Gil Stratton, the former minor-league umpire who became a long-time Southern California sportscaster for more than 40 years who claimed to "call 'em as I see 'em," died at his home in Toluca Lake of congestive heart failure Saturday. He was 86.

Known mostly for a career spent in the 1960s and '70s at KNXT-Channel 2 (which became KCBS) and on KNX-AM (1070) news radio, Stratton also did broadcasts of the Los Angeles Rams and hosted horse racing shows from Santa Anita, Hollywood Park and Del Mar.

(A story today on KCBS linked here)

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Stratton served in the Army Air Forces during World War II and was also an actor who was in the film "Stalag 17," with William Holden, as well as "The Wild One" with Marlon Brando and "Monkey Business" with Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers. He was also in the film "Girl Crazy," where he sang with Judy Garland.

Stratton is survived by his wife Dee, and children, Gilda Stratton, Billy Norvas, Gibby Stratton, Laurie O'Brien and Cary Stratton, as well as eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

As tributes filled up on Stratton's website (linked here), we flash back to an extended interview Bill Seward did with Stratton for LARadio.com late in 2007.

Some excerpts from those stories:

Proving again that a key to success in instant gratification is giving the consumer something he thinks is special, the Dodgers have "upgraded" their menu for the NLCS contests at Dodger Stadium.
Joseph Martin, the Levy Restaurants' executive chef at Dodger Stadium, announced the following additions:

==Lasorda Cabernet Mini-Burgers: Sliders made Burger with Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, an old world style Italian red wine from the Tommy Lasorda Gold Medal Collection, served in the Dugout Club and suites.
(What, no bleu cheese added?)

==Dodger cupcakes: At Mrs. Beasley's dessert-only concession stand on the Field Level, covered with rich vanilla frosting and topped with an edible Dodgers logo.
(If only there were more things with edible logos)

==The Screaming Blue Ravine: A drink made with vodka, blueberry lemonade, strawberry lemon-lime and the Blue Serenity, a non-alcoholic mixture of lemonade and blueberry with strawberry flavor and a splash of lemon-lime.
(Drink two -- or seven -- before heading home)

"There are some lines people don't want to see crossed," says Syracuse coach Ben Schwartzwalder, played by Dennis Quaid, in the new movie "The Express."

And sometimes, lines are crossed that shouldn't be. Like, bending the truth.

Following up on today's column (linked here) about the fact-twisting involved in the Ernie Davis biopick:

==A piece on CBS Sportsline.com by Randy Williams (linked here), ranking the best tear-jerker sports flicks that involve the mortality of the subject. First, those "based on a true story" flicks -- "Brian's Song," etc. -- and then those that are pure fiction -- "Field Of Dreams," etc. Williams is the author of "100 Movies -- The Best of Hollywood's Heroes, Losers, Myths and Misfits." On Williams' Top 5 list for each, "The Express" didn't make either.

==A piece on ESPN.com by Jeff Merron (linked here) that also points out that the player in the movie named Jack Buckley (played by Omar Benson Miller), a huge lineman called "JB," is a fictional composite of good friends John Brown, an offensive tackle, and John Mackey, the eventual Hall of Fame tight end. Neither Brown nor Mackey are referenced in the film.

==A piece in the Houston Chronicle (linked here) that mentions, among many things, how the Heisman Trophy ceremony was completely fabricated. It wasn't until 1977 that the winner was announced at a huge banquet; before that, it was a news release, and he was invited to the banquet.

==A piece in the St. Petersburg Times (linked here) that quotes former teammates Patrick Whelan and Dick Easterly as saying Davis was friendly and funny, which is hardly depicted in the film.

==A piece in The Charleston Daily Mail (linked here) about the outrage by West Virginia people over being depicted as bigots and throwing garbage at the Syracuse team, one here (linked here) about the governor's outrage, and a letter to the Daily Mail editor (linked here) over the situation.

==The official movie site (linked here)

(AP Photo/Tony Dejak)
Cleveland Browns' Brady Quinn shakes hands with Republican vice-presidential candidate, Gov. Sarah Palin in Strongsville, Ohio, on Oct. 8.

By JOSEPH WHITE
AP Sports Writer

ASHBURN, Va. -- As the presidential race revs up, political conversations in NFL locker rooms echo those in workplaces nationwide.

Taxes. Economy. McCain. Obama. War. Terrorism. White. Black.

And a dilemma for these high-paid athletes: principles or pocketbook?

"We're right in the middle," said Washington Redskins veteran Philip Daniels. "We've all got family members that are not doing so well. Democrats would help them out, but Republicans would help us out."

The 35-year-old defensive end sat in front of his locker not far from the nation's capital and analytically explained how his political color has changed from blue to red and back to blue again. Everything about Daniels' upbringing screams Democrat. He's a black male who grew up in modest surroundings in a small Georgia town. He majored in social work in college.

Everything about his income screams Republican. He's made millions many times over in his 13 years as a professional athlete, and the thought of paying higher taxes under a Democratic administration led him to vote for President Bush in 2000 and support the president's re-election in 2004.

