Thanks for listening.

Elliott is leaving his gig as the morning host of ESPN’s SportsCenter to take a job as the news reader (or news anchor depending on who he’s trying to impress) at Good Morning America.

The conversation is a lot about how a guy can go from Sports Illustrated to Good Morning America in two simple steps (step one, be handsome; step two, be really really good). We talk about how different the world of sports blogs has been in the last three years since live AM SportsCenter came into our lives and how Twitter has somehow made news break backwards. Trust me, the idea makes sense, even if the concept doesn’t.

Mostly we talk about Josh’s love for news and how he is, “equally interested in interviewing a world leader and learning how to make the perfect omelet. To me, they are equally stimulating.”

Josh is great and there’s a lot in this interview that anyone in our business should listen to very closely. Here’s wishing great success to Josh at GMA, and one day, let’s hope gets to crack a few eggs with Kim Jong Il. That would be great TV.

The second half of the show features our long-time bloggy friend AJ Daulerio. Did you know that he’ll soon pass Will Leitch in terms of time served at the helm of Deadspin? It seems impossible to believe, but true. We talk about how Deadspin has changed in the last few years and what’s on the horizon in the ever-changing world of Gawker Media.

Speaking of Gawker, Daulerio had a fascinating response to my question of who he feels his biggest competition is. It’s not other sports blogs. It’s not the New York Post. It’s the other sites at Gawker. He’s more concerned with out-trafficking the folks he shares an office with than those he shares a genre.

This ties in to our long-standing conversation about the idea of a “sports blog community” and if that’s an actual thing or just an idea we came up with that made us feel like we were part of something that, per Daulerio, may never have really existed in the way we thought. It is interesting how the industry has changed over the last three years. We also talk about Bill Simmons’ new blog venture, if that’s going to be the next great sports website and how you don’t have to be first to stand out; you just have to be better than everyone else (money helps).

Oh…right…Brett Favre’s penis. We talk about that, Jenn Sterger and if Deadspin feels any pressure to find the next story. It’s a very interesting look into how Nick Denton runs his operation and an extremely candid conversation by AJ, certainly because he knows Nick Denton will never listen to a word of it.

Last, what does the future hold? And, perhaps most importantly, is it wearing clogs?

Thanks for listening. One show left. Stop asking me why I’m quitting and just listen to the damn shows.

Here’s her blog post about it. Here’s another take we discuss.

Also, if Manny Ramirez, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens don’t get into the Hall of Fame, what exactly is the Hall of Fame?

Thanks for listening, as always.

Josh Zerkle of KSK and With Leather and Bethlehem Shoals of Free Darko are both on the show to talk about recent announcements that they, both, are transitioning to new things. Zerkle is stepping down from the helm of With Leather to focus on other, non-sports projects. He’ll still be around the site, writing a few times a month, and he’ll still be doing his podcast and contributing to KSK, but by the sound of it, it was time for him to do something new…even if that wasn’t really anything specific, yet.

Shoals is a little different, in that Free Darko is what made him — and his cohorts at the ‘basketball as thought’ internet experiment — famous, but it was not his primary source of income. That, sadly, was AOL, so the conversation is as much about the demise of Fanhouse as it is the final days of Free Darko. Shoals has a kid on the way, is working on a solo book deal and suddenly finds himself without an internet home. How scary is freelancing for living, even when you are as unGodly talented as Shoals? Seriously (and that’s a stupid way to start a sentence, because why would I be anything but) if you asked me to name the five best writers in the sports blogosphere it would be Spencer Hall at EDSBS and Shoals, and I wouldn’t name any of the other three out of respect for the quality of writing those two have given us over the last handful of years.

That’s not to say that there aren’t other great writers on the internet, or in the sports blog world. Many writers are great, but those two are on another planet (sometimes, I feel, literally.) If you need something written, especially if it’s about an orange sphere going into an orange circle suspended ten feet in the air, hire Nathaniel Friedman to write it for you.

Okay, I’ve lost focus in trying to convince people out there to hire Shoals. Shit, hire me. Hire Zerkle. Hire any number of great writers and smart internet minds that find themselves without jobs right now. Someone out there has to be smart enough to do this.

That actually brings me back to Zerkle. What a set of balls on that guy. He’s quitting on his own! He has a gig, running one of the bigger sports blogs in the country and he’s giving up for “other opportunities.” Damn you, Zerkle. Well, in a way, I guess that’s what I’m doing, except for the ‘one of the bigger sports blogs in the country part.” So I see where his mind is. It’s just…different now.

I’ll actually be excited to listen to this show in a few years. I wonder if we’ll all be laughing about how depressed we sound or how scared we feel about what’s next or how disenfranchised we are about the corporate takeover of sports blogs. It’s impossible for me to talk to either Zerkle or Shoals and have any modicum of perspective, which is why I feel this show is perfect. This show, is a moment in time where everything is transitioning and none of us have any clue what’s going on, is perfect. It might sound ridiculous tomorrow. Hell, it might sound ridiculous today. This is sort of like life on a plate, or as it were, in your ears. This is lying on the couch…’tell me how you really feel.’ So yeah, in two years it’s going to sound ridiculous. And on Friday, it’s going to sound ridiculous. I think we’re all okay with that.

