FOX, we may have found Joe Buck's replacement with Mets Kidscaster, Jacob Resnick.  Every year the Mets allow a kid to call an inning of a game and for the second year in a row they were lucky enough to get to use their Home Run call. Below is Resnick's call (THANKS MLB! EMBEDDABLE MEDIA FTW!)

 

Come on, you know your soft side enjoyed that. Good tone and pace as well as delivering specifics like "solo shot" "breaking ball" and "left field seats". Getting all those details into a smooth call is probably easier said than done. With that in mind, this was a job well done and something tells me Resnick is absolutely going to dominate his Bar Mitzvah.

The following picture is why I stay away from predicting season records for every team in a sport.  Unless you come out to the exact right win-loss total... you end up looking like a dope.  Enter a man who has his Master's degree in that field - Colin Cowherd.  You see, Cowherd took his intellectually elite and pristine brain, which will one day be reserved for scientific marvel, to prognosticating the upcoming NFL season.  What a waste of a rare gift to mankind.  The only problem is that Cowherd's predictions are as mathematically improbable as finding the last digit of pi.  Observe...



For those of you that enjoy addition, you found that those numbers add up to 268-244, as pointed out by Dan Steinberg at DC Sports Bog.  Since each of the NFL's 32 teams play 16 games, that's 512 possible results.  With a winner and loser in each (who predicts ties?), the league will go a collective 256-256.  That... is... fact.  Unless you count the Eagles of course, who will win 39 games this year.  

***Update: Brady sacrificed for all of us and listened to the corresponding Cowherd audio link that makes this gaffe even more delightful.  Here's Cowherd on the legitimacy of his predictions...

"There's some things I really get into and I like predicting the record of every NFL team.  I go over every schedule in the league.  And, unlike everybody else, I actually believe you can predict things... it's not that impossible, especially this year, to predict where teams are going to end up."

Yea, about that...

[H/T Dan Steinberg]
 

no comments

With the NBA Lockout in full swing, NBA players have been showing up in all sorts of places, even sometimes, playing basketball.  Shocking, I know.  While the Goodman League and Drew League have seen their share of highlights, this video of Kevin Durant in action at famed Rucker Park in New York is by far the best basketball highlight you will see for a long while.  We pick up Durantula in the 4th Quarter of this game as he goes nuts hitting three pointer after three pointer, whipping the Rucker Park crowd into a frenzy until they finally storm the court with his 64th, 65th, and 66th point of the game.  Durant's 66 was 8 points shy of the Rucker Park record and Crossover Chronicles has even more videos of Durant's amazing night.

My question is this - why don't some of the NBA players get together and put this on television during the lockout?  Surely NBA fans would watch Durant and some of the other best players on the planet play ball in Rucker Park or elsewhere.  You can even keep the court announcer ("I AM THE BEST") and the entire playground atmosphere.  An organized tournament at Rucker Park with teams captained by Kobe, LeBron, Durant, Melo, and whoever would be an absolute ratings bonanza... and infuriate David Stern to no end.  Somebody make this happen!



[Crossover Chronicles]

If you follow AA on Twitter, you may have seen me throw a little love the way of Bloguin's new college football site, Crystal Ball Run.  That's because I'm periodically pitching in with the site and all of the Bloguin.com blogs... but also because these guys know their college football like few others in the blogosphere (and they have a sweet banner too).  If you're a fan of the Pammies and college pig, it's a place you'll want to bookmark.  Aaron Torres, who was on staff with us at AA for a little while, leads the new blog and joined me on the latest AA Podcast.  In the pod, we touch on all the major stories of the college football offseason, including some surprising thoughts on the media's intensive coverage of Ohio State's troubles. AA also chats with Aaron about ESPN and #FreeBruce, Joe Morgan Memorial Tournament champion Craig James, the best announcers in college football, and much more.  A great interview that covers a lot of interesting topics with some opinions you may not expect.



