Category Archives: Fox Sports

Snore Classic: Baseball, Fox need to break numbing trend of short World Series

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Forget about all the talk of Boston-St. Louis being a great match-up in the World Series.

If given the choice, Fox Sports and MLB would take a Seattle-San Diego series that goes 7 games over a one-sided 4- or 5-gamer featuring two of baseball’s most storied franchises.

It’s all about games, namely 6 and 7 in the postseason. Those have been in short supply for baseball, which has suffered through a remarkable string of bad luck with its World Series.

Since 2004, when the Red Sox took four straight from the Cardinals (seem to recalling hearing something about breaking an 86-year drought), only 2 of 9 World Series have gone more than five games. There have been four sweeps, including last year with San Francisco running over Detroit; and three five-game series. The lone seven-game series was in 2011 when St. Louis rallied to beat Texas.

By comparison, the NBA has seen three Game 7s since 2004, and 6 of the 9 series went to six or more games. The NHL even has fared better. Since 2001, 6 of 12 Stanley Cup Finals have gone the full 7 games, allowing viewers to hear Mike Emrick, the game’s best, to enhance the drama with his wonderful gift for play-by-play. Only two series failed to reach six games.

Fox’s Joe Buck only wishes he was as fortunate. When Buck was asked about this year’s supposed dream match-up, he tempered his answer.

“Year after year, we talk about the match-up, and who the networks want, and the major markets,” Buck said. “To me, if it isn’t a compelling series, if it is four or five games and out, it doesn’t matter who is playing. If you don’t get down to the games that make it fun, like at the beginning of the post-season where it is win or go home…That’s when the game gets exciting. That’s when the game is great.

“We had Boston in 2007 and they won in four straight (over Colorado). The ratings went down. You don’t have to be a genius to figure it out.”

Indeed, last year’s World Series averaged a 7.6 rating, an all-time low. The previous low was an 8.4 for the 2008 Phillies-Rays and 2010 Giants-Rangers series, which each went five games.

Meanwhile, the 2011 Cardinals-Rangers World Series averaged a 10.0 rating for the full run. As Buck said, you don’t need to be a genius to see how the run of short series have hurt baseball and Fox.

Given Buck and Tim McCarver’s ties, they certainly will be accused of favoring the Cardinals.That would be wrong. They only are pulling for one thing during the World Series: Getting to call a Game 7.

 

 

 

 

Barkley in mid-season form: ‘LeBron should go back to Cleveland’; Jordan still ticked off at him

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Who needs training camp? Charles Barkley’s mouth always is ready to go.

Barkley sounded off to Chris Myers in the latest edition of Fox Sports 1on 1 interview show (tonight, 8 p.m. ET).

Here are some soundbites:

On Lebron James as a free agent after this year: “I hope he goes back to Cleveland with some real fans.  Those fans in Miami are faker than a three-dollar bill.”

On his current relationship with Michael Jordan: “I love Michael. He’s been one of my best friends forever and I hope we can work through it.  Our relationship is estranged because I said some things about him as a General Manager the last couple years.  I can’t get on television and say he’s done a good job as a GM.  One of the things people respect about me whether they like it or not is that I don’t have a double standard.  Michael has not done a good job as a GM.”

On strong reactions from people on what he has to say about any topic – sports or non-sports:  “I think after my third year [in the NBA], I said, ‘oh I can’t please everybody.  I’m just going to please me.  I’m going to say what I think and what I feel. And I’m not going to worry about the negativity.’  After that third year, I’ve been the same since.  I’m going to give my honest, fair, balanced opinion – some people are going to like it and others wont.”

On the Los Angeles Lakers future:  “With or without Kobe Bryant, the Lakers are going to stink next year.  I love Kobe Bryant.  Kobe Bryant is one of the greatest 10 players ever.”

On the legacy of NBA Commissioner David Stern:  “[He’s] the greatest Commissioner in sports history.  Easily.  People forget, me and David Stern came in the same year.  The average player salary in the NBA was $200,000.  Now, the average salary is $5.5 million dollars.  That’s amazing.  He put us in the Olympics and made it an international game.  We play games in foreign countries and I think I saw it last year, the finals were broadcast in 200 countries.”

 

 

 

Right call: Fox dumped James because he is too “polarizing”

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I’ll start by saying that I couldn’t disagree more with Craig James’ views.

But that’s not the reason why James was fired after his short stint with Fox Sports Southwest.

In a statement addressing James’ threat to sue over religious discrimination, Fox said:

“At Fox Sports we respect all points of view, and despite reports to the contrary, the decision to no longer use Craig James in our college football coverage was simply because he was not a good fit for Fox Sports. Mr. James, while both experienced and knowledgeable, is a polarizing figure in the college sports community. Regrettably, the decision to use him was not properly vetted, and as a result he will no longer provide commentary on Fox Sports Southwest’s college football coverage.”