"I used to be a Republican," Daniels said. "I wanted Bush in there. The previous years I've been Republican because of what we make, but this year's a little bit different. I think this year more guys are not even thinking about the income part of it. They're just really thinking about the economy and the country. A lot of people want change."

If the contest between Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama has energized the U.S. public as never before, locker rooms across the country are reflecting the trend. Players whose jobs are based on wins and losses identify with the wild swings of the who's-leading-and-by-how-much grind of the campaign.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Federal Communications Commission has sided with the National Football League in a long-running programming dispute with Comcast, ruling that the cable giant should carry the league's NFL Network on its popular digital package.

In a decision released late Friday, the FCC ruled that Comcast discriminated against the NFL Network by agreeing to carry the channel only on a more expensive sports cable service. The NFL filed the complaint against Comcast in May.

The FCC ruling next goes before an administrative law judge, who could force Comcast to carry the NFL programming at a certain price.

"We are pleased with today's FCC ruling and appreciate the commissioners'
attention to our complaint," the NFL Network said in a statement. "NFL cable viewers could soon be the real winners."

Comcast has argued that consumers will have to pay more for programming many may
not want if the company is forced to include the NFL Network in its regular digital cable package.

In a statement, the company said its "programming decisions are in the best interest of our consumers and consistent with the law," adding that "forcing these networks onto our cable systems will cost consumers millions of dollars and cause cable prices to rise."

Those are the major market Neilsen ratings that Fox Sports released today, monitoring viewership of Thursday night's first game of the National League Championship Series.

The other markets in the Top 6: New York (7.7), Boston (7.5), Hartford (7.4) and St. Louis (6.5).

Overall, the game rated a 5.1 national rating and 8 share, translating to 7.7 million viewers.

L.A. might have had a higher rating but Manny Rameriz hit a satellite dish when his drive to center field in the first inning and knocked reception out to millions of homes.

Even more stuff we could have stuffed into the newspaper column (linked here) or a previous blog but wanted to save it and let it simmer in its own juices:

==TNT will dispatch Charles Barkley, Reggie Miller and Marv Albert to Indian Wells this weekend to call the Phoenix-Denver exhibition NBA game. Did we mention it was outside? The first outdoor NBA contest at the Indian Wells tennis center (Saturday, 7 p.m.) brings the three broadcasters together for the first time to do a game. David Aldridge and Cheryl Miller will also do sideline reporting and fetch cool beverages for the boys.

==ESPN2's coverage of the Miami-New Jersey NBA exhibition game in Paris yesterday was the first of four contests the network will do from Europe and China. Matt Winer calls the games with Tim Legler. The other games: Milwaukee vs. Golden State from Guangzhou, China (Wednesday, 5 a.m., ESPN Classic; reairs at 6 p.m. on ESPN2); Washington vs. New Orleans from Barcelona, Spain (Friday, Oct. 17, 12:30 p.m., ESPN Classic; reairs at 6 p.m. on ESPN2) and Milwaukee vs. Golden State from Beijing, China (Friday, Oct. 17, 8:30 p.m. on ESPN2).

==Fox Soccer Channel has found some room between AYSO and replays of "Pele: What a Kicker" to air the Women's Professional Soccer starting with its first season this April.
There'll be a Sunday night game of the week, 20 games a regular-season and an All-Star game on Fox Soccer, with FSN doing the playoffs leading to the WPS title Aug. 22.
It's all there in a three-year contract (with an option for a fourth), which seems rather optimistic that there'll even be a WPS past Year 1 (sorry, just looking at recent history and the world's financial situation).
"Fox Soccer Channel has become the go-to place for global soccer coverage in the United States and is a tremendous broadcast platform for our league," said WPS Commissioner Tonya Antonucci. "Between the FSC flagship, the Fox Sports Net regional networks and FoxSoccer.com, FSC is the right partner to bring WPS, the world's best women's soccer league, to sports fans and soccer fanatics alike."

Again, after today's media column (linked here) on why Ron Darling still has trouble sleeping and Eric Karros has no trouble agreeing with Tim McCarver, we learned through a week's worth of bombardment in the sports media world:

==College football's Week 7 on L.A. TV includes Top 10-on-Top 10 violence in Dallas (linked here).

==The NFL's Week 6 on L.A. TV kind of clashed with our baseball programming (linked here).

==What's in cold storage for TV's NHL coverage (linked here)

Also:

==What went wrong with the movie version of "The Express," focused on former Syracuse running back Ernie Davis (linked here). The movie opens today in theatres nationwide.

==The expanded version of Karros talking about McCarver, Manny, et.al. (linked here)

==Why a certain Dodger featured on the cover of this week's Sports Illustrated spells doom (linked here)

==Why someone in Hollywood, more blind that Al Pacino was in "Scent of a Woman," considers Pacino a candidate as the movie version of Tommy Lasorda (linked here).

==A clip of ESPN's "E:60" showing the homeless basketball league at the Union Rescue Mission on L.A.'s Skid Row (linked here).

==Who's covering the 2009 World Baseball Classic, and who cares (linked here).

==What kind of future the MMA has on CBS after a 14-second climax last Saturday night (insert your own punchline here). (linked here).

==Norman Chad's latest take on the sports media world (linked here).

