"Ooops" Week In Sports Media

It's been a week of "ooops" moments at both the national and local level.

There was one such event which couldn't be helped. The lightning delay of Fox's doubleheader game telecast of Dallas at Denver this past Sunday (9/17) caused the telecast to run so late that the end overlapped the start of Sunday Night Football on NBC. As a result, the NFL addicts on Sunday actually did have 10 1/2 hours of non-stop game action, instead of roughly an hour in between the late afternoon game and the Sunday night game.

Last Thursday (9/14), KPRC-TV Channel 2 in Houston was so anxious to get into their local news at the end of its local showing of the Texans win over Cincinnati that it cut out of the NFL Network telecast prior to the final play of the game. The final play was set up by a penalty flag on the previous play, but that didn't stop KPRC from whipping right out of the telecast.

That last play resulted in the Bengals being stopped. However, it was possible that they could have scored a touchdown on that play which would have won the game. And KPRC would have missed it.
Even though this is an isolated incident, many stations and networks make it appear this could happen more often. ESPN is setting a possible horrible trend by making the end of seemingly every game they show be dominated with their "SportsCenter is next" announcement instead of the scores and info from The Bottom Line. They spend millions and millions of dollars, raising our monthly prices for cable/satellite, to show these games, and then convince viewers that they simply can't wait until they are over.

And it's only so they can jump around from one sport to the next every ten seconds to show highlights of games which have been over for hours.

Because of this, we now have some local stations and other networks doing the same thing. If they won't spend any time recapping the game they just showed, that would seem to diminish the value of showing recaps of other games instead.

While the controversy continues about the comments made by ESPN's Jemele Hill and her public comments about President Trump, there has been no suspension or disciplinary action taken as of press time. The "oooops" part of this is the fact that WLS-TV Chicago's sportscaster Mark Giangreco was suspended for two weeks without pay this past February after Tweeting negative comments about Trump. The significance? WLS-TV is ABC-TV, which is the same company which owns ESPN. Not exactly a consistent pattern here.

Also on WLS-TV Chicago, sportscaster Jim Rose made the same mistake that many did last Friday (9/15) when he mentioned on his late afternoon sports segment that "the Brewers play AT Miami tonight". We could understand people that do not follow baseball closely making that mistake, given that the game (and entire three game series was moved to Milwaukee due to the aftermath of Irma).

What makes this significant is that Jim Rose has been a sportscaster at WLS-TV for a total of 35 years. The Brewers are trying to catch the Cubs for the National League Central Division lead. And, even more significantly, this newscast on which Rose made that error followed the WLS-TV telecast of the Cubs vs. Cardinals game which ended minutes earlier.

At least the station didn't cut away from the final out in order to start the newscast.

Later that same night (9/15), it was another of those Ken Harrelson moments on the White Sox telecast from Detroit on CSN Chicago. During that game, the Indians were going for their incredible 23rd win in a row. Harrelson was clearly watching the last couple of innings on that telecast on either a computer or phone in the booth, and providing updates.

With two out in the 9th, the Indians were down by one run to Kansas City. The previous night, Cleveland had rallied with two out in the 9th to tie and eventually win that game to extend their streak. On Friday night, with two out and a runner on, the Cleveland telecast, understandably, chose to replay the game tying double from the previous night, clearly showing "LAST NIGHT" on the screen at the start of that replay.

Harrelson was paying attention to the White Sox game (although some would debate that at times), and clearly did not see the "LAST NIGHT" on the screen. As one who seemingly never waits for a definitive decision, he said on the air that "Cleveland has done it again - tying it with two out in the 9th!!". And then, seconds later, says something like "Oh, wait, that was a replay".

No apology. No further mention other than giving the final score when the third out was made and the Indians winning streak came to an end. Makes us pray that his pending retirement announcement really was accurate.

ESPN's Ryen Russillo has paid a $250 fine from the incident which resulted in his arrest on August 23 in Wyoming, which caused ESPN to suspend him until September 5th. Everyone has moved on.

So much for "ooops" week.


Fox Sports is going to make their October 1st regional telecast of the N Y Giants vs. Tampa game a three person effort, but with reason. Sensing the possibilities since Tiki Barber has often been critical of Giants QB Eli Manning (on his CBS Sports Radio Show), and with twin brother Ronde Barber scheduled to work as analyst along side Kenny Albert, Fox has scheduled the Barber brothers as booth analysts.


NHL Network has added to its roster of studio hosts in time for the upcoming regular season. Ken Daneyko (a three time Stanley Cup champion) and 14 year league veteran Stu Grimson join as analysts. The newest studio host will be Jackie Redmond, brought in from SportsNet Canada, where she has hosted several shows over the past six years.


NEW YORK: WFAN has officially changed its morning show to "The Morning Show With Boomer". Thus far, Boomer Esiason has worked with co-hosts including Phil Simms, Brandon Tierney, and Jerry Recco. No word, as of press time, as to if or when a regular co-host will be named.
YES Network has announced that Sarah Kustok moves over from sideline reporter on its Nets telecasts to actual game analyst starting this season on an undisclosed number of telecasts. She will share the analyst role (one per game) with Jim Spanarkel.

Long time analyst Mike Fratello will move over to become studio analyst. Kustok knows basketball, having been a standout college player. However, game analyst is a role which should be held by a former NBA player. It's possible that Fratello no longer wants to travel and go through the grind. However, you would think that a former NBA player that can analyze the games wouldn't be that hard to find for the NYC area.

This is, however, a nice break for Michael Grady. The sports talk host from WFNI 1070 and 107.5 Indianapolis will act as sideline reporter for the YES telecasts of the Nets, while continuing his Indy sports show as his schedule now permits. Grady will be giving up his role as Public Address announcer for the Pacers.


CLEVELAND: The Indians' winning streak came at the same that flagship station WTAM 1100 continued theirs. The station has extended its contract with the Indians for another six seasons. In addition, what is called "the majority" of the games will also be simulcast on WMMS 100.7. WMMS had aired a selected number of games in recent years.


HOUSTON: KGOW 1560, the rarely listened to sports station, is hoping that a move to the FM dial and a better frequency will make a difference. Starting October 1st, the station will switch to SportsMap 94.1.