The analogy that I use is that of a math problem. If you get the answer right, but your work is wrong and you just happened to end up with the right end result, does that mean you were right at all? If 2 plus 2 is 4 and you got 4 as your answer but did so by adding 3 and 1, were you right? Maybe I’m over-thinking it.

Nick also talks about the AT&T this weekend and his brush with Tiger Woods at the 10th tee. People are in awe of the man. Tiger, not Nick. Well, Nick’s pretty good too.

Thanks for listening. Check the next show out for our World Cup recap and finale preview with Jon Tannenwald of The Goalkeeper.

Plus, Nick’s best man speech, our trip to the hospital and a detailed breakdown of CBS covering the Masters. Thanks for listening.

First, Nick and I talk about the National Championship game and I sound like, gasp, an NBA fan. People are talking about how great the game was, but does close automatically equal great? There was very little scoring at the end of the game – one point scored in the last 54 seconds and no baskets for the national champion in more than two and a half minutes to end it – but it was hard-fought and tenacious. Does that, alone, make the game as great as people are writing today?

Also, we apologize to Duke. They deserve the title. And we rip to shreds One Shining Moment and whoever at CBS thought it was okay to put FIVE different shots of Jennifer Hudson. Chris Littmann has a better breakdown than I could do.

TIGER TALK:

Shane Bacon and I talk about the Tiger Woods press conference. For video clips, and my take, check out here. For Shane’s take on the presser – other than our conversation – read him at Devil Ball Golf.

We also take some time to preview the Masters. Is Anthony Kim the guy? Is another young gun? How about a guy like Steve Stricker? Or maybe a guy named….Phil….something.

Can Mickelson compete after having a rough start to the season? And will he go into his presser this week and remind everyone that his wife and mother had cancer and it’s not all about Tiger’s big swinging…putter?

To read his preview, click here. (Lots of plugs today).

BASEBALL:

Opening Day. We can breathe again, as baseball is back. Nick and I talk about the winners and losers. Hey, look, a plug. Read my take here.

Thanks for listening.

Pleased to have Gary Thorne, venerable broadcaster and the voice of MLB2K10 on the show. We talk a bit about the game and the process by which he records all those sounds. I never knew they do it in a booth with no visual aids. They are basically calling an imaginary baseball game? Wait not just one game…like 70 hours of imaginary games.

We talk about the fact that Thorne isn’t given a script – that he’s hired for the way he calls the game as much as his voice – and how different the game is when there’s nothing to cross-talk about. Isn’t the cross talk what makes baseball announcing so much fun?

We discuss actual baseball as well, as I ask Thorne about the differences between calling national games and local games for the Orioles. And being in Baltimore, does he find his audience is much more dedicated, and therefore baseball savvy, than a larger audience of bandwagon jumpers may be in, say, Philadelphia or Boston? Thorne does agree that it’s important to know the audience, but not to talk over them and get to inside baseball.

Speaking of that, we do discuss the balance of stats and sabermetrics in a broadcast with the “Joe Morgan” types of announcers. Thorne’s wife has a company that trains former players to become broadcasters, so we discuss the importance “having been there” with “the numbers indicate”. What is the balance? And could it be that TV and radio – due to the audience and the time constraints of the game going on in front of you – lend themselves more to “experience” as expertise while the number crunchers can have more focus in print and other non in-game mediums?

We talk a lot about the idea of Floating Realignment, and if it’s a viable idea for change. In fact, is any change needed? Thorne does bring up the concept of buying a championship, which you can make the case that only a handful of teams can afford to do. Of course for every Yankees (or Red Sox of Phillies) there is a Dodgers or a Cubs, who can get to the playoffs, but can’t win anything – a concept to which Thorne rightly brings up the point that getting to the playoffs has been far too marginalized in baseball. It’s still a really big deal.

Last, we talk about hockey. Well, hockey and baseball and which Thorne likes to announce more and which he thinks he is more known for. The short answer: it’s like asking him which kid he loves more.

SPECULATION STATION:

Nick and I do our level best to not turn this segment into another Week in SAS, but rather discuss the Donovan McNabb trade rumors and how amazingly open the Eagles have been with the media. So strange and out of character for them.

PRINT’S NOT DEAD:

Or, according to this NY Times story, yes it is. We equate the struggle with advertising and media to the network and cable TV paradigm. Are they similar?

HOUSEKEEPING:

A huge housekeeping segment, including THE START OF THE PHILADELPHIA UNION TONIGHT ON ESPN2. Yes, exciting.

