ESPN SportsCenter anchors from left Chris Berman, Dan Patrick, Bob Ley and Stuart Scott prepare Sunday night for ESPNšs 25,000th episode of SportsCenter. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        Maybe Sunday's heavily hyped 25,000th ESPN “SportsCenter” actually was the 25,000th “SportsCenter.”

        At least there's a chance. ESPN's Mike Soltys suggests that despite “painstaking” research, the total might remain a mystery since the show's records from a couple months in 1980 aren't exact. And, it's hard to calculate when a 2 a.m. ET “SportsCenter” is a repeat of the 1 a.m. show, or was updated enough to count as a separate show.

        Whatever. The real point is that ESPN's most profitable program, which now airs 11 hours per day, has promoted itself to the point that anybody would care how many times it aired. And while it has already dispatched direct competitors from Fox Sports Net and CNN, ESPN is still running out grounders. Sunday's anniversary show actually included Michael Jordan saying “to some degree, we 'all' need (”SportsCenter”) to motivate ourselves each and every day.”

        Apparently, “SportsCenter” was gifted with such self-confidence from the get-go. In 1979, anchor Lee Leonard spoke the first words on the first show. “Then, we all patted ourselves on the back until our shoulders were sore,” he said, by phone, Sunday. “But we threw it to a football game and there was no sound. So they wanted me to do play-by-play” — which he did after being told which team was which. Says Leonard, who moved to CNN after a few months at ESPN and now hosts a talk show on local New Jersey cable TV: “At the start, it was a bunch a kids thrown in the sandbox to play with the toys.”

        Sunday's show, however, shows that heritage hasn't been completely forgotten. It noted the show's cultural impact, such as actress Cameron Diaz, in “There's Something About Mary,” suggestively recommend to a guy that he “come up to my room and watch “SportsCenter”.” (And that was in a 20th Century Fox movie, even as Fox's now-gone “National Sports Report” was making its run at “SportsCenter.”)

        And Sunday's show also found time to announce that Josh Arnoldus, of Oak Park, Ill., won a trip to ESPN by winning a 25,000th anniversary essay contest with this entry: “I sincerely apologize for missing the May 23, 1991 9 a.m. replay edition of the previous night's 11 p.m. show. Job interview. Long story. Won't happen again.”

        Clearly, the show has changed lives. “SportsCenter's” Rich Eisen worked as a comedian and at a Redding, Calif., TV station before being hired by ESPN in 1996. By phone Sunday, Eisen said he sometimes thinks where he'd be if he hadn't been hired — “then I wake up screaming in a pool of sweat.”

        But Bill Conlin, on ESPN's “Sports Reporters” Sunday, might have pinpointed the big impact of “SportsCenter's” endless highlights: “Now, there's a whole generation of fans that don't know there are long, dull periods in games.”

        —-

        In noting that nine couples were married on the racetrack before TNT's Sharpie 500 Saturday, TNT's Wally Dallenbach cited an uplifting detail. The couples wore NASCAR merchandise suggesting each husband and wife had the same favorite driver. Except one couple, whose clothes from competing teams, said Dallenbach, suggested “an interfaith marriage.” ...

        Forget the calendar. Autumn officially began during Ohio State's 45-21 win over Texas Tech, when Buckeye coach Jim Tressel growled on ABC at halftime: “You never have enough points on Texas Tech — they're a scrappin' bunch!” ...

        ABC's Lynn Swann, as a photo of old football nemesis Jack Tatum, as a player, was shown onscreen on Saturday: “I think he's got my brain cells tucked under his arm.” ...

        Although ABC has shown the Little League World Series since 1963, suddenly there seems to be concern about those kids being on TV. Maybe it's because viewers have to hear weird canned lines like this from Brent Musburger, after Louisville clinched the U.S. title Saturday night: “The Little League sun shines brightly on my old Kentucky home!” ...

        Since NASCAR drivers can seem so upbeat, it was refreshing to see some human imperfection on TNT's Sharpie 500. After Robby Gordon bumped Jimmie Johnson out of the race, there was a touching shot of Johnson waiting to wave to him — principally with his middle finger. Then Ward Burton, after he'd thrown his gloves at Dale Earnhardt Jr., who'd knocked him out, told viewers: “I wish I would have had something I could've shot through the window.” ...

        If baseball players strike Friday, Fox will replace its Saturday games with an hour-long roundtable discussion of the sport.

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