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TL’s Sunday Sports Notes | Jan 21

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While We’re Young (Ideas) | On Midyear in the NBA

By TERRY LYONS, Editor of Digital Sports Desk

BOSTON – Twenty and one. The Boston Celtics are no longer undefeated at home where 17 NBA Championship banners hang in the rafters of TD (Boston) Garden, high above a parquet floor that many of us remember from viewing on a Black and White television set when the Celtics were positioning nine of those 17 banners during the 1960s. Only the 1967 Philadelphia 76ers (once voted the NBA’s Greatest Team of All-Time) broke the streak for the full decade.

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At the halfway mark of the NBA season, the Celtics are atop the league-wide ladder, and they’ll face the Houston Rockets who will be coming off a game against the Utah Jazz – a back-to-back the Rockets could live without. Boston’s 32-10 (.762) record was blemished when the reigning NBA champion Denver Nuggets earned a had-fought victory on the parquet and under Boston’s revered 17 banners.

Denver (29-14) is two games behind Midwest Division leader, the Minnesota Timberwolves, surprise leaders in the NBA’s Western Conference. At the Half, the West is full of surprises as the Los Angeles Clippers lead the Pacific and New Orleans Pelicans lead the Southwest Division.

If the NBA Playoffs were to start this weekend, Sacramento, Utah, Phoenix and the Los Angeles Lakers would all be competing as “Play-In” teams, ranked No. 7-10 out West. All four of those clubs were preseason favorites. In the East, the standings have proven-out as many predicted with the Celtics, Milwaukee Bucks and Philadelphia 76ers leading the pack. Only the Cleveland Cavaliers, winners of a league-leading six straight as they faced the (18-23) Atlanta Hawks, can be considered a surprise contender.

The midyear layout of the NBA standings call-out one question at this point of the season: Why?

In the EAST:

BOSTON: The deepest and most talented of the NBA’s 30 teams. The Celtics boast a starting five who could all be considered NBA All-Stars. Jayson Tatum (27, 8 and 4) leads the team, but is backed-up by Jaylen Brown (23, 5 and 4), newly acquired center Kristaps Porzingis (19, 7 and 2) while the backcourt of Derrick White (16, 4 and 5) and Jrue Holiday (13, 6 and 5) round out the talented starters. Depth and defense remain plentiful and the Celtics’ main concern to to start the month of May healthy, especially at the center (“bigs”) position with Porzingis and 37-year old Al Horford needing to guard rivals such as Philly’s Joel Embiid and Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo.

MILWAUKEE AND PHILADELPHIA: There are no big surprises with the fact both Milwaukee (Central) and Philly (Four games behind the Celtics in the Atlantic) will all strive for the top spot and home court advantage throughout the Eastern Conference Playoffs. If Boston holds on to the No. 1 spot, it will force a very difficult and physical Eastern Conference Semifinal match-up between the Bucks and 76ers.

Out WEST:

The West is much more complicated and volatile. Only 3.5 games separate the Timberewolves from the Clippers (No. 1-4) and the fact the Nuggets and Finals MVP Nicola Jovic are ranked third, poses potential Playoff match-up nightmares for every round. Add to the turmoil, the NBA’s first “In-Season Tournament” champion LA Lakers hover in the dangerous No. 10 slot, only a half game ahead of the Rockets.

Minnesota, Oklahoma City, Sacramento New Orleans, Dallas and Phoenix are all formidable opponents and will all meet one or the other in the early rounds come April and May.

Good luck predicting the Western Conference bracket.

MVP: The logical recipients of the 2023-24 NBA Most Valuable Player are (possible repeat) Joel Embiid (who has only played in 30 of the club’s 40 games thus far); Giannis Antetokounmpo; and Nikola Jovic.