==Chris Berman is melting (linked here).

==Vin Scully is honored (linked here).

==Pete Arbogast is a victim (linked here) (and as one reader pointed out after seeing the hyprocracy in the USC football broadcaster complaining about being robbed and then bragging about how he snuck into the Greek Theatre to see Neil Diamond, Arbogast can also tell some stories -- proudly -- about how he used to scalp his Clipper comp tickets when he was the team's PA announcer).

==How Time magazine jinxed the Chicago Cubs (linked here).

Ron Darling says his start as a MLB game analyst couldn't have started any crazier. He agreed a day before the 2005 season started to work with Mel Proctor on the Washington Nationals' broadcasts.

But Darling, the former New York Mets pitcher who retired in 1995 and, living in Santa Monica, had done some TV work for FSN's "Best Damn Sports Show Period," says he wasn't ready for grind of the 150-game TV season that it entailed. He classifies his work that year as "brutal" but with work and comfort, it led to a pretty nice gig he has now with the New York Mets. With Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez, Darling works for the Mets' STV as well as WPIX, doing more than 100 games. TBS hired him to work the Dodgers-Cubs NLDS, and they're adding him to the booth with Chip Caray and Buck Martinez for the ALCS that begins Friday.

As much of a pain that first season may have bruised Darling's ego, the performance he had in the 1988 NLCS against the Dodgers continues to "haunt me to this day," he admits in a story we'll have Friday.

You can look up what happened to Darling and the Mets yourself in that series at the Baseball Reference website (linked here).

Here's also a story on Darling by USA Today that ran Wednesday, calling him the "accidental announcer" (linked here).

And a link to Neil Best's Newsday column on Darling this week (linked here).

Don't eat a bowl of pasta and read that at the same time, or you'll have Ragu all over the table cloth.
But that's the buzz throw out by Liz Smith in Daily Variety, the business' paper of record (linked here, thanks to a catch by SportsByBrooks.com).

The blind item -- blinder than Pacino was in "Scent of a Women" -- in Wednesday's column:

The life story of Dodgers' manager Tommy Lasorda is reported on the 'fast track for development' at Miramax. Al Pacino has 'expressed interest' in playing the famously irascible Lasorda with Michelle Pfeiffer a 'possibility' as his wife. Translation--don't dress for the premiere. There's many a slip twixt the 'fast track' and the first day of shooting. Still and all, for the life of me I can't imagine Al Pacino on a baseball field. But, that's why they call it acting!

You can't even make this stuff up.
Would Pacino have to do twice the work that Bobby De Niro had to do to bulk up for "Raging Bull" just to get in the Lasorda zip code for girthification?
Would it have to be rated R for language not suitable for Dodger family viewing?
And who plays Lasorda's hooker?
Next, we'll hear about some middle-aged Luke Walton stalker.

Fox (KTTV Channel 11) is the one-stop home for the National League Championship Series, starting with Game 1 of the Dodgers-Phillies tonight (5 p.m. for pregame, 5:22 p.m. for first pitch). Joe Buck and Tim McCarver do the call, with Ken Rosenthal and Chris Myers lingering near the dugout for any despicable comments. This is the team that will do the World Series as well starting Wednesday, Oct. 22 (schedule linked here).
In addition to the KABC-AM (790) coverage -- with Vin Scully doing the first three and last three innings and Charley Steiner and Rick Monday on the middle three, ESPN Radio's feed on KSPN-AM (710) will have Dan Shulman and Dave Campbell on the call.
FSN Prime Ticket also has a "Dodgers Live" scheduled after each game. For Games 1 and 2 in Philadelphia, Patrick O'Neal, Steve Lyons and Michael Eaves report at approximately 8:30 p.m. (Game 1) and 5 p.m. (Game 2). When the series moves to L..A., "Dodgers Live" goes to the centerfield stage with Eaves and Lyons, using Chris McGee as a reporter. No Jim Watson or Lindsay Soto? They seem to be working on "other projects."

Despicable? Once we've wiped all the spit off the salad bar shield following Tim McCarver's disarmingly delicious description of Manny Ramirez's recent performance in Boston before he came to the Dodgers (see blog item linked here), we wondered if former Dodgers first baseman Eric Karros would use the same word to sum up the situation.

He didn't have to since McCarver had already thrown it out there.

"He's absolutely right," Karros said of McCarver's adjectivication over Ramirez's lack of committment when playing for the Boston Red Sox before his trade to the Dodgers in late July.

"There is nothing worse as far as being athlete that you can do to a fellow player -- not going out and playing, or pulling yourself out of a game -- and that's essentially what (Ramirez) did. And the guys on that team voted him off the island. That's a fact."

The company that makes bigger-than-life stickers for kids to declare their allegiance and likewise deface their walls has finally concocted one for the Dodgers' larger-than-life left fielder.

On the Fathead website (linked here), the 7-feet-6 tall Man-Ram goes for $119.95, plus $29.95 shipping if you want it next day (who wouldn't!) or $14.95 if you're willing to wait until the Dodgers are eliminated from the playoffs.

By the way, it's just a pre-order thing now. It won't ship until Oct. 13 -- this coming Monday.

