For the first time under the 25-year tenure of New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, the organization has fired a member of its coaching staff in the middle of the season. The team relieved hitting coach Dillon Lawson of his duties amid a scuffling offense. The “Bronx Bombers” have hit a major league-worst .218 since Aaron Judge tore a ligament in his right big toe, and rank near the bottom of the league in on-base percentage. While the firing of Lawson came as a surprise to many, the team acted swiftly to name MLB Network analyst Sean Casey as his replacement.
Casey had been with MLB Network since the league-owned entity launched in 2009 and was also teammates with manager Aaron Boone while in the major leagues. Taking on the position for the remainder of the 2023 season, he is excited to get to work and help refine the Yankees’ hitting approach to engender more success. The transition, he believes, would have been considerably more difficult had he not worked in sports media.
While contributing to a variety of its programming – most notably the Emmy Award-winning MLB Tonight – Casey presented on-air demonstrations of key, fundamental baseball skills. A .302 hitter over his 12-year Major League Baseball career, Casey came to the network with skill and expertise pertaining to the sport and proffered advice and support as an analyst. He has essentially served in somewhat of a hitting coach role for viewers of MLB Network and is now ready to take his talents back to a big-league stage.
“MLB Network has made me so ready for this job,” Casey said. “I’ve basically been a coach for a long time.”
Similarly to Casey, Yankees manager Aaron Boone worked as a broadcaster from the time he retired as a player. In fact, he became a color commentator on Sunday Night Baseball with Dan Shulman and Jessica Mendoza for two seasons and was also a part of the radio commentary team for the World Series. Boone continues to remain in the space, as he has partnered with Jomboy Media to appear on the Talkin’ Yanks podcast for a weekly guest spot this season.
The Yankees hope Casey’s ebullient personality and baseball wherewithal will help the team improve its position in the standings after the conclusion of the All-Star Break. His future beyond this season remains unknown, making a potential return to MLB Network possible – but for now, his focus will be on preparing the Yankees on their chase to a 28th World Series championship.
San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel made headlines this week after he abruptly ended an interview on CBS Sports Radio with Zach Gelb. The interview, which was scheduled for 15 minutes and only at the five-minute mark, transitioned into asking Samuel about comments he made regarding last year’s NFC Championship Game against the Philadelphia Eagles. When Samuel answered questions with a sense of apathy and lethargy, he hung up the phone and another voice, presumably a public relations staffer, was heard on the line saying he was going to camp. Ken Carman and Anthony Lima simply would not have stood for it and felt badly for Gelb.
The duo acknowledged the incident on their morning show Wednesday on 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland, Ohio. They made sure to mention they are on good terms with Gelb and do not have any acrimony towards him. Contrarily, fans of the 49ers and Eagles are not pleased with his line of questioning. Upon listening to the audio for the first time, Lima strongly disagreed.
“It’s fine to ask about that,” Lima said. “It’s fun, maybe a budding rivalry here because both teams are expected to be good again.”
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Burdy suffered an injury early in the contest and his team’s defense was unable to stop the explosive offense of the Eagles, suffering a 31-7 defeat. The Eagles went on to lose Super Bowl LVII to the Kansas City Chiefs two weeks later from State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz.
“I didn’t understand the 49ers fans going after him for asking the question,” Carman said. “….You can hear it in Zach’s voice [that he’s] trying to have fun, but I’m sure Deebo Samuel doesn’t know Zach and maybe he thinks he’s trying to do a ‘Gotcha’?”
If the incident had happened on their show, Carman and Lima agreed that they would spend the remaining time the interview was supposed to last to staunchly criticize his actions. Gelb did not do that, but was understandably perturbed at what transpired. Had Lima been in his position though, he would have tried to keep the other person on the line for an extended period of time.
“Just to annoy everybody, [I would have said], ‘Hey, how can you get tickets to camp? Oh, it’s actually closed to the public – well is there a way we can come and get autographs after camp?,’” Lima contrived. “I would keep her on [for] as long as possible and make it excruciating for everybody involved.”
Twitter is undergoing a challenge from upstart social media platform Threads. The text-based app from Instagram is billed as Twitter challenger, and Newsmax host Eric Bolling thinks the purported mass exodus means nothing for the Elon Musk-owned platform.
“What Twitter did violates the First Amendment and Twitter never declared numerous contributions made to the Biden campaign,” the Eric Bolling The Balance host said Tuesday night. So when Elon Musk bought Twitter, it was, and still is, the left-wing media’s worst nightmare,” argued Bolling. “But the corporate media is scared of the impact of what a free Twitter can do. People can access any information they want. That’s scary for the left and their counterparts in the media, so they get all hysterical and call it a Nazi platform filled with white rage. Can’t make this stuff up.”
