Garceau

Outside Baltimore, most of the sporting world will hardly take notice of tomorrow night's Morgan State-Towson football game, beyond a line in the agate of their Sunday sports section. And, unless something really weird happens, the contest won't get a mention on any of the national highlights shows.But, for the Tigers and the Golden Bears, their alumni and fans, the game does have extra significance, and that's why it's good that Channel 2 will air the contest."When you're doing the game, you can tell that it has an extra meaning for these kids," said Scott Garceau, Channel 2's sports director.

The Ravens and their radio carrier, Infinity, yesterday named Scott Garceau and Bruce Cunningham to call the team's games on WJFK (1300 AM) and WLIF (101.9 FM), beginning with next Saturday's first preseason contest.Garceau, sports director at Channel 2, will be the play-by-play announcer and Cunningham, who has the same duties at Channel 45, will act as color analyst."I'm excited about it. I love football and I'm glad to be a part of its coming back to Baltimore," said Garceau, 44, an announcer with Channel 2 since 1980.

With Dennis Rodman, Nick Van Exel and, to a lesser degree, Magic Johnson getting into highly publicized scrapes with NBA officials, and notables like Shawn Kemp drawing suspensions for fighting, one can only wonder what will happen when the league's postseason curtain rises tonight."

You don't need Sherlock Holmes to deduce that the biggest winner in the fallout from Mike Tyson's broken thumb is Seth Abraham, the president of Time-Warner Sports.All along, Abraham maintained that his company's TVKO pay-per-view arm, which is telecasting tomorrow night's Riddick Bowe-Evander Holyfield fight from Las Vegas, would do just fine against the planned Tyson-Buster Mathis Jr. bout down the strip and planned first for pay-per-view, then free television.But now that the Tyson-Mathis fight is off, Abraham looks like a riverboat gambler who rolled a seven at precisely the right time.

Though no one will be holding telethons for them any time soon, the life of the local weeknight sportscaster is much more difficult than it was 20 years ago.You can blame ESPN's "SportsCenter" and a greater emphasis on news in newscasts for that. "SportsCenter," which airs for 7 1/2 hours a day, and CNN's sports programming and its ticker service on the Headline network, to a lesser degree, can give the rabid sports fan all the information he or she needs, without the clutter of news and weather.

OK, so no one will confuse Channel 2's coverage of the Canadian Football League with the way ABC, NBC or Fox carries the NFL. There are simply too many wild camera shots and sound glitches, and too much Tom Matte, for that.But those things aside, WMAR did a pretty good job on Saturday night's Baltimore-Toronto game, given resources that can't compare to a network's.The station provided consistently good camera angles, informational slow-motion replays, particularly on cornerback Irvin Smith's fourth-quarter sideline interception, and up-to-the-minute sideline updates with reporter Keith Mills, who got injured quarterback Tracy Ham as soon as he returned to the field.

Let's go to a secret hideaway somewhere near Frostbite Falls, Minn. A small man who sports a mustache and a black coat and black hat is talking to a tall, curvy woman with bright, red lips."

All kinds of assorted slogans were tried out on the audience. Such as "Give Baltimore The Ball" and "Show 'Em You Want It." In the long gone days of the Stutz Bearcat and raccoon coats, it would have been considered a good old-fashioned college-type "rouser." There were cheerleaders present. Hip-hip-hooray and all that jazz.Herbert Belgrad, the lawyer who is the pro-bono leader of the Maryland Stadium Authority, talked with an eloquence and determination that rocked the assembly hall at Memorial Stadium with near-deafening applause.

Jim Palmer has been dropped from the Baltimore Orioles rotation on Channel 2. The Hall of Fame pitcher won't be back on the station's Orioles telecasts this year, WMAR general manager Arnold J. Kleiner said yesterday."

How good was Glenn Brenner? Gerry Sandusky offered one view earlier this week, after the Washington sportscaster died from a brain tumor. During a tribute to Brenner, Channel 11's Sandusky called him "the best local sportscaster ever.""I just thought he was it," Sandusky said last night. "He was one of the main reasons I got into this work."I watched him when I was in college [at Towson State], and I thought any job you could have that much fun in was a job for me."And Brenner did have fun. Did you see any of those highlights?