Coach of the Year: The media always seeks out the underdog, rather than the league leader, so that bodes well for Minnesota’s Chis Finch or Oklahoma City’s Mark Daigneault ahead of Denver’s Michael Malone, Boston’s Joe Mazzulla or Philly’s Nick Nurse.

Rookie of the Year: With all the very well deserved hype and praise for San Antonio’s amazing center Victor Wembanyama (team-leading 19, 10 and 3.1 blocks), the midyear favorite for RofY is Chet Holmgren of Oklahoma City. Holmgren who is averaging 17 points and a team-leading 7.2 rebounds per game while averaging 30 minutes in all 41 of OKC’s games. The Thunder are 28-13 and in serious contention in the West while Wembanyama’s Spurs are in the West basement with only seven wins and 34 losses. With two viable candidates, usually the one on the winningest team gets the vote. Holmgren is also considered an elite defender.

Most Improved: Houston’s Alperen Sengun, who has raised his scoring averages from a rookie year of 2021-22 (9.6 ppg), to 2022-23 (14.8) to this season at (21.5), seems to be the most deserving candidate. That noted, sometimes voters go for players drafted in the NBA Lottery positions instead of someone like Sengun who was picked 16th and only played 20 minutes a game as a rookie.

Philadelphia’s Tyrese Maxey is considered the favorite for Most Improved, and again, he’s playing for a real contender. Since being drafted in R-1, No. 21 in 2020, Maxey has steadily increased his PT and scoring averages (8.0, 17.5, 20.3 and this season, 26.2 ppg).

Defense Wins Championships: If you are one to focus on defense rather than any offensive statistics or current place in the standings, the Minnesota Timberwolves (with Defensive Player of the Year favorite C Rudy Gobert) are the league-leaders. Minnesota has the league-leading defensive rating of 108.6. Here are the Top 10:

  1. Minnesota 108.6
  2. Boston 110.6
  3. Cleveland 111.2
  4. Orlando 111.5
  5. Philadelphia 111.6
  6. Oklahoma City 112.0
  7. Houston 112.5
  8. New Orleans 112.6
  9. New York 112.8
  10. Miami 113.0

BOLD PREDICTION: It’s January 21 and the Super Bowl has yet to be played, never mind the NBA All-Star Game. In the second half of the NBA regular season, a team’s fortunes can turn upside down with one season-ending injury to a key player. That can happen to any team, any night.

Forsaking any major injury to any NBA All-Star or key rotation player, there’s absolutely nothing going on in the Association that makes me think the Denver Nuggets can not repeat as NBA champions. Miracle worker, center and 2023 NBA Finals MVP Nikola Jokic is the best player in the game and Michael Malone just might be the best head coach in the NBA. The deep, experienced Nuggets roster – starters and reserves – can play with the best of ‘em. The Nuggets have a tremendous home-court advantage, even when they don’t have the extra home game in a seven game series. Playing at altitude in the Mile High City is worth a game. On Friday night, the Nuggets proved they could win at TD Boston Garden, albeit a slim 102-100 victory with Jamal Murray scoring 35 points while Jokic had a 34, 12 and nine performance against the defensive-minded Celtics.

No matter which team comes out of the East, they’ll have played a very demanding Eastern Conference Finals.

Yes, a Minnesota, Oklahoma City, LA Clippers, Sacramento or New Orleans are capable of upsetting the defending champions, but it’s not likely. Take Denver as your 2024 NBA Champion.

STRAT-O-MATIC: The folks at Strat-0-Matic frequently use their software to predict the results of “real-life” sports. Before the 2023-24 NBA season played a game, Strat-O-Matic predicted the Boston Celtics would take home the NBA’s Larry O’Brien Trophy as winners of the NBA Finals. The Celtics were tapped to finish with a 64-18 record, and they were named as winners over the Minnesota Timberwolves (nice pick, eh?).

The Strat-O-Matic technicians thought they’d give it another run at the NBA’s halfway mark, simulating the season thousands of times and guess what? The Celtics finished with the same record of 64-18 and advanced to the NBA Finals once again.

