Sports

Summerall eulogies skip biz tactics

How do you prefer your history? Sugar-coated? Artificially-sweetened? You want the pandering version or the straight-ahead kind? The widespread notion or the factual stuff? Or do you prefer not to know any more or any less than what you already think?

I prefer the straight stuff, don’t much care if the truths are unpopular or if they make me look and feel like a heel. Sorry, can’t help it.

Based on the obituaries and eulogies following Pat Summerall’s passing April 16, it is unlikely the history of the nationally beloved sportscaster ever will include a discouraging word.

Yet, there are more than a few people who knew Summerall as a shady character, a fellow who seemed to trade on his celebrity to take folks for a ride. One venture stood out. It looked, walked, smelled and quacked like a scam.

In 1997, after Summerall left CBS for Fox, he began to appear regularly on Fox’s national news channel hosting taped vignettes titled, “Champions of Industry.” Summerall would sit in a studio reading copy that attested to the great works of specific private businesses. Videotape of the businesses doing business would appear.

Summerall would conclude these features by congratulating the company for distinguishing itself as a “Champion of Industry.”

However …

Pat Summerall Productions of Richardson, Texas, would determine which businesses would be recognized on Fox News Channel as “Champions of Industry.” Summerall Productions did little-to-no research of the firms before they were nominated.

Next, Summerall’s production company would contact these businesses with the great news. And Summerall Productions wanted to shoot some “institutional video” — footage to appear on Fox. Fabulous!

But there was a catch: The awards and the national TV attention and exposure were for sale; they carried pricetags.

The chosen company had to, 1) only use Summerall Productions to shoot the “institutional video,” and 2) pay Summerall Productions a minimum production fee of $25,000, or 3) the company would forfeit its opportunity to be recognized by Pat Summerall on the Fox News Channel as a “Champion of Industry.”

There it is, warts and all. Never promised you a rose garden.

Francesa fires great question to new RU coach

Mike Francesa asked such a good question of his guest on Tuesday — then even allowed the man to answer — that we were briefly reminded what coulda been had Francesa not been stricken with acute megalomania.

He asked this of new Rutgers’ coach Eddie Jordan: “You’ve been around basketball for a long time. You’ve watched it change, and society change. What did you think when you saw the [Mike] Rice tape?”

“I thought like everybody else,” Jordan said.

Good question, good answer, good radio.

* It took a while to confirm these, but both Yankees and Mets radio gave clever a shot on Saturday.

During Yankees-Blue Jays, John Sterling finished reading copy urging men to undergo prostate cancer screenings in order to avoid “the silent killer.” Next, incredibly, he added that the Jays’ poor defense “has been a silent killer.” Ugh.

During Nationals-Mets, Washington’s Tyler Moore didn’t realize that his swinging strike three had been dropped, thus he headed back to the dugout. Josh Lewin next apologized in advance then said, “If Tyler Moore runs right away, he might just make it, after all.”

* Seems every time Michael Kay tries to dazzle us with his baseball knowledge, he only succeeds in having us consider whether he is full of it.

Sunday in Toronto, Brett Gardner was on first, none out in the third, when Robinson Cano struck out on an 0-2 pitch with a hard swing at a high pitch.

Kay: “This is one of the reasons I don’t like Cano batting second. Because he’s taking pitches with Gardner, getting into an 0-2 hole, then chasing pitches up there because he didn’t get the chance to swing the bat.

“You need Cano up there to swing the bat, not to worry about guys stealing bases.”

Fine — if that’s what happened. But that’s not what happened, not even close. Cano didn’t appear at all concerned with Gardner stealing. He took a big swing at the first pitch, fouling it off. He took the second pitch. Then swung and missed at the third. Gardner wasn’t going on any of the pitches.

“Maybe he just struck out because he struck out,” suggests reader Errol Wander. “Does there have to be a deep explanation for everything?”

PSL better when team is bad

Hey, Roger Goodell wasn’t kidding when he told us PSLs make good investments. Seven of the Jets’ eight home games are scheduled for traditional, fan-friendly 1 p.m. starts! Gee, wonder why?

And, because “it’s all about the fans” — not the TV money, never! — Dec. 9’s Cowboys at Bears, Dec. 15’s Bengals at Steelers and Dec. 22’s Patriots-Ravens, all outdoors, are scheduled to begin no earlier than 8:30 p.m.

* And this week’s Baseball in the Age of Bud is provided by C.J. Tompkins of Denver: “Marlins at Twins in April. Twins at Marlins in June.”

* An extensive collection of recordings from Bob Wolff’s 75 years of broadcasting will be entered today into the Library of Congress at a ceremony in D.C. Even at 92, Wolff’s mentoring and encouragement of young sportscasters and sportswriters remains significant and precious.

* Reader Marc Sheris wonders why the Rutgers Scarlet Knights’ annual spring football game is called the Scarlet-White game, when, come the regular season, RU wears Nike Black.

* Doesn’t take much these days. David Ortiz, who rarely bothers to run to first and appeared on the infamous 2003 PED list, hollers a vulgarity into a field microphone and becomes an instant hero. But what does it matter now that ESPN hired Ray Lewis? Pandering has become a national pastime.

* Boy, that shaving cream pie thing never gets old, does it?

* Ed Ingles, 24 years the sports director and morning man at WCBS Radio — and a good man, on and off the air — is this year’s recipient of the Lincoln Werden Golf Journalism Award from the Met Golf Writers Association.

* Of course, ESPN’s “50 Greatest Plays of the College Basketball Season” on Tuesday included a backboard shattering. ESPN still can’t distinguish sports from school-yard vandalism.

* Reader Steve Arendash wonders why there never has been a mock trade during a mock draft. Patience, Grasshopper.

* Every time I see a new Buick LeSabre roll by, I get excited. But nope, still haven’t seen Shaquille O’Neal driving it.