Heja Svereige! Sweden plays U.S.A. for IIHF World Junior Championship on Saturday at 8 a.m. on NHL Network, DirecTV Channel 215; You know, the world championship that the Miami Herald has taken both a pass on and a piss on?

Above, ten-and-a half minutes of highlights of Sweden's shootout win over Russia Thursday morning in one of the two semifinals, as seen theru the eyes of SVT's excitable announcing team of Chris Härenstam and Micke Renberg.

Heja Svereige! Sweden plays U.S.A. for IIHF World Junior Championship on Saturday at 8 a.m. on NHL Network, DirecTV Channel 215; You know, the world championship that the Miami Herald has taken both a pass on and a piss on?

Yes, the same important hockey tourney taking place in Russia featuring the game's

best young players, which the Miami Herald, under non-ace Sports Editor Jorge Rojas devoted exactly one sentence to in last Saturday's print edition in a story about a 1-0 U.S. loss  to Russia.

That one sentence, which appeared in the far-right bottom corner of page 5D, is SO small and insignificant that my efforts to take a photo of it to document the Herald's crappy coverage, only caused more frustration, since getting it all within the camera frame necessarily made it hard to read. Instead, I will type here what it said:

* Hockey: Andrei Makarov made 41 saves to help Russia beat the United States 2-1 at the world junior championships in Ufa, Russia. 

That's it.
Not even the name of who scored for Team U.S.A.
Really.

By the way, I watched most of Sweden's 3-2 Shootout win over Russia Thursday morning and captain Filip Forsberg already looks better than anyone on the Florida Panthers.
You remember them, don't you?
They play at that Broward County-owned arena that's not near anyone.


Video: Reporter Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News interviews Washington Capitals prospect and Team Sweden forward and captain Filip Forsberg in Ufa, Russia on his thoughts heading into Saturday's championship against Team U.S.A. as Sweden attempst to win their second juniors title in a row.
http://www.thehockeynews.com/articles/49156-VIDEO-Oneonone-with-Team-Sweden-forward-and-Washington-Capitals-prospect-Filip-Forsberg.html

I initially had this video embedded up at the top, but because the audio was starting even before the entire page was open, I decided to move it down here on the post so that readers wouldn't be wondering where those voices were coming from and freaking out.


Sweden looks poised to win their second championship in a row, but the U.S. is heavily-favored.
Will the succes of the Småkronorna continue? 
That's why they play the game.
But Sweden hasn't defeated Team U.S.A. at The World Juniors since 1996.

SVT's countdown clock for the broadcast:
http://www.svtplay.se/video/928959/finalen

http://forecaster.thehockeynews.com/hockeynews/hockey/tournament.cgi?wjc2013

http://www.thehockeynews.com/

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.

Breaking: Miami Herald & sports editor Jorge Rojas already in mid-season form as they ignore BigTenNetwork's televised ballgames

Breaking: Miami Herald & sports editor Jorge Rojas already in mid-season form as they ignore BigTenNetwork's nationally-televised football games.

"Breaking," that is, if by breaking you mean every Big Ten football and basketball game they've televised for the past three years, whose games have never been listed in the Herald's daily Sports on TV.

http://www.bigtennetwork.com/
http://www.bigtennetwork.com/subindex/programming

Right, because there's nobody in South Florida who's originally from the Midwest, or who are alums from those eleven schools in South Florida.
I mean I only know about 100-125 myself, many of them well-known names locally.
Brilliant!

That's why the folks at the Herald and likely many of you with DirecTV in South Florida also missed the phenomenal Appalachian State upset of Chad Henne's over-rated Michigan team in the very first BTN broadcast, because the Herald didn't list it.
But I saw that amazing game LIVE.

I was laughing to myself in the fourth quarter as the game went "Instant Classic," knowing that the Herald had, once again, been caught with its pants down.

Par for the course over there in the Sports Dept., as the details of the Marlins finances coming from DeadSpin and not them proves rather conclusively.
http://deadspin.com/5619235/florida-marlins-financial-documents/gallery/

How does a supposed media reporter/columnist like Barry Jackson continue to not just ignore but act seemingly oblivious of the BTN, month-after-month, year-after-year, when other college conferences desperately want to emulate the cash-cow and national coverage the Big Ten teams already provides?

Good question, why don't you ask him?
But before you do that, consider the chicken-and-the-egg of this paradox: that's why he's Barry Jackson, that's why it's the Miami Herald, and that's why he's there and not somewhere else.

Once again, if you think about it a bit, you answer your own question!

You remember the BigTenNetwork, don't you?
They're the Chicago-based TV network beloved by advertisers that is one of the main reasons that the University of Nebraska leaves the Big 12 Conference effective next Fall for the national exposure and TV money that comes from having their football and basketball games available ALL OVER THE COUNTRY.
Where each of the current eleven member school gets roughly $22 million a year?

Plus, traditional non-revenue sports, where Nebraska excels and actually make money, like Men's Baseball and Women's Volleyball, where they're multiple NCAA Women's Volleyball champs, will also get seen all over the country, even in California and Hawaii and New England.

That's the sort of thing that helps national recruiting, don't you think?
A not insignificant consideration for a small state like Nebraska, whose state population is less than Miami-Dade and Broward's combined, and who has thus always had to recruit nationally, especially in Texas, for football.

And what does the University of Miami have again in terms of a TV deal?
Is that game of theirs tonight against FAMU on TV anywhere?
No.

The Randy Shannon TV Show is on what channel on what date at what time?
Nobody even knows whether he has one!

But in the Midwest, among real sports fans, they know exactly what time and when and where the myriad coach's TV show comes on, and the BTN even repeats the shows during the week for national coverage, which is how I came to watch the Bill Lynch Show this week.

Meanwhile, the Herald has NEVER written a serious article specifically about the BTN, which I know for a fact because I've checked their archives so many times.
The answer is always the same: ZERO.
Congrats One Herald Plaza!

Another David Landberg and Jorge Rojas success story!
That's why your sports section is so decidedly third-tier.

Tonight:
Marshall at Ohio State on DirecTV Channel 610
Towson at IU on DirecTV Channel 611 at 7:30 pm.

With encore showings in the days to come for folks like me.


Chicago Tribune
Big Ten could see TV money skyrocket with expansion
As number of subscriptions rise, multiplication adds up to considerable sum
May 13, 2010
By Teddy Greenstein | Tribune staff reporter
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-05-13/sports/chi-100514-big-ten-expansion-greenstein_1_btn-big-ten-network-tv-executive

Chicago Tribune
Big Ten big winner in divisional set up
Hard to find downside in way league divided while protecting most rivalries
September 01, 2010
By Teddy Greenstein | ON COLLEGES, ON GOLF
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-09-01/sports/ct-spt-0902-greenstein-big-ten-footba20100901_1_dave-brandon-pat-fitzgerald-ryan-field

Chicago Tribune
Rosenblog by Steve Rosenbloom
Big Ten's new set-up: NU wins, Illinois loses again (and again and again)
http://blogs.chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/rosenblog/2010/09/big-tens-new-set-up-nu-wins-illinois-loses-again-and-again-and-again.html

The New York Times College Football homepage and blog, The Quad:
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/sports/ncaafootball/
http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/

The Dallas Morning News's influential College Sports blog and Sports Media blog:
http://collegesportsblog.dallasnews.com/
http://sportsmediablog.dallasnews.com/

Mr. College Football blog by Tony Barnhart:
http://blogs.ajc.com/barnhart-college-football/

Athlon College Football website: http://www.athlonsports.com/college-football