Let’s wait and see if the Strat-O-Matics have properly scouted Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets.

Pete Rose (l) and Bud Harrelson squared off behind second base, leading to a bench-clearing brawl between the Reds and Mets in Game 3 of the 1973 NLCS. (file photo).

HERE NOW, THE NOTES: On January 11th, the Harrelson family, the New York Mets and Major League Baseball lost one of the great players and ambassadors of the game of baseball in Derrel McKinley “Bud” Harrelson.

Harrelson died at the age of 79 as a result of the complications of Alzheimer’s disease of which he was diagnosed in 2018. Harrelson played shortstop for the Mets from (1965 to 1977) and later managed the club for a portion of the 1990 season. He was the only person to be on the roster for both the 1969 Mets World Championship (as a player) and the 1986 Mets World Championship club (as a coach). Harrelson coached and managed in both the major league and minor league levels, and, in 2000, he settled in as part owner and manager of the Long Island Ducks independent league team. Harrelson made Long Island his home, living in Hauppauge and East Northport.

The outpouring of love and appreciation of Harrelson by nearly all New Yorkers was evident in the week after his death, especially by his Long Island Ducks franchise.

There’s a personal story to be told about Buddy Harrelson and it stems from the tussle he had with Cincinnati Reds all-star Pete Rose in Game 3 of the 1973 National League Championship Series (NLCS).

It was some nine or ten years after that October ‘73 day, and my story took place on an off-day of the NBA Playoffs in Philadelphia. My Hall-of-Fame level boss, Brian, and I finished up our NBA duties for the afternoon and decided to catch a couple innings at the Vet. We walked directly across the street from The Spectrum, and bought two upper level tickets – HIGH – behind the plate – section 503, if I remember. We grabbed a cold beer and a hot dog and settled in alongside a rather sparse crowd.

Minutes later – beers yet to kick in – Pete Rose (playing for the Phillies) – gets up to bat and I stood up and just start screaming at the guy. Keep in mind at that time, there wasn’t any inkling of gambling controversies and he is the all-time hits leader for MLB.

“YOU SUCK Rose. YOU SUCK!”

“You should retire. You’re washed UP.”

Brian looked at me as though I was Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair). His jaw dropped and he had no idea what the hell I was doing, except being quite likely to provoke a fight with the CRAZY Phillies fans.

Rose grounded out, and I lit into Rose all over again. “You see, a weak ground-out, YOU BUM!

“ROSE – YOU SUCK”

All the Phillies fans moved a row or two away from us until the inning ended, and a brave soul walked over and said something like, “You two seem like nice guys,” in that GREAT South Jersey/Philadelphia accent.

“Why did you yell at Pete Rose like that? He’s one of the best players ever.”

I just dead-panned, “Well, this is the first time I’ve seen him since the fight with Buddy Harrelson and I thought I’d give him a piece of my mind.”

Rest in Peace, Bud.

“Seat Club” Joins Ticket Offerings

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Here’s what “Seat Club” looked like for this week’s CFB Playoff Championship

HERE NOW, THE NOTES: You’ve heard of Sam’s Club, Lions Club, Lending Club, or Boys & Girls Clubs. Get ready for the “Seat Club.” Sports industry veteran and serial entrepreneur Cole Rubin recently launched “Seat Club,” a new marketplace designed to help consumers avoid all hidden fees and markups when purchasing tickets for live events at the lowest possible price on the secondary market. The marketplace, which sells tickets to its members at its cost without any markups or fees, officially launched this week and can be found at https://seatclub.com

“The biggest complaint consumers have in the event space, are fees and markups,” said Rubin. “Fees and markups make the ticket buying process frustrating and more expensive than necessary, so we built Seat Club as the pathway to solve these problems.

