1. Eli and Peyton Manning will face one another in Super Bowl XLIII, drawing in even more casual fans than usual and lifting the average viewership to more than 100 million for the first time.

2. 1050 ESPN will move to 101.9 FM, improving its signal and ending the era of after-sunset interference from CHUM, an oldies station in Toronto.

3. SNY will add closed captioning for the hearing-impaired (and for sports bar patrons) in time for the Mets' opener, lest it read about its failure to do so here every single day.

4. SNY also will show the 1969 World Series in honor of that event's 40th anniversary - including Game 1, thus beating YES to the honor of being the first team-owned cable channel in New York to present a classic game that resulted in a loss.

5. Mike Francesa will announce a sidekick (and jingle) for his afternoon radio show sometime in February.

6. MSG will develop a discussion show featuring sportswriters from Cablevision-owned Newsday, not hosted by Bob Glauber or by me.

7. At least one local newspaper will ditch Baseball boxscores other than those involving the Yankees and Mets, another body blow to sports media traditionalists.

8. 1050 ESPN will develop a local show for the early afternoon slot currently occupied by national fare.

9. Barack Obama will name Jon Heyman the official Sports Journalist of America, allowing cash-strapped media companies to avoid employing anyone else.

10. Newsday will send me to the Super Bowl, and tell me to do nothing but blog and get coffee for Glauber.

Why did MLB Network pick Longoria over Babe?

Leftover thoughts from the MLB Network's debut Thursday, highlighted by the replay of Don Larsen's 1956 perfect game:

1. On Friday, I mentioned the cool 30-second countdown to launch in which a player wearing each uniform number beginning with Nolan Ryan at No. 30 was shown, down to Ozzie Smith at No. 1. I poked fun at the use of Evan Longoria for No. 3 rather than a certain Yankees rightfielder. But it turns out Longoria got the nod because every current team was represented once, and the Yankees had gotten their turn with Mickey Mantle.

2. Bob Costas should have offered a more detailed explanation of where the Larsen film came from. The kinescope (essentially film shot off a TV screen) was made for armed forces personnel for later viewing. It was in the possession not of MLB but of sports film collector Doak Ewing, who sold the rights to MLB Productions.

3. When the TV account of the Larsen game, with Mel Allen and Vin Scully, was shown at a fundraiser two years ago, organizers cut in Bob Wolff's familiar radio call for the last inning. I asked Wolff about the MLB Network using Scully's call and not his. He said: "I've heard the TV version and my version and I felt, and this holds to all radio calls against TV calls, I felt that it enhanced the show with the radio call, which is more dramatic than the TV call, where they prune all the words out. So I'm sorry they didn't use it."

4. Unfortunately, producers deleted from the national replay some of the cool postgame stuff I saw on the DVD I screened last week. For example, seconds after the end of the game, Scully bizarrely throws in yet another plug for the Encyclopedia of Baseball, telling viewers they could read all about the previous perfect game in Baseball history in the book. (Scully referred to Larsen's gem as only the second in history, joining Charlie Robertson in 1922, but in fact there had been four others.) It made me wish I were a TV sports columnist in 1956, except that there was no such thing at the time.

5. In the third, Allen welcomes Carl Hubbell to the booth, calling him "Old Square Pants." I had not heard this nickname before, and did not know anyone had beaten SpongeBob to it. Carl didn't seem entirely comfortable in the role of booth guest, but he was much better at it than Christian Slater.

6. Let's just say Casey Stengel's acting skills in another in the endless stream of Gillette commercials was not on par with Peyton Manning's in his MasterCard ads.

7. Among the highlights of Costas' sitdown with Larsen and Berra was Larsen's admission that he initially was unaware he had thrown a perfect game. Not that he didn't realize he had retired all 27 batters; he simply was not familiar with the term "perfect game" and figured he had just pitched an extra-good no-hitter.

Islanders' ticket to Winter Classic: John Tavares

Gotta give Chris Botta credit for his zealous, ongoing defense of the Islanders' right to be a part of future NHL Winter Classics on his independent but team-sponsored blog,

www.islanderspointblank.com.

But it is difficult to imagine it happening in the near future. The Isles are national TV ratings lepers, at least for now.

Botta suggests a game-changing superstar such as John Tavares might be the only hope.

I never had heard of young Mr. Tavares before, but I trust Botta that he is a good player.

Sir Charles is a media addiction

Accessible, quotable and therefore irresistible, Charles Barkley long has been a go-to opinion-spouter not only for TNT, his primary employer, but for rival networks such as ESPN, premium channels such as HBO, radio shows such as Dan Patrick's, blogs such as this one and many other outlets.

There is no point blaming him, though, for the folly of being portrayed as a voice of reason on assorted topics while at the same time being a serial producer of ill-considered remarks and ill-considered actions, most recently this past week - a DUI bust with a sordid back story.

Clearly, the people who keep giving him a forum are the ones who must think twice, or at least put him in some sort of context.

It won't be easy. The guy can be charming, and addictive. Two months ago, I wrote about a joke in less than good taste that Barkley made that presumed Isiah Thomas had attempted suicide.

The story attracted significant national publicity. I liked the attention but worried about ramifications: Specifically, that Sir Charles might be angry and clam up in the future.

My concerns proved to be unfounded.

Sundays at 4:15 p.m. again are

NFL ratings gold

For the second year in a row, Fox's average rating for NFL games this season - 10.5 percent of homes - surpassed the prime-time average for NBC of 10.2. CBS averaged 10.0.

The season continued a recent trend in which the most powerful ratings slot of all is late afternoon on Sundays, where there is less competition than in prime time.

Fox said its national games on doubleheader Sundays were the highest-rated show anywhere on TV this fall, averaging a 13.7 rating and 22.3 million viewers, surpassing "Dancing With the Stars" in rating (12.6) and "CSI" in viewers (20.4 million).

The 10 highest-rated regular-season games were in the 4:15 slot on either Fox or CBS.