Bleacher Report - Articles by NYC Media Screamers- Michael Nastri

Question and Answer With Neil Best

NYC Media Screamers- Michael Nastri — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:30:22 -0400

Hey everyone. We will be doing a Q&A with Neil Best exclusively on NYC Media Screamers. I wanted to get this news out there because I am sure that many of you would have some interesting questions for Neil.

Neil needs no introduction to the New York sports media landscape as he runs one of the most popular sports media blogs in the country. Neil's "Watchdog" blog and column for Newsday are both incredible resources for information regarding everything associated with the NYC sports media.

We will be taking reader questions and mixing them with a few of our own. So please email us questions by tomorrow Wednesday, September 23 at 3 p.m. @ media.screamers@gmail.com

Should be a good read. Once again this Q&A will be exclusively at http://www.mediascreamers.com so look out for that later on in the week.

Goat Of The Week: John Henry

NYC Media Screamers- Michael Nastri — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:34:26 -0400

It gives me great pleasure to introduce this week's Goat.

Remember the George Steinbrenner outbursts on players(both opposing and his own), managers, management, and league officials? He was often killed in the media for his uncouth and unprofessional statements.

Hank Steinbrenner followed his father's footsteps and made the same brash statements. Remember Hank's bashing of the DH rule just last year?

Well John Henry doesn't seem much different. Henry uses twitter to make brash, asinine remarks. The latest of the bunch was posted yesterday:

"News from Yankees' Universe. Big upsurge in membership. Apparently coming mostly from Pluto. Not doing nearly as well on Mars."

This, of course, wasn't Henry's first statement attacking a Yankee player or group. After the Yanks were swept again by the Red Sox in early June, Henry tweeted, "The MT Curse?".

John Henry was jealous he didn't get Teixiera and got satisfaction like a five-year-old would after winning a game of Candy Land.

The Yankees Universe Fan Club is created out of the same idea the Red Sox used to create Red Sox Nation. The perks for Yankees Universe are great for fans. They include free MLB Game Day audio, fast track to get into the stadium, ticket discounts, and a members only site to see additional content.

Henry says similar crazy stuff through twitter that Hank Steinbrenner says through Howard Rubenstein. Only Henry's banter is silly and childish. Saying Yankee fans are from Pluto?!?

Maybe that's why Henry married a girl half his age, trying to get closer to that inner child that is obviously living inside of him.

John Henry is this week's Goat for two reasons:
1. He made a stupid, unnecessary comment through his Twitter.
2. If was going to make this comment, at least say something worthwhile, not a comeback my three-year-old neighbor could have come up with.

John, if you're going to try to be like George, then maybe you need to hire some PR reps of your own to teach you how to insult someone.

GOAT!

-MN

All-Star Tuesday Links

NYC Media Screamers- Michael Nastri — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:56:00 -0400

Well it's that time of the year. Players rest. Minds are eased. A meaningless game is televised by Fox as fans listen to McCarver rant.

It's the time of year when Bud Selig tries to convince anyone and everyone that the game means something and that this game is an appropriate means to decide home field advantage in the World Series.

Yes indeed, it's that time.

At least the NY writers have churned out some good articles on this All-Star Tuesday to bring us some meaning.

Alex still the Great?

Alex Rodriguez will not be partaking in the festivities but John Harper of the Daily News says he still has to be in the conversation as the best player in the game. He also lists his top five.

Jeter turning back time?

Jeter is the oldest shortstop to start in an All-Star game since Luis Aparicio in 1971. Mark Craig says t0 the 35-year-old, age is just a number.

Doc brings the right medicine for the Yanks?

Kevin Keernan believes the Bombers should trade for Roy Halladay because it's a perfect fit. Joba Chamberlain and Austin Jackson should not be off limits.

Yankees Universe?

Peter Abraham's has the details of the Yankees attempts to surpass Red Sox Nation.

There is another team in New York!

Ken Davidoff over at Newsday says the Mets are talking a good talk despite the reality of their situation.

Better hide those interim report cards!

Mark Herrmann thinks there is a lot left to do for these stadiums to be a success.