He then played a clip of MSNBC host Joy Reid saying that she no longer uses Twitter because she “doesn’t want to give Elon any content”, and has found everything she used to get from Twitter on Threads.
“How will they ever survive without you, Joy Reid?,” Bolling asked, sarcastically. “Calling Twitter a Nazi platform is the left’s way of writing off anything they disagree with. Also, let’s be honest, the reason Joy Reid loves Facebook now is because Mark Zuckerberg spent hundreds of millions of dollars to help Joe Biden’s campaign in 2020.
“The far left and corporate media is truly afraid of what will happen in 2024 with a free Twitter. In a country with a free press, you think journalists would welcome all of this, but that seems to be happening.”
Bolling concluded by questioning why Musk’s stated intention for the app — a free-speech platform completely deregulated — is a viewed as a bad thing.
As Threads continues to grow rapidly — featuring more than 100 million users after five days of existence — many are questioning the future of Twitter. Place MSNBC host Joy Reid firmly in that camp.
During The Reid Out, Reid gave a personal example as reasoning for why she questions the future of the platform owned by Elon Musk.
“I’m just gonna give you myself as an example. I’m somebody who — I stopped using Twitter quite a long time ago. I don’t tweet and I don’t want to give Elon any content,” Reid stated. “But every so often, I would check it, just as an aggregator, just to see if there’s any news in there in between the Nazi tweets.
“I stopped doing that, because it’s like, I don’t want to have to read through Nazi crap just to see what’s in the news. Threads? Since that has launched there’s, to me, no reason to check Twitter anymore. All of the major — Nato blog is on there, The Washington Post is on there. All the stuff I would normally read. I can aggregate it on Threads. Twitter now is useless to me. If people like me are leaving, I don’t know how Twitter survives.”
Some reports have claimed that Twitter has experienced an extreme drop in traffic since the launch of Threads. However, Twitter CEO Linda Yaccrino claimed the site featured its busiest day since February last week.
Former United States Women’s National Team (USWNT) defensive midfielder Leslie Osborne, United States Men’s National Team (USMNT) defender Jimmy Conrad and Colombia National Team midfielder Melissa Ortiz will anchor the World Cup Now show on Twitter. The interactive pregame and postgame program will be available for people to watch on the network’s social media platforms in addition to in-match previews.
“We pride ourselves on bringing best-in-class coverage to the biggest live events in the world,” Michael Bucklin, FOX Sports Senior Vice President, Digital, said in a statement. “Like for a Super Bowl, World Series or Men’s World Cup, we’re bringing our A-game to our digital offerings for 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.”
Studio analysts at the World Cup, including Carli Lloyd, Heather O’Reilly and Karina LeBlanc, will engage in candid discussion and intuitive forecasting on World Cup Now and other programming. Pregame iterations of the show will highlight the event venue, players and teams. After the game, the program will be predicated on highlights, reaction and analysis – and clips throughout the day will be shared on social media.
At the end of all 31 days of the quadrennial tournament, World Cup Daily articles will be penned and shared online to recap the day and preview what is to come.
Osborne previously worked with FOX Sports on its coverage of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada and France, rendering this year’s proceedings her third consecutive appearance. Over her playing career, she appeared for the U.S. Women’s National Team 62 times and placed third in the FIFA Women’s World Cup China 2007.
Upon her retirement, she began working with various former USWNT teammates Brandi Chastain, Danielle Slaton and the aforementioned Wagner as an owner and co-founder of Bay FC. The San Francisco, Calif.-based National Women’s Soccer League expansion franchise, created in partnership with investment firm Sixth Street, will begin play in 2024.
After a storied national career with 28 international caps as a member of the USMNT and an MLS Cup championship, Conrad returns to FOX Sports as a digital host and analyst for this year’s competition.
Conrad made his FOX Sports debut at the 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup in Qatar while serving as the technical director for the San Francisco Glens Soccer Club in USL League Two (USL2).
Ortiz makes her second appearance with FOX Sports as a digital analyst and host, bringing skill and expertise cultivated throughout her international career. While on the field, she was a critical part of Colombia qualifying for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada and played professionally across various different leagues.
Since retiring, Ortiz has become an active TikTok user and co-founded an artisan-roasted coffee company called Kickoff Coffee Co.
“Leslie, Jimmy and Melissa are exciting personalities with vast experience playing for their country on the world’s greatest stage,” Bucklin added. “They’ll be joined daily by top experts and analysts from our television desk to engage fans before and after every single match of the tournament live from our beautiful digital set in Australia.”
Aside from World Cup Now, FOX Sports will provide unparalleled coverage of the global competition before, during and after matchups. FOX Sports insiders Laken Litman and Doug McIntyre will deliver reports and tell the stories throughout the proceedings, on hand for all USWNT matches.
