NCAA WORLD SERIES: CBS Sports will air first round
coverage of the NCAA World Series on Saturday, with the
National Championship Game being held on Saturday, June 6.
Sean McDonough will call play-by-play, with Fred Lynn
serving as analyst (CBS Sports). Over the first weekend of
regional baseball tournament, NCAA Online and the Total
College Sports Network received 2,475,071 page views and
4,264,798 hits on www.ncaabaseball.com (Total Sports).
TENNIS MEDIA NOTES: The Corel WTA Tour and its TV
partner, Arnon Milchan's Regency Enterprises, formally
announced a three-year deal with Eurosport to broadcast
women's tennis on European TV. The package will be
presented by Tour Corporate Partner Puma AG. In '99,
approximately 80 matches from Tier I and II tournaments will
be shown, with a 10% increase in 2000 (Corel WTA Tour)....In
Canada, TSN will provide more than 200 hours of ATP and WTA
Tour coverage, in addition to the Grand Slam events. One
highlight includes the du Maurier Open men's championships,
of which TSN will air 17 hours of coverage (TSN).
OTHER NOTES: MSG Network earned a 5.8 rating for
Tuesday's Yankees-White Sox game -- its highest rated
Yankees game this season. MSG's Yankees ratings are up 39%
over the same time last year (N.Y. POST, 5/28)....Pacers
coach Larry Bird, on NBC's frequent replaying of Jalen Rose
leaving the bench, which led to his being suspended for Game
Five of the Bulls-Pacers series: "It probably hurt us, no
question about it. That's why I don't give (NBC) much.
When they want to interview me, I just give them two or
three minutes and I'm out of there" (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES,
5/28)....For the first time since '94, "This Week in
Baseball" is airing on network TV in the N.Y. market. The
first program aired last Sunday at 11:30am ET on WNBC-TV
(Phoenix Communications)....The Royals reached a two-year
agreement with broadcast.com to carry games live on the
Internet (Royals)....Roy Firestone appears on QVC on Friday,
selling merchandise that includes "Roy Firestone's Greatest
Moments In Sports" video and his biography, "Up Close"
(QVC)....CBS Sports broadcaster Greg Gumbel, on handling
more news coverage rather than sports: "I've thought, 'Would
you rather continue to talk about football and basketball or
talk to Newt Gingrich at 7:30 in the morning?' And the
choice is easy for me." On too much focus on the negative
side of sports by journalists: "What disappoints me is that
it overshadows what we all love. ... It's a fair approach,
but I think that it can be overdone" ("Up Close," 5/27).
