Next Show They Look at Meaning of ‘Booyah’

Taking self-promotion to new extremes, ESPN has reached the point where its call letters could stand for Extreme Self-Promotion Network.

On ESPN2 Saturday night, opposite the USC-Virginia Tech game on ESPN, viewers were given a chance to see how a college football telecast is produced.

What it turned into was a 3 1/2 -hour ESPN promo.

There was even an ESPN interviewer going around asking the ESPN staffers how things were going. Game announcers Ron Franklin and Mike Gottfried sounded as though they were getting a bonus every time they called the ESPN production crew “the best in the business.”

Trivia time: NBC paid $793 million for the rights to the Athens Olympics. In 1964, when NBC televised its first Olympics, what was the rights fee?

He’s versatile: Canadian sportscaster Don Chevrier was the television voice of the Toronto Blue Jays for 20 years, and he has announced traditional sports such as hockey, football, boxing and horse racing.

At Athens, he did the play by play on badminton and synchronized swimming for NBC.

Said NBC host Bob Costas: “You know, my hat’s off to Don Chevrier. I’ve got a feeling that badminton and synchronized swimming are not covered at sportscasters’ camp.”

Horsing around: Bravo Olympic host Mary Carillo, at the end of the equestrian competition, said, “We’re all dabbing our eyes a little bit around here; it’s the final day of equestrian on Bravo.... We can only hope that the rumors of a pro dressage league starting up are true.”

Deprived: Costas, on the dressage medal ceremony: “Why don’t the horses get to wear the wreaths?”

Just a formality: Costas, on Greco-Roman wrestling: “What’s with a sport where the referee wears a jacket and tie? Did this guy get lost on the way to the dog show?”

It doesn’t add up: CNBC wrestling analyst Jeff Blatnick, on the skill of British wrestler Nate Ackerman: “He has a PhD in mathematics from MIT. Not that that’s going to help him much here.”

Name change: Reader Bill Littlejohn, regarding the third-place finish of the U.S. men’s basketball team at the Olympics, asks, “Will they now call the Cleveland Cavaliers’ No. 23 ‘Le Bronze’?”

Another hit: Headline on the back page of Sunday’s New York Post: “We’re No. 3.”

Looking back: On this day in 1981, Bill Shoemaker became the first jockey to win a $1-million race, riding John Henry to a nose victory over The Bart in the first Arlington Million at Arlington Park in suburban Chicago.

Trivia answer: NBC paid $1.5 million for the rights to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

And finally: Regarding the uncertain status of pitcher Brad Penny, former baseball agent Dennis Gilbert said, “I guess the Dodgers will now have to leave it to Weaver.”

Larry Stewart can be reached at [email protected].