How did a man who started at ESPN in 1987 as a freelance researcher become a cult favorite and television star nearly 20 years later?

After working behind the scenes on the ESPN trivia show 2 Minute Drill in the early 2000s, Howie Schwab walked into Mark Shapiro's Bristol office and was told he was going to be the star of ESPN's next game show - Stump The Schwab.

"Are you [bleepin] serious?" was Schwab's first reaction to the ESPN Senior Vice President.

After a successful run of four seasons, 64 wins and 16 losses, Howie Schwab, ESPN researcher became known as The Schwab, sports trivia guru.

"I'm very happy that people respected the show and enjoyed the show. I never thought of myself as a cult hero or a TV person," Schwab said Tuesday.  "I've worked behind the scenes for 26 years.  My whole thing about doing TV is having fun, I just enjoy myself."  

Fox Sports 1 has made another big-name hire. Retired tennis player Andy Roddick will join the network as a co-host of Fox Sports Live. Roddick joins ESPN's Charissa Thompson as well as TSN SportsCentre anchors Jay Onrait and Dan O'Toole as the key figures announced thus far for Fox Sports 1's daily news and highlights show.

According to SI.com's Richard Deitsch:

Ed Note: Did you know that ESPN college football analyst Ed Cunningham doubled as an award winning documentary producer?  While he's away from his ESPN duties, Cunningham dedicates himself to filmmaking.  Bloguin's Aaron Torres caught up with Cunningham at Crystal Ball Run and talked with him about his latest film project - a bizarre story about a North Carolina man's quest to get back his severed foot.  A bizarre, but entirely true story...

Here at Crystal Ball Run, we often joke that sometimes, the world of college football really does seem stranger than fiction. Only for ESPN analyst Ed Cunningham, his life is almost the exactly opposite; the wacky world of Les Miles and conference realignment is nothing compared to the work he does away from the football field.

That’s because when Cunningham isn’t sitting in a press box every fall Saturday, he spends his hours on Monday through Friday as a noted documentary film producer. Cunningham’s IMDB page is pretty extensive, with work on such prominent titles as “The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters” and the Academy Award winning “Undefeated” about a Memphis-area high school football team.

Yet it’s the film that Cunningham is currently working on- and needs your help to complete- which is his wackiest yet. It’s called “Finders Keepers” and well, it redefines the term “stranger than fiction.”

The staff at Awful Announcing scours feeds from all over the world to find the most amazing videos for you. For this story, we bring you a visual treasure from the Turkish Football Championship that took place over the weekend. Galatasaray won the title. Over whom it doesn't matter and you probably don't care.

After the game, Emmanuel Eboué decided to mess with the team's in-house reporter, Murat Borlu by picking him up, laying him on the ground, snatching his microphone away and interviewing him. Eboué ignored Murat's requests to speak in Turkish by speaking in English and takes over with one of the most bizarre field level interviews you'll ever see.

Now imagine if Dwyane Wade or LeBron James decided to pick up Craig Sager and lay him on the basketball court to conduct an interview. That would be one of the biggest viral videos in the history of YouTube.

But in our search for this video, we also discovered that Eboué has a history of messing with Murat. Here's Eboué firing balls at Murat during an interview.

And one more of Eboué picking on poor Murat.

Here's hoping we see more of the Eboué and Murat Show next season.

[H/T Fulham's Finest]

All Times Eastern

College Baseball
ACC Tournament, Durham, NC
Pool Play
Georgia Tech vs. Florida State -- Fox Sports Net-regional (Arizona/Florida/North Plus/San Diego/South/Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic/NESN), 11 a.m.
Virginia Tech vs. Virginia -- Fox Sports Net-regional (Arizona/Florida/North Plus/San Diego/South/Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic/NESN), 3 p.m.
Clemson vs. North Carolina State -- Fox Sports Net-regional (Arizona/North Plus/Prime Ticket/South/Sun Sports/Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic), 7 p.m.

Big Ten Tournament, Minneapolis, MN
First Round
Illinois vs. Minnesota -- Big Ten Network, 1 p.m.
Michigan vs. Nebraska -- Big Ten Network, 4:30 p.m.

SEC Tournament, Hoover, AL
Second Round
Mississippi vs. Arkansas -- CSS, 10:30 a.m.
Alabama vs. LSU -- CSS, 1 p.m.
Texas A&M vs. Vanderbilt -- CSS, 4:30 p.m.
Mississippi State vs. South Carolina -- CSS, 8 p.m.

We finally know where the wildly popular, sometimes controversial and always entertaining Paul Finebaum will be taking his talents after the radio host went silent earlier this year. And the good news for Finebaum fans -- and frankly, college football fans in general -- is that he'll soon have a much larger audience. 

He'll start at ESPN on Aug. 1, according to the Wall Street Journal:

His multi-tiered platform will include a radio program on ESPN networks, 100 televised appearances annually on ESPN and a TV simulcast of his radio show on the ESPN-owned SEC Network launching in August 2014.

