Watchdog

I THOUGHT that was Michael Phelps running into E Sunday night on "Entourage."

Mrs. WatchDog didn't believe me.

Thanks for the tip to Awful Announcing.

Speaking of blogs I read when I'm procrastinating on writing my newspaper column, check out this weird/disturbing post from Deadspin about a spat between a blogger and veteran columnist Adrian Wojnarowski.

Click below for more excerpts from Tuesday night's "Real Sports" episode on PSLs in particular and rising ticket prices in general.

Why? Because HBO keeps sending this stuff, and I'm on vacation and don't feel like watching the entire review DVD I received today.

Yo, Jets, what about your PSL plan? Don't get too cute with this and wait until the Friday afternoon before Labor Day weekend to announce it.

The Giants did it on a Thursday.

Continue reading "HBO sits down with John Mara to talk PSLs" »

HBO's "Real Sports" Tuesday looks at the rising price of tickets and PSLs. Here is an exchange between Bryant Gumbel and sports economist Mark Rosentraub:

ROSENTRAUB: “The perfect storm that's been created with the deal that the sports leagues made, basically, with StubHub. You know, for a long time owners argued that they were producing more value. And they knew scalping was going on. And that people were selling the tickets for higher prices than they were charging. What StubHub did, when they went into business with them, is it gave them the data points. They now know what people are willing to pay. So what's happening now is that the prices are drifting up to what the market's willing to bear. The team owners are in business. They know what the value of their product is.”

GUMBEL: “So the guy who's been getting his football ticket for 75 bucks; his baseball ticket for 50 bucks; that was a bargain?”

ROSENTRAUB: “It's far less than the market would bear. Flip it around for a second. Let's suppose you're the owner of the Yankees or the owner of the Giants or the Jets. You're saying, ‘Look, I spend a couple hundred million dollars a year to produce this product. I'm selling you a ticket at this price. You're turning it around and selling it for a higher price. You didn't take any of the risks of making the investment.’ So the teams now say, ‘We're going to price it at the real value.’ "

GUMBEL: “Would it be an oversimplification to suggest that the sports fans ‘ love of the game’ has made this bed and now they have to sleep in it?”

ROSENTRAUB: “Oh, absolutely. My values, probably your values, a lot of people watching tonight will say, ‘Gee, I think sports is over valued.’ I would agree with that. But I'm not America. This is what America is willing to pay. If America is willing to pay it, so be it.”

By all means, check out the first episode of "Hard Knocks" tonight if you have HBO and care about the behind-the-scenes action at Cowboys camp.

By no means, though, should you watch expecting to see Jessica Simpson visit her favorite Cowboy.

It says so here.

Just got off a conference call with Jerry Jones, NFL Films boss Steve Sabol and HBO Sports boss Ross Greenburg to discuss the premiere Wednesday night of the latest edition of "Hard Knocks," featuring the Cowboys.

More on that in the paper next week. But just to stir up trouble I asked Sabol whether he considered the Giants for this season's show, given the fact their head coach would be as likely to give cameras unlimited access behind the scenes at training camp as he would be to go club-hopping with the Jeremy Shockey in Vegas.

"We were thinking about them this year, but the Cowboys were our first choice,'' said Sabol, who acknowledged Tom Coughlin likely would have been reluctant. (Not to mention Giants ownership.) "A lot depends on the head coach," he said.

Sabol said the Bucs and Saints also were considered.

"The Cowboys were our first choice, so it never went beyond talking to Jerry and Wade [Phillips] about it."

By the way, Sabol called the Cowboys "the presumptive Super Bowl favorite." Really? Why?

Jones said one of the highlights NFL Films' cameras caught during the first week of camp was Jessica Simpson's father checking out the site the day before she was to visit.

I have this recurring nightmare in which I am in my 70s, quietly enjoying retirement at a cottage in the Adirondacks, when Glauber calls, bummed out about having to chase a report that Bill Parcells is angling to leave his position as head coach of the Los Angeles Jaguars to accept an offer to be the general manager of the Los Angeles Chargers.

I listen sympathetically, then laugh.

Anyway, Parcells is on HBO's "Real Sports" at 10 o'clock tonight.

Click below for a snippet of Andrea Kremer's chat with Mr. Tuna that HBO sent, anticipating correctly that I would be too lazy on a Tuesday morning to watch the entire review DVD I received.

Continue reading "Bill Parcells would prefer you not vomit on his time" »

Here's a Deadspin post by Leitch about the thing with Buzz last night (see post below).

Industry sources had tipped me off Buzz might be on the show. Someone saw him in a Yankee Stadium concourse Tuesday night, so I knew he was in town.

The person who saw him told me he still looked angry.

The best segment on the show was the one in which Willie Mays and Hank Aaron shot the breeze, with Bob Gibson making a cameo. Did I mention Seaver struck out Mays three times in the first major league game I ever saw in person?

Really, I have to go now. The newspaper still produces the vast majority of our revenues, and I am trying to keep Mr. Dolan from losing interest in buying us before the deal closes.

Feel free to amuse yourselves with comments ripping Carton or ripping me for putting his bobblehead in my office. If it makes you feel any better, my picture of Ken Dryden in goal seems to be peering down at it, disapprovingly.

I am going to try today to watch my tape of last night's "Costas Now" and watch the British Open live and write a newspaper column simultaneously, so please forgive me for light blogging.

So far I have seen Buzz Bissinger and Will Leitch sitting next to each other enjoying pre-show beers and hot dogs, and even hugging. Now Pete Rose is asking for a second chance.

CBS Radio sent me a Boomer Esiason/Craig Carton bobblehead from the batch handed out at the Cyclones game Monday night. Not a bad likeness of Boomer.

Here's the question: If I can't ethically accept gifts that have value, can I accept this?

There's a bid for one right now on eBay for $5.50. Hmm. Value? Oh, heck, I'm keeping it.

The Joe Benigno/Evan Roberts bobblehead must have gotten lost in the mail.

Commack's own Bob Costas was kind enough to invite me to his latest sports-related town hall meeting, which debuts on HBO Wednesday night and focuses on various aspects of the national pastime.

I politely declined, because I have other plans and because I feared Buzz Bissinger might show up unannounced, thus triggering another round of my nightmares about his April 29 tirade.

Here is a Wall Street Journal story about the Buzz show and new one.

Speaking of hockey movies (see post below), some readers were disappointed "Miracle on Ice,'' the 1981 Karl Malden version of the 1980 Olympic team's story, was not included on the list.

Yet another version of that story can be watched on HBO at 7 p.m. Tuesday when the channel replays “Do You Believe in Miracles? The Story of the 1980 U.S Hockey Team,'' a 2001 documentary about the events of Feb. 22, 1980, in Lake Placid.

(I never have been to Lake Placid. I'm going this summer.)

Speaking of Olympics-related HBO documentaries, at 7 p.m. July 8, you can watch "Fists of Freedom: The Story of the ’68 Summer Games,” a show that first appeared about a decade ago.

I vaguely remember the '68 Olympics. I should watch the show. But I think I'm on vacation that week. I really, really need to not blog on my vacations this summer. Please remind me.

(Now I'm hearing Dave Lennon's Boston accent on SNY from the Mets' locker room in Anaheim. How can the mayor of New York City, a Yankees radio voice and Newsday's Mets beat writer all have Boston accents? It just ain't right.)