Strasburg's Performance Prompts Praise

Rookie pitcher Steven Strasburg struck out 14 Pittsburgh Pirates batter Tuesday night -- and struck a chord with former ballplayers as well as full-time broadcasters in the process.

Pick the network, venue and expert/host and the reaction to the right-handed pitcher's debut was unanimous. It was awesome, impressive, an overwhelming success. All those adjectives, praise and more, were heaped on the 14-strikeout effort.

Some of the praise, especially that from proven and trusted sources, sounded so over-the-top it would've been considered silly coming from anyone else.

But, when baseball voices such as Bob Costas, Orel Hershiser and Jayson Stark agree (and they represent just a small sampling of a unanimous chorus of praise), sports fans probably feel they should listen.

Costas, working with Jim Kaat and John Smoltz (two pitchers who amassed 496 victories during 46 years combined years in Major League Baseball), sounded almost reverential at times during the game broadcast on the MLB Network.

Afterward, as experts made the rounds on shows after the game and early Wednesday, Cy Young Award winner and former NLCS and World Series MVP Hershiser, who pitched a record 59 consecutive scoreless innings in 1988, offered some of the highest priase.

"It's going to be a possible Cy Young as soon as he pitches a full season," he said. "That's the kind of performance and talent that can go for innings without giving up runs."

Likewise, ESPN expert Stark, one of the best in the business covering baseball, said he changed his schedule to see Strasburg's debut -- something he never does. And he was happy he did, calling the effort more impressive than he expected.

Completing the sweep of praise was some from unusual sources, among them Colin Cowherd of ESPN Radio. Often an appropriate and reasoned critic of some things baseball, he admitted he was on the Strasburg bandwagon and encouraged Major League Baseball to promote the pitcher -- simply because: "It's so rare when the performance meets or exceeds the hype."

For Strasburg to meet the hype and praise that have been heaped on him in just the past 18 hours might be difficult, though.

Proximity Impacts Radio Prognosticators

Just a couple of hours after Colin Cowherd spent much of his show Wednesday mostly ranting to a national audience about what a mistake it would be for the Pittsburgh Steelers to trade Ben Roethlisberger, at least one Pittsburgh-based sports talk show was mostly championing a trade of the franchise's star quarterback.

From afar, it was easy (and sounded a little more sensible) for Cowherd on ESPN Radio to stress caution about possible overreactions or possibly overvaluing morals by a professional sports team. He correctly argued that Roethlisberger ranks as one of only a handful of athletes who can do what he does, and he said a trade would impact the team both short term and long term -- damaging hopes for on-field success in 2010 and potentially costing the team more for a high-round pick than Roethlisberger, with no guarantee of a performance payoff.

Conversely, "Seibel and Starkey" on 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh worked to be measured in their comments, but often sounded more like auctioneers for the troubled quarterback during their afternoon drive show. Clearly, the emotional scars were deeper closer to the story.

The Pittsburgh pair were more apt to point out the quarterback's history of problems, while Cowherd acknowledged Roethlisberger's troubles but did not dwell.

From afar, Cowherd argued the team should pull the quarterback closer and provide support systems, if necessary. With a closer view, the Pittsburgh hosts knew more from personal experience (especially Starkey who has been in the market and done a standout job for years) and were not as forgiving.

Often, the reverse happens in controversial situations. Those closer tend to be more parochial, protective and forgiving, while those farther away toss critical darts because they don't know better.

With Roethlisberger, it's interesting that the reactions are almost exactly -- and unanimously (judging by other national shows and other Pittsburgh-based shows) -- opposite.

A Stern Preview for NBA All-Star Game

Few annual media tours rival that of David Stern in the week leading up to the NBA All-Star Game.

During what should be a wonderful time for the league, he somehow always manages to sound grumpy, condescending or just plain uncooperative. He does not play "what-if" games and sounds either better than the folks he's talking with or bored.

With the All-Star Game set to attrack a record crowd to Cowboys Stadium on Sunday, Stern, the league's forth commissioner, who has been in charge since Feb. 1, 1984, has been making the rounds again this week.

He has spent part of his time on ESPN Radio shows, discussing the NCAA's one-and-done rule and how it impacts his league with "Mike and Mike in the Morning," and avoiding discussion of the league's labor situation while on "The Herd with Colin Cowherd."

When Cowherd broached the labor deal, Stern corrected the host on the facts, positioned the discussion in an adversarial manner and refused to play along when Cowherd tried a more light-hearted aproach. LISTEN HERE

While the NBA has one of the better mid-season all-star events in pro sports with its dunk contest and weekend full of activities -- something that can eat up a couple nights of TV time with decent programming -- this almost reliable approach by the commissioner inevitably takes some of the lustre off the overall event.

The three days of TV coverage of All-Star Weekend activities begins Friday. As follows ...

Friday

7 p.m., All-Star Celebrity Game (ESPN)

Saturday

7 p.m., H.O.R.S.E. (TNT)

8 p.m., NBA All-Star Saturday Night (TNT)

9 p.m., T-Mobile Rookie Challenge (TNT)

Sunday

8 p.m., All-Star Game (TNT)

Planning, Location Key for ESPN Radio

The more than 55 hours of Super Bowl programming on ESPN Radio, set to originate from South Florida this week, sounds like a lot of work -- but that's only part of the story.

Planning for the numerous shows that will originate from Lummus Park on Miami Beach started months ago, when ESPN's operations team began working with the NFL regarding set location. That location makes ESPN different from most other national sports talk programming throughout Super Bowl week because those other shows typically originate from "Radio Row," table after table of sports stations from across that nation and world that often get set up in the same room of an a nearby convention center.

Even with the planning, live, on-location radio provides challenges.

It means less technology on hand and fewer staff personnel just a few steps away to solve problems. It also means potential distractions with weather (rain the early part of this week) and people watching the live radio shows.

Still, that atmosphere helps -- especially shows like "Mike and Mike in the Morning," with Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic working their 11th Super Bowl week together, and "The Herd with Colin Cowherd." Both shows have talent who can play well off an audience.

"You get a real sense of atmosphere," explained ESPN producer Amanda Gifford about on-site shows. "Colin is usually on his game with an audience. You can feed off the energy of the crowd."

For behind-the-scenes folks such as Gifford (who coordinated planning but did not make the trip to Miami for this week's Super Bowl shows), getting guests to the set on time provides a daily challenge during remote shows, and she prefers to leave nothing to chance.

"Everything is pretty calculated," she said. "I'd rather have everything planned, but I've learned that sometimes you get some great things on the fly and you have to be able to adjust."

Determining which guests are used on a program provides a show's biggest challenge during the week. With all of the activity and media attention, many former players (with guiding publicists) show up at the Super Bowl site to pitch their cause, charity or product.

While smaller shows on Radio Row might take any and all such guests, ESPN Radio shows can be a bit more selective. They have major markets to serve and less time to waste on borderline guests.

"We get a lot of A-listers through Super Bowl week, and we get pitches for a lot of people who aren't considered A-listers," Gifford said. "We make determinations by when they're available, if we're on the air at that time, and if they make sense for our biggest affiliates." For Cowherd, those affiliates are in Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta and Dallas.

Typically, ESPN's name and the talent and reputation of the hosts produce a potent combination -- with good guests wanting to appear on the shows and the on-air talent making the visits entertaining. The combination produces one of the best weeks of sports talk radio of the year.