Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sports media…

Life after Costas: Not that it will happen anytime soon, but Richard Deitsch of SI.com reports that Bob Costas’ eye issues gave a glimpse of what it will be like without him. From Deitsch’s interview with NBC Sports chairman Mark Lazarus.

You had six days without Bob Costas as the primetime host. How — and did – his absence make you think about the long-term succession for a staffer who has been one of the best Olympic hosts in history?

We said after Sochi we would start to think about what life after Bob might be, whether post-Rio, post-Pyeongchang, post-Tokyo, whenever he does not want to do it anymore. It is a big time commitment for a host. It is tons of research, tons of preparation and a ton of time away from your family. Certainly, we would be foolish not to be thinking about what a succession might look like. That is part of my job. I think about that for all sports. This obviously is a little bit of a wake-up call and it says make sure you are prepared because that day will come eventually. It’s not a theoretical.

Life after Costas II: Jason McIntyre of Big Lead writes about the potential candidates to replace Costas. Not that it will happen any time soon.

Ernie Johnson, TNT: Lazarus was previously the President of Turner Sports. He obviously is very familiar with the work of Johnson, who is versatile enough to have hosted MLB, NBA and World Cup in the studio, as well as called some Olympic events. There’s an easy bonhomie about Johnson, which is just one reason he’s part of the most popular postgame show in sports, Inside the NBA.

Josh Elliott, ABC: From Sportscenter to Good Morning America to the Olympics? According to Page 6, he’s currently in contract negotiations with ABC, but if NBC can dangle a future role (the next Matt Lauer?) on the Today Show, and the Olympics, would that been enough to pry him away from Disney? Problem: It’s tough to see GMA letting another member of the team that got them to the top walk away (Sam Champion left for NBC/Weather Channelin December).

Chris Fowler, ESPN: If he’s not the best host ESPN has, he’s got to be right there near the top. Fowler appears to be a longshot to leave for NBC, though – especially since all indications are that he’s muscled his way into taking Brent Musburger’s job calling college football games each week with Kirk Herbstreit (and still hosting Gameday, and tennis, and, basically, whatever he wants at ESPN). Fowler hosts the best pregame show in sports, Gameday, at a time when pregame shows are passe.

New guard at NBC: Tripp Mickle and John Ourand of Sports Business Daily reports on how these are NBC’s first Olympics in which Dick Ebersol didn’t participate. He was on hand as a consultant for London in 2012.

These are the Games of Lazarus and Bell. There was no doubt that they were the ones in charge, with Bell focused on production and Lazarus on business. Tasked with replacing the legendary Ebersol as the Olympics’ producer for the London Games in 2012, they have developed a collaborative style that permeates NBC’s entire Olympic operation.

The differences can be seen everywhere: whiteboard meetings that include both business and production executives; live daytime telecasts of figure skating on a cable channel; the streaming of every single winter competition.

NBC’s Olympic strategy in Sochi presents a microcosm of the direction the network plans to take with the Olympics in the coming years.

NBC analysis: The crew at Awful Announcing analyze NBC’s coverage of the Olympics in a podcast.

-Best & Worst Moments from NBC’s coverage thus far.
-Bob Costas’ pink eye and how the network handled an unexpected “crisis”
-The live versus tape delay debate and why NBC’s effort towards sports fans is better in 2014, but still a long ways from perfect.
-Record ratings for NBCSN and whether or not the Olympics actually pulls them ahead of Fox Sports 1 in the race for #2 behind ESPN.
-Why did the Bode Miller interview receive such an immense backlash?
-Tara Lipinski & Johnny Weir being the stars of Sochi and how NBC can use them going forward.
-Favorite moments from the Olympic competition – hockey and curling feature prominently here.
-An overall grade for NBC’s coverage.

New Dodgers network: Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News writes about the distribution problems for the new network.

The two-million Time Warner Cable customers in the Dodgers’ coverage map are already in. It’s just that TWC hasn’t announced the channel numbers yet.

For the rest of you — including some two million Southern California users of DirecTV and thousands more on other systems — it depends on how needy you’ve become over the last few weeks.

Tara and Johnny: Richard Sandomir of the New York Times writes how Tara Lipiniski and Johnny Weir have become big stars during the Olympics.

Weir is generally calmer yet colorful. And his chemistry with Lipinski suggests an ongoing, enthusiastic conversation among confidants.

“We’re very good friends, and we have the best time educating people about our sport,” Weir said. Asked if he thinks he has surprised viewers who might have expected analysis as flashy as his wardrobes, he said: “I come from a small town in Pennsylvania, so I’ve spent a lot of time educating my family about my sport. It’s something I’ve learned to do without being aggressive or arrogant.”

Don Van Natta Jr.: Cory Collins at the National Sports Journalism Center at Indiana reports on what Van Natta had to say to students during a recent visit. He discussed his book, Wonder Girl, on Babe Didrikson Zaharais.

“Her whole life was a quest to find a place to play,” said Van Natta. “She had a lot to overcome. She wanted to be the greatest athlete of all time.”

A woman with a complicated legacy.

“One of the things that surprised me most was how mean she was, how selfish she was,” Van Natta admitted. “She had to be that way, in her mind, to succeed, to get noticed.”

And a woman, despite success never since rivaled, largely forgotten. Until now.

“There really hasn’t been a lot of attention given to her in the last 40 years,” he said. “But the more I found out about Babe, the more intrigued I got.”

Joe Goddard: My old pal says farewell after 44 years of writing sports about Hinsdale Central.

Though he never attended Hinsdale Central, Goddard was inducted into the Hinsdale Central Foundation Hall of Fame in 2009 and is one of the few honorees without a direct connection to the school.

Under his picture in the school’s Alumni Room, part of the dedication reads: “Though not an alumnus, teacher or school administrator, no one has done more to chronicle the great athletic traditions of Hinsdale Central than Joe Goddard. His love of Hinsdale, the local high school, its sports teams and athletes, and his lifelong journalistic professionalism make Joe Goddard a local treasure.”

Long time: Classic TV Sports looks at the longest-running announcers duos in TV sports history. Who is No. 1?

Joe Buck and Tim McCarver worked together from 1996-2013 in the Fox baseball TV booth. How does their on-air partnership of 18 years stack up historically against other network TV announcer duos? Which national broadcast pairings have remained intact the longest in various sports? Which tandems hold the longest active streaks? To follow up on my look last year at consecutive season streaks by network TV broadcasters, here is a summary of my research on similar streaks by pairs of announcers.