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Daily Sports: Day-Night AL East Baseball On Thursday

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A day-night doubleheader in major league baseball is the cornerstone of daily sports action on TV for Thursday, and the AL East race is at the heart of it.

We went through Wednesday without a Yankee game being nationally broadcast, and apparently the networks are starving for more. So the matinee finale of the Yanks’ four-game set in Texas will be shown to the MLB Network audience at 2 PM ET.

Three of these four games were on national TV, and the entire Yankees-Red Sox series this past weekend was on either MLB Network, Fox or ESPN. With a big home series against Tampa Bay coming up, we’ll see if New York can keep getting foisted on the national audience. Although at least these are genuinely important games against good teams, as the Pinstripes try and keep their playoff hopes alive.


The prime-time game on Thursday will be split between Tampa Bay-Boston, as the two AL East leaders play their own finale of a four-game set. Other viewers will get a good National League game, as the Phillies meet the Cardinals. Coverage begins at 7 PM ET on MLB Network.

There’s not a lot available outside of live baseball, although if you’re really starving for football you can watch a live Canadian Football League game, as Edmonton meets Montreal at 7:30 PM ET on ESPN2. I don’t follow the CFL enough (well actually I don’t follow it at all) to know the implications of the game, if either is any good or what noteworthy players might be in action. But to each his own.

TheSportsNotebook will have an NL East-based feature today as we check in on that division. MLB coverage this week is taking a division each day, and our earlier National League feature looked at the state of the Arizona Diamondbacks’ bullpen.

 

TV Daily Sports: Tuesday Looks A Lot Like Monday

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The summer reruns have started on sports. Tuesday is a day that looks an awful lot like Monday in terms of daily sports choices on TV. Afternoon coverage of Wimbledon goes up to 4 PM ET on ESPN2. Then at night the baseball focus is the San Francisco Giants and Cincinnati Reds (7 PM ET, MLB Network).

At least the Giants-Reds game promises to be better than last night. San Fran had to throw a kid fresh up from the minors in Michael Kickham, and his command was all over the place, with the Reds coasting to an 8-1 win.

There was one positive for this—well for me, they were two, since I wanted the Reds to win. But for the TV audience, had Kickham delivered a respectable outing, ESPN’s Rick Sutcliffe, notoriously overenthusiastic about everything, might have had the poor kid destined for the Hall of Fame. Instead, Sutcliffe was forced into some actual analysis of what was going wrong for Kickham and the analyst did a decent job. Rick, take note.


ESPN also showed highlight of San Francisco’s improbable Division Series win over Cincinnati last year, when the Giants won three straight on the banks of the Ohio River to complete a rally from 0-2 down in the series. I was thinking that city of Cincinnati must really have it in for their counterparts in Frisco. The Bengals have made the Super Bowl twice…and both times lost to the 49ers, once on a goal-line stand in 1981 and the other on a last-minute Joe Montana drive in 1988. Now you tack last year’s postseason on and the good people of southwest Ohio have to be hungry for some revenge.

Here at TheSportsNotebook, our MLB coverage will hone in on a to-be-decided NL East topic that will go up later this afternoon. Yesterday’s feature took a closer look at the Minnesota Twins, who are still lurking around in the AL Central race.

TV Daily Sports: Giants-Reds Start Key Series On Monday

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The rise of the Pittsburgh Pirates has created problems for a lot of teams in the National League, but in writing yesterday’s feature on the Buccos here in TheSportsNotebook, I was thinking that perhaps the two biggest victims were San Francisco and Cincinnati.

I would have predicted both of these teams to make the playoffs (though admittedly starting to having second, third and fourth thoughts over Frisco’s pitching), but assuming the St. Louis Cardinals aren’t going anywhere, that means Pittsburgh is going to take a spot away from at least one of the Giants or Reds. Which makes the three-game series that starts tonight in Great American Ballpark all that much bigger. ESPN will be on hand for the San Francisco-Cincinnati series opener at 7 PM ET.


