Monthly Archives: January 2013

ESPN dumps Rob Parker; Interview with Detroit station likely last straw

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On second thought, it probably wasn’t a good idea for Rob Parker to conduct an interview with a local Detroit station Sunday.

As a result, Parker’s 30-day suspension from ESPN now has become permanent. The network disclosed today it is dumping Parker.

“Rob Parker’s contract expired at year end. Evaluating our needs and his work, including his recent RGIII comments, we decided not to renew,” ESPN said in a statement.

ESPN wouldn’t say more, but it seems reasonable to deduce that the network wasn’t pleased with Parker’s interview Sunday. Clearly, Parker reacted like he still had a job at ESPN. He talked up First Take, lauding the show for fearlessly tackling controversial issues such as race.

I assumed Parker cleared the interview with ESPN officials, but perhaps that wasn’t the case. The network likely didn’t approve of what Parker had to say. Namely, where he said First Take producers knew what he was going to say about Robert Griffin III.

“We had a discussion during a pre-production meeting,” Parker said. “Not every single word, but they knew which way we were going. It’s just not off-the-cuff obviously.”

All in all, Parker probably should have laid low while serving his suspension. But then, he isn’t good at keeping his mouth shut.

 

 

 

 

Imagine if a good game: ESPN sees rating increase despite rout

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You know you have a horrible game when all everyone talks about is a 73-year-old man ogling Miss Alabama.

You can be sure ESPN executives were holding their breath whenever Brent Musburger started talking about A.J. McCarron’s girlfriend. Careful now, Brent.

By the way, this video has recorded nearly 500,000 views as of 11 a.m. ET.

As for the rest of the evening, well, not so much. This wasn’t a BCS title game. This was an Alabama-Western Kentucky mismatch in September.

The rout killed any hopes of a record rating for ESPN. It’s a tribute to the drawing power of the two schools that the overnight rating actually was up.

From ESPN:

ESPN’s Discover BCS National Championship  – No. 2 Alabama’s 42-14 victory over No. 1 Notre Dame on Monday evening — delivered a 15.7 overnight rating, a 14 percent increase from the 2012 game between Alabama and LSU (13.8 overnight rating), according to Nielsen. This metered-market rating – the highest for all of cable television in two years, since the January 2011 BCS National Championship on ESPN, helped drive the network’s five-game BCS average to a 9.0 metered market rating.  That represents a 6 percent increase over a year ago (8.5 for the five-game average). Additionally, the game was the highest-rated program on Monday, helping ESPN win the night among all networks.

In terms of local markets, the Discover BCS National Championship was the third highest-rated ESPN bowl game telecast on record in Birmingham with a 55.1 rating. Overall, 17 different markets set local ratings records by delivering the highest rating ever for a bowl game on ESPN (records go back to 2000).  Last night’s top five rated markets were Birmingham, New Orleans, Knoxville, Nashville and Atlanta.  National ratings information, including television and online viewership should be available later today.

As for next year, instead of a traditional title game, perhaps best two out of three for the SEC finalists. Probably would be more interesting.

Former NY Times baseball writer casts final Hall of Fame vote; says writers shouldn’t be involved

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Murray Chass, who started covering baseball in 1960, says he is opting out as a Hall of Fame voter.

The former New York Times baseball writer now writes a blog at murraychass.com. In a post, he says that he cast his 2013 vote for Tiger pitcher Jack Morris. Chass, winner of the 2003 Spink Award, said, “If Morris is not elected this time, I will vote for him next year in his final year of eligibility and then be done.”

Why? Chass writes:

Though I don’t believe there is a more qualified set of electors, certainly not the new-age stats guys who are envious of the writers and believe they should determine Hall of Famers, I don’t think reporters and columnists who cover and comment on baseball news should be making baseball news.

The steroids issue has made it impossible to conduct a rational vote and cast a reasonable ballot. No matter how a writer votes or on what he bases his decision whom to vote for or not to vote for, his reasoning has to be flawed and open to challenge.

Later, Chass writes:

Years ago, I introduced a motion at a national writers’ meeting that we withdraw from voting. Had the motion been voted on at that meeting, I think it would have had a good chance of passing. If it had passed, we wouldn’t be debating the steroids issue now. But a quick-thinking writer moved to table the vote until the entire national membership could vote by mail.

