Despite the presence of several reporters in the region, the Times has had a difficult time gaining access to the war zone portions of South Ossetia and Northern Georgia.  In a double byline piece printed in the Times on Monday, Sabrina Tavernise and Matt Siegel reported that Western journalists have been severely restricted by Russian authorities from what they can see there.  The item said Russia’s control over access to the invasion’s hot spots makes it impossible to independently verify contradictory claims by Georgia and Russia over allegations by each that the other side killed civilians in Ossetia.  Since the Times says Russian journalists face no limitations on roaming South Ossetia, Tavernise and Siegel turned to a Russian newspaper reporter as a source for their story.  Dmitry Steshin of Komsomolskaya Pravda told the Times that the blocked Western media access by Russia in South Ossetia is intended to cover up the destruction done to Georgians.  “They just don’t want you to see that all the Georgian homes have been burned down.  It’s really as simple as that.”       

Meantime, it has been interesting – and somewhat distressing – to see how completely ineffectual the current US administration has been in its diplomatic efforts to urge Russia to respect its sovereign neighbor. In her Sunday column, Mo Dowd said the US has lost both its military and moral ability to stop unilateral aggression by other powerful nations.  “As Russian troops continued to manhandle parts of Georgia…President Bush chastised Russian leaders that ‘bullying and intimidation are not acceptable ways to conduct foreign policy in the 21^st century’…His words might have carried more weight if he, Cheney and Rummy had not kicked off the 21^st century with a ham-fisted display of global bullying and intimidation modeled after Sherman’s march through the other Georgia.” 

Ever since seeing the excellent 2003 documentary film “Power Trip,” we’ve rooted for the well-being of the former Soviet republic of Georgia.  It is the close alliance with the US that helped bring this mess upon Georgia and certainly the people there must wonder if their country picked the wrong superpower to stick up for it.

-It is a long way off, but Russia will host the 2014 Winter Olympics in the city of Sochi which sits awfully close to the border of the disputed Georgian breakaway region of Abkhazia.  Who knows where the conflict will be in five years, but we’re talking 20, 30 miles between the Olympic flame and a territory that is at the heart of the present war. 

-The price of a newsstand copy of the weekday Times rose to $1.50 Monday.  Next thing you know, it’ll be two bucks. 

-Mom hits town this morning for a 48-hour visit to the big city.  Among the sights to see will be the Waterfalls art installation.  Talk to you in a few days…

8-19-08 0133

A few thoughts on the sudden breakup of Mike and the Mad Dog and the abrupt end to their radio program which aired here in New York on the AM dial for nearly 19 years. 

-Newsday’s Neil Best had this story months ago.  His chronology was a bit off, but he deserves credit for a major scoop come true.  While Mushnick and Raissman have done little more than take mean-spirited pot-shots at the top sports radio show in the city over the years, it was the lesser-known sports media columnist from Long Island that busted this story.  The “un-named” source for the Best scoop was likely either Francesa or Russo himself.

-We totally believe Russo when he says that tension or ill feeling between him and Francesa had nothing to do with his decision to leave ‘FAN.  It’s about the dough and it’s about a 48-year-old guy who sees what may be one last shot to alter and pump freshness into the career course.  If indeed Mel Karmazin is set to double or triple the Dog’s already fat paycheck with five years guaranteed, why not?  Even if Russo’s unique presentation doesn’t wash with the national satellite radio audience, he’s gonna make enough money to soften even the hardest of flops. 

-We’ve listened to Mike and the Mad Dog faithfully since our arrival here in 1998 and we will definitely miss the show.  We’ll stick with Mike as he stays on afternoon drive at the FAN and we’ll follow Russo to whatever satellite channel he ends up on.  But we believe both programs will fail to reach the level of quality established by the two working together.  Mike’s more serious and confident approach meshed so well with the Dog’s slap-happy revved-up sidekick role.  Perhaps that’s part of why Russo is bolting.  He didn’t want to be the sidekick any more (real or perceived).  We may never know exactly what happened as each of the two discussed their futures with WFAN’s parent CBS Radio.  But if CBS made it clear during the most recent contract talks that Francesa would continue to make more money than Russo as the new deals were hashed out, that’s a mistake.  Russo was very much an equal contributor to the program.  Maybe not intellectually, but he was fifty-percent of the show no matter how you cut it.  All the critics who have said Russo is dumb because he can’t pronounce Yahoo or DiPietro don’t understand that his main appeal was his ability to entertain and inform with the flaws an average sports fan may have. 

-Russo and Francesa are credited with drawing listeners and ad dollars to WFAN at a level that validated the sports-talk radio format and inspired hundreds of knock-off formats across the country.  Problem is, much of the sports talk radio we’ve listened to in other parts of the country is crap.  Stations like The Score in Chicago have strayed from the Francesa/Russo formula of straight-up sports talk.  Somewhere along the way, the Stern shock stuff and lame “guy humor” seeped into elements of the programming.  Mike and the Mad Dog proved that none of that stuff is necessary to draw a large audience.  Yeah, there were times that both Francesa and Russo were a step or two slow on racial/social/political matters, but overall they kept their show above board and straight up. 

-I guess the thing we liked most about Mike and the Mad Dog was their ability to explain, predict and critique the way the sports business decision-makers worked.  They have knowledge about the broadcast networks and the decisions those networks make which impact the viewer.  They were the voice of the common fan on decisions made by people who are anything but.  They discussed TV ratings, competency of booth talent, start times, coverage areas and the like. 

8-18-08 0144

They’ll gather to celebrate the life of Tom Searls in Charleston, WV Sunday afternoon.  Tom was just 54.  He was found dead at his place on the Kanawha City side of the river on Thursday and news of his death was posted on the web site of The Charleston Gazette late that day.  The Gazette is the morning newspaper in Charleston and it’s where the Searls byline appeared on a regular basis.  The early stage of his nearly two-decade career at the Gazette coincided with my stretch as a radio reporter in Charleston.  At that time in the early 90’s, Searls was covering crime – and then manned the night desk.  I got to know Tom hanging out at the Red Carpet Lounge, a dark cinder-block tavern near the state capitol that drew a great crowd that included at least a booth or two full of reporters on any given night.  Since Tom always seemed to work late, he’d stroll into the Carpet as last call was near.  He’d get a Bud and on many nights, would egg on the heartier late-nighters to take the party elsewhere once the Carpet closed up shop.  On many nights, the action shifted to Tom’s messy apartment.  His slow-moving dog would greet you with a hump and some drool.  Before you knew it, the sun was about to come up and Tom was still leading a discussion on the news and politics of the day.  Since he had grown up in nearby Marmet, Tom knew more than anybody in the room about the crooked power structures in many of the area’s towns and counties.  He knew West Virginia history.  He knew all the good spots, the bad spots and the nightspots.  At the bar, he would engage his co-workers Paul and Phil in hilarious debates about the superiority of Marshall athletics relative to WVU.  And in the 1992 democratic primary campaign for WV governor, Tom would lead intense discussions about the viability of Charlotte Pritt’s fascinating grass-roots run. 

He had a deep, distinct voice, a funny laugh and a very modest approach with others.  He was compassionate.  He was sympathetic to the plight of those who struggled to make a go of it.  He was aggressive as a reporter and won praise for exposing the wrong-doers.  In that way, he fit in well at the Gazette which was a paper that included several reporters and a couple of columnists who had the leeway to go hard on those who abused power. 

I hadn’t spoken to Tom in about five years, but he made quite an impression on me.  It was his byline that I was looking for as I made my near-daily check of the Gazette web site Thursday night.  But instead of a byline, this time Tom’s name was in a headline.  Sad, for sure.  Goodbye to a good, fun guy.  Goodbye to a great newspaper man. 

8-17-08 0130

After fifteen years of rampant touring in support of seven well-received and increasingly complex records, Wilco is still a powerful live act.  The band’s Wednesday stop at Brooklyn’s McCarren Park Pool was proof that its leader Jeff Tweedy (above left) hasn’t let the passage of time and the laborious path he’s taken reduce his ability to produce an incredible night of music. 

The band opened with Via Chicago and immediately roughed the tune up with thundering out-of-tune Nels jams and out-of-rhythm Kotche crashes.

Impossible Germany, Pot Kettle Black and Hate it Here all sounded awesome. 

The Wilco set lasted a solid two and a half hours.  Toward the end of it, our legs turned rubbery and we struggled a bit trying to keep our footing.  Standing for so long in that tighly-confined space can get a little funky – and once the legs turned to rubber, we felt a bit trapped.  We felt like we couldn’t leave for more open space because the legs wouldn’t take us there.  So, we simply stayed put and thank goodness the Russ-Dog was bravely ferrying beers through the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd. 

With a ten pm curfew looming, Wilco closed out the night with a second encore that included Kingpin, Outtasite and I’m a Wheel.  Tweedy said work has started on the next record but didn’t say much of consequence beyond that.  There was little between songs banter.    

The often-seen power couple Robbins/Sarandon (pictured above) was spotted entering the backstage area before the gig. 

McCarren Park Pool’s run as a live music venue ends August 30 after four summers hosting rock shows. 

Sonic Youth will play that final show. 

If you’ve ever been to a gig at the pool, you may have said to yourself that it was too perfect of a setup to last for long.  Everything about the place is perfect for the outdoor rock show.  But rapid development in the immediate vicinity brought with it new arrivals with influence and concerns about noise. 