Remember, you can also download our episodes straight from ITunes as well.  Hope you give a listen and enjoy.
 

Wide receiver Donte Stallworth agreed to a deal with the Washington Redskins last week, inciting this awkward tweet from former Redskins' quarterback and famous tongue-slipper Joe Theismann [H/T SportsGrid]:

This would be immediately chalked up as an innocent mistake if, you know, Donte Stallworth wasn't convicted of DUI manslaughter a couple years ago. Theismann corrected himself, tweeting shortly thereafter that he meant Stallworth could be a "difference maker," blaming the mix up on his 'big fingers.'

I'm sorry, I'm not buying that, Joe. I would've been much more inclined to believe you if you said it was "Smart Type" or Autocorrect's fault, like what really happened to Aziz Ansari that one time he upset his gay friend Greg. I just hope Donte is as understanding as Greg.

I just celebrated a birthday which has only confirmed the well known fact that I am getting old. The biggest hangup about that realization is I'm becoming more and more of a cynic which means my love for new music that you'd hear on the radio has dwindled. With that in mind I spend the bulk of my time in my whip listening to sports talk radio and of late, the newly launched local Sporting News affiliate. Just as I was learning the various promotional jingles Sporting News Radio plays, they've decided to rebrand the network as Yahoo! Sports Radio (don't forget the exclamation mark, they hate that). 

"We’re aligning with the No. 1 sports media web company in the world,” Gow said. “We’re picking up one of the most recognizable brand names in the world. We’re getting access to some of the best sports journalism in the country, and we get to link ourselves together in a way that will accelerate the growth of our digital business.

“When you combine the sports experts of Yahoo and Rivals with our on-air talent and analysts, we believe we will have the best roster in sports radio. And we can take that combined roster and create compelling sports radio, grow our affiliate base and audience size and take our company to much greater heights.”

Unlike NBC, the rebranding has been swift and efficient. Google Sporting News Radio and both their former site and their Wikipedia page are already replaced with the proper Yahoo! Sports Radio pages. Yahoo seems to have given the network a nice hub page as you'll see below.

From a programming and promotional perspective this is really smart. The various writers and bloggers at Yahoo have a larger following than the Sporting News' editorial talent. Yahoo's built in web following can much more easily promote selected relevant programming to help bring in new listeners. On the flip side, Yahoo will be be able to tap into the built audience of Sporting News Radio and get folks to adopt things like Yahoo fantasy sports, Sportacular, The Post Game, and the Y! Sports blogs.

A lot of sports fans continue to clamor for a "true" ESPN competitor although the majority of those fans spend hours and hours consuming ESPN content on some platform. NBC/Comcast remains the most viable candidate as entities like Sports Illustrated and Yahoo Sports have traditionally been segmented to one platform. With solid positions across online, television, print, and radio, ESPN has long been able to dominate the space.

However as Yahoo moves to radio, you can maybe see a scenario where ESPN has to become defensive fighting a two front war and things open up a bit more although I think that is more wishful thinking. Yahoo affiliates usually hold some local radio rights (A's games locally) and then fill in the rest of the day with shoulder programming and syndicated programs. I don't believe the network has any national rights for any major sport, which is where ESPN holds a major advantage.

For The Sporting News, there is no way to spin it. Awhile back they reached their big partnership with AOL to rent the Fanhouse brand and AOL.com promotion. As a combined digital entity they really promoted the fact that they were now a top 10 sports entity according to Comscore. Since then they've fallen out of the top ten and have other media entities closing in their rear view mirror. This surely won't help their digital efforts nor help promote the magazine and other print products. 

With XM/Sirius, podcasts, Westwood One, ESPN, and now Yahoo Sports, you have to wonder if the space is a bit overcrowded but for now it seems like all these entities are holding their own. I'd imagine my planned MTV Challenge Duel/Gauntlet/whatever they called it podcast will really shake up the industry.

