THESE MOMS ARE GOOD SPORTS.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH MEDIA

You could say they have formed a not-so-secret ya-ya motherhood, this new class of female sportscasters who are better known to TV viewers as the chicks who get to do all the cool stuff and to their kids as the person to run to when something gets scary.

They swap recipes on how to make their own baby food, what traveling strollers work best, even on the best nursing techniques during moments of sleep depravation. They stand firm on getting their bosses to understand that they need some quality time at home -- many don't have full-time nannies, despite what you might think -- and they can't always hop on a plane to cover a breaking story.

They've become their own sporty sorority, a support group out of necessity, for one. Out of the need to keep their own sanity, for the most part.

Andrea Kremer, the mom of 6-year-old kindergartner Will, explains it this way:

``If you think of it as a tree, there's all the mothers out there, then there's the branches with all the working moms,'' said the West L.A.-based reporter who just left ESPN to join NBC as a sideline reporter on its NFL Sunday night game starting this fall. ``Then you can refine that to the few working moms in the sports business. We do have a kindred spirit. We can relate to what each other has to do.''

Chris McKendry, mother of 3-year-old Eduardo and 1-year-old Drew, adds:

``There are some days when you do all the juggling and everything works perfectly and you think you've accomplished so much,'' said the ESPN ``SportsCenter'' anchor. ``But sometimes just one thing falls, and you think you're a disaster. We talk to each other, and we learn that we'll survive another day.''

Fox's Jeannie Zelasko, ABC's Michelle Tafoya, NBC's Melissa Stark, ESPN's Linda Cohn, Sam Ryan, Alex Flanagan, Doris Burke and Ann Meyers Drysdale ---- they're among those who are on the same balance beam with all those balls in the air.

None of them particularly want to work this Sunday -- Mother's Day, for those who might have forgot about it -- but they know it sometimes comes with the job. Kremer will be in New York at meetings with her new network team. McKendry will an hour away from her home, at the Bristol, Conn., studios doing her normal shift as co-anchor of all the morning news shows on ESPN.

Kremer, who already knows she's going to miss Christmas while on the road this year, admits that dealing with Sunday's setback should be easier. As an early Mother's Day present, she received a MacBook Pro with the iChat video-conference camera.

McKendry will at least be home after her shift is over, and hopefully get time to read the New York Times and relax a bit before her husband turns the kids loose on her again, the oldest of whom is in the middle of potty training and ``that takes total commitment,'' she says. Even though McKendry will be on TV, there's no guarantee her two boys will be drawn to watch.

``My husband says they'll watch `SportsCenter' sometimes because they have the `Top 10 plays' and they can count along,'' McKendry said. ``But sometimes, I'm on at the same time as `Dora The Explorer.' I can't compete with that. Or the Wiggles.''

Realize, like all moms, they often sacrifice a lot professionally to start this family business.

Tafoya had to leave in the middle of the ``Monday Night Football'' season in 2005 for her pregnancy because of mandatory bed rest. McKendry had the same doctor's orders for her second child, causing her to miss hosting the U.S. Open tennis tournament. Kremer was a reporter at Super Bowl XXXIV in Atlanta when her water broke

It's by choice, of course. The wheels on the bus go round and round, and Jerome ``The Bus'' Bettis is waiting to be interviewed. Both can be accomplished with the right attitude, fortitude and main dude in their corner.

``You have to have a partner who's really there,'' says Kremer, married to UCLA professor and archaeologist John Steinberg. ``I won't have a nanny raise my son.''

``It's rare that neither me nor my husband are not with the kids,'' said McKendry, married to attorney Eduardo Andrade.

Kremer, who has gleaned plenty of advice from others on kid things, is more than happy to pay it forward.

``Something that should never be forgotten on Mother's Day: It doesn't matter how many Super Bowls I'll cover, or how many exclusive interviews I'll ever get, when it comes down to it, the only that matters is what impact we have on our children,'' she said.

``Once, I was that stereotyped person who was only focused on my career and thought I'd have a child when I got around to it. Then I realized what mattered most.

``We all adapt to schedules and get into rhythms, like any family. We're all proud of our jobs and feel good that we can accomplish something as a minority in a male-dominated world of sports. But none of us will put that ahead of what we're all getting from motherhood.''

CAPTION(S):

3 photos, 2 boxes

Photo

(1) McKENDRY

(2) KREMER

(3) Diego Santiago

Box:

(1) WHAT SMOKES

(2) WHAT CHOKES