Still hot

Glazer had the season's biggest scoop among the network NFL reporters, getting his hands on part of the Spygate tape produced by the New England Patriots, and he was out front in reporting on Brian Billick's imminent firing.

Just in case you feel deprived because you don't have NFL tickets, check out a segment in the current HBO Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel on binge drinking by fans at NFL games. What you're missing: sidestepping puddles of vomit in the parking lots, enduring harassment from inebriated fans in the stands and driving home among people who have no business being behind the wheel of a car. Makes your seat on the couch sound that much nicer.

The Orioles haven't won a game yet this year, but their regional sports network has. The Mid-Atlantic Sports Network recently came out on top in a dispute with Time Warner Cable in North Carolina. An arbitrator appointed by the Federal Communications Commission ruled Time Warner must carry MASN, at a rate to be determined by the arbitrator.

The ruling - if upheld on an expected appeal by the cable company - would send Orioles and Washington Nationals games along with other MASN programming to more than 1 million households served by Time Warner. Arbitrator Jerome Sussman said: "Time Warner deliberately discriminated against MASN" in favor of its own regional sports network.

NBC has assembled quite an announcing cast for this weekend's coverage of the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, from host Bob Costas to analyst Scott Hamilton to those Olympic skating sweethearts Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, but the star of the show will undoubtedly be Dick Button. He glories in a skater's successes, but let someone come up short, and he's just as curmudgeonly as Billy Packer watching someone mess up a three-on-one break with a behind-the-back pass.

ray.frager@baltsun.com