Viewing Picks for April 25, 2013

Written by Ken Fang on .

All Times Eastern

 

College Baseball
Kentucky at Mississippi -- ESPNU, 7:30 p.m.

College Football
College Football Live -- ESPNU, 3:30 p.m.

College Softball
Alabama at LSU -- ESPN2, 8 p.m.

Golf
European PGA Tour
Ballentine's Championship, Seoul, South Korea
First Round -- Golf Channel, 9 a.m. (same day coverage)

LPGA Tour
North Texas Shootout, Irving, TX
First Round -- Golf Channel, 12:30 p.m.

PGA Tour
New Orleans Classic, Avondale, LA
First Round -- Golf Channel, 3 p.m.

19th Hole -- Golf Channel, midnight

MLB
American League
Toronto at New York Yankees -- MLB Network, 7 p.m.

National League
Cincinnati at Washington -- MLB Network, 7 p.m.

The Rundown -- MLB Network, 1 p.m.
MLB Now -- MLB Network, 4 p.m.
MLB Tonight: On-Deck Circle -- MLB Network, 6 p.m.
Baseball Tonight -- ESPN2, 10 p.m.
MLB Tonight -- MLB Network, 10 p.m.
Baseball Tonight -- ESPN2, midnight
Quick Pitch -- MLB Network, 1 a.m. (Friday)

 

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10 Worst Reality Shows Starring Athletes

Written by Matt Yoder on .

The massive belly flop that is What Would Ryan Lochte Do is just another in a long line of failed reality shows centered around athletes.  While television is saturated with a plethora of reality shows that continue to obliterate the nation's IQ level and send us spiraling down into the black hole of couponing, wife swaps, strange addictions and more, famous athletes have played their part in this unfolding Greek tragedy.  From diva wide receivers to the most hated man in the NBA to an Alabama beauty queen still enjoying her 15 minutes of fame going on 1500, sports and awful reality television sure make for comfortable bedfellows.

Here's our countdown of the 10 Worst Athlete Reality Shows...

10) Bonds on Bonds (ESPN)

You could say Bonds on Bonds was well ahead of its time in 2006.  You could also say the failure of Bonds on Bonds is why ESPN hasn't gone running back to the genre.  Bonds was neither engaging nor likable, so a reality series starring him as the centerpiece was never going to succeed.  ESPN signed up for 10 hours of Bonds on Bonds, but pulled the plug after only 5 and a half made it to air.

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Jon Hamm will host the ESPYS this year

Written by Joe Lucia on .

Your host of the 2013 ESPYS has been announced: Jon Hamm of Mad Men fame. Hamm is a huge St Louis sports fan, and has played in the MLB Celebrity All-Star Game in both 2009 and 2012.

So many award shows tend to be behind the eight-ball when picking a host, but ESPN has largely made solid choices to host the ESPYS (Rob Riggle from last year not withstanding). Hamm is an avid sports fan, and has been nominated for buckets of awards for his work on Mad Men. But in addition to those Mad Men nominations, Hamm has also been nominated for primetime Emmy awards for his guest work on 30 Rock, a vastly different show from Mad Men. He's also hosted Saturday Night Live a few times, and done a really good job too.

Sure, no one really cares about the ESPYS, but I don't think ESPN could have done better in choosing a host. This year's show will take place on July 17th at 9 PM from the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles, which means that Hamm won't be in this year's MLB Celebrity All-Star Game. Darn. And by the way, you can check out weekly live blogs of Hamm's show Mad Men over on our sister site Awful Advertisements.

[ESPN]

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Craig Sager is evidently a fan of Carly Rae Jepsen

Written by Matt Yoder on .

It's been a sad day for SportsCenter as there is now a moratorium on the source of 41% of their material - LeBron James tweets.  King James is taking a break from Twitter and is turning off his cell phone so he can focus on leading the Heat through the playoffs.  After Miami's Game 2 victory over Milwaukee, TNT's Craig Sager cheerfully asked James about cutting himself off from the outside world and unveiled himself as a Carly Rae Jepsen fan in one swoop.  That's why he's the best.

H/T Beyond the Buzzer

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AA Q&A: USA Today's Jamie Mottram

Written by Ben Koo on .

If you haven't heard, there's a new intriguing entry to the ever growing sports content space with the recent launch of USA Today's For The Win. What is For The Win and what does the future hold for the evolving USA Today Sports Media Group? Director of Content Development and former Blogfather at Yahoo as well as AOL's Fanhouse, Jamie Mottram was good enough to share some insight into the new venture as well as some about the sports media space in general. Thanks to him for taking the time to answering these questions without the oversight and guidance of any PR suits. 

Ben Koo: You’ve been at USA Today for about 9 months. How long has FTW been in development and what did you and your colleagues see in the general sports content space that led you to believe there was room for a new entry?

Jamie Mottram: I came in last August with the idea for FTW, and it was something we knew we wanted to do, but we didn’t break ground on it until 2013. From there it took about three months to brand, design, build, staff, etc.

We knew we wanted to create a sports news site focused on so-called social content and that it should work great across devices, especially phones. Not really revolutionary stuff, but we didn’t see anything else like that out there.

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Few people are interested in what Ryan Lochte would do

Written by Matt Yoder on .

