Sunday Morning Warm-Up: Saturday Night Edition
I guess I should thank the Cavs for not killing the Wizards in Game 5.

ESPN had to bump the race to ESPN Classic, and to make sure everyone had a chance to see it, simulcast on Fox’s Speed Channel. Presented with a choice, I rediscovered one of my biggest pet peeves: the BottomLine news ticker.

ESPN had it for years with ESPN2 and ESPNEWS, but over the past six years, television has been inserting the little news ticker at the bottom of my screen. It’s distracting, and if you’re watching something on tape-delay, it often spoils the ending for you. And of course, there’s always that one headline you see is coming up, and you’re either waiting for it or just started reading it when they go to commercial, and you have to wait until it comes up again.

Why does every sports and news network think I need information fed to me underneath 24/7? Can’t I be left alone to watch my show without being bothered?

So last night, I watched Speed Channel without the annoying little BottomLine, when things got worse: ESPN now puts a news ticker in their scoring banner. So now I need to read up on a week’s worth of NASCAR news while watching the race.

Tomorrow morning, I’m putting duct tape over the top and bottom of my TV screen. I’m going 16:9 so I can at least watch television.

Things were going so well… Kyle Busch was having a fantastic year. Along with a ton of wins, it appeared his attitude had improved, and we were all loving his newfound enthusiasm heard over numerous radio transmissions.

Then he forced Steven Wallace into David Ragan over contact going down the backstretch at Richmond last night. And he continued the argument to pit road (By the way, I‘ve always been impressed when a driver picks a fight with another driver when he‘s still stuck in his car).

Hopefully that was just one short track incident and not a sign of the old Kyle Busch. And credit to Wallace who at least tried to take the high road, but ESPN had to keep poking him.

Overdoing it a bit? Texas Motor Speedway’s Eddie Gossage offered Dale Jr. $100,000 to race an IndyCar for the 550k race in June. Not only did Dale decline, it seems there are some lingering feelings between the two:

"He thinks I'm a cheap date, I guess," Earnhardt said. "I wouldn't be able to do it — my conscience wouldn't let me. If they offered me more money, my conscience wouldn't let me. I know his intentions are well. We had that discussion with the billboard thing, and I totally understand what his approach is to advertising now. If I was there testing my car, and somebody had their (IndyCar) there, I'd like to jump in and run a couple of laps, but that would be the extent of the adventure."

Looks like using Junior’s family feud as advertising has kind of set him off. Look, we all love the fun promoter who pulls in fantastic acts and stunts to bring in the crowd. Hell, it’s one of the things that makes Minor League Baseball so much fun. And we’ve all come to love Humpy Wheeler and his great ideas over the years.

But Gossage is trying a little too hard. Offering drivers to throw their helmets (clearly violating NASCAR rules) and the previous billboard incident skewer the line of good taste. Offering the IndyCar ride thing to someone like fellow promoter and friend Tony Stewart probably would’ve been better, but to wave cash at the sports biggest star seems kind of tacky, and I can’t blame Junior for declining. Spend a little more time with Humpy, and maybe you’ll figure out some better promotions.
Posted: 5/3/2008 4:09:36 PM
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