Mexico defeated the USA 4-2 in a fantastic Gold Cup Final.  From the broadcasting perspective, Fox Soccer's coverage was ok, but all across the board it just isn't as good as ESPN's top notch soccer coverage.  The US got off to a great 2-0 start, but after veteran RB Steve Cherundolo was forced off injured, the American backline was overran with the skill and speed of the Mexican attack.  The most spectacular of the six goals was saved for last, as Tottenham's Giovani Dos Santos scored with an incredible chip in the 76th minute.  It was one of the most ridiculous goals I've ever witnessed.  First, he latches on to a through ball, sidesteps Tim Howard, controls the ball in a tight space, and then floats a chip to the far post over a leaping Eric Lichaj to the only place he could have scored.  It showed the touch and class that the US unfortunately just didn't have tonight in a disappointing game for American soccer fans.  Tim Howard's reaction on this goal said it all.  And, of course, we have commentary of the golaso in Spanish from Univision...

That 2010 US Senate run never did happen for Craig James, but there are indicators he may soon go all-in with his fledging political career.  With current Republican Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson not running for re-election in 2012, there's an empty seat in congress that is just crying out for someone with the political clout and experience of a college football announcer.  Doesn't Senator Craig James just flow off the tongue?  I'm still waiting for his debate with Mike Leach.  It appears that James is throwing his hat back into the political ring, if not diving in head-first with the founding of a new organization that both celebrates the greatness of Texas and aims to channel that greatness to save the rest of America.

The video below is about the most campaigny non-campaign video I've ever seen.  Evidently James founded a group called "Texans for a Better America," which "is about reconnecting people with the values, ideas, and founding principles that have not only made Texas the envy of our nation, but would transform our country."  I guess I missed that part where I'm supposed to wake up every morning and long for the good life in Amarillo (nothing against George Strait though, that dude's a legend).

Also, according to the Texans for a Better America website, "Craig James is a proud Texan who believes our nation can be great again."  Wonderful.  And, if that's not convincing enough, the video slash advertisement slash campaign endorsement declares, "Craig James is a living example of the importance of economic freedom and America's entrepreneurial spirit."  I wish I was making this up.  Surprisingly, there's nothing about meddling with coaches and whining when your son isn't getting playing time.  The prospects of Craig James being a legitimate contender for a US Senate seat are likely very slim (polling shows his unfavorable rating in West Texas at 52% and his favorable rating at... wait for it, 7%).  By the looks of the ridiculous video below though, this potential Senator James idea could be a lot of fun...

Video: Looks like Craig James still wants to be Senator James - Dr. Saturday

One of the highlights of this week was the fiery interview between former Giants RB and failed NBC personality Tiki Barber and Mike Francesa of WFAN in New York.  The interview came about because of Tiki Barber's publicity tour associated with his planned return to football, including his much talked about interview with HBO's Real Sports.  That inteview was notable for Barber's claims of depression.  This interview with Mike Francesa at WFAN in New York is much more combative and entertaining because Francesa doesn't let Barber (and his agent, more on that in a bit) off lightly and challenges Barber on his disastrous NBC run.

Tiki Barber's failure as "the next Matt Lauer" has been well-chronicled, and we took a glance at the rapid athlete to broadcaster career path here earlier this week.  Tiki comes off as very defensive with Francesa, refusing to acknowledge his disappointing run as a TV personality at the end of Part I below, and even has his agent on the phone to back him up (Francesa amusingly had to tell Barber's agent, "you're not here to be his bodyguard").  First of all, let's get real, having your agent on the phone with you is weak - man up and do the interview yourself.  Second of all, forgive me for not feeling too much sympathy for Tiki Barber - someone who retired from the Giants, ripped his former coach and teammates, had an affair and then left his pregnant wife for a 20-something NBC intern and babysitter, and then had the absolute gall and ignorance to compare his oppressive plight to that of Anne Frank.  The same Anne Frank that died in a Nazi concentration camp.  Please.  Although Francesa's ego turns a lot of people off, this interview shows why he's absolutely one of the best in sports talk radio and sports media.  The entire interview is worth a listen, even though it is a half hour in length, but the highlights are mostly in the first two parts below...   

Part I



Part II



Part III



Thanks to Ken at Fang's Bites for sending us the audio.  