After watching a mere 38 seconds of Ryan Lochte's E! reality show, "What Would Ryan Lochte Do?" it was clear the journey ahead would be a bumpy ride into the inane depths of a universe that is not our own.  The show's opening of Lochte stumbling over his lines made it clear everyone involved was in on the joke - a reality show centered on an Olympic athlete who doubles as an Olympic meathead.  After a few more minutes of watching the show, the "highlights" already included Lochte not being able to explain his catchphrase "Jeah", saying he lived by the classic philosophical mantra "Go big or go home", and even asking "What is a douchebag?"

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Ottawa Sun reporter argues with Penguins’ Matt Cooke over genitalia

Written by Jeffrey Kleiman on .

Ed Note: This article appears courtesy Bloguin's national NHL blog Puck Drunk Love.

On Monday evening, the Pittsburgh Penguins traveled to Scotiabank Place to take on the Ottawa Senators in their first trip to the Canadian capital since Erik Karlsson’s Achilles tendon was partially severed by Cooke's skate. While the spotlight should’ve been on the Penguins’ 3-1 victory, the main headline became about an interaction between Cooke and Don Brennan, a reporter for the Ottawa Sun

Let’s start with the title where Don Brennan refers to himself in the third person:

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Sports Media Notebook: April 24, 2013

Written by Ken Fang on .

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Time to open another edition of the notebook. Let's go over some of the sports media stories that are circulating this week...

Michael Hiestand of USA Today says the Indianapolis 500 on ABC will have a new host in May, ESPN's Lindsay Czarniak who replaces Brent Musburger. Czarniak once hosted NASCAR on TNT before joining ESPN in 2011.

Sports Illustrated's Richard Deitsch outlines how ESPN and NFL Network will cover this week's NFL Draft.

Sports Illustrated will have a special regional cover for Boston this week.

Staying with the Boston theme, Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News writes that NESN saw big weekend ratings for the Red Sox and Bruins.

Also from Multichannel, Andrea Morabito reports that Golf Channel will begin live streaming its network 24/7 for authenticated cable subscribers.

At the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Ed Sherman writes that Twitter will be front and center during the NFL Draft this week.

We learned on Tuesday that ESPN named former New York Times writer Robert Lipsyte as its new Ombudsman. Lipsyte talks with the New Republic's Marc Tracy about being the independent voice of ESPN.

ESPN.com's Brett McMurphy notes the name of the new college football playoff will be "College Football Playoff." What?

To Sports Media Watch where Paulsen notes that the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Miami Heat had the best ratings among all local NBA markets.

Scott L. Smith from the Stamford (CT) Advocate writes that NBC Sports not only has a state-of-the-art production facility in town, but also some very impressive hardware from various sports.

Super Beta Prostate spokesman Joe Theismann made a guarantee to a DC sports radio station that Washington quarterback Robert Griffin III will be ready when the team kicks off its 2013 regular season. I wonder if Theismann was able to make that prediction while running to the bathroom.

Bob Carlton of the Birmingham (AL) News says sports radio talk show host Paul Finebaum is a free agent and is talking to ESPN about possibly becoming a contributor. Finebaum can be heard nationallly on SiriusXM.

CBS Sports Network will re-air some of Floyd "Money" Mayweather's previous fights in advance of his May 4 bout with Robert Guerrero.

And that will close this edition of the notebook.

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CBS Houston publishes horrible article about OKC cheerleader

Written by Reva Friedel on .

What in the superficial nonsense hell was CBS Houston thinking when they allowed this anonymous craptastic mess to be published? The Houston Rockets are playing the Oklahoma City Thunder in the playoffs right now and the local affiliate in Houston took it upon themselves to single out an OKC cheerleader by asking if she was "too chunky" in a poorly written, humiliating embarrassment to civilized society.

The answer is no. No, she is not too chunky.

Seriously though, why why WHY did this get published? How could this anonymous hot garbage make it through presumably multiple human beings to see the light of day? In a time when no one is ever satisfied with anyone else's appearance, this is the last thing we need to be reading. 

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Viewing Picks for April 24, 2013

Written by Ken Fang on .

All Times Eastern

Boxing
All Access: Mayweather vs. Guerrero, Episode 3 -- Showtime, 10 p.m.

College Football
College Football Live -- ESPNU, 3:30 p.m.
CFB Daily: Spring Blitz -- ESPNU, 4:30 p.m.
Inside College Football: Draft Special: On the Clock -- CBS Sports Network, 7 p.m.
Inside College Football: Draft Special: Mock Draft -- CBS Sports Network, 8 p.m.

College Softball
Michigan State at Ohio State -- Big Ten Network, 4 p.m.
Michigan State at Ohio State -- Big Ten Network, 6:30 p.m.

Golf
School of Golf: Chapter 11: Golf's Invisible Secret -- Golf Channel, 7 p.m.
On the Range: New Orleans Classic -- Golf Channel, 8 p.m.
Equipment Insider -- Golf Channel, 9 p.m.

Mixed Martial Arts
UFC 159: Jones vs. Sonnen-Preview -- Fuel, 7 p.m.
UFC Ultimate Insider -- Fuel, 7:30 p.m.

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