Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sports media…
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Finebaum: Paul Finebaum talks about his move to ESPN with SI.com’s Richard Deitsch. He also is doing a book with ESPN.com’s Gene Wojciechowski.
More Finebaum: ESPN’s Front Row has a video interview with Finebaum.
Even more Finebaum: Tommy Tomlinson in Sports on Earth writes Alabama is going to miss Finebaum.
Make that dermatologist appointment: Sports Illustrated’s Tim Layden writes in the New York Times about his battle with skin cancer that required substantial work on his nose. It had me calling my dermatologist.
Ronde to Fox Sports 1: Big Lead reports Ronde Barber is headed to the new sports cable outlet.
New baseball books: Ron Kaplan’s Book Shelf writes about four new books from the Society of American Baseball Research. They focus on great teams: ’47 Dodgers; ’47 Yankees; ’64 Cardinals; and ’70 Orioles.
Connors review: Sports Book Review Center weighs in on Jimmy Connors’ new biography. Three stars.
Venturi’s big moment: The Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism reprints Povich’s column recalling Ken Venturi beating the heat to win the 1964 U.S. Open.
NFL Draft: Richard Rothschild of SI.com looks at the various dates of the NFL draft during its history. The 1955 draft was in late November.
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Sports media podcasts
Sports-Casters: Thanks to Steve Bennett for having me on this week’s show.
ESPN is going to place a significant spotlight on women sports this summer. The network will air a series of documentaries called Nine for IX, which should be excellent.
To coincide with the series, espnW.com has been redesigned. ESPN clearly wants to turn up the volume on women sports.
And a plug: Be sure to read the work of espnW’s Melissa Isaacson, my long-time pal from the Chicago Tribune.
Here are all the details from ESPN:
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(Tuesday) espnW launched a beta version of the redesigned espnW.com, rebuilt from the ground up. The new site utilizes responsive design and a time-based feed that both simplifies navigation and enhances the user experience across screens.
Along with a greater emphasis on visual content and social media integration, the new espnW.com will be organized into three primary content areas:
– News & Commentary: Key stories of the day with an espnW perspective, including features, columns, videos, and photos
– Athlete’s Life: Essays, features, training information, videos and photos giving fans inside access to top athletes, motivation, and insight into “the woman behind the competitor”
– W in Action: Columns, essays, features and photos highlighting how espnW and women are impacting the world and their communities through sports
“espnW.com has become the digital home for a growing community of women who love sports, and nothing is more important than continuing to enhance the way we serve those fans,” said Laura Gentile, vice president, espnW. “The editorial focus and design sensibility of the new espnW.com are a direct result of our interaction and connection with fans over the last two years.”
The Summer of W and Nine for IX
Today, espnW is also launching a new initiative called The Summer of W, which will consist of two main platforms, 98 Days to Shine – a social photo challenge – and editorial content on espnW.com. All summer long, through Labor Day, espnW.com will inspire women as they set new goals and tackle new athletic endeavors.
Content will include;
– 98 Days to Shine: espnW will issue a challenge every day this summer via social media that inspires and engages women to get active. Responses will be captured through photos with rewards given out daily and weekly, culminating with a grand prize at summer’s end. The photos submitted during the summer will be showcased on espnW.com and will be part of the finale event that celebrates the photos and creativity of fans. All are encouraged to snap a photo and hashtag using #98DaystoShine on Twitter and Instagram and share across social platforms.
– 10 Faces of Summer: the brightest female stars from 10 different sports share their summer training programs and give fans an inside look at their lives on and off the field. Athletes Skylar Diggins (basketball), Kerri Walsh Jennings (volleyball), Lakey Peterson (surfing), Julie Foudy (soccer), Jessica Hardy (swimming), Sarah Groff (triathlon), and Aga Radwanska (tennis) are a few of the confirmed athletes.
