DL544: Is Murray Chass the Westboro Baptist Church of Sports Bloggers?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Murray Chass wrote something last week that got a lot of baseball writers and other bloggers in a tizzy. We paid attention to it, as a whole, because those baseball writers and other bloggers wrote and blogged about it. Look at this guy! Why do we still pay attention to him?!

Wait…why do we still pay attention to him? If there’s a crazy man ranting on my street corner, do I bring TV cameras over and yell at the cameras that we should ignore the crazy man I just introduced to the world? Or do we calmly ignore the crazy person and go about our day?

What’s the internet equivalent of walking across the street with your head down?

As Nick mentioned on the show, if the news media could find the common sense to ignore the “protesters” of the Westboro Baptist Church, no matter what they did to try and get attention, would they eventually go away? Doesn’t the attention, in some way, justify the method? And, no, we aren’t calling ChassREAD MORE

DL535: Joke Referees, Villanova’s Madness, Tressel’s Cheating & Tiki’s TV Failure

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

We have four topics today and while Jim Tressel is taking over every show in the world, we decided to start with actual sports first, then get into that whole cheating mess.

• First, Robin Van Persie called the referee that gave him a double yellow in Arsenal’s farewell Champions League match “a joke.” He actually said, “It’s just a joke. He’s been bad all evening. He’s been a joke all evening, whistling against us. I don’t know why he’s here tonight. I think it’s a joke.”

What happens to RVP, or his teammates who sarcastically tweets about how good a job the ref did? Sir Alex was slapped for questioning an EPL referee, but what does UEFA do about it? And how great is it when athletes just don’t care and say what they want? It’s really great.

• Next, we rip on Villanova. A lot. We also talk about ESPN putting the Big East women’s final on the mothership while the Big East men’s first round was on ESPNU. What do youREAD MORE

What’s On In Sports, Tonight: February 22nd.

Soccer! Who want’s some fresh, hot soccer?

It’s late February, and soccer is in full gear, everywhere except for the United States. Every other major league is in play, and, the major cups and tournaments have taken off. In the next 24 hours, Fox Deportes has the Copa Libertadores, Fox Soccer has the CONCACAF and UEFA Champions Leagues and ESPN Deportes has the CONCACAF Under-17 Championship. So, catch some soccer. Any of it, really.

Now on to the rest of the field:

7 p.m. CBS College Sports- WBB: Notre Dame at West Virginia. ESPN- MBB: Illinois at Ohio State. Brent Musburger (PbP), Dan Dakich (Analyst) ESPN2- MBB: Virginia Tech vs. Wake Forest. Mike Patrick (PbP) ESPNU- MBB: Mississippi at South Carolina. Rob Stone (PbP), Jason “Jay” Williams (Analyst)

7:30 p.m. Fox Deportes- Copa Libertadores: U. San Martin (Peru) vs. San Luis FC (Mexico) The Mtn.- WBB: Utah at TCU

8 p.m. Big 12 Network- MBB: Iowa State at Texas. Fox Soccer- CONCACAF Champions League: Quarterfinal 1st Leg: Columbus Crew vs. Real Salt Lake

8:30 p.m. Versus- NHL: New Jersey at Dallas.

9READ MORE

DL528: Carmelo, All-Star Ratings, Bissinger v NBA Fans, Wahl v Blatter (v Simmons), Me v Me

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

We talk about Carmelo going to the Knicks and wonder if the Dolans were reading Bleacher Report last week and saw the headline that had him going to the Lakers and thought “what…when did that happen?” which ultimately got a deal done in New York. Hey, it could happen. I mean, it’s entirely plausible they’d read B/R, so that’s a start.

I kid. They probably don’t even read. But is this a good trade for NY? Of course it is.

This trade seems to fit into the grand master plan that has NBA teams becoming good — and relevant — in the right markets again. That can, and will, help ratings as much as the product on the court. Of course, not everyone agrees. Enter Buzz Bissinger, who penned (typed?) a column for The Daily Beast ripping the NBA, claiming the league is losing popularity because white fans can’t root for black athletes.

I swear this wasn’t written eight years ago. Or in the 50′s.

My editor thinks I should write something about professional basketball.READ MORE

Call of the Day: Cesc Fabregas Is Great At Soccer, Terrible At Math

Cesc Fabregas led Arsenal to a world-shocking victory over Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League yesterday. The Arsenal captain, who has long been rumored to join the Barca stable, downplayed the significance of the victory as just one half of the ultimate goal of knocking out “the best side in football history.” The only problem…during his official Champions League post-match interview, the Arsenal captain got a little confused with exactly how long halfway is.

I love the fact that he was interrupted during his first answer, yet wasn’t corrected when he said they’ve only played 45 of 90, er, 180 minutes. Also, I’m certain that fans of the Gunners around the world will take a captain who played like he did yesterday, regardless of his computation skills.

