SI View The Week in TV Sports

Highlights

SATURDAY 5/5

Kentucky Derby
NBC 5 PM With a Hollywood writers' strike looming at press time,
we offer the studios a prospective screenplay on the Derby. The
storyline: Your villain is white-haired, two-time Derby-winning
trainer Bob Baffert. (May we suggest Donald Sutherland?) His
prize colt is heavy favorite Point Given, son of 1995 Derby
winner Thunder Gulch. (Oh, the aristocracy!) The lovable underdog
is Tincin, a maiden who musters one magnificent gallop to nip
Point Given at the wire, inspiring trainer Steve Larue (Edward
Norton?) to shout, "Point taken, baby!" (Note: If Disney buys,
Tincin can also say this line.)

Fernando Vargas vs. Wilfredo Rivera
HBO 10:45 PM The last time Vargas (20-1, 18 KOs) fought, in
December, he got tore up from the floor up by Felix Trinidad,
hitting the mat five times en route to losing his IBF junior
middleweight crown. Vargas's road back begins against
granite-chinned veteran Rivera (32-4-1, 20 KOs). Fittingly for
Vargas, who's Mexican-American, the bout will be on Cinco de
Mayo, the Mexican national holiday.

THURSDAY 5/10

PGA Verizon Byron Nelson Classic
GOLF CHANNEL, FOX SPORTS NET, THURSDAY AND FRIDAY 4 PM In
Memento, the excellent whydunnit movie, the plot moves backward,
beginning with the last scene and rewinding to the start. If this
tournament, Tiger Woods's first since the Masters, were to follow
the film's form, the sequence would be: hyperbole flows back into
mouths of announcers, Tiger's fist retracts to position next to
his waist, ball pops out of cup on 18th green, glint of hope
returns to eyes of rest of field.

Don't Miss

SATURDAY 5/5

NHL Playoffs
ABC 1 PM, ESPN 7 PM It may sound like a twisted Celebrity
Deathmatch in which a rabid canine is subdued by a faceful of
tough-actin' Tinactin, but in this case, Cujo versus John (Mad
Dog) Madden means Game 5 of the Maple Leafs-Devils Eastern
Conference semifinal (the seven o'clock match). The Leafs will
rely on Curtis (Cujo) Joseph (above, left) to use his Gumbyesque
goaltending to stop New Jersey center Madden and his mates on
the NHL's highest-scoring team. If Toronto can knock off New
Jersey, it will keep alive Canada's hopes of reclaiming the Cup
for the first time since the Canadiens won in 1993. Afternoon
Game 5s (if necessary) are Penguins at Sabres and Blues at Stars.

ALL TIMES EASTERN. SCHEDULES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

COLOR PHOTO: LOU CAPOZZOLA

THE ZAPPER

Lifting his game in the postseason, NBA on NBC studio analyst
Kevin Johnson showed some welcome on-air forthrightness last
Saturday by declaring that in the wake of the Hornets' sweep of
the Heat (page 40), Miami's Pat Riley should give up either his
coaching or his executive role....The men's NCAA volleyball
final is served up on Saturday (ESPN2, 7 p.m.).