Blog

The Los Angeles Times has our Q&A with Bob Costas heading into the Baseball Hall of Fame to pick up the Ford C. Frick Award for his broadcasting resume on the sport for TV.
Brian Kenny, Greg Amsinger, Fran Charles, Sean Casey, Mark DeRosa, Harold Reynolds and Peter Gammons are the main brigade for the MLB Network covering the induction ceremonies Sunday, with a pregame show at 8 a.m. and the ceremony starting at 10:30 a.m.
The 8 a.m. show will include Costas’ acceptance speech, as well as the words from the J.G. Taylor Spink Award winner Sheldon Ocker, who has covered the Cleveland Indians for 33 seasons for the Akron Beacon-Journal until 2013.
If the MLB Net wanted to, it could include Angels broadcasters Mark Gubicza and Jose Mota in its telecast — they’ve made the trip to Cooperstown, N.Y., to support the induction of former Angel Vlad Guerrero. As a result, Sunday’s Fox Sports West coverage of the Angels-Mariners game from Angel Stadium will have Victor Rojas joined by Dontrelle Willis, who is usually on the MLB on Fox studio show, in the booth. Former Angels infielder Adam Kennedy will be with Patrick O’Neal on-set for the pre- and post-game shows.

Item 2:

In the TV media world, one coach leaving to do what he feels he does best can open a door for another coach who feels he needs to keep his brand alive.
That, in essence, is the Chip Kelly-for-Jim Mora deal with UCLA and ESPN.
Mora, fired by the Bruins on his 56th birthday right after their loss to USC last November, left him with about $12 million in a buyout.
About a week later, UCLA hired Kelly, 53, to a five-year deal worth more than $23 million. To take it, Kelly had to leave his way-station job as a studio analyst at ESPN. He hadn’t coached since 2016, and that was a couple stops in the NFL after he left Oregon.
Why it then took ESPN nearly eight months before nailing down Mora as the replacement for Kelly isn’t clear – Mora apparently couldn’t find another suitable coaching job right away – but the announcement this week that Mora has landed on the Bristol, Conn., studio seems rather symmetrically suitable for all involved. Continue reading “Media notes version 07.26.18: On Costas in Cooperstown, more Mora on TV, an AVP delay, LeBron’s HBO clips … we’ve been having fun all summer long” →

This post was updated at 11 AM, July 23:

Yes, the NFL is back this week.
The Rams and Chargers open their training camps — the Rams on Thursday at UC Irvine, and the Chargers on Saturday in Costa Mesa.
They don’t play their first exhibition games until April.
Now let’s move on …
In this exercise, we will pass over this summer ritual. Too many other things that are worth reminding you about, including … Continue reading “07.23.18: Five things you should plan for the week ahead based on unscientific evidence of guaranteed importance” →

Because sometimes,  some things get lost in the translation from the PR podium to the real world in sports media land. Especially in the summertime:

Item 1:
* Pull up a TV tray and break down the things MLB commissioner Rob Manfred danced around when he was asked about the Dodgers’ SportsNet LA distribution mess while at the All Star Game press conference in Washington D.C. this week:

What he said: “They (Spectrum) own those rights. You can’t just go in and ignore those local rights that belong to someone else. You’d have to figure out a way around it.”
What he means: Our lawyers tell us our hands are tied. But if we pretend to try to find a loophole in this …

What he said: “We have explored two possible paths of influence … Unfortunately, a lot of those creative ideas we have affect the balance of power or the economic situation of the distributor or the RSN.”
What it means: We’re the most creative people we know. But we can’t create new laws that make us the kind of local rights fees.

What else he said: “It’s difficult to convince people to go along with any of these creative ideas. But we will be back at it again during this off-season.”
What he means: It’s difficult to convince Dodgers fans to go along with trying to sign up for games at this point because we think they’ve just given up.

As long as Spectrum holds the rights, it won’t compromise its exclusivity agreement with those who currently subscribe to the service. It is kind of interesting how Spectrum doesn’t offer online streaming access to its subscribers – like Fox Sports West does with the Angels. It fears perhaps that the passwords would be shared and exploited. Probably a larger issue: It won’t matter. How embarrassing would it be if they offered the channel a la cart and the response was dismal? The number of fans tuned out and turned off by this situation won’t just come clamoring back. Think of those who’ve already started up on the Spectrum subscription because of its attractive rates to new customers, but that deal has expired, and others are coming up with less expensive bundles.
When we say ‘during the off-season’ we have no idea what that means. Apparently because they’ve given up on this season.

According to the latest data by the Sports Business Daily, the Angels and Dodger rank 26th and 27th out of 30 regional sports network ratings for the first half of the season.
SportsNet LA has been drawing a 1.66 rating, actually up 13 percent from last year. The Angels’ 1.65 rating on Fox Sports West is up 74 percent — although the Angels are reporting it to be a jump of 79 percent, the highest year-over-year rating increase, and a jump of  93 percent in adults 18-to-49 and 67 percent in adults 25-54. This could result in the largest Angels’ audience on FSW since 2005.

The team with the lowest ratings: Oakland on NBC Sports California (0.67). The highest rated: St. Louis on Fox Sports Midwest (6.76, which is actually down 5 percent from last year). The biggest drop (50 percent) is with Baltimore on MASN (with its 2.89 rating).

Item 2:

Continue reading “Media notes version 07.19.18: What MLB says, and what it can’t do, about the Dodgers’ SportsNet LA distribution at this point” →

Phil Mickelson wants to be a better man.
As he prepped his game for the upcoming 147^th British Open at Carnoustie Golf Links in Scotland (Wednesday PM–Sunday AM, Golf Channel, Channel 4) by knocking it around at the Scottish Open last weekend (he missed the cut), Lefty told reporters that his misgivings at last June’s U.S. Open that resulted in him swatting his ball as it was about to roll off a green has caused him to “just try to act a little better.” He took his two-stroke penalty and tried to justify it as a way to avoid a worse score on that Shinnecock Hills hole. He has been in somewhat of a damage control mode ever since. Mickelson, the 2013 Open champ when it was in Scotland, is among a few given very long 40-1 odds of winning this thing, with Dustin Johnson (12-1), 2014 winner Rory McIlroy (14-1) and defending champ Jordan Spieth (18-1) as favorites, plus three-time winner Tiger Woods at 20-1. But according to prediction model called SportsLine that has been successful at nailing the winners of recent golf majors based on simulating the event 10,000 times, 25-1 Sergio Garcia may be the one to watch and finally win his first Open. Garcia should have won the 2007 event when it was last played at Carnoustie but fumbled it away on the 18^th green and then lost a four-hole playoff to Padraig Harrington. The long and narrow Carnoustie, aka “Car-nasty,” established in 1842, has hosted this event seven previous times, going back to 1931 (Tommy Armour, a plus-8 finish). It’s also the 50^th anniversary of Gary Player’s triumph in 1968.
The TV schedule:
Round 1: Wednesday 10:30 p.m. to Thursday 1 p.m., Golf Channel
Round 2: Thursday 10:30 p.m. to Friday 1 p.m., Golf Channel
Round 3: Saturday 1:30 a.m. to 4 a.m., Golf Channel; Saturday 4 a.m. to noon, Channel 4 (highlights, 2-3 p.m., Channel 4)
Round 4: Sunday 1:30 a.m. to 4 a.m., Golf Channel; Sunday 4 am. to 11:30 a.m., Channel 4 (highlights, 2-3 p.m., Channel 4) Continue reading “07.16.18: Five things you should plan for the week ahead based on unscientific evidence of guaranteed importance” →