The Sports Media Thread

[Still MIGHTY]

On 5/31/2016 at 10:46 AM, Cujo said:

Verne Lundquist leaving CBS following 2016. >> Brad Nessler signs on, will take over SEC PBP in '17.

 

Verne is just leaving the SEC coverage after this season. He'll still do college basketball and golf. Verne's not going away completely, thankfully.

 

5 hours ago, CS85 said:

Seems that the majority of negative reactions to day 1 of The Ringer are its sterile layout and Obama/Game of Thrones articles.  It feels like a great deal of people weren't done mourning Grantland.  

 

There's a lot of great resumes on The Ringer's writing staff, but I hope they refine themselves over the next year or two.  HBO may have mandated that he cover Game of Thrones, now that he's under their employ, but it's arguable that they simply wanted to cover pop culture with as equal a take as sports.  That broad of a brush may not be their best choice in the long run.  Refining their scope a bit to the sporting world would be in their best interests.

 

It's arguable, because that's what they're doing. As much as Simmons and Co. say they the Ringer will be different than Grantland, with all the people they've brought over from Grantland, the Ringer will just be Grantland without the ESPN to it. I don't know why it won't be their best choice, because again, it was a success with Grantland. Refining their scope to just sports probably won't help them as much as you think either. If they just focus on sports, the pop culture stuff will seem out of place, and they'll get lost amongst the Deadspins of the world. (I mean, they're going to be competing against Deadspin in that way anyways. Deadspin does a little pop culture, or will repost stuff from other Gawker outlets.) They're also adding some tech pieces, and I don't know exactly how that will go over. That seems slightly out of place to me, but we'll have to see how it develops.

 

As far as the layout, eh. It's pretty basic. Not my favorite, but it's functional. And yeah, like you said and I alluded to, the basketball/Obama/Game of Thrones and stuff... It's Grantland 2.0. Plus, it's ONE DAY. They can't write about everything all at once. They've added the backlog of their newsletter posts, but the newsletter posts were just tastes. It wasn't a full website or the full array of content. Give it at the very very least a week, more like give it a month or two, then complain if you wish. (But this is the Internet. What am I thinking?)

[CS85]

11 minutes ago, Still MIGHTY said:

 

It's arguable, because that's what they're doing. As much as Simmons and Co. say they the Ringer will be different than Grantland, with all the people they've brought over from Grantland, the Ringer will just be Grantland without the ESPN to it. I don't know why it won't be their best choice, because again, it was a success with Grantland. Refining their scope to just sports probably won't help them as much as you think either. If they just focus on sports, the pop culture stuff will seem out of place, and they'll get lost amongst the Deadspins of the world. (I mean, they're going to be competing against Deadspin in that way anyways. Deadspin does a little pop culture, or will repost stuff from other Gawker outlets.) They're also adding some tech pieces, and I don't know exactly how that will go over. That seems slightly out of place to me, but we'll have to see how it develops.

 

As far as the layout, eh. It's pretty basic. Not my favorite, but it's functional. And yeah, like you said and I alluded to, the basketball/Obama/Game of Thrones and stuff... It's Grantland 2.0. Plus, it's ONE DAY. They can't write about everything all at once. They've added the backlog of their newsletter posts, but the newsletter posts were just tastes. It wasn't a full website or the full array of content. Give it at the very very least a week, more like give it a month or two, then complain if you wish. (But this is the Internet. What am I thinking?)

 

Sorry if what I said came off as complaining, because that would imply that I care, which I don't, really.  I think The Ringer is obviously brand new and will undergo refining and sculpting over the next year or so while they figure out their audience, but this morning I spent a good portion of my day reading their articles and was, on the whole, pleased with the content.

[Sport]

I liked the Joe Buck article and that's mostly because I've never really gotten the Joe Buck hate. Once Tank became obsessed with incessantly posting about how much he hates him in the baseball playoffs threads I really took a liking to Buck. 

