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Barstool Arizona Bowl Presentation Is Everything Major League Baseball Needs

Garrett Searight
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It always appears to me that whatever Barstool Sports does is divisive. It’s either beloved or completely hated, with hardly any room for a middle ground.

Last week, Barstool Sports televised the Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl, with Jake Marsh serving as play-by-play announcer alongside Dan “Big Cat” Katz, and Barstool founder Dave Portnoy. The broadcast drew mixed reviews from the Wyoming and Ohio fans that saw their teams participate in the bowl.

In full disclosure, I’d never call myself a “Stoolie”. I’m not a Barstool fan, and I’m not a Barstool hater. They have done some incredible things, like the Barstool Fund to help save small businesses during the pandemic, have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charitable causes during times of tragedy, and from a media aspect, have created some of the finest podcasts in the space. However, they also have had their fair share of foot-in-mouth moments that makes it difficult for an unbiased observer to fully embrace the dude-bro culture of the outlet.

But from my standpoint, the Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl broadcast was a smashing success, and any other sports event, series, league, or conference that is or would be struggling for viewers should consider partnering with the empire.

The camera shots, graphics, replays, and overall presentation were top notch. Honestly, it was probably better than what ESPN would have provided for a third-tier bowl game. Barstool Sports treated the game like it was the National Championship Game, because to the online outlet, it was. It was a test balloon for them, and they passed with flying colors.

Now, the announcers were where the “mixed reviews” portion came into play. From my standpoint, Marsh was fantastic. He did a great job controlling the broadcast in — at times — a somewhat chaotic environment. Eventually, Big Cat and Davey Pageviews got in the swing of things and realized they needed to let Marsh call the action before trying to interrupt the play with their thoughts.

Katz and Portnoy went back and forth throughout the broadcast with unlimited candor — in true Barstool fashion — about who they were rooting for. Literally, on Wyoming’s first drive with less than two minutes gone in the first quarter, Katz said “I’m a MAC guy, and I’m rooting for Ohio”.

Essentially, the divide is down generational lines. Older viewers and fans were embarrassed that their prestigious, venerable, bastians of higher education would be associated with such a classless presentation. Meanwhile, younger viewers and fans were entertained by the complete lack of usual decorum and the frank nature broadcast.

Like it or hate it, Wyoming and Ohio playing in the Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl brought unrivaled reach. Outside of securing the Group of Five spot in the New Years Six bowl games, no other bowl site would have offered those programs more attention than the Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl.

And that’s where Major League Baseball comes in. I’m not sure if they’ve noticed, but MLB has seen a Grand Canyon-wide gap expand between the NFL and NBA as the country’s top two sports, with MLB now trailing well behind. We could examine why that is — which is a whole column in itself — but one of the reasons is the stuffy baseball broadcast and lack of reach.

A partnership with Barstool Sports for a weekly broadcast — similar to the YouTube Game of the Week, or the league’s current partnership with AppleTV — helps solve both of these problems. Will fans of the MLB teams participating in the games hate the presentation? In all likelihood, yeah. But the casual fan — the fan that MLB needs to attract more of, and rapidly — is likely to watch the Barstool Sports broadcast and be entertained.

Whether it wants to recognize it or not, baseball’s television broadcast future relies on gambling content as much as it relies upon broad reach. Barstool Sports isn’t going to offer the same reach as ESPN, FOX, or TBS, but it will bring heaps of entertainment, gambling content, and a newfound dedicated fan base.

To its credit, Barstool Sports has created a cult-like following. “Stoolies” will do whatever Portnoy, Big Cat, PFT Commenter, Kevin Clancy, and company tell them to do. And by god, if they say watch Major League Baseball on Barstool.TV, then their fans are going to do it.

If the Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl was a proof-of-concept presentation that the growing media empire can produce top quality game broadcasts, they passed with flying colors. Hopefully, other sports leagues and events in need of more attention, notice, and viewers took note, because Barstool proved they’re a player in the space.

KIRO Host Dori Monson Dies

BNM Staff
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Longtime KIRO midday host Dori Monson has died at the age of 61.

