The view from here

There’s was no sun on Cape Cod Bay, August 12th , so everyone went to
P-town and I’m in the cottage writing this. I told you I would have big news, and I have. The Founder of Special Olympics, Eunice Kennedy Shiver died Tuesday, August 11th in Hyannis at the age of 88. I met and interviewed Eunice many times; she had great energy and a spirit that was infectious. I would not be writing a blog on the Internet if it weren’t for the confidence I developed because of her organization. As long as her son Tim is at the helm of Special Olympics, Eunice’s dream will live on. Thank you Eunice for all you have done for me and making this a better world for all of us. It’s sad that the Founder of Special Olympics had to die for the organization to get media coverage. Just a thought.

Monday I found a new sport, fishing. I went out fishing in the Bay with my Uncle, my cousins Dave, Payton and Jeff as well as our friend Alec. As an athlete, my definition of sports is the feeling of the excitement of competition whether you are taking part in it being a spectator and the sense of accomplishment win or loose. Before this fishing trip I did not consider fishing a sport but simply a pastime. I have changed my mind. I was sweating as I was fighting that bluefish, I felt proud as that fish came into the boat and then a great since of accomplishment while eating it that night. Besides bluefish we also caught striped bass. Thanks to Captain Buddy and first mate Dennis for a great first vogue that was most enjoyable. The big winner of the day was my 8-year old cousin Peyton who caught the biggest fish of the day. Good job little guy.

Media Watch

The only media story I saw this week was that ESPN is going to present live match coverage of England’s Barclay’s Premier League (BPL) in the U.S. for the 2009-10 Season. ESPN2 will offer fans up to 48 live BPL matches this season, including live presentation of the 12 Monday afternoon (U.S. ET) matches. ESPN2 will feature one match each Saturday at 7:45 a.m. and select Saturday matches at 10 a.m. (when there are no matches at 7:45 a.m.). Very good news, my Saturday mornings are now a lot happier. It’s the little things like this that make me happy.

This Weekend

This weekend’s big event is the Bristol (TN) night race on the NASCAR Sprint Cup series. Bristol Motor Speedway is a ½ mile of fun and has a lot of crashes. There are also two races after this, the chase, (NASCAR’s version of a playoff). The top 12 drivers can change positions and that makes it interesting. The race is Saturday night at 7:30 P.M. on ESPN.
Have a great week.

And that the way it is.

Jamie Lazaroff

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

The view from here

The big sports story of last weekend was Tom Watson leading the Open Championship (British Open) at 59 years young for most of the weekend. It was very inspiring to see a man, 2-months shy of his 60 birthday, contenting in the world’s oldest major championship. But as Dom Amore wrote in Sunday’s Hartford Courant ”To be really good when you’re old, you have to have been great when you were young”: Tom is a 5-time Open Championship winner, 1977 at Turnberry (site of this year’s championship) 3 Senior British Open tittles including the 2003 Senior Open at Turnberry. So he knows this course and how to play in windy conditions, which you need to play links golf. I don’t think Tom chocked in the end, Stewart Cink won the tournament in a 4-hole playoff. I think Tom got tired in the end, his par putt on the 72nd green to win came up just short and in the playoff he don’t drive it into the fairway like he did the whole week. Tom’s motivation was not just to win his sixth Open Championship but also make the cut and play late on the weekend because if he didn’t he would have been working for ABC.

Let’s talk about the TV coverage, like I said last week; this was TNT’s last year of Thursday and Friday coverage of the Open. For visuals ABC and TNT were limited to the BBC feed. Let’s talk about the announcers, TNT was not bad but not good, Ernie Johnson is great as host of TNT’s NBA coverage but golf is not his game. Ian Baker-Finch and Terry Gannon were the best of the bunch, they both had the enthusiasm that I like and made the telecast enjoyable. ABC weekend coverage was good in spots. Mike Tirco is the best play-by-play man in the business in any sport, bar none. Curtis Strange was very annoying and talked way too much. Tom Weiskopf was the new kid on the block and my first impression was that he was no good, he could not talk very well, but once he we got to golf he gave very good insight to what was going on. Tirco’s partner in the booth was Paul Azinger, who I did not like at all, was just bad. On the golf course walking with the players were Andy North and Judy Rankin. I think they are the two best on the course commentators in the business. Most media critics love BBC’s Peter Alliss, who showed up for an hour or so each day. Don’t get me wrong I love the British, but Mr. Alliss is 78 years old and he mumbled a lot. I could not understand a word he was saying. I also think Rich Reilly was excellent; I liked it when he sat in with Gannon on Saturday and just his obvious joy while watching Watson.