My motion easily lost so here we are today talking about Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa, Mike Piazza, Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell among others.

I couldn’t agree more with Chass. As I said in a December post, sportswriters should report the news, not make the news.

With the steroids issue, the stakes now are so much higher for the Hall of Fame voters. This isn’t about batting averages or World Series records anymore. This is about making a verdict about an entire era of baseball. As I wrote earlier, name another situation where an editor allows a reporter to play judge and jury on a story that he/she then covers.

When the vote is announced Wednesday, many baseball writers will be, in effect, reporting on themselves.

Last week, current New York Times baseball writer Tyler Kepner noted his paper has a policy prohibiting him from voting. In a tweet, he said: ” There are so many inherent contradictions in the process, it’s almost a relief I can’t vote.”

Dave O’Brien, who covers baseball for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, responded in a tweet: “For 1st time, I feel same.”

I have a feeling many other writers feel the same way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ad Age story: College football could overtake MLB as nation’s No. 2 sport; CF more popular with younger crowd

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On the eve of the big game, Michael McCarthy writes in Advertising Age that college football is rapidly closing the gap on baseball as the nation’s No. 2 sport behind the NFL.

McCarthy offers several sets of numbers, including this passage:

Other research indicates the Grand Old Game is still No. 2. But the power and pageantry of college football is grabbing younger consumers. Numbers are trending in the direction of college football.

In the latest Harris Poll, 16% of adults cited baseball as their favorite sport, compared to 11% for college football. Baseball’s actually up three points from last year, when the two sports were tied at 13% while college football dropped two points. But since Harris started tracking America’s favorite sports in 1985, college football has gained 1%, while baseball has gone down 7%.

Here’s the kicker in my eyes.

College football was most popular with the 18-to-24-year-old demo and Southerners, according to Harris. Baseball was most popular with 50-to-64-year-olds and Midwesterners. The online poll was conducted from Dec. 12-18, 2012.

I can speak from first-hand experience. My two teenage boys devour college football. They can’t wait to watch tonight’s game. When we came home from our winter vacation, they promptly parked themselves on the couch and watched all the bowl games they recorded on the DVR. It made this father proud.

While they like the Cubs and White Sox, they barely tuned in for baseball’s postseason. Game 3 of the World Series was played on a Saturday night. They could care less. All the boys wanted to watch were games involving Notre Dame and Michigan that night. The same holds true for their friends. Baseball barely registers compared to the NFL and college football.

Clearly, the Harris poll shows that baseball’s popularity skews toward the older crowd. And not to push anyone out the door, let alone myself, but once the older generation moves on, the game is going to suffer if it can’t reach the younger fans like my kids.

Poll numbers only tell part of the story. In my house, and I’m sure in many others, college football already has overtaken baseball.

 

 

 

 

 

Rob Parker speaks: Wasn’t trying to put down RGIII; First Take producers knew of his stance prior to show

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Rob Parker has re-emerged. Not on ESPN, where he still is in the penalty box with a 30-day suspension following his controversial comments about Robert Griffin III.

Rather, Parker did an interview on a local Detroit TV station in which he serves as a contributor. I assume ESPN gave approval for him to do the interview, knowing it quickly would circulate through the blogosphere.

Parker didn’t back away from his First Take comments (video above) about Griffin in which he questioned his “blackness.” Instead, he tried to clarify them.

“It was never to condemn the young man,” Parker said. “RGIII is a great young man. This is a conversation that occurs in the black community when an athlete or famous entertainer pushes away from their people. You saw with O.J. Simpson and some other people where they said ‘Well, I’m not black, I’m O.J.’ So it’s more about that, not about RG3 and what’s going on.

“It’s more about this thing that we’ve battled for years – why people have pushed away from their people. It’s more about that.”

Later Parker said, “I wasn’t saying he wasn’t black enough. When people say that, it’s just not true.”

Parker said the topic came up during a pre-production meeting prior to the show. Reportedly, a producer also was suspended.

“We had a discussion during a pre-production meeting,” Parker said. “Not every single word, but they knew which way we were going. It’s just not off-the-cuff obviously.”

Parker called the reaction to his comments “shocking.” However, he said the firestorm is an example of “how popular First Take is.”

