Runnerville

Abdi, Ed Eyestone, your comments, and the Pre Classic. It’s all on this episode of the Toni & Matt Show.

The Big Story - The Prefontaine Classic:Brad Walker gets the American Record in the pole vault. Bekele, running at 9:30 in the morning, goes after, but misses, his own World Record at 10,000m. The fans are back in Eugene, but the TV coverage hasn’t changed.

Abdi Abdirahman joins us in the “studio” from Tucson, Arizona. On his 27:16, just 3 seconds off the American Recrod: “I’d be lying if I told you I wasn’t thinking about the record.” Is he willing to push the pace at the Trials? Will he go after the American Record there? GMC Denali’s and XM Satellite radio - it’s all here.

You Talk. We Respond. Joe from South Jersey thanks Tegenkamp for responding personally. He also points out that we need a winner and more team-based events on the track. Brett wants team scoring at the Olympic Games. We couldn’t agree more. Imagine the interest in a tight battle for 8th place in the 5,000m if it meant the difference between team gold and team silver. Besides, who cares about total medals? Billy from Portland calls in with his thoughts of the Pre Classic…and high praise for the Toni & Matt Show: “Your show is my favorite.” And Ben Olson writes in: I am an 8 year old runner from Coon Rapids, Minnesota. Alan Webb is my sports hero. My buddies that I play hockey, baseball and golf with don’t know who he is, but they will this summer. Everyone will know who he is with his olympic gold medal. He will dominate in August.

Ed Eyestone joins us in the “studio” after his appearance in the NBC studio at Hayward Field. Ed talks candidly about his opinions of the Pre broadcast (his first with NBC), explains why the 5,000m and 10,000m races weren’t shown, describes his preparation for calling a meet, and tries to give an answer to Matt’s question: What the hell happened in the men’s 800m?

Bislett Games in Oslo: The baby-faced assassin reigns supreme and Andrew Baddeley gives Brits another great white hope.

What do you think? Call us at 206-888-0346 or email to comments (at) runnerville (dot) com.

[Music is “Super Duper Love” by Joss Stone.]

Around this time every four years, I start to get this gnawing pit in my stomach. I experience a growing sense of unease every time I watch a track meet on ESPN. I’ll hear a snatch of a John Williams trumpet fanfare as I flip past a late night showing of Raiders of the Lost Ark, and it’s like an icy finger running down my spine. Then one day it happens; I’m innocently watching Lipstick Jungle (what, you’re not?) and down in the corner of the screen is a five-ringed logo. The rough beast approaches; NBC’s run-up to their Olympic coverage has begun.

Now, I’m not going to sit here and pretend like I’m the first person on this site to criticize mainstream broadcasting of track and field in this country. Far from it. I am however, the first person to do so using thematic elements from a Yeats poem (unless Mosher’s got a riff on here about “The Lamentation of the Old Pensioner” that I overlooked). Please believe me when I say that I look at the approaching network coverage of the Olympics with a sense of dread. I can’t remember the last time I watched the summer Games without feeling irritated, annoyed and a bit let down. It was probably back when I was ten and was easily distracted by the bright colors. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that I hate watching the Olympics on NBC.

It starts with the network’s endless promotion in the coming months. If they spent a fraction of their Olympic advertising budget on supporting show development maybe we wouldn’t see excellent series like Studio 60, Friday Night Lights and Bionic Woman getting canceled. Ok, maybe not Bionic Woman (how Ron Moore choked so tremendously I’ll never know, but that show blew on an epic scale). Instead, we’re going to be treated to various and endless montages of plucky gymnasts, powerhouse sprinters, Michael Jordan, the American flag, crying plucky gymnasts, and a shirtless Michael Phelps. They’ll be accompanied by stirring orchestral scores and the ubiquitous bird shaped rainbow. You know, in case we forgot what network was showing the Olympics in the 30 seconds since they reminded us last.

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