Boston Sports Media Watch

A couple of late morning notes today:

I’ve sworn off his blog, but apparently Curt Schilling is finding new outlets to express himself. He’s a Guest Columnist on WEEI.com this morning, weighing on on Pedroia being named the MVP and also about Evan Grant leaving Pedroia off of his ballot.

The very busy Jessica Heslam reports that NESN has signed Heidi Watney to a contract extension.

Also, the Red Sox have traded center fielder Coco Crisp to the Royals.

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Playing without the suspended Kevin Garnett last night, the Celtics had to hang on in the fourth quarter, but thanks in part to a late Brian Scalabrine three-pointer, they were able to come out of last night with a 110-101 win over the New York Knicks.

Frank Dell’Apa says that the Celtics, especially the reserves, made a loud statement with their play last night. Robert Lee has the Celtics proving they can win a big game without Garnett. Steve Bulpett has KG’s teammates stepping up big in his absence. Scott Souza has Scalabrine stepping into Garnett’s spot in the starting lineup for the win. Bill Doyle has the Celtics grabbing a season high 110 points in the win. Jim Fenton has Leon Powe and Kendrick Perkins making their presence felt last night.

Ron Borges has a look at Brian Scalabrine, who has attained the title of “cult hero in residence.” Barbara Matson has new folk hero Scalabrine just happy the Celtics got the win. Paul Flannery has Scalabrine offering reminders of why he is so valuable to the Celtics. Lee has the Celtics unhappy with the Garnett suspension. Borges has more from the Celtics on the suspension.

Alan Siegel has the Knicks hoping to run their way out of the NBA cellar. Jessica Camerato has Quentin Richardson with plenty of bad things to say about the Celtics after the game last night.

Dell’Apa’s notebook has Doc Rivers and Danny Ainge irked by the Garnett suspension. Bulpett’s notebook has the Knicks with plenty to say after this one. Doyle’s notebook has some strong words from Doc Rivers on the suspension of his star. Fenton’s notebook has more on Rivers.

Pedroia is AL MVP

Amalie Benjamin has Dustin Pedroia adding the AL MVP to his already impressive trophy collection. Sean McAdam says that success won’t ruin Pedroia. Joe Haggerty has Kevin Youkilis coming in third in the voting with Pedroia the winner. Jon Couture says that Pedroia has made proving people wrong a way of life. Dan Barbarisi has Pedroia proving that big things can come to the little guy. Jeff Goldberg notes that Pedroia didn’t even have a bonus in his contract for winning the MVP. Paul Jarvey has Pedroia capping off one of the best seasons ever by a second baseman. Alex Speier has Pedroia saying So long, skeptics.

Rob Bradford says that Pedroia is history in the making with the start that his career has gotten off to. Dan Shaughnessy says that this “is simply one of the amazing sports stories of our time.” He also calls him the ”most unlikely man to win this award in the history of major league baseball.” (Zoilo Versalles anyone?) Joe McDonald says that the Red Sox feel that the best is still yet to come from Pedroia. Lenny Megliola recalls the spring of 2007 when all the fans wanted Alex Cora playing second base instead of Pedroia. Brian MacPherson has Pedroia always finding a way to get an edge. Mike Fine has Pedroia needing that edge to drive him further and further.

Tell me this wasn’t the single most predictable column this morning. If you had to guess yesterday about one column being written today - wouldn’t you have guessed that Nick Cafardo would write about Pedroia now being able to cash in with a big contract? Nick doesn’t disappoint, providing exactly what we knew he would do.

BSMW Guest Blogger Bob Ekstrom wanted to pass along his thoughts with the following passage:

As happy as we are with Pedroia’s selection, we’re as equally confounded by his exclusion off the ballot of Dallas Morning News’ Evan Grant. Yesterday on WEEI’s The Big Show, Grant was grilled on his omission of Pedroia, and he defended himself weakly to say the least. In some later damage control, he now credits himself for over-analyzing MVP selection criteria in shunning Pedroia. As recently as September 20, he had Dustin fourth on his MVP ballot. So what happened after that? Well, Pedroia hit .391 for the balance of the season and carried the Sox into the playoffs, while Grant was obviously the one who shut it down.