As for the future, Parker said he is not going to shy away from discussing controversial issues.

“You can’t be afraid to talk about race,” Parker said. “That’s what I bring to the table. I don’t want to be a guy who is going to try his back or run away from the issues.”

Thoughts?

 

 

 

 

 

Q/A with Kirk Herbstreit: On whether Notre Dame can sustain success; title teams people love to hate

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Perhaps tonight’s title game should be renamed the Polar Bowl, because it features two of the most polarizing teams in the country.

If you live outside of SEC country, you’re tired of that conference winning the BCS title every year. And even if you live within its boundaries, you’re probably thinking, anybody but Alabama and Nick Saban.

Meanwhile, rooting for Notre Dame hardly is an appealing option for the legion of Irish haters throughout the country.

All in all, the dynamic should deliver a huge rating for ESPN, assuming the game is close.

During a teleconference, Kirk Herbstreit, working his sixth straight BCS game, addressed the love-hate aspect and talked about whether Notre Dame’s success in 2012 will be more than a one-year fling.

As you travel around the country, what is your sense of how much of the interest a lot of these games actually comes from people rooting against one of the teams even maybe more so than people rooting for some of these teams, and also, how do you think that plays into the interest in this particular game?

Well, I think you’re right.  I think because the SEC has won six straight National Championships, I definitely feel that the SEC, as much as that region claims all 14 teams, when they get to this point, I think every other conference and every other fan base outside of those 14 teams is passionately rooting against Alabama.

And what’s interesting is in this case, Notre Dame is such a polarizing team, where everybody, no matter when you grew up, you either loved Notre Dame or you just couldn’t stand Notre Dame.  So there are a lot of people out there that I think are going to have to make a tough decision on who to pull for, and I really believe that, again, outside of the SEC, most people, even if they aren’t big Notre Dame fans in this case, because of the six straight national titles, I think they’re going to be pulling with all their hearts to see Notre Dame end that streak.

And as far as the interest, any time you put those two letters, ND, in a National Championship game, I think the level of interest obviously is going to go up, and I think the fact that it’s been since 1988 since the last time they won a National Championship, I think it definitely raises the bar of your hype and the buzz of this National Championship compared to any of the other games that I’ve had the good fortune to call.

Have you heard any people on sort of the other end saying, well, I don’t like either team, so I’m not going to watch, or do you think people just say that but they’ll still watch it?

I think anybody that takes the time to make a comment like that, clearly they’ll be watching the game.  They’ll, in fact, watch the four hours of pregame that we have before the game and be blogging and tweeting about how wrong everybody is on those shows.

Without a doubt, people are going to ‑‑ if you’re a college football fan or even if you’re a fringe college football fan, you’re going to watch.  An example for me is Tiger Woods and golf.  I could care less about golf on a weekly basis.  But if Tiger Woods accidentally stumbles into a Sunday, I’m that guy that tunes in and watches golf on Sunday.

And I think if you’re a fringe college football fan and you have Notre Dame and Alabama playing on a Monday night, no matter what you feel about either team, no matter if you despise both these teams, you’re going to be tuned in watching this game.

We’ve seen Notre Dame have these blips before, where previous coaches had a decent run for a year and then quickly fell off.  How is this going to be different?  What’s your sense as far as what Brian Kelly is building there, and will he be able to sustain it beyond this year?

We were around those teams with Bob Davie when he had a team that got in early part of the BCS era when they got into a BCS bowl game, I think it was against Oregon State, and you remember what happened in the Sugar Bowl when they went up against LSU.  This just feels different, not just because they’re undefeated and because they’re in the National Championship, but I’m never one to really pay attention to the recruiting hype of five‑star recruits or why they’re ranked No. 1 or No. 2.  I always like to wait to see players in their first year or two, see how they kind of make that adjustment to the college game and see how they’re maturing and developing.

I just really sense that, as Brent said earlier, with Brian Kelly’s background, I mean, if there’s anybody that’s ever been typecast to be the Notre Dame coach, it’s Brian Kelly, and I think it’s legitimate, his energy and his passion for the school and the way he’s recruiting.  If you look at what they’re trying to do for the future, I think they’re going to use this fifth year as kind of a springboard into the future, and I really believe as long as Brian Kelly is the head coach, with what he has going on right now, if they will hold onto to staff, I think they’ve got something very unique going, and I think this has staying power.  I don’t think this is a, hey, let’s make a run one year and then go away.  I think Notre Dame football has a real opportunity here to be around and compete at a very high level for a long time.

