The Quiet Before the Storm Links

Today being NCAA Tournament eve, finding links today is like trying to find that proverbial needle in a haystack.

The biggest news from New England was the Red Sox threatening to boycott their Opening Day trip to Japan if their coaches were not properly compensated. ESPN was airing the Blue Jays-Red Sox exhibition game from Fort Myers, FL and had to fill for an hour while MLB had to scramble to (A) convince the Red Sox to take the field with the Blue Jays, and (B) convince the Sox to board their plane this afternoon. Because there isn’t much happening down in Spring Training, this had the Red Sox beat reporters scrambling as if it was Watergate. The whole thing blew over and the Sox played their game and they’re getting ready to board their plane, but it was funny to see the Globe and Herald update their Red Sox blogs between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. today. I won’t link to them as it’s not worth it now.

Let’s get to some links while I can.

Good friend, Bruce Allen from Boston Sports Media Watch has the quotes from TNT’s Inside the NBA crew as well as analyst Doug Collins who called last night’s Celtics-Rockets game.

Newsday’s Neil Best deduces NBC’s final regular season NHL Game of the Week telecast on April 6th and it most likely won’t involve the New York Rangers. And Neil wishes a 69th birthday to legendary Rangers radio and TV analyst Sal “Red Light” Messina. A quick aside. Marv Albert certainly liked to give his partners the nicknames. Sal was “Red Light”. Ferdie Pacheco was “The Fight Doctor”. Mike Fratello became the “Czar of the Telestrator”. I don’t think he ever gave one to Jon Andresie or Bucky Waters, however.

Neil provides a link to Sports Business Daily’s Tripp Mickle and Eric Fisher who report that Madison Square Garden has had its lawsuit against the NHL thrown out. Apparently MSG did not like the NHL controlling new media rights for the New York Rangers. The suit was tossed and the court called it “without merit.” Ouch.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell is skeptical of stories involving Tiger Woods and his homes.

Speaking of Tiger Woods, NBC Sports is going to ride his coattails for as long as possible. It’s providing four hours of coverage on both Saturday and Sunday for the WGC Championships at Doral, FL this weekend.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News writes about a viewer who wants to see CBS’ pregame show for the NCAA Tournament rather than local news.

Laura Nachman outlines Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia’s plans to cover Temple and Villanova in the college basketball postseason.

A couple of press releases from ESPN. First, the ESPN family of networks will have coverage of the NCAA Men’s Hockey Tournament starting with the Selection Show this Sunday. Neil Best referred to this earlier today, that ESPN will have Baseball Tonight live from Yankee Stadium on Opening Day, March 31 and have extensive coverage of five games live from coast to coast.

Here is the schedule for Opening Day:

I’m sure many of you have noted that the lovely Erin Andrews will be in LA for the Giants-Dodgers game. And if you didn’t know, Candy Maldonado is a man, so don’t go out of your way to watch the Astros-Padres thinking that ESPN has hired another sideline babe.

That’s all for now.