During Monday's NCAA lacrosse final on ESPN, analyst Quint Kessenich mentioned Major League Lacrosse enough times that it stuck out like a sore, uh, promotion. MLL games are carried on ESPN2.
Speaking of the NCAA and lacrosse, the media mentions of how many titles Syracuse has won points to an issue of the limits of NCAA sanctions. Though the organization took away the Orange's 1990 national championship for violations, you could hear or read of Syracuse's victory Monday being its 10th crown, no matter what the NCAA says.
It's sort of the same way the "vacated" Final Four appearance for Massachusetts in 1996 didn't stop anyone from referring to Memphis' trip this year as coach John Calipari's second time in the national semifinals.
Flip through your iPod to that Lipps Inc track. Won't you take me to ... Hockeytown.
Wednesday's Detroit Red Wings-Pittsburgh Penguins game drew the biggest national rating for a Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals in six years, with 2.3 percent of the audience for NBC. However, it still didn't beat ESPN's NBA playoff game between the Detroit Pistons and Boston Celtics, which got a 5.3 rating.
In Detroit, though, hockey beat basketball, 18.2-15.9.
Sports talk host Mark Madden was booted off the air this week by ESPN for his remarks about Sen. Edward Kennedy on the network's radio affiliate in Pittsburgh, the Associated Press reported. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Madden said last week he hoped Kennedy - who has been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor - "would live long enough to be assassinated."
ESPN has added a stat line to its top-of-the-picture graphic. Below the score, it will flash information on a batter's performance at a particular count, showing his batting average, homers and RBIs when facing 1-0 or 1-2, etc. I could be a curmudgeon and complain of too many graphics crowding the screen, but this is an enhancement for a viewer's inner seamhead.
ESPN2 is carrying the first round of baseball's amateur draft Thursday at 2 p.m. Karl Ravech hosts with analysts Steve Phillips and Chris Singleton. Phillips has been dispatched to Mel Kiper Jr.'s hairstylist.
ray.frager@baltsun.com