The Seattle radio legend reportedly suffered from a medical issue on Thursday, December 29th, before passing away on December 31st at a Seattle hospital.

“We, along with Dori’s family, are mourning his loss,” said Bonneville Seattle Senior Vice President and Market Manager Cathy Cangiano. “We are working on on-air tributes to memorialize and celebrate his life and legacy.”

Monson began his storied Seattle career with KING-TV and KING-AM in 1982 before migrating to KIRO in the early 1990s. He also worked as the pre-game and post-game host for the Seattle Seahawks radio broadcasts.

Monson hosted from 12:00-3:00 PM on the Seattle station — which finished the fall ratings period as the second highest-rated station in the market — and was widely viewed as the city’s longest conservative radio voice.

“Seattle is a very liberal place,” he told Barrett News Media’s Jim Cryns earlier this year. “I think people view me here as someone who can help balance the rest of the media. I have things to discuss that aren’t political. I want to be a companion for people stuck in traffic. Make them laugh. I take a great deal of pride in that.”

According to the station, Monson leaves behind a wife and three daughters.

In addition to his work at KIRO, Monson was the coach of the Shorecrest High School girls basketball team from 2010 to 2017, winning the 2016 Washington AA State Championship.

Dickey Broadcasting To Present Radio Megacast Of Peach Bowl

BSM Staff
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Dickey Broadcasting To Present Radio Megacast Of Peach Bowl

With the Georgia Bulldogs in the hunt for another national championship, it’s likely that most Atlanta sports fans will be locked into the Peach Bowl on Saturday. ESPN has already unveiled its plans to give fans several ways to take in the action and Dickey Broadcasting’s Atlanta radio stations are set to do the same.

Three stations will be involved in the radio megacast. Fans will be able to choose from two different versions of local coverage or the national feed.

ESPN is producing the national radio broadcast, which will feature Joe Tessitore and Greg McElroy. That broadcast will air on ESPN Atlanta 103.7.

680 The Fan will produce its own play-by-play broadcast of the game. Ben Ingram, the voice of the Atlanta Braves, will be joined by two fan personalities in the booth. Former Bulldogs quarterback Hutson Mason and Chuck Oliver will provide analysis. Brandon Joseph will work the sidelines for the game.

Finally, there will be a radio take on the Manningcast. Dickey’s news/talk station Xtra 106.3 FM will feature the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl FanCast. Chris Mooneyham, Justin Hanover and Steve West will comment on the action while taking listener calls and welcoming special guests to give their take on what is happening on the field.

The Peach Bowl is set to kick off at 8 pm Eastern time on Saturday. The Georgia Bulldogs and Ohio State Buckeyes will play for the right to face the winner of the Fiesta Bowl in LA on January 9 for the National Championship.

Laurence Holmes: ‘Adam Amin Was Ready to Fight Grayson Allen’

BSM Staff
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Grayson Allen has earned his reputation as a dirty player. Wednesday night was just more evidence of his desire to take altercations on the court a little too far. The Chicago Bulls television crew called him out for it, and 670 The Score’s Laurence Holmes said he loved every second of it.

“My man was ready to fight Grayson Allen yesterday, and I was right there with him,” he said Thursday morning.

In the third quarter of the Bucks’ game against the Chicago Bulls, Allen delivered a forearm shiver to DeMar DeRozan as the’ guard set a pick. The move sent DeRozan to the ground. Allen’s Bucks teammates surrounded him as DeRozan hopped up looking for revenge.

Adam Amin and Stacey King, who call Bulls’ games for NBC Sports Chicago were noticeably angry with Allen. Amin pointed out that before he even got the NBA, he had been accused of taking cheap shots at opponents four times while he was at Duke.

“Just because you got pushed doesn’t give you cart blanch to do that,” Amin shouted as Allen tried to convince the refs that he did not make a dirty move against DeRozan, but that he was instead shoved into the Bulls’ All-Star. “That is why it is frustrating to watch a talented player like Grayson Allen keep getting involved in stupid, dumb, dirty moments.” 

