THIS WEEK:
- Steve speaks
- Numbers game
- Delay doldrums
Lyons answers criticism with candor and confidence; Pats-Colts score in ratings; Sylvester talks Pats? radio
Two weeks ago, Media Blitz opined that Fox was right in firing baseball
analyst Steve Lyons for some racially insensitive comments.
Just as review, during the recent 2006 ALCS between Oakland and
Detroit, Fox analyst Lou Piniella initially said that the surprising play of Oakland?
s Marco Scutaro was akin to finding a wallet.
Subsequently, Piniella used the terms "en fuego" and "frio" in his
commentary. Lyons then stated that Piniella was ?hablaing Espanol? and added, ?I
still can?t find my wallet. I don?t understand him (Piniella) and I don?t
want to sit too close to him now.?
Fox reportedly received numerous complaints. The remarks were also
perceived as controversial because Piniella comes from Spanish descent.
Lyons, a three-time Emmy winner and Fox?s number two baseball analyst,
was fired while on the plane ride home from the game. Media Blitz had a candid
conversation with Lyons this past week and the discourse shed some new light
on the recent developments.
?I had a hard time finding anyone who thought I should have been fired,?
says Lyons, who has retained his job as a Los Angeles Dodgers analyst. ?
There are some people who don?t like my style, but when a situation happens in a
game, I feel like I can break it down as well as anyone.
?I am more casual in style than hardcore. I have fun with the game. I
would not have changed what I said because I've always maintained that my joke
was about a wallet, not about anybody's ethnic background. If I made a
mistake, it was combining my statement with Lou (Piniella) speaking Spanish.?
Lyons publicly apologized for his comments and said he did not mean to
offend Piniella or anyone. I believe him and I don?t think he should be
labeled a racist. But given these ultra-sensitive times and the diverse cultures
tuning in, why would he even go there?
He responds, ?I didn?t think I was going there. My joke was about Lou
taking my wallet. Had Fox fired me because I was jokingly implying that, they
would have had a better case.
?They fired me for making comments that the network could not tolerate,
so people go back and look at it again. It looks ten times worse on a
transcript that it does when I said it. I?ve been doing national baseball for eleven
years. I know when I?ve said something wrong.?
Lyons firing may have been an offshoot of two previous treks into the
controversial. One involved a Fox camera shot of a fan wearing special glasses
during a 2006 Mets-Dodgers NLDS broadcast. Play-by-play man Thom Brennaman and
Lyons made light of the fan who, it turns out, was 85% blind.
Says Lyons, ?I never heard anything from Fox about that. The man was on
camera for 53 seconds and we had to say something. No one knew he was blind.
I really regret saying that he was wearing a virtual reality mask, but I didn?
t know.?
Another incident involved Shawn Green?s dilemma of sitting out a game
during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur in 2004. Lyons joked that Green
struggling with the decision, and he never had a bar mitzvah, so he couldn?t even
take advantage of receiving money as a gift.
He states, ?I like Shawn a lot and I knew he was troubled by his
decision to play or not. I was trying to make him feel better. I am not Jewish and I
had no idea I was offending anyone.
?People don?t remember that earlier in that game, I said that I loved
Shawn Green as a player and everyone wishes that they had a brother like him.
I will stand up to that incident and admit that I made a mistake. Saying I
didn't mean it is never good enough in my business."
Regarding the most recent exchange with Piniella, Lyons states, ?My
joke was about a wallet, not about him speaking Spanish. I didn?t know that Lou
was Spanish, but it wouldn't have affected what I said because it didn't matter
what nationality he was.
?I didn't even know my own nationality until I was 21 years old and
somebody asked me. I had to call my Mom to find out. We never cared about ours or
anybody else's.?
?I?ve never thought in terms of race. I have a biracial grandson. I
like to have fun when doing a game. That?s how I got my job. The network always
encouraged me to speak off the cuff. Lou laughed harder than anyone at what I
said. We had dinner after the game and he said that was the best exchange we
had.?
