Will he be good? Brian Urlacher to join Fox Sport 1 as analyst; Will Glazer help bring out best in him?

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Update: Just wanted to add this thought.

Jay Glazer and Brian Urlacher are tight. The fact that Glazer will be part of the new Fox Sports 1 show definitely will provide a comfort level for the former Bears LB. I’m sure it influenced his decision to give TV a try.

Perhaps Glazer will push the right buttons to bring out best in Urlacher?

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Back in the spring, Brian Urlacher downplayed a move into broadcasting.

“I don’t know how good I’d be at that,” Urlacher told Chicago Tribune’s Vaughn McClure. “It would take a lot of work to get me ready for it. But that might be something I look into.”

Fox Sports 1 apparently thinks he has potential. The former Bears linebacker is going to land at Fox Sport 1. Big Lead filed the initial report last night, and Urlacher has confirmed it to the Tribune.

Urlacher will be part of the network’s new Fox Football Daily show that will air at 6 p.m. ET. He will join Curt Menefee, Jay Glazer, Ronde Barber and others.

Urlacher definitely won’t be as colorful as another recently retired linebacker great, Ray Lewis, who hooked up with ESPN. In Chicago, he did a Sunday night show on Fox 32 with Lou Canellis.

Urlacher generally was fairly stiff. Part of that could be due to having nothing left after playing a game. Part of that could be from being stiff.

His most memorable moment occurred last December when he jumped on the fans during his post-game Fox appearance.

“Our crowd was pretty good today for the most part. They were loud for a minute there, the boos were really loud, which is always nice,” Urlacher said. “The only team in our division that gets booed at home is us. It’s unbelievable to me.

“Believe it, don’t believe it, we don’t care. We’re going to go out there and play as hard as we can. The guys that are healthy will play and we’ll do the best we can.”

Fox Sports 1 hopes Urlacher will tap into some of that candor with his new gig.

 

 

 

 

 

SportsCenter analysis: Overboard on Tebow, underboard on NHL

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Somebody has to do it. I’m just glad it wasn’t me.

Patrick Burns of Deadspin watched every minute of the 11 p.m. edition of SportsCenter in 2012. Added together, it came to 16 full days of his life that he never will get back.

All in the name of science, right?

Burns comes up with many interesting observations. Here are some of the highlights:

NH-what?: Despite ESPN claiming its covers hockey, it doesn’t. According to Burns, NHL news accounted for only 2.7 percent of the telecast. That trailed golf (3.3 percent). However, it was ahead of “other” at 1.8 percent. So hockey has that going for them.

1 guess at No. 1: No, it isn’t volleyball. The NFL rules at 23.3 percent, followed by the NBA at 19.2 percent.

Tebow: The top 10 list for the most mentions is comprised of sports’ biggest stars (LeBron James is No. 1)–with one exception, of course. Tim Tebow came in seventh, ahead of Tom Brady, Jeremy Lin, and Derrick Rose. Obsession? What obsession?

Speaking of obsessions, Burns has some interesting data on SportsCenter and Lin. But at least, Lin made an impact while he played.

And there’s more: Worth a look.

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday books: New book examines best baseball books of all time; Author Q/A

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There’s the famous line by George Plimpton: “The smaller the ball, the better the literature.”

That explains why there never has been a good book written about medicine balls.

The line might be a bit dated since there are many excellent books about football, basketball and even hockey. Plimpton never addressed the concept of pucks.

However, clearly no sport has generated more literature than baseball. Ron Kaplan examines the genre in his new book, 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read Before They Die.

If you love baseball books as I do, then you’ll be interested in Kaplan’s book. He notes many little-known treasures.

Here is my Q/A with Kaplan:

Why did you decide to do a book on baseball books?

I host a blog (RonKaplansbaseballbookshelf.com) that considers just about anything you can physically keep on a bookshelf: books, of course, but also newspapers, movies, collectibles (bobbleheads, cards. etc.), TVs (if they’re small enough or you have a really big bookshelf), etc. Been doing this for more than five years and have gotten to know a few publishers.

I was asked to submit a proposal on “1,000 Baseball Books Fans Must Read…” by a medium-sized outfit. Shortly after I sent it along, the company was bought out by another publisher who decided they didn’t want the project. So here I am with a book proposal and I figured, why let it go to waste. There are a few houses that specialize in baseball and the first one I queried — University of Nebraska Press — accepted it.

How did you go about selecting the books to be included here?

A total matter of opinion. With the exception of a handful, these are books I really enjoyed and wanted to share. I’m willing to bet there are at least a few titles in 501 that no one has heard of before.

