Rogers Communications CEO TED ROGERS was listed atop the Toronto GLOBE & MAIL's year-end list of "people who had the biggest influence on Canadian sport." Following Rogers were WAYNE GRETZKY, IOC VP DICK POUND, Raptors F VINCE CARTER, Expos Managing Partner JEFFREY LORIA, NHL Commissioner GARY BETTMAN, golfer MIKE WEIR, Senators Chair ROD BRYDEN, Maple Leafs President KEN DRYDEN and new CBC Sports Exec Dir NANCY LEE (Toronto GLOBE & MAIL, 12/23). ...In L.A., Larry Stewart awarded Fox Sports TV Group Chair DAVID HILL and Fox Sports President ED GOREN as the "Best Executive" of 2000. Stewart: "Fox stays out in front of the others with innovations and ideas, such as televising its NFL pregame show from a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and showing a baseball game in various stages of television's development." Meanwhile, Stewart named NBC Sports Chair DICK EBERSOL as the year's "Worst Executive," and wrote, "Delayed Olympic telecasts were one thing, trying to convince the public he was doing them a favor was another. NBC should have offered the Olympics live on cable, then packaged them for the casual fans on the main network" (L.A. TIMES, 12/29)....The SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, sister publication of THE DAILY, named MLB Giants Managing General Partner PETER MAGOWAN as its '00 Sports Executive of the Year (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 12/25 issue)....TIGER WOODS and MARION JONES were named the AP's Male and Female Athlete of the Year, respectively (AP).....Weir was named the Canadian Male Athlete of the year in voting conducted by the CP and Broadcast News (Toronto GLOBE & MAIL, 12/29)....MLB Cardinals broadcaster JACK BUCK will be honored at a dinner April 3 at the Missouri Athletic Club as the St. Louis Citizen of the Year (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 1/1).
