Random Media Thoughts

10.) Lou Dobbs leaves CNN. A suprise to no one, Dobbs seemed to go off the rails promulgating the Obama birthers story long-after his own network dropped it.

9.) Normally straight-down-the middle Brian Williams really made me cringe by closing his broadcast with a softball interview with Jon Bon Jovi as someone who made a difference. Please. So the singer gives of his time and money to the unfortunates. Know what that makes him? It makes him sleep better at night.

8.) David Spade must really need the money. Why else would he appear on a DirecTV ad with the image of the late Chris Farley? When Farley died, Spade was supposedly so distraught he skipped Farley's wake and funeral. No problems there but don't appear on a TV commercial with him.

7.) That the NY Post had everything, and I mean everything, from the Steve Phillips affair, was certainly chilling and should be required reading for cheaters everywhere.

6.) MTV News puported to have landed a sit-down with Chris Brown, the singer/thug/Ike Turner wannabe who beat up his girlfriend, the pop star Rihanna. Only Brown wouldn't discuss details of the night in question. Disgusting. MTV gave Brown a forum for image rehabilitation. Where's Kurt Loder when you need him? Does Tabitha Soren still work for MTV?

5.) The more you hear regarding the Letterman case, sounds like ol' Dave isn't as innocent as once believed.

4.) That Leno is struggling at 10:00 really saddens me. HAHAHAHA!

3.) I've said it before, for as much as Fox's Joe Buck is on the air, he's as solid
as they come.

2.) Glad to see Bob Costas make Bud Selig squirm a bit on MLB's Baseball Network--too bad only six people saw it. Costas is great especially if you're able to overlook his self-appointed Lord of Baseball attitude.

1.) Suzyn Waldman's performance during the Yankee parade made for great morning radio fodder. Was she drinking? And what's with that voice? Not since Maddog Russo has someone gotten so far with less-than-stellar pipes.

Time to get off my Snackwells ass and start writing. I went up to the attic and rediscovered my baseball card collection. I have more common cards than any one person should be allowed. And I have tens of thousands. I can remember buying a Topps wax pack for $0.27 cents in 1979. I've never thrown them out nor has my mother (thanks Mom). Much of what I've collected, however, is worthless. Perhaps worthless is too strong. I have some nice cards from the 50s, 60s and early 70s. It's just that Mickey Mantles, Ted Williams' and Honus Wagners have eluded me. Perhaps it's worthy deeper self-analysis to why I'm so emotional invested to collect the cardboard of journeyman pitchers such as Joe Coleman.

Ten Things You Didn't Know About the Stanley Cup

10.)Each player on the winning team gets one day with the Stanley Cup.

9.)Th ere are two Cups: a house Cup, which resides at the Hockey Hall of Fame and a presentation Cup awarded to the players.

8.)Here's how you can tell the difference: to prevent damage the presentation Cup given to the players was augmented with nickel which is sturdier than the all-silver house Cup. Nickel also gives the Cup its shimmer recognizable on television.

7.) The Stanley Cup has room for seven more years worth of engravings. When the bottom ring is filled, the Hockey Hall of Fame will add another ring to the bottom. The top ring, which now lists the 1960s winners, will be put in a vault for safe-keeping.

6.)Sadly, the lockout of 1994-1995 is notated on the Cup. Another reminder of those dark days.

5.) The player whose name appears the most? Henri Richard.

4.) The presentation also contains a few typos. For example, the Boston Bruins inscription for 1967-1968 Stanley Cup winner contains "Q"s where the "O"s should be.

3.) The only man to win a Super Bowl and have his name on the Cup? Owner Edward Debartolo, Jr. who won Super Bowls with San Francisco and Cups with Pittsburgh in the 90s.

2.) The Red Wings Cups of late include the names of pizza mogul Mike Ilitch and his children, each of whom were given menial team tasks--thereby satisfying the requirement that names appearing on the Cup were those employed by the team in some capacity.

1.) The same could not be said of Oilers owner Peter Pocklington, who was rebuffed by the Hall of Fame after attempting to have his father's name on the Cup.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly....

Some highs and lows from the broadcast weekend.

The Good. Last night's retrospective on 60 Minutes creator Don Hewitt did not disappoint. However, there were a few surprises. Morely Safer fronted the open and called his old boss a pain-in-the-ass. From there, I knew we were in store for some good stuff. There was plenty of historical footage and Hewitt at work in the editing studio. The special left me with some questions, such as why wasn't Mike Wallace featured more? Is the nonagenarian ailing? And the people 60 Minutes interviewed about Hewitt was strange...although it was interesting to learn that actor Alan Alda was Don's best friend. But why the quotes from former CBS president Sir Howard Stringer? And the quotes from CBS president Les Moonves...what else is he going to say. I have a feeling Hewitt himself might have left the last two interviews on the cutting room floor.

The Bad. From the what-happens-when-you're-15-games-out file. Sunday on WFAN, whilst killing time in another loss, the usually reliable Howie Ross became fixated on a reference from the Odd Couple sitcom. To his credit, Rose immediately knew the reference was tortured at best couldn't stop it. He kept trying to make it funny. Wasn't going to happen at least yesterday.

The Ugly. Regular readers of the Daily Del Franco know of my
fondness for Yankee radiocaster John Sterling. But when he and Suzyn Waldman began making excuses for CC Sabathia (the Yankee defense let him down again) I began screaming at the radio. "How do you like that?" Sterling asks, "another seeing eye flyball falls for a basehit." Twhich prompts Waldman to come to sabathia defense. "CC will get out of this. He's durable. He's not going to wilt out there, John," which prompted a "shut-up Suzyn" response.