Holmes said it was interesting to see Adam Amin be the one to go so over the top with his anger, because it is usually Stacey King that is accused of reacting emotionally to hard fouls. He added that their reaction to Grayson Allen was a clear sign of the duo’s chemistry.

“What you heard in there also was a testatment to how great their partnership is.” he said. “What happened was, you really listen to the clip, Stacey was getting less angry because Adam was getting more angry.”

Joe Rogan Says Elon Musk Didn’t Handle @ElonJet Right

BNM Staff
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Elon Musk made headlines for banning the @ElonJet Twitter account and others that tracked the location of his private plane earlier this month. Initially, he offered the account’s owner $5000 to stop. Joe Rogan thinks the billionaire didn’t handle it in the best way.

According to Rogan, if Musk’s actions did anything, they exposed the account to more people than previously knew about it.

“People are paying attention to it,” he said this week on The Joe Rogan Experience. “He might be able to monetize it.”

Musk faced criticism for removing the accounts that reported on his plane’s location. Keith Olbermann, one of the journalists temporarily suspended from the platform, called the Twitter CEO a “lying, hypocritical, paranoid snowflake” in response to the decision.

Joe Rogan disagrees with the criticism. In his mind, the existence of the account is so strange that Musk’s disdain for it is understandable.

“It’s definitely weird and I would not like it at all. I don’t think it’s a nice thing to do.”

This Is SportsCenter Commercials To Return During Orange Bowl

BSM Staff
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The “This is SportsCenter” campaign is every bit as iconic a part of ESPN’s history as its flagship show and its theme song. The first commercial in the campaign debuted in 1994. The ads ran regularly until 2019.

Typically, the ads starred a mix of ESPN personalities, star athletes and team mascots. Some SportsCenter anchors became fan favorites in the commercials.

A new generation of “This is SportsCenter” ads are set to make their debut. Audiences will see the first one on Friday night during ESPN’s coverage of the Orange Bowl.

ESPN is debuting the right ad for the occasion too. The first new “This is SportsCenter” ad will feature US Women’s National Team members Megan Rapinoe, Becky Sauerbrunn, and Sophia Smith and SportsCenter anchor Nicole Briscoe enjoying orange slices as Syracuse mascot Otto the Orange looks on in horror.

“This is SportsCenter is iconic, and a campaign that everyone knows and loves. It is at the core of who we are at ESPN, and we’re thrilled it’s returning at a key time in the sports calendar,” Laura Gentile, Disney’s and ESPN’s Executive Vice President of Commercial Marketing, said in a press release. “This is SportsCenter featured timeless creative dating back to the mid-1990s, and it’s our job to uphold this standard and build upon it in new ways.”

More new ads in the campaign are set to debut throughout 2023.

Elon Musk: ‘Corporate Journalism’ is Defending The State Over People

BNM Staff
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Criticizing the establishment media is nothing new for Elon Musk. The Twitter CEO continued that trend this week, asking why his release of “The Twitter Files” has been met with skepticism.

“Why is corporate journalism rushing to defend the state instead of the people?” the billionaire tweeted in response to a piece on Leighton Woodhouse’s Substack account.

Musk has provided details about Twitter’s previous leadership working with government agencies to suppress stories to independent journalists Bari Weiss and Matt Taibbi. The reports have been released one at a time since the beginning of December.

While Elon Musk was criticized as a hypocrite after banning journalists from Twitter himself this month while still promoting the Twitter Files in the name of transparency and free speech, their impact has not been dulled.

Previous editions of the Twitter Files have highlighted the platform’s role in shaping Covid-19 information, coordination between the FBI and the platform, and suppression of the New York Post’s story about Hunter Biden.

NBA Media Rights Talks Expected To Begin In Summer

BSM Staff
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With the MLS having recently completed its deals with Apple and FOX, four of America’s five major sports leagues have their media rights secured for the long term. The only one left is the NBA.

