Tapping away at sports media notes while wondering whether I can get any stock tips from the toddler in the Super Bowl E-Trade commercials:
As he congratulated Gary Williams on his 600th victory Wednesday night, Maryland basketball radio analyst Chris Knoche briefly mentioned having been part of Williams' first victory. Knoche played for Williams in his first college head coaching job, at American, where Knoche also ended up coaching.
This is repeat praise in this space, but Knoche does a terrific job on Terps broadcasts - dispassionate about how the team is playing, yet passionate about wanting them to win.
We didn't get to hear Dick Vitale's first game back from vocal cord surgery for ESPN on Wednesday because of Atlantic Coast Conference network blackout rules, but Baltimore-area viewers can catch him tomorrow at 9 p.m. on ESPN's Georgetown-Louisville game. It's not likely, but check for any signs of Vitale going sotto voce.
No official word yet on Mid-Atlantic Sports Network going to high-definition for Orioles games. Earlier in the offseason, MASN had indicated HDTV was a possibility for at least part of the 2008 schedule for the Orioles and Washington Nationals. But if it doesn't happen, MASN's teams will stand alone in the majors with no regional HD telecasts. The only other holdout, the Kansas City Royals, recently announced plans for a partial schedule of HD games.
HBO has decided to discontinue Inside the NFL after 31 years.
"Inside the NFL has been a hallmark program for three decades on HBO," Ross Greenburg, the network's sports president, said in a news release. "It has been a terrific franchise. But the television landscape has changed quite a bit over the last 30 years, and we have to recognize the realities of the business. I'm not sure we had more than one competitor when the show launched in 1977."
The weekly program highlighted game footage from NFL Films along with analysis from a group of former players. These days, there is a whole channel - the NFL Network - that provides the same thing.
Some observers are questioning Sen. Arlen Specter's pursuit of Spygate, saying he might not be doing it just out of a sense of fair play on behalf of football fans.
Several outlets have pointed out that Specter's second-biggest campaign contributor was Comcast, donating more than $150,000 since 1989. The Philadelphia Daily News went a step further, noting that Specter's No. 1 contributor (nearly $360,000) was a law and lobbying firm that counts Comcast among its biggest clients.
And to connect the dots: Comcast is one of the cable behemoths at odds with the NFL over terms of distribution of the NFL Network.
ray.frager@baltsun.com