Back with more sports media notes because, unfortunately for you, the tide of change sweeping the country doesn't include me yet: * Anita Marks is staying on the air in Baltimore for another year. On Wednesday, she signed a new one-year contract to remain at 105.7 The Fan, even though she had an offer to return to her native Miami area for a radio job, Marks said yesterday. "I had some other offers, but after it was all said and done, CBS Radio made it clear they wanted me to be part of the future," Marks said.

Presenting more sports media notes while hoping this whole idea of working for $1 doesn't spread too far: * Don't buy into the perception and don't believe the rumors - that's what Anita Marks says. The launch of 105.7 The Fan last month paired her with Scott Garceau and put her in a seemingly secondary role after having been the titular as well as actual host of her own talk show. But she sounded fine with it yesterday, saying this hasn't been a demotion. "That's the way people perceive it because I'm in the second chair, but it's equal billing," Marks said.

Mount St. Mary's@Loyola 7 p.m. [MASN] Who's that calling the play-by-play? None other than the now-not-so-retired Scott Garceau (with analyst partner Kevin Grevey). Unlike Garceau's new radio show, he's not taking any questions or comments during the game. So just hang up and listen.

Serving this week's helping of sports media notes while keeping my eyes to the ground looking for loose change in anticipation of playing some of those 15,000 slot machines: * Bob from Hamilton, Fred from Arbutus and Cindy from Glen Burnie, has this been a great week for you or what? With Monday's launch of the new sports yak attack that turned the artist formerly known as WHFS into 105.7 The Fan, callers must be in turn-down-your-radio heaven. Check out the landscape: Every weekday, The Fan runs local sports talk from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. That is in addition to the all-local lineup each day on WNST (1570 AM)

In their roles as co-hosts on the new 105.7 FM The Fan, Scott Garceau and Anita Marks will both be on during Ravens players shows. Speaking of the Garceau-Marks pairing, CBS Radio Baltimore executive Robert Philips said: "I think Scott has been around and they'll make a great team. It's not so much Anita losing [her own show] - she's gaining a partner. I think they offer great balance." (For more, go to baltimoresun.com/mediumwell)

Sitting in the shade, hoping for a breeze and flipping through the sports media notebook before using it as a coaster for a tall, cool drink: *Since Scott Garceau's retirement from nightly sports anchoring duties, you might have noticed WMAR sometimes has its news anchor reading the sports report. This is just a temporary thing, said Bill Hooper, Channel 2's vice president and general manager, while the station seeks someone to work with Rob Carlin. "We're looking at all our options for replacing Scott," Hooper said.

Sports anchor Scott Garceau announced that he is leaving his job at WMAR after 28 years on the air in Baltimore. Garceau made the announcement at the end of his segment during Channel 2's 6 p.m. newscast. He said Thursday would be his last appearance as WMAR's sports anchor but that he would still be seen on WMAR for college lacrosse, the Calvert Hall-Loyola Thanksgiving football game, Orioles Opening Day and Ravens-related programming among other possible assignments. WMAR's Web site said Garceau would be involved in "special projects" for the station.

Four veteran residential Realtors have left their respective agencies to form an independent brokerage, the group announced yesterday. Michael Yerman, Marc Witman and Brandon Gaines, formerly with Long & Foster Real Estate, and Georgeanna Garceau, a former Prudential agent, have created Yerman, Witman, Gaines & Garceau Realty. "We all enjoyed our former brokers but desired to be owners of something that we talked about and toyed with for years but just in the last six months began to coalesce into a real plan," Witman said.

It's football and it's on television. For some of you, that's probably enough reason to watch tonight's Ravens-New York Giants preseason game (8 p.m., WBFF/Channel 45). But there are those of us who have something of an allergic reaction to the idea of exhibition games in which most of the regular starters barely play long enough to necessitate washing their uniforms afterward. It turns out we could be wrong. OK, it turns out I could be wrong. Take the word of no less an authority than Stan White, the veteran Baltimore sports yak personality who makes his debut as a Ravens radio analyst tonight on 98 Rock (WIYY/97.

Veterans Scott Garceau and Tom Matte have been ushered out as the radio broadcast team of the Ravens, but their dismissal should have been handled in a more professional manner. The Ravens are expected to announce shortly after the season that they are changing flagship stations from Infinity-owned WJFK (1300 AM) to WBAL (1090 AM) and 98 Rock (WIYY, 97.9 FM). It's more than likely Gerry Sandusky will do the play-by-play and Stan White will be the analyst. No problem there because Sandusky is excellent.