Oh…right…sports. Zerkle and I do talk about the Masters, and I believe he calls Charl Schwartzel “Charles Shultz.” Cue the Peanuts theme now.

Thanks for listening, as always.

Anyway, damn you Skype, but thank goodness the Masters is here. Jay Busbee and Shane Bacon preview the tournament, talking about some of the favorites, some of the players who have the most (and least) momentum. Seriously, PGATour.com has a meter determining each player’s momentum heading into the tournament.

Thinking about picking Anthony Kim? Don’t, his Uncle Mo’ has left him behind. That said, SANDLY LYLE has high momentum coming to Augusta! Yeah, it’s that kind of list.

We talk a lot about Phil, not as much about Tiger, and wonder if it’s more important to have a history of good play at THIS TOURNAMENT or to be hot coming into the tournament. Also, is the course better suited for a lefty, or do we lump in Mike Weir’s win with Phil’s dominance to try and make a point that’s not fair to make? In other words, should we all expect Bubba Watson to make a run this week?

We talk about how the Masters has embraced technology and wonder if the writers have begun to do the same. Should we start worrying more about greens in regulation stats more high-math statistics like ball flight angle to determine who is best suited to win major titles? Is there a growing SABR golf community, or do we still pick the guy who’s hot coming into the week?

And is there any reason to think Tiger Woods can get it together this week?

My mom has a Masters pool at work and asks me to pick four golfers, taking the top three overall scores. We picked: Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Graeme McDowell and Bubba Watson. Do we have a shot?

Thanks, enjoy the azaleas and, again, sorry about the audio on my end. Blame Skype.

Everytime he’s been on the show, that’s how I’ve felt about it…THIS is the show. This is the show we wanted to make, talking with big names in our industry — there is no debate that Wyshynski has made himself (and Puck Daddy) one of the leading hockey voices in the country — about sports, life, media and whatever else we want.

Now, let’s not forget that Wyshynski has his own daily radio show talking about a lot of this same stuff (though decidedly more hockey than I’d feel comfortable with) and hasn’t once had me on the program. Just sayin’ Greg. Just sayin…

Today’s show is about Wrestlemania and the upcoming NHL playoffs and Mark Cuban’s fight with online media and how different our industry is now from when we talked a few days after the first Blogs with Balls and the Sedin Twins and terrible NHL logo mashups and NHL media boycotting awards and Jim Nantz’s inappropriate use of the term ‘dogfight’ in the national title game which brought out a conversation about Michael Vick and the difference between “a holocaust” and “The Holocaust.”

This is the show. You might not care about rasslin’ or hockey or the past, present and future of sports blogs, but if you listen, I’m not even sure it really matters. This is the show. Let’s hope the last five are as much fun as this one.

Then Jon Tannenwald joins the show to talk more about the game and talk about the legacy Butler has created for itself. We use Butler to talk about the leveling of the NCAA basketball playing field, and how in now way are the Bulldogs anything like the Green Bay Packers, despite NFL PR head Greg Aiello trying to convince us of that.

Oh, yeah, I do break down the studio show in “basketball math” terms. It might be more entertaining than the game was.

Congrats to UConn. Thanks for listening.

We talk about VCU and Butler and wonder why some media folks suggested the ratings would be higher if VCU were in the game. Don’t we know the Butler players? Isn’t the fact that a team like Butler is in the title game the best story in college basketball in years? Isn’t the UConn run in March (and April) another great story? I’d be shocked if people were turned off by this title-game matchup.

Talkin’ Baseball

If the season ended today…

In all seriousness, should Boston and Tampa be worried at all? The season is a grind, but being in a division where every single game matters, is this the kind of start either team wants? Heck, Boston just lost three games to the defending AL champs, it’s Tampa who lost its star player for a while.

Oh, and which Phillies starter is going to get the first loss? If it’s Blanton, I don’t want to listen to sport talk radio that day.

Is Mark Cuban Wrong About ESPN’s Twitter Problem?

Is Mark Cuban wrong about ESPN’s Twitter issue? Darren Rovell tweeted a link to Cuban’s blog where he wrote, in part, this about ESPN’s tweeting strategy:

ESPN.com reporters havent had a lot of success getting followers on Twitter. Some columnists like Bill Simmons have. The vast majority of their reporters have under 100k followers and many of those, as best I can tell, have under 10k . Which in a nutshell means, the world wide leader in sports doesn’t have much in the way of muscle to drive traffic from twitter users to their sites. That is a risk

Cuban’s point is that straight news isn’t driving traffic back to the website, and some “reporters” have gone more for commentary on their twitter feeds to engage an entice the audience. While I certainly agree with that, I completely disagree with his thought that ESPN doesn’t have a lot of high-follower tweeters. Maybe Cuban’s just not following the right people.

