SI View The Week in TV Sports
DON'T MISS
Saturday 4/10
The Masters
CBS SATURDAY 3:30 PM AND SUNDAY 4 PM
Last week Fabio, while riding a roller-coaster in Virginia, was
struck in the nose by a low-flying goose, proving that not even
waterfowl are immune to the romance-novel cover boy's animal
magnetism. A different and wholly intentional stab at facial
rearrangement has taken place at Augusta National. Five
holes--numbers 2, 11, 15, 17 and 18--have been altered
significantly (moved back tees, added trees, relocated sand
traps) for the 63rd Masters, supposedly to prevent such long
hitters as course record holder Tiger Woods from dominating.
Will a change in the domain of the Masters have any effect on
who will follow 1998 champion Mark O'Meara (right) as master of
this domain?
HIGHLIGHTS
Saturday 4/10
Prince Naseem Hamed vs. Paul Ingle
HBO 11:15 PM (TAPE DELAY)
"It's my happening, and it's freaking me out!" Like fellow (if
fictional) popular Englishman Austin Powers, Hamed treats every
event as if it's his personal shindig. Tonight in Manchester the
31-0 Prince, who's the WBO featherweight champion, fetes
Yorkshireman Ingle (21-0), who said no to training at a Royal
Marines' Commando Training Centre in Devon so that he could sleep
in his own bed each night. "I'm a home bird," says Ingle. Yeah,
baby! Tune in early as the Hit Man, Thomas Hearns, now 40, faces
35-year-old Nate Miller in an undercard bout for the IBO
cruiserweight title.
Sunday 4/11
Coyotes at Mighty Ducks
ESPN2 8 PM
Last season Anaheim's Paul Kariya played the role of the eighth
dwarf, Woozy, after suffering a season-ending concussion on Feb.
1. Hockey fans wondered if duck, when applied to him, was a noun
or a verb. The 5'10" Kariya has returned with a vengeance,
however, and through Sunday he was the NHL's third-leading
scorer. Phoenix is still sore about a first-round playoff loss
to Anaheim in 1997. In Tomorrowland the next stop for these
Pacific Division rivals could be the first round of the
playoffs--again.
Thursday 4/15
Orioles at Yankees
FOX SPORTS NET 7:30 PM
New York is where the only sure things are debt and taxis--and
pinstripes. The reigning world champion Bronx Bombers are
prohibitive favorites to win it all in 1999. (Then again, wasn't
Duke?) For starters, during spring training the already
pitching-rich Yanks added five-time Cy Young Award winner Roger
Clemens to the pitching rotation. The combo of Baltimore's
all-righty pitching staff and New York's hefty lefty
swingers--Tino Martinez, Paul O'Neill and Bernie Williams (a
switch-hitter)--could mean a busy evening for new Orioles
rightfielder Albert Belle.
Friday 4/16
Pacers at Sixers
TNT 8 PM
The shortest NBA season in 51 years may yield the shortest MVP.
Philadelphia's Allen Iverson stands six feet tall in his
cornrows, thereby underpassing Bob Cousy (1957's MVP) by one
inch. At week's end the Answer led the league in scoring
(27.4-point average) and had the heretofore downtrodden Sixers
vying for a playoff berth. He also had a strained right
quadriceps and was listed as day-to-day. Central Division power
Indiana was leading the league in referees' noses busted (one,
Dick Bavetta's, unintentionally whacked by swingman Jalen Rose
in a March 30 game against the Knicks).
COLOR PHOTO: JOHN IACONO
THE RATING
8.7
Average rating on local TV in Chicago for Bulls games this
season--a decidedly unbullish 45% drop in viewership from 1997-98.
THE ZAPPER
How to explain why the Connecticut-Duke thriller on CBS got the
lowest prime-time Nielsen rating (17.2) ever for an NCAA
tournament final? Was it that regions other than the Atlantic
Seaboard had scant rooting interest? A reaction to tepid earlier
tournament games? Ally McBeal's being shown concurrently on Fox?
The decline of the broadcast networks? Or was it that the
Nielsens don't count those watching in bars or in UConn's Gampel
Pavilion? Or all of the above?
ALL TIMES EASTERN. SCHEDULES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE. SOURCE:
NIELSEN SPORTS MARKETING SERVICE.