Outtakes

--The Associated Press version of Rick Sutcliffe's visit to the San Diego Padres' Channel 4 booth Wednesday doesn't do justice to what really happened. It's gotta be heard, or if possible, seen on the video. Here's a part of the AP story that came across the wires Thursday:
SAN DIEGO -- Rick Sutcliffe, a Cy Young award winner and ESPN baseball
analyst, gave a rambling, slurred interview during the local television broadcast of the Brewers-Padres game Wednesday night.
Sutcliffe's microphone eventually was cut off. Craig Nichols, general manager of Channel 4 San Diego, on Thursday described the interview as embarrassing.
Sutcliffe, who used to broadcast Padres games for Channel 4 San Diego, dropped by the broadcast booth late in Wednesday night's game and was warmly welcomed by announcers Matt Vasgersian and Mark "Mud" Grant.
The trio first talked about golf and actor Bill Murray, who was with Sutcliffe at the game. The conversation turned to Sutcliffe's daughter, who, the pitcher said, has been accepted to Harvard Medical School. That's when Sutcliffe began to meander.
"She's on her way to Africa tomorrow," Sutcliffe said. "How about that? Over there on one of those missions, man. George Clooney - you been reading about all that, you been seeing that?"
To which Vasgersian responded with surprise: "George Clooney?"
"Yeah, he's up there with the Congress, he's trying to get everybody
to go over there and solve that thing."
Sutcliffe then asked Vasgersian, "Matty, what are you still doing
here in San Diego?" Vasgersian tried to steer the conversation to baseball, but Sutcliffe persisted.
"No, no, no, Matty - everybody on Earth has been trying to
steal you - the Dodgers, the Cubs, ESPN. What are you still doing here?"
Sutcliffe's microphone apparently was cut off then, because a voice in the background can be heard saying: "They turned it off."
Nichols said Sutcliffe "used remarkably poor judgment. I'm embarrassed. I'm embarrassed for the Channel 4 team, and I'm embarrassed for the viewers. They're trying to watch the latest win.
This is all I'm talking about today. The focus should have been on that win."

And the lesson here: If you're drinking with Bill Murray, stay away from a microphone. Unless you're Bill Murray and speaking on mike while hammered is second nature.

Friday, the Chicago Tribune reported that an ESPN source said Sutcliffe would be taken off Monday's telecast of the Boston-Baltimore game, replaced by Steve Phillips.
Sutcliffe apologized Thursday in a statement, saying he “exercised bad judgment� by going on the air. “I was not in optimum condition to go on live television,� he said. “I regret that lapse in judgment.�

--FSN Prime Ticket's Clippers pregame show tonight (7 p.m.) will conclude with a one-minute video montage over the song "I'm In Love With the Clippers" recorded last week by Petros Papadakis for his 1540-AM The Ticket sports-talk show. The song is a great spin-off of the T.Pain song featuring Mike Jones called "I'm In Love With a Stripper." I have no idea who T.Pain, or Mike Jones are, so you gotta trust us on that one. Papadakis will then be the honorary guest who gives the game ball to the referees before the jump to start the contest. Surely, you'll hear more about it on his show today (noon to 2).

-- ESPN's "Sunday Conversation" on its 8 and 10:30 p.m. "SportsCenter" will be with North Hollywood native Jamie Dixon, the Pitt men's basketball coach whose sister Maggie, the 28-year-old women's coach at Army, died last month from heart arrhythmia. Andy Katz does the Q-and-A.

--There's more to Steve Bellamy's exit as the president of the Tennis Channel, but everyone's making nice right now, so we'll let it go as a mutual decision. The always reliable Sports Business Daily ran a note the other day, taken from TennisWeek.com, reporting that there was a power problem between Bellamy and current Tennis Channel chairman and CDO Ken Solomon about where to take the channel to the next level. Bellamy probably lost some clout when fellow co-founder David Meister left last year. It's really too bad. Bellamy is the heart and soul of that channel. One of the biggest things that didn't get done under his tenure was getting the channel a spot on DirecTV's lineup.