With the great Cardinals/Rangers World Series in the books, it's time to take a look at Fox's coverage of the World Series with The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly.  Believe it or not, this was year number 14 that Fox has had the World Series and the 12th consecutive since 2000.  With that in mind, Fox had some new elements for this year that stood out, but there was also a lot of the same ol' same ol' that has grown tiresome over the years.  

The Good

Is the 2011 World Series the moment we'll look back on as when the blogosphere and baseball fans tuned into the internet and Twitter turned in favor of Joe Buck?  Yes, Joe Buck, in the good section looking at MLB on Fox.  I can't believe it either.  For whatever reason (maybe it was his hometown team in the World Series), Buck brought his "A" game throughout the series and actually seemed interested.  For as much as the blogs pound Buck for his disinterested and dispassionate announcing, he was on top of the big moments when it counted.  His call in Game 6 was great and the channeling of his father was appropriate and memorable.  Also, Buck, perhaps more than any other announcer, knows when to step away and let the moment speak for itself.  If Joe continues to keep up this level of enthusiasm on every telecast and leaves behind some of the smugness and lame jokes, he could actually (gasp!!!) continue to win fans over.

Fox has always pushed the envelope in terms of game production and this year was no different.  Sometimes it leads to embarrassments to our democracy like Scooter, but other times it works.  Although Fox gets a little crazy some times with the crowd shots (thank God there are no marching bands in baseball), their folks are usually on top of everything that happens on the field.  The fancy element added this year was an infrared camera coming from overseas and used on cricket coverage.  Even though the infrared camera was laughed at by most people, it actually turned out to be useful on a couple key plays in the World Series.  While it is far from the most efficient technological advance in baseball coverage, it at least shows that Fox is trying to push new boundaries on at least one aspect of their baseball coverage (we'll get to where they aren't in a second).

For those of you that may have wondered, "why is that dork Ken Rosenthal wearing a bowtie" during the World Series... it was actually a season long initiative from the Fox reporter to benefit charity.  Sideline reporters may or may not add much in terms of game broadcasts (NFL on CBS has ditched them completely), but it's always nice to see someone in the business do something for a good cause - fashionable or not.  And, Rosenthal is one of the best at what he does.  Bravo, Ken.

And finally, the World Series itself was a classic.  Even outside of an epic Game 6, the series produced several enthralling games and moments.  It wasn't the best played baseball at times, but there's no doubting the drama this seven game series produced.  The story of the Cardinals even making the playoffs was stunning enough, but then winning the World Series, especially coming back in Games 6 & 7, was incredible.  And then there's that Game 6, which may be the most exciting baseball game of our lifetimes.

What you're about to see is one of the most frightening segments I've ever seen on an NFL pregame show.  Not frightening in the sense that it has a Halloween theme and it's actually scary... frightening in the sense that it is just plain awful.  This is so scary, it belongs in the last hour of the Today Show.  Former Jets DT Kris Jenkins, who's been doing work with the NFL Today, welcomes children strategically dressed as NFL personalities to his "home."  

I haven't seen enough of him as an analyst to make a judgment one way or another, but there's a reason he's a football player instead of an actor.  His opening lines are delivered with the believability and passion of Joe Buck announcing a meeting at the mound.  And man, Kris Jenkins likes to say "man" a lot.  If he hates Tom Brady for taking his Super Bowl rings, why is there a picture of him in his house?

Why are three children, obviously already in costume, carrying around giant quarters?

Why does Dan Marino look like a young John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever?

Why can you actually comprehend what the child portraying Shannon Sharpe is saying?

Why does LeBron James show up?

Why is a child dressed as Tim Tebow also wearing a giant quarter?  And why is she spinning?

Who invited Urkel?

There are just a few of many questions that arise in this segment.  Watch if you dare, it's a guaranteed spook.  Considering the inane, pointless quality of fake-laugh filled NFL pregame shows these days, this video goes above and beyond the call of duty.  Your move, Frank Caliendo.

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Happy Halloween!  I'm wondering if Craig James and Pam Ward disguised themselves as good announcers because it was unusually quiet for them with this week's nominees as some new announcers come back into the Pammies picture.  Gary Danielson and Matt Millen will look to catch up with Darth James and make this a race for the Pammies title as we move into November.

