Watchdog

I wrote an article about ESPN's new-look "Monday Night Football" that will appear in the newspaper sometime next month, but I have been offering sneak previews, such as last week's post in which producer Jay Rothman had the following prediction for the number of booth guests this season: zero.

Here is an interesting quote from analyst Ron Jaworski regarding last season's approach, which featured booth guests and two sideline reporters:

“Many times, from my perspective, it was hard to get a flow for the game. I’m the guy delivering the X’s and O’s, why a play didn’t work, or why it did. It’s hard to go four or five plays and not get a word in because we’re on the sideline or with a booth guest, then pick it up from there and bring everyone up to speed.

“I’ll be honest, that was difficult to do. Now it’s going to be focused on the three of us in the booth, on the game, which is what people have told us they want.’’

Barack Obama played basketball with and talked to Stuart Scott of ESPN last week in North Carolina, an interview that will debut on the 6 p.m. Monday SportsCenter.

Obama has a chance to become the best basketball player in the history of the U.S. Presidency, although let's face it: Lincoln was just born too soon.

Click below for excerpts, in which Obama talks about Dr. J. and beer-swilling, cutesy Cubs fans.

Tony Kornheiser will not be working the final MNF preseason game in San Diego Monday night, but before you nice people start sending me e-mails wondering whether he has been ousted from the booth, it's only because of a relatively minor surgical procedure.

(Well, minor for me, since I'm not the one undergoing it.)

Lynbrook Tony is due back for the regular-season opener. Given the fact Monday's game is in San Diego and Kornheiser is not a fan of planes, I'm guessing he's not broken up about missing it.

Sorry for the blogging lull. I've been busy.

I read Tom Coughlin's new book while trying to figure out how to file my Cablevision expenses. Finished the book. Still haven't figured out how to file the expenses.

I had several interesting conversations Tuesday with ESPN personnel about their plans for a new-look "Monday Night Football," most of which I will be sharing in a future, interesting newspaper article.

But here's a snippet that might even be newsworthy: When I asked producer Jay Rothman for his best guess about the number of booth guests this season, now that Brett Favre will be unavailable for the opener at Lambeau, he said, "Zero."

Then he added, "We may pull something off the eve of the election, but if we do we’ll do so at halftime."

Umm . . . the election? Was he referring to the President of the United States, perhaps?

"I don't know," Rothman said.

Umm . . . where is the game the night before the election?

Rothman: "Washington, D.C."

ESPN's Mike Tirico planned to take his entire family to Shea Stadium Tuesday night for his final visit to the ballpark of a youth spent in Whitestone, Queens. Tirico lives in Michigan, and his children had never been to Shea before.

(By the way, the lead NFL play-by-play voices for ESPN, NBC, CBS and the NFL Network all grew up in the New York area. Joe Buck didn't.)

How many Mets games would Tirico attend each year?

"Oh, my gosh, we'd go to about 20 a summer. When I was in eighth, ninth, 10th grade, my buddies and I would go to Main Street (Flushing) and go the one stop to Shea in the early '80s. They were awful, oh my God, they were unwatchable.

"My later grandfather, Tony Fiordalisi, was one of the security force at Shea as a second job. He worked the Mets dugout for many years and then worked the visiting clubhouse. As my grandfather was getting older, Mr. Doubleday and Mr. Wilpon, when they were in the owners' seats off the dugout, they made sure my grandfather had a job inside so we wouldn't have to sit outside in his 60s during rain delays and stuff like that.

"I met people like Jim Leyland and some others through going to the game and waiting for my grandfather and going home with him."

Knowing he would be in town for Monday night's Browns-Giants game, Tirico took his family to Yankee Stadium Friday, but his "little Shea goodbye'' Tuesday meant more.

Here is my Tuesday newspaper column, in which I discuss the East Coast vs. West Coast wars when it comes Olympics coverage on NBC and MLB coverage on ESPN.

Here is the Le Anne Schreiber column for ESPN.com that inspired it all.

And here is the Web site for "let it out: the movie," which is described in a secondary item in the column.

If you are checking here to read fresh blog posts on Tuesday, I thank you sincerely for doing so. But you won't find any. Check back Wednesday. I think I have another live chat scheduled.

Thanks. Enjoy "Gorge Games" on MSG Plus at 4 p.m. I have no clue what that is about.

The new 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. SportsCenter marathon is underway!

And what did Hannah Storm open the first show with? Brett Favre! Noooooo!

It turned out she might have been kidding, though, because the first actual highlight shown was the men's 4x100-meter swimming relay from Beijing, in which Storm's husband, Dan Hicks, went all Gus Johnson on us during the frantic final seconds.

Anyway, enjoy the next five hours and 50 minutes of SportsCenter. They'll all do it again tomorrow!

