Braves owner Ted Turner was not happy with a Fox exec's cheering on the Yankees
1. Fox is in the middle of its 25th year of airing Major League Baseball's postseason. To celebrate the occasion, Sports Business Journal put together a fun oral history on Fox's acquiring the rights to MLB in 1996 and airing its first World Series ever between the Yankees and Braves.
Yankees haters might not enjoy the piece because Fox executives admit throughout it that they root hard for the Bronx Bombers to win because it's good for business.
One of the better anecdotes in the oral history is about former Braves owner Ted Turner getting a Fox executive booted out of Game 4 of the World Series because the executive was openly rooting for the Yankees in Atlanta's stadium.
Tracy Dolgin, who was Fox's EVP of marketing and promotion, explains:
"I am sitting at Game 4 [in Atlanta] with Ted Turner and Jane Fonda; they didn’t have a suite. The Yankees start catching up and I’m going crazy screaming and yelling. I still love the Yankees [from growing up] and I’m also a business person. We need them to win or we are going to miss our budget, the entertainment people will take over again and we’ll get crushed. As I’m yelling in a sea of Braves fans, Ted’s like, 'What are you doing?' I’m like, 'It’s a game, I’m cheering.' He says, 'How dare you? This is my stadium, this is my team and no one is cheering for the Yankees in my stadium, against my team, sitting next to me.' I say, 'Ted, it’s a game, it’s fun, it’s entertaining.' He goes, 'If you stand up and yell and cheer one more time for the Yankees, I will throw you out of the stadium.' I think he’s kidding. Jane is trying to calm him down. The Yankees went ahead and—it’s Pavlovian—I got up and I’m screaming and next thing I know, security is walking me out of the stadium. I got on the phone in the truck and called the commissioner and said, 'We paid billions of dollars for this, you can’t throw me out of the stadium.' Commissioner got me back in. I didn’t go back to sit with Ted.
Obviously, I'm biased, but you can't blame Dolgin for cheering when this happened.
2. The Fleetwood Mac/cranberry juice guy keeps milking his 15 minutes. His latest video has him celebrating the Lakers' title.
3. Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler was not thrilled with a question about his tight pants after L.A.'s 5–1 loss to the Braves on Monday night.
4. It wasn't a wild Saturday for Bad Beats, but Scott Van Pelt's weekly segment is still worth watching.
5. If you're looking for something to binge during these pandemic days, allow me to recommend Now We're Talking on the CW app. The show is about two former NFL players who get into sports broadcasting after their playing days. Season 2 debuted on the CW Seed last month, and all episodes are available on the CW app. Fun fact: The show stars Tug Coker, who played Jim Halpert's brother on The Office.
6. The latest episode of the SI Media Podcast features a conversation with author, reporter and podcast host James Andrew Miller. Miller, who wrote epic books about ESPN and Saturday Night Live, talks about whether NFL ratings this year will have an impact on TV rights negotiations, how the pandemic could affect the NFL's TV contracts, whether ESPN will keep pursuing Peyton Manning for Monday Night Football, how ESPN has handled social justice issues the past few weeks, the return of Saturday Night Live, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Howard Stern's reported new deal with SiriusXM and much more.
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher and Google Play.
7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Reader Chip Egan emailed a request for an SCTV video. For those of you not old enough to know what SCTV is, it's the Canadian version of Saturday Night Live that featured such stars as Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, John Candy, Martin Short, Rick Moranis and others.
Here's a great skit from the show featuring Moranis doing an outstanding George Carlin impersonation.
7. SPORTS VIDEO OF THE DAY: Happy 58th birthday to the legendary Jerry Rice.
Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Stitcher. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter and Instagram.