Darren Rovell details the attendance of these new stadiums in his sports biz blog.

Mauer love for the game!

Alan Schwarz of the New York Times details the life behind Joe Mauer's brother Jake.

That's it for the All-Star links in the NY media.

But here are some quick hits on US Soccer

Pavel Nedved US Bound?

Bob Bradley not loving Obama's promise to a Brazilian official?

Man City targets Beckham?

And how the Red Bulls coaching staff is safe for now.

And last but certainly not least some gossip:

Romo drops bomb on Jessica.

Maybe he won't choke in the playoffs now.

Maybe.

NAH...made my day!

-MN

Mad Dog: We are the Washington Nationals

NYC Media Screamers- Michael Nastri — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 22:25:00 -0400

Mad Dog has a mission: To turn Mad Dog Radio around.

He called his staff terrible. He said instead of little Mad Dogs that he has little Bow Wows. He fired his program director Steve Torre on the air. And then reamed out Andy Gresh, one of his talk show hosts.

He is going to find you PASSION and he will do it in a national search.

He ripped apart Torre after and went through a bunch of his hosts killing Bill Pidto, Bruce Murray, and John Cloghessy. He even tore into some interns that had some bad ideas.

This rant is classic.

-MN

Goat of the Week: Carolyn Bivens

NYC Media Screamers- Michael Nastri — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 01:46:00 -0400

Well, it has been a heck of run for the LPGA and commish Carolyn Bivens over the past four years. Critics have been calling for her job and it finally happened.

The out-spoken criticism started with the downturn of the economy. Multiple events lost sponsors and in turn seven tournaments were cancelled since 2007. Bivens did nothing to help rectify the situation.

Her relations with sponsors and players got worst in August 2008 when she tried to initiate a policy where all players on the tour had to speak English by 2009 or face suspension.

Players of domestic and foreign origin equally fought against this policy. The media was outraged. Bivens reversed her position after facing a possible lawsuit.

Then there was the twitter controversy in late May. In an interview with Bloomberg News, Bivens said, "I'd love it if players twittered during the middle of the round."

This ridiculous statement was met by harsh criticism by most players especially twitter regulars Paula Creamer and Morgan Pressel.

The final straw came for Bivens at the beginning of this month when a group of players including Pressel, Creamer, Lorena Ochoa, Cristie Kerr, and Natalie Gulbis attended a meeting in Toledo, Ohio to discuss Bivens as commissioner.

Creamer, Pressel, Ochoa, and Kerr were four of many players that signed a letter calling for Bivens resignation.

They cited the many loyal sponsors that are jumping ship on the LPGA as the reason for the letter.

The LPGA acted, as a "mutual agreement" was reached for Bivens to step down. The tour announced Marsha Evans, a retired Navy Admiral, will be the interim commissioner.

Bivens just didn't do a good job. She had some PR disasters.

Goat of The Week: Joba Chamberlain

NYC Media Screamers- Michael Nastri — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 22:40:00 -0400

This week's goat is Joba the Arrogant. The guy has had trouble all season with consistency, and Sunday's start against the Blue Jays was his worst Mr. Hyde impression.

Joba gave up eight runs off nine hits over three and two-thirds innings, while only striking out one. Cody Ransom's two-out error let Joba off the hook, as only three runs were earned. But a good outing does not mean giving up nine hits in less than four innings.

Joba has gone more than six innings only three times in 16 starts. That is not what you want to see from your young stud. In fact, Joba has gone less than five innings five times—two more times than he's gone over six . The future "ace" only has a 1.8 K/BB ratio.

Joba's persistent nibbling at corners and lack of control at times is not what makes him goat of the week. It's the young, brash righty's reactions after his futile start against Toronto.

Matt Gelb of the Star Ledger had Joba's reactions:

"I did a good job today, I felt like. They're great hitters. I threw good pitches and they put good swings on it. They've been doing it all year. And they're going to continue doing it."

This was after Girardi said in his post game press conference that he believed Joba was having trouble attacking the hitters and needed to do more of it. This is an accurate and honest observation by Girardi.

But when asked about Joba's comments, Chamberlain said, "you'll have to ask him" on the discrepancy.

