Two media organizations announce their form of tribute for
the late Mickey Mantle. This week's issue of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
will feature a black-and-white photo of Mantle as a 19-year-old
rookie on the cover -- without a headline. It is only the third
time in the magazine's history that the cover shot has not
included a headline (SI). Yesterday, Delphi Internet Services
Corp. launched an online tribute to Mantle on the Web, including
interviews, reports from Mantle's restaurant, stats, a timeline
and several photos. The address: http://www.delphi.com
(Delphi)....SET Exec VP McAdory Lipscomb is expecting a million
homes to buy the Tyson-McNeeley fight on Saturday -- that out of
the 25 million homes that have access to the pay-per-view event.
Hitting the million mark would guarantee SET $42M in gross
revenue, half of which has to go to local cable operators
(ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 8/16)....The Red Wings have named former
Univ. of Michigan play-by-play man Ken Kal to be the lead
broadcaster on the team's WJR-AM games. Kal replaces Bruce
Martyn, who retired after 31 years (OAKLAND PRESS, 8/16)....Time
Warner Sports President & CEO Seth Abraham sat in for Rudy
Martzke and Mike Hiestand as guest writer of USA TODAY's "TV
Sports" column this morning. Citing the state of boxing in
particular, Abraham used the piece to urge those in the sports
industry to "take further responsibility to tend to their
respective sports' ills" (USA TODAY, 8/16). ...."Fox NFL Sunday"
and "NFL on Fox" will air on the Fox Latin America Channel.
Canal Fox, a News Corp. company, will air Fox Sunday sports
programming in Mexico, Central and South America with former
Cowboys kicker Efren Herrera doing commentary (INSIDE MEDIA
ONLINE, 8/15)....ABC, NBC and MLB officially ended The Baseball
Network triggering an exclusive 45-day negotiating period for the
two nets. While NBC has "reaffirmed its desire not to re-enter
baseball's TV picture," ABC "could renew its interest" in the
sport after the Disney buyout (N.Y. TIMES, 8/16).
