One of my favorite things about Sirius XM Radio — and probably the reason I got it in the first place — is the MLB package.  As most baseball fans know, it has live play-by-play of every game and the newly-rebranded MLB Network Radio (formerly XM Home Plate) on XM Ch. 175 / Sirius 210. When...

A new study by market research firm Brand Keys puts the Boston Red Sox, Indianapolis Colts, San Antonio Spurs and Detroit Red Wings at the top of their respective markets in team loyalty. The Pittsburgh Pirates, Oakland Raiders, Charlotte Bobcats and Atlanta Thrashers finished at the bottom in the index...

Duane Ludwig via TheFightNerd.com Sometimes a tightly contested mixed martial arts matchup can resemble art — beneath the outward brutal, raw nature of the sport is a ballet of sorts.  Renzo Gracie describes it best when he talks of Jiu Jitsu and MMA in those terms. But MMA has also inspired other...

College basketball may be down to the Sweet 16 (from 11 conferences, now that is quite a bit of news in itself), but there is also a “Sweet 16″ of coaches that have joined Jim Boeheim and Mike Krzyzewski in providing signed shoes, basketballs and other memorabilia that will go to benefit...

Babe Ruth-signed baseballs, while treasured, are not that uncommon.  Ruth happily autographed thousands of them while he played and in the few years after he retired.  Some surely ended up being used in sandlot games, being thrown out by overzealous mothers or meeting some other calamity, but many...

One of the best things about MMA is the sport’s connection to the fans.  The big events like UFC 111 in Newark involve more than just the standout card on Saturday, March 27 at the Prudential Center.  Tickets to the fights have been sold out for weeks, but there are a variety of activities that...

Here’s some great news for MMA fans.  Mike Straka, who as host of “FOX Fight Game” was one of the first “mainstream” reporters to embrace the sport, has joined HDNet and will preside over “Fighting Words with Mike Straka,” a 30-minute interview-format program. ...

I know, I know… it’s just a robe that you wear backwards.  But the Snuggie(TM) has hit the pop culture scene as much as any infomercial product ever has.  It’s as ubiquitous as The Clapper, the ShamWow, or anything the late, great Billy Mays ever hawked. Before Billy’s untimely...

This week Wheaties unveiled its newest box cover athletes, winter sports stars Shaun White, Lindsey Vonn, and Seth Wescott.  For me, the Wheaties box and the Sports Illustrated cover hold the same cache — at any given time, it represents where our sports stars fit into the bigger picture of American...

One way to gauge if an entertainment entity has moved beyond its core fans to a larger, mainstream audience is to look at the products it licenses outside of the industry.  The broader and more complex the production and distribution chain, the less likely it is that a “niche” industry will...