Chamberlain is taking a page out of the Ian Kennedy book. In order to pitch in NYC, you have to be willing to take blame when you aren't doing well. You also shouldn't be disagreeing with your manager.

The reason I outlined Joba's inconsistency is to show that this isn't as if it's one bad start for him. It has been a pattern all season.

I say, take responsibility and correct the mistakes.

The right-hander has the talent and the stuff to go after hitters. So stop quibbling with Posada, and pitch.

Until Joba does fix himself and takes responsibility, he is this week's goat.

- MN

ESPN Scores in US National Team's First FIFA Final

NYC Media Screamers- Michael Nastri — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 20:57:00 -0400

Baseball, football, basketball, and hockey fans turned their attention to the pitch in South Africa this past week to witness one of the more improbable runs in sports.

Had the US team held their 2-0-halftime lead, it could have been even more surprising than the Giants' 2007-08 Super Bowl run. It even surpasses the Rockies road to the World Series in 2007.

ESPN was front and center to capitalize on the US national soccer team's success, and they did pretty well.

First, we start with the pre-game.

Rece Davis did a competent job as the studio host guiding along the pre-game to the FIFA Confederation Cup Final. He had some pretty good tidbits. My favorite actually being from halftime, when he gave the stat on the US being 98-1 when leading at halftime since 1993 (the one loss coming against Italy in the first game of this year’s Confederation Cup).

Davis also held a pretty fluent conversation with Alexi Lalas on what the USA had to do to stay in the game.

Speaking of Lalas, he is the best American soccer analyst out there, period.

He doesn’t have the best voice, but he provides excitement and makes good points through well-constructed sentences. He does have his occasional mumbles or “uhs”, but that comes with almost any athlete that is an analyst.

Lalas gave a realistic state of the union for US soccer after the match. He appealed to both new and old fans that the team is in the right direction, but still hasn't fully arrived.

The Brazil match proved that.

He said that US fans, players, and coaches should expect the US to compete like they did against Brazil every game.

That is a pretty accurate statement.

The US needs to start competing in these games before they can consistently win them. This group of players showed they can compete, and the next step is to show they can win.

That chance won’t come until they are in South Africa 347 days from now.

Once the game kicked-off, the quality of the commentary did not drop. JP Dellacamera is the best American play-by-play announcer for soccer. He gets the game of soccer much unlike Dave O’Brien, who called many of the important US games in years past.

JP is in tune with the linguistics of the game, such as “Dempsey has a go” and “Clark got stuck in there”. He can identify subtle, important play unlike most American soccer announcers.

Dellacamera identified Jonathan Spector’s great one on one defense on Kaka and Robinho, one of the more underrated aspects of the match.

Dellacamera reset the situation and magnitude of the game for the viewer every fifteen minutes. This reminds viewers of what the situation is, intensifying the moment, but also frequently informing new viewers who just tuned in what’s going on.

JP did mess up in two spots.

The first was not stating the referee’s name (Martin Hansson) after Brazil’s first yellow card. The viewer wants to know who and where the person giving the card is from.

He messed up talking about Spector’s injury plagued seasons in the EPL, saying he had a leg problem and a “concussion problem”, a rare misspeak from Dellacamera.

Some criticize JP for not being excited enough during the first US goal. That is because he knows soccer.

He was excited, but only to a certain point. He has to convey to fans what he knows: there is a ton of time left for Brazil to score and still win, which they did.

John Harkes is the one weaker aspects to ESPN’s coverage of this monumental match in US soccer history. He just speaks too much and pauses too often.

Because of his pauses, his commentary is often just a string of words, at times confusing the listener. Harkes knows his stuff, but has not figured out how to convey that on television.

Harkes' best analysis comes when JP prods him with a question like he did at the end of the first half on Feilhaber’s play, and after Brazil’s first goal on the quickness of Fabiano’s strike.

Harkes was the first to say how the quick 2-1 score line would affect US's chances moving forward in the match, something coach Bob Bradley and Landon Donavon echoed in post match interviews.

