DL 338: American Sportswriters Return, Hockey Finale, Gander, Spying & Anderson Cooper’s Soul
If you get the chance today, please read my Press Coverage column at The Sporting Blog. It’s about 2,500 words and much of it would be stuff I’d put in the space below. So read it there, please.
Today’s show talks about the return of the American sportswriter after a long fortnight in Canada. We also talk about the hockey finale as well as Gander, Newfoundland…the new symbol for NBC’s complete lack of respect for the American sports fan.
On non-sports topics, we discuss more about the spying on your kids story from last week — I think I dug my hole deeper here — and the news that Anderson Cooper may be in line for Katie Couric’s job, which leads to my point that cable news people have no souls.
Listen to the show…
DL337: MLS Labor Talks, Daulerio vs. Whitlock, The End of the Olympics
Snow today has everything a bit behind, so to make up time, this is what we discuss today.
• The MLS Labor situation. Read more about that here.
• Whitlock vs. Daulerio. We talk about how many of us try to make a story about us. Self-promotion is how we survive in this business. But Whitlock has seemed to take it to a whole new level. We talk about that, his decision to use the blog world as puppets to do his bidding, and how Daulerio really doesn’t seem to care what people think of him. Which, frankly, makes it hard to get over on the guy. Whitlock clearly cares what people think of him, no matter what he says or writes.
But mostly, Whitlock’s job is to get you to pay attention to Whitlock. He always succeeds, but it doesn’t make it right that he does it or how he does it.
• The Olympics are coming to a close. Will you miss them, or will you be happy to get back to normal viewing habits? What will NBC’s fallout be? Will ESPN really get the Olympics and put things on live? And will we care about curling next week?
If ESPN really wants the Olympics, and wants to prove it’s about the sports, they should buy up the American TV rights to all these events — handball, curling, archery, etc — and put them on a specific Olympic-themed ESPN360 channel, giving us maybe 3-4 hours a week on one of their networks for a “Wide World of Sports” themed show. Let’s hope it happens.
• Congrats to Rovitz for winning the Blogs with Stones Curling Championship. Matt Suss– got the silver and cknoblockhead got the bronze. Great even, and we’ll do it again soon.
Listen to the show…
Let’s have a short recap today, shall we? Nick and I talk about the Canada-Russia hockey game last night. It seems Canada woke up from whatever US-induced haze they were in and seem like, literal, world beaters again. And we link to a report that Mike Milbury used the term “Eurotrash” to describe the way the Russians played. Bill Patrick and Jeremy Roenick seemed very taken aback by that. Is it that derogatory? Where does that term rank on the epithet list? Or was it more a shot at European HOCKEY player?
Soapbox:
Stephen A. Smith wrote a column about Brian Westbrook getting released, and turned it into yet another shot at the Eagles front office. So, if for no other reason than it’s fun to point out how ridiculous his words can be, we turn it into another shot at him. This could be a recurring show theme, so buckle up.
Housekeeping:
The big Blogs with Stones curling tournament is tonight. Here’s a bracket…vote to see who you think will win. Follow #blogswithstones on Twitter to stay on top of all the action. Even more Olympic conspiracies last night, making the IOC the only sports organization worse than the NCAA at this point. It has to be close, right?
Click here to listen. Oh, and be careful in the snow.
DL 334: Iverson, Zerkle on Curling, Big East, More Curling, LT & Curling.
Nick and I start the show with a conversation about Allen Iverson’s leave of absence from the Sixers to be by his four-year old daughter’s side. She’s sick. They aren’t sure what it is. Iverson could be done with the Sixers, and in theory, with the NBA if nobody else picks him up.
First and foremost, we wish his daughter a speedy recovery. Being a parent of a child around that age, you spend every minute of every day thinking and worrying about their safety. Second, Nick points out that Iverson’s career may end with a whimper, like most stars that shine bright…then burn out. But if he leaves the game to be with his family, doesn’t that illustrate that Iverson has his priorities straight. That a player everyone called selfish is hanging it up so he can take care of his kids? It’s bittersweet, perhaps.
CURLING:
Josh Zerkle joins the show to promote our curling tournament tonight. There may or may not be spots left, so email me if you’re interested. And we talk about curling in the Olympics, and if it will actually spill over to become a recreational sport in America, not as popular as bowling, but somewhere higher than crab soccer. What, you’ve never played crab soccer with your friends on a nice summer afternoon? You’re not livin…
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Nick and I discuss the victory by Team USA over the Canadians in what had to be the most intense first-round matchup I can remember. That was the greatest All-Star game I’ve ever seen (and yes, I understand that the likes of Ovechckin, Malkin, et al were not involved). Can a game like that restore my interest in the NHL? It sure can’t hurt.
There’s a lot more we discuss about the game, including all the references by NBC people to the Miracle on Ice this week — including last night — but the lasting image I have is Martin Brodeur failing. And that makes me smile. Nick points out that the combination of the United States beating Crosby and Brodeur in the same game is maybe the best scenario ever.
We also take a look at the Olympic bracket to realize just how tough Canada has it now. By my view of it, they’ll have to beat Germany and then face Russia AND Sweden just to get to the Gold Medal Game. Yeesh.
Hosers.
There is a lot going on in sports today, namely a press conferences — SORRY, NOT A PRESS CONFERENCE — in two hours, so we give you bullets today.
• My new love of online curling.
• Tiger talk, specifically if the GWAA was just in boycotting. A?
• What station will you watch? Will you got to a sports station or a news station for the coverage?
Olympics
• . 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. Click through to listen to today’s show.
Whenever we have a long show (run time on this sucker clears 62 minutes) I always seem to come up with a shorter write up. It’s no disrespect to our guest, Chris Chase of but more to the point that there’s so much we discussed, I can’t remember everything when I try and do a recap. So, I’ll do my best.
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.
Nick and I start the show (well, after a quick rant about having a kid who is almost three years old acting like a three-year old) talking about the Olympics. For those who didn’t see it, I filled in for Shanoff at the today. In that, I pose the question of if we have to root for Americans in the Olympics just because we’re expected to be Patriotic.
What if the person is unlikeable? What if there is more to it than that? It’s not a loaded question at all, I really don’t know the answer about our national responsibilities. Please , and listen to the two of us discuss. Leave your thoughts in the comments.
Olympics on NBC, Zach Harper of Talk Hoops on NBA All-Star Weekend, Big East Insanity.
Our good friend Zach Harper from Talkhoops.net joins the show, at 4am eastern time, to talk about the All-Star Weekend in the NBA. But first…
Nick and I talk about the Olympics coverage thus far. First, we put on our Al Roker costumes (yes, I totally wish I had an Al Roker costume) to discuss the weather in Vancouver and how it’s really starting to screw with the quality of the events. But then, our ire is shifted toward NBC. How in the world can a media company spend more than $800 million and not show all the events when they happen? And how in the world do they think that we’d rather see a human interest story by Mary Carillo — who I like, by the way — interviewing Polar Bears more than 1,000 miles away from Vancouver. Just because it’s “CANADA” doesn’t mean it has anything to do with the Games going on in VANCOUVER.
Continue reading and listen to the show…