I’m going to be out of pocket for a couple of days. Tell the Olympics to go on without me.
I do have a couple neat Olympic flashbacks for Saturday. So please check the site.
I’ll be back in full force Monday.
Thanks to all who have been visiting and supporting this site.
Have a good weekend.
USA Today Sports Media Group and MLB Advanced Media provided a taste of their new Sports on Earth site today.
The page features its signature hire Joe Posnanski writing from London. And there are other stories, including a post from Will Leitch
The entire site makes its debut in late August. Previously, I wrote that USA Today wants to compete with the big sports hitters on the Net. The new site wants to break news and set the agenda for discussion. Yes, the goals are set very high.
More to come.
Here’s the release issued today:
The USA TODAY Sports Media Group and MLB Advanced Media, L.P. (MLBAM), the interactive media and Internet company of Major League Baseball, today announced that Sports on Earth, a destination dedicated to great sports writing from some of the most respected voices in the industry, will be the first content product to launch from their newly-formed joint venture.
Prior to its scheduled launch in late August, Sports on Earth also will offer an introductory section of the site dedicated to the 2012 Olympic Games, which will run from July 27 to August 12.
The roster of voices for Sports on Earth is led by Joe Posnanski, named the 2012 Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association as well as a two-time selection as the best sports columnist in America by the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE).
Steve Madden, a two-time National Magazine Award winner who most recently served as VP of Digital Product Development for Rodale Inc., will serve as General Manager for the joint venture and for Sports on Earth, and Larry Burke will serve as Editor-in-Chief. Burke was an award-winning senior editor at SI.com and Sports Illustrated as well as the former editor of Inside Sports and the author of five books.
“We want to give sports fans a place to come for consistently great writing and compelling viewpoints on the most important news of the day,” said Madden. “The idea is to let great columnists do what they do best—provide insights and opinions that engage fans and give them perspectives they might not have previously considered.”
In addition to Posnanski (@JPosnanski), Sports on Earth (@sportsonearth) also will feature writing from:
- Tommy Tomlinson (@tommytomlinson), former longtime columnist at the Charlotte Observer, where he was a 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist for commentary and also was named best local columnist in America by The Week in 2004.
- Gwen Knapp (@gwenknapp), an award-winning longtime columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle and, previously, the San Francisco Examiner.
- Shaun Powell (@Powell2daPeople), a longtime columnist for leading media outlets that include Newsday, The Sporting News and ESPN New York and most recently a columnist for NBA.com.
- Mike Tanier (@MikeTanier), formerly the senior writer for the influential NFL site Football Outsiders as well as a contributor to the New York Times’ Fifth Down blog who also has written for FoxSports.com.
The site also will have regular perspective from contributing writers such as Will Leitch (@williamfleitch), contributing editor to New York magazine and the author of four books. Other writers and contributors are expected to be added to the Sports on Earth lineup on an ongoing basis.
Sports on Earth will be the first product of the New York City-based joint venture between the USA TODAY Sports Media Group and MLBAM, which was formed in February 2012 and was created to develop and produce new content and products for sports fans across all digital and mobile platforms.
This just in from the Big Ten Network:
BTN will have a live special report from State College at 11 AM ET today on the removal of the statue of Joe Paterno from outside Beaver Stadium. Dave Revsine and Gerry DiNardo are in studio, and Rick Pizzo is in State College.
Better late than…
From the BTN:
BTN will air a Penn State Special Report at 9 PM ET tonight following Thursday’s release of the Freeh Report as to Penn State’s handling of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse case. Hosted by Dave Revsine, the show will include BTN Analysts Gerry DiNardo and Howard Griffith in-studio and Glen Mason from Minneapolis, as well as Malcolm Moran, Penn State professor and the Knight Chair in Sports Journalism, from State College, and others.
Also, here is Sally Jenkins’ column in the Washington Post. Jenkins, of course, had the last interview with Paterno before his death in January. It would seem he lied to her face.