What is the most compelling aspect of this match‑up from your point of view?

I think an interesting aspect of the game is just the hype of dealing with the long layoff, the hype about Alabama trying to win three of the last four National Championships with Nick Saban, the fact that they’re going up against Notre Dame, one of the most storied programs in college football with a new coach who’s reaching out to other coaches who have had to deal with a 44‑day layoff, about how to peak your team at the right time, the fact that it’s uncharted waters for Notre Dame’s program to have to deal with this, and then when they take the field just to see how they both handle themselves.

We witnessed a game last night, if you don’t show up mentally and physically prepared and in the right frame of mind, you can get embarrassed.  And just because that was a Sugar Bowl not in the National Championship limelight doesn’t mean that that couldn’t potentially happen at a National Championship.  I’m sure both those coaches watched that game last night and they both panicked a little bit just to make sure, hey, am I doing the right thing, because you just don’t know until your team goes out and starts to play.

So I think the anticipation of the hype of this particular match‑up and how these teams play early, especially in the game, I think is going to be an interesting aspect of how the game eventually plays out.

Q/A with Musburger: On Brian Kelly and Nick Saban, calling the big game for ESPN, and going strong at 73

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Not to date myself or Brent Musburger, but I have a video with old footage of Musburger narrating sports highlights for WBBM-Ch. 2 in Chicago. It was of a Chicago-Boston hockey game featuring players like Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita in their primes. That’s really going back in time.

Now more than four decades later, Musburger’s remarkable career still has him dancing on sports’ biggest stage. He and Kirk Herbstreit will be on the call tonight for the humongous Notre Dame-Alabama title game.

Musburger will dissect all the storylines as only he can. However, there’s one he won’t address. At age 73, how much longer does he want to work?

The question came up during an ESPN teleconference last week with Musburger, Kirk Herbstreit, producer Bill Bonnell and director Derek Mobley. Here are some excerpts with the questions directed at Musburger.

You’ve done so many big events over the years.  Any sense as far as how many years you’d like to go on doing this?

As long as they’ll have me.  I don’t do retirement very well.

Is there still the same charge doing big events as there was even much earlier in your career?

I’m always asked to look back, and I have a very difficult time because I always think that the best event that I am ever going to cover is the next one, so I’m looking at this one, and to answer your question, is absolutely.

What has been your experience in dealing with Brian Kelly and Nick Saban?

They’re not at all alike.  Brian Kelly is the son of an Irish politician, and no one works a room any better than Brian Kelly.  He loves to see you, loves to have your company in the room, and then pretends that he’s telling you everything that’s going to happen, and he always keeps something in the saddlebags.  A very, very savvy coach.

With Nick Saban, kind of wears his emotions on his sleeve, and let me give you a comparison of the last two championships.  When he was getting ready to play Texas in the Rose Bowl for the BCS Championship a few years back, we went into the room to talk to him, and I don’t know, we might have had a half dozen other people.  I always like to have the producer and the director, the spotter, the statistician, I always like to have a support crew, and I could tell immediately that Saban was uneasy with so many people coming into the room.  He had a video frozen of the Texas secondary, very, very good secondary ‑ several of those fellows are still playing Sunday football ‑ and he was kind of sitting there in his chair and he was kind of bobbing back and forth and sort of uneasy about the interview.  And I knew that he was uptight about the Texas Longhorns.

Last year we went to see him at practice in the Superdome, and you would have thought he was getting ready for a September football game.  He already knew that he could move the ball effectively on LSU, and more than that, he felt he could shut down the offense, which he did.

So Nick was very forthcoming about exactly what he was going to do in that game, and then when practice started, he goes to the defensive end of the field.  I don’t think he took one look at the offense.  He has always been a defensive guru since the day he worked with Coach Belichick up in Cleveland and then came to college football.

Both are very open about practice.  Both like to have announcers come to practice, unlike Les Miles, who kicked us out last year for 30 minutes, then let us back in, and we looked at each other in the second half, and we said, Miles locked us out for this?  Both very open coaches, very easy to deal with.  You can reach them whenever you want to.

