The Only Game in Town

The show really begins just inside the glass doors of Comcast SportsNet’s offices at the Wachovia Center, with security guard Fred Bibbo. He’s quick with a “Yo, buddy!” and treats everyone like an old pal from the neighborhood — including celebrities like Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, whom he’s interviewed, in his uniform, when they’ve had sports movies to plug. Inside, it’s not unusual to see former Phillies reliever Mitch “Wild Thing” Williams prepping for post-game analysis — horizontally, on a couch in the green room, with his special pillow and the lights turned out, watching the game on TV. You might even run into the Governor of the Commonwealth, who was invited to drop by for Eagles Post Game Live and, nine years later, still hasn’t left.

In the middle of it all is the affable ringmaster, Michael Barkann, who on this May afternoon is on a break during Daily News Live, the shoot-the-bull session he hosts with a rotating cast of newspaper beat writers and columnists that’s become a televised watercooler for jock junkies in this town. Barkann recalls the horrors inflicted on viewers when the show would air from the Vet. “Our set looked like a piece of Formica on two wooden horses. The writers wore pants, but sometimes they were capris. It was ugly!”

Enter longtime Daily News scribe Dick Jerardi. His purple necktie highlights the pale tan dress shirt that blends almost seamlessly with his skin. He’s balding. A little jowly. And when DJ, as he’s known here, strolls onto the set to talk Phillies, the Preakness, the NBA Finals and anything else Barkann throws his way, he’s wearing khaki shorts and sneakers. The ensemble is actually an improvement over his old wardrobe, back when the cable sports network debuted 10 years ago this fall, when beat writers weren’t celebrities. But that’s exactly why the show works — Barkann is looser than his network news suits and crisp Windsor knots would suggest, and the newspaper guys make up for their style deficiencies with substance. (Thankfully for viewers, DJ and company are only seen from the waist up.)

“It’s a visual medium,” says Barkann. “But we’re semi-formal.”

Unlike ESPN’s SportsCenter, with its “boo-ya” catchphrases and slick hosts, Barkann and the other CSN talent aren’t bigger than the sports they cover, or even bigger than Daily News guys like Jerardi or Paul Hagen, whose oversize glasses recall Disney’s Chicken Little. They’re just (mostly) guys talking, and sometimes arguing. Very well-informed guys. For you non-sportsniks who have never quite understood what it is that (mostly) men are doing when they sit around talking sports, this is the place to tune in: Whether dissecting a play, an athlete who fails in the clutch, or owners who won’ t open their pocketbooks, these guys show us not just the world of sports, but how they view the rest of the world.

Back in 1997, though, the concept of a local 24-hour sports channel was revolutionary. No one really expected Daily News Live to become a hit. No one thought an Eagles post-game show would work, given that Comcast doesn’t actually televise the games. Now the network is such a part of the fabric of the sports religion here, it’s changed the cloth itself. Sports coverage on the 11 o’clock news is little more than highlights these days. Instead of scouring the newspapers with their morning coffee, fans can watch SportsRise. When Terrell Owens fled training camp and started pumping iron in his driveway, only one station went live from T.O.’s yard. In this town, it truly is Comcast SportsNet’s world. We’re just watching it.

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