Aside from the old George Plimpton line, why have baseball books resonated more than books about other sports?

I think baseball is the most leisurely of sports. By that I mean, there’s an awful lot of down time — during at bats, pitching changes, side changes. There’s a lot of time to chat about the history of the game or statistics or other topics. For writers, there’s time to think. Arnold Hano wrote one of the best baseball books — A Day in the Bleachers— about a single game. It just happened to be the one in the 1954 World Series where Willie Mays made “The Catch.” How lucky was that?

You have some great history in here. What books stand out from pre-1960?

I’m all about the veterans, so I appreciate books about baseball during World War II. Robert Creamer published Baseball and Other Matters in 1941, an excellent look at America right before its entry. There’s also Playing for Their Nation: Baseball and the American Military during World War II by Steven Bullock. Joshua Prager deconstructed the Bobby Thomson’s famous home run on The Echoing Green. And of course, Eliot Asinof’s Eight Men Out.

Is there such a thing as the greatest baseball book of all time? Do you have a top 5?

That’s too subjective for me to answer. I don’t presume to list them in any order other than alphabetical with the various topics (history, biography, fiction, etc.). There are titles that always appear on a top five or top ten list in both fiction and non-fiction. I omitted a couple of perennials, such as The Boys of Summer and The Glory of Their Times. I like to say it’s because they always get mentioned, when in reality it might just have been a spaced-out moment.

My top five would include The Tao of Baseball by Go; A Thinking Man’s Guide to Baseball, by Leonard Koppett; Brittle Innings: A Novel, by Michael Bishop; Rob Neyer’s Big Book of Baseball Legends; and Mr. Deeds Goes to Yankee Stadium: Baseball Movies in the Tradition of Frank Capra, by Wes Gehring.

What are some of the new baseball books that have caught your attention this year?

I really enjoyed Allen Barra’s Mickey and Willie and Robert Weintraub’s The Victory Season as well as John Rosengren’s Hank Greenberg: The Hero of Heroes. And while they’re not new, the Mickey Rawlings series of historical baseball mysteries by Troy Soos have been released this year. Highly recommended. There are a few I haven’t been able to get to yet, such as Howie Rose’s Put it in the Book and Joe Peta’s Trading Baseball and I know I’m forgetting some.

I get a fair amount of e-mail from readers who want to gently tell me that I didn’t include their favorite book, so I’m reading some of those. Just finished John Tunis’ Keystone Kids, what we might now call a “young adult” book, which was ahead of its time in terms of social consciousness.

Anything else?

I’ve done a couple of book events and am always fascinated by and grateful for the depth of knowledge of the audience. It’s not the same as an event with a player, where someone will say “I remember when you faced so-and-so.” These are thoughtful people who love baseball and love literature (and other media).

Luckiest man: Gehrig biographer writes his Hall of Fame speech

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Wanted to share this from Jonathan Eig.

With no living players being inducted in the Hall of Fame this year (thanks inventor of steroids), Lou Gehrig will be honored during ceremonies this weekend.

Gehrig wasn’t healthy enough to attend his own Hall of Fame induction in 1939. While it would have been hard to top his farewell speech at Yankee Stadium, Eig imagines what the legend might have said at Cooperstown in a piece in the Wall Street Journal.

Eig, the editor of ChicagoSide, has a good perspective. He wrote the bestselling biography on Gehrig, The Luckiest Man.

Eig envisions Gehrig beginning this way:

It is a wonderful honor to gain induction today to the Baseball Hall of Fame and to join the pantheon of great athletes and great men who have come before me. This game of baseball has meant everything to me, as it has so many boys. It took me and my family out of poverty. It taught me to be a man. I’m proud that I played hard and that the Yankees won a lot of ballgames and our share of World Series with me at the first sack. I’m proud I hit the ball square and sometimes far. I’m proud that I played fair. I’m proud that I showed my opponents the same respect I showed my own teammates. I’m proud I gave it my all every time I grabbed a bat or slipped on a glove.

But I guess if there’s one thing above all else that I’m proud of, one thing that made me who I am today and got me to the Hall of Fame, it would be this: strength.

Regarding his disease:

You probably heard that I gave a speech at Yankee Stadium when I found out I was sick…that I was…dying…I said I considered myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. Well, I wasn’t saying I was lucky to get this disease, this amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Nobody’s lucky to get sick. I was saying I was lucky to have had a good life, lucky to have parents and a wife who love me, lucky to have played baseball. Mostly, I guess I was lucky to be strong. But here’s what I’ve learned, now that this disease has got me behind in the count no balls and two strikes: I learned that it’s not really muscles that make you strong. I learned that it’s how you face a challenge—like how my parents faced the challenge of losing three kids, or how my wife is facing the challenge of losing me…

And finally:

To fight on through disaster, to dedicate your final days to the loved ones you will soon leave behind, and to believe in yourself when you have nothing left but that will to believe…that is the greatest strength I know.

