FanHouse Dennis Miller

Tony Kornheiser gets very mad when I sit in his chair, pick up his personalized bobblehead from the studio set and shake the doll. In fact, even when I don't have the privilege of sometimes subbing for him on ESPN's Pardon The Interruption, he seems to dislike me -- maybe because I have a full head of hair or, more likely, because I'm intellectually beneath him.

That's OK. I am grateful anyway.

I thank him because he did the sportswriting profession proud in his three years on Monday Night Football. Kornheiser technically isn't a sportswriter anymore, having escaped the dying newspaper business like many of us, but when he was hired for one of the most high-profile assignments in sports television, he was dismissed by many viewers and critics as a columnist painfully out of his league.

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I'm sure everyone was happy about Barak Obama's infomercial prior to part two of Game 5 of the World Series. Now he, along with John McCain, will have their final words during halftime of the Steelers-Redskins game on Monday Night Football (via PFT).

ESPN has announced that both Obama and McCain will be interviewed during halftime of the Monday Night Football game between the Redskins and Steelers.

Chris Berman will interview both candidates separately. The interviews will be taped during the day on Monday and will air at halftime.

Who better than Chris Berman to do these interviews? What we need to hear from these candidates are their favorite 1970s rock songs and nicknames for their VP picks (Sarah "Lunch" Palin?). I don't need to hear Arizona senator John McCain chatting about the Arizona Cardinals.

I do need Berman talking to the candidates about the cost of "deux-deux-deuxs" in this country in relation to Canada.

I understand the significance of the Monday nighter in Washington. It is Election Day Eve and that city will be sitting on pins and needles as many of those people are gearing up for the biggest day of their professional lives.

I don't think it is crazy talk to consider Boo Weekley the second most popular golfer in the country right now behind Tiger Woods.

His breakout performance at the Ryder Cup just showed a larger audience what some of us golf nerds have known for a while -- that the guy can fire up a crowd faster than Nicollette Sheridan streaking through a fraternity house. The video from his appearance on The Tonight Show last week is up and, let me tell you, it's an absolute afternoon-maker.

I think a +1 is in order to the person that does scheduling for The Tonight Show. Weekley, with all the smarts of cutting your steak with a spoon, was on the same couch as Dennis Miller, one of the quicker-witted guys of our time and someone with a vocabulary that makes Webster rock in his chair. I have no idea if this was on purpose or not, but if so, I want the name of the person in charge so I can send him or her a box of very expensive chocolates.

Weekley emerged doing the same Happy Gilmore dance that he did on the first fairway at Valhalla and then went into this little story, after the jump, about losing his keys in a Port-o-Potty. Check out the interview, which is short but absolutely worth it, after the jump.

Don't ya just love when people who have stained the game in the past come back to wag their finger at players in the present? Well, that' s exactly what happened when Pete Rose taped an appearance on Sports Unfiltered With Dennis Miller, which will air on Versus Wednesday night, discussing among other things, the Mitchell Report.

"I never thought anybody would make me look like an altar boy," Rose said. "I've been suspended 18 years for betting on my own team to win," he added. "I was wrong ... but these guys today, if the allegations are true, they're making a mockery of the game."

Rose was banished from baseball for life in 1989 for betting on games while he was manager of the Cincinnati Reds, his former team. He denied the gambling allegations until 2004, when he came clean in his autobiography. He is not eligible for the Hall of Fame.

"If you're going to put these guys that supposedly did steroids into the Hall of Fame, I mean I've got to get a shot somewhere," he said. Rose finished with 4,256 hits, breaking Ty Cobb's career record.

And if steroids were prevalent in his day? "I would have got 5,000 hits," he said.

Oh yeah. That's my definition of an altar boy: A guy who lied about betting on baseball for 15 years, then telling the truth not to cleanse his soul, but to sell extra copies of his autobiography. I'm not defending the PED guys, but show me somebody who's taking morality lessons from Pete Rose and I'll show you Satan's next minion.

That's tomorrow on Hypocrisy Sports Unfiltered With Dennis Miller.

You might have heard that Dennis Miller, the comedian turned Monday Night Football commentator turned political commentator, has a new weekly sports show on the Versus network.

Sports Unfiltered with Dennis Miller debuts Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET on that channel that you probably have on your cable system, but probably only know how to find if you're an NHL or bull riding fan. And although his first stint as a sports commentator is generally considered a failure, at least one guy from those days must have good feelings toward Miller: Al Michaels.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today reports that Michaels, who called play-by-play with Miller next to him in the MNF booth for two years, will be Miller's first guest tomorrow night. (Curt Schilling will be Miller's second guest, and since all three are enthusiastic supporters of President Bush, I can't help but wonder if some political talk will break out.) Showing up on Miller's show is a nice gesture on Michaels' part, sort of a validation that Michaels, one of the most respected sports broadcasters in television history, thinks that Miller has a place in the sports broadcasting world.

Having said that, I have my doubts about this show. Is there really an audience for a weekly sports show hosted by Dennis Miller? I'll be watching this Tuesday, but I have a feeling I won't be watching next Tuesday.