Hewitt, Patron Saint of TV News, Dies

Don Hewitt, the legendary television news pioneer who created "60 Minutes" and spanned Edward R. Murrow to Walter Cronkite to Mike Wallace, died this morning at the age of 86.

For you Philistines who don't know Hewitt, here are ten reasons you should know him:

10.) He originated cue cards for news readers.

9.) He was the first to superimpose words on a television screen for a news show.

8.) Hewitt was producer for the famous Kennedy/Nixon debate in 1960. He urged Nixon to apply makeup. Nixon refused. The rest is history.

7.) Would infuriate journalists, such as Mike Wallace, who often accused Hewitt of gutting his pieces during the editing process: "C'mon Don, you're gutting the piece!"

6.) As executive producer, it was Hewitt's call as to what pieces aired weekly on 60 Minutes.

5.) Was mentioned in movies such as Good Night and Good Luck and The Insider, which painted an unflattering portrait of Hewitt as caving to CBS lawyers.

4.) During Hewitt's run, "60 Minutes" won an incredible 73 Emmy Awards, 13 Dupont /Columbia University Awards and 9 Peabodies. Damn.

3.) His coverage not only freed innocent people from prison but laws were actually changed.

2.) Under Hewitt's watch, "60 Minutes" was the top-rated show an amazing four times.

1.) Like Johnny Carson and Les Paul, I hope you got a chance to see Hewitt's work because we won't ever see another like him.

CBS News announced shorty after Hewitt's passing, that this Sunday's "60 Minutes" will devote the entire hour to Hewitt's life and legacy. I think he's earned it.

Tuesday Musings...

Some Tuesday musings:

Brett Favre unretires. C'mon dude. Stay away. You get the feeling that Favre was one of these college freshman who used to frequently return to his high school to get some love. At any rate, it looks the INT record will grow larger.

When will the ax come down on Roger Clemens? If only for the decades long affair he had with country singer Mindy McCready, while she was 15. Slice it anyway you want, the Rocket is a grade A creep. And not a Hall of Famer.

Has anyone else been paying attention to the Cy Young type season of St. Louis' Cris Carpenter? This guy's record is 13-3! I'd say he's all the way back from arm problems, no?

U.S. Supreme Court judge John Paul Stevens is nearing 90 years of age. Ruth Ginsburg is 76 and ailing. While Anthony Kennedy and Antonin Scalia are both 73. Assuming BHO gets eight years, he will possibly pick the next four judges to the U.S. Supreme Court in addition to Justice Sotomayor. Talk about living your dreams. Whilst in Harvard, BHO was a Supreme Court scholar. If my thesis is correct, BHO will have had a hand in choosing 55% of the Supreme Court. That will be BHO's lasting legacy. Only no one is talking about it.

I tried to watch Mad Men Season III on Sunday night. I wanted to love it. I hated it and didn't see what all the buzz is about.

Fantasy football is coming back. Krist. The pressure. Who's the goal-line back in Jacksonville? I must prepare and read my preseason periodicals. And no more Tom Brady with the first pick. I learned that lesson real fast last year.

Interesting addendum to my baseball card post of last week. Two of my avid baseball card cronies, Joe D'Angelis and Tommy Gooch, inform me that Mickey Mantle is not part of last year's 6600-card Yankee Stadium Legacy set by Upper Deck. Imagine all those game cards from the 1950s and 1960s and not a single Mickey Mantle. Why? Because Topps owns the rights to Mantle's likeness.

Kate Sullivan of WCBS-TV in New York is good enough reason to wake up at 6 am.

Let me get this straight: Kate Gosselin is complaining about papparazzi taking photos of her family. Wasn't she the one who whored herself out to TLC with the television show? Am I missing something? From my humble opinion, if you invite the cameras to roll 24/7 in your home, don't you pretty much waive your right to privacy? And (we watched last night) when she goes off with a day trip with some of the kids, who watches the other brats? Couldn't have been Jon because he was with two of the daughters--so that leaves three unaccounted for. How's my math?

What I Learned Friday

Busy week.



Regardless of your political affiliation, you can't knock the good deeds done by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who died this week at the age of 88. Kennedy founded the Special Olympics and instantly gave hope to millions who lost the genetic lottery. I could do without, however, seeing Oprah at the church. Apparently Oprah and Eunice's daughter, Maria, worked at the same Baltimore TV station.

Speaking of lives well lived...Les Paul, the inventor of the guitar bearing his name, passed away at 94. A source of mine told me that Paul played every Monday night at the Irideum Jazz Club in New York City. I kept meaning to go see the legend. I never got there. The Irideum Jazz club says it will pay homage each Monday night to Paul's night and legacy. Nice touch.

Screw Twitter, Facebook and Craig's List. There. All that in less than 140 characters.

CBS' James Brown (no, not the singer) landed the sitdown interview with Michael Vick upon his return to pro football. Only Brown will be guesting on 60 Minutes. No matter what questions Brown asks, some in the audience will think Brown soft-tossed queries to Vick; some will see Brpown as too tough. Don't believe me? See the Katie Couric interview with Sarah Palin, supposedly hand-picked by the Palin/McCain camp because they assumed 'Ol Katie was sympathetic. And look how that turned out. Vick did Brown no favors.

For all I care, Joba Chamberlain, his rules and fist pumps, can go down to Columbus and learn how to be a starter in . No need to worry about innings limits then. And I say that as a 30-year Yankees fan.

Few things in television are more tedious than Olbermann/O'Reilly feud. Two more egomaniacal wind bags do not exist. I'd like to see both of them in an Undertaker/Mankind "Hell in a Cell" match.