Every so often, Harkes does make great points on his own as he accurately described the difference in the US defense between the first and second half: the defense being pulled farther apart.

He said it before the second goal, which was the ultimate cause of the equalizer.

This pairing is leaps and bounds better than O’Brien and the bumbling Marcelo Balboa.

The technical side of the broadcast cannot be fully critiqued because ESPN was just taking the world feed. But, the producers back in Bristol did pump the crowd noise up more than it was on the Spanish channels here in the US.

It helped the fans feel more intimate with the action and was more accurate to what it sounded like on the pitch.

ESPN also understood how important this game was.

They have remained dedicated to soccer, and this was the lead on the bottom lead as well as the lead on “Sports Center”. The biggest sports station in the country put this first on a Sunday where interleague play ended, the two New York teams played, the two Chicago teams played, and the aftermath of the NBA draft played out.

ESPN made a statement, and an important one to US soccer moving forward.

The US might have failed, but ESPN prevailed in their coverage of this historic match.

-MN

Bob Bubka the Next Nostradamus?

NYC Media Screamers- Michael Nastri — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 22:12:00 -0400

Bob Bubka, a radio personality who has covered the PGA Tour for the past four years on World Golf Radio, predicted before the tournament that Lucas Glover would take the win.

Now if he picked Tiger Woods, this wouldn't even been a story. But picking Lucas Glover is just insane. Glover may never win another major in his career.

Apparently Bubka had dinner with Butch Harmon, the late Dick Harmon's brother who mentored Glover. Butch told Bubka that Glover was looking pretty good. Bubka then sought out Glover and his caddie. They told the radio personality that Glover discovered something during the US Open qualifier and Bubka decided to take a waiver on him.

It paid off and got him some press. Mark Herrmann of Newsday has the story.

Speaking of Glover, Rick Reilly of ESPN.com had an atrocious column on how the golfer didn't celebrate enough after he won the US Open.

Who are you, Rick Reilly a shriveled old man, to say how much someone should celebrate? Reilly has had some very good columns, but is out of place here.

Goat of the Week: The New York Knickerbockers

NYC Media Screamers- Michael Nastri — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 20:40:00 -0400

Another year, another draft, another mistake.

In one of the worst draft classes in recent memory, the Knicks dropped yet another goose egg.

Jordan Hill is a nice complimentary player. He was projected to go higher than he did. But he is too skinny and not a dominant defensive presence. The Knicks already have David Lee, who is and will be a better player in every aspect of his game. This pick leaves the door open for Lee to bolt. Without picking a point guard, the Knicks will need to retain Nate Robinson who did not fit in their plans for their future at his projected price.

The Knicks needed a pick that would not take years to blossom but a pick who would help the team now. A pick that would fix an obvious flaw in the Knicks like defense or provide dynamic guard play or a competent POINT GUARD who is the key to the head coach's system.

The Knicks could have traded up for a guy like Hasheem Thabeet giving the team instant shot blocking. They could have traded for the No. 5 pick with Washington who were dying to trade that pick. Through that pick they would've gotten their man Stephen Curry and their point guard.

They also could have kept their pick and taken Brandon Jennings who has a great upside as a point guard or Gerald Henderson who projects great for the pro game.

Donnie Walsh needs to be serious about trying to trade for Ricky Rubio because Jordan Hill will not help this team make the playoffs.

This team needs to do something to lure LeBron, Dwyane or Bosh to MSG come July 2010.

They didn't do anything Thursday during the draft to entice those guys.

Goat of the Week: Miami State Attorney's Office

NYC Media Screamers- Michael Nastri — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 14:10:00 -0400

This week's Goat of the Week has to be the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office. Dante Stallworth killed someone. Killed someone.

I understand that he plead guilty and had no priors. I also understand he agreed to pay a hefty sum to the family. But the guy messed up huge and was facing 15 years. How does that come down to 24 days?!?!?!? Way to set an example for young athletes not to drink and drive.

When NYC mayor Mike Bloomberg and the DA's office is setting an example for athletes that misbehave with Plaxico Burress, Miami is doing the exact opposite. Bad job Goat of the Week.

