Sephy’s Platzish

Today marks the end of one season, and the end of three distinct, yet very accomplished careers. One of those careers will be known to almost all in the US, but the other two will likely be completely unknown unless you follow that particular sport.

The first is the announcement that Brett Favre is going to hang up his pads and jersey and head off on his tractor into the Mississippi sunset. Of course, that means that all the local TV channels are in full-blown breaking news mode, and have been for about an hour as I write this (though channel 58 - not surprisingly, I may add - only went into breaking news at about 9.20). In fact, since I have a TV card, here is what the TV stations are showing, in single shot per station mode, between 9 and 9.20 or so:

It’s also hilarious to see who all the news channels can dig out of the framework to interview - so far, I’ve heard interviews with reporters from the Biloxi Sun-Herald, a TV station in New Orleans, three radio commentators (two current, and one former ALL the way from California), even the owner of a collectible shop. So far, I think channel 12 is winning this battle with having his brother on the phone. Scratch that - channel 4 have his bro on the phone now…but 12 is the first to have someone live out in front of a stadium…the baseball stadium…

You know what? I’m hearing everyone on all the stations, because now the former commentator calling ALL the way from California is on channel 6. By the way, of course, you can weigh in on it -

However, let’s move on from this news (which accidently was released by the team website last week, but discounted as an error), and move onto news that already happened today. About 3 hours before the news broke about Brett retiring, I heard the end of the international cricket season in Australia live as it happened in Brisbane, with the Aussies trying to recover the Commonwealth Bank series from the Indians, only to be bowled out 9 runs short. With the wicket of James Hopes falling, that marked the end of the international careers of two outstanding cricketers - Adam Craig Gilchrist and George Bradley Hogg. Gilly will be going on to continue that great tradition of former international cricketers going on to make a name for themselves on the TV by signing on with Channel 9 to be a part of their rejuvinated Wide World of Sports programs, starting at the end of this month. Maybe next year, he’ll be seated next to Tony Grieg and Bill Lawry and trading barbs during a test match.

Actually, these retirements in the Aussie cricket team made me realize something about Brett’s retirement - I think this is the perfect time for him to go because the majority of people are thinking why is he going now, instead of going for even one more year and then having everyone wondering why he didn’t retire earlier. I also can appreciate how he can just say, yep, I’m ready to retire, because it’s something I’ve heard from a lot of these fellas who have retired from test cricket over the last couple of years.

Of course, this also marked the end of the 2007-08 international cricket season for the Australians, which means that this was the last day of the season of ABC radio cricket broadcasts. In a way, it’s like the end of baseball season, with the familiar voices going away, but just until next year - and you’ll still hear them through the winter because cricket commentators tend to pop up in the most unlikely places - and not unlikely places such as calling AFL games. Naturally, as it is with baseball commentators, there are the fellas who you take a liking to - for me, my favorite combination in the booth this summer has been Kerry O’Keeffe (ABC Bio) and Harsha Bhogle, though really Kerry with anyone is a great combination because he is quite the natural comedian.

The biggest thing I like about Harsha is that he always has that grin on his face, because he is (as was noted by Kerry a couple of days ago) always happy and upbeat. Also, it’s fun to listen to a different accent to ones that you are accustomed to hearing. Although a lot of the commentary was filled with laughter, you can always walk away having learnt something about the game, or about culture in general.

The last match of the season wasn’t without its own action - Roy got into the action, literally by handling a streaker on his own -

With the cricket season done in Australia, that brings the rest of the international calendar - the tour to Pakistan, which looks like it will be cancelled in the end (a poor decision if you ask me - yes, there is terrorist problems in Pakistan, but remember that this is a high security thing featuring people who are admired - plus, of course, the Ashes went on after the 7/7 bombings). After that is the trip to the Carribean for a shortened test series against the Windies for the Frank Worrell Trophy. You would expect that with the poor form of the West Indies, the Aussies should be able to retain the trophy easily. After that, it’s a chance to reconnect with the ABC Cricket team as Bangladesh comes into Australia for a two-test Winter series up in Cairns and Darwin, then it’s time for the return series in India, which brings us full-circle to the start of the 2008-09 season.

However, the prospect of seeing or hearing international cricket doesn’t end with the end of the Aussie season - there’s the Test series starting up between England and New Zealand in a couple of days’ time, and I believe that those broadcasts are on Radio Sport, which has commercials, but that’s OK with me, at least I can get that, unlike Test Match Special which restricts their broadcasts to UK only. Then, we get into the English summer when New Zealand and South Africa come in for a total of 7 tests, 10 ODIs and 2 T20s, which should be available through TMS (of course, there’s also podcasts to keep track if all else fails - I do need something to listen to on the way home at night and if I get really desperate, I can always listen to the whole summer of cricket again).