– Heart of Summer: espnW correspondent Summer Sanders travels the country to sporting events big and small from a Color Run and a Spartan Race, to the MLB All-Star game and X Games.
– Hot Shots: Profiles and photo essays of athletes from often unheralded summer sports including paddle boarding, sailing, kayaking and mountain biking.
Plus, as previously announced,espnW.com will be the online destination for the new summer film slate, Nine for IX. The series of documentary films, produced in conjunction with ESPN Films, focuses on captivating stories of women in sports told through the lens of female filmmakers.
About espnW
espnW’s mission is to serve women as fans and athletes. espnW.com provides an engaging environment that offers total access to female athletes and the sports they play, takes fans inside the biggest events, and shares a unique point of view on the sports stories that matter most to women. Founded in July, 2010, espnW lives across television, films, events, digital and social platforms. The annual espnW: Women + Sports Summit is the leading event of its kind in the sports industry. The Women’s Sports Foundation is a charity of choice for espnW.
I recently ran into Owen Youngman, one of my former bosses at the Chicago Tribune. It reminded me I had yet to post Vince Doria’s entry in the My First Job series.
Doria has enjoyed an illustrious career. He was the sports editor of the Boston Globe in the 1980s, when the section hummed with big names like Will McDonough, Peter Gammons and Bob Ryan. He served as a top editor at The National and ultimately landed at ESPN, where he now is senior vice-president and director of news.
Yet as is the case with virtually everyone else, it started humbly for Doria. Back in the early 70s, he was the sports editor of the Ashtabula (Ohio) Star-Beacon.
It turns out his small fledgling staff included the young Youngman brothers: Owen, who went on to become at top editor at the Tribune; and Randy, the long-time sports columnist for the Orange County Register.
Here is the latest edition of My First Job:
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I was just out of school at Ohio State and planned on going to law school. I was working part-time for the Columbus morning paper. I walked in a fraternity house and this guy has a want ad. It was for a job as sports editor in Ashtabula. I said this might be a lark for six months before I go to law school.
I’m not expecting much at that paper. One of my staffers was this kid who still was in high school. Owen Youngman. He’s keeping statistics. He’s got this matrix for the high school tennis team.
His brother Randy was writing for the paper. Both went on to do some pretty good things in the business. We had a great sports section, unlike anything ever seen in Ashtabula, nor seen since.
The sports editor did everything. You wrote columns, you covered games. You laid out the paper. You edited all the material. The paper was very sports oriented. We ran all these big tournaments; golf, tennis, etc..
If you were the sports editor, you also ran all of those tournaments. On a typical day of a tournament, you’d come in at 6 in the morning and put the paper together. It would go to print at 10. Then you would go out and run the tournament. It would go all friggin’ day until 7-8. Guys would be drunk, everything else. Then you’d come back in and write up the whole thing.
They also had a wire service. After writing the story, you had to put it out on this old teletype machine that looked like it was leftover from WWII. Now it’s about midnight. We’re in there, and Owen and Randy and I have all these tennis balls. Nobody goes home. We’re throwing tennis balls all over the place.
I tell Owen, ‘I bet you when they took that press out, they found some tennis balls.’
I got to do everything. As much as the writing aspect, the ability to lay it all out was a terrific experience. I went from there to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
We had a great time in Ashtabula. By the way, there was an 8-year kid who lived down the street: Urban Meyer.
Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs haven’t been to the NBA Finals since 2007. While it seems like a short time, it’s light years when you look at what has happened with sports media.
Duncan will encounter a much more intense spotlight this time around. Given the scope of his great career, the media will try extra hard to pry some deeper insights from the reticent superstar. After all, this might be his last trip to the big dance.
Well, good luck with that.
Tommy Tomlinson of Sports on Earth did a terrific piece on Duncan this week. He writes how nobody is able to penetrate the shell.
