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Traina Thoughts: The Biggest Sports Media Stories of 2018
1. The latest, brand new, hot-off-the-presses Sports Illustrated Media Podcast is a year in review roundtable with John Ourand of Sports Business Journal and Andrew Marchand of the New York Post.
Each of us gave our sports media story of the year (actually, we gave two each, but who's counting). Here were our choices.
Ourand: "The Match" with Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson and Fox selling its entertainment assets to Disney which enabled them to acquire Thursday Night Football, acquire WWE Smackdown and renew its MLB deal.
Marchand: Jimmy Pitaro taking over ESPN and Peyton Manning spurning Thursday Night Football and Monday Night Football.
Traina: The NFL ratings resurgence and the digital dominance of Barstool Sports.
We also each named a breakout star of 2018 with Ourand going with NBC's Liam McHugh, Marchand choosing ESPN's Maria Taylor and yours truly picking ESPN/YES Network's Ryan Ruocco.
Why did we pick these stories and these people? What was our thinking in these choices? For that, you have to listen to the podcast below or download it on iTunes. In addition to these subjects, we also looked back at the most notable stories of 2018, including Monday Night Football's new booth, FOX's plan for the WWE, Get Up, FS1, Good Morning Football, cord cutting, sports gambling and more. We also made some predictions for 2019.
2. No surprise here. ESPN's upcoming 30-for-30, Deion's Double Play, which covers October 11, 1992–the day Deion Sanders played in both an NFL game and an MLB game–looks outstanding.
3. Here's why kids are great. The coolest guy on the planet walks in to surprise them and they couldn't care less because they're playing video games.
4. According to Forbes, the Raiders are worth more than $2 billion, yet they can't afford an X-ray machine.
5. It's only been 16 years, but I think it's safe to say things worked out OK for this kid.
6. Since Beverly Hills 90210 will always have a special place in my heart, I thought this was an excellent tweet by the New York Post's Mike Vaccaro.
7. RANDOM YOUTUBE VIDEO OF THE DAY: Since we're in the "Year in Review" part of the calendar and Noah Syndergaard is in the headlines, here's one of the best videos to come out in 2018. The action took place during a 2016 game, but it wasn't until this past June that this awesome video of then-Mets manager Terry Collins, Syndergaarrd and the umpires mic'd up hit the world wide web.
[youtube:https://youtu.be/HfaMr3l7pFY]
Traina Thoughts is the best of the Internet, plus musings by SI.com writer, Jimmy Traina. Get the link to a new Traina's Thoughts each day by following on Twitter and liking on Facebook. Catch up on previous editions of Traina Thoughts right here. And make sure to listen to and subscribe to the SI Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina.
IN CLOSING: Don't forget to subscribe to the SI Media Podcast, rate it and review it. Next week's show will be an all-listener edition with your phone calls. Details to come on how you can call in.