As a reminder as to how the Pammy vote works, each week we'll nominate 15-20 quotes for you to pick the best 10.  The winning quote of the week will earn that person 10 points all the way down to 1 point for 10th.  Remember, you can vote for your favorite five quotes.  Here are your Week 9 nominees...

1) "Spurrier used to say you can't spell UT without Citrus... wait." - Mark Jones (via CaptTouchback)

2) "He's a first time starter going thru everything for the first time." - Andre Ware (via sctvman)

3) "You're only effective when you're productive" - Chris Spielman (via RYbbc34)

4) "This is what you get when two hungry trains get on the same track and don't want to get off" - Gary Danielson (via DerekLynch64) Hungry... trains???

5) "That's a courage catch. Goin' into the BRIAR PATCH and absorbing the hit to catch the ball" - Charles Davis (via Chris Schenkel).  There are some patches out there that take a lot of courage to go into...

6) "You come in and bite, I'm pullin' that sucker out" - Matt Millen (via Chris Schenkel)

7) "Well, sometimes you're not always the popular guy." - Dan Hawkins (via sctvman) Touche.

8) "Steve Spurrier is the best duct-tape engineer in college football." - Ed Cunningham (via sctvman)

9) "If Matt Millen's watching, he's saying 'that's football, that's football'" - Kirk Herbstreit (via CK29) recognizing how intricate Matt Millen's analyisis gets.

10) "This year's game of the century." - Verne Lundquist (via sctvman)

11) "We're gonna put a saddle on him and ride him all game." - Brock Huard (via bielick_tim) on Illinois' Nathan Scheelhaase

12) "Can't quite tell you the number, but I can tell you it is an offensive lineman" - Ray Bentley (via AlexfromBuffalo) Uh, Ray, WVU is on defense.

13) "Consistent consistency" - Matt Millen (via ThaNardDawg)

14) "...and Woods has got it at the...incomplete." - Brent Musberger (via mattyzucks)

15) "We all love Mark May!" - Lou Holtz (via glokkenspx) umm... no.

16) "Come on guys, it's football, get tough" - Craig James (via dmcalpi).  Umm Craig why you talk about that with your son first...

17) "Nothing doing as Tech stiffens against Jeff Woody." - Bill Land (via Matt Kennedy)

Vote For Your Week 9 Pammy Nominees! (vote for up to five)

The winners will come Wednesday morning so make sure you vote early and often and check back for the full Week 9 announcing sked later this week!

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Sunday Night Football was another snoozer but if you stuck with the blowout game, you were treated to an out of character moment for Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth as NBC showed a series of photos of them dresssed up as Troy Polamalu. 

An easy costume and a memorable mental image. At first glance though, is it me or does Collinsworth actually look more like Howard Stern than Polamalu? 

A couple days back I wrote about how the Tebowing trend was reaching critical mass and was potentially in danger of fizziling out before the season ended. Less than a week since the trend's official starting point, it's now find it's way onto the football field as Stephen Tullock capped off a sack on Tebow by getting into the trendy pose. 

Mocksession captured the moment and I'm sure we'll see this on all the highlights tonight and bantered about tomorrow in all the usual places. 

Is this beginning of the end of Tebowing given you really can't go anywhere else from here or is Tebowing here to stay? Can the Tebowing movement continue onward if it's eminent inspiration finds himself relegated back to the bench? These are important questions with no easy answers and another sign that we live in complicated times.

We're into Week 3 Straight Outta Stockton and the analysts of the NFL are taking centerstage in the Dickies.  Brian Billick, Phil Simms, and Jon Gruden are emerging as top contenders.  Dick himself will be in Denver as the quarterback that shall not be named hosts the Lions.  Elsewhere, not too many attractive games on the daytime slate aside from Pats/Steelers in the national doubleheader window on CBS.

We'll try and update the thread as best as we can on Sundays, but you can check the comments below and our Twitter timeline for all submissions.  Then, we'll be back on Tuesdays with 15-20 nominees and you'll vote on our Top 10 for the week.  SOS winners will be announced Thursdays with updated standings.  Below you can find the links to last week's Top 10 and this week's NFL announcing schedule with broadcast maps.

