My latest column for the National Sports Journalism Center at Indiana University is on a career transition for Bonnie Bernstein. After more than two decades as an on-air personality, she is relishing her new behind-the-scenes role in shaping Campus Insiders.

From the column:

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The calendar is turned, and Bonnie Bernstein is gearing up for a busy March. That’s nothing new for the long-time sideline reporter for CBS and ESPN.

Yet this won’t be the usual routine for Bernstein. She is taking a different view these days of “March Madness” and college sports.

Bernstein is an integral part of Campus Insiders. It is a new high-tech, high volume college sports site. Campus Insiders is a big money initiative of IMG and Silver Chalice, a business division of the Chicago White Sox. It has contributing reporters on virtually every campus; digital rights deals for games with several conferences; and partnerships with companies such as Cadillac.

Naturally, Bernstein is featured on the Chicago-based network. She hosted a daily show during the football season and will be doing interviews and other appearances during March Madness. CBS and Sports Illustrated’s Seth Davis also does a bi-weekly show for Campus Insiders.

Bernstein’s card, though, reads: vice-president of content and brand development/On-air host. While she is considered a primary face of the network, her primary role is behind the scenes.

Bernstein spends the bulk of her time on the marketing end, meeting with potential business partners. She also is heavily involved in the process guiding the content for Campus Insiders.

Now 43, Bernstein sought to do more with her career than to catch a few sound bites from a coach coming off the field. Not that’s there anything wrong sideline work, but there was a sense of been-there, done-that for her. She wanted more.

“When I hit 40, I remember thinking, it’s time to start thinking about 2.0, and what’s that going to look like, because I don’t want to just be talent the rest of my life,” Bernstein said. “Some people take the on air role and just run with it. It’s not that I don’t, I certainly do, and I always will. But I knew I wanted to start getting behind the camera.”

After more than two decades on TV, Bernstein actually feels she always has been better suited for this role. She insists she isn’t a make-up person and cracked, “I am the furthest thing from a fashionista that you will ever find.”

When countered that she always looks nice on TV, Bernstein said, “slap makeup on a pig, it’s still a pig.”

Again, you would get some dispute about Bernstein’s self-description, but here is her point.

“(The make-up and clothes are) not me,” Bernstein said. “This is my TV persona. When I’m sitting in these meetings and brainstorming about what our social media strategy should be, how we can tweak the show to make it more compelling to our target demographic, who do we want to go out and approach as sponsors and what’s our philosophy on approaching a sponsor…? All of these strategic conversations that I’m having, that’s so much more me than the chick you see on the air.”

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And there’s more from Bernstein in the rest of the column.

You could feel Jerry Remy’s heartbreak and anguish in this story by the Boston Globe’s Chad Finn. He had been on a leave of absence since August when his son, Jared, was charged with murdering his girlfriend.

Finn reports:

Remy, who was solemn and candid during a meeting with a small group of reporters at NESN’s Brighton headquarters, had not spoken publicly since his son’s arrest.

“I felt for a couple of months, for two or three months, that it was over,’’ Remy said. “There’s no way I was coming back. I had two main concerns: What the public would think and whether I could be myself. The answers at that time [in November and December] were no.”

Remy, 61, said he had a circle of three friends and his wife, Phoebe, who urged him to reconsider. But he didn’t change his mind until after the new year.

“[They reminded] me about my career, and where it came from, and where it is,’’ said Remy, a lung cancer survivor who said he made the decision about a week ago after his most recent CAT scan came back clean.

“When I got drafted as a baseball player, I got drafted [late], and I made it to the big leagues. I wanted to quit, my father talked me out of it. When I started this job, [I was] awful. I was terrible. I couldn’t wait for the first season to be over. I wanted out. Didn’t quit. Continued on for 26 years.

“When I got cancer, I wanted to quit. I didn’t, it drove me to depression, it came back, I continued on. Some of these things started to resonate a little bit with me.

“I don’t intend to be a quitter. Don’t intent to be one now. It’s what I do. It’s what I know. It’s what my comfort level is. It’s where I feel I belong and I feel I’m going to do so as long as possible. I hope in no way that my decision to come back to do games has a negative impact on the Martel family. I’m quite certain they understand I have to make a living, and unfortunately mine is in the public eye. I’m quite certain they understand that.”

