IT'S TOUGH TO CRACK THIS DUBIOUS DOZEN.

Byline: Tom Hoffarth The Media

We've been sent reeling from so many black eyes through the first 11 months of this year that the 1999 version of the sports media Dubious Dozen doesn't even need to worry about December.

Congrats all around. We think.

However, for unscrupulous behavior, hypocritical hijinks and just downright stupidity, we hesitate to honor these 12 so close to Thanksgiving because, well, it could get lumped into all those other annual media Turkey Awards.

Our list knocks the stuffing out of them anyway.

Consider one that didn't make it: CBS studio analyst Marcus Allen, at halftime of the AFC divisional playoff game, came up with a scoop. He talked to Marty Schottenheimer, his former coach with the Kansas City Chiefs, who confirmed that he would return as the team's coach.

The next day, Schottenheimer resigned.

For continuing to stop us in our tracks and make us re-evaluate the boundaries of sports journalism, we give you:

Samantha Stevenson

The crime: Overall obnoxious behavior with a press credential.

Eighteen years ago, the freelance sportswriter who worked for The New York Times and Playboy had a daughter, Alexandra, who grew up to make the '99 Wimbledon semifinals. How sweet.

Except that mom couldn't stop drawing attention to herself. She made allegations about racism and lesbianism on the women's pro circuit. She controlled her daughter's interview sessions - often taking them over herself.

What blew her cover was when the Fort Lauderdale Times found out, through a search of public records, that Alexandra's birth-father was former NBA star Julius Erving, conceived through an extra-marital affair in 1980.

What was a sportswriter doing bedding down with a star athlete? In Samantha Stevenson's mind, it was obvious - it net her a super kid.

The aftermath: Mom and daughter began a media blitz of interviews, starting with a Barbara Walters special.

It came out that Stevenson did all kinds of unethical things as a sportswriter in Philadelphia in the late '70s, enough to where the Phillies players' wives had her barred from the team locker room for hitting on their husbands.

It's no wonder some male athletes fear females reporters in the locker room. This sets sportswriting back to when hemlines seemed more important than deadlines.

Jim Gray

The crime: During a live NBC interview for baseball's Team of the Century in October, he tried to make Pete Rose come clean about betting on baseball, but ended up badgering him into a needless confrontation.

Over a three-day period Gray managed to make Rose look like a sympathetic character, made a pathetic character of himself when he failed to apologize for ruining a moment, was made a fool by the New York Yankees' Chad Curtis in a live postgame interview and received little to no support from his journalistic brethren.

The aftermath: Los Angeles News Group colleague Bob Keisser revealed that Gray had been instructed by his boss, Dick Ebersol, to go hard on the apology line of questioning and get Rose to confess on the air. It was an out the spineless Gray didn't want to take.

Rose, meanwhile, comes out smelling like one. Last week, he appeared (although we have yet to find any witnesses) on ``The Martin Short Show'' and did a spoof of the Gray interview. Gray hasn't been seen since the World Series.

NBC Sports chief Dick Ebersol

The crime: When he wasn't puppeteering Gray or telling the president of John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance to ``shut up'' for attacking sponsorship of the scandal-ridden IOC, Sir Dick was acting noble for rehiring NBA play-by-play man Marv Albert about a year after his scandalous sex life became public.

The aftermath: Turner and Madison Square Garden Network took the initial risk by hiring Albert for NBA games long before Ebersol tested the public reaction. And when Fox made overtures during the summer to hire Albert as an NFL play-by-play man, Ebersol admitted he had to sign Albert for fear of losing him to the competition.

Bob Costas

The crime: In the Oct. 16 issue of TV Guide, in a story accompanied by a picture of him with this pathetic ``Why me?'' look on his face, the NBC sportscaster whimpered that he doesn't understand why people think of him as a pompous know-it-all on baseball.

``I have tried to make valid points,'' said Costas. ``Unfortunately, the focus seems to be on me instead of the validity of my statements. . . . I often have been portrayed as being intractable. . . . It gets frustrating. It's not my intention to draw attention to myself by being outspoken or contrary. Yet the mere mention that something widely perceived as wonderful is not nearly as wonderful as it may appear leaves me branded a crank.''

Costas later tried to improve his image with a Sports Illustrated story headlined ``Costas Unplugged,'' where, among other things, he complained about athletes who expound their religious beliefs.

The aftermath: Forced us to look up the word ``intractable.'' It fits.

Dateline NBC

The crime: During the Jan. 24 show, a bulletin flashed across the bottom of the screen reporting that Joe DiMaggio had died. Except he didn't.

NBC explained the blunder: A staffer loaded that bulletin into the graphic database so that when it did happen, NBC could instantly report it.

