UConn Booster wants his money back

Based on this story coming out of Hartford, we're assuming UConn booster Robert Burton didn't watch (or if he did, missed the lessons of) the recent ESPN 30 for 30 special on the SMU football scandal of the Eighties.

Burton said he'll yank scholarship funding, advertising and his $50k/yr luxury box.

So a booster thinks he gets the final say over a head football coach search because he donates $$$? Nah, doesn't work like that.
-P&X

ESPN 950 goes FM; Steve Phillips can't keep it in his pants

ESPN 950 is now simulcast on 97.5 FM. Or vice versa, depending on your perspective. Their website (and advertising around Philly) now bills the station as 97.5 The Fanatic, Philly's first FM sports station. There's a podcast link from the midday show from Tuesday with Harry Mayes and Tony Bruno speaking with...

Steve Phillips, who popped up in the news today due to his suspension from ESPN and leave of absence over a tangled "fatal attraction" affair with a 22-year old ESPN production assistant.

The letter Brooke Hundley dropped off at Casa Phillips for Marni Phillips to read included (besides a vivid description of the ESPN analyst's genital area birthmarks), this gem:

"Whether he chooses to stay in a loveless marriage for his kids or to move on and be with someone whom he says makes him feel better than he's ever felt, it's up to him..."

Bizarro-world aspects of the affair apparently included Hundley pretending to be a high school student to insinuate herself with Phillips's high school-aged son, her inclusion of her cell phone number in the letter so Marni Phillips could discuss matters with her, and apparently a voicemail that said "I care about Steve and make him happy and we both can't have him."

No reports of boiling rabbits yet, but damn! Considering Phillips was sued for sexual harassment while GM of the Mets in the late 90's, you'd think he'd stay clear of extra-marital kitty. Wrong. Update from Captain Obvious: Marni Phillips has filed for divorce. Just stupid, stupid, stupid.

Sean May's diet and babysitting needs

It's almost NBA time. Over the summer, I looked up Sean May's page on Yahoo while settling a debate over who had more players on NBA rosters last season - Duke or UNC. It was Duke, by the way.

Sean's page conservatively listed his weight at 266 lbs and had the following sponsored links:

In July:
Drop 30 Pounds in 3 Weeks
Fastest Weight Loss - Guaranteed!

Today:
Dependable babysitters near you. View our pre-screened profiles today.

Hmmmmmm. I smell a message or two here.

-P

The Halladay Sweepstakes

You may have won not one, but two World Series trophies!

That seems to be the prevailing message around Philadelphia (and some members of the national media) should Phillies GM Ruben Amaro, Jr. pull the trigger and trade three or more prospects (and possibly J. A. Happ and a bucket of balls) to Toronto for Roy Halladay.

Our view? Write down every prospect you have. Include four blank lines. Email sheet to Toronto. Cross fingers.

No brainer. It might wind up being "5-for-1" again, but Halladay is certainly a better bet than Richie Hebner. Do it.

McNair found dead

Former NFL QB Steve McNair was shot and killed in Nashville. Details forthcoming. Apparently a double homicide. Holy s@$#!

Way too many deaths lately. Everyone dies. But too many going early.

- X

The Celtics Move On

Is it just us, or does Brian Scalabrine of the Celtics look like some guy they pulled out the stands for a halftime 3-point shot and just stayed on the court?
Anyway, the Celtics finally got past the pesky Bulls with a 109-99 Game 7 win. An awesome series. Photo from Getty Images.

Carolina Wins

Congrats Roy & Co...but Duke still has more players on current NBA rosters (14) than y'all do (9). Who would have thought?

-P

Outta Here!!! R.I.P. Harry, Mark, Nick

They say bad things come in threes, but baseball fans weren't prepared for a week in the death like this. Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart (car crash, last Thursday), retired Tigers pitcher Mark Fidrych and broadcaster Harry Kalas (both today, causes TBD).

