Watchdog

Speaking of scoops (see post below), I broke the news in the Thursday newspaper that as of the end of the calendar year, "MSG, NY" will cease to exist as we have known it lo these past two years. (As will "Hockey Night Live" on Saturdays.)

Basically, the ratings were poor, and the network figured it could better serve and attract viewers by "blowing out" the show on Knicks and Rangers game nights and turning it into something more like a postgame show and less like a peculiar mishmash of hockey and concert highlights.

(Once, when I was in a wiseacre mood, I wrote the show was apparently targeting the "Barbra Streisand/Sandish Ozolinsh demographic." I kind of liked that one, if I do say so myself.)

MSG Media president Mike Bair was nice enough to invite me into his office late Wednesday afternoon to discuss this after I inquired about a tip from a diligent, well-connected reader.

Click below for his comments.

MSG's Tina Cervasio is running the New York City Marathon (and blogging about it) to raise awareness and funds for the Garden of Dreams Foundation.

I don't understand why my new Cablevision teammates at MSG didn't ask me to run to help the cause.

I once ran a mile without stopping, in under seven minutes.

In 1982.

I should write my Friday newspaper column now. Enjoy the Jim Leavitt Show at 1 p.m. on SNY.

I think he's the South Florida coach.

Was leaning toward following the kids on their candy-gathering rounds Friday rather than watching Wofford and Appalachian State on ESPN2 Friday.

Then I heard MSG Plus has Wagner at Sacred Heart at 7 p.m., featuring a Sacred Heart defense led by linebacker Chansler Davis (East Islip) and cornerback Andre Isla (Bellport).

Then I further heard my old Giants beat pal Paul Dottino will be on play-by-play, with former Hofstra receiver Steven Jackson as his analyst.

I'll just tell the kids to bring home their leftover candy apples, popcorn balls and rocks for me.

Peace for our time! Troy Aikman taped Boomer Esiason's show this afternoon - it debuts at 11 p.m. Wednesday on MSG - and they opened with Boomer apologizing for the recent unpleasantness between the two.

To review: Esiason had accused the Fox analyst of leaning the Cowboys' way during a recent Pokes-Cardinals game.

Here was the opening exchange:

Boomer: "All right, joining us now is my new bias, I mean best friend, Troy Aikman from Dallas. First let me say this publicly Troy, in front of everybody: I do apologize for our little tiff about two weeks ago. I’m sure your week has been a little calmer than it was two weeks ago.”

Aikman: “Yeah, you know it was a bit calmer and hey, I appreciate it. We both know we’ve been in the business long enough, we say things we regret, maybe wish we hadn’t have. I will tell you though, for a couple of old, washed-up, has-been quarterbacks, it was kind of nice being back in the headlines again.”

Boomer: “Yeah, it made us relevant, for all the wrong reasons, though.”

Click below for more from Aikman's appearance, via satellite.

MSG is making an aggressive bid to succeed YES as the TV simulcast home of "Mike'd Up," formerly known as "Mike and the Mad Dog," a person familiar with the process said.

WFAN's afternoon show has been simulcast on YES since the network launched in 2002.

YES' contract to carry the show expires at the end of this year, but it had the right to cancel the simulcasts after the breakup of Chris Russo and Mike Francesa last month. It decided to keep the show through the end of December, as planned.

What about after that, though? YES has a right to match MSG's offer, but its level of interest in doing so is not clear.

The show provides many hours of programming, but Yankees president Randy Levine long has been interested in severing the relationship, according to multiple people familiar with the situation. With the contract ending and a new stadium opening, the Yankees and YES might conclude this is the time to part ways.

YES is believed to be considering launching its own talk show that would originate from the new Yankee Stadium.

Will YES seek to match MSG's offer? "We don’t publicly discuss strategy,'' spokesman Eric Handler said.

Is YES formulating its own show? "We are always exploring new programming opportunities, as evidenced by the four new programming series we launched in the first seven months of 2008 (The Joe Girardi Show, YESterdays, SportsLife NYC and Forbes Sports Money)," Handler said.

(MSG and Newsday both are owned by Cablevision.)

Darn it, I keep forgetting to post this information from MSG's series "Fans' Most Wanted: Knicks," and "Fans' Most Wanted: Rangers."

Better late than never; the finale of the Rangers' version is scheduled for four re-showings Monday.

Fans were asked to vote for an all-time team for both franchises. Here are the results.

Feel free to comment about the selections and boost my page views for August, since I'm taking some time off after today and will be doing limited blogging down the stretch.

