ratings Page 14 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Media Approval Ratings: Kenny Mayne
A few unusual facts about Kenny Mayne:...

Media Approval Ratings: Steve Phillips
It's not often you hear ESPN's Steve Phillips in the broadcast booth for a game, but hey, it's tough to turn down a trip to Japan. We think the days of the fake press conferences are over, but Steve Phillips remains, undaunted....

Media Approval Ratings: Stuart Scott
Last week, The New Republic, in a post about Sen. Barack Obama calling into a Philadelphia sports talk radio station, unleashed the following groaner:...

Media Approval Ratings: Buster Olney
When we first moved to New York, Buster Olney was the anonymous, goofily named reporter in The New York Times who knew pretty much everything you needed to know about baseball. He was their star. And then he went to ESPN. He's not the star anymore, but at least everybody knows his name now....

Media Approval Ratings: Vin Scully
With the tournament starting and everything, we thought it would be time to make it clear that baseball is about to start. (Not just in Japan either. Finally.) And we can think of no better way of reminding you than bringing up Vin Scully....

Media Approval Ratings: Mike Tirico
By now, most people know the old stories about Mike Tirico. (If you don't know them, they're right here.) Tirico appears to have gotten help for an obvious problem, and is apparently doing better. Good for him, because he doesn't seem to have time for a scandal now: The guy is everywhere....

Media Approval Ratings: Mitch Albom
Back when we were rehearsing on this here site, trying to talk the overlords into Gawker Media into the notion that a sports blog might not be a terrible idea, one of our first posts was about Mitch Albom's little ethical lapse at the Detroit Free Press. The surprise to us at the time was less than ...

Media Approval Ratings: Dick Vitale
Now that Dickie V is back and at full throat capacity, perhaps it is time to judge him....

Media Approval Ratings: Jim Nantz
We are coming up on the busiest month of Jim Nantz's life. He'll be broadcasting the Final Four, and then he'll head off to the event that he seems born to cover, the Masters. We sometimes think Jim Nantz is the living embodiment of the Masters. This is both a good thing and a bad thing....

Media Approval Ratings: Al Michaels
Of all the brilliance of the great Berman videos, our third biggest thrill (behind the initial outrage and the deux deux deux) involves his rants about Al Michaels. As we said before, in this tiny little universe, Berman seems to see Michaels as Mozart, and himself as Salieri. Which is just sad....

Media Approval Ratings: Joe Buck
After reading KSK's anonymous and almost certainly not true (but still quite entertaining) tale of Joe Buck rollicking out in Vegas, we figured this was as good a time as any to check in with the ominpresent Fox broadcaster....

Media Approval Ratings: Bill Raftery
We think it's kind of amazing that ESPN has Bill Raftery working with Jay Bilas this week at the Big East tournament. That's not because we don't like either of them; far from it. It's just that Bilas, as a game broadcaster, seems to be doing a Bill Raftery impersonation. Which is fine, of course....

Media Approval Ratings: Tim Kurkjian
For the longest time, we thought the way Tim Kurkjian would pronounce his last name while signing off on ESPN telecasts was some sort of sonic illusion. "Tim KIRK ... (endless pause) ... JUN!, ESPN." We couldn't imagine he answered the phone like that at home....

Media Approval Ratings: Mike Patrick
With the Duke-North Carolina game this weekend — and the accompanying drinking games — we thought it'd be the perfect day to take a look at the occasionally bizarre Mike Patrick....

Media Approval Ratings: Bob Costas
We once joked that Bob Costas seems like the type of guy who would pee sitting down, but that's a little harsher than our personal opinion toward him really is. He's a St. Louis guy, after all, and it's not everyone who can deal with both Dan Marino and Keith Olbermann....

Media Approval Ratings: Trey Wingo
Trey Wingo's real name, in case you're wondering, is Hal Chapman Wingo III. Our family's naming conventions require the son to name his first son after his father, which means our name is William Franklin Leitch III, and our father's is William Bryan Leitch II. We've tried to come up with a good nic...

Media Approval Ratings: Lee Corso
We'll confess: We have a rather difficult time thinking of Lee Corso without mentally referencing the Lee Corso slo jam, via the indispensable Every Day Should Be Saturday. This is the soundtrack that rolls around our brains all day....

Media Approval Ratings: Cris Carter
On the day we say goodbye to Sean Salisbury on ESPN, we think it's perhaps fitting that our Media Approval Ratings look at his replacement....

Media Approval Ratings: Erin Andrews
Honestly, it can't be easy to be an attractive female sideline reporter. Well, OK: The job doesn't look THAT hard; how many different ways can you ask a coach what he told his team at halftime? (Of course, he could always attack you.)...

Media Approval Ratings: Gus Johnson
For some reason, we tend to forgive Gus Johnson for sins we'd find unforgivable in other broadcasters. He's high histrionics, high volume, high intensity, high volume, high pitch, all of it. He's 95 percent bluster. Of course, this is why we love him....