Is Philly A Baseball Town or Football Town? The Ratings May Surprise Some (An Endless Debate)

Nick and I hijacked half the show today debating if the Phillies would have more viewers than the Eagles in Sunday night’s head-to-head matchup between Philadelphia’s two sports darlings. More people than not told me they expected the Phillies to get a better number, with the game being a series clincher and the Eagles losing a ton of juice with their’s being on the West Coast in a non-rivalry game without Michael Vick.

I couldn’t believe that. The Eagles were on NBC and the Phillies were on…what channel again…oh yeah, TBS. How would this be even close? I expected the Eagles to win the ratings in a landslide (and remember, I’m the one who says Philly is a baseball town.) Well, via John Ourand of SBJ, here’s our answer:

Phills outrated the Iggles in Philly DMA last night. TBS pulled a 27.7 rating for Game 3; NBC got a 24.1 rating for Eagles game in Philly.

Well, then. The “Phills” won the night, despite being on TBS and despite being in a game that, while a series clincher,READ MORE

DL452: Baseball Playoffs, College and NFL Football, Gambling, Other Stuff

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It’s 11am and the show still isn’t up. A college game program I’m working on has to get to the printer ASAP and my hard drive is full. Do you really need a recap? Here: Nick and I high five about the Phillies, talk about the Eagles ratings in comparison to what the Phils will get then high five some more about the Phillies.

We break down the rest of the MLB playoffs, which includes a huge apology to Jimmy Traina for doubting the Yankees “tank to succeed” plan. Then we talk about football, Kolb, Favre, and gambling.

Hope to have posts later today. You win this round, computer.

DL451: Brian Bassett of The Jets Blog on The BFL, LT, Jets Overexposure & A Former Jet’s…Overexposure

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Brian Bassett of The Jets Blog is my opponent this week in the Blogger Fantasy League, sponsored by P&G. I’m about one week away (and one loss away) from entering the fantasy football witness protection program. Seriously, if this were a league with just friends, without a sponsor and a trip to the Super Bowl, I’d erase the league homepage from my bookmarks and move on.

That’s how bad my team is.

Bassett and I start with a little baseball, as I ask about the Jets in the framework of the Yankees. Does he tailor his coverage of the team with the Yankees in mind (i.e. will he try not to post something he wants eyeballs on during one of the playoff games? In a word: no. I ask because many baseball bloggers have told me that on big football weekends (opening day, playoffs, etc) they see a visible dip in traffic and often take that into account when posting. The same can be said for NBA writers during the first weekend ofREAD MORE

Rich Eisen Wants Jon Stewart On His Podcast For Daily Show Retribution. I Found The Clip.

Rich Eisen was on the show today. I hope you listened to that before reading this. Either way, you may or may not know that Eisen said he wants to get Jon Stewart on his podcast. Don’t we all.

Eisen wants Stewart on the show in part because he wants retribution for his visit to the Daily Show back in 2002. It’s interesting because of all the 450 shows we’ve done, the ONE show that stuck in my craw was Eisen’s first appearance. I was overwhelmed and, frankly, a crappy conversationalist. I wanted retribution.

But I digress…

I’m fairly certain Eisen said on our show today that he was on The Daily Show to plug the 20,000th SportsCenter, but that was back in 1998, before Stewart joined the show. Eisen was actually on to promote the 25,000th SportsCenter, in 2002. Eisen told me he bombed, in large part because he tried to keep up with “the funny.”

Welp, I found out…he was right. Here’s the video of Eisen’s visit to the Daily Show. God bless you, internet.

DL450: Rich Eisen On NFL Network, Randy Moss, Larry David, Jon Stewart, Jews in Media, Podcasts, Twitter & More

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It’s episode 450. Break out the confetti.

I’m happy to have Rich Eisen from the NFL Network on the show. Eisen has a new podcast on NFL.com as part of his new blog called Get Rick Quick. It’s seriously the best name ever. We discuss that.

The podcast is only a few weeks old and not only is he getting some of the biggest names in the NFL — Drew Brees and LaDanian Tomlinson in back-to-back weeks — he’s chatting with some of the biggest celebrities in the entertainment world as well. Who, pray tell, did he have on his show? None other than Larry David. That’s who.

I hate you already, Eisen.

But first…

We talk about the Randy Moss trade in the context of breaking news, and how the NFLN handles such important football related items. Is there a Bat signal that shines over Eisen’s house to get into the office? As he suggests, that’s just reserved for Favre.