If only he could have given that speech.

 

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Weekend wrap: Ray Lewis, Olbermann, Silver, and the other MMQB site

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Spanning the globe to give you the constant variety of sports media that I didn’t to this week….

Ray Lewis: On the new MMQB.SI.com site, Richard Deitsch talks to Ray Lewis about his new duties at ESPN.

Other MMQB: Chris Strauss of USA Today has an amusing post on the person who owns the domain to MMQB.

Keith Olbermann: Tim Goodman of Hollywood Reporter on why networks keep giving Keith Olbermann another chance.

Nate Silver: Now that he is back at ESPN, Josh Levin of Slate asks him to fix eight problems with sports.

Women sportswriters: In the wake of the ESPN documentary, Gail Shister writes about her experience as a women sportswriter back in the 1970s. She says she met with considerable resistance from the men in the newsroom.

Braun coverage: Steve Lepore of SB Nation examines MLB Network and ESPN’s coverage of the Ryan Braun suspension.

British Open coverage: Peter Richmond of Sports on Earth enjoyed ESPN’s coverage of the British Open.

BTN: Joe Lucia of Awlful Announcing talks about the significance of BTN2GO being able to all major cable providers.

The Odd Couple: Classic Sports TV and Media has a fun retrospective on The Odd Couple.

David Haugh: Paul Banks of Chicago Sports Media Watch has a Q/A with the Chicago Tribune columnist.

Podcasts

Awful Announcing: Steve Lepore of SB Nation is the guest.

Sports Media Weekly: John Ourand of Sports Business Daily and Joe Flint of the Los Angeles Times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steve Lepore…http://www.awfulannouncing.com/2013/july/aa-podcast-53-steve-lepore-sb-nation.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why are there so many Jewish sportswriters covering NASCAR?

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I’m not sure of the significance of this post. However, as a Jewish sportswriter, I feel compelled to share.

I did write about the new NASCAR TV deal with NBC this week. Don’t think that qualifies me for this list.

Anyway, Viv Bernstein put up a post titled, “The Merry Jews of NASCAR.”

From the post:

Yes, Nascar was born in the Bible Belt South. And racing and religion are inseparable. Each weekly driver’s meeting ends with a prayer and every pre-race ceremony includes an invocation.

Goyishe sport, right? Oy! Would you believe there are enough Jews in Nascar to fill an Adam Sandler song? And then some.

No, they’re not the ones driving the racecars, so you’re not going to read about them. But here’s the thing: You probably will read them. That’s because we’re all in the press box and media center. It’s one of the oddities of Nascar: Many of the people who cover the sport happen to be Jewish.

Nascar fans have probably seen the byline of Jeff Gluck, one of the lead motorsports writers for USA Today and formerly with SBNation.com and the old Nascar Scene. The indefatigable Nascar reporter for The Sporting News is Bob Pockrass. The Associated Press national motorsports writer is Jenna Fryer. Lewis Franck writes for Autoweek and has contributed to ESPN The Magazine, Sports Illustrated’s SI.com and Reuters.

Yep, all Jewish.

And…

“Years ago at a media tour — this was 2005, the year I met Gluck — I was riding up in the Hilton elevator one night with Gluck, Mike Harris and Lewis,” Edelstein wrote of the annual gathering of media and Nascar race teams. “And Gluck looked at all of us and said, ‘I feel like this must be the Nascar elevator minyan.’ “

There is no simple explanation for why so many Jewish writers and reporters gravitated to Nascar with its comparatively small media contingent. We all found our own paths at various times.

“I like to tell people I’m just a simple Jewish kid from the Bronx, so of course Nascar is one of my favorite sports,” said Edelstein, who lives in New Jersey. “Thank goodness I’m not so devout that I have to care whether the moonshine is kosher.”

And in closing:

I doubt folks in the sport even realize how many of us are in the media center these days. If they did, maybe they would think twice about serving pulled pork every weekend.

So now that you know, would it be too much to ask for a little kosher spread to nosh on instead? Hey Charlotte Motor Speedway, how about a bialy and schmeer?

 

Who is next in line? Personally branded sports sites could be the latest trend

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In my latest column for National Sports Journalism Center at Indiana, I write about the new sites run by Peter King and Nate Silver and how you might be seeing more personally-branded sports sites on major outlets. You were the first, Bill Simmons.