Grant certainly was grilled on WEEI yesterday, and the station is pretty proud of it, having even issued a partial transcript of the interview on their website. Dan Lamothe has more on the sportswriter who snubbed Pedroia. The Rangers might find themselves angry at Grant next season, as Pedroia has been known to hold a grudge. However, Steve Buckley assures us that the MVP voting is still in good hands.

Alex Speier looks at how the Red Sox young stars will build on this season. Dan Duggan had Kevin Youkilis very happy for his teammate. Bill Burt has Sean Casey gushing over Pedroia. Lamothe also looks at a New York report that says that the Red Sox will be major players for A.J. Burnett in free agency. Sarah Green loves the hot stove.

McAdam’s notebook has more on Evan Grant leaving Pedroia off his ballot.

Joey Porter Won’t Shut Up. Doesn’t Have To.

Christopher L. Gasper has Joey Porter running his mouth and the Patriots ceding the floor to him. Mark Farinella has the Patriots focusing on Miami, not just Porter. Karen Guregian says that these have not been your typical Patriots this season, beating themselves on several occasions. She also takes a closer look at some of those missed plays or miscues that cost the team. Eric McHugh says that the Patriots are no strangers to trickery of their own - even against the Dolphins.

Jim Donaldson tells us what we knew already - the Patriots need to win this game. Mike Petraglia tells us why the media loves Joey Porter. The Telegram & Gazette has a look at the Pats roadmap ahead to the postseason. Ben Swasey says that it is gut-check time for the Patriots.

John Tomase has Stephen Neal and UFC Champion Brock Lesnar recalling their 1999 NCAA wrestling Tournament matchup, which Neal won.

Gasper’s notebook has Jabar Gaffney as a potential big contributor on Sunday. Guregian’s notebook has the Patriots choosing not to return Porter’s trash talk. Shalise Manza Young has Scott Pioli not interested in other GM opportunities around the league.

Bruins

Stephen Harris says Peter Chiarelli deserves a new deal. Fluto Shinzawa has Andrew Ference down after his tough break.

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Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia was named AL MVP today by the Baseball Writers Association of America.

Chad Finn has story on Boston.com. Sean McAdam has the story on the Herald website. Alex Speier weighs in on  WEEI.com. Tony Massarotti points to the 18 at-bats when Pedroia stepped into the cleanup role after Manny Ramirez was traded as what tipped the scaled in Pedroia’s favor. That, and the fact that he is 5 foot 8.

Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News left Pedroia off his ballot completely. Before you slam him too badly, his first place vote went to Kevin Youkilis.

Mike Reiss has his Patriots Mailbag for the week.

On the BSMW Full Court Press, we weigh in on the ridiculous Garnett Suspension.

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The very busy Jessica Heslam also has the news that Dennis Eckersley and NESN have agreed to a multi-year contract extension.

This is great news for viewers of the NESN pre and post game shows, as Eckersely is easily the most insightful and entertaining analyst in their rotation.

Eckersley also received one of the highest Approval Ratings from the BSMW voting earlier this year, with a whopping 96% approval.

Eckersley, who went national for the MLB postseason on TBS, has gotten attention for his unique vocabulary. During the playoffs, TBS provided this “Ecktionary“:

Cheese = Fastball

Salad = Bad Pitch

Paint = Good Control

Johnson = Home Run

Moss = Hair

Boiling = Fat

Iron = Money

Filet = Ugly Person

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Jessica Heslam has the story of WEEI part-time flash guy Rob Finnerty being charged with motor vehicle homicide and operating under the influence in a fatal crash over the weekend.

