West Pointers - ESPN Video [J. Mark English]

Video: Girls Gone Wild? [J. Mark English]

2009 World Series: Around the Tube! [J. Mark English]

Video: Breaking Down The Twins' Central Win [ESPN]

Your Sports Fix 9.30.09 [J. Mark English]

• Cleveland Indians fire manager Eric Wedge.
• Minnesota Twins still find themselves two games behind the Detroit Tigers. Wheres the luck?
• Chris Iannetta was the unlikely hero for the Colorado Rockies last night, as they put some more distance between them and the Atlanta Braves last night.
• Jim Zorn, head coach of the Washington Redskins, career could be on the line this weekend.
• Cleveland Browns have named Derek Anderson the starter for this week over quarterback Brady Quinn.
• Bobby Valentine is coming back to ESPN! (Could the Mets be next?)

ESPN News for the Day [J. Mark English]

Charlie Weis' fate could hang in the balance this weekend:



Terrell Owens is stirring the straw once again:

Photo: Brett Favre Dons a Viking Helmet [J. Mark English]

High-And-Mighty ESPN Should Take It Down A Notch [Frank Deford]

Dan Patrick Joins SI Staff [J. Mark English]

Dan Patrick will join the pages of Sports Illustrated. ESPN has not been the same without the staple of their Sports Center broadcast. He had a unique way of mixing facetiousness, wit, and wisdom in his commentary.

Sports Illustrated, which is already chalk full of quality writers, will only continue to improve with Dan Patrick as a member of the staff. Here is more from Variety:

Dan Patrick, who left ESPN earlier this year to help organize his own company the Content Factory, has signed a deal with Sports Illustrated to write a weekly column for the magazine and place his website under SI's Digital Group.

The Patrick column begins in January, and SI will supervise the audio simulcast of Patrick's daily radio show on his website, starting early next year. SI.com will also carry the radio show, encouraging people, eventually, to download the program as a podcast. SI writers will make regular appearances on the Patrick radio program, including Peter King, Tom Verducci and Rick Reilly.

Patrick said his radio show, which kicked off two weeks ago, airs on about 50 stations. It's distributed by Premiere Radio.

SI will have nothing to do with any TV programs Patrick does next year, which will occur through the Content Factory. He joked that his next TV job might be as host of "Wheel of Fortune," playing off all the rumors that he was on the shortlist to replace Bob Barker as host of "The Price Is Right," a plum that eventually went to Drew Carey.

Peter Gammons on the Mets Collapse [J. Mark English]

Shout out to my friend whom sent me this article. Its a great bit from Peter Gammons on ESPN on how revenue sharing in baseball has helped even the playing field, but that still does not excuse what happened to the Mets:

In the end, none of the six teams that finished first in 2006 repeated in 2007, another feather in Bud Selig's revenue-sharing cap. What once were baseball-mad franchises in Philadelphia and Denver were revitalized as Cleveland makes its way back, a new cast of heroes named Jimmy Rollins and Matt Holliday and Prince Fielder and Carlos Pena stepped to the podium and, damn, can we wait to see how Joba Chamberlain, Troy Tulowitzki and Howie Kendrick fare in October? For every Holliday and Tulowitzki, there is Trevor Hoffman, who no one in the game ever wants to see fall. For every Chase Utley there is David Wright, who stood when others hid and accepted accountability for the Mets' untimely fall....

...The Mets "blew" a seven-game lead to a team that rode shotgun down the avalanche in September, a team from whom the Mets can look at and learn from. Charlie Manuel understood that the Phillies are a player-driven team, the best kind of team, and tinkered only with the pitching staff.....Omar Minaya did the right thing in insisting Willie Randolph be retained.

Now here are seven ideas to help two very good, dignified men move forward and not look back on the vast disappointment of September:

1. Minaya should build a stronger partnership with Randolph, similar to the ones between Mark Shapiro and Eric Wedge, or Walt Jocketty and Tony La Russa. This shouldn't be hard. It may entail less front office, and perhaps even ownership, presence other than Minaya in the clubhouse and around the batting cage. And as hard as Omar works, he has to accept the general manager role that Pat Gillick built in Toronto. When the team was winning, Pat was nowhere to be found, but when they were losing, he was in back of the batting cage accounting for whatever there was in question. Shapiro has adopted that leadership style, as have Theo Epstein and Cashman, and it will be easy for Minaya because he's usually the first to admit mea culpa.
2. Spend whatever it takes to get Rudy Jaramillo in as hitting coach/psychologist/motivator. He is one of the great hitting coaches of his time; Rickey Henderson is not.
3. It was ridiculous that Wright, at 24, had to be the player spokesman on every night Tom Glavine didn't pitch, but nothing's going to change Carlos Delgado or Carlos BeltranMoises Alou play another year, and use Carlos Gomez and see if there is another Mark DeRosaRyan Freel on the horizon. Maybe old friend Marco Scutaro.
4. Lastings Milledge may be very good in time, and he's not going to bring Johan Santana in return. But he could bring Joe Blanton, and the innings he'd eat up in the National League would make Pedro Martinez and the relievers a lot better. Get Blanton and a bullpen arm. Or Cliff Lee and another reliever from Cleveland.
5. It seems inevitable that there is going to be a catching change, so why not get Ramon Hernandez out of Baltimore, where he has worn out his welcome. Hernandez had a very good relationship with Rick Peterson and Peterson's pitchers in Oakland, and might be revitalized just being away from the Orioles.
6. Let Mike Pelfrey and Philip Humber develop, either with more minor league innings, or perhaps as middle men. Pelfrey's power stuff might be better suited in the short run to the sixth and seventh innings.
7. Stop worrying about the Yankees. Back in May, when Cashman was being savaged by the Mets' media, Minaya actually felt so saddened by it that he called on a Sunday morning before an ESPN telecast to defend his fellow GM. The Yankees are very well run, their farm system is producing, they've made mistakes, they have the highest payroll, and on and on. The Mets are well run, they have some young, high-ceiling prospects, they've made mistakes, and they have the highest payroll in the National League. It means nothing to the Mets if someone says they do it right and the Yankees do it with their wallet, because all that should count to the Mets is the competition in the NL East. Add a starter or two and a couple of right-handed relievers and a couple of Eric Byrnes clones and the Mets will be fine, as long as some of their veterans look in the mirror.

Randolph can't look in the mirror for some of those players, although one wishes some of them could spend a couple of days reviewing videos of the ferocity and dignity Willie carried onto the field as a player. And if they don't want to see the video, they should know this: When times got tough, Willie Randolph never turned into a turtle the way too many Mets did down the stretch.

Patriots Spying on the Jets? [J. Mark English]

The Jets and the Pats really are fighting a cold war right now. Espionage is the only the latest in the continuing saga of bizarre tales of competitive spirit gone awry.

This is from ESPN:

NFL security confiscated a video camera and its tape from a New England Patriots employee on the team's sideline during Sunday's game against the Jets in a suspected spying incident, sources said.

The camera and its tape were placed in a sealed box and forwarded to the league office for investigation, the sources said. "The rule is that no video recording devices of any kind are permitted to be in use in the coaches' booth, on the field, or in the locker room during the game," the league said in a statement from spokesman Greg Aiello. "Clubs have specifically been reminded in the past that the videotaping of an opponent's offensive or defensive signals on the sidelines is prohibited.

"We are looking into whether the Patriots violated this rule."

The Patriots' cameraman was suspected of aiming his camera at the Jets' defensive coaches who were sending signals to their unit on the field, the sources said. The league also is investigating some radio frequency issues that occurred during the game.

Tiger Beats LeBron for Who's Now Title [David Stefanini]

For the past few weeks, if you have watched Sportscenter, you know they have been doing this 'Who's Now' tournament. Its like the NCAA Championship, with four regions.

The championship came down to the #1 seed, Tiger Woods, another #1 seed LeBron James.

Tiger Woods defeated LeBron in the final matchup 65.1 percent to 34.9 percent. The fans have spoken and it is clear that they love Tiger.

Throughout the entire tournament, Tiger Woods won ever matchup in blowout fashion. He received at least 60% of the vote ever single time. One match, he got an amazing 90%. It just goes to show that Tiger is the most recognizable athlete in the world today.

Video: Skate Boarder Jake Brown Crashes in X-Games [J. Mark English]

Jake Brown must have had a massive head ache this morning after this fall:

Sports (Self) Center [Robert A. George]

Guest blogging from Robert A. George of Ragged Thots:

The news on Atlanta Falcons QB Michael Vick's indictment (his Marion Barry-type defense: "Bichon frise set me up!") creates an interesting irony. In its story this week on the decline of ESPN's Sportscenter -- especially given the upcoming departure of network anchor-institution Dan Patrick -- Newsweek notes:

ESPN's lucrative partnerships with the NFL, the NBA, MLB and NASCAR, among others, have put its news operation, and "SportsCenter" in particular, in a unique bind. "Imagine The New York Times owning half of the Broadway theaters whose plays it reviews. Or imagine CNN paying billions of dollars for exclusive ... rights to cover the War in Iraq," wrote ESPN's own ombudsman, Le Anne Schreiber, in a May 10 Web column titled "At ESPN, Conflict of Interest Is Business as Usual." It has led to the occasional gaffe, like ESPN's decision to cancel its well-regarded drama "Playmakers" after the NFL complained about the show.

