Time to answer one comment on my blog. Mary Ellen asked why I don’t mention the UConn women's basketball team? First off I enjoy women’s basketball a lot more than the men’s game because it is played below the rim. I don’t mention them because they have won 61 games in a row and beat all of their opponents by 25 or more points. It is like one sportscaster said this weekend, ho hum, they win again. Every time we think they’re going into a tough game, like Stanford or North Carolina, they keep it close for the first half then pull away in the second half. In the past I have talked about Head Coach Geno Auriemma. I happen to think he is overrated. This month on ESPN College Gameday Geno gave great insight to why the program is so successful and kind of changed my mind about him. He said that they practice for every game and don’t over look any opponents. He also recruits players that want to be great and not just good. For a good source of information I would direct you to the site sox and dawgs. I have posted the link in the links section of this blog. Each day they have daily links to all the beat writers around the state that cover the UCONN women. Without access I can just write what I see. If you have questions about a team or event that you head about on the news or on the radio, send me an e-mail at jdlazaroff@yahoo.com, I would love to hear from you.
Congratulations to Kelly Kulick for being to first women to win a Professional Bowlers Association title. Kulick beat Chris Barnes to win the prestigious Tournament of Champions event. You go girl!
Two big events last weekend were the Strikeforce MMA event on Showtime Saturday night. I talked about this stacked card about a month ago so I wont go further. I do want to talk about Bobby Lashley’s opponent UFC veteran Wes Sims. Wes will not be an easy win for Lashley. This will be a very interesting fight. The other interesting person who is making his MMA debut is 1982 Heisman Trophy win Herschel Walker. At first I thought this was a joke but in recent interviews Herschel has stated the he is very serious about this and is training every day for this fight. How will a 47-year-old man do in a young man’s game?
Update: It was very interesting; Herschel Walker beat his younger opponent in the third round via a TKO. From what I have seen and heard he was very impressive. In his post fight news conference, Herschel said that this was just a one-fight deal and he’s done with MMA. Good job Herschel you did it and won now leave the stage.
The other event is the NFL Pro Bowl. This is the first year it was held one week before the Super Bowl. When this was first announced (the Pro Bowl is usually the week after the Super Bowl) I thought this would not work. It is not a very well played game because there’s nothing to play for. I now think it is a good idea. After the Super Bowl a lot of people consider football season over. You now have the NFL’s best (minus the players in the Super Bowl) on the same stage as the Super Bowl.
Update: I watched and I now think whenever the Pro Bowl is played it is a bad idea because like any All-Star game there is no defense played in the game and this makes it boring.
Update on the story I brought you last time about the Togo National Team being attacked on their way to the African Nationals Cup Soccer Tournament in January. The new news is that the Confederation of African Football has banned the Togo Team from the next two African Nations Cup tournaments for withdrawal from this year's tournament in the wake of a gun attack on their team bus. My question is why are they being banned? They did nothing wrong, and were not even the target of the attack. Two members of their delegation were killed in the ambush; I would leave the tournament too to bury my friends. I think this ban is insensitive and just wrong.
What I’M looking forward to this weekend
Sunday is the Super Bowl at 6:25 on CBS. The year’s game is the Indianapolis Colts against the New Orleans Saints. I think the game will be a shootout as you have two of the best quartbacks in the league, with Peyton Manning of the Colts against Drew Brees of the Saints. I will be having my party of one on Sunday.
I think this will be the first time the Six Nations (England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, France and Italy) Rugby Championships will be on America TV and the best part is it will be Live. The first game will be this Saturday at 12 noon when Wales takes on England from London. It will be on BBC America. I can’t wait!!
Next week I hope to have my Winter Olympic preview.
Jamie Lazaroff
Showing posts with label MMA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MMA. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Friday, December 18, 2009
A view form the my chair
Two in a row, I must be on a roll.
On Wednesday December 16th I got a call from ESPN about the next step for employment in the stats and information group. I passed a phone test by a hair and then I was sent an e-mail assessment. I had 45 minutes to complete the test and send it back. I did not complete it and was disqualified for not sending it back in time. I was nervous; as this was the first time I took a test like this. It was a hard test and I realized that I’m not a numbers guy as it had a lot of difficult math in it. My roller coaster week continued the next day (Thursday December 17th). I e-mailed my contact at ESPN about what happen and asked him if he could provide me with the contact person from the on-air talent department that was at my presentation on December 7th. This person took my information to her bosses. In a return e-mail she said that she showed my DVD resume at a meeting and “although they don’t have a particular opportunity for me at this time, both of her bosses agreed there might be a role for me in the future”. Ladies and Gentlemen the dream lives on! This story is to be continued!
On to the sports, December is a time to reflect on the year that was. It is also the time between the end of the college football regular season and the 34 bowl games. I have talked about the BCS system and the need for a playoff in the top division of college football (Football Bowl subdivision) before. I do believe the BCS got it some what correct this year as the SEC (Southeastern Conference) title game between Florida and Alabama was kind of like a semifinal, where the winner (Alabama) gets a shot at the National Championship. The problem is when you have more than two teams that go undefeated in the regular season. This year 4 teams went undefeated Alabama, Texas, TCU and Boise State. The BCS was formed by the major conferences like the SEC and the Big 12 (Texas). TCU comes from the Mountain West Conference and Boise State is from the Western Athletic Conference. This needs to change; all teams should have a chance at the National Championship not just the ones that come from the power conferences. There two schools will be playing in the Fiesta Bowl January 4 and Texas and Alabama are playing for the National Championship January 7th. The winners of these two games should play each other to find out who the National Champion really is. I think the BCS needs to be flexible when there are more then two undefeated teams. I know it cost money for an extra game but the NCAA basketball tournament does it.
We are in the home stretch of the regular season in the NFL. With three games left before the playoffs, we have two teams undefeated the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts. This week’s debate is should these teams rest their players for the playoffs or play them in hopes of an undefeated season. I have been surprised that some former players including Michael Irvin of the NFL Network said he would give up his Super Bowl rings for an undefeated season.
This Weekend
Saturday is a big day and night for sports. The Ironman Triathlon World Championship from Hawaii is on NBC at 4:30P.M. The production is always an award winner. The last 15 minutes always makes me cry. Watch and find out why. Saturday night is a good night to fight as both Versus and Showtime present Mixed Martial Arts action. Versus has the World Extreme Cagefighting at 10 P.M. There are no championship fights on this card but the WEC features the lower weight classes that always have exciting fights. Should be fun the best part is that it’s on free TV.
The next event is a Strikeforce event on Showtime. It does include a championship fight; it’s a unification bout for their Lightweight Championship between Josh Thormson and Gilbert Melendez. I don’t have Showtime, so I won’t see this one.
I’M very much looking forward to the next Strikeforce event in Miami on January 30th. This show will feature the MMA debut of 1982 Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker. Also on this card will be two sports star Bobby Lashley. Ok, pro wrestling is not a sport but, Bobby is attempting to do both pro wrestling and MMA at the same time. This is his first fight for a major MMA promotion. The last person I’m looking to fight on this card is one of the most exciting fighters right now, Nick Diaz. I hope to get Showtime by January 30th .
I hope each and ever one of you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Will talk to you after the holidays.
Jamie Lazaroff
On Wednesday December 16th I got a call from ESPN about the next step for employment in the stats and information group. I passed a phone test by a hair and then I was sent an e-mail assessment. I had 45 minutes to complete the test and send it back. I did not complete it and was disqualified for not sending it back in time. I was nervous; as this was the first time I took a test like this. It was a hard test and I realized that I’m not a numbers guy as it had a lot of difficult math in it. My roller coaster week continued the next day (Thursday December 17th). I e-mailed my contact at ESPN about what happen and asked him if he could provide me with the contact person from the on-air talent department that was at my presentation on December 7th. This person took my information to her bosses. In a return e-mail she said that she showed my DVD resume at a meeting and “although they don’t have a particular opportunity for me at this time, both of her bosses agreed there might be a role for me in the future”. Ladies and Gentlemen the dream lives on! This story is to be continued!
On to the sports, December is a time to reflect on the year that was. It is also the time between the end of the college football regular season and the 34 bowl games. I have talked about the BCS system and the need for a playoff in the top division of college football (Football Bowl subdivision) before. I do believe the BCS got it some what correct this year as the SEC (Southeastern Conference) title game between Florida and Alabama was kind of like a semifinal, where the winner (Alabama) gets a shot at the National Championship. The problem is when you have more than two teams that go undefeated in the regular season. This year 4 teams went undefeated Alabama, Texas, TCU and Boise State. The BCS was formed by the major conferences like the SEC and the Big 12 (Texas). TCU comes from the Mountain West Conference and Boise State is from the Western Athletic Conference. This needs to change; all teams should have a chance at the National Championship not just the ones that come from the power conferences. There two schools will be playing in the Fiesta Bowl January 4 and Texas and Alabama are playing for the National Championship January 7th. The winners of these two games should play each other to find out who the National Champion really is. I think the BCS needs to be flexible when there are more then two undefeated teams. I know it cost money for an extra game but the NCAA basketball tournament does it.
We are in the home stretch of the regular season in the NFL. With three games left before the playoffs, we have two teams undefeated the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts. This week’s debate is should these teams rest their players for the playoffs or play them in hopes of an undefeated season. I have been surprised that some former players including Michael Irvin of the NFL Network said he would give up his Super Bowl rings for an undefeated season.
This Weekend
Saturday is a big day and night for sports. The Ironman Triathlon World Championship from Hawaii is on NBC at 4:30P.M. The production is always an award winner. The last 15 minutes always makes me cry. Watch and find out why. Saturday night is a good night to fight as both Versus and Showtime present Mixed Martial Arts action. Versus has the World Extreme Cagefighting at 10 P.M. There are no championship fights on this card but the WEC features the lower weight classes that always have exciting fights. Should be fun the best part is that it’s on free TV.
The next event is a Strikeforce event on Showtime. It does include a championship fight; it’s a unification bout for their Lightweight Championship between Josh Thormson and Gilbert Melendez. I don’t have Showtime, so I won’t see this one.
I’M very much looking forward to the next Strikeforce event in Miami on January 30th. This show will feature the MMA debut of 1982 Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker. Also on this card will be two sports star Bobby Lashley. Ok, pro wrestling is not a sport but, Bobby is attempting to do both pro wrestling and MMA at the same time. This is his first fight for a major MMA promotion. The last person I’m looking to fight on this card is one of the most exciting fighters right now, Nick Diaz. I hope to get Showtime by January 30th .
I hope each and ever one of you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Will talk to you after the holidays.
Jamie Lazaroff
Thursday, August 6, 2009
A view for the chair
Are you ready for some football! It is the end of July and football season is starting with the opening of training camp. There are two major football stories in the news this week. On Monday, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell conditionally reinstates Michael Vick following the end of his prison sentence for running a dog fighting operation. Vick will be allowed to play in preseason games and practice, provided he can find a team that will sign him, and Goodell will decide on Vick's full reinstatement no later than Week 6 of the 2009 season. Vick did say this week that he is close to signing with a team. But of all the 32 teams in the NFL, only 6 teams have interest in the troubled QB. I hope he doesn’t sign with an NFL team but goes to the new UFL that starts play this fall. I think Vick needs a year or so to mature while playing in a minor league.
The other big football story this week is that Brett Favre, who was considering coming out of retirement for the second consecutive season and playing for the Minnesota Vikings, announces that he will remain retired, saying that he does not feel physically able to play for a full season. I’M glad Brett is not coming back this season because I want to remember him as a great QB and not the one that came back last year with the Jets. Unfortunately as Peter King of Sports Illustated said, “We will probably have to revist this after the season.” Please just leave the stage Brett.
The major baseball steroids story of the week is that in 2003 former Red Sox Manny Ramirez and team mate and current star, David Ortiz had tested positive for performance-enhancing drug. 2003 was the year to test to see if Major League Baseball had a steroid problem. The positive tests should have been private. There were supposedly about 100 ballplayers that tested positive that year and only about a quarter of the names have come out, so, why not publish the whole list so we can know and just end this drama. Some people think the Red Sox and any other team that won the World Series in the steroid era ( I would say 1995 to 2005) needs to give back their Championship. Let me know how you feel about it. In the record book I would just have a section called Steroid Era and have all records from that time peroid listed. As far as the Hall of Fame goes, no player from that era should be allowed in.
Media Watch
ESPN became the story last week on two occasions. Frist, Erin Andrews was the victim of a “peeping tom” who took a nude video of her in her hotel room. ESPN made the decision to ban all New York Post sportswriters from it’s shows because the paper printed photos of Erin from the video. This decision was reversed because the Editor of the Post decided not to print the photos. That was the good news for ESPN.
The bad news was the way they handled the Ben Roethlisberger civil lawsuit story. ESPN in the initial days of the story, issued a “Do not report” order to its jouranlist. Why? When a lawsuit is filed in a courtroom in the United States of America and the person being sued is the current Super Bowl winning QB it needs to be report. If it was any other football player in this situation, it would be reported and be the first thing on SportCenter. ESPN needs to look at their policies and procedures to make sure this does not happen again. Oh wait, ESPN doesn’t have any policies or procedures, only when it comes to social networking sites like twitter or myspace. Just last night (Tuesday August 4) ESPN sent a memo to all employees for using Twitter unless it was for ESPN purposes. This could be a good thing I guess. I will keep my eye on this story.
This just in to the laznet news room. Aussie Rules Football is back on ESPN. The network reached an agreement with the Australian Football League to cover up to three live games each weekend for the remainder of this season and the next two after that. Most of the games will be online at ESPN360.com but a select number of games will be televised on ESPN2. This includes this year’s championship game (the Grand Final) in September. I’M so exticed, I grew up watching Aussie Rules Football on ESPN back when we were both growing up and I have miss it since. Can’t wait for the fall!
This Weekend
Next week I will be on Cape Cod for our family vacation, Don’t worry I will have TV and will be bringing my laptop, so if there is any breaking news I will be on it.
The major sports events this weekend is another round of the Red Sox against the Yankees. After a shakey month of July for Boston, the Yankees lead in the American League East is 2 and a half games (entering Thursday). It is a 4 game series that starts Thursday at Yankee stadium. It is always fun when these two teams get together.
There are two big MMA events this weekend. UFC 101 from Philadelphia Saturday on Pay-per-view. The main event of the night is a bout for the UFC Lightweight Championship, Champion B.J Penn will take on Kenny Florian. This should be a great fight as both guys have a ton of experience and are both Jiu-Jitsu specialist. I wish I could see it or better yet I wish I could be there live.
Sunday night in Las Vegas is WEC 42 live on Versus. The main event on this card is a fight for the WEC Bantamweight Championship. The champion Miguel Torres taking on Brian Bowles. The lighter weights are always exciting and this fight should be more of the same. One of the great things that makes MMA so exciting is that it is so unpredictable and anyone can win on any given day. I hope to catch this fight.
And that is the way it is.
Jamie Lazaroff
Sunday, June 14, 2009
A view for the chair
I’m really getting into the NBA finals this year. The Lakers are a great team; Kobe Bryant has taken over the game. Magic is the team of the future. In my opinion Dwight Howard of the Magic is the future of the NBA but needs some more work before I call him a superstar. A lot of the Magic success is because of coach Stan Van Gundy who, I think, is an extremely underrated coach. He made the necessary adjustments needed after game one and the blowout by the Lakers to continue in this series and to help make it competitive. Two of the games have gone into overtime, the Magic should have won these games but they blew it in OT.
I think ABC is doing a great job on the telecast of the games. Mike Breen is the best play-by-play man in the business. Jeff Van Gundy (Stan’s brother) is a great analyst. He is a former coach but talks the fans language. Mark Jackson is also very good he comes up with some funny lines but his voice is very monotone.
My question about the NBA Finals is, why do the weekday games start around 9 P.M. and weekend games start around 8 P.M.? Last Thursdays game did not end until after midnight, to late for me! Should it be revised? Just a though!
Last weekend was the finals of the French Open. Roger Federer won a career Grand Slam and is now tied with Pete Sampras for the most all-time Grand Slam singles titles with 14 championships. Roger is the greatest tennis player I have every seen. Wimbledon in two weeks will be very interesting. Can Roger regain his crown he lost last year to Rafael Nadal? Let’s talk about NBC’s telecast. I think Ted Robinson is the second best play-by-play voice in tennis behind Dick Enberg. John McEnroe is the best in the business behind no one. Mary Carillo is very good too. These three combined may be the best announcing team in all of sports.
Last Friday as Roger Federer was outlasting Juan Martin del Potro in the French Open Semifinals, we in the United States did not see it live until that afternoon on Tennis Channel. Here is an explanation from NBC Sports via Richard Deitsch from Sports Illustrated. NBC Sports’ contract with the tournament allowed it to air only one of the semifinals and they gave NBC a “blackout window” after the broadcast of the NBC taped match ended. NBC’s window was 10 A.M. to 1 P.M. because it wanted to protect the “Today Show”. By the way I thought the “Today Show” went to 11 A.M.? I would like to know why there was no live tennis on NBC the first weekend (May 30 and 31) of the French Open? As Richard says in his Monday column, the three network partners (NBC, ESPN, and the Tennis Channel) need to figure out how to air live coverage on the first weekend and last Friday in 2010.
Last Saturday, June 6th was the season opener for the WNBA Connecticut Sun. It was one of the worst games I have every witnessed. I hope this was just season opening jitters. On Sunday, June 7th they beat New York, so we will see how they do in their next game, Sunday, June 14, 2009 at home versus Atlanta. I won’t be there!
Now on to hockey for a minute, why are some of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals games on the same night as the NBA finals games? Just asking?
Last Sunday TNT took over NASCAR coverage from FOX. I think play-by-play announcer Bill Weber is good but no Mike Joy. I don’t like Wally Dallenbach, I think he is too laidback and comes off as arrogant sometimes. Kyle Petty was a good diver in his day but is no good in the booth. He speaks diver language but for the most part I can’t understand him. After just one week, I miss Darrell Waltrip. Larry McReynolds is part of TNT coverage but just trackside but he’s not on enough to be effective.
Last Sunday night Mike Brown and Urijah Faber put on a great show for the WEC on Versus. Mike Brown won the fight by unanimous decision to retain the WEC Featherweight Championship. Faber broke his hand in the frst round of the fight, but still fought all 5 rounds @ 5 minutes each. Just incredible, in fact, I missed the overtime of game 2 of the NBA Finals to watch this fight. Versus needs to find a new announcer because Todd Harris was just awful. He should not do any sports, he is bad at everything he does. Kenny Florian was great as the analyst. He has been an analyst on ESPN internet show MMA live, but I did not know how he would do on live TV. After his fight career is over Kenny has a furtue in TV.
This Weekend
The big event this weekend is UFC 99 from Cologne, Germany on pay-per-view. There are no championship fights on this card, will have some great matchups, like former UFC Middleweight Champion Rich “ACE” Franklin fighting fomer Pride Middlewight Champion Wanderlei “The Axe Murderer” Silva in a 195 lb bout. The other headliner is the return of Mirko “Cro Cop” to the Octagon. “Cro Cop” is a former Pride Openweight Grand Prix Champion. Should be fun.
The other big event is the start of the FIFA Confederations Cup from South Africa on Sunday. The good news for soccer fans in the U.S. is that all of the games will be on ESPN and ESPN2. Here is next weeks schedule:
Su 6/14 9:55 a.m. ESPN2 South Africa vs. Iraq
2:25 p.m. ESPN2 New Zealand vs. Spain
Mo 6/15 9:55 a.m. ESPN2 Brazil vs. Egypt
2:25 p.m. ESPN USA vs. Italy
We 6/17 9:55 a.m. ESPN2 Spain vs. Iraq
2:25 p.m. ESPN2 New Zealand vs. South Africa
Thur 6/189:55 a.m. ESPN2 USA vs. Brazil
2:25 p.m. ESPN2 Egypt vs. Italy
Enjoy, I know I will!
See you next week, if not before.
Jamie Lazaroff
I think ABC is doing a great job on the telecast of the games. Mike Breen is the best play-by-play man in the business. Jeff Van Gundy (Stan’s brother) is a great analyst. He is a former coach but talks the fans language. Mark Jackson is also very good he comes up with some funny lines but his voice is very monotone.
My question about the NBA Finals is, why do the weekday games start around 9 P.M. and weekend games start around 8 P.M.? Last Thursdays game did not end until after midnight, to late for me! Should it be revised? Just a though!
Last weekend was the finals of the French Open. Roger Federer won a career Grand Slam and is now tied with Pete Sampras for the most all-time Grand Slam singles titles with 14 championships. Roger is the greatest tennis player I have every seen. Wimbledon in two weeks will be very interesting. Can Roger regain his crown he lost last year to Rafael Nadal? Let’s talk about NBC’s telecast. I think Ted Robinson is the second best play-by-play voice in tennis behind Dick Enberg. John McEnroe is the best in the business behind no one. Mary Carillo is very good too. These three combined may be the best announcing team in all of sports.
Last Friday as Roger Federer was outlasting Juan Martin del Potro in the French Open Semifinals, we in the United States did not see it live until that afternoon on Tennis Channel. Here is an explanation from NBC Sports via Richard Deitsch from Sports Illustrated. NBC Sports’ contract with the tournament allowed it to air only one of the semifinals and they gave NBC a “blackout window” after the broadcast of the NBC taped match ended. NBC’s window was 10 A.M. to 1 P.M. because it wanted to protect the “Today Show”. By the way I thought the “Today Show” went to 11 A.M.? I would like to know why there was no live tennis on NBC the first weekend (May 30 and 31) of the French Open? As Richard says in his Monday column, the three network partners (NBC, ESPN, and the Tennis Channel) need to figure out how to air live coverage on the first weekend and last Friday in 2010.
Last Saturday, June 6th was the season opener for the WNBA Connecticut Sun. It was one of the worst games I have every witnessed. I hope this was just season opening jitters. On Sunday, June 7th they beat New York, so we will see how they do in their next game, Sunday, June 14, 2009 at home versus Atlanta. I won’t be there!
Now on to hockey for a minute, why are some of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals games on the same night as the NBA finals games? Just asking?
Last Sunday TNT took over NASCAR coverage from FOX. I think play-by-play announcer Bill Weber is good but no Mike Joy. I don’t like Wally Dallenbach, I think he is too laidback and comes off as arrogant sometimes. Kyle Petty was a good diver in his day but is no good in the booth. He speaks diver language but for the most part I can’t understand him. After just one week, I miss Darrell Waltrip. Larry McReynolds is part of TNT coverage but just trackside but he’s not on enough to be effective.
Last Sunday night Mike Brown and Urijah Faber put on a great show for the WEC on Versus. Mike Brown won the fight by unanimous decision to retain the WEC Featherweight Championship. Faber broke his hand in the frst round of the fight, but still fought all 5 rounds @ 5 minutes each. Just incredible, in fact, I missed the overtime of game 2 of the NBA Finals to watch this fight. Versus needs to find a new announcer because Todd Harris was just awful. He should not do any sports, he is bad at everything he does. Kenny Florian was great as the analyst. He has been an analyst on ESPN internet show MMA live, but I did not know how he would do on live TV. After his fight career is over Kenny has a furtue in TV.
This Weekend
The big event this weekend is UFC 99 from Cologne, Germany on pay-per-view. There are no championship fights on this card, will have some great matchups, like former UFC Middleweight Champion Rich “ACE” Franklin fighting fomer Pride Middlewight Champion Wanderlei “The Axe Murderer” Silva in a 195 lb bout. The other headliner is the return of Mirko “Cro Cop” to the Octagon. “Cro Cop” is a former Pride Openweight Grand Prix Champion. Should be fun.
The other big event is the start of the FIFA Confederations Cup from South Africa on Sunday. The good news for soccer fans in the U.S. is that all of the games will be on ESPN and ESPN2. Here is next weeks schedule:
Su 6/14 9:55 a.m. ESPN2 South Africa vs. Iraq
2:25 p.m. ESPN2 New Zealand vs. Spain
Mo 6/15 9:55 a.m. ESPN2 Brazil vs. Egypt
2:25 p.m. ESPN USA vs. Italy
We 6/17 9:55 a.m. ESPN2 Spain vs. Iraq
2:25 p.m. ESPN2 New Zealand vs. South Africa
Thur 6/189:55 a.m. ESPN2 USA vs. Brazil
2:25 p.m. ESPN2 Egypt vs. Italy
Enjoy, I know I will!
See you next week, if not before.
Jamie Lazaroff
Friday, June 5, 2009
A view for the chair
Hi folks
I’m back and better than ever. We are diligently working on the audio podcast; I hope to have it up by the end of next week. I’ll keep you posted.
Enough about me, on to the sports.
There is a lot going on in the world of sports, so let’s go. Rance Mullinicks was in the booth this weekend as the Red Sox were in Toronto to play the Blue Jays. New England Sports Network (NESN) has been using different analysts since May 6, when Jerry Remy took a leave of absence so he can fully recover from the effects of cancer surgery. Rance has been the best sub NESN has had; he was clear and did not use baseball jargon. Please come back soon Jerry, we miss you.
Breaking news: Tony Dungy and Rodney Harrison are the new analysts for NBC’s Sunday Night Football. Rodney and Tony worked for NBC at the Super Bowl in February and were very good. They are replacing Cris Collinsworth, who is leaving the studio and replacing John Madden in the game booth and Jerome Bettis who was let go by the network. I cannot believe Tiki Barber as the only holdover from last season and Jerome was let go. Jerome you could tell loved the game and it showed. He had passion and Tiki is seems like he’s just going through the motions. Tony and Rodney has that passion and I think they will do very well.
For the past two weeks, ESPN has been sharing converge of the French Open with the Tennis Channel on weekdays and NBC Sports on the weekends. This past Sunday 4-time defending champion Rafael Nadal lost to 23rd seed Robin Soderling. NBC had all the matches on the day taped for the afternoon; remember that Paris is 5 hours ahead of New York. Next time something big happens please NBC, let ESPN (as they are in more homes than the Tennis Channel) show the match live. The finals this weekend will be live, the women are Saturday and the men are Sunday.
There is big news in the mixed martial arts world this week. The Ultimate Fighting Championship has announced that former eliteXC fighter Kimbo Slice is a part of season 10 of there reality TV show the “Ultimate Fighter” that will start airing on Spike on September16. UFC President Dana White, at one point last year, called Kimbo “not a real fighter”, a “fraud”, and that he would not let him in UFC. Dana has stated the only way Kimbo will fight in the UFC is if he wins the Ultimate Fighter contract. The other fights announced for the show are all former NFL players…will be a fun season and I can’t wait for September.
I have one question, why are games 3 and 4 of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals on Versus? I don’t know any major sports league other than the NHL that has their championship series on cable TV. For a league that needs showcasing, the NHL does a terrible job at being visible. Just a thought.
This weekend
This is a huge weekend for sports. The crazy French Open wraps up with the Women’s Final Saturday morning and the Men’s final on Sunday morning, both live on NBC.
It is a huge weekend for mixed martial arts with events on both days. Saturday is Strikeforce on Showtime. The main event is Robbie Lawler versus Jake Shields, but the fight I want to see is Nick Diaz versus Scott Smith. These will be two very entertaining bouts but there are great fighters up and down the card. Should be fun…wish I had Showtime.
On Sunday night is the WEC on Versus at 9 P.M.. The main bout is a rematch for the Featherweight Championship with defending champion Mike Brown fighting Urijah Faber, the man he beat for the title.
Saturday is the Belmont stakes on ABC at 5 P.M. Calvin Borel will be looking for a jockey triple crown, as he won the Kentucky Derby on Mine That Bird, and the Preakness on Rachel Alexandra and he is back on Mine That Bird for the mile and a half “test of the champions.” Will be very interesting, I don’t think he can do it. The Belmont is the longest Triple Crown and perhaps the longest race the horse will run in his entire career. Calvin Borel is a jockey made for shorter races.
Besides all this, the WNBA starts its season. I will be at the season opener this Saturday at the Mohegan Sun Arena when the Sun take on the Washington Mystics. I will have a report next week. Should be fun.
Also, can the USA Men’s national soccer team rebound after a 3 to 1 lost to Costa Rica Wednesday night in World Cup qualifying? Saturday the U.S. host Honduras at Soldier Field in Chicago at 8 P.M. on ESPN. With only two home games left in qualifying I think we need to win this game. The national team has a big month ahead of them as they head to South Africa for the FIFA Confederations Cup and play some of the best national teams in the world. Their first two games in South Africa will be against Italy and Brazil; these two teams combine for 9 world cup titles. Will be some good matches, I hope.
Talk to you next week if not before.
Jamie Lazaroff
I’m back and better than ever. We are diligently working on the audio podcast; I hope to have it up by the end of next week. I’ll keep you posted.
Enough about me, on to the sports.
There is a lot going on in the world of sports, so let’s go. Rance Mullinicks was in the booth this weekend as the Red Sox were in Toronto to play the Blue Jays. New England Sports Network (NESN) has been using different analysts since May 6, when Jerry Remy took a leave of absence so he can fully recover from the effects of cancer surgery. Rance has been the best sub NESN has had; he was clear and did not use baseball jargon. Please come back soon Jerry, we miss you.
Breaking news: Tony Dungy and Rodney Harrison are the new analysts for NBC’s Sunday Night Football. Rodney and Tony worked for NBC at the Super Bowl in February and were very good. They are replacing Cris Collinsworth, who is leaving the studio and replacing John Madden in the game booth and Jerome Bettis who was let go by the network. I cannot believe Tiki Barber as the only holdover from last season and Jerome was let go. Jerome you could tell loved the game and it showed. He had passion and Tiki is seems like he’s just going through the motions. Tony and Rodney has that passion and I think they will do very well.
For the past two weeks, ESPN has been sharing converge of the French Open with the Tennis Channel on weekdays and NBC Sports on the weekends. This past Sunday 4-time defending champion Rafael Nadal lost to 23rd seed Robin Soderling. NBC had all the matches on the day taped for the afternoon; remember that Paris is 5 hours ahead of New York. Next time something big happens please NBC, let ESPN (as they are in more homes than the Tennis Channel) show the match live. The finals this weekend will be live, the women are Saturday and the men are Sunday.
There is big news in the mixed martial arts world this week. The Ultimate Fighting Championship has announced that former eliteXC fighter Kimbo Slice is a part of season 10 of there reality TV show the “Ultimate Fighter” that will start airing on Spike on September16. UFC President Dana White, at one point last year, called Kimbo “not a real fighter”, a “fraud”, and that he would not let him in UFC. Dana has stated the only way Kimbo will fight in the UFC is if he wins the Ultimate Fighter contract. The other fights announced for the show are all former NFL players…will be a fun season and I can’t wait for September.
I have one question, why are games 3 and 4 of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals on Versus? I don’t know any major sports league other than the NHL that has their championship series on cable TV. For a league that needs showcasing, the NHL does a terrible job at being visible. Just a thought.
This weekend
This is a huge weekend for sports. The crazy French Open wraps up with the Women’s Final Saturday morning and the Men’s final on Sunday morning, both live on NBC.
It is a huge weekend for mixed martial arts with events on both days. Saturday is Strikeforce on Showtime. The main event is Robbie Lawler versus Jake Shields, but the fight I want to see is Nick Diaz versus Scott Smith. These will be two very entertaining bouts but there are great fighters up and down the card. Should be fun…wish I had Showtime.
On Sunday night is the WEC on Versus at 9 P.M.. The main bout is a rematch for the Featherweight Championship with defending champion Mike Brown fighting Urijah Faber, the man he beat for the title.
Saturday is the Belmont stakes on ABC at 5 P.M. Calvin Borel will be looking for a jockey triple crown, as he won the Kentucky Derby on Mine That Bird, and the Preakness on Rachel Alexandra and he is back on Mine That Bird for the mile and a half “test of the champions.” Will be very interesting, I don’t think he can do it. The Belmont is the longest Triple Crown and perhaps the longest race the horse will run in his entire career. Calvin Borel is a jockey made for shorter races.
Besides all this, the WNBA starts its season. I will be at the season opener this Saturday at the Mohegan Sun Arena when the Sun take on the Washington Mystics. I will have a report next week. Should be fun.
Also, can the USA Men’s national soccer team rebound after a 3 to 1 lost to Costa Rica Wednesday night in World Cup qualifying? Saturday the U.S. host Honduras at Soldier Field in Chicago at 8 P.M. on ESPN. With only two home games left in qualifying I think we need to win this game. The national team has a big month ahead of them as they head to South Africa for the FIFA Confederations Cup and play some of the best national teams in the world. Their first two games in South Africa will be against Italy and Brazil; these two teams combine for 9 world cup titles. Will be some good matches, I hope.
Talk to you next week if not before.
Jamie Lazaroff
Thursday, July 24, 2008
This week in sports
This was a busy weekend in sports so lets get to it.
Padraig Harrington won the “Open Championship” for the second year in a row. The two big story’s this week at Royal Birkdale was the weather: the wind was up to 50 MPH and at some times it was raining and just really nasty. It was so nasty that 1985 champion Sandy Lyle quit after his first 10 holes on Thursday. As American Boo Weekley said, "If this is the summer, I couldn't live here." The other story this week was 53 year-old Greg Norman was on top of the leaderboard though three round. Norman was bidding to become the oldest major champion even though he not played in the previous 11 majors or even the last two “Open Championships”. Greg came to Royal Birkdale to practice for this week’s “Senior Open Championship.” He did not win but put on a get show and proved that with hard work you can do anything you put your mind to. Sunday’s final round was a great roller coaster ride with Padraig and Greg trading the lead through out the round while Norman had the lead after the front nine. The tournament was not decided until the 17th hole when Padraig eagled it to win by 2 over Ian Poulter of England.
The other big event Sunday was the Untied States round of the MotoGP season from Laguna Seca in California. Valentino Rossi and Casey Stoner staged a fierce battle for the lead until Stoner was forced off the track with eight laps to go. It was the best side-by-side racing I have ever seen. The start of the race included a horrendous highside crash for Jorge Lorenzo. This was one of the most unbelievable one-person crash I have ever seen, just awesome! Lorenzo was ok after the crush. One of the best races ever. Can’t wait for the MotoGP tour to come back to the U.S. in September at Indy.
This Week in sports
This is another busy weekend for sports. A Red Sox - Yankees series at Fenway. It’s not for the American League East top position as both teams are behind Tampa Bay, who knew! It is still Yankee vs. Red Sox. Should be fun. Series starts on Friday.
Saturday night is the second Saturday night fights on CBS. The main event is a rematch between Middleweight Champion Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith whose match on the initial EliteXC Primetime show on CBS was stopped due to an unintentional eye poke. The other main event will be for the EliteXC Welterweight Championship between Jake Shields and Nick Thompson. The show will also feature up and coming Lightweight Nick Diaz. Should be a good time.
The last big event of the weekend is the “NASCAR Sprint Cup” at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the “Allstate 400 at the Brickyard”. I can’t believe that this will be the 15th NASCAR race at the famous speedway. This race could be the pivotal point to the series championship.
Twice in the four-year era of the “Chase for the Cup”, the race winner at Indy has gone on to win the championship. Should be interesting.
Talk to you next week.
Good night and good luck (stolen from Keith Olbermann who stole it from Edward
R. Murrow)
Jamie Lazaroff
Padraig Harrington won the “Open Championship” for the second year in a row. The two big story’s this week at Royal Birkdale was the weather: the wind was up to 50 MPH and at some times it was raining and just really nasty. It was so nasty that 1985 champion Sandy Lyle quit after his first 10 holes on Thursday. As American Boo Weekley said, "If this is the summer, I couldn't live here." The other story this week was 53 year-old Greg Norman was on top of the leaderboard though three round. Norman was bidding to become the oldest major champion even though he not played in the previous 11 majors or even the last two “Open Championships”. Greg came to Royal Birkdale to practice for this week’s “Senior Open Championship.” He did not win but put on a get show and proved that with hard work you can do anything you put your mind to. Sunday’s final round was a great roller coaster ride with Padraig and Greg trading the lead through out the round while Norman had the lead after the front nine. The tournament was not decided until the 17th hole when Padraig eagled it to win by 2 over Ian Poulter of England.
The other big event Sunday was the Untied States round of the MotoGP season from Laguna Seca in California. Valentino Rossi and Casey Stoner staged a fierce battle for the lead until Stoner was forced off the track with eight laps to go. It was the best side-by-side racing I have ever seen. The start of the race included a horrendous highside crash for Jorge Lorenzo. This was one of the most unbelievable one-person crash I have ever seen, just awesome! Lorenzo was ok after the crush. One of the best races ever. Can’t wait for the MotoGP tour to come back to the U.S. in September at Indy.
This Week in sports
This is another busy weekend for sports. A Red Sox - Yankees series at Fenway. It’s not for the American League East top position as both teams are behind Tampa Bay, who knew! It is still Yankee vs. Red Sox. Should be fun. Series starts on Friday.
Saturday night is the second Saturday night fights on CBS. The main event is a rematch between Middleweight Champion Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith whose match on the initial EliteXC Primetime show on CBS was stopped due to an unintentional eye poke. The other main event will be for the EliteXC Welterweight Championship between Jake Shields and Nick Thompson. The show will also feature up and coming Lightweight Nick Diaz. Should be a good time.
The last big event of the weekend is the “NASCAR Sprint Cup” at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the “Allstate 400 at the Brickyard”. I can’t believe that this will be the 15th NASCAR race at the famous speedway. This race could be the pivotal point to the series championship.
Twice in the four-year era of the “Chase for the Cup”, the race winner at Indy has gone on to win the championship. Should be interesting.
Talk to you next week.
Good night and good luck (stolen from Keith Olbermann who stole it from Edward
R. Murrow)
Jamie Lazaroff
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
This week in sports
Hi all,
This was not the busiest weekend for sports, but it was a huge weekend for “Mixed Martial Arts”. Saturday was the first network TV broadcast of MMA on CBS. Everyone is talking about this show (blogers, sports radio, ESPN Sportscenter) even my assistant watched it.
Here is my review of the action. I liked the beginning of the show when Frank Shamrock showed the moves of MMA and some of the terms used on the show. My fight of the night goes to the ladies, Gina Carano Vs. Kaitlin Young. This was the first time I got to see women fight and I didn’t know what to expect. I was surprised at how good they were. The next match was "Ruthless" Robbie Lawler VS. Scott Smith for the Elite XC Middleweight title. This was a great match until the referee stopped the fight because of Lawler inadvertently stuck his finger into the right eye of Smith. This action by Lawler caused the fight to end because it was ruled as a no contest. The rules state that a title fight must last at least three full rounds, or result in a no contest. Championship fights are 5-5 minute rounds. The good thing about this event is that we will have a remacth between the two.
The main event of the evenining was Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson VS. James "The Colossus" Thompson. Kimbo won after 38 seconds into the third round. Slice landed a punch to the left side of Thompson's head bursting his already heavily cauliflowered ear. Thompson was not ready to quite but I belive the fight was stopped because of the blood coming out of his ear and The Elite XC did not what its drawing card, Kimbo, to loose. I believe if you put Kimbo in the Ultimate Fighting Championship he would loose because he wouldn’t be able to get past the first round.
This first show, overall, was very good. The real question will be the second show. You’re not going to get the same type of fighters, (hard hiters and strikers) like you had this time. The only thing I did not like about the show was that they announced the fighters twice, once coming down to the cage and then again in the cage for the offical announcement. The announcers on the show were very good. I was surprized how knowable of the sport Gus Johnson was and just how good Frank Shamrock is as a commentator. Mauro Ranallo was great. I liked the fact that they talked about the fighter’s past with other organizations like the UFC and Pride Fighting Chanpionship. It was interesting to read that the show was produed by CBS Entertainment and not CBS Sports. Interesting, maybe next time CBS will realize that it is a sport and will cover it as such.
Did you watch this show? If you did let my know what your thoughts are. Drop me a line at jman200086@netscape.net. You can give the show a thumps up, thumps down, or thump in the middle and what you throught was the fight of the night.
What’s Ahead this weekend?
The NBA Finals start this Thursday with the “Boston Celtics” taking on the “Los Angles Lakers”. This is an old school matchup with these two teams meeting for a record 11 times in the finals. This is tied with the New York Yankees VS. the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers for meetings in a championship series across all sports. These two franchises combined to win 30 of 60 NBA campionships since 1947. In the 80’s these two teams played in some of the greatest games in NBA history. With Larry Bird and Magic Johnson battling it out for the NBA championship was the reason I and a lot of people starting watching basketball. This year is a great matchup with Kobe Bryant VS. Boston’s big three of KG, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen. I think Boston will win it in six games.
Also this weekend is the Belmont Stakes. Big Brown has a change to do something that has not happened in 30 years, which is to win horse racing’s “Triple Crown”. The Belmont is the longest of the three races at 1mile and a half. I think he can do it and win the “Test of the Champions”. The race is Saturday on ABC Sports at 5PM. Before this is 6 hours of pre race hype on ESPN starting at noon.
The last major event this weekend is the start of the “UEFA Euro 2008 Soccer Championship”. This event goes for three weeks. There will be 16 teams in this championship tournament. Ten of these teams are ranked among the top 15 in the FIFA World Ranking. The UEFA European Football Championship is one of the most prestigious and competitive tournaments among national soccer teams. Fourteen of these teams have earned a spot in the finals following a two-year qualification process among 50 UEFA member nations while the host nations – Austria and Switzerland – received automatic berths. Since its inception in 1960, the competition is held every four years. Greece won the last Championship – UEFA Euro 2004 – hosted by Portugal.
Do you plan on watching any of there events or did you over the weekend? Drop me a line at jman200086@netscape.net and let me know what you think or give me your report on them?
Enjoy the weekend and I will be back next week with a recap. Saturday I’M off to Boston for the Visa Championships for Woman’s Gymnastics, I think this is the Olympic trails.
Good night and good luck.
Jamie Lazaroff
This was not the busiest weekend for sports, but it was a huge weekend for “Mixed Martial Arts”. Saturday was the first network TV broadcast of MMA on CBS. Everyone is talking about this show (blogers, sports radio, ESPN Sportscenter) even my assistant watched it.
Here is my review of the action. I liked the beginning of the show when Frank Shamrock showed the moves of MMA and some of the terms used on the show. My fight of the night goes to the ladies, Gina Carano Vs. Kaitlin Young. This was the first time I got to see women fight and I didn’t know what to expect. I was surprised at how good they were. The next match was "Ruthless" Robbie Lawler VS. Scott Smith for the Elite XC Middleweight title. This was a great match until the referee stopped the fight because of Lawler inadvertently stuck his finger into the right eye of Smith. This action by Lawler caused the fight to end because it was ruled as a no contest. The rules state that a title fight must last at least three full rounds, or result in a no contest. Championship fights are 5-5 minute rounds. The good thing about this event is that we will have a remacth between the two.
The main event of the evenining was Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson VS. James "The Colossus" Thompson. Kimbo won after 38 seconds into the third round. Slice landed a punch to the left side of Thompson's head bursting his already heavily cauliflowered ear. Thompson was not ready to quite but I belive the fight was stopped because of the blood coming out of his ear and The Elite XC did not what its drawing card, Kimbo, to loose. I believe if you put Kimbo in the Ultimate Fighting Championship he would loose because he wouldn’t be able to get past the first round.
This first show, overall, was very good. The real question will be the second show. You’re not going to get the same type of fighters, (hard hiters and strikers) like you had this time. The only thing I did not like about the show was that they announced the fighters twice, once coming down to the cage and then again in the cage for the offical announcement. The announcers on the show were very good. I was surprized how knowable of the sport Gus Johnson was and just how good Frank Shamrock is as a commentator. Mauro Ranallo was great. I liked the fact that they talked about the fighter’s past with other organizations like the UFC and Pride Fighting Chanpionship. It was interesting to read that the show was produed by CBS Entertainment and not CBS Sports. Interesting, maybe next time CBS will realize that it is a sport and will cover it as such.
Did you watch this show? If you did let my know what your thoughts are. Drop me a line at jman200086@netscape.net. You can give the show a thumps up, thumps down, or thump in the middle and what you throught was the fight of the night.
What’s Ahead this weekend?
The NBA Finals start this Thursday with the “Boston Celtics” taking on the “Los Angles Lakers”. This is an old school matchup with these two teams meeting for a record 11 times in the finals. This is tied with the New York Yankees VS. the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers for meetings in a championship series across all sports. These two franchises combined to win 30 of 60 NBA campionships since 1947. In the 80’s these two teams played in some of the greatest games in NBA history. With Larry Bird and Magic Johnson battling it out for the NBA championship was the reason I and a lot of people starting watching basketball. This year is a great matchup with Kobe Bryant VS. Boston’s big three of KG, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen. I think Boston will win it in six games.
Also this weekend is the Belmont Stakes. Big Brown has a change to do something that has not happened in 30 years, which is to win horse racing’s “Triple Crown”. The Belmont is the longest of the three races at 1mile and a half. I think he can do it and win the “Test of the Champions”. The race is Saturday on ABC Sports at 5PM. Before this is 6 hours of pre race hype on ESPN starting at noon.
The last major event this weekend is the start of the “UEFA Euro 2008 Soccer Championship”. This event goes for three weeks. There will be 16 teams in this championship tournament. Ten of these teams are ranked among the top 15 in the FIFA World Ranking. The UEFA European Football Championship is one of the most prestigious and competitive tournaments among national soccer teams. Fourteen of these teams have earned a spot in the finals following a two-year qualification process among 50 UEFA member nations while the host nations – Austria and Switzerland – received automatic berths. Since its inception in 1960, the competition is held every four years. Greece won the last Championship – UEFA Euro 2004 – hosted by Portugal.
Do you plan on watching any of there events or did you over the weekend? Drop me a line at jman200086@netscape.net and let me know what you think or give me your report on them?
Enjoy the weekend and I will be back next week with a recap. Saturday I’M off to Boston for the Visa Championships for Woman’s Gymnastics, I think this is the Olympic trails.
Good night and good luck.
Jamie Lazaroff
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