NBC Fails at the 21st Century

I remember watching the 1988 Winter Olympics, and being completely entranced by speed skater Bonnie Blair. Ever since, I've been an Olympics junkie -- especially speed skating. But it's not 1988 anymore, so I don't know why NBC is broadcasting them like we're still back in the Stone pre-Information Age.

I emailed Dick Ebersol, and while I'm sure none of these emails get read, it was still therapeutic:

Mr. Ebersol:

I am writing to request that you do away with the ridiculous tape
delay of Olympic coverage for the West Coast Olympic fans. This
prevents a quarter of the country from enjoying the coverage with
friends in the rest of the country via Twitter, Facebook, or even the
phone. Why should I watch when I already know the results? It's not
1964 anymore.

And why the emphasis on prime-time coverage? Those of us on the West
Coast are used to live sporting events starting at 5 or 6 p.m.! 100
million Americans watched the Super Bowl, and it wasn't because it was
tape-delayed on the West Coast. We watch Sunday Night Football and
Monday Night Football and the World Series in the early evening -- in
fact, we're not used to staying up until 11 p.m. watching sports!

Please, for the love of god, stop tape-delaying your Olympic coverage.
And remember that the highest-rated broadcast of all time in the U.S.
is the Super Bowl, not some soft-focus feature about how someone
raised by a single parent survived cancer and a torn ACL and an epic
crash in the 2006 Winter Olympics. All we want is live coverage of
the sports, so we can enjoy every thrilling downhill run and crazy
speed-skating collision with the rest of the country.

If you want more anger, check out the nbchate tag on Deadspin. And hope that ABC -- or hell, anyone who's not NBC -- gets the rights to the Olympics someday.

Thank God I was wrong!

Back in June, after the Lakers lost in the NBA finals, I said:

I can tell you right now that the Dodgers will make it to the World Series and lose in six games, Michigan football will finally beat Ohio State only to suffer (another) embarrassing loss to USC in the Rose Bowl, and the Steelers will lose in the Super Bowl after some sort of epic third-quarter collapse.

OH MY GOD I was way too close to getting that right with the Steelers. But! They pulled out the win after a nearly-epic fourth-quarter collapse. GO STEELERS!


^{James Harrison joins me in needing oxygen.}

(Hey, don't you all love how optimistic I was about Michigan's season? That's so adorable.)

The Shining Rays

I don't want to jinx anything (too late!) but the Rays prevailing over the Red Sox has given me hope about Obama's prospects...

Let me explain.

For tracking the polls, the best place by far is fivethirtyeight.com, which uses some hardcore statistics to combine polling and demographic data to forecast the election results. The guy who runs the site, Nate Silver, has a day job doing hardcore statistics for Baseball Prospectus. Way back in February, Nate forecast that the Rays would be the most improved team this year. And he was right!

In the ALCS (Nate was not so bold as to predict the Rays would make the post-season, let alone the World Series) the Rays were up 3 games to 1 against the Red Sox. Building a 7-0 lead in the 7th inning, the Rays were roughly where Obama is right now. But it ain't over til it's over. And the Red Sox came back and won the game. And won comfortably in Game 6. It looked like an epic collapse was at hand...but in the end, the Rays prevailed!

Similar to the calculation of safe lead in college basketball, an extremely unlikely series of events has to occur for McCain to prevail now. And the Rays/Sox showed us how unlikely that is.

(Of course, I probably jinxed everything now. But if Nate was right about the Rays...)

There's no ice in Florida!

By far, the most egregious move by the NCAA Ice Hockey Committee is placing the 2012 Frozen Four in Tampa, Florida. Tampa. FLORIDA. 674 miles from the nearest Division I hockey team, and nearly 1,000 miles to the second-closest Division I hockey team.

Of course, there are still regionals and the 2011 Frozen Four in Minnesota, but they have a bit of an advantage (emphasis mine):

“We focused on selecting sites that have NHL size ice sheets and are in neutral buildings,” said Ice Hockey Committee Chairman Joel Maturi, the AD of Minnesota. “We really feel that each of these buildings will showcase college hockey, give our student-athletes a tremendous experience and help take our championship to another level.”

Yes, what a tremendous experience playing for the championship in an empty arena in Florida. Awesome.

