ESPN's decision to rebroadcast the Women's World Cup
Final against MLB's All-Star Game on Fox on Tuesday was
"odd," according to Richard Sandomir of the N.Y. TIMES, who
noted the "nasty court fight" brewing between ESPN and MLB.
MLB President & COO Paul Beeston said MLB was "disappointed"
with ESPN's counter-programming move. Beeston: "We would
have hoped that they'd shown some consideration because we'd
worked together to put the Home Run Derby into prime time
for ESPN." ESPN spokesperson Mike Soltys said legal dispute
with MLB "wasn't part of the decision. We wanted to get the
soccer game on quickly and we had strong commitments on
Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights." Sandomir
noted that "commitments were less crucial" on ESPN2 and
wondered, "If ESPN2 was a good enough destination for the
attempted shift of baseball from ESPN, wasn't it good enough
for the soccer replay?" (N.Y. TIMES, 7/18).
LIVE FROM CONEY'S ISLAND: ESPN did interrupt its Sunday
Davis Cup coverage, in which it was replaying Saturday's
doubles action, to pick up the WNYW-Fox feed of David Cone's
perfect game during the top of the ninth inning (THE DAILY).