If you're keeping track of such things, Ramirez is bigger than the Angels' Vlad Guerrero Fathead (at 6-foot-7, for $99.95, linked here).

He's also bigger than the new No. 24 Kobe Bryant Fathead (just 6-foot-4 tall, for $99.95, linked here) or the old No. 8 Kobe (linked here, same height).

The Galaxy's David Beckham (6-feet, $99.95, linked here) doesn't stand a chance.

Even more insulting (to him), teammate Landon Donovan's Fathead is listed at just 70 inches -- you do the proportional calculus (at $99.95, linked here).

This is the piece that aired yesterday on ESPN's "E:60" about the Union Rescue Mission homeless basketball league, coached by Carl Williams, just a couple of blocks away from where the Lakers play at Staples Center:

"Courtside seats? They're the only seats. Balllin' at Union Rescue, it's more than just a game, it's about rebuilding. It's about surviving. This is also L.A. basketball."
Please watch. Invest the 13 minutes it takes to get through this story.
Again it reairs on TV: Tonight at midnight (ESPN), Thursday at 8 p.m. (ESPN) and Monday at 8 p.m. (ESPN2).

Ambling into the Chinese Theatre the other night for a screening of the new movie, "The Express," (official movie site linked here) this is what we knew about Ernie Davis:

==Syracuse running back, won the Heisman Trophy in the early 1960s.

==Didn't hear much about him after that.

==Can you get that popcorn a little slower, dude, I'm late and I need to find a seat.

But this is far from the story of Ron Dayne or Archie Griffin. Or any of another number of Heisman winners (list linked here) who just didn't make it into the NFL because of injuries or inability to play the pro game.

Was Ernie Davis really a "forgotten American hero" who "changed the game forever," or is that just salemanship for the movie in all the advertisement you've heard the last month?

Through a rather simplistic script, a straight-forward mode of story telling (that some may call B-movie quality) and an adequately compelling performance by actor Ron Brown, the PG-rated "based on a true story" of Davis, which hits theatres nationally Friday, is one that young kids for years to come will now know about, a positive role model, and probably nothing more.
From there, it's an "After School Special" straight to DVD.

Learning more about Davis than you may have already known is all one can take away from this film, which on a very elementary level, is probably all it seems the producer and director want to get out. There's nothing fancy about the production, no real social statement to be made that hasn't been made before. If you want more depth, read more about him in the library.

For anyone with a thurst for college football history, "The Express" will help you become more in tune with the fact that:

Ken Kaiser, the former tons-o-fun AL umpire (bio linked here) who has a great sense of humor about himself -- the title of his 2004 autobiography is "Planet of the Umps" (linked here) -- tried to dumb down the controversial call over whether the Angels' Reggie Willits was really out on that botched squeeze play in the Game 4 ALDS loss to the Red Sox.
If you remember, the ball popped out of catcher Jason Varitek's glove after the leather hit the ground.

On the Fox Sports Radio show this morning hosted by Craig Shemon and former UCLA footballer James Washington, Kaiser said:

"There's no rule interpretation. It's strictly a judgment call. There's no "This rule says that ... Well if the guy at home plate does this..." That doesn't happen. Now after saying that I'll tell you what happened on the play.
"(Umpire Tim) Welke got the play right. What happened was when (Varitek) tagged (Willits), at that point, that runner is out. Now, say the runner had kicked up his foot and knocked the ball out of his glove. Now he's safe. But what happened on that play there was he tagged him on his butt, and then after he took the next step, he hit the ground with his glove and dropped the ball. Had nothing to do with the player jarring it loose. Had nothing to do with the player kicking it out of his glove. He's already out. The play's over. ...
"The bottom line is it's strictly judgment, guys. ... And if you're talking about the play at the plate, to make that a little simpler for you. That's not a continuation. When they run into each other, as soon as he touches that runner, he's out. If (the catcher) shows the umpire that he's got the ball and he drops it, he's still out. But if it flies out of his glove like you talked about before, then he's safe."

Kaiser was then asked about why the MLB has instant replay to determine home-run calls now, and that when the crap hit the fan:

"I firmly believe that a lot of this isn't because of the fans. I'll probably get myself in the crap house because of this, but I think it's because of the gamblers. Gamblers bet on games and they think that call cost them a bet. And I hate to see that. In football, it was the same way originally. I may be wrong, but this is just my opinion, guys. Don't break down the game. Let people enjoy the game."

We'll set the odds at 2-1 that Kaiser won't get a seat in said craphouse, but he'll never work another MLB game again.

And if you want to talk odds ...

Tim McCarver, who'll be doing the NLCS series for Fox with Joe Buck starting tomorrow, was asked by a Philly Inquirer writer (linked here) about his opinion on the Dodgers' Manny Ramirez.

McCarver, the former All-Star catcher, was his usual honest self.

"It's extraordinary - the dichotomy between what he was in Boston and what he is in Los Angeles. I mean, talk about wearing out your welcome in a town, and it was a long welcome with the Red Sox. But some of the things he did were simply despicable, despicable - like not playing, refusing to play. Forgetting what knee to limp on. And now it's washed, it's gone."

And ...

