ESPN is taking heat from a baseball star for something it denies doing. In other news, Mike Lupica is out at the New York Daily News and another former Cowboy is headed straight from the playing field to the broadcast booth.
ESPN Denies Reporting Bauer Tweet
ESPN did not report a satirical tweet about Cleveland Indians P Trevor Bauer as actual news, despite the player’s accusations to the contrary, a network spokesperson said Saturday. The tweet in question, posted by a writer for The Ringer, said Bauer was treating a recent injury with “a course of blood transfusions and colloidal silver to rid his body of CIA nanites.” MLB Network picked up the tweet and reported it on-air Friday night.
On his Twitter account Saturday, Bauer said he saw the tweet on ESPN’s BottomLine and demanded an apology from both ESPN and MLB Network. The Cleveland-Plain Dealer also said Saturday that ESPN reported the tweet on SportsCenter. When asked by SMW, ESPN said it did not report the tweet on-air or on the BottomLine. [ESPN, Cleveland Plain-Dealer 8.18]
Lupica Leaving NYDN
New York Daily News sports columnist Mike Lupica has left the newspaper, the rival New York Post reported Thursday. Lupica’s final story was published July 22, the day before the Daily News laid off nearly 100 staffers — including 25 of 34 in the sports department alone — but it was not clear whether Lupica’s departure was related to those layoffs. [NYP 8.16]
Ex-Cowboys RB Murray Joining FOX
Former Dallas Cowboys RB DeMarco Murray is set to join Fox Sports as a college football analyst, Dallas-based sportswriter Barry Horn reported on his Twitter account Friday. Murray is the third ex-Cowboy in the past two years to join the broadcast booth straight out of retirement, joining Tony Romo of CBS and Jason Witten of ESPN. Romo and Witten are lead NFL analysts for their respective networks, while it was not clear where on the depth chart Murray would start. [Barry Horn/Twitter 8.17]
