FIRST, running to first base became a matter of whether you feel like it. And now foul shots don’t count?
Ohio St.-Georgetown, Saturday, was a close game, with 6:37 left. And the teams, to that point, had combined to shoot an atrocious 8 of 18 – egads, that’s 44 percent – from the line.
Yet, on CBS, where all other stats are addressed as telltale, free throws were a non-issue. In fact, the three full-screen recap stat graphics – one of which CBS called an “In-Game Box Score” – didn’t include FT numbers. A basketball box score sans FT numbers?
Then again, except for the fact that they may determine the winner (and loser) of tonight’s championship, free-throws no longer count.
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What does the 1968 Democratic Presidential Convention and Friday’s Devils telecast have in common? Just leave that to Doc Emrick.
Halfway through the third period, Steve Cangialosi was at last able to report that Scott Gomez had left the game after just one shift in the second period because of a bruised thigh.
Of Cangialosi, Emrick then said, “Like Dan Rather at the Presidential Convention in Chicago, he is patient, he has waited and he has gotten the news.”
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NBC’s weekend cuts to the studio for “news from the world of sports” have become attractive only because they’re so transparently dishonest and self-serving that they’re funny.
The latest forced to sacrifice his/her credibility in service to NBC’s slick foolishness was Jimmy Roberts, who Saturday reported swimming results, tennis and Champions Tour scores. Nothing about anything – the Final Four (CBS), the MLB opener (ESPN) – that appears on other networks.
We keep reading and hearing that NBC Sports boss Dick Ebersol is a genius. But he can’t be that smart or he’d know that even dim wits find such selective “sports reports” laughable. And to think that Ebersol takes swings at ESPN for caring less about its sports telecasts than about promoting them.
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Following an adult participation brawl, last year, a Cincinnati-area kids’ baseball league has drawn attention – and ridicule – for a new rule that bans coaches and players from hollering negative chatter/taunts at the opposition. The only acceptable bench and field chatter must be supportive of teammates.
Of course, some folks, especially those who haven’t lately been around organized kids’ sports, regard this rule as silly.
Of course, once upon a time it would have been silly because it wasn’t needed. Of course, once upon a time, kids and adults were less inclined to act like punks at kids’ games. Back then, cops were called in only to monitor traffic.
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From the Dept. of We Told You So: No more on-site NFL pre-game show and revolving host stuff from Fox.
This season, the show will return to its L.A. studio, which means, 1) We should be able to actually hear what’s being said, and 2) Less face and voice-time for the drunks that dominate at-stadium/in-stadium game-day crowds. And Joe Buck will only be the lead play-by-player, while Curt Menefee becomes full-time studio host.
By the way, as long as NFL commissioner Roger Goodell insists that players cut back on their criminal behavior, why not extend that to patrons? Or would cutting down on the drunk and disorderly cut into profits from beer sales?
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Superb pre-game piece from CBS, Saturday, on Jason Ray, the 6-foot-5, 21-year-old UNC mascot and honor student who died, last week, after being hit by a car. . . Who’s the genius at L.I.’s WLNY who scheduled “Above The Rim,” a basketball movie, against the Final Four?
Lookalikes/soundalikes: CBS’s Jim Nantz (especially in those Circuit City ads) and actor/essayist Charles Grodin . . . ESPNews’ Bill Pidto, after reporting that Knick Randolph Morris scored one point in his NBA debut, noted that his one point, “came from the foul line.” Thanks.
This Roger Federer/Tiger Woods mutual admiration push has Nike’s DNA all over it. . . . How come, if Wednesday’s Cavs-Knicks and Saturday’s Knicks-Hornets were such big games, their first 46 minutes looked like light scrimmages among the disinterested?
The result of the autopsy on Bam Bam Bigelow was released, last week: Drug overdose. But no big deal, just another dead pro wrestler; there have been scores of them. It’s not like it’s important news, like Donald Trump jumping in with Vince McMahon.
