Archives for September 2006

This is a great time of year; college football, NASCAR’s Chase to the Championship, and of course the baseball playoffs.

Those who know me know I haven’t always been a big baseball fan. My dad has never really gotten into the game and I didn’t either until I started playing little league in the 5th grade. Even after that I didn’t follow every pitch like I do now.

For the past few years I thought I liked the wild card. More opportunities to get to the World Series would provide better races the last week or two of the season. Right?

Well not so fast Yogi.

My buddy Mike Tarrolly, scores a 4-bagger with an enlightening post on what the race to the playoffs would be this year in the old two divisional series races and before re-alignment.

For instance, in this year’s race the Twins and Tigers have already wrapped up playoff appearances, they’re both just fighting over which team will be the wild card and which will be the divisional champ. Who cares if you’re both in?

Mike’s done the research and convinced me that the wild card is not such a good thing for baseball. He also uses last year as another example: the Yankees and Red Sox both got in the playoffs, but if there had not been a wild card, the two teams (who had identical records in ’05) would have had to play a one-game winner take all ticket to the AL championship. Who wouldn’t have liked to see that?

This is brilliant stuff. In fact, tonight on the way home I wanted to share it with Rob Dibble and Kevin Kennedy on XM’s baseball network but after sitting on hold for 32 minutes, finally gave up.

But I don’t want to steal Mike’s information. He’s done the work. Go read it and tell me, honestly, is the wild card really that good of a thing for baseball?

S

The first nature show on bird watching that I’ve actually enjoyed.

It seems that somebody at NBC is trying to either get the attention of Christian viewers…or just wants to tick them off.

Consider this:

The network is mulling over whether to allow Madonna’s ‘crucifixion’ stunt in her primetime special in November.

Last February the network aired “The Book of Daniel” which portrayed a drug addicted priest and his disfunctional family and staff members. The show was pulled after tens of thousands (millions maybe?) complained to the sponsors.

The new show “Studio 60” includes a character on a Saturday Night Live type show who is an evangelical Christian who tells fellow cast members “I’ll pray for you tonight”, and then prays before a show, says “Damn”, drinks what appears to be an adult beverage, and who is not put off by a sketch called “Those Crazy Christians” and who also is part of a musical sketch that includes the phrase “a reach around”.

And finally, NBC picked up the Christian cartoon “Veggie Tales” and added it to the Saturday morning lineup, but only after it forces the creator to drop all of the “God stuff”.

Hmmmmm. What is the deal here?

Longtime weather anchor Neal Pascal has left WTVC in Chattanooga after 25 years on the air.

According to the Chattanoogan, he showed up for work last Friday but did not appear on the broadcasts. The station says he “resigned” but you have to wonder if he was forced to resign.

But the interesting part of the Chattanoogan article is the sentence deep into the report that Pascal “and other members of the Channel 9 newsroom reportedly took a pay cut this year.”

Paycuts are uncommon for employees who have contracts specifying what they will be paid for the length of the contract. Unless of course the company includes a clause which permits the stations to adjust contracts or hours or job duties during the life of the contract.

A new segment on WKRN was unveiled a few weeks ago. The chose the reporter, they chose the name of the segment and then went to work. We’ve gotten a ton of feedback on the segment including someone who owns the name the station picked for the segment.

So now, Andy’s segment “I’m Ticked Off” is now called “That’s Messed Up”.

I’m not privy to any of the details on who owns the name or what happened but it does remind me of another station where I worked that ran into the same problem.

As I remember it The station on the river re-branded its weather segments with a new name, new graphics and new set. We were on the air with the new name (I really don’t remember what it was) something like “News 3 Weather Center”. A few weeks later, in a huff, the managers were trying to come up with a new name.

It seems the folks down on Union Avenue decided to have a little fun. They filed for a copyright on the name for a couple hundred dollars. So for just a couple of c-notes or so, WMC had a great big laugh seeing TSOTR have to scramble to pull all of the graphics and weather set down and come up with something new.