"Manny's doing things that even Manny doesn't do, [like] scoring on a double to right field from first base."

You may remember that scene back in '92, when the Atlanta Braves' Deion Sanders took umbrage to something McCarver said about him during the CBS telecast and douced him with a bucket of ice water in the locker room.
"You're a real man, Deion, a real man," McCarver said.
McCarver must dread Manny now.
Although TheBigLead.com (linked here) mentions that McCarver, appearing on the Dan Patrick radio show this morning, doesn't fear retribution.
"I'm not worried about that. You do your job and report what you report. I have no qualms, no fears about that. Thanks for your concern."
You're welcome. Now bring a change of clothes to Dodger Stadium for the weekend.

"Morning Light: Making the Cut," a one-hour documentary about how 15 kids were picked and trained to sail a high-tech, high-performance 52-foot boat in last year's TransPac race from L.A. to Hawaii, airs today on ESPN2 (5 p.m.), with repeats on Thursday at 5 p.m. and 9 p.m.

This is a prequel to the documentary film "Morning Light," produced by Roy E. Disney and Leslie DeMeuse, who recruited the sailors and documented their 2,500-mile journey from start to finish. That film hits theaters nationwide Friday, Oct. 17.

==View the movie trailer here (linked here)
==More about the Transpac race (linked here)

The NHL has survived another summer of global warming.
That's the good news.

The bad news could be that the new face of hockey -- or hockey moms -- is the current governor of Alaska who has bigger aspirations at this point in her career.
Our favorite sport -- behind college football, baseball, and maybe beach volleyball -- is gearing up for a big Blackhawks-Red Wings outdoor match scheduled for Wrigley Field on New Year's Day (linked here) -- no goats allowed.
Before, and after, here's a glace at how the rest of the regular season shapes up (you know, it already started in Europe) (linked here for the NHL.com schedule) before the real business begins in mid-April:

==Versus, the network that's been home to this sports now for ... we've lost count ... goes with a double-header on Thursday: Toronto at Detroit at 4 p.m. (with Doc Emrick, Eddie Olczyk and Bob Harwood), then Boston at Colorado at 7 p.m. (with Joe Beninati, Andy Brickley and Christine Simpson). A "Hockey Central" show starts it at 3:30 p.m. with Bill Patrick, Keith Jones and Brian Engblom.

It's the spot where USC sits in most of the college football polls this week.
But that's not what we're talking about.
The Sporting News did its annual "Best Sports Cities" ranking. Boston, which is full of beans right now, finished No. 1, for the third time in five years.
Los Angeles ... settled for No. 8.
"The great thing about Los Angeles, as a mover and shaker in the business pointed out to me, is that you've got such iconic teams: the Dodgers, Lakers, USC football and UCLA basketball. It's just a great sports city," said Sporting News Chief of Correspondents Bob Hille, who has coordinated the rankings since their expansion 12 years ago.
There are 400 cities (and a few towns) in the U.S. and Canada ranked on the number of teams, their regular-season won-lost records, playoff berths, bowl appearances and tournament bids; championships; power ratings; competition; fan fervor; attendance; stadium/arena quality; ticket prices/availability; franchise ownership; and marquee appeal of athletes.
"When the teams in your city are doing well, you feel good about where you live, not just as a sports fan but as a citizen," Hille said.
Do we feel great about No. 8?
That's the debate.
As for the rest of the Top 10 (a link to the whole list here):

1. Boston
2. Detroit (plus Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, Mich.)
3. Dallas-Fort Worth
4. New York
5. Philadelphia
6. Phoenix (plus Tempe)
7. Denver (plus Boulder)
8. Los Angeles (minus Anaheim)
9. Chicago (plus Evanston)
10. Washington

In the past, L.A. was in fact linked to Anaheim, before the Angels got good and then it look as if Anaheim was carrying L.A.

In this list, Anaheim ranks No. 17; San Jose (with Palo Alto and Santa Clara, but not San Francisco/Oakland) is No. 21; San Diego is No. 27; Oakland (with Berkeley) is No. 36; San Francisco is No. 49 (seems appropriate); Sacramento is No. 52; Las Vegas is No. 96; Fullerton is No. 145; Santa Barbara is No. 157; Irvine is No. 180; San Luis Obispo is No. 217; Riverside is No. 245; Bakersfield is No. 258; Fontana is No. 276; La Quinta is No. 301; Carlsbad is No. 309; Monterey is No. 310; Napa is No. 343; Lancaster is No. 346; Lake Elsinore is No. 351; Rancho Cucamonga is No. 355 and San Bernardino is No. 359.
Burlington, N.C. is last at No. 400.

No Long Beach? Maybe they're lumped in with L.A., but if you consider the fact there is both a Golden League Baseball team as well as a stong university and a slew of talented athletes who've come from there... something's amiss.

The full list and an expanded explanation will come out in The Sporting News' Oct. 13 issue, which hits the newsstands Wednesday.

That would mean your cable or satellite TV system has the new MLB Network on Jan. 1, 2009.

And the announcement today that all the not-really-classy games leading up to the championship at Dodger Stadium near the end of March will be on the new league-owned network that hasn't even launched yet should really start a clamor.

