SI View The Week in TV Sports

Highlights

SATURDAY 7/15

Cardinals at White Sox
FX AND WGN 7 PM Forget the Mideast summit and follow the Midwest
summit. At midseason St. Louis and Chicago were comfortably atop
the National and American League Central, respectively. Reports
from the West Banks (of Lake Michigan and the Mississippi) say
that these clubs could be headed for an October confrontation.
Reporting live from Camp David, I'm Wolf Blitzer.

U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials
NBC 8 PM; SUNDAY 4 PM Excerpts from the international best-seller
Marion Jones's Diary:

7/15 150 pounds; alcohol units, 0 (v. good); calories, 2,700
(low-fat). Tonight will run the 100-meter final against that
pesky Inger Miller. I'll already be taping my obligatory Jim Gray
interview by the time she finishes.

7/16 147 pounds; alcohol units, 0 (unless you count rubbing
alcohol); energy bars, 2. Now this I'm looking forward to:
competing against Jackie Joyner-Kersee in the long jump finals.
Note to self: Make sure to watch Michael Johnson in the men's
400 meters and Suzy Favor Hamilton versus Regina Jacobs in the
women's 1,500. I do wonder what it must be like to have
competition.

Lennox Lewis vs. Francois Botha
HBO 9 PM If Survivor morphed with Friends, Ross would be the
first to go; if it morphed with John Irving novels, A Son of the
Circus would be voted out; and if Survivor morphed with the band
Survivor, Stephen Ellis (the bass player, as if you didn't know)
would be outta there. If such a hybrid existed in the
heavyweight division, nobody would care until the last two
people remaining on the island were Lewis (36-1-1) and Mike
Tyson. Alas, a few tiki torches are still lit, and Botha
(40-2-1) has yet to see his snuffed out. Tonight's
scheduled--and we stress that word--12-rounder originates from
Lewis's hometown of London.

THURSDAY 7/20

British Open
ESPN THURSDAY AND FRIDAY 9 AM Our first recipient of the Dude, I
Feel for You award, narrowly edging the PGA Tour field (minus one
very conspicuous golfer), is newly and unhappily unattached
Dennis Quaid. Quaid's estranged wife, the sylphlike Meg Ryan (now
dating Russell Crowe), made her film debut in 1981's Rich and
Famous--which Tiger Woods, 24, already is. Everybody's
All-American on the fairway is breaking away from the rest of the
Tour with five victories this year, including his runaway at last
month's U.S. Open. Beginning today at St. Andrews, golf's
gladiator will attempt to become the youngest man to attain a
career Grand Slam.

Don't Miss

MONDAY 7/17

When It Was a Game III
HBO 10 PM The third one-hour installment of this wonderful,
wistful series chronicles the 1960s, an era of growth
spurts--and the attendant pains--for baseball. It was, as in
other walks of American life, a turbulent decade, as the
national pastime expanded from 16 to 24 clubs and the National
League embraced integration, creating a talent gap between
leagues. But it was also, for the fan, the last days of Camelot,
of doubleheaders and players like Willie Mays (above) never
seeking free agency. "You couldn't say that we actually saw more
baseball in the '60s," says Bob Costas, by now the Cal Ripken of
sports documentaries, "but maybe what we saw made a deeper
impression."

COLOR PHOTO: WALTER IO0SS JR.

the zapper

The Fourth of July provided a picture-in-picture Womack
double-header: At around 7:45 p.m. Central time, just as
Diamondbacks shortstop Tony Womack (No. 1 in the Arizona batting
order) was stepping up to the plate at Houston's Enron Field on
ESPN, singer Lee Ann Womack (recently No. 1 on the country
charts) was in Washington, D.C., belting out her hit song "I Hope
You Dance" on A Capitol Fourth on PBS. We'll keep our eyes peeled
for a similar Bernie Williams/Lucinda Williams feat....All types
of lanes will be filled this week in Phoenix as the Valley of the
Sun hosts bowling's U.S. Open (Fox Sports, Saturday, 5 p.m.) and
the second annual WNBA All-Star Game (ESPN, Monday, 8 p.m.).

ALL TIMES EASTERN. SCHEDULES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.