As promised, I was going to watch and comment on the debut show of Sports Soup on the Versus Channel. However, the Penguins and Flyers had other plans this Tuesday night. As I turned on DirecTV (channel 604) I noticed that the Pens game was going to overtime. I could hear Iseman shouting “why me?” somewhere in the studio. All the build up and he was being preempted by a regular season hockey game. With that type of drama couldn’t it have been the World Series? Lucky for Iseman, Pascal Dupuis scored and his audience didn’t have to wait any longer.

To preface, I believe I am a hard grader of these type of shows. Despite being part of the process I made sure to stay objective. I asked all the contributors to this site, and some friends as well, to watch and provide feedback. You will see comments to this piece from them over the next day or so. I have to say the show met all the expectations that I had going in. The clips were creative, diverse, and Matt’s humor kept you on your toes.

Since this site is baseball I will comment on some of those clips. First, the Greek Orthodox priest blessing the Cubs dugout was great. Howard and I talked about this but, little did we know, a Cubs employee dumped the holy water on the field! What irony. Remember what I said last week “at least we are not Cubs fans”. Don’t worry Cubs fans you are not singled out. There was Russell Martin “stating the obvious” and “Manny being Manny”. I could have done without the crack at the Mets season ending early. I wonder if Matt knew one of his reviewers was a fan of the orange and blue?

I think the strength of the show is how he was able to find clips for everything from baseball to mix martial arts. Oh, and by the way, you have to see this guy that falls asleep while hunting deer. Score one for the deer, I am rooting for you! I also give credit to Iseman for poking fun at shows on his own network. Wish some other well know New York sports media outlets would do the same from time to time. Until then I will gladly watch Iseman do it for them.

I really don’t want to give away the entire show since I rather you watch it for yourself. If I could add something it would be Matt doing some live interaction with an athlete, journalist, or perhaps a blogger. Combing that with the video clip commentary would make for interesting television. I could see him hosting a “Bill Mahr type” of sports show in the future. Lets give the debut show 4 stars out of five. Like I said I am a hard, but fair grader. You have to give them a carrot to reach for, right?

Oh Matt, if you read this, the “Talk to Me In August” Tampa Bay Rays are one win from the World Series. I would get that Mike Francesa clip queued up cause your going to need it.

If you missed Sports Soup go to the Versus website to see times where you can catch a replay.

Tags: Matt Iseman, Mike Francesa, New York Mets, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Sports Soup, Tampa Bay Rays, Versus