Steve Elling of CBS Sports is jealous

That is the only conclusion I can draw from this diatribe of his.

The LPGA, in yet another sideways bit of marketing savvy, elected to stage Evans’ press conference on Wednesday at the Sugar Land City Hall, off-campus from the site of its season finale. Maybe they hoped players wouldn’t notice the details of the schedule if they handed it out elsewhere.

Unless you’re dumb or a non-jealous LPGA fan living in a cave, you would know already that the LPGA schedule was given to players at a meeting on Tuesday night. That’s why it was reported by the likes of Ron Sirak, Beth Ann Baldry, and Associated Press on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Some LPGA players leaked the new schedule out to certain members of the media.

It sounds to me as if Elling wasn’t one of them and that’s why he wrote what he did.

I got a couple of other problems with what Elling wrote.

Setting aside the bombast and bluster, the LPGA season next year will likely consist of 24 tournaments, the fewest since 21 were staged in both 1970 and ’71, a rollback spanning nearly four decades as the tour prepares to celebrate its 60th anniversary next year.

More alarmingly, only 13 of the tournaments will be staged in the United States, the smallest number ever. If it wasn’t the LPGA, with that kind of minimalist American presence, they’d be calling it a mini-tour. A mini-tour with major underpinning issues.

*****

Out of sight, out of mind? Playing abroad means even less media attention in the States and mostly tape-delayed TV coverage as the Golf Channel becomes the tour’s primary broadcaster in 2010.

Before a golf writer complains about the tape delay coverage of the LPGA or its foreign based schedule, they out have something drummed into their heads. Firstly GC’s contract with the PGA Tour which includes Nationwide events. They get first placement on the broadcast schedule over the LPGA.

Secondly, and more pertinently to Elling’s remarks, of the 11 foreign LPGA tournaments four of them are still played in North American time zones. Yes Virginia, Canada and Mexico are on the same clock as the United States of America.

As for the other 7, the Women’s British Open is broadcast by ABC who puts it on tape delayed. Which I have repeatedly complained about in the past.What’s your solution Steve? Play the British Open in Newport RI or Portsmouth NH?

Of the last six events, if they aren’t on tape delay, look at the hours they would be broadcast. Three, Four a.m. in the morning. How many golf fans are going to rise for that? The 2003 Solheim Cup went on the air at 4 a.m. in the morning but since it was without Michelle Wie almost nobody in the golf media noticed.

The tour instead created a season-ending LPGA Championship, signed Stanford Financial as the title sponsor, made it a full-field event and moved it to Houston, where it will be played for the first time this week. Now the radioactive part.

Allen Stanford, who wanted the tournament played in Houston, where his company has a large corporate presence, was tossed in jail. No replacement has been found to foot the title sponsorship bill, the format of the tournament has been criticized, and the event is running opposite the European Tour’s big-money Race to Dubai finale. Nice timing.

The ADT has been played the same weekend in November going back to 2003.(At least. I didn’t check 2001 and 2002 because I’m in a hurry.) Which is the same weekend the 2009 Tour Championship is played. When do you suggest they play the tournament? Next weekend is Thanksgiving.

One last bit of Elling derangement.

Twelve months ago, Bivens announced that the popular ADT event outside Miami,

Steve, you’re from Florida. The City of West Palm Beach where the ADT was played is not considered outside of Miami. When you were working at the Orlando Sentinel, were your offices outside Daytona Beach or Ocala? Those are Florida cities closer to Orlando than West Palm Beach is to Miami.

Philadelphia newspaper apologizes for incorrect World Series advertisement

Did the Philadelphia Inquirer just jinx the Phillies? From ESPN-

A Philadelphia newspaper has apologized to readers for mistakenly running an ad congratulating the Philadelphia Phillies on winning back-to-back World Series titles.

The New York Yankees held a commanding 3-1 lead in the championship as of Monday, the day the ad was printed in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The three-quarter-page Macy’s ad is on the back of the front section and features a T-shirt with the Phillies logo, the commissioner’s trophy and the phrase “Back To Back World Series Champions.”