Earlier today, Ryan gave our thoughts on the Good, Bad, and Ugly of ESPN's NBA Draft coverage.  If you'd like some of my thoughts on ESPN's NBA Draft coverage and the Draft as a whole, you can check out the NBA Draft awards dished out at Bloguin's NBA blog, Crossover Chronicles.  Safe to say the good was scarce, the bad was plentiful, and the ugly was flowing in abundance.  The only one who had a worse night than ESPN was future lockout villain David Stern.  Most fans watching the draft coverage didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and some were even longing for the return of Chris Berman.  Even Jay Bilas knew he was in for a long evening, as he referenced his own internet drinking game at Pick #2.  What did you have to say about ESPN's draft coverage on Twitter?  As always, these are Real Tweets from Real People...

 

Back in April, we took a look at the good, bad, and ugly from ESPN's coverage of the 1st round of the NFL Draft.  And, apart from walking caricature Chris Berman, ESPN hit a home run.  So, we thought it would only be fair to give the same scrutiny to ESPN's NBA Draft coverage, which is often just as entertaining even without the maniacal following the NFL Draft has amassed over the years. However, with last night's debacle, ESPN's NBA Draft coverage may have hit a new low, a next to impossible feat seeing as how Stephen A. Smith wasn't even a member of the studio team!  Let's start with the good news first...

The Good

-As big bro Matt said on Twitter last night, the star of ESPN's coverage was their "international expert" Fran Fraschilla,  The glut of international players selected throughout gave Fraschilla extra air time, but every time the former coach was on the air he delivered thorough analysis of those drafted.  Not only was Fraschilla on target with known quantities like Kanter and Jonas V, but Fraschilla also delivered the goods in the 2nd round when players like Targuy Ngombo from Qatar left every other ESPN "analyst" speechless.  For every international prospect, Fraschilla came ready with strenghts, weaknesses, comparisons, and even contract information.  With Fraschilla's knowledge of both international talent AND college prospects (after all he is a game analyst for the network), he would be a welcome addition to ESPN's main set.

-The other big winner from ESPN's Draft coverage had to be Jay Bilas, the smartest guy in the room no matter where he is.  Though I'm getting pretty tired of Bilas's pious act when discussing larger issues like education and the NCAA, he's at home analyzing draft prospects.  His smart, succinct analysis, including the flaws in each player's game and their projection into the pros, was a breath of fresh air for draft coverage. Unlike Jon Gruden's unending QB love and "THIS GUY" act, Bilas pulled no punches on players he thought weren't ready for the NBA.  The former Dukie even showed his self-aware humor with a nod to a drinking games based on his heavy use of words like wingspan.  Unfortunately, we couldn't get more sharp analysis from Bilas and Fraschilla because of other choices ESPN made with their broadcast...

Peyton Manning may be the most marketable athlete of our generation... and he has gotten every last drop out of it.  This newest DirecTV commercial is something like his 89,413th ad, but it is also one of his best.  In fact, I'd say it ranks right up there at the top with CUT THAT MEAT!  It chronicles the brothers Peyton and Eli as stars of the fictitious drama "Football Cops."  It's actually quite humorous and I laughed more in these two minutes than that entire awful cop movie with Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell.  Some highlights include a guy getting impaled by a football (impalings are always comedic gold), goofy fake mustaches, an Archie Manning cameo, and enough bad football puns to make Jim Nantz proud.  By the way, while we're talking NFL, please end the stupid lockout.  Here's the clip...



H/T GuysGirl
 

The FIFA Women's World Cup kicks off this weekend in Germany and ESPN is taking some of the same attributes of their great 2010 World Cup coverage to Germany.  Some of the added features this time around include a live set from Germany and top announcers like Ian Darke, Adrian Healey, and Julie Foudy calling games as well as Bob Ley and former USWNT stars Mia Hamm, Brandi Chastain, and Brianna Scurry in the studio as part of the coverage.  Darke and Foudy will announce all US games in the group stages.  ESPN's This is Sportscenter ad campaign is even getting in on the action in a spot starring Abby Wambach of the USWNT...



AA has the announcing assignments for all the group stage games straight from ESPN.  Here's your schedule for the group stages up till July 6...