We also discuss March Madness, Tiger Woods’ plan to talk to the media which turns into a big of a rant by me on the way the media has handled this situation (shock, I know). Also, the Jets on Hard Knocks, the lady who tried to offer sex for tickets going to the jury(!?!) and Nick’s extended recap of his trip to Florida, which included his brother getting in an argument with Greg Luzinski over the cut-off man.

Oh, and the hard sell is on for our Baby Pool. Please sign up now. Money to winner and to charity.

Jon and I run down the weekend’s games – a full compliment of storylines so deep that we didn’t even get to the Maryland-MSU game that may have been the best (and worst for some in my family) of the weekend.

We do talk a great deal about Cornell and try to figure out exactly why we didn’t pick them over Temple. We also look forward to the announcing crews for the Regionals. For more on that, and a look back at this weekend’s job – and how Gus Johnson  had the most boring games of anyone – read Press Coverage today at TSB.

SPECULATION STATION:

Tiger Woods did two interviews yesterday. We said we’d talk for five minutes about this and it goes about 14 and change. And I know I said at the start of the segment that I have Tiger fatigue and then spend those 14 and change talking about the topic, but it’s not so much about Tiger as it is about the media covering Tiger. Why would CBS not do the interview, even if it was only limited to five minutes? And why are media people applauding that decision. From an outsider (me) and an insider (Tannenwald) in the media world, we have a pretty frank debate about whether or not putting a shot clock on the interview is fair to a reporter, and if that would be a deal breaker for some.

For a question-by-question breakdown of Tom Rinaldi’s and Kelly Tilghman’s interviews, head over to TSB for Press Coverage. It’s pretty interesting to read them together.

HOUSEKEEPING:

Tannenwald also runs the soccer blog over at Philly.com, so we discuss the resolution to the MLS labor situation. Good that it’s over, and with Jon going to Seattle for the first game — involving our own Philadelphia Union — it’s good that a deal has been agreed upon.

We also briefly touch on the hospitalization of Vin Scully. It’s great that he’s already back to work. Nick should be back tomorrow. Thanks to Jon for filling in and thanks to you for listening. Again, I’M SORRY FOR THINKING THE BIG EAST WAS ANY GOOD.

This is not that interview, and it turned into one of my favorite shows in a long time. If you’re listening CLICK THIS LINK TO FOLLOW ALONG. It’s heady number crunching and it helps to have a something to look at. But honestly, I’m convinced this system could work.

Paul mentions that they have a book on every single player in college basketball, and use that to create team profiles. The team profiles are used to run 50,000 tournaments to determine the probability of how far each team will go. It’s rather incredible.

We run through the chances of too many teams to just list one or two here (ahem Villanova), so please listen if you want your bracket to do well. Or if you’re a stat geek.

Following the interview, Nick and I somehow turn it into a Sabermetric vs. the eye test with Ryan Howard and Chase Utley, responding to a comment on TSB from my Pujols-Howard post. Plus, we talk about Tiger Woods return and if the news warranted wall-to-wall coverage when the story really came out last week that it was likely his return would come at Augusta. Has the situation become overcovered? It did for me when I turned on ATH and Bill Plaschke said Tiger is being selfish for coming back at The Masters. That’s when he put on the leather jacket and waterskis for all of sports media and I turned my brain off.

Thanks for listening. JOIN OUR BRACKET POOL. Zoe’s picks will be posted later today. And congrats to the guys at The 700 Level.

Today, we discuss:

• Tiger’s return and the theory that CBS put the kiabosh on Bay Hill because it would coincide with the NCAA Regionals (and be on NBC) as opposed to his enormous, and protected, return on CBS for the Masters.

• The crazy up and down world of the BIG EAST, including the chance that West Virginia could be a #1 seed. Plus, some Big 12 talk as well! See, we aren’t totally east coast biased.

• A complete and utter dismantling of the ridiculous Floating Realignment idea in MLB. More on that at TSB if you want to read my thoughts and see my plan for realignment. Oh, an a bit of advice for the teams who think they can’t compete for their division crowns because other teams are better: get better. If you can’t beat the Yankees and Red Sox, tough darts. Get better. Sure those two teams habitually make the playoffs, but the Red Sox have only been in two World Series since 1986. The Rays have been in one more recently. I’m not saying things shouldn’t change, but let’s back off the radical ideas because of the “success” of two teams.

• MLS labor talks may lead to a strike. So far, both sides have been doing things right.

• RIP Merlin Olsen. Nick puts out the question, for you, of which current athletes (or recently retired) will we think of more as actors/pitchmen/analysts and less for what they did on the field?

Thanks for listening. Enjoy the basketball this weekend and come back for our March Madness tournament stuff on Monday.

