(years away from the baseball microphone means plenty of time for provocative performance art!)

From the New York Daily News’ Bob Raissman :

Could the arrival of a new player – Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) – on Major League Baseball’s national TV landscape signal the return of Bob (Rapping Roberto) Costas, one of the game’s marquee play-by-play practitioners, to the broadcast booth?

Considering Costas has not worked a nationally televised baseball game since 1999, when he called the Yankees-Braves World Series for NBC, the thought of him back yacking into a baseball microphone is more than intriguing.

Still, after speaking with him yesterday, it is clear the notion of a baseball broadcasting comeback, for the baseball-addicted Costas, is not exactly a tantalizing possibility.

“Until you called I hadn’t even thought about it. I’m certainly not presuming I’ll even be asked. But if I were, I would have to respectfully decline,” Costas said. “It would be one thing if NBC had gotten a piece of baseball. That would be a natural fit. But at this stage I’m not chasing after stuff. NBC and HBO have been great to me. That’s where my loyalties are and that’s what viewers associate me with.”

This seems as good a time as any to dig up Norman Chad’s obituary for Costas, as it appeared in the Houston Chronicle last September.