Rangers: Goalie - Giacomin; Defensemen - Leetch, Park; Forwards - Messier, Gilbert, Ratelle; Coach - Francis

Knicks: Center - Ewing; Forwards - Oakley, King; Guards - Frazier, Monroe; Coach - Holzman

What about Richter, you say? Ed-die beat him out by only 1 percent.

NFL Films and HBO's "Hard Knocks" chose to chronicle Cowboys camp rather than schlep to Albany - not that the Giants would have agreed to do it anyway - but "MSG, NY" Sunday night will offer a behind-the-scenes look at Big Blue's camp.

Antonio Pierce was armed with a camera and recorded video of teammates doing, um, whatever it is football players do when reporters and fans are not keeping an eye on them.

I can't recall a local player - even Tiki Barber - pursuing media work in preparation for a post-playing career as aggressively as Pierce has the past couple of years.

He even was an intern for Howard Stern!

MSG will televise Saturday night's Liberty-Indiana Fever game OUTDOORS at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

The network has a bunch of announcers and reporters working the event.

It should be interesting. Advice to players: Drink plenty of fluids. Advice to spectators: Bring portable electric fans.

MSG will show all three NY State lax finals on tape beginning at 11 a.m. Sunday.

In HD!

I attended the first ever MSG Upfront Wednesday, one of those events designed to impress advertising and sponsor types.

Many media and athletic luminaries were on hand. To shield those with weak stomachs from my nauseating name-dropping, I hid the list; click below to read it if you dare.

A photographer took a picture of me when I was talking to Boomer Esiason and Kenny Albert. If it turns up on the Internet, it will give ammunition to those who believe I am a Ca-Boom apologist. Whatever.

At least no one took a picture of me glassy-eyed, holding a cocktail, with busty co-eds draped over me. As far as I know.

The highlight was a private concert from Joe Walsh about an hour before he was scheduled to take the Garden stage with the Eagles.

Among his offerings was an unusual rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," then an amusing history of the song "Life's Been Good," with narration between verses. He also talked about spending three weeks one night with Keith Moon of The Who.

The most interesting tidbit I heard was that the average Knicks fan has a net worth of more than $2 million. Yikes! I assume they meant season ticket holders.

Unlike most upfronts, there was little discussion of upcoming programming, except for a new show this summer featuring an American Idol-style competition for subway musicians. No, really.

OK, no more Versus distribution issues, Rangers fans.

Game 5 will be on NBC. Games 6 and 7 will be on MSG.

The entire conference finals will be on NBC or Versus, though.

So no more Sam Rosen after next week.

Remember, an NHL team comes back from a 3-0 series deficit every 33 years - 1942 Leafs, 1975 Isles . . . 2008 Rangers?

Islanders analyst Billy Jaffe of MSG Plus was named best sports analyst at the 51st annual New York Emmy Awards Sunday night.

MSG secured 18 Emmys, YES seven and SNY three.

Click below for the complete list of winners, including those in non-sports categories, because I was too lazy to edit them out.

As expected, MSG announced the hiring of Tina Cervasio, late of NESN, as a host/reporter for MSG and MSG Plus.

She will co-host "MSG, NY" and be a sideline reporter for Red Bulls games, among other things.

Someone had to do it, so Monday when I had access to execs during the re-launch party for MSG Plus, I asked an obvious question:

What will the channel that used to be known as FSNY2 for overflow games now be called? Answer: "MSG Plus 2," which sounds like some sort of math problem in search of an equals sign.

Here's a good idea for next winter that I heard will be considered in the offseason:

Ditch the distinctions among overflow games and put the third game on a given night on MSG2, regardless of which team is involved. Save MSG Plus 2 for nights when all four teams in Cablevision's orbit play at the same time.

Much simpler. Even though I just made it sound complicated.

Here is my Tuesday newspaper column, in which among other things I break the news that respected Isles TV reporter Deb Kaufman has changed her professional name to Deb Placey, her married name for 13 years.

Stay calm, everyone. You will adjust over time.

Deb's announcement coincides with the re-branding of her primary outlet, FSNY, to MSG Plus. It's a much better name than the old one. Now we'll see if the programming follows suit.

I attended an informal reception at the Garden before the Sampras-Federer match to mark the station's name change. While there I had a nice chat with the actress Chloe Sevigny, an avid Knicks fan who admitted she doesn't follow tennis much.

It gave me one quality name to drop and picture to post before dropping out of blogging for the rest of the day. I have newspaper stuff to take care of.

Enjoy Derby City Classic billiards on SNY at 1 p.m.

Or the WatchDog tribute/parody from our biggest fan (not stalker!) Doug.

Today is the 40th anniversary of the opening event at the current Madison Square Garden, a USO fundraiser featuring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Barbara Eden.

