Wednesday, Barcleona beat Real Madrid 2-1 in the first leg of their Copa del Rey quarterfinal.  Real took the lead early through Cristiano Ronaldo, but goals from Carlos Puyol and Eric Abidal lifted Barca to yet another win over their rivals for the Spanish throne.  While these two Spanish Cup games may not have the importance in the grand scheme of things that their league fixture will on April 22 or a potential Champions League series, it's always newsworthy when Barcelona plays Real Madrid.  And it's always a sunny day in AA country whenever Ray Hudson and Gol TV is there to commentate on it.  Earlier this week, we found Ray describing Barcelona wizard Lionel Messi as "brilliance on steroids."  Here's even more British brilliance from Ray Hudson with all three goals from Wednesday's game...

0-1 Ronaldo...

"That's got to be down to Pinto, the flyin ponytail here let's his hair down badly.  A wonderful spank on the run.  He knows the goal posts ain't movin, man.  Again lovely set away, he's got space and with that sort of energy and vision he probably wishes this field was twice as long, he'd still get the same result.  Dodgy goalkeeping."

1-1 Puyol...

"Captain Tarzan comes swinging on his vine again... it's a great ball driven in from the corner kick and it looks like it's Pique that's going to get it, but Captain Tarzan Puyol comes alongside and says, "what if he doesn't get there?"...  It's going to be mine, and he gets rewarded for it.  His focus is locked and it's a dynamic header burrowed in with plenty of knuckles and plenty of meat and potatoes behind it from a man that is the iconic face of Barcelona."

2-1 Abidal...

"It's a type of goal for Barcelona fans that causes your soul to bang on your ribcages to get out.  It's absolutely magisterial!!  The ball from Lionel Messi to set up of all people king Eric Abidal and he is absolutely impeccable with his finish!  This is an astonishing go ahead goal from the LEAST LIKELY of Barca players!  There's nothing lucky about it, it's pure genius from Lionel Messi and Eric Abidal is as cool as a killer.  He is onto this like Dracula onto a plate of liver!!"

The second leg of the quarterfinal happens this Sunday.  Let's hope Ray Hudson will be there too.

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In this SportsCenter Not Top 10 clip, anchor John Anderson looks back at the 2008 NFC Championship Game and says that Brett Favre "squeezes one off" as Favre throws a pick in OT of a game that the New York Giants would go on to win over Favre's Green Bay Packers. When thinking of "squeezing one off," I don't think of throwing an interception with minimal pressure towards the quarterback in the pocket. If Favre was getting bum rushed and he barely got the pass off, I could understand the phrase in that situation. But in this case, Favre wasn't even hit on the play. With what would happen with Favre just a couple of years later as a Jet (hello, explicit text messages!), the verbiage seems pretty funny in hindsight. I think Anderson explicitly went down that route, just because of what's happened with Favre in recent years...

[H/T: Ride the Pine]

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Here is your ESPN Sunday Night Baseball schedule for the coming season with games from April through May already announced by the leader.  The season opens on a Wednesday night with defending champion St. Louis opening up the new Miami Marlins stadium.  The first Sunday night game will see the two-time defending AL champion Rangers host the White Sox.

Perhaps no booth improved as much in the offseason as the Sunday Night Baseball booth.  The straight swap of Terry Francona for Bobby Valentine will dramatically improve the ESPN booth.  (We'l see what it does for the Red Sox.)  Bobby V had his moments at ESPN but was never a great fit in the broadcast booth.  Conversely, Francona was a revelation for Fox in working two ALCS games and should complement Dan Shulman and Orel Hershiser.  This trio should be the definitive top announcing team in baseball and may develop to one of the best overall regardless of sport or network.

Sunday Night Schedule:

Date Teams (all telecasts Sunday @ 8 p.m. ET)

April 8:  Chicago White Sox @ Texas Rangers

April 15: Los Angeles Angels @ New York Yankees

April 22: New York Yankees @ Boston Red Sox

April 29: Tampa Bay Rays @ Texas Rangers

May 6:   Philadelphia Phillies @ Washington Nationals

May 13:  Los Angeles Angels @ Texas Rangers

May 20: St. Louis Cardinals @ Los Angeles Dodgers

May 27: Washington Nationals @ Atlanta Braves

June 3-July 1 TBD

July 8:  New York Yankees @ Boston Red Sox

July 15: St. Louis Cardinals @ Cincinnati Reds

July 22-Sept 23 TBD

H/T Sammy!

