Notes

With the advent of newspaper columnists doing blogs, we now get some interesting notes. I do like the Newsday Watchdog blog done by Neil Best. I linked to an article from him yesterday in regards to New York City midday sports radio programs. Best said the programs on WFAN and ESPN Radio 1050 were less than inspiring. That led to a mini-confrontation between midday host Max Kellerman and Best which turned out to be quite congenial between the two. Best wrote in his blog that he was going to ESPN Radio to meet with its Program Director when Kellerman announced he was going to have it out with Best.

Best wrote:

It turned out to be the most pleasant, productive chat possible between a columnist/ripper and his rippee. We agreed to disagree on some points and sort of agreed on others. He respected my right not to like his shtick and expressed hope that when I’m finally replaced by someone younger who gets the concept of his approach my successor will appreciate him more. Touche!

Anyway, it was an impressively grownup conversation with a guy whom I had just urged to “grow up” in black ink in hundreds of thousands of copies of one of America’s largest, most respected newspapers.

Bob Wolfey in his blog at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has the story in which ESPN’s Steve Young defends Green Bay Packer Quarterback Brett Favre over his frustration in not getting Randy Moss. And Wolfey also talks to CBS Sports Analyst Boomer Esiason.

Interesting article by Michael Griffin, who’s the Assistant Dean at the Charlton School of Business at UMass-Dartmouth. He laments that the Red Sox have to use all types of different methods to generate revenue. That includes its regional sports network, NESN, which launches a Sox-related dating reality show in July. I kid you not. Griffin says it much easier being a fan during the Impossible Dream year of 1967.

Do you live in an area where you get blackouts for baseball games? So are many fans who live in fringe areas that can’t see certain games when your team is on Fox? ESPN? Your area RSN? Baseball owners are going to meet to try to fix it, but in the meantime, fans are stuck with some antiquated blackout rules when they live hundreds of miles away from their home team. John Helyar of ESPN.com examines this.

CBS Upfronts begin in a half hour. We’ll have coverage when they’re done.