Boston Sports Media Watch

The Herald’s Jessica Heslam has a story this morning where she reports on some local TV stations that will be forgoing the customary trips to Red Sox spring training next month due to the economy.

Channel 7 (WHDH) will not be sending anyone down to Fort Myers, while FOX25 may not send sports anchor Butch Stearns, or anyone else.

Channel 4 (WBZ) will be scaling back their live coverage from Florida, while Channel 5 (WCVB) plans on staying consistent with what they’ve done in the past. NECN will also be sending someone down, but it isn’t clear who that will be just yet.

NESN, the TV home of the Red Sox is expanding their coverage this spring, and Comcast SportsNet has big plans as well. They’ve grabbed Lou Merloni from NESN for baseball coverage this season and will also be broadcasting Sports Tonight live (with an audience) from the Pink Shell resort on Fort Myers beach the week of Feb. 16th. The look of their coverage is always distinctive, and different from the other stations which usually just broadcast from the practice field, or at the hotel pool.

For the local TV stations, I think it is a wise move to reduce or eliminate the spring training coverage. The sports segments are already shortened, it can’t make any business sense to spend big money for a couple minutes each night.

For the sports networks like NESN and CSN, it makes more sense to keep going down there because they’re doing entire shows on location, and the return on the investment is much higher, as they can spend more time interviewing players and other guests and give them more airtime than the TV stations are able to do.

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Poor Dick Enberg. Though his voice is still strong, and I enjoy his enthusiasm calling the game, the 73-year-old Enberg struggled mightily at times yesterday, calling the wrong players, and getting numerous facts incorrect. I’ve always liked Enberg, but he’s clearly on the way down.

We never really got an explanation of why Dan Fouts was also there, forming a three man booth with Enberg and Randy Cross. They mentioned several times that Fouts would be with them for the next few weeks, but didn’t really mention why.

During the direct-snap Faulk TD run, it was also curious to hear the crew (Cross especially) wonder if the Patriots coaching staff cribbed that play from the Dolphins “wildcat” formations. Haven’t they seen the direct-snap to Faulk any of the numerous times the Patriots have done it since 2001?

On a local note the SOX & Dawgs blog says that it is time to replace Gil and Gino in the Patriots radio broadcast booth.

Shade of Bob Hohler moving from news side to the sports side at the Globe: Ian Donnis reports that the ProJo is moving City Hall reporter Dan Barbarisi to the Red Sox beat.

During CBS’ The NFL Today broadcast, there wasn’t too much Patriots talk, but Dan Marino did say of the team:

This team was built to win games with Tom Brady and play with a lead. I don’t think Matt Cassel is going to put them in a position to play with a lead.

On NFL GameDay Morning yesterday, Adam Schefter had the following to say about the tampering allegations that Al Davis made against the Patriots:

During his news conference, Al Davis also took some shots at the New England Patriots saying that they tampered with the former Raiders WR Randy Moss. Last June, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell sent out a memo that said teams should not be criticizing other teams or questioning them in public. The same thing happened after the ‘Spygate’ scenario last year. A memo went out saying teams should not be criticizing other teams and the New England Patriots are more sensitive about this than any other team in the league. The NFL is expected to take a look at this and either Davis has direct evidence that the Patriots tampered with Randy Moss, and in this case Davis gave them permission the day before the trade was made to speak with Moss directly, or the Oakland Raiders are going to face discipline from the NFL in the form of a fine or some sort of discipline. Al Davis opened up an entirely different can of worms when he went after the Patriots. That is an issue that is not going to go away anytime soon. That is something the league is now looking at.

On ESPN’s “Sunday NFL Countdown”, the question was raised: Patriots or Colts: Who’s in more trouble?

Mike Ditka: “The Colts are. They are 32nd in trying to stop the run and 31st running the football. I don’t care, all the bye weeks I the world can’t change that. The other thing is the timing right now between Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison, its not just what it seemed to be. Marvin Harrison is a heck of a football player, they are just not in sync right now. I think they have problems.”

Tom Jackson: “Both teams are in a little bit of trouble. One team lost the best player in the league. That’s going to be the most trouble anybody is going to have all year. When we saw them two weeks ago, to put it bluntly, ‘we can’t run the ball, we can’t stop the run, we can’t pass the ball, we can’t stop the pass.’ All of that is not Matt Cassel’s fault. I don’t know how much of that you can fix in two weeks. But the ongoing question – who’s in the most trouble, the team that lost Tom Brady.”

Cris Carter: “Both teams that we’re trying to discuss are built for their quarterbacks. One has their quarterback, one doesn’t have their quarterback … I’m not going to say I don’t think they can throw, they think they can’t throw. If you look at their playbook, four pass attempts over 20 yards in three games. Now, this is a team that’s built for (Tom) Brady, operated by Brady, and can’t be operated by anyone else. So, forget my opinion, their play calling dictates to me that Cassel is not a great reader of coverages and they don’t have confidence in him.”