The Inquirer said it deeply regrets the error. It is instances like this, the Mark Whicker controversy of a few months ago, that make me believe newspapers that newspapers will print almost anything. You can’t tell me not person screened the advertisement before hand and then didn’t ask themselves- “Isn’t this premature?” It shows a horrifying lack of standards at best and at worst that a publication will run anything for a dollar. Is it any wonder newspapers are dying right this minute?

Florida Panther David Booth taken off ice on stretcher

He got leveled by a shoulder to his face. From AP-

Florida Panthers left wing David Booth was taken from the ice on a stretcher Saturday night after a hard hit from Philadelphia captain Mike Richards.

With 2:55 left in the second period, Booth had just released the puck in front of the Flyers’ blue line, and Richards delivered a late hit with his shoulder. Both of feet appeared to leave the ice as he struck Booth.

Booth immediately fell face-down and remained motionless for several minutes. Both teams trainers and Flyers team physician Gary Dorshimer attended to him. Booth appeared to be conscious as he was wheeled off following a 7-minute delay.

Richards was given a major penalty for interference and a game misconduct for intent to injure. He could face a suspension.

The verdict on Richards- He should be suspended for two months. I’ve been ranting about the NHL’s jellyfish like reaction to thuggery on ice for as long as I’ve blogged here. My most recent post on a player suspension, was written less than three hours before Booth got knocked out. There’s only one way to stop this, make the penalties so severe that team’s and players will think twice before leveling an opposing hockey player. Two month suspensions when players are carted off on a stretcher. The rest of the hand short handed. You’ll see this shit stop fast with those punitive forms of punishment.

I’d like to strangle Florida Panther announce Bill Lindsay. He was talking about Mike Richards leadership. He was an animal tonight, not a saint and Lindsay should be ashamed of himself for making excuses for what was done today. The Panthers should send Lindsay back to radio broadcasts where no one will hear his stupidity.

Florida is down 5-1 with less than three minutes to play. Another loss will take the team to 2-6-1 this year. Booth is the team’s best player. Another key player, Radek Dvorak, hurt his knee tonight. This is going to be a horrible year for Florida.

Update= Here’s the video

Hockey fans held hostage- DIRECTV-Versus Deal Appears Unlikely Today

Today is the first day of the 2009 NHL season and wouldn’t it be nice if I could watch the games. From the New York Times-

The National Hockey League season starts Thursday, but a dispute threatens to keep DirecTV subscribers from watching the games televised by Versus. If there is no resolution, an opening-night doubleheader (Washington at Boston and San Jose at Colorado) will not be seen on DirecTV, and the Rangers-Devils game Monday night will be blacked out.

DirecTV, a satellite operator, pulled Versus from its lineup at midnight Aug. 31 when the two sides could not agree on a request for higher fees by Versus and DirecTV’s plan to change the way it distributes Versus.

Directv and Versus each give different reasons for why the two sides are having this squabble. Either read the rest of the New York Times article to hear them or see this previous post of mine.

In the meantime thousands of NHL hockey fans who subscribe to Directv are about to get screwed over. I’m among them, the Florida Panthers are scheduled to play the Chicago Blackhawks tomorrow in a game that will only be carried on Versus and it looks like I’ll be unable to watch it unless I want to go to a sports bar.(Out of the 82 games Florida played the last two seasons, I missed watching maybe 10 games each season. In most instances they were games that weren’t broadcast) I’ve got Comcast Cable too at my house, but Versus isn’t coming in on my television.(Funny thing is, I’m getting every sports channel next to it on my receiver. It’s just Versus that’s blank) Comcast is the owner of Versus. I’m mad at both sides in this silly dispute, but my anger is more focused at Directv and the NHL. Firstly Directv looks to be the unreasonable party, because I have yet to hear any other satellite or cable provider complain about the fees Versus wants. Why isn’t anyone complaining?

