Sportscasters

Most of the coverage of the World Figure Skating Championships this week at Staples Center has been hidden away on the Oxygen Network where even the most ardent of fans have had trouble locating the broadcasts. But finally, on Saturday for the women's finals, Channel 4 is taking the broadcast and bringing out the stars.

John Madden's style, his "guy on a barstool" storytelling, his Thanksgiving turducken -- it's all irreplaceable, and the best advice Pat Summerall can give Cris Collinsworth, the new member of NBC's "Sunday Night Football" broadcast team, is to be himself. "Someone once tried to tell my replacement to be like Pat," Summerall said Thursday. "That's the worst advice you can give a guy. Cris can't be John. No one can. Cris has to be Cris."

Luck is with us in Los Angeles, for we get to hear verbal nuggets such as this one from the Dodgers' home opener Monday, courtesy of broadcaster Vin Scully, who is telling us about Travis Ishikawa of the Giants. Listen. "Ishikawa, last year he had a stretch where runners were in scoring position with less than two outs and he went seven for 11. That got everybody's attention.

Another member of the media is in trouble for making inappropriate comments. Only this time, the subject was religion. ESPN personality Dana Jacobson has been disciplined for remarks she made Jan. 11 at a roast in Atlantic City, N.J., for colleagues Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic. According to various reports, Jacobson appeared inebriated when she used an expletive in connection with Notre Dame, Touchdown Jesus and Jesus.

I wish you could have answered my phone. I wish you could have answered the Thursday afternoon call from a Denver hotel room and listened to a greeting that would have made you smell popcorn, taste Dodger Dogs and feel chills. "Hello, Bill? This is Vin Scully." I've talked to the most trusted voice in the history of our city at least a dozen times over the phone during our long working relationship, and it never fails. When he calls me, I freeze.

Jingoism. That's an ugly word sometimes used to describe ugly Americans in previous Olympics. The dictionary defines it as "a person who professes belligerent patriotism." American announcers in particular have been branded with that term, but not so much in the Beijing Games, where the coverage has been generally evenhanded.

To those who have heard him on L.A. radio for more than three decades, he is The Big Nasty. To those who have seen him at local sports venues, he is simply Mr. Big, his body ballooning to nearly 700 pounds at his worst. To those who depend on him for information, he has long been among the most plugged-in sports personalities in town with solid sources and an always loud, often controversial, sometimes bitter opinion on everything from Dodger blue to Showtime.

It was an evening that would have brought a smile to the face of Jack Haley. For those who care about professionalism behind the mike, however, it was embarrassing. You remember Haley, a former NBA player with the Lakers and several other teams, who traded his uniform in for a Lakers cheerleader outfit when he went to work for the Fox Sports Network. The spirit of Haley was alive and rooting on the FSN postgame show the night the Dodgers clinched the National League West.

Something is missing from the TBS baseball studio show. Something that could bring excitement, unpredictability, controversy. Something that could light the spark clearly missing when Cal Ripken and Dennis Eckersley, along with Curtis Granderson (division series) and Harold Reynolds (championship series) join host Ernie Johnson to analyze the plays, the players and the moves in the games of the day. Something that could lighten the analysis and sharpen the criticism.

Danyelle Sargent made a mistake, one she recognized almost as soon as the words left her mouth. She asked new San Francisco 49ers Coach Mike Singletary: "I hear that your mentor Bill Walsh was one of the first phone calls you made when you found out you had the job. What does it mean to you to be the head coach of the 49ers?" The big problem with that question, of course, is that legendary coach Bill Walsh died more than a year ago. Singletary became 49ers coach last week.