Next year, the city will attempt to restore McCarren Park Pool to its former glory and convert it back into a real swimming pool. 

-Jurors in Houston didn’t take long to reach a verdict in the lawsuit brought by a Continental Airlines flight attendant who claimed she was roughed up by the wife of mega-popular TV preacher Joel Osteen.  Shortly after convening to deliberate, the jury came back and cleared Victoria Osteen of responsibility in the civil matter.  Flight attendant Sharon Brown says Osteen flipped out as a 2005 flight to Vail was preparing to depart.  Brown says she was attacked by Mrs. Osteen and suffered mental and spiritual anguish as a result.  Problem is, Brown and her attorney weren’t able to deliver corroborating witnesses at trial (other than a single Brown co-worker) from the plane full of passengers, and got beat up tactically by Osteen’s attorney Rusty Hardin.  Best known recently for his representation of Roger Clemens, Hardin rolled out a videotaped deposition of a former Brown co-worker who claimed she too was falsely accused by Brown of initiating an altercation with remarkably similar allegations.  Hardin portrayed Brown’s suit as a money-grab and raised serious questions about whether she had suffered in any tangible way from an incident that somehow escaped the view of other people on the airplane.  We’ve not seen any official comment from Continental Airlines, but you gotta believe the company would have preferred that the week-long trial not even take place.  Coverage of the case had daily national reach and Osteen’s church wields significant influence in the city of Houston – which is where Continental’s headquarters is located.  Fair or not, there may be backlash.  Aside from the fact that Brown’s case appeared flimsy, it should also be noted that a reporter covering the trial for Houston’s alt-weekly said the presentation of evidence by Brown’s attorney was laughably bad.  

-Several media outlets reported earlier in the week that the Republic of Georgia’s key commercial airport in Tbilisi had been bombed in the Russian military assault on that country.  But a look at the Tbilisi International Airport live departure monitor via the ‘net shows commercial airlines still operating flights in and out of there.  Friday morning’s activity out of Tbilisi included an airBaltic flight to Riga and a Georgian Airways flight to Paris.  A little more than half of the scheduled flights were cancelled Friday.  In a report that aired on NBC’s Nightly News, Jim Maceda in Tbilisi included footage of a US Air Force C-17 cargo plane parked at the airport.  Pallets of supplies could be seen being offloaded by men on forklifts.  After initial reports on bombing at the airport, several dispatches since have indicated damage was confined to the airport’s radar system and that the two parallel runways were not impacted.  It was only in the last eighteen months that Tbilisi’s airport was modernized with sweeping upgrades.  Any kind of hostile action against a civilian air transportation facility seems blatantly unjust regardless of the dispute that is brewing.  In 2006, Israel dropped bombs on all three runways at Beirut’s International Airport.  It forced the airport to close for five weeks. 

-Francesa has zero interest in these Olympic games, but he’s flat-out impressed and surprised by the size of the TV audience drawn to NBC on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights.  In order, the ratings numbers were 18.7, 19.9 and 17.3 with Tuesday’s number spiked by the women’s gymnastics competition.  For comparison sakes, this year’s All-Star game did a 9.3 and game four of last year’s Red Sox World Series clincher scored a 12.6.  “Pretty impressive,” said Francesa of the Olympic viewership.  “I think people who aren’t even really sports fans watch the Olympics.  And I think ladies like women’s gymnastics, they really do.  I guess the Phelps story has caught on.”

-After Met catcher Brian Schneider hit his first home run in a full three months Thursday night in DC, he was greeted back at the dugout by silence.  Schnieder’s Met teammates ignored him as if nothing happened.  Schnieder took a seat on the bench, a few seconds went by and then his teammates (led by Pedro) mobbed him.  The old silent dugout trick.  It’s a sure sign that this Met team is having a little fun right now.  A sweep of the Nationals can do that for a team. 

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As great and mostly controversy-free as these Olympic games have been thus far, the one sport suffering from a constant problem of contentious outcomes is boxing. 

You sit there watching young amateur fighters from all over the world enter the ring with years of hard work and preparation to get to this point, and after their four-round match is over, there’s a puzzling and in some cases unjust result. 

American announcers Bob Papa and Teddy Atlas are the voices you hear on CNBC describing each bout, and both have been harshly critical of the scoring system used to determine outcomes.  Neither has confined criticism to bouts involving US participants. 

The flash point came Wednesday when flyweight Rau’shee Warren of Cincinnati lost his first bout by a single point and was eliminated from the competition despite coming into this Olympics as the reigning world amateur champ.

Five judges sat ringside.  They use computerized touch pads and press buttons when a boxer delivers a blow with the white portion of their glove to the front of his opponent’s torso or head.  If three of the five judges hit their button within a second of one another, a point is registered.  The running score is flashed in real-time on the arena scoreboard and on TV.  Over and over again as you watch these matches, the points that are awarded – or not awarded – often fail to correspond with what you see.    

Papa has grown increasingly frustrated over the last few days and after Warren lost, he went on a diatribe.  “We’ve sat through every single fight here through the first three and a half sessions.  We have watched every second of every round.  Of the twelve fights in a session, you could look at eight of them and say:  What is going on?”

The current scoring system was intended to give transparency to the judging of amateur bouts and came onto the scene after Roy Jones got totally screwed in 1988 at the summer games in Seoul.  In a bout for the gold medal, Jones beat up and dominated Park Si-Hun of South Korea, yet lost a crooked split decision. 

Atlas says the impetus for change after the Jones robbery was proper, but the scoring arrangement that replaced it doesn’t work either.  “They have to junk this (computerized) system.  People are not satisfied with this.  It is hurting the sport.” 

Papa says once these Olympics end, the International Boxing Association must re-examine how these fights are judged.  “It’s ridiculous.  Let the judge’s judge.  Let them judge.  Don’t make them count punches with this ridiculously restrictive system.  Just let the five judges judge.  I’ll live with that system.”

NBC’s Jim Gray has been the ringside interview guy at these Olympics and he suggested that it’s quite possible that the judges in some cases are simply pressing the wrong buttons.  He compared the touch-pads to using a Blackberry or playing a video game and said the adults operating the technology may be fumbling with it.  “Who’s best at video games?  It’s kids,” said Gray.

As we watched the highly-touted Warren fall in his fight to Lee Ok-Sung of South Korea, it was hard to ignore the running score.  It was a close fight that Warren appeared to win, but as a viewer, the scoreboard preoccupies your thought process.  One thing for sure, Warren blew his chance at victory when he danced away from Ok-Sung for much of the final 30 seconds despite trailing on the scoreboard by a point.  Warren said afterwards that somebody in the crowd told him he was winning. 

His main corner man, Dan Campbell (the lead US boxing coach) claims he told Warren to be the aggressor in the final moments. 

It was especially dramatic to hear Papa sitting ringside, yelling in frustration at Warren’s apparent failure to react to where he stood on the scoreboard.  “He’s making a mistake! He’s down one!  Tremendous confusion!”    

“A mistake that cost him four years of his life!  This is a crushing loss!” said Atlas. 

After the fight, Campbell suggested the fight was fixed in favor of Ok-Sung.

Campbell, incidentally, has been dogged by widespread criticism for barring his fighters from including their personal coaches from assisting in the pre-Olympic preparations. 

-A day before Warren’s disappointing loss, lightweight Sadam Ali of Brooklyn was routed in his bout by a tall Romanian southpaw.  Ali is expected to turn pro upon his return to New York and you’d assume he’ll appear on a card here in the city before the year is out. 

-If Deng Linlin from the Chinese gymnastics team is sixteen years old, I’m 79.  And if the Chinese government has indeed changed her birth records to make her eligible for these games, those involved ought to be exposed some day. 

-When Alicia Sacramone botched her launch onto the beam, I fell out of my chair.  Oh man, what a crusher.  She should have gone last.  She’s a closer, not a starter.  It got worse. With her team still within reach of the gold, she again led off and flubbed her floor routine a few minutes later.  No Wheaties box and a long flight back for sure.  “It feels totally unfulfilling,” said Al Trautwig with what had to be a monster TV audience staying up late on the east coast.  Nobody on the telecast used the word choke in connection with Sacramone’s back to back bad performances, but certainly the pressure appeared to get the better of her.  Hopefully, those connected with US Women’s gymnastics don’t go sour grapes on the alleged under-age edge held by the Chinese women.  The US had the gold within sight and couldn’t get it done.          

8-13-08 0030

Who’s running the country?  Every time one looks up at NBC’s coverage there’s a shot of George Bush sitting in the stands at one of the Olympic competitions.  This isn’t your basic drop-in visit from a disinterested diplomat.  Bush seems like he’s really enjoying these Olympics.  He appears most dedicated to a regular perch in the Water Cube where the man-fish Mike Phelps is the star attraction.     

In between all the fun, Bush made time for an on-the-set grilling from Costas during Sunday night’s prime time slot.  Bush put on that defensive smirk when Costas hammered him with a succession of questions about the world’s disorder, but overall the president was a good sport about it.  You got the feeling that Bush probably felt going in that Costas would keep it light.  When he instead went a little hard on the president with a barrage of inquiries about world affairs, Bush appeared uneasy and surprised.           