Tomlinson writes:
Even when athletes seek out the camera and are in our faces all the time, it’s hard to say we know them. Sometimes beneath the surface is just more surface. But we really don’t know Tim Duncan. He keeps his life off the court private. He turns down most endorsements. He declines soul-searching interviews. The vast majority of what we know about him, we know from watching him play basketball. More than any other modern athlete, Tim Duncan is what he does.
Later, Tomlinson writes:
The star of the game usually goes to a separate interview room to meet the media. Duncan does not come. Manu Ginobili comes instead. But Duncan does say a few words in the locker room.
“I thought I was a lot more hesitant throughout the game, for whatever reason,” he says.
“In overtime, I just got it and shot it,” he says.
“It’d be fun to get it done again,” he says about playing for another title.
His quotes add almost nothing. And that’s exactly the point.
The storyteller’s first rule is Show, don’t tell. Tim Duncan doesn’t need to say a word to show his love for the game. He doesn’t need to explain how you can build towering greatness out of the same small things done night after night, year after year. His actions speak. Just watch the wizard.
Welcome back to the NBA Finals, Tim Duncan. Looking forward to what you don’t have to say.
Update: With 2.723 million viewers, Game 6 of the Chicago/Detroit series on NBC Sports Network was the most watched Semifinal game ever on cable (data available since 1994).
Game 7 figures to be bigger. Will pass along ratings when they come in.
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In my latest column for Indiana’s National Sports Journalism Center, I revisit the NHL’s decision to stick with the NBC Sports Network (formerly Versus) with its cable package opposed to going with ESPN.
Really, it couldn’t have worked out better for the NHL. From the post:
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In April, 2011, the NHL decided against going to ESPN. Not only did the league stay the course, it doubled down. It elected to sign an exclusive 10-year deal with the NBC Sports Group.
Beginning in 2012, the pact called for NBC to air every game of the playoffs on multiple platforms, with the former Versus, since rebranded NBC Sports Network, serving as an anchor along with NBC.
“The idea was to super-serve the hockey fan,” said Sam Flood, who oversees NBC’s hockey coverage as executive producer. “That’s our Number 1 priority. (It) is hockey seven nights a week, with the match ups and times where fans can consume them as often as possible.”
Bring it on.
The early rounds now have the feel of the NCAA basketball tournament, with fans flipping from games on NBC, NBC Sports Network, CNBC, and the NHL Network. On some days, there were four games.
Last Thursday night was a hockey gourmet feast. The New York Rangers beat Boston in overtime on CNBC, while Detroit squeezed out a tense 1-0 victory over Chicago on NBC Sports Network. It doesn’t get much better than that for fans of the old Original 6.
The big winners are the NHL and NBC. Despite the lockout, the 2013 NHL regular season on NBC Sports Network was the most-watched season on cable in nearly two decades, and up 18 percent from last season. Regular season games averaged 392,000 viewers. A new “Wednesday Night Rivalry” series proved to be extremely popular. Nearly 1 million viewers tuned for a Boston-Rangers game in late January.
The ratings then have soared for the playoffs. On NBC, Game 2 of the Boston-Rangers series pulled in a high 2.4 million viewers. On NBC Sports Network, Game 4 of Chicago-Detroit and Game 3 of Boston-Rangers both attracted 1.75 viewers.
Would the NHL have been as successful if it went to ESPN? Probably not. ESPN likely could have found multiple platforms to air all the playoff games; ESPN2, ESPNews, ESPN Classic, etc. However, the network also has a full slate of baseball and the NBA playoffs during the spring. The NHL might have gotten lost in the shuffle and relegated to second-class status.
The NHL and hockey are the showcase attraction at the NBC Sports Network. There’s something to be said for being No. 1 on the marquee. It conveys a greater sense of importance to viewers, as if to say, “Hey, this is important. Watch.”