Jenkins writes:
Paterno didn’t always give lucid answers in his final interview conducted with The Washington Post eight days before his death, but on this point he was categorical and clear as a bell. He pled total, lying ignorance of the ’98 investigation into a local mother’s claim Sandusky had groped her son in the shower at the football building. How could Paterno have no knowledge of this, I asked him?
“Nobody knew,” he said.
Everybody knew.
Never heard a rumor?
“I never heard a thing,” he said.
He heard everything.
“If Jerry’s guilty, nobody found out till after several incidents.”
Not a whisper? How is that possible?
Later she writes:
We can’t un-rape and un-molest those boys. We can’t remove them from the showers and seize them back from the hands of Sandusky. That should have been an unrelenting source of rage and grief to Paterno. Yet in perhaps the most damaging observation of all, the Freeh report accuses Paterno and his colleagues of “a striking lack of empathy” for the victims.
Everything else about Paterno must now be questioned; other details about him begin to nag. You now wonder if his self-defense was all an exercise in sealing off watertight compartments, leaving colleagues on the outside to drown. You wonder if he performed a very neat trick in disguising himself as a modest and benevolent man. The subtle but constant emphasis on his Ivy League education, the insistence that Penn State football had higher standards, now looks more like rampant elitism.
Scanning for headlines:
Richard Sandomir in the New York Times writes about how baseball is in good position to cash in with its new TV deal, thanks in part to NBC. I think the NBC Sports Network needs to be part of the new deal.
Sandomir writes:
The evolving television landscape provides the rationale.
NBC wants to return to baseball, and its cable channel, NBC Sports Network, needs programming that is more powerful than its current marquee properties: the N.H.L. and the Tour de France. Fox is considering turning its Speed channel into an all-sports network, which would need more than motor racing to thrive.
In addition, rights fees for professional and college sports have soared since M.L.B. made its current deals with ESPN, Fox, and Turner. More than ever, big-time live sports are must-have attractions.
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Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com writes about the possibility of media actually being in the room during the selection process for the new football playoff. I’ll believe that when it actually happens.
Dodd writes:
How transparent could college football’s playoff selection process become? Try a media member in the room monitoring selection committee proceedings. BCS executive director Bill Hancock suggested as much to CBSSports.com on Monday.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for transparency,” said Hancock less than a week after BCS presidents approved a four-team playoff. “Maybe we have an ombudsman, maybe we have a writer come in. There are ground rules as to what you can write, but you’re welcome to be in this room. I think we have a chance to do some really cool things.”
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Ken Clark of the Wall Street Journal writes about how the NFL is relaxing its sellout policy. In my view, it should completely eliminate the policy. Only 16 games were affected last year. In this day and age, every game should air in every market.
Clark writes:
Some teams want freedom to add stadium capacity without risking blackouts. And blackouts are rare anyway, occurring in only 16 of last season’s 256 regular-season games, partly because some team owners and sponsors buy up unsold seats to get blackouts lifted.
Team owners have passed a resolution that starting this season will allow for local broadcasts of NFL games even when as few as 85% of tickets are sold. Under the new rule, each team has more flexibility to establish its own seat-sales benchmark as long as it is 85% or higher. To discourage teams from setting easy benchmarks, teams will be forced to share more of the revenue when they exceed it.
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Mel Bracht of the Oklahoman writes about Texas Rangers play-by-play voice Dave Barnett likely missing the rest of the season due to health issues.
How to blow a MLB announcing gig by Daron Sutton.
Apparently, the Arizona Diamondbacks have suspended him over dress code violations. From the Arizona Republic:
According to ESPN.com, television announcer Daron Sutton has been suspended due to “insubordination.” The report cited a dispute between Sutton and the club about the team’s on-air dress code.
A source confirmed that dispute to The Republic, saying that while the club prefers its broadcast team to wear polo shirts adorned with the Diamondbacks logo, Sutton has lobbied to wear suits.
