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Focuses on the children's public television show `Zoom.' Details of the production of the show. INSET: Making the cut as a ZOOMer.

There's probably no more Iwo Jima-like image in sports than that of hockey's Bobby Orr flying headlong over the ice, stick upraised, the instant after scoring the Stanley Cup-winning goal in 1970. That famous photograph, naturally, graces the cover of Orr's long-in-coming autobiography, Orr: My Story, written with Vern Stenlund, a former NHL player himself who is now on the faculty of Canada's University of Windsor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Championship parades in Boston have become almost as common as, well, the Boston Common. Finally, though, Bill Russell, the athlete whose name became synonymous with championships in the 1950s and '60s, has been immortalized with a bronze statue at the heart of the Hub - on City Hall Plaza. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anyone who thought Boston's Wednesday night World Series triumph ended St. Louis's sports misery in Beantown better get out of town fast. That's because on Friday, just two days after the Red Sox' 4-2 Series victory over the Cardinals, the Hub will honor Bill Russell, the player who led the Celtics to 11 NBA championships but was originally drafted by the old St. Louis Hawks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the tennis world, it's safe to say that Jimmy Connors grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, both literally and figuratively. While Billie Jean King was famous for having a public-courts background, at least she was from southern California, as are inner-city products Serena and Venus Williams. But Connors managed to achieve tennis greatness while learning the game in East St. Louis, Ill., a blue-collar city with real winters, a gritty reputation, and no tradition in the sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surely Mike Piazza is the only baseball player who has done all of the following: met the pope, had Ted Williams visit his backyard batting cage, assisted the Italian baseball federation, and hit a memorable post-9/11 home run in New York City. Piazza also is probably the greatest hitting catcher of all-time. Yes, better than Yogi Berra and Johnny Bench. He makes his case with a .308 lifetime batting average and 427 home runs, the most ever by a big-league catcher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spring training baseball is just revving up in Florida and Arizona, and Opening Day is still weeks away, yet the closest thing the sport has to a true world series (notice the lowercase) begins Saturday in Fukuoka, Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are only eight current players who have been selected as Super Bowl MVPs - Tom Brady, Eli and Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Deion Branch, Ray Lewis, and Santonio Holmes. All the rest have retired, but where have they gone? Many, naturally, have kept a connection to football. Here is a rundown of the 33 who have retired. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If you're a fan of the National Basketball Association, Hall of Famer Jerry West can never be far from your mind, even subliminally. West, you see, is the player depicted since 1969 in the league's silhouetted logo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When Jim Boeheim enrolled at Syracuse University in 1962 and made the basketball team as a walk-on from nearby Lyons, N.Y., no one, including Boeheim, could have imagined that he would eventually coach the Orange to 900 wins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Game 1 of the 2012 World Series was not only a big night for Pablo Sandoval but for player nicknames as well. The roly-poly San Francisco Giants third baseman, whose nickname is Kung Fu Panda, became the first player in history to homer in his first three at-bats in a World Series game, propelling the Giants to a 8-3 win over the Detroit Tigers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Heisman Trophy is never won on the basis of what a player does in just one game, but it takes a signature game to become a strong contender. West Virginia quarterback Geno Smith delivered that in spades Saturday against Baylor. By throwing for eight touchdowns in the Mountaineers' 70-63 win, he vaulted to the top of just about everybody's Heisman scorecard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The older any major-league team is, the harder it can be to pick the best players during its existence. So when the Boston Red Sox decided to let fans select an All-Fenway Park 100th Anniversary Team, it offloaded a lot of potential controversy in choosing from an incredibly deep reservoir of all-stars, from Babe Ruth, who pitched for the Red Sox from 1914 to 1919, to David Ortiz, the team's current sultan of swat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If you were selecting the best Boston Red Sox players of the past 100 years, would Babe Ruth make the cut? And what about Ted Williams? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hope Solo is not the type of person to write anything other than a no-holds-barred, tell-all kind of autobiography. That is exactly what Solo: A Memoir of Hope, written with columnist Ann Killion of SportsIllustrated.com, delivers: a behind-the-scenes account of the good, the bad, and the ugly of Solo's challenging personal life and that of her many years as a goalkeeper for the US women's national soccer team. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most enduring photographic images from any Olympics is wobbly-legged Italian marathoner Dorando Pietri approaching the finish line with a various officials and British bobbies providing close escort. The year was 1908, at the first of three London Olympics, which makes the snapshot especially interesting as a field of male runners prepare to toe the line for the closing event at the current London Games. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the MLB All-Star break, Pittsburgh and Washington have shed their losing images in a 2012 season marked by an uncommon number of brilliant pitching performances. Can the Pirates and Nats keep it up? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Josh Pahigian and Kevin O'Connell have done what many baseball fans only dream about doing, and they've done it not just once, but twice. Their fantasy come true? Attending games at all 30 major-league stadiums, and doing it during one whirlwind season. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jamie Moyer of the Colorado Rockies broke a Major League Baseball age barrier Tuesday night by becoming the oldest pitcher to ever win a game at age 49. He handcuffed the San Diego Padres for seven innings, picking up the "W" in a 5-3 victory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forget the two games the Oakland A's and Seattle Mariners played in Tokyo last week. The real launch of the 2012 Major League Baseball season occurs tonight in Miami. The game will be televised on ESPN at 7 p.m. ET. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Basketball and football excellence seldom go hand in hand in college sports – at least not in the same academic year – and the teams playing in Saturday's NCAA Final Four in New Orleans are no exception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What began in 1939 with the University of Oregon's "Tall Firs" winning the first men's NCAA basketball championship before 5,500 spectators has grown into March Madness. The three-week tournament begins with a few undercard games Tuesday night (one attended by President Obama), but things start in earnest Thursday and Friday with 64 teams in the main draw getting into action in eight cities. Utlimately the road leads to New Orleans, the site of this season's Final Four on March 31 and April 2. Here's a collection of random facts to help you enjoy the tournament: [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A veteran Monitor observer of the sports scene offers his two cents worth on the NFL's ultimate contest in a missive to the commissioner. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Who deserves to get into the Pro Football Hall of Fame? We've made our picks (to see them, click below). Whether they match the official annual selections, which are announced each year the day before the Super Bowl, remains to be seen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Before settling into your favorite recliner or couch for Sunday's big game, here's a quick collection of information to help you enjoy America's most watched sports event: [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As sports rematches go, tonight's Louisiana State vs. Alabama game (8:30 ET on ESPN) ranks as college football's version of the famous "Thrilla in Manila" title fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier back in 1975. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Alabama and Auburn prepare to take the field Saturday in their annual 'Iron Bowl' rivalry, the state's focus will be on trees as well as football. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Penn State's Joe Paterno is already three decades beyond being age-eligible for AARP membership. The university's head football coach not only can claim seniority in his profession, he's about to reach an Everest peak with more wins than any other major-college coach in history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 107th World Series opens in St. Louis Wednesday night at 8:05 pm Eastern time. Here are some basic stats you should know about the Texas Rangers and the St. Louis Cardinals. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