Other action in daily sports is oriented toward afternoon coverage. ESPN & ESPN2 will combine in Wimbledon, as the legendary tennis tournament enters its final week. And MLB Network has matinee baseball with the Tigers and Blue Jays at 1 PM ET. It’s an odd spot for a weekday afternoon game—it’s not a getaway spot off an extended weekend, as Detroit is coming from Tampa while Toronto flies in from Boston. But hey, as a baseball fan, I’ll take it.

The Pittsburgh Steelers are the NFL Network’s focus tonight—specifically their last championship season in 2008. At 8 PM ET watch a replay of the Steelers-Cardinals Super Bowl , the wild fourth quarter and Ben Roethlisberger’s last-gasp drive and touchdown pass to Santonio Holmes. Then at 9:30 PM ET, there’s a half-hour look at Pittsburgh’s ’08 season in full.

It’s an interesting coincidence, because TheSportsNotebook plans to add a historical feature today built around the 2008 Pittsburgh Steelers. That Super Bowl run was part of a very good year for Pennsylvania sports, with the Penguins making the Stanley Cup Final, and Penn State football going to the Rose Bowl.

Of course we can throw in the Phillies winning the World Series, but having lived in PA for nine years, I can attest that the Keystone State’s two major cities are worlds apart culturally and a solid six hours drive time. It’s unlikely someone was a fan of both the Steelers and Phillies, so that means our historical feature will tilt to the central-west parts of the fan base.

And for contemporary sports, MLB coverage will have a look at the AL Central, and at 3 PM ET I’ll be appearing on Prime Sports Network with Greg DePalma for our usual weekly look at the world of sports, with an emphasis on baseball.

The Weekend Ahead In TV Daily Sports

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A rematch of last year’s AL East race, and subsequent showdown in the Division Series is the focal point of TV daily sports action this weekend. The New York Yankees are in Baltimore to play the Orioles, and with this rivalry at its highest point since the days of 1996-97, the national television crews are heading to Camden Yards.

Baltimore-New York will be one of two prime games that Fox will be showing on Saturday night at 7:15 PM ET. Cincinnati-Texas is the other one in a schedule that has five games overall. Then it’s ESPN and Sunday Night baseball for the Orioles-Yanks finale at 8 PM ET.

Surrounding the AL East fight, is an early-late doubleheader on MLB Network. The Nationals-Mets play at 1 PM ET today, and then for late-night action from the West Coast, check out Phils-Dodgers at 10 PM ET. Both teams may be disappointments, but the pitching matchup here is good, with Cliff Lee facing Hyun-Jun Ru. On Sunday afternoon, TBS will air coverage of the Diamondbacks-Braves at 1:35 PM ET.


NASCAR’s Quaker State 400 goes Saturday night at 7:30 PM ET on TNT. And Tennis aficionados wrap up the first week of Wimbledon, with ESPN airing all day coverage from 8 AM to 4 PM ET on Saturday. For those who might just want the entire week of tennis summed up for them, ABC has a “Best of Week 1” feature going from 3 PM to 6 PM ET on Sunday. The finals will be next weekend.

TheSportsNotebook will conclude a week of MLB coverage with features on the NL Central and NL West, both of which will post sometime on Sunday. The other four divisions had features run earlier this week, most recently Thursday’s focus on the Boston Red Sox in the AL East.

The NHL and NBA seasons are in the books—quite literally now, here at TheSportsNotebook. A complete compilation of the all the articles written here on both sports has been put together and is available on Amazon for download. Windy City Ride ($4.99) chronicles the NHL, and Summer Heat ($5.99) brings together all the NBA writing posted here. Both compilations are great ways to preserve the memories of the season and to remember how it all looked as it was actually unfolding.

TV Daily Sports: Len Bias & Fab Five Documentaries Tonight

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There’s good baseball on TV, and the NBA draft yesterday needs to be rehashed, but the most compelling television on Friday night’s daily sports docket lies in a couple documentaries on college sports.