“We have spent a great deal of time talking to fans and event producers, and can now deliver this unique value proposition, where our members know they are getting the best pricing, and will save countless hours comparing ticket prices online. The price you see listed on our platform is the price you pay, with no fees added on later in the checkout process.

“There are no hidden markups, unlike other platforms who claim they don’t charge fees, but bake profits into the listed cost of tickets. Seat Club’s pricing may be as much as 35% less than competitors for the same exact tickets, which is significant, especially on high profile events. We believe in transparency, and our sole source of revenue comes from our membership fee,” added Rubin.

Seat Club’s $99/year membership includes:

  • Access to the same ticket inventory as the top secondary sites
  • No fees or markups, members buy tickets AT OUR COST
  • There is no cap of the number of tickets that can be purchased. Subscribers are entitled to unlimited ticket purchases annually.
  • Fan Protect Guarantee on tickets purchased (24/7 support staff)

(At this point in time, WWYI is not in position to vouch for Seat Club but we’ll check it out for the Celtics, Bruins, College Hoops, the NY Rangers/Islanders and NY Knicks and let you know in the near future).

PGA Tour, LIV Extend Negotiations

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH –  (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Claiming negotiations were “active and productive,” commissioner Jay Monahan told his PGA Tour members in a memo Sunday that the tour was working to extend the deadline to finalize a merger with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

The PGA Tour revealed a so-called framework agreement to merge interests with the PIF, which finances LIV Golf, in a surprise announcement on June 6. Sunday marked the deadline the two sides originally set for a final agreement.

Monahan previously called New Year’s Eve a “firm target” to complete the deal, but The Telegraph reported this week that the target had been moved to early April before the Masters is played.

A news release posted to the PGA Tour’s website said the tour’s goal was to bring on the PIF, Strategic Sports Group and the DP World Tour (formerly the European Tour) as minority co-investors in PGA Tour Enterprises — the tour’s new for-profit organization — in 2024.

“These partnerships will allow us to unify, innovate and invest in the game for the benefit of the players, fans and sponsors,” Monahan said in the memo.

Monahan told members that the tour had made “meaningful progress” in negotiating with Strategic Sports Group (SSG), a consortium of U.S.-based professional sports owners led by Fenway Sports Group and including figures like the New York Mets’ Steve Cohen and the Atlanta Falcons’ Arthur Blank.

“As we move forward in our discussions (with SSG), we are focused on the finalization of terms and drafts of necessary documents,” Monahan said in the memo, according to ESPN and the Associated Press, as both media outlets obtained a full copy.

–Field Level Media

Krasnoff: The Ties between Bay State and France’s Basketball Empire

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Although one of the NBA’s most awe-inspiring rookies is playing some 2,043 miles away from Boston this season, Victor Wembanyama’s story would be vastly different without the role of Massachusetts in France’s basketball fortunes.

By Lindsay Sarah Krasnoff – SPECIAL TO DIGITAL SPORTS DESK

PARIS – The Boston Celtics are primed for the long season ahead, buoyed by reinforcements who bring an international accent to the Bay State. Meanwhile, the league’s buzziest rookie, 19-year-old French unicorn Victor Wembanyama, is already lighting up courts with the San Antonio Spurs. While more than 2,000 miles separate the two, Texans owe Massachusetts for helping to pave the way for Wembanyama and his homeland to emerge as this season’s most spectacular basketball sensation.

It’s a history more than a century old, built on the foundations of informal sports diplomacy, the citizen-to-citizen exchanges that can collectively foster a slam dunk for global understanding. As illuminated in Basketball Empire: France and the Making of a Global NBA and WNBA (Bloomsbury), this evolution is the result of French-American admiration that superseded some of the cyclical, stereotypical transatlantic disdain that can mark popular memory. Instead, this amitié sportive ignited a basketball evolution that’s made the United States’ oldest ally a basketball breeding ground.

And it began 130 years ago on December 27.