[2001mark]

The Ringer has gone pretty Kanye on twitter today... hopefully they curb that enthusiasm before the end of summer, or I'll unfollow.

[WSU151]

On 5/31/2016 at 1:46 PM, Cujo said:

Verne Lundquist leaving CBS following 2016. >> Brad Nessler signs on, will take over SEC PBP in '17.

 

Brad Nessler and Gary Danielson were a Big10 announcing team for ESPN in the 90s.  I suppose it'll be good to have them back together again.

[WSU151]

On 5/27/2016 at 2:25 PM, McCarthy said:

Here's another suggestion for a show for the sinking ship. Live podcasts. Get a host, bring an athlete and/or entertainer on, guests who are also sports fans, and shoot the sh!t for an hour. Just conversation. Men in Blazers is the closest thing to this format. I'd watch that. 

 

"Jalen and Jacoby" is essentially this ^^.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

It is. But I don't care for Jacoby.

[MadmanLA]

If anyone checked out today's PTI, in the "Five Good Minutes" segment, as Tony and Mike were coming back from the break, the two were going on about "getting stuffed", and then Tony makes a little slip of sorts, as says "...speaking of getting stuffed, where's Brian Windhorst"

 

Speaking of Tony Kornheiser, he's ending his daily radio show on WTEM in Washington, at the end of the month, and will transition to a podcast starting in September.

 

http://awfulannouncing.com/2016/tony-kornheiser-ending-d-c-radio-show-starting-podcast-in-september.html

[DG_ThenNowForever]

Quick Ringer NFL podcast review: Hey we can swear now!

[dfwabel]

ESPN called in Stephen A. and Wilbon into the local studio (KGO) at 10pm on the night Ali dies.

 

Wilbon is a few bottles of wine in and tipsy. His eyes are sleepy.

[Still MIGHTY]

I just want to give a shout out to Bob Ley. What a god damn professional.

 

Live on the air at 3 a.m. Eastern for the Muhammad Ali coverage. God knows where Bob was. If he had to drive in, if he was there. But because Bob Ley is the best thing journalistically that ESPN has, he comes in and commands the desk at three in the morning just like he does in the middle of the afternoon on Outside the Lines. Seriously, what a pro. Really, the best.

 

EDIT: He's also trying to reel in Teddy Atlas on a live hit outside the Bell Centre in Montreal at 3 a.m. Not an easy task... ever.

 

DOUBLE EDIT: Actually, real credit to ESPN here tonight. All hands on deck. SVP, John Anderson, Jeremy Schaap, Ley, of course. Good job, WWL. Really, say what we will about ESPN, they are the only sports network that could pull this off. FS1 is showing a Jay & Dan repeat (I believe, even a repeat of a clip show). NBCSN is showing an informercial for Stevie Wonder, Jackson 5, and Marvin Gaye. CBSSN is showing poker.

[dfwabel]

23 minutes ago, Still MIGHTY said:

I just want to give a shout out to Bob Ley. What a god damn professional.

 

Live on the air at 3 a.m. Eastern for the Muhammad Ali coverage. God knows where Bob was. If he had to drive in, if he was there. But because Bob Ley is the best thing journalistically that ESPN has, he comes in and commands the desk at three in the morning just like he does in the middle of the afternoon on Outside the Lines. Seriously, what a pro. Really, the best.

 

EDIT: He's also trying to reel in Teddy Atlas on a live hit outside the Bell Centre in Montreal at 3 a.m. Not an easy task... ever.

Credit to many at ESPN for either coming in or just staying behind the scenes.

 

Joe Tess and Teddy are working in Montreal for PBC as contractors

ESPN has the PBC promoter buy the air time.

 

Luckily, ESPN's main boxing writer, Dan Rafael was in Connecticut for a card at Mohegan Sun on Saturday, so he was a car away.  Osuna had a camera with him as he covered Copa America tonight in Santa Clara.

