Watchdog

Heavens! I remembered five minutes ago there was an Islanders game this afternoon, and in short order after turning it on I saw the Sabres score two runs, then saw a 1970s-style fight break out.

Dudes, there are a lot of children in the building! Stop it!

I'm watching in pain today after our tree swing collapsed Saturday after years of rope-fraying, causing me to bruise my coccyx.

Normally I would not burden you with this information, but it did remind me of a sports-related incident:

In 1995 I was playing first base in the coaches versus writers game at Giants training camp when the large offensive line coach, Pete Mangurian, kneed me in the coccyx when trying to beat out an infield single, causing extreme pain that lasted for several days.

Mangurian later became head coach at Cornell. Now I think he is on Bill Belichick's staff. He coaches . . . yup, tight ends.

But I digress. They're still sorting out the penalties at the Coliseum.

Holy Duff!

I did a post earlier today in response to a couple of items in Chris Botta's new blog that I mostly intended as good-natured blog give-and-take to stir the juices and give Botta some free pub.

I forgot that nothing riles local hockey followers more than comparing and contrasting the three area NHL squads.

Yikes. Both Botta and I are getting bashed over this. I promise to follow up - in the newspaper, even! - with a more carefully considered exploration of the subject very early in the new season, especially the sensitive topic of pregame shows and the lack thereof.

OK? Now let me study my tape of Game Six of the 1979 Stanley Cup semifinals in peace. Good night.

Former Isles mouthpiece Chris Botta is getting feisty in his blog, taking shots at two of Cablevision's prized possessions: Newsday (for lack of Isles coverage this week) and MSG Plus (for lack of Isles pregame shows).

The weird thing is there will be pregame shows for the Devils, the Isles' spiritual siblings in non-Rangers-land.

On the other hand, "Islanders Illustrated" will be shown regularly before games, a magazine-style show for which the Devils do not have an equivalent.

How do I feel about all this?

I feel it's more important to have a nice postgame, because hardly anyone watches pregame shows anyway. And the diehards who need more info he can get plenty of stuff on the Islanders' Web site, Newsday, Newsday.com and Logan's blog.

As for Botta's assertion Newsday already is tilting its coverage toward Cablevision owned teams . . . I don't know. If I'm supposed to be doing that, Mr. Dolan has done a poor job of letting me know, because I have heard nothing along those lines.

OK, now I'm really done for today. I need to put on my Rod Gilbert jersey and paint my face blue to prepare for the weekend.

I did an item in my Friday newspaper column about the Islanders' radio situation, which involves a station with a potentially problematic signal reach.

Speaking of the Isles, I have heard from a few fans frustrated by the lack of preseason games on TV, compared to the bounty of Rangers exhibitions. Fair point.

I will do a better job of complaining about this to Mr. Dolan next year during our weekly offseason lunches to discuss TV strategy. (I'm just kidding. I've never met Mr. Dolan. I did sit two suites over from him at the Prudential Center for a Rangers-Devils playoff game last season. )

Speaking of the Islanders, former p.r. honcho and now blogger Chris Botta and Don La Greca will co-host a weekly show on 1050 ESPN called “New York Hockey This Week,” the only regular hockey show on local terrestrial radio.

It usually will be heard on Saturdays before Rangers pre-games. This week it will be on from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. in advance of the opener in Prague.

Botta said the show will feature the old “NHL2Nite” theme song from ESPN2!

My brain capacity and newspaper space for Tuesday are being consumed by putting the Mets to bed, so I have to break this particular news right here and right now:

After capably spending most of the millennium as the Isles' pre- and post-game host on MSG Plus, Deb Placey is headed for a co-hosting gig on "MSG, NY."

Her replacement will be C.J. Papa.

Also, game producer Kevin Meininger is bound for an executive job as a senior coordinating producer, and will be replaced in his former role by Mike Santini.

The Isles open Oct. 10 against the Devils on MSG Plus.

I'm pretty sure there will not be any conflicts that night with local squads in the baseball playoffs.

Hey, gang, check it out: The Isles have a new coach.

Phil Goyette always will be the only true Islanders coach to me. But I understand sometimes change is necessary.

The Isles' Bill Guerin wasted little time in explaining the recently rewritten facts of Long Island sports life to young Josh Bailey during the team's open house Saturday night . . . not to mention getting in some mild rookie hazing.

Go to IslandersTV for the video. Cute.

That's it for now, people. I've got a Tuesday newspaper column to write.

Enjoy the rest of the live noon to 3 p.m. SportsCenter. Watch that ball bounce between the Yanks' first and second basemen, over and over and over.

Hey, gals, the Islanders are holding Ice Girls tryouts Saturday morning

Good luck, and make sure you come prepared with "form-fitting athletic clothes," because it turns out the tryouts not only are for trying out, but the process will be recorded for the enjoyment of IslandersTV viewers!

