It was rather strange how on the extended Sunday-night sportscast, the Quakes were pretty much the last item mentioned... and more as an afterthought (although a few highlights were shown).       Could the recognition of the Quakes the day after that I mentioned be Mathai's way of "making-up" for not doing it as much the day before?       GO EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
Sparticus’ critique of the various media coverage of the match was well done for a person who had to work the next day. Unfortunately, his grading scale was rather skewed. Rather than the C- he rated KNTV (there’s only two ones), it should have been rated a rather dismal and well-earned F. Vernon Glenn, Joe Fonzi, and Mike Shumann (despite the mispronunciations) were able to cover a “lesser sport” that took place outside of their market area. Dennis O’Donnell is a putz. KPIX would be better suited by replacing O’Donnell with Gray Davis. However, when there is a playoff game in your market area, a dozen blocks from your office, it would seem reasonable to cover it. Raj Mathai had homefield advantage in covering this story and chose to ignore this opportunity. Instead the coverage was pathetic. Mathai should have been on the field with a camera interviewing Donovan, Faria, Goose, Rich, Beast, Ronier, Frank and anyone else, and he should have pronounced their names correctly. There should have been video of the crowd, the faces of Coby, Hartman, and Sigi. There should have been interviews with fans in the stands. Mathai deserves credit for being the Sports Director at a NBC O&O. Yes, he had to cover the NFL first. NFL gets the big billing on Sundays, even if the 2-6 Raiders are playing the 2-6 New York Jets. After all, when the game’s over, someone will be 2-7 and playing golf in January. Look at all the travel agents who now get to make some commissions. It is an embarrassment and a slap in the face, that KNTV (the self-proclaimed “San Jose News-Channel” in days past) a fixture of this community since the early 1950’s chose not to cover this match. NBC and the KNTV management should consider reassigning Mathai as the new host of “Yesterday” considering his hindsight in reporting.
Well said J-Mike. But, as I have done previously on this forum, you are preaching to the Choir. Is Mr. Mathai aware of your sentiments? I would like to think that the sting of his missed opportunity to establish his station as the San Jose news station would make him take notice, but when the head is pushed up that far beyond the rectum, well...The doctors can try to remove it, but there's no guarantees...
An impassioned, however misguided statement. You (above all) should realize that: a) the methods of ENG in the world of sports have changed. If it's not the local NFL game and it's not on a satellite uplink, it's not getting covered. Even the sound that Vern Glenn got in his story was delivered on the satellite uplink. Most TV stations (even here in the "major" markets) don't have ENG crews on weekends that they can commit to a sporting event. Does that make it right? No. But that's the way it is. b) since KNTV became the Bay Area's NBC affiliate, it's no longer concerned with being "The San Jose NewsChannel". It's a 9-county regional television station just like all the others. It's not going to give preferential coverage to a team just because it has "San Jose" in its name. KNTV is no longer a "community" television station...it's a "regional" television station. It's no longer "The San Jose NewsChannel", it's "The Bay Area's NBC".
Misguided? Sparticus...I can imagine finding both of my cats dyed blue and white when I get back from Thanksgiving in Oregon!!! Raj Mathai is a studio/rip'n read reporter no matter what assets they have for weekends. Yes, they do have the resources available to cover that story, after all they would have been even closer to SJSU to cover that dorm incident if they were at Spartan. This was a playoff game. Not the Cup (yet), but a playoff game. Nuff said. Please explain to me the rationale of interviewing an outgoing mayor on a 30 minute "regional" television station's sports wrap up. That isn't developing a regional raport, that's digging in their heels and finger nails to grab onto a San Francisco identity. Keep an eye open for a FOR SALE sign on the Park Avenue studios and a forwarding address to San Francisco... We both know that the San Jose NewsChannel was a snow job from day one.
Don't give me any ideas... No debating that. Their resources are limited to news, not sports. KNTV's ENG crew was on scene at SJSU with a live report. But it was a news crew. Sports is covered inside the office with Raj sitting at the satellite. Indisputably, it was a kiss-up to viewers north of us. Not so fast, my friend...if you believe a true San Jose journalist (and fellow SJSU alum), Leigh Weimers has reported that NBC/KNTV is looking to hang the peacock on one of ths Sobrato buildings at the 280/87 junction. Unfortunately, we will not be allowed to hang Raj Mathai from it as well.
Spartacus, sorry for the misspelling...George got in the way. ENG - Electronic News Gathering. Yes, he sits in an office formerly used by the likes of Tom Janis, Jeff Richmond, and Rich Chavez. He's got a monitor in his office, not to mention a phone, a compooter, and other devices to keep him informed of the sports world. The Raiders' game was over by 4:30. He had a whopping 4 minute news cast at 5 or 6. An intern from SJSU's broadcasting department would have done a better job. He sits in his office watching the sports ticker and see's the scores at Spartan change...what does it take to send one camera crew over to cover the game...they had two whole hours. One crew at SJSU dorms...where were the rest? Waiting for a fire? A bloody hit & run? A kitten caught in a burning bush? Nothing makes better lead-off news than a kitten on fire. This is an NBC O&O, not a tax write-off for Landmark Communications or Oprah. They've got the staff. Good idea from Mr. Weimers about the Sobrato building, but why move from property that is currently owned and occupied by NBC, to property that would be leased? If you are moving, why not go to "The City" rather than stay in "The Burbs?" Just got a phone message from Mike Shumann at KGO (its on the answering machine). He totally dumps on Mathai's Brown interview. You've got to hear it!!!!
