OU softball team, Peterson among ESPY nominees
The Oklahoma softball team has been nominated for Best Team, and Sooners pitcher Keilani Ricketts is in the running for Best Female College Athlete as nominees for the 2013 ESPYS were announced Thursday.
Thunder forward Kevin Durant has been nominated for Best NBA Player, and former OU running back Adrian Peterson is up for three awards: Best Male Athlete, Best NFL Player and Best Comeback. Former Verdigris basketball standout Rotnei Clark is also up for an ESPY in the Best Play category for his buzzer beater for Butler vs. Marquette during the Maui Invitational.
Voting is underway at ESPN.com/ ESPYS and, aside from Best Team, all categories will close when the live show, hosted by Jon Hamm, starts at 8 p.m. July 17 on ESPN. Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon will host The ESPY Nomination Special at 7 p.m. Monday on ESPN2.
The Best Team category will be determined by a Twitter vote at the beginning of the live show. Besides the OU softball team, which went 57-4 and swept Tennessee in the WCWS finals, other nominees are the Miami Heat, Alabama football team, Chicago Blackhawks, Baltimore Ravens, San Francisco Giants and the U.S. women’s gymnastics team. The NBA has produced the last two winners, the Heat last year and the Dallas Mavericks in 2011.
HERBSTREIT AGREES TO EXTENSION WITH ESPN
College football analyst Kirk Herbstreit has agreed to a contract extension that will keep him with ESPN through 2022. The two-time Sports Emmy Award-winner for Best Studio Analyst will continue to call ABC’s Saturday Night Football package and make weekly appearances on a variety of ESPN shows, including “College GameDay,” where he enters his 18th season.
Herbstreit’s weekly Tuesday appearance on “College Football Live” will tap into his talk radio roots, pairing him with ESPN Radio’s Colin Cowherd. The two will offer insights on hot topics.
“I’ve always felt that ESPN and ABC are the home of college football and even more so now that they have the College Football Playoff for 12 years,” Herbstreit said in a news release.
SHORT TAKES
ESPN college basketball analyst Bill Raftery is switching networks to stick with the Big East. He will call the reshaped conference’s games for new cable network Fox Sports 1. Raftery had worked for ESPN since 1982. He will continue to call games for CBS. Fox said that the former Seton Hall coach will team with play-by-play announcer Gus Johnson for Big East games on FS1, which debuts Aug. 17. Fox Sports 1 is scheduled to air more than 100 Big East basketball games next season.
For its “Baseball Night in America” broadcast at 6 p.m. Saturday, KOKH-25 will air Cincinnati at Texas ( Thom Brennaman and Mitch Williams), which will go to 19 percent of the nation. Fox’s main game is the New York Yankees at Baltimore. ESPN also will air the Yankees-Orioles series at 7 p.m. Sunday ( Dan Shulman, Orel Hershiser, John Kruk and reporter Buster Olney)
ESPN’s Wimbledon “cross-court coverage” resumes Monday with live coverage on ESPN and ESPN2 from Monday through Wednesday. ESPN will focus on Centre Court, while ESPN2 airs matches from Court One and elsewhere. ESPN2’s coverage begins at 6 a.m.
ESPN will carry 60 live Canadian Football League games this season, beginning Friday with a doubleheader on its ESPN3 webcast: the Hamilton Tiger-Cats vs. the Toronto Argonauts (6 p.m.) and the BC Lions vs. the Calgary Stampeders (9 p.m.). In all, ESPN will televise five games on ESPN2 and 55 on ESPN3.
Next week ESPNU will follow 163 of the nation’s leading college football recruits competing at The Opening in Portland, Ore. Coverage, which begins at 6 p.m. Monday and 8 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, will include 7ON Football action and five verbal commitments from ESPN 300 position ranked recruits: Tuesday, Arrion Springs, San Antonio, Texas, No. 7 CB; Jaleel Wadood, Bellflower, Calif., No. 39 Athlete; Naijial Hale, Bellflower, Calif., No. 30 CB; Wednesday, Trey Marshall, Lake City, Fla., No. 49 Safety; Dillon Bates, Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., No. 3 OLB.