Basketball’s first destination once it left American shores was France. Paris, to be exact, where the first basketball game on European soil was played at the newly custom-built YMCA building at 14, rue de Trévise. Today the Paris Y his home to the world’s oldest existing basketball court.

Yet, none of this would be possible without the role played by Melvin Rideout, one of the first young men to play the game that his teacher, James Naismith, invented in 1891. Upon graduation from the International YMCA Training School (now Springfield College), 22-year-old Rideout was dispatched to Paris to serve as the YMCA’s first-ever City of Light-based physical education director. He brought the game’s original 13 rules, but was also a symbolic ambassador, amongst the earliest, of the sporting ties between Massachusetts, the United States, and its oldest ally.

Perhaps even more consequential were the ways that Boston Celtics legends of the 1950s and 1960s imprinted parts of French basketball’s DNA. The story of Bob Cousy is perhaps more well known. His parents immigrated from France in the 1920s, and Cousy grew up speaking his parents’ mother tongue. But Spring 1959, Cousy and Red Auerbach stopped in Paris to run a clinic with the French national men’s team. Then known as Les Tricolors (today they’re called Les Bleus), the team absorbed some of the tactics, techniques, and advice that the Celtic imparted, one post-war link to powering up their style of play.

Far less known until unearthed in the process of researching Basketball Empire are the ways that Bill Russell left a significant mark on the French game. Its one he likely was never fully aware of, for there are no records of Russell doing sports exchanges in country. But it’s one that’s left an indelible mark.

The great defender’s defensive plays and aerodynamic stylings were studiously emulated by some of France’s most legendary players as they cut their teeth one hoop at a time. One was Henry “Gentleman” Fields, one of the earliest U.S. players to mark French hardcourts in the 1960s thanks to the defensive moves he introduced  after laboriously seeking to play like Russell. Another was 1970s shot king Jacques Cachemire, who as a boy in Guadeloupe discovered Russell through books and films at an American cultural institute near his house; throughout his career on the French mainland, Cachemire sported a beard in hommage to his Celtics idol. A third was hoops heroine Élisabeth Riffiod, who similarly studied game tape of Russell’s plays in order to amp-up her defense and land the one-handed jump shot (the first Frenchwoman to do so); Riffiod finally met the Boston great when her son, Boris Diaw, competed in NBA Summer League. “Speaking of Bill Russell, for me, it’s something very strong emotionally because he’s always been my idol,” Riffiod said for Basketball Empire.

These are all examples of technical and cultural exchange through sports diplomacy. As part of French basketball’s DNA, they highlight the role and importance of individual citizens on both sides of the Atlantic, and how in a globalizing sports world, one person can have far-ranging, long-reaching impacts.

France has quietly developed and exported a never-ending stream of defensive specialists to North American hardcourts, from Tariq Abdul-Wahad (the first French in the NBA, 1997) to three-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert and most recently Wembanyama. Today it is a basketball breeding ground, a pipeline for talent, a lineage that includes the Celtics’ Jérome Moiso (2000-01), Guerschon Yabusele (2016-19), and Evan Fournier (2021).

No other country outside of North America has sent more players to the NBA than France, according to the NBA. They’ve also sent a strong string of talents to the WNBA, too, including the thrilling “wow” factor of French wizard Marine Johannès with the New York Liberty. And, if you’re a fan of college basketball, you witnessed South Carolina’s 100-71 defeat of Notre Dame to tip off the 2023-24 regular season in Paris, a historic first ever for an NCAA opening night on foreign soil.

And hidden amidst this history is the surprising role played by Massachusetts in helping build France’s 21st century hoops haven–one that will be on display at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Lindsay Sarah Krasnoff is a historian and consultant, author of Basketball Empire: France and the Making of a Global NBA and WNBA, Adjunct Instructor at New York University’s Tisch Institute for Global Sport, and director of the FranceAndUS sports diplomacy project.