• My new love of online curling.
• Tiger talk, specifically if the GWAA was just in boycotting. Are they missing out on media opportunities outside of Tiger?
• What station will you watch? Will you got to a sports station or a news station for the coverage?

Olympics

• The Olympic hockey tournament just got interesting last night. Too bad NBC doesn’t seem to care.
• Are snowboarders just programmed differently? Does winning matter as much to them, or is it a lot of hanging out on the mountain? The NBC announcer seems to think that training isn’t what most snowboarders do. Okay then.
• More Olympic stuff.

Tech talk

Is it okay for a school to spy on your kids through a school-issued computer? I think it is, with limitations. If the kid visits a website or keys in something that triggers the web cam to come on, that’s fine to me. I plan to spy on my kids computer habits as well. But random searches of kids’ rooms is not right. Listen and let us know what you think.

• Flash Mobs are getting people to sue Facebook. That’s hilarious.

Thanks for listening all week and putting up with our transition to the new site.

First, Nick and I discuss the Tiger Woods news that he’ll be conducting a (NOT IN ANY WAY) media conference on Friday morning, with three wire services, TV camera and select friends in sports media world. Nick, like most people, thinks this is cowardly and typical of what Tiger Woods would do. If he were a changed person, he’d open it up to all media, or at the very least, allow those privileged enough to get a Golden Ticket the ability to ask questions. Basically, the media is window dressing for what could have been a recorded message thrown up on his website for the world to embed.

But I think there’s more to it. Tiger Woods can do whatever he wants. This is isn’t a Mark McGwire situation, where Tiger cheated the game of golf. Tiger cheated on his wife, and only has to apologize to her, and his sponsors. Sure, it’s good PR to apologize to his fans, but he doesn’t owe anything to the golf media, or the general interest gawking public who seem to care about this story. He could, in fact, keep quiet and freeze out any reporter who dared to ask about his personal life. He could come back to golf and never discuss it again.

But he’s not. He’s talking on Friday. And it’s on his terms, like it should be. This is good PR, folks. He’s controlling the situation. That’s what you want to do in any situation. Now, Nick takes those media folk who are planning to show up to task for bending over and taking it from Tiger. Wait, that’s a terrible analogy. Personally, if I were invited, I’d be there in a second. Sure Tiger says he’s not taking questions, but that doesn’t mean his agent won’t give additional information to those in attendance. And it doesn’t mean that Tim Finchem or another PGA or USGA official won’t take care of those reporters by giving them one-on-one reaction. There will be more news coming out of this even than just Tiger Woods’ statement.

And as for that…who cares what he has to say? As Nick points out, unless he decides to announce he’s leaving his wife and he plans to be a philanderer out in the open and those who don’t like it can go up a tree, whatever he says will be inconsequential. Except, of course, if he announces he’s taking the entire year off from golf. Which nobody expects.

So, am I the only one who thinks Tiger is handling this right?

OLYMPICS:

Chris Chase comes in to talk about the Olympics thus far. So you know, we taped this just after Lindsey Vonn won the Women’s Downhill Gold Medal. Actually, we taped it while there were still racers on the course, but all the major news outlets already called the victory for Vonn. How must those last few racers feel? They are Olympians, after all. There’s NO chance they could have the run of their lives? Why not wait the extra 20 minutes to call it?

And, yes, why did we have to go online to watch it on some foreign feed? It’s ridiculous that NBC can’t figure this out yet. So ridiculous, in fact, that we discuss if there’s something else the rest of us aren’t thinking of. Obviously the value of a primetime viewer — in actual revenue — is higher than an afternoon viewer on CNBC, but will putting the event on live preclude ANYONE from tuning in to the primetime coverage as well to see the other, Live, events? There has to be something we’re missing.

Onto actual sports, we discuss the sheer dominance of Vonn’s run and talk about the pressure she, Shaun White and Shani Davis must feel when they are expected to win Gold Medals.

Nick comes back in to follow up on that point and discuss how all three were able to beat the field, and the pressure, to take home Gold yesterday. We talk a lot about White’s insane run – after he already had won the Gold — and how cool and likable the guy seems to be. Nick and I talked yesterday, and Chris and I discuss today’s show, if we have to root for athletes because they are American. White seems like the guy who everyone can root for — no matter what country you’re from.

Housekeeping:

There is a great contest going on over at Punk on Deck. Brian is collecting all the food-related tweets from beat writers during Spring Training and giving any of us who RT them points based on their food specificity and tweet percentage. Most points at the end of Spring Training wings, er wins, a prize.

Nick and I also talk about the NBA trade deadline, and if we’d rather be Washington with a fire sale of Philly with, so far, no movement.

Thanks for leaving comments, hopefully more people will follow.