Over/Under: Reactions to the January Transfer Window

As we turn our calendar pages from January to February, an amazing sporting endeavor has just come to a close in big-time European soccer.  The so-called “January transfer window” in which clubs can buy, sell and loan players to and from other clubs has just ended.  Essentially, it’s like the baseball trading deadline except that clubs almost never exchange player-for-player, it’s more centered around flea market-type shopping.  You see someone elses wares and make an offer. It was particularly mental in England, where yesterday on the last day of the window, £200 million was spent (approximately $350 million) by clubs in the Barclay’s Premier League.

The English sporting media, predictably, went with the idea that the clubs have gone off the deep end, while the rest of the country sits in a harsh and seemingly-unending recession.

From the back page of the Daily Mirror, the headline “Football Crazy”.  From the Mail, the words “madness” and “craziest day” in transfer window history.  The Guardian calls it a “frenzy of crazy spending”.  You get the drift.  The BBC spent anREAD MORE

DL515: Football & Football; David Akers, Family, Robots & January Transfer Window

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

The show is in two parts. First, Nick and I discuss Ashley Fox’s front-page Philadelphia Inquirer story on David Akers, his family, the struggles his daughter has been going through in her battle with cancer and what impact that may have had on two missed kicks in the playoffs. We discuss the story itself and how Fox framed the situation, Akers’ past financial woes and Andy Reid’s post game comments to curry sympathy for the kicker. It’s a terrible situation for his family, but was the story too sympathetic? Is that possible?

Second half of the show is with Jon Tannenwald of Philly.com talking soccer, and specifically the January Transfer Window. Is Fernando Torres the equivalent to Nomar? Why would a team like Blackpool even entertain trading away their captain for a few million euros? And how about the way the media covered the day, with stakeouts and Twitter fights and rumors of helicopters throughout the day.

Thanks for listening, as always.

Call of the Day: USMNT, Egypt & The Lesson That Sports Isn’t As Important As Life or Politics

I wanted the headline to read: Call of the Day: USMNT, Egypt & The Lesson That Sports Isn’t Always As Important As Life but opted to take out the word “always” because when faced with actual life and death situations, sports is never as important as that. I’ve long said that sports, ultimately, is a distraction from real life, but there is no distraction from this:

The U.N. human rights chief said on Tuesday she had unconfirmed reports that up to 300 people may have been killed in Egypt’s unrest and called for calm during the day’s protests which could be a “pivotal moment”.

“Casualties have been mounting on a daily basis, with unconfirmed reports suggesting as many as 300 people may have been killed so far, more than 3,000 injured and hundreds arrested,” [United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi] Pillay said in a statement. Her spokesman said that the unconfirmed toll came from non-governmental organisations.

The statement also noted that Tuesday is likely to be a pivotal moment for the conflict-ridden nation, which includes a seriesREAD MORE

News@Noon: Bradley to EPL, Strasburg Quits Chew, KD/Bosh, Media, SAGs, Phil’s Layup & Pujols Math

News@Noon is a collection of links from people we know and like or stories about folks in sports we know and like. It is, and will always be, completely arbitrary. If you have something you want linked, send along.

• The transfer window deadline day has been must see reporting and tweeting and reporting about tweets and tweeting about reporting. Plus, news(!) like USMNT midfielder Michael Bradley making the move, reportedly, to Aston Villa. Many people think Bradley is a prototypical EPL midfielder, and finally he’ll get his chance.

• Last week we linked to Richard Deitsh of SI, tweeting about whether or not he’d be interested in Ombudsing for ESPN. Here’s Deitsch’s take on Don Ohlmeyer’s run with the WWL and other media thoughts — including an interview with Mike Mayock — in his Media Circus column.

• Big League Stew posted a story from the Washington Post about Stephen Strasburg trying to quit chewing tobacco because his former college coach, Tony Gwynn, was diagnosed with parotid cancer. Hopefully high school kids who think it’s cool to dip — baseballREAD MORE

DL511: Turn Into The Skid (Oh, Plus, SOTU, Bleacher Report Reboot & Andy Gray)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Nick and I talk about the State of the Union, Bleacher Report hiring King Kaufman to unsully their name (note: not a word, don’t care) and a brief rant on Andy Gray and Richard Keys being dumb enough to say how they feel in front of microphones.

On a day like today, this is certainly a ‘steer into the skid’ kind of show.

We talk more about the nature of the State of the Union than anything Obama actually said. How different is the instant connection to the people than in year’s past? Heck, we’re pretty sure Biden was even reading tweets (or, as someone said on Twitter, playing Angry Birds) during the speech.

The State of the Union, ultimately, means nothing. It’s an annual pep rally, but with the change in how our politics are covered, is the President on TV so much (read: every single day) that the State of the Union has totally lost it’s luster?

Great speech, expertly read, but what does it mean?

Well, for starters it means that whoever had to followREAD MORE