ESPNU will show 30-for-30 episode on the tragic death of Len Bias back in 1986. For those that might be too young and haven’t heard of the tragedy, Bias was the second player picked in ’86 draft. The star from Maryland was considered a can’t-miss player and had been landed by the just-crowned Boston Celtics.

Instead, Bias celebrated his selection by going to a cocaine party and ending up with a drug-induced heart attack. The one-hour long 30-for-30 looks back at everything that transpired.


Then at 9 PM ET, it’s a three-hour documentary on the “Fab Five”, the group of Michigan freshmen who showed up in campus and captured the imagination of college basketball. They never captured a Big Ten title, but knew how to turn it on in March, reaching the NCAA final two consecutive years before the best of the group—Chris Webber, who had his best NBA years with the Sacramento Kings—went pro. Jalen Rose went on to a good career with the Indiana Pacers a year later, and is now on the ABC/ESPN studio team for the NBA.

For those more interested in the contemporary NBA, there will be draft reviews on NBA-TV, starting at 7 PM ET. The league’s network will give one hour to reviewing the Eastern Conference and another hour to the Western Conference. I was glad to see Cleveland pick UNLV forward Anthony Bennett. It wasn’t Bennett per se—I’d have been just as happy to see the Cavs go for Victor Oladipo, Trey Burke, Otto Porter or any number of the solid prospects that were out there. But I thought it spoke well of Cleveland’s judgment that they didn’t force a pick on a risky Nerlens Noel or an overrated Alex Len.

And for baseball, MLB Network will show the opener of a good Cincinnati-Texas series tonight at 8 PM ET. MLB coverage has been going daily here at TheSportsNotebook this week, including yesterday’s feature on the Boston Red Sox. Today we’ll go in another direction and talk about the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, as racing resumes on Saturday night.

TV Daily Sports: NBA Draft & Baseball On Thursday

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It doesn’t take long for the NBA to turn the page on one season and get everyone looking forward to the next. Exactly one week after the Miami Heat won an epic NBA Finals over the San Antonio Spurs, we have the NBA draft, on ESPN at 7:30 PM ET, the top option in daily sports programming.

This year’s draft has the potential to be really good. There’s no signature player that makes you excited to have the #1 pick, but there’s a lot of good players, especially on the wings. I’m thinking of guys like Kansas’ Ben McLemore, Michigan’s Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway Jr., and Indiana’s Victor Oladipo. Then go to players like forwards Otto Porter (Georgetown) and Anthony Bennett (UNLV), and you’ve got a good number of players who are capable of making it in the league. Maybe not being franchise-transforming players, but being a starter on a championship-caliber team.

MLB Network will have a day-night doubleheader, starting with getaway day games in the Bronx and Detroit. The Rangers-Yanks and Angels-Tigers each have 1 PM ET games, and the network will split its coverage between the two. Then at night, it’s the red-hot Toronto Blue Jays going to Fenway Park to play the Red Sox at 7 PM ET. Coverage also includes Cleveland-Baltimore in the final game of their series from Camden Yards.


NBA-TV will, as expected, spend the day with a variety of shows previewing the draft, and then at 8 PM ET, they’ll have successive replays of Game 6 & Game 7 of the Finals. ESPN2 carries upset-laden Wimbledon up until 4 PM ET.

But the big story of the day is Aaron Hernandez. I’m tuning into Mike & Mike In The Morning as I write this, and it’s the main topic, and I’m sure the same will be the case on First Take and other major talk shows. I’m one of the many who see the Patriots’ handling of this case and contrast it to the way the Ravens’ handled Ray Lewis 14 years ago.

In each case you had a player charged with murder. Baltimore found a way to keep Lewis on the roster, made him the face of the franchise and won two Super Bowls. New England immediately cut Hernandez. I’m listening to Brian Billick, then the Ravens’ coach go into long explanations over how much the time believed in Ray Lewis the man. Color me skeptical, but I think it’s more about believing what they had in Lewis the player.

Lest anyone think football considerations made this easier for the Pats, remember that Hernandez is a pretty good tight end on a team whose best tight end (Rob Gronkowski) was operated on twice in the offseason and has serious problems at wide receiver. Not having Hernandez on the football field hurts the Patriots, but they didn’t hesitate to cut him.

