Journalists seem unanimous when it comes to the looming baseball strike…they do not like it. But lost in their pleas to keep playing ball is the argument that a strike might actually fix all the economic woes that currently plague Major League Baseball. Bob talks to syndicated columnist and ABC ...

Lakers broadcaster Chick Hearn died on Tuesday at the age of 85. Hearn spent 42 years calling basketball games, popularizing terms like “double dribble” and “slam dunk.” OTM Producer-At-Large Mike Pesca looks back.

Compared to his failed XFL football league, Vince McMahon’s wrestling league is flourishing. But compared to what it used to be, World Wrestling Entertainment is struggling big time. WWE is rapidly losing viewers for Smackdown! and Monday Night Raw, shows that once drew big ratings in primetime. Bob talks to ...

With North Korea’s penchant for filched football broadcasts, it’s only a matter of time before sports infiltrates the state-controlled airwaves. OTM provides this promotional spot for an all-sports network on North Korean TV.

With South Korea co-hosting the World Cup, it’s soccer fever in the lower half of the once-united peninsula. As for North Korea, the isolated communist nation is stealing broadcasts of the games to show its citizens. But they don’t know South Korea is host; officials from the North don’t want ...

Despite a lackluster finals, TV ratings were up overall for pro basketball this season for the first time since Michael Jordan retired. Much of this success may be coming from the NBA’s marketing plan this year to revisit the days of the ABA in the ‘70s - afros, dunks, 3-pointers, ...

The Brewers beat the Twins 19 injections to 15 last night. Just kidding, of course; the Brewers lost. But steroid use is now the big issue in baseball after an article claiming half the players shoot up to gain muscle mass. Even former slugger Jose Canseco says he’s writing a ...

ESPN radio recently fired four staffers after searching the company email database and finding offensive material in their outboxes. That’s right, the network that brought you an un-bleeped Bobby Knight is clamping down on the vulgarity in its newsroom. Bob talks to Denis Horgan, Jr., canned after 10 years as ...

When The New York Post printed a rumor that a unnamed - but thinly veiled - sports star in town might be gay, soon after Mets all-star Mike Piazza gave a press conference to deny it. The Post’s Wallace Matthews wrote a column criticizing his paper’s slapdash journalism, but that ...

The beat writers covering spring training can either crush players’ illusions or play along with their upbeat confidence as the new season draws near. Drew Olsen has faced this challenge covering the Brewers for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for the past 9 losing seasons, and he talks to Bob.

When you’re listening to a coach being interviewed after a game and think you’ve heard it all before, chances are… you have. Wake Forest professor and sports-quote scholar John Llewellyn has analyzed the boilerplates and clichés prolific among pro sports coaches. OTM sees if Llewellyn is “up to the challenge” ...

Sports network ESPN’s original movie debut this weekend features a red-sweater-clad Brian Dennehy tossing around swears and chairs in his portrayal of controversial college basketball coach Bobby Knight. Does this fictional account of a newsmaker ESPN frequently covers taint the journalistic integrity of the sports news station? Bob asks ESPN ...

Olympics highlights have been noticeably absent on TV sports news. That’s because NBC has strict guidelines on what can - but mostly cannot - be shown on other networks. Bob chats with intellectual property lawyer David Wittenstein about what happens when sports become newsworthy.

One baseball tradition that has stood the test of time is bad advertising during radio broadcasts. Every other commercial seems crammed with baseball references - from “Hit a home run with (your product here)” to “Don’t strike out with those other guys.” But wait -- you mean you’re not compelled ...

Baseball purists recoil at televised coverage, claiming glib announcers, exploding graphics, and jarring sound effects treat the on-field action as a mere afterthought. Of course, baseball purists are a bitter lot. Still, for many committed fans, the game is best maintained unchanged, and, as Rex Doane reports, old-time radio announcers ...

In the last six months of the NBA season, bad boy ballplayer Allen Iverson has gone from basketball’s troublemaker to most valuable player. Sportscasters across the country have told the tale of Iverson’s transformation. Bob takes a look at Iverson’s media makeover.

Until recently, bass fish have managed to maintain a low media profile. But when ESPN acquired BASS (Bass Anglers Sportsman Society), bass fishing hit the big time. On The Media’s Producer-at-Large Mike Pesca has the story.

Birdsong makes a nice backdrop for a tense golf tournament, but when CBS was caught overdubbing bird sounds in its golf broadcasts last year, bird watchers busted the network. Bob talks to Ken Hullinga of the American Birding Association about bird watching and golf TV.

As North Carolina mourns its favorite son (and the rest of the world discovers just who that was), Nascar - the sport of driving fast cars into walls - is forced to look itself in the mirror. Mike Pesca wonders if it likes what it sees there.

About one quarter of all Americans will have watched some football this superbowl weekend. So we’re a football culture right? Well as a society we like football, but the culture part is another story. Bob talks to Samuel Freedman, a professor at the Columbia School of Journalism, about why football ...