Here is how the Isles' Web site put it:

"The tryout is open to all women 18-years-of-age and older. You should wear form-fitting athletic clothes, come with your make-up complete, and be sure to bring your own figure skates. Please also remember to bring a resume and headshot to the audition. These tryouts will be taped for IslandersTV."

Wow.

So much for any chance Billy Packer had of sneaking onto Newsday's Tuesday back page.

There is just way too much going on in the world for me to keep up.

“Islanders Illustrated,’’ debuting at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday on MSG Plus, is worthy of note for diehard Isles fans, because let’s face it – it’s not every day a TV show dedicated to your squad is born.

It features an interview with GM Garth Snow about the draft, and a game of Hungry, Hungry Hippos involving several of the team’s young players.

Mostly, it’s standard stuff for a magazine-show format produced by the team itself.

The show, which will appear monthly in the offseason and every other week during the season, is not the place for harsh criticism or biting analysis. Read Newsday for that, when warranted.

But it’s on TV, and it's much better than nothing. So I'm telling you about it. That's why I'm here. Plus I have nothing else to do because I'm watching Billy Wagner try to survive another harrowing ninth.

(Reyes just ended the game with an unassisted double play. Willie lives!)

Chris Botta has only a month left in his extended, limited, post-Islanders blog engagement, so I guess it was about time for him to get around to the obligatory Erin Andrews post required of all sports bloggers.

Here it is.

But I'm not posting a picture of Ms. Andrews to go with it. I have sworn off pictures of Ms. Andrews. I have used up my quota. Sorry.

Chris Botta has been gone from his post as an Islanders spokesman for nearly a month, but he's still blogging and still defending the honor of his former employer.

(Memo to Newsday: Don't count on this kind of treatment from me when I'm gone.)

This time he's setting the record straight - as he sees it - regarding the Isles' role in the NHL Winter Classic-in-the-Bronx saga.

Botta is in a better position to know than I am, but . . . sorry Islanders fans, even though I do have "an ounce of fairness and decency" in my soul, to quote Chris, the rest of America is more likely to get pumped up for Rangers-Bruins than Rangers-Isles.

I'm pretty sure this could only happen in hockey:

A public relations man resigns from Our Islanders after 20 years, but still keeps passionately defending his guys, his team and his sport in a blog.

Cute.

Somebody give this dude a job. Maybe as a blogger!

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."

Chris Botta has resigned as the Isles' VP of media relations, according to this Greg Logan article and an e-mail I got from Botta late Monday night.

I'm not sure what the "personal reasons" are, but I'm assuming based on Logan's article Botta does not want to discuss them publicly.

Fair enough. But Isles fans should know he worked hard over an insanely long stretch to help reporters (and by extension fans) navigate a roller coaster era in the team's history.

Most notably, he was innovative and forward-thinking, with ideas such as the Blog Box. Check out this memorable interview he gave to Deadspin.com on that subject.

Media relations people have one of the toughest jobs in sports.

The hours stink, everyone wants help getting tickets and reporters whine into one ear and owners/coaches/players into the other.

It's a shame they changed that Sean Avery rule before Rick DiPietro got a crack at him.

Asked during his guest studio stint on Versus the following question, "Would you have been able to keep your cool if Sean Avery swung his stick in front of you”?, Rick pondered for a few seconds and said this:

“I highly doubt it.”

DiPietro also said, "probably 90 percent of the league was wishing a slap shot would have hit him in the back of the head.”

Here is a quote provided to me from DiPietro about how his first night in the studio went:

"I thought it went pretty well. The guys on the panel and the crew really made me feel comfortable. I’d much rather be playing, but it’s been enjoyable and it’s a good experience watching all of the games.”

DiPietro is working with Versus through Thursday.

The recent unpleasantness regarding the regular-season competition involving the three local hockey squads has been resolved.

Read about it here.

That's a relief.

Thanks, King Solomon.

OK, so it doesn't quite mach the 1979 playoffs in intensity, but here's a snippet of mild, good-natured controversy between Our Islanders and Our Rangers, courtesy of Isles p.r. poobah Chris Botta.

I had a heck of a time getting the final game of that '79 series on the radio in Ithaca. It was barely audible but I listened anyway.

I was pleased with the outcome. Almost made up for the shock of that first-round series in '75.

Sigh. I am getting older by the day.

The Islanders have partnered with the message board Islandermania on a program that makes it easier for fans to share season tickets without resorting to recruiting relatives or close friends.

Makes sense, given the very high price these days of quality hockey tickets (and basketball tickets, and tickets to pretty much every major pro sport).

Meanwhile, the Giants and Jets still have not said officially whether they will resort to personal seat licenses in their new stadium.

But no one I've spoken to in the sports business world lately doubts that they will.

Maybe they'll get enough dough from a corporate name sponsor to avoid it. Many people have suggested JetBlue Stadium.

Feel free to add your suggestions below. I'll pass them along to stadium officials.