Finnerty was supposed to be the designated driver, but apparently had been drinking, (he failed two field sobriety tests) and struck and killed 19-year-old Michael Riley of Cambridge around 3:00am.

A very sad story in all aspects.

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With the Patriots coming off a 16-0 regular season and Miami a 1-15 one in 2007, who would’ve thought that this Sunday’s game down in Miami would be so critical for both clubs?

On Patriots Daily, Scott Benson notes that if the playoff started now, the Patriots would be on the  Outside Looking In at the top teams. Brian MacPherson also takes a peek at the AFC playoff picture as we stand now.

Mike Reiss says that it will be interesting to see how much the Patriots use their tight ends against the Dolphins this Sunday. Shalise Manza Young says that the Patriots won’t be surprised by the “Wildcat” this time around. John Tomase notes that even though the Dolphins run the formation every week, it has still been effective. Mark Farinella says that the talk yesterday was all wildcat, all the time. Glen Farley says that the Patriots should be ready for the formation this time around.

Tomase has Joey Porter talking about why he hates the Patriots so much. Bill Burt says that the Patriots just need to turn it on like the ‘07 Giants did. Farley has rookie LB Jerod Mayo making his presence felt.

Reiss’ notebook has more on the Patriots preparations for the “Wildcat.” Tomase’s notebook has the rookie season of Terrence Wheatley coming to an end after he was placed on IR yesterday. Farinella’s notebook has more on Wheatley’s season coming to an end.  

Bruins Top Leafs

Stephen Harris has Tim Thomas and the Bruins hanging on for a 3-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs last night. Fluto Shinzawa has Thomas surviving a late barrage by Toronto.

Upon further, further review, Mick Colageo reverses his column from yesterday and says that the officials got the call right on Saturday night.

Harris’ notebook says that Brian Burke will be the next GM of the Maple Leafs, not the Bruins. Shinzawa’s notebook has PJ Axelsson getting some point duty in the absence of Andrew Ference.

Celtics

Frank Dell’Apa has a mini-feature on Sam Cassell’s role as a player-coach with the Celtics and his passion to teach the game he loves. Jim Fenton says there isn’t much rest on the horizon for the weary Celtics. Scott Souza says that even though the team was fatigued, they still found a way to win in Milwaukee, which is a good sign for them.

Shira Springer has Magic Johnson saying the Paul Pierce is OK, but he’s no Kobe Bryant. Paul Flannery seems poised to leap aboard the Lakers bandwagon.

Steve Bulpett and Dell’Apa’s notebook have the NBA suspending Kevin Garnett for one game for the incident in Milwaukee Saturday night.

Red Sox

Gerry Callahan says that signing Mark Teixeira is worth the positional chaos it will cause the Red Sox. Paul Doyle says that Theo Epstein is the best GM in the game.

The AL MVP is handed out today, the Red Sox Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis are both top candidates. Mike Fine says that a strong case can be made for either player. Nick Cafardo says that there is no clear favorite for the award. Sean McAdam says that Pedroia could be the slight favorite, but both players could finish in the top three. Joe McDonald has Pedroia as the favorite to win the honor. Dan Lamothe provides a list of players who haven’t won the award to show how difficult it is. Rob Bradford looks at which player should win the award.

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Among the Patriots items in Peter King’s MMQB column today is the news that former Patriot Je’Rod Cherry is auctioning off his 2001 Super Bowl ring to raise money for children’s charities.

Mark Cuban is charged with insider trading.

Gordon Edes tries to identify the next wave of great catchers.

Michael Silver isn’t quite ready to annoint Matt Cassel as the Next Big Thing.

Bill Simmons might be ready to go there, though.

The NBA is apparently looking into that Garnett/Bogut incident from Saturday night.

Albert Breer and Ron Borges seem sold on the Tennessee Titans. Mercury Morris is.

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It’s an odd Monday for the middle of the football season, the Patriots didn’t play yesterday, nor do they play tonight. Instead, they’re getting ready for next Sunday’s critical matchup with the Miami Dolphins.