The non-sports story of the weekend was the death of newsman Walter Cronkite at the age of 92. “Uncle” Walter was the anchor of the CBS Evening News from 1962 to 1981. I don’t remember Mr. Cronkite but from what I saw in the last few days, I was very impressed. He was a newsman’s newsman; I mean he was a reporter first who happened to be an anchor. CNN’s Larry King Live replayed an interview with Walter from many years ago. We can lean a lot about covering the news from Mr. Cronkite. Goodbye “Uncle” Walter, there will never be any one like you.

This Weekend

The big event Saturday is the WNBA All-Star at the Morgan Sun at 3:30 on ABC. This is the best of the best of women’s basketball and all the big names will be there like Bird and Taurasi. The best part is that I will be there as well.

Sunday’s big event is the NASCAR Sprint Cup Brickyard 400 at Indy. I still can’t believe this is the 16th running of this event. It really has become one of NASCAR’s biggest races.

As Uncle Water would say,” That’s the way it is.”

Talk to you all next week.

Jamie Lazaroff

The view from here

Good day folks,

The top story this week is the shocking death of former NFL quarterback Steve McNair. It turned out that he died in a murder-suicide by his 20-year-old girlfriend. Steve played a 13-year career, most with the Tennessee Titans in Nashville. Steve will be remembered for being one of the toughest QBs ever to play in the NFL. In the Super Bowl in 2000 Steve led Tennessee within a foot of a game-winning touchdown. I hope people remember Steve as a great QB and not the strange way he died. This is the same I hope for all celebrities, like Michael Jackson as well.

My comment this week is on Manny Ramirez. As you may know, Manny was suspended 50 games for using a women's fertility drug. My questions are, why was Manny allowed during his suspention to workout at the Dodgers' spring training facilities with Dodger coach Manny Mota? He was also allowed a short rehab stint in the minor leagues to get back into playing shape. He played two games with the AAA Albuquerque Isotopes. He also played several games with the Single-A Inland Empire 66ers. I don’t remember any player who was suspended getting this kind of preferincial treatment before! As of this week the Commissioner is looking this kind of treatment in the future. Manny came back during the July 4th holiday. During his suspension there was a movement by Dodgers’ fans to get him voted into the All-Star Game. I’m glad to report this was not allowed and he is not in St. Louis this week. During the Press Conference to anounce his suspension, Manny stated that he had seen a physician who unknowingly prescribed medication that is banned under the MLB drug policy. He is a professional athletle, he should know what the doctor is prescribeing him, its not the doctor’s fault that he gave him a banned drug. Since he came back Manny has been cheered every place he has been, WHY? He is a drug cheat and he should be treated as such. Barry Bonds was a drug cheat who was never caught, but was a hated figure. Manny should be in the same boat.

Media Notes

The big sports media story is that the US Olympics Committee is setting up it’s own TV network next year. I have three questions about this: How are they going to compete with NBC’s Universal Sports Network? How are they going to get live programming? Universal Sports has most of the Olympic sports rights to broadcast these events. How will this development affect Chicago’s hopes to get the 2016 Summer Games? The International Olympic Committee is objecting to the network and said that the USOC had not authorized the use of the Olympic name or television footage. I will monitor this developing story.

The week’s ESPN watch is that the “Worldwide Leader” is truly becoming the worldwide leader in sports after getting a piece of the English Premier League package of games and thus a foot hold in the UK. On this side of the pond we are getting converge of some soccer with Spain’s La Liga League this fall. This is good news; after ESPN lost the Champions League rights to FOX, I thought there would be no soccer on the ESPN family of networks.

Speaking of ESPN, I was glad to see they have coverage of Indoor Volleyball’s World League. I enjoy Indoor volleyball much more than beach volleyball, there is more action and the ball is in the air with six players each side to two per side for beach volleyball. I hope they do more volleyball in the future.
In other ESPN news, they have hired a new Ombudsman in legendary TV Exec Don Ohlmeyer. This is a controversial choice because the first two Ombudsmen for ESPN were newspaper people and respected journalist but Ohlmeyer is the best producer, not just in sports but also TV sitcoms. Don will start in August, we will see then.

What to watch for

Tuesday July 14th was the Major League Baseball All-Star Game on FOX. This will be the seventh year in which the All-Star Game determines home field advantage in the World Series. By the way the American League win 4 to 3 over the National League. It was the 12th straight win ( one tie) for the American League in the Mid Summer Classic. I enjoy the All-Star Game because it’s the best of the best in baseball. I think interleague play should determine the home field in the World Series. I think this is a great way to update the interleague play which is getting boring the way it is now.

