Probably worth noting in here that Spotify is officially purchasing The Ringer.


https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/05/b...l-simmons.html

Dave Portnoy reviews my go to pizza spot. It is an awesome pie. If you eat a double XL by yourself you get a free t shirt. I've done it about 9 times.

Barstool Pizza Review - Pete & Elda's Bar / Carmen's Pizzeria (Neptune City, NJ) pic.twitter.com/je42NiAcPj

— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) February 12, 2020

Pretty good job by the Sports Guy.

The Greinke article today is probably one of the 5 most entertaining I've read on The Athletic.

‘One in 10 million’: An oral history of Zack Greinke’s years with the Royals – The Athletic

The Hardball Times has shut down and Fangraphs has created memberships ($20 for a year or $50 ad free), is taking donations, and will soon start selling merchandise in an attempt to stay operational. They estimate they need 40,000 membership fees or the equivalent spent on merchandise.

No baseball means no traffic for these sites and they also said ads are paying, on average, about 45% less than usual right now.

Yikes! Hate to hear that for Hardball Times and if Fangraphs goes by the wayside, that's going to be a massive loss.

Another round of layoffs in sports media today. This time at the Athletic and SB Nation/Banner Society.

First full day of baseball season after a 4 month delay. I turn on MLB network on sirius/ XM and they are talking about 3D printed chicken nuggets and I turn on Sirius XM fantasy radio and they are talking about if you should draft Gardner Minshew in a one QB fantasy league. WTF?

To be fair, I could easily see ESPN broadcast team spend a full half inning talking about 3D printed chicken nuggets.

I'll admit I was intrigued.

This is not a paid advertisement.

The Athletic is offering monthly subscriptions for $1 per month for 12 months.

Wow, that's a pretty amazing price!

The former staff of Deadspin launched a website called Defector.com

Although the name is kind of dumb, if you liked Deadspin, it is worth subscribing to.

Not as cheap as the athletic right now but i think 70 bucks for the year? I think it is well worth it.

The only issue I have with Defector is that they seem to not give a shit about MLS. Considering that old Deadspin was completely shitty to MLS, I'm not inclined to give them any money if they have the same mentality.

I just listened to a clip of a Bill Simmons bit, and I realized that I have not listened to him in months.

Some of that is pandemic reducing my drive/podcast time. But some of it is just there are a lot of people doing a lot more interesting stuff now, and he hasn't really changed in 20 years. Even the clip I listened to sounded like something he could have said at any point since 2000.

It wasn't a conscious decision to stop listening to him. Just that there's always something I'd rather listen to on my feed.

I did that with Jim Rome about 15+ years ago. I just realized he had nothing more to say and I had "outgrown" him.

SI

I don't think I had listened to his podcast since before Memorial Day. I checked in after the Clippers loss because I really do (did?) enjoy his basketball takes. It was just lacking compared to some of the other podcasts I listen to.

Guess the Lines with Bill Simmons and Sal is sill one of my favorite listens. It was great to hear them again.

I enjoy the rewatchable movie podcasts too.

I don't think I listen to whatever the actual "Bill Simmons podcast" is unless he's talking about something besides sports. Sports talk is something I just have no interest in anymore, unless it's through a fun gimmick and mostly comedy-based like Guess the lines.

I guess ESPN stopped getting the show.

Dan Le Batard is leaving ESPN in January

Just saw that. I am amazed ESPN thinks people want to listen to Greenburg anymore.

No crap. LeBatard is the only show I will watch/listen to on ESPN. I don't dislike Greeny at all, just have no need for that kind of radio/TV personality in my life. I guess I'm at the "spoof Greeny show" stage - I can't stand analysis tradio/TV and haven't watched many pre-game shows for years and years.

You think they would have noticed when his show almost immediately got an hour cut like a month after it started

Vanderbilt announcer Joe Fisher resigns and goes into rehab after coaches show.

Vandy broadcaster Joe Fisher resigns, enters rehab after 'unacceptable' on-air behavior

Hate to hear that Le Batard is leaving. I didn't watch his show often, but did enjoy it.

The only ESPN show I'll regularly watch these days is PTI. Once they're done, I don't know if there's a sports talk show that I'd like.

I saw this when I looked up the Le Batard story and I have some questions. I am making a few assumptions here. I wouldn't think they would put a complete novice as the producer role for the coaches show. If you are the producer and everyone is in the studio, the producer has to see and hear the issues that are occurring right in front of you, right? If he is on a Zoom call or such, the producer has to hear and see that prior to the show starting, right? I wouldn't think they would put a complete novice as the producer role for the coaches show. Shouldn't the producer have made the call to pull the plug on the show to protect the broadcaster if not the station? I guess it is possible that Fisher was a prick and someone let him hang himself. It seems weird that they would let this go out on the air and for forty minutes at that.