Remember the WBC?

What they're calling "the world's premiere international baseball tournament" -- mostly, because the MLB won't let its players compete in the Olympics, which is why the IOC has dropped baseball from its schedule -- starts with 16 teams playing in seven venues in five nations (and territories) starting March 5.

ESPN will televise 23 games, including the semifinal and final, in English and Spanish. The MLB Network will do the other 16, plus a nightly studio show.

ESPN International has also the rights to all 39 games to the rest of the world.

"It was a simple calculus that produced our agreement with ESPN to broadcast once again the World Baseball Classic," said Gene Orza, the MLB Players Association Chief Operating Officer, who had to sign off on this.

Calculus? No one said there'd be math involved in this tournament. Although, if you're representing the players, you do need a heavy duty calculator to figure out how much your 5 percent take is during each contract renegotiation.

This Red River Shootout thing, between the consensus No. 1 Oklahoma and No. 5 Texas (Channel 7, 9 a.m.) should be a dandy.
It's always good to put something on a Saturday morning for the kids with the word "Shootout" in the title. They'll be wearing their Davy Crockett coon-skin caps while watching that one.

No. 4 LSU at No. 11 Florida ain't bad, neither. If you like that SEC stuff.

No. 17 Oklahoma State at No. 3 Missouri has a heap o' trouble waiting to happen, too.

No. 6 Penn State at previously No. 18 Wisconsin should be worth keeping an eye on.

Other than that, not a whole lot going on this weekend in college football.

Unless you are prepared for the Top 10* to get jostled around again.

*-We for some reason are using AP rankings in our references, although we're not sure why. AP doesn't mean squat. The ESPNU fan poll (linked here) seems just as logical as anything else at this point.

THE LOCALS:

==Saturday, 12:30 p.m., Channel 7: Arizona State at USC (with Terry Gannon, David Norrie and Todd Harris)
==Saturday, 7:15 p.m., FSN Prime Ticket: UCLA at Oregon (with Barry Tompkins, Petros Papadakis and Jim Watson). Repeated at 11:15 p.m.

THURSDAY:

==4:30 p.m., ESPN: Clemson at Wake Forest (with Chris Fowler, Craig James and Jesse Palmer)
==4:30 p.m., ESPNU: Winston-Salam State at Florida A&M (with Charlie Neal and Jay Walker)
==5 p.m., CBS College Sports: Alabama-Birmingham at Houston (with Carter Blackburn and Aaron Taylor)

FRIDAY:

==5 p.m., ESPN: Louisville at Memphis (with Sean McDonough, Chris Spielman and Rob Stone)

SATURDAY:

==7 to 9 a.m., ESPN: College GameDay eminates from the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, with Chris Fowler, Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit and Desmond Howard. The first hour of the show is from outside the stadium. The second hour goes inisde, with Herbstreit, who's calling it, camped in the press box. It's probably saver up there if there's a pre-planned shootout going on down on the field. Even if it's only with some video gamers.

==9 a.m., Channel 7: Oklahoma vs. Texas in Dallas (with Brent Musburger, Kirk Herbstreit and Lisa Salters). Sorry, kids. Your morning cartoons are pushed to the side for daddy's programs. The ever-conscious Disney programmers would like you to know that your entire kids shows are pretty much wiped out today with all the college ball, then NASCAR, taking up all the time. We suggest NBC's lineup of "Jane and the Dragon," "Zula Patrol," "3-2-1 Penguins!" and "VeggieTales," plus "My Friend Rabbit" in the morning hours.

==9 a.m., ESPN: Minnesota at Illinois (with Dave Pasch and Andre Ware)
==9 a.m., ESPNU: Syracuse at West Virginia (Dave Armstrong and Larry Coker)
==9 a.m., Big Ten Network: Either Toledo at Michigan (with Thom Brennaman, Charles Davis and Charissa Thompson) or Iowa at Indiana (with Wayne Larrivee, Chris Martin and Anthony Herron)
==9 a.m., Versus: Cornell at Harvard
==9:30 a.m., ESPN2: Colorado at Kansas (with Joe Tessitore and Rod Gilmore)
==10 a.m., ESPN Classic: Eastern Michigan at Army (with Eric Collins and Shaun King)
==11 a.m., MTN: Utah at Wyoming (with Rich Cellini and Jon Berger)
==Noon, FSN West: Nebraska at Texas Tech (with Joel Meyers, Gary Reasons and Jim Knox)
==12:30 p.m., Channel 2: Tennessee at Georgia (with Craig Bolerjack and Steve Beuerlein)
==12:30 p.m., ESPN: Notre Dame at North Carolina (with Brad Nessler, Bob Griese, Paul Maguire and Stacey Dales)
==12:30 p.m., ESPN PPV: Purdue at Ohio State (with Ron Franklin, Ed Cunningham and Jack Arute)
==12:30 p.m., ESPN2: Michigan State at Northwestern (with Pam Ward and Ray Bentley)
==12:30 p.m., CBS College Sports: TCU at Colorado State (with Carter Blackburn and Aaron Taylor)
==12:45 p.m., ESPNU: Central Florida at Miami (with Doug Bell, Charles Arbuckle and Melissa Knowles)

