All Times Eastern

Australian Rules Football
Richmond Tigers vs. Adelaide Crows -- Fox Soccer Plus, 11:30 p.m.

Boxing
Fight Night, Bethlehem, PA
Heavyweights: Bryant Jennings vs. Andrey Fedosov -- NBC Sports Network, 8 p.m.

Friday Night Fights, West Orange, NJ
Jundy Maraon vs. Juan Carlos Payano -- ESPN2, 9 p.m.

College Baseball
2013 College World Series Press Conference -- ESPNU, noon & 3 p.m.

College Football
College Football Live -- ESPN2, 3:30 p.m.

During last night's Boston Red Sox-Tampa Bay Rays game, Sun Sports announcers DeWayne Staats and Brian Anderson lost a plastic bottle that they thought had gone overboard. However, they found it had stayed on the lip of their broadcast booth and had not fallen into the Tropicana Field crowd. 

So an enterprising Anderson found a fishing net and managed to retrieve it. The results are shown above. The lesson here is that local announcers never work without a net. You never know when you're going to need one. 

[MLB.com]

One thing has to be understood when talking about television ratings.  Ratings are relative.  A good number for one league or network would be a horrible number for another.  Demos are significant.  Who's watching is sometimes more significant than how many are watching.  Moreso though, trends are significant.  For instance, it's noteworthy that NASCAR's ratings have plummeted in recent years even though the racing series still has numbers that MLB would yearn for on a weekly basis.  It's good for the NHL that its numbers are up even though they're light years from the NBA.

Another example of these growing trends is soccer.  Soccer's ratings are still not close to the four major sports on most occasions, but the positive signs are there.  Last night's World Cup Qualifier on ESPN between the USA and Panama was another step in the right direction.  The match was the second highest rated WCQ match or friendly in network history, delivering 1.4 million viewers and a .8 rating.  Those numbers fall just short of the US-Mexico game earlier this qualifying cycle that drew an impressive 2.4 million.  And considering the game was going up against the NBA Finals, it can be considered an even bigger success.

Again, soccer has a loooong way to go before it reaches even NHL level viewership to keep viewership numbers in perspective.  However, if these numbers keep pace, ESPN will see viewership continue to grow throughout World Cup Qualifying and all the way to Brazil for the 2014 World Cup and what should be record viewership for soccer in America.  At a time when ratings are declining for almost every other sport, it's encouraging for fans of the beautiful game to be trending in the right direction.

[ESPN]

The Confederations Cup is the warm-up event to the World Cup.  Featuring the continental champions from around the globe, the event is played in the host country for the World Cup and played a year prior to the biggest sporting event in the world.  This year, the Confed Cup takes place in Brazil and in continuing their excellent commitment to world soccer, ESPN will cover all the games.  Here's some highlights from ESPN's coverage plans...

Puns and allusions in sports headlines can be good, but not so much when they seem to be referencing the Holocaust. That's how many interpreted the Edmonton Sun's "Camp Concentration" headline on their back cover Wednesday, which was promoting a spread on the progress of the CFL's Edmonton Eskimos' training camp but may have violated Godwin's Law in the process. The headline was quickly pointed out and criticized by many on Twitter. Here are some of the best tweets in response:

Really? twitter.com/Wittmeier/stat…

— Brent Wittmeier (@Wittmeier) June 12, 2013

"Good one, Edmonton Sun." —things no Jew would say upon opening today's paper twitter.com/Wittmeier/stat…

— Omar Mouallem (@omar_aok) June 12, 2013

If I had a Edmonton Sun subscription I'd cancel it over today's headline.

— Duncan Wojtaszek (@phendrana) June 12, 2013

How many reasons do I need to ignore the Calgary + Edmonton Sun papers & @sunnewsnetwork?twitter.com/Wittmeier/stat… #yyc #yeg

— musicbaum (@musicbaum) June 12, 2013

“@dylpurcell: Wow. The Edmonton Sun ran a Concentration Camp pun on its sports page front. Stay classy.” Definitely still too soon.

— Tony Champagne (@TonyChampagne) June 12, 2013

@edmontonsun @marty_chan @kikkiplanet @paulatics Holy crap!There should be a VERY public apology for this appallingly ignorant headline.

— Laurie (@BrdwyBaby67) June 12, 2013

The Sun's Twitter account spent most of the day apologizing. Here's one of the many apologies they tweeted out.

We apologize for that headline. It was an error in judgment and extremely insensitive. Again, sorry.@kikkiplanet @paulatics

— Edmonton Sun (@Edmontonsun) June 12, 2013

So, despite some readers not seeing the problem here, these kind of headlines are probably something most newspapers want to avoid in the future. At least the Sun provided us all with a good example of one not to use...

