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Okay, don't everyone volunteer at once to buy the get well card for all of us to sign lol. Poor Ozzie will be blamed for this too no doubt. The best part of this article is the end where evidently the GSN (Game Show Network) website had a Saddam Hussein Hangman game. I wish I could have played that lol!! What a bunch of wimps though for pulling it. Oops I hope Jay doesn't see that I said "wimps" and think that is an insult against metrosexual columnists like himself. I wouldn't want to get his blood pressure up. Maybe when he comes back to his version of "sportswriting" he can exercise his heart more by getting off his ass and actually going to the baseball games, walking the field interviewing players/coaches, and doing what it takes to get the real story instead of the made-up ones he has always been known for.
Heart problem puts Mariotti back on bench
Published January 5, 2007
It takes a lot to get tireless Chicago Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti to take a break.
For the second time in six months, however, Mariotti will be out of the paper for an extended stretch.
Mariotti, 47, is recovering from a heart-related angioplasty procedure and insertion of an arterial stent, Sun-Times editors said Thursday.
"He's feeling fine now but will be taking some time off," Sun-Times Sports Editor Stu Courtney said by e-mail, noting that Mariotti hopes to resume writing and appearing as a regular panelist on ESPN's "Around the Horn" by early next month.
Mariotti reportedly didn't feel well on his flight to New Orleans, where he went to cover Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl. He felt even worse upon arrival at his hotel and ultimately chose to bypass the game for the hospital, where the procedure was performed Wednesday night.
Mariotti, who has a well-earned reputation as a workaholic in 15 years at the Sun-Times, took July off from the paper after being enveloped in controversy when White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, in late June, used a homosexual slur to rip Mariotti's reluctance to face players after critical columns.
The pundit, a north suburban husband and a father of two, continued to come to the paper's Chicago offices several times a week to tape his "Around the Horn" appearances in a newsroom studio during that time off.
Upon returning to the paper, which he had criticized in the interim for not protecting him enough from the White Sox, Mariotti and the Sun-Times announced they had agreed to a three-year contract extension to 2009.
Mariotti now is one of two marquee columnists at the Sun-Times in recovery mode. Pieces by Pulitzer Prize-winning movie critic Roger Ebert, 64, have appeared in the paper irregularly since last summer as he recovers from surgeries stemming from a cancerous growth on his salivary gland.
WEEKEND WARRIOR: While "Geraldo At Large," Geraldo Rivera's syndicated show seen locally on Fox's WFLD-Ch. 32, is getting axed, don't feel bad.
The guy's getting a new multiyear contract said to be worth about $5 million a year to return to Fox News Channel for a weekend show as the cable outlet continues to try to shore up its Saturday and Sunday lineups.
Fox News Channel already announced it's giving Sean Hannity of "Hannity & Colmes" a solo weekend program and is weighing other options. Believe it or not, still in the running is a project featuring Erich "Mancow" Muller, who was dropped by Chicago WKQX-FM 101.1. Muller, who did a pilot for Fox News late last year, is a regular on "Fox & Friends."
"Geraldo At Large" will shut down production later this month. Besides his own FNC weekend show, Rivera will serve as a correspondent at large and still visit "The O'Reilly Factor."
"Geraldo is a great talent and did a tremendous job for us in syndication," Roger Ailes, chairman and chief executive of Fox News and chairman of Fox Television Stations, said in a statement. "His ratings were climbing in several markets, including New York. However, with the soft ad marketplace, the lack of an early news lead-in for his show in several cities and the timeline for financial success, I've asked him to come back to Fox News Channel."
As a replacement down the road, Fox-owned TV stations are said to be eyeing a TV project from Warner Bros., based on its upstart TMZ.com celebrity Web site. But the TMZ program will be available no sooner than September.
Meanwhile, plans move ahead for parent News Corp. to unveil the long-awaited Fox Business Channel. Access has been secured to at least 30 million cable homes, which was seen as the minimum threshold for a successful launch. An announcement could come as soon as late this month.
IT'S SADDAM SHAME: In an effort to break through the clutter, cable game-show channel GSN has taken to putting snarky play-along games tied to current events on its Web site.
Games based on Mel Gibson's arrest and one in which players throw books at O.J. Simpson led to a surge in visitors to its site and, presumably, reinforced the GSN brand. But sometimes clutter is best not broken through.
