THE problem with all-sports networks is that we expect too much of them. We expect that given their only focus, they will know at least as much as those inclined to watch and listen. And that’s a mistake.
On Wednesday, the Big Ten Network presented “The Big Ten’s Greatest Games,” this one an ABC telecast of the 1984 Boston College-Penn State football game. BTN encouraged us to stick around to see “which Big Ten school will prevail.”
In what? BC never has been a Big Ten school, and Penn State didn’t become one until 1990.
During the telecast, BTN inserted a graphic noting that Doug Flutie, BC’s quarterback, won the “Davie O’Brien Award” that year as the nation’s best college QB.
Of course, just as ESPN should know that Charlie Manuel is not the “head coach” of the Phillies, the Big Ten Network should know it’s the Davey O’Brien Award.
BTN also might have added that in ’84 Flutie won the Highsman Trophy. Or was it the Sigh Young?
Early in Saturday’s Canadiens-Isles on MSG+, Howie Rose made this announcement: “The Islanders are pleased to announce that tonight’s telecast is being broadcast [via SAP, second audio program] in Mandarin Chinese.”
China, as the NBA is demonstrating, is considered an enormous frontier for sports marketing. Isles’ owner, Charles Wang, born in Shanghai, has funded the building of rinks in China.
Still, while Isles’ telecasts can be heard in Mandarin, the team’s radio reach, in English, doesn’t extend much beyond the Nassau Coliseum parking lot.
The sports section of New Jersey’s Star-Ledger this week carried the story of how Seton Hall basketball recruit Herb Pope was shot five times after leaving a party at 2:30 a.m. while in high school.
That same section, same day, carried a wire-service story about USC sprinter Bryshon Nellum, 19, being shot three times after leaving a party at 2 a.m. Such stories used to seem shocking, almost impossible. Used to.
By now, we know, it’s far too late. Third-down efficiency stats is one of those that sound too important not to be presented as such. Still, Brian O’Hare, a reader from Southern California, wants to give it one last shot.
O’Hare alerts us to the fact before last week’s 56-0 loss to USC, Washington, 0-4 in the Pac-10 and outscored 161-65 in conference games, led the Pac-10 in third-down success, 46 percent. Washington, now outscored, 217-65, is now No. 2 in the Pac-10.
While we’re on the subject of mindless stats, keep this in mind this weekend when those “red zone” efficiency stats appear:
Prior to last night’s NFL game, the NFL’s top 16 red zone TD efficiency teams included only six with winning records, four at .500 and six with losing records. The 0-8 Lions were No. 2, the 1-7 Chiefs No. 12 and the 1-8 Bengals No. 13. On the flip side, only four of the bottom 11 red zone TD teams had losing records.
But that’s not going to stop TV, radio and print from telling you how important those stats are. They do, after all, sound important!
We don’t know much about former Princeton and NFL offensive lineman Ross Tucker, but as the analyst on YES’ Columbia-Yale telecast Saturday, he won honesty credits when he said, “The preliminary indication” is offensive holding. Perhaps Tucker’s unfamiliar with an old TV/radio trick:
More than a few play-by-players and analysts see preliminary indications away from the end of the play a back judge or line judge signaling a foul to the ref, but don’t tell us that. Instead, they make an “educated guess” at the call.
When the ref announces the call, they sound sharp, as if they saw the whole thing as it happened.
According to right-there sources, NFL Films’ camera crews can’t stand Bill Belichick. They claim he and his seconds treat them like raw sewage. Stands to reason, given his recent relationship with game film . . . Michael Kay has re-upped, multi-year, with both YES and 1050 ESPN.
Golf Channel next year will resurrect the popular Paul Azinger-Nick Faldo tower pairing during at least two PGA Tour events, and as many as four. This year’s Ryder Cup captains were last regularly heard together on ABC, two years ago . . . The most remarkable thing about Barack Obama‘s win, above and beyond all else, is that Mike Francesa predicted it.