Adenhart was killed by a drunk hit-and-run driver, hours after his 2009 debut. Fidrych died on his farm, apparently of an accident. Kalas was found in the press box in Washington, hours before his visiting Phillies took on the host Nationals. He ws taken to GWU Hospital but pronounced dead at 1:20 this afternoon.

We barely knew Adenhart. The Bird pitched in fewer than 60 games because of injuries. Harry the K? Everybody knew Harry, even if they didn't know his name. They knew his voice.

Kalas was best known for his 38 years of Phillies' broadcasting (TV and radio), but also did extensive work for NFL Films, Westwood One radio (NFL games), Campbell's Soup, the Puppy Bowl, as well as work for the Astros and a wide variety of college games. Many callers to 610 WIP and 950 ESPN today said they thought of Harry as one of the family, someone who could hold their rapt attention while telling stories. Now, given the Phillies' lackluster history, most of those stories did not have happy endings. But 1980 and 2008 were special times, as was Michael Jack Schmidt's 500th home run.

Tonight, instead of showing today's Phillies-Nationals game, Comcast SportsNet is replaying last night's Phillies-Rockies game, Kalas's final game.

Hard to believe, Harry.

Duke digs deeper, finds nothing

Duke's going downhill fast. How fast? The Devils have lost 4 of their last 6 and clearly aren't competitive in the ACC right now. After losing to Boston College on Sunday, Duke is 7-4 in conference, 20-4 overall. And a weak 20 wins at that. They have no inside game, no dominating players other than Kyle Singler (sorry GH), have huge spells where they can't buy a bucket outside, and suddenly can't play D (BC shot 59%). To us, that spells NCAA 2nd round exit. Again.
-P, X

And 1:
Guess Coach K doesn't care since he has a lifetime contract. As one of my co-workers said, "Coach K was picked to coach Team USA because he can see what the team needs to get better. So why can't he do that with his own team? They should fire all the coaches who coach the guards, 'cause they are getting nothing out of the backcourt right now."
-X

And 2:
Why isn't Miles Plumlee playing? Every game Brian Zoubek plays, a month is taken off Plumlee's NBA career.
-P

Eagles win not in the Cards

And so the bitching begins. Going into today's game, talk radio in Philly had two opinions:

The Eagles win the NFC Championship and go on to win the Super Bowl...Donovan McNabb goes to the HOF...Andy Reid becomes a coaching legend.

OR

If the Eagles lose to the Cards, Reid should be fired and McNabb should be released.

No middle ground. No gray. That's it.

So now that the Iggles lost (thanks to a helping of bad D, bad throws, bad drops, bad fumbles, bad calls, and bad kicking), let the chants begin anew.

P/X

Congrats Phils!

To all you fans - stop bitching about the Eagles. And Harry Kalas needs to retire.
-P

Sports Radio 950 is now 950 ESPN

Sports Radio 950 is becoming 950 ESPN tomorrow. Really. No April Fool's. Their ads have been bragging "never heard in Philadelphia before," which if you used to listen to ESPN 920, you'd know is pretty much true. The lineup includes:

Mike & Mike, 6 AM - 9 AM (replacing the fired Glenn Foley and status-to be-determined Michael Bradley and Meredith Marakovits - chances are the station will keep Meredith around).

Jody McDonald, 9 AM - 1 PM (Jody Mac moves from the anti-Eskin afternoon drivetime back to the midday spot he previously did on WIP).

Mike Tirico, 1 PM - 3 PM (snore)

Mike Missanelli, 3 PM - 7 PM (back from ESPN 1050 in NYC, formerly as Screamin' A. Smith's sidekick)

The Locker Room, 7 PM - 11 PM (Harry Mayes, fresh off the Fanatics midday show, is back in his old evening slot with Dan Schwartzman, sole survivor of the ESPN 920 wreck)

Misc (Dan Patrick, who was previously in at 9 AM - 12 PM for Tony Bruno's old slot, is now syndicated from 11 PM - 2 AM; Jason Smith is on the ESPN graveyard shift from 2 AM - 5 AM, whoever he is; and a one-hour rehash of Sports Center)

WIP got into the reshuffling act, too, moving Glen Macnow from evenings back to his former 10 AM - 2 PM shift with the Cuz. That spot opened when Steve Martorano left (no idea if voluntarily this time around). The 700 Level.com reports that Ike Reese will take over Glen's evening slot. Hmm. Not sure if Ike is entertaining enough for a solid 4 hours with no co-host.

Our thoughts?
X: I'll miss Glen on the drive home. Putting him with the Cuz is good for them, but essentially 950 and 610 are putting their most likable hosts in combat, or Mac vs. Mac. The former co-hosts Howard and Mike will try to verbally assault each other, though Mike doesn't seem to favor verbal assaults so much as physical ones.

P: Eskin vs. Missanelli is like a no-win scenario. As for mornings, I try to listen to Delaware's 1290 AM since they still have the First Team on Fox with Steve Czaban, which was the startup morning show on 950 until Henson and Foley got going. The only downsides to Czaban's show are the obligatory NASCAR interviews with Michel Rahal and oodles of talk about hi-fi systems, none of which I can afford. On the plus side, anyone who has a clip from Johnny Bravo when discussing the night's TV picks is OK in my book.

X: And Mike and Mike don't really do anything for me - I used to listen to them on 920, but that was mostly for Peter Gammons during baseball season. I thought Golic's blasting of ESPN hiring Tony Kornheiser for MNF was pretty funny - Golic, a football guy, was hired to be everyman, while Kornheiser, an everyman, was hired to be the everyman on a football show. Personally, I find Kornheiser more entertaining on PTI than Golic is on Mike & Mike. Greeny is inoffensive. Pairing him with Sue Bird a few years ago on a chaotic ESPN commercial was awesome (two ladies talking).

P: Al Morganti, Keith Jones and Hugh Douglas should have their own morning show. I'd certainly listen. I still remember when Al was reading the update one morning when Rhea was unavailable, and Al just said "there were some games in the NBA last night," and quickly moved on to the NHL scores. On Keith's first show, he said "Al, why don't you introduce yourself?" And Hugh is, well, Hugh.

Daryl Johnston must be on crack. Or Frank Gifford possessed his body.

One observation from watching the Pro Bowl: Daryl Johnston of Fox Sports, who noted that Osi Umenyiora was the Giants' only Pro Bowl rep, and "that just speaks to their great chemistry." As Kyle's mom on South Park would say, "Wha-wha-whaaa?"

Sports Illustrated: Super Bowl 42 Champion Patriots

Too much confidence? This morning's boston.com article by Dan Shaughnessy on New England's Super Bowl loss had an ad for Sports Illustrated, with the annual freebie enticement to subscribe: Super Bowl DVD, T-Shirt, and football. Unfortunately, they all had Patriots logos.

Well, some kids in Nigeria or Uganda will wind up with the T-shirts.

(Not) Patriots' Day

Congrats to the Giants, who stunned the Patriots 17-14 in Super Bowl 42. I knew there was trouble when it was only 7-3 Pats at the half. If the Pats had been wearing white jerseys, it would have looked worse: Tom Brady might have resembled a Seattle Seahawk from the late 70's, with blue and green mixed all over. Blue, for the Giant defenders who constantly got past the Pats' O-Line, and Green, for all the grass stains Brady got from hitting the turf over and over again.

Kudos to Blogger, which suggested "Goestenkors" when I typed the letter "g" in labels. Coach G has guided #25 UT to a 15-7 mark this year. Her former team, #9 Duke, is 16-5.

-X

Eagles in Transition

Now that the Eagles are making plans for 2008, it's time to revisit comments from Mark Eckel of the Trenton Times made back in November 2007. Eckel wrote a devastating column regarding the Eagles' front office woes, including lots on Tom Heckert, who was considered by Atlanta and Miami for its front offices:

Heckert wouldn't know talent if it walked into his office, and it would have to walk into his office since he never leaves the building...