We should send every sports reporter and anchor in the region a link to Grant Wahl's column (which has the 'legitimacy' of Sports Illustrated behind it), and let them know they're missing one of the great stories of Bay Area sports. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2003/writers/grant_wahl/11/10/mls.classic/index.html
It would take awhile. The message was longer than Mathai's Earthquakes' play-off victory coverage. Literally!!!!
Rick Barry(KNBR 680) had Schrader on to discuss the unlikely victory and Schrad did it justice! Razor & MrT (KNBR 680) had Yallop on for 10 minutes or so to discuss the victory also.....great interview! Both mentioned the KC match this weekend!
Interestingly, when I was headed for work yesterday (Monday) morning, Greg Kihn and Chris Jackson the morning DJs on 98.5 K-FOX radio were talking about the game. Apparently, Greg Kihn is going to do the national anthem at the K.C. game, and Chris was asking if Greg could get him tickets!
Ok, its taken me awhile to do this...but here is pretty much the jest of the message from Mike Shumann: "I will agree with you especially on Channel 11 when they have a half hour show and they are in San Jose, giving it as little coverage as they did. For Channel 11 to only give it what they gave it was ridiculous, I agree." "I only get 3 minutes on Sunday, with the Raiders and 49ers, you’ve gotta do that, and 30 seconds is a lot of time. I’m sort of limited as to what I can cover. We try to do the best that we can in terms of the time we have." "I agree it was an unbelievable game. They were down 2 nothing, which means they needed four goals just to get into it." "Channel 2 has a ten minute show and Channel 11 has that 30 minute show. There’s no excuse for them not giving it more time. I agree. Who cares about Willie Brown? Especially a San Francisco mayor."
Which makes his coverage of the match all the more noteworthy. But also noteworthy was that in addition to running the game score on the crawl at the bottom of the screen, he added context by adding that the Quakes won the series 5-4 and advanced to the Conference Championship vs. KC on Saturday...all on the crawl. Shu has always been one of the "good guys" I've dealt with -- fair and open-minded. He and KTVU's Fred Inglis are the most likely to talk with interest about whatever sports story you want to talk with them.
An amazing thing happened tonight, two days after the Greatest Game in MLS History. Larry Beal, the sportscaster on KGO-7 had almost a minute-long presentation on the game at his usual spot at 11:25. The first thing he mentioned was how astounding a win this was. There was also a very brief interview of LanDo. All very good, with one major flaw: I can't figure out how Beal managed to get Zak Ibsen out of Rodrigo Faria; saying that Zak was the one who shot the winning goal. Tad of a blooper that one.
Well, in all fairness, he hit a laser in the last minute in the driving rain against Chicago in 2001 to grab a point on the road. High water mark of his career IMHO...
Stop the presses! One note about the Monday Morning San Jose Mercury News I haven't seen mentioned in the media threads that the non-Merc readers should know about. Not only did the story about this game make the front page of the Sports section in a nice sized article. That story was referenced in the header (with a small photo) of the FRONT PAGE OF THE PAPER ITSELF!!!
OK, you've got to understand, before going to ESPN, Larry Beil cut his teeth in TV sports in Hawaii at KGMB-TV. So, working on Hawaiian time (which explains why he showed the highlight 2 days later), he saw the video of the Golden Goal scored by #22, looked up in the media guide and saw that #22 was Zak Ibsen. Obviously, Hawaiian time led him to an old copy of the Quakes media guide.
My wife was watching that and when I got home, she said "honey"(that's me), "I thought that Zak Ibsen wasn't on the Quakes anymore". Then she told me the story.....I figured she heard it wrong. Way to break it down Spartacus!
My mom heard them report on the game last night. But it was on the 6 o'clock news. I don't watch the news. So I'm not sure what was said. And the only thing she knows about the Quakes is they play at "Spartian Stadium" and have a player named Landon. She just told me, "They just did a thing (her favorite word) on the game." "Oh really? Awesome." "Yeah, they showed the game (she means highlights) and people jumping up and down."
The guy on KPIX-5 also did a 'day-late, dollar-short' piece on the game (which he all but ignored the night of!) (Is it Dennis O'Donnell?) It could be ( ) because I sent him this email: To: djodonnell@kpix.cbs.com From: "Barrett J. Rossie" <barrett@rdadv.com> The Earthquakes won last night, 5-2, to win their 'aggregate-goal' series with LA, 5-4, in sudden-death overtime, in what is being called the greatest MLS game ever. You might want to give props sometimes this week before their semi-final match this Saturday.
Actually, I wasn't at all displeased that Larry's report on KGO came so late, the fact that it was on a Tuesday made me feel that, "Hey, these guys are keeping it going!" My only objection is that Faria wasn't getting his due. And, thanks to Spartacus for giving us that lesson in Hawaiian logic and time sense. But since it was jersey 22 that he was going by shouldn't he have said that that was Jamil Walker? Or are you saying that the Hawaiian sense of time just doesn't lock into periods four months in the past but into time two years before?