John Tomase says that the Patriots entire season hinges on this game down in Miami. Mike Reiss says this is just another reminder of what a difference a year makes. Christopher Price has the Patriots acknowledging their miss opportunities thus far this season.

Bob Halloran says that the Patriots have no depth. This despite the fact that many of the players who are starters now, are only in that position because the original starter was injured. Isn’t that what depth is for? Mark Farinella has another episode of Ask Fearless.

Michael Felger hates Randy Moss.

David Scott blasts NBC and CBS for hypocrisy in being very careful not to mention the point spread when discussing the controversial ending to the Pittsburgh/San Diego game yesterday.

Red Sox

Sean McAdam says that if the Red Sox want Mark Teixeira, they at least won’t have to outbid the Yankees for him. Rob Bradford says that Daisuke Matsuzaka is proving to be worth every penny the Red Sox paid for him.

Celtics

Both Mark Murphy and Marc J. Spears each look at Brian Scalabrine finally seeing the court again for the Celtics. Tim Weisberg looks at Paul Pierce becoming Boston’s Superman.

Bruins

Mick Colageo says that the Bruins were robbed on Saturday night, and that Patrice Bergeron did actually put the puck in the net. Fluto Shinzawa says that the Bruins will be hard pressed to replace Andrew Ference. Stephen Harris looks back at the Bruins first third period collapse of the season on Saturday night. Joe Haggerty says that the Bruins should not go after Brian Burke to run their organization.

Misc

Ron Chimelis and Adam Kilgore have UMass coach Derek Kellogg meeting up with his mentor John Calipari tonight.

Jeff Goodman looks around New England college hoops.

Mark Blaudschun looks back at a weekend of college football. He also has BC returning to top form and keeping their ACC title hopes alive.

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Ken from Fang’s Bites with Part 2 of the Friday Megalinks. I can also provide you with updates from the links that I had provided earlier.

But let’s pick up where we left off.

Midwest

Marc Katz of the Dayton Daily News talks with Dayton native Jon Seibel who’s holding his own on ESPN Radio.

Michael Zuidema from the Grand Rapids (MI) Press writes that Fox NFL analysts Brian Billick and Jimmy Johnson don’t think it’s unrealistic for the Detroit Lions to go 0-16 this season.

And Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel say Billick and Johnson still like the Packers’ chances this season.

Shannon Ryan has the weekend viewing recommendations for Chicagoans in the Tribune.

Ted Cox of the Chicago Daily Herald says ESPN.com’s Mayne Street is one of the reasons why the internet is ruining the world. That’s a bit harsh. Perhaps Ted needs to get away from his computer and go to the Mosquito Coast.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says there’s a battle over the radio rights to the St. Louis University Billikens men’s basketball team.

West

Scott D. Pierce of the Deseret (UT) News writes that fans can only watch BYU at Utah on the mtn. and nowhere else.

Jay Posner of the San Diego Union-Tribune says the world’s oldest goff tournament is breaking a new barrier, showing all four rounds on US cable TV. Jay also has the ratings from the San Diego market for last weekend.

John Maffei of the North County Times talks with CBS/CBS College Sports/Sports Radio USA college football/NFL analyst Dan Fouts about his multitasking this season.

Jim Carlisle in the Ventura County Star wonders if the BCS and the Rose Bowl could be cable exclusives come 2010.

The Los Angeles Times’ Diane Pucin says Anaheim Angels owner Arte Moreno is subtly using his own sports radio station to throw his team’s hat into the ring for free agent Manny Ramirez.

Over to the crosstown Los Angeles Daily News where Tom Hoffarth writes about LA Kings and Anaheim Ducks fans’ unhappiness over Fox Sports West’s excessive use of rinkside cameras during telecasts. Tom has extensive media notes including news about Hazel Mae joining the MLB Network. Tom says USC football voice Pete Arbogast managed to talk himself out of doing fill-in work for USC basketball. Good job, Pete. And Tom reviews the week in blogging.