Week 7 Dickies Winners & Standings

Week 8 NFL Announcing Schedule 

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"He just plows through guys" - Phil Simms (via steve5643) on Andrew Luck.  Nice image, that is.

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A lot happened this week, but one of the more interesting stories we snoozed on was Viacom purchasing Bellator. Having a lot of implications for MMA and MMA on television as a whole, we were lucky enough to pick the brain of Sean Malone, editor of Inside The Cage MMA, for his input on how the move will change MMA and sports media.

2011 may very well go down in history as the biggest year for mixed martial arts (MMA).  Despite the sports ever-growing popularity mainstream acceptance has been slow to come for a sport that uniformed politicians have labeled "barbaric" and "human cockfighting."  However, it seems that the winds of change are beginning to blow in favor of MMA as this year has seen some legitimate gains in mainstream acceptance.  The most recent example of this change came this week as media conglomerate Viacom announced that they had purchased a majority stake in the Chicago-based MMA promotion Bellator.  Granted, to the casual MMA observer the UFC is the only game in town and while there is no doubting the fact that the Las Vegas-based powerhouse is the number one global MMA promotion, many mid-tier MMA promotions are beginning to make measurable gains in the burgeoning marketplace.  This is why the news of Viacom's purchase of Bellator is such a big deal; it begins to dispel the myth that the UFC is the only game in town.

With the World Series now done and dusted and the NBA reaching ANOTHER stupidly frustrating breaking point in lockout negotiations, that means one thing - more football than ever before!  Hopefully that means AA Nation (too cliche?  AA Hemisphere?  AA Galaxy?) will be in full force for this week's Pam Ward Chronicles.  PamHawk is on the call for the titanic Wake/UNC struggle while Pammies leader Craig James is at GT/Clemson.  Elsewhere, Stanford and Andrew Luck get the shiny Gameday and ABC primetime treatment with their visit to the Coliseum to play USC.  Leave us comments and tweet us quotes throughout Saturday and enjoy your day of football.

Week 9 Announcing Schedule 

"they have to get Graham on the edge. this isn't baseball." - Lou Holtz (via bjo109) trying to channel his inner Timmy Mac.

"Too much air under it, like your wedge shot." - Mark May (via sctvman) to Lou Holtz after a missed FG.

"that was right down the center" - Lou Holtz (via bjo109) after a field goal attempt that missed the net

"We all love Mark May!" - Lou Holtz (via glokkenspx) umm... no.

"they're looking for consistency. they just don't have it. so, they're looking for it." - Craig James (via bjo109)

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Yesterday, I learned about Tebowing. I thought it was kind of clever, but maybe that was because the bar was set insanely low by the whole planking movement. I'll give myself a pat on the back for not going on a tangent there.

To me, things in this vein usually has its entertainment value, but erodes quickly.

At first it's a chuckle. Maybe you dig into it a bit more. If you feel like being "that guy" (as in the guy who likes to show off that they're ahead of the curve even if it means you bought a Sega Dreamcast), you send it to people and banter about it in the office, with friends, or on social networks.

But inevitably whatever "coolness" these internet memes have wears off, except for maybe Icing as there is good schadenfreude value there, plus it inevitably leads to drinking.

Usually though, the death kiss of these memes, is the exultation of them by mainstream media. While not really the actual nail in the coffin per se, the fact is that usually within days of being embraced by mainstream media, your Mom or Aunt will then email or worse, write on your Facebook wall, with something like this:

"Hey Honey...... I saw this and thought of you. Totally something you and your friends would do! Have you done it yet? Also be sure to get a flu shot and if you can please call me as I am having problems working the DVR again."

And just like that... you're over it. You're off the bandwagon. Anyone who jumps on after you left is totally uncool. 

While Tebowing certainly has some juice left, in this digital age and the amount of attention it has received, we're on borrowed time here folks. Relish the moment now before you inevitably have to do a house call to check the DVR settings.

Below is what we saw on just 30 minutes of ESPN today...

Here's your announcing schedule for the week with other games listed as well...

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