(My Aunt Caroline was Ms. Eden's hairstylist on "I Dream of Jeannie." She also did Marlo Thomas' hair for "That Girl." I once visited Ms. Thomas in her room at The Plaza in 1968. It was another several decades before I next visited a young actress in her Plaza suite: Kate Mara. But I digress.)

Earlier in the day on Feb. 11, 1968, the Rangers played a game at the old Garden, which is kind of cool.

Anyway, here is my Sunday newspaper column on the structural engineer who oversaw the construction of the Garden, notably its iconic ceiling/roof.

I appreciate the willingness of my editors and readers to put up with me going off the beaten path with stories such as this one. As always, my top priority is to tell you something you didn't know. Which I hope is the case here.

John Cryan, the retired engineer in the piece, told me other stuff about the construction of the Garden, but I don't want to push my luck, so I'll save it for another day.

"MSG, NY" has expanded to seven days per week from five as of this week on MSG, and it will expand from 30 minutes to an hour nightly starting March 3.

The network appears to be pleased with the ratings and advertiser response for the show, which is an unusual blend of sports and entertainment news, most of it pegged to events at the Garden.

Sure, you might not personally know anyone who watches the show regularly, but statistics show that they exist.

Oh, geez. I might have to get this TV out of my office. I currently am watching the final minute of the Quinnipiac-Cornell game on MSG instead of writing my newspaper column.

Cornell was losing by nine with a couple of minutes left. Now it's going into OT.

When I was in college, they used to schedule basketball games for 6 p.m. on Saturdays in hopes people would stop for a few minutes on their way through Barton Hall to Lynah Rink for the 8 p.m. hockey game.

(Update: Good guys win, 86-84.)

MSG's approach to Knicks post-games almost never fails to deliver for a sports media critic as the most baffling, bizarre ongoing drama in local TV sports.

Tuesday night on "MSG, NY,'' while waiting for Isiah Thomas to appear after the team's epic home loss - which included fans chanting for his dismissal - the show switched to a taped preview of the NIT semis.

It eventually got to Thomas live, just in time to miss a chunk of his opening statement.

After a p.r. official ended the session, the show turned to a feature on . . . some sort of comics convention.

Then a discussion about high school sports. And some hockey highlights.

Then, finally, 30 minutes into the show, there were clips of Zach Randolph and Quentin Richardson talking in the locker room. But soon it was over, at about 10:32 p.m.

The host invited fans to check back for a presumably more complete wrap-up of the game . . . at midnight.

Mind-boggling.

Stephen A. Smith wanted to have Gus Johnson, one of the play-by-play voices of the Knicks, on his ESPN 1050 radio show Wednesday to discuss, well, you know . . .

But after Johnson ran the idea past an MSG spokesman, MSG got back to the station and said nyet to the appearance. Why?

To avoid putting Johnson in the awkward position of discussing a couple of guys with whom he has long-time relationships, Isiah Thomas and Stephon Marbury.

This was not surprising. MSG is, um, not known for its warm, open embrace of publicly addressing Garden controversies.

I find this astounding . . . in a good way:

I am told there are only a few hundreds seats remaining for the Nov. 24 Cornell vs. Boston University hockey game at the Garden, and that it likely will sell out.

So if you have an interest in attending, act fast.

When I first heard about this event I figured 10,000 to 12,000 would be a more than respectable crowd for college hockey in New York City on Thanksgiving weekend.

Wow. I guess I'm not the only one who knows college hockey is the best sport there is.

(The game will be televised on CSTV, by the way. They show a lot of college hockey.)

For the next four Sunday mornings at 9, MSG will be showing tapes of games from earlier in the weekend involving Long Island teams.

It begins this Sunday with the West Islip-East Islip tilt that is being played in real life on Saturday.

Next week it's St. Anthony's against Holy Trinity, then Brentwood against Floyd on Oct. 21 and Chaminade against St. Anthony's on Oct. 28.

I was there when Northport hammered West Islip, 21-6, for the AAA title in 1976.

I was all-state . . . in tenor sax.

The shocking news on the media front in the wake of the Isiah Thomas/MSG decision Tuesday was this:

"MSG, NY,'' MSG's nightly sports and entertainment, sort-of news show, actually acknowledged the existence of the suit.

Earlier, MSG's take on that subject was that it is not a pure news show and therefore left coverage of it to other programs.

There was a strange wrinkle, though.

While MSG posted the Garden's and Thomas' official statements on the screen, it did not use the video of Thomas speaking outside the courtroom that pretty much every other sports news show in North America did.

(Update: I just realized MSG, NY did not use anything from Anucha Browne Sanders. Uh, oh . . . )