How ‘bout that 4 by 100 relay that got Phelps his second gold and kept alive his hope of collecting eight in ‘08?  Unbelievable.  Rowdy said the race was over on NBC and conceded victory to the French.  With a lap to go, there was too much pool to make up.  But then with just a half-lap left in the race, American relay team anchor Jason Lezak flipped on the turbo-kick and outstretched his French rival for a wall-touch that came a split-second in front.  The outcome took your breath away and will go down as one of the more dramatic moments in this Olympics.  Costas claimed it is the greatest swimming relay race of all time.  The reaction from Phelps was great and the drama surrounding his quest for eight goldies is now getting to be intense. 

World records are dropping left and right at the Cube and in some cases the previous marks are being shattered.

Thus far, NBC has made swimming and gymnastics its two audience grabbers in prime time.  It’s getting help from the games’ organizers who have slotted the big swims at times that beam live here in the states. 

Costas has been exceptionally strong at the main NBC anchor desk.  He comes on to provide summation and then ease transition as one sport ends and another begins.  He opened Saturday’s prime time slot in Tiananmen Square and has not been shy reminding viewers about the failures of the current-day Chinese government.  As you’d expect, he gets drop-in visits from all the big Olympic newsmakers and is the best Q and A guy going in these types of spots.         

We can’t get enough Olympics.  At work, we’ve got it on all the time.  In between long-delayed flights, we’re sitting there with a co-worker from China who provides his own analysis on the geography and sights that NBC fits in to the broadcast.  At home, it’s on all the time.  Bob Papa and Teddy Atlas are great from the boxing arena.  They’ve been highly critical of the scoring system and turn each of the constant stream of matches into compelling explanations of the sport and its desperately hard-working amateurs in suspenseful do-or-die episodes. 

The HD channels added by Time Warner don’t all seem to be working on my system.  The two channels dedicated to basketball and soccer are constant grey as is the CNBC HD offering.  But as it stands now, we’ve got NBC, USA, and the Universal HD channel in high-def and CNBC and MSNBC in standard definition.  Much of what we see is live and is denoted by the “live” logo in the upper right hand corner of the screen.     

8-11-08 0233

A New York-based company which pulls down millions of dollars annually for sending low-paid men and women in blue uniforms into busy buildings to mop floors and clean toilets has been busted for corruption. 

Laro Maintenance Corp. and its 53-year-old owner Robert Bertuglia Jr. have been indicted in Manhattan on charges of bilking the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey.  According to a news release on the Manhattan D-A web site, Laro is accused of billing the Port for two-hundred grand in new cleaning equipment that it didn’t purchase.  The equipment was intended for use at the big Port Authority bus terminal.  Among the felony charges included in the indictment are grand larceny and falsifying business records. 

It has long been suspected that the treasure trove of rich contracts awarded to companies doing business with the big-spending Port Authority includes arrangements that reek.  In this case, Manhattan D-A Bob Morgenthau said it was an official with the Port that sniffed out Laro’s deceit and reported it. 

Morgenthau said Laro has earned $150 million over the last decade from contracts with the Port. 

Laro has a high-profile presence at LaGuardia Airport where its workers clean bathrooms and other Port-controlled spaces.  You wonder if Laro will retain its contracts to clean Port Authority-run sites if the legal process confirms the rip-off.      

Bertuglia’s lawyer Gino Josh Singer told the New York Sun that the pending charges have no merit.  Singer pointed out that the sum of the alleged theft is very small relative to the total value of the contract.   

On Laro’s web site, Bertuglia says his company’s roster of clients has expanded over the years because of a dedication to efficient service.  “Our commitment to our clients consistently earns us their top marks.”

The real losers in this if Bertuglia and Laro go down will be all the people who show up every day with the blue uniform.  They walk into those stinky airport restrooms, keep ‘em clean and get a lousy pay check for a job not a lot of people want to do.  Now, it’s their own boss that may have crapped out their company – and the jobs that go with it.

-We caught Michael Phelps win his first gold in Beijing with a world-record time in the 400 individual medley.  It was carried live on NBC Saturday night and it is clear that Phelps is as good as has been advertised.  He gains big advantages on the turns and his freestyle stroke is smooth and powerful.  When the race is over, Phelps appears to be barely even huffing.  Kudos to NBC for the green-line technology which gives the viewer a real-time gauge of where the swimmer is in relation to the world record.  And a give a big thumbs-down to the Olympics staff responsible for audio at the Water Cube.  When Phelps stood on the tallest step of the medal stand for the playing of the Star-Spangled Banner, both the front and back ends of the song were cut off.  Phelps laughed it off.  NBC’s Dan Hicks at the Cube didn’t dwell on the faux pas – and later Costas in summation on the set failed to even mention it. 

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All day Thursday, we checked the various sports information outlets to see if Brett had changed his mind.   Had he gone back into retirement to avoid the glare of the big city? 

The front page of the News blared:  “JET FAVRE.”   The back of the Post said “BRETT THE JET.”   When he held up the dark green jersey from a podium in Cleveland about 630 PM, the camera flashes popped at a frequency seen only when the big New York story breaks.  

We applaud Favre’s addition to the Jets but will remain cautious about his intentions given the drama he created the last few weeks.   The way it blew up into a circus is entirely attributable to the actions of Favre. 

All good things must come to an end he cried a few months ago.   Next thing ‘ya know he’s landing a private jet on the strip in titletown.   It’s like he made copies of all the keys to the house he sold - and now he’s barging in on the family that bought it.  

Favre says that’s all behind him now and he wants to get going and win some games for the Jets.   The price to obtain him was cheap.   And surprisingly, teams outside the NFC north vying for his services were few.   Because of the way the Jets are built, Favre falling into their lap is a huge gift.   The Patriots are going down in week two. 

Self-described “insider” Jay Glazer of FOX Sports said the Jets were the lone team to make a serious offer for Favre.   Glazer (who broke news of the trade Wednesday night) told Russo on the FAN Thursday that Tampa basically wanted Favre for nothing and were not viewed by Green Bay to be a serious player in the trade talks.   Glazer said the Packers offered advice to the Jets on how to warm Favre and his wife to the idea of relocating to New York.   In the end, Favre failed to control his final destination.   The Tampa Tribune double byline story written by Roy Cummings and Ira Kaufman (broken Wednesday morning and picked up by ESPN) claiming Favre was gonna be a Buc turned out to be a dud.   Glazer said the Favre saga was filled with flat-out bad reporting.   “Every time you see a story – accurate or inaccurate - that goes across that damn crawl at the bottom of the screen - everybody assumes it’s right.   I’ve been close to this thing the whole time and out of ten stories you saw out there, nine were incorrect.” 

A sampling of media opinion on the Favre acquisition is mixed:   

Russo:  “I’m not crazy about it.   I like Pennington.   He gave his life and soul for this franchise, and now he’s out the door.   I am so Favred out.   I’m not so sure this is going to end up the way the Jet fan wants it to end up.”

Ian O’Connor of the Bergen Record:  “Favre ends up with the Jets in 2008 the way Pedro Martinez ended up at Shea in 2005 – as a megastar unloved by an historic franchise eager to move on.” 

Hilary Potkewitz of Crain’s New York Business:  “Luring a quarterback of Mr. Favre’s status could add more than $300 million to the team’s coffers if his presence paves the way for personal seat licenses, a deeply unpopular policy whereby season ticket holders must pay a hefty fee for the right to purchase season tickets in the new stadium.” 

Tom Jackson, ESPN:  “This team (the Jets) becomes an instant contender.   Not only for the playoffs, but I think to even go further.” 

Mark Cannizzaro of the Post: “It’s a move that completely alters the face of the Jets franchise and immediately has a chance to make the 2008 season something special.   The move gives the Jets their most iconic player since the days of Joe Namath.” 

A couple other Favre-related notes: 

-Favre will make $12 million this season.   The release of Pennington reduces the Jets cap number by six mil.   We thought the Jets were already at the cap limit, but apparently not.   We’ve been unable to find anything official on this, and nobody asked Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum about the subject at the news conference introducing Favre.   When Sam Ryan interviewed Tannenbaum on the sideline during Channel 2’s broadcast of the preseason game with the Browns, she asked the GM to reconcile the cap math.   Rather than answer the question, Tannenbaum totally brushed it off.   We wonder what the story is here.   

-What the Jets ultimately give Green Bay in this deal will depend on Favre’s performance according to various reports.  At minimum, the Jets will give the Pack a fourth-round pick – but it could slide up to be as high as a first-rounder if Favre participates in 80-percent of the Jets’ offensive plays and takes the team to the Super Bowl.   The pick could fall in between those two extremes – again – based on participation and performance.   Interestingly, the NFL Network reported that the Pack made Favre basically Vikings-proof by including a provision in the trade that would force the Jets to give Green Bay three first-rounders should New York peddle Favre off to Minnesota.   It’s unclear if the Packers also have protection against the Jets trading Favre to the Bears.   In neither of Tannenbaum’s two media availabilities has a reporter asked about specifics of the conditional pick.   At a separate news conference after the trade, Packers GM Ted Thompson refused to answer a reporter’s question about exactly what they got in return for Favre.     

-Glazer told Russo that Pennington will draw interest from Miami, New England, Buffalo and Carolina.   When asked if Minnesota was on the list, Glazer said no and indicated the Vikes believe he wouldn’t be an upgrade over Gus Frerotte. 

8-7-08 2215

With the Summer Olympics about to start, we’ve noticed that our local cable provider has added a bunch of stations devoted to carrying NBC’s wall-to-wall airing of the games.  We now have fully dedicated soccer and basketball channels in HD – as well as all of the other NBC properties in high def as the coverage is about to launch.