The real kicker here is that WMC never used the name, or at least I don’t believe they used it. I doubt they ever even intended to use it, they just saw an easy way to screw with the competition.

Now if I’m wrong I’m sure someone will correct me on this but that was the story I always heard, and it was never told by my bosses with an “aw shucks, they got us that time” grin.

I thought we ought to rename the weather team “We Can Talk Up A Storm”, but they didn’t like it.

It has been more than 2 years since we had a land-line phone in our home. We switched after a phone call to BellSouth to ask about a hidden charge and the customer service girl told us “Sir, there’s nothing you can do about it. We’re the phone company”.

I hung up the phone and showed her by cancelling our service and going cellphone only. My wife has one and I have two. Our internet comes through Comcast so there’s really no need to have a land-line phone.

According to the Pew Research Center, 7-9% of Americans rely solely on cellphones while many others are considering giving up their traditional telephone service. It is a growing trend, in 2000 only .4% were “cellphone only households.

But there is a problem going cell-only. It’s nearly impossible to find someone’s phone number.

I don’t know how many people have tried unsuccessfuly to find my phone number, but I know there are people I can’t get in touch with because I either don’t know their cellphone number or have forgotten their number.

When I first moved to Nashville I rented a room from a couple of guys in Brentwood. I’ve lost Adam’s cellphone number and, to my knowledge, have no way of getting it. I’ve stopped by his work a few times but he’s either been off-shift or off for that day. I’ve stopped by our old house and he hasn’t been home. I don’t think he even lives there anymore.

So Adam, if you stumble across this blog, give me a call or e-mail. And does anyone know how to find a cellphone number for someone? Is there a 411 for cellphones? The ones I’ve found come at a high price. Anyone run into this before?

I’ve never noticed this before tonight. ABC’s Saturday night College Football coverage has ESPN’s graphics.

It was a bit confusing as I switched back and forth between FLA-Kentucky on ESPN and then ND and Michigan State on ABC. The music bed and graphics coming out of the commercial break on ABC is exactly the same as the one on ESPN, including the ESPN name brand and graphics instead of ABC.

Now the ND game is also on ESPN2 in certain parts of the country. So it seems that ABC is just grabbing that broadcast and putting it on the network channels.

I know they’re owned by the same parent company, but it just seems a bit strange to see this line blurred. Maybe they’ve done this before, but it’s the first time I’ve seen one of the big three (or four) using a cable channel’s content and graphics.

I tried to get caught up on some shows from the new network seasons. NBC slipped “My Name is Earl” to the 7 o’clock hour so I totally missed it. “The Office” was good but I don’t think I’m going to like the direction they’re taking this year.

Jim is in a new office and they keep switching back and forth to the point it felt like watching two different versions. And is it just me or are they writing Michael to be even stupider than before? I still favor the British original. The beauty of this show has always been to make the boss look socially inept and a bad manager, but it seems as though they want to make him look retarded now. Tonight, Michael seemed to be leaning toward the character Steve Carell played in “Anchorman” rather than just the idiot boss he’s always been.

I did watch “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” and I think I’m going to really enjoy this show. It’s kind of a peek behind the curtain look at a Saturday Night Live type network show. The intriguing thing for me is the character of Harriet, the most talented cast member of the show-within-a-show. She plays a born-again Christian who once sang inspirational songs on “The 700 Club” and who tells a troubled co-worker “I’ll pray for you tonight”.

When was the last time we saw a born-again Christian being portrayed on a network tv show? And how will the network writers treat her character this season? Do they know anything about born-again Christians other than what they’ve seen from Pat Robertson?

Just last weekend at the screenwriters workshop, the speakers talked of how most writers, producers, directors and actors are ignorant of people with real faith. Christians are just a cliche for those in the business.

And this is the network who brought us “The Book of Daniel” about a priest with an addiction to prescription medications and a gay son and a lesbian receptionist who runs away with the choir director (or something like that). It’s also the network that is debating whether to allow Madonna to do her whole “look at me on a cross like Jesus” act in November.