Jenny Taft, the network’s lead college football reporter and former FOX Sports 1 studio host, will also work as an insider for the USWNT. The team is looking to capture its third-straight FIFA Women’s World Cup championship.
FOX Sports is utilizing five game commentary teams to cover the international competition, led by JP Dellacamera and Aly Wagner. Other commentators making the trip include Kate Scott, John Strong, Warren Barton and Jacqui Oatley. Rob Stone will serve as the network’s studio host across World Cup coverage.
Alexi Lalas and David Mosse will also record a daily episode of his podcast, Alexi Lalas’ State of the Union, while he is in Sydney, Australia.
Lalas has been the lead studio analyst for the network’s soccer coverage since 2015 and experienced immense success as a member of the USMNT. In 2006, he was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame for his excellence on defense and recently called the 2023 Concacaf Gold Cup.
Fans interested in engaging with the show can call the podcast hotline – (657) 549-2297 – for a chance to make their voices heard. All episodes are available wherever you get your podcasts, and clips are frequently shared on social media.
FOX Sports will stream World Cup matches in 4K resolution through connected TV platforms and Roku devices. Viewers away from a television can utilize their phones or tablets to watch the matches live using the FOX Sports App. Streaming devices will have the functionality to catch up with a select matchup by viewing highlights in real time.
The FOX Sports app and website will also feature the FIFA World Cup Hub, which will update matchup scores, statistics and standings. Additionally, it will contain full replays of all 64 matches, the ability for users to access bonus feeds and exclusive original content.
The spring numbers are out in Atlanta, and 92.9 The Game had plenty of reason to celebrate this quarter. The Atlanta sports station posted strong numbers across all dayparts including in morning drive where it recently made changes.
The Morning Shift featuring Tiffany Blackmon, Mike Johnson and Beau Morgan scored an 8.4 share for the quarter. The new trio joined the lineup in March after former host and ex-NFL player Hugh Douglas left for WIP in Philadelphia. In their very first book, Blackmon, Johnson, and Morgan ranked second overall, and had the top performance of any show on the station during the spring ratings period.
Turning to middays, The Game had two shows finish in 3rd place. The Steakhouse with Steak Shapiro and Sandra Golden registered a 6.9 rating from 9a-11a while Andy & Randy with Andy Bunker and Randy McMichael generated a 7.2 from 11a-2p.
Moving to afternoon drive, the popular team of Dukes & Bell claimed 2nd in their timeslot. The five-hour afternoon show enjoyed a 6.9 share during the spring.
Forget the old rumors about Atlanta not being a good sports town. 92.9 The Game proved there are plenty of people interested in conversations about the local teams. The station delivered a 6.9 rating in weekday prime (M-F 6a-7p) to finish 3rd overall in the target demo.
Data for the market’s other sports radio brand, 680 The Fan, was not available this quarter.
With all of the opinions and hot takes that are out there in sports media, any platform is going to find it tough to please everyone with their thoughts on a particular subject. From co-founding The Big Lead to his journey to now being a co-host with Colin Cowherd on The Herd, Jason McIntyre knows that while he can’t please everyone, he needs to make sure people have an opinion of him one way or the other.
McIntyre was a guest on The Colin Cowherd Podcast on Wednesday, and he mentioned that when he was running The Big Lead, the goal for him was to write about the stories that people were going to care the most about.
“When you try to please everybody, you please nobody….You wake up, your alarm to wake up is probably on your phone and instantly you have a rundown of what happened that matters. I know there are NHL purists who believe that the NHL Draft was crazy – I’m sure it was. But, the number of people who care about that does not matter to me running a website. People want to know what’s going on in the NBA, NFL, college football, and then they want the other stuff (Britney Spears vs. Victor Wembanyama). They love those wacky stores that anyone can relate to.
“When I got a radio show at FOX Sports Radio, you told me play the hits. You can lead with Aaron Rodgers one day, Cowboys the next day. Play the big stories – people care about that deeply. As much as I want to bag on the Houston Texans, I can’t open a show with that on my podcast; I wasn’t blogging much about the inferior teams in the NFL. You’ve got to give the people what they want.”
Even though McIntyre and Cowherd might end up disagreeing on a topic on the show, McIntyre mentioned that there is not one take that Cowherd can have that is going to make him very angry.
“I don’t think you have the ability to piss me off with any take you have because I’m kind of level-headed,” McIntyre said. “Colin might be wrong; he might be right, but we are all in this business – we are going to whiff.
“There’s a lot of people who don’t take chances Colin because they are afraid. They want to be very milquetoast, right down the middle. They don’t want to take any chances and go after people. I’m not afraid to go after people…I can’t get outraged by others. I don’t want to be the guy that pushes you to outrage, but in 2023, you want people loving you or hating you, you don’t want them indifferent.”
