A little of this & a little of that

 If you were planning on seeing Barry Manilow on his farewell tour, I've got some bad news.

Manilow has postponed a series of dates, including a stop in Albany at the MVP Arena on April 20, due to health concerns. Hold on to your tickets, as they'll be honored when the concerts are rescheduled.

The farewell tour is on hold.

ESPN is taking a ton of heat for its Masters coverage on Thursday.

There were already issues with Jason Kelce (Monday Night Countdown) as an on course reporter. Then, the network doubled down by having WWE superstar Michael "The Miz" Mizanin in a broadcast booth with Laura Rutledge. Give Miz credit, though, for dressing for the occasion, as dapper as usual, in a white & green ensemble. Mizanin was there to promote not only Wrestlemania next weekend, portions of which will air on ESPN, but also his new side gig as host of the Amazon Prime revival of American Gladiators.

 And this was after ESPN was turned down when it requested that Pat McAfee and his crew could set up shop at Augusta, after McAfee had gotten in hot water with WWE fans a week ago for being inserted in a main event storyline at the Show of Shows between Randy Orton & Cody Rhodes, at the request of TKO CEO Ari Emanuel.

Like, if it ain't broken, ya don't fix it, but ESPN & WWE are both guilty of that. Then again, it could've been worse at the Masters.

Stephen A. Smith could've been in Miz's seat.

It's been a happy homecoming so far this week for former Mets utility ace Jeff McNeil.

Back in New York with the A's for series vs. the Yankees & Mets this week, McNeil went 4-8 with an RBI and a run scored as the A's took two of three from the Yanks. Tonight, McNeil returns to Citi Field for a series vs. his former team, for whom he played the first seven seasons of his career. Former Mets prospect JT Ginn gets the start for the A's.

Later this month, Liberty Mutual insurance is retiring the Safeco brand of personal insurance (i.e. homeowners, auto), as all of their insurance products will be under the Liberty Mutual umbrella. You might remember when Liberty Mutual sponsored outdoors programming in the 70's. I caution, however, when you visit the website, you might find mascots Limu Emu & Doug pictured on the site. The commercials are in heavy rotation, but do ya really need a reminder when online? Judge for yourself.