Recently in Sports on TV Category

Jordan Romero, the 13-year-old from Big Bear Lake who became the youngest person ever to summit Mt. Everest on May 22, is back in New York and doing the media rounds. Courtesy of his blog, here's a preliminary list of Jordan's TV appearances Friday:

4:00 AM Today Show (NBC National) *Live*
5:45 AM Fox & (Fox National) *Live*
7:25 AM MSNBC (MSNBC National) *Live*
11:35 a.m. CNN Newsroom (CNN National) *Live*
7 p.m. 20-20 Interview (ABC National)

The longtime sportscaster called 'em as he saw 'em.

Check it out.

They beat the Cubs, 3-1, to sweep the three-game division series. This from the team that's famously won one postseason game in the last 20 years. Go figure.

1. Greg Biffle should seriously think about asking Steve Carrell to fill in at all his sponsor appearances.

2. A happy Carl Edwards was asked how he felt after finishing third and taking over first place in the Cup standings. With a bottle of Vitamin Water in his hand, he said: "Even Vitamin Water tastes good."

Was that a huge slap in the face or what?

Big Bear native Ryan Hall will run for the gold medal in the men's marathon tonight. It's scheduled to be part of NBC's primetime package tonight but, since it will take about 2 hours, 8 minutes to crown a gold medalist, don't expect them to show it start to finish.

The U.S. Open went to a 91st hole. In sudden-death play, if it's Tiger and the other guy, the other guy suddenly (though not surprisingly) dies. Always.

I have conflicting opinions on mixed martial arts. As a sports writer, MMA has the potential to send the lowest common denominator plummeting somewhere between WWE wrestling and "Gladiator"-era, um, gladiating.

(As an aside, I have a hard time imagining anyone in ancient Rome interviewing the athletes after a gladiator fight ... "Yeah, I didn't get killed today," Hudsonius said. "That's pretty much the goal any time you go out there, really. I didn't have my best sword on me, but that's what separates the good fighters from the bad ones - they come out alive even on days when they aren't wielding their best sword.")

As a sports writer, I'll take hockey any day (which, by the way, got its butt kicked in the local TV ratings, with Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals going up against MMA in the same timeslot Saturday night).

The appeal of MMA is that it has more legitimatacy than WWE wrestling, but no more intellectual appeal. In that sense it's perfect: Watching MMA brings out the idiot in all of us, but without the fear of being made fun of for watching it. That's fine. The guys are good athletes, no doubt. Some of my best friends are WAY into it. I know of at least a couple former high school and college wrestling champions who are competing in MMA these days. I know first-hand how hard they worked to attain their skill level, and it's impressive. Take nothing away from them - but they weren't the main draw when MMA made its network TV debut last night.

No, that would be one Kevin Ferguson (AKA Kimbo Slice). The anti-Kimbo Slice argument is that he preys on the public's repressed stereotype of the Scary Black Man, and that he was rushed into prime-time TV having competed in just a handful of fights because he so perfectly fits the stereotype. Never mind the former collegiate wrestling champions in MMA who have worked all their lives to get to this stage; no, their stories feel too good for TV. Ferguson -- I think I'm going to call him "Ferguson" because it's less exploitative and closer to the truth -- is the sort of polarizing antihero that makes for good ratings, both because of, and in spite of, his qualifications as a "former street brawler from Miami."

Anyway, Ferguson is now 3-0 in his MMA career after beating Some White Guy From England. By contrast, Andre Ward is a 24-year-old boxer from Oakland with an Olympic gold medal to his credit, is a devout Christian with a wife and two children, sports a 15-0 record as a professional for goodness sakes, and how many times have you seen him on network TV? Perhaps the reason "boxing is dead" is because of guys like Ward, whose stories and image are just so darn good that you can't sell them to the much lower-minded American public.

You want to hold up an example of The Dumbing Down of America at its worst? Thank you, MMA. On Saturday night, you just made it 100% easier

There were three chairs on the dais at Barry Bonds' farewell press conference today, one for San Francisco Giants general manager Brian Sabean, one for owner Peter Magowan and one, presumably, for Bonds. Guess which seat was empty?

Notice anything a little off about 49ers wide receiver Darrell Jackson in this photo?