Good lord. I honestly though that the Yankees were out of the Mark Teixeira sweepstakes, but apparently I was wrong. The Yankees just signed the slugger with a eight-year deal worth $180 million. Not only have the Yanks signed three players in the offseason totaling $423,500,000, but they now have four of the MLB's highest paid players on their roster.

And while everyone in and around Baseball is rolling their eyes, there is one man who thinks this is a great idea. Stephen A. Smith!

I'll gloss over the fact that S.A.S. said that the Yankees didn't, "walk away with a World Series Championship this millennium," (ummmm....they have a good while to attempt that), there's no way they can still be considering signing Manny. I guess Steven does have a point though. If you've already spent $423 Million, you mind as well make it a cool $500.

(Before I get into this I just wanted to note that there is going to be another Sports Center Live special on Favre today. I'm still trying to find out all the details but it should be around 2pm or so.)

So yesterday ESPN decided to go live with a Sports Center Special on Favre at noon, and by 2pm the "developing story" was already going nowhere. The problem though wasn't the idea itself but that not a damn thing happened and the planned special was to last until 3pm. OTL and NFL Live were to follow, ATH and PTI were certainly going to talk about it, Sports Center comes on again and finally ESPN News promises a Mike McCarthy meeting at 9:15pm which never comes to fruition. That's a giant day of nothing if you ask me.

Now this isn't ESPN's fault, for the most part, but today we're inundated with the same news. Sports Center rehashes an entire night of nothing, quotes a Jay Glazer story, and First Take even has the audacity to ask the question, "is the coverage over-the-top?" Given the fact that ESPN is going to go live with yet another Sports Center Special today, with a press conference and practice looming, this story has gone insanely past the level of overkill. I honestly think that the coverage has surpassed the Mitchell Report, and is dangerously approaching Spygate, but with far less answers and intrigue.

With all of that said, I don't blame ESPN in the least for the coverage because as much as you try to ignore it, you know you're still interested in the outcome. I've also noted in the past that July and early August are the slowest months of the Sports' calendar year, so some repetitiveness is a necessary evil. Seemingly the only other story worthy of coverage today is the Brewers fight. There just doesn't seem to be a happy medium to be found anywhere.

This whole ordeal definitely raises some interesting thoughts though....

1) I hope everyone involved in the new Sports Center changeover is taking notes (I'm sure they are). The 24-hour news cycle can have great days and horrible days. So they better be prepared to call audibles next Summer.
2) The word is that the 9am-Noon edition of Sports Center Live will have similar stories, but different contributors from the 6am-9am edition. For example, Chris Mortensen would report on Favre at 7am, but a Packers beat writer would report at 10am. The question I have is....Does this really even make a difference in the viewers eyes?
3) Why even continue to air ESPN News and First Take? You could probably get more viewers by replaying the Monday Night Baseball game on Tuesdays during the day.
4) Nothing is worse than the continual replays of Sports Center, so anything seems better than the alternative.

It's a very dynamic and evolving dilemma to say the least and I'd be interested what all of you had to say about it. I'll also be passing along the "SC Special" details when they come through the "wire".

I have no idea why ESPN News decided to get a soundbyte from Stephen A. Smith in regards to Brett Favre, but thank god they did. Watch as S.A.S. slowly starts to lose his mind when talking about the Packers' QB....

Is ESPN serious? This has to be some sort of cruel joke right??? "Hey, let's get the most ridiculous person in Sports Media to talk about the most annoying story ever! No way this could go bad!!!"

The coverage is definitely overkill mode, but good lord you have to settle down Stevie. If you think the coverage is bad now just wait until after the All-Star Break.

There's no getting around the fact that ESPN is huge and it does in fact do a lot of things well. Even as Al Michaels was calling the people who yell on many shows that ESPN airs "gasbags", I found myself getting ready to punch the channel numbers into my remote. Mike Tirico at one point last night even tried to use the whole "you can change the channel, we're not the only game in town" line. The problem with that line is that it's completely false. They ARE pretty much the only game in town and I think these number prove that. ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN News all had their best April ever....

