TL’s Sunday Sports Notebook on Acronyms in Sports/TV
NEW YORK – Whether we like it or not, we’ve chosen to live in a world full of acronyms. As per usual, the sports industry leads the way. After all, the National Basketball Association is known worldwide as the NBA – except in The New York Times where it is the N.B.A.. The other major North American sports follow suit, as in the National Football League (NFL), the National Hockey League (NHL) and Major League Baseball (MLB), all known globally.
At one point in time – ‘circa 1975-1980 – the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball attempted to market the sport as Baseball, but it never caught on with the masses because of the fact every player and fan knew of the major accomplishment of making it to the “Majors,” to the “Show.” Simultaneously, the popularity and value of minor league clubs was reason for MLB to create MiLB, the governing body and marketing arm for many of the minor leagues.
The next level of sports organizations might challenge every fan with their numerous acronyms, especially in the world of golf and tennis. We’ll spot you a few:
- PGA – (Professional Golfers’ Association)
- PGA of America – Represents golf club professionals and hosts tournaments and hosts/organizes the annual PGA Championship.
- USGA – (United States Golf Association) – The federation for golf in the United States; Reps golf courses, the rules of game, tracks golf handicaps to rate players and hosts the U.S. Open on annual basis.
- PGA Tour – The league for men’s professional golfers
- LIV Golf – Rival league to PGA Tour (54 vs 72 hole tournaments)
- LPGA – The league for women’s professional golfers
- USTA – (United States Tennis Association)
- ATP – (Association of Tennis Professionals, also know as the men’s tennis tour)
- WTA – (Women’s tennis tour)
- MLS – (Major League Soccer)
- NASL – (North American Soccer League)
- PBR – (Pro Bull Riders)
- NLL – (National Lacrosse League)
- PLL – (Premier Lacrosse League)
- WNBA – (Women’s National Basketball Association)
- NWSL – (National Women’s Soccer League)
- PHF – (Premier Hockey Federation) – Was launched as NWHL, as in National Women’s Hockey League
- NCAA – (National Collegiate Athletic Association)
- IOC – (International Olympic Committee)
- USOC – now known as USOPC (United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee)
Within the Olympic and Paralympic Committee, we could go to the oomph degree with USATF (United States Track & Field) all the way to USAB (United States of America Basketball), formerly known as ABA/USA and other offshoots like the AAU (Amateur Athletic Association) or NWBA (National Wheelchair Basketball Association), and the NHSF (National Federation of State High School Associations).
Editor’s Note: If you dare, click on the previous NHSF link for a look at acronym hell.
On a Personal Note: Within the world of sports acronyms, this columnist would go out of his way to always write USA Basketball instead of taking the shortcut to USAB, which was born of shortening the title for subject lines within internal e-mails, quite the same as the World Championship of Basketball quickly became WCOB when the NBA league office was responsible for the staging of the 1994 Worlds in Toronto.
We’ll draw the line before mentioning Rugby, Cricket, eSports or a dozen others.
Outside of Sporting, the other industry guilty of the acronym wars is the broadcasting world. Again, let’s delve into just a few of the major network types:
First, there were three: ABC (American Broadcasting Company), CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System) and NBC (National Broadcasting Company). Soon to be added were PBS (Public Broadcasting System), FOX (named after 20th Century Fox) which followed the demise of the DuMont Network. In those days, if your television went beyond 13 channels of VHF (Very High Frequency), you were lucky to receive a few UHF (Ultra High Frequency) stations.
Boston’s sports fans are familiar with the UHF channels as Boston Bruins games were broadcast on Channel 38 (WHMB/WXEL/WHIS/WSBK) and the Boston Celtics games were featured programming on Channel 56, Boston’s oldest UHF station which began as WTAO-TV and continues until today as a CW affiliate which eventually secured rights to both the Bruins and the Celtics. The history of that broadcasting network was a combination of CBS and Warner Brothers, along with UPN (United Paramount Network), not to be mistaken with UPI (United Press International) which competed with AP (Associated Press) which syndicated news to the whole mess listed above.
In Europe, you can watch CANAL+ or FR-1 in France, TVE or Cadena Cope in Spain, or maybe you’d prefer “tele basura” which translates to Trash TV.
To conclude, this week I watched GMA (Good Morning America) on ABC (American Broadcasting Corporation) while I checked to see if Sunday’s NFL (National Football League) schedule has games on CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System) or FOX (20th Century Fox, now owned by Rupert Murdock and his media empire, while I logged-in to the NYT (The New York Times) to double-check which game is on SNFonNBC (Sunday Night Football) and MNF (Monday Night Football) before I watched the SEC (Southeast Conference) Championship game to see who will compete in the CFP (College Football Playoffs) on NYE (New Year’s eve) as long as I pay my FIOS (Verizon’s Fiber Optic Service) bill and that will depend on whether a scored a NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) deal for a client or if my investments did well on the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) or NASDAQ (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) which surely will be chronicled by the WSJ (Wall Street Journal).
Whew!