We do discuss that idea — Eisen getting called in to be the lead anchorREAD MORE

On Vick, Kolb, Reid, Karma & Fantasy Football

I believe in Karma.

It’s a little more complex than simply ‘do good things and good things happen’ (or the converse ‘do bad things and bad things will happen’), but the general principle of being responsible for one’s actions is an important part of everyday life. More than seeking reward for being good, it’s the potential — and propensity — for Karmic retribution that should govern our decisions; do not transgress and you won’t have to pay.

The problem, of course, with believing in Karma is that not everyone else does. Karma — or whatever I’m call Karma — is more a guideline to try and be a positive part of society, and a good influence in every day life. So how can you justify watching people do terrible things — or even moderately bad things — and end up getting rewarded for it? Does Karma tell us that they’ll end up with stomach cancer later in life or that they’ll get hit by a bus or something? Does Karma tell me that I’m going to wakeREAD MORE

Call of the Day: Your NFL Highlights Set to Dramatic Music. Never Fails.

People who read this site on a habitual basis know my issues with the NFL’s policy to not allow embeddable video. Alas, the policy is somehow equatable to the old adage of not giving away the milk, when the likes of Yahoo and other major content providing houses will pay them for each and every slice of cheese.

I swear there’s a metaphor there somewhere. Oh yes, Yahoo can embed NFL.com videos. We can’t. When we travelled up to meet with the NFL PR staff, we implored them to let us embed video and explained how we could make their productions go viral far more easily with the ability to embed — thus allowing them to control the NFL message, through us.

We were asked if we’d be willing to pay for the rights to show videos on our websites — clearly indicating that agreeing to give milk to everyone would undermine, and eventually eliminate, the money they’re getting for Yahoo’s, et al’s daily cheese.

We’re not even looking for free cheese, or even unlimited milk. Give usREAD MORE

DL446: Jerod Morris of Midwest Sports Fans Talks Football, Fantasy, $55k Dinners & The Ibanez Effect

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Jerod Morris of Midwest Sports Fans is in our fantasy league. He picked fourth, just after me and two after Will Brinson. Morris has Adrian Peterson and suddenly with MJD and Ray Rice, respectively, Brinson and I are both 0-3 and kicking ourselves at the moment and conspiring to create a super Team Gillette out of our two terrible teams.

This show is different than most of our shows. Since Morris and I are facing each other in the Blogger Fantasy League, sponsored by P&G, we both asked the other person to be on our Friday show this week. Morris hosts a Friday Football podcast at MSF that you really should check out…and not just because I’m on it. Well, that’s mostly why.

Actually, we decided to give my listeners a little behind-the-scenes of look at the show as we taped the segment for HIS show during MY show. After going through a little explanation of what they’ve been working on at MSF and a quick breakdown of how badly I need toREAD MORE

Can I Get A Mini Bottle of Vodka, OJ & Ravens at Steelers, Please?

This is amazing news for people who are stuck flying on Sundays (from Broadcasting & Cable, via SBD):

Weekend fliers on JetBlue will be getting two tickets instead of one, starting Oct. 3.

That is when the airline will add NFL Sunday Ticket to its existing DirecTV lineup of 36 free channels.

I hate just drop blockquoting almost the whole story, so please click the link to B&C to give them the hit. There was no other way to chop up that flowery way of saying that you can now watch the NFL while comfortably floating through the sky. Some of the 36 channels will be dedicated to NFL games from this weekend all the way through the end of the season.

Seriously, they found a way to get football closer to God. Amazing.

Will Donovan McNabb Get Booed This Weekenzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

The hot topic in the NFL this week is Donovan McNabb’s return to Philadelphia. And while most people should care about the fact that the Eagles were rebuilding with Kevin Kolb and are suddenly contending with Michael Vick or the fact that McNabb could play at a Pro Bowl level and it still may not help the Washington Redskins avoid a 1-3 start that sure a heck looks like 1-6 if they can’t win on Sunday, it seems most conversation surrounding this game starts with whether or not McNabb is going to get booed when he runs out of the tunnel.

Here’s CSN Washington’s Brian Mitchell — who played in Philly as well as Washington — talking with Andy Reid (via DC Sports Bog):

“They remember the good times,” Reid told Brian Mitchell, when asked about Eagles fans. “They might give him the business during the game or something, but he’ll get a great reception.”

Later, B Mitch asked if McNabb got a fair shake in Philly.

“Absolutely,” Reid said. “I think the organization does these different polls around theREAD MORE