The results from a sports survey released by Channel Media Market & Research this week revealed no big surprises. Over 16,000 New Englanders named their favorite sports teams, players, announcers and media types. The Patriots are New England’s favorite sports team team (47 percent), followed by the Red Sox (36 percent), Celtics (14 percent) and Bruins (8 percent).
The most admired players on those teams are Tom Brady, Mookie Betts, Jayson Tatum and Patrice Bergeron, respectively.
NESN’s Dennis Eckersley was named the most popular TV analyst and/or play-by-play voice. The Eck pulled in 25 percent of the votes (all by write-in) and his Red Sox sidekick Dave O’Brien got 23 percent.
Eckersley has street cred in Boston where he was a 20-game winner in 1978, and he was the MVP and Cy Young winner with Oakland in 1992.
Eckersley’s spontaneity makes him apt to say anything. Last season, David Price confronted him on the team plane, saying he was mocking Price on the air for his time between pitches and pitch selection.
The rooting public backed Eckersley, and Red Sox fans remain cool to Price despite his 14-6 record.
Eckersley’s refreshing and comes out with some doozies. After Rick Porcello was hit in the stomach by a line drive on Monday, he said to O’Brien, “I’ll tell ya, I didn’t used to wear a cup until I had a ball hit back at my thigh and I never moved. You know what I mean? I didn’t flinch, it just hit me. I was like, ‘Oh my God,’ and I started wearing protection.”
To which O’Brien replied, “Um-hum.”
Pats analyst Scott Zolak was the fans’ favorite radio announcer. Notably absent from the top six was longtime Red Sox voice Joe Castiglione, but his sidekick Tim Neverett was fourth.
The Boston Globe’s Chris Gasper, Dan Shaughnessy and Chad Finn took the hat trick for favorite sportswriters, and NESN’s Tom Caron was named the top-rated TV sports personality. Must be the hair by Salon Persona.
Dress Code: Bernardston’s Dave Lorenz was at a Twins game at Target Field with his family on Sunday. Their seats were on the fifth level and included a panoramic view of the Twin Cities skyline. “People are nuts for cheese curds,” he texted.
Kind of an odd thing,” he added. “When they show the players on the screen they are in dress shirts.”
One of the Twins’ sponsors is a shirt company, and it’s part of the deal. Instead of showing the players in uniform on the big screen, they’re pictured in dress shirts.
The UMass basketball team has landed a 6-foot-10 Vanderbilt transfer named Djery Baptiste. The Commodores got somebody better — a D-II transfer named Yani Wetzell. “Baptiste was clearly going to be the odd man out in the rotation up front,” reported Tom Stephenson of anchorofgold.com.
In 64 games for Vanderbilt, Baptiste averaged 2.4 points, 2.6 rebounds and a troubling 6.7 fouls per 40 minutes.
It’ll be interesting to see how well the UMass football team draws for tonight’s season opener against Duquesne. It’s Youth Night and kids can get in for $9, but the game’s a cupcake and the students won’t be back for another week. The over/under is 12,125 — what they drew against Hawaii for the season opener a year ago to the day.
Attorney Steve Kramer attends Red Sox fantasy camps and would wear his Red Sox jersey in court if he could, but the John Henry ownership has him soul searching. “They are in the blood more than the heart these days,” he texted. “The highest salaries in the game and Fenway has jammed seats and advertisements everywhere. I try to focus on the players and their collective success, but when John Henry removed Yawkey Way from a named street, when I get off at Yawkey Station and have my eye checked at the Yawkey Wing of Boston City Hospital, the affiliation gets more strained all the time.”
Thirty-one years ago this Friday, backup catcher Dave Bresnahan of Single-A Williamsport Crosscutters used a peeled potato to pull off the hidden ball trick. Bresnahan threw the spud into the outfield on a fake pickoff attempt, the runner on third base ran home and Bresnahan tagged him out.
He was fined and released, but was invited back the following year to have his number retired. Admission was a buck and a potato.
SQUIBBERS: Enough already with the statistical banter during the Red Sox games on NESN: “Mookie Betts’ 99 runs are the most by a Red Sox player through 122 team games since 1950.” Really? Who cares? … The Auburn football guide lists Big Kat Bryant of Crisp County as a 6-5, 253-pound “buck.” Up here, that’s a deer, down there it’s an outside linebacker. … Psst, Garry Brown, here’s a name for you — Eddie McDoom — a wideout from Michigan who transferred to South Florida. … SI’s football preview has the Jets making the playoffs and the Steelers beating the Patriots in the AFC championship, but losing the Super Bowl to the Atlanta Falcons. … Del Mar last week, a reporter interviewing Bob Baffert mentioned the muggy day at the track. “You don’t know what muggy is till you’ve been to Saratoga,” said Baffert.