Sifting through all that’s about to come – and with just limited viewing of the qualifying events that produced those who made the cut to get to Beijing, these are some of the events and athletes we’ll go out of our way to watch.

-Alicia Sacramone:  The 20-year-old US gymnast who attends Brown University rocks the beam and the floor exercise.  She’s overshadowed by higher-profile teammates Shawn Johnson and Nastia Luikin, and she was forced to hang in limbo as the Karolyi’s added her to the team late.  But she’s a sight to see.  She’s no under-fed munchkin.  She’s strong, a little cocky and great fun to watch.

-Brian McBride:  What an amazing soccer career he’s had. He’s back in the States after being the key guy in Fulham’s avoidance of relegation out of the Premier League.  He’s played on three US World Cup teams and is about to close out his illustrious career for the Chicago Fire.  McBride plays with great smarts and hustle and his presence on the US Olympic soccer team can do nothing but help his younger teammates learn about grit in preparation for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.  McBride played at Buffalo Grove High School (TSR’s alma mater) and put that school’s soccer team on the map.  At age 36, McBride is the oldest player in the Olympic soccer tournament.  He’ll wear jersey number 17.

-Cat Osterman: Perhaps the greatest pitcher in the history of women’s softball, the University of Texas grad is on the big stage one more time.  Yeah, everybody’s talking about Jennie Finch, but Osterman is the ace of the dominant US team.  With softball being phased out of the Olympics in part because the U-S is too good, watch Osterman blow away batters with amazing movement and location.  When she returns home from these Olympics, she’ll become a coach for DePaul University’s softball team.

-Sadam Ali – The 19-year-old Brooklyn native came out of the Golden Gloves program and intends to go pro after the games.  His first bout in the lightweight division comes Monday and he’s in a difficult weight class, but we’ll cheer for the New York kid and hope he advances.  Boxing is our favorite Olympic sport and all of the matches will appear on CNBC.

-The Redeem Team – It may be unpatriotic, but we’ll root with full force against the USA men’s team.  Bush will be in the stands for Sunday morning’s (10 AM in the east) game against China.  We haven’t seen a line on the game, but it ought to be US minus-24.  The real trouble comes later when the US advances out of group play and faces three potentially difficult elimination games against opponents that could include Greece, Spain, Lithuania, Argentina and Russia.  Four years after the bust in Sydney, has the US collection of insane talent agreed to play some defense?

We’ll mostly skip what are considered the traditional ‘roid sports.  Track and field, weightlifting and swimming among several.  The swimming facility in Beijing is a beautiful looking structure and NBC ought to milk the blimp shot and flash it as much as possible because it’s bound to look stunning in HD.  But what goes on inside, we’re not much interested.  The body suit is ridiculous.  It’s one thing for a swimmer to shave body hair, but to don an additional layer to gain a water-resistance advantage runs contrary to what the sport is about.

As for the media, we’re lucky here in New York because the Times is going all out to cover the games.  They’ll work all the angles, including the political/social/economic ones.  The best writer covering these games works for the New York Daily News.  Fil Bondy is a niche sports columnist mostly disinterested in winners, losers and the major sports back home and he fits perfectly in this spot.  The writing that appears on his blog is priceless.  Bondy, a vegetarian, discusses his down time in vivid detail and has a really funny and mostly cynical view of all that goes on around him.

-Two nuggets from Jerry Manuel’s conversation with Russo on the FAN Wednesday afternoon:  First, 22-year-old rookie Eddie Kunz is gonna get a save opportunity while Wags is on the shelf.  “I probably have a guy staring me in the face that can do it (Kunz), and I haven’t put him in that situation because I felt that it was best to get him a spot and get him going.  But it appears as though we could be forced to go in that direction.”  Number two, the gap in the rotation left by John Maine’s absence on Saturday will be filled by a starter of Omar’s choosing, not Jerry’s.  “It would be difficult for me to make a call on that,” said Jerry.  Manuel’s statement that he doesn’t control these types of decisions is the kinda thing that drove Willie nuts – and obviously, the power structure hasn’t changed.

-As we wrap things up here early Thursday morning, ESPN is reporting Favre to the Jets.  Hard to believe.  Good luck and goodbye Chad.  You’re a class act. The acquisition of Favre obviously ramps up the enthusiasm for a team that had been built largely as a one or two year go-for-broke kinda squad.  Watch out Patriots.  Watch out NFL.  The Jets are gonna be good this year.  And it’s gonna be a lot of fun.

8-7-08 0030

At the suggestion of our pal Mike from Montclair, we made a Tuesday night trip out to Little Falls, NJ for a minor league baseball double-dipper between the New Jersey Jackals and the Nashua Pride.  The two teams are members of the independent eight-team Can-Am League, which is probably considered near the bottom of the minor league baseball chain of importance.

We took the 3:19 PM NJ Transit train out of NY Penn and enjoyed the ride along what’s called the Montclair-Boonton line for a one-way fare of $5.75.  It stops in Secaucus and Newark, before making a series of tightly-spaced stops in several communities that get progressively nicer as you move further away from the city.

We stepped off at the Montclair State stop – and made the five minute walk past the university’s softball stadium and track/field facility – up a steep incline to get to Yogi Berra Stadium.  We were about 40 minutes early for the 5:05 PM first pitch of the first game of the doubleheader.

Yogi Berra Stadium opened in 1998 and serves as the home of the Jackals and Montclair State University’s baseball team.  It was built with the dough of former K-Mart boss Floyd Hall. Capacity is 3748.

Attendance wasn’t announced Tuesday night, but we’re guessing there were no more than a thousand people on hand.  Yogi Berra is a Montclair resident and his highly-touted museum adjoins the stadium and is filled with artifacts said to be worth checking out.

Both teams’ rosters are dominated by players who were drafted by major league teams, but find their professional careers stuck in neutral or in a development stage a long distance from the bigs.  Take for example the two players pictured above. Marcus Sanders (pulling on his helmet in the black Jackals uniform) was drafted in the 17th round of the 2003 draft by the San Francisco Giants.  Sanders has never gone higher than single-A of the South Atlantic League.  He’s fast on the base paths (57 stolen bases in ’05) but his bat hasn’t been dominant and a bad shoulder slowed his progress.  Once considered a top prospect, Sanders is only 22 and you’d think still has a shot if he sticks it out.  The other guy in the photo is 24-year-old Pride first baseman Bryan Duplissie, an academic All-American at Franklin Pierce College.  Duplissie ripped his thirteenth homer of the season in the first game but later had a bad error on a routine grounder.  The guy is a three-hundred hitter with power, but looked a little shaky in the field.

The Pride has a few familiar faces.  Their manager is former gold glove Red Sox outfielder Rick Miller (who doubled as the third base coach), a member of the ’75 team that lost to the Big Red Machine in the World Series.  Brian Daubach (pictured above) is the hitting coach and believe it or not, 37-year-old Rich “El Guapo”  Garces comes out of the bullpen for the Pride and pitched the seventh inning of the second game.

Former Pirates catcher Ed Ott (pictured above) worked the third base coach box for the Jackals.  Before the game he signed autographs.

Average attendance in the Can-Am League is a little over 2000.  The Jackals this season have averaged 2346 per contest.

From a fan’s standpoint, one of the great draws of minor league baseball is the cost.  It was two-for-one ticket night, and so we got two ten-dollar front-row box seats behind the Jackals’ on-deck circle for ten bucks.  The concession stand sold two-dollar twelve-ounce bottles of Corona poured into a cup.  The cheeseburgers were thick and juicy - and if we remember right, they were $3.75.

The 10:20 PM train out of the Montclair State stop made the drop back to the big city by 11 for a connection to the E train.  It was an easy trip – a fun trip – and didn’t hit the wallet like a major league game would.  Good times, for sure.  There’s not the obvious pull in terms of a big pennant race, and watching the best of the best, but minor league baseball is a guaranteed good time.

8-6-08 0145

Starved for added revenue to offset the huge increase in fuel costs, airlines in this country have started charging customers extra for checking luggage, sitting on the aisle or requesting a snack.  But JetBlue Airways may be taking things beyond the reasonable – or feasible - with an announcement Monday it will charge customers seeking pillows and blankets.  For seven bucks, the airline says it will hand the customer a 10-by-12 inch pillow, a fleece blanket and a $5 coupon for Bed, Bath and Beyond (those same coupons flood just about every mailbox in America).

We think few people will spend seven bucks for an airline pillow and blanket.  From a PR perspective, JetBlue is probably better off just eliminating them.  Several other carriers have already done that and realize additional overhead bin and cabin space as a result.

The newspaper and TV news coverage of JetBlue’s announcement seemed to universally mock the airline for asking customers to pay for a pillow.  The basic theme was:  What’s next?

As we’ve said before, the airline experience as it’s been developed over the last fifty years cannot be broken down into components – with some discarded – others as options – still others as separate line item expenses.  You sell a ticket to the consumer and they get all of the components of an airplane ride for the no-strings attached total cost.  No nickel and diming - no surprise fees, no BS.  If the airlines want to raise revenue, raise the ticket prices.  Don’t diminish or strip down the air travel experience into a hodge-podge of pay-per-components to the point that it becomes the drag it has for so many.

