For several years in the early 2000s, I wrote a weekly sports television column for the Orlando Sentinel Sports section. Here’s a sample column.
Published Tuesday, November 27, 2001, Orlando Sentinel sports
By Roger Simmons
Orlando Sentinel
A very hectic Monday was awaiting Fox Sports’ Thom Brennaman. He needed to take a relative to the airport, dial into a network conference call and attend the world premiere of the Arizona Diamondbacks’ season video. (“It won’t be as big as Spy Games,” he joked.)
But before he had a chance to get to his other tasks, Brennaman came across another: Dispel the notion that he’s a baseball-only kind of guy.
“When you get a label for one thing or another, you’re so grateful for a chance to do something different,” he said.
And this Sunday he gets that chance. Brennaman teams up with Kenny Smith for ACC Sunday Nite Hoops, a 19-game series of Atlantic Coast Conference basketball games on Sunshine Network. The series is being produced in association with Fox Sports Net, but it is being shown on Sunshine in Florida because of the network’s longtime ties with ACC member Florida State.
Brennaman is best known for his baseball announcing work on Fox. He teams with Steve Lyons on most West Coast telecasts, and the pair worked parts of the AL and NL championship series. He’s also the play-by-play man for the Diamondbacks, a job that led him to move to Phoenix in 1995 even before the team played its first game.
While baseball consumes a large part of his life, he still has a passion for basketball, and especially ACC hoops.
“I’ve been a huge ACC basketball fan my whole life — especially North Carolina basketball,” Brennaman said.
So it’s fitting that the first game Brennaman calls will be Georgia Tech at North Carolina in Chapel Hill, a place that has special meaning. “Mom and Dad met there, got married there, and that’s where I was born,” Brennaman said.
“Dad” is Marty Brennaman, perhaps best known as the Cincinnati Reds’ longtime announcer. But — like father, like son — the senior Brennaman did more than just call baseball. He had lots of basketball announcing gigs, including calling the ACC Game of the Week, a role his son now assumes. “My Dad did this job for many, many years,” he said.
If you ask Brennaman for his take on the state of the ACC, his affection for the conference is apparent as he rattles off rapid-fire assessments: “I wasn’t surprised Maryland was beat . . . Duke is overwhelmingly the No. 1 team in the country, but they should have lost to Seton Hall . . . Virginia looks good. North Carolina will start winning . . . Jason Williams — where would Duke be without him this year?”
As for our state’s representative in the ACC, Brennaman is generous in his outlook for relative newcomer FSU: “It takes time to catch up, especially to Duke and North Carolina.”
He said that’s what the football teams of the conference have been doing since the Seminoles joined. But, back to basketball, “I have no doubt Steve Robinson will do it,” he said.
And there’s no doubt Brennaman will have fun with the Sunday ACC telecasts. To spice things up, Fox is adding ACC alumni guest commentators for each game. This week North Carolina great Phil Ford will be the guest, and that sits well with Brennaman.
“Phil Ford is arguably the best player in ACC history — based just on college play,” he said. “He’s somebody you just wanted to watch play.”
If you want to watch Brennaman, tune in Sunday at 6 p.m. on Sunshine for the first game of an ACC doubleheader. Following the conclusion of Georgia Tech-North Carolina, Bob Neal and Dan Bonner will call the Clemson-Duke game with former Blue Devil Bobby Hurley as the guest.
REINDEER GAMES
Who had a very shiny nose on Saturday night? Depends on what channel you were watching.
On CBS (WKMG-Channel 6) it was Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. On ABC (WFTV-Channel 9), it was the Washington Huskies, who had some real shiners courtesy of the Miami Hurricanes.
Across the nation, Rudolph finished with a higher rating (6.6) than college football (4.2). But in Central Florida, where the weather is warmer and Christmas seems a little further off, football was the winner.
The UM blowout averaged a 6.8 rating with a 12 percent share of the TVs turned on, which equates to more than 76,500 homes watching. Rudolph was close behind with a 5.6 rating, 9 share and 63,000 homes.
So both Channel 9 and Channel 6 had something to ho, ho, ho about.
DAY OF THE DOLPHIN
On Sunday, Channel 6 got the Dolphins back — and their fans, too. The Dolphins-Bills game averaged a 13.2 rating, 27 share and 156,000 households. Last week’s Dolphins-Jets game was not shown locally because of NFL rules that required WKMG to show the Jaguars.
IS THAT RIGHT?
Incredible but apparently true: Fox and NBC/TNT had record ratings for NASCAR this season but still lost a ton of money because of the weak advertising market. According to the Sports Business Journal, Fox, NBC and Turner Sports collectively lost more than $100 million during the first year of their six-year $2.4 billion TV contract.
The NBC/Turner joint venture lost close to $50 million. Fox, which paid more for the attractive first half of the season, is thought to have lost a larger amount. “We’re a victim of the marketplace, the same way everybody else is,” said Turner Sports President Mark Lazarus.
MORE NASCAR
How do you make more money? Find different ways to charge for your product. TV Insite reports that NASCAR is exploring pay-per-view opportunities for some of its races. The move could come as early as next season.
There would still be “free” race coverage on NASCAR’s TV partners, but sources speculate that those who buy the pay-per-view telecast would get different camera angles, possibly focusing on just one or two drivers for the whole race.
“We’re looking to understand the marketplace and looking into potential business models,” said Jeffrey Pollack, NASCAR’s marketing director of new media.
CASTING CENTRAL
Fox Sports Net Florida has a new lead anchor for its Florida Sports Tonight and Florida Sports Report news shows. He’s Dave Benz, a sports journalist from South Florida.
Benz was an anchor and reporter for the well-received Sportstown show on WAMI-Channel 69 in Miami. He also hosted the pregame and postgame shows for the Marlins and Heat on the station. Benz is a 1992 graduate of Oswego State University. It might be worth watching him just to find out if he mentions where the heck Oswego State is.
CASTING CENTRAL II
Production started Monday on ESPN’s first made-for-television movie. Season on the Brink, which chronicled the 1985-86 season of the Indiana Hoosiers and volatile coach Bob Knight, is a teleplay adapted from John Feinstein’s best-selling book.
Playing Knight in the movie is Emmy-winning actor Brian Dennehy. “I’m a huge fan of Bobby Knight’s,” he said. “I fully intend to make this a fair statement about Bobby Knight.”
The movie will debut on ESPN on March 10.