TimeSocket

The Red Sox will honor popular television analyst and former player Jerry Remy during tonight’s game at Fenway Park. The following press release excerpt from NESN runs down tonight’s pregame ceremonies:

NESN and the Boston Red Sox celebrate Jerry Remy Day today at Fenway Park. In recognition of his 20 years as NESN’s Red Sox analyst, Jerry will be honored in a special pre-game ceremony before tonight’s game against Arizona.

The on-field ceremony will be hosted by NESN’s play-by-play announcer Don Orsillo and carried live on NESN. Jerry will be joined on the field by members of his family, former teammates and coaches, Carlton Fisk, Dennis Eckersley, Rick Burleson, Dwight Evans, Walt Hriniak and Bob Stanley. Also present for the ceremony will be Red Sox chairman Tom Werner and former broadcast partners Bob Kurtz and Sean McDonough.

The ceremony consists of a series of videos highlighting Jerry’s career as an analyst, and a special gift presentation to Jerry by NESN president Sean McGrail. The ceremony will conclude with Jerry throwing out the ceremonial first pitch to Carlton Fisk.

In addition to the on-field ceremony, Mayor Tom Menino will visit Jerry in the broadcast booth during the game to proclaim June 24th as Jerry Remy Day in the city of Boston. NESN and NESN.com are also running congratulatory recorded messages from some celebrities who are Red Sox fans including Ben Affleck, Michael Chiklis, Lenny Clarke, Stephen King, Denis Leary, Conan O’Brien, Mike O’Malley, Matt Siegel and Jack Welch.

The Giants have officially signed S Sammy Knight. According to someone familiar with the terms of the deal, it’s a three-year, $5.15-million contract with a $1.25-million signing bonus. Not a bad deal for both sides after Knight signed a one-year, $820k deal with Jacksonville last year.

The person familiar with the deal also said Knight has been told he will be a starter, though it’s not clear if it’ll be at strong or free. Again, not that it matters much because both spots are similar in the Giants’ D.

“We’re excited to have a veteran of Sammy’s caliber joining our secondary,” GM Jerry Reese said in the team’s release. “We were attracted to how smart he plays and how productive and physical he plays. We think he will thrive in our defensive schemes. He brings a lot of leadership to the team, especially to the secondary, and he is a real pro.”

He’s the kind of player coach Tom Coughlin will love. After all he’s missed only two games to injury in his 11-year career and has played in 156 consecutive regular season games, the NFL’s 14th-longest current streak.

“Sammy Knight is a durable, physical player with 42 career interceptions,” Coughlin said. “He comes to the line of scrimmage extremely well. He’s a smart player who gets everybody lined up. He played in Kansas City for (secondary/cornerbacks coach) Peter Giunta, so we know all about the quality of the man. We feel like with his love of the game and his attitude about the idea of team that he’ll be a real nice fit for us. Sammy gives us another quality veteran who will definitely help our young guys in their development.”

“I think this is a great situation for me,” Knight said. “This is a great staff, first and foremost, and a great organization. They won the Super Bowl, and they have a lot of people coming back, so the opportunity to win again was definitely one of the determining factors in me coming here.”

The price for a 30-second commercial spot on television for the U.S Superbowl has risen to US$2.7 million.

The Super Bowl this year will draw new advertisers, including Planters packaged nut company, Kraft Foods, Cars.com, an online auto classified advertising company, McClatchy, Tribune, Washington Post and Belo Corp.

The advertisers expect to reach more than 90 million people in a single shot, something increasingly hard to do in any medium.

Only the largest of television’s events: the Super Bowl, the Olympics, the Oscars and the Grammys have the potential to pull in tens of millions of people.

Last year’s viewership of 93.2 million was close to the all-time record of 94.1 million set in 1996, and many believe that record could be surpassed this year.