-Scam alert. A rotating cast of fakers has been working LaGuardia Airport’s busy central terminal in recent months asking travelers if they can “borrow their cell phone” to make a quick call.  Soon after returning the phone to its honest and helpful owner, minutes have been sucked dry from the account of the unsuspecting rightful owner of the phone.  We’re not sure exactly how the scam is executed by making a single call, but we’ve talked to a victim of the racket who was forced to change his number as a result.

8-5-08 0200

The NFL has reportedly come down hard on punter Todd Sauerbrun for his boozed-up drama in the back of a Denver taxi late last year.  According to an item written by Bill Williamson on ESPN.com, the league has suspended the Punt King four games for violating the league’s personal conduct policy.  A Denver cabby claimed an intoxicated Sauerbrun went after him both verbally and physically after picking him up from a restaurant last December.  Police charged Sauerbrun with simple assault and guided him to a detox facility to dry out.  A couple of months went by and just before the case was to go to trial, Sauerbrun pled guilty to a reduced charge of disturbing the peace.  Sauerbrun is appealing this latest league suspension according to the Denver Post.  ESPN.com first reported the suspension late Friday night citing “two sources close to the situation.”  As of early Monday morning, the NFL’s web site contained no news release or listed transaction confirming the suspension.  The Denver Post says Sauerbrun had drawn interest from two teams this summer, but it didn’t specify which ones.  He remains unsigned.  The Broncos cut the Punt King loose because of the taxi-cab incident, having been burned twice by his antics.  Sauerbrun served a four-game suspension in ’06 for violating the league’s banned substances policy while with Denver.  Sauerbrun’s rap sheet got its first major blemish in 2004 when he got popped for DUI while a member of the Carolina Panthers.  This latest suspension – if it sticks – will make Sauerbrun’s re-entry into the league more difficult.  His talent level should guarantee him a spot as a NFL punter for another decade – but his infractions are piling up to the point that some teams will flat out stay away.  Yeah, talent often trumps trouble – but when it comes to a punter, many teams may say: why bother?

-We listened to the KABC radio feed of Sunday’s Dodgers/Snakes game and got a kick out of Charley Steiner’s call of Manny’s fifth inning homer.  Said Steiner:  “Man – oh – Man – oh – Manny Ramirez !!!”

8-4-08 0140

When tickets for the three late July Bruce Springsteen shows at Giants Stadium went on sale several months ago, we went online at the prescribed time for the public sale and punched in a request for two – best available.  When it promptly kicked back a pair in section 112 – in decent proximity to the stage – we decided to pay the three-figure cost.

We went to the Thursday show and it was well worth it.

After getting dinner with the Heckler at Island Burgers on Ninth Ave., we arrived at the Port Authority bus terminal a little after six pm and waited in a long line for New Jersey Transit bus tickets.  Another line awaited us to board the bus, and man, was it a line.  It started on 41st St. midway between Eighth and Ninth Avenues – wound its way the length of Eighth between 41st and 42nd - and extended nearly the entire length of 42nd between Eighth and Ninth with the end of it snaking back toward Eighth on 42nd.  Feeling deflated by the line’s length, we noticed several gypsy vans lined up on 42nd.  Ten bucks to get to the Meadowlands – no waiting.

We had already purchased our NJ Transit bus tickets for ten bucks round-trip, but couldn’t resist the gypsy van.  We jumped in, each gave the driver a ten-spot, and nestled into a pair of seats in the back.  The vehicle was a beat-up rig that looked like a converted hotel courtesy van.  The shocks were shot, the AC barely worked and the driver was aggressive and fearless.  We darted through rush-hour traffic and got to the Meadowlands in about 35 minutes.  Had we waited in line for the NJ Transit bus, we’d have been at the Port Authority for another hour probably.

Turns out, it didn’t really matter.

In deference to a big traffic snarl caused by an overturned propane tanker truck on the Jersey turnpike, Bruce and the E Streeters waited until 9:30 PM to hit the stage.  On the way in, those seeking tickets outnumbered those who were selling by a big margin.  You wonder if those two off nights on Tuesday and Wednesday between the Monday and Thursday shows couldn’t have been sell-outs as well.

The sound was what you’d expect in a big football stadium.  Stevie’s guitar output was totally lost in the mix.  All of the vocals and the Big Man’s horn levels were clear and true, but on a tune like “Prove it All Night,” you really miss the shriek of the distinctive guitar line.

Two big video boards shaped like inverted T’s on each side of the stage showed a well-produced live feed using multiple camera shots.  It gave those who watched the show from a distance a feeling they were closer to the action than they actually were.

At 58, Springsteen is in no way milking the accomplishments of the past.  He remains nimble, quick and electric as a performer.  He often interacts with the fans crowded up against the stage, accepting smooches from female fans.  His last record is strong.  His band is great.  While we find Max Weinberg to be an annoying presence on TV, he really is an authoritative percussionist on the E Street stage.

On his official web site leading up to the Giants Stadium dates, Bruce encouraged fans to bring signs and banners containing song title requests.  In theory, it’s a way for the average fan to influence the three-hour plus set list.  A big bed sheet spray-painted with the words “I’m Goin’ Down” hung from the upper deck directly opposite the stage on the stadium’s east end. Bruce didn’t play it.  But he did play “Jersey Girl” for the first time on the Magic tour.  A fan (pictured above) attending the show with her daughter was among a lot of Bruce fans who have a soft spot for the Tom Waits tune which includes vivid regional imagery.  “Cause down the shore everything’s all right.  You and your baby on a Saturday night.  Nothing matters in this whole wide world.  When you’re in love with a Jersey girl.”

Of the 30 songs that made Thursday’s setlist, the tunes we’ve continued to hum continuously since are:  Long Walk Home, Mary’s Place, Cadillac Ranch, Spirit in the Night and Blinded by the Light.  “Go-cart Mozart was checkin’ out the weather chart to see if it was safe to go outside.”

The weather chart for Giants Stadium Thursday night was perfecto and definitely safe. A stiff breeze from the west made it pleasant.  The beer lines were manageable.  We got a little jump on the rest of the crowd on the way out and got on the regular bus back to the city without a hitch.

By the time the E train made the drop in Queens, it was almost time to go to work.  We splashed a little cold water on the face, double-brushed the teeth and slapped a cap on the mop-top.  Work was a struggle but with the Boss proving it all night, it was a hunger you couldn’t resist.

-Beijing correspondent Jim Yardley of the New York Times says his newspaper was “kept in the dark” about a “press conference” held by China’s president Hu Jintao on Friday.  Yardley says Hu had never held a news conference during his six-year reign as China’s top leader but likely agreed to this one with the Olympics set to begin.  Yardley says “about 25 foreign media organizations” attended the news conference and were required to submit questions in advance.  When the Times caught wind of Hu’s appearance and asked to attend, Yardley says a Foreign Ministry spokesman declined the Times request.  In a “news analysis” piece that ran as a sidebar to a main story about limited expansion of in-country migration, Yardley says accounts of the Hu news conference indicate he said nothing that the foreign press would consider newsworthy.  “Mr. Hu is arguably one of the half dozen most powerful people on earth, yet he remains an enigma, partly because the Chinese press is banned from writing anything remotely personal about him or investigating anything about him or his family.”

-If you spend any kind of time waiting for a flight at LaGuardia Airport’s central terminal building, there’s a pretty good chance you’ll hear a piercing and violently loud alarm sound for no good reason.  The airport’s fire alarm system in the main terminal is activated five times a day on average – and each time it is a false alarm.  Even those who are exposed to the abrupt daily doses of the high-volume buzzing are startled initially when it comes on.  Customers waiting for flights – some of whom are already on edge because of the nature of the airport experience these days – are especially jumpy when the false alarm rings.  It’s really loud and it comes on every few hours without cause.  The famously inefficient airport operator Port Authority of NY/NJ has acknowledged the false fire alarm problem going back at least six months but has done nothing to address it.  One Port official recently scoffed: “It’s an old building, whattaya gonna do?”

8-3-08 0111

Gotta go to work in about an hour, so for now we’ll just say that the show was great.  The Boss was very much at home with the Jersey crowd assembled on a perfect summer night at Giants Stadium.  The radio was nowhere, Bobby was Jean and the Spirit was in the Night.  Alright.

More specifics after we get through a ten-hour slog at the airstrip…

8-1-08 00305

The first batch of reporters assigned to cover the Olympics in Beijing has plugged in laptops at the fancy official media center and wouldn’t ‘ya know it, their net access is being restricted.  Scores of web sites are inaccessible.

Despite a plainly-worded pledge by International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge that reporters covering the games would not be subject to the same harsh internet censorship imposed on Chinese citizens and reporters, the early word from scribes in Beijing is that they’re being blocked from using certain sites as they research stories.

Who’s running these Olympics?  If internet blocking continues, it’s clearly not the I-O-C.

Get familiar with the name Kevan Gosper.  He seems to have become the I-O-C point man on the looming clash between reporters and the vast Chinese government effort to control a massive world media contingent.  Gosper told reporters Wednesday that the I-O-C has signed off on limited internet blocking by the Chinese.  “I now understand that I-O-C officials negotiated with the Chinese that some sensitive sites would be blocked on the basis they were not considered Games-related.”  Huh?

If Rogge and Gosper had any guts, they’d tell the Beijing Organizing Committee that it must adhere strictly to the promises made when China was awarded the games.  A statement from Amnesty International’s Mark Allison said China committed to “full media freedom” when it got the games and is now changing its tune.  “Censorship of the internet at the Games is compromising fundamental human rights and betraying the Olympic values.”