ESPN averaged 746,000 homes on a 24-hour basis, up 21 percent from April 2007 (617,000) and the most ever for the month. The network was boosted by larger audiences for the NBA playoffs, Major League Baseball and SportsCenter, as well as the addition of The Masters, which provided cable’s most-watched golf telecast in history.

ESPN2 averaged 255,000 homes, its best ever for April and up nine percent from last year (233,000). The network also set marks in Men 18-49 and 25-54. The live weekday morning lineup – ESPN Radio’s Mike & Mike in the Morning (6 – 10 a.m. ET) and FirstTake (10 a.m. – noon) – continues to grow its audience. That six-hour block averaged 201,000 homes, up 41 percent from April a year ago (143,000)

In April, ESPNEWS averaged a record 62,000 homes, up 11 percent from a year ago (56,000). It was the 24th consecutive month of household growth for ESPNEWS. The network debuted in high definition March 30 with a new set, graphics and music.

A 750K average over a full day is a ridiculous number for a cable channel and especially one that isn't News based (well non-Sports News I mean). I guess if it isn't broke then they won't be doing any fixing anytime soon.

(Via ESPN PR)

I guess he can be forgiven since he's really just a pinch hitter on PTI and the network as a whole, but this cracked me up.....

Ahh yes, Stan Everett. It's ESPN's newest hybrid anchor combining the best qualities of both Neil Everett and Stan Verrett.

No I'm not talking about the picture on your television, but rather the images and graphics that ESPN is adding to the program when they debut it March 30th. From Fanhouse via ESPN...

One notable innovation in the 16x9 HD delivery of ESPNEWS is the "HD Sideline" graphic. This latest incarnation of the traditional "BottomLine" will now wrap around the top, left and bottom of the screen for HD viewers. This will allow for additional real-time information – news, scores, stats, headshots, standings, and more – to be imparted, while still delivering 16x9 HD video in the remaining space. The familiar "BottomLine" on ESPNEWS' standard definition presentation has also been redesigned to convey additional text, headshots and graphics. It will continue to reside at the bottom edge of the screen.

For some reason I've always enjoyed ESPN News. Sure the anchors seem like they're trying out to make the Sports Center roster but it's the only place where you can get actual Sports News on ESPN anymore without interruptions (for the most part).

When I first looked at the graphic on the side I thought that it would be pretty intrusive to the rest of the screen, but one of the main reasons I go to ESPN News is to find out current scores. I guess they mind as well throw the little helmet and stats up there too. This is perfect for an HD snob like myself.

This Is What ESPNews Will Look Like in HD (Fanhouse)

I can't believe it took ESPN about 3 hours to get this video, but here it is from ESPN News. A pretty cheap slide by Shelly Duncan starts the arguing and a horrible tackle attempt by Johnny Gomes clears the benches.....

Pretty lame, but aren't all baseball fights not involving Nolan Ryan and Robin Ventura? Nice Anchorman reference by Anish Shroff (whoever that is) though.

Update: Just hit play on the Google Video...I'll put the Youtube back up shortly.

Richard Sandomir is obviously much more involved in stories like the ones ESPN produced for its first airing of E:60 this last Tuesday. Well according to him......they've been done before.....

Sandomir on Farrey's Florida High School Sexual Assault Piece.....

Farrey’s grim story, heavily covered by The Miami Herald, examined the case of an 18-year-old high school running back in Miami, who had sex with a 14-year-old freshman in a school bathroom. The segment followed the school’s bungled handling of the case, the long delay before the police were brought in to investigate and the eventual indictment of the principal. Farrey’s significant contribution was a tearful interview with the girl’s mother, her identity withheld, who said her daughter had twice tried to commit suicide since the incident and was in a psychiatric hospital.

The accused player, Antwain Easterling, was arrested but never served time in prison. He attends the University of Southern Mississippi on a football scholarship.

Whoops. On Jeremy Schapp's Cecil Fielder piece (which a commenter noted had already been done by SI)....

Schaap’s interview with the former slugger Cecil Fielder was billed as an exclusive and detailed his angry estrangement from his son, Prince, who hit 50 home runs for the Milwaukee Brewers this season. It served as a valuable bookend to the 2004 examination of the family’s estrangement by “Real Sports” from the side of Prince and his mother, Stacey, who discussed the huge debts incurred by Cecil.

On Rachel Nichols Vegas Piece....

