NBC strains to get every splish, splash

The first two rounds of the NCAA Division I men's lacrosse tournament are being carried exclusively by ESPNU, featuring every game. That's great news for lacrosse fans - if they have satellite television. Otherwise, they're out of luck. Comcast systems don't carry ESPNU, so no lacrosse for you. Your Quint Kessenich fix will have to wait until the semifinals, which are on ESPN2.

Pete Medhurst of the Navy Radio Network reports he'll be a busy guy tomorrow. He's calling the Atlantic 10 softball championship for CBS College Sports at noon from Charlotte, N.C., then Navy at North Carolina in the NCAA lacrosse tournament at 7:30 p.m. on WNAV (1430 AM). Meanwhile, he'll cross his fingers that he doesn't get an emergency call from his wife, who is eight months pregnant.

It turns out another set of jobs has been outsourced to India - ticket scalping. On ESPN's E:60 at 7 p.m. Tuesday, the segments include a report of how brokers are gobbling up sports tickets. One practice is to employ workers in India to flood ticket-selling Web sites immediately when a sale begins.

Carnac opens the envelope. "Sis boom bah," he says. Ed repeats, "Sis boom bah." Carnac says: "Describe the sound a sheep makes when it explodes."

Why recall that Johnny Carson routine? Because at 8 tonight on E!, THS Investigates blows the lid off cheerleading. The program reports on risks and abuses associated with cheerleading, "to reveal what really goes on behind the pompoms and ponytails."

According to an E! news release, Dr. Frederick Mueller, director of the National Center For Catastrophic Sports Injury Research, said: "Cheerleading, among female sports, especially at the high school, it's the No. 1 source of catastrophic injuries."

But will the investigation cover wardrobe malfunctions as detailed in the cult classic movie Hollywood Knights? OK, it's not really a cult classic, but it does feature a scene with a cheerleader wardrobe malfunction - along with Robert Wuhl singing a Lawrence of Arabia song.

But I digress. And at the end of the column, no less.

ray.frager@baltsun.com