The prescient wisdom of N.Y. Post sports columnist Phil Mushnick, longtime HBB favorite, reveals itself yet again as 'Thermal Cam' enters our lexicon

Whether you call it "Hot Spot" or -mockingly- "Thermal Cam," Fox Sports' latest borrowed tool is yet another thing the American sports fan does NOT want to see polluting the TV screen during a telecast.

The prescient wisdom of N.Y. Post sports columnist Phil Mushnick, longtime HBB favorite, reveals itself yet again as 'Thermal Cam' enters our lexicon

So, speaking of the Herald's perfectly dreadful and half-assed coverage of the 2011 World Series between the Texas Rangers and the St. Louis Cardinals as we were in our last post, I wanted very much to share something with you Sunday night and yet my oversight, and the sudden emergence Wednesday night of this latest bit of sports porn in the first game of the series -that quickly became a sore subject for sports fans, national sports radio personalities and sportswriters- only re-emphasizes the need to share what I'd meant to do Sunday in this space: share some wisdom not my own.

Sportscaster Dan Patrick of DirecTV's weekday "Dan Patrick Show" on the discussed the camera on his show Thursday morning and came down very negatively on the subject, as did Michael Wilbon on "Pardon the Interruption" later in the afternoon on ESPN, a.k.a. "The Mother Ship," labeling it "JUNK."

October 20, 2011 screen-grab by South Beach Hoosier.

That wisdom not my own comes from a great source, a longtime Hallandale Beach Blog favorite and font of information, knowing analysis, common sense and prescience: sports media columnist Phil Mushnick of the New York Post.

He warned against this sort of dog-chasing-its-tail sports clutter on the TV screen even before ever seeing it!

Now that's the kind of insight I like!

Last Sunday afternoon, I read that column myself while munching on an Asiago bagel and some Hazelnut coffee at the local Panera Bread, my first time there on a Sunday afternoon in quite a while, since the Dolphins at Jets ballgame was on Monday night, so I didn't have to worry about missing it.

Let Phil Mushnick's column's internal logic and wisdom now wash over you as it did me...

New York Post

Time for sports TV to ‘go another direction’

By Phil Mushnick

Last Updated: 6:59 AM, October 16, 2011

Posted: 12:47 AM, October 16, 2011

What would happen — the worst that could happen — if one of the NFL’s or MLB’s partner TV networks truly decided to “go in another direction.”

What possible down side would there be if a network committed itself to eliminating the worsening on-screen and in-ear clutter that now systemically make so many live telecasts insufferable as a matter of mindless, follow-the-leader excess?

Read the rest of the spot-on column at:

http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/more_sports/time_for_sports_tv_to_go_another_XthLJexSUU350oPiAwVErN

I alluded in my last blog post to having to be at an ER facility Thursday night due to a medical situation involving my family, where I needed to transport someone to the Aventura ER facility of Mount Sinai Hospital, just north of Aventura Mall at 2845 Aventura Blvd., which is, literally, a million times faster than the ER situation at nearby HCA's Aventura Hospital, farther north on U.S.-1 & N.E. 209th Street, whose bureaucratic snails-pace horror stories I have first-hand experience with that I don't even want to have to relive here, no matter how instructive to you they'd be.

That glacial pace in treating patients -and getting them rooms if necessary- at Aventura Hospital is THE very reason we didn't go there Thursday night, and why I have been advising friends in the area for many months to go to Mount Sinai if you have a choice in the matter.

This Mount Sinai facility is where I watched the masterful pitching performances in game two of the World Series on an amazing PDI Communications Systems brand Persona LCD TV, which are mounted on a movable, flexible lightweight swing arm that allows you to bring the action and the sound as close to you as you want.

They're amazing, and while the photos I have posted here have it located just a few inches from the wall, you can actually move it so that it's right in front or above you on the hospital bed if you like.

I could really go for one of these when I'm lying on the couch at home!

And, best of all, they're Made in America - Springboro, Ohio!

October 20, 2011 screen-grab by South Beach Hoosier.

October 20, 2011 screen-grab by South Beach Hoosier.

October 20, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Yet another Miami Herald WTF moment re the World Series -their unintentional dig at themselves reveals a shallow, poorly-edited, second-rate newspaper

Yet another Miami Herald WTF moment re the World Series -their unintentional dig at themselves reveals a shallow, poorly-edited, second-rate newspaper.