If you're a regular visitor to Awful Announcing, you may notice something different today.  A new face is on our Mount Rushmore, ESPN college football analyst Craig James.  Senator James was the surprise champion of our Joe Morgan Memorial Tournament, in which one current sports media personality would replace Joe Morgan on AA's Mount Rushmore.  

The Joe Morgan Memorial started with 32 of the most awful sports media personalities around - from Joe Buck and Joe Theismann to Skippy and Stephen A. to Cowherd and Berman.  Being honest, I have to give credit to my broski Ryan for coming up with the idea (he always was the smarter Yoder), but it was an awesome experience that was hopefully as much fun for you as it was for us.  Thanks to everyone who took part in the tournament, especially to the folks that took the time to leave comments, tweets, and especially vote.  We had over 50,000 votes in the semifinals and finals alone!  

Brian Powell started AA back in 2006 as an open forum for fans to voice their feelings on announcers and as the place to go for news, information, and opinion on announcing and the sports media.  That's why we gave you the decision for Joe Morgan's spot on Mount Rushmore (and who knows, maybe we'll do it for the other spots in the future).  When it all started, Craig James was nowhere near the list of favorites to be etched in Awful Announcing immortality.  However, your votes carried James to an overwhelming victory in the JMMT.  

James defeated his broadcast partner Mike Patrick in Round 1 and was never tested along the way, also beating out some of the biggest names in AA lore - Rick Reilly, Stephen A. Smith, Chris Berman, and Joe Buck.  His victories over Berman and Buck were astoundingly ginormous.  77% of the vote against Berman and 85% of the vote against Buck (over 21,000 votes in the Final were cast for Craig James).

So how did we get to this point where average college football announcer/pundit Craig James became an unstoppable force that made Joe Buck look like Marv Albert and took him to the top of AA...

It's a Yanks/Sawx kind of weekend as Friday-Sunday see the AL East rivals go head to head on three networks, MLBN, Fox, and ESPN.  Buck & McCarver and Sunday Night Baseball take a visit to Fenway.  And in case that's too much Yanks/Sawx, you can also catch either team on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday on national TV.  In fact, the only day free of those northeast tyrants is Tuesday, when St. Louis visits Milwaukee on MLBN.  Don't worry though, Yanks/Chi Sawx is an alternate.  

Monday August 1

Cleveland Indians @ Boston Red Sox (ESPN 7PM) Sean McDonough, Aaron Boone, Rick Sutcliffe

Tuesday August 2

St. Louis Cardinals @ Milwaukee Brewers (MLBN 8PM) Local Broadcast [Alt: NY Yankees @ Chi White Sox]

Wednesday August 3

New York Yankees @ Chicago White Sox (ESPN 8PM) Dave O'Brien, Nomar Garciaparra

Thursday August 4

Texas Rangers @ Detroit Tigers (MLBN 1PM) Local Broadcast
Cleveland Indians @ Boston Red Sox (MLBN 7PM) Local Broadcast [Alt: Chi Cubs @ Pittsburgh]
New York Yankees @ Chicago White Sox (WGNA 8PM) Ken Harrelson, Steve Stone

Friday Augsust 5

Cincinnati Reds @ Chicago Cubs (WGNA 2PM) Len Kasper, Bob Brenley
New York Yankees @ Boston Red Sox (MLBN 7PM) Matt Vasgersian, John Smoltz [Alt: Oakland @ Tampa Bay]

Saturday August 6

New York Yankees @ Boston Red Sox (FOX 4PM) Joe Buck, Tim McCarver
Philadelphia Phillies @ San Francisco Giants (FOX 4PM) Kenny Albert, Eric Karros
Chicago White Sox @ Minnesota Twins (WGNA 7PM) Ken Harrelson, Steve Stone
Atlanta Braves @ New York Mets (MLBN 7PM) Local Broadcast [Alt: San Diego @ Pittsburgh]

Sunday August 7

Atlanta Braves @ New York Mets (TBS 1PM) Brian Anderson, John Smoltz, David Wells
Chicago White Sox @ Minnesota Twins (WGNA 2PM) Ken Harrelson, Steve Stone
New York Yankees @ Boston Red Sox (ESPN 8PM) Dan Shulman, Orel Hershiser, Bobby Valentine

H/T Sammy!  