Laurence Holmes of 670 The Score knows what it takes to communicate effectively, especially in a crisis.
Last week before the start of the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, Nevada, a member of San Antonio Spurs rookie Victor Wembanyama‘s security detail allegedly struck pop superstar Britney Spears. The incident took place at Catch restaurant in the Aria, and it left Spears and those in the worlds of sports and entertainment flabbergasted to say the least. Spears addressed the crisis on Tuesday on her Instagram page and acknowledged the lack of a public apology. Members of the phenom’s security team apologized to Wembanyama about a half hour after the encounter, and no charges will be filed against the security guard.
In remarks to the media, Wembanyama said that he remembers a person grabbing him from behind and security guards promptly dealing with her, although he did not know with how much force. Wembanyama is now reportedly going to be taking a break from the media to focus on basketball and prepare for the upcoming 2023-24 regular season. The summer league debut of the Spurs center was the second most-watched Summer League game in ESPN’s history. Additionally, tickets for the matchup were, on average, $96, the highest mark ever recorded for the Summer League.
During 670 The Score’s transition segment from Mike Mulligan and David Hough to Dan Bernstein and Laurence Holmes, the production team played back the audio of Spears recalling what transpired. Spears specifically conveyed her thoughts towards comments made saying she deserved to be hit, expressing her utter disgust and sentiment that no woman should ever be hit. The lack of action from the National Basketball Association and the San Antonio Spurs, especially with a player projected to be a perennial superstar, is an evident shortcoming of this example of crisis public relations.
“There’s a missed opportunity here with Britney,” Holmes said. “What the NBA should have done is they should have said, ‘Ms. Spears, we’re sorry about the misunderstanding that happened with you and the security team. We would love it if you could come sit courtside for the debut of Victor Webanyama. Victor has expressed that he would love for you to be there as well.’”
By having Wembanyama meet Spears before his first game, Holmes assumes that the clash can be resolved and dissipate out of mainstream conversation. A deluge of Spears’ most ardent fans have spoken out against Wembanyama and the Spurs organization, hoping for his downfall and demanding he apologize. Holmes likens the ideal outcome of the situation to the moment during the NBA Playoffs between Denver Nuggets center and NBA champion Nikola Jokić and Phoenix Suns owner Matt Ishbia. During a playoff game, Jokić inadvertently shoved Ishbia, unbeknownst to him, while he was trying to retrieve a basketball that went out of bounds.
“You have Victor meet Britney courtside; they hug [and] they squash the beef,” Holmes said. “Everything’s good…. Someone should put me in their crisis P.R. staff.”
Victor Wembanyama – Courtesy: Michael Gonzales, Getty Images | Britney Spears – Courtesy: Frances Iacuzzi
Both Mulligan and Haugh concur with Holmes regarding his idea for Spears and Wembanyama to make up following the altercation in Las Vegas. Even so, Bernstein believes that navigating through the public relations crisis this has caused is more difficult because of the statements being made.
“Phase one is reaction; phase one of crisis P.R. is the crisis,” Bernstein explained. “It is what is happening; damage control, etc. Phase two is answering the harder questions, ‘What are you going to do about it? What are you going to do now?’ They’re not even answering questions; they’re not available.”
SuperTalk 99.7 WTN is adding Chris Hand as the station’s new midday host.
Hand will take over the 9:00 AM-Noon timeslot on the Nashville news/talk station. The window was previously occupied by Michael DelGiorno, who exited the Cumulus Media station in March after a 16-year run. Pamela Furr spent the majority of the past months hosting the timeslot on an interim basis before declaring that she was not the permanent host last week.
In making the announcement on Twitter, Hand said he is “Humbled to be a part of this legendary station,” before tagging new colleagues Dan Mandis, Matt Murphy, and Brian Wilson.
Hand rejoins SuperTalk 99.7 WTN after a brief stint as the Media Director for Turning Point USA, the conservative advocacy group founded by Charlie Kirk. Hand joined the conservative group after working as a host and producer at WTN from October of last year to April of this year.
He has previous stints working for Steel City Media, CBS Radio, and iHeartMedia.
“We’re thrilled to have Armstrong & Getty as part of the evening lineup at WBEN,” Operations Manager and Audacy News/Talk Vice President Tim Wenger said. “Their entertaining approach to current events and politics is a refreshing way to cap off the daylong programming on the station.”
The show will replace The Dana Show with Dana Loesch in the station’s lineup.
“We’re excited to join the list of great radio voices that have been part of Buffalo and WBEN. Now, more than ever, it’s important that folks get a perspective from outside the mainstream media. We’re here to be that honest voice,” Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty said in a joint statement.