Versus is getting plenty of complaints from angry NHL fans. In an effort to placate me when I called to voice my unhappiness , I was offered $50 off the Center Ice Package that I pay for.

As for the NHL they are sitting on the sidelines and taking no stance in this affair. Rather than fight for their fans, they issue empty platitudes about how Directv and Versus are important partners to the league. This dispute is clear proof of how dumb this league was when they entered into a television contract with this third rate television channel. Fans and hockey commentators thought it was dumb after it was announced four years ago and it looks even more idiotic today.

Update- The $50 off offer has been withdrawn by Directv, in spite of me having an appointment for Dish TV to come over tomorrow and hook me up for their service. Directv apparently doesn’t value their long-time customers. I’m bolting after being with them for 8 years. They can also count on me bad mouthing them from this day forward. I was very unhappy with them recently when I learned a Pay Per View movie I ordered was only available on one television set in my house even though I’m paying monthly charges for three receivers in the house.

Comcast came by and I do have Versus now.(My development has a cable deal with Comcast and up till recently EWTN wasn’t shown in English on Directv. My mother-in-law watches EWTN or Filipino Channels all day long) So I will be able to watch tomorrow’s season opener for the Florida Panthers from the comforts of home.

Sources say Miami Dolphin QB Chad Pennington done for the season

He was injured in yesterday’s 23-13 loss to San Diego. From the Palm Beach Post-

Injured Dolphins quarterback Chad Pennington has a torn capsule in his right shoulder and will miss the remainder of the season, a league source confirmed to The Palm Beach Post Monday.

ESPN Senior NFL analyst Chris Mortenson, quoting league sources, reported first that Pennington will miss the rest of the year. It also said Pennington will seek a second opinion from renowned orthopedic specialist Dr. James Andrews, who has operated on the same shoulder twice previously, after the 2004 and 2005 seasons.

Pennington underwent an MRI on his throwing shoulder Monday morning after leaving Sunday early in the third quarter of the Dolphins’ 23-13 loss at San Diego. Coach Tony Sparano remained optimistic at his press briefing later that morning, insisting that he had ruled anything out and “we’ll wait and see.”

Pennington’s contract expires at the end of the year; there had been no discussions reported on talk of an extension.

His absence hands the starting job to backup Chad Henne, who completed 9-of-19 passes for 92 yards Sunday, with one interception being returned 32 yards for a touchdown by Eric Weddle.

In light of Pennington’s career, a injury like this had to be considered likely to happen. Pennington has seldom been able to stay healthy two years in row.

Miami now has Henne and 2009 2nd round pick Pat White for quarterbacks. White however isn’t a pro-style QB, he’s ideal for the wildcat but not as dropback QB. So who could the Dolphins possibly dig up to back up Pennington?

Rookie Pat White becomes the backup for now, but the Dolphins are likely to seek a veteran for insurance if Henne were to go down. Among those who could contend for that job are Brooks Bollinger, Gus Frerotte and former Dolphins A.J. Feeley and Cleo Lemon.

I don’t know what’s more pathetic, those being the best options available or that the Palm Beach Post’s Brian Biggane can’t recall Gus Frerotte playing in 15 games for Miami during the 2005 season. He, Feeley, and Lemon were all on the Dolphins roster that year. Biggane regularly bungled his coverage of the Florida Panthers, so I shouldn’t be expecting much from his coverage of the Dolphins.

As for the Dolphins, their 0-3 start isn’t a shocker to me. They were the most overrated team in the NFL last year. Miami went 11-5 on a schedule full of games against Seattle, Oakland, Kansas City, Buffalo(twice), and St. Louis. Some of the NFL’s worst teams last year and Miami won their games against those teams by totals of 2, 2, 4, 13, 5, and 9 points. Hardly convincing fashion. Miami was 1-15 two years ago, their turnaround last year was helped greatly by a weak schedule. A regression to 2009 to something around a .500 record should hardly startle people. Miami will win between 5 and 8 games this year. That comes to you from a Miami Dolphin fan.

