Leftovers again

What the doom and gloom of today's Los Angeles Daily News media column didn't have room to include:

-- Just so you know, Dick Vitale’s contract with ESPN has been extended through 2012-13, and his first appearance for the family of networks will be on the Monday’s Butler-Notre Dame college basketball game, teaming with Dan Shulman for the ESPNU coverage. Vitale starts his 28th season with the network.

-- As for Pete Arbogast's weekly foot-in-mouth rants on the WeAreSC.com blog, he has managed to take another backhand slap at his days working at 1540-AM doing the morning drive updates as it relates to the new “Roggin and Simers Squared� 6-to-9 a.m. show that just launched on 570-AM, and then realizing he may burn another bridge, throwing out the fact that he’d actually do that shift again if any radio station somehow wanted him fulltime: “I have done that shift. It’s no fun, and it never even comes close to BEING fun. And the money wasn’t that good in the bargain. … I wish them luck. I won’t listen much. Not because I don’t like them, just cuz it’s too darn early. Unless I get a job one of these days and need to be up to go to work or some other sort of miracle.�

-- Although it’s only ESPNU, at least the first Maggie Dixon Classic will be covered nationally, honoring the late Army women’s basketball coach from North Hollywood who died last year. The men’s game, with Pitt (coached by Maggie’s brother, Jamie) against Western Michigan, starts at 9 a.m., followed by the women’s matchup of Army-Ohio State at 12:30 p.m., both from West Point. The coverage will include a ceremony of Maggie Dixon’s coach of the year banner at noon. Beth Mowins calls both games with analyst Doug Gottlieb.

-- The season-ending NHRA drag racing event from Pomona gets five hours of coverage on ESPN2, starting with Saturday’s qualifying (7 p.m., delayed) and three hours of elimination Sunday (4 p.m.).

-- HBO (Saturday, 7 p.m.) would be wise to add Borat Sagdiyev to the broadcast team (with Jim Lampley, Larry Merchant and Lennox Lewis ) as it carries the live heavyweight bout between Kazakhstan’s Wladimir Klitschko and 31-year-old underdog Calvin Black from New York’s Madison Square Garden. Leading into that, it will replay Floyd Mayweather’s defeat of Carlos Baldomir that was seen on HBO pay-per-view last Saturday. Meanwhile, Laila Ali, who is on the Klitschko-Black undercard, has told the New York Daily News that she’s miffed her bout against Shelly Burton won’t be included on the live telecast. An HBO spokesman said the network has never aired a women’s boxing match except on a pay-per-view telecast at a promoter’s request.

-- If tonight’s Evander Holyfield-Fres Oquendo bout in San Antonio has you wondering about a $44.95 pay-per-view price tag, so be it. FSN’s pay-per-view company, Special Order Sports, is putting on the event but has added for the first time an online element. FoxSports.com will have the fight live as well on its site internationally Friday, then have it available for two weeks of viewing (for the same price). Barry Tompkins and Rich Marotta are on the call, with former “Monday Night Football� director Craig Janoff calling the pictures.

-- Confirming what maybe the Nielsen TV auditors probably already know but can’t seem to do a thing about it when spitting out their weekly ratings, the Arbitron Portable People Meter data released this week indicates that as many as 89 percent of male viewers 18-to-34 watched a post-season baseball game from somewhere outside their homes during last month’s MLB playoffs and World Series. A sports bar? Go figure.

-- ABC finishes off its 11th season sticking with Major League Soccer by covering its title game Sunday (12:30 p.m.) from something called the Pizza Hut Park in somewhere called Frisco, Texas, in a matchup between the Houston Dynamo and New England Revolution. Dave O’Brien has the call with analysts Eric Wynalda and Bruce Arena and Brandi Chastain on the sidelines. The highlight could be L.A.-based pop-rock group Under the Influence of Giants performing their song, “In The Clouds,� during the halftime musical show.

-- Online voting is still part of the process that the Baseball Hall of Fame is using to determine the next recipient of the Ford Frick Award, which inducts a broadcaster annually along with players and contributors. The ballot presented to fans at mlb.com is hardly discriminatory, however, meaning the 194 candidates include names such as Steve Lyons, Al Downing, Jerry Doggett and Rick Monday (plus Ross Porter, but no Rex Hudler?) Through November, fans can pick up to three names they hope will be among the three that are on the final 10-person ballot that is then given to 20 certified Hall voters next month. We submitted Ken Brett, Dick Enberg and Dave Niehaus. Niehaus, who once did Angels games and is the longtime voice of the Seattle Mariners, was one of three who made it on the ballot last year from fan votes (with Montreal Expos announcer Jacque Doucet and the late Bill King, who spent a quarter of a century calling games for the Oakland Athletics). The 20 who'll make the final vote include 14 Frick Award recipients: Vin Scully, Jamie Jarrin, Marty Brennaman, Herb Carneal, Jerry Coleman, Joe Garagiola, Ernie Harwell, Milo Hamilton, Harry Kalas, Felo Ramirez, Lon Simmons, Bob Uecker, Bob Wolff and Gene Elston, plus Bob Costas (NBC), Barry Horn (Dallas Morning News), Stan Isaacs (formerly of New York Newsday), Ted Patterson (historian), Curt Smith (historian) and Larry Stewart (Los Angeles Times).

-- Scully will do a live chat on Tuesday (Nov. 14) at 2 p.m. on the Dodgers' website.