On the night baseball's regular season ended there was only one home run that anyone paid any attention to – Evan Longoria's walk-off shot in the bottom of the 12th inning versus the Yankees that secured a wild-card playoff berth for the Tampa Bay Rays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here are 10 interesting facts that I didn't know about Mickey Mantle but learned from reading "The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood," by Jane Leavy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One wouldn't think that in the heart of Red Sox country, people would be clamoring to read about a Yankee. But that's exactly what happened earlier this season when there was a run on at the Minuteman Library network for Jane Leavy's acclaimed biography The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood. To deal with the reader demand, member libraries were forced to order extra copies – and this for a book released last October. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"A Game of Inches" by Peter Morris takes present-day readers on a tour of baseball's origins. Here are 10 interesting glimpses into the game of the past – and how it impacts baseball as we know it today. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As the 2011 major-league baseball season begins, imagine yourself sitting in the stands with new friends from India. The questions they ask aren't going to be those of the lifetime fan -- "Will the Giants repeat as champions?" "Will the Pirates snap their 18-season losing streak?" etc. -- but rather those aimed at the very basics of the game. In other words, will you be prepared to explain why the bases are run in a counterclockwise, rather than a clockwise, direction? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What will be mostly remembered about the current March Madness, as with any edition of the men's NCAA tournament, will be the players and the plays, not the "suits." But coaches in their Brooks Brothers threads and the extra antiperspirant obviously play a huge role in getting their teams to the Sweet 16. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, a raft of books about major league baseball stadiums have been published. And why not, since for many fans their fondest sporting memories have to do with the sights and sounds of being at the ballpark. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If Super Bowl Sunday is the ultimate day for watching football, then the day after is surely prime time for dissecting the strategies that did and didn't work -- and, of course, for second-guessing all the coaching decisions. Expect "Monday morning quarterbacks" to be out in force. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Super Bowl teams provide a baby boomer with a look back at how his experiences have intersected, however briefly, with them over the years. The Steelers and Packers will meet Sunday in Super Bowl XLV. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The college football season ends tonight as undefeated teams from Auburn and Oregon tangle in the BCS Championship Game (or Bowl Championship Series Championship Game, if you like redundancy). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Along the way to their argument that the Bowl Championship Series is a disaster, the authors of "Death to the BCS" -- sportswriters Dan Wetzel, Josh Peter, and Jeff Passan -- also make these 10 points: [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The University of Connecticut women's basketball team will lose eventually, but when? That's the question that won't go away now that the Huskies have broken the all-time NCAA record for both women's and men's teams with 89 straight wins, and have since added a 90th for good measure Tuesday against an overmatched University of the Pacific squad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Longtime Yankees shortstop and captain Derek Jeter finalized a three-year, $51 million deal with the Bronx Bombers on Tuesday. Jeter is in some pretty select Yankee company, when it comes to records and all. Take our quiz and see how well you know the 11-time All-Star. Answers are revealed on subsequent pages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 106th World Series, featuring the Rangers and Giants, is underway. With the help of MLB.com and Baseball-reference.com, we've come up with a quiz to test your knowledge of World Series history. You'll find answers to questions on subsequent pages and on the last page of the quiz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

World Series number 106, between the Texas Rangers and San Francisco Giants, gets underway in 'The City by the Bay' Wednesday night. This will be the 19th time the Giants franchise qualified for the World Series. With help from sanfranciscogiants.com, take our quiz and put your Giants knowledge to the test. Answers to questions can be found on subsequent pages and on the final question page. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The World Series, featuring the Rangers and Giants, starts Wednesday night in San Francisco. With the help of texasrangers.com, we'd like to test what you know about the American League champions. You'll find answer for the previous question on following page – and at the end of the quiz. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]