Sorry, one more post before I head out. I really thought ESPN had rid themselves of the Mike, Mike & Mike experiment, for the late MNF Football game in week one, but that's not the case. They did however get rid of the third Mike, and have replaced him with Steve Young. So your trio heading out West for the Chargers-Raiders game on September 14th is, Mike Greenberg, Mike Golic and Young.

But wait....there's more! Not only will Greeny and Golic be calling the late game for the third year in a row, but they will be hosting the 6pm Sports Center on Mondays, throughout the NFL season. Via ESPN PR....

Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic, co-hosts of ESPN Radio’s popular Mike & Mike in the Morning, will team with ESPN studio analyst and Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young to call the San Diego Chargers-Oakland Raiders game as part of ESPN’s season-opening Monday Night Football doubleheader on September 14 at 10:15 p.m. ET. The game will follow the Buffalo Bills- New England Patriots telecast (7 p.m.) when ESPN’s main commentator team of Mike Tirico and analysts Jon Gruden and Ron Jaworski makes its regular season debut.

Greenberg and Golic will also expand their roles on Mondays during the NFL season as co-hosts of the 6 p.m. edition of SportsCenter. The duo will recap all of Sunday’s NFL games and other weekend sports news, and look ahead to each week’s Monday Night Football matchup, by bookending their Mondays from 6-10 a.m. on ESPN Radio (simulcast on ESPN2) and hosting the one-hour SportsCenter from the ESPN studios in Bristol, Conn., beginning Sept. 21.

“As we kick off the 40th season of Monday Night Football, we are excited to have the familiar faces and voices of Mike and Mike back on the doubleheader game this year alongside Steve, a Hall of Famer, who will offer the kinds of insightful opinions that have made him one of our top NFL analysts all these years,” said Norby Williamson, executive vice president, production, ESPN. “We are equally pleased to create yet another new role for Mike and Mike on the 6 p.m. SportsCenter in the latest evolution of our season-long ‘game around the game’ coverage of Monday Night Football.”

Ugh. Mike Golic isn't the worst, but his Football cliches become annoying quickly, and Greenberg can't seem to keep up with the pace of the game. While Mike Ditka was dreadful, he was the only thing remotely entertaining about the broadcasts in year's past.

I completely understand that this is a whole cross promotion thing, but the two are terrible calling games. The game is unwatchable by the second quarter. ESPN should really just pu a college play-by-play guy in with one of their 40 analysts on staff, and they'd be fine. Any combination of Sean McDonough/Ron Franklin and Young/Dilfer/Hasselbeck/Tom Jackson, and you'd have a great broadcast.

I'm heading out for the rest of the week, for a small vacation, but wanted to get your weekend Baseball schedule up for the holiday weekend. Everyone have a great 4th, enjoy the return of Manny, stay safe and I'll see you next week.

Saturday, July 4th:

New York Mets at Philadelphia Phillies (FOX, 4:10) - Kenny Albert & Tim McCarver
Detroit Tigers at Minnesota Twins (FOX, 4:10) - Dick Bremer & Mark Grace
Los Angeles Dodgers at San Diego Padres (FOX, 4:10) - Dick Stockton & Eric Karros

Sunday, July 5th:

Milwaukee Brewers at Chicago Cubs (TBS, 2:00pm) - Chip Caray & Buck Martinez
Tampa Bay Rays at Texas Rangers (ESPN, 8pm)- Jon Miller, Joe Morgan & Steve Phillips

Monday, July 6th:

Atlanta Braves at Chicago Cubs (ESPN, 8pm) - Dan Shulman, Orel Hershiser & Steve Phillips

There are a lot of announcers out there that have problems with various people in production and on-air co-workers, but it's rare that you hear about those issues. That however, is not the case for TNT. The network has confirmed to the Daly Planet that host, Bill Weber (pictured left), has been sent home because of a late night fight in the network's hotel....

Ralph Sheheen will handle the play-by-play duties for Daytona and Chicago with Kyle Petty and Wally Dallenbach alongside. TV ratings for the Sprint Cup Series race from Loudon, NH were up slightly and that may have played a role in this decision.

Weber was involved in a late night incident last Friday night at the TNT hotel in Manchester, NH. It spilled-over into Weber being sent home by TNT executives on Saturday and now his release from the TV package.

TNT has been tight-lipped about the issue and gave no indication whether or not Weber would continue with the network in 2010. Here is the official TNT release:

Bill Weber will not be part of TNT's NASCAR coverage of the Cup Series for the network’s last two races. Ralph Sheheen will handle play-by-play duties for The Coke Zero 400 in Daytona and the LifeLock.com 400 from Chicagoland. Sheheen will be calling the races alongside analysts Kyle Petty and Wally Dallenbach in the booth.

Obviously this isn't really a big deal, considering that most of you probably didn't even realize NASCAR was aired on TNT, but still interesting to hear about. Weber must have done some serious stuff to be sent packing like that. If anyone wants to tell me about it (either on the record, or off), I'd love to hear about it.

