Ramblings from a McMaster Graduate

mypantsareonfire:

How Often Were NFL Players Mentioned On Sports Center?

Wow. This is incredibly cool.

(via ilovecharts)

When I vacation in the U.S. with my family, we normally catch the Mike and Mike radio show on ESPN when eating breakfast. It’s a shame we don’t get to listen to these guys live in Canada, and I don’t have a lot of time to listen to the podcast - especially since I don’t take the bus to school anymore. Anyways, I picked up a copy of their book Mike and Mike’s Rules for Sports and Life in hopes that their comedy would transfer from the airwaves to the page. It did.

The book is written exactly like how their radio show would appear on a transcript, complete with “station breaks,” guests, and new focuses for each hour. The text is in different colours throughout the book to add emphasis to which Mike is speaking. It’s a very light read, and shouldn’t take you more than a couple of hours to complete. However, they do offer a lot of funny and curious ideas on how to revamp a couple of the major sports, especially in regards to Greeny becoming the next commissioner of Major League Baseball.

Anyways, if you like sports, check it out.

During my golf trip to Michigan with my family last week, I ended up finishing the book Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales. The book chronicles the foundation and subsequent rise to global television power.

What I found most interesting about this book was not the content, but how it was presented. Instead of reading a heavy monolith about how important ESPN has been in shaping the realm of how sports is presented in the United States and the world, the authors transcribe interviews conducted with past and present ESPN anchors, producers, presidents, and analysts, as well as professional athletes.

The business side of the material is very interesting as it gives an insight into how ESPN is able to afford and maintain control over so many different contracts with the many professional sports. One of the items that hit home to me was the loss of the NHL due to low-balling league commissioner Gary Bettman. I was very happy to see the disappointment in the personalities when speaking about the loss of the biggest hockey league on the planet.

In summary, the books tip-toes the line between business and sports well as the interviews with the majority of the parties develop a large picture of the event. For such a big sports fan as me, I classify this one as a must read.

But, if you aren’t into sports, the two authors collaborated to do a similar work on Saturday Night Live.

thedailywhat:

Cannot be unseen. (If you’re a Star Wars fan who happens to watch ESPN on a regular basis, that is.)

[reddit.]