Morning briefing

Surgery silences Vitale

Dick Vitale, ESPN’s lead college basketball analyst, had surgery Tuesday to remove lesions in his throat and won’t return to broadcasting until at least February.

Vitale, known for his energetic on-air style and catch phrases such as “Awesome, baby!” disclosed the problem on ESPN’s website.

“I have had a very difficult time with discomfort in my throat” for the past six weeks, Vitale wrote. “After an examination, it was determined that I had lesions on my left vocal cord and that they should be surgically removed.”

Vitale, 68, said he hopes to be “back sitting at courtside in early February,” and that “I cannot wait for March Madness.”

A New Jersey native, Vitale joined ESPN in the 1979-80 season after coaching stints with the University of Detroit and the Detroit Pistons of the NBA.

He once was the subject of David Letterman’s top-10 list, titled “Top Ten Signs Dick Vitale Is Nuts!” Among the entries: “I’ve referred to everything as baby, except an actual baby.”

Trivia time

Which two teams played in the first college game that Vitale called on Dec. 5, 1979?

Rose on steroids

Pete Rose, baseball’s all-time hit leader, has been suspended from baseball for 18 years and denied entry to the Hall of Fame for betting on the game while he managed the Cincinnati Reds.

So what does Rose think of last week’s Mitchell Report on steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball, which included allegations against several potential Hall of Famers?

“If you’re gonna put these guys that supposedly did steroids into the Hall of Fame, I mean, I gotta get a shot somewhere,” said Rose, who still hopes to reach Cooperstown, on the cable show “Sports Unfiltered with Dennis Miller.”

“I’ve been suspended 18 years for betting on my own team to win,” Rose said. “I was wrong . . . but these guys today, if the allegations are true, they’re making a mockery of the game.”

Rose added: “The Mitchell Report’s come out and I never thought anybody would make me look like an altar boy.”

The interview is scheduled to air tonight on Versus.

Speed demons

Those Formula One drivers seem to have problems cruising at slower speeds like the rest of us.

First came the story last week of seven-time Formula One champion Michael Schumacher taking the wheel of a cab and speeding through Germany because he thought the taxi was going too slow.

Then, rookie sensation Lewis Hamilton was caught speeding near the northern French town of Laon, and his driver’s license was suspended for a month in France.

Hamilton, 22, was clocked going 123 mph in a Mercedes on a highway Sunday night, police told the Associated Press.

“He recognized the infraction he had committed straight away,” said police spokesman Arnaud Dujardin. “He was very courteous.”

Dujardin said the police officers did not recognize Hamilton, who was alone in the car, until they looked at his identification papers.

Hamilton led the championship standings most of this season for his McLaren Mercedes team, but lost the title in the final race to Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.

Don’t try this

at home

The Red Bull energy drink company, never at a loss to find new ways to promote itself, plans to host two daredevil events on New Year’s Eve in Las Vegas.

Australian Robbie Maddison, a freestyle motocross rider, plans to jump 300 feet on a motorcycle to set a new distance record.

And New Zealand driver Rhys Millen, who lives in San Juan Capistrano, plans the first-ever attempt to drive an off-road racing truck up a ramp and then into a back flip before landing.

Maddison’s jump is scheduled for midnight East Coast time and Millen’s at midnight Pacific time -- with the folks from the Guinness World Book of Records in attendance.

Trivia answer

Wisconsin at DePaul. It was ESPN’s first NCAA basketball game and DePaul won, 90-77. Since then, Vitale has called nearly 1,000 basketball games for the cable channel.

And finally

Never mind Iraq, health care, immigration. The Denver Post reports that Congress passed a resolution honoring the Colorado Rockies for winning the National League championship this year and reaching the World Series -- where they lost in four straight to Boston.

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james.peltz@latimes.com