"Playmakers" ran for one 12-episode season four years ago. Unfortunately, the NFL pressured the network to kill it, charging that the fictional show reflected poorly on the real NFL. It featured players engaged in illict affairs, spousal abuse, drugs -- and one of them came out as gay too (sort of "Footballers Wives" without the accents).

Of course, in just the last year, there have 13 arrests of Cincinnati Bengals players (admittedly, Chris Henry was nabbed four times); over a two-year period, Tennessee Titan "Pacman" Jones has been arrested multiple times and has been suspended for half of next season, Chicago Bears' Tank Johnson spent time in jail on weapons charges (and subsequently got released by the team after speeding) -- and now Michael Vick is under indictment for dogfighting.

Bring back "Playmakers", ESPN! It's far tamer than anything that's really happening in the National Football League.

On the other hand, maybe the network thinks such a show would only be redundant at this point.

Lack of Sports on the Tube [J. Mark English]

There's no baseball, football, hockey or basketball on tonight. So what is on the television? Here's a look at least what is playing locally (New York) if you need your sports fix on the tube:

• ESPN 2 will feature the AAA All-Star game. You can either catch a glimpse of the stars of tomorrow, or the players who aren't good enough to make it to the big show...
• ESPN will have a celebrity softball game, and following that they will show the Bronx is Burning again... Maybe this time it will air when they actually say it will...
• SNY will go a step or two below that of ESPN 2, and feature the Eastern League Baseball All-Star Game, out of Norwich, Conn. I'll be sure to have popcorn, and a beer waiting for me by my couch for the start of that thriller...
• YES will show some classic Yankee games between them and the Orioles, and the Indians. At least the Yankees have stacks of footage from games of years past that show them winning...always...
• MSG will have more of their, "hey look what we found in the vault" footage. I'm sure that will be high quality TV.
• Do you miss hockey? Have no fear, FSN will show a taped game between the Devils and the Islanders. Click!
  
• ESPN News will be showing no current highlights...at least not from today...its probably on days like this that some of their on air personalities get into trouble in regards to sexual harassment.
• ESPN Classic probably has the best option...the U.S. Poker Championship.
• NBA TV features the Boston Celtics taking on ...China. Hmmm...that should be incredibly boring.
• If your still not satisfied at this point, might want to consider checking out the Golf Channel, or ordering the NFL Network if you don't have it yet...
• After all this make sure to tune into ESPN Sports Center to catch the Top 10 moments of what you didn't watch in sports tonight...
  

Next Stop: Dog Days of Summer [J. Mark English]

Baseball right now is the only sport on the horizon. Football is still a month away. Who cares about basketball during this heat wave? Anyone really taking interest in how much Sydney Crosby will be making over the next few years in Pittsburgh? How about Federer and Nadal? Yea, we can talk about them come the U.S. Open. And the British Open is still a few weeks away.

So baseball really is all there is now, and tonight will feature only an exhibition game, and tomorrow there will be no game. I think tomorrow night may be the only night of the year when none of the professional sport teams (at least in baseball, hockey, basketball, and football) play. Sports Center should be a blast tomorrow night. Exactly what current event highlights will they show?

Perhaps they can continue to pump up their own mini series, the Bronx is Burning. I set my Tivo to record the show, and when I came to watch it, the Tivo had recorded the conclusion of the home run derby. So I missed out on this show that ESPN has been advertising the hell out of for the last few weeks. Grrrrrr.

But I guess there are some news of note to throw out there. Bud Selig will attend the games where Barry Bonds has a chance to break Hank Aaron's record. I hope it takes Bonds two weeks, just to make it painful for Selig.

Baseball agent, Gustavo "Gus" Dominguez, was busted for smuggling ball players out of Cuba. I don't get that. He is getting five years for encouraging players to leave a communist country, giving them an opportunity of a life time. Shouldn't we be celebrating what this guy is doing, not throwing him in jail?

Dayn Perry of Fox Sports breaks down his top 10 All-Star game moments:

1. Babe Ruth wins the first All-Star Game (1933)
2. Carl Hubbell whiffs a quintet of Hall of Famers (1934)
3. Ted Williams returns to Fenway Park (1999)
4. The All-Star color line is broken (1947)
5. Cal Ripken's final All-Star Game (2001)
6. Pete Rose and Ray Fosse (1970)
7. The 1967 marathon
8. The young guns of '84
9. Terry Steinbach redeems himself (1987)
10. The 2003 All-Star Game

I'm biased when it comes to this, but I think the baseball all-star game is the best of the four major sports. I'll be watching tonight. With any luck, the National League will break its losing streak.

Finally, there was a plane crash earlier today which took the lives of some members of the NASCAR community. Here is the story from Barbara Liston of Reuters:

A small plane attempting an emergency landing crashed into two houses near Orlando, Florida, on Tuesday, killing at least five people and causing an intense fire, investigators said.