Zoom, Zoom, Zoom

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NEW YORK – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Officials from the NBA, the players association, the Golden State Warriors and Draymond Green are meeting virtually as a way of assessing the veteran forward’s progress toward returning from an indefinite suspension, ESPN reported Monday.

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Green was suspended after punching Phoenix’s Jusuf Nurkic on Dec. 12, the latest incident in Green’s sometimes tempestuous career.

The conditions for his eventual reinstatement include individual counseling sessions as well as his participation in the meetings over Zoom. So far, Green has been “open and engaged” in the process, per the report.

The NBA will determine the length of the suspension, though ESPN said there’s a “general belief” that it likely will run for 11 to 13 games. He is allowed to practice with the team and use facilities for conditioning.

So far, Green has missed six games, and the Warriors have won the past five. They play at Denver on Monday.

The incident with Nurkic resulted in Green’s third ejection of the season. He also made headlines on Nov. 14 when he was ejected for putting Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert in a headlock during an on-court scrum.

That led to a five-game suspension for Green, who was first thrown out of a game this season on Nov. 11 after being tagged with two technical fouls against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

He has been suspended six times in his career.

In 15 games this season, the 33-year-old Green has averaged 9.7 points, 5.5 rebounds and 5.8 assists. He is in his 12th season with Golden State and has won four NBA titles with the Warriors. He’s also a four-time All-Star and two-time All-NBA selection.

–Field Level Media

Security! Security! – Not

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The Philadelphia Eagles apparently will have to do without security chief Dom DiSandro on the sidelines for the rest of the regular season.

Multiple outlets reported Friday that the NFL denied the Eagles’ appeal of the league’s suspension of DiSandro for his involvement in a sideline incident with an opposing player in Week 13.

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The NFL reportedly also denied the Eagles’ appeal of the $100,000 fine to the team.

The suspension and fine stem from an incident in the Eagles’ 42-19 loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Dec. 3.

At the end of a play, a scuffle broke out between Eagles receiver DeVonta Smith and 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw, who received an unnecessary roughness penalty on the play. As the scuffle bled into the sidelines where DiSandro was standing, he put himself between the two players and then made contact with Greenlaw in an attempt to move him away from the Eagles’ sideline. Greenlaw responded by swiping at DiSandro’s face, grazing him.

Both Greenlaw and DiSandro were ejected from the game. Greenlaw was fined $10,927 by the league for the unnecessary roughness penalty.

The Eagles received a $100,000 fine, which the team reportedly has paid. DiSandro can still be at the stadium and perform all other game-day security duties but cannot be on the sideline until the postseason.

DiSandro, 45, has been with the Eagles since 1999. He is a senior adviser to Eagles general manager Howie Roseman in addition to a variety of security matters for players, coaches and executives. He is in charge of security related to the team’s travel as well as at the team’s training complex.

–Field Level Media

NCAA: Two-Time Transfers Eligible

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CHARLESTON, W VIRGINIA – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – The NCAA has been notifying member schools that two-time transfers will be eligible to participate in their chosen sports, at least temporarily, and bypass the “year in residency” rule.

The change in policy came after a federal judge in Charleston, West Virginia issued a temporary 14-day restraining order against the NCAA, who were denying athletes the chance to compete at their new schools for one year upon second transfer.

The lawsuit was filed by the states of West Virginia, Colorado, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Tennessee and stated the requirement of two-time transfers to sit out a year violated antitrust law. The state of Ohio was at the forefront of the suit.

The decision applies to all student athletes under NCAA jurisdiction in the United States.

“As a result of today’s decision impacting Division I student-athletes, the Association will not enforce the year in residency requirement for multiple-time transfers and will begin notifying member schools,” the NCAA said in a statement to The Athletic.

 

 

One athlete immediately impacted is West Virginia men’s basketball player RaeQuan Battle, who transferred from Montana State after playing two seasons for the Big Sky school. Battle began his college career playing two seasons for Washington of the Pac-12.

