DL409: T.O. & The Bengals, Pitchers v. Walk-Offs & MLS All-Star Buzz

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We actually have four topics today:

• T.O. to the Bengals and why it’s so crazy it basically has to work.

• Jay Glazer and Daryl “Moose” Johnston to the NFL Network and what that could mean for the league’s network and, most specifically, for Glazer having to balance breaking news for the NFL and for Fox.

• A ton of numbers in the Year of the Pitcher vs. Year of the Walk-off debate.

• Talk about the MLS All-Star game tonight and how the U.S. pro soccer league has really capitalized on soccer’s popularity coming out of the World Cup.

Thanks for listening.

DL407: This Show is the Wind Beneath The Hawk’s Wings

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We talk about a lot on this episode, including the Baseball Hall of Fame — which includes part of Andre Dawson’s speech that we reference in today’s title.

We also touch on NFL training camp and Dez Bryant’s refusal to carry Roy Williams’ pads. Which side would you be on…the hot-shot rookie who may be too big for his britches or the veteran who may just be a dick because he knows his job is going to get taken?

There’s more to this, including something about NASCAR, Tour de France, MLS All-Star game and the U.S. Open buildup. Of course, we talk about all of this because I expected Nick to watch Mad Men and he didn’t, so we couldn’t discuss it. Serves me right for staying up late.

Thanks for listening.

DL352: Gary Thorne Talks MLB2K10, Floating Realignment & More. Plus: McNabb Rumors, Tiger, Union Debut & Print is, in fact, Dead.

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We’re back. Please tolerate the congestion.

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?READ MORE

DL351: Jon Tannenwald And I Apologize for Our Big East and Temple Bias

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Now what we’ve gotten that apology out of the way, Jon Tannenwald from Philly.com’s Soft Pretzel Logic college hoops blog fills in for Nick who is stuck in Florida because his plane broke.

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 TigerREAD MORE

DL346: Tiger’s Return and CBS, March Madness, Floating Realignment, MLS Labor & Merlin Olsen

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We try to do today’s show in five minutes bites. Or, I suppose, bytes. It obviously doesn’t work.

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, butREAD MORE

DL337: MLS Labor Talks, Daulerio vs. Whitlock, The End of the Olympics

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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 toREAD MORE