So I tuned in Friday afternoon in hopes of catching some of the second-round Masters action.

Like many fans, I like watching golf occasionally on TV, even though I personally am very lousy at the game and always get my money’s worth in greens fees, seeing far more of the course and taking more shots than anyone in my playing group. And like many fans these days, I will only take a sincere interest in a given golf tournament if there is a great story to be followed. Or if a character is involved (e.g. John Daly — I’m extremely disappointed in you for what you tried to pull at the Augusta parking lot Thursday, but for some reason, not surprised at your latest off-course antic). Or if a top player like Tiger Woods is in contention (I’ll watch if Mickelson is in contention as well, but with a lot less interest because his track record is shaky in justifying tuning in for all four hours of Sunday coverage to see him hold a lead).

With that, I direct your attention to the aforementioned Tiger Woods, the No. 1 player in world, fresh off of a win at Bay Hill after an eight-month layoff for knee surgery, and seeking his fifth green jacket this week. Need I say more? Apparently I do, judging by what went on at ESPN, which had exclusive live TV coverage of the first and second rounds this week.

When I tuned in for the start of ESPN’s second-round coverage at 1:00 p.m. PST, I saw Tiger Woods tee-off. Great timing right? Only one problem: Tiger had already finished 17 holes and was teeing off at the 18th! Everyone knows who Tiger Woods is, even my Mom — who knows absolutely nothing about sports. He is the one player even the most casual of sports fans may tune in to watch. Especially if it’s the Masters, the most prestigious golf tournament in the United States, if not the world (many will claim the British Open deserves this title, and I will not take up that argument at this time).

I was, and still am as I write this article/rant, enraged that Tiger Woods got virtually no TV coverage on ESPN, the “Worldwide Leader in Sports,” during its coverage of the Masters. Sure, it was only the second round, but if a network has exclusive coverage of an event of this magnitude, how could it not show the top-ranked, most popular player in the game? I am realistic and understand ESPN has a certain schedule of programs it normally shows in the morning/early afternoon slot, but not altering the schedule to show Tiger Woods? To me, that makes no sense from a business/ratings standpoint, and cheats viewers who, like me, tuned in primarily to see Tiger Woods.

Heck, even without coverage of Tiger Woods, I may have stuck around to watch a few holes of the early round’s leaders. But the day-one leader, Chad Campbell, was already in with a 70. Kenny Perry, who fired a 67 to draw even with Campbell at 9-under, also was M.I.A. by the time ESPN picked up coverage. Disgusted, I changed the channel to something else and was so infuriated that I promptly got started on my article.

Now I can’t speak for Thursday, but Friday was nothing short of an abomination for TV coverage of the Masters. The worst part was that ESPN’s live coverage was exclusive, so my periodic tuning into the Golf Channel prior to 1:00 was only good enough to watch some taking heads and an occasional highlight. The lone hole viewers got to see Tiger play live on Friday was a disappointment: a bogey on the Par-4 18th set up by a poor second shot into the sand.

That bogey I saw Tiger get is the precise score I would put on ESPN’s scorecard for its Friday “coverage” of the Masters.

I’ve never been one for preseason predictions, especially in a sport like baseball. There are over 30 teams with 162 games each and only four playoff spots per league. That doesn’t exactly lend itself to accurate predictions for all the expert swamis out there. Case in point: Last year the Tampa Bay Rays were something like a 100-1 shot to win the World Series. I also remember how the Mets were going to bounce back after Epic Collapse Take 1 with the addition of Johan Santana (more on that in a bit).

Opening Day (or night, if you’re ESPN) was my beloved Phillies vs. the Braves. The Braves picked up Derek Lowe, arguably one of the top free agent starters on the market (outside of A.J. Burnett and CC Sabathia, who were gobbled up by Galactus — geek moment for all you comic book fans out there who will get what I’m talking about). Lowe was in full-fledged, vintage form against the potent lefty-heavy Phillies offense. To see sinker balls in all their splendor, look no further then Sunday’s game tape. Maybe he pitched with a chip on his shoulder from last season’s NLCS, or maybe he really has just returned to form. There is no arguing that he was that dang good.

So the Phillies laid an egg on opening day — I’m used to that. They’ve lost opening days all but one (2005) since 2003. Many of those losses were completely embarrassing blowouts, like a 13-5 loss to the Cardinals in 2006 and a Tom Gordon-fueled 11-6 blowup last season. Please note that the Phils have played .500 ball or better in all of those seasons.