Date	Time	Network	Match	Group	Site
Su 6/26	8:45 a.m.	ESPN2/ESPN3.com	Nigeria vs. France   Adrian Healey and Kate Markgraf	A	Sinsheim
	11:30 a.m.	ESPN/ESPN3.com	Germany vs. Canada   Ian Darke and Julie Foudy	A	Berlin
Mo 6/27	8:45 a.m.	ESPN/ESPN3.com	Japan vs. New Zealand   Beth Mowins and Cat Whitehill	B	Bochum
	11:45 a.m.	ESPN/ESPN3.com	Mexico vs. England   Healey and Markgraf	B	Wolfsburg
Tu 6/28	8:45 a.m.	ESPN/ESPN3.com	Colombia vs. Sweden   Mowins and Whitehill	C	Leverkusen
	11:45 a.m.	ESPN/ESPN3.com	USA vs. Korea DPR   Darke and Foudy	C	Dresden
We 6/29	8:45 a.m.	ESPN/ESPN3.com	Norway vs. Equatorial Guinea Mowins and Whitehill	D	Augsburg
	12 p.m.	ESPN/ESPN3.com	Brazil vs. Australia Healey and Tony DiCicco	D	Moenchengladbach
Th 6/30	11:45 a.m.	ESPN/ESPN3.com	Canada vs. France Healey and DiCicco	A	Bochum
	2:30 p.m.	ESPN2/ESPN3.com	Germany vs. Nigeria Darke and Foudy	A	Frankfurt
Fr 7/1	8:45 a.m.	ESPN/ESPN3.com	Japan vs. Mexico Mowins and Whitehill	B	Leverkusen
	12 p.m.	ESPN/ESPN3.com	New Zealand vs. England Healey and Markgraf	B	Dresden
Sa 7/2	7:45 a.m.	ESPN2/ESPN3.com	Korea DPR vs. Sweden Mowins and Whitehill	C	Augsburg
	11:30 a.m.	ESPN/ESPN3.com	USA vs. Colombia Darke and Foudy	C	Sinsheim
Su 7/3	7:45 a.m.	ESPN2/ESPN3.com	Australia vs. Equatorial Guinea Healey and Markgraf	D	Bochum
	12 p.m.	ESPN/ESPN3.com	Brazil vs. Norway Darke and Foudy	D	Wolfsburg
Tu 7/5	12 p.m.	ESPN/ESPN3.com	England vs. Japan Healey and Markgraf	B	Augsburg
	12 p.m.	ESPN2/ESPN3.com	New Zealand vs. Mexico Mowins and Whitehill	B	Sinsheim
	2:30 p.m.	ESPN/ESPN3.com	France vs. Germany Darke and Foudy	A	Moenchengladbach
	2:30 p.m.	ESPN2/ESPN3.com	Canada vs. Nigeria Mowins and Whitehill	A	Dresden
We 7/6	11:45 a.m.	ESPN/ESPN3.com	Equatorial Guinea vs. Brazil Mowins and Whitehill	D	Frankfurt
	11:45 a.m.	ESPN2/ESPN3.com	Australia vs. Norway Healey and Markgraf	D	Leverkusen
	2:30 p.m.	ESPN/ESPN3.com	Sweden vs. USA Darke and Foudy	C	Wolfsburg
	2:30 p.m.	ESPN2/ESPN3.com	Korea DPR vs. Colombia Mowins and Whitehill	C	Bochum

Thanks to Mac Nwulu at ESPN for the schedule

Yesterday, we received a tweet into the AA Twitter inbox regarding an online petition that exists to persuade Fox to allow broadcasting legend Vin Scully to announce one more World Series.  The driving force behind the online petition is Daily Stache, a Mets blog.  Already, the online document has over 2,000 signatures.  Here's what the petition says...

Vin Scully, the greatest baseball announcer of all time has not called a World Series Game on Television since Game 5 of the 1988 World Series when his Dodgers defeated the Mighty A’s. As his career comes closer to an end, I feel that this great man and broadcaster needs to have one more chance to shine when the stage shines the brightest, The World Series. Join me in this push to have him get one more chance to crown a World Champion in the way it should always be done, with class, diginity and honor, the way he has done it for over 60 years.

AA supports this petition wholeheartedly!  This is an amazing idea.  Here is the link so you can sign it yourself.  Please do.  Nobody in broadcasting deserves one more moment on the national stage like Vin Scully.  So many great broadcasters of years gone by still have prominent announcing roles - names like Brent Musberger, Dick Enberg, Dick Stockton, and Marv Albert are still at the top of the profession, why would Fox not invite a legend like Vin Scully into their broadcast booth for one World Series? 