NOW WHAT? With Michigan’s drubbing of No. 2-ranked Ohio State, there are two clear-cut leaders for the CFP Playoffs and two toss-ups. Let the arguing begin.
- Georgia
- Michigan
- TCU
- USC
The outside looking in are:
- Alabama
- Ohio St.
- Penn St.
- LSU
After that, it really doesn’t matter as Clemson lost at home to South Carolina (31-30).
HERE NOW, THE NOTES: Aside from a ton of speculation on Rafa Devers and Xander Bogaerts, there’s been no official news from the Boston Red Sox aside from a Wednesday (Nov. 23) trade for infielder/outfielder Hoy Park from the Pittsburgh Pirates, in exchange for minor league left-handed pitcher Inmer Lobo. … Park, 26, played in 68 Major League games for the New York Yankees (2021) and Pirates (‘21-22).
MUNDO CLASS: Telemundo’s Miguel Gurwitz might be the busiest man on earth this weekend and he’s halfway done. Gurwitz, who is anchoring all Telemundo’s World Cup coverage while calling some matches behind the legendary Andres Cantor, will take on a marathon of broadcasting only rivaled by the late, great Jerry Lewis on his Labor Day Telethon. Beginning Thursday, the native of Mexico and current Miami resident, the regular play-by-play voice for NBC Telemundo’s Sunday Night Football Games, was on-air for the better part of 18 hours on Thanksgiving Day.
Beginning at 11am, Gurwitz anchored all of Telemundo’s World Cup soccer coverage, and then as day turned into night, he switched from futbol to football, calling the SNF on NBC/Telemundo primetime game between the New England Patriots at Minnesota Vikings game. Gurwitz called the NFL game off broadcast monitors LIVE from Qatar to complete 18 hours of work.
Gurwitz was back at it for Friday and Saturday WC 2022 coverage, splitting studio and game commentary before he shoots for another futbol to football marathon today when he works four games from Qatar and repeats his NBC/Telemundo marathon with his play-by-play call of Green Bay at Philadelphia at 8:20pm ET.
Will Monday be a day of rest?
Nope … Gurwitz will be working four more World Cup games.
WORLD CUP of BS – Right before the matches began, tone deaf FIFA president Gianni Infantino served-up a media session that was hard to believe. Not only did he overlook Qatar’s human rights record of staggering hypocrisy and racism, he went on for 57-minutes reversing the tides of accusation towards western media claiming they were hypocrites due to their own past and current behavior. In a bizarre rant he said: “Today I feel Qatari. Today I feel Arabic. Today I feel African. Today I feel gay. Today I feel disabled. Today I feel [like] a migrant worker. Of course, I am not Qatari, I am not an Arab, I am not African, I am not gay, I am not disabled. But I feel like it, because I know what it means to be discriminated [against], to be bullied, as a foreigner in a foreign country.
“As a child I was bullied – because I had red hair and freckles, plus I was Italian, so imagine.”
C’Mon Man. Need a drink? Or a cold Nastro Azzurro?
Since World Cup’s opening eve, just imagine the many hooligans who’ve been experiencing the “DTs” by the 45:00 mark of each match as the ban against public drinking of beer and alcohol was determined the week leading up to competition. From what TV cameras are showing, the packed venues feature capacity crowds, emotional fans and strong competition out-weigh the B.S.. Upsets have included Japan over Germany and Saudi Arabia over Argentina. The headline Thursday was that Cristiano Ronaldo is the first men’s WC player to score in five World Cups. … The major dust-up seems to be the rising tensions and protests between Iranian women and authorities and supporters and chants of “The Islamic Republic of Iran.” … Iranian authorities have responded in the homeland with deadly force to suppress protests which erupted after the death of Mahsa Amini in September following her arrest for wearing a headscarf incorrectly.
RULES CHANGES: Understanding the long history of the sport and the fact you only need a field, two goals and a ball to play – meaning you do NOT even need lights or electricity – this will make the futbol hardline traditionalists cringe with pain, but here’s a basketball expert’s thoughts to improve World Cup soccer. Admittedly, because of the “beauty of the game” and the control factor, these will NEVER happen:
- Institute a 4:00 minute shot clock
- “Back court” violation … Once ball crosses into offensive half of the field, the team on offense can not cross ball backwards to the backfield, but instead force traps at midline.
- Put Official as the game clock operator and that’s official for all the world to see
- While not a fan of Penalty Kicks to decide outcomes, personally, I can live with Round of 16 rules-on, so no change.
FINAL HARD FOUR: It’s a “hard four,” as in 7-to-1 odds paid off. Yes, the Final Four basketball tournament – the final weekend of March Madness – will be played in Las Vegas for the first time in 2028. Like a Spring Break with velvet tables, Vegas is the ultimate destination for wagering on the NCAA tournament has long been a staple of March Madness. Massive changes in sports gambling laws opened the door for the NCAA to award the men’s national semifinals and championship game to Allegiant Stadium to conclude the 2027-28 season. In other words, the NCAA is ‘all-in.’
The NCAA also announced Ford Field in Detroit would host the Final Four in 2027, Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis would get the 2029 event and AT&T Stadium in Dallas will stage the 2030 event.