On Friday, Columbia Pictures topper Amy Pascal placed the picture into “limited turnaround,” giving the filmmaker the chance to set it up at another studio, with Warner Bros. and Paramount the prime targets.

The move came after Pascal read a rewrite that Soderbergh did to Steven Zaillian’s script and found it very different from the earlier scripts she championed. Pascal was uncomfortable enough with how the vision had changed that she applied the brakes.

Soderbergh and Pitt’s CAA reps spent the weekend attempting to get another studio to play ball.

I’m not too familiar with all that studio-speak, but from what I gather it’s set to be a high-budget film and it doesn’t currently have a home. That’s good news to me because I couldn’t see where it would fit in. By now the concept of “Moneyball” to a baseball fan is so old that it really wouldn’t be introducing anything new. Moreover, to the people intrigued by Moneyball because they’re learning it for the first time, there are very few remnants of it left in Oakland; most of the players on the A’s or drafted by the A’s at the time of the book are out of baseball, sucking, or on a different team. Furthermore, Billy Beane hasn’t built a successful team for three years and most of the high school players he ripped on in the book have become stars — the movie would just make him look like a fraud. So who was their intended audience? Sports fans to whom this concept is five years old or my sister who loves Brad Pitt but still thinks Rickey Henderson and Mark McGwire plays for the A’s? Good call in canceling production.

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Man, I can’t imagine this having gone any better. I wasn’t at all happy with Tony Kornheiser in the Monday Night Football booth and now he’s being replaced by Jon Gruden, a guy I like. You know, I never really understood the Kornheiser hiring from the start. The guy is really good and enjoyable with Michael Wilbon on PTI. His delivery is smooth, their banter is pretty well-researched and well-supported, and the overall pace of the show is perfect. But just because he’s good on PTI doesn’t mean he has any place in a football booth. At a time where I’m just trying to watch and enjoy a good game and maybe get a few nuggets of analysis while I’m doing it, I had Kornheiser bringing in the journalism angle. My biggest complaint about him is that he was always trying to use everything to tell a story. Rather than letting us enjoy a game that by virtue of fantasy football, office pools, or spreads, nearly everyone watching already has a vested interest, Kornheiser turned each contest into column on TV. It was like he was trying to manufacture interest for games that were already interesting by themselves. That just didn’t work for me.

Needless to say I’m pretty pleased that Tony will no longer be annoying me on Monday nights. So now we have Chucky stepping into the biggest booth around. As I said during the NFL Draft, I liked hearing his commentary. The guy is concise, gets to the point, and has already said he doesn’t want to step on anyone’s shoes. That’s how I like it — the less is more approach. A couple of really interesting footnotes here. The hiring of Chucky shows us that the jockocracy of sportscasting is still very much alive and well. Secondly, ESPN obviously didn’t care that Gruden has ripped them thoroughly in the past (of course he did — he was protecting his player). Lastly, I have no doubt that Tony’s fear of flying is only a convenient excuse for relinquishing the job — Pro Football Talk points out that it didn’t seem to bother him last year. Hurray for Monday nights in the fall this year!

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I’m guessing that she regrets handling Pollard on-air like this. She should have kept things in-house and done that all behind the scenes. Man, now we know what it’s like to have been her teammate back in the day. Wouldn’t want to have missed a shot under her watch.

I guess Emmitt is so bad that Awful Announcing had an entire Top 10 list of his best (worst?) screwups, so I highly advise you check those out. Now this is like a catch-22 for the Awful Announcing website. They finally get their wish that a horrible broadcaster is out, but now they lose a lot of good material. Thankfully there are plenty of others out there to pick on.

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If there are any other observations I can make it’s that the ratings are higher the better the records are for the teams playing the games, and vice versa. Also, it seems like the Eagles consistently generate lots of viewers as well. And what the heck were the networks thinking putting the Browns on national TV so frequently this year? Lastly, love ‘em or hate ‘em, you won’t be able to get away from the Cowboys given these numbers.

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I like the answer given by both candidates. With Obama, if we were to get a playoff, I would prefer a four-team tourney, but eight is fine. McCain’s response should not be a surprise since that attitude is exactly what got him on the radar of sports fans a few years ago. I hope he continues the pursuit of regulating steroids/drugs in sports whether he wins the presidency or not. And could Obama enforce a playoff if he does win? That would be sweet!

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Some of the hosts at the station think the whole idea is a joke and have already expressed their thoughts on the matter. Cerrato seems to be pretty pumped about the opportunity to reach out to the fans. As for me, though I know it’s not uncommon for team employees to host a weekly show, I can’t help but think this is a way for Snyder to attempt to control the media. If he wants open lines of communication to the team, there are many other ways to achieve it with the fans. Why not just have a one hour show a week instead of two hours twice a week? Do the radio hosts get a chance to act as team vice presidents a few days a week, too? Seems like an awful lot of time for a person with a seemingly important job title to be giving up to chat on the radio … just my opinion.

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“At some point, somebody has to be held accountable,” [broadcaster Michael] Kay said during a lopsided loss to the Angels, blasting the team for its “glass jaw.”

Ken Singleton and John Flaherty jumped in, leading to a substantive analysis of the Yankees abandoning their trademark patience at the plate.
…
Kay’s boss, president of production John Filippelli, declined to discuss how YES will handle this lost cause [of a season]. But Kay said Filippelli told him after Monday’s rant, “I agreed with what you said, and you have every right to say it.”

I’m not sure how the Yankees fans are taking things with their team on the outside this year, but guessing by standard New York procedure, they’re probably dishing out a lot of criticism. What’s wrong with it coming from the broadcast booth? I think it’s more important to be credible than to be a blind homer. It’s also nice to hear that the Yankees aren’t power tripping over this, either. After all, we know they have their sight’s set on next year anyway.

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No surprise, merely hours after its posting it’s already the top story on Ballhype. I mean, what’s not to like about her for sports fans? She studied journalism, was a sports anchor and beauty queen, and she loves guns. She’s a total man’s woman.

Dear Jay,

What an ugly way to leave the Sun-Times. It does not speak well for you. Your timing was exquisite. You signed a new contract, waited until days after the newspaper had paid for your trip to Beijing at great cost, and then resigned with a two-word e-mail: “I quit.” You saved your explanation for a local television station.

As someone who was working here for 24 years before you arrived, I think you owed us more than that. You owed us decency. The fact that you saved your attack for TV only completes our portrait of you as a rat.
…
That’s the way I’ve always felt about the Sun-Times, and I still do. On your way out, don’t let the door bang you on the ass.

This letter is so strong, it’s like a must-read. I really share the relief that Ozzie and the White Sox must feel from not having this clown around anymore. The real problem is that people give this guy a job. If he’s this hated by everyone, and certainly turns that many people off from reading or watching his stuff, then why employ him? If nobody gave him a forum to speak, then his douchebaggery would be cut down. I sure hope that’s what happens, though I only believe he quit because he has something in the works. Too bad. I just know that wherever he goes, I’ll be tuning it out.

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