"It would be the understatement of my life to say I wasn't thrilled," Finebaum said. "It is incredibly exciting to be part of a new adventure, particularly one that involves the premier brand in sports along with the pre-eminent conference in sports." Finebaum has a five-year contract. Neither he nor ESPN would give financial details.

While based in Birmingham, Ala., Finebaum's four-hour daily radio program was syndicated by nearly 30 stations, so by no means was he strictly a local radio star. But he wasn't national either. He was regional. More specifically, Southeastern regional. The question now will be whether he can take this thing across the country and appeal to fans outside of the SEC.

While the report states that there'll be some buffer time, with Finebaum's new program first airing primarily in the Southeast, this is an indication that the Worldwide Leader clearly believes that can happen. 

Today's podcast guest is the lead analyst for the NHL on NBC, a Stanley Cup champ, and NHL veteran who played over 1,000 games in the NHL. After his playing and coaching careers, Eddie Olczyk has transitioned to a successful broadcasting career calling the Stanley Cup Finals and Olympics for NBC as well as the Blackhawks locally in Chicago. Eddie joins us to talk about the Red Wings-Blackhawks series, the rest of the conference semis, and of course, his passion for horse racing. Other topics include...

-How the Blackhawks will respond to adversity for the first time this season trailing Detroit. 
-The unpredictability of the NHL postseason and whether it takes away too much regular season value. 
-Pittsburgh's response to their Game 3 2OT loss in Ottawa. 
-The chances of the Kings to repeat. 
-Which playoff goalie would Eddie take right now? 
-Working alongside the best in the business, Doc Emrick. 
-Would Eddie consider a return to coaching or a front office role? 
-How he got his television start... in horse racing.

In case you've missed any of our podcasts, check out all of our interviews by subscribing to the AA Podcast on iTunes or our AA Podcast RSS Page.

Tuesday, May 21

New York Yankees @ Baltimore Orioles (MLBN 7PM) Bob Costas, John Smoltz, Tom Verducci [Alt: Rays @ Blue Jays]

Wednesday, May 22

Cincinnati Reds @ New York Mets (MLBN 1PM) Local Broadcast [Alt: Dodgers @ Brewers]
Chicago Cubs @ Pittsburgh Pirates (WGNA 7PM) Len Kasper, Jim Deshaies
New York Yankees @ Baltimore Orioles (ESPN 7PM) Karl Ravech, Barry Larkin

Thursday, May 23

Cleveland Indians @ Boston Red Sox (MLBN 7PM) Local Broadcast [Alt: Orioles @ Blue Jays]

Friday, May 24

Chicago Cubs @ Cincinnati Reds (WGNA 7PM) Len Kasper, Jim Deshaies
Philadelphia Phillies @ Washington Nationals (MLBN 7PM) Local Broadcast [Alt: Yankees @ Rays]

Saturday, May 25

New York Yankees @ Tampa Bay Rays (MLBN 4PM) Local Broadcast [Alt: Twins @ Tigers]
Chicago Cubs @ Cincinnati Reds (WGNA 4PM) Len Kasper, Jim Deshaies
St. Louis Cardinals @ Los Angeles Dodgers (FOX 7:15PM) Joe Buck, Tim McCarver
Philadelphia Phillies @ Washington Nationals (FOX 7:15PM) Tom McCarthy, Bill Ripken
Atlanta Braves @ New York Mets (FOX 7:15PM) Justin Kutcher, Tom Verducci
Miami Marlins @ Chicago White Sox (FOX 7:15PM) Thom Brennaman, Eric Karros
Oakland Athletics @ Houston Astros (FOX 7:15PM) TBA, Mitch Williams

Sunday, May 26

New York Yankees @ Tampa Bay Rays (TBS 1:30PM) Dick Stockton, Ron Darling, Dennis Eckersley
Miami Marlins @ Chicago White Sox (WGNA 2PM) Ken Harrelson, Steve Stone
Atlanta Braves @ New York Mets (ESPN 8PM) Dan Shulman, Orel Hershiser, John Kruk

H/T Sammy!

These are headlines you never want to see in any industry.  Today, out of nowhere, ESPN laid off hundreds of employees.  The troublesome signs first appeared on the Twitter page of bestselling author and ESPN authority Jim Miller.

ESPN workforce hasn't faced reductions in its numbers for at least several years. That may no longer be the case. Fasten seat belts.

— James Andrew Miller (@ESPNBook) May 21, 2013

The details are grisly.  Miller also pegged the number of layoffs between 300 and 400 employees.  Deadspin's John Koblin was told a similar number by sources.  Eventually, ESPN would confirm the news in a public statement on the matter that "tried" to put a "positive" spin on the news:

This graphic appeared on an ESPN college baseball broadcast Monday for the upcoming ACC Tournament and there are just a few issues at hand in matching correct logos with teams.  In fairness, at least Tennessee and Clemson have the same color, so that's a positive, and the "T" could stand for Tigers!  Elsewhere, I'm not sure how the Florida Gators logo got in there or why NC State gets The "U" logo.  Oh well, a .250 average isn't so bad.

H/T juiceman2589