After showing the on-ice ceremony before the Isles' "Core of the Four" celebration Sunday, FSNY will add a roundtable discussion hosted by Jiggs McDonald and featuring Clark Gillies, Bobby Bourne and Butch Goring.

Word is Goring has been stockpiling some of his best stuff for the discussion, so it's probably worth a listen/watch for Isles fans before the game itself.

My Tuesday newspaper column is two mini-columns squashed together, one about basketball and hockey ratings, the other about FSNY's coming re-branding as MSG Plus.

(It's a better name; we'll see if it's a better product.)

In the column, I get all excited about the Islanders' ratings this season, which are up a healthy 85 percent compared to this point last season. (The Rangers are up by even more.)

Still, the overall numbers are rather modest. The Isles are averaging 0.24 percent of homes in the market for their games, roughly 18,000 of them.

Super Bowl XLII did a 44.9 rating in New York, drawing about 3.3 million households.

So it would take 187 Islanders games - more than two full seasons worth - to match the Giants' final game of this past season.

Mike Comrie reportedly will be staying with the Isles after all.

Good.

(UPDATE: Here is more on this from our Islanders blog.)

Sorry about the lack of blogging this Wednesday.

It was a long, ultimately symmetrical day. I started it in the control room at WFAN listening to Craig Carton and Boomer Esiason mercilessly make fun of Mike Comrie's attire for a recent evening out with his female friend.

It ended with Comrie scoring the winning goal in a shootout for the Isles.

All sorts of other stuff happened in between. But they are stories for another day. Tomorrow.

Islanders fans have been weighing in via e-mail all morning in response to today's newspaper column about the gap between the team's weekday and weekend attendance.

I'll respond to everyone individually eventually, but one consistent theme from fans trying to explain the disparity has been the difficulty of getting to the arena on a weekday in terms of both traffic and the 7 p.m. starting time, which is a big challenge for commuters.

Anyway, thanks for reading. The column also includes items about Chris Russo turning into a political lobbyist, Fox planning to bury cameras in the asphalt in Daytona and a guy fishing in Central Park on Versus.

(Ms. Brinkley is 54, so I have not technically violated my vow, Glauber. Hah!)

Newsday started a new Web only feature today called "Islanders Insider" by beat writer Greg Logan.

It's another example of our commitment to unique Web content. You should read it religiously.

(I learned how to cross-promote from covering ESPN for more than two years now.)

Logan is one of a select few Newsday sports scribes ahead of me on the seniority list, based on the vacation week request e-mail sent out earlier today.

Gergen is No. 1, of course, followed by Jeansonne, Zipay, Logan, Herrmann and me. I believe I would be ahead of Herrmann if I hadn't taken that detour to Anchorage between my debut in the fall of 1982 and my return in the summer of 1985.

Sigh.

My contract clearly states that any time a TV p.r. person alerts me to a show related to Our Islanders, I have to give it a free plug.

So . . .

Fran Healy sits down with Mike Bossy on the latest episode of "Halls of Fame,'' debuting at 8:30 p.m. Monday night on FSNY.

If you'll be busy watching the LSU-Ohio State game, the show repeats several times, next at 8:30 p.m. Friday and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, by which time the Giants should have a large enough lead against the Cowboys that you can start flipping for other TV options.

As promised, I did watch the 1994 PBA Greater Detroit Open on ESPN Classic Saturday.

The most interesting thing about it: Some of the hair and clothing styles of the female fans in the background bore a scary resemblance to the 1980s, which means 1994 was longer ago than I imagined, which means . . . I'm really, really old.

In today's newspaper column, which for now appears in two pieces on the Web site, I wrote more about the price rises in Yankees tickets, as well as a story about the TV rights deal for which we have to thank the existence of Our Islanders.

Go Dolphins.

I found it very frustrating writing in my Friday newspaper column about two Plainview Kennedy juniors who have their own blog and Internet-based talk show about their beloved Islanders.

For one thing, it's such an Internet-oriented story that it requires links and doesn't translate well into print. For another, I didn't have the space to properly pay tribute when my new pal Steve had this to say during an interview Tuesday:

"Every single day I’m watching 'Mike and the Mad Dog' when I get home and reading your WatchDog blog."

You had me at "every!"

Click below for more about "Hockey Night on Long Island" and BlogTalkRadio.

The Islanders not only are way up on TV so far this season (see post below), they also are doing boffo business at the box office.

Their 34 percent attendance increase leads the NHL. They're up from a 10,902 average in '06-07 to 14,605.

The Devils also are doing nicely, riding the new Prudential Center to a 21.1 percent increase relative to this time last season.

Imagine what the Islanders' numbers will look like when their revamped building opens! That's supposed to be any decade now, right?

Umm . . . It seems Jim Baumbach's column Monday on Al Arbour's 1,500th regular-season game as the Islanders' coach generated a bit of a reaction.

Yikes. I've never gotten feedback this voluminous - and this nasty - for any topic, including Suzyn Waldman!