Morning Hot Reads: First Serve

TENNIS looks back at when Tennis Channel "went live for the first time" 20 years ago. Barry Tompkins welcomed viewers from Lowell, Mass., on April 26, 2003 in Tennis Channel’s "very first live broadcast." Those watching where the network was available "weren’t going to threaten Nielsen rating records," but in the "forest of live sports, a tree had fallen, and it made sounds that reverberate two decades later." For "OG Tennis Channel viewers, it was an ace." Professional tennis that "required labyrinthine or expensive (if not illegal) means to watch now had a platform whose access would grow exponentially." It "didn’t hurt" to have Venus and Serena Williams playing in the first event the net broadcast. It was, for the "first of many times, an example of Tennis Channel finding itself in the right place at the right time."

Also:

• Zero tolerance in the modern sports landscape for abuse, toxicity
• Bring MLB to Salt Lake, not because of any bias here, simply because it is a major league town.