He had applied for a waiver under the NCAA’s mental-health provision but was denied in late October. Wednesday’s ruling will potentially allow Battle to play Saturday when the Mountaineers play UMass in Springfield, Mass.

West Virginia would be happy to see Battle on the court as he averaged 17.7 points last season while leading Montana State to the NCAA Tournament.

 

 

“Very pleased our state-based coalition was able to achieve a temporary restraining order against the NCAA’s transfer rule,” West Virginia attorney general Patrick Morrisey posted on social media. “Big win for RaeQuan Battle!”

A second hearing will be heard when the restraining order expires in two weeks when a preliminary injunction potentially could be issued. That would keep athletes in question eligible until a potential trial takes place.

According to The Athletic’s report, Ohio attorney general Dave Yost said that at least 99 athletes had been denied a waiver to compete immediately upon a second transfer and that another 44 are awaiting a decision on a waiver.

–Field Level Media

NFL: Rooney Sportsmanship Finalists

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NEW YORK – (Staff and Wire Service Report from Official News Release) – The eight finalists for the 2023 Art Rooney Sportsmanship Award, given annually to an NFL player who best demonstrates the qualities of on-field sportsmanship, were announced Thursday by the league.

The finalists are:

AFC:

Defensive end Maxx Crosby (Las Vegas)

Linebacker Khalil Mack (Los Angeles Chargers)

Linebacker C.J. Mosley (New York Jets)

Guard Kevin Zeitler (Baltimore)

NFC:

Safety Budda Baker (Arizona)

Fullback Kyle Juszczyk (San Francisco)

Quarterback Dak Prescott (Dallas)

Linebacker Bobby Wagner (Seattle)

A four-member panel from the NFL Legends Community whittled the list of 32 NFL team nominees to eight. Voting for the winner will be done on the Pro Bowl ballot.

The award was created in 2014 and named for Art Rooney Sr., the late founding owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

“Each nominee has displayed the character of Mr. Rooney’s legacy,” said former Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, a member of the panel. “The award represents teamwork, competitiveness, hard work and integrity while on the field.”

–Field Level Media

NBC Opts for Eagle Over Michaels

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NEW YORK – (Staff and Wire Service Report) -NBC plans to use 26-year-old Noah Eagle as the play-by-play voice for its No. 2 NFL playoff broadcast crew in January, passing on venerable voice Al Michaels.

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NBC “Sunday Night Football” tandem Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth have the call of the network’s primary playoff broadcast next month, but NBC declined to bring back Michaels for the second game. Instead, the college football broadcast team of Eagle and Todd Blackledge with sideline reporter Kathryn Tappen was assigned the No. 2 game.

Michaels, 79, reportedly earns $1 million per game in an agreement with Amazon that affords him the opportunity to accept assignments from NBC in his “emeritus” label granted when he left at the end of his last contract in 2022.

Michaels and Tony Dungy called the AFC wild-card game in Jacksonville last year, when the Jaguars rallied from a 27-point deficit to defeat the Los Angeles Chargers.

Eagle is the son of Ian Eagle, an established play-by-play announcer for CBS, TBS and TNT, working college basketball, NBA and NFL games. Noah Eagle replaced Ian Eagle on YES Network NBA broadcasts this season.

Noah Eagle, Blackledge and Tappen are also assigned to the NBC regular-season broadcast of Steelers-Bengals on Dec. 23 and the Nickelodeon kid-focused broadcast of Super Bowl LVIII on Feb. 11.

Michaels has been the voice of primetime NFL coverage since 1986, first on “Monday Night Football” until he took the “Sunday Night Football” job alongside John Madden in 2006. He worked in the SNF role until the end of the 2021 season.

He currently calls Thursday night games streamed on Amazon Prime Video with analyst Kirk Herbstreit.

