In the high-stakes world of TV news, sometimes it pays to be in the right place at the right time. CBS Sportscaster Jim Nantz was in Augusta, Georgia covering the Masters golf tournament (CBS has the exclusive TV rights) when he saw golf legend Jack Nicklaus walking by. He did what any good journalist would do right before he was scheduled for a live-shot: he asked Nicklaus to join him.

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Also, on “CTM,” correspondent John Miller and the co-anchors were joined by John Walsh, the host of “America’s Most Wanted,” which was recently canceled by Lifetime. Walsh explained the success of the show in catching criminals, and made an argument for it to be resurrected in some form:
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In his column in the Miami New Times, Luther Campbell, the former leader of the rap group 2 Live Crew and former Miami-Dade mayoral candidate, lambasted the sports media for having the audacity to say that Cam Newton struggled in his first NFL preseason game (even though he did). Campbell said the big reason why black athletes like Newton, Tiger Woods and LeBron James get heavily criticized, while Eli Manning, John Daly and Brett Favre supposedly get free passes, is because “sports news outlets are dominated by white faces.”

Campbell’s column is short enough that we could have pasted it here in full. But this outtake below is a good indication of his general tone and attitude: Read more

For the third straight year, NBC will air an hour-long WrestleMania special.

WrestleMania: The World Premiere airs Saturday, Aug. 13 at 9 p.m. ET, and feature highlights from WrestleMania XXVII this past April.

The highly anticipated pay-per-view event in front of 71,617 fans at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta marked the WrestleMania return of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and featured a main event between John Cena and The Miz for the WWE Championship.

Four dozen Rawlings baseballs have been rubbed with dirt and numbered sequentially, ready to enter the game when Derek Jeter comes to the plate resting on 2999 hits. The balls, one of which will be hit for the milestone 3000th of the Yankee captain’s career, also carry a hidden marking to establish authenticity. Inexplicably the balls have not been sprayed with Driven, Jeter’s perfume.

Once Derek Jeter reaches 2,999 career hits, the marked ball will be deployed during his at-bats, one at a time, and each ball’s outcome is tracked by an Authentication staffer. The home-plate umpire and a bat boy will have the process down pat for each game. Start with four or six balls — usually four, but depending on the ump — and then go through them meticulously until Jeter strokes his 3,000th hit.

How do you decide on four dozen balls?

“It’s as needed,” said Howie Shelton, program manager for MLB Authentication, and the person who actually marked the balls. “If he takes a while, he gets maybe 12 balls into it, we’d have to mark up some more. Derek’s a contact hitter. He could foul off five, six or seven pitches, and we have to be ready.”

After 2,999, any balls are removed from play under normal circumstances — tossed out after a pitch in the dirt, or perhaps Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira comes off the field after a 4-3 putout and flips the ball into the crowd behind the Yankees’ dugout. In that case, let’s say it’s ball No. 20 after hit 2,999. The MLB Authenticator simply marks: “20 — Teixeira throws into crowd.”

Viewership of Major League Baseball games on ESPN is up seven percent through the first 22 games of the season, and up more 23 percent in the male 18-34 demographic. Meanwhile ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball is averaging 2,886,000 viewers through seven telecasts, an increase of 15 percent compared to the same span last season, according to Nielsen. Sunday Night Baseball has also experienced significant increases across all core male demos, up 32 percent among men 18-34, 24 percent among men 18-49 and 17 percent among men 25-54.

(Source: ESPN Mediazone)

Jaclyn Fujita, the wife of Cleveland Browns linebacker Scott Fujita, wrote a touching article for The Nation on the realities of being the wife of a pro football player.

Come to find out, it’s not as glamorous as one might think.

“My husband could have lost his life to a staph infection. His NFL doctors and trainers were heating/icing/stemming his knee for a bursa-sac rupture and ignoring all the major signs of infection, while his body was screaming that something else must be wrong. He ended up in an emergency operation weeks after symptoms began. Following five nights in hospital isolation and many weeks beating back the infection, he was ready to play for the city we love and a team we built our life around. He would help them win the coveted Super Bowl Championship. Less than a month later he would be gone, feeling completely expendable and replaceable as if his blood, sweat and tears did not matter. Read more

On March 4, ESPN posted a press release announcing events that happened on March 3. That’s power, folks.

In what could be a sign of things to come, the San Diego Chargers will drop ticket prices on 6,500 seats in 2011.

The Chargers had three blackouts during the 2010 season including their home opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Dropping in price are the View Level endzone tickets, which cost $63 last season. Starting in 2011, they will be $54 and make up nearly 10 percent of Qualcomm Stadium’s seating. Read more

Peter Vecsey offers up a heartbreaking column detailing the trials of former Detroit Pistons vice president of publicity Matt Dobek, former Boston Celtics assistant coach Clifford Ray, and former all star Connie Hawkins.

All three received unfair treatment from front offices hoping to save a few bucks. Dobek’s case was the most severe; he took his own life.

On Aug. 21, Matt Dobek, a strict Catholic and devout family man with a legion of faithful friends, hung himself in his family garage. It was a day before his mother’s birthday. He was deeply depressed at no longer being the Pistons’ vice president of publicity. In May, Pistons’ officials had abruptly fired him – fraudulently accusing him of leaking another employees’ pending firing – as well as three other staff members who had pledged allegiance to the franchise for a combined century-plus. Read more

ESPN The Magazine has dubbed San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey as their “NEXT” athlete for 2011.

The National League Rookie of the Year hit .305 with 18 home runs in only 108 games.

Joining Posey in their respective sports are Blake Griffin of the Los Angeles Clippers, Evander Kane of the Atlanta Thrashers and Patrick Peterson of LSU.

For the most part, ESPN The Magazine has got it right in selecting the next breakout athlete.

Well, minus 2004.