John Ryan of the San Jose Mercury News says 49ers GM Scott McCloughan gave some cryptic answers when being interviewed this week.

Gary Washburn from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer writes that sports is getting less of a presence on local TV newscasts.

Canada

William Houston of the Toronto Globe and Mail writes that the internet is adding a huge wrinkle in the sports broadcasting business.

The Toronto Star’s Chris Zelkovich says much of Ontario province won’t be able to watch the Raptors this Sunday thanks to a conflict between TSN and Rogers Cable.

Now to some more links.

National

A couple of things from The Big Lead. First, it reports that NBC Sports is expected to layoff employees at its website and the New York television office. And Yahoo! Sports has widened its lead over ESPN.com as far as hits and traffic are concerned.

Christopher Byrne of the Eye on Sports Media ran a semi-live blog from the Nashville Predators-Anaheim Ducks game.

Kevin Downey of Media Life Magazine says sports TV is no longer recession-proof.

Steve Lepore of Puck the Media has decided to make following Jack Edwards’ calls a regular feature and he has the video of Jack going over the top during Thursday’s Habs-Bruins game.

Daniel Frankel of Variety writes that the new Ski Channel launches on Christmas Day on two prominent services.

And that will do it. Enjoy your weekend.

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Ken from Fang’s Bites and today, I’m giving you the megalinks in two parts today. Part I comes out now. Part II will come out tonight.

As usual, I give you the Weekend Viewing Picks.

The Celtics, fresh off their great win on Wednesday are back in action tonight and Saturday. Tonight at 7:30, the C’s take on Denver and on Saturday, it’ll be a quick trip to Milwaukee to face the Bucks at 8:30 p.m. Both games will be on Comcast SportsNet.

For the NFL, CBS has the doubleheader for the second consecutive week. In New England, WBZ and WPRI will carry the Baltimore-New York Football Giants game at 1. Then at 4:15 p.m., we’ll see San Diego at Pittsburgh. Fox 25 and 64 will show Chicago at Green Bay at 1. And on Sunday night, 7NBC and NBC 10 show another NFC East battle, this one pits the Cowboys at the Redskins. Sunday’s schedule is in the NFL Viewing Picks.

To the colleges, College Gameday will be live from Tallahassee, FL for the Hampton-Florida A&M game. And after that, there’s not much to showcase. In primetime on WCVB and ABC6, Boston College is at Florida State. Other local games include UMass at UNH on Comcast SportsNet at noon. CN8 has Harvard at Penn also at noon. National games of interest include Notre Dame at Navy (CBS, noon), Princeton at Yale (Versus, noon), Duke at Clemson (TV38 & CW28, noon), USC at Stanford (Versus, 7 p.m.), and Mississippi State at #1 Alabama (ESPN, 7:45 p.m.) The College Football Viewing Picks have the entire national coverage for Saturday.

The Bruins are in New York Saturday night to take on the Rangers at MSG. NESN has the game at 7.

For college basketball, ESPNU has a quadrupleheader on Sunday, Bradley at Florida at 2:15 p.m., my Rhode Island Rams at Duke at 4:30 p.m., LeMoyne at Syracuse at 6:30 p.m. and UMKC at Kansas at 8:30 p.m.

NASCAR’s final event of the season, provided that ABC doesn’t cut off the end of the race in favor of America’s Funniest Home Videos, is the Ford 400 at 3:45 p.m. Sunday.

HBO’s World Championship Boxing has Jermain Taylor taking on Jeff Lacy and you can see the replay of Joe Calzaghe’s win over Roy Jones, Jr. on the program that starts at 10:15 on Saturday night.

The Golf Channel has the Lorena Ochoa Invitational from Mexico over the weekend at 3:30 p.m.

