When Kenny Mayne sits behind ESPN's "SportsCenter" desk, he has a lot going on.
His eyes are on the prompter. His hands are on the script. But his mind is on the fine line between life and death.
It was last Memorial Day when Mayne and his then-pregnant wife, Laura, decided to get away for a while. With identical twins on the way, they knew they wouldn't have much time to relax once she delivered, so they traveled to Southern Maine, four hours from their Connecticut home.
The babies were due to arrive this Thursday, but on May 29, an emergency delivery had to take place.
"Laura just had some bad signs," recalls Mayne, who played quarterback at UNLV from 1979-81. "So she called her doctor, who said 'Get to a hospital immediately.' We were racing up the highway, while I'm telling her nothing is wrong, everything will be OK. Well, it wasn't."
The babies, both boys, were experiencing a condition known as twin-to-twin transfusion, where one fetus takes fluids away from the other. The Maynes were told one baby was dead and that both needed to come out.
Still, Laura insisted on a natural childbirth.
"As scary as it was, it was pretty impressive what she did," Mayne says.
Silently, Creighton John was delivered first. Then Connor Wheelock -- all 1 pound, 7 ounces of him -- arrived.
"It was the greatest and the worst thing all at once," Mayne says. "It gave us so much hope to hear him cry when he came out after the first one made no sound."
Connor now weighs 5 pounds, 5 ounces but still has a long way to go. Mother and son remain four hours from home.
"He's not going to be home for a long time," says Mayne, who hopes to have Connor home by New Year's Day. "He's still in an incubator and he gets breathing support. He's had two operations on his intestines and he has problems with his retinas.
"The potential is he can be totally normal if everything works out right. But until he can do that and breathe on his own, he's going to be in the hospital, and she's not moving until he gets out."
Mayne, however, can't always be with them. He must stay employed to keep his insurance, which is taking care of steep medical bills. To help out, ESPN allowed him to take six weeks off and now schedules him to work three straight days, giving him the other four to spend in Maine.
When he's on the air, Mayne keeps a picture of his new son on the desk. If viewers look closely the next time he's on "SportsCenter," they can see little Connor.
"He's really been through a war, but he shows a great spirit," Mayne says. "When he's comfortable he looks at you. He smiles at us -- at least we think he does. We've even been able to hold him for a few hours at a time."
And that keeps everything in perspective.
"I formerly thought there was a certain amount of pressure doing this stuff, but I'll never again feel that pressure," Mayne said of sportscasting. "How can I feel this is pressure, when I've been faced with life and death?"
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* CHECKERED COVERAGE: In racing terms, only one station crossed the finish line, while the other two stalled out in coverage of the inaugural running of the Las Vegas 500K. KTNV Channel 13 dusted the field with a pair of 30-minute specials previewing and reviewing the race and with top-flight coverage during its 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts. Sports director Ron Futrell was the only TV reporter to obtain interviews from the pits during the race, including some of drivers immediately after they were knocked out. The race was seen on tape-delay on ABC, of which KTNV is an affiliate. The other stations -- KVBC Channel 3 and KLAS Channel 8 -- had news reporters present, but sports segments relied on the same footage broadcast by ABC. No stations were present at the post-race press conference. The 500K was the biggest spectator event in the history of Nevada, and KTNV was the only local station that didn't sputter in chronicling it.
* REBEL STATION: KLAS has established itself as the unofficial station of the UNLV football team. Now that weekday sports anchor Dave McCann is the broadcast voice of the Rebels and hosts both the radio and TV coach's shows, KLAS has hammered the competition. It will do so again this weekend as the only local station travelling to Fort Collins, Colo., for UNLV's game against Colorado State. McCann will have a live report from there Friday. "It's done great for our perception," McCann said. The reason KLAS is the only TV representative to travel with the Rebels is McCann's contract with the university. UNLV pays McCann to come along as well as the airfare for a KLAS cameraman. The only expenses coming out of the station's pocket are for the cameraman's food and lodging. "It's looks almost like our (Channel 8) crew is there with only having to pay somebody a hamburger and a place to stay the night," McCann said.
* SOUND BITE: Fox Sports analyst Ronnie Lott couldn't finish his question to Chicago Bears linebacker Bryan Cox in a recent interview: "It's fourth and one in the Super Bowl and your mom has the ball ..." Cox quickly interjected: "She gets hit."
* SPINNING THE DIAL: KVBC sports producer Jason Cohen has replaced Rob Buska as co-host of "UNLV Season Ticket," a weekly, half-hour program highlighting Rebel Sports. It can be seen Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. on Prime Cable Channel 4. ... ESPN's "Jock Jams, Volume 2" has reached No. 17 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart. The musical collection features "Macarena." I had Jock Jams in college once, but a shot cleared it right up.
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