 

Meanwhile, FS1 was not live nor were they piping into Fox News Channel. Just a crawler.

 

Even if you drop your news staff, how can FS1 not be ready for this?

[infrared41]

On 6/2/2016 at 10:25 PM, McCarthy said:

I liked the Joe Buck article and that's mostly because I've never really gotten the Joe Buck hate. Once Tank became obsessed with incessantly posting about how much he hates him in the baseball playoffs threads I really took a liking to Buck. 

 

Same here. I think hating on Joe Buck is more fashion than anything else these days. Anyway, I can't think of a single time I've ever thought "wow, Joe Buck is doing a terrible job on this game." The guy is a real pro, but he doesn't scream his head off so I guess that means he sucks. 

[The_Admiral]

Joe Buck is technically sound (he once dropped in on a Blues telecast and just by wingin' it, immediately sounded better than the lower third of NHL pbp men), but the terse verbiage and silence that seemed momentous from Summerall and Scully here seem like a guy who's seen it all and would rather be someplace else. He's like the perfect #2 announce team guy, but always feels like a wet blanket on big moments in championships.

[infrared41]

12 hours ago, the admiral said:

Joe Buck is technically sound (he once dropped in on a Blues telecast and just by wingin' it, immediately sounded better than the lower third of NHL pbp men), but the terse verbiage and silence that seemed momentous from Summerall and Scully here seem like a guy who's seen it all and would rather be someplace else. He's like the perfect #2 announce team guy, but always feels like a wet blanket on big moments in championships.

 

My opinion is there are maybe four or five PBP guys who make every game they call sound like a big event (which is something I enjoy) and Joe Buck is definitely one of them. 

[dfwabel]

If you break UFC news before Dana White does, he escorts you from the event and bans your "forever".

 

White also was key in Helwani leaving FS1 earlier this year.

[OnWis97]

18 hours ago, infrared41 said:

 

Same here. I think hating on Joe Buck is more fashion than anything else these days. Anyway, I can't think of a single time I've ever thought "wow, Joe Buck is doing a terrible job on this game." The guy is a real pro, but he doesn't scream his head off so I guess that means he sucks. 

Joe Nickelbuck.

 

I don't know...I tend not to be too hard on these guys because it's not an easy job.  His freak-out about the Randy Moss faux-moon was pretty lame, but I suppose he figured he has be be un-supportive of something like that lest he receive hate-mail from One Million Moms or someone.

 

But for the most part, I think it's fun for fans to nit-pick things like that (like I did above) about media/announcers they see all the time...it's easy from the cheap seats.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

Joe Buck is paired with Troy Aikman, yeah?

 

My problem with the Fox #1 team is they always sound so disinterested in the (Cowboys) game they're broadcasting. They always sound so perfunctory.

 

I don't watch baseball, so no opinion on his MLB work.

[The_Admiral]

2 hours ago, DG_Now said:

My problem with the Fox #1 team is they always sound so disinterested in the (Cowboys) game they're broadcasting. They always sound so perfunctory.

 

There was a line in the Ringer piece that lauded Buck for opening telecasts with a tossed-off "I'm Joe, he's Troy" as if he was puncturing the artifice of sportscasting or something. Again, maybe that would work from someone else, but from him, it just sounds bored. 

 

The problem with this new "Ironically Detached Joe Buck" is that sincerity always triumphs over irony in the end.

[infrared41]

3 hours ago, DG_Now said:

Joe Buck is paired with Troy Aikman, yeah?

 

My problem with the Fox #1 team is they always sound so disinterested in the (Cowboys) game they're broadcasting. They always sound so perfunctory.

 

I don't watch baseball, so no opinion on his MLB work.

 

Just take the NFL stuff and add the following - Joe Buck hates your team and he loves the team your team is playing. He's an unabashed Cardinals homer, except that Cardinals fans are convinced that Buck hates the Cardinals too. That's all you really need to know to get an idea of how he calls MLB.