–Field Level Media

Castiglione Honored with Frick Award

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COOPERSTOWN – (Staff Report from Official News Release) – Joe Castiglione, who has called Red Sox games on the radio for a record 41 seasons, has been selected as the 2024 recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award, presented annually for excellence in broadcasting by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

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Castiglione will be honored during the Hall of Fame Awards Presentation as part of Hall of Fame Weekend, July 19-22, 2024. Castiglione becomes the 48th winner of the Frick Award, as he earned the highest point total in a vote conducted by the Hall of Fame’s 15-member Frick Award Committee.

The final ballot featured broadcasters whose main contributions came as local and national voices and whose careers began after, or extended into, the Wild Card Era. The 10 finalists were: Joe Buck, Gary Cohen, Jacques Doucet, Tom Hamilton, Ernie Johnson Sr., Ken Korach, Mike Krukow, Duane Kuiper, Dan Shulman and Castiglione.

“Bringing knowledge and passion to the booth every day for more than four decades, Joe Castiglione has given voice to the greatest era of Red Sox success in the broadcast era,” said Josh Rawitch, President of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. “Starting with the team in 1983 in Carl Yastrzemski’s final season, Joe has connected generations of Red Sox fans with a delivery that has become part of the New England fabric. His calls of the team’s four World Series wins in the past 20 seasons provided fans with memories that will echo forever throughout Red Sox nation.”

Born March 2, 1947, in Hamden, Conn., Castiglione earned an undergraduate degree at Colgate University and took his master’s degree at Syracuse University – each about an hour from Cooperstown – before beginning his career at WFMJ-TV in Youngstown, Ohio. After moving to Cleveland to work for WKYC-TV, he began calling Indians games in 1979 before working Brewers games in 1981 and then returning to the Indians’ booth in 1982.

Joining the Red Sox radio team in 1983, Castiglione has shared the microphone with partners including Bob Starr, Dave O’Brien, Jerry Trupiano and Will Flemming while also teaching broadcast journalism at Northeastern University, Franklin Pierce University and Emerson College.

Inducted into the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2014, Castiglione is the longest tenured broadcaster in Red Sox history and has called historic moments that have included both of Roger Clemens’ 20-strikeout games and four no-hitters. In 2022, the home Fenway Park radio booth was named in his honor.

The 15-member Frick Award voting electorate, comprised of the 12 living recipients and three broadcast historians/columnists, includes Frick honorees Marty Brennaman, Bob Costas, Ken Harrelson, Pat Hughes, Jaime Jarrín, Tony Kubek, Denny Matthews, Al Michaels, Jon Miller, Eric Nadel, Bob Uecker and Dave Van Horne, and historians/columnists David J. Halberstam (historian), Barry Horn (formerly of the Dallas Morning News) and Curt Smith (historian).

The list of 10 Frick Award finalists was constructed by a subcommittee of the electorate that included Brennaman, Costas, Hughes, Halberstam and Smith. The Ford C. Frick Award is voted upon annually and is named in memory of the sportswriter, radio broadcaster, National League president and baseball commissioner. Frick was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1970.

For a complete list of Frick Award winners, click here.

As established by the Board of Directors, criteria for selection is as follows: “Commitment to excellence, quality of broadcasting abilities, reverence within the game, popularity with fans, and recognition by peers.”  To be considered, an active or retired broadcaster must have a minimum of 10 years of continuous major league broadcast service with a ball club, network, or a combination of the two.

The Frick Award election cycle rotates between a composite ballot featuring local and national voices whose careers began after, or extended into, the Wild Card Era in four consecutive years, followed by a fifth year featuring a ballot of candidates whose broadcasting careers concluded prior to the advent of the Wild Card Era in 1994. The cycle began with the 2023 Frick Award, with composite ballots of local and national voices continuing with the Awards in 2024, 2025 and 2026 before the pre-Wild Card Era ballot is considered for the 2027 Award.