Results tagged “espn”

Ah, Bill Simmons aka ESPN's The Sports Guy. To know him is to either love him or hate him. To those that love him, his constant pop-culture riffs and irreverent takes on today's athletes make him seem like one of us: a fan. To those that would rather see him deleted from ESPN's archives, he's a Boston sports homer whose schtick has long since worn thin. Us? We love the guy. While his writing occasionally comes across as just a tad too jokey (sometimes undermining some good points), we can dismiss his homerism - at least he's honest and upfront about it - he's producing an entertaining podcast, he's doesn't suffer for a lack of passion, and he definitely knows sports, particularly basketball.

The FBI arrested a Westmont man Friday at O'Hare International Airport for allegedly videotaping an ESPN anchor in two hotel rooms, according to Chicago Breaking News. Michael David Barrett, 48, faces interstate stalking charges for producing nude videos of ESPN personality Erin Andrews (Andrews is not named in the FBI release but is identified as "an on-air personality with ESPN"). The videos - which lit up the sports blogosphere back in the summer - were obtained through "altering peepholes," the report said. According to The Australian, the eyepieces were "shortened" and then "hacksawed" to see into the victim's room.

Yesterday, we mentioned our local papers honoring Michael Jordan on his induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame (being televised this afternoon by ESPN, 5:30 p.m.) along with other greats John Stockton, David Robinson, Vivian Stringer, and Jerry Sloan. But, for Chicago, it's mostly about His Royal Airness. And ESPN has the perfect Friday distraction for you in the form of this collection of 23 videos celebrating his biggest moments [via GB].

We all know how iconic the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off is for the city of Chicago. The exploits of the potential felon truant student and his pals is a comedy we'll always remember, especially given the recent death of John Hughes. But...is everything the trio did in a day really possible? One of our favorite sports columnists, ESPN's Bill Simmons aka The Sports Guy, posed that very question in his most recent mailbag.

A few days ago, we mentioned ESPN had produced a documentary on the infamous Steve Bartman for their "30 For 30" series and readers seemed to share the same exasperation we felt when reading the news: just let it die already. Anyone who blames Bartman for the Cubs falling apart in the 2003 NLCS didn't watch the 2003 NLCS. And now it seems the Cubs players involved in that playoff series feel the same as we all do.

Almost six years later and the bespectacled, headphoned pariah of Cubs baseball (though unfairly so) will once again be trudged up courtesy of ESPN. The World Wide Leader is in the midst of putting together its "30 for 30" campaign, featuring 30 sports-related documentaries to celebrate the network's 30 years on air. And one of those documentaries will focus on the beleaguered Bartman. The doc was written and directed by Alex Gibney who earned accolades for his Oscar-nominated doc "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room." NBC 5 reports, "The sports channel said that Gibney’s documentary will attempt to answer the question: Can Bartman ever forgive Chicago?" A more salient question would be: can Chicago ever forgive Alex Gonzalez for having a lead glove and Moises Alou for a bit of over-reacting?

Coach Ditka, who graced the ESPN booth for one of their opening weekend Monday Night Football games, will not be in the booth this year. Instead, ESPN is using former star QB Steve Young. Still, as ProFootballTalk was kind enough to share, Ditka had at least one memorable moment in his time in the ESPN booth.

Since its announcement in February, Chicago sports fans have been awaiting today's launch of ESPNChicago -- the sports network's first city-specific website. Why start with Chicago? While it made sense for HuffingtonPost to choose the Second City as its first local site, given the city's steep political history and well-known shenanigans, Chicago is perhaps not quite so obvious a choice for ESPN. Sure, we may think we're the best sports city in the land -- what other city's fans will sit through a blizzard on baseball's Opening Day or fill an arena to watch a 13-69 basketball team? But we can hear the objections from Boston and New York all the way here in the Middle West.

He may be known as "Sweet Lou" to Cubs fans, but Lou Piniella sure doesn't feel that way towards EPSN's baseball analyst Steve Phillips after his recent comments on Chet Coppack's radio show. Appearing on ESPN 1000 with Coppack, Phillips accused the Cubs skipper of lacking patience with Japanese import Kosuke Fukudome last season.

Wow, ESPN really likes us. Following the lead of The Huffington Post, who started up the now-(in)famous ChuffPo, ESPN is launching a Chicago-centric site appropriately called ESPNChicago. Great! More ways to hear about the Cubs' curse and the Bears inability to find a decent quarterback. The site - the first city-specific site from ESPN - will launch in April and, for the time being, the address redirects to the ESPN 1000 AM site,

Well, that was interesting. It seems the Cubs won't be dealing for Padres ace Jake Peavy after all. With the Padres having set a Thursday deadline for the trade, Cubs GM Jim Hendry didn't pull the trigger, telling ESPN, "Kevin [Towers, San Diego GM] and I had a lot of very healthy, very honest discussions. But at the end of the day, we had to do what was best for the organization. I just felt like when I weighed the total value of the talent going out against the economics of what was coming in, it was in the best interests of our organization not to make this deal." With the Peavy deal now done for, the Cubs will instead focus on landing a much-needed left-handed bat. Names that have been floated include Milton Bradley, Raul Ibanez and Bobby Abreu.

If you watched ESPN's Monday Night Football last night, you've seen Chris Berman talk to Senators McCain and Obama, but it's worth a gander if only to hear Obama diss the NCAA's BCS system. [via Awful Announcing]

We're just hours away from the Cubs opening their playoff series with the Dodgers. On ESPN's SportsCenter, "writer"/personality Rick Reilly had some fun toying with Cubs fans' emotions and the Cubs streak of "curses." Like Bill Simmons, we think curses are nothing more than gimmicks used to rile up fans and sell papers and books, but it's worth a look, if only for the historical aspect. The piece seems to be tongue-in-cheek and, well, we guess our posting of it means it worked.