USGA: Rain Drops Keep Falling on My Head...Links for the Open

NYC Media Screamers- Michael Nastri — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 11:45:00 -0400

Just as the third round continues, there are some major story lines to this, the 109th US Open in history at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale Long Island. I have divided the links up by these story lines...

Rain, Rain Go Away:
Brendan Pruntym of the Star-Ledger has the outline of how the US Open will move forward through the weather. Prunty also has a nice piece on his experience with the US Open and his dad.

Barn baby Barnes:
John Harper of the Daily News has a quick bio on current leader Ricky Barnes.

Ian O'Connor also has a piece on Barnes.

The Real Phil Franchise:
Rich Cimini says the fan favorite shouldn't be counted out.

Tiger Meh:
Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News says Tiger doesn't have the goods. I have to disagree a little. I believe the weather did play heavily into his poor performance in the first round. Both he and Angel Cabrera, who was playing great golf walking into this weekend, had terrible first rounds through the worst weather of the tournament. Tiger's second round at one under, while not perfect, would put him right in the mix, even if he shot a 70 or 71 in the first round.

Sam Borden of the Journal News agrees with Lupica.

New York Fans Hecklers? No!?
Newsday has some coverage on fans heckling the players in the second day of round two Saturday. The fans paid special "attention" to Tiger Woods, but he laughed it off.

Neil Best has some advice for those hecklers.

Sean O'Baby:
Hank Gola of the Daily News has an update on the expecting father on this Father's Day, Sean O'Hair.

Keys to Victory:
Charles McGrath of the New York Times has noticed some trends in those that are conquering the rain-soaked Bethpage Black.

He Weir's it well:
McGrath also has a nice piece on Mike Weir's past performances in majors. Kevin McCarthy thinks Weir wins it...and I can't disagree too much...He is the only one with a major victory in the main contenders.

The Rise of David:
The former No. 1 player in the world is back in the spotlight again. Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post had this story on Duvall. At three under after the second round, he was in position to win this tournament, and it is a great story. I am surprised more writers didn't have this.

Maltbie Might Be a Fan Fav:
Neil Best has a story on NBC's Roger Maltbie.

Enjoy the golf everyone and Happy Father's Day!

The Five Worst Sports Announcers in New York

NYC Media Screamers- Michael Nastri — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 14:22:26 -0400

There are so many wonderful broadcasters in New York City. Mike Breen, the voice of the Knicks, is calling the NBA finals right now. The old voice of the finals, Marv Albert, has had one of the most distinguished broadcasting careers imaginable (despite his little biting incident).

Bob Papa has seen his career skyrocket and is great to listen to during Giant games.

The list can just seemingly go on forever: Sam Rosen, Kenny Albert, Doc Emrick, Gary Cohen, Ian Eagle and Chris Carrino all at the top of their game.

Yet, there seems to be a plenty of terrible announcers in the Big Apple to go around. I have selected the worst five of the New York area teams:

Let's start with the honorable mentions:

Bob Wischusen (play by play voice of New York Jets on 1050 ESPN): So frantic in the broadcast booth, you'd think he was David Carr in his Texans days.

Wayne Hagin (second play by play voice of New York Mets on WFAN): Does the man ever get excited?

Here are the Worst Five:

5. Mike Crispino (play by play voice most recently for St. John’s Basketball)

His career seemed star bound with all of his accolades and success in New England. Within his first two years at WLVI-TV in Boston, he was calling Celtics games, and was the head of the sports department. MSG, ESPN, and the Big Ten Network then came calling.

But then his career began falling apart. No longer working for ESPN, MSG seemingly has nothing to give him. Maybe that’s because they heard him do play by play for Knick games when Breen or Gus Johnson couldn’t.

He is atrocious. He is behind the play; he talks too much, seemingly thinking he is a basketball expert, but never playing at even a college level, and did I mention he talks too much?

After a successful career as a host (which he is pretty good at), basketball just does not fit him. The game moves too fast for Crispino and most fans can sense the confusion. Some people should just stick to reading off a teleprompter or asking meaningless questions in a post game locker room.