As someone who kind of was around the Midwest in the ’60s and ’70s following Notre Dame when they played Alabama and Paul “Bear” Bryant, talk about the historical perspective of what it means for these two teams to meet again in the title game.

Well, you’ve been watching the Big Ten here the last few years, and the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame are certainly the best football team in the Midwest right now, and we could not have said that for the last decade or so.  But certainly they have stepped out above, and hats off to coach Brian Kelly who’s been able to do this.  I go back with the Fighting Irish to the days when Ara Parseghian left my alma mater, left Northwestern, and went to South Bend and I was covering as a newspaper man, and I covered some of those great Irish teams of Parseghian and of course Terry Brennan and Johnny Latter and George Connor, I worked NFL games with George, and all of those legendary Notre Dame players I was familiar with back in Chicago.

So I’ve always appreciated Notre Dame, and I understand why people love going to school down there, and there’s nothing ‑‑ in fact, what I miss, of all the things I miss is the fact we don’t do any home games of Notre Dame.  We did four Irish football games this year, but they were in East Lansing, Norman, Boston and Los Angeles.  I would dearly love to get back.  In 1988, the last time they won the National Championship, I did two games there.  I did the Michigan game at night to open it up, and then later in the year the classic with the Miami in which there was a fistfight in the tunnel before the game, and it just continued through.

I love the mystique of Notre Dame, and I certainly understand what’s going on with Alabama and the fact that this could become one of the great dynasties of college football.  If Nick Saban wins this one, this run by the Crimson Tide during the BCS era coming out of the toughest conference in the country, you’re going to have to pay big tribute to Nick and what he’s accomplished at Tuscaloosa.

What do you think the BCS and the future plans for a college football playoff?

You know, the championship game, love it or hate it, and obviously there’s probably more people who hate it than love it, the BCS formula made the championship game bigger and bigger than ever.  We used to have a bowl system whereby one might be playing in one bowl and then two in the other, and then we would all vote afterwards to declare who was the national champion.  But what has happened with the advent of the BCS in my opinion is that the championship game has grown to get up there to rival some of the NFL playoff games, whereas the other bowls have sort of dropped off because they lack some of the importance of the National Championship game.

I’m not sure what’s going to happen in a couple years when they go to four because in my opinion we’re just going to hear more people let’s go to eight, let’s go to 16.  We’ll have to wait to see how that plays out.

Later: Herbstreit’s comments during the teleconference.

 

Bobby Valentine in line for own show on NBC Sports Radio Network

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A few months back, Bobby Valentine, then manager of the Red Sox, threatened to punch Boston radio host Glenn Ordway during an interview. Valentine took offense to suggestions that he had bailed on a dismal season.

Valentine eventually met his fate with Boston. Now in his next incarnation, he will be playing the same role as Ordway: Sports talk radio host.

Richard Deitsch of SI.com reports that Valentine is in line for his own show on the NBC Sports Radio Network when it goes 24/7 in April.

Deitsch writes:

How opinionated will Valentine be about players and coaches he either managed or  coached against? “I don’t know that you have to be negatively biased to inform  people of what is going on, or to keep them listening,” Valentine said. “I think  you have to be true. If I have a fault, it’s that I tell the truth. You can’t  dictate to the customer what they want and I think a good host feels his  audience and understands what they want and need and tries to provide it.”

You can be sure Valentine won’t ask any coaches or managers if they have bailed on a season.

NHL settlement: Bad news for fans of Rudy

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That sigh of relief comes from NBC Sports Network. I mean, how many times can you air Rudy?

NBC Sports Network needs the NHL. It needs Rangers vs. Penguins. The network didn’t get into the business to air college hockey.

Also, the new deal is huge for the regional sports networks, such as Comcast SportsNet in Chicago, where the Blackhawks do solid numbers. There’s been a lot of lost revenue on all fronts.

As for the fans, they will be angry, but they’ll be back. There’s only one NHL, and the league was trending up with strong ratings during last year’s playoffs. Maybe, we’re just a bunch of saps, but the fans always forgive and forget.

Best part of this deal: It will last for at least eight years with opt-out clauses, and possibly 10 years. It will be a long time before we have to go through this nonsense again.

 

 

 

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