Without question, the single most important TV show the truly dedicated fan can watch is ESPN's "SportsCenter." So over the last week I crawled into my cave each night to see how they've been doing. The results are mixed.

First, the upside.

Overall, this is one remarkable show, which in some respects has changed the sports culture as we know it. Earlier this month it televised its 30,000th show -- it's been on the air every day since 1981 when Peyton Manning was 3 and Venus and Serena Williams were just ideas in their parents' heads.

Before '81 the Dark Ages existed. "SportsCenter" and its ESPN spinoffs -- "Baseball Tonight," "College GameDay," "NFL Live" and the like -- essentially created the 24-hour sports cycle. And for years now "SportsCenter" itself has been on morning, evening and night.

According to Nielsen surveys, 21 million people a day watch at least some portion of "SportsCenter" in America, and there are 11 local versions of the show overseas, including some in Portuguese, Hindi and Mandarin. You can't get away from it. The zooming camera lenses, the revolving red powerball and that "dit-a-dit" stuff from the speakers effectively say get over here and watch, baby.

During the past week there were clearly some triumphs.

A week ago Sunday night and again the next day, "SportsCenter" was all over the tumultuous finish of the Daytona 500, in which Kevin Harvick beat Mark Martin by 0.20 seconds. Should a yellow flag have been thrown sooner as cars crashed at the end? Though Fox televised the race, "SportsCenter" was all over the story. Even Martin declined to say yes, blaming only himself.

Later in the week I found "SportsCenter's" coverage of the NFL Scouting Combine to be highly enlightening. Todd McShay's reporting taught me things I never knew. And John Clayton, the Kevin Covais look-alike (see last year's "American Idol"), deserved an A-plus for insight. The same can't be said for Sean Salisbury, who seemed argumentative, red-faced and just plain loutish in his exchanges with Clayton.

You know who's great? Barry Melrose, the former Los Angeles Kings coach who is ESPN's NHL expert.

Last Thursday an Ottawa Senator blind-sided Buffalo Sabres co-captain Chris Drury, leaving him bleeding and semiconscious on the ice. ESPN co-host Michelle Bonner narrated tape from the incident the next day as if it were boys being boys. "Good stuff!" she said.

But to Melrose it was wretched stuff. He stood up for Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff's decision to send out enforcers to protect his remaining players. Attaboy, Barry!

On Sunday night ESPN's cameras caught an excited Thad Matta, the Ohio State basketball coach, losing control of his gum. Yes, his gum. He watched it fall to the floor, picked it up and popped it back into his mouth all within five seconds, according to a clock ESPN superimposed on the screen. Pure fun.

Now for stuff that troubles me.

You know what a tease in television is. It's when a show, afraid that you might change the channel, continually refers to what's coming up a little later in the telecast. Well, "SportsCenter," especially on slow news days, seems to have become the TV Potentate of Tease.

If I had $1 for every tease I've seen on "SportsCenter," I might be able to lease a Lamborghini. Three or four teases, each including a tape snippet but no real news, before cutting to commercial. And then when the show comes back, no item! Just another tease, and another, until the news item supposedly worth the teasing appears 20 or 30 minutes later.

Last Wednesday was Gary Sheffield Tease Day on ESPN. Three times viewers got teased with the promise of Sheffield news on the 3 p.m. show. At last Sheff appeared on tape, saying how the Yankees' Joe Torre "took the fire out of me" during last year's playoffs, running him onto the field with the substitutes in the final game after he had failed to hit.

This was worth teasing? No wonder Sheffield got shipped out of New York.

But all in all, "SportsCenter" is increasingly where it's at, with ever younger demographics. So marginalized have local sportscasters become, it's a wonder ESPN hasn't franchised out and taken over local sportscasts for stations across the country. (Uh ... better not to give the guys in Bristol any ideas.)

Bill Taaffe is a former award-winning TV-radio sports columnist for Sports Illustrated. He can be reached at taaffe-reviewjournal@earthlink.net.