4. Michael Kay (play by play voice of the New York Yankees on YES)

Where do I start? Michael is a Fordham guy like many of the quality voices listed at the beginning of this article. That is where the comparisons stop.

He was actually pretty decent on the radio. He always asked good questions to guests, and he accurately described the play.

But on the radio he did not have enough time to bore us with his awful stories. Kay often goes off on tangents on things totally unrelated to the current game and at times having nothing to do with baseball.

His fake, cackling laugh does not ease the viewers’ minds about these never-ending stories.

Kay talks too much on television. He doesn’t realize he’s no longer doing radio. He doesn’t set up the play on television, but rather gives word pictures of what the viewer is already watching. Kay, in seven years, has not fully understood the differences between TV and radio.

In fairness, Kay is extremely good on his television show Center Stage because he is a great interviewer. He deserves the Emmy awards he’s won.

Unfortunately for Yankee fans, we continue to have to listen to him on Yankee broadcasts besides when the team is in Detroit or Kansas City (insert silky smooth voice of Ken Singleton)

3. Gus Johnson (play by play voice of the Knicks on ESPN 1050)

It doesn’t help that the guy calling TV for Gus’s main team is Mike Breen. It also doesn’t help that Gus screams when Eddie Curry dunks (well not this year) with the Knicks down 30 in the fourth quarter.

If I wanted to listen to someone scream I would just go visit my mother at her preschool.

Two of the main rules of doing play by play:

1. Don’t ever scream.
2. Know when to get excited because it shouldn’t happen more than a couple of times in a normal game

Johnson routinely ignores these two standards much to the chagrin of his listeners.

Gus is sometimes fun to listen to during March Madness because the games are exciting and his screaming is oddly appropriate. But, when the Knicks are getting the snot beaten out of them by the Oklahoma City Thunder, he is completely inappropriate.

His screaming is not his only flaw. He constantly makes errors in his facts. Sometimes it sounds like he did no preparation for the game whatsoever.

This is another cardinal sin of play-by-play. Some people spend days preparing for an opponent, only to hear Johnson butchering the other team’s second leading scorer’s stat line.

2. John Sterling (play by play voice of the New York Yankees on WCBS 880)

One of the more colorful announcers in the game, Sterling has fallen farther from the tree in recent years.

Yankee fans might still love Sterling from the nostalgia of those calls during the glory days of the franchise in the late nineties. I myself don’t mind the “The-uuuuuhhhhhhhhhhh Yannkeeeesssssss Wiiiiinnnnn” call. Some of his older, cornier calls for player home runs were somewhat clever.

These unique calls are Sterling’s only saving grace. He cannot see in his old age, often getting excited over routine fly balls that he thinks are out. For example, “It’s high, it is far, it’s aaaaaaaa pop out to short.”

Sterling frequently mispronounces opposing players' names and never knows stat lines. He frequently says, “well Damon has to be hitting around .300” when he might be hitting .250. It is unacceptable for a broadcaster not have stat lines because they are easily found in seconds on the Internet.

Sterling is also a huge “homer.” Obviously someone following the team day in and day out will be partial to whom they work for, but Sterling takes it to a whole new level. He cannot say anything critical about the Yanks and this was clearly seen last year when the Yanks weren’t a playoff baseball team.

John, I will have to be objective—you are one of the worst in New York.

1. Suzyn Waldman (Color Commentator for the New York Yankees on WCBS 880)

“My Good Goodness Gracious, Of All The Dramatic...Roger Clemens is standing right in George Steinbrenner’s Box...”

Oh I can fill an entire series of articles dedicated to Suzyn Waldman and her hysterical sound bytes (read on for my personal favorite).

She is the absolute worst. There is no other way around it. She doesn’t know baseball. Her stories are worst than Kay’s and Sterling’s. They have neither point nor value.

She takes opinions when she shouldn’t. These opinions are usually without knowing all of the facts.

She is the biggest “homer” in New York. That’s right much worst than Sterling, which you actually have to try at.

She has made some of the biggest blunders on the air in recent memory. Her voice makes most people cringe.

She used to be a decent beat reporter on WFAN, besides her normal crying fits over George Bell, etc. But, she is unlistenable on the radio (that’s right she is so bad I had to make up a word for her).

