Yesterday was the rarest of days, when money finished out of the money, when Money, the odds-on favorite, was beaten by Happy Accident. And sports felt very, very good. Yesterday, an event of enormous national appeal started at a logical hour. It began in winter daylight, even on the East Coast!
Yesterday, we got to watch Canada-USA gold medal hockey with friends, family and friends’ family. And we got to watch it start through finish. And we now have a good shot to always recall where we watched it, and with whom.
Think how unusual such a common-sense, common-decency reality has become.
Many of us sat down for Sunday dinner after that fabulous game, almost like the Nelsons, the Cleavers, the Waltons, the Huxtables, the Munsters.
When’s the last time you could say that about a World Series game or an NBA final? The CBS-leased NCAA basketball championship now tips at 9:22 on a Monday night. Baseball’s Opening Day, sold at auction to ESPN, is now at night, this year’s first pitch after 8 p.m. in Boston — on April 4.
If NBC, or any commercial network, yesterday had been able to shuffle and deal, Canada-USA would have begun at about 9 p.m. ET to maximize coast-to-coast primetime ad revenues.
And NBC would have much preferred that we watched the game alone — more TV sets tuned in, that way — certainly not in groups.
In other words, NBC (and CBS, ESPN/ABC, Fox) would have preferred that we watched from the same place we now watch most games of national interest: that same chair or from bed, lights out, pillows up.
And if a must-see game — yesterday’s — became a can’t-last, especially with work or school the next morning, well, tough; you knew that going in.
But, hey, TV money didn’t win yesterday. We’re hot, one in a row! And what a great game, one we’ll all remember as it happened, no need to find out in the morning.
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Think how little you have to know about basketball to declare to the nation that No. 19 Tennessee over No. 2 Kentucky — at Tennessee — is an upset of any kind.
But ESPN, our all-sports network, called UT’s nine-point win Saturday “a big upset.” Fox Sports’ Web site called it “an upset” and “a shock.” CBS Sports’ Web site went with “major upset.”
Because the game was at Tennessee and despite UT player suspensions and one dismissal, it was pick ’em, a tossup. For crying out loud, Tennessee is 14-1 at home; No. 1 Kansas lost at UT. Rankings change every week, but winning on the road has been difficult since the British lost Fort Ticonderoga. But our poll-stricken modern experts don’t even consider sports’ plainest and oldest realities.
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Saturday, one of those Nutrisystem ads starring Chris Berman — one in which he hollers that he dropped 50 pounds — appeared. A week earlier, seen live playing golf on TV, Berman appeared heavier than ever, enormous. His weight is his business — until his business includes paid, televised come-ons for weight-loss products.
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It’s not so much that SportsCenter anchor Scott Van Pelt, thinking ESPN was in commercial, spoke a vulgarity on Thursday. It happens; it shouldn’t, but it does. Apologize, move on. The part that grates is that he issued, also on the air, one of those modern, qualified apologies, to “anyone I offended.” Brother, you’re either sorry or you’re not; don’t make it our problem.
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Why would ESPN and ESPNews last week devote so much attention to the Harlem Globetrotters? Why did they suddenly turn newsworthy, even making SportsCenter’s Top 10 plays? Because they were the featured act in the weekend’s re-opening of the Disney/ESPN complex, near Orlando, that’s why.
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Sex has become such a tiresome sell that Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue has become a non-issue. . . . Hold all tickets: The 2010 Olympics have ended, now stay tuned for the results of the drug tests.
ESPN lucky, so far
ESPN, check your messages: Last week, C.R. Johnson, daredevil and ESPN X-Games performer/competitor, was killed doing his acrobat skiing thing. A year ago, Jeremy Lusk, ESPN X-Games freestyle motocross performer/competitor, was killed after he crashed his motorcycle performing a stunt during a competition.
Neither young man died on ESPN’s invite or on ESPN’s time or dime. ESPN has been very lucky, that way. So far.
America gets to enjoy Devils’ Emrick
Wonder if folks around the U.S. realize Mike Emrick, throughout these Olympics, was no different than he is throughout the Devils’ season.
Russian Ice Hockey Federation director Budinsky Seligsinov yesterday announced that in order to buy tickets to the Olympic gold medal game in 2014 in Russia, one also must purchase tickets to the 2018 and 2022 gold medal games.
Strong thought from NBC’s Jeremy Roenick before the overtime: Someone in this game will soon “become a national hero.” And when it ended, NBC’s Ed Olczyk nailed it: “What a wonderful tournament.”
I figured the U.S. hockey team was a lock after the Nets beat the Celtics in Boston on Saturday, seeing how the moon was upside down.
Clearly, Kenny Albert inherited his preparation gene from his old man. Friday, he had Canada-Slovakia well covered, good player backgrounds and historical tidbits thrown in. Who knew K. Albert could operate without Tony Siragusa in his ear?