ESPN ahead of the game

Twenty-five years ago this Tuesday, a brash startup cable channel with a strange name began broadcasting. Its goal: Provide sports programming 24 hours a day. The concept behind ESPN was solid, but the execution was shaky in those early days of bouncing a signal off a satellite from a half-built building in a muddy field in then-rural Bristol, Conn. Today, ESPN is a media Goliath, continuing to diversify at a dizzying pace, expanding its programming and offerings across the communications spectrum of cable, broadband, wireless, pay-per-view, print, radio, and HD.

Even as things advance, it's still all about transmitting information. The only difference is how you prefer to receive it: via your computer, TV, handheld PDA, or cellphone. ESPN wants to use them all.

But there has been one constant through all of the diversification: "SportsCenter" still is the heartbeat of the network.

Thus, it's appropriate that tomorrow's two-hour "Silver Anniversary Special" (8 p.m.) is being presented as a series of "SportsCenter"-style segments and hosted by Chris Berman, one of ESPN's originals.

Berman recalls the days of cable's infancy.

"Who had cable in 1979? Who'd watch it?" he said. "It all seemed surreal. I mean, covering men's pro slow-pitch softball. The Milwaukee Schlitz vs. the Kentucky Bourbons, brought to you by Budweiser. We were a cult.

"In many ways, we rode cable's coattails, and cable rode ours. MTV and CNN came along right after us."

The anniversary chronicles ESPN's history, not the story of sports over the past 25 years. In some ways they're the same, but the high points are as much about TV as about sports. For example, among the ESPN milestones: 1980: Covering 13 NCAA basketball tournament games in two days, with "cut-ins" to other games. An amazing development at the time, but far less than what we take for granted today.

1987: Live middle-of-the-night America's Cup coverage from Australia. The action was spectacular, with pictures and sounds also coming from above (helicopters) as well as on board the boats.

1987: Acquiring the rights to televise NFL games on Sunday nights, which opened the door to adding Major League Baseball and established ESPN as a major player in televised sports.

ESPN also honed its journalistic teeth along the way, as Bob Ley provided some of the first news coverage out of San Francisco after an earthquake hit just before a World Series game was to start in 1989. (ESPN had a portable generator at Candlestick Park, enabling it to broadcast reports when power went out in the area.)

The show contains the obligatory bloopers. You'll have your own favorites, but mine always will be Larry Rawson (another ESPN original) running for his life when a road race starts unexpectedly as he is doing a standup shot in the street just in front of the starting line. Another segment covers Berman's infamous nicknames and the story of how they once were banned, then reinstated only after baseball Hall of Famer (and Berman pal) George Brett made it a national issue. There also is a segment on the still-running "This is SportsCenter" promotional campaign, and one featuring humorous old footage of "SportsCenter" hosts working in smaller markets before they made their way to Bristol.

The anniversary special is generally about sports and fun, but the show turns serious with a segment on Tom Mees, an ESPN original whose drowning death in 1996 still pains his former colleagues. Berman calls it "a long, strange trip." Profitable, too.

Double play
ESPN's ongoing twin countdowns (100 memorable moments, top stories of the past quarter-century) culminate Tuesday. The No. 1 moment will be unveiled during the 6 p.m. "SportsCenter," and the top story will be examined at 7 on "The Headlines," with Ley as host . . . Trivia: ESPN originally wanted the call letters SPN, but they were taken by a Spanish-language station . . . Twenty-five years ago, no one could have envisioned where sports and ESPN would be in 2004. At midnight tonight, ESPN tries to look ahead with "SportsCenter -- The Next 25 Years" . . . NBC shows Olympic beach volleyballers Misty May and Kerri Walsh in action this afternoon (Channel 7, 2 p.m.) from Chicago . . . Alert to campgrounds in New England: NESN has commissioned what it's calling a comedy/reality series called "Roughing It: New England." Outdoorsnik Charlie Moore is the host, and the show's roster is expected to include Bill Lee, Lyndon Byers, Mark Fidrych, and Pete Brock, and will feature good-natured competitions between two groups of happy campers. Sounds like "Animal House" on a road trip, meeting up with "The Great Outdoors" with John Candy and Dan Aykroyd.

Nation of viewers
Thursday night's Red Sox-Angels series finale drew a 14.0 rating (23 share), the third-highest NESN rating ever. The audience carried over to the postgame "Extra Innings" (5.8 rating). Meanwhile, the Patriots, even with no first-stringers in the lineup, did a 9.1 rating (16 share) on Channel 5 the same evening. The game peaked at a 10.8 in the first half . . . Give WEEI morning host John Dennis credit for helping to clear the cellphone-holding wavers from behind home plate at Fenway Park by bringing up the topic regularly in his show's weekly session with team CEO Larry Lucchino. Dennis's latest suggestion: On dugout cameras, turn off the red lights that indicate a camera is on, so fans on the first- and third-base lines won't know . . . Tonight, NBC has NASCAR from California Speedway (Channel 7, 7:30 green flag). Eight drivers are vying for the final three spots in the 10-man "Chase for the Nextel Cup," which begins with the Sept. 19 race at New Hampshire International Speedway. The points race sets the stage for some interesting competitive developments tonight and in next Saturday night's race in Richmond (a TNT telecast) . . . Channel 7's "Sports Xtra" returns tonight after a three-week Olympic hiatus. The Patriots' Christian Fauria is an in-studio guest, and other segments will include a regular session with Sox manager Terry Francona and a one-on-one with Sox Spanish broadcaster Uri Berenguer, who will talk about the Spanish-speaking players' influence on the team's clubhouse . . . Tonight's "Sports Final" (Channel 4, 11:30) will feature two vignettes from the upcoming DVD "Boston's Greatest Sports Stories: Beyond the Headlines," a Cramer Productions documentary that shows the history of Boston sports through the words and photos of the Globe sports department. Tonight's segments: the 2001 Patriots "Snow Bowl" game and Pedro Martinez's 1999 Division Series win against the Indians.

Bill Griffith's e-mail address is griffith@globe.com