NBC'S HADEN ON CLAUSEN WATCH.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH

MEDIA

Might as well make note of it:

Pat Haden seems to be as much in the dark as anyone else about Notre Dame's starting quarterback as the Fighting Irish open their season at home Saturday against Georgia Tech. But NBC's analyst expects Jimmy Clausen to at least create a buzz coming out of the tunnel as the network launches its seven-game Notre Dame football package with the 12:30 p.m. kickoff.

"I have never been witness to the hype that surrounds Jimmy Clausen, and I was in Los Angeles during John Elway's high school career (at Granada Hills)," Haden, starting his 10th season as NBC's Notre Dame analyst, said of the freshman out of Oaks Christian High in Westlake Village. "I have seen him play twice on TV and he has very good mechanics and accuracy. I think we'll definitely see a lot of him this year."

Bob Papa will do play-by-play and Alex Flanagan is on the sidelines, subbing for Tom Hammond and Lewis Johnson, who are covering the World Track and Field Championships for NBC this weekend in Japan.

Ross Porter, three years removed from being one of the Dodgers' play- by-play announcers after a 28-year run, has recorded a few dozen vignettes that focus on the inspirational stories in sports, to air locally on KLAC-AM (570) during drive time starting Oct. 1.

Porter personally sold American Airlines' corporate officials in Dallas on sponsoring the series, which will likely spread nationally after its L.A. launch.

"These are just stories about individuals in sports and what they are doing off the field to make a difference," said Porter from his Valley home. "I think the country in general is stuck in a negative mood and needs some good news, to inspire and encourage good acts. I don't know anything better than sports to reach more people."

Paul Sunderland has been hired by the AVP pro beach volleyball tour to do play-by-play with Karch Kiraly and Sinjin Smith on its tournaments this weekend from Cincinnati and next weekend in Las Vegas. Both have rare appearances on MyNetworkTV, linked in L.A. to KCOP Channel 13. The men's final from Cincinnati airs Saturday on tape at 8 p.m., after the Kansas City-St. Louis NFL exhibition game (at 5 p.m., delayed from Thursday).

A half-hour docudrama called "Unsettled Scores" that re-examines the mysterious 2002 disappearance and presumed death of former NBA player Bison Dele will sneak its way into the EPSN2 lineup today at 4:30 p.m. in what could be the pilot for a interesting series.

Noted sportswriter Bill Nack takes what appears to be an active role in looking at the evidence and, with some dramatic re-enactments, tries to figure out what happened to Dele, who with his girlfriend and a boat captain vanished from the vessel off Tahiti. In a very stylistic, suspenseful manner that avoids the cheesiness of an "Unsolved Mysteries" episode, Nack lays down the back stories with archived and current interviews, leading the viewer to believe the logical suspect in this whole tragedy is Dele's brother, Kevin (aka Miles). But since he committed suicide later that year, the case remains unresolved.

ESPN spokesperson Keri Potts said this show, produced by Red Line Films in New York, could develop into a series that uncovers other sports mysteries of the past, including the "accidental" death of former Los Angeles Rams owner Carroll Rosenbloom, who drowned in the ocean near his Florida home in 1979.