As we wrote earlier this week, Fox needs a change in their MLB coverage, even throwing out possible names that Fox could hire to improve their broadcast stable.  What better addition could you make than giving a gracious cameo to the baseball's best announcer... perhaps ever.  I was 2 years old when Vin Scully last announced a World Series game.  Why not provide an opportunity for millions of young baseball fans that have never heard Vin Scully announce a game?  Sure, it wouldn't be the typical Fox broadcast with Buck & McCarver (who have announced the World Series since 1996)... but that's probably a good thing.  In fact, this petition isn't as much of a criticism of Buck & McCarver, rather a way to honor one of sports' best announcers (but I'm sure you could sign it if you just want to get rid of them too).  Going old school with the broadcast may in fact be a welcome decision with old and young fans. 

With Vin working at Fox Sports West calling Dodger games, I doubt the logistics would be too difficult.  Please sign the petition and use Twitter, Facebook, or any means you can think of to help this petition become reality and tell Fox you want to see Vin Scully announce one more World Series.
 

This is legendary sportscaster Dick Enberg's final Wimbledon after 28 years commentating at the All England Club.  While Enberg has certainly lost a step (who wouldn't at 76) in recent years, I actually have enjoyed his work at Wimbledon for ESPN.  Enberg was out of place with the faster pace of the NFL and college basketball, but the slower pace of tennis works well for Dick and his abilities at this stage of his career.  Over the course of his career, Enberg has to be listed in the Top 10 of all-time play by play men - he's announced seemingly every big American sporting event and done so with grace and professionalism.  After Wimbledon, he'll close out his announcing career as play by play man for the San Diego Padres. 

So, it's only fitting that the distinguished, 76 year old Dick Enberg, would close out his illustrious Wimbledon career by talking about "bloody blue balls."  Eww... here's the video from SportsGrid...



The reaction of Chris Evert (also a welcome addition back to the broadcast booth) is priceless.  "Ok, I'll leave that alone."  Do you really think Dick Enberg knew the meaning of blue balls before he went there?  If Regis Philbin can ask Michelle Beadle about the darkest reaches of the internet, I suppose anything is possible.  I just hope this clip makes one of Dick's famous reflective video montages as he says goodbye to Wimbledon.

H/T SportsGrid

The Los Angeles Lakers aren't just shuffling coaches this offseason, with former Cavs head coach Mike Brown replacing Phil Jackson, they are shuffling announcers as well.  Out are TV play by play man Joel Meyers and radio play by play man Spero Dedes.  Replacing them are Fox Sports West's Bill MacDonald on the TV side and ESPN Radio's John Ireland on the radio side.  The plan of the Lakers was to have the 31 year old Dedes, one of the rising stars in broadcasting, to do play by play on television, but Dedes reportedly had a change of heart late in the game... because he will do play by play for the New York Knicks instead.  Here's the report:

Industry sources say that Dedes has already accepted a job as the radio and TV play-by-play man for the New York Knicks, a contract that will allow him to continue working for CBS on the NFL and college basketball.

The job effectively is replacing Gus Johnson on Knicks' radio games, but would allow Dedes to move to the TV side when Mike Breen leaves to do a network assignment for ESPN or ABC.

As far as the Lakers side goes, they've struggled to find an established voice to fill the mic of the legendary Chick Hearn after he passed away in 2002, going through multiple announcers on TV and radio.  Dedes looked like he may have been that guy, but now he's leaving the team and leaving Los Angeles back at square one.  I can't speak to Ireland's play by play abilities, but I've always taken a liking to Billy Mac, even back in the days when he hosted the Carl's Jr. Sports Roundtable (how's that for an obscure reference).  As for Dedes, calling games for the Lakers and Knicks and working several national duties by age 31 is quite an impressive feat.  Dedes is from New Jersey and has worked Nets games in the past, so the move back East makes sense.  Also, the Knicks radio job will allow Dedes to continue appearing on the national stage with CBS, where he's done NFL and NCAA Tournament games recently.

Dedes turns down Lakers' TV gig for Knicks, so it goes to Macdonald - LA Daily News