In the space of 15 minutes Thursday morning, ABC News named former WGN-Ch. 9 sportscaster Bill Weir its new co-anchor on "Nightline", and Fox-owned WFLD-Ch. 32 made official its decision to make longtime sportscaster Corey McPherrin a morning news anchor.

So it was good day for the sports department, a tacit acknowledgement that some of the most versatile, adept and agile people in the news business work or have worked in the field … and the arena and the locker room.

Of course, newscasters still sometimes get newscasting jobs. WBBM-Ch. 2, for example, confirmed it is picking up Kate Sullivan, a morning anchor for WCBS in New York. It's widely believed she will join Rob Johnson on the late local newscast. But that's less interesting, partly because Sullivan already is an anchor, but more because this would be Channel 2's 11th change in its 10 p.m. anchor lineup in 10 years.
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One may deem it necessary to report the precise time of each day's sunrise and sunset, but the phenomenon itself is not exactly newsworthy.

For some reason, it's always a little surprising when someone from sports moves to news. Never mind that sports reporting puts a premium on one's ability to work on the fly, shifting from light to heavy and telling stories in a way that entertains novices but also gives aficionados something they don't know.

Just as a sports section is a microcosm of the newspaper as a whole, a good sportscast mirrors a complete newscast. It's not just scores, standings and stats. There's crime and business coverage, politics, features, perhaps an investigation.

Not every sports journalist drafted for news succeeds, but that can be because of other factors, including those that led management to make such a change in the first place. Bryant Gumbel had a strong run at NBC's "Today." Love him or not, Keith Olbermann has been an agent for change at MSNBC, much as he once was at ESPN. Who would have handled the 1972 Munich Olympics hostage crisis coverage better than ABC Sports' Jim McKay?

Precedents in Chicago TV for McPherrin, whose 9 p.m. sports duties will be assumed by Jill Carlson when he teams with co-anchor Anna Davlantes on Channel 32's "Good Day Chicago" beginning Aug. 2, include Warner Saunders, the late Tim Weigel, former WFLD morning co-host Mike Barz and Weir.

Weir was hired out of Green Bay, Wis., in 1995 by Chicago Tribune parent Tribune Co.'s WGN as a third-string sportscaster but parlayed his sharp instincts and quick wit into an anchor gig on Channel 9's morning news before leaving for a Los Angeles sports job in 1998. ABC News had been eyeing him since his Chicago days and hired him in 2004.

ABC News boss David Westin in a Thursday memo to staff hailed Weir for doing "some of our most innovative reporting" from all around the world, not only as co-host of weekend "Good Morning America" but also reporting for "World News" and other programs and platforms.

On "Nightline," Weir will replace Martin Bashir, who is headed for an afternoon slot on MSNBC and a contributing role on "Dateline NBC." The addition of Weir signals far less change than the arrival of Bashir, Cynthia McFadden and Terry Moran in 2005 as successors to Ted Koppel, host of the late-night show's first 25 years.

Some news people would have trouble ad-libbing a breakfast order. The best sportswriters are among the best, fastest and smoothest writers anywhere in the paper. The best sportscasters are among the best broadcasters.

Sports may sometimes be referred to as the "toy department," but there's plenty of live ammo among the pop guns. Trust me, once you've had to ask a half-crazed, half-naked 300-pound lineman about the mistake that cost his team playoff money, how intimidating is some political hack? As former baseball manager Tom Lasorda once famously — and loudly — bellowed at whoever was on the other side of the microphone, "This (bleeping) job is not that (bleeping) easy!"

The best simply make it look that way, no matter the chaos around them.

Want to know what makes a solid sportscaster a reliable quarterback? Check the video highlights.