We obtained that Amnesty statement by clicking on to their web site.  If you’re using the basic internet hookup from the media center in Beijing, the Amnesty International website is among those that are blocked.   In the eyes of Beijing Organizing Committee spokesman Sun Weide, the blocked sites won’t limit coverage of the games.  But what is – or isn’t blocked – and whether it’s an important resource for reporters – isn’t for Weide - or anybody else to decide.

You can tell all of this is going in a bad direction.  Beijing is gonna blow these games.  Rather than swing the doors open and let the world see all that is good and bad, they’re opting for the clamp.  If they opted for the open approach, the flurry of breathtaking athletic accomplishments would naturally dominate the headlines.  Instead, the paranoia and control (no matter whether it’s effective) will cause a backlash.  It puts a bad taste in the mouths of reporters with world views and guarantees a doubling-down of analysis about the Chinese government’s conduct.

-We’re bound for Giants Stadium tonight to see The Boss. It’s the final night of three shows on this tour at the big outdoor venue.  The previous two gigs went three hours plus.  The forecast is rain-free.  August ’85 at Soldier Field was our last Springsteen show.  More than two decades later, we’ll get to see him one last time.  Everybody will be yelling to hear their favorite song.  At some point, we’ll probably shout for Bobby Jean.

7-31-08  0005

The three to four hour delays at LaGuardia Airport on Sunday were understandable given the intensity of storm systems that struck the region back to back in the late morning and mid-afternoon.  But what happened Monday afternoon is “completely unnecessary” according to a veteran FAA employee we spoke to.  The Air Traffic Control System Command Center (which is a branch of the FAA) imposed 90-minute delays on all flights into LaGuardia on a perfectly clear Monday afternoon citing “volume.”  There was no significant weather within hundreds of miles and at no point during the delay period did the line for departures exceed more than ten airplanes.

The FAA inspector we spoke to said the delays imposed Monday were driven purely by air traffic controllers intent on making a statement.  Controllers have been vocal in their unhappiness about working conditions including staffing levels.

Unfortunately, the specific reasons for lengthy and costly ATC imposed delays often fail to reach the public.  While air carriers are heavily scrutinized and criticized for the rash of delays at the big three New York airports, formal accountability seems not to extend to those who truly hold the key to timely movement of air traffic.

With the number of flights expected to drop sharply this fall because of airline cutbacks in capacity, the “volume” problem should work itself out.  If air traffic controllers are indeed upset with the terms of their employment, or lack the numbers necessary to operate the air traffic system at full tilt, the FAA needs to understand that the last thing the commercial aviation industry and its customers need right now are bogus delays.

-The names of Manny Ramirez and Brett Favre have been much discussed in these parts – with the Mets and Jets respectively named as possible landing spots. Forget Manny to the Mets.  Despite Met GM Omar Minaya’s longtime crush on Manny - and the team’s need for another corner outfielder – the Mets are likely unwilling to part with the package of players needed to obtain him.  As for Favre, he would make sense if number 4 chooses the Jets.  The Jets are fairly well built to win now and there’s little risk in disrupting the current QB picture.  If Favre ends up in green, the Jets would simply release Chad and let Clemens and Ainge get understudy enrichment for however long Favre is the starter (likely no more than this season and maybe next).  Pennington would get scooped up immediately by Minnesota.  With camps in full swing, there ought to be time pressure on the Pack to get a deal done.  Said Pennington: “I think the sooner the better for all of us involved: Brett, myself, our organization, our team.”

-US District judge Bill Martini sentenced former Newark Mayor Sharpe James to 27 months in prison Tuesday.  Accounts of the hearing written by reporters for the Times and AP indicate Martini lashed out at prosecutors for seeking a much longer prison stint for the 72-year-old James.  It was a series of shady city land sales to a former mistress (and subsequent flips that got her rich) that enabled federal prosecutors to snare James and ultimate obtain felony convictions on five counts of fraud and conspiracy.  Other charges of corrupt plundering of Newark taxpayer money by James during his mayoral tenure were dropped after the first series of convictions were obtained.  What we don’t understand from our reading of the coverage in this case is why Judge Martini seemed so bent on minimizing the conduct of James by throwing darts at the law enforcers who finally nailed the crooked mayor of a struggling city desperate for honest leadership.

-We had the NESN feed of Angels/Red Sox for the Lackey near no-no. NESN elected not to break between the top and bottom of the ninth and showed Lackey warm up. He looked extremely nervous.  Lots of rubbing the baseball.  Pedroia (and later Yuke) saved Manny big embarrassment by breaking it up with one out bottom nine.  Manny failed to run out a deep grounder to third base in the seventh.  He may have beaten out the throw from Figgins had he made an effort.

7-29-08 2255

The Prairie Spies concluded their nine-day, nine-city tour in Brooklyn Saturday night with a raucous and spirited set.  With evidence of fatigue on their faces after a grueling stretch of dates that included Minneapolis, Washington and Troy, NY, the Spies made this tour-ender a celebratory expression of accomplishment.  Drummer Ryan Collins was all over his kit on the tunes Blackout and Kidz Know Best (which closed out the set). The band played hard and seemed to enjoy the crowd energy it was creating.

The enthusiastic gathering of about 50 in Trash Bar’s performance space for the Spies set seemed to know the words to all the songs and went bonkers when the band played Blackout.

The set list varied from the Philly show and notably included a rousing version of Iowa.  Because there were actively interested Spies fans at the Trash Bar, the band clearly demonstrated more showmanship.

All of the band’s members except for Collins were bare-footed on stage.

The band planned to spend a full day in New York to decompress before taking the long van ride back to Chicago.

The Trash Bar is a funny place.  Between sets, people danced in the bar area and a large group of folks congregate outside the front door of the venue.  Drinks are priced well below New York music venue market value and the bartender sells microwave-heated hot dogs for three bucks.

It was after midnight when the Spies’ labelmates The Fake Fictions hit the stage for a slot that immediately followed the Spies.  Perhaps because it was so late, the air had gone out of the room by that point and most fans elected to stand in either the bar or out front.  As a show of support, Spies singer Max Brooks and bandmate Collins cheered on the Fakes.

We wandered out of Trash Bar as the hour approached one AM and caught the G train at Metropolitan Avenue.  The New York City Transit web site had advised that the G would run local all the way to Forest Hills after 11 PM and indeed it did.  We were back home in no time without the usual transfer at 23rd and Ely.  Those who perpetuate the myth that the G train is unreliable are out of step with the reality of the G train.  The G adheres to a timetable and almost all of the service alterations we’ve ever faced on the G were announced ahead of time on the NYCT web site.  There may have been a time that the G was bad news.  That time is not now.

-We had no idea two-sport Notre Dame star Jeff Samardzija was on the fast track to the bigs, so his Cubbie debut Friday caught us by complete surprise.  We saw his ninth inning stint on TBS Sunday and were impressed with his stuff.  Plenty enough heat to set up a wicked sinker and change-up.  To think Lou is using the 23-year-old Samardzija in a save situation in just his second major league appearance (and with just one full season in the minors) shows you what the Cubs think of him.  On Saturday, ND football coach Charlie Weis went on WGN-AM radio during the game broadcast as part of his seventh-inning stretch signing assignment.  Weis said Samardzija would have been a first-round NFL pick had he opted to go that route, but Weis believes Samardzija chose baseball because the money is guaranteed.

-More than 48 hours after FCC approval made the Sirius-XM merger a done deal, neither company’s web site is providing updated information for its subscribers on the combined product.  There are many questions to be answered about how the new company will transition subscribers from two companies to a product with more channels.  As an XM subscriber, I am eager for the opportunity to add NFL and NBA game broadcasts to the existing menu of MLB, NHL and college sports broadcasts.  Thus far, the only document shedding light on the particulars of the new company is an outdated Q and A page on the XM web site.

7-28-08 0159

Back from the land of cheesecake - pardon-me - cheesesteak.  After checking out of the hotel at the mandated 11 AM deadline Thursday, we caught the Philly subway at 5th and Walnut to make the 11:59 AM SEPTA trip out of 30th St. station to catch the connecting NJ Transit train in Trenton which got us to New York Penn for a final subway ride on the E.  We love the long train rides with a stack of newspapers, but man, how ‘bout all the folks yammering on the cell phones?  It puts a bad wrinkle on the proceedings.  Especially the folks who insist on the beeping walkie-talkie mode at full volume.

A few additional notes on Wednesday night’s road trip to the Brotherly Love to see The Prairie Spies:

-Officially, just 1.49 inches of rain fell during that crazy star-finger touching-me, touching-you storm that made Old City, Philly look like a flood zone.  If that measurement is correct, nearly all of it fell during a thirty-minute period at about 8 PM.

-The outfit that preceded the Spies on the three-band bill was Orbit to Leslie.  The Philly-based band was fronted by Christopher Wood who played a metal folding chair with never-before-seen effectiveness.  Later, Wood joined the small crowd on hand for the Spies’ performance and offered enthusiastic support.  That sense of camaraderie between bands when a venue is otherwise near-empty would seem important.  When Orbit did their set, some members of the Spies who were earlier killing time doing puzzles at a table near the bar’s streetside window came into the performance space to check it out.  There was also an equipment loan that Orbit’s Wood thanked the Spies for.