Opening Day is special, but people, it’s one game! All of the sudden the media, fans, and pan handlers sleeping on subway sidewalk vents are going crazy as if it is the end of the world. According to some, the Phillies’ 4-1 loss to the Braves was an omen that the defending champs are not a team to be watched this year.

On the flip side, you have the New York Mets, where Collapse Take 1 and Collapse Take 2 might have damaged the part of their brain that deals in short-term memory. They won their opener in Cincinnati, 2-1, behind the efforts of ace Johan Santana (who has coincidentally joined Jose Reyes in a battle of excessive Broadway-choreographed celebratory handshakes).

This offseason, the Mets went out and made some much needed bullpen acquisitions in the form of set-up man J.J. Putz (can someone please tell me how to pronounce this name without laughing or sounding lewd and offensive) and star closer Francisco “K-Rod” Rodriguez, who I’m convinced thinks he is an angel who should ascend into heaven after each save.

The so-called “experts” have some kind of love affair with them because of these bullpen moves. So the bullpen got a little better — good for them — and apparently that is the surefire sign that they will not only win the NL East this year, but the World Series as well. Much like how the Yankees are guaranteed to win after their $430 million-plus shopping spree — but that’s another rant for another day.

The experts also see the Mets passing the Phillies because of Cole Hamels’ spring-training elbow flare-up, ignoring that Santana had the same elbow flare-up scare just a week before Hamels.

These “experts,” like the narcissistic and self-righteous Steve Phillips, also forget that:

• the Mets trot out the same lineup as the last two seasons,
• their starting rotation is a question mark, considering how poor Oliver Perez’s offseason was,
• the concerns about the health and effectiveness of Mike Pelfrey and John Maine,
• and the Tim Redding- Freddie Garcia-Livan Hernandez fifth starter experiment.

The point being that after Opening Day, someone reading all the blogs and watching ESPN would think the Mets were already anointed the champions. I mean, why play the other 161 games, right?

And if they’re not talking about the Mets winning the division and having their victory parade with a dance floor for Jose Reyes, then the Yankees should be panicking like there is no tomorrow due to CC Sabathia’s overpaid ineffectiveness against the Baltimore Orioles.

To the talking heads on ESPN who refuse to cut the umbilical cord to your incredibly obvious frontrunning allegiance: IT IS ONLY ONE GAME IN (probably two or three by time you are all reading this).

I’m just waiting for Epic Collapse Take 3.

If a sports fan uproar is like a wildfire, then the media provide the lighter fluid and matches. The only problem: They take zero responsibility for that. That’s nothing new, I know, but it all came to a head today with a column from one of Philly’s best, Rich Hoffman of the (soon to be defunct) Philadelphia Daily News.

Let me start by saying that, being a Philly guy, I follow a lot of the Inquirer and Daily News coverage. Despite living across the country from my hometown, I am still able to keep up with my favorite sports teams thanks to the internet. In fact, I don’t think I would’ve survived the move without them.

But I digress.

Long story short (too late), most of my rant today is brought to you by them.

This morning, I’m checking up my normal Web sites before I get ready for work. One of my last stops was philly.com, where I couldn’t help but notice the headline, Phillies’ World Series title makes life tougher on Eagles — Hoffman’s column from Friday’s paper.

Now let me preface this rant by saying that Hoffman is one of the absolute best columnists in the country. He has won multiple awards and was twice named Philly best sports writer. He’s so money, and he doesn’t even know it.

But like when Mikey got back from the bar in Swingers and couldn’t stop calling that girl he met at the bar, this was not Hoffman’s finest hour.

Hoffman apparently thinks that — get this — the fans have been really after the Eagles in new and cruel ways since the Phillies won the World Series. Apparently in Rich’s mind, once us Philly fans went black, we never went back.

I’ll let him put it in his own words.

And in the end, in the aftermath of the Phillies winning the World Series, I could not remember a more negative Eagles season when it came to my interaction with the people who root for this football team.

The bombardment was relentless – and that is the exact word, bombardment. For the first time ever, people fired coach Andy Reid in the newspaper. Day after day, the e-mails flooded in whenever a defense of Reid was raised. People in the Wawa were brutal. Callers on the radio were worse. I know, I know – it goes with the territory when you are the most popular team in town and you haven’t won a championship since 1960. And, yes, this is all anecdotal.

Ok, so let’s get this straight: It was the fans that called for Andy Reid’s firing. People in Wawa were brutal.

