Players Championship tees 'em up
WBC sets TV record. Is Pope Leo watching?
Good morning, all and Happy Thursday!
One of my favorite PGA Tour events starts today at TPC Sawgrass, The Players Championship. May be it is the 16th hole, the famous water hole that makes this tournament fun. May be it is the fact players view it, unofficially, as the fifth major.
Whatever, it should be an enjoyable four days of golf, beginning today, when six golfers launch the tournament with 7:40 AM tee times. Defending champion Rory McIlroy has a 1:42 PM tee time, in case you are wondering.
WBC sets TV record
Here is just another of many reasons why MLB is pushing the WBC. Monday night’s game between the U.S. and Mexico attracted more than 5 million viewers on Fox and Fox Deportes, a WBC record. The audience peaked at 5.65 million viewers at 9 PM ET. Those are numbers MLB would kill for, during any post season game, other than the World Series, let alone a regular season telecast. And mind you, this was still in pool play competition.
Bottom line, even though baseball fans are stoked for the start of a new season, the reality is most attention is focused at this time of year on college basketball (NCAA and conference tournaments), NBA, NHL and golf. For baseball to cut into those sports with these TV numbers - in today’s fragmented media landscape - is remarkable.
If the U.S. can bounce back and make it into the quarterfinals, an eventual U.S.-Japan matchup (Judge vs. Ohtani), could produce some interesting television viewership.
Is the Pope watching?
As I tuned to the WBC and especially Italy, I got to thinking could Pope Leo be watching? It’s not often a pope is a baseball fan. In fact, I’m willing to go out on a limb and say there was not a previous pope who was a baseball fan. I can guarantee you there was not a previous pope who could tell you who played in the 2005 World Series, but this pope can. He was there. The first American-born pope attended Game One of the Series between the Chicago White Sox and Houston Astros in Chicago. He was even caught on TV:
So as the Fox cameras panned the crowd at the Italy-Mexico game on Wednesday night, and focused on a fan dressed as the pope, you have to wonder if the real pope is paying attention. It would not surprise me, if he is.
Mark DeRosa, what are you thinking?
What was USA manager Mark DeRosa thinking? For that matter, what was I thinking? Earlier in the week I wrote on this platform DeRosa checked all the boxes to be a big league manager. Now he would have a tough time landing the job as manager of the Bad News Bears.
If you missed it, the controversy is over DeRosa telling an interviewer on Tuesday morning, win or lose vs. Italy in Tuesday night’s game, his team had clinched a berth in the WBC’s quarterfinals. Turns out, that was not the case. DeRosa claimed he “misspoke” and knew going into the game that his team needed to win. If that was the case, then why did he sit his top notch stars? Before you could say “pass the linguini,” Italy had a 5-0 lead on its way to an 8-6 win.
Fortunately for DeRosa, Italy bailed him out with a 9-1 win over Mexico. Vinny Pasquantino belted three home runs, becoming the first player in WBC history to hit three home runs in a game. So the U.S. and Italy advance to the quarterfinals, Mexico goes home and DeRosa lives to manage the U.S. on Friday against Canada. It marks the first time Canada has advanced to the quarterfinals.
And as sure as the snow melts in March, a player went down with a serious injury in the WBC. This time, Italy’s win over the U.S, proved costly for its catcher Kyle Teel. The former top-rated Red Sox prospect, who was traded to the White Sox in the Garrett Crochet deal, strained his right hamstring legging out a double and will be sidelined four to six weeks.
You have to admit, however, watching the WBC does add some meaning to preseason baseball.
Congratulations Hofstra
For the first time in 25 years, Hofstra is going to the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament, after beating Monmouth in the CAA tournament title game. Their coach is former Hofstra star Speedy Claxton.
Many years ago, I had the honor to broadcast the first game Hofstra played in its spanking new on campus arena. The University of Hartford was the opponent and I was broadcasting Hartford Hawks games on radio at the time with Celtics great K.C. Jones.
The point guard for Hofstra was Speedy Claxton, who also went on to play in the NBA. At the time, both Hartford and Hofstra were members of the America East Conference. Time sure does fly.
What a night
That was some game by Miami’s Bam Adebayo Tuesday night. The Heat center scored 83 points, in Miami’s 150-129 win over the Washington Wizards. That’s the second most points scored in an NBA game. Wilt Chamberlain holds the record with his famous 100-point game against the New York Knicks.
Of course, the internet is having a field day, claiming the injury-riddled Wizards were tanking and that Adebayo scored 43 points from the foul line. What was he supposed to do, miss those foul shots?
Give the man his due. He scored 83 points, an accomplishment which deserves recognition.
NFL at it again
Word is the NFL is considering taking another game away from over-the-air television and selling it to a streaming service. Now they are talking about scheduling a game on Thanksgiving Eve. The change could come as soon as this upcoming season. Teams coming off of a bye week would get the Wednesday game.
The NFL is not even close to running out of ideas to generate more income. Soon there will be a Tuesday night game. With the NFL, the money machine is in overdrive 24/7.
That is going to do it for today’s newsletter. Thank you for subscribing and have a terrific Thursday!
DAN