Blacked-out NFL games to be available online

Of course there is a catch. From AP-

NFL fans whose local teams’ games are blacked out will be able to watch replays online for free — though not until after midnight.

The recession has left several teams in danger of having games blacked out this season. The league announced Thursday that home fans will be able to view the delayed broadcasts on NFL.com for 72 hours, except during “Monday Night Football.”

A game is not aired in the home market if it does not sell out 72 hours in advance.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell says the league understands the economy is limiting some fans from buying as many tickets as they had in the past.

Anyone who wants to defend the NFL’s blackout policy, could say team owners are hard put too in this rough economic time. That is why they contiune to stick to their decades old blackout policy.

I think that’s a bunch of baloney. Other professional sports leagues don’t blackout home games and are able to be profitable. The NFL should wake up and enter the 21st century. Stop screwing your fans, both at their stadiums where food and drink are the most ridiculous of prices, and those who want to watch the games at home.

What were they thinking- Mark Whicker and the Orange County Register

Sports Columnist Mark Whicker wrote a column yesterday about all the sports events Jaycee Dugard missed over the last 18 years. Who is Jaycee Duggard? She was an 11-year-old girl abducted in 1991 by Phillip and Nancy Garrido and had only escaped captivity late this last August. For 18 years Jaycee was held captive by a sex offender and had two children by Philip Garrido. If you want to read more about Dugard’s experience, click here or just do a google search.

A girl has been violated and scarred for life and some sports writer thinks this is a good hook for a column. A column about all the trivia she missed out in life while she was abused and tortured. I don’t know what is more appalling, that Whicker thought this was suitable for a sports column, or that his editorial supervisors at the Orange County Register approved it for publication. All the scorn that is being thrown at Whicker and the Orange County Register are well deserved in my opinion.

Tomorrow is 9-11′s eigth anniversary. If Whicker’s editors and the public hadn’t given him such a smacking to his brain matter deprived head, I could have just seen him writing a similar column featuring what the people killed on 9-11 missed over the last eight years.

BTW Whicker takes full credit for what he wrote. Columnists are often told by their editor to write about a topic but Whicker is not taking that way out.

Whicker came out and apologized today. The apology is worthless in IMHO. Why is that? Whicker had an email exchange with Michael David Smith of Fanhouse. He said it should come as no shock that Whicker’s clumsy attempt of using Duggard’s tragedy as fodder for a sports column has horrified and shocked people. Whicker then told Smith in a second email.

“Thanks for ripping me. I’m really happy I devoted part of this very hectic day responding to someone who had as little interest in my viewpoint as the crazies out there.”

Whicker is so sick between the ears he thinks his behavior is normal. What a pathetic human being he is. In light of his reply to Smith, Whicker’s apology should be considered both insincere and worthless. I’m betting he was made to apologize and feels he did nothing at all wrong.

Also I could point out that if Whicker or his employer wanted the apology taken seriously, it might help if they didn’t place an advertisement featuring a big breasted woman on the same web page. It makes it look like the OC Register and Whicker still have their heads in their rectums the gutter.

Ryan Ballangee writes-

Look, I try to make connections between social and political events with the sport that I cover. It’s natural to try to use sports to put things into context, and vice versa when the tone of sport needs to be reset. But nearly two decades of personal hell and painful captivity at the hands of a deranged freak of society is no context for an escape like sport is for many people.

Whicker may as well have used the Holocaust to talk about how 6 million Jews really lost out on some great World Cup action after World War II ended. It is that bad.

Clearly, Whicker did not have any kind of empathy for Jaycee Dugard or her family. Using their ordeal – and that’s putting it mildly – as a basis for a lame column defining a sports time capsule screams of someone who simply does not get what has been happening to Dugard without his knowledge until just a few weeks ago.

Every writer makes a big mistake like this at least once in their career.

