When the “Sweet 16” round tips off tonight in college basketball’s March Madness, executives at CBS can’t wait – for the first commercial. The annual hoops championships is not only eagerly anticipated by fans and alumni but by the bean-counters looking to cash in on the 14-year, $10.8 billion deal the network signed with the […]
Sports
Posted inThe Download
Jared Remy’s rage – and the fallout in the announcers’ booth
A picture can be worth a thousand words, and the shot of a steroid-bulked Jared Remy staring blankly at his murder arraignment last August said plenty, splayed out across the front page of Sunday’s Boston Globe. But you had to read the 8,000 words that come with it to understand the full depravity of Remy’s […]
Posted inThe Download
Derek Jeter is just the ticket
Leave it to a Yankee to spotlight the absurdity of Massachusetts ticket scalping and reselling laws. Shortstop Derek Jeter, a surefire first-ballot Hall of Famer, announced the upcoming season – his 20th in professional baseball – will be his last. Predictably, all seats that were available for the final series at Yankee stadium were scooped […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download
Can the Bay State think big about the Olympics?
With the Sochi Olympics as a backdrop, the Legislature’s Olympics special commission ponders whether the state’s capital city is up to the challenge of hosting the world’s premier sporting event in 2024. There are questions of Olympic proportions to consider: What happens to an Olympic village after the athletes go home? Can the MBTA bump […]
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Dell dating Middlebrooks
Red Sox third baseman Will Middlebrooks tweeted a photo of himself and NESN reporter Jenny Dell celebrating together on New Year’s Eve. The happy couple looked like they were having a good time, but the photo raised more than a few eyebrows around town since reporters typically don’t sleep with the people they cover. The […]
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UMass football losing more than games
A new report says the cost of the UMass Amherst football program keeps growing, and so does the support required from students and taxpayers. The Boston Globe reports that students and taxpayers have spent $1 million more than projected to fund the first two seasons of the team’s upgrade to elite collegiate competition. That financial […]
Posted inEducation, The Download
Challenging the myth of college sports
Odds are unless you’re a devout follower of college basketball, you probably barely remember Ed O’Bannon. That, however, could change if the former member of the 1995 UCLA national champion team succeeds in a lawsuit that would dramatically alter the way college sports are operated. O’Bannon is the lead plaintiff in a suit against the […]
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Hall pass
Another election, another controversy, though this one may not have the same impact as the presidential race or even the special Senate election. But the results of the Baseball Hall of Fame voting will certainly generate as much discussion as either of those votes. For the first time since 1996 and only the eighth time […]
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A heads-up for youth sports
Buried inside the Globe’s Sunday sports section was a story about a Pop Warner football game last month where five children between the ages of 10 and 12 suffered concussions. All of the injured children played for the Tantasqua Pee Wees, who lost the game to a team from Southbridge by a score of 52-0. […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service, The Download
The Big Lug is in trouble
It’s the ninth inning, bases loaded, no outs, and the Big Lug (aka Curt Schilling) is on the mound, trying to keep the dreams of his video game company alive. The facts are few but very troubling. Schilling’s 38 Studios earlier this month missed a payment deadline on a $1.1 million annual fee owed the […]