Posted by Ryan

GOLF CHANNEL’s latest reality series takes an inside look at life at the Hank Haney International Junior Golf Academy in Hilton Head, S.C., as the students at the world’s top junior golf school prepare themselves for athletically and academically for a shot at a college golf scholarship. In School of Golf: Hilton Head Island, airing Tuesdays at 11pm ET, we get meet renowned instructor Hank Haney, Tiger Woods’ swing coach, and the young golfers he’ll try to mold into pro-tour hopefuls during the 2007-08 school year.

These kids aren’t beginners when they step into Haney’s school. They’re already in an elite class of junior golfers (and likely come from an elite social class, too). The first episode introduces a handful of the students the series will follow.

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Tags: Reality TV, Recap, Sports, TV News & Program Updates by Cubicle QB
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Posted by Cubicle QB

What’s with all the sports thievery lately? First Floyd Mayweather has $7 million in bling stolen from him, then Tatum Bell allegedly steals Rudi Johnson’s luggage.

But not so surprising is the theft of turf-like mat postings installed in bus shelters for ESPN’s Monday Night Football promotional campaign. They’re practically begging to be stolen.

According to ESPN, in just seven days, 20 of the planned 195 mats installed in New York City were stolen. In Los Angeles, 13 of the planned 205 mats were stolen. Similar problems occurred in Chicago (six), San Francisco (two) and Washington, D.C. (five). They’ve stopped installing the mats until they can figure out how to keep people from ripping them off. Good luck with that.

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Tags: Sports by Cubicle QB
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Posted by Ryan

1. OK, someone’s going home today. So there’s only one team that can’t go home today, and it’s Rob and Charlotte. Odds are good we’re going to get our first elimination at the end of this episode. I’m really surprised we’ve come this far without someone getting booted. I’m not sure if this is indicative of the quality of the teams or just the randomness of the game.

2. Andy and Parker drop some knowledge. Facing a trivia challenge on the beach at Treasure Island in Tampa, Andy and Parker display some memory skills I wouldn’t have suspected they had. They remember two key details from the game so far: The name of the fort in St. Augustine in the first episode (Castillo de San Marcos) and the names of the courses that inspired the holes they played at Golden Ocala (Augusta, St. Andrews and Royal Troon).  Andy and Parker are the first to snag both antique hickory-shafted clubs and hit the road to Belleair Country Club in Clearwater.

3. Don’t make me come back there! This episode featured more backseat driving than we’ve seen in the series so far. Jay was getting all over Peach for not getting into the right lane. “C’mon, Peach! You’re blowing it!!” And I thought Andy and Parker were going to step out of the car and throw down right in traffic after they went from first place to last place just driving. Andy says, “Don’t worry about the driving part. We can’t control this driving part. All we can control is the golf part.” He’s right. The most dramatic shifts in the game seem to have come on the road, and there’s not much teams can do about it. Unless you screw up your directions, it’s all about the luck of the traffic.

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Tags: Highway 18, Reality TV, Recap, Sports by Cubicle QB
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Posted by Ryan

1. Odds are good someone’s going home. Three teams have a shot at getting sent home today: Raul and Jameica, Andy and Parker and the Ashleys. If I were a betting man, I’d put money on the Ashleys to get the boot. But I think I’ll be a little disappointed if no one goes home today. I think maybe I’ve watched too many mean-spirited reality shows, and much of my enjoyment comes from teams or individuals getting kicked off. But really, there’s no one team I dislike and want to see kicked off — I just want someone to get kicked off.

2. And boom goes the dynamite. Watching these teams struggle through the Golf Central segment reminded me a little too much of this guy:

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Tags: Highway 18, Reality TV, Recap, Sports by Cubicle QB
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Posted by Cubicle QB

Features on the Aug. 26 (7pm ET) edition of ESPN’s sports newsmagazine series E:60:

Sperm U — Kids today are competing in organized sports at younger ages and with greater intensity because parents see the rewards that come with athletic achievement (college scholarships, pro salaries), as well as the consequences for children who fall behind early (physical inactivity, obesity). As such, parents resort to extreme measures to give their kids a fighting chance. E:60 correspondent Tom Farrey exclusively reports the story about the ultimate effort to buy athletic advantage — the purchase of sperm from anonymous donors who are college athletes. He visits the world’s largest sperm bank, California Cryobank in Los Angeles, where the seed of Division I football, basketball and baseball players sells fast. Farrey also speaks with families who purchased the sperm of a former tight end, and he addresses the question: How do expectations change when parents know their child is born with the DNA of an elite athlete?