The Chicago Bears have been one of the worst franchises in the NFL at finding talent through the draft for a generation.  Trust me, I know, my brother is a Bears fan.  I've seen it all - terrible quarterbacks who couldn't get the offense across midfield (Cade McNown), awful linemen who were a waste (Chris Williams and most recently Gabe Carimi), running backs who didn't last (Rashaan Salaam, Curtis Enis), and that's not to mention other high draft picks that never panned out (Dan Bazuin, Mike Okwo, some guy that could jump out of a pool, etc.).  Oh, and Rex Grossman.

In light of Carimi's trade to Tampa Bay for a 6th round pick (!) after injury plagued disappointment in Chicago, RedEye Chicago published a list of the biggest busts in recent Bears memory. At #1 on their list came a surprise - former receiver David Terrell, who played just four seasons in Chicago, caught a whopping 9 TDs, and totalled 1602 yards.

Sure, those are terrible numbers, but placing him above McNown, Enis, and Salaam is downright controversial.  At least one person thought so.

That person was David Terrell.

Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Blackhawks and Bruins last night was, in a word, awesome. Three overtimes, skilled play, and drama by the bucketload made for one of the most entertaining hockey games in recent memory.

However, there were some people who weren't exactly thrilled with the game. There were plenty of viewers who were more than upset that the long NHL game was delaying their viewing of Jay Leno and Jimmy Fallon. The overreactions and complete ignorance to the situation was a site to behold. As always, these are Real Tweets from Real People...

Kevin Hart's on the Jay Leno show tonight...and I'm missing it because of this stupid hockey game

— Adam Larivee (@_Larivee_) June 13, 2013

Hey look, Chris Berman is back doing golf again!

In other words..

And now for the rest of your US Open coverage details, which should be much more palatable to the golfing public...

2013 US Open, Merion Golf Club

Thursday, June 13 - Sunday, June 16

NBC & ESPN/ESPN Radio

NBC

Host: Bob Costas;
Commentators: Dan Hicks & Johnny Miller (18th Hole)
Hole Reporters: Gary Koch & Peter Jacobsen
On-course Reporters: Roger Maltbie, Mark Rolfing & Notah Begay
Interviews: Steve Sands; Jimmy Roberts

ESPN

Co-Hosts: Chris Berman & Mike Tirico
Commentators: Berman & Roger Maltbie; Tirico & Paul Azinger (18th hole)
Hole Announcers: Curtis Strange, Sean McDonough, Scott Van Pelt, Terry Gannon
On-course Reporters: Andy North, Judy Rankin, Dottie Pepper, Bill Kratzert
Interviews: Tom Rinaldi

Thursday, June 13 & Friday, June 14

First & Second Round

ESPN - 9AM-3PM & 5PM -7PM
NBC - 3PM-5PM
ESPN Radio - 10AM-4PM

Saturday, June 15 & Sunday, June 16

Third & Fourth Round

NBC - Noon to 7:30PM
ESPN Radio - 2PM-8PM  

H/T Sammy!

Expectations were high heading into Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday between the Blackhawks and Bruins. The triple overtime thriller delivered in spades for NBC, drawing a 4.8 overnight rating that is the highest the NHL has seen since 1997's Final between the Red Wings and Flyers on Fox.

Locally, the game crushed all other competition. In Chicago, the game drew a 25.1 overnight, up 49% from Game 1 of the Blackhawks' 2010 Final with the Flyers. In Boston, it drew a 28.1 overnight, up 10% from Game 1 of the Bruins' 2011 Final with the Canucks. 

After a pair of Conference Finals that did ridiculously well for NBC and the NHL, they've got to be happy with the start of the Stanley Cup Final. The overnight for Game 1 actually ended up topping the Belmont Stakes on NBC (4.6), was even with Game 4 of the Heat-Bucks Eastern Conference Quarterfinals on ABC, and was a hair below Game 1 of ABC's Pacers-Knicks Eastern Conference Semifinals. Considering the weaker than predicted viewership numbers heading into the NBA Finals on ABC, I wouldn't be surprised if the Stanley Cup Final games that aired on NBC continued to perform very well in comparison. If this series gets anymore games like last night's classic it could lead to some of the biggest ratings the NHL has ever seen.

A time warp has apparently transported the world back to 2008. At least, that's the most logical explanation for NBC Sports' executive producer Sam Flood's comments to SI's Richard Deitsch about critics of Pierre McGuire before Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, which sound like they could have come from Buzz Bissinger circa that earlier era: