Abc Sports

Certain things in life are unthinkable if not paired with something else. Could you have peanut butter without jelly? The Lone Ranger was, well, alone, but wasn't he a little less so because of Tonto?And how could there be an ABC Sports without the presence of Jim McKay. Of course not, and the division announced that McKay, one of sports television's most enduring and endearing figures, has agreed to a multi-year contract extension.McKay, who has logged more than 4 1/2 million miles over four decades at ABC, will begin a fifth decade there with this contract, which runs for an undisclosed length.

Sure, we kid the World Cup. If Germany gets eliminated, we can all say, look, Ma, no Hans. If you're rooting for your favorite African team, you could say the squad is Ghana get it done. And if that South American club is relying on two players, it would be a matter of a pair of guys powering Paraguay. Thank you, thank you, I'm here all week. Try the schnitzel. A week from today, the World Cup begins its monthlong run on ESPN and ABC. The soccer enthusiasts - the ones who TiVo Premier League games and wear Azzurri jerseys to the office - along with much of the world, can hardly wait.

Visitors to Baltimore's Inner Harbor might one day experience the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat -- over and over again.Representatives of ABC Sports in New York, a division of the ABC television network, have expressed strong interest in transforming part of the Pier 4 Power Plant into an elaborate multimedia display about the "Wide World of Sports," based on the long-running TV show.As part of the display, video libraries would show "Wide World of Sports" segments at the push of a button.

HI AGAIN, everyone, and welcome to Who Wants to Apologize?, the quiz show where we take public apologies from the worlds of sports, entertainment, media and politics and try to determine which is the most insincere and done solely to stop an avalanche of bad publicity! "As you know, just about every public apology seems to ring hollow these days! But we've got a great lineup of celebrity contestants - will you get a load of the hangdog looks on some of these people?! "So let's get right to it!

Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Colorado Avalanche and the New Jersey Devils could have proved decisive. But Baltimore-area viewers almost weren't able to see it last night, because of a spat between ABC and WMAR. In this standoff, the network blinked. WMAR had arranged to air the inaugural game of the Major League Lacrosse, between the Baltimore Bayhawks and the Long Island Lizards. Station officials say they decided to broadcast the lacrosse game long before ABC released its NHL playoff schedule.

As the roomful of New York executives heard the catchy, new radio jingle for ABC Sports, after their initial moment of silence, George Sass heard the words every creative director dreads."

Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy thought actress Nicollette Sheridan revealed more than her body when she dropped a towel and jumped into the arms of Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Terrell Owens in a promotion for Desperate Housewives during the opening of Monday Night Football. The Indianapolis Colts coach believed the skit also exposed the hypocrisy of ABC Sports and the NFL and portrayed the league's players as "sexual predators" in a racially insensitive way. "Any player, I would have been outraged, but the fact it was a black player, me, as an African-American man, I was hurt even more," Dungy told Indianapolis reporters after practice yesterday.

A plan to televise the Nov. 16 Notre Dame-Penn State game on a pay-per-view basis was scuttled yesterday when ABC Sports, the College Football Association and SET Pay-Per-View agreed that one week was inadequate time to market the contest to potential buyers."

Visitors to Baltimore's Inner Harbor might one day experience the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat -- over and over again.Representatives of ABC Sports in New York, a division of the ABC television network, have expressed strong interest in transforming part of the Pier 4 Power Plant into an elaborate multimedia display about the "Wide World of Sports," based on pTC the long-running TV show.As part of the display, video libraries would show "Wide World of Sports" segments at the push of a button.

The Baltimore Colts' Band playing "Maryland, My Maryland." Flags and pennants snapping in the breeze. The grandstand a confetti of festive color. Jim McKay's quickening cadences, as ground-level cameras show horses and jockeys heading to the gate. And everywhere green lawns, blue sky and sunshine.ABC Sports can still capture the pageantry of special moments like no other TV operation going. And it did it again yesterday with its coverage of the Preakness from Pimlico Race Course.But as for its nuts-and-bolts coverage -- the actual reporting and instant commentary -- of the race yesterday, it was a different story.

Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy thought actress Nicollette Sheridan revealed more than her body when she dropped a towel and jumped into the arms of Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Terrell Owens in a promotion for Desperate Housewives during the opening of Monday Night Football. The Indianapolis Colts coach believed the skit also exposed the hypocrisy of ABC Sports and the NFL and portrayed the league's players as "sexual predators" in a racially insensitive way. "Any player, I would have been outraged, but the fact it was a black player, me, as an African-American man, I was hurt even more," Dungy told Indianapolis reporters after practice yesterday.

Roone Arledge, the ABC executive who did as much to shape the look of American network television as anyone except its founders, died yesterday of complications from cancer. He was 71. Mr. Arledge was pronounced dead at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, said ABC spokesman Jeffrey Schneider. A 36-time Emmy winner, Mr. Arledge, who retired in 1998, defined thinking outside the box from the moment he arrived at ABC in 1960. Among the groundbreaking programs he introduced in his career - which included a decade as president of the network's news and sports divisions - were Monday Night Football, Wide World of Sports, Nightline and 20/20.

In TV, a smart, bawdy new novel about the highly charged world of network sports, Caesar Fortunato proves impossible to work with, as he's an unfaithful, lying, gambling, drug-addicted hothead. And Fortunato is the good guy. Author Brian Brown based the character not-so-loosely on the late ABC Sports producer Chet Forte. Through his innovations, Forte was a force in shaping how sports were rendered on television - whether an amateur track meet or a Super Bowl. But his type - deeply flawed, passionate and headstrong about holding off ratings-obsessed corporate executives - has all but disappeared, Brown argued.

Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Colorado Avalanche and the New Jersey Devils could have proved decisive. But Baltimore-area viewers almost weren't able to see it last night, because of a spat between ABC and WMAR. In this standoff, the network blinked. WMAR had arranged to air the inaugural game of the Major League Lacrosse, between the Baltimore Bayhawks and the Long Island Lizards. Station officials say they decided to broadcast the lacrosse game long before ABC released its NHL playoff schedule.

NBC Sports has gained an unlikely but familiar presence for its broadcast of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City: Jim McKay, the Baltimore-based commentator known best for leading a dozen Olympic broadcasts on ABC dating back four decades. McKay, 79, said he's excited at the thought of joining NBC's Bob Costas next year to narrate profiles of Olympic athletes and offer commentary on the day's events. But it will be quite a change to see himself on the Peacock Network, he acknowledged.

If "Monday Night Football" producer Don Ohlmeyer's mission was to shake up the landscape with his selection of comedian Dennis Miller to the booth, consider it successful. The choice has knocked the sports world for a loop, even landing a spot on the cover of Sports Illustrated. However, Ohlmeyer may have unwittingly (or arrogantly) handed a golden hammer to former ABC announcer Donna de Varona, which she may use to drop on the network's head. Last month, de Varona, 53, sued ABC Sports for $50 million in federal court, alleging the network cut her loose in 1998 to attract younger viewers.

Television programmers aren't much different from the athletes they broadcast, except for a few inches of height and some muscle.For instance, when you ask Steve Bornstein, the president and CEO of ESPN and soon-to-be head of ABC Sports, what he's going to do with his new plaything, he pipes up, "I want to go to Disney World," just like Emmitt Smith or Hakeem Olajuwon.However, since Bornstein's companies are now Walt Disney property and his ascension to the presidency of ABC Sports was at the Mouse's call, his declaration, though joking, is quite appropriate.

Just five weeks after they worked the Super Bowl for the network, ABC yesterday dismissed former Maryland quarterback Boomer Esiason as its "Monday Night Football" analyst, as well as longtime producer Ken Wolfe and director Craig Janoff. The network announced that it will bring back one of the founding fathers of "MNF," Don Ohlmeyer, who produced the show during its halcyon days when Frank Gifford, Don Meredith and Howard Cosell worked the booth. " `Monday Night Football' is a part of the fabric of my being," said Ohlmeyer, who headed the entertainment division of NBC for most of the 1990s.

Just five weeks after they worked the Super Bowl for the network, ABC yesterday dismissed former Maryland quarterback Boomer Esiason as its "Monday Night Football" analyst, as well as longtime producer Ken Wolfe and director Craig Janoff. The network announced that it will bring back one of the founding fathers of "MNF," Don Ohlmeyer, who produced the show during its halcyon days when Frank Gifford, Don Meredith and Howard Cosell worked the booth. " `Monday Night Football' is a part of the fabric of my being," said Ohlmeyer, who headed the entertainment division of NBC for most of the 1990s.