On the other hand, I would not be sharing it if I did not believe there was something to it, based on a rapidly growing pile of circumstantial evidence.

Here goes: If Mike Francesa does leave WFAN this summer (see post below), don't be surprised if MSG becomes a landing place.

What role would he play, exactly? Don't know. But the network could use a big-name boost in its battle to remain relevant in a market featuring two high-profile, baseball-oriented channels in YES and SNY.

Of course, Mike could end up staying at WFAN and Chris could leave, perhaps for satellite radio. But I still believe one of them will go.

If Francesa does end up at MSG, remember you read it here first. If not, forget it, it's just a blog!

(Full disclosure: Cablevision has an agreement to buy Newsday from Tribune, which would put MSG and WatchDog under the same corporate umbrella. But that has nothing to do with this post, because like I said, no one directly involved has told me anything. If they do, I'll write a newspaper article about it. Except that I'm on vacation . . . )

I keep hearing about both hosts playing contract footsie with non-WFAN entities, but vacation has gotten in the way of me officially advancing the story further - for now!

A major milestone in the saga is looming Friday, when the boys work together for the first time since June 18.

Each addressed the story individually - Chris on June 23 and Mike on June 27 - but this will be their first chance to do it together.

Maybe Chris will take a cue from John McEnroe's post-match interview of Roger Federer and offer an on-air hug.

Did I ever mention the time I covered a St. John's-Michigan game in Ann Arbor and still was home by the second quarter of Super Bowl XXIX?

I believe I have. Never mind.

The glimpses of his heroes are brief, but the coolest scenes are of the players arriving in street clothes to enter and exit the stadium amid their adoring fans.

Some sign autographs. Others don't.

The Mick said he was in a hurrry.

The show is based on a recent poll of 150 major league players who were asked to select three baseball feats that most impress them.

Count on the following no-brainers making the top 10: Cal Ripken’s games played, Joe DiMaggio’s hitting streak, Bob Gibson’s 1.12 ERA and Ted Williams' .406 batting average.

I would not call any of those marks unbreakable, although they all will be difficult to surpass. The truly unbreakable records are the ones set under circumstances that no longer exist, such as Cy Young's 511 career victories and Jack Chesbro's modern-record 41 wins in 1904 alone.

Poor Chesbro still ended up being a goat among New York's American League fans, because his wild pitch on a spitball on the final day of the season allowed Boston's AL squad to beat out the Highlanders for the pennant. (Some who were there swore it should have been scored a passed ball. But I digress.)

Click below for 1,850 words or so of details direct from the network.

Enjoy.

I wish my Tribune teammate (for now), Bill Plaschke of the L.A. Times, would have thought of this before Michael Strahan retired.

Then I could have copied him and tried to talk Strahan out of retiring and thus costing me my bet with Schwartz of the Post that Old No. 92 would play in 2009.

Sigh. Back to vacation.

Dan Patrick is reuniting with Keith Olbermann on NBC's Sunday night football program this fall, another step in the network's strategy of hiring everyone in America other than Chris (Boomer) Berman and Norman (Boomer) Esiason to work on the show.

In other football studio show news, Showtime is going with James Brown, Cris Collinsworth and Phil Simms for the new version of "Inside the NFL."

Click below for the NBC release on Dan Patrick. Back to "vacation." Thanks for reading.

One of the most memorable NFC Championship Games, followed by one of the most memorable Super Bowls.

A classic NCAA men's basketball final, complete with overtime.

Dream matchups for the NBA and NHL finals, even if neither quite lived up to its billing.

Perhaps the best U.S. Open golf tournament in history, including an 18-hole overtime, then a one-hole double overtime, all won by a guy on one leg.

The first-ever "dog-off" at the Nathan's hot dog eating contest on Coney Island.

Perhaps the best Wimbledon men's final ever.

What's next?

Mets-Yankees in the World Series. Game 7. Bottom of the 21st inning. Mets win when it turns out that Derek Jeter's game-tying slide into home does not count because souvenir hunters literally stole home plate between innings.

The rating peaked at 6.5 from 4 to 4:30 p.m., during which 15 percent of all U.S. homes with a TV in use were watching the match.

NBC said it was the best overnight rating for a final involving two non-Americans since Boris Becker faced Michael Stich in 1991.

Saturday's women's final was the highest-rated since 2005 and was up 21 percent over last year.

St. Louis topped all markets for Sunday's final with an 8.2 rating, probably because part of the time the local station used a split screen to accommodate a Cardinals game.

West Palm Beach was second at 7.5. New York tied for ninth at 5.7 percent of homes on average watching the match.

Who knew?

CBS carried something called the AT&T National Sunday. I don't know what happened in it. But the network's Verne Lundquist and Nick Faldo interviewed the absent host about his troublesome knee.

Click below for a transcript.

Short version: He agrees with McEnroe (see post below).

Click below to read his comments.

(Last year I was critical of Bud's post-Wimby interviews, which were uncomfortable to watch. McEnroe's were, too, this year, but in a much different way. Where is Erin Andrews when we need her?)

At least youngish sports fans now know how and why tennis was a huge deal in the early 1980s.

What more do you need to know about Sunday's Wimbledon final than that NBC's John McEnroe repeatedly called it the best match he ever has seen?

The fact he cut short his chat with Roger Federer afterward and hugged the fallen champion served as a memorable exclamation point . . . even though that approach is not precisely how journalism schools teach interviewers to behave after big news events.

(Click below for quotes from McEnroe and Ted Robinson that NBC sent.)

But now a friend of the main character who also is a baseball beat writer not only seems to spend the summer not working, but he is engaged to a Swedish nanny (who looks like a supermodel, actually).

So, to review: baseball writers spend all summer playing poker, drinking beer and dating Swedish nannies.

Paging Oscar Madison! Help! (Come to think of it, Oscar did his share of drinking and playing poker. Oh, never mind.)

It would have been perfectly fine if it had been called something else. Anything else. "America's best sports city." "Sports Town USA." "ESPN City."

But Titletown? Why Titletown? Green Bay is Titletown, not any of the other finalists, including New York.

If any city other than Green Bay wins, the entire population is going to board busses and crash the security gates in Bristol.

Sigh. (WatchDog kudos to first reader to name the guy in the picture.)