More from Finn:

Remy said he would not address his situation during the Red Sox’ first broadcast this season, acknowledging that the reason he was speaking now was to hopefully prevent it from being a story in spring training. But he said he recognizes that there are some people who don’t believe he should come back, and that as more details emerge about his son’s past – the trial is currently set to begin in October – there could be some backlash against Remy, who is notoriously private outside of his public life.

“It’s not easy. It’s not easy,’’ Remy said. “There’s going to be more stuff that comes out … I think it’s pretty clear what’s going to happen. I’m trying to take it one step at a time. I know that’s a cliché, but that’s the only thing we can possible do. Criticism hurts, obviously. The fact that you’re not good parents. Call me a bad father if you want, but I’ll be damned if my wife’s not a good parent.”

And:

Remy informed longtime broadcast partner Don Orsillo Monday that he would return. The banter between the broadcasters has long been a part of their appeal. Orsillo asked him a pointed question: How can they can be light and fun again?

“If I didn’t think I couldn’t be myself, I wouldn’t do it,” Remy said. “I hope that doesn’t come off as insensitive. It may be to some. But that’s the only way I know how to do my job.

“I’m sure there will be people who are very upset with me. It’s the only way I know how to do a game. I’ve thought of all these things a thousand times, believe me.”

Tim McCarver said he wasn’t retiring. Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports he is going back to where it all started.

McCarver, 72, confirmed Thursday night that he has reached an agreement to do about 30 Cardinals games this season for Fox Sports Midwest.

“The deal has not been completed — but it will,’’ he said, adding that the dates he’ll be working still are to be finalized. “We’ll get it straightened out. I know I’ll be doing Cardinal games, I just don’t know the exact situation.’’

FSM general manager Jack Donovan was unavailable for comment.The pending move, which was reported in December in this space as being likely, follows the announcement this week that Cards radio broadcaster Mike Shannon will drop about 50 road games from his workload. FSM analysts Al Hrabosky and Rick Horton are to replace Shannon, 74, on a rotating basis on those radio broadcasts. That makes it easy to add McCarver to the TV side.

Great to see, and it will be a treat for Cardinals fans.

The Baseball Hall of Fame has enacted a new format for its Ford Frick Award this year. It might not be so good for some of the older candidates.

Put it this way: When their names finally are called for the Frick, they might have been called elsewhere first, if you know what I mean.

The Hall of Fame explained its new format on its site:

The 2014 Frick Award ballot reflects recent changes in the selection process where eligible candidates are grouped together by years of most significant contributions of their broadcasting careers. The new cycle begins with the High Tide Era, which features broadcasters whose main body of work came from the mid-1980s – the start of the regional cable network era – through the present.

The new three-year cycle for the Frick Award will continue in the fall of 2014 with the Living Room Era, which will feature candidates whose most significant years fell during the mid-1950s through the early 1980s. In the fall of 2015, candidates will be considered from the Broadcasting Dawn Era, which features candidates from the earliest days of broadcasting into the early 1950s.

The idea, says Brad Horn of the Hall, is to give recognition to some of the overlooked pioneers in the baseball booth. The winners are strongly tilted toward the modern era.

I have no problem with recognizing announcers like Graham McNamee, who called the first World Series games on radio in the 20s. However, here’s the problem.

For the current candidates, instead of being up for the Frick every year, now they’ll only have a chance to win the award once every three years, and only three times over nine years.

When I mentioned to White Sox announcer Ken “Hawk” Harrelson, 72, that some of the guys might not be around to accept the award under the new format, he cracked, “Yeah, and I’m one of them.”

With Eric Nadel of the Texas Rangers winning the award today, long-time Cardinals announcer Mike Shannon, 74, now will have to wait another three years for another shot at the Frick. The same holds true for former Atlanta Braves announcer Pete Van Wieren, who will be 72 in 2016.

The other living finalists are in their 60s, and time will continue to march on when they come up for consideration again.

The finalists on this year’s list all have worthy Frick credentials and more current announcers and analysts will merit consideration in future years. Yet only three of them will get tabbed in roughly a decade. It seems a bit unfair given the explosion of baseball TV and radio in the modern era.

Here’s a simple solution: Honor a current announcer and one from baseball’s past on an annual basis. It is roughly the same format the Hall uses for players with its veterans’ committee.

Hopefully, the Hall will reconsider its new format.