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Anytime a sporting event places little kids into adult roles, it’s usually pretty darn cute.  Provided it doesn’t take place anywhere near Penn State of course.

To perhaps draw the attention of a much younger audience, the New York Knicks have employed the talents of the very young Ryan and Jaylah as their Knicks Kid Reporters.

At first glimpse, they certainly look the part but once the interviewing actually takes place, the duo are pretty solid in cracking jokes, coming up with witty comments and have the guts to interview some of the league’s best players.  In other words, they're already light years ahead of Jim Gray.

The special part of this video is when little Jaylah, who claims to hate Justin Bieber, gets a few of the Knicks players to actually sing “Baby” while Ryan wants no part of the Biebs. Smart kid. It would probably ruin his credibility in the locker room during postgame interviews.

Whether or not these kids have a future in broadcasting remains to be seen but at least they get started out on the right track by looking and acting the part very well.

Check out the video below..

H/T TBJ

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In one corner stands CNBC's Darren Rovell.  This sports business reporter hasn't just emerged as the top source in his field, but has also emerged as the self-appointed czar of all things Twitter.  He even celebrated passing the 100,000 followers plateau with a list of 100 Twitter rules.  Surely the modern day equivalent to Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany.  Since then though, Rovell has found another life as the Lex Luthor of Twitter.  He has been caught in battles with everyone from political reporters to late show writers to sportswriters and seemingly anyone in-between because of his unapologetic Twitter sovereignty.

In the other corner stands Sports Illustrated's Richard Deitsch.  Himself a veteran of the Twitter wars with his ongoing conflict with ESPN PR making the Hundred Years War look like a small disagreement over tea.  Deitsch boasts just 35,000 followers, but has the utmost respect of the industry.  This sportswriter combines his robust media reputation with a sharp sense of humor and biting critiques while also going outside sports to provide relevant, interesting information.  

But to know the significance of these two gladiators stepping inside the Twitter squared circle is to know their history.  At Blogs With Balls 4 in New York City, Deitsch and Rovell shared the first ever award for "Best Sports Tweeter."  The two men have traded barbs on Twitter for quite some time in a back and forth fight for ultimate sporting Twitter supremacy.  (To make it clear from the start, we're fans of the work of both Deitsch and Rovell as both have their qualities that make it worth your time to follow.)

However, Deitsch and Rovell had never engaged in a public Twitter debate.  Rovell's famous (or infamous) policy of not replying to anyone so as to "clog timelines" came under heavy fire as his DM/Unfollow deathblow became the stuff of mythical Twitter legend.  Instead of replying and having a conversation with combatants, Rovell took the tact of sending a private direct message and then unfollowing the person.  Underhanded tactics in the eyes of many.  (***Update: After speaking with Rovell today, he claims the much talked about DM/Unfollow double hammer was a misunderstanding and he had unfollowed those individuals well before the DMs.) This week, Rovell changed this policy after another one of his famous (or infamous) Twitter polls revealed that his followers wanted to see his replies play out in public.

It was only a matter of time before these mega Twitter powers exploded, which they did Wednesday night.  It started over a simple tweet about tennis.  But make no mistake, this was not about tennis.  This was about two Twitter titans, finally going head to head for the world to witness.  Rovell vs Deitsch.  Deitsch vs Rovell.  Here's how it played out...

(And yes, I'm well aware that this overly dramatic, completely unnecessary, and drawn out description of a Twitter fracas like it's a World Championship fight is totally ridiculous and not newsworthy in any way... but it sure is fun.)

Schadenfreude: Satisfaction or pleasure felt at someone else's misfortune.

Announcers rarely get the opportunity to revel in the glory of epic schadenfreude. I'd imagine that it's probably considered in poor taste by their employers and within the industry.

Luckily for Chris Fowler and company, the stars lined up as they were able to add live commentary to this epic meltdown by Marco Baghdatis. Rather than running from the hilarity of this tantrum, Fowler embraces the moment and goes with a more light hearted approach. At the end of the day, destructive rage can be entertaining at times so why not just sit back and enjoy rather than adding to the tense moment?

There's a good reason Rob Lowe is trending all over the world right now, he LITERALLY has everyone talking about the wild "news" he broke on his twitter account. That news being that one of the most accomplished quarterbacks of all-time, Peyton Manning, is retiring.

So, should you trust the guy that hosed down Tommy Boy at a gas station? Possibly. The first person Colts owner Jim Irsay followed on twitter was none other than Rob Lowe. So, yeah, there likely is some type of relationship between these two or possibly Irsay might have just been a huge fan of St. Elmo's Fire.