Here is my Sunday newspaper column, in which I look at how Brett Favre held the national sports news media hostage - ESPN in particular - during the five weeks from his first public "itch" until the Jets finally scratched it.

ESPN and Favre were accomplices in the nuttiness, which mostly has subsided now. The New York media will take it from here, thank you.

The column also includes an item on the new, expanded SportsCenter debuting Monday.

Welcome back to sports, Hannah Storm!

Former Giant Tim Hasselbeck - who famously described the team's level of annoyance with Jeremy Shockey in a radio interview during Super Bowl week - has joined ESPN as its newest NFL analyst, leaving Sean Salisbury, Michael Irvin and me as the only living people ever associated with pro football who are not currently working as analysts for the network.

I attended a seminar for players aspiring to be broadcasters at NFL Films last year, and Hasselbeck clearly was a keeper with excellent potential on TV.

He told me it helps that his wife is on TV regularly and can help him improve.

As a New York-area sportswriter, it is my God-given right to ignore auto racing. But I don't, because Newsday values each and every one of its readers, no matter how obscure his or her sporting preferences.

Thus:

On Thursday, ESPN/ABC announced it would continue televising the Indianapolis 500 through 2012, as well as four other IRL races, on ABC.

The same day, Versus got involved in the sport in a big way, agreeing to televise at least 13 races a year for the next 10 years!

By the end of that deal, won't we all be getting around via jet packs or something?

(Don't forget, auto racing enthusiasts: It's NASCAR month at the Final Score blog!)

Sorry not to have posted in a while, but I have been carefully reviewing the ABC/ESPN and TNT schedules for the 2008-09 season that were released today and counting the number of Knicks games to be featured.

After adding it all up, the total is as follows: zero.

The Knicks could earn their way onto the ABC/ESPN slate via flexible scheduling. Last season the Hornets started with two ESPN dates and ended up having three on ESPN and two on ABC.

The Celtics are scheduled for 16 ABC/ESPN appearances, followed by the Lakers, Cavs, Suns and Spurs with 15 apiece.

TNT has the Cavs, Lakers and Suns 10 times apiece, and the Celts nine.

That's it for me today. Enjoy the Brett Favre saga. Or not.

Here's the latest commentary on the recent debate regarding the ESPN Reporter Whose Name I Vowed Not to Mention for the Rest of the Month and her summer work wardrobe.

While ESPN obsesses over Brett Favre, the rest of us obsess over ESPN's You Know Who.

Strange business.

One thing that confuses me about the column linked above is that the writer seems to be suggesting Charley Steiner is not a handsome man.

I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder. For the rest of us, we'll never forget Charley as the "Melrose Place" pool boy in that old SportsCenter commercial.

I think I heard Linda Cohn say on the late SportsCenter that ESPN - apparently undaunted by Monday's news-challenged Brett Favre special SportsCenter - would be presenting another special SportsCenter at 2 p.m. today to cover the news surrounding . . . yeah, Brett Favre.

All we (and ESPN) need now is for Brett to blow off practice and hold a news conference while doing sit-ups shirtless in the Lambeau Field parking lot and our news immersion experience will be complete.

ESPN is offering a special SportsCenter at 12:30 p.m. to cover the late arrival of one of the Packers to camp.

Starting next Monday, there will be no more special late morning/early afternoon SportsCenters, as there will be regularly scheduled SportsCenters live from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day.

Now that that free ad for ESPN is out of the way . . . I shall write my Tuesday newspaper column.

If you don't care about Brett Favre, enjoy the PBA's 1998 Indianapolis Open on ESPN Classic at noon.

Now USA Today, merely the largest circulation newspaper in the United States, has weighed in on the Saga of the Suggestive Sundress, starring a Midwestern newspaper columnist previously little known outside the Midwest and an ESPN Reporter Whose Name I Vowed Not to Mention for the Rest of the Month.

Said ESPN reporter plans to cover the Yankees-Rangers game Wednesday, and now isn't sure quite what to wear in the Texas heat.

I need a cold lemonade myself.

I have a headache.

Holy hemline!

Just when I thought I was through with the saga of the ESPN Reporter Whose Name I Vowed Not to Mention for the Rest of the Month, I got an e-mail Sunday from Mike Nadel, whose syndicated column started it all.

Mike was nice enough to send this interesting link to an interview with a female TV journalist who took issue with the ESPN Reporter Whose Name I Vowed Not to Mention for the Rest of the Month.

I still think the original column was weird. But I regret the fact that in my most recent post on this topic I took some cheap shots at Nadel and the newspaper chain that employs him.

During these troubled times, newspaper people should be respectful of one another, because if we're not, who the heck else is going to be?

At last, we can put the recent Erin Andrews brouhaha behind us and get on with our lives.