Well, of all her dramatic blunders—here is my personal favorite for your viewing pleasure, courtesy of YouTube.

Eli Manning's Fake Twitter Account Raises Questions

NYC Media Screamers- Michael Nastri — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:56:11 -0400

For all of you Twitter lovers out there, continue to embrace it because it's changing how media works.

For all of you Twitter haters out there, get used to it because it isn't going away.

Despite its popularity, there is a legitimate problem with Twitter that haters can gripe about: It is so easy to make a fake account and pretend to be someone you’re not.

“We’re [Eli and Peyton] not on Twitter. We won’t be using Twitter,” Eli Manning said to Ralph Vacchiano of the Daily News. “So if you get a message saying it’s Eli or Peyton, it’s not us.”

Eli and his brother's fake accounts aren’t the only ones around. Tina Fey, Megan Fox (most notably from Transformers), Stephen Colbert, Christopher Walken, and yes, even former President George W. Bush are all being impersonated over Twitter.

While many of the posts for fake athletes are funny, there is no way to tell whether these thoughts are actually from the athlete or celebrity. This same dilemma arose at the end of April.

Someone set up a fake Twitter account in Tony La Russa’s name. After losing two out of three to their division rivals, the Cubs, the Twitter account bearing La Russa’s name posted the following tweet according to Jim Salter of the AP:

“Lost 2 out of 3, but we made it out of Chicago without one drunk-driving incident or dead pitcher.”

The Cardinals Darryl Kile died in his room of a heart complication in 2002. Josh Hancock died in an auto accident following a night of drinking. And La Russa himself pleaded guilty to driving under the influence in March.

The distasteful tweet splashed all over headlines and led to La Russa suing Twitter. It is very possible for any of the celebrities being impersonated to sue a social networking device.

In another Twitter related lawsuit, Dawn Simorangkir (the Boudoir Queen) sued Courtney Love over Love’s negative tweets about Simorangkir’s clothing line.

An athlete got in trouble for his tweets as well. Brian Wilson, the closer for the San Francisco Giants, confirmed that his account is real. Wilson tweeted about an encounter with a group of over-aggressive males after a late night in Arizona. The next day Wilson blew a save against the Diamondbacks.

The big topic after the game was whether Wilson’s late-night escapades caused him to be ineffective the next day. After his tweeting caused him this grief, he deleted all of his tweets according to Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle.

The closer replaced those tweets with one saying: “Warning- do not take my twitters seriously, they are made up stories that reflect my humor.”

Twitter is a social phenomenon. Many athletes and celebrities are using it to communicate with fans directly. Shaq, Steve Nash, and Lil’ Wayne each have thousands of followers. Many known writers such as Peter King and Jon Heyman of SI post their opinions on Twitter.

It is a way for regular people to become personally connected with celebrities.

Not only are there fake accounts, but it's also hard for an athlete to tell a story or convey meaning in 140 characters.

So, be careful Antonio Pierce, who only wants to “talk like he tweets” according Mike Garafolo of the Newark Star Ledger. 140 characters are not enough to give an account of a game or an outlook for a season without negating something important.

Twitter opens many doors. But, journalists are there to decipher what an athlete says and to give well-rounded accounts of the story. Without them, some of the story is left out or even flat-out wrong.

Twitter is a great new tool. But, like many of the social networking tools over the past four years, Twitter must be taken with a grain of salt until its issues can be fixed.

Just ask the 15,000-plus followers of Eli Manning on Twitter, I bet they feel cheated now knowing their Super Bowl MVP isn’t Eli at all.

The Top Ten Giants Quarterbacks of All Time

NYC Media Screamers- Michael Nastri — Sat, 30 May 2009 01:36:09 -0400

After doing some reading on Eli Manning, I started to wonder where Eli stands in NY Giant QB history. I started doing some research and came up with the top ten quarterbacks in Giants history. Who do you think is number 1? Simms? Tittle? Collins? or is it Eli? You'll have to read to find out! Feel free to state your opinion in the comments below for a lively discussion for all your Giant fans or Giant haters out there.

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