He made at least one veiled reference to the dispute on the air during the last game he called, an afternoon game against the Seattle Mariners on June 20.
Without going into detail, another source said the Diamondbacks have had various issues with Sutton for years
The suspension also has cost the son of Hall of Famer Don Sutton his assignment Saturday with Fox Sports’ regional telecast. Bob Wolfley from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports:
Daron Sutton, who had been scheduled to work the Arizona Diamondbacks at Milwaukee Brewers telecast on Saturday for Fox Sports, has been replaced.
Sutton had been set to work the game with Brewers television analyst Bill Schroeder in a telecast that is part of Fox’s Saturday primetime regional package. Diamondbacks-Brewers is going to 12% of the country, including Milwaukee.
Fox decided to replace Sutton with Eric Collins because Sutton has been taken off Diamondbacks telecasts by the team. Neither Sutton nor the team has said why Sutton was removed.
“Fox Sports has decided not to have Daron broadcast our Diamondbacks-Brewers game this Saturday night on Fox,” said Dan Bell, vice president of communications for Fox Sports, in a statement. “We believe it is in the best interest of all parties that this issue between Daron and the team resolves itself before we decide to add him to any future Fox Sports national MLB broadcasts.”
Memo to Daron Sutton: Dress down, keep your job.
As you may or may not know, I am based in Chicago. From time to time, I provide updates for the hometown readers:
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My good friend Jeff Nuich wants everyone to know about a new show debuting Sunday on Comcast Sports Net Chicago. Here are the details:
Comcast SportsNet, the television home for the most games and most comprehensive coverage of the Chicago Cubs and White Sox, along with StarPilot Productions, is bringing a brand new Chicago baseball trivia game show to the network as The Batter’s Box presented by Midas will officially debut on Sunday, July 1 at 5:00 PM(time approx. following “Cubs Post Game Live”). The show is hosted by Comcast SportsNet’s Luke Stuckmeyer.
Beginning July 1 and, over the course of 15 weeks, 16 Chicago-area contestants, who auditioned for spots on The Batter’s Box in May, will be competing against one another as eight “Cubs trivia experts” & eight “White Sox trivia experts” battle it out to represent their respective, favorite team, which will ultimately lead to a thrilling “Cubs vs. White Sox” trivia expert finale this fall.
“The Batter’s Box’ is the first show of its kind in Chicago to pit passionate and knowledgeable White Sox and Cubs fans against each other in a fun, competitive baseball trivia game show,” said Greg Bowman, Vice President of Programming for Comcast SportsNet Chicago. “This is truly a unique, local, original programming venture for us that definitely caters to both old and new Chicago baseball fans. Plus, viewers at home will also enjoy playing along to see how much they know about these two historic baseball franchises.”
The basis of the game in this half-hour weekly show is simple as contestants must answer multiple-choice questions, while applying baseball logic to move “runners” around the bases and score runs. The level of difficulty of the questions ranges from a “Single” (for easier questions) to a “Home Run” (for the most challenging questions). The player with the most runs at the end of three innings wins. When a player wins, they will advance to the next round.
“The Batter’s Box” grand prize winner will receive the ultimate “Game Day Experience of a Lifetime,” which includes a luxury suite for the winner & their guests at either U.S. Cellular Field or Wrigley Field for a to-be-determined game in 2013, along with a visit to the broadcast booth to the meet the announcers, a visit to the CSN production truck, the opportunity to throw out the ceremonial first pitch, and much more.
In addition, viewers at home can also participate for their chance to win some great “Batter’s Box” prizes by visiting CSNChicago.com and correctly answering the “Midas Trivia Question of the Week.” One random winner among all the correct entries will be chosen each week.