Just real quickly, I want to just give my thanks to the folks at the ABC for providing entertainment through a really cold winter, and I look forward to being able to do it again next year - I’m guessing with Bryan Waddle hopping into the commentator’s chair to fill the third slot alongside Glenn Mitchell (a/k/a Mr. Karen Tighe) and Jim Maxwell, and then possibly Neil Manthorp for the second part of the season? And, of course, all led by Princess Grace.

By the way, in the time that I’ve been writing this (I had to take a break to attend to something else), two channels have come to their senses and left the reporting for this go until at last 3 pm, but channels 4 and 6 are still in full-blown coverage mode. At least 4 is supposed to have news right now. Also, both ESPN and ESPN2 are covering the story. I’m guessing ESPNews has coverage of their own as well, but I don’t get that channel…and now at 1.30pm, only channel 6 is left (for now, but 4 is coming back at 2), and they’re showing a special from NFL films or something….

Like was said elsewhere - Brett Favre retires - no other news shall be covered for at least 36 hours

And, I have to say that it’s better than ever. Not necessarily because of the use of the V8 Supercar look-alike “Car of Tomorrow Today”, and it’s not because of Junior’s move to Hendrick Motorsports (I’m not a big fan of Junior, but how cool was it that he won his first race with them?). Nope, for me, it’s all about the radio.

As I had mentioned last year, when there was a night race then, I’d be forced to try to dig out either a weak-in-my-location FM signal from about 50km away, or hope that WSM radio in Nashville were broadcasting the race so that I could pick up their clear channel signal from 800km away. Of course, this wouldn’t work on Saturday nights because of the Grand Ole Opry broadcasts from Music City.

However, thanks to the operator of a small radio station from about 25km away selling the station to the incumbent rights-holders of the races in the area, and them deciding to move their signal to this 24-hour station (ending the split days and nights schedule and effecting halving their station IDs, even though during the transition, they give two call sets of call letters), I now have a reliable signal that I know will bring me the races all through the season.

Also, I have to say that I always love watching the shows that are on just before Daytona. For example, right now, I’ve been watching a retrospective special where you get to see clips from throughout the years, with original commentary supplied by announcers from CBS, Fox, MRN radio, and even NBC (for that ever so popular picture of Sterling Marlin, ahem, adjusting, his car). The best part is that it is a current show (at least the beginning and end were redone in order to suit this year’s situation), but even watching the specials you’ve watched before is cool, in my opinion. Then again, it’s hard to come across a good special about racing.

Lastly, just as a reminder of last year, here’s the last 2 laps of the race, with the amazing finish (if you have ESPN Classic, the race will be shown in a 2-hour version at 1pm Central - a rarity having a Fox race shown on ESPN).

Oh, and one last thing - Speed, if you’re listening, it would be really nice if you would broadcast Phillip Island and Bathurst live this year, with Boris being in the races and all (heck, can we maybe even get delayed coverage of the races - like same week or same day? - ah heck, I’ll probably just get them through my normal way anyway. )

Or: 3 stories, 1 post

Bernie to USA, Aust, NZ: I don’t care about you

That’s essentially what he’s saying in his pronouncement that the future of the Australian GP is in doubt unless they go to a night race. Considering that they have already dropped the US round of the championship, it should be no surprise that they don’t want to stick around Australia unless they have to (or unless Premier Brumbie ponies up a ton more of the Victorian taxpayers’ money to put lights up in Albert Park).

What’s the reason for the complaint about the time of the race?

TV rights. Sure, Europe is the biggest audience for F1, but that doesn’t mean that there are dedicated F1 fans in the Western hemisphere; Brazil and Canada still have rounds of the championship - and as far as I know, they’re as well-attended as rounds in Europe (in fact, they probably have better attendance than European rounds). Those races are safe in Bernie Ecclestone’s eyes because they (along with the old USGP) air in Europe at around 6PM - smack dab in the middle of peak viewing time.  All the European rounds (along with Turkey and Bahrain) start somewhere between noon and 3pm on the continent.

What time is the Australian GP on in Europe? Generally around 4-5am, or late evening in the US.

It would seem to me that if we have to deal with getting up at 6.30am all summer long, and have to stay up all night for the other races (aside from Australia, Canada and Brazil), they should be stuck with some of these “inconveniently timed” races. It’s only fair for a truly worldwide sport.

If this isn’t a scam, I’ll run around naked

One of the more annoying commercials on the radio lately is one that features a guy acting as a show host going into a commercial break. He is talking about this “amazing” product that makes you earn money on the Internet using sites like eBay. Now, it wouldn’t be too bad except for the fact that he goes on to say that you will be selling products that you don’t have to see, ship, or even pay for.

Uh, excuse me? Selling stuff you don’t pay for? There’s a term for that in my region - selling stolen goods, anybody?

The system is called Internet Speedway, and has been out there for quite a long time. And, if you’re curious why I’d be willing to run around naked if this isn’t a scam, check out this thread on scam.com. Need I say more?

