By David Scott
Boston Sports Media Watch

• We’re a big proponent of self-promotion, as some of you may have noticed. In fact, we’ll remind you to check out Shots in Vegas (aka another CSTV.com “Hang Time” assignment), which has been running since Wednesday.

We won’t, however, go to the lengths that NECN’s Chris Collins went to last weekend when his over-the-top-but-still-impressive engagement to Omar Easy’s sister, Georgia Wright, garnered the “Sports Late Night” and “Patriots Football Weekly” host some widespread, local attention.

Both the Globe and the Herald were fed un-credited photos of the elaborate proposal, which both used in Tuesday’s papers. The Track Gals, as you’d expect, had more of the juicy details (ring details, etc.) than the Names droppers, Carol Beggy and (sports-connected) Mark Shanahan.
Boston.com

Collins explained to Shots that Erin Tracy, the Public Relations Director
for the InterContinental Boston (Opening Nov. 1) was responsible for the item’s placement in both papers. “The hotel –which isn’t even open yet – was so good to me (and) that’s really all they wanted was to be able to place the event in the papers,” said Collins.

Tracy confirmed via email that she, in fact, “helped facilitate (Collins’s) proposal” and had taken the photos. She was even kind enough to send along three additional photos including one that quite prominently displayed a lavalier microphone on Collins’s dress shirt. Another IC rooftop photo shows the couple in an embrace, Logan’s tower in the background, two foreign shadows and a random guy in the background to the right, holding what we can only assume is a script for the “event.” How romantic!

Tracy, a longtime friend of Peabody-native Collins, explained: “(Chris) lured her over on the pretense that he was doing a segment for the station and then they’d go to dinner – so we miked him and he brought a camera guy who was able to tape the entire engagement – nice to have for the grandkids!”

Collins tells the story a bit differently – claiming he lured Georgia to the un-opened hotel to help him out with a promotional spot he was filming. Both explanations help (or maybe cloud) the reason for Georgia’s natty attire.

Collins, for his part, said he was all about impressing the love of his life, who he said he met while serving as the emcee for Easy’s charity event a few years back. He didn’t object to the hotel’s request to use the engagement as an entry point to the ever-hungry gossipers; but he also said he wasn’t thinking of any professional gains he would make from having the information put out there.

Maybe he was, maybe he wasn’t.

But Collins – in a competitive market, where every little bit of extra publicity helps – is just playing the game, and we can appreciate certain aspects of that. Truth be told, we almost have more of a problem with both the papers running un-credited photos alongside other, credited shots. What’s the photo-credit policy in that? “Sometimes we do, sometimes we don’t”

Both papers were sent the same photo by Tracy but played in differently. The Track Hacks went color and large; NamesThatNeverHurt went black and white and small. (Tracy, in fact, asked that Shots not use that same photo, to which we obliged by using none of the options.)

In this day and age, every photo – even gossip page eye-candy – needs to be credited. It goes a long way in allowing the readers to know who’s controlling the spin in this town. (We’d say the ICB’s Tracy, an ex-Regan Communications flack, is doing a pretty good job of it.)

. . .In the midst of Shots’ Tuesday afternoon phone chat with Collins, he had to briefly excuse himself to get some love from NECN visitor, Christy Mihos, who raved to C-Squared about that day’s stop at the New Brothers Restaurant & Deli. in Danvers. You know you’re career’s trending upward when Christy (approver of the wonderful Heads up the Arse TV/Web spots) is giving you North Shore love in the NECN newsroom.

• Dr. Chuck at his literary finest in this obit for the Diminutive One, Nelson de la Rosa.

I’m at the point, where I’m going to start emailing Doc Chuck for comment on just about anything. He never disappoints.

• Add Jemele Hill to the list of print-to-web folks and mark her as the highest profile female to move. Also note that she is African American, and finally try and digest the rumored salary.

Then, after all that digestive action, ask yourself this: When will ESPN.com figure out that that are overpaying for underperformance? The Boston Sports Guy’s “VAULT” series is only the latest example. I’ve actually programmed the iMac to inherently avoid anything with “Simmons” and “Vault.” I learned how from MacWorld monthly magazine!