This weekend is the third Major of the golf year, The Open Championship (British Open). The Open is played on links course that are right on the sea, so the wind will be a factor. It is also the oldest major championship which was started in 1860. All of these factors are why it’s my favorite golf major. TNT will have Thurday’s and Friday’s coverage for the last time, ESPN takes oover next year. Coverage is live starting at 7 A.M. each day. TNT has some weekend coverage before ABC takes over 7 to 9 A.M Saturday and 6 to 8 A.M. on Sunday. ABC takes over Saturday 9 A.M. to 2:30 P.M. and Championship Sunday 8 A.M. to 1:30 P.M. Enjoy, I know I will.

Talk to you all soon

Jamie Lazaroff

The view from here

Oh my! Last week was a huge sports and news week. So lets get to it.

Sunday June 21st was Father’s Day and the last group game for the U.S. National Soccer Team in the Confederations Cup Tournament. The U.S. played Egypt and needed a miracle to advance to the semifinals. If you remember, we were out scored 6 goals to one, in their first two-group games, by Italy and Brazil. They beat Egypt 3 to 0 and needed Brazil to beat Italy by more than 2 goals, they beat them 3 to 0 for the U.S. to advance. I will have the semifinal game later in this report.

Monday was the final round of the US Open Golf Championship at Bethpage State Park on Long Island New York. The Championship usually ends on Father’s Day but with all the rain on Long Island it played the final round on Monday for only the 4th time in the tournaments 109-year history. It was full of stories, Phil Mickelson trying to win one for Amy, his wife who is battling cancer. Phil came up just short this year but in the process he set a record for the most runner-up finishes in his career. I can’t imagine the pressure and the emotions Phil was feeling that week. Great show Phil!
Ricky Barnes was another story at the US Open; he was the 2002 US Amateur Champion but struggled as a pro. This was his first year on the PGA Tour but his season was not going well and he came out of nowhere to set a record for the lowest half way total in this tournament. Hopefully this performance will lead to bigger and better things. Another great story was the resurgence of David Duval. David was a former number one player in the world who has struggled in recent years with his game. Hopefully this performance will lead him back to the Winner’s Circle soon. The Champion is the last great story, Lucas Glover. Lucas is a journeyman golfer, who did not make the cut in his three previous US Open appearances and has one PGA Tour victory. Lucas survived a tough week and deserves this victory. What I like about Lucas is that he could have taken the week off after the win, but he made a commitment a few months ago to play the Travelers Championship in Connecticut and kept that commitment. Bottom line is if you make a commitment keep it. Good for you Lucas.

Tuesday was a slow day with the Red Sox beating the happless Washington Nationals 11 to 3 and it was day two at Wimbledon.

But Wednesday was one of the biggest upset in worldwide Soccer history as the US National Team beat Spain 2 to 0 in the Confederations Cup Semi Finals to advance to their first FIFA worldwide final. Spain was the world number one team, had a fifteen game win streak and beat their three group opponents in this tournament by a total of 8 goals to 0. With stats like that a lot of people, myself included, thought the US would get killed. But we played a perfect game with the defense and especially goalkeeper Tim Howard really steped up. My question is where was this performance in their first two games? If we want to contend in the World Cup next year I think we have to play well in all games not just the ones that matter?

Thursday was a crazy day. First was the other Semi final in the Confederations Cup: Brazil beat South Africa 1 to 0. I was very impressed by how the South Africa’s played by keeping Brazil to one goal. (They scored 10 goals in the group stage) South Africa will be a tough opponent next year at home for the World Cup. This result gave the US a ray of hope for the final. Remember the US lost to Brazil 3 to 0. Right after the game ended news was breaking that Michael Jackson had died. If you like him or didn’t like him you had to respect his music and his dancing. In fact while writing this post I was rocking out to some old school Jackson 5 music.
I will skip to the Confederations Cup Final on Sunday. I will admit that I missed the first 15 minutes or so because I though the US would get blown out and that they could not put two big upsets together. I was shocked to see that Clint Dempsey scored the first goal in the 10th minute and than added to the lead in the 27th minute with a Landon Donovan goal to make it 2 to zero at halftime. At the half I was thinking that we could shock the world but than I remembered that there was 45 minutes to go and Brazil being Brazil any thing could happen. Then it happen Brazil scored 3 goals in the second half to win. After the first goal in the 46th minute I thought OK we can hold them for 44 more minutes, well we could not, Luis Fabiano scored again in the 74th minute to tie it up. Then I started to panick and knew we were going to loose. Thank goodness it didn’t go to PKs because I think it’s a hideous way to end a major championship. Thankfully Brazil scored in the 84th minute to put me out of my misery. Good game from the US, Tim Howard played great again and kept the ball out of the goal as best he could. We forget that there is two halves in a game! The defence that gave us the lead in the first half was forgotten in the second half. Great run in this tournament, they should be proud of the run, but getting to the finals should not be good enough. We need to learn from these experiences because the World Cup is the ultimate test.

