Later today Fox Sports will officially announce the hiring of sports anchors Jay Onrait and Dan O'Toole from TSN.  The popular SportsCentre anchor pairing will be making the move south across the border to be integral figures in Fox Sports One's nightly studio show, Fox Sports Live, that will be a direct competitor to the American version of SportsCenter on ESPN when the network launches in August.

News of Onrait and O'Toole's departure from TSN broke late Friday afternoon and all reports indicated Fox Sports One as their landing place.  While many American sports fans may be skeptical of the Canadian imports, the duo are as synonymous with the Canadian SportsCentre as the glory days of Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann were in the states.  Just how successful are Onrait and O'Toole?  This December excerpt from Toronto Life best captures their je ne sais quoi:

All Times Eastern

Beach Volleyball
Women's Grand Slam Gold Medal -- Universal Sports, 5 p.m. (same day coverage)

College Baseball
Maryland at Clemson -- ESPNU, 7 p.m.

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

Cycling
Giro d'Italia
Stage 3: Sorrento-Marina di Ascea -- beIN Sport, 9:30 a.m.

English Premier League
Sunderland vs. Stoke City -- ESPN2, 2:55 p.m.

Fox Sports has been on a spending spree of late. In the final quarter of 2012, it purchased a minority stake in YES to gain the righs to the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Nets and also bought Sports Time Ohio to reobtain the rights to the Cleveland Indians which is it lost in 2006. Fox also narrowly lost to Time Warner for the Los Angeles Dodgers media rights.

However, Fox is apparently not done in its spending and is looking for another East Coast MLB team for its expanding portfolio. The Boston Red Sox are firmly entrenched with NESN, the New York Mets are on Comcast/Time Warner's SNY plus the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals aren't leaving MASN. So the logical choice for Fox would be the Philadelphia Phillies. 

"Stay calm, and you'll all get out of this alive!"

You know you're getting old when you hear about an intriguing new venture like the SEC Network and your first thought is, "How much is this going to cost me?"

Welcome to my world. Creaky joints. A malingering sense of ennui that comes from growing up listening to grunge. Bitching about having an extra 80 cents tacked on to your cable every month.

Unfortunately, you do start sounding like your parents, too. As in, “What’s wrong with the college football you’ve already got?”

All Times Eastern

Australian Rules Football
West Coast Eagles vs. Western Bulldogs -- Fox Soccer Plus, 2:30 a.m.

College Baseball
South Florida at Notre Dame -- CBS Sports Network, 11:30 p.m.
Georgia at Tennessee -- ESPNU, 1 p.m.
Kansas State at Texas -- Longhorn Network, 2 p.m.
Alabama at Mississippi State -- CBS Sports Network, 2:30 p.m.

College Football
Inside College Football: Spring Special -- CBS Sports Network, 9 p.m.

College Lacrosse
Ivy League Championship, Ithaca, NY
Yale vs. Princeton -- ESPNU, 11 a.m.

NCAA Lacrosse Championship Selection Special -- ESPNU, 9 p.m.

MLB has announced their broadcast plans for the 2013 Draft on MLB Network in its never-ending quest to make the casual fan care about their draft a fraction as much as they care about the NFL and NBA Drafts.

NBC's coverage of the Kentucky Derby comes your way later this afternoon.  As part of the build up to the race, NBC sent Michelle Beadle up to the broadcast booth to call one of the many races that take place in the lead up to the Derby.  With Fox attempting to turn Gus Johnson into a soccer announcer, it's NBC's turn to up the ante in the announcing game.  The results show... potential?

When you write multiple articles a day for a sports blog, there's an easy temptation to use a lot of hyperbole and hype.  Every clip has to be either the funniest or the most shocking or the most surprising.  Every moment or soundbyte or screengrab has to be the best or worst EVER so people will be motivated to click and share.  Sometimes you may even be tempted into using all caps in a headline to convey some kind of extra interest.  It's some kind of game within the game within the game for sports bloggers to stir up interest in the slow drip of content pushed out ever day.

Having said that, what you are about to see is by far THE BEST AND FUNNIEST AND MOST AWESOME MOMENT IN THE HISTORY OF ESPN AND MAYBE EVEN TELECOMMUNICATION.

I give you, the many faces of Bob Ley...

All Times Eastern

Arena Football
New Orleans VooDoo at Tampa Bay Storm -- CBS Sports Network, 9 p.m.

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

Boxing
Floyd Mayweather vs. Robert Guerrero -- Pay per view, 9 p.m.

May Day Live: Countdown to Mayweather vs. Guerrero -- Showtime, 8 p.m.
Mayweather vs. Guerrero Post Fight/Press Conference -- CBS Sports Network, 1 a.m. (Sunday)

College Baseball
Florida at LSU -- ESPN2, 1 p.m.
Missouri at Texas A&M -- Fox College Sports Central, 3 p.m.
Kansas State at Texas -- Longhorn Network, 3 p.m.
Cal at Oregon States-- Pac-12 Network, 5 p.m.
Indiana at Nebraska -- Big Ten Network, 7 p.m.
Arkansas at Kentucky -- Fox College Sports Atlantic, 7 p.m.
Oklahoma State at Texas Tech -- Fox College Sports Central, 7:30 p.m.
Long Beach State at Cal State-Fullerton -- ESPNU, 11 p.m.

The Boston Celtics have won two straight games in their playoff matchup with the New York Knicks, but still trail the series 3-2. That's not stopping ESPN from invoking comparisons to the Yankees-Red Sox ALCS in 2004, when the Red Sox rallied back from a 3-0 deficit to win the series and later, the World Series. 

On Thursday's SportsCenter, ESPN dragged in MLB analyst Curt Schilling to break down the series. Now, put aside the obvious ridiculousness of a baseball analyst talking about a basketball series. Comparing the two series is really only justified for two reasons: the cities involved, and the fact that the Knicks led the series 3-0 just like the Yankees did eight and a half years ago.

The 2004 Yankees and Red Sox had the two best records in the American League. The 2012-13 Knicks were the second best team in the East, miles behind the Heat, and the Celtics finished one game above .500, sleepwalking their way into the playoffs. The Celtics' 14 point loss in game three was also not anywhere near as ugly as the Red Sox' 11 run loss in game three of the ALCS. And remember: this is the first round of the playoffs. If the Celtics end up winning the series, they still need to win *three* more series to end up as champions. The '04 Red Sox just needed to win one more series, and they had to do it against a Cardinals team that was similarly dragged to a seven game series by the Astros.

If the Bruins end up playing the Rangers in the next round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, I wouldn't be shocked if ESPN dragged in Schilling to analyze the series once again. Hopefully it doesn't come to that, though.