Laying up more sports media notes while being thankful that no one tries to throttle me while I'm typing the way opposing players do to LeBron James when he drives to the basket:
NBC really, really wants to see someone hit the ball into the water this weekend at The Players Championship (tomorrow and Sunday, 2 p.m., on WBAL/Channel 11 and WRC/Channel 4). How much?
At a typical hole, the network would deploy four microphones. For No. 17 at TPC Sawgrass, with its famous island green, NBC has installed 21 microphones, including 15 designated as "Splash Mics," along with 10 cameras.
Chances are, NBC will be rewarded. About 120,000 balls end up in the water over a year.
The network's lead golf analyst, Johnny Miller, said of the hole: "It makes me nervous. You've got to get some scar tissue on that hole.
"It never goes away. You'll never forget when you miss that green in that water. Never," Miller said, according to highlights from a conference call.
NBC's Roger Maltbie said: "I used to make it a habit on Wednesday [during a practice round], I'd fire one or two of them in there just to get it done. I figured I'd serve the Terrible Water God at 17 and I'd be done for the week."
In some corners, NBC drew heavy criticism for not focusing enough on Eight Belles' death at Saturday's Kentucky Derby. The question was how to balance the triumph of Big Brown with the tragedy of the filly.
Producer Sam Flood told the Associated Press: "You're making instant decisions on documenting a story and making the audience aware of what happened without sensationalizing it."
The pictures of Eight Belles' breakdown after the race came from the blimp camera.
"You don't want to show anything visually that makes you ill, that you inside say, `I don't want my wife or child to see that,' " Flood said.
I wouldn't pile on NBC too heavily - after all, this wasn't analogous to what happened to Barbaro in the Preakness - but I would fault the network for reacting too slowly immediately after the race.
HBO's Real Sports (10 p.m. Monday) reports on the practice of selling used-up thoroughbreds for overseas slaughter and packaging of horsemeat in countries where it is normal fare for people. HBO used hidden cameras to track the horses to auctions in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
