CUBA GOODING! In N.Y., Richard Sandomir writes that
ESPN "could not have improved much on its telecast" of the
Orioles-Cuban National game on Sunday. Jon Miller and Joe
Morgan were "in loose, midseason form, showing their evident
immersion in the game" (N.Y. TIMES, 3/30). In DC, William
Gildea writes that Miller and Morgan were "composed" on
Sunday and adds that the two "are almost perfectly
complementary" and "simply ... free of everything that's so
often dismaying about sports broadcasting -- the mammoth
egos" (WASHINGTON POST, 3/30). In Baltimore, Milton Kent
writes that ESPN "has every right to be proud of the work it
did" in covering the game. Miller and Morgan turned in
"another splendid performance," while the production team
"also covered the game as a news event" (SUN, 3/30). Miller
said that Yankees P Orlando Hernandez told him that Fidel
Castro watches ESPN's Sunday night games "every week": "He
pirates ESPN on satellite. It's true. ESPN and ESPN2 were
on in the hotel" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 3/30). Miller, on Cubans:
"The people were friendly but sad" (MERCURY NEWS, 3/30).
NOTES: NBC will televise a 76ers home game for the
first time since '93. The network has added the Magic-76ers
game on April 25 to its schedule (PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS,
3/30)....The SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL's Daniel Kaplan profiles
the NFL QB Club's investment in ThingWorld.com and notes
another investor is the Kraft Group, Patriots Owner Robert
Kraft's holding company, which introduced ThingWorld to the
NFL (SBJ, 3/29 issue)...In Chicago, Ed Sherman reports that
the Bears and WMAQ-AM have hired Gary Bender as their play-
by-play announcer (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 3/30).