And the ATP tennis tour finishes its season with the Masters Cup from Communist China. FSN has the semi-finals live on Saturday morning at 6:30 and again on tape at 1 p.m. The finals can be seen Sunday at 1 p.m.

Now let’s get to your links.

National

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand reviews the NFL TV partners’ rookie analysts, gimmicks and other features.

This comes from The Big Lead. It’s always sad to hear when brothers-in-blogging decide to stop posting and the excellent Fire Joe Morgan blog has done just that. Hopefully, the guys at FJM will reconsider and come back every once in a while.

Guest blogging for Darren Rovell, CNBC sports producer Tom Rotunno writes that Justin Timberlake becomes the first non-golfer to endorse Callaway Golf products.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says the YES Network starts a series of sports business specials tonight.

Larry Barrett of Multichannel writes that ESPN scored with the finale of the World Series of Poker.

The great Christopher Byrne of the Eye on Sports Media blog looks at the migration of sports from network TV to cable.

Thanks to Awful Announcing, ESPN stopped a casting call for a commercial full of ethnic stereotypes.

Steve Lepore’s Puck the Media has part 2 of its NHL Tournament of Announcers. And Steve has video of the good Jack Edwards calling Wednesday’s Bruins-Chicago game. If you need a reminder of the bad Jack, Steve has the video of him calling the Stars-Bruins brawl from earlier this month.

The Sports Media Watch has some ratings news from this week. And the SMW looks at the NFL primetime ratings for Week 10.

East

Nancy Marrapese-Burrell of the Boston Globe talks with ESPN’s and my fellow Rhode Islander Doris Burke about her expanded role with the NBA.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post writes about the slew of no-shows shown during the Grizzlies-Knicks game.

Also from the Post, Justin Terranova has five questions for the new #1 CBS college basketball analyst Clark Kellogg. And Justin talks with MSG Network’s Mike Breen about the Knicks.

Bob Raissman from the New York Daily News says NFL fans in the surrounding areas of Boston and New York were shut out of last night’s Jets-Patriots game.

Newsday’s Neil Best says it might have been weird for both Giants and Jets fans to hear Giants voice Bob Papa call last night’s Jets-Pats game for the NFL Network. In his blog, Neil says SNY will replace studio analyst Lee Mazzilli with Bob Ojeda. Neil reviews the NFL Network telecast which technically was not up to par in my opinion. And Neil says WPIX added a “C” to Erik Boland’s name during the Giants pregame show.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union also provides a review of last night’s NFL Network (to which I agree 100 percent). Pete also lists his Top 10 NFL TV game analysts. In his column, Pete suggests that NBC’s John Madden is no longer ready for primetime.

Laura Nachman says legendary Philadelphia sportscaster Bill Campbell will be honored next week.

From the Baltimore Sun, Ray Frager tells readers not to feel slighted by the national media.

Jim Williams from the DC/Baltimore Examiner says Notre Dame-Navy headlines the college football action and college basketball begins on MASN tonight.

South

Doug Nye from The State says new coaching eras for both of the University of South Carolina’s basketball teams will on display this weekend.

Dave Darling in the Orlando Sentinel likes ESPN.com’s Mayne Street web series.

Ray Buck of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram looks at a new book by former Cowboys defensive lineman Bob Lilly.

David Barron in the Houston Chronicle says the Astros will remain on their radio flagship station for the foreseeable future.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News says Mavericks analyst Bob Ortegel was dead on last night. And Barry interprets Fox Sports’ NFL analyst Jimmy Johnson’s answer.

From the Oklahoman, Mel Bracht reminds us not to call former media critic Bob Knight a member of the media now that he’s expanded his role at ESPN. Mel says Oklahomans won’t be watching high school football for the next few weeks. And Mel writes that Cox Communications will be showing MLB Network when it launches on New Year’s Day.

That concludes Part I of the Friday Megalinks. I’ll have Part II coming up this evening.

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