Time for Your Friday Megalinks

Let’s get started. I’ve been away from the office on errands, but let’s give your weekly Friday megalinks. It usually takes me two hours to compile so let’s get to them without any further delay.

This week, I’ll go East to West like I usually do. Starting first with USA Today, Michael Hiestand writes about Dan Patrick forging a partnership with Sports Illustrated.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch writes in his Media Circus column that Joe Torre would be a great choice for TBS as an analyst for next season.

David Scott of Boston Sports Media Watch writes about Fox25 in Boston getting burned by an “F” bomb live from Red Sox pitcher Josh Beckett (ha!) and about a health scare for NESN’s Eric Frede.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times has two good stories. First is on the similarities in the dismissal of New York Yankees managers Casey Stengel and Joe Torre some 47 years apart. And Sandomir’s second story concerns Dan Patrick Incorporated.

Newsday’s Neil Best talks with former CBS Sports President and now TV consultant, Neil “The Butcher” Pilson, who scoffs at agent Scott Boras’ claims that the YES Network’s recent success can be tied to Yankee Alex Rodriguez. Best also writes that the Yankees and other media outlets are not happy with ESPN for carrying its conference call live announcing Joe Torre’s departure, breaking rules set beforehand. And in his blog, Best has some leftover stuff from ESPN/ABC’s Jeff Van Gundy that didn’t make his column. Finally, Best has more on WFAN’s Mike Francesca’s candidacy for Monday Night Football earlier in this decade.

The New York Daily News’ Bob Raissman says neither YES nor WFAN were the place to turn for the latest news on Joe Torre.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post has suggestions for ESPN on how it can fix Monday Night Football. Justin Terranova of the Post has five questions for TBS’ Tony Gwynn on the Colorado Rockies.

Laura Nachman of the Bucks Courier County Times and lauranachman.net writes about Philadelphia Eagles radio announcer Merrill Reece reliving his old days on Temple University’s student radio station.

Jim Williams of the DC/Baltimore Examiner writes in his Watch This! blog that ESPN will provide plenty of Joe Torre coverage today.

Ray Frager of the Baltimore Sun strings a bunch of thoughts together for his weekly Friday column including his feelings about Fox’s Tim McCarver and the network’s tight closeups during the American League Championship Series. And in his Medium Well blog, Frager provides radio ratings for Orioles games.

Doug Nye in The State says South Carolina despite being ranked #6 in the college football polls still gets no respect from the TV networks (I know that’s an awkward sentence, but it’s my blog, sue me). And Nye has his weekend viewing picks.

Down to Miami and the Herald where Barry Jackson says the Dolphins broadcast team of Jimmy Cefalo, Joe Rose and Jim Mandich are meshing well and Panthers new play-by-play man Randy Moller is adjusting well into his new role. And Jackson has Dolphins’ Defensive End Jason Taylor denying he told SI’s Peter King that he wanted to be traded.

Dave Darling of the Orlando Sentinel has noticed that Fox likes to cram in the crowd shots during its baseball coverage.

David Barron from the Houston Chronicle writes that the city is among the bottom two or three in major markets for viewing the American or National League Championship Series.

Judd Zulgad in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune writes that there’s plenty of apathy towards the NLCS.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel writes about the potential conflict between Monday Night Football between Green Bay and Denver and Game 5 of the World Series which could have the Colorado Rockies hosting either Cleveland or Boston across the street.

Let’s head out west and the San Diego area first where Jay Posner of the Union-Tribune writes about the upcoming competition of two sports radio stations in the market. And Posner has a more extensive column today which starts off with his thoughts on the potential ratings for the upcoming World Series on Fox. And Posner has the TV ratings for sports last week in San Diego.

To the North County Times where John Maffei also gives his thoughts on the war between XTRA and XX sports radio.

Let’s move up the California coast to the LA area and we go to the Ventura County Star and Jim Carlisle who writes that local listeners will still have to struggle to hear Dodgers and Angels games even though both teams changed flagship radio stations this week.

In her Sound and Vision column in the Los Angeles Times, Christine Daniels gives her viewing picks for the weekend including the USC Trojans vs. Notre Dame on NBC and Cal at UCLA on ABC.

From the Los Angeles Daily News, Tom Hoffarth writes about a new book about Jackie Robinson. And Hoffarth talks about the malfunction that led to the cablecam falling down on NBC’s Sunday Night Football and causing a delay in the New Orleans-Seattle game. Hoffarth also gives his extensive media notes column in his Farther Off the Wall blog.

Finally, we go up to Canada to get the media columns from the Toronto Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star.

First, William Houston in the Globe and Mail who suggests if the NHL wants to expand, it could do no worse in Europe where hockey is actually loved.

And Chris Zelkovich in the Star has the story of a bar owner steaming mad at Leafs TV asking him to pay more than $1,500 Canadian to show Toronto Maple Leafs games at his establishment. And another story from Zelkovich focuses on the NHL studio analysts for TSN.

There you go for now. Yes, it took exactly two hours for me to gather all the links for you. I should be back with an update later this afternoon and I’ll be monitoring Joe Torre’s press conference at 2 p.m. ET so check back later throughout the day.