This Weekend

The big event this upcoming weekend is the Wimbledon Finals. Saturday the 4th of July is the Women’s Final and it looks like we will have an all American final with Venus and Serena Williams meeting for the championship. Sunday is the Men’s Final with Roger Federer looking to regain his crown and become the greatest Grand Slam Champion of all time. He is tied with Pete Sampras with 14 wins. Roger will meet one of the Andy’s in the final, either Andy Roddick the American or Andy Murray the Brit. This is also the 30th anniversary of “Breakfast at Wimbledon”. In 1979 NBC Sports showed the Gentleman Final at 9 A.M. Saturday morning thus the name “Breakfast at Wimbledon”. That first “Breakfast at Wimbledon” almost didn’t happen. You see, in the old days the Final started at 9 A.M. on the dot. NBC needed time for the announcers to set up the match. They got a lucky break that year; the match was between Bjorn Borg and Roscoe Tanner. One of NBC’s announcers that year was Donald Dell who happened to be Tanner’s manager. Dell told Tanner to come out, go directly to the chair umpire, request a bathroom break, and not to comeback out of the locker room until 9a.m. Because Tanner did this NBC didn’t miss a point of the match. Interesting story to start a summer tradition, I think!

The other big event is the Moto GP at Laguna Seca in California. This is one of the most exciting round of the championship and one of the few times of the year that the bikes are on TV. The race is live on FOX at 5 P.M. on Sunday.

On Sunday I will be at Fenway Park to watch the Red Sox play the Seattle Mariners. I will have a full report next week. I’M looking forward to it. If you get a change to go to Fenway, even if you’re a Yankee fan, I urge you to go. When you walk to you seats through the tunnel and see the Green Monster, I well tell you there’s nothing like it.

Talk to you next week.

Jamie Lazaroff

The view from the chair

This is a South Africa themed post.
Here is my recap of the FIFA CONFEDERATIONS Cup from South Africa. The first match of day one (Sunday) was a lifeless scoreless draw between the hosts South Africa and IRAQ. Match number two was Spain versus New Zealand, score, Spain six to zero. Spain shows that they are here to win and stamped their authority on this tournament. New Zealand was just out classed.
Day two (Monday) was the greatest day of football (soccer) I have ever seen. Match one was Brazil versus Egypt. Brazil survived a tough Egypt team 4 to 3. Brazil won on a controversial handball in the Brazilian goal area from an Egyptian player. That led to a Kaka penalty kick to win the game. For the record, I did not see the handball, but every one I talk to did. The Egyptian team has filed a protest, not on the handball its self, but the fact that the third official may have seen a video replay of the handball and gave advice to referee Howard Webb to award the penalty kick. Video replays are not used in soccer; by the way, FIFA (world’s governing body) has rejected Egypt’s protest. Despite the controversial call, as my fellow soccer sportswriter, Jamie Trecker, said this match was a great advertisement for soccer. It had everything, goals, send offs, PK’s, corner kicks, free kick, and the best part for sports writers, like me, controversy.
Match number two of day two was the United States National Team taking on Italy. This match was not with out controversy either. In the 31st minute the Americans were down to 10 men when Ricardo Clark was given a straight red card. But the Americans took the lead when Jozy Altidore was taken down in the penalty box by an Italian player. Landon Donovan stepped up to convert the PK. The second half was a different story as the 11-man Italian side scored three times. The irony is that two of the Italian goals were by Giuseppe Rossi, who was born in New Jersery, but his dad was born in Italy and he decieded to play for the Italy national team. Again, as Jamie Trecker said there are no more moral victories anymore for the American team. Ricardo Clark’s red card could have gone either way. It was a reckless tackel but I think it should not have been a direct red card which meant an immediate ejection but should have been a yellow card. The U.S. should know by now that FIFA tournaments are called in a tighter fashion than MLS because the refs are under the microscope by their bosses. If anything, FIFA refs tend to overcompensate. When will they learn?
The US played Brazil and lost 3 to 0 Thursday morning; in one of the worst games I have seen the US National Team play. Their defense was just awful; they even had another player sent off for a reckless tackel. Didn’t they learn anything from the other day? I guess not. As much as the Americans played terrible, Brazil was Brazil, they put on a show and scored in every way possible, off free kicks and in the run of play, thankfully not on a PK, I would have killed someone, that would have put me over the edge. My question is, why does the US play well against their regional opponents but when it comes the worldwide tournaments, they suck? Just sayin!