Here's an exercise for you to do in your spare time. Go over the Eagles' current 53-man roster and circle the good players -- not solid players, not players the Eagles tell you are good -- the truly good players.

If you get to 10, you circled too many.

Then go over players who probably shouldn't be on the roster, or any other roster. When your hand gets tired, you're done.

Just like the Eagles.

The Eagles continue to insist they are "a few players away." However, QB Donovan McNabb, who sees his own time in Philly coming to a close, stated on his blog that the Eagles need lots of better players - after all, 8-8 isn't good enough to get you in the playoffs anymore, not with the NFC East as good as it is now.

ESPN 920's el foldo

ESPN 920 closed up shop earlier this month. Once it revives, Philadelphia's REAL sports station will be New York's REAL sports station, as they will simulcast NYC's ESPN 1050. Fans of Stephen A. Smith and Mike Missanelli, rejoice (yes, the sound of one hand clapping).

Previously I bashed ESPN 920 because:
- It billed itself as Philadelphia's REAL sports station (don't talk smack if you can't back it up).

- Its signal barely reached Philadelphia, and if you live in Chester or Delaware counties, you mostly just got fuzz.

- At night, its signal was overcome by a Canadian country station (CKNX, Ontario). Basically the only sports on 920 I heard in Delaware County were Canadian. Ooof.

- There was only one local show during the week - afternoon drivetime, which featured a rotating cast ending with Program Director Dan Schwartzman, who was let go as a result of the latest move. Schwartzman wound up on SportsRadio 950's The Locker Room
a few nights last week.

Simulcasting 1050 from NY is fine if you want to hear NY personalities after the national shows. But couldn't listeners just tune in to 660 The Fan if they wanted NY radio?

As for the national ESPN shows, Mike and Mike are take-it-or-leave-it for me - they're OK. Colin Cowherd doesn't do anything for me. The few times I've heard him, nothing special jumped out. The departed Dan Patrick was a little too smug for my liking. His new show was picked up by SportsRadio 950 and airs 11 PM - 2 AM. His replacements on ESPN: Mike Tirico (1 PM - 2PM) and the aforementioned Screamin A. and Mikey from 2 PM - 4PM. Ugh.

-X

Pats win again (ho hum)

What happened since the last time we were here? The Sawx won another World Series, the Celtics picked up Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, and (yawn) the Patriots are back in their fourth Super Bowl in seven years. Not bad.

We went to the Temple-Duke game at the Wachovia Center earlier this month. LOTS of Duke fans in attendance. The Blue Devils played an average game, good enough to beat an average Temple team, but will Duke be good enough to challenge Carolina? Hm. Probably not.

Sort of All-Star

Thumbs down to Tony LaRussa for leaving Albert Pujols on the bench with the bases loaded last night in the bottom of the ninth. Given that one of us is a Phillies fan and the other is a Sawx fan, we have split loyalties. But hitting Aaron Rowand isn't going to give you a better chance that hitting Pujols (who hit .400 over his last 10 games, versus Rowand's .241 clip over the same span). Yes, you don't want to have a player aggravate an injury. But even though Pujols is a whining bitch at times (last year's NL MVP vote, for example), he has a point. If the player is injured, leave him home. While LaRussa argued that he needed to leave a player on the bench for extra innings, you don't go to the tenth if you can't tie it in the ninth. The NL wasn't given a chance to win because a better player was left on the bench.

Coach G, Dice-K, NBA playoffs

So much for a busy month of sports.

Coach G left Duke for Texas (a tough choice, but UT has TONS of revenue from football, something Duke will never have, plus Women's Sports have their own AD). Thanks for some good years. And for beating Carolina as much as you did.

Dice-K has lost two straight now for the Sawx. Guys, maybe a little run support for your import?

The NBA playoffs start this weekend. Ugh. Maybe they'll be done by July 4th.

- X