Back Porch Boston

ESPN is about to launch a new "news magazine" show that is essentially a 60 Minutes for sports. ESPN has made no secret that it doesn't like missing out on in-depth interviews like the one Vince Young recently gave to 60 Minutes, and the Worldwide Leader wants its new show, called E:60, to offer a platform for longer, more engaging interviews, and for hard-hitting news stories.

And now E:60 has its own version of Andy Rooney. ESPN released this announcement today:

Bill Simmons, one of the country's most-read sports writers and a pioneer of sportswriting on the Internet, will join ESPN's new multi-themed, prime-time newsmagazine E:60 ....

"Bill Simmons is the most original sportswriter of his generation with a truly unique voice that resonates with sports fans everywhere," said [ESPN executive Keith] Clinkscales, who also oversees ESPN The Magazine where Simmons is a columnist. "Simmons' E:60 segments will clearly bring his perspective to the television newsmagazine genre, complementing the show's content with his witty and insightful observations about the intersecting worlds of sports and pop culture."

I guess we can expect a lot of observations about the Red Sox that start out with, "Have you ever noticed..."

We previously told you about Jacob Seilheimer and his quest to finish the Boston Marathon. In this photo he weighed 438 pounds, but through a training regimen he got down into the 350 range.

The race was Monday, and on his web site, Seilheimer says he finished in 9 hours, 40 minutes. It appears that he wasn't officially registered for the Marathon, but it's on public streets, so no one was stopping him from running the route. And, of course, I use the word "running," but at 9:40, it's really more like walking.

Still, assuming Seilheimer is telling the truth, finishing 26 miles on foot is an incredible accomplishment for a guy that size. Congratulations, Jacob. Next year I think you can crack 9:30.

This is Lidiya Grigoryeva crossing the finish line at the Boston Marathon yesterday. Grigoryeva is a Russian, and to honor her, the Marathon played the Russian national anthem. Except that it was the wrong national anthem. And it's a mistake Marathon officials have made before:

Russians in Boston watching the race - and others watching on television - were horrified to hear the wrong anthem for the second time since another Russian woman won in 2003....

Boston Athletics Association officials didn't realize they had played the national anthem used only between 1996-2000.

Russia briefly got rid of the Soviet-era national anthem (a tune probably best known to Americans as the song the pro wrestler Nikolai Volkoff sang before matches), but then brought back the same melody with different lyrics. Apparently even seven years later, the folks at the Boston Marathon don't have the new CD. Men's winner Robert Cheruiyot got the right anthem played for him, although if Marathon organizers didn't have the Kenyan anthem ready, they'd be hopeless.

The weather in the Northeast was so bad this weekend that Boston Marathon officials gave serious thought to canceling today's race entirely, but the race did begin as scheduled this morning.

A few miles in, New York Marathon champion Jelena Prokopcuka of Latvia is leading the women's race. Defending champion Ernst Van Dyk is leading the men's wheelchair division and Wakako Tsuchida is leading the women's wheelchair division. The male elite runners began just minutes ago.

Many runners were clearly affected by the weather: 2,449 of the approximately 25,000 who registered did not show up for the race.