Exactly. The key word is “polarizing.”

While James has a right to say and believe whatever he wants, he also has to be willing to accept the backlash when it comes to his broadcast career. He has become a controversial figure whose views turn off a significant portion of the audience. I received several extreme anti-James Twitter responses after I published my post yesterday.

Sports networks like polarizing figures when it comes to their views on sports. But social views are a different story. In this case, Fox Sports determined having him as a commentator on college football wasn’t worth the negative fallout.

Obviously, the person who hired him at Fox Sports Southwest didn’t clear it with the upper executives at Fox. When the statement says he wasn’t “properly vetted,” it really means, “No way.”

Surely, James will make more noise here. However, it likely won’t help him.

Given his views, the fact that even Fox doesn’t want him shows that his sports broadcast career is over.

 

 

 

 

Craig James demands to be reinstated: Blasts Fox for firing him because of religious views

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Somebody at Fox Sports Southwest surely is feeling the repercussions of opening the door to Craig James.

From Breitbart News:

“I was shocked that my personal religious beliefs were not only the reason for Fox Sports firing me but I was completely floored when I read stories quoting Fox Sports representatives essentially saying that people of faith are banned from working at Fox Sports,” James told Breitbart News. “That is not right and surely someone made a terrible mistake.”

James continued, “I have worked in broadcasting for twenty-four years and have always treated my colleagues with respect and dignity regardless of their background or personal beliefs. I believe it is essential in our business to maintain professional relationships with people from a diverse background and have tolerance for those of different beliefs. I have never discussed my faith while broadcasting and it has never been an issue until now.” James’s attorneys at Liberty Institute have sent a demand letter, given exclusively to Breitbart News, to Fox Sports.

From the Washington Times:

Mr. James‘ legal team claims he has a solid case of discrimination. In a letter sent to Fox Sports on Tuesday, Liberty Institute’s general counsel Jeff Mateer wrote that the “decision to terminate Craig James because of Mr. James‘ religious beliefs is a severe violation” of his liberties, under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Mr. Mateer pointed out that Fox actually solicited Mr. James for the position, knowing full well his political background.

“The actions have also led to the breach of Craig James‘ contract and the impugnment of his career,” the letter states. “We demand the immediate reinstatement [of] Mr. James to the on-air college football analyst position. If you refuse to reinstate Mr. James, millions of Americans will be left with the impression that you do not respect religious liberty and Liberty Institute will be forced to pursue subsequent legal options.”

Yep, someone is having an interesting day at Fox.

 

Star rookie: Randy Moss has chance to be big as an analyst for Fox

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As Jon Gruden would say, “I like this Randy Moss.”

Or as Jimmy Johnson did say, “Whenever he’s on, he’s tough to turn off.”

While he might not be able to match the football equivalent of scoring 17 touchdowns in his NFL debut for Minnesota in 1998, Moss looks to be the early favorite for rookie of the year on the NFL analyst front. He currently is working for Fox Sports 1 on Fox Football Daily and Fox Football Kickoff.

However, don’t be surprised if Moss eventually finds himself at the big boys table on Fox NFL Sunday, sooner than later. He has some Charles Barkley in him. The combination of being candid and unpredictable will carry him a long way on TV.

On a Fox conference call Wednesday, Moss questioned his old teammates, Colin Kaepernick and Vernon Davis’ ability to mesh on the field.

“From my time there last year, it didn’t seem Kaepernick and Vernon Davis had a rapport. They haven’t shown that yet,” Moss said.

That prompted this response from Davis: “His job is to critique our offense and say whatever he feels is right. But my opinion is totally different from what he’s saying. We’re on a different level, for sure.”

Stirring it up is what analysts are supposed to do. It is why Fox Sports executive producer John Entz called Moss, “a game changer.”

“He was someone we hadn’t thought of until late in the audition process,” Entz said. “It wasn’t something he was actively looking to do. He came in and liked it better than he realized. We immediately thought of (him) as a game changer.”

During the call, I asked Moss how he liked his new job.

“It’s definitely eye-opening to be in this environment as opposed to a locker room,” Moss said. “I’m a work in progress. (The other analysts) were once rookies too. Each and every day, I  learn something.”

Later, Moss was asked to describe his style.

“I haven’t had time to really think about a style,” Moss said. “You can hear in my voice I’m excited to have something different in my life. I don’t know about too many things, but I do know about football.”

Just as it did for him as a player, football also can take Moss a long way as an analyst.