GSN last week launched "Saddam Hussein's Hangman," an online game based on the spelling game but with a few twists, such as the former Iraqi president taunting American players.
Don't bother looking for it. Two days later, Hussein was hanged. GSN realized the game was tasteless and pulled it. "GSN never intended for its game to coincide with an actual event," a network spokeswoman said.
GSN thought he'd win on appeal?
----------
philrosenthal@...
For the second time in six months, however, Mariotti will be out of the paper for an extended stretch.
Mariotti, 47, is recovering from a heart-related angioplasty procedure and insertion of an arterial stent, Sun-Times editors said Thursday.
"He's feeling fine now but will be taking some time off," Sun-Times Sports Editor Stu Courtney said by e-mail, noting that Mariotti hopes to resume writing and appearing as a regular panelist on ESPN's "Around the Horn" by early next month.
Mariotti reportedly didn't feel well on his flight to New Orleans, where he went to cover Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl. He felt even worse upon arrival at his hotel and ultimately chose to bypass the game for the hospital, where the procedure was performed Wednesday night.
Mariotti, who has a well-earned reputation as a workaholic in 15 years at the Sun-Times, took July off from the paper after being enveloped in controversy when White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, in late June, used a homosexual slur to rip Mariotti's reluctance to face players after critical columns.
The pundit, a north suburban husband and a father of two, continued to come to the paper's Chicago offices several times a week to tape his "Around the Horn" appearances in a newsroom studio during that time off.
Upon returning to the paper, which he had criticized in the interim for not protecting him enough from the White Sox, Mariotti and the Sun-Times announced they had agreed to a three-year contract extension to 2009.
Mariotti now is one of two marquee columnists at the Sun-Times in recovery mode. Pieces by Pulitzer Prize-winning movie critic Roger Ebert, 64, have appeared in the paper irregularly since last summer as he recovers from surgeries stemming from a cancerous growth on his salivary gland.
WEEKEND WARRIOR: While "Geraldo At Large," Geraldo Rivera's syndicated show seen locally on Fox's WFLD-Ch. 32, is getting axed, don't feel bad.
The guy's getting a new multiyear contract said to be worth about $5 million a year to return to Fox News Channel for a weekend show as the cable outlet continues to try to shore up its Saturday and Sunday lineups.
Fox News Channel already announced it's giving Sean Hannity of "Hannity & Colmes" a solo weekend program and is weighing other options. Believe it or not, still in the running is a project featuring Erich "Mancow" Muller, who was dropped by Chicago WKQX-FM 101.1. Muller, who did a pilot for Fox News late last year, is a regular on "Fox & Friends."
"Geraldo At Large" will shut down production later this month. Besides his own FNC weekend show, Rivera will serve as a correspondent at large and still visit "The O'Reilly Factor."
"Geraldo is a great talent and did a tremendous job for us in syndication," Roger Ailes, chairman and chief executive of Fox News and chairman of Fox Television Stations, said in a statement. "His ratings were climbing in several markets, including New York. However, with the soft ad marketplace, the lack of an early news lead-in for his show in several cities and the timeline for financial success, I've asked him to come back to Fox News Channel."
As a replacement down the road, Fox-owned TV stations are said to be eyeing a TV project from Warner Bros., based on its upstart TMZ.com celebrity Web site. But the TMZ program will be available no sooner than September.
Meanwhile, plans move ahead for parent News Corp. to unveil the long-awaited Fox Business Channel. Access has been secured to at least 30 million cable homes, which was seen as the minimum threshold for a successful launch. An announcement could come as soon as late this month.
IT'S SADDAM SHAME: In an effort to break through the clutter, cable game-show channel GSN has taken to putting snarky play-along games tied to current events on its Web site.
Games based on Mel Gibson's arrest and one in which players throw books at O.J. Simpson led to a surge in visitors to its site and, presumably, reinforced the GSN brand. But sometimes clutter is best not broken through.
GSN last week launched "Saddam Hussein's Hangman," an online game based on the spelling game but with a few twists, such as the former Iraqi president taunting American players.
Don't bother looking for it. Two days later, Hussein was hanged. GSN realized the game was tasteless and pulled it. "GSN never intended for its game to coincide with an actual event," a network spokeswoman said.
GSN thought he'd win on appeal?
----------
philrosenthal@...
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