Given the sensitive racial times in which we live, Fox?s dismissal of
Lyons remains valid, but after speaking with the articulate and clearly
thoughtful Lyons, I get the feeling that this firing was more about Fox?s past
issues
with Lyons and less about the most recent controversy.
The fact is that both Piniella and Brennaman defended Lyons, but to no
avail. Moreover, Lyons says he was in negotiations with Fox for a new contract
when the incident occurred.
Lyons? Fox work made up 80% of his salary. His local work with the
Dodgers in Los Angeles accounts for his other income. ?Thankfully, the Dodgers
stepped up big time,? says Lyons.
?I'm so proud to be a part of the Dodgers organization. It took courage
for them to stand up to my firing from the Network (Fox), but had they fired
me too, I would have been an ex-broadcaster, labeled as a racist with no job
prospects.?
Rivalry ratings
Sunday?s Pats-Colts game averaged 21.98 million viewers, one percent
higher than last year?s Indy at New England tilt on ABC. According to Nielsen
Media Research, Sunday?s game scored a 14.0 household rating and 22 share, two
percent lower than the Indianapolis-New England matchup on Monday night last
year.
NBC states that Sunday?s game was the fourth highest rated prime time
NFL matchup in the last five years, a number that is even more impressive given
the tough competition.
The Pats and Colts logged an 8.6 rating with adults ages 18-49 on the
way to winning the night in primetime. "NBC Sunday Night Football" outscored
all of its head-to-head competition, including a new episode of ABC?s wildly
popular "Desperate Housewives"
According to NBC, 50 million viewers watched all or part of Sunday?s
game. Overall, "NBC Sunday Night Football" is averaging 17.8 million viewers
through nine games, 11 percent better than ABC?s ?Monday Night Football? through
nine games in 2005.
Indianapolis scored the highest national rating/share for Sunday?s game
with a 47.8/60. Boston was second at 32.6/49 and Providence was third at
31.1/43.
Howie?s house
Several fans at Sunday?s game commented that the radio broadcast of the
contest on 104.1 FM WBCN is several seconds behind the live action. Media
Blitz had received a few emails from readers voicing the same views.
Howie Sylvester is the producer of Patriots broadcasts on WBCN, the
Patriots? flagship station. He states, ?WBCN is now broadcasting in what is
commonly referred to as HD Radio.
?It?s a new digital technology that will eventually become the
standard for all terrestrial radio broadcasting, and it allows us to broadcast on two
subchannels along with our main channel that you hear on regular radio.
?The downside of this technology is that the signal is delayed by about
8 seconds in processing.?
Another reason for the delay is related to FCC regulated content. Says
Sylvester, ?CBS Radio (owner of WBCN) has required that all its radio
stations broadcast in delay 24/7 to prevent obscenities from getting on the air.
?In the past, live sports events were exempt from this, but because of
the increased fines the FCC has handed out recently (over $300,000 per
occurrence), they?ve decided to delay sports as well.
?We?re using a four-second delay in our broadcasts, so overall, Gil
(Santos) and Gino?s (Cappelletti) call averages out about twelve seconds behind
real time.?
Producers like Sylvester are not blind to the effects on fans, but see
the bigger picture. ?Believe me, we understand the frustration the fans in the
stands are feeling,? says Sylvester.
?But for TV viewers with DVRs (digital video recorders similar to
TiVo), it?s now even easier to sync up our broadcast to what?s on TV. Just pause
your TV until Gil & Gino catch up.
?This is one of those situations where you can?t make everyone happy.
It seems our largest constituency is watching the game at home, and eventually
they?ll all have DVRs, so we hope this serves the most possible listeners.?
John Molori's columns are published in The Boston Metro, Patriots Football
Weekly, ColdHardFootballFacts.com, Boston Sports Review, Boston Baseball
Magazine, Methuen Life, TheRemyReport.com, PatsFans.com, BostonSportsReview.com,
BostonPressBox.com, BostonSportsMedia.com and BostonSportz.com. Email John at
MoloriMedia@aol.com.
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