Sports

Islanders fans cheering Crosby injury is disgusting

Please indulge this self-indulgence, but Tuesday night I did something I never have done. What I saw and heard during a live sports telecast was so disgusting, so depressing that I turned off the TV and read a book.

On MSG-Plus, the Penguins were at the Islanders when Pittsburgh star Sidney Crosby took a stick to the face, fell to his knees and began to drip blood on the ice.

The crowd in Nassau Coliseum instantly erupted in joy. This wasn’t the kind of gleeful, audible noise made by 10 or 20, or even 50 desensitized fools, but by hundreds, and more likely thousands. The joy was loud, long and lousy with the sickness that was inevitable, given the cumulative effects of being urged — trained — to become remorseless wise guys and group participation punks.

And when Crosby, among the most talented players in the NHL, skated off for medical treatment, those Coliseum patrons chanted, “Crosby sucks!”

On MSG, announcers Howie Rose and Butch Goring — the latter a Lady Byng Trophy winner for gentlemanly conduct while playing in the NHL — said nothing about the MSG team’s home crowd’s behavior, perhaps conditioned, if not compelled, to ignore such things.

Sad, sadder, saddest. For years, this is where our sports culture has been headed. I thought I could stomach anything, get past it. But Tuesday, for the first time, it was time. Time to shut off the TV and read a book. Never thought it ever could come to that.

ESPN has plan to distract from good game

Espn has an attractive basketball game on Feb. 19 — Indiana, currently No. 1, at current No. 12 Michigan State. That’s the kind of game a basketball fan would be inclined to go out of his/her way to watch on any network.

But ESPN can’t leave its hands off of anything. It can’t let anything be what it is, let it stand for itself. Everything must be exploited. Everything must be decorated — drowned — in ESPN.

ESPN already has announced its plans to over-do it, to ensure that our attention will be divided. For starters, because Magic Johnson played at Michigan State (1977-79), ESPN will have him courtside to work, for the first time, with a man ESPN describes in a promotional release as Johnson’s longtime pal, Dick Vitale.

Quotes from Johnson and Vitale attesting to their great mutual regard and friendship are included in the release. What this — or they — have to do with watching and presumably enjoying Feb. 19’s game beats me. But you can sense where ESPN’s going.

So there will be two analysts — with lots of catching up and saluting to do — working with Mike Tirico. To that end, ESPN already has provided a warning that Feb. 19’s telecast will be less focused on an attractive game than one should reasonably expect.

* Even by Mike Francesa’s transparent and hilariously haughty standards, he has been on a spectacular run. A few highlights:

Tuesday, his superior expertise and extensive inside knowledge of all college football and NFL matters allowed him to predict Louisville QB Teddy Bridgewater will be “the steal of the [this year’s] draft,” adding he could go earlier than Southern Cal QB Matt Barkley.

But Al Alburquerque has as good a chance to be drafted. As a “true sophomore,” Bridgewater is not even eligible for the NFL draft. Oh, well.

Then there was his “interview” with Dick Vermeil, more an opportunity for Francesa to tell Vermeil how much he knows about football and to tell listeners how he and Vermeil have been pals for years.

Late in the chat, Vermeil, ostensibly the fellow who was being interviewed, interrupted Francesa with, “I don’t mean to interrupt.” Classic.

Then there were Francesa’s chronic problems with straight addition math as applied to his football picks. Francesa always loses track of his losing picks, when he has merely misplaced them — over there in the “win” column.

Heck last year he claimed to have picked the Giants to cover in Super Bowl XLII when, in fact, he picked the Patriots to crush the Giants.

Even this NFL postseason — 11 games, easy to track — the simple math threw him. He claimed to have finished “6-4 or 7-3,” but as truth-tracker Gary Lewbel chronicled, Francesa was 5-5-1. Yes, even the smallest, most foolish matters fuel his egomania. Hey, 5-5-1 — for you, Mike? — that’s fabulous!

And there was his expert tout that this Super Bowl’s ratings would be poor. Leave it to Mikey! It’s now believed to be the third most-viewed TV program in U.S. history.

Which brings us to next year’s Super Bowl, at PSL Stadium. Francesa already has authoritatively ensured us that the weather here on Feb. 2 will not be an issue.

And that can mean only one thing: The Great Super Bowl Blizzard of 2014 is just 51 weeks away!

Texas abandons orange

Texas’ basketball team — for decades the Longhorns have worn burnt orange and white — next week will wear black uniforms at Kansas. Texas coach Rick Barnes told Austin’s American-Statesman that he is not wild about the change, but the school is contractually bound to follow Nike’s orders.

* Speaking of contracts, Feb. 24’s Grizzlies at Nets’ “Kids’ Day” promotion has been switched from a 3:30 afternoon to a 7 p.m. start, as per ESPN’s NBA contract.

* Seth Greenberg, who this season joined ESPN after being let go as Virginia Tech’s basketball coach, this week knocked the SEC for prohibiting students from “storming the court.” Hmm. Why not knock red lights for slowing up traffic? (A 2007 ESPN “Outside the Lines” tracked serious injuries sustained during court rushes.)

* At last, someone — reader Robert Friant — has come up with a logical explanation for the Super Bowl power failure: Louisiana reinstated Sunday night executions.

* WFAN/Sirius “Talking Baseball” host Ed Randall will be doing just that next Sunday afternoon at St. Mary’s Parish Center/Roslyn Public School Annex. Admission $10 — all donated to Randall’s Fans4thecure.org (Randall is a prostate cancer survivor). For more details, contact Phil Kirk at (917) 658-9012.

* Reader Mark Solomon reasons there only is one musical act that should be a lock to entertain at next year’s Super Bowl, the group Coldplay.

* Given the Wilpons’ proven business acumen by throwing in, no questions allowed, with Bernie Madoff, they should be given the keys to a ballpark-side casino. It could be the only casino in which the gamblers have the advantage.