Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Mornings with Mr. Canoehead...

Like raisins off an Oldsmobile, people ...

Alex Rodriguez dating actress Kate Hudson. The Almost Famous actress is just like the Yankees: She hasn't been part of a winner since 2000.

TSN being small-town cheap by hyping TSN2's coverage of the Blue Jays-Red Sox series, and then turning on the TV at 7 p.m. to find out it was the NESN broadcast, the same as a Rogers Cable customer gets when you have to watch a game on the Extra Innings feed.

Quoth The Tao of Stieb: "All of this scrapping over carriage on the Rogers cable system, and the CTVgm folks can't even see to it that a Canadian crew is employed to broadcast the game? How was this different than Rogers just giving the free MLB Extra Innings Preview? (Our guess is that TSN2 didn't have an HD production truck at its disposal, given TSN's hockey duties, so they decided to take the easier simulcasting route.)

"... We were actually happy to watch the NESN broadcast, which probably has the best production quality of any local MLB broadcast. However, spending close to three hours listening to Dennis Eckersley's ridiculous meanderings just about drove us batty. Really, can we have another five minute discussion of 'sneaky cheese?' " Not to make a mountain out of a molehill, but what really pointed out how shortsighted the decision was that the Red Sox had two Canadians (Jason Bay in left field and George Kottaras, who is Tim Wakefield's personal catcher). People might have appreciated that being pointed out, but it didn't matter to American announcers.

Trying to figure out the whereabouts of Brian Campbell on the Detroit Red Wings' overtime goal in the Stanley Cup playoffs last night. It's all part of the great plan, the Red Wings making good on any number of gutless "Detroit in six" form picks.

Alex Rios getting thrown out stealing last night with a knuckleball pitcher on the mound.

NBC's announced fall lineup not including Friday Night Lights, which won't air on the network until summer 2010. Summer is not for football, unless it's three downs.


5 comments:

Ian Hunter said...

I think after watching this series through the NESN feed, it will make us appreciate our Blue Jays broadcasters even more.

krister said...

TSN is ALWAYS small town cheap.

Anonymous said...

Kate Hudson is a member of the Lucky Sperm Club if there ever was one.

Anonymous said...

ESPN is to TSN as a space shuttle is to a Wright Brothers plane.

Then again, where else would you get a network that pimps out above-average (and, sadly, very average in sports knowledge base) looking blondes, a fascist-like devotion to The League of Extraordinary White Male Assholes, a.k.a. the NHL, and counts darts as a sport?

http://www.sportsnet.ca/

Oh. Wait.

sager said...

"What kind of Lucky Sperm Club member?" (That line makes no sense if you're still in single digits for viewings of Almost Famous.)

Thing is, TSN never said whether they would use their talent or pick up NESN's feed. They pick up Versus and NBC's NHL broadcasts quite often, but they don't do it for a regular-season game involving a Canadian-based team!

They probably also have one HD truck at the Eastern Conference series and one at the Western Conference series. There's extenuating circumstances, for sure, but the way they hyped it planted the suggestion it was their own broadcast.

It came off like a bait-and-switch, bottom line.