TV MONITOR: Last night's 11:00pm ET edition of ESPN's
"SportsCenter" led with Devil Rays DH Jose Canseco
undergoing back surgery, followed by Yankees-Mets. CNN/SI's
"Sports Tonight" led with Red Sox-Braves, and followed with
Yankees-Mets. FSN's "Primetime" (Fox Sports Net South) led
with Keith Olbermann reporting from Fenway Park on Red Sox
SS Nomar Garciaparra's status for the All-Star Game,
followed by Red Sox-Braves (THE DAILY).
WEB NOTES: The SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL's Noah Liberman
writes that SportsLine USA's recent hiring of Atlanta
Constitution NFL columnist Len Pasquarelli "signaled that
the war among the top sites [ESPN.com] will now be fought
with word processors as well as with checkbooks and stock
options." SportsLine President & CEO Mike Levy, whose
company currently has 11 full-time staff writers, said that
he "plans eventually to have dedicated staff in every major
sports market," to which Liberman notes "that will mean more
high-profile outside hires like Pasquarelli" (SPORTSBUSINESS
JOURNAL, 7/12 issue)....Weather.com and ESPN.com "formed an
alliance to exchange content and links" in Weather.com's
newly launched Events section, including "detailed weather
for professional sports [events] throughout the U.S. from
ESPN.com categories," such as baseball, golf and tennis. An
ESPN banner, along with a ticker of the latest scores, will
appear in the Weather.com Events section (AD AGE, 7/12).
MORE NOTES: In Boston, Jim Baker cites ESPN sources as
saying that "further evidence of hard times" between ESPN
and MLB "is a tight watch on the five-minute-per-hour limit"
on MLB highlights "SportsCenter" can use. One ESPN exec:
"Baseball is keeping a close eye on us even though we've
been such a good partner for 10 years" (BOSTON HERALD,
7/12)...Raycom Sports has awarded ACC men's basketball
broadcast rights for the next two years to DC's WDCA-UPN,
which will replace WUSA-CBS. WUSA carried the games for the
last three seasons (WASHINGTON POST, 7/10).
