From Philly to L.A., our sports “culture” was on full review this week.
The Flyers were three goals up and minutes away from eliminating the Penguins last Sunday when, instead of a congratulatory chant of something like, “Let’s go Flyers,” the crowd chanted an obscenity toward Sidney Crosby.
In L.A., after the Artist Formerly Known As Ron Artest assaulted the Thunder’s James Harden with an atomic elbow, Artest, ejected, was cheered as he headed to the locker room — and to his third suspension of seven or more games.
Still, pandering to the bad acts is a specialty of modern society. Last May, days after the NBA bestowed an award for citizenship on Artest — apparently not being fined or suspended for a few minutes is deserving of a lollipop — he was suspended for a playoff game for clotheslining the Mavericks’ J.J. Barea.
Hey, remember what those champs at Nike chose as its Olympic ad campaign: “You don’t win silver, you lose gold.”
More: Seeing how Fordham University has become noted for future sportscasters and newscasters, the school asked two professors to check in on ESPN Radio’s move to KISS 98.7 FM, which included R&B music.
Dr. Paul Levinson, professor of communications and media studies:
“The purchase [actually, the rental] of KISS by ESPN is indicative of the general shift of music listening from radio to the Web, which has been going on for more than a decade, but is still accelerating with iPhones and iPads as music-listening devices. Sports on the other hand, still has a powerful voice via radio.”
Dr. Mark Naison, professor of African-American studies, sees it far differently: “By contrast, I would say the generation of black people who listen to KISS-FM are dying off rapidly as a result of stress-induced illnesses that result from living in a racist (but post-racial) society.”
Really? Geez.
No mention from Dr. Naison, however, that this sustaining racism will allow ESPN 1050-AM to become New York’s first Spanish-language sports station.
And more: Good chat Wednesday between Howie Rose and Josh Lewin during Mets-Marlins on WFAN.
Rose noted that Marlin Logan Morrison was wearing No. 5, originally retired by the Marlins as a memorial to Carl Barger, the first president of the team who died suddenly few months before the Marlins played their first game in 1993.
The No. 5 was chosen, said Rose, because Joe DiMaggio had been Barger’s favorite. Unretiring that number, Rose said, “Rubs me the wrong way.”
Lewin agreed, saying it reminded him of when the Padres renamed Jack Murphy Stadium Qualcomm Stadium. Murphy, the brother of the late Mets broadcaster Bob Murphy, was a San Diego columnist who worked to have a big league team in town.
There is no tradition, Rose concluded, that dollars can’t destroy.
And still more: Because it acquired NHL rights, NBC and now NBC Sports Network have made it clear they favor and savor the game’s excessively violent moments over moving images of skill.
Let the record show that one of the most brutal, full-speed head shots delivered in this year’s NHL playoffs — the Kings’ Dustin Brown on the Canucks’ Henrik Sedin — last week was included in an NHL on NBC come-on to watch the rest of the playoffs.
(In the same promo, an NBC billboard read, “Semifinals Begin This Week.” Given that eight teams remain, impossible.)
And one more: Knicks and Rangers playoff tickets still are available — provided one buys WNBA Liberty Tickets. Extortion. It’s the Madison Square Garden/Jim Dolan/Cablevsion way!
Serena sets Boomer, Carton straight
With Serena Williams their WFAN/MSG show guest Friday, Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton got caught faking it.
First, after Carton and Weekday Boomer engaged in some cheap, unfunny junior high school-level doo-doo talk, Esiason asked her whether she still gets excited to play in the Davis Cup.
Williams said, “Well, first and foremost, Boomer, I don’t play Davis Cup,” to which Esiason quickly interrupted with, “I know.”
Then it was Carton’s turn to interrupt: “She plays Olympics.”
“I play in the Fed Cup,” Williams finally continued. “The Fed Cup is for women, Davis Cup for men.”
* It’s curiously disturbing how tickets to big events, once available to the public for purchase from the event-holders, now first find their ways to brokers and travel agents who can dangle them after marking them up.
Connecticut-based Tauck Events, for example, apparently has or had plenty of tickets to Saturday’s Kentucky Derby — as part of a travel package that starts at $5,200 per ticket/person, travel costs not included.
The question becomes this: If these tickets are being sold to agencies by Derby folks at face value — if they’re not being scalped from the inside — why not just instead sell them to the public, no middle-men?
Or are agencies and brokers buying tickets directly from Churchill Downs above face value? If so, is that extra dough being reported?
The same question remains about how and why the Packers delivered thousands of tickets from its 1997 Super Bowl allotment directly to a travel agency in Texas.
Berman, draft reason for fast-forward
If There’s ever an event that begs to be recorded first, then watched via fast-forward, it’s the NFL Draft, especially the Chris Berman and Cast of Thousands ESPN version.
* Of course the Sixers made the playoffs. They were a lock to make it weeks ago the moment Mike Francesa expertly declared that they had absolutely no chance.
* The Nets should have invited Spencer Ross, the franchise’s original 1967 N.J. Americans radio man, to call a few minutes of the last game in Jersey. For that matter, the Nets should at least have invited him to attend.
* Keith Hernandez, Tuesday on SNY, either went unheard or ignored. He called for a second replay showing Marlins’ first baseman Gaby Sanchez playing much too close to the line. “Can we run that back, guys?” Based on what followed, the answer was no.
* NFL linebacker Nate Webster, 34, last week convicted in Ohio on four counts of sexual misconduct with a minor — a 15-year-old babysitter — has completed the big-time football grand slam: College ball for the University of Miami, NFL ball with the Bengals and a felony conviction.
* While “Go yard” is now standard talk for a home run, we used to point to the back door and holler that to the dog.
* Lookalikes: Given the volume of submissions, it’s worth repeating — Jim Bouton and Capitals’ coach Dale Hunter.