There "seems to be no room for compromise" between ESPN
and MLB in their current legal dispute over the network's
carriage of MLB games, according to Richard Sandomir of the
N.Y. TIMES, who calls the legal battle between the two
companies a "case about bruised feelings." Sandomir writes
that the "legal food fight between former friends may become
an exercise in semantics," as the case "may turn on
contractual language" between the two parties. MLB will
point to the contract between the two as mandating that ESPN
"not sign any deals that conflict with its ability to show"
MLB games on Sunday night. Sandomir notes that MLB has
"approved switches of regularly scheduled events on
Wednesday nights," and one example is tomorrow's MLB game
moving to ESPN2 in favor of Game Three of the Stars-
Avalanche Stanley Cup series. ESPN Exec VP Dick Glover,
noting those switches: "The facts work against their
argument. They feel the criteria for Wednesdays and Sundays
are different, but they're not." Sandomir reports that, to
"make matters worse," MLB says that ESPN is "carrying too
many baseball clips on 'SportsCenter.'" Glover, "sounding
amazed," says MLB is "complaining about too much coverage."
Sandomir predicts that "short of a settlement or a drawn-out
trial, this could end up with" MLB selling its Sunday rights
to TNT and Wednesday's rights to ESPN (N.Y. TIMES, 5/25).