Representatives of former Penn State head coach Joe Paterno’s family including Paterno spokesman Dan McGinn, Former Attorney General and Pennsylvania Governor Dick Thornburgh, who wrote an independent review of the Freeh Report, and Paterno family attorney Wick Sollers, join Bob Costas, a 25-time Emmy Award-winning journalist and one of America’s preeminent interviewers, on the latest edition of Costas Tonight, a 60-minute program, airing tonight at 11 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network, following the NHL Western Conference Semifinal Game 7 between Chicago and Detroit.
During the program, Costas re-examines the Freeh Report as it pertains to former Penn State head coach Joe Paterno. The full version of the Freeh Report is available on progress.psu.edu/the-freeh-report and the Thornburgh Report is available at paterno.com.
During Costas Tonight, which was recorded Tuesday at NBC Sports Group’s International Broadcast Center in Stamford, Conn., McGinn, Thornburgh and Sollers announce a lawsuit against the NCAA on behalf of the Paterno family and several Penn State trustees, faculty, former players and coaches.”
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EXCERPTS FROM COSTAS’ INTERVIEW WITH MCGINN, THORNBURGH AND SOLLERS:
Sollers on the lawsuit and what it entails: “The lawsuit is being filed against the NCAA and Mark Emmert, in his individual and official capacity as the president of the NCAA, and Edward Ray, who was the chairman of the executive committee of the NCAA. It’s being filed by certain trustees, certain former players, certain former coaches, certain former faculty members, as well as the estate of Joe Paterno, to redress the NCAA’s 100 percent adoption of the Freeh Report and imposition of a binding consent decree against Penn State University. The reality is that consent decree was imposed through coercion and threats behind the scenes and there was no ability for anyone to get redress. There was no board approval, there was no transparency, and there was no consideration of this consent decree.”
Sollers on how he thinks the NCAA will respond: “The NCAA is going to fight tooth and nail to try to keep this lawsuit from going forward on legal grounds, because I do not believe they’re going to want to suffer discovery and the opportunity for the plaintiffs to gain discovery about the relationship between the NCAA and the Freeh group, and other behind-the-scenes moves to cram down this consent decree.”
McGinn on the lawsuit: “It’s designed to try to correct the record here. We know that you can’t undo all the damage that’s been done. We know that this is going to be a fight for the long term. When I speak of the damage, it’s not just to the Paterno family, the Paterno name; it is to Penn State, a great institution that has a great history and tradition in sports. It’s to the alums there, the students, the faculty, and the community. The NCAA wrecked enormous damage to this community, and this is just one way to get the record right.”
Sollers on Freeh: “Mr. Freeh has been named as someone who was a cooperating individual, actually a co-conspirator, with the NCAA in this lawsuit. There were close communications between the NCAA, as well as the Freeh Group, all through the Freeh Group investigation, and the NCAA stood on the sidelines instead of doing what they should have done with a full investigation. We have given a lot more allowance to Louis Freeh than he gave to Joe Paterno, and the people he named in his report. We don’t know his motivations for it; we just know he got it wrong. ”
Thornburgh on the Freeh Report: “The report itself is deeply flawed, and it is, in many respects, incomplete, inaccurate. In our review, we found that it relied much more on speculation and conjecture than on facts that were developed through the investigation.”
McGinn on Paterno: “Here’s what you need to know about Paterno. He was never interviewed once when he was fired. [The NCAA] had no conversation with him after 60 years of service. We engaged with Freeh and said, ‘We’d like to have the chance to respond to any charges.’ They put the report out. There was no filter. They put it out immediately. It blew up. It was like taking a blow torch to a dry set of woods.”
Thornburgh on the allegations of a cover up: “It didn’t happen. There was no attempt at a cover up. Why would Joe Paterno fear bad publicity? The whole premise is false here – that somehow there was a motive to prevent bad publicity, and that he would put his entire life, his family name forever, his program, the university he loved, it does not add up and the facts don’t support it.”