I couldn't easily count all the coaches show (or post-game show) participants I've heard work clearly drunk (caused buzzed as hell IS drunk technically).
I mean, they're hosted in bars pretty frequently, it goes with the territory to some extent.

Most producers for something like that would have 1-3 years experience top -- exceptions exist but that'd be the norm, they're glorified board operators mostly -- it'd be a rare thing for one to have the balls to make any sort of decision on their own. And if they did, they be risking their own job even if they were correct.

Are the producers that young? I remember seeing a few of the Hurricane coaches show with Jimmy Johnson when I was in high school. The producer on site was an older guy. Of course I had no idea how long he has been doing the job. Just thought they would have looked out for the old treasured broadcast guy.

It would be unusual to find much experience in the position in 2020 IMO, though I will say it probably comes down to who was in charge of the staffing -- the flagship station or the radio network rightsholder (mostly IMG at this point).

The latter is more likely to invest in an experienced freelancer than the former, who rarely would have any sort of veteran left on payroll by now. Full-time radio staffing is far more skeletal than many people realize I think.

I guess this is old news by a few weeks, but I just saw that Tom Rinaldi is going to Fox Sports.

The baseball season has taught me that Fox regional sports networks are now the Bally Sports Networks. Now I can not stop thinking going to Bally's gym for the first time when I was a kid with my dad.

Washington Post sports columnist Thomas Boswell is retiring after 52 years at the newspaper Washington Post sports columnist Thomas Boswell is retiring after 52 years at the newspaper

Boswell was a regular read for me when his columns appeared in the Stars and Stripes. Brilliant columnist.

Kenny Mayne was way too good for what ESPN became.

“F— you Aaron Rodgers” ������ pic.twitter.com/ssYquS0OdF

— Will Brinson (@WillBrinson) May 25, 2021

LMAO, Mayne was the jewel of the station and yet Stephan A bloviates on.

I saw that he had his Week One guess the lines pod with Cousin Sal up and decided to listen to help get ready for the season. The very first substantive point he made was comparing Belichick to Brady by making an analogy to the Rocky 3 training montage.

That man has taken "don't ever change" to an art form.

Anyone know what's going on with Todd McShay? I saw the clip of him this past weekend - which wasn't the first time he's looked off - and now he's taking time away. Is it an undisclosed medical issue, addiction, mental...? I hope he gets well, whatever it is. Seemed to come out of nowhere.

Nothing out there beyond speculation at this point afaik.

correct me if I'm wrong but I think he had COVID

He had a weird episode last year too where it sure seemed like he was drunk.

It's all speculation but if you watch the clips, I think it's clear he's battling some demons.

On Twitter just now from his account:

I am going to take some time away to focus on my health and my family. Thank you ESPN for being so supportive and for all the well wishes - I can’t wait to be back on the sidelines soon.

Yeah that's what I saw earlier that prompted my post. Actually, I saw SVPs retweet.

I completely missed the whole "Aikman might be leaving Fox" storyline. I think he's been pretty solid. I can't tell from what I've seen whether he's looking to get in on the Amazon thing or if Fox is pushing him out the door.

I feel like QB have a shelf life. Well, really any ex-players. At this point, realistically, nobody under 30 can really remember seeing him play. Got to make room for the new batch of retirees. Surprised guys like Simms and Esiason still hang onto studio jobs.

(I don't think he was particularly insightful as it is.)

Chris "Mad Dog" Russo will co-host First Take every Wednesday

I mean I won't watch because I have no interest in watching argument TV. However, if this is your thing, I think these are HOFer TV arguers, no?

They should just add Colin Cowherd and Skip Bayless so I can put all of the useless show people in one place for me to avoid.

I won't watch for the same reason but like most sports fans my age who grew up where I did I love Maddog.

Not a fan of Herbstreit doing NFL games. I'm not a fan of him personally, but I also don't like mixing college and NFL announcers. It rarely works. Tessatore never felt right doing the NFL, for example, and his demeanor was just all wrong, IMO.

Anyway, will be interesting to see if Amazon finally gets Al Michaels done now that they know the color analyst, or whether they do something else. Herbstreit bouncing between NFL and college Thursday to Saturday... good luck with that schedule.

Joe Buck, Troy Aikman sign multiyear deals with ESPN to be voices of Monday Night Football

Does it matter?

