Television awards seemingly are passed out like food coupons at your neighborhood supermarket checkout stand.
So perhaps that’s why the Sports Emmy Awards, given for 2009, have been under the publicity radar.
The major — and deserving — winner during last week’s ceremony in New York was HBO Sports, which led the parade with nine awards, the most ever for the pay cable service. ESPN took home six statues (three each for ESPN and ESPN2) while CBS, NBC and the fledging Major League Baseball network received four each.
Executives of MLB should hold their statues high, because the honors indicate how quickly the cable service, which premiered Jan. 1, 2009, has become a valuable TV sports commodity.
Highlighting the HBO winners list was “Assault in the Ring,” named outstanding sports documentary.
Aired last July, “Assault” detailed the grim events surrounding a Madison Square Garden fight on June 16, 1963, when Billy Collins Jr., a rising welterweight boxer, was brutally clubbed while losing a decision to journeyman Luis Resto.
It was then determined that Resto’s gloves were missing major padding, which almost gave him a “bare-knuckle”‘ advantage.
In addition to the fight scenes, the documentary probed the aftermath, which resulted in Resto and his trainer serving jail time while Collins’ promising career came to a sad, abrupt end.
Also among HBO’s nine wins was “Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Cincinnati Bengals,” named outstanding sport series anthology.
NBC captured two prestigious awards — outstanding live sports special (Super Bowl XLIII) and outstanding live sports series (“Sunday Night Football”).
Individual winners: Bob Costas (NBC, MLB) — outstanding personality-studio host; Jim Nantz (CBS) — outstanding personality/play-by play; Kirk Herbstreit (ESPN, ABC) — outstanding personality-studio analyst; Cris Collinsworth (NBC) — oustanding personality-sports event analyst.
John Madden was given the lifetime achievement award.
The life of Reilly.
Rick Reilly sent an e-mail to remind that he hasn’t stopped writing, as indicated here last week. Although giving up his column in ESPN the Magazine, Reilly writes weekly for .
Bad boys are back.
It’s appropriate that HBO Sports follows last week’s documentary win with an hour that should be in contention for 2010 honors.
“Broad Street Bullies” (the premiere is 8 p.m. Tuesday) examines the legendary Philadelphia Flyers of the 1970s — a team that former star Bill Clement notes “was loved in one part of the world and hated everywhere else” because of its brutal antics on the ice.
In most ways the hour’s style is predictable since HBO Sports has found and stuck with a winning formula. But that familiar style doesn’t diminish the pro- ject.
Candid interviews are mixed with engrossing film and tape to illuminate an era that made the Flyers one of the most controversial teams in pro sports history.
Lev Schreiber’s measured narration adds to the drama.
Scenes of the Flyers battling their rivals, violently pounding one another on the ice, make today’s rink scuffles look like ballet dancing.
And keep in mind that in the NHL of the 1970s, only goal- tenders wore helmets.
“Bullies” follows the Flyers’ history, which suffered through several losing, embarrassing seasons after their 1967 debut.
But led by Dave “The Hammer” Schultz, Bernie Parent and Bobby Clarke, the Flyers evolved into a Stanley Cup-winning team featuring players with gap-tooth grins, funny hair and goofy nicknames.
The Flyers evolved into one of the NHL’s elite franchises, partly because of violent play.
It’s important to note the hour is anything but a heap-the-praise- on-the-Bullies production, because several sports figures decry the team’s violent style.
Longtime Denver journalist Dusty Saunders writes about sports media each Monday in The Denver Post. Reach him at tvtime@comcast.net.
FSN takes fans to Dominican Republic
Rockies coverage by FSN Rocky Mountain moves from spanking- clean National League ballparks to weedy rural sandlots during “Baseball in the Dominican Republic” (7 p.m. Thursday).
This engrossing, change-of-pace production, part of the network’s “Rockies All Access” series, provides an up-close look at how the Rockies Academy works with eager teenagers who have dreams of someday making it to the major leagues.
The hour also doubles as a travel special, showing fascinating scenes of the varied, harsh lifestyles of both young and old.
Rockies ace Ubaldo Jimenez, who is from the Dominican Republic, is involved as a tour guide, providing a background that shows how he came up through the Rockies’ system and how that helped him develop as a person and a pitcher.
Repeats are scheduled several times in upcoming weeks.