There is good news about next year’s World Cup in South Africa and the way ESPN will cover the event. According to the Sports Business Journal, ESPN is sending two SportsCenter sets and three host anchors to the event. The setup will be similar in scale to how the network uses “SportsCenter” at the Super Bowl as opposed to how it uses remote sets at an event like the recent Belmont Stakes and this weekends US Open Golf Championship. ESPN is finally identifying the World Cup as one of its three corporate priorities. In years past, the only other productions to make that list were “SportsCenter” and the NBA. ESPN hasn’t made any decisions about announcers and analysts for the games, but the executives said that it planned to handle the 2010 World Cup more like its telecasts of the Euro 2008 tournament than that of the 2006 World Cup. For the Euros, it used Sky Sports commentator and Brit Andy Gray, whereas for the 2006 World Cup it used American Dave O’Brien, who is a baseball guy and did not know anything about soccer. The difference between next year and the last World Cup is that the network sublicensed the rights from Soccer United Marketing in 2006. Next year in South Africa and 2014 in Brazil, it will own the rights to the events outright and it is treating the event accordingly. I’M glad to see ESPN owns the rights and will be treating the event as the global spectacle it is.
The next news story is also about South Africa, ESPN is finally giving Nelson Mandela the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at its ESPY awards show. I can’t believe ESPN finally is recognizing the 1995 Rugby World Cup and the impact it had on South Africa. He is the first paragraph of the press release: “The 1995 Rugby World Cup was hosted in South Africa for the first time. Following the victory of the host national team, The Springboks, and in a pivotal moment for South Africa, President Nelson Mandela, wearing a Springbok rugby shirt and cap, presented the William Webb Ellis Cup to South African captain Francois Pienaar to the delight of black and white sports fans across the country. This iconic gesture helped to unite a previously divided nation through a shared passion for sport, and further cemented the transition from apartheid to democracy”. Also what made this moment so moving is that while Mandela was in prison he would listen to rugby matches and because rugby was such a white sport, he would rote for the other team. This year the Arthur Ashe Courage Award coincides with Mandela Day, which will fall on July 18th, Nelson Mandela's birthday. Mandela Day will act as a global call to action for people to recognize their individual power to make an imprint and help change the world around them for the better. The Nelson Mandela Foundation and 46664 (Mandela’s number in Prison) are calling upon people around the world to commit 67 minutes (Nelson Mandela has been making an imprint on the world for 67 years) of their time to make an imprint and help change the world around them. Talk about cross promotion, but it’s good to see him get this award. The ESPYs will be televised Sunday, July 19 at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN/ESPN HD.

This Weekend

This is a big sports weekend. It started Thursday with the first round of the US Open Golf Championship at Bethpage Black on Long Island NY. Bethpage staged the Open back in 2002 and was the first public course to host our National Championship of golf. The main storylines are; can Tiger come back after last years win and his win at the Black in 2002. The other major story is Phil Mickelson who came back to the tour after his wife Amy was diagnosed with cancer. He said he only came back because he thought he could win the Open. He was the runner-up to Tiger in 2002 by 3 shots. The course is always the story at the US Open. The United States Golf Association says that protecting par is the goal for the tournament. NBC has the weekends, Sunday 1:30 to 7:30 P.M.

For you fight fans the UFC has their Ultimate Fighter finale Saturday on Spike TV at 9 P.M. This is when the 7-figure contract will be handed out for the winner of the Ultimate Fighter realty TV show. The Main event of the night is a lightweight fight between two of the most exciting fighters in the world, Diego Sanchez and Clay Guida. This one should be good. Also on the card is Nate Diaz against Joe Stevenson, both fighters are very exciting. Should be a fun night.

Monday was starts the Wimbledon Championships from London. This is the first year that there is a roof over center court, no more rain delays at the All England Club! The main story will be; can Rafael Nadal defend his title or will Roger Federer win back his crown. Update: Rafael will not defend his title he withdrew this week, this news opens the door wide open for Federer to win the tournament. On the women side, will Venus Williams defend her title or will someone else win the crown. From the British point of view will Andy Murray be the first Brit to win the Gentleman’s Crown in a long long time. Always interesting to see Wimbledon from the British point of view, you have to love the Brits. Should be interesting. ESPN will have the coverage starting Monday through Friday 7 A.M. to 5 P.M. each day. Enjoy!

See you next week, if not before.

Jamie Lazaroff

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