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The 150^th Belmont Stakes in New York goes off at 3:37 p.m. PDT Saturday (Channel 4). A couple of minutes later, we’ll have a decent idea if there’s a second Triple Crown winner worth celebrating over the last four years. How soon we forget when it was such a rare occurrence. Justify, 5-for-5 in a career that did not begin until Feb. 18, has a decent shot at becoming the 13^th overall winner of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont (in order, in a five-week spread). One way to prep for this is giving a mixed-message listen to a Jim Gaffigan rant that he whipped up for CBS’ “Sunday Morning” – “Every spring I have the same thought: Wait, we’re doing this again?” Again, NBC is doing the race, not CBS. The Paulick Report wonders if the piece is “funny or ignorant.” The odds are pretty good that whatever reactions viewers have to this will depend on what kind of blinders they most comfortable wearing.

Continue reading “06.04.18: Five things you should plan for the week ahead based on unscientific evidence of guaranteed importance” →

Assuming you spent the last three days unplugged from the world of sports we’ve got a simple cheat sheet  prepared for your safe return:

The Town will next head to The Land again with a chance to keep The Crown for the third time in four NBA seasons. The Warriors’ emphatic 122-103 emphatic Game 2 win Sunday night against the visiting Cavs, punctuated by Steph Curry shimming for an NBA Finals record nine 3-pointers, was rather stylish as it came while they wore their alternative “The Town” black jerseys, something the franchise has donned from time to time since 2017 to honor its Oakland home of 46 years. In the fall of 2019, the Warriors move from the Oracle Arena to a new $1 billion Chase Center at Third and South Streets in the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco. Games 3 and 4 are Wednesday and Friday in Cleveland (6 p.m., Channel 7). In NBA Finals history, teams that have taken a 2-0 series lead have gone on to win it all 88 percent of the time. And while the Cavs came back from deficits of 0-2 and 1-3 to win the 2016 title on the Warriors’ home floor, LeBron James, having already played in more than 100 straight games this regular- and post-season, may be running out of steam, according to Cleveland Plain Dealer veteran columnist Terry Pluto.

Continue reading “06.04.18: The five things you need to know that happened last weekend before you get back to the Monday grind” →

Since we last had some public discourse on the sports media landscape:

* For the record, the story posted by TheRinger.com about a potential misuse of social media that has sparked an internal investigation and could lead to the firing of an NBA exec within the next 48 hours, with more followup by ESPN’s “Outside The Lines,” and even more critical disbelief by NBA journalist Adrian Wojnarowski:

Then this afternoon, Jordan Schultz at Yahoo! Sports says Colangelo texted him:  “Someone’s out to get me. … This is clearly not me. … hopeful to resolve this soon.”
We’ve seen enough career suicide that Twitter can bring in the media business.
So, you know … TNT has announced Anthony Anderson as the host of its live June 25 telecast of the “NBA Awards on TNT” show from the Barker Hangar at Santa Monica Airport. Why not nominate Bryan Colangelo for a special recognition at the annual NBA Social Media Awards division?

* ESPN’s coverage of the Golden State-Cleveland NBA Finals starts with Game 1 on Thursday and Game 2 on Sunday in Oakland.
On a conference call with reporters earlier this week, ESPN game analysts Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy were asked:
Q. Is there a way you guys have to approach this from a game perspective in terms of talking points, because some of the things about these teams are so similar this year.
Continue reading “Sports media notes version 05.30.18: A social media-related piece can shift the NBA landscape, Mike Breen’s Hall credentials, looking back the ’92-’93 NHL season, and the Fox-bowling plans to stay gutter-free” →

You may not even recall any more when Clayton Kershaw last pitched. It was May 1, a no decision in a 4-3 loss at Arizona where he went six innings/101 pitches and struck out six, giving up two solo homers. Maybe you know he’s coming back almost a full month later as it seems his left bicep tendinitis is all right now. With a 4:30 p.m. first pitch at Dodger Stadium, as the shadows settle in over home plate, Kershaw (1-4, 2.86 ERA in 44 IPs over seven starts) will attempt to win his second game of the season against the Phillies.
The Dodgers’ schedule the rest of this week: home vs. the Phillies on Tuesday and Wednesday (7:10 p.m.), and then June begins with the Dodgers’ first visit to Colorado against the current NL West leaders are are sub-.500 at home on Friday (5:40 p.m., SportsNet LA), Saturday (4:15 p.m., Channel 11) and Sunday (12:10 p.m., SportsNet LA).

Continue reading “05.29.18: Five things you should plan for the week ahead based on unscientific evidence of guaranteed importance” →

Assuming you spent the last three days unplugged from the world of sports on a houseboat, on a lake, with no wifi — and don’t you wish we all could have that luxury — here’s a cheat sheet we’re prepared for your safe return:

Of course, it’s a Golden State-Cleveland NBA Final that begins Thursday.
Of course, the LeBron James-GOAT arguments will remain in full gaggle after he “willed the ramshackle Cavs” to a Game 7 Eastern Conference final win at Boston with a rather modest 35-point, 15-rebound, nine-assist performance last Sunday night. We can appreciate this will be his eighth NBA Final appearance in a row.
And of course, the Houston Rockets were going to miss 27 3-point shot tries in a row and squander a double-digit halftime lead at home in their Western Conference Game 7 final, allowing the Warriors to do what they always seem to do — outscore the Rockets by 18 points in the third quarter to flip the equation.
The Warriors are now plus-130 in third quarters during the playoffs, the highest overall scoring margin in a quarter by any team in a postseason during the shot clock era, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. LeBron James vs. Steph Curry — just like it was as the NBA All-Star Game in L.A. a few months back. The Game 1 line opens with the Warriors as a 12-point favorite on their home court, tying the largest spread in an NBA Finals game over the last 25 years (going back to the Lakers at home against Philadelphia in Game 1 of the 2001 Finals, which the Sixers won in OT).
Continue reading “05.29.18: The five things you need to know that happened during Memorial Day weekend before you get back to work Tuesday” →