Bernie Miklasz rarely rants. He rarely takes callers. He doesn't bash Tony La Russa every time a pitching change backfires. His sense of humor isn't limited to 10,000 variations of "Isn't that gay?" In other words, Miklasz avoids all the things that can turn sports-talk radio into a vitriolic cesspool. Instead, he offers nuanced, fact-based, engaging opinions on the full spectrum of sports, from the expected Cards, Rams and Blues coverage to boxing, horse racing, soccer, golf and more. His guests are first-rate — not simply heavy hitters like Bob Costas or local beat writers like colleague Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, but also the rising stars of new media. His weekly visits with Joe Sheehan, a Sports Illustrated writer who cut his teeth at Baseball Prospectus, are a must-listen even for the sabermetric-averse. Refreshingly, in an era of ever-more-dumbed-down discourse, what really irks Miklasz is when someone makes an argument with no basis in fact; the best of his very occasional rants are "Get a life!" diatribes against those taking sports too seriously. A sports-talk host who values intelligence, perspective and context? It's as rare and, in its own way, as thrilling as an inside-the-park homerun.