Garceau

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.

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.

Just in the nick of time, NFL Films will devote it's "This Is The NFL" show this weekend to the worsening albeit horrible officiating situation in the league. Expect gobs of cotton candy, however, an NFL release stating "the show will explore the meticulous screening process and rigorous training program of officials . . . evaluation procedures are discussed . . . the sights and sounds at field level are captured." Zzzzzz.* Hey, so you missed a bit of the action as the Davis Cup final got under way in Lyon, France, this morning (7:30)

I have a story in today's Sun about the shrinking role for sports anchors and information in late TV newscasts in Baltimore. You can read it here . One of the peoeple interviewed in the story is Scott Garceau, longtime anchor at WMAR-TV, who who was let go when the station cut its sports department three years ago. Garceau has successfully transitioned to afternoon drivetime host on WJZ-FM (105.7 TheFan). You can hear him there from 3 to 6 p.m. weekdays. We had planned to end the piece in today's paper on what I thought was one of the most intriguing and provocative quotes in the story.

CBS Thursday announced the launch of a national sports radio network that will include two stations in Baltimore and looks to seriously challenge ESPN dominance of the sports-talk airwaves. The CBS action, which includes Cumulus Media, another broadcasting giant, will make for an audience of about 10 million listeners when the network debuts Jan. 2. CBS Sports Radio will be able to draw on such resources as CBS Sports, CBS News and cbssports.com, making it one of the most impressive sources of sports information in broadcasting right off the bat. In Baltimore, CBS Sports will air 24/7 on WJZ-AM, while only certain elements of it will be carried on WJZ-FM (105.7 The Fan)

After a four-season run on 105.7 The Fan, Orioles radio broadcasts are returning to WBAL-AM 1090, the Hearst-owned station that has had a partnership with the club for much of the past six decades. The three-year contract, which comes after the club shopped its radio rights for several months, is somewhat surprising considering the rocky parting between the Orioles and WBAL after the 2006 season as well as the trend among professional sports franchises to switch from high-wattage AM stations to multi-platform FM clusters.

Baltimore sports talk station 105.7 The Fan unveiled a reshuffled weekday programming lineup Monday, and the biggest change was the absence of Bruce Cunningham. Cunningham, who had been with the station since its debut in 2008, resigned and has been replaced in the early afternoon slot by Bob Haynie. In an email to The Baltimore Sun , Cunningham said that it was his decision to walk away from his weekday show. "I resigned, pure and simple. I had worked 70 hour weeks for the last two and a half years, and simply wanted my life back," said Cunningham, who is also the weekday sports anchor for FOX45.

This week's guest is Scott Garceau of WMAR-TV: Jamison Hensley Ravens, 20-13 The Ravens have too much pride to be embarrassed again at home. Edward Lee Browns, 30-17 Yikes. Just what the Ravens need: an angry Browns team still smarting from last week's loss to the division-leading Steelers. Rick Maese Browns, 13-12 I'm getting sleepy just thinking about this one. Don Markus Browns, 24-14 The Browns are still upset after squandering a big lead against the Steelers. Mike Preston Ravens, 13-10 There are few winnable games left on the schedule, but this is one of them.

Anita Marks, co-host of "The Scott Garceau & Anita Marks Show" on 105.7 FM ("The Fan"), has left the station after four years with CBS Radio in Baltimore. Bob Phillips, senior vice president for the network's radio operations here, said the station made Marks an offer to continue in Baltimore on the afternoon drive-time show but that she declined. "We ... wanted her to stay," Phillips said. "But I guess she just had higher aspirations. ... She really wants to work more on a national platform.