associated with inebriated young men at baseball games.

No, I had to sit next to the only drunks in the major leagues who were mostly interested in . . . The Wave.

Wasn't that last in style around the time Joba was born?

Click below to read the latest in the NFL Network vs. Comcast war, in which the NFL officially files a complaint with the FCC.

Fang's Bites predicted Tuesday that this news would cause me to develop gallstones. Really, it's more like lingering nausea, as if I had eaten bad cheese or something.

(The NFL makes many fair points here, in my opinion. But the entire cable industry thinks I'm the league's lapdog, so don't take my word for it.)

If Comcast would like to respond, I'll post that, too. Other than that, leave me out of it!

Continue reading "NFL Network vs. Big Cable dispute slogs on . . ." »

Well, silly, naive, little old me. I assumed Antonio Pierce being the most Googled term in the world this morning had something to do with Michael Strahan.

It turns out, as several loyal readers have informed me, the real reason is he began an internship on Howard Stern's Sirius Satellite Radio show, during which he will screen callers, fetch coffee and dish locker room dirt - or at least as much of it as Stern can pry out of him.

I assume many of Howard's listeners never had heard of Pierce and were looking up his background. He's a linebacker, and the guy who speculated Strahan is through.

More about the ticket prices at the new Cowboys stadium.

Eventually it will be your turn, Giants and Jets fans.

I kept nosing around for the original link to the amusing Jimmy Kimmel/Bill Simmons spoof of ESPN's recent "ambush" interview of Miguel Tejada, but I finally gave up.

So here's one via The Big Lead.

Just to clarify: No, I have NOT dropped my week-long ban on listening to talk radio.

One of my hard-working editors tipped me off to Michael Kay's comments on 1050 ESPN Tuesday, then I ran up to the press box to catch him before he went on TV in order to produce this item.

Thanks for understanding.

(I also did not hear Mike D'Antoni's name regularly mispronounced on WFAN Tuesday afternoon, but I got e-mails alerting me that it was.)

Loyal WatchDog reader (I think) Jiggs McDonald e-mailed Tuesday night with the following tribute to Chris Botta, who stepped down as the VP of media relations for Our Islanders Monday:

"Chris Botta raised the bar for not only the NY Islanders but the entire fraternity of NHL PR Directors. He was, and always will be a special person. I wish him only the best wherever he goes and whatever he does in the future."

I had a pleasant chat outside the Yankees dugout before Tuesday night's game with Giants offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride. He was there with defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo and other members of Big Blue's staff as guests of manager Joe Girardi.

And what did Gilbride most want to talk to me abou