Category: Uncategorized

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” →

Ugly is in the ire of the beholder.
And uniformly, Todd Radom has a laundry list of targets he can reference when sorting out Major League Baseball’s history on this dirty subject.
The Houston Astros’ rainbow fade that Nolan Ryan was once made to wear after the Angels let him walk away. Check.
The White Sox’ of Chicago’s scandalous attire at different points in the ‘70s and ‘80s – collared shirts, short pants, license-plate “SOX” across their hat and shirt. Double check.
The San Diego Padres’ Taco Bell brown-and-yellow mess that Tony Gwynn embraced out of embarrassment. Check please.
Do not dry clean any of the arguments Radom makes in presenting cases for these — as well as address two other faux paus much closer to our Southern California home – with the release of his new book, “Winning Ugly: A Visual History of the Most Bizarre Baseball Uniforms Ever Worn” (Sports Publishing, 156 pages, $24.99, released May 15).
“I come at it from this perspective,” Radom says, “and it’s a good thing to think about — I used to have a bulldog named Casey. He was stout white … ugly … bulldog. I’d be walking down the street with Casey and people would stop and say, ‘She’s so ugly … she’s cute … she’s beautiful.’
“There’s certainly nothing polarizing about ugly uniforms compared to the rest of our society talks about right now. The book has been a very positive experience so far and people seem very happy overall about it.”
We recently reviewed as one of the top choices for our 2018 edition of the 30 baseball books for the 30 days of April.
It has become more-than-fashionably popular since it started appearing on local bookstore shelves as Father’s Day nears.
Thus, we thought it suitable to call upon the New York-based Radom, a graduate of the School of Visual Arts in N.Y. and a graphic designer/sports branding expert who has worked with the MLB (specifically on the Angels’ brand) in shaping its messages, to see if he could button up some questions we have about where this is all trending: Continue reading “Sports and the media 05.25.18: A tailor-made approach to determining what’s ugly, what’s not and why we love laundry and its logos — a Q&A with “Winning Ugly” author Todd Radom” →

“This race has represented the gateway to summer. Memorial Day and the Indianapolis 500 have been intertwined for almost a century. And this event’s uniqueness is unquestioned. As in any sport, the cast of characters is constantly changing, but in the ultimate, the name itself – the Indianapolis 500 – transcends all else.
“Like the jockey who wins the Kentucky Derby, or the golfer who wins the Masters, or the physicist who captures the Nobel Prize, the winner of the Indianapolis 500 has his life changed forever. It is his calling card … forever. He and his team will have crossed the finish line first through a combination of skill, bravery, engineering, strategy and lucky.
“Any man who drives here is compelled to leave fear in the back seat. And while it goes unspoken for three hours, you must look the grim reaper in the eye and not blink.”
= Al Michaels, in the opening to the ABC telecast of the 1999 Indianapolis 500.

As ESPN Classic airs two-hour portions of the Indianapolis 500 races going back to the late ‘60s during lead up this week to the 102^nd event on Sunday at 9 a.m. (after an hour-long pre-race show), nostalgia can get clouded by Michaels-like hyperbole as we are reminded how much ABC has put into covering this event every year since 1965, much of it on tape-delay.
And now the network is on its final turn.
Continue reading “Sports media notes version 05.23.18: On ABC’s last lap around Indy, and how to Facebook Watch the fact your Angels are going upstream across the border” →