-Spies front-man Max Brooks (above right) said concerns about keeping the band’s equipment and vehicle safe on the overnight in Philly would necessitate nightwatchman duty.  Brooks said he planned on sleeping in the van.

-After playing the two-part tune Song for Bobby, Brooks could be heard saying off-mike to his bandmates that the sound mix they heard through the stage monitors was the best it had been during the current stretch of dates.  Before the band stepped on stage, a young fella standing behind an elevated and ramshackle-looking sound-board platform at The Khyber spent five minutes or so adjusting levels.  There was no sound check before the evening’s music started.

-Late in the set, Spies guitarist Ben Fong (above left) introduced the song “Who’s Been Getting High?”  After telling the audience the song’s title, he answered the rhetorical question by saying with a straight face: “Not us.”  It is Fong’s guitar line in that song that really makes the tune hum.

-No matter how successful this nine-day, nine-city tour for the Prairie Spies turns out to be when the band catalogs all of the memories, there is uncertainty about the band’s future.  Fong is moving to New York City in short order leaving behind a band that uses Chicago as its home base.  Fong’s level of contribution to the band’s sound is such that his absence is sure to create a gaping hole as the Spies consider their next move.  Having had a chance to speak to the band members before the show Wednesday night, we marvel at how sharp, personable and friendly each of them are.  That’s aside from the fact they’ve created a musical unit that plays a live show that very few bands will ever match on the intensity scale.  You can’t help but really root for them.

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Before a small crowd in Philly Wednesday night, The Prairie Spies lit it up with a great set that ended a little after midnight.  The band is on a nine day, nine city tour that stopped at The Khyber on Second in Philly.  Vicious thunderstorms that left tree branch debris and flooded streets in Philly’s Old City neighborhood before the show may have limited the crowd size, but the Spies still rocked their set.  “It’s Not Fair” off the new LP Surplus Enjoyment blistered those who were on hand.  The band did a great version of a Pavement cover that we couldn’t place exactly and they nailed Costello’s “Peace, Love and Understanding.” Drummer Ryan Collins attacked the kit on Bobby’s Song - a Spies tune that earlier in the day he had told TSR Radio was a personal favorite.  We totally agree.

If anybody is around town in NYC Saturday, you’ve got to get over to Trash Bar in Williamsburg to see the Spies play late - like eleven or so.  They’ll be joined on that card by their Chicago friends The Fake Fictions.

Before the Wednesday night gig, we had a cheesesteak at Old City Pizza.  We asked for it “no onions, with whiz,” and the waitress seemed aggravated.  “We don’t have cheese whiz,” she said.  We plugged in provolone and watched the rain fall out the window.

The Khyber is cool.  Three dollar Bud bottles.  They had the Met/Phils game on the tube and Wags came in and got the job done.

If you don’t already know TSR’s position on The Prairie Spies, we’ll say it again:  They rock really hard.  They’re amazing.  They’re the best band going right now.  They may not be around forever.  So check ’em out while you get the chance.

Back on the train in a few hours to NYC so we can catch a breath, work a couple shifts and find a way to get out to that Spies gig in Billyburg late Saturday night.

Rock and roll like we saw Wednesday night puts some juice in the battery that makes you go.  Luckily, there are bands like the Spies around to make you really get jumpy and full of git-go to advance the otherwise sluggish being to the next stage.

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Brutal loss for the Mets Tuesday night.  We sat in section three of the mezz on a steamy night.  A near full-house at Shea with two teams tied for first.  We don’t know for sure what Manuel was thinking because as we sat there we didn’t know specifics on Wagner’s sore shoulder, but we have to question the bullpen pecking order right now.  Shouldn’t Heilman be ahead of Joe Smith?  And shouldn’t Schoeneweis come before Feliciano?  Shouldn’t the $140 million dollar man get the ball to at least start the ninth?  And if indeed Wags is hurt, shouldn’t he go on the DL so there’s another pitcher available?  Why is Endy sitting so shallow when So Taguchi clubs a ball to deep right with bases jammed?  All we know is that it turned out to be perhaps the most devastating loss of the year.  Heckler Bob threw his scorecard below his seat in that dreadful ninth and wouldn’t talk to me.  I chose to laugh instead.

We had burgers at Donovan’s in Woodside before the game.  We don’t buy the widely held notion that their burgers are the best in town, but Tuesday night they were juicy and rich.

The news flash at Shea is that concourse vendors have started selling 24-ounce cans for $9.50.  It’s almost like they heard about our rave on the big boy from St. Louis and started supplying them on cue.  How ‘bout that?

This morning, we get on a train to Philly and will arrive in time to prepare for a special one-hour edition of TSR Radio.  It’ll start at 5 PM in the east and will include interviews with members of the great Chicago band The Prairie Spies.  The Spies will play Philly tonight.  The band’s nine-day, nine-city tour ends Saturday with a show at Brooklyn’s Trash Bar.  Towards the end of the one-hour TSR Radio program, we also expect to hear from a member of the Campo family which has been making Philadelphia cheesesteaks from its location in the Old City neighborhood since 1947.

Try to join us live – or later to play the archived version.  Just click the button below.  Talk to you from Philly…

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It is expected that NBC will tip-toe softly around the more difficult and sensitive issues that are sure to arise when the Summer Olympics get underway in Beijing in a few weeks.  As pointed out in an excellent piece in the Times on Monday, NBC’s parent company GE is heavily invested in China.  The piece written by reporter Brian Stelter makes no conclusion about whether NBC will “kowtow” to the host country’s wishes.  But he raises the issue.  Stelter obtained minutes of a recent meeting called to discuss media limitations in Beijing during the games.  The meeting included representatives of the International Olympic Committee, television networks covering the games and Chinese government officials.

Stelter quotes an unnamed IOC commissioner as saying the restrictions on television coverage as laid out by the Chinese government are “severe.”  The commissioner likened the Chinese guidelines to “a tourniquet.”  The commissioner also tells Stelter that had the IOC known that China would impose both the media and entry-to-country limits as they currently exist, the IOC would probably not have been awarded the games to China.

We recently spoke to an individual familiar with the inclinations of network TV decision-makers and he believed NBC will maintain a compliant stance throughout its coverage.  The source predicted NBC will avoid coverage of controversy regardless of any perceived pressure or responsibility to shine full light on China’s human rights, environmental and freedom of information misdeeds.

Supposing NBC does indeed steer clear of any coverage that may anger the Chinese government, it’s almost a guarantee that the New York Times – and the New York Daily News for that matter – will be fearless in their coverage.  The Times has long found a way to report on China despite the government’s insatiable desire to put a clamp on the flow of what’s disseminated.  In 2004, Times researcher Zhao Yan was locked up by the Chinese government for three years after being accused of reporting a government news item that was spot-on true.

A long list of more recent media repression incidents in China can be found documented on the Reporters Without Borders website.

So, while NBC may choose to keep it as much about the games as possible, there are gonna be a lot of reporters from North America and Europe working for companies that lack corporate conflicts that squelch clear assessments of what’s happening in Beijing and beyond.  Let’s say Free Tibet protestors infiltrate the men’s diving competition and unleash a demonstration that includes belly-flops by men wearing red robes.  That obviously is something the Chinese government will not want carried on the airwaves.  But since NBC will have equipment and people on site covering the event, it’s unlikely they will ignore something like that. Same goes for demonstrations by athletes on medal stands.  You can’t ignore that.

Where the real self-censorship – or acquiescence may occur is when NBC would be expected to do the scene-setter or Today show postcard report.  Will there be on-the-scene discussions of imprisoned anti-government voices, repression in Tibet, worker exploitation and other current issues that measure China’s progress since being awarded the games?

You have an un-named IOC official basically telling the Times that China isn’t worthy of hosting.  There are gonna be flare-ups during the games once the flame is lit.  There will be people walking around smoggy Beijing in surgical masks.  Some gold-medal winner is gonna say something about Tibet.

It is that sub-plot surrounding these games that will make it very interesting from a media consumption standpoint.  Who reports without fear?  What will the consequences be?

-Continental Airlines president Jeff Smisek shed some light on the entry-to-China issue with comments during the company’s quarterly earnings conference call last week.  Smisek said bookings on Continental’s Newark-Beijing route during the Olympics travel period have been below expectations in part because China is “making it more difficult to obtain both tourist and business visas.”

-The Monday departure of Giants tight end Jeremy Shockey to New Orleans marks an end to what you’d have to say is a disappointing failure of potential for the bruising and skilled pass-catcher in New York.  Yeah, his numbers over six seasons are solid, and he had periods of dominance and toughness that made him very popular with the fans.  But, ultimately it was his inability to dedicate himself to the team concept that got him dealt for a second and fifth rounder.  Perhaps he’s landed in a spot where it’ll be more about him, which is what it seems like he wants.  We felt bad for Shockey when the broken leg late in last year’s Giants regular season kept him out of the magical post-season run that ended in Glendale.  It had to torment him.  We’re also not convinced that the Giants will be better off with Kevin Boss as the starting tight end.  But Shockey is the one who punched this ticket out of town.  He finds himself in a place now where the drinks are tall and with a head coach more conducive to shrugging off his outbursts.  We’ll miss him.  Giants fans will miss him.  Eli and Tom probably won’t.