==3 p.m., MTN: New Mexico at BYU (with Tim Neverett, Blaine Fowler and Sammy Linebaugh)
==4:30 p.m., ESPNU: Utah State at San Jose State (with Clay Matvick and David Diaz-Infante)
==5 p.m., Channel 2: LSU at Florida (with Verne Lundquist and Gary Danielson)
==5 p.m., ESPN: Penn State at Wisconsin (with Mike Patrick, Todd Blackledge and Holly Rowe)
==5 p.m., ESPN2: Oklahoma State at Missouri (with Mark Jones, Bob Davie and Erin Andrews)
==5 p.m., CBS College Sports: Boise State at Southern Miss (with Tom Hart and Trev Alberts)
==6:30 p.m., MTN: Air Force at San Diego State (with James Bates, Todd Christensen and Jenny Carnar)
==7:30 p.m. (tape delayed), ESPNU: Tuskegee at Morehouse (with Dwayne Ballen and Eddie Robinson, Jr.)

We wish we had a video clip to show you from today's episode of "E:60" (ESPN, 4 p.m.) but all offered on the official website (linked here) are interview snippets from pieces on former Kings badboy Sean Avery, and jailed former Florida Marlins pitcher Ugueth Urbina.
The story line that grabbed our attention was a piece on the basketball league for homeless men in L.A., put on by the Union Rescue Mission on Skid Row (linked here), narrated by "The Wire" actor Reg E Cathey and scored with original music by Daniel Bernard Roumain.
The show re-airs Wednesday (ESPN, midnight), Thursday (ESPN, midnight; ESPN2, 8 p.m.) and Monday, Oct. 16 (ESPN2, 8 p.m.)

We yield to the man of conviction from Yahoo!Sports, who seems to be much more in tune with this mixed martial arts genre as a sporting event than we will ever care to be. The fact that CBS is making such a fuss over being on the cutting edge of all this has us interested to see how fast and how far it will fall with the general viewing audience.
Last Saturday's MMA bout on CBS went past the 11 p.m. alloted time slot, 20 minutes more in fact, and ended with a disturbing loss by marquee man Kimbo Slice. He lasted just 14 seconds against a late-minute substitute (who could have, for all we know, been drawn out of the audience because he was sitting in a lucky seat).
Our Yahoo! yahoos (linked here) says the bout did a 2.6 rating and had 4.3 million viewers, but that's not counting beyond 11 p.m.
They also say that a fourth prime-time CBS MMA show will be sometime in the first few months of 2009.
CBS Senior VP/Program Operations Kelly Kahl is quoted: "It was a great number as far as I was concerned. The people saying it's the end of EliteXC and the end of EliteXC on broadcast television are misinformed."
So, if Slice is your big draw, and he just got walloped by a cat with pink hair streaks who gave away about 20 pounds, how is he the future of EliteXC, an L.A.-based company that has documented the fact it will run out of money by the end of this year?
UPDATED:
A CBS press release today said Saturday's card was the No. 1 program in adults 18-34, men 18-34 and men 18-49 (tie). The final numbers were a 2.7 rating/5 share with 4.5 million viewers.

It must have helped that Sports Illustrated writer Tom Verducci was doing the dugout reports for TBS during its NLDS coverage of the Dodgers-Cubs series. Verducci has cranked out the cover story for the upcoming SI issue that features the Dodgers' Manny Ramirez gliding gracefully into home place on the cover.

Which, as Cubs fans know, is a guarantee that the Phillies win this upcoming NLCS best-of-seven series in three games.

"That Ramirez can rake is not news," writes Verducci. "That the man can hit while carrying an entire franchise on his back, not to mention a city that is falling in love with baseball all over again, is one of the greatest feats of his prolific career."

The story quotes Greg Maddux: "Even we look at Manny and go, 'That's just on another level.' It's like watching Tiger Woods hit an eight-iron a thousand feet in the air and knocking it stiff. Normal people just don't do that. Guys like Tiger and Manny are out there in a class by themselves."

Says Dodgers GM Ned Colletti : "I've been around Maddux, (Barry) Bonds and Manny. Those three guys are the smartest baseball players I've ever seen. They're in a class by themselves. They see and understand the game at a higher level than everybody else."

Yes, the Dodgers are doomed.

Also in the next SI issue is a story that Lee Jenkins did on the Red Sox's Jason Bay, who replaced Ramirez: "(Bay) is the anti-Manny in seemingly every way but one: He can rake too."

Raking seems to be all the buzz in baseball this autumn.

And yes, Manny has been on the SI cover before -- twice.
We came across the 2004 cover when looking through the official website for Manuel Aristides Ramirez (linked here), where he also has new stuff from his Dodger days.

We also came across a 1996 cover, when he was in Cleveland in a much smaller capacity, predicting an Indians victory over Atlanta in that year's World Series (which, of course, ended up with Yankees winning it all -- with Joe Torre managing).

For his girth, that is.
ESPN's prolific 800-pound gorilla who modestly admits that he's "larger than life" would rather it be closer to the 300-plus range it seems. He's the latest to pimp the Nutrisystem food wagon as a paid spokesman, and it showed up on the ESPN "Monday Night Football" coverage last night.