Now Confirmed By TNT: Weber Out For Last Two Races (The Daly Planet)

A month ago, NBC blacked out a semifinal match featuring Roger Federer, to show a taped match between Fernando Gonzalez and Robin Soderling. Well today they've done the same thing by replaying Federer's straight set dismantling of Ivo Karlovic, while Andy Roddick battles former world number one, Lleyton Hewitt. Via Fang's Bites....

NBC is currently showing the Roger Federer-Ivo Karlovic match which finished before 10 a.m. ESPN2 was not allowed to show this match. And it joined the Tommy Haas-Novak Djokovic match in progress, but not after showing the Williams sisters in doubles and James Blake in a doubles match as well.

This was quite maddening to tennis fans who wanted to see the Federer match which he won easily in three sets, 6-3, 7-5 and 7-6 (7-3). Yes, I'm spoiling the results because this is what NBC deserves for short changing fans once again. And not only is NBC showing it on tape delay at 10 a.m. in the East, it's going to do it at 10 a.m. in all time zones so by the time the West Coast sees the match, it will have been more than three hours old.

And while NBC is preventing ESPN2 from showing certain matches as it calls exclusivity not only today, but for the rest of the week, it is streaming matches from Centre Court and Court No. 1 live on NBCSports.com. So while the network is screwing with viewers on TV, it's saying, "Come over to our website and watch the match on a small player." It's not the same as watching it live on your TV whether it be in sparkling clear high definition or in old school standard def.

Providing the feed is certainly helpful, but to take fans of Roddick on a ride like this is just wrong. Not a single person in America can watch the match on television. You'd like NBC to think of the fans when things like this happen, but this happens in every major tournament the air. They won't be changing the practice anytime soon, so it's best to just get used to it.

Update: It appears the online feature is a bit of a pain as well. Via The Business Insider....

On the NBC Sports site, we clicked the nice big WIMBLEDON LIVE! link. And we got a big popup saying we needed to upgrade Silverlight.

We pushed the buttons we were supposed to, and we downloaded some things, and we refreshed our browser like we were supposed to, and then we pushed the button again like we were supposed to. And we got another big popup saying we needed to upgrade Silverlight.

[Repeat until you want to shoot yourself].

So now we're back to watching the ancient-history Haas-Djokovic tape delay, praying that the Roddick Hewitt shootout will still be going on at 1PM ET when the TV rights revert back to ESPN. (It probably won't be. Roddick just took a 5-2 lead in the breaker and is already up a set).

NBC is Effing with Tennis Fans Again (Fangs Bites)

Mike and Mike have some promotions coming up that I wanted to point, and while I know most are stunts to gain viewers, a couple are actually pretty cool. The first being their yearly auction of themselves for the Jimmy V Foundation. Yes, you can bid on having the duo come to your house (basement if you're a blogger), and broadcast live! Last year's broadcasts was pretty fun, and of course, it goes to a good cause.

The second idea, is a little goofy, but the guests they have lined up are amazing. Mike and Mike will be going 80s for a day, and will feature interviews with the likes of Joe Montana, Larry Bird and Brett Michaels. Yes, Brett Michaels from Poison....

In the middle of the ‘80’s, Mike Golic was drafted into the NFL while Mike Greenberg was graduating high school. On Tuesday, July 7, ESPN Radio’s Mike & Mike in the Morning (6-10 a.m. ET M-F, simulcast on ESPN2) will celebrate that decade with a special “80’s Day” broadcast.

Guests will include former athletes including Larry Bird, Joe Montana, Bears QB Jim “Super Bowl Shuffle” McMahon, Dodgers OF Kirk Gibson, 49ers Hall-of-Fame WR Jerry Rice, Mike “Do you believe in miracles?” Eruzione, and Bret Michaels from the band Poison.

While it wasn’t that Kenny Rogers who sang “Lady” in 1981, “Ghostbusters” wasn’t about the 2004 Red Sox, and “9 to 5” was in theatres 29 years before Rachel Alexandra won the Preakness at those odds, the ‘80’s are still close to the hearts of Greeny & Golic, who will don 80’s apparel for the occasion.

Mike & Mike’s ‘80’s Day’ show will feature:

- ‘80’s-related guests
- ‘80’s-related topics (Miracle on Ice, ’86 World Series Game 6, Celtics-Lakers, Giants-49ers, Everett-Navratilova, sports movies, and “Hello To” USA Today, sports talk radio and NFL instant replay)
- Tri-hourly updates will look back at plays of the decade
- ‘80’s-style graphics on ESPN2 simulcast
- ‘80’s-related poll questions on ESPNRadio.com (voting taking place now)
- ‘80’s biggest scandals
- ‘80’s biggest flops

Themed radio shows can get a little lame, but I think with those interviews filling the spots in between the cheesiness, it will leave no time for Greeny and Golic to mess it up. Please to be wearing Bugle Boy jeans and/or any article of clothing from Body Glove.