(I’ve become a MacHead and I didn’t even know it.)

This Page 2 re-configuration will be well-worth following and should be a super indication of whether or not ESPN truly understands what went wrong with the previous incarnation of P. 2. Hill’s a good start, but we don’t hold out much hope for similarly bold moves from the dot-commers.

• How great was the Sirius logo placement on the left ear of Charlie Weiss’s headset during Saturday’s NBC Notre Dame squeaker? The total time of exposure for that simple placement had to be well beyond five minutes – they show they guy every other play for crying out loud.

• The start of NBA season will coincide with the start of Adrian Wojnarowski’s tenure at Yahoo! Sports as the site’s lead NBA Columnist.

We’d suggest a bookmark of Wojnarowski’s work.

• This has been a strong series for the Herald’s Pats blog: Foxboro Faces. They need more “programming” like it.

• Okay Hockey Krishnas, here’s your occasional Shots’ viewing tips for the ice sport:

CSTV To Broadcast Re-Match of 2006 NCAA Division I College Hockey Championship

Wisconsin Hosts Boston College on CSTV This Friday, October 27 at 8:00 pm ET

New York – CSTV, solidifying its leadership role as the pre-eminent source for college hockey coverage and the best schedule of games available anywhere, will broadcast a re-match of the 2006 Division I NCAA Championship Hockey Game on Friday, October 27 at 8:00 pm ET, as No. 2 Wisconsin (3-1-2) hosts No. 5 Boston College (2-1). Play-by-play voice Mike “Doc” Emrick and analyst Dave Starman will call the action. The Badgers topped the Eagles 2-1 to win their sixth national championship last season.

CSTV utilizes its multiple platforms to provide hockey fans the most comprehensive coverage. Wisconsin forward and team captain Andrew Joudrey will be featured tomorrow on CSTV.com’s weekly chat “Tuesday @ The Rink.” For all the latest news, polls, standings and analysis, log on to CSTV.com.

AND. . .

THE COMCAST NETWORK DEBUTS 25-GAME COLLEGE HOCKEY SCHEDULE FEATURING TOP NEW ENGLAND TEAMS ON SUNDAY, OCTOBER 29 AT 7:00 PM

CN8 to Air Hockey East Championship and NCAA Hockey Playoff Games

BOSTON, MA (October 26, 2006) - CN8, The Comcast Network drops the puck on an
exciting twenty-five game schedule of college hockey premiering live SUNDAY,
Oct. 29 at 7:00 p.m. when the University of Vermont takes on Dartmouth. This
season, CN8’s live coverage includes many top-ranked teams from Hockey East and
the ECAC Hockey League including Boston College (#4), Boston University (#5),
UNH (#8), Harvard (#11), Dartmouth (#17) and UVM (#19). Greg Madden, New
England’s respected college hockey announcer will serve as play-by-play broadcaster and
former UNH hockey coach Bob Norton will provide color commentary for the CN8
college hockey lineup.

This winter, CN8 will also broadcast several playoff games including the Hockey
East Championship and the NCAA Regionals.

• And lastly, Shots will be making his CN8 “Out of Bounds Debut” this evening (Friday 10/27/06) at 11 p.m. EST. After a couple of handfuls of appearances on the old “Sports Pulse” show, the powers-that-be are gambling that it’s safe to bring Shots back in the new format.

We’re actually all Pete Carolled about the gig – very pumped and jacked – for the chance to gently spar with some other talking heads from Comcast’s eastern seaboard outposts. I take it as an opportunity to represent the good folks of Beantown and to prove that not all our local pundits are as dour as Ron Borges.

(For the record, Shots is “bitter” not “dour.”)

Tune in – The Shirl and The Es will be watching along with you from the Shirl’s Foxboro Funhouse.

David Scott writes from a seaside shanty on the shores of Hull, Mass. And can be reached at shotsATbostonsportsmedDOTcom