TV MONITOR: Last night's 11:00pm ET edition of ESPN's
"SportsCenter" led with the U.S. Open, followed by Rangers-
Yankees. FSN's "Fox Sports News Primetime" led with
Rangers-Yankees, followed by Angels-Blue Jays. The third
story was the U.S. Open. CNN/SI's "Sports Tonight" led with
the U.S. Open, followed by NBA Finals (THE DAILY).
U.S. OPEN NOTES: Titleist is the presenting sponsor of
the U.S. Open leaderboard on GolfWeb and places its logo
next to players using Titleist golf balls. IBM is the
leaderboard presenting sponsor on ESPN.com's Golf Online and
CNNSI.com's GolfPlus. Taylor Made is sponsoring the Fox
Sports Online leaderboard (THE DAILY). CNNSI.com has made
an "equity investment" in Chicago-based GolfServ Online,
which offers course and performance information. Terms of
the deal weren't disclosed (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 6/18). The
U.S. Open is hosting "more than" 1,200 journalists from 16
countries, with "large contingents" from Japan and the
British Isles (Greensboro NEWS & RECORD, 6/18).
MORE NOTES: Guest appearances on the next episode of
HBO's "Arli$$" (Sunday, 9:30pm) include Lakers Owner Jerry
Buss, play-by-play announcer Chick Hearn, analyst Stu Lantz,
former coach Kurt Rambis and actress Dyan Cannon. The
episode will replay June 22 at 11:30pm, June 23 at 8:00pm
and June 25 at midnight. Democratic Presidential candidate
Bill Bradley was on the set yesterday and will be featured
in next week's episode (THE DAILY)....In L.A., Tom Hoffarth
writes on the "all-too-overused phrase: 'ESPN's (fill in the
beat reporter) has confirmed that ...'" Hoffarth: "Too many
times lately, all that means is they have access to
newspapers and wire services that have already reported it,
and they've just doublechecked it" (L.A. DAILY NEWS,
6/18)....Orioles RF Albert Belle, when asked for an
interview regarding his first visit back to Chicago: "No.
It's all on my webpage" (CBS SportsLine, 6/17).