SI View The Week in TV Sports
DON'T MISS
Saturday 9/18
Oscar De La Hoya vs. Felix Trinidad
TVKO ($49.95) 9 PM
Oscar. Felix. Can two grown men live in a boxing ring (whose
square footage would rent for $1,600 a month in Manhattan)
without driving each other crazy? Prognosticators say this bout
between WBC champ De La Hoya (31-0) and IBF champ Trinidad
(35-0) is potentially the best welterweight battle since Sugar
Ray Leonard fought Thomas Hearns in 1981. Like Leonard, De La
Hoya (right) has a pretty face (out of the ring, anyway) and
Olympic gold; like the Hit Man, Trinidad is taller and a more
menacing puncher. You can skirt the pay-per-view fee if you are
incarcerated in one of the four largest prisons in Puerto Rico,
Trinidad's homeland: Correction officials there hope showing the
fight will pacify inmates.
HIGHLIGHTS
Saturday 9/18
Penn State at Miami
Tennessee at Florida
CBS 3:30 PM AND 8 PM
All four teams in this de facto day-night doubleheader are
ranked in the Top 10, and each has won or shared a national
championship in the 1990s. This week's Millennium Moment: When
the Nittany Lions last visited the Orange Bowl, in '91 (a 26-20
Hurricanes victory), CBS preempted the third quarter to air the
Clarence Thomas Supreme Court confirmation hearings. In the
nightcap Tennessee will need the best effor to tailback Jamal
Lewis (page 58) if it's to snap Florida's 29-game home winning
streak.
Sunday 9/19
Jets at Bills
ESPN 8:15 PM
Doug Flutie, long blessed with rock-star locks, plays the drums
in a band called the Flutie Gang. (You wuz expecting maybe
Flutie and the Blowfish?) As weak as the music scene is today,
Buffalo fans might be concerned that their feisty quarterback,
whose ensemble recently recorded a CD, will make his next pass a
backstage one. "In each [job] you have the ability to control
the tempo," declares the nimble Flutie, who assures his gridiron
supporters that his studio percussions will have no career
repercussions. "My wildest football dreams haven't come true yet."
Tuesday 9/21
Mets at Braves
TBS 7:35 PM
If baseball teams were TV shows, Atlanta would be Charlie's
Angels. Like that decolletage-driven detective drama, the Braves
have re-vamped nearly their entire lineup since first making it
big. Not one position player remains from the club that won a
division crown in 1991, the first of seven straight titles.
Unlike TV's Angels, Atlanta stayed on top. At week's end the
Braves were two games ahead of second-place New York. The Mets
will be looking to erase the memory of '98, when they arrived at
Turner Field on the final weekend of the season and were swept
out of a wild-card spot.
Friday 9/24
Ryder Cup, Day One
USA 7:30 AM AND 3:30 PM
This Boston tee party promises to be as rowdy as its near
namesake. U.S. captain Ben Crenshaw teed off a month early when
he scolded a few of his players for talking the
no-representation-without-remuneration talk. Next the conflict
uncovered two Benedict Arnolds: Americans Jerry Higginbotham and
Lance Ten Broeck, who will caddie for Europeans Sergio Garcia
and Jesper Parnevik, respectively. Things really got nasty when
someone suggested to Colin Montgomerie that he doff his powdered
wig. Better-ball and alternate-shot matches are played today;
the competition concludes over the weekend on NBC.
ALL TIMES EASTERN. SCHEDULES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE. SOURCE: CBS.
COLOR PHOTO: V.J. LOVERO
THE RATING
7.2
CBS's preliminary rating for last Saturday's U.S. Open women's
final between Serena Williams and Martina Hingis--double the
rating of the 1998 final (Hingis versus Lindsay Davenport).
THE ZAPPER
Will people watch Battle Dome--premiering Saturday (syndicated)
and featuring regular-folks contestants taking on 10 Battle Dome
Warriors in events such as kickboxing while suspended in
midair--simply for the thrill of viewing the competition? Or
will they tune in because three of the show's regulars are the
Dahm triplets (Erica, Jaclyn and Nicole), who appeared out of
uniform in the December 1998 Playboy? Doesn't matter. People
will, for the love of Baywatch, watch.
