ESPN made its expected announcement this morning of the hiring of Hannah Storm as a SportsCenter anchor and the revamping of its early programming. Starting Aug. 11, the network is dropping the morning "wheel" of continuous reruns of the last SportsCenter from the night before. In its place will be fresh hourly SportsCenters beginning at 6 a.m. and running to 3 p.m. As the day progresses, the shows will move from highlights-heavy to preview-oriented.

Storm will be one of the anchors during 9 a.m. to noon. ESPN announced no other anchor assignments, so it isn't clear how many people are being redeployed and how many will be added.

As always, I would argue for more Linda Cohn.

It could mean a lesser presence for those assigned the late-night SportsCenter, whose faces now constantly pop up all morning.

This should be a particularly welcome move for those viewers who don't have ESPNews, because they will get more updated sports news during the day.

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I highly recommend you read Kevin Van Valkenburg's latest entry at The Life of Kings, about our late Sun colleague Chris Ewell. It's a lovely tribute to a friend. We should all be remembered so well.

I will tell one Chris Ewell story. Though never so close to Chris as Kevin and others were, I -- like each of us who served as his editors -- grew accustomed a certain amount of quirkiness. One time while he was covering Maryland football, we'd asked his preview of a bowl game to include a predicted score. This was something Chris didn't particularly want to do. His first predicted score was more appropriate for a basketball game -- something like 57-52. I told him we needed a lower score for the prediction. When he refiled, Chris did as instructed -- this time predicting a baseball score, 5-2.

I might have been exasperated at the time, but I can laugh about it now. Would that he were still around to predict the Terps will win their lacrosse quarterfinal, 12 3/4-8.4. 

Posted by Ray Frager at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

It will be a new morning at ESPN, according to a report at SI.com.

Richard Deitsch wrote that the network will be launching a new morning edition of SportsCenter, anchored by Hannah Storm (right). ESPN didn't comment to SI.com.

If the report is correct, it seems ESPN is dumping the morning repeats of its last SportsCenter from the night before for fresh versions. An announcement could come tomorrow.

Storm formerly co-hosted CBS' Early Show after stints in sports at CNN and NBC, which included the Olympics and baseball. While covering the 1995 World Series, she was the object of a profanity-laced tirade by Albert Belle, then with the Indians.

                                                                                                   Getty Images North America

Posted by Ray Frager at 7:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Charles Barkley channels Ron Burgundy, but stays classy.  

The best part? How he doesn't take himself seriously at all. Just give Ernie, Kenny and Charles their own show year-round.

Posted by Ray Frager at 7:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

During yesterday's game, we heard yet another example of how Joe Angel serves as the eyes and voice of the fan on Orioles radio broadcasts.

In the first inning, he did not let the O's off the hook for squandering the chance to score more runs. He expressed puzzlement at why Melvin Mora ducked in the batter's box, giving the Angels catcher a clear path to throw out Brian Roberts trying to steal third, when Mora was within his rights simply to stand there and make it a harder throw.

Later, Ramon Hernandez went into a home run trot on a ball that ended up hitting off the wall, getting thrown out at second for the inning's last out. Angel said of Hernandez and Kevin Millar, who was on base but didn't score, that manager Dave Trembley has talked to the Orioles about playing the game right and that neither of them had played it right in that case.

Angel's annoyance certainly had to match the frustration of his listeners.

Posted by Ray Frager at 7:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
                    

These stories didn't come from the "blogosphere," but from the traditional old media. So we can't exactly claim any moral high ground just because we're not printing pictures of Matt Leinart with a beer bong.

Clemens, Malone, Leinart, Barbara Walters ... Yes, we love dirty laundry. The deal is, we have for a very long time, but it's just that now it's easier and quicker to deliver it. And the fact that some of those delivering the dirt might not have the highest standards when it comes to verifying their reports is nothing new either. The National Enquirer was sitting at your supermarket checkout long before the first keys were struck on a blog. Now, as before, it's up to the consumer to decide the value and potential veracity of such information. That's something that hasn't changed just because of the news' conduit.

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Now, what is fast becoming Medium Well's most popular feature: the weekly Sun pickup basketball update.