Fantastic news. I don't have to listen to Joe Buck on Fox anymore and I don't have ESPN.

Guess I'm watching the Manning broadcast.

Cross off MNF.

Either the broadcast companies just want to spend money or sports fans are lying about not caring who the announcers are.

Tom Brady will join Fox Sports once he retires

Put me in the "This was way too much money, even if Brady turns out to be good at this" camp.

But I'm assuming that the money is for more than just calling the games. I guess if Brady becomes The Face of Fox Sports across TV, radio, print, internet, podcasting, etc. then maybe we are getting kind of close to $375,000,000 in value?

If Jon or someone else who actually understands media wants to chime in, I'm all ears on how Fox decided this was worth it.

Fox is spending $375 million to try to optimize a $22 billion dollar investment.

What if Fox never even tried to resign Aikman and Buck because this was the plan all along? And on that thought, they'll most likely end up with someone much cheaper than Buck as Brady's partner.

I wonder if Brady decided to play at least 1 more year so he could get good enough at calling games for this to not be a potential disaster if he had only 6 months to learn. I mean, $375M is a good reason to ditch retirement for another year and more than Fox might have wanted to pay for him to learn on the job and potentially have it go so bad they had to make him a studio-only guy.

He was the guy everyone was lining up to get when he retired too. Has to make fox feel great about the Tom Brady deal.

Hmm. Wonder what he's got going on next. Hard to think that he'd do better than he's already got as the head fantasy guy at ESPN.

Do you think that maybe this wasn't entirely voluntary on his part?

Vegas for that gambling network that Brent Musburger went to?

That's a good option. Some new enterprise (the one you mention or another one) flush with VC money looking to buy instant credibility. Make him an offer he can't refuse.

Certainly possible, especially with ESPN's personnell decision history, though I did see at least one story on this somewhere that suggested the network was caught off guard

he had it coming

My thought was one of the big sportsbooks snatched him up or he's going independent. They're paying absurd money to sponsor shows these days, so maybe it makes sense to just offer him a ton of money to do his show outside of the ESPN ecosystem. He has enough of a following to pull it off. You can see the massive money guys like Simmons, Mcafee, Lebetard, and others are getting in the podcast space. And while I'm sure ESPN pays him well, owning your show is where the money is.

The suddenness of the departure makes me think he has something lined up already.

Hopefully it’s blowback for Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles.

Doubtful. They don't focus on fantasy too often and in the sports betting world he doesn't have credibility.

I have usually have an issue with news organizations just running with fake news without verifying its accuracy. However in the case, I will allow it. It's sports, it's ESPN, It's Ballsack Sports and it's a silly discussion.

ESPN (again) ran a fake quote from Ballsack Sports on the air

Agent Casey Close sues Fox Sports radio host Doug Gottlieb for libel over tweet about contract offer to Los Angeles Dodgers' Freddie Freeman

Does this have any hope of succeeding? Like I doubt Gottlieb had a bone to pick with Close - I'm guessing he just stupidly said something he had heard but not verified.

SI

Success of the suit may come down to whether Close is ruled a "public figure" (with malice being required for libel) or a "private figure" as the suit requests.

Then it just has to be false, malice isn't an issue.

I saw the sports media thread bump, and thought it was Jon talking about Steak Shapiro coming back to radio.

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Srsly?

Good Lord.

Yup. With Sandy Golden. 92.9. I was a little surprised.

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I saw a few lawyers say the odds of this being a success is slim. Something about Close being a limited-purpose public figure.

Regardless, I think the lawsuit is more about protecting his reputation than getting any kind of financial settlement from Gottlieb. It's something you sort of have to do to protect your image as an agent.

I'm not exactly sure where this goes - do we have an "F U STREAMING/CABLE COMPANIES!" thread?

Honestly, I get more out of ESPN+ per dollar than I do my DirecTV package, so I'm only mildly irritated by this. It's more of a longer-term thing about trying to go a la carte and death by a thousand paper cuts versus sticking with DirecTV and death by axe, along with a couple of paper cuts from add-ons.

BREAKING: ESPN+ is raising its subscription price from $6.99 per month to $9.99 per month.

The 43% price hike will take effect August 23, 2022. pic.twitter.com/YwLYloeY5r

— Front Office Sports (@FOS) July 15, 2022

With the Disney bundle price staying at $13.99 (for now, according to reports), is this an attempt to push people to the bundle? $4 for disney and hulu is cheap, even if you rarely use them.