Nichols’s piece, the flashiest in the bunch because it was shot partly in Las Vegas, looked at the influence of a statistician in San Francisco, Bob Stoll, whose uncanny ability to handicap college football games forced casinos to try to retaliate against him to stanch their losses. The story, which ended without a satisfying dramatic resolution, was reported at length in January by The Wall Street Journal.

On Bill Simmons' EA Sports Segment....

The final segment found Bill Simmons, the “Sports Guy” columnist for ESPN.com and ESPN the Magazine, donning a motion capture suit to record his physical movements so he could play himself as a Boston Celtic in a video game. Funny idea — what would Andy Rooney do? — until the camera showed an enormous EA sign in the background. The merger of journalism and product placement is not amusing.

Just about the only piece he didn't trash was the Jason Ray piece, and went so far as to copare the 4 major reporters to NYPD Blue's cast. It's a great read that sheds some light on items that were reported locally before making it to the ESPN Monolith. It's never bad to revisit items, but ESPN failed to mention any other publications that covered these stories and almost made them out to be exclusives.

I think the show has potential, but let's not call these things exclusives unless they are....like the Ray Piece.

Debut of ESPN’s ‘E:60’: Been There, Seen That (NY Times)

An anonymous tipster "pointed me" towards the first clip of ESPN's E:60 show that debuts tomorrow night. The first story as I mentioned a week or so ago, is a piece by Jeremy Schapp on young bullfighters. Not something I'd normally care about , but hell I'll watch anything if it's entertaining enough. Here's the clip.....

I could have done without the crazy dramatization of the trip to the hospital for the kid, but overall I was pretty riveted. Good lord that was a lot of blood. If E:60 can get me interested in bullfighting, I might just watch the show every week.

To tell you the truth.....I'm actually really excited about this show. Anything that's not "Who's Now" is good thing at this point. I'll be watching tomorrow night, and hope Michael Smith's piece on Chad Johnson is just as interesting.

ESPN's E:60 Reveals Some Of Its First Reports (Awful Announcing)

This is obviously a bit of a freudian slip, but hilarious none the less....

Via TBL)

Okay this is beyond ridiculous, but apparently SportsCenter is branching out even more. Not only can you now get the show in an ESPN Zone bathroom, and on your phone (if you are one of the lucky ones with ESPN Mobile), but you can get it at your local gas station too....

Gas Station TV, based in Oak Park, Mich., has already mounted 1,000 screens in Atlanta, Dallas and Houston and plans to expand to New York, Chicago and Los Angeles next month. GSTV will add more cities and hopes to have 6,000 screens up this year.

Anybody filling up SUVs might see a repeat because the programming at the pumps lasts only 41/2 minutes.

The programming will include content from ABC News as well as ESPN.

And for now anyway, star SportsCenter anchors don't have to be worried about being consigned to hanging around gas stations all day: The programming will be done by ESPNews announcers.

You know, seeing Michael Kim while I'm freezing my ass off in Winter filling up my car WILL make me feel better.

It's a gas: ESPN at pump (USA Today)

For some reason ESPN has decided to make a marketing push for ESPN News with a campaign they're cleverly dubbing the Stay Current campaign. From Brandweek Magazine.....

The “Stay Current” campaign, via Wieden & Kennedy, N.Y., breaks Monday with two 30-second TV spots running across ESPN nets and “possibly ABC,” with support including radio, Internet and print in ESPN The Magazine. The ads take a “humorous look at sports fans whose bad opinions make it seem as if they are talking out of their butts.” In “Mike,” a man tells his friends the Spurs have “no chance this year,” and Millsaps College is “going to the Final Four.”

Wow. That seems like a genius idea.....can't believe somebody hasn't done this before. Oh that's right....it has been done....about a billion times.

***Update***- Deadspin has the breaking news that ESPN 2 is also going to change as well. They are dropping the 2 and it will be just like a second ESPN without the designation of being different. It's an odd move to say the least, but it looks like they're exorcising themselves of all of the ESPN Hollywood/Quite Frankly Demons.

That's really great and all, but you might consider also changing ESPNU to ESPN Zero.....because no one gets that damn channel. HEY YO!

Last Days of ESPN 2 (The Underground)