Watchdog

As loyal WatchDog readers know, I have been obsessively following the TBS series "My Boys,'' because, well, how often do sportswriters get to write about fictional sportswriters?

Ray Barone was the most successful fake sports scribe of the post-Oscar Madison era - and he worked for Newsday from his basement, just like me! But he very, very rarely actually, you know, worked.

Anyway, "My Boys'' has taken some major liberties with reality in its first two seasons, but in Monday night's episode it handled a delicate, real-life situation quite well, and quite realistically.

P.J. Franklin, the female Chicago Sun-Times Cubs beat writer who is the series' central character, becomes smitten with a Cubs pitcher, and vice versa. They even go on a date. But P.J. knows she can't pursue a serious relationship with a player she covers and reluctantly breaks it off before it can begin.

Even 30 years after the Supreme Court opened baseball locker rooms to them, women who cover the sport must walk a minefield of issues related to their gender that their male counterparts never have to think about. This episode highlighted one of them.

Anyway, it's a well-written, well-acted show. Nothing deep (usually), but easygoing fun.

You should watch it.