The league has been at the center of much speculation regarding who will get in on the bidding and just how high the dollar figures will go. ESPN/ABC and Turner currently have the national rights for the games. Certainly, they will face competition once negotiations begin.

According to Bill Shea of The Athletic, it could be a few months before we see any serious action. He wrote this week that he expects that the NBA will not start hearing pitches until the summer.

Like every other major league, streaming platforms have been bandied about as potential future homes for the NBA. Amazon, HBO Max, and Apple have all expressed some level of interest. Now that it has secured the rights to NFL Sunday Ticket, Google’s YouTubeTV is seen as a potential player as well.

The league’s expiring deals will be worth $24 billion when they come to an end. Commissioner Adam Silver is said to be looking to make $75 billion for the upcoming deals.

With no movement expected for months, all anyone can do right now is speculate. Whether it is about the media companies involved or the amount they are willing to pay, certainly there will be no shortage of speculation between now and when new deals are announced.

Joe Buck: ‘I’m Proud Of Kevin Burkhardt & FOX’

BSM Staff
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Now that he is calling Monday Night Football games, Joe Buck has more opportunities to see how other television crews around the league operate. He says that he has had the chance to watch a lot of FOX’s top games this season and to digest the first year of Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen, who replaced him and Troy Aikman at that network.

“There have been times where they’ve had the game that involves one of the teams that we’re about to cover that next Monday night. So it’s imperative for me to watch as much as I can,” he told Richard Deitsch of The Athletic. “That’s kind of been the beauty of doing Monday night. Everything’s buttoned up except for your game. That’s a huge difference from doing Thursday night. When you’re doing Thursday night and you’re talking playoff picture, there’s a lot more undecided. You’ve got a lot of playoff implications and scenarios that have been eliminated by the time we go on the air on a Monday. So I watch them all the time, and I’m proud of them.”

Buck admitted that he doesn’t really know Greg Olsen, but that he and Kevin Burkhardt are good friends and talk often. He says he made time to help prepare Burkhardt for the work culture of America’s Game of the Week.

“At least from where I sit, me leaving Fox all ended on a great note. I think Fox got what they wanted, and ESPN got what they wanted. The trades that you make in sports, if they help both teams, then it’s a great trade.”

As much as Joe Buck wants FOX to succeed, he did say that last week was a good reminder of why going to ESPN was such an attractive proposition. Not only is he calling a single game each week, but he also isn’t working on major holidays.

“Come the holidays when I’m at home with my boys and they’re unwrapping presents and I’m watching Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen do a game on TV, part of me is like, ‘That was my former life.’ But the majority of me is like, ‘Man, this feels good that I get this time at home.’”

Jeff Smulyan: ‘What Paul Finebaum Does Works’

BSM Staff
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Emmis CEO Jeff Smulyan is making the media rounds these days. He is out promoting his memoir Never Ride a Roller Coaster Upside Down.

Wednesday afternoon, he was a guest on the Paul Finebaum Show. The host asked Smulyan about his past success, what made a show like Mike & The Mad Dog work, and how Don Imus was able to establish a new business model of putting talk radio on television.

Then Finebaum turned his attention to the future. He asked what the future of mass media consumption looks like. Jeff Smulyan answered that it is hard to know for sure until someone comes up with a guaranteed way to make money in the streaming space.

“You know, I grew up in an era where we had 3 TV stations and 6 radio stations, and today the choices are limitless,” he said. “The most fascinating thing is we’re seeing it in TV as we saw it in radio. Streaming is very attractive for consumers but there’s not a great economic model.”

What Smulyan is sure of is that the audience will always find great talent. For talent, Smulyan said that Finebaum is actually a great model for sustaining a career in the media industry.

“When you connect with an audience and you matter to an audience, that works. It’s very simple.”

He added that there isn’t always a mutually beneficial relationship between a local station and a property like The Paul Finebaum Show, but that hosts like Finebaum make it an easy decision for stations to put them on the air.

“It is hard to be the distributor, because sometimes the distributor doesn’t reap the rewards, but a connection with a community, connection with an audience is what makes the most difference and it always will.”

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