Thirty years ago today, something called "ESPN" showed up on America's cable and satellite TV systems. I can't swear that I've been watching it from the very beginning, but if not, it was pretty close.
I first heard of the future worldwide leader when the newspaper in my home town of Fort Dodge, Ia., announced that we'd be getting some new channels on our cable system. One of them was something called the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, or something like that. It promised to bring sports news and game broadcasts.
If you remember the 1970s, you remember that sports used to be doled out pretty stingily by the Big Three networks. The NFL, the NBA, and MLB were somewhat available. Golf, tennis, and bowling were around. You could count on one -- and only one -- college football game a week. It wasn't enough.
Major League Baseball has generally been the lead dog when it comes to the major American sports and taking advantage of the Internet and technology. They have MLB.tv, which is like, the greatest thing ever for a baseball fanatic such as myself, and they also came out with an application for the iPhone as soon as it hit the shelves. They also have MLB.com which brings in over 60 million unique visitors a month, and now they're looking to expand on it.
Since MLB.com doesn't offer anything but the facts of the games and stories going on throughout the league, MLB has decided that it needs a new outlet in which they can share opinions and commentary about the world of baseball. Which is why MLB Advanced Media plans on releasing its own online newspaper in May.
A long, long time ago when I was a teenager ESPN was actually a network that was dedicated to showing sports. The showcase of the network was SportsCenter, which every day showed highlights from every single game played in the country, without any interruptions from Coors Light or their cold, hard previously scripted opinions. It was during these halycon days of ESPN that the world was introduced to the duo of Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann.
Eventually Olbermann would leave the network, instead choosing to spend his time talking about politics on MSNBC, but you knew that much like the mafia, just when he thought he was out, the sports would pull Olbermann back in. It all started with his work on NBC's Sunday Night Football, and now Olbermann has taken the next logical step in his return to the welcoming arms of the sporting world. He's become a baseball blogger.
By all accounts, Rich Eisen seems like a nice enough guy. He does a great job on NFL Network, as he did at ESPN, and never really ruffles any feathers. I guess the same can't be said about his wife and former ABC sportscaster Suzy Shuster, who writes a little for The Huffington Post.
Shuster decided on Friday that the Sarah Palin act had gone too far, only it wasn't the "I'm a good ol' fashioned mom" act that led Tina Fey to revive her Saturday Night Live career, no, the act Schuster takes offense to is the supposed "quit flaunting your five-month old baby Trig" act that only Shuster seems to take offense to. Trig, as you probably know, is Palin's youngest child, who was also diagnosed with Down Syndrome.
It actually came after the debate, when for seemingly the millionth time, Sarah Palin trotted out her piece de resistance, her favorite prop of this campaign season: her five and a half month old son Trig.
Why is this child up so late every time there is a camera op? Why isn't this baby sleeping in a crib or bassinet somewhere with a sleep sheep or some other sound apparatus lulling him into night-night? Is it just me or does it seem like she carts this poor child around like a living breathing example of how wonderful a mom she is? After all, she's more than adopted the "I'm just a mom, just like you moms out there, America" attitude.
For those of you sitting around pining for the golden age of "SportsCenter," some good news via the New York Times' Richard Sandomir: the band's getting back together ... on NBC!
Dan Patrick, who left ESPN last year to create his own syndicated radio program and write a column for Sports Illustrated, will join NBC Sports where he will be reunited with Keith Olbermann to call the N.F.L. highlights on "Football Night in America."
Anyway, according to Sandomir, "NBC is looking to recreate the chemistry and quirky humor that Patrick and Olbermann demonstrated when they were co-anchors on ESPN's 'SportsCenter,' which they dubbed 'The Big Show.'"
Olbermann was with the "Football Night in America" crew last season serving as something of a social commentator (you may remember him from such forgettable segments as, "Michael Vick, Not Michael Victim"). Whatever, I welcome the change, if for no other reason than a) I grew up watching Patrick and Olbermann, and b) less Bob Costas for everyone!