From the column:

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It used to be you could entice a prominent writer to join your staff with an offer of a signature column. Of course, that now is as ancient as somebody shouting out “copy” in the newsroom.

How about a featured role in a TV show? Nice, to be sure, but that still seems so yesterday.

No, there’s a new trend occurring in the sports media landscape. If you really want to attract or keep that big-name star, create a personally branded website. Then to add some extra incentive, give that star complete control over editorial content and hiring for the site.

Call it the sports version of a studio allowing a big-name actor to direct and produce a movie.

ESPN actually started the trend by telling Bill Simmons to conceive and develop Grantland. Monday, Sports Illustrated unveiled Peter King’s new MMQB site which will have its own staff covering the NFL.

Then right on top of that, ESPN signed on Nate Silver and his popular FiveThirtyEight site Monday. Send in those resumes because Silver will be in a hiring mode to fill out his staff.

Obviously, it is a no-brainer for ESPN to exploit Silver’s massive web powerhouse. However, it is telling that Silver said the presence of Grantland helped entice him to choose ESPN over other offers. The template already was in place. Judging by Silver’s comments, Simmons likely recruited him.

“I would say also the importance of Grantland, a successful precedent, was very important for me,” Silver said. ”There were a lot of dimensions I thought about.  This decision took me a long time, but one of the pivotal ones was what I call execution, based on who can actually put this vision into practice, who can be a good partner.  Based on meeting John and Marie Donoghue and Ben Sherwood at ABC and Bill Simmons and David Cho, I have a lot of confidence that they’re going to do this the right way.”

Grantland also is the most-used comparison to King’s new site. Like Grantland, MMQB will be more about telling stories and offering insights rather than tick-tock, nuts-and-bolts coverage of the NFL. King isn’t even sure if his staff will cover games.

“What I like to do, and part of the excitement in this, is to bring people inside the NFL,” King said. “Access. If you look at what I’ve done at Sports Illustrated, that’s a big part of it.”

So what intrigued King about starting his own site at age 56?

“The ability to say this is what I would like to do and here are the people I would like to do it with,” King said. “This is an attempt to stay ahead of the curve and not get crushed by the curve.”

Indeed, if you go to the site’s home page, it clearly states at the top, “MMQB with Peter King.” If that isn’t cool for a lifelong sportswriter, what is?

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Check the link for more.

New additions: Battista, Brown join NFL Network

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The New York Times’ loss is NFL Network’s gain.

The release on Judy Battista’s move:

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Veteran NFL reporter Judy Battista has joined NFL Media, it was announced today. Battista will start on August 5 and will file multiple stories per week on NFL.com to be used across all NFL Media platforms. Additionally, Battista will appear on NFL Network on a variety of shows.

Battista (@judybattista) joins NFL Media after almost 15 years with the New York Times, at which she has covered the NFL nationally since 2004. During her career with the New York Times, Battista also covered the New York Jets, as well as baseball, tennis and college basketball.

Prior to joining the New York Times, Battista – an APSE award-winning journalist – served as a reporter for Newsday and the Miami Herald. While with the Miami Herald, Battista covered Hall of Fame defensive tackle and current NFL Network analyst Warren Sapp at the University of Miami.

A graduate of the University of Miami, Battista lives in New York with her husband Anthony McCarron, a baseball reporter for the New York Daily News, and their daughter Grace.

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Jenn Brown also has found a spot after leaving ESPN.

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Two-time Emmy Award-winning sports reporter Jenn Brown has joined NFL Network, it was announced today. Brown will host NFL Total Access throughout the year starting tonight, as well as serve a variety of other roles for the network.

Brown (@JennBrown) joins NFL Network after eight years at ESPN as a reporter and host. For the past three years, Brown served as the sideline reporter for ESPN’s Thursday Night Primetime college football game, as well as for ESPN and ABC’s college football coverage on Saturdays. Additionally, Brown served as a reporter for ESPN’s coverage of the NFL Draft, College World Series, National Signing Day, Summer and Winter X Games, and the Little League World Series. As a host at ESPN, Brown co-hosted ESPNU’s college football show RoadTrip.

Prior to joining ESPN, Brown served as the first female correspondent for Inside the NFL on Showtime in which she contributed special interest features on NFL players, as well reports from the Super Bowl and the International Game in London.

Brown graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Florida where she was a four-year member of the Gator softball team. After walking on the team as a freshman, Brown was a team captain her senior year and finished her career third on the all-time Florida career stolen bases list.

Brown currently resides in Los Angeles, California.