(Time out — Zach Morris style)

For those of you who aren’t from the northeast — namely, the Philly to D.C. region — Wawa is like a super 7-11. It has a fresh deli where they make hoagies (or subs to the unenlightened) and has all the usual charm of your local convenience store. I miss it so much…

(Time in)

To his credit (he is a prize-winning journalist after all), Hoffman does not forget to mention the media’s…well, special cameo role in this Eagles saga.

“I am willing to consider that some of it was media-driven, but I don’t think that explains it all.”

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

In the sports world, the media have the biggest mouth. Sports journalists — or to put it more aptly, sports personalities — are the initial source for all information regarding sports. Sure sports fan blogs and talk radio have given sports fans a voice like never before, but you can’t even watch a game on TV without hearing Joe Buck and Troy Aikman’s take on what your eyes can see.

Let’s just say this isn’t exactly a fair fight, Mr. Hoffman.

But — like all things today it seems — the media have gone A.I.G. on us when it comes to sharing the blame. They’re quick to point the finger but lack the ability to look in the mirror (which in some cases isn’t too pretty, if you get what I’m saying).

That’s why I hope that Web sites like Taking Back Sports take off. While we are aspiring journalists, we make sure to always remember that we are sports fans first. The mainstream media have far too long painted fans as the bad guys. It’s time for us fans to take our rightful place at the end of all sports tables.

After all, we foot the bill for these athletes’ large, ridiculous salaries. I say that makes us stock holders; and right now, I don’t like the way our sports are being covered — not one bit.

So next time I make a fire, I’m going to start by lighting up the sports section.

It already comes complete with lighter fluid and matches.

When I first heard word that Roger Goodell announced that he would like to expand the NFL schedule from 16 games to 18 games by decreasing preseason games, my reaction was, “This has got to be the doings of Bud Selig.  Who else could propose something so dumb?”  Low and behold, it was Goodell and he seemed dead serious.

There has been debate for a long time that the NFL Preseason is a little on the ridiculous side.  The NFL, and subsequently its franchises, promote and sell these games as they would a regular-season game, between the advertising and ticket prices.  I guess they didn’t pay attention to the fact that the fans clear out the stadium and turn off their televisions by time the fourth-team players are fumbling over each other on the field in the humid August night.

Now, as a sports fan, I can’t stand the NFL Preseason, as I’m sure most can’t.  Usually the first game is exciting because we see the starters for a quarter or so of football after it being absent from us for so many months.  However, I do understand the benefit to the coaches who are finalizing their rosters.  It is impossible to get a real sense of what unproven talent can do in nongame situations — no matter how perfect practice drills may be.

It is great business for the NFL, no doubt, to have two more meaningful football games.  There’ll be higher television ratings and more revenue at the stadiums; everybody will be happy!  I mean, it would make sense, because the NFL is apparently losing so much money that it had to lay off a huge chunk of its workforce due to the economy, despite showing little to no reduction in revenue.

I digress.  Full disclosure: Being a film and video guy, I remember that many people were laid off from NFL Films in Mt. Laurel (near my South Jersey home) as part of the layoffs.

Anywho, having 18 games for a fan — in the words of Dana Carvey’s version of George H.W. Bush — just wouldn’t seem prudent.  It would reduce how important each game is in the standings.  Part of the thrill of watching the NFL week to week is knowing that there has to be a “do-or-die” mentality because each loss stings.  It is much more difficult to overcome a two-game deficit in the NFL than in Major League Baseball.

We already have seen teams at 8-8 sneak into the playoffs.  With 18 games and 6 spots per conference, we could see sub-.500 teams make the playoffs.  That doesn’t exactly sound like fun, competitive playoff football to me.  Then again, it’d probably be a God send for some of those teams in the West, considering what a “powerhouse” they’ve been lately. (Please note sarcasm.)

As a sports fan, there comes a point in the season for every sport where I get sick of the regular season.  I want some playoff action, especially regarding hockey.  In baseball, when August and September comes, no doubt it is exciting, but you just want to get it over with and get to October.  In football, we want to get to January as soon as possible.  Win or go home!  Nose to the grindstone!  Winner take all!

As you can see, I’m running out of little cliché motivational sayings.

Not to mention that the most obvious problem in adding extra games to the NFL schedule: Injuries will play a much larger role.  Football is such an intense sport, and the injury bug plagues teams like the monkey from Outbreak.  Do we really want to increase the chances of good teams folding because the players drop like flies?

Long rant short (Editors Note: too late!), keep the system how it is.  It works, methinks.  I love my NFL season.  Don’t make it so that I stop caring until playoff time like other sports.

Pretty please, Mr. Goodell.