Flutie's objectivity put to test at ESPN

As long as ESPN is touting Doug Flutie as one of the new analysts for its Thursday night college football series, we felt his introductory conference call was open territory to try to make the Boston College grad squirm a little.

So, we asked, will it be hard to keep his objectivity in check when BC plays Virginia Tech Oct. 25?

"Once I'm in the booth -- and I did BC games last year -- it's very easy because I'm sitting back up top there, just looking at X's and O's," he said, before he was interrupted by fellow analyst Craig James.

"Now Craig's over there giggling because I did say 'we' one time [while broadcasting a game last season]," said Flutie. "But it is pretty easy [to be objective] because you sit back, and you're looking at teams, matchups, and strategies, like, OK, we're going to go in this two-minute situation, and here's what they've got to do, and you kind of go into automatic pilot as far as that's concerned. Plus, we're going to be in Blacksburg [Va.], so you'd better be objective."

James, still laughing, said, "We'll have the 'we' counter going on during the BC game," he said.

Flutie jumped in to defend himself: "As I said to Craig, all I said was we got a good show, meaning us in the booth."

Flutie and James are joining play-by-play announcer Chris Fowler for the Thursday games beginning Aug. 30 with Louisiana State at Mississippi State.

CBS begins its 40th year of US Open tennis coverage Sept. 1 and will stay with the event until the men's singles final Sept. 9. The women's final will air during prime time, Sept. 8 at 8 p.m., for the seventh consecutive year. Play-by-play announcer Dick Enberg will be joined by analysts John McEnroe and Mary Carillo.

Carillo said it's unfortunate that the women's side has been decimated by so many players who play "part-time tennis."

"In most sports, you talk about attendance problems, and you talk about fans," she said. "Unfortunately, in women's tennis, the attendance problem we have is with the athletes themselves."

The USA network begins its coverage Monday at 11 a.m.

Channel 4 will televise the women's final of the Pilot Pen tournament from New Haven tomorrow at 1 p.m., and ESPN will show the men's final at 7.

No offense to Bob Halloran, Steve DeOssie, or Bob Neumeier, but it was refreshing to hear a veteran radio voice on WEEI-AM yesterday morning. Dan Patrick, who left his job at ESPN last Friday, will also be on the air from 6-10 a.m. today, filling the void left by Gerry Callahan and John Dennis, who have been off the air since early August during a contract dispute. At the end of the show yesterday (the "buzzer-beater" segment), Patrick received several calls and e-mails reminiscing about his days with Keith Olbermann on "SportsCenter," and wondering if Patrick will become a permanent fixture on the station. No, he insisted, this was just a fill-in gig . . . Speaking of Olbermann, his "Countdown" show, which airs weeknights at 8 on MSNBC, will move to NBC Sunday at 7 p.m. It will lead into NBC's "Sunday Night Football" exhibition matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers at 8. Olbermann is joining NBC's "Football Night in America" studio team this season. "Countdown" will be a typical edition of the show, covering everything from politics to pop culture, said Olbermann, but with a little more sports. "It will be a nightly-news-driven broadcast, just like they are on other nights," he said, adding that he sees it as a one-shot deal . . . Lowell Galindo, who graduated from Emerson College in 2003, has been named the signature anchor for ESPNU.

Susan Bickelhaupt can be reached at bickelhaupt@globe.com.