Withdrawing sports media notes while wondering why my bank is now charging for those lollipops it keeps by the tellers' windows:
* Cue up the David Bowie/Queen "Under Pressure," because that's what everyone talks about for this weekend's Ryder Cup. (The pressure, that is, not Bowie or Queen.) Between ESPN and NBC, 26 hours of the U.S.-Europe biennial golf event will be televised (today, 8 a.m., ESPN; tomorrow, 8 a.m.; and Sunday, noon, WBAL/Channel 11 and WRC/Channel 4).
"The pressure is amazing at the Ryder Cup - higher than any other event in all of golf," NBC's Johnny Miller said, according to highlights of a conference call this week.
Miller said the Europeans, three-time defending holders of the cup, still have to be the favorites.
"The Europeans are more aggressive, and they tend to have more camaraderie," he said. "They come out on Friday like they are in the third or fourth round of a tournament. In other words, they come out on Friday just smoking. If the U.S. wants to win, somehow [U.S. captain Paul] Azinger has got to get the U.S. around level with them scorewise by Friday afternoon."
Still, Miller predicts an American victory.
"Without Tiger [Woods] there, it surely isn't going to be easy, but if you're a gambler, a statistician could say, 'How can Europe keep making all these putts?' It's time, really, for the U.S. If you were just a betting man, the odds are the putting is going to flip-flop in the U.S.'s direction."
So that's one way to push golf in the midst of football season - stress the betting aspect.
* Cal Ripken Jr. returns to the TBS studio next month for its coverage of baseball's Division Series and the American League Championship Series. And the good news is Frank Thomas isn't coming back.
The invaluable Ernie Johnson is back to host the studio show, along with Dennis Eckersley and the Detroit Tigers' Curtis Granderson. Too bad for Tigers fans that they aren't in the playoffs, but Granderson fits in well in the broadcast.
The play-by-play roster includes Brian Anderson (Milwaukee Brewers), Chip Caray, Don Orsillo (Boston Red Sox) and Dick Stockton, and the analysts include MASN's Buck Martinez along with Ron Darling, Tony Gwynn, Harold Reynolds, Joe Simpson and John Smoltz.
Ripken did a nice job during last year's postseason, offering insights and being unafraid to be opinionated. He established an easygoing rapport with his studio cohorts.