*****

Mark Whicker probably shouldn’t get fired for what he wrote. Far worse is said in all corners of the Internet everyday about a host of people. What Whicker needs, though, is a serious adjustment in his perspective about the connection between life and sport.

Sport, yes, is an escape and Whicker’s sentiment in that regard is correct. Sport could never be used to explain something like what happened to Jaycee Dugard. To even try to make the connection is just rubbing salt in the many deep wounds that Dugard has because of what Phillip Garrido has done.

Much of what Ryan writes, I agree with. Except I think Whicker and whomever at the Register who approved that pile of excrement impersonating as a piece of journalism should be held accountable. Whicker should be fired, that will send a message loud and clear. Induction into Sports Journalism’s Hall of Shame just isn’t good enough. The rape, kidnapping, and torture of a being found suitable for a sports column should lead to permanent banishment from the profession of journalism.

Note- I won’t quote one word from Whicker’s column. It is such a piece of filth, I won’t let it soil this website. You’ll have to go to the link if you want to read it yourself.

Miami Dolphins place TE David Martin on Injured Reserve

Too bad Joe Rose can’t play any more. From the Miami Herald-

The Dolphins still have four tight ends on the roster. But now they have only one with significant NFL playing experience.

After putting David Martin and his eight seasons of NFL experience on an injury reserve Sunday, the Dolphins claimed 6-4, 256-pound rookie tight end Davon Drew, a fifth-round draft pick who was waived by the Baltimore Ravens.

That leaves starter Anthony Fasano, a player of 48 NFL games and starter of 27, as the only tight end with more than a smidge of NFL game experience. Joey Haynos’ seven games last year put him seven games up on rookies Drew and John Nalbone. And Drew hasn’t been in camp, so he is unlikely to be up to speed by Sunday’s season opener in Atlanta.

Miami doesn’t use two tight end formations but they are terribly thin at this position. Nalbone didn’t impress in camp or preseason games and I’m surprised he is still around.

The local news media really made a mess out of Martin’s situation with the Dolphins. Two newspapers down here reported Miami as cutting Martin before correcting themselves. Getting a news scoop is great but only when what is being reported is accurate.

Versus-DirecTV dispute will affect Mountain West Conference Football viewers

As of midnight September 1st, the satellite provider stopped carrying the sports channel. From the Salt Lake City Tribune-

Unless an agreement is reached in the near future, BYU and Utah football fans who are DirecTV subscribers will not be able to watch their teams play several games on the Versus television network this fall.

TCU, Wyoming, Air Force and San Diego State fans are out of luck as well.

The sports channel Versus has broadcast rights to televise the Sept. 19 Florida State-BYU game, the Oct. 24 TCU-BYU game, the Oct. 24 Air Force-Utah game and the Nov. 21 San Diego State-Utah game. It also has the Wyoming-Texas game on Sept. 12 and a few others involving Mountain West Conference teams.

Versus, which is owned by cable giant Comcast Corp., was dropped by satellite broadcaster DirecTV on Tuesday after the two sides failed to strike a deal to keep the channel as part of DirecTV’s lineup.

A notice on the DirecTV channel previously occupied by Versus says, “Comcast, which owns Versus, has forced us to take down the channel because we will not submit to their unfair and outrageous demands.”

Once known as the Outdoor Life Network (OLN), Versus is known now for its Tour de France and National Hockey League coverage. It also has rights to selected MWC, Big 12 and Pac-10 football games.

Both sides are giving differing reasons for the dispute. Mountain West football fans who subscribe to Directv have reason to be anxious. Their games were to start being aired next week on Versus.

Normally I could care less about Versus, but my television viewing can be affected if the two sides don’t come to an agreement quickly. The NHL is also aired on Versus, and the Florida Panthers(my favorite hockey team) open the 2009-10 season by playing the Chicago Blackhawks in Helsinki. Only Versus is televising the game. Out of the 82 games the Florida Panthers played in 2008-09, I doubt I missed watching five of those that were shown on television.