The aftermath: Stephen Brill, in his journalism watchdog magazine Brill's Content, analyzed the big picture: ``It shows, I think, the ultimate insular thinking. . . . they're keeping score in the wrong game. Is cleverly loading up a headline in advance announcing the inevitable really their idea of enterprise journalism? Is somebody at NBC really going to go up to his boss the next morning and get a big pat on the back when he announces triumphantly that the `Yankee Clipper' died at 9:08 and we had it on the air at 9:10?''

Jerry Glanville

The crime: The Fox NFL analyst was sued in May by Minneapolis Star Tribune reporter Paul Levy for running him over with a motorcycle borrowed from the team mascot before a Vikings game the previous November, injuring his arm and shoulder.

When a replay was shown on TV during the game, Glanville said: ``What I did was ran into a sportswriter. I've been trying to kill one of those guys for years.''

The aftermath: As further jurisprudence is pending, Fox didn't let the door hit Glanville on the back as his contract ran out. CBS hired him.

The Indy Racing League 

The crime: It tried to prevent Sports Illustrated from having a credential to cover the Indianapolis 500 in late May, citing the magazine's decision to run a photograph of the body of a victim of an IRL crash in North Carolina earlier in the month.

IRL chief Tony George also took shots at SI motor sports reporter Ed Hinton, who had been critical of some of the organization's moves. George called Hinton ``dangerous to himself and the sport.''

The aftermath: George is the real danger. When other newspapers threatened to boycott coverage of the Indy 500, the issue was magically resolved.

ESPN's X Games

The crime: The highlight of the made-for-TV sporting event from San Francisco last July wasn't even shown on TV. In the freestyle motocross, 15-year-old Travis Pastrana went off the course and jumped his bike into San Francisco Bay. And the judges awarded him the gold medal.

The aftermath: ESPN officials said they didn't show it during the tape-delayed coverage because it might encourage others to try the same stunt.

Just because we watch bungy jumping doesn't mean we're all going to try it, OK?

Mike Ditka

The crime: The New Orleans Saints coach dressed in a tux and posed with rookie running back Ricky Williams in a wedding dress on a September cover of ESPN The Magazine.

The aftermath:About a month later, Ditka regretted doing it and blamed ESPN.

``I think there are certain things you regret in life,'' Ditka told the Akron Beacon Journal. ``You try to do people a favor and they take advantage of you. I would say that ESPN took advantage of Ricky and I (sic) in that situation. What goes around comes around; I'm not going to buy anything from them.''

Lee ``Hacksaw'' Hamilton (Still, not his real name)

The crime: The USC football radio play-by-play hack left at halftime of the USC-Oregon game on Sept. 25 from Eugene, Ore., because he needed to catch the first leg of a flight heading to Pittsburgh, where the NFL's Seattle Seahawks played the next day. Because the ego-maniac also does radio play-by-play for that team.

The aftermath: Could the school have been pleased having sideline reporter Tim Ryan come up to the booth to stumble through play-by-play of what turned out to be a three-overtime, 33-30 loss to the Ducks? Juggle enough eggs in the air, and soon enough, one will come down in your face.

KTLA Channel 5

The crime: The news director canned the well-respected and long-time sports anchor (Ed Arnold) and hired the Latina (Claudia Trejos) whose enunciation of the English language continues to baffle not only viewers but those who hold positions in the business.

The aftermath: Critics were blown off by said news director as being anti-female or anti-whatever-he-could-think-of to justify the hiring. We're all just pro-get-it-right.

The Los Angeles Times 

The crime: The mess created by sharing revenue with Staples Center over the L.A. Times Magazine issue in October was more a high-level blunder, although it dragged plenty of sportswriters into it unknowingly.

But here's one that happened right under their pica poles.

In their Oct. 27 ``Hot Corner'' spot on page 2 of sports, which is a regular feature labeled ``a consumer's guide to the best and worst of sports media and merchandise,'' the book by the late Times columnist Jim Murray called ``The Great Ones'' was reviewed by Mike James.

The review concluded: ``Savored a column or two at a time, this book is a comfortable bedside companion. It's a fine gift, or present to yourself. It is available in bookstores, or on the Internet at (the Times' bookstore site) or by calling (an 800 number).''

Nowhere does it tell readers that James, a Times assistant sports editor, is the book's editor and he wrote the introduction. Maybe the thinking was that would make him the best qualified on staff to review it in what is passed off as a non-revenue corner of the page.

The aftermath: It's a shame this looks as if they're trying to squeeze every penny out of Murray's memory.

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PHOTO SAMANTHA STEVENSON