"History repeats itself."

How many times have we all found ourselves saying that aloud or thinking that thought silently when we've come across a situation that makes us shake our heads and discern a certain circularity in our part of the universe?

Well, at the Miami Herald -just as is true at Hallandale Beach City Hall for HB's beleaguered taxpayers, who are plagued by sleep-walking elected officials with little concern for public scrutiny of tax dollars going out to cronies- history seems to repeat itself quite frequently, often more than seems either logical or even possible.

At One Herald Plaza as is true at 400 S. Federal Highway, the preponderance of the facts tend to show that when it happens, it's almost always a bad experience for Herald readers wanting to be well-informed, and this past week was no exception.

History repeated itself a few times at the Herald this past week, and this was true despite the fact that I didn't even read Thursday's paper until late today -Friday afternoon, due to an unexpected trip to a local emergency room Thursday night due to a family medical situation.

So, where to start?

Well, first, the predicate.

Last year I shared with you a few stories about the Herald's perfectly dreadful sports coverage in general, and in particular, their half-assed coverage of the 2010 World Series between the Texas Rangers and the San Francisco Giants in a November 3rd, 2010 post titled, quite accurately, The Miami Herald's dismal Pony Express-style coverage of The World Series -compared to the New York Times- is a bad omen for readers

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/miami-heralds-dismal-pony-express-style.html

Well, would you believe that they even topped themselves on Wednesday, even before the First Pitch?

First, you'll notice that they don't mention anything about the World Series above the masthead to lure readers to the sports section.

The sort of thing that in the past would've been a no-brainer.

Check.

Then when you get to the sports section, under the decidedly non-genius editorial leadership of Jorge Rojas, you notice that there is absolutely nothing about that night's Opening Game on the front page.

Check.

This, even while there is something about the Dolphins, Hurricanes and Panther and... oh yeah, a wire story about the Michigan State football team.

Really.

The first three are not so unusual being local teams and all, but seriously, a story on the front page about Spartan football but not the World Series?

Why?

We don't live in East Lansing.

As if to throw salt into the the open-wound that is the Herald sports section, they run a photo of FIU running back Kendrick Rhodes from Tuesday night's nationally-televised football game at Arkansas State.

But they have nothing about the game itself.

Nothing as in nada!

Just like they had nothing in the newspaper weeks ago -the next day- following FIU's biggest football victory ever, against the U of L Cards (Louisville), another game that was nationally-televised.

How f-ing embarrassing!!!

Oh, so you think it's just because the Herald's geniuses make the Broward edition the same as the Keys edition, as above?

Hmm-m... so doesn't that seem like a dis-service to the 40-45% of their readers who want accurate and timely information?

Especially given that the Herald has a printing press in Broward County on Pembroke Road less than four miles from me, where I'm also less than a mile north of the Miami-Dade County line?

Today, as if to show they are beyond redemption -they are, I was being rhetorical- today's sports section had a smarmy so-called "Web Poll" on its second page -at top of this post- with the following question, and I swear they really wrote this, apparently unaware of the irony of a crummy newspaper sports section like theirs that doesn't mention the World Series on its own front page asking its readers: Are you interested in the World Series?

The answers you could respond with are:

With the Marlins and Yankees at home I'm not interested

Very interested

Lost interest with the strikes

The World Series is going on?

When did we inherit the Yankees?

The next time you hear someone from a TV network or a national-known sports writer opine on the sorry state of South Florida sports fans, while it's clearly got grains of truth, what they always forget to mention is the dreadful state of their brethren in local South Florida radio/TV/newspaper sports Depts: they are largely awful and yet strangely verbose and testy, an awful combination for readers, listeners and viewers alike.

And full of people from New York who never made the successful transition to making this area "home" even after 20 or more years.

For those of you who live far from South Florida, understand this point and you will understand a lot of why Florida in general and South Florida in particular have so many intractable problems:

The states of California, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia absorbed the vast majority of the genuinely creative/talented or business-savvy New Yorkers who chose to flee that state since the early '80's, due to high taxes and the decreasing Quality of Life, while South Florida absorbed what was left of the emigres.

And it shows itself everyday in all aspects of life here, including the low aptitudes and smug attitudes of the South Florida news media.

We got stuck with all the Misfit Toys from New York.