Note the following “scheduled” first run air dates/times for “The Batter’s Box presented by Midas,” along with the Chicago-area contestants participating in the first round (PLEASE NOTE: additional replay airings take place throughout the week; visit CSNChicago.com for “The Batter’s Box” TV listings information):
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Return of Aaron Rowand to the Sox. Well, sort of. From ESPNChicago.com:
Former Chicago White Sox outfielder Aaron Rowand will be a guest radio analyst for the team on Saturday and Sunday, the organization announced on Thursday.
Rowand will fill in for Darrin Jackson, who will be unavailable for the two games due to a family matter.
Title IX didn’t just open doors for women in sports. It also provided opportunities for women to have careers in sports media.
Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily New has done a terrific package to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Title IX. Friday, he did a column ranking the top 40 women in sports media. He placed trailblazer Donna de Varona No. 1.
Said de Varona:
My work in Title IX gave me a voice I wanted to have as a broadcaster. But there was a lot of pushback. My visibility was often threatened. I often got comments about my activism being an issue, forcing me to make choices. That did two things for me: It made me fight harder and stay at ABC, and also to work on Capitol Hill.”
Tom also did a series of interviews, asking prominent women in sports media what Title IX meant to them. Here’s the link to Tom’s blog. Just scroll down a bit to get the interviews.
From Lesley Visser:
Billie Jean (King) didn’t just give me a chance, she gave every woman in this country the chance. The Globe made the first woman to cover the NFL as a beat, and when the credentials came (in 1976), it said — get this — “no women or children in the press box.” There were no ladies rooms, because, of course, there were no women!
From Sally Jenkins:
Title IX affected me as a sportswriter because I was maybe one of only a few who began as an intern in 1982 and there were so few out there. Leslie Visser, and maybe a couple of others. But she was having to deal with covering the NFL and having a player like Terry Bradshaw sign an autograph for her when she tried to interview him because he didn’t know better.
It affected me to broaden the range of acceptable professions for females and decide what was the appropriate conduct for women. There were times when I was working at Sports Illustrated, even in the 1990s, well after the passage of Title IX, when I was arguing for a feature story on Jackie Joyner Kersee. The editor said to me: If it’s a choice between her or Michael Jordan, we’ll do a piece on him every time. But why is it a choice? Why can’t we do both? Even as late as the mid ’90s, and sometimes today, women in sports has this underpinning attitude that it comes at the expense of the male’s expense. For Sports Illustrated to do a Jackie Joyner Kersee story was somehow depriving the male athlete of space. That was the attitude. It’s a very unconscious bias but very persistent and needs to be addressed still.
From Mary Carillo:
I was fortunate that the men I worked for kept giving me the chance to do more; virtually all my bosses were men, and still are. It’s not always easy to make your way through an environment that is so male centric, but I’ve had the chances to try a lot of things. What came my way did not even exist when I started out in sports television.
But I always tell young kids, especially young women who are interested in this sort of work: if you are asked whether you can do something, cover something, bring back a story — say yes. Then go after it with everything you’ve got. And more than anything, support one another.
Madeline Albright says there’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help one another. I believe that with all my heart. All the boats need to rise. Title IX was the first step to an even playing field.
And there’s much more. Take a look.
A video report from Pulitzer Prize winner reporter Sara Ganim of the Harrisburg Patriot-News.
I highly recommend the Sports-Casters podcast if you enjoy hearing interviews with the top folks in sports media. They have a good lineup every week. Since I started tuning in, I’ve heard interviews with Frank Deford, Jane Leavy, Tom Verducci, and Sports-Casters regular Richard Deitsch, among others.
This week, the Sports-Casters hosts Steven Bennett and Don Russ lowered their standards and had me on the show. I appear at the 1:17:57 mark.
As you can see, their podcasts are long. However, they do a good thing and mark when the guests are slated to appear. It allows you to pick and choose without having to wade through the entire show.
Also on this week’s podcast are Alan Shipnuck and Joe Lemaire of Sports Illustrated.
Thanks to Steve and Don for having me on. Look forward to trying to catch Deitsch for most appearances.