Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Before the Madness, Some March Moments ...

Even before the redesigned and redistributed NCAA Tournament takes over television for the next three weeks, March has already established itself as a memorable. Here are just a few of the reasons:

-- Legendary golf producer Frank Chirkinian, who shaped the game as well as how modern golf appears on TV, died March 4 after a battle with cancer. He was 84. He moved to CBS Sports from the network's news division in 1957, and his arrival coincided with an increase in golf popularity driven largely by the emergence and performance of Arnold Palmer.

Still, Chirkinian, who basically portrayed himself in the golf movie "Tin Cup" with Kevin Costner in 1996, reshaped the game as well. By using innovative camera angles and discrete microphones, and by adding large scoreboards on the courses and white paint to the inside of holes on greens, golf became more intimate and TV friendly.

He was demanding (earning a nickname as "The Ayatollah," which he actually embraced) and successful. While leading broadcasts of The Masters for 38 years and reshaping golf, he earned numerous awards and was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame. (His induction is scheduled May 9 and Chirkinian taped his induction speech for the event just days before his death.)

His approach reshaped more than golf, though. His drive for perfection and willingness to try different things established a culture at CBS that influenced a generation of behind-the-scenes TV talent that has continued to produce entertaining and groundbreaking TV sports broadcasts.

-- In a bit of perfect timing, Fox Sports revealed plans to renew its contract with Darrell Waltrip just hours after the NASCAR analyst did something rare for TV color commentators. He saw something on the screen and acknowledged it for viewers.

During the pace laps for last week's race in Las Vegas, Waltrip pointed out that the 43-car field actually had two pace cars -- one leading the field and one after the first 20 cars.

On screen, viewers could see the field was broken into two separate packs of cars instead of one big group. It looked a little different than usual, and Waltrip acknowledged that. He also provided a reason, telling viewers that separate, smaller groups allow pace cars to provide a more accurate opportunity for drivers set their pit road speed.

All races limit the speed of cars on pit road but, because the cars do not have speedometers, drivers must determine their speed according to other gauges in their cars. By trailing the pace car at that prescribed speed before the race begins, they can plan accordingly. Not a big deal, but interesting info that viewers got because Waltrip was paying attention and knew what he was talking about.

-- Conversely, it's amazing that Dick Vitale -- just days before "Selection Sunday" for the NCAA Tournament -- would chose to, or be expected to, talk about anything but college basketball. During his weekly visit Tuesday on ESPN Radio with "Mike and Mike in the Morning," Vitale chimed in on the Miami Heat and stories about certain players from the NBA team crying after a tough loss. Whenever any expert or talking head starts with "I wasn't there, but ..." it's not a formula to produce good information for listeners or viewers. It failed in this instance, too.

-- Sports Illustrated writer Lars Anderson earned the award as the most mean-spirited talk-radio guest of the month. Appearing with Paul Finebaum last week, both Anderson (and Finebaum) shot down a caller who seemed to simply ask about Anderson's perceived flip-flop regarding former Auburn QB Cam Newton, and whether or not Newton knew about his father's illegal activities. In an SI article last fall, Anderson indicated Newton was unaware of his father's pay-for-play pitches. Later, though, another piece penned by Anderson offered a different perspective. The caller asked for Anderson's opinion and got belittled. It just sounded bad.

-- A regular-season ending Big Ten Conference basketball game between Penn State and Minnesota again showed a couple of the many faults of TV replay for sports. After a Penn State player was whistled for an intentional foul because he elbowed an opponent in the head while grabbing a rebound (and contact to the head was point of emphasis for officials this season), officials went to the monitor to apparently confirm the call.

While the officials were at work evaluating the situation, viewers at home were frustratingly uninformed about the reason for the review. And that's always the case. Officials are using a TV technology to supposedly enhance the game, but the TV viewers at home are left wanting.

Second, and most egregiously, the replay clearly showed that the player whistled for the foul never made contact with his opponent. With the position of the official on the floor it was clear why he thought it was a foul. But, if they go to replay to verify something, why can they not fix the mistake they've made? And that seems to happen all-too regularly as well.

-- ESPN2 made a media push to accompany its March 1 arrival in Australia that included an interesting commercial.

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