It’s quite a contrast between the Baltimore and New England organizations in their handling of it. But at least the Ravens never had the audacity to try and film opposing team’s signals. Let’s not lose sight of what’s really important here. #sarcasm.

Today at TheSportsNotebook its baseball talk, as take a closer look at the American League East. Previous MLB coverage this week has looked at the Phillies, Tigers and Mariners.

TV Daily Sports: AL East & NBA Draft Talk Keys Wednesday

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Wednesday night in daily sports is about the AL East and the NBA draft, as most sports fans settle into summer, while fans in Miami and Chicago still pull the confetti out of the hair after the championship celebrations. And, we might add to that list, the baseball community with UCLA. Congratulations to the Bruins, who beat Mississippi State last night and won the school’s first national title.

MLB Network has a doubleheader today that will start up in the late afternoon from Fenway Park. The Red Sox host the Colorado Rockies in a getaway game at 4 PM ET, and that’s followed by the Rangers-Yankees from the Bronx at 7 PM ET. The AL East isn’t a whole lot closer to being a settled race now than it was in April, with Toronto having surged back into contention, and this division promises a lot of excitement in the coming months.

The NBA Draft is on Thursday, and two different networks will have shows to get fans ready. One, as you might expect, is NBA-TV, which will have a one-hour mock draft starting at 8 PM ET. It will be hosted by Ernie Johnson, whom NBA fans will remember from TNT, as the pregame host who set the table for Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley, while also trying to make Shaquille O’Neal look coherent. ESPN has its own preview show at 7 PM ET.


NFL Network will pay tribute to Don Shula, with a look at the storied career of the legendary coach of the Miami Dolphins, starting at 8 PM ET. If none of the above programming options work for you, check ESPN at 8 PM ET. Right now, all the listings say Game 3 of the College World Series, but UCLA rendered that irrelevant last night. And if you’re able to be at home, or still have time to get to the DVR, Wimbledon is on all day on ESPN2.

TheSportsNotebook will be talking baseball, with a look at the AL West coming up a little bit later. Previous MLB coverage this week has looked at the Philadelphia Phillies and Detroit Tigers. For those who want to re-live the championship moments, you can check the closing reflections on the NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Finals.

TV Daily Sports: Chicago Goes For The Stanley Cup On Monday

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The city of Chicago is on championship alert tonight, as the Blackhawks take what can be the first of two chances to hoist the Stanley Cup. Game 6 of the Finals will be in Boston tonight at 8 PM ET on NBC, the focal point of Monday’s daily sports schedule.

There is championship action in two other sports—Wimbledon is being carried on ESPN at this moment, on Monday morning, and goes until 5 PM ET. This is the first day of the traditional tennis tournament. And in the College World Series, Mississippi State and UCLA play the first game of their best-of-three series to settle the NCAA baseball title at 8 PM ET on ESPN.

ESPN2 will have major league baseball coverage in the late window tonight, as the Giants-Dodgers go from Los Angeles at 10 PM ET. We’ve reached the point where the death watch has to be in place on the tenure of Dodger manager Don Mattingly and beating his franchise’s historic rival, and the defending World Series champion would be a good place to start saving his job.


Outside the lines, it’s a day to look back at the beginnings of the New England Patriots dynasty. NFL Network will re-telecast the 2001 Super Bowl against the Los Angeles Rams, starting at 8 PM ET. Then immediately following, at 9:30 PM ET, will be a feature on the 2003 Patriots, who won the franchise’s second Super Bowl. It’s somewhat of a curious programming decision by the NFL Network—you would think the ratings for this would be best in New England, and that entire region is going to be locked in on the Bruins tonight.

Here at TheSportsNotebook we’re going to have MLB coverage. Now that the NBA is over, and the NHL is almost finished, baseball is going to take over the features here, and we’re going to give each division a weekly focus. Today will be the NL East. You can also get yourself ready for the hockey game tonight with the NHL analysis that was posted after Game 5.