Venturacountystarcom Sports Columnist Jim Carlisle

The Talk: These quarterbacks are the real McCoy

The Bowl Championship Series may or may not completely settle the question as to which college football team is the best this season, but one thing is clear: This was the best season ever for quarterback names.

V MLB Network debuts today on Time Warner and DirecTV

New Year's Day isn't the football-only TV bastion it used to be. For the second straight year, hockey is digging its skates into the landscape and now so is baseball. Baseball? That's right. MLB Network debuts at 3 p.m.

The Talk: Celebrate Christmas to the letter this year

Does your family send out Christmas letters? Ours does. I actually got to write ours this year and, to my surprise, it was subjected to very little editing.

The Talk: HBO looks at South's struggle to integrate college football

We hear a lot about how Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball in 1947. What we don't hear as much about is how much longer it took to do the same thing in college football in the South.

The Talk: Will recession trickle down to baseball?

When it comes to the economy, Major League Baseball, like a lot of us, is in a state of denial. For baseball this week that state of denial is Nevada. Baseball is holding its winter meetings at the plush Bellagio in Las Vegas.

The Talk: Not easy to get your shot in New York

New York City. What a place. If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. But it's not easy. Some days you almost feel like you have to shoot yourself to get any attention. Maybe that's what Plaxico Burress was thinking last week.

Carlisle: There's no reason to desert Detroit

Thanksgiving weekend is a TV sports weekend like few others. It's a weekend that begins on Thursday and doesn't really completely finish until "Monday Night Football." People talk a lot about how Super Bowl Sunday should be a national holiday.

TV-Radio notebook: Skins Game just a part of a large weekend menu

Although there are a bunch of college football games today and Saturday and some interesting pro games on Sunday, football isn't the only game in town this weekend. Not by a long shot.

The Talk: What a concept: Showing Lakers live

The most extraordinary thing about the Los Angeles Lakers this season is not their sizzling 11-1 start. It's not the incredible depth of their very talented roster.

Carlisle: Moving BCS to cable is mixed bag

The announcement this week that the Bowl Championship Series will be moving from Fox to ESPN starting in January 2011 leaves me with mixed feelings. First, ESPN has much more business doing college football postseason games than Fox does.