Orel Hershiser, ESPN
At last, our national pastime's suit-and-tie season — from new-player press conferences to congressional hearings — gives way to actual Major League Baseball as ESPN's 10-game spring-training schedule opens with the Dodgers and Braves on Friday (1 pm/ET). Fifty years after leaving Brooklyn for L.A., the Dodgers are marked by more westward movement with the arrival of manager Joe Torre from the Yankees, outfielder Andruw Jones from the Braves and pitcher Hiroki Kuroda from Japan. In mid-March, the team leaves Vero Beach, Florida, for Arizona after 61 years in "Dodgertown." ESPN analyst Orel Hershiser, star of L.A.'s last World Series winner in 1988, gets us loosened up for spring.
TV Guide: What kind of impact will Joe Torre have in L.A.?
Orel Hershiser: It'll take Joe a little bit of time to get his arms around the players out there, but from everything I know from playing against him and covering him, he is a genuine human being who really unde
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Dan LeFevour of CMU
Six bowls down, 26 to go, beginning with Central Michigan against Purdue in a Boxing Day tradition: the Motor City Bowl (ESPN, 7:30 pm/ET). Prolific passers Dan LeFevour and Curtis Painter go to work at Ford Field, where CMU won the last two MAC title games along with this bowl last year. While this is a rare same-season rematch (Purdue romped 45-22 on Sept. 15), the rest of the week offers eight fresh contests.
Holiday Bowl: (Thursday, Dec. 27, ESPN, 8 pm/ET)
Arizona State is the ninth stop for nomadic coach Dennis Erickson, whose Sun Devils face Texas.
Champs Sports Bowl: (Friday, December 28, ESPN, 5 pm/ET)
In a rivalry hotter on ice than on the gridiron, senior QB Matt Ryan and Boston College look to get even with Michigan State, a 3-1 winner in the 2007 NCAA hockey final.
Texas Bowl: (Friday, Dec. 28, NFLNET, 8 pm/ET)
Anyone who picked up NFL Network for Saturday's big Patriots-Giants game gets this TCU-Houston tussle as p
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Reggie Miller
After winning the championship four times in eight years, the San Antonio Spurs will host the Portland Trailblazers (without injured top pick Greg Oden) to launch another season of NBA basketball (8 pm/ET, TNT). The Rockets and Lakers (10:30 pm/ET) top off the opening-night doubleheader. Here former Pacers star Reggie Miller, who joins Marv Albert in the broadcast booth for the first game, weighs in on the new campaign.
TV Guide: If you knew on draft night that Oden would be out for the season, how would that have affected the Oden/Kevin Durant decision if you were the GM of the Blazers?
Reggie Miller: You're speaking to someone who would have taken Durant anyway. I know it's hard to find true centers, and I do love Greg Oden, but I'm an old-school guy who wants to win now, and Kevin Durant is more re
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John Kruk, Baseball Tonight
As the national pastime approaches mid-season, Baseball Tonight (10 pm/ET, on ESPN) analyst John Kruk weighs in on Bonds, A-Rod and the game's other hot topics.
TV Guide: You never had a chance to play for a Wild Card playoff spot. How do you think that has changed players’ and teams’ mind-sets entering July and August?
John Kruk: Well, it gives everyone a chance, but it’s more confusing to me. You look at the divisions and say, "This team’s out, that team’s out.... Oh, wait a second." The Phillies have been in back of the Mets all season but always have that Wild Card [chance]. It’s good for players because you stay motivated and have more meaningful games. The bad thing is that too many teams can’t realize what they have as a team, so they keep guys and t
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Jon Miller, Sunday Night Baseball
Another Major League Baseball season opens this Sunday night at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, where the World Series-champion Cardinals host the Mets in an NLCS rematch (8 pm/ET, ESPN2). As welcome a sound as the crack of the bat is the silky-smooth voice of play-by-play man Jon Miller, who opens his 18th season of Sunday Night Baseball alongside analyst Joe Morgan.
TVGuide.com: Wow, 18 years. You and Joe have joined 60 Minutes and The Simpsons as Sunday-night institutions. Who do you think will last longest?
Jon Miller: So Joe and I are dropping the gauntlet on Homer and
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Gary Stevens
After a stellar riding career highlighted by three Kentucky Derby wins, election to the Hall of Fame and a major role in the Oscar-nominated Seabiscuit, jockey Gary Stevens moves from the saddle to the TV analyst's chair for the 132nd Run for the Roses. Stevens adds a unique perspective to TVG's countdown to the Derby as well as to NBC's Triple Crown coverage in Louisville and Baltimore (Preakness Stakes), before handing off to ABC and fellow jockey-turned-analyst Jerry Bailey for the Belmont Stakes in New York. Stevens briefly retired once before (in December 1999) but seems far more content with his decision to move on this time.
TV Guide: Is this your first Derby s
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