Ms. Andrews has responded to the controversial column earlier this week by the previously little-known Mike Nadel of some sort of news service of some kind in the Midwest. (I originally learned of Erin's reponse via The Big Lead.)

(Glauber: This is my third consecutive post about Ms. Andrews in which I did not resort to using a picture of her to boost page views. Furthermore, I hereby pledge not to so much as mention her name in a post for the rest of August. This is your chance to catch up to me, Bob. Hah! Not really. But maybe this will give Berger and Davidoff a shot.)

Interesting Deadspin interview with columnist Mike Nadel, following up on his controversial piece on Erin Andrews' visit to the Cubs' clubhouse earlier this week.

(Parental warning: One of the questions contains a non-family-friendly term that is not respectful to Ms. Andrews.)

So to review: This is a blog post by a mainstream journalist linking to an interview by a blogger of a mainstream journalist in reaction to criticism by bloggers of said journalist for what he wrote about a mainstream TV journalist's approach to her job.

I'm dizzy. I need to sit down now.

(Glauber: Please note neither of my past two posts about Ms. Andrews has included a picture of her.)

Just got off a conference call with high-ranking ESPN exec Norby Williamson and SportsCenter anchors Hannah Storm and Chris McKendry to discuss the new live, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. SC block debuting Aug. 11.

Before taking questions Williamson announced that SportsCenter would go live at noon today to discuss developing matters such as Manny maybe being Manny somewhere other than Boston, Ken Griffey Jr. finally getting away from Reds TV analyst Jeff Brantley and Brett Favre in limbo and presumably unimpressed by Craig Carton and his bullhorn.

Williamson said a busy weekday morning/afternoon such as this one is exactly why the live concept came about.

"It sort of validates where we’re going when you look at what’s been going on this morning,'' he said, adding that a week into the project next month, ESPN will "look back at it and say, 'Man, why didn’t we do this sooner?'"

The Big Lead uncovered this disturbing column about Erin Andrews' visit to the Cubs' locker room, in which she is described as wearing inappropriate work attire and being a smidgen too friendly with the jocks, and in which the Cubs shamelessly ogle her.

This column achieves a rare double.

For one thing, it besmirches a generally well-liked, well-respected pro who has been remarkably patient and good-natured about her status as the sports media's unofficial sex symbol of the moment.

For another, it blatantly violates man rules. Over the past quarter century I have heard dozens of comments uttered by athletes, coaches and fellow writers when in the presence of attractive female journalists. But I never even thought about repeating them in an article. Holy cow!

Male journalists - all males - have an obligation to fight sexism, discrimination and harassment of women. But guys making harmless comments to other guys about a woman's level of attractiveness?

Dude, that stuff stays between us!

Sunday night's Yanks-Bosox tilt on ESPN was the highest-rated "Sunday Night Baseball" game of the season, attracting 3.3 percent of homes that have ESPN and an estimated 4.23 million people.

It surpassed the previous high, which was a 3.2 and 4.13 million viewers July 6 . . . for a Yanks-Bosox game.

That one surpassed the previous high, which was a 3.1 and 3.90 million viewers April 13 . . . for a Yanks-Bosox game.

Thus ends today's lesson in baseball TV scheduling. Rule 1: Schedule the Yankees against the Red Sox as often as possible.

ESPN announced Tuesday that Cris Carter would replace Emmitt Smith on "Sunday NFL Countdown," with Smith contributing to SportsCenter on Sunday mornings and also continuing to appear on site on "Monday Night Countdown."

Smith struggled at times to speak English clearly on live TV in his rookie season last year. Carter is a more polished pro who made the move after the demise of HBO's version of "Inside the NFL."

ESPN said reporters Suzy Kolber and Michele Tafoya "will have a major studio role," offering reports on each MNF team before and after games.

Click below for the official news release.

Let me get this straight:

Green Bay for many years has called itself "Titletown."

Valdosta for many years has called itself "Winnersville."

But according to the Valdosta Daily Times, this afternoon ESPN will declare Valdosta to be "Titletown," capping a month-long series/promotion.

So does this mean all those businesses in Green Bay with "Titletown" in their names now have to change their signs to "Winnersville?"

To quote Vince Lombardi: "What the ---- is going on out there?"

(UPDATE: I love this comment from a reader of AOL Fanhouse's version of this story:

"I have a wild idea...let's set up a contest to decide which sports media outlet should receive the title of 'World Wide Leader.' Maybe we can start by polling the residents of Green Bay to see what they think of re appropriating established nicknames.")

Click below for the ESPN news release on this. Green Bay finished third, as it turns out.

Interesting tidbit from our friends at Going Five Hole about former Ranger Matthew Barnaby possibly being in the mix for the ESPN analyst role vacated by Barry Melrose.

Even though ESPN does not carry live NHL games, its analyst gig is a high profile one, given the visibility and influence of SportsCenter.