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Tags: Sports, TV News & Program Updates by Cubicle QB
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Posted by Ryan

1. Rob’s knowledge of Caddyshack is poor. One of the Ashleys is preparing to hit her shot on Daytona Beach, and Rob starts quoting the “Be the ball” Ty Webb Zen golf thing from Caddyshack. But wouldn’t the “Noonan!” psych-out technique be more appropriate here? Either way, if his desired effect was to annoy, then he succeeded. It doesn’t faze the Ashleys, though. They come in second, right behind Peach and Jay.

2. Rashard Lewis’ latest CD drops Tuesday. Rashard Lewis of the Orlando Magic lends his voice talents to the CD in the teams’ Enclaves, instructing them to go to the Magic practice facility, the RDV Sportsplex in Orlando.

3. “Boys, like, make mistakes, too. You know?” A true gem of wisdom from the Ashleys. But the Ashleys made a huge mistake and went the wrong direction on the highway to Orlando.

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Tags: Highway 18, Reality TV, Recap, Sports by Cubicle QB
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Posted by Cubicle QB

Sports and politics come together beginning this week on ESPN’s sports newsmagazine series E:60.

Reggie Love (Tuesday, Aug. 19 at 7pm ET) — The name Reggie Love may not mean much to the public at large, but for the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, he’s been a constant presence. Love is the personal assistant, more commonly referred to as a “body man,” to Barack Obama, and is always by the senator’s side. The former Duke University football and basketball player tried to make it in the NFL. But after unsuccessful tryouts with the Packers and Cowboys in 2004 and 2005, Love landed a job on Obama’s staff, starting in the mailroom and rising to his current position in less than two years. E:60 cameras and correspondent Rachel Nichols gets an all-access pass, and multiple interviews with Love and Obama on the campaign trail, to tell of Love’s position, and the bond that’s formed between him and the Illinois senator.

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Tags: Sports, TV News & Program Updates by Cubicle QB
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Posted by Cubicle QB

It seems that ESPN’s days of appealing to sports Neanderthals are not over. AdvertisingAge is reporting today that ESPN will be using the Geico cavemen as pitchmen for their online fantasy football and SportsCenter.

The insurance-shilling Neanderthals will be spotted frequently across the cable-sports behemoth’s media properties over the next year as part of a novel integration deal between Geico and ESPN that casts the cavemen as fantasy-football salesmen, as well as stars of a series of vignettes promoting the network’s flagship SportsCenter program.

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Tags: Sports, TV News & Program Updates by Cubicle QB
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Posted by: haro1d

We’re now well into the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and we’re deep into the groove of events. Medals are being won and lost, international goodwill is being fostered and the announcers are as annoying as ever.

These Olympics have made their impression in numerous ways — some expected, some not. Take those undeniably awe-inspiring opening ceremonies. We knew that China was going to pull out all of the stops for this particular event, that it was going to be massive in scale and scope, and that we could expect a message from it, as the opportunity would be far too big for the Chinese government to miss.

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Tags: NBC, Olympics, Sports by haro1d
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Posted by Ryan

1. “I love you, man!” Thanks to Andy hitting his shot in the target at the horse farm, the two guys get a nice head start on the other teams on their way to Daytona. Parker professes his love for Andy, and their budding bromance will be an intriguing subplot for the rest of the series.

2. The Ashleys’ airbags have deployed. Golf is such a mental game. One bad shot can get in your head and lead to many more bad shots. The Ashleys are in a state of panic during the golf challenges, and they’re second-guessing themselves. Just how messed up are they? They’re giving the OnStar operator headaches, and those people are trained to deal with panicky accident victims.

3. The wheels on the bus go nowhere. Thanks to a train and a schoolbus that has to stop at railroad crossings (annoying!), the Ashleys get caught up to Peach and Jay and Rob and Charlotte on the road to Daytona. The Ashleys pull an aggressive move to get around the bus, but Rob cuts them off. Peach seems stuck behind the bus (they never really give you a sense of where the cars are on the road here) and gets caught by the light.

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Tags: Highway 18, Reality TV, Recap, Sports by Cubicle QB
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