Sollers: “There’s no instance where Joe Paterno ever asked anybody not to fully investigate, not to report, not to do the right thing. We know that from conversations with the lawyers, from other key protagonists in this matter, and across the board. Joe Paterno did what he thought was right with the information he had at the time.”
McGinn: “The Paterno family never said to me to clear our names. They never said just fight for the legacy, Joe Paterno. I was with him as he was dying and he said, ‘Just get the truth. I have confidence. Make sure the truth comes out.’”
Thanks to Steve Bennett for having me on this week’s Sports-Casters podcast. We discussed the stunning ratings for hockey in Chicago; the changes at Sports Illustrated; and the coverage of the Derrick Rose soap opera.
Also appearing on this week’s podcast is Sports Illustrated’s Chris Burke, who talks about the NFL off-season.
Very happy to see that Steve is back on the podcast after going through some health issues during the winter. The Sports-Casters podcast always features a top lineup of the business’ best reporters (present company excluded). Definitely worth a listen.
Gus Johnson soccer bashers can take a breather. He is done for a while.
Johnson called his final European game of the season Saturday for Fox Sports. His critics wish it was his final soccer game, period.
Johnson admits it hasn’t been easy. He discussed his first season with Sam Borden of the New York Times:
Borden writes:
Johnson understands the seeming absurdity of the situation; he was a star basketball and football announcer, known for his spasmodic eruptions during CBS’s coverage of the N.C.A.A. men’s basketball tournament. Then he left for Fox and in his second year was thrust into an international sport with a rabid and passionate fan base that was used to hearing a British accent call the action. “I knew I’d get shot before I walked in the door,” he said. “Maybe justifiably.”
He went on: “But it’s like the Jack Kent Cooke quote, ‘Criticism is like walking in the rain — once you’re wet, what’s another drop?’ Plus, all I can worry about is preparing. …”
I am not a soccer guy. So I am going to leave it to others to weigh in about Gus after Season 1. Much of the reaction has been like Tom Jones in the Tampa Bay Tribune:
What bothers me about Gus Johnson as a football and basketball announcer is the same thing that bothers me about him as Fox’s featured soccer announcer. His speaker-busting volume is so over-the-top ridiculous that I honestly don’t understand what he’s yelling half the time. During one of Johnson’s explosions Saturday during the Champions League soccer final, I think I might have heard the words “London” and “Wembley,” but I’m really not sure. And if he’s screaming a name? Forget it. Whatever the name is, it comes off as, “Ayaaamaaaanreeeaaee.”
Many people out there love Johnson’s passion. They dig all the screaming. I’m just not one of those people.
However, way over on the other end of the Gus meter, Marc Tracy of the New Republic thinks the grand experiment could work in enticing American viewers to soccer:
Enter Gus Johnson. Whether or not the Law of Gus leads to more dramatic moments, he can certainly make the moments—those wonderfully drawn-out, attenuated soccer moments—more dramatic. Or maybe the Law of Gus is valid? Check out his call from a tilt in England’s FA Cup tournament that he announced earlier this month. In the second injury time,2 underdog (and soon-to-be-relegated) Wigan scored the game’s only goal, defeating the reigning Premier League champion, Manchester City. It was an incredibly exciting moment, and Johnson rightly let loose a vintage scream while his color man, the Englishman Ian Wright, could only giggle.3 Johnson is making soccer his own; which is to say, American; which is to say, kind of fun!
Meanwhile, ever the voice of reason, Richard Deitsch of SI.com, says more time is needed for the experiment to play out.
Johnson is still slow on name recognition — you saw that on the goal by Bayern striker Mario Mandzukic— but I think that will improve with more reps and more familiarity with world soccer. The one thing I hope Fox Sports executives learned from Johnson’s debut season is he needs a consistent partner. Of all the broadcasters the network floated his way, I thought Barton was the best fit. He complements Johnson stylistically, and allows the game to breath.
Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sports media…