Our pal Tim Burke of SportsGrid has done it again, putting together a highlight collection of various puzzling analysis, befuddling statements, and general lunacy from MLB on Fox analyst and AA Mount Rushmore inhabitant Tim McCarver.  McCarver was reunited with play by play man Joe Buck for Saturday's broadcast of Cubs/Cardinals.  I'll let you read the details from Tim's excellent article here, but just know that Joe and Tim blew up our Twitter feed on Saturday (as usual) and one of their more laughable moments was a discussion of the "great job" Mike Quade has done managing the Cubs this year.  The same Cubs that are 43-65 and have the second worst record in the NL.  Ladies and gentlemen, this is your #1 baseball broadcasting team in America.  Sit back and enjoy what has become of MLB on Fox...



My only request to Tim is that he do a Dick Stockton tribute next week... 

[SportsGrid]
 

 

NBC announced that starting January 2012, Versus will be rebranded as the NBC Sports Network. That's just enough time for you to forget this announcement and then remember when you sober up and crawl back to work after the new year.

There really isn't anything specific to report as there any particular details surrounding programming changes. However, at a high level there will be some style changes in production and more collaboration and promotion between NBC and the network formally known as Versus.

"As part of the overhaul, NBC says the cable channel's broadcasting style and presentation will parallel that of NBC Sports' by emphasizing storytelling and profiles of athletes."

"There will be greater coordination in sports coverage between NBC's broadcast-TV operations and the cable channel, officials say."

Although the news became official today and won't go into effect for 5 months, this move was assumed for quite some time. The acquisition was announced in December of 2009 and finally approved in January 2011. During that span it was widely reported and speculated that the Versus brand would wind down and some type of NBC sports branded name would replace it. Versus has become a more recognizable and distributed network, but it pales in comparison to the NBC brand name.

A handful of years back, Disney went the other way yielding the ABC Sports brand to ESPN so now sports programming on ABC is presented as "ESPN on ABC". Versus doesn't have nearly the cache as ESPN and this move is basically for the same motives but just in the opposite direction.

As a business guy, it's kind of funny to me how long these things take to finalize and announce. Even earlier in the year there were rumblings that they had circled in on this name but were still finalzing details. "NBC Sports Network" is three words and yet it's part of a lengthy process that is still ongoing. Brand identity and integration is important, but I think this was the end result the folks at Comcast/Versus were going to get no matter how many meetings, focus groups, powerpoints, and consultants were involved in the process. 

The real meat of this decision will lie in all the details that are to be determined. Graphics, logos, personnel, cross promotion, programming, and production will be things we'll keep a close eye on.

With NBC/Comcast having fended off competitors from the Olympics and NHL packages, but also having failed to procure a partnership with the Pac 12, they've essentially treaded water and held their position in 2011. Going forward, NBC and NBC Sports Network will benefit from having two channels of inventory to bid on programming rights in the future but unfortunately the rest of 2011 and 2012 are quiet years in terms of expiring sports programming rights.

NBC Sports Network is believed by many to be the favorite to get the new 8 game NFL package. Such a move would really boost the network's distribution (around 70 million now) upwards to ESPN's number of around 100 million households as well as help drive carriage fees higher. 

I think the previously linked philly.com article is interesting as it doesn't beat around the bush about Comcast's motivations, as the second headline reads, "Comcast is rebranding the homegrown channel and changing its format. Subscriber fees could rise." 

The article goes on to say:

"The goal of the Versus name change - and other changes expected to be announced in the coming months - is to make the sports channel more popular with fans so that Comcast can charge higher per-subscriber fees for it."

In a nutshell, Comcast changes its name, as expected by everyone, in a plan to make more money. Truly breaking news here.