Leave it to an ex-College Basketball coach to equate "being on the bubble" to "getting fired from ESPN. Former Vermont Coach and ESPN Analyst, Tom Brennan has been let go by ESPN after three years, and with one year left on his contract. Via the Burlington Free Press....

Brennan said he had one year left on a three-year contract, but the sports network indicated it was not going to pick up his option. The Bristol, Conn., based network has been trimming staff and costs and Brennan said he believed he might get released.

"They are not renewing me. I kind of knew that I might not continue. I knew I was on the bubble," Brennan said Monday.

Brennan said ESPN was a great run, which began in 2005 when he signed a two-year contract. He later signed a three-year pact.

"I had four years. It was a long time. Every time I went there I pinched myself. Just to be part of that, they are so professional. It was wonderful."

ESPN announced earlier this year that it would lay-off about 100 Connecticut-based employees and leave about 200 vacant jobs unfilled, according to news reports. Some new jobs will be created as the sports giant moved into new areas. The network also implemented wage freezes. ESPN is a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Co. and has about 5,500 people worldwide, including about 3,400 in Connecticut.

That's a shame, because I actually enjoyed Brennan from time to time. He and Gottlieb, would have some epic debates about bubble teams, and it's rather ironic that he would use that term to describe his contract at ESPN. I suspect he'll go back into coaching, given the lack of College Basketball outlets, but someone should take a flier on him.

ESPN, Brennan part ways (Burlington Free Press)

I'm not entirely sure why Jay Mariotti decided to wait a whole two weeks to chime in on the Raul Ibanez/Blog thing, but I'm more interested in the premise of his article. Mariotti is now about the 30th mainstream media member to comment that "steroid guessing is bad journalism", but forgetting what he has written about the subject in the past. Before we get into all of Mariotti's accusations about members of the Cubs, let's look at what he wrote late last night....

Yes, given the staggering bulk of guilty names and relentless flurry of new information, we all wonder to ourselves if every major leaguer who has played since 1995 used steroids. But that doesn't mean anyone has the right, legally or ethically, to start speculating for public consumption just because he has a functioning computer, a miniscule niche in cyberspace or a column in the dying newspaper industry. The methods of dissemination may have changed, but journalistic standards suddenly shouldn't go to hell.

If you know an athlete who uses steroids, convince us that it's true with corroborated material.

If not, please keep it to yourself.

Okay then. That's certainly an opinion someone can get behind, and if people want to follow that journalism tenet, I obviously have no problem with it. What I do have a problem with, is when it comes from someone who wrote the following:

The joke isn't funny anymore. Every time I ask Sammy Sosa about ster-oids, he uses a four-year-old punchline about his favorite vitamins. "I take my Flintstones once a day," he says, smiling as always.

But now that baseball's worst-kept secret finally is out of the medicine closet--vast numbers of players are juiced up on 'roids--it is incumbent upon Sosa and other prominent big-leaguers to start speaking up and taking a responsible stance concerning the sport's latest self-destructive issue. Very simply, he needs to tell the truth. If he hasn't used steroids, tell us. If he has used them occasionally, tell us. If he uses them regularly, tell us.

He really should just grab the cup, piddle in it and send it to the lab. It's the only way Sammy Sosa ends all suspicions, quiets the riffraff, blows away the steroid clouds and lets us resume enjoyment of his immaculate career, currently in an innuendo warp. He is sadly mistaken when he says, "The whole world knows that I am innocent."

For some reason, mainstream media members continually forget the words they wrote, if not days ago, at least a few years ago. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, what is wrong with speculating? Sports as a whole is speculation, and whether it's who used steroids?, or will Albert Pujols win the Triple Crown?....What's the big deal?

Also, what's worse in your mind? Writing out a debate with your friend about a player you have on your fantasy team, and trying to defend his stats? Or telling a player in a national publication to send his pee to a lab? Sure it was Sammy Sosa, and we all know how that turned out, but back then it was complete SPECULATION.

It's also funny to me that someone who has been taken for task about doing zero research by both clubs in Chicago, is calling out people for laziness.

Steroid Guessing Is Bad Journalism (Fanhouse)
Letter To Chicago Sun-Times (White Sox and Cubs)

EA Sports' NCAA '10 comes out the middle of this month, but the video game company is slowly releasing some clips of the game. We had one here last month, when it came out that EA was now on the game, but I had to also share this one. Erin Andrews will now stalk you as a highschool senior, all the way until you graduate College (*ahem*TimTebow*cough*). Oh sorry....in the game....the game people.

Really EA Sports? The Road To "Glory" with Erin Andrews??? Really?!?! I guess "The Road to My Dorm Room with Erin Andrews" made the cutting room floor.

NCAA Football 10 Offers Innovative “Road to Glory” Mode With Copious Erin Andrews (The Rookies)