New York vs. Boston again – but I’m OK with that

On these posts I’ve complained, whined and kvetched about how America’s major television networks and the media overall are obsessed with the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry. Super Bowl XLVI is upon us, and we have another Boston-New York matchup with the Patriots and Giants. The network executives must be mighty pleased that those two big northeastern […]

My TV is too lame, so I can’t host a Super Bowl party

At a measly 36 inches on the diagonal, the low-def television set in our family room is simply too pathetic for me even to begin thinking about inviting people over to watch the Super Bowl. Our Toshiba is a hand-me-down from my brother. He gave it to us when he moved overseas back in 2001, […]

The baseball season ends, and winter begins

It’s no coincidence: The baseball season concluded last night as the Cardinals knocked off the Rangers in St. Louis, and it’s snowing this morning in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and New York. What more do fans of the Phillies, Pirates, Yankees and Mets need to remind them that the 2011 season didn’t go their way? But what […]

In baseball broadcasts, there’s comfort in the home team

Major League Baseball is again offering a free preview of its TV package during April. While I never have the time to watch so much TV that I’d spring for the season-long package, I take advantage of the preview to sample games and see teams from around the American and National leagues. Last night I […]

Thanks to television, the NFL is truly the national sport

Baseball may traditionally be America’s national pastime, but as a spectator sport football is king. That’s a tribute to television broadcasting. In a continent spanning four time zones (and I’m excluding Alaska and Hawaii), football has an enormous advantage in capturing the attention of the public. Even in an era of Monday night and occasional […]

A fond farewell to the Winter Olympics

The Winter Olympics have begun their slow fade into history, and I offer here limited and selective observations. I stress limited and selective because that’s what my experience was with the 2010 Vancouver games. When NBC decided to delay virtually everything to us Americans on the West Coast, I wrote off watching most of the […]

No standout caps at the Olympics, at least so far

[picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=Olympics+opening+ceremony&iid=7907398″ src=”d/9/3/0/Opening_Ceremonies_held_b4bf.JPG?adImageId=10281619&imageId=7907398″ width=”500″ height=”295″ /] I was so irritated with NBC’s delay of the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics from Vancouver that I didn’t bother to watch. But I felt it my duty to look for the top caps worn by the athletes. So I cruised through the scores of opening […]

Thanksgiving ritual: Lions and Cowboys games on TV

[picapp align=”right” wrap=”false” link=”term=raiders&iid=7114234″ src=”d/3/e/7/Cincinnati_Bengals_v_ef43.jpg?adImageId=7847928&imageId=7114234″ width=”234″ height=”314″ /] Thanksgiving Day in America means turkey, cranberries and football, not necessarily in that order. The Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys have been featured on national TV for as long as I can remember, and both teams will be in action this year. I’ll be paying more attention […]

Phillies win in the ninth

That will teach me to turn my back on the TV during the post-season. I completely missed the Phillies’ sensational bottom-of-the-ninth victory over the Dodgers tonight. In the old days, I might have had to stay up for the 11 o’clock news to find out what happened. And if I didn’t do that, I’d have […]