Barry Horn

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The game might be the thing, but there's more to broadcasting a baseball game than calling balls and strikes. Josh Lewin knows. He has ventured off on many a side road in his seven-plus seasons in the Texas Rangers' television booth.

Lewin and partner Tom Grieve have made off-beat bets, played silly games and offered many obscure references to old television shows. They've worked hard to entertain when the product on the field has been tough to stomach.

Always, however, Lewin has made a conscious effort to veer away from personal attacks, whether perceived to be warranted or not.

"It's a sensitive situation where a broadcaster has the potential to get himself in trouble," Lewin said Friday morning as he prepared to work the Rangers-Mets game. "When you are talking about people's personal lives without really knowing the person ... we've all been guilty of that with the excess of information available these days. But it's not something we're always qualified to do."

By now you've heard that Rangers outfielder Milton Bradley took exception to something he heard Royals broadcaster Ryan Lefebvre say about him on Wednesday night on the Kansas City television broadcast. Taking Bradley at his word, all he wanted was to have a post-game chat upstairs in the broadcast booth. Rangers general manager Jon Daniels, who saw Bradley headed that way, moved quickly to convince his player that the meeting would not be in his best interest.

It will go down as one of the better moves Daniels has made. It wasn't the time or the place for a Kumbaya party.

In the ensuing firestorm, Lefebvre has tried to crawfish, saying he was only attempting to compliment Bradley's teammate, Josh Hamilton. But when in the course of a compliment you say another man "clearly has no self control over himself," there is no crawfishing.

"For an announcer, there is no erase button," said Lewin, who considers Lefebvre a friend. "When you say something, you have to live with it."

Lewin confirmed he had a discussion with Bradley during spring training about something he supposedly said when Bradley was still playing for the Oakland A's.

"I couldn't remember what I said, but it obviously struck a chord with him," Lewin said. "His perception was his reality. I told him if he chooses to pay attention to our broadcasts, he'll know I have a heck of a lot of respect for him."

Lewin cannot remember another player who has confronted him based on something the player said he heard. Since most players don't spend time watching their games, it's often wives or friends who relay a broadcaster's comments to the player.

"Every announcer has had a guy come up to him and say, 'My wife said you said, 'ABC' last night when you know you said, 'XYZ,'" Lewin said. "More often than not, it gets resolved. This, too, may get resolved."

Here's a friendly proposition for Lewin: Wanna bet?

Hicks was at Torrey Pines last Friday in advance of working this weekend's U.S. Open. Used to watching the likes of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh work a course, Hicks took in Tony Romo's round at Torrey Pines. Romo, you might recall, shot an 84 to win an amateur challenge that also included Justin Timberlake, Matt Lauer and contest winner John Atkinson. Highlights of the four-player challenge will air from 1-2 p.m. Sunday on NBC.

Can you share a scouting report on Romo's round?

He's got a lot of game. Clearly, he had a lot more game than the rest of the guys.

Can you break it down?

He is incredibly long. He was actually working the ball around the course like he might try to work a defense. He has really advanced golf skills. His Achilles' heel was his short game. He four-putted the third green. But remember, he came out here right from practicing with the Cowboys. He didn't have time to prep for a U.S. Open course. Even Tiger Woods prepares.

You've been watching amateurs play at the Open for years. Does Romo have what it takes to play in the real thing?

I certainly think he can qualify. I'm not saying he is ready to qualify for a PGA card, but he is a tremendous athlete. It would be interesting if he gave to the game of golf what he gives to football.

How about an Open scouting report on your partner, Johnny Miller?

Every other minute, he says something other analysts don't say. If you watch our coverage the first three days, John is relatively reserved. Come Sundays, he gets more intense and can be more critical. That's the kind of game he played. His commentary gets more honed in on Sundays.

The NBA and ABC fervently hoped for a Celtics-Lakers matchup in the NBA Finals. The suits dreamed of a return to double-digit ratings after last year's Spurs sweep of the Cavaliers scored a record low 6.2.

Well, it doesn't appear the marquee matchup will deliver.

Through four games, the Celtics-Lakers have produced an 8.8 average rating. The network is banging a drum that the ratings are running up 42 percent from last year's nadir. But the numbers have been a disappointment.

The 2004 Lakers-Pistons series, which scored an 11.5 rating, might prove to be the last-ever double-digit NBA Finals.

For the record, the Bulls-Jazz six-game series, played just a decade ago, holds the record at 18.7.

America knew Michael Jordan. Apparently, Kobe Bryant is no Michael Jordan.

Charlie Jones: NBC Sports paid tribute to the late Charlie Jones during Friday afternoon's U.S. Open broadcast. Jones, 77, died Thursday in San Diego. Jones, whose specialties were football and golf, worked for NBC from 1965 until the network lost the NFL's AFC package to CBS in 1998. What NBC didn't report was that Jones spent five years as a sports anchor at WFAA (Channel 8). Jones arrived in Dallas from Fort Smith, Ark., in 1960 to call Dallas Texans games on ABC. He left for NBC in 1965, when the network acquired the AFL rights.

Fox and hounds: Just-retired Michael Strahan has the perfect pedigree to land a network NFL gig next season. He played in New York, owns a just-off-the-shelf Super Bowl ring and was a media favorite in the Giants' locker room. Pencil in Strahan headed to Fox, which has an aging studio show and a keen interest in the NFC East, as the odds-on-choice to land him.

Round 1: Duncanville boxer Luis Yanez gets his national television introduction as the U.S. Olympic team's light flyweight at 2 p.m. today in a taped bout on NBC.

Play ball: ESPN2 offers up Inning by Inning: Portrait of a Coach, a look at Augie Garrido's work with the University of Texas baseball team during the 2006 season. Note: Garrido utters a mouthful of bleeped words. It remains unclear if the film editor or the bleeper worked harder on the documentary.