Good for him in trying to become healthier. Mix in a little time in the gym, and it's even better.
He could go all the way and do something about that nasty combover. But that's another endorsement for another day.

Game 3 of the Dodgers-Phillies NLCS from Dodger Stadium (Fox Channel 11, 5 p.m.) goes head-to-head with the San Diego Chargers' home game against New England (NBC Channel 4, 5:15 p.m.) as the marquee sporting event to witness on Sunday.

(And while TBS has a day off from its ALCS, it does have a Sunday lineup that includes classic dude flicks such as "Encino Man," "Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo" and "Joe Dirt," it goes head-to-head with MLB and NFL with back-to-back showings of the 2003 Chris Rock-Bernie Mac masterpiece, "Head of State" from 5 to 8:30 p.m.)

What will Tom Brady be more mildly interested in smelling watching?

Otherwise, it's a look-in at the new, improved Oakland Raiders against Reggie Bush and the Saints as the only thing worth waking up early for, with another heapin' helping of them Cowboys in the PM:

SUNDAY:

==10 a.m., Channel 2: Oakland at New Orleans (with Kevin Harlan and Rich Gannon). For this market, CBS skips Cincinnati at N.Y. Jets (with Dick Enberg, Randy Cross and Dan Fouts), Baltimore at Indianapolis (with Jim Nantz and Phil Simms) and Miami at Houston.

==10 a.m., Channel 11: Chicago at Atlanta (with Thom Brennaman and Brian Billick). Fox's games in this window are Carolina at Tampa Bay, St. Louis at Washington and Detroit at Minnesota.

==1 p.m., Channel 11: Dallas at Arizona (with Dick Stockton, all baseball'd out now that his TBS stint has ended, sitting in for Joe Buck -- who'll be at the Dodger-Phillies game -- Troy Aikman, Pam Oliver). Fox could have also shown Green Bay at Seattle or Philadelphia at San Francisco. CBS also has an intriguing Jacksonville at Denver (with Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf) in this window.

==5:15 p.m., Channel 4: New England at San Diego (with Al Michaels and John Madden)

MONDAY

==5:30 p.m., ESPN: N.Y. Giants at Cleveland (starring Ron Jaworski, with supporting roles from Mike Tirico and Tony Kornheiser)

Bye weeks: Buffalo, Kansas City, Pittsburgh and Tennessee. And Los Angeles, for the (you do the math) week in a row.

Last December, we wrote about the formation of the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame, created by CBS executive Ken Aagaard for the Sports Video Group (linked here), which focused not so much on those behind the mike, but many behind the scenes that didn't get proper recognition.

For example, the inaugural 11 in the class of 2007 included George Wensel, Tom Shelburne, Larry Thorpe and Julius Barnathan -- and we're guessing you have no idea what they did. Look 'em up.

So when the Class of '08 was announced this week, and included Dodgers' Baseball Hall of Famer Vin Scully, as well as those more well known such as Curt Gowdy, Chet Forte and Don Ohlmeyer, it's really the inclusion of Marvin Bader, Ted Nathanson, Val Pinchbeck, Bob Seiderman and Charlie Steinberg that makes Aagaard most proud.

A group of 80 from the industry pick honorees in seven categories: management, production, technical operations, engineering, leagues and teams, manufacturers and vendors, and on-air talent. Pretty much in that order of importance.

They'll all be recognized at a ceremony in New York in mid December in a production put on by the Sports Video Group (linked here).

For those lesser-known names:

Latest WeAreSC.com blog posting by USC ham radio play-by-play guy Pete Arbogast covers the ugly, bad and good (again, in the wrong order) of breaking the law.

First, he recounts how his apartment in Venice was pillaged while he slept on that new mattress he keeps pimping on the radio ads ...

...both of our laptops and cell phones and other electronic equipment was stolen. They got in through a window, daring as it was, in the middle of the night from our second floor landing. the latch was locked, but they got it open. ... It's all very depressing and time consuming. ... The LAPD guy came from the Venice office. He knew me right away, and we talked some ball. ...

Nothing slows up a crime-scene investigation than that feined flattery in being recognized "right away" and having to go through that whole awkward conversation, pretending you're interested in the other person's life story when it's really yours you want him to know more about ...

But there's more ... Of course, there's more...

Norman Chad, who once did the Daily News NFL pick' em column long, long ago -- way back in the 1990s, we think -- continues a weekly column that he syndicates to several newspapers across the country, when he's not busy doing commentary for ESPN's World Series of Poker.
For some reason, his columns do not appear in the Daily News. It's a crime. But we're working on it from our end.
His "Couch Slouch" column that landed today (linked here) deals with "23 (more) facts, tried and true, about the widening world of sports television".
Among them:
== One day, I believe, ESPN will colonize Antarctica.
== If the marketplace drives America, how is there not a women's beach volleyball network?
== I watch the NFL Network more than I should, particularly on Mondays. It beats "Ellen."
== A friend of mine who is in prison will work a double shift of laundry detail before he'll watch "The Best Damn Sports Show Period."
== Sarah Palin is a "hockey mom." That locks up the Versus vote.