However, it’s not so much what they’re pitching that makes the ad annoying, it’s how they pitch it. This voice-over artist reads his script, and when he gets to the part where he has to read off the number, he says “uh, it’s here, it’s 1-whatever”. Now, that fits into the idea of this being a supposedly “live” read, but when he goes to reread the number, he says “um” again. It’s that second “um” that really makes the ad annoying to me.

Oh well, that’s why they have a dial on the radio, eh?

Superbowl XLII - it’s all about the ads

Provided I actually care to watch (which I probably will since there isn’t that much on TV other than marathons) the show, all I am really interested in seeing are the ads, which I haven’t heard a lot of hype about, but they’re available out there to watch already.  You would think that these companies would get bothered about their $2.7-million commercials being leaked onto the internet, but they’ll land here anyways, so I guess they don’t care all that much.

As far as the game itself, this is one of those games where you want both teams to lose. I want the Giants to lose because of beating the Packers. I want the Patriots to lose to stop the perfect season. That being said, I think that the Patriots will win the game because they just have been that dominant force all season long.

As far as a score, I’d tip 34-21 to los Pats, as they were called on Spanish language TV (one guy on there said that he was expecting the upset of the century going the Giants way; nobody else was convinced of his prediction).

I never watch tennis, except for two weeks during January, when over the last couple of years, I’ve watched bits and pieces of the Australian Open, including some of the marathon matches that occurred last weekend, when the play lasted all the way until well past 11AM my time - 4AM in Melbourne. They stayed live through that whole time, some 16 hours.

I wouldn’t want to have to pay their satellite bills for that day, I have to say!

However, there was one thing that I noticed in the coverage that went on in the middle of the night here - the commentators knew when to talk and when not to talk. For some reason, TV commentary of sport here, and overseas - I’ve seen plenty of it to know something about that - has commentators who must like the sound of their own voice. It’s not like radio where you have to describe everything. The commentators - Cliff Drysdale and Darren Cahill - let the pictures and the sound on the court do the talking. In fact, there were times when they’d go three or four minutes without commentary!

If you look over the history of TV commentators, you’ll see that the early ones had this knack - folks like Pat Summerall, Ray Scott, and also Harry Caray. It seems, though, that as the commentators had more toys to play with - telestrators, bizarre tools like the glowing hockey puck and Draft Track, and other bits and bobs - they started to feel this need to explain just about everything to the viewer - even the stuff we’d seen time and time again.

Of course, it’s not only the chatty character of commentators that can be annoying, I’ve noticed that during the college football season, if you watched a game on ESPN and then watched a game on CBS, you’d have two completely different experiences. I always could hear the bands in the background on CBS, but on ESPN, they would have their outside mics set so low that you could barely hear them. Part of a college game is the atmosphere, of which the band is a part of it and adds that extra bit of excitement to the game that you otherwise wouldn’t have during a pro game.

I’m not saying that the commentators should be eliminated from the broadcast altogether, but it would be nice if they would let the pictures do the talking more than they currently do. Considering that on my TV right now is that darn shopping channel selling knives, I wonder if the sport commentators have something to sell, aside from the sport itself?

They might just get me to watch their broadcasts this year with the changes that will be announced tomorrow, according to USA Today’s Michael Hiestand.

The biggest change is the removal of Mr. “I tell you what” Wallace from the commentary booth to the infield studio, to a role where I think he will fit perfectly - an analyst that comes on from time to time, because, honestly, he’s good for a soundbite or two, but not a full race of commentary.

He’ll be joined in the studio by Allen Bestwick - by far the most experienced NASCAR journalist/TV host on the panel, as the full-time host of the Countdown programs on race day. He is going to do the job of two people - Brent Musberger (who only stood at the end of pit road and didn’t speak afterwards in the race) and Suzy Kolber, who can now focus 100% on her Monday Night Football job once more. In fact, here is Brent doing his job at Homestead in November:

Bestwick has hosted the studio show in the past, and has shown that he can get the best of other commentators on the set - putting him in there for the full race should be a good thing, and it will also mark a minor event - I believe that this will be the first time that two women will be patrolling pit road during a race on a regular basis, with Shannon Spake filling in Bestwick’s role in the pits.

Up in the booth, Wallace is being replaced by Dale Jarrett, who, as any fan will know, is the son of former ESPN and CBS commentator Ned Jarrett. In fact, his family is a media family with Glenn being used as a pit reporter from time to time on various networks through the years, and Dale doing some dabbling in the booth last year as a fill in for Wallace when he went on holidays in the spring.

The last change is one that should go a long way to making ESPN’s return to the daily racing news scene by picking up the co-host of the Speed Report - Nicole Manske - who is apparently a cheesehead; born in Wausau, but grew up in Danica Patrick’s hometown of Roscoe, IL - and even was on the cheerleading squad with Danica. Nice!

Jeez, the stuff you can learn on Wikipedia!

Anyone want to take bets on how long her bio page on SpeedTV.com lasts?

Thanks to Marc for the tipoff on the story!