The twin-engine Cessna 310 was registered to a corporation linked to NASCAR racing and one of those killed, the pilot of the plane, was the husband of NASCAR official Lesa France Kennedy, officials of the popular U.S. motorsport said.

The plane took off from Daytona International Airport en route to Lakeland, Florida but the pilot reported smoke in the cockpit and it slammed into a residential neighborhood in Sanford, near Orlando in central Florida, investigators said.

"We can confirm there were two people on board, including the pilot, Dr. Bruce Kennedy, and Michael Klemm, a senior captain with NASCAR Aviation. Both were killed in the crash," Ramsey Poston, NASCAR's managing director of corporate communications, said in a statement.

MLB Slaps ESPN on the Hand... [J. Mark English]

In essence, ESPN is being punished, or given a "timeout", for doing something bad in the eyes of MLB. Paul Gough of the Hollywood Reporter has more:

Major League Baseball has limited ESPN's access to Tuesday night's All-Star Game after the network broke an embargo and broadcast news of the players' selections a few minutes after an exclusive, rain-delayed telecast on TBS.

Baseball executives told ESPN that it must pare its broadcast efforts from AT&T Park in San Francisco, where the All-Star Game is being held. So, most coverage will be done out of ESPN's headquarters in Bristol, Conn., rather than having "Baseball Tonight" and a portion of "SportsCenter" originate from California as planned.

ESPN doesn't have the rights to carry the All-Star Game -- those are Fox Sports' -- and didn't have the rights to carry an All-Star selection show, with those going to TBS as part of the new rights deal with Turner Broadcasting. ESPN had previously done the selection show.

Sources said MLB was angered after ESPN's "SportsCenter" on Sunday reported the National League rosters using an Associated Press story and the entire NL and American League rosters a few minutes after they were unveiled on TBS. No one was allowed to disclose the names until after the Turner show. Fans pick the starting players through a weekslong voting process.

Baseball executives have told ESPN that it cannot telecast from AT&T Park beyond an hour on Monday (not including the network's coverage of the Home Run Derby) and limited access to hours before Tuesday's game.

Unfair Comparison [David Stefanini]

I was watching Sportscenter today and got infuriated at one of the points being stressed. They were doing a special on Brett Favre and Roger Clemens. The person speaking was saying how Clemens and Farve are very much alike, and pointed out similarities between the two of them. That is disrespectful to Brett Farve.

Farve is the definition of an 'iron man'. Clemens is the definition of an embarrassment to sports. Clemens does not have to travel with the team, he starts the season late, and he is a "part-time player". Farve goes out their every single day and has had the ball in his hand every play the Green Bay Packers have had over the past 10+ seasons. He is loyal to his team and will always be loved by Packer fans. Clemens goes where the money is. If the Red Soxs offered him 28.1 million, then he would go there. He has no concept of loyalty or appreciation of the game in which he plays.

The speaker on Sportscenter who made the comparison between these two athletes should come out and make it clear he is not trying to compare these two. They are both two of the very best at their respected positions, but that is where the similarities stop.

AL East Race Ain't Over Till It's Over [Addison Quale]

Earlier today Skip Bayless of ESPN made the incredibly presumptous call that the Yankees were done in terms of winning the AL East. As you all know the Sox have gotten off to a red hot start this year to the tune of a 25-11 record. They've done this with exceptional starting pitching along with a solid offense. The Yanks of course have limped to a 17-19 start using everything from greenhorned AAA rookies to small woodland creatures as their starting pitchers.

But woe to he who writes off the Yanks! Has history taught us nothing? Do we lose faith so easily? How do we forget the original Boston Massacre (not the actual historical original, of course) when in 1978, the Yankees after having been down as many as 12 games to the Sox in July, swept a 4 game set with the Sox in Boston en route to tying them for the AL East led, and eventually overtaking them in a one-game playoff? And what about the 1995 California Angels? (Yes, that's what they were called then) They also led the division by about 12 games in early August only to see it recede away to the Seattle Mariners.

To write off the Yankees is, quite simply, stupid--especially when taking their pride and ample resources into consideration. History has taught us that stranger things have happened. And especially when it comes to the Sox and Yanks, stranger things usually DO happen. So my outlook on this is the following: "Don't count your chickens." I wouldn't write off the Yanks till they're 15 back in August. Then we can talk.

LeBron to Co-Host the ESPY Awards [David Stefanini]

LeBron James is going to co-host the ESPY Awards wit Jimmy Kimmel this year. What is left for LeBron to do; other than win the title.

He has come straight out of high school with unimaginable hype surrounding him; and he surpassed the hype. Each year the expectations on LeBron grow, and every year he seems to surpass the expectations. I do not feel he is the best player in the league, that belongs to Kobe, but the things he is accomplishing at such a young age is unbelievable.

We already could say he is one of the elite players in the league, and we an say he is a host of one of the top sporting events of the year.