Tonight marks something I have been looking forward to for a while. It is the debut of ESPN's "30 For 30". To celebrate ESPN's 30th anniversary, the network decided to produce 30 documentaries. Seems sort of run-of-the-mill, considering their track record, right? Well, this is different.

The premise of these docs is that they cover stories that, at the time, were the front and center of the sports world, but over time, have faded away. And, more importantly, they have gathered some of the best film makers to produce the films.

Tonight, Peter Berg tackles the trade of Wayne Gretzky from Edmonton to LA. For the next several Tuesdays, there is a new one each week. I mean, just look at this list:

Barry Levinson ("The Natural", "Diner") on the Baltimore Colts Marching Band.

Albert Maysles ("Gimme Shelter") on Ali-Holmes.

Dan Klores ("Crazy Love", "Black Magic") on Reggie Miller and the Knicks.

Brett Morgen ("The Kid Stays in the Picture") on June 17, 1994 (O.J.!!!!)

Alex Gibney ("The Smartest Guys in the Room") on Steve Bartman.

Steve James ("Hoop Dreams") on the trial of Allen Iverson.

Steve Nash on Terry Fox.

Ron Shelton ("Bull Durham") on Michael Jordan in minor league baseball.

Yes, Jordan played baseball (with Harry Caray goodness):



Barbara Kopple ("Harlan County USA" and "Fallen Champ", the unbelievably good Tyson doc) on the Steinbrenners.

My God, they even have one on Johann Olav Koss.

I think it is shaping up as one of the best things ESPN has done, let alone, tried.

Meal of Links

People are really upset that Gourmet has ceased publication. It seems Bon Apetit (BTW, Ape tit in the spell check) has won out.

Who's on Twitter. I am not.

Really lengthy songs that are worth the time. "Autobahn" makes the list. I was actually thinking about "The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys" today and that made it, as well.

Speaking of cool projects, Roseanne Cash has come out with "The List". It seems when she was on the road with her Dad, he wanted to make sure she learned some of the songs he thought were classics. He created a list of 100 tunes and 12 of them appear on this album. It sounds great. And she already has a Volume 2 lined up.

Jeezy creezy. if I saw clouds like this, there would be a cleanup on aisle 9. Could not get out of the way fast enough.

Merrill Markoe remains one of the funniest women I've ever heard. Her comment on David Letterman: "As you can imagine this is a very emotional moment for me because Dave promised me many times that I was the only woman he would ever cheat on."

Exercise Yard

OK, the Rush Limbaugh buying the Rams jokes have already started. "They'll always run right."

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53 Across: Thurman of "Kill Bill" (3 letters) Answer: Uma