Our Mid-Week Linkage

Another day, another scorcher. It’s hot. But you know that. It’s summer. It gets hot. Nothing more need be said about it.

Let’s get to linkage.

Robert Klemko of USA Today has the ratings of some of the weekend TV events.

Even before ESPN announced that LeBron James would make an announcement on where he was going on Thursday on ESPN, Fox Sports’ Brian Lowry announced that he’s sick of the LeBron madness.

Jim Litke of the Associated Press says our long national nightmare with LeBron James will be over soon.

On The DL’s Dan Levy talks with Stephen A. “A is for Acrimonious” Smith about the LeBron story.

You can follow by reading the transcript at the Sporting News’ Sporting Blog.

Jon Friedman of MarketWatch says ESPN is the big winner in the LeBron James free agency sweepstakes.

Bill Cromwell of Media Life Magazine looks at the Thursday one hour special devoted to LeBron James’ announcement.

Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life says Wimbledon took a big hit in the ratings this year.

Toni mentions that World Cup sponsors seemed to have won over ambush marketers who tried to latch on to the event.

The Nielsen Wire blog notes that official World Cup sponsors have scored with TV ads in both the United States and in the United Kingdom.

Milton Kent of Fanhouse talks with new Fox Sports NFL rules analyst Mike Pereira.

Mike Florio in Pro Football Talk says NFL Commish Roger Goodell has given his blessing to Pereira that he can point out officials’ mistakes on Fox.

Anthony Crupi in Mediaweek says Fox has hired a new man to head up its Cable Sports ad sales.

Eriq Gardner in the Hollywood Reporter talks about ESPN winning its round in court against Don King.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell noticed that Wimbledon men’s finalist Tomas Berdych did not use a racket that he was paid to endorse.

TMZ reports that the Erin Andrews stalker, Michael David Barrett won’t have to foot ESPN’s bill for extra security for Erin.

Ed Daigneault in the Waterbury (CT) Republican-American feels the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network seems to emphasizing more entertainment than sports.

Marc Berman of the New York Post looks at the LeBron James Show on ESPN.

Jonathan Abrams of the New York Times says James will use ESPN instead of social networks to make his announcement.

Frank Isola of the New York Daily News says James is reaching a whole new level of absurdity.

Pete Dougherty in the Albany Times Union says a local sports talk show is filling out a week of guest hosts.

Pete also asks readers which YES announcers are expendable.

Colin Dunlap of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes that starting this fall, West Virginia football and basketball games will be heard in the Steel City.

Sarah Talalay of the South Florida Sun Sentinel says Dwayne Wade’s child custody issues will not prevent him from re-signing with the Miami Heat.

Mark Bradley of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution notes that ESPN is LeBron James’ sidekick.

LeBron James beat reporter Brian Windhorst of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer says James caught everyone including the NBA flat-footed with his ESPN announcement and social networking.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer says the new Pete Rose movie debuts today.

Lynne Marek in Crain’s Detroit Business notes that the Big Ten Network has become a cash cow.

Bob Wolfley in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tells us not to expect any changes to the MLB video replay policy.

Crain’s Chicago Business’ Ed Sherman says the Bears are premiering a new series on rookie minicamp on its website.

Ed says the White Sox’s attendance has been going up thanks to its recent winning ways.

And Ed notes that it’s not looking good for the Bulls to land Chris Bosh, Dwayne Wade or LeBron James.

Ed Graney of the Las Vegas
Review-Journal is also fed up of reading and watching news about LeBron.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says there are many ways to monitor where LeBron will end up next.

Tom talks about the All Sports Los Angeles Film Festival.

Tom also discusses the Pete Rose film which premieres at the aforementioned film festival tonight.

The San Francisco Chronicle picks up an Associated Press article from Frazier Moore who says there’s good 3-D TV and there’s also bad 3-D TV.

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star has the TV ratings in Canada.

The Canwest News Service says the NFL Network was happy with the debut of Canadian Football last week.

The Winnepeg Free Press picks up a Canadian Press story on CBC’s good ratings for the World Cup quarterfinals.

Channel Canada says TSN and TSN 2 received record ratings for their coverage of NHL Free Agent Frenzy and the CFL season opener.

The Sports Media Watch continues its look at the state of the networks and today, it’s CBS and Fox.

SMW says the NASCAR Nationwide Series got a ratings bump last Friday.

SMW notes the lower ratings for Wimbledon this year.

Sox & Dawgs has NESN video of Red Sox utility man Bill Hall talking to teammates during batting practice.

Phil Kurz of Broadcast Engineering talks with a broadcast engineer on 2010 being a bellweather year for 3-D TV.

EPL Talk speculates on what the 2014 World Cup in Brazil will look like both on TV and social networking.

Ryan Ballangee in Waggle Room would love to see a golf version of DirecTV’s NFL Red Zone Channel.

Plenty of linkage today. Good stuff. More later.

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