If the NCAA was serious about expanding Division I ice hockey, they wouldn't be scheduling tournaments in Missouri and Florida. They would spend all their free time wooing Penn State. Pennsylvanians not only have two pro hockey teams, but are aware they have two pro hockey teams, so you have a built-in hockey fanbase. Michigan, Ohio State, and Notre Dame have hockey teams, so you can have games against known rivals to bring in casual fans. There are only two Division I hockey teams in the state, both in the western part. And there is nothing to do in State College in the winter.

Sure, it's expensive, and you'll have to add women's water polo or rowing for Title IX, but long-term it would be good for college hockey. I almost suspect that the NCAA is trying to kill college hockey. I mean, Florida?

(link via The Blog That Yost Built)

NBC Doing Well with Olympics, the Bastards

Apparently the Olympics have been ratings gold for NBC this year. Swimming and gymnastics have been extremely popular, and everyone has been talking about the Olympics.

What this article doesn't mention is that the West Coast isn't getting any of that live primetime coverage. Nothing but tape delays for us!

NBC said Saturday’s prime-time broadcast — featuring Mr. Phelps’s eighth gold medal win — was its most-viewed Saturday program in 18 years. From 11 to 11:30 p.m., when the Americans swam in their medal-winning medley relay, 39.9 million viewers were watching, according to Nielsen Media Research.

That would have been from 8 to 8:30 p.m., if aired live on the West Coast. Would that have been so awful? Half the time, there's nothing good on until 10 p.m. ET, so give the West Coast a live feed then (7 p.m. PT), and throw all the crap in tape-delayed later. Better to tape-delay some stuff than everything, especially when things are finishing around 1 a.m. ET.

Clearly people are watching the Olympics, and talking about them. And I am freaking tired of having to avoid the entire internet after 5 p.m. PT to avoid Olympic spoilers. I complained to nbcolympicsfeedback@nbcuni.com, but they shockingly haven't emailed me back. Lo, how I miss the CBC!

What were the other 19% thinking?

I know August is a slow sports month, what with only preseason football and pre-pennant race baseball, but it's still a pleasant surprise to see how many people are paying attention to the Olympics. In the ESPN.com poll (to which I cannot directly link, and can I file a complaint about that?), over 80% of the respondants cited the men's 4x100 freestyle relay as the highlight of the weekend. Now, I didn't see the other three events, but that relay was awesome, and Lezak was incredible.

If you missed it, you can watch it here after installing the Silverlight plugin. (Hooray for Mac support this year!) And while you're at it, watch the women's 400m freestyle final, which also had a close and crazy finish.

Whee!

Second place is the first loser

It's been a tough two months of sports for us here. In April, Michigan lost in overtime to Notre Dame in the Frozen Four, ending a wonderful, unexpected rush of a season. A few weeks ago, the Penguins lost to the Red Wings in the Stanley Cup finals, four games to two, after an impressive run in the playoffs. And tonight, the Celtics utterly shellacked the Lakers (sorry, Eli), winning the NBA championship in six games.

I can tell you right now that the Dodgers will make it to the World Series and lose in six games, Michigan football will finally beat Ohio State only to suffer (another) embarrassing loss to USC in the Rose Bowl, and the Steelers will lose in the Super Bowl after some sort of epic third-quarter collapse.

I'm really sorry to all of our fellow fans, but our household seems to be cursed this year.

Waving the white flag

This basketball postseason has seen a wave of home teams surrendering home-court advantage by waving the white flag. The "white-out" tradition of having all the fans wear white apparently started back in time immemorial by the Winnipeg Jets (I hate Winnipeg). And I guess it works in hockey...the Penguins have had three white-outs this post-season, and have won all three games (including tonight against the Red Wings!).

In the NBA the Miami Heat used the white-out to great advantage during their 2006 championship run (apparently the white t-shirts blinded the refs and caused them to give Dwyane Wade every call). But this season? Not so successful.

The New Orleans Hornets used yellow t-shirts to great effect in games 1 and 5 against the Spurs...in game 1 the crowd was rockin', and the yellow looked good on TV. But in game 7 the sponsors must have gotten cheap and switched to white t-shirts which weren't nearly as impressive, and they were killed by the Spurs.

Lakers @ Spurs, game 4? White-out, Spurs were beaten. (Thank you white t-shirts!)
Boston @ Detroit, game 3? White-out, Detroit was killed.
Cleveland @ Washington, game 3? White-out, success!

That makes the white-out 1-3 at home in this post-season, when home teams are overall a ridiculous 58-20 (as of May 28th).

I hope this unimpressive "tradition" of surrender dies a quick death. (Unless the Spurs or Celtics want to try it against the Lakers. I'd be happy with that).