Here’s an impromptu list I put together this morning that has some — but certainly not all — of the ESPN people on Twitter. Most of these people are reporters or news anchors, while some are columnists. Yes, the columnists usually have a bigger following. But look at the bottom list of ESPN news services (again, just a sample). Everyone one of those Twitter feeds sends out breaking information, driving traffic to the site. Also, to compare the Twitter reach of the NFL people, know that Jay Glazer of Fox (the biggest competition to Mort and Schefty) has just over 111k followers, which is an insane amount of followers but nearly 1/5th of Schefter and less than half of Mort. Jason La Canfora, who took over for Schefter at NFLN has over 65,000.

I don’t see how ESPN has a problem on Twitter and I certainly don’t see “many of those” under 10k. Best I can tell.

ESPNer – Followers

NFL

Adam Schefter 528,558
Trey Wingo 414,787
Chris Mortenson 280,868
Michael Smith 80,017

NBA

JA Adande 131,159
Chris Broussard 112,941
Ric Bucher 81,900
Mark Stein 71,249
Chad Ford 63,449
John Hollinger 40,909
True Hoop (Henry Abbott) 25,252
Brian Windhorst 20,628

College Sports

Erin Andrews 432,731
Jay Bilas 96572
Andy Katz 76,901
Pat Forde 64,019
Bruce Feldman 38,753
Mark Schlabach 20,215

MLB

Keith Law 347,264
Buster Olney 156,166
Jayson Stark 65,962
Jerry Crasnick 27,582
Tim Kurkjian 17,870

General Columnists/Hosts

Bill Simmons 1,370,424
Michelle Beadle 238,162
Stephen A Smith 134,223
Jemele Hill 40,133

ESPN Feeds/News Services

ESPN 1,116,391
SPortsNation 845,411
SportsCenter 768,369
ATH 192,033
PTI Show 186,564
ESPNews 54,921
NBA on ESPN 54,591
ESPN_Now 33,631

I used to love today. I fear we’ve gotten to smart for gags. THE INTERNET HAS GOTTEN TOO SMART FOR SOMETHING. We’ve all lost.

Nick and I talk about some of our favorite pranks and discuss some ways our favorite team can gag its fans: “Batting third…second baseman….CHASE UTLEY!!!! No, sorry, it’s Wilson Valdez. April Fools!”

Gold? Would people try to kill Dan Baker, the Phillies PA announcer? Gold? GOLD?!@?@?

Eh, maybe they could just announce Joe Blanton as today’s starter.

We mention something that will BLOW YOUR MIND. I saw a PEPSI truck today and for the first time in my 33 years of life I realized it’s called PEPSI because it has caffeine in it and caffeine gives you PEP. HOLEECRAP. Is this something everyone knows or did I just blow the soft drink business wide open? I’m hoping it’s the latter.

We talk about yesterday’s opening games and discuss the PR decision for the Nats to let the likes of Dan Steinberg report that tickets were being sold on StubHub for $.50. How is that possible? No fan is selling a ticket for that little, so it’s gotta be coming from the team (or an automated system). Why isn’t there someone in the front office gobbling those tickets up, so they don’t sell anything for under face value on StubHub? The bad PR is way more expensive than a few extra tickets.

And speaking of bad PR, how can the Yankees have a nationally-televised Opening Day game with empties BEHIND THE BACKSTOP. I explain my plan for TV seat fillers. It works for the Oscars, it can work for the Yankees.

None of that, however, is worse than Cardinals fans (albeit just a few of them) leaving an extra-innings tie game. On Opening Day? In good weather? Awful. Inexcusable. It’s not an indictment on the fanbase. But those “fans” should be banned (yes, a sports talk radio gambit, I know.)

There’s more, but I have to get ready for Snowpening Day. Enjoy the weekend and don’t forget about basketball like we almost did!

• Nick talks about hearing Mike Missanelli of Philly sports talk radio’s 97.5 The Fanatic rip a Bleacher Report article, written by a 14 year-old kid. Here’s that article, and here’s a rebuttal by another B/R scribe chiding Mikey Miss.

The issue, of course, is less about the quality of Bleacher Report and more about the fact that Philly.com has no ability to control what gets put on their site through the B/R pipeline. And, for what it’s worth, I’ve read worse articles by people who actually get paid to write at Philly.com, so I’m not sure why this became an issue at all. That said, if sports talk radio hosts are ripping your brand — the genre is the lowest common denominator of sports discourse — it’s time to take our advice and change your name (or at least create a “pro” level that gets linked to the big sites.)

Yes, when the show ends, Nick and I are going to start a site giving out free advice to sports organizations. We’re calling it P/R for Public/Relations (Report) and anyone is welcome to join. ESPECIALLY 14 year olds.

• Next, we lazily pick who we think will win each division and the Wild Card as today is officially Opening Day! We also touch on Ken Rosenthal’s extremely self-aware article about wearing a bow tie this season. Good for him.

• After a break, so we don’t spoil anything, Nick and I talk a little TV, focused mostly on the season finale of Top Chef All-Stars. We manage to throw in some sports, comparing the finalists (Richard Blais and Mike Isabella) to NFL teams, and specifically, NFL quarterbacks. I don’t want to give anything away if you haven’t watched yet, but if you’ve watched this season and you think hard, you’ll figure out which chef is like which NFL signal caller.

Thanks for listening.