Keyshawn Johnson: “I wouldn’t panic right now. You are in the first quarter of a four-quarter season. In the first quarter, the Buffalo Bills are leading this division in the AFC right now – New England wins today, Buffalo loses, they pretty much are even … You’ve got two veteran coaches here who know how to make changes. When things are tough, these two coaches, coach (Tony) Dungy and coach (Bill) Belichick, have been in these situations before. I wouldn’t just say they’re in trouble.”

FOX NFL Sunday also discussed the Raiders situation at length.

NBC promoted next week’s Patriots/Chargers matchup with a montage of highlights and clips between the two teams, with Brady’s injury, Tomlinson’s “no class” comments about Bill Belichick and featuring the tagline “No Love, No Brady, No Mercy.”

During TBS MLB on Deck on Saturday, the network offered up a Dennis Eckersley lexicon. We here in New England are of course familar with these terms from Eck’s work on NESN:

Ecktionary

Cheese = Fastball
Salad = Bad Pitch
Paint = Good Control
Johnson = Home Run
Moss = Hair
Boiling = Fat
Iron = Money
Filet = Ugly Person

Eckersley has been outstanding in the TBS role, easily the best part of the studio shows. As on NESN, he speaks his mind, and isn’t afraid to disagree with Cal Ripken Jr.

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Strange doings over Butch Stearns’ blog on the FOX25 webpage.

Tuesday night, Stearns posted the following:

FOX25 has learned that the Patriots are close to a deal with Ty Law that would bring the 38 year old cornerback back to Foxboro.

I saw the posting myself, as it generated some buzz across messageboards, including Pro Football Talk. Law of course, is not 38, but 34. A commenter on Wednesday morning responded with the following:

Nixchins
Apr 23, 2008 | 9:10 AM

38 year old cornerback
Born: 2/10/1974

So this is a futures contract not to take effect until 2012?

Who looks better with an abacus than me?

Instead of admitting his error, the blog entry was corrected to read 34 and Stearns left the following response in the comments thread:

Butch_Stearns
Apr 24, 2008 | 9:26 PM

Nixchins,
get a life will you….. never said 38?…why would I say Ty is 38?….rarely do football players play close to 40 years old?…
Anyway, I love this move if it happens. You just know Ty will find the fountain of youth for at least one year or maybe two in Foxboro.
Hopefully this gets done before the draft.
Butch

Did a 5-year-old write that response? What’s with the question marks? And “get a life will you” – what the heck? We know it was Butch who left the comment, because it was his particular FOX25 username (complete with avatar photo) that made the response. This isn’t a case of someone using Stearns name to make him look bad.

Just Butchie being Butchie, I guess.

Note: The cached page at Google still shows the post with the 38-year-old.

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Can’t say as though I’m a big fan of how FOX handled the end of the Red Sox/Yankees game tonight.

With the Yankees down to their last batter, and with two strikes, the picture suddenly switched over to the start of the NASCAR event out in Arizona. After about 30 seconds of the race, the announcers said that the end of the baseball game could be found on sister channel FX.

FOX then went to a commercial.

By the time I fumbled over to FX, the game was over and the players were walking off the field.

I understand FOX has a commitment with NASCAR to show the race, and that fans of that sport understandably want to see the event right from the beginning. However, it would’ve be nice to  a) have gotten a warning that the feed was about to switch and b) if FOX hadn’t gone to a commercial almost immediately upon switching to race coverage.

Adding to the confusion is the fact that this is a extremely busy sports night for the Boston viewers. All at once, you’ve got the Red Sox playing the Yankees, the Bruins in a playoff game with Montreal, the Celtics with a playoff preview in a game with the Atlanta Hawks, Boston College playing in the NCAA championship game, and even the New England Revolution playing on TV38. If you happened to be checking something else out and came back to FOX, you might’ve been lost.
 

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This weekend brings us two high-profile sports events in the Daytona 500 and the NBA All Star Weekend.

The 50th Daytona 500 

FOX brings us a number of new technological advances to their broadcast, two being outlined in the exceprts from their press releases below:

On Sunday, February 17 (2:00 PM ET), FOX Sports proudly presents the 50th running of the Daytona 500 with an electrifying 80 minute prerace show to celebrate the races history and most memorable moments from the past 49 races. Hosted by Chris Myers along with analysts Jeff Hammond and Darrell Waltrip the show is a special tribute to living racing legends who have won the Daytona 500 including Bobby Allison, Richard Petty and FOX’s very own Waltrip. In addition to previewing Sunday’s race, FOX welcomes motorsports broadcasting legend Ken Squier as a special contributor to the broadcast, adding historical perspective. It was Squier who called the first live televised Daytona 500 back in 1979 and who coined the phrase “The Great American Race.” Also in the prerace, NASCAR on FOX analyst Larry McReynolds takes a look back at the late Dale Earnhardt’s first and only Daytona 500 win in 1998 where he served as crew chief.

GOPHER CAM PROVIDES “HOLE” NEW PERSPECTIVE – Imagine that your ultimate wish is to stand trackside at the world’s most famous superspeedway, inches away as the best drivers anywhere whiz by at a breathless 185 miles per hour during the nation’s most prestigious auto race.  That’s the view Gopher Cam provides at the 50th Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 17 (2:00 PM ET) and beyond.

