If the current round of baseball labor talks falls through and the owners insist on bringing replacement players to spring training, count on hearing less of the Orioles on the radio than you might expect.
That's because WBAL (1090 AM) will do fewer exhibition games and do them in a different way, station manager Jeff Beauchamp said.
Beauchamp said the station, the flagship outlet for Orioles broadcasts, is considering a "play-by-occasional-play" plan, if the team opens spring training camp with replacement players.
Under that plan, the number of games would be scaled back and the team's trio of announcers -- Jon Miller, Fred Manfra and Chuck Thompson -- would intersperse conversations with each other and fans with accounts of the game, under the rather valid theory that listeners have little interest in hearing about the exploits of the local barber and butcher as they play "big-league baseball" while the real guys stay out.
Of course, with Orioles owner Peter Angelos' defiant declaration that he will not field a replacement team, combined with recent progress in the talks, the plan could be moot, but forewarned is forearmed, we always say.
Cosell receives early ESPY
The Arthur Ashe Award for Courage, the first of this year's ESPY awards, has been given to Howard Cosell and will be accepted at Monday's ceremony by comedian Bill Cosby, a longtime friend of Cosell's.
For the uninitiated, Cosell, 74, introduced journalism to broadcast sports, won three sports Emmy awards for his hard-hitting "ABC Sportsbeat" investigatory series and was quite likely the finest boxing announcer the industry has ever seen.
Of course, Cosell is best known as a member of the original "Monday Night Football" threesome in 1970 and helped make that show, the current longest-running prime-time entertainment program, an American cultural icon.
In later years, Cosell made intemperate comments about the sports broadcasting industry and his former colleagues, heaping particular scorn on "MNF" partner Frank Gifford.
Cosell, who joins the late Jim Valvano and American League umpire Steve Palermo as winners of the Ashe award, has largely dropped from sight in the past five years, but his impact on the industry is unquestionable.
NHL on satellite
Puckheads of the world, rejoice, for you now can get NHL games on direct broadcast satellite.
Starting today, 200-300 regular-season hockey telecasts will be available through either DirecTV or PrimeStar through the new "NHL Center Ice" package, which initially will make available the local broadcasts of 11 teams, including the Washington Capitals.
The two companies struck deals with ESPN, the league rights holder, for distribution of out-of-market telecasts in the United States. In case you've forgotten, DirecTV offers service through those teeny 18-inch home satellite dishes, and the PrimeStar units are of the 32-to-39-inch varieties.
Como se dice, 'Shaq?'
Boy, you gotta love that NBC. Not content to serve up NBA hoops to an English-speaking audience, the peacock network is working ever so hard to reach Spanish-speaking viewers as well.
Viewers in Washington, Lancaster, Pa., and 17 other markets will be able to get the Spanish-language play-by-play and commentary of Sunday's All-Star Game from Phoenix if their sets are equipped with secondary audio programming, which allows viewers to receive an alternate audio feed with the press of a button.
And if that's not enough, Armando Quintero and Jose Paneda, who will call the action in Spanish for NBC on Sunday, will appear in NBC's "chat room" on America Online tonight at 8. Their appearance will be the first Spanish chat event in America Online history.
Just a reminder
Though it does not appear in the weekly TV listings, tonight's Maryland-North Carolina game will be shown at 9 on Channel 54, with Tim Brant and Dan Bonner on the call.