Sports broadcasting random notes

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• A trio of STAA sports talk clients have earned major market fill-in opportunities. In Philadelphia, Eytan Shander is filling-in one night next week on WIP. In Los Angeles, Steve Salisbury will be on Sunday morning on 710 ESPN. Also in LA, Josh Hoffman filled-in twice this week on the night show on the Anaheim Angels flagship station, AM 830 KLAA.

• Jim Mandich continues to deal with a serious medical issue, and WQAM-AM (560) said Thursday it has not been informed when he will return. Curtis Stevenson and Anita Marks will remain in the 4-7 p.m. slot in the interim. (Courtesy Miami Herald)

• ESPN has hired former Toronto Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi as an analyst for BaseballTonight. Ricciardi replaces Steve Phillips— also a former major league GM — who was fired by ESPN in October after a sex scandal involving a production assistant. (Courtesy USA Today)

• NBC, through the Games' first 12 days, says its mobile-device streams reached 1.5 million, more than 500% over its 2008 Beijing Summer Games total, while its online video streams are running 453% ahead of Torino. (Courtesy USA Today)

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• CBS's Baltimore sports talker 105.7 The Fan, the flagship station of the Baltimore Orioles, will broadcast 12 spring training games this season. (Courtesy DCRTV)

• XX Sports Radio San Diego's Darren Smith has a new two year deal. (Courtesy San Diego Union-Tribune)

• Don’t expect NBC to discipline hockey analyst Mike Milbury for his comments suggesting the Russian men’s hockey team played like “Eurotrash’’ in its sluggish 7-3 loss to Canada Wednesday. Said Milbury, the NESN studio analyst who fills the same role for NBC: “I was shocked that this [game] was this one-sided and I was really disappointed that these guys came with their, their Eurotrash game. It was no heart, no guts, no nothing there to back it up.’’ Host Bill Patrick, appearing equal parts incredulous and amused, responded, “Did you really just say Eurotrash? Did that just come out of your mouth?’’ (Courtesy Boston Globe)

• Bob Costas ranks Al Michaels' memorable line -- "Do you believe in miracles? Yes!" -- among the top three calls in sports broadcasting history along with Russ Hodges' "The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!" and Jack Buck's description of Kirk Gibson's famous World Series home run, "I don't believe what I just saw." . . . Locally, many favor Vin Scully's call of the Gibson homer: "In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened." (Courtesy Los Angeles Times)

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• On a late ESPN SportsCenter Tuesday, anchor Scott Van Pelt thought he was talking by phone to NFL star Brian Westbrook— until caller did an on-air shout-out to Howard Stern and we all figured out it wasn't really Westbrook. That prank has gotten really stale. (Courtesy USA Today)

• Robert Philips, senior vice president of operations for Baltimore sports talker 105.7 The Fan, told PressBox he’s still searching for a replacement for Anita Marks on WJZ-FM’s afternoon show with Scott Garceau. So far, a number of potential co-host candidates have sat in with Garceau, including MASN’s Amber Theoharis and Jennifer Royle from NYC’s YES sports network. But Philips said he’s not in a big hurry to find a new radio partner for Garceau. (Courtesy Press Box)

• NBC provided some nuggets about what its research has disclosed about the U.S. viewers of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver: • A total of 35% of viewers surveyed said they cried or became teary-eyed while watching. Among men, 25% said they cried or teared up. • A total of 63% of those surveyed stayed up longer than usual to watch the Games, and 42% said they were "more tired than normal." • Gains in younger viewers are higher than those for older viewers when compared with Turin in 2006. Viewing among those ages 18-24 is up 46%, and viewing among older teens (15-17) is up 34%. (Courtesy Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

• Veteran baseball journalist Jack Curry has joined the YES Network as a Yankees studio analyst, program contributor and a columnist for YESNetwork.com. (Courtesy Bergen Record)

• Tracy McGrady’s Knicks debut netted MSG a season- best 2.3 rating. (Courtesy New York Post)

• STAA client Dave LaMont continues his busy broadcast schedule. In the coming weeks Dave has two more SEC Network basketball games, tonight (Wednesday) Auburn at Ole Miss and March 6th Ole Miss at Arkansas. This weekend Dave will be calling the Visa US National Indoor Track Championships in Albuquerque, NM, with Ato Boldin and Dan O'Brien. It will air Sunday at 7 Eastern on ESPN2.

• Talkers Magazine is out with its annual "Heavy Hundred" radio talkers. Jim Rome is the highest ranked sports host at No. 29. Boomer and Carton are No. 35, Mike and Mike No. 43 and Mike Francesa No. 48.

• In announcing he's retiring from MLB and joining ESPN as a BaseballTonight analyst, Aaron Boone revealed what went on behind closed doors in his 12-year MLB career: "Calling games by myself in hotel rooms — I'm that guy. … This has been in me my entire life, just as much as I wanted to be a player." (Courtesy USA Today)

• The West Coast Confernce has selected two STAA clients to broadcast play-by-play for the 2010 Zappos.com West Coast Conference Basketball Championships at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. St. Mary's Men's Radio Voice Mike Bouve and University of San Francisco women's basketball broadcaster George Devine will share courtside duties. The two veteran broadcasters will work on both the men's and women's packages depending upon their commitments to call games for their respective schools. This marks the second year Bouve and Devine will provide the radio calls for Sirius Satellite Radio and WCCSPORTS.COM.

• Veteran motorsports broadcaster Eli Gold has added a new title to his long list of accolades - "Voice of the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 radio coverage." Gold and Preston Root will call the action live for the Motor Racing Network (MRN) for the remaining 11 races on the 2010 Rolex Series schedule, beginning with the Grand Prix of Miami. (Press Release)

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