Where’s Waldo? Those who watched MLB Network’s telecast of Game 7 of the ‘60 World Series on Wednesday were impressed by the absence of screen clutter 50 years ago. Hey, they didn’t know any better, those cavemen.
So now its late 2010: There were 32 plays in the first quarter of Niners-Chargers on Thursday. During that time, the NFL Network posted 30 different graphics; 30 graphics beyond the score, time, down and distance; 30 “now-read-this” graphics within the first quarter of a live football telecast.
But everything about the NFL Network seems to have been lifted from the “Big Book of Bad Ideas.”
Obviously, there’s no one at NFLN willing to tell Joe Thiesmann and Matt Millen to take a play off, now and then, to say less, sound better. That means the NFLN bosses think we’re the ones with the problem.
In Bob Papa, NFLN has a very strong, alert play-by-player. Yet, he’s forced to the side of the road by wind storms.
More: Twice in slo-mo, in just the first quarter, NFLN chose to feature Chargers’ WR Vincent Jackson demonstrating his great self-regard after scoring. There wasn’t a good catch, block or tackle to underscore? Yet, the NFL claims it wants to eliminate excessive TD celebrations — primarily performed for TV.
And more: At halftime, Deion Sanders began a question to Ben Roethlisberger with, “Big Ben, this is Prime here,” then asked the Steelers’ QB, “Does it bother you that you’re not mentioned among the elitist in this game?”
Nurse!
‘Cheap’ MLB players still come at steep price
Ron Hassey, a Yankees catcher in the mid-1980s and a clubhouse character, one day returned from an injury. He was asked how he was feeling.
“Physically, I’m fine,” he said. “Mentally, I’m day-to-day.”
Hey, we know the feeling. It’s not so much the huge contracts that get us. Who among us can grasp the difference between Cliff Lee (or Lee Van Cleef) signing for $140 million or $125 million? At $125 million, what would you be deprived of that you would buy if you made $140 million?
That’s like the Manhattan steak house, the other night, when the waiter said the special costs $64.95, as if that extra nickel was pivotal, as if at $65 I would turn it down, but at $64.95 — well, that’s a different story.
But those smaller contracts …
Recently, Ty Wigginton, nine-year big-leaguer and a .267 hitter who has had his moments but strikes out a lot, moved from the Orioles to the Rockies, his sixth team.
We used to call such players “journeymen.” We would embrace them, pull for them as underdogs, adopt them as cult favorites because, after all, they would have a harder time paying their bills than the better players.
Wigginton, journeyman, signed for $7.5 million over two years.
And even if these were good times — even if all those strip malls weren’t vacant — that’s crazier than $140 million or $125 million.
* Baylor University basketball, the program that in 2003 gave us the murder of one basketball player by an ex-BU teammate, is back in the bad news-making business.
LaceDarius Dunn, 23, Baylor’s leading scorer and an NBA prospect, was arrested in October, charged with aggravated assault after his girlfriend showed up at a hospital with a broken jaw.
Although the woman’s attorney acknowledges that Dunn struck his client during an argument, the young woman claims that her jaw was not broken, and that she did not wish to press charges.
As reader Dennis Carey notes, Baylor suspended Dunn for three non-conference, early-season home games — all easy wins, two against patsies. Baylor explained that Dunn’s three-game suspension was for “violating team rules.” That oughta teach him — and you guys down at the end of the bench, too!
League has tackled the problem
From reader Gene Klechevsky:
“Maybe you can help me. I was watching the fabulous HBO Vince Lombardi documentary when I noticed that during training camp they were doing these strange drills.
“They would lower their shoulders and drive themselves into these padded things. Then they would do that to another person by lowering themselves, wrapping their arms around the person and bringing them down.
“It didn’t look like a football move to me. Do you know what they were doing?”
Gene, from what you’ve described, that was called “tackling.” It began to disappear from football 35-40 years ago when the NFL discovered that too many of its players were being tackled, only to stay in the game and be tackled again.
* Quiz time: Which of these is not a Bowl game.
a) Meineke Car Care Bowl.
b) Beef ‘O’ Brady’s St. Petersburg Bowl.
c) MAACO Las Vegas Bowl.
d) Little Caesars Bowl.
e) Tidy Bowl.
Answer: e, but its time has come!
* “It’s all about the fans,” Roger Goodell must’ve chuckled to himself when the NFL approved Dec. 26’s Vikings-Eagles moving from 1 p.m. to 8:20 p.m. for NBC money.
* New York gets the A-Teams today: Joe Buck and Troy Aikman on Fox’s Eagles-Giants, then Jim Nantz and Phil Simms on CBS’ Jets-Steelers.
* Mamas & Papas: Local radio and TV sportscaster CJ Papa is to be married today in Manhattan. The victim is Dr. Anne Marie Ferrara.
* Top to bottom, left to right, ticket office to the sideline, there is something sleazy about Woody Johnson’s Jets, something that makes rooting for them difficult, a compromise, something that reminds one of a boiler-room operation with a chop shop in back.
* Joe Benigno’s knee-jerk, simplistic take on matters — Friday he went on a hateful, childish rant against NFL officials — would be easier to suffer if he were speaking into a Fisher-Price microphone.