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Continental Airlines released its financials for the three-month quarter ending June 30 on Thursday and most of the business media reported it the way the airline wrote the press release.  But if you really examine the numbers, you see how ugly the math is even for what’s considered to be one of the stronger air carriers in this country.

The revenue side of the equation wasn’t bad, with boosts in ticket prices helping to generate an extra $334 million from the same quarter a year ago.  Problem is, all of it and then some was swallowed up through increased jet fuel spending.  The company spent $1.363 billion in the second quarter on airplane gas vs. $821 million over the same three-month period a year ago.

To put that $542 million increase and $1.363 billion total jet fuel spending for the quarter in perspective, the company spent a total of $704 million on payroll.  In other words, for every buck it spent paying a worker to operate the airline, it cost about two more to buy the gas.

Continental’s math applied various dollar-generating maneuvers outside the day-to-day operation during the reporting period to announce that the quarter was a near-wash.  But the relevant numbers are plus-334 mil on the revenue side, minus-668 mil on the expense side quarter vs. quarter.

The other important number announced by Continental is that its cash stack sits at $3.4 billion.  The company says that money pile will likely be a half-billion lighter come October 1.

Cash on hand is a crucial measure for US airlines with oil price uncertainty and sluggishness across the economy.  Airline cash levels are a measure of survivability.  If Continental can outlast let’s say United and/or US Air should one or both of the latter two run out of cash, the carriers left standing may gain greater leverage to ratchet up the revenue side of the equation.

Really unclear is how the recent short-term drop in oil prices (more than $15 in the last week) will impact decision-making at the airlines.  Accurate projections and planning on the cost side is very difficult with fuel prices so wildly volatile.  Add to that what we’ll call the camel’s back conundrum.  At what pricing level will the average air traveler bail out and not fly?

We’ve heard some non-Wall Street airline analysts with decades in the industry suggest that the future will revert to what air travel looked like in the 60’s and 70’s.  “The tank top and flip-flop crowd is gonna get shut out,” said one trusted observer we spoke to.  Fewer flights, expensive tickets, better service, fewer delays and a business model that is in line with the reality of jet fuel costs.

-We caught the Hold Steady’s performance on Letterman early Thursday.  The band did “Sequestered in Memphis,” a weak tune off their new record Stay Positive.  Neil Young preceded the Hold Steady, and discussed his new documentary film which captures audience reaction to his anti-war record released a few years back.  Letterman asked Young (who vividly captured Vietnam War dissent in his songwriting) whether he was surprised by the lack of anti-war sentiment in this country.  Said Young:  “I’m not surprised.  Everybody talks about how this generation isn’t involved.  But they’re not threatened.  There’s no draft.  This administration was smart enough to figure out in this case that if they had a draft, they’d probably be voted out.  They sent the same people into combat over and over again rather than do that.”

-Music critic Jon Pareles pointed out in the Times that Wednesday’s Shea Stadium appearance by the Piano Man makes Billy Joel the only musician ever to headline the area’s three big stadiums:  Shea, Yankee and Giants.

-We’re working Saturday, so we won’t be able to get down to the big Siren Music Festival on Coney Island.  But big high-fives to C-Dub, Dave and Russ (working collectively under the trade name Deadheat) for landing the high-exposure DJ slot at the event’s Stillwell Avenue stage.  The Siren lineup is significantly better than it has been in recent years and as always, there will be a scorching sun shining down on the proceedings.  Don’t let that vinyl get too soft, fellas.

-The Prairie Spies embark on a nine day, nine city tour starting tonight in Rock Island (emphasize the Rock), Illinois.  The Chicago stop on Monday night is at the Empty Bottle and when the Spies reach Philly on Wednesday, TSR will be there for a special edition of TSR Radio at 5 PM in the east.  We’ve received confirmation that a band member or two will join us.  Should be fun.  For details on how to listen to TSR Radio, just click on the relevant tab at the top of the page.  And for a really nice story about the band by Chicago music writer Miles Raymer, click here.

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Early risers will get British Open golf on the tube these next four days.  Look for Ian Poulter to win his first major (a 60-1 shot) and Andres Romero to hover near the top of the leaderboard on Sunday.  Everybody is talking up Sergio’s chances (the favorite at 8-1).  He makes sense now that his putter is working.  Royal Birkdale favors accuracy and conservative shot-making and Sergio has demonstrated both in the last year.  But too many people are picking him, and you wonder if he crumples under the major spotlight usually reserved for the world’s number one who sits on the injury shelf back in FLA.

The biggest story to emerge in the run-up to this year’s British is Kenny Perry’s decision to skip the event in favor of a low-level PGA stop in Milwaukee.  Perry is number sixteen in the world, he’s red hot, yet he’s passing on a winnable major.  Mark Cannizzaro in the Post ripped him in a piece Wednesday as has much of the rest of the world’s golf media.  Perry is trying to clinch a spot on the Ryder Cup team and a win in Milwaukee would get him there.  But the move may backfire because of the reaction it has garnered by his peers.

The most intriguing threesome tees off at 431 AM New York time on Thursday.  Colin Montgomerie, Boo Weekley and Mike Weir are perhaps the three most divergent personalities ever assembled in a major.

-MLB commish Bud Selig insists he wouldn’t have stepped in to stop Tuesday’s All-Star game no matter how long it went.  The post-game declaration from Bud was easy for him to make given the fact that position players were not forced to pitch.  But the game was just an inning or two away from that happening.  JD Drew and Evan Longoria were the leading AL candidates to take the ball in the sixteenth and beyond.  David Wright was the likely choice to pitch for the NL had the game hit the seventeenth.

-Citing the eyewitness account of his producer, WFAN’s Marc Malusis said Wednesday night that A-Rod left the All-Star game “no later than the top of the seventh inning.”  Both Jeter and Mariano were there ‘til the bitter end.

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We’ll do this mostly in chronological order, rather than inverted pyramid because Tuesday night’s All-Star game ended so late.  It would take too long to construct a recap in order of importance, so here’s what we jotted down as we watched what will go down as one of the crazier all-star games in history.

The Boss was the (somewhat expected) surprise of All-Star night and survived the ride on the golf cart to deliver the sack of baseballs to the guys he used to publicly chew out, banish and then reconcile with.  When he started whimpering at the start of the cart trip, you wondered if the idea was gonna self-destruct but it turned out ok.  As Bud said before the game, the night was a tribute to George and the impact he’s made on the game.  It was also to the ballpark, which Bud told Mike and Chris was unlike any other.  “Let’s face it, whatever way you evaluate things, this is the most famous sports cathedral in the world,” said Selig.

The cathedral looked great on TV.  The blimp shots were stunning and the crowd looked more spirited than the usual All-Star crowd.

The first pitch was delivered at 847 PM in the east and the game zipped along pretty good so the kids in this time zone who are the real non-Nielsen target audience got to see at least part of it.

Joe Buck revived the idea that he doesn’t watch much baseball when he mis-pronounced Duchscherer announcing the starting lineups.

Second base ump Tom Hallion blew the call on Pujols trying to get a double in the fourth inning.  Ichiro gunned to Jeter on the line-drive bouncer down the right-field line.  Jeter swipe-tagged after Pujols got his foot on the bag.  “Foot may have been in there,” said McCarver.  No, Tim.  Look at the monitor.  The foot was clearly there.  Hallion also botched an out call on a stolen base attempt by Kinsler in the eleventh.

The worst high-impact call of the night was by home plate ump Derryl Cousins who called Dioner Navarro out at home plate bottom eleven.  In what should have been the game-winning run, Navarro got his foot in on the plate well before Russ Martin applied the tag.  Should have been game over.  It was a visual trick because the throw got in before Navarro arrived, but Cousins should have his eyeball on the prize in that spot.

Clever move by Fox producers to put Fukodome’s stat graphic in Japanese.

Those same producers who were banking on a few laughs by putting Yogi in the booth failed to get what I’m sure they were looking for.  Yogi wasn’t funny and he called Joe Jack.  Unsure of how to extract funny stuff, both McCarver and Buck walked all over Yogi - and each other - in a frantic effort to make the bit work.  Desperate to rev it up,  Buck baited Yogi and invoked Sarah Jessica Parker.  “She wasn’t bad,” said Yogi who probably should have been left to his own devices after a touching moment on the field before the game.

Sheryl Crow and Josh Groban were fine, but you’d think there would be uniquely New York talent to handle those tasks.

The ovation for Mariano before the game was cool.  The collection of Famers standing at their natural spots on the field was confusing at first, but worked ok.

In the sixty minutes before the main Fox telecast started, the same network showed a taped-delay replay of gas-guzzling Silverado pickups rolling uptown with stars past and present riding in the flatbeds.  Jeanne, Gracie and a new Foxy were geeked as they engaged in benign chit-chat to pump up the day.

As a Met fan, ‘ya hate to see Wags blow the lead in the eighth, but it’s not like we haven’t seen it before.  As we’ve said on many occasions, he only thrives when he starts the ninth with a clean slate.  Hurdle was trying to exhaust his roster, but really, Brian Wilson should be allowed to finish that inning.

You’d like to hear more specifics on Lincecum.  “Flu-like” symptoms?  Really?

Huge throw by Navarro (originally Yankee property) in the ninth.  And how ‘bout Dempster.  We wondered if it was the right guy in that spot but he was awesome.

Unbelievable bottom ten.  Bases jammed, nobody out and Uggla is about to be the goat.  The AL stars hit three soft grounders.  Wow