Keith Olbermann is now the poster boy for left wing political news commentary, via his Countdown show which airs nightly on MSNBC. But it didn't used to be that way. Olbermann spent over 20 years as a sports broadcaster, including five as an anchor on ESPN's SportsCenter. So it was a little surprising when, as they showed Chauncey Billups at the Gore-Obama rally in Michigan last night, Olbermann went flipping through his notes to try to figure out what team Billups plays for.
Here's a hint, Keith: the rally's in Detroit. It's not like Billups has toiled away in obscurity either, the guy has played in the Eastern Conference Finals for the last six years. I guess Keith is much like the rest of us, in that at times, our real job is all-consuming and leaves us little time to pay attention to sports.
The ultimate symbol of success for an NFL player is a Super Bowl ring -- the ring that signifies that the wearer was on a championship team. But players on the team that loses the Super Bowl usually get a conference championship ring, too. And last night on NBC, Keith Olbermann poked fun at Cris Collinsworth for wearing his conference championship "Super Bowl" ring after losing in Super Bowl XVI:
I have to say, Olbermann is right on that one. You don't go around referring to a piece of jewelry as a "Super Bowl ring" unless you got it for winning a Super Bowl. In fairness, it wasn't actually Collinsworth who referred to that ring as a Super Bowl ring. But I'm glad Jerome Bettis put Collinsworth in his place by showing him a real Super Bowl ring.
Q: Is there any aspect of broadcasting you haven't tried that you would like to?
Olbermann: I've always wanted to be play-by-play voice for the New York Yankees. That was my original intent in this business. If that opportunity ever arose down the road -- I don't expect it to -- but I always thought that at some point I might just toss all this stuff out the window and say, "You know, I'm going to go do the Durham Bulls games or something for a season on radio."
Tread lightly, John Sterling, tread lightly. I don't actually see this happening, but when Sterling does eventually step down, you know the Yankees will at least consider going after a big name. Olbermann may be a bit too polarizing simply because of his (very public) politics, though he makes a good point elsewhere in the article that he makes a distinct effort to keep his personal views out of play when he's doing a sports broadcast.
A couple of things: As MDS mentioned, it's still not clear what Olbermann's thoughts are on the situation, but give the guy credit for admitting that he came off like a dumbass during his initial comments on August 26, and clarifying them -- or at least trying to -- tonight.
Also, I love how Cris Collinsworth adds: "So basically you're going to do a commentary, and then backtrack the next week." And then, out of nowhere he chimes in with: "Tiki [Barber] had to be a close second [in the running for Worst Person in the NFL this week]." Somebody got a joke book for Labor Day.
Well, it turns out that Olbermann thinks it was a pretty stupid commentary, too. At halftime of tonight's game, Olbermann declared himself "the worst person in the NFL" and said of last week's commentary, "boy did I write that thing badly."
I'm still not entirely clear on what, exactly, Olbermann's opinion of Vick is, but it's good to know that he no longer stands by what was a pretty dumb opinion.
Major League Baseball has generally been the lead dog when it comes to the major American sports and taking advantage of the Internet and technology. They have MLB.tv, which is like, the greatest thing ever for a baseball fanatic such as myself, and they also came out with an application for the iPhone as soon as it hit the shelves. They also have MLB.com which brings in over 60 million unique visitors a month, and now they're looking to expand on it.
A long, long time ago when I was a teenager ESPN was actually a network that was dedicated to showing sports. The showcase of the network was SportsCenter, which every day showed highlights from every single game played in the country, without any interruptions from Coors Light or their cold, hard previously scripted opinions. It was during these halycon days of ESPN that the world was introduced to the duo of 
By all accounts, 
Not content with hosting his own show on MSNBC and appearing as part of NBC's ensemble for Sunday Night Football, 
