Earlier this year it was revealed ESPN Radio NBA analyst and Basketball Hall of Famer Dr. Jack Ramsay would be retiring from his announcing duties at the end of the season at 88 years of age.   Ramsay's longtime partner Jim Durham passed away in November and Ramsay cited the struggle it had been working without Durham.

Unfortunately, the end of Ramsay's announcing career may come sooner than he originally planned.  Due to undisclosed medical issues, Ramsay will be unable to work the rest of this year's NBA Playoffs and his media career has most likely come to an end.  The news comes via Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald:

At the age of 55, one of America's premier sports media personalities is in a hiring position for the first time in his life. Sports Illustrated's Peter King is adding talent to the roster for his yet-to-be-named, all-football microsite, which is slated to launch on July 22, but he's also adjusting to the idea of being a manager instead of an employee. 

"I've never done that before," King told Awful Announcing this week, "so there will be a whole new group of people to hate me." 

That group includes Greg Bedard from the Boston Globe, Jenny Vrentas from the Newark Star-Ledger, Robert Klemko from USA Today, Andrew Brandt from ESPN and Richard Deitsch from SI, the latter two of whom will write weekly columns. 

Earlier this year, King seriously considered leaving SI after 24 years with the company. There were several factors in play, but the green light for the new site was a big reason why King decided to re-sign. 

The competition was also offering opportunities like these, though, which is why that decision didn't come easy. 

ESPN NFL reporter Adam Schefter will reportedly be featured in some capacity of this summer's release of Madden 25. Schefter's involvement came about because of a tweet from Madden creative director Michael Young to Schefter, thanking him for his work with the game this week. A fan asked Young when more details of Schefter's role with the game, and Young more or less confirmed that we'd know more on May 20th.

All Times Eastern

Australian Rules Football
Geelong Cats vs. Essendon Bombers -- Fox Soccer Plus, 5:30 a.m.

College Baseball
Oregon at Ohio State -- Big Ten Network, 7 p.m.
Memphis at Rice -- Fox College Sports Central, 7 p.m.
Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma State at Tulsa, OK -- ESPNU, 8 p.m.

College Football
College Football Live -- ESPN, 3:30 p.m.

College Softball
SEC Tournament, Lexington, KY
Semifinals
Florida vs. Georgia -- ESPNU, 3 p.m.
Tennessee vs. Missouri -- ESPNU, 5:30 p.m.

UCLA at Oregon State -- Pac-12 Network, 6 p.m.
UNLV at San Diego State -- CBS Sports Network, 8 p.m.
Oregon at Arizona State -- Pac-12 Network, 8 p.m.
Cal at Washington -- Pac-12 Network, 10 p.m.

The launch for Fox Sports 1 is now 100 days away, and Fox has announced the lineup for the intial day of programming on August 17th. The good news is that there is 16 and a half hours of live programming on the first day of the channel's launch. The bad news is that the main sports on the day will be NASCAR and UFC, two sports that really lack the mainstream appeal that many were hoping for from Fox Sports 1 to start.

Launch day will begin with seven and a half hours of NASCAR coverage, beginning with a half hour presentation of NASCAR Live. That will be followed up with an hour of Sprint Cup practice for Sunday's race in Michigan (broadcast on ESPN), and an hour and a half of qualifying for the NASCAR Camping Series truck race that afternoon. After another hour of Sprint Cup practice, Fox Sports 1 will present the truck race, the first live sporting event on the network. Following the race, there will be an hour-long Trackside Live broadcast.

Last night was not the Oakland A's night. Oakland was trailing Cleveland 4-3 going into the 9th inning when shortstop Adam Rosales smacked a fly ball to deep center that was originally ruled a double. But manager Bob Melvin asked for a review. However, replays showed that hit the railing above the yellow line which should have been a home run. The video from MLB.com that you can see above has three of the four TV and radio crews from both Oakland and Cleveland in agreement that the ball did go out.

But the umpires did not see it that way and ruled that the ball did not go above the yellow line so Rosales had to stay at second. Melvin went ballistic and was thrown out of the game. The A's lost as a result and now there are calls the replay system to be changed. 

Umpire Angel Hernandez didn't give an interview as to why the ruling was made. Despite the result and the anger, it appears the game will stand. If the A's lose a playoff spot by one game, fans can point to May 8 as one of the reasons why. 

[The Outside Corner]

Examiner.com will never be confused with The New York Times or even CNN, and perhaps one could forgive the online outlet for the above snafu - a news story on the Fab Five being allowed to associate with Michigan State again.  Yes, we all remember Chris Webber and Jalen Rose suiting up for Sparty.

Har har, good for a laugh right?  But what if I told you that was only the beginning and the entire article written by Shaunee Flowers portrayed the end of the ten year disassociation period between Chris Webber... and Michigan State.  Seriously.  The post has naturally been corrected, but here's how the introduction read late last night:

As if the Manti Te'o fake dead girlfriend scandal hasn't been beaten to death enough, now Lennay Kekua has somehow landed herself on the Maxim Hot 100 list at No. 69 (of course). A fake woman made the list but Katherine Webb did not? What's up with that? How must Nina Agdal feel at No. 70 being beaten out by a woman who doesn't even exist?

First of all, who even votes in this poll?? Second of all, I hardly trust the validity of a list like this that puts Miley Cyrus as #1 and leaves out freakin' Gisele. I'm led to believe this is yet another cruel joke in the hoax that just won't die.

As Te'o tries to live this catfishing saga down, we keep finding creative ways to bring it back up in some form or another. Maybe this will be Lennay Kekua's final act. At least she'll get to go out somewhat on top.

Pic via Maxim

One of the big questions in the Premier League's move to NBC is what happens with popular play by play man Ian Darke.  Since the 2010 World Cup, Darke has rocketed from a cult figure to genuinely one of the most admired announcers in the country thanks to his weekly presence on EPL telecasts and his work covering the USA National Teams.

But now that ESPN has lost the EPL to NBC and the peacock has named their own broadacsting teams, American viewers are about to see much less of Ian Darke.  He announced on his Twitter page today that he's joining startup BT Sport in the UK, who just acquired a package of 38 games a year.  The good news is that Darke will still be around to call USMNT matches:

MLS superstar Thierry Henry gave us one of the highlights of the MLS season last night with this bicycle kick goal in a 2-1 win for the New York Red Bulls over the Montreal Impact.  It was the 5th goal of the season for the 35 year old Frenchman.  It's a shame MLS hasn't quite found a way to make players like Henry the mainstream stars ala David Beckham.

Henry's bicycle kick goal also did the impossible.  It gave MLS the #1 play on SportsCenter's Top 10.  And you thought the NHL had it bad getting any kind of love from SportsCenter!