LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan said that women’s golf "needs more exposure to increase the game’s profile and close the pay gap with male golfers." The CP's Adam Stanley noted "most of" the LPGA’s coverage is on Golf Channel rather than broadcast TV. Whan said, "It’s hard to deliver incremental viewership for my cable partners when I’m only on a channel that people paid and subscribed to be there. If you give me 39 weeks on [network] TV, I’ll close the gap on viewership in a long way, and if I close the gap on viewership, I’ll close the difference in purses and pay. But you can’t do one without the other" (CP, 8/16).
GOING, GOING, GONE: In Denver, Patrick Saunders noted MLB is "on pace for 6,712 home runs this season, which would be 1,100 more than a year ago, and an increase of more than 600 over the record 6,105 blasts" in '17. Saunders: "Did MLB purposely 'juice' baseballs in its desire for more home runs and more offense? I really don’t think so, but plenty of people buy into that conspiracy." MLB "must be transparent about the issue and a solution must be found" (DENVER POST, 8/17).