I don't think I would get any pushback if I said Vin Scully as close to a 100% likeability rating as anyone has ever had in national sports media. With his passing, I was thinking about how many of those guys (no I don't think there are any women who fit that category.) are left. It may be recency bias but the only person that popped in my head was Tim Kurkjian.

Vin and his era are the last to have not been on social media (for the most part). I don’t think an equivalent is possible now. Pretty sure Kurk gets his share of hate on Twitter just like everyone else does.

Lee Corso is a legend, but he just doesn't have it anymore.

Not sure what this will mean, other than I'm sure we'll all end up paying more...

Sinclair could reportedly sell Bally Sports RSNs to MLB/NBA/NHL alliance

Bought for $10B, might sell for as little as $3B. Couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch (and considering Sinclair's politics, for ME to say that, you gotta know they're insufferable to deal with)

Didn't Sinclair step in at the last minute to stop ESPN from buying all of those stations from Fox?

Is it me, or is this Favre thing getting way less play than one would expect?

Favre was so good for clicks that the incessant stories about him became a running joke.

Now he's actually done something newsworthy, and no one's talking about it.

dola: And it just occurred to me that because it involves welfare money, you can easily spin it into a Red State Blue State thing.

Seems like clickbait heaven. A story about Favre that you can also make a story about Red vs. Blue.

So why aren't places pressing the easy button here and cranking out these stories?

Aw, and here I was thinking the same exact thing: couldn't happen to a better bunch

SI

Fuck Sinclair/Bally Sports with a rusty hammer

Their on-air product made the Fox Sports regional networks look like top of the line stuff.

SI

My guess is that this is similar to the situation with Jon Gruden's emails. No one wants to actually dig too far in to see who else was using the welfare funds for something other than welfare. I also don't think there is much more to say with the Farve piece of the story. They are never sending him to jail. He has paid back most of the money they gave him for speeches he did not give. No one is tearing down the arena that has been built. Finally, I think people are more likely to blame the government for giving him the money as opposed to him scamming the government. You know, it is not his fault that the government did not have enough red tape to catch on to what Favre was just doing. Plus as I said before, we know he is not the only one doing it.

One last thing. I would be really curious to see polling as to who is more worthy of that money: Southern Miss for the volleyball arena or the people that was supposed to receive/benefit from the welfare funds.

Glad to hear this, actually. And not surprised. I had some interactions with Apple in a previous life and they can be obstinate assholes who believe the world revolves around them. I'd read an article a couple months back about NFL and Apple running into obstacles mainly around Apple expecting exclusivity for games - which cannot happen - and balking at packages for bars and such. Completely tone deaf-type stuff.

YouTube TV is closing in on a Sunday Ticket deal - ProFootballTalk

Now compare that to MLB, where they're trying to wring every last current dollar out of any TV deal, accessibility to the product (and building future business) be damned

SI

It's On: Bally Sports RSNs Headed for Bankruptcy | Next TV

The article mentions the Cardinals specifically but I am guessing it is going to hit a large number of MLB teams' local broadcast revenue stream.

Yes. And as some have suggested, one option is for the leagues to step in and take back their broadcasting rights instead of trying to prop up the current model, but that likely screws MLB because its viewers are older and likely aren't interested in 100% streaming content whereas NBA could have have a far easier transition.

Karma is a bitch. Not sure there are many other companies I’d be happier to see go under.

Not only that, but who would have thought that MLB's chasing of the last current dollar would totally screw them? /s

SI

Already looking ahead to what the landscape is going to look like next NFL season.

NFL Sunday Ticket probably won't offer single-team packages on YouTube, though cheaper packages may be available

This saga is starting to develop into one of those long-play running gag series of Onion articles that ends with the PAC-12 paying a Modesto, CA high school visual arts class to stream their games on the high school's website.

Apple still has not made formal offer for Pac-12’s media rights, but ION television has emerged as a potential Pac-12 partner, sources told @ActionNetworkHQ. ION TV is owned by E.W. Scripps Company, which has 61 local TV stations nationwide & launched Scripps Sports this year

— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) February 24, 2023

I don't even care about the NBA much but Kevin Harlan was on fire tonight during Nets-Sixers.

He is so underrated as a play by play guy.

Kevin Harlan was the only thing that made the T-wolves worth following in the early 90's.

Josh Neighbors fired for airing Bob Huggins' homophobic slur

I can't say I have ever heard of the Locked On Network or any of their podcasts. I did expect someone to lose their job when discussing this story though. I would love to hear this guy's segment and what different spin he was bringing to the discussion that required an uncensored airing of the interview.