The amiable Melrose will be a tough act to follow.

Feel free to make nominations in the comments section. Your voice will be heard!

The people in Bristol read WatchDog. Trust me.

No wonder the Bosox snapped the Yankees' winning streak Sunday night. Bad karma.

Loyal reader Mrs. Final Score, er, Rieber, noticed something peculiar when ESPN displayed the Yanks' defensive alignment. At pitcher, it listed . . . Carl Pavano? Yikes.

Pavano, Ponson. Whatever. Hard to keep those P names straight.

It was a tough night overall for the ESPN graphics guy or gal. In the eighth, the Worldwide Leader spelled Jim Lonborg's name Jim "Longborg."

Play-by-play man Jon Miller alertly corrected the mistake.

Gonna be a slow Sunday night for the cyberspace posse that regularly is on the trail of critiquing ESPN baseball analyst Joe Morgan . . . often legitimately so.

Morgan will be making his annual visit to Cooperstown for the Hall of Fame inductions, so Orel Hershiser and Steve Phillips will fill in alongside Jon Miller for the big Yanks-Bosox tilt.

How weird is it that not one of the three games of this weekend's series is on YES?

Say what you want about SportsCenter, but it's indisputable that ESPN long has done a great job on the commercials promoting itself.

Its latest stunt sounds interesting: A series of live commercials featuring one of its own staffers as a way of promoting the new live SportsCenters that debut Aug. 11.

Here is a cute story about it in USA Today, which gets stuff like this leaked to it in advance by every national network. Not that I'm resentful or anything, but . . . well, OK, I am. But only a little. Because I understand the motivation.

Click below for the official ESPN news release that came out today, after the USA Today story.

1050 ESPN raised $31,000 in last week's one-day radiothon to support the V Foundation, part of ESPN Radio's nationwide auction that raised a total of $1.13 million.

The items that drew the biggest bids on 1050:

Golf with Brandon Tierney - $6,300

Mariano Rivera Meet & Greet - $5,100

Inning in the Booth with Michael Kay - $4,900

$4,900! Now I'm thinking that rather than allowing Charlie Chilkoot watch me blog in my basement on WatchDog's first anniversary May 2, I should have auctioned off the honor for charity.

Maybe next year. For a premium, you can program my Cablevision DVR to record the Mets and Yankees games, and help me select family friendly pictures of supermodels for use on the blog.

And don't forget the Glauber meet and greet!

The Giants won a bunch of stuff at the ESPYs Wednesday night.

Yes, including Best Play.

Click below for the release from ESPN.

Now everyone please leave me alone so I can get some work done.

There is significant (non-Francesa/Russo) news coming on my beat mid-afternoon that I must focus on.

Thank you.

And last but certainly not least on this blogging day . . . The folks at 1050 ESPN have been promoting an on-line auction of New York sports-related items to raise funds for cancer research through the V Foundation.

Here is the link.

Assuming you can resist raising the $1,000 bid for golf with Brandon Tierney, or the $700 bid for an inning observing Michael Kay call a game, the best deal I see here is for Saturday's outdoor Liberty-Indiana Fever game at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

The current bid is $100 for a suite that can hold . . . 20 people? Is this a typo? Holy Lobo.

I'd make a bid, but I'm not sure I have 20 friends anymore, now that I spend all my time in the basement.

If you'd simply like to make a donation to the cause, call 1-800-4-Jimmy-V.

I assume it's politically incorrect to write that at my advanced age most stuff written and said about political correctness bores me. But it does. Sue me.

Thus this was not my all-time favorite column from ESPN ombudswoman Le Anne Schreiber. But her stuff always is worth reading, and I link to it every month, so no reason to make this month an exception.

Check out this cute video from ESPN the Magazine of three former Hofstra football players getting back to their roots and preparing for a new season.

Hofstra Pride!

I watched most of the home run derby in a tavern without sound, so I missed this live, but several e-mailers pointed it out to me and Awful Announcing has the video.

It's Rick Reilly strangely steering the home run derby invite list in a racial direction, and Karl Ravech seemingly baffled and eventually trying to rescue him.

(I'm going to take a wild guess here, but if Alex Rodriguez hadn't begged off the derby, MLB would not have barred him from participating because of his Hispanic heritage.)

Here is a crucial flaw in ESPN's decision to hire Reilly and pay him ridonkulous money:

He is a very good writer. He is not very good on TV. ESPN is best known as a TV network.

Trent Dilfer is going to be appearing on various ESPN shows talking football during the coming season.

Congratulations to him.

It's getting more and more difficult for me to keep track of all this stuff. I know I don't work for ESPN. And I know Joe Theismann and Harold Reynolds don't.

Anyone else left out there but us?

After all that "Who's Now" unpleasantness of last summer, I hate to get on ESPN