I just finished watching the season finale of "Memphis Beat," a new cop drama on TNT. I almost gave up on the show several times. The acting is not great, the dialogue can be downright wooden but I found myself staying with it because I truly did like "the beat."

The music selection is sensational. Where do I rank on "The Shallow Scale" by admitting this?

Jason Lee plays the lead role as Det. Dwight Hendricks, a more than slightly clichéd character of the dedicated policeman with a softer side. Lee, most famous for portraying "Dave" in "Alvin and the Chipmunks" and as Earl in television's "My Name is Earl," has his moments but isn't entirely convincing as a lawman. His writers do him no favors, either, shackling him with lines like, "M'aam, we'll do whatever we have to do to make sense of this thing."

When I saw the show had cast Alfre Woodard as Lt. Tanya Lee, I had seriously high hopes. Lee is a multiple Emmy winner for guest performances in "L.A. Law" and "The Practice," and she turned in a riveting portrayal as Dr. Roxanne Turner being interrogated by detective Frank Pembleton (played by the incomparable Andre Braugher) on "Homicide." But the desired chemistry between the lieutenant and Det. Hendricks just isn't there.

Woodard huffed and puffed mightily in the early episodes trying to come off as the no nonsense squad leader putting the detective in his place but the emotion was not believable. She also had to soldier on, reciting hackneyed writing.

"Cut down in the prime of life. Life can be cruel," said Lt. Lee in a recent episode, to which detective Hendricks replied, "God can't be that twisted."

Compare the religious references in that script to the superbly dark "Rescue Me." Lead character Tommy Gavin (Dennis Leary) was trying to cure his alcoholic daughter with some tough love, dunking her head into a baptismal fountain full of booze at a church altar. He looked up at a crucifix, staring at the face of Christ.

"Stop l…

I've had the good fortune to work in television the past 34 years but was never more fortunate than last night. I was part of the Fox Sports Wisconsin broadcast team for the Brewers-Cardinals game that ended with Trevor Hoffman's 600th career save.

Milwaukee scored two in the fifth to take a 4-2 lead. An audible buzz in the stands grew louder with each passing inning. When acting manager Willie Randolph (Ken Macha was ejected in the second inning) brought in John Axford and made a double lineup switch with one out in the eighth, it appeared Hoffman would remain seated in the bullpen while his young protege would be called on to finish the final inning and two-thirds.

But when the Brewers were retired in the bottom of the eighth, I raced to the end of the camera pit adjacent to the home dugout. Axford was putting on his warm-up jacket. "Hells Bells!" Ax was done for the evening!

"I was really hoping Trevor would get the call," said an unfailingly unselfish Axford. "This will be my best 'hold' ever."

The crowd, whipped into a frenzy when Trevor trotted in accompanied by his AC/DC anthem, quickly grew quiet when Colby Rasmus led off the ninth with a bloop single, an unlucky Texas League-hit that generated inevitable flashbacks to the veteran's early season struggles.

But with every Brewers player and coach stationed on the dugout's top step, every fan standing, screaming, hoping and praying, there was a palpable sense of karma throughout the stadium. This team, this city, would not let Trevor fail.

"I was just praying I didn't let a ball go through my legs or throw one in the stands," Casey McGehee told reporters after the game.

The Brewers fortuitously had stationed big game veteran Craig
Counsell at shortstop. A two-time World Series champion, Counsell knows all about making plays under pressure and did so twice in the final inning. He took a flip from Ricky Weeks to force Rasmus, and then fired to first to double up Randy Winn…

If you are preparing for a fantasy football draft in the next few days, I wish you good fortune. If you're preparing for two fantasy football drafts, I wish that you'd reconsider your commitment. If you are preparing for more than two fantasy football drafts, I wish you'd get a life.

There simply is no earthly reason to be in multiple fantasy leagues. If you are, there's a great big beautiful world out there and you're missing it. I worked with someone a few years ago who was in SIX Fantasy Leagues at the same time. "I just couldn't say no," he told me. "With six different teams with many different players, don't you find a lot of scenarios where you're betting against yourself?" I asked. "Oh, all the time," he replied. Somehow, this made sense to him.

I tried fantasy football for a year in the early ‘90s. I knew it was eating me alive when I stayed up to watch an entire Sunday night game because I had Flipper Anderson on my squad. This happened while I anchored the Fox 6 morning show and had to get up at 2 a.m. And I spent countless restless nights deliberating certain roster moves, trades and supplemental draft picks. For me at least, it was time to put away childish things.

"I was screaming at your brother last Sunday," I once told former Bucks assistant coach Butch Carter, brother of former Vikings wide receiver Cris Carter, an ill-fated member of my fantasy squad who had the unmitigated gall to get seriously injured during my team's playoff drive.

"Get up, you @#%$%^&*!" I shouted at the TV.

"I've heard that from a few folks this week," Butch laughed.

The most absurd fantasy scenario I ever witnessed happened at the Las Vegas Hilton during an NFL Sunday.

"Did you hear what Emmitt did today?" one young bellhop breathlessly asked another. "I needed him to go over 100 yards with one TD to win my week."

Here were these two dudes standing about 200 yards from the greatest sportsbook on the planet (27 pages of Super Bowl proposition wagers last February) where they coul…