Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 2, 1993 TAG: 9310020027
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The next three weeks will bring the end not only of CBS' red-inked baseball contract, but also the four-team postseason and national telecasts.
Next year, baseball moves to NBC and ABC in October, and an extra tier of playoffs will be added. However, all of those playoff games and the league championship series will be televised on a regional basis, with staggered starting times.
Baseball's club owners and networks point to declining ratings and fire-sale advertising rates as the reason for this trimming of playoff hours.
However, baseball is committing an error in cutting the potential audience for its most important games. Baseball needs fewer national telecasts during the regular season, and with ESPN cutting its schedule from six to three cable games weekly, that will happen.
We're overrunning the bases, though. The National League West Division race between Atlanta and San Francisco still has to be settled, and it's there to be watched. Today's CBS regular-season finale is the Colorado-Atlanta game (3 p.m., WDBJ), with live cut-ins to the San Francisco-Los Angeles game.
On Sunday, cable's TBS will air the Rockies-Braves game at 1 p.m. If the division race still isn't settled, ESPN will show the Giants-Dodgers game at 4 p.m.
If the West still isn't won, ESPN will air the one-game Atlanta-San Francisco playoff at 10:30 p.m. Monday from Candlestick Park.
The cable network requested a 7:30 or 8 p.m. Eastern time start, but the NL decided on a 7:30 Pacific time start because the Braves would have to fly from Atlanta to San Francisco for the game. Candlestick also must be converted to its baseball configuration after Sunday's San Francisco-Minnesota NFL game.
Fortunately for Atlanta or San Francisco, the NL Championship Series doesn't begin until Wednesday night in Philadelphia.
Before that series starts, Roanoke's WFIR (960 AM) begins its CBS Radio coverage of the postseason, starting with Game 1 of the American League Championship Series on Tuesday night at Comiskey Park. Baseball always was better on the radio anyway.
With that in mind, appreciate what you see in these championship series. You won't see it again.
\ UVA MOVING? Virginia's football visit to Florida State on Oct. 16 could be a battle of unbeaten teams. It also could be moved from the ACC's noon telecast schedule.
It's likely that when the network decisions for that weekend's games are made Monday, the UVa-Florida State game will be switched to ESPN. Although ABC could choose the game, it isn't likely because that would mean ABC dates for the Seminoles on three consecutive weekends (Georgia Tech today and Miami on Oct. 9).
On Oct. 16, ABC has Penn State-Michigan as a national game at noon. Then, it gets the first choice among College Football Association games for its 3:30 regional period that also will include Ohio State-Michigan State from the Big Ten Conference.
It's probable ABC will pick the Tennessee-Alabama game, with ESPN making the next two selections. An ESPN spokesman said the cable network will select from three games for its 4 and 7:30 p.m. telecasts - UVa-FSU, Notre Dame-Brigham Young and Colorado-Oklahoma.
Jim Copeland, Virginia's athletic director, said the ACC office has informed him that ESPN, but not ABC, has inquired about changing the kickoff time of the Virginia-Florida State game. If that happens, North Carolina-Georgia Tech is the likely replacement game for the ACC's noon schedule.
\ STAGG PARTY: ESPN will kick off the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl telecast live from Salem Stadium on Dec. 11, but it will not air the NCAA Division III championship game in its entirety.
A network spokesman said Friday that ESPN will begin its Stagg Bowl coverage live at noon from Salem and stay with the game until at least 1:30 p.m., when the NCAA Division II title game starts in Florence, Ala.
Then, the plan is to switch between the second half of the Division III final in Salem and the first half of the Division II game, before airing the Division II finish live.
\ HOT HOKIES: Virginia Tech fans in Richmond have been making noise all week. Because no station in the state capital picked up the Big East TV package, today's Tech-West Virginia game (noon, WSLS) won't air there.
Many Richmond-area homes have access to cable's Home Team Sports, but Tech's Big East TV appearances on HTS are blacked out on the cable network to protect over-the-air stations airing Hokies games. Only the Hokies' dates on the Big East package air in the Roanoke-Lynchburg market on WSLS.
\ AIRWAVES: The toll-free phone poll to select NFL games on WSLS is a big hit. The last choice, for Sept. 19, attracted 7,732 votes. . . . Was cable's TNT glad it had the return of Dallas holdout running back Emmitt Smith? That Sept. 19 game between the Cowboys and the Phoenix Cardinals drew an 11.0 cable rating, making it the highest-rated show in network history. The only programs with more viewers on any Turner network came during CNN's coverage of the Persian Gulf conflict. On Sunday, the New York Jets' 38-point blowout of the New England Patriots on TNT drew the lowest NFL rating of the season. . . . With ABC affiliate WSET (Channel 13) locked into the ACC's noon football TV package, Fox affiliate WJPR/WVFT (Channels 21/27) picks up the noon ABC games and gets top-ranked Florida State today against Georgia Tech, then Miami-FSU and Michigan-Penn State the next two Saturdays.
by CNB