Tomorrow night, the Eagles and Bears meet at Soldier Field in what is sure to be a hard-hitting affair (7:15 p.m. kickoff on NBC 5). And if you're as big a football fan as several of us (even those of us who didn't grow up here), it's hard to forget that legendary playoff match-up between the Eagles and Bears now and forever known as "The Fog Bowl." ESPN certainly remembers and tomorrow morning on Sunday NFL Countdown, they'll feature an entire segment on the game. But, thanks to the power of the internet, we can share it with you now so you don't have to worry about missing it while sleeping off that hangover from watching tonight's big Illinois game against Penn State (7 p.m. on ABC 7). [via the incomparable Awful Announcing]

Yesterday, ESPN nixed an interview with presidential candidate Barack Obama. The interview was to take place with Bill Simmons, ESPN.com's most popular columnist, for his weekly podcast. It was the second time in recent weeks that ESPN has canceled an interview with Obama. The sports and politics blogosphere is abuzz with conspiracy theories, mainly pertaining to the fact that ESPN President George Bodenheimer donated $1,000 to the McCain campaign.

We're not sure than the 2008 White Sox will be any more tolerable to watch than last year's team, but they'll no doubt be easier to listen to -- at least on the radio. That's because Steve Stone will be replacing Chris Singleton alongside Ed Farmer, the team announced on Tuesday.

Brett Favre is retiring after 17 seasons, 16 with the Packers. He says he's too mentally tired to return, but that physically, he's fine, which is why discussions of his possible non-retirement abound. [ESPN, Trib]

This is not a lie – we rock at Scrabble. We even played Scrabble using French words once; kind of a pretentious pursuit, but fun nonetheless. Here in Chicago, you can still get your Scrabble on even if you don’t own the game; lots of bars and coffee shops have Scrabble and other board games on their shelves, available for play. And in our opinion, there is no better way to impress a girl on a date than whipping her ass in Scrabble (or Connect Four, or Battleship).

Last week the English Premier League announced its intention to play some regular season matches abroad. In previous years, international club teams have found financial success by coming to the United States to play some pre- and post-season friendlies with other international powerhouse clubs or local Major League Soccer clubs.

Seems Chicagoist wasn't the only one who found the lopsided terms of the Pau Gasol trade a bit fishy. With outrage and confusion growing in Memphis, the Grizzlies owner pointed his finger firmly at ... the Bulls! Wha?!

Tribune sportswriter Mike Downey briefly departs from the sporting world to announce the end of a glass ceiling today in his "In the Wake of the News" column, True equality: Both Sexes can be Ingrates". The column includes a roundup of "publicly humiliating stunts that female TV personalities have pulled" in recent months, beginning with ESPN's Dana Jacobson, who got liquored up at an off-air "Mike and Mike" roast last week and laid into Notre Dame's sacred "Touchdown Jesus" (she's an alum of rival Michigan).

Major League Baseball's annual election results will be announced today, and a couple of former Chicago players hope to cross the magic threshold from paying customers to inductees in Cooperstown. Voted on by the Baseball Writers of America, players become eligible five years after retiring and must receive votes on 75 percent of ballots.

Chicagoist demanded it, and Lovie listened. When the Bears face the Minnesota Vikings next Monday night, Kyle Orton -- our favorite drunky QB -- will once again line up under center. With a 5-8 record and three games to play, it's time for the Bears to start planning for the future. Rex Grossman's contract is set to expire, and he's done little to make the Bears want to commit to him for the long term....

The United States Olympic Committee awarded an Olympic Opportunity Grant earlier this month to World Sport Chicago. The Gloves not Guns program, run in cooperation with USA Boxing, the Police Athletic League, and the Chicago Park District, promotes the sport of boxing to Chicago's urban youth as a way to stay in shape--and out of trouble.

As we reported the other day, the rumored switch from talk/classic rock to Spanish language programming would mean that some of WCKG's (105.9 FM) top programming needs a new home.

LAist began the month with a new food series exploring the popular and unknown late night eats around town. If a Top Chef winner opened up a late night spot in Los Angeles, denizens would flock it, yet the LA Times and other media might be wary. Turning to sports, the Dodger season was quite memorable in the way that it imploded and the LA County Sheriff's Department made some games of their own...

Anyone know how to get in contact with the bureau of made-up statistics? 'Cause we want to know how much the Chicago economy is going to be harmed by lost productivity due to the Cubs' first two playoff games.

For the most part, it has not been a good season for Chicagoist's beloved South Side baseball team. Other than Mark Buehrle's no-hitter back in April, it's mostly been a season of disappointment. At least this past Sunday, we got to experience another bright moment for this team, as Jim Thome became just the 23rd major leaguer to hit 500 home runs. His ninth-inning shot also turned a 7-7 tie into a 9-7 White Sox...

With the optimism of a glass half-full, the American Gladiator LIVES! And the spirit of the American Gladiator can now live within you. But we can’t grab the Funions and park on the sofa in front of the TV just yet. In 2008, NBC will bring back the weekly series, originally aired from 1989 to 1996. Episodes still run in syndication on ESPN Classic. If you want to channel a Gladiator, NBC will host a...

Only four of the thirteen Major League Soccer teams took advantage of Major League Soccer's new Designated Player Rule, made most famous by the signing of David Beckham by the Los Angeles Galaxy, signing a total of five players. This weekend, arguably the two most impactful designated players, Cuauhtemoc Blanco and Juan Pablo Angel, will match up at Toyota Park. Blanco has played just seven games but has helped the Fire to earn 13 points...