Today featured enough people to run four-on-four on a short court and also marked the return of the Big Redhead, who said he hadn't played in three years. He knocked off the rust in an effort

NBA.com 

greatly aided by being matched against Dead Man Walking, for whom defense is but a distant memory, sort of like the speech he gave at his bar mitzvah. The Scranton Flash and Shutterbug engaged in another spirited battle. Though hampered by DMW's presence, Flash's team prevailed in most of the games. Maryland Matt victimized Stevie B. on several cuts to the basket, though Stevie B. retaliated by tossing up some shots that nearly cleared the backboard.

The day's biggest upset: Stevie B. brought his folding lawn chair, but not a jug of chai tea.

Posted by Ray Frager at 4:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Buzz Bissinger, the talented author (Friday Night Lights), was so full of vitriol that it seemed his head might pull a Scanners during a segment of HBO's Costas Now that debuted Tuesday night. The discussion of sports blogs featured Will Leitch, founder of the popular Deadspin site, and Browns receiver Braylon Edwards, who had to wonder what he had gotten into.

There are lots of valid criticisms to be made of sports blogs and the blogging culture, but Bissinger's message was obscured by how he delivered his sputtering attack on Leitch with such as "The quality of the writing is despicable. ... You're sort of like Jimmy Olsen on Percocet [which I thought was a pretty funny line]. ... You say you don't want to be in the press box because facts get in the way. ... You're going to dumb us down." Check out the whole segment here. (Warning: strong language. It's HBO.)

Costas presented a much more reasonable approach, opening the door to a discussion of how the crass tone and traffic in innuendo among some blogs could be said to demean athletes and sports and lower the level of fandom to the gutter. Leitch certainly maintained a civil tone and appeared ready to engage in such a debate. Too bad that's not what we got.

Posted by Ray Frager at 2:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

They gave out the Sports Emmy Awards last night. The key awards:

Studio host: James Brown

Play-by-play: Al Michaels

Studio analyst: Cris Collinsworth

Game analyst: John Madden

Madden? Feh. No big arguing with the others, though.

Somehow, Comcast SportsNet's Craig Laughlin didn't win anything for Game Analyst Who Sounds Most Like a Cartoon Character.

Posted by Ray Frager at 7:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

It appeared no one was happier about the Ravens' first-round pick than Scott Van Pelt. Why is that?

It seems there is something about the way you -- well, he -- can say Joe Flacco's name while affecting a Baltimore accent that sounds as if it came straight out of Hairspray. Which he did several times during Saturday night's SportsCenter telecasts.

New Line Cinema

Posted by Ray Frager at 9:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
                    

Fox has announced Brian Billick will be a game analyst for the network this season. All that's set so far is he'll do eight games with a to-be-named partner, then work a to-be-determined number of games as the third man in the booth.

It's possible he could do two Ravens games -- vs. Eagles Nov. 23 and vs. Redskins Dec. 7.

I thought Billick might be better suited as a studio guy, but here's hoping the Baltimore audience gets to hear him do some games.

Let me know what you think of this move.

Posted by Ray Frager at 4:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)
                    

The New Republic says Time ripped off its Hillary Clinton/Barack Obama split face idea from a month ago for its new cover.

But Time's managing editor told Portfolio.com that its cover actually was inspired by NBA ads for the playoffs, such as this one of Tracy McGrady and Rip Hamilton.

Jennifer Pottheiser/NBAE

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And speaking of basketball, let's check in for our first installment of the weekly Sun Sports pickup game update:

We drew seven to the steamy court in the New America. Rumors of an appearance by The Count proved unfounded. Probably just as well. Dead Man Walking might have collapsed if the game hadn't been halfcourt. Nevertheless, The Scranton Flash and Shutterbug engaged in a high-energy matchup, and the Flash's team won each game, despite Shutterbug's considerable height advantage. In fact, a disturbing amount of defense -- at least, disturbing to Dead Man, who eschews such things -- was being played, particularly by Flash, Mr. Jones and Maryland Matt. Stevie G. popped in some from long range, and Pesky Andy was his usual accurate self from shorter range. 

Most importantly, no injuries.

Posted by Ray Frager at 4:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)