Gopher Cam is a small, stationary high-definition point-of-view camera buried underneath the asphalt track surface, inches below the yellow line at Daytona International Speedway.  There are four Gopher Cams in-place for the 50th Daytona 500, one in each of the track’s four turns.  This is the first instance where a camera has been installed below the surface of a superspeedway, and this is the first time that a sub-track surface camera is HD caliber.  The cameras have also been paired with high quality condenser microphones, another first, for an unbelievably realistic audio/video experience.

“Television’s never-ending goal is to bring the viewer as close to the action as possible,” said FOX Sports Chairman David Hill.  “We’ve had great past success with Catcher-Cam and Diamond-Cam in our MLB coverage and Grass Cam and Wall-Cam in NASCAR on FOX broadcasts.  However, Gopher Cam, and forgive us for having some fun with the name, is different. These are HD cameras developed specifically for this use.  The pictures are phenomenal, and the audio that the mikes provide is mean and loud.  It’s a tremendous complement to our Emmy-caliber NASCAR broadcasts.” 

The camera hardware and electronics have been installed six inches below the asphalt, and is housed in a cylindrical stainless steel fixture.  The lens is less than a half-inch in diameter, and camera is angled slightly to see oncoming traffic.  The assembly is covered by a protective dome that is four-inches in diameter and rises less than one-quarter inch above the track surface.  Cars rolling over them will have no idea of their presence. The cameras are connected to FOX’s mobile production units outside DIS via copper wiring that was trenched in below the track and grass and run to where it meets up with the network’s advanced fiber optic wiring system. 

Live Online Q&A System To be Launched

This virtual Q&A is unlike others that may have preceded it.  On FOXSports.com, NASCAR on FOX analysts Darrell Waltrip, Jeff Hammond and Larry McReynolds, three of the sport’s most knowledgeable experts, can answer viewer’s questions in real time.  Each individual has been recorded providing simple, concise explanations to hundreds of potential questions that might arise during a NASCAR on FOX race.

“Every sport, including NASCAR, is loaded with unique terminology that many core viewers understand, but sometimes has others scratching their heads,” said FOX Sports Chairman David Hill.  “Our virtual Q&A is designed to enhance the viewing experience by helping the curious fan better understand what they’re seeing while they’re seeing it.”

FOX’s virtual Q&A is an adaptation of patented technology called Synthetic Interviews developed at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh, Penn., by Scott Stevens, Ph.D. and Michael Christel, Ph.D., computer researchers in CMU’s School of Computer Science and Entertainment Technology Center (ETC). 

“By enabling fans to interact with their favorite on-air personalities online, FOX Sports and FOXSports.com are delivering the type of engaging, multi-platform experience that users have come to expect from sports event coverage,” said Brian Grey, SVP and GM of FOX Sports Interactive.  “It’s these types of multi-platform programming experiences that deliver a new level of engagement for sports fans and also resonate with brand advertisers.”

Synthetic Interviews is a technology that allows users to ask questions and receive video answers as if they were engaged in a face-to-face conversation with a live person.  Specifically regarding this effort, one of the three NASCAR on FOX experts appears to answer the question or explain the term as though speaking directly to the viewer.  When the project is launched on

Sunday, over 300 terms frequently used during race coverage, such as wedge, marbles or camber can be explained by the FOX Sports Answer Man.  While not every possible question can be anticipated, items featured can be refreshed and updated based on demand.  

NBA All Star Weekend on TNT

TNT’s coverage of NBA All-Star Weekend festivities tips off Friday, February 15 at 9 p.m. ET with the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge and Youth Jam. Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley will be courtside to call the action with Craig Sager reporting from the sidelines. Inside the NBA presented by Hyundai will follow with Johnson, Smith and Barkley.

The excitement continues on Saturday, February 16, when Inside the NBA presented by Hyundai tips off an exciting night at 5 p.m. ET. TNT guest analyst Magic Johnson and NBA Insider David Aldridge will join Ernie Johnson, Smith and Barkley live from the historic French Quarter of New Orleans. At 7 p.m. ET, TNT will present NBA’s Greatest Slam Dunk Contest: Airborne. Through first-person interviews of players and TNT announcers, ‘Airborne’ reflects on memorable NBA dunk contests and the host cities that served as backdrops to the dunks that made history. Beginning at 8 p.m. ET, TNT will televise exclusive live coverage of NBA All-Star Saturday Night presented by State Farm, which includes the Haier Shooting Stars competition, the Playstation Skills Challenge, the Foot Locker Three-Point Shootout, and the Sprite Slam Dunk. The evening will be capped off by the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2008 presented on TNT by Old Spice Pro Strength at 11 p.m. ET/10:30 p.m. PT.

TNT’s All-Star coverage takes center stage on Sunday, February 17 at 8 p.m. ET with the 2008 NBA All-Star Game. Play-by-play announcer Marv Albert and analysts Doug Collins and Reggie Miller will be courtside with Craig Sager reporting from the sidelines.

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