 

 

 

It isn’t just players: Pam Oliver talks about concussion after getting hit by football

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Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News has the scary story of Pam Oliver’s recent concussion. She was hit by a football prior to an Aug. 18 Giants-Colts game.

Oliver had just finished doing an interview with referee Ed Hochuli for a piece she was doing on NFL refs for Showtime’s “60 Minutes Sports,” which airs Wednesday night, and returned to the sidelines. “That’s all I remember,” she said. “I asked the people around me, ‘What happened?’ They told me I just got hit in the head with a football.”

After waking up that Monday her head hurt so much she had to hold it. “The sensitivity to light started and some nausea too,” she said, “my whole body was sore.” Oliver went to the doctor. The CT Scan came up clean, but she was diagnosed with a concussion. Oliver spent the next five days in a dark room inside her home.

“I slept for hours on end. The minute you wake up you’re reminded. Your head is pounding,” she said. “I really could not take light — the light from the TV, the accent lighting. The sun was completely my enemy. My blinds were drawn. It was miserable.”

Oliver said she definitely will be more careful when she returns to the sidelines Sunday for the Packers-49ers game.

“I’m now officially road kill,” she said. “But when I’m back on the sidelines, I’ll do what I always do: Stay a bit behind the line of scrimmage. And keep my head on a swivel.”

Scott Van Pelt on SportsCenter vs. Fox Sports Live: ‘We’ve been living here since 1979. Welcome to the fun of sports’

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And now a word from the other side:

John Ourand of Sports Business Daily chatted with Scott Van Pelt and SportsCenter Senior Coordinating Producer Michael Shiffman. It turns out it wasn’t a coincidence that Van Pelt and Steve Levy just happened to work Saturday on the same night as Fox Sports Live’s debut.

Van Pelt took a pretty good swing at the competition:

The easiest thing in the world to do is to talk a bunch of junk on Twitter. They’re really good at that –­ poking the bear with a stick. I would swing up, too, if I were them. That’s what they’re doing. The idea that they co-opted fun in sports and that ESPN and “SportsCenter” is some kind of a trip to the dentist is laughable. I have fun every single time I do “SportsCenter.” If they want to be fun, great. Go have fun. I encourage you to do so because we do it every day. That’s the one thing I found to be a head-scratcher, that they planted their flag on this fun hill, as if they discovered it. Like they’re the Christopher Columbus of fun in sports and they’re putting their flag down on that hill. Really? We’ve been living here since 1979. Welcome to the fun of sports.

Really, Scott, don’t hold back.

What they are saying about Fox Sports Live: New anchors will be ‘acquired taste’; questions about panel

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I had my review. Here are some others:

Ben Koo, Awful Announcing:

This show is built around Charissa Thompson, Jay Onrait, and Dan O’Toole.

Jay and Dan lived up to the expectations I had. They were fun. They don’t take things too seriously. They had a lot of jokes and moments that would have felt out of place or raised eyebrows had they been on ESPN’s Sportscenter. These moments were spontaneous and frequent enough where I can see why they attracted a significant following north of the border and think they’ll do the same here. I like them, but will say they are an acquired taste. Sportscenter anchors are essentially nurtured to be universally likable. Funny and clever at times, but rarely outlandish.

Steve Lepore, SB Nation:

The rest of the panel, hosted by the excellent Charissa Thompson, was more iffy. Andy Roddick was fine when called upon, but the rest of the panel seemed to be in a bit of a jokey mess. It felt disorganized when Thompson wasn’t directly running it and the guys were left to discuss amongst themselves. Fox, I’m sure, will give them time to mesh. That could definitely happen, but within the context of this show, I wonder if it might not be better to let Thompson and the guys have their own hour or half-hour to give things a little more order. Can “controlled jocularity” be a thing?

Tom Jones, Tampa Tribune:

In particular, Fox Sports 1’s flagship show, Fox Sports Live, was all over the place.

The show debuted Saturday night and, after watching the first 60 minutes, I felt relieved that I did not suffer a seizure.

For starters, viewers were overloaded with too much information. There was a ticker running on the bottom and another set of notes and graphics above that ticker and still another set of notes and graphics running down the right side. Then, there was more written information in the middle of the screen while anchors Jay Onrait and Dan O’Toole were talking over the highlights.

There was so much information for the viewer to absorb that one could not possibly retain any of it. As a viewer, I wasn’t sure whether to focus on the bottom, the side, the main screen or the anchors’ voices and, instead, I ended up doing none of the above.

