Last year, when Pierre McGuire won a Sports Emmy for sideline reporting, he told me that after flirting with several NHL jobs, he was ready to settle in with a broadcast career at NBC. The network wanted a commitment.

Of course, he added the disclaimer of “never say never.”

Sure enough, McGuire disclosed yesterday that he has spoken to the Pittsburgh Penguins about being their next general manager. In a conference call, he said:

“I met with the Pittsburgh Penguins. I talked with the Pittsburgh Penguins but they have a lot of other people. It’s a long list. It’s an attractive job. There are a lot of people in the hockey world that would like to have that position.

“Ray Shero, the former General Manager there and his staff did an amazing job building up the infrastructure of the talent with that team. And that’s why think it’s a very appealing job for a lot of people.

“In terms of whether I’m a finalist or not I can’t speak for that. I have no concept to that except to tell you this. There are a lot of people that would like that job.”

So it is possible that the Stanley Cup Final could be the finale for McGuire at NBC.

As first reported here in March, the Cubs are leaving WGN-AM 720. A new seven-year deal with WBBM-AM 780, beginning with the 2015 season, will be announced tomorrow.

Jimmy deCastro, president and general manager of WGN, told RobertFeder.com his station was losing nearly $6 million per year on the Cubs.

“The economics of the deal that we inherited did not make business sense,” deCastro said to Feder.

WBBM’s Rod Zimmerman, senior vice president and market manager of CBS Radio Chicago, will paint a different picture. As I reported in March, this deal is more than about airing Cubs games on the CBS-owned station.

In Chicago, CBS also owns WBBM-FM 96.3, a top 40 station; WJMK-FM 104.3, classic rock; WXRT-FM 93.1, album alternative rock; and WUSN-FM 99.5, country.

The new pact will include CBS-station sponsored concerts and events at Wrigley Field and at new entertainment venues that will be part of the overall ballpark renovation project. There also will be promotional opportunities for the Cubs on CBS’ multiple platforms and for the stations throughout Wrigley Field and its surroundings.

Indeed, it is the end of an era for the Cubs and WGN. The relationship dates back to 1924, and the Cubs have been exclusively on the station since 1958.

Nothing goes on forever. Well, except perhaps the Cubs not winning the World Series.

Of course, WBBM really could hit the jackpot if Theo Epstein’s epic rebuild actually delivers the Cubs to the promised land by the 2021 season.

Naturally, NBC is going on in with California Chrome this week. The build-up to the Triple Crown bid begins Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. ET with a special documentary, California Chrome: The Unlikely Champion, on NBCSN.

Here’s a preview.

Update: Dave Hyde of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel says Dan Marino will withdraw from the lawsuit. Wise decision if he still wants to pursue a broadcast career with NFL.

Earlier I wrote.

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CBS said good-bye to the former Dolphins quarterback, who spent 12 years working on NFL Today. The network made a lineup change, bringing in Tony Gonzalez and Bart Scott.

It is hard to imagine Marino pursuing this lawsuit if he sat on a show that had such a tight NFL connection. He certainly wouldn’t be able to speak objectively about the concussion issue.

Until the lawsuit is resolved, it also is difficult to see Marino landing on an outlet that has a TV contract with the NFL. We’re talking ESPN, Fox Sports 1, NBCSN, and most definitely NFL Network.

Looks like Marino might be on the TV sidelines for a while.

Chicago is crushed this morning. There’s nothing worse than the day after losing a Game 7, especially to a town that doesn’t care about hockey. The Kings victory didn’t even make it above the fold in LA.

Grantland’s Bryan Curtis checks in with an entertaining piece on baseball books.

Curtis notes there is another huge offering of baseball books, including mine. He writes:

From the ’30s, there’s a new book about Babe Ruth’s called shot, because of course there is.

Thanks for the plug, Bryan.

Curtis documents the litany of baseball books that seem to have covered every possible topic.

The baseball book is a happy anachronism, summoned into our world like the ghosts in Field of Dreams. The question is this: Are there any good baseball books left to write?

“I think I was lucky in that I didn’t know better,” said Jonathan Eig, author of Luckiest Man, a biography of Lou Gehrig. “I didn’t realize how used-up most of the subjects were. If it had occurred to me that every baseball biography had been done, I might have just avoided the subject entirely.”

A few years ago, Eig sat with authors Howard Bryant and Jane Leavy at a book fair and looked at a list of Baseball Hall of Famers on Bryant’s iPad. They were searching for a player without a biography who deserved one. They didn’t find any. Eig’s new book is about birth control.

Later, Curtis writes:

Is there a point at which all the good baseball books are written and all the patience for them has been worn out?” asked Eamon Dolan. “No, I don’t think so.”

Nor do Dolan’s fellow editors, who seem bent on proving there’s no collusion in publishing. Pedro Martinez is signed to write a “lively, raw” memoir. Yahoo’s Jeff Passan is writing a history of Tommy John surgery. Novelist Kevin Baker is writing a history of New York City baseball. The Washington Post’s talented Michael Leahy has sold a book about the Los Angeles Dodgers of the ’60s.

The old question is, why baseball books? Versus football, basketball, rowing, etc. George Plimpton proposed the Small Ball Theory of literature (the smaller the ball, the better the writing). A more obvious explanation is that baseball comes with a handy collection of “story beats” for writers. Every at-bat is a beat. Every inning is a beat. By the time we get to a game, it can yield a whole book (Dan Okrent’s 9 Innings, Dan Barry’s Bottom of the 33rd). Ditto the three-game series (Bissinger’s 3 Nights in August).

And there’s much more.

As for me, I’m looking to do another baseball book. Any ideas?

I always like attempts by network to try different approaches to telecasts. So plaudits to ESPN for trying to do something special for what otherwise would be an ordinary Sunday night baseball game in June.

Here is the rundown from ESPN:

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ESPN will present a unique experience for viewers this weekend on Sunday Night Baseball presented by Taco Bell – the exclusive, national Major League Baseball game of the week – as the Pittsburgh Pirates visit the Los Angeles Dodgers, June 1, at 8 p.m. ET. Baseball Tonight will “take over” Sunday Night Baseball, immediately following the Baseball Tonight: Sunday Night Countdown on-site pre-game show at 7 p.m.

How it will work

Karl Ravech and Baseball Hall of Famer and analyst Barry Larkin will be on site for Baseball Tonight: Sunday Night Countdown from just outside of Dodger Stadium. After the show, Ravech and Larkin will head to the Sunday Night Baseball booth inside the stadium where they will lead a team of seven Baseball Tonight commentators who will collectively call the action from various locations throughout Dodger Stadium.

ESPN’s regular Sunday Night Baseball booth – Dan Shulman and John Kruk – has the week off. Regular Sunday Night Baseball reporter Buster Olney will be part of the seven-person team at Dodger Stadium.

Mike McQuade, vice-president, production:

“We are committed to expanding our Major League Baseball coverage by finding new methods of informing and entertaining fans. We’ll look to bring viewers closer to the game through the vantage points of our Baseball Tonight experts, who will be strategically placed in positions where they can capture all of the storylines happening during a baseball game.”