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Announcers' gripe: Loud music, fire steal focus from basketball

Remember when the competition and drama of the NBA playoffs were entertainment enough? Well, the league office should straighten out franchises that are annoying TV viewers, and fans inside the arena, with too much loud music, forced chants and elaborate pyrotechnics.

McCarver all for Rocket's liftoff in Fenway

Fox's Tim McCarver doesn't want to hear the New York Yankees' excuses for not starting Roger Clemens during their three-game series that starts Friday against the Boston Red Sox. The struggling Bronx Bombers are letting themselves and TV viewers down by putting off the Rocket's season debut until Monday against the Chicago White Sox, says the lead game analyst for MLB on Fox.

ESPN tabs Greenberg, Golic to head second MNF team

ESPN is set to unveil a second Monday Night Football announcing team today: play-by-play Mike Greenberg, analysts Mike Golic and Mike Ditka and sideline reporter Bonnie Bernstein. ESPN's initial MNF booth of Mike Tirico, Tony Kornheiser and Joe Theismann struggled to establish on-air chemistry last season, so I wouldn't be surprised to the Greenberg-Golic group replace the revamped No. 1 team.

Networks take bold steps to offer all-access viewing

Over the last two nights, we've seen Fox contributor Eric Byrnes and ESPN's Kenny Mayne paddle around McCovey Cove in kayaks in search of home run balls at Major League Baseball's Home Run Derby and 78th All-Star Game from San Francisco.

Sheffield's swipe at Torre strikes media nerve

Gary Sheffield has sparked another media storm by charging New York Yankees manager Joe Torre treated African-American players more harshly than white teammates. But even before his controversial interview with Andrea Kremer of HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel hits the airwaves, some TV analysts are saying Sheffield is being irresponsible.

ESPN's NASCAR coverage zooms to fast start

Too often, ESPN makes itself the story rather than the sports and athletes that it covers. But ESPN's flood-the-zone approach works best on big events. The sports network delivered top-flight coverage of Sunday's Allstate 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Fox Sports show pits Switzer vs. Johnson

Another ex-Dallas Cowboys coach is hitting the airwaves as a football analyst. Fox Sports announced Tuesday that Barry Switzer is joining the cast of its Fox NFL Sunday pregame show. Switzer will debate ex-Cowboys field general Jimmy Johnson in a weekly "Coaches Corner" segment while also analyzing NFL action and college football BCS standings.

NFL teams' in-game phones get upgrade and go mobile

Say goodbye to a classic, but incongruous, sports TV image from 21st-century NFL telecasts. No longer will viewers watch quarterbacks on the sidelines call up coaches in the sky box using tabletop telephones that looked like the Batphone in the campy 1960s series Batman

Patriots' spy story still has legs

"It's over. We're moving on." So said New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick during Friday's televised news conference about the videotaping dirty tricks used against the New York Jets. Sorry Coach. What Belichick (and other politicians and CEOs caught in scandals) doesn't realize is he doesn't decide when the story is over.

TV upstarts showing their nerves

They didn't get the flop sweats like Albert Brooks in Broadcast News. But fledgling sportscasters Emmitt Smith of ESPN and Cal Ripken Jr. and Frank Thomas of TBS MLB on Deck looked plenty nervous this weekend.