Joe DeLessio on Sports on Earth:

4. One of the panelists, Gary Payton, gave a glimpse into what I feared could be the show’s biggest issue heading into its premiere. During a discussion of whether sprinter Usain Bolt was the best athlete in the world, Payton declared that we’d need to define what the term “athlete” meant, and he argued that LeBron James was the best athlete. “He can do baseball, football, basketball, he can do all that,” said Payton. “We don’t know what Bolt can do.” He presented the LeBron bit as fact, and no one challenged Payton on whether James can “do baseball, football, basketball,” even though there’s some evidence that being the best basketball player on the planet doesn’t necessarily translate to success in other sports. Comments like that might be the norm — not just from Payton but from other panelists, who are asked to offer analysis on a sport outside their area of expertise.

Sean Gregory, Keepingscore.com:

We’ll find out soon enough. Based on Sunday night’s sample, nothing’s being turned upside down. (Here’s a review of Saturday night’s Fox Sports Live debut). The most memorable part of the program: a slow-motion clip showing Indianapolis Colts backup quarterback Chandler Harish accidentally hitting Fox sideline reporter Pam Oliver in the face with a football during pre-game warmups. Onrait and O’Toole were pleasant, but by no means spectacular. At one point, O’Toole said: “Just a reminder, you’re watching Fox Sports Live; so far, we haven’t been cancelled.” Maybe a tad funny, in a “I’m Chevy Chase, and you’re not” kind of way. Other than that….to be fair, Fox Sports Live usually features panel discussions with former ESPN SportsNation anchor Clarissa Thompson, Andy Roddick, Donovan McNabb, and some others to mix things up. But as Onrair and O’Toole said at the top of the show, the panel only works during the week.

 

Review of Fox Sports Live: Some hits, misses, and was I watching Aaron Sorkin’s SportsNight?

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I spent the morning breaking down film. Hey, it’s not just limited to football coaches.

I will preface this in bold: You can’t judge a new studio show on just one show.

These shows take time to develop. And it takes viewers time to adjust to new voices and formats.

However, first impressions are important. Here are mine after watching the first two installments of the new Fox Sports Live, Fox Sports 1’s answer to SportsCenter.

The Canadian guys: At some point, I’m sure I will stop calling them the Canadian guys. Also, at some point, I will figure out who is who between Jay Onrait and Dan O’Toole. Or was that Jay O’Toole and Dan Onrait, or Jay Dan and Onrait O’Toole?

Whatever, the imports from Canada made their American debuts over the weekend. Fox Sports 1 even put out a video of highlights (above).

As you can see some of the stuff is amusing, and some of it is not. For instance, the intro to a UFC clip, in which Onrait says he wanted Regis Philbin and Bill Raftery to meet in the first fight. Then they show an old Canadian clip of two old guys fighting.

Didn’t make me laugh and definitely felt forced.

Also, at times I really thought I was watching an old rerun from SportsNight, the terrific ’90s show written by Aaron Sorkin. There was this introduction from JayDan (not sure who actually said it): “Joe Buck and Troy Aikman both have firm handshakes.”

I mean, did Sorkin write that? Really, check out this old SportsNight clip and see how it compares to JayDan.

As I said, there’s going to be an adjustment period to JayDan. It is going to take time to get used to their pace and rhythm. And their humor.

At first blush, I do think the Canadian guys are funny. My advice, though, would be: Don’t try to be too funny.

The panel: This is a hybrid show. JayDan report the news from the anchor desk. Then they throw it over to a bunch of former athletes sitting in brown chairs.

Charissa Thompson moderates the debate portion of the show. You can tell she knows the drill in trying to pull out provocative quotes from the athletes.

As a viewer, I like the change of pace. I found myself wondering when they were going to switch back to the athletes. A spirited debate about Ryan Braun showed the potential for this format. If there was a breakout star on the first night, it was Gabe Kapler, who clearly has strong opinions.

The big question: do we really care what the former athletes think about other sports? Andy Roddick likes Louisville to contend for the national title this fall. That’s great, but why should I care about how a tennis player feels about college football?

Going forward, it will be an issue for Fox Sports Live to build credibility for these former athletes beyond their own sports. If people don’t buy in, it will hurt this part of the show.

The Scoreboard: I liked the big board format. It gave me the feeling of looking at a scoreboard at a sporting event. It also provided a different look than what you see on SportsCenter.

UFC: New Fox Sports 1 is loaded with UFC, which means the fights will get plenty of play on Fox Sports Live. I’m switching when they go to those segments since I’m not a UFC guy. I figure others feel the same way.

Also, will the viewers for UFC stick around to watch Fox Sports Live? I’m sure the research team will be working on that question.

Early analysis: There is some potential for this show. It does appear to be an alternative to SportsCenter.

The key, though, will be JayDan. There’s a fine line between amusing and annoying. They need to make sure they are on the right side of that line. Otherwise, they will be taking their acts back to Canada.