With Manning possibly retired, this makes the Colts offseason less awkward and simplifies the plans for them to draft Andrew Luck and insert him at starting QB. While it's rough to see one of the all-time greats retire due to injury, most will probably not miss him much as I'm sure he'll still continue to endorse LITERALLY every product known to man. Hopefully he will host SNL once again.

But yeah, Colts fans might want to wait on a news source more solid than Chris Traeger before trusting this huge news.

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Check out this clip from WCJB-TV in Gainesville, Florida. Anchor Chris Price is cutting his tease in front of the camera, and all of a sudden, the teleprompter rolls across the screen. I think Price played it off pretty well, not getting flustered and just kind of laughing about the situation. He didn't finish his tease though, aside from getting the obligatory Tim Tebow mention in (which is pretty appropriate for a Gainesville station...gotta get Tebow highlights in whenver possible!)

Price is embracing the situation on his Twitter, and doesn't seem angry or upset about the situation at all. Good for him for being a good sport about the situation and not getting crazy and demanding the video be taken down and never being spoken of again. Most times when there's a teleprompter problem, it has something to do with the machine malfunctioning and repeating words or not putting them up correctly... not exactly floating across the camera view. That may be a first.

[H/T: NESW Sports]

This is just the most laughable picture and video I've ever seen.  It should be no surprise that it comes from First Take.  I mean come on, there's an angelic white haze around Tim Tebow like he's from the cast of Touched By An Angel!  He's not dead!  Could there be a more awkward picture to symbolize Skip Bayless and his love for Tim Tebow than that picture above?  Of course not, but that's the point.

Sad piano music plays out Skip Bayless' uncomfortable, sickening, ratings-driven obsession with Tim Tebow, presumably until John Elway drafts a quarterback in April or he has another terrible training camp in July.  This is the official end of TebowMania... at least until the next NFL season.  

HALLELUJAH!  HALLELUJAH!

So what does Skip Bayless do next?  He fades back into oblivion where he belongs.  He has no credibility whatsoever, Skip is just an obnoxiously loud sycophant and demagogue who rode the coattails of Tim Tebow as long as they would carry him.  I'm sure Skip Bayless will try to seamlessly transition into another gimmick that will seek to create the buzz that TebowMania did, but will fail.  Will any of those record number of viewers stick around to watch Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless talk about normal things?  Of course not!  Skip has now pigeonholed himself as "that guy that loves Tim Tebow" and won't be able to escape that moniker for the rest of time, fancy video goodbye or not.  He's now a typecasted character actor, much like someone from the cast of The Sopranos.  If you expect Skip Bayless to be relevant on non-Tebow subjects, you might as well expect Paulie Walnuts to start hosting after school specials.

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Ratings for the NFL Divisional playoffs are in, and like last week's Wild Card games, some interesting trends have emerged.

The Packers-Giants game drew the highest amount of viewers EVER for a Divisional game, with 45.1 million viewers and a 25.3 rating, the highest rating since 1997 (Cowboys vs....Panthers? Yes, Panthers). The second highest amount of viewers for a game was not in fact Tim Tebow's Broncos against Tom Brady's Patriots, but the thrilling Niners-Saints game from Saturday afternoon with 35.6 million viewers. While the Broncos-Patriots game was third of the four games in total viewers, both Saturday games were the highest rated divisional games in their timeslots in history. Bringing up the rear in the playoff games was the Ravens-Texans game, with 31 million viewers.

What does all of this actually tell us, though? The fact that the heavily hyped Tebow-Brady showdown, which was a stinker of a game, finished third out of the four games in the ratings shows that fans care more about the actual on-field product as opposed to the hype behind it. A lot of fans could have tuned in at the beginning of the game, saw it begin to get out of hand, and tuned out. I know that's what I did. Meanwhile, the Saints-Niners game with its crazy finish drew in more viewers late as Twitter exploded with reactions to the multiple lead changes in the fourth quarter.

But the big story is the record-breaking ratings for the 15-1 Packers versus the Giants, who played their way into the playoffs on the final week and put on a minimally entertaining game in the Wild Card round against the Falcons. Because of the story of the Packers trying to repeat, and the size of the New York media market, more eyeballs were drawn to that game than there probably should have. So maybe there is something to the story behind the game... but only when on-field performance warrants it. While the Patriots-Broncos game was a blowout at halftime, the Packers and Giants game was tight, and the lure of the upset was alive and well the entire time. Even if it's a blowout, you don't turn off an upset. This is what happened in this game...