SI View The Week in TV Sports

Highlights

SATURDAY 9/1

WNBA Finals, Game 2
NBC 3:30 PM With Coop (Cynthia Cooper) having flown the coop for
a coaching gig with Phoenix and Swoopes (last year's MVP Sheryl)
unable to swoop because of a season-ending knee injury, the
Houston Comets' four-year reign as WNBA champions came to a
close in the opening playoff round at the hands of the Los
Angeles Sparks. So who's got next, you ask? Look for mighty
L.A., behind 2001 MVP Lisa Leslie, to bring another basketball
title to Tinseltown.

UCLA at Alabama
ESPN 7:45 PM Roll, Tide, Roll, eh? More like Tide Washes Out.
That was the theme of many headlines in Tuscaloosa last season as
Alabama stumbled to a 3-8 record after opening the season as the
AP's third-ranked team. No wonder Mike DuBose, an unbearable
24-23 during his four-year stint as coach, was replaced by Dennis
Franchione. The former TCU head man's first Tuscaloosa tussle is
a prime-time rematch against UCLA, who started the Tide rolling
backward last year with a 35-24 win in 'Bama's season opener.

WEDNESDAY 9/5

U.S. Men's Soccer Team vs. Costa Rica
ESPN2 10 PM Thirty-three years ago Dionne Warwick, searching for
peace of mind, famously inquired, "Do you know the way to San
Jose?" Well, when it comes to San Jose, the capital city of Costa
Rica, there's no peace of mind for the Americans, who are winless
in six straight matches in Costa Rica. Tonight's World Cup
qualifier takes place at Estadio Ricardo Saprissa, a horror for
the opposition, with rowdy fans just yards from the pitch. Will
the U.S. finally break its drought in San Jose? Only Warwick's
amigos at the Psychic Friends Network know for sure.

Don't Miss

SUNDAY 9/2

Yankees at Red Sox
ESPN 8 PM To be a Boston fan is to have a doctorate in
disappointment and a master's degree in masochism, and to be a
summa cum laude in Sisyphean struggles. To wit: www.soxsuck.com,
a website that offers "a chronological history of amazing Boston
Red Sox losses, remarkable collapses and other record-breaking
feats." Surfing through the sad state of Sox affairs, one learns
that on Sept. 2, 1952--49 years to the day before tonight's
showdown at Fenway Park--New York shut out Boston 5-0 and 4-0 in a
doubleheader. With both the American League East title and a
wild-card spot still within reach, the Red Sox are hoping
tonight's finale of a critical three-game series, the first for
new skipper Joe Kerrigan against the hated Yankees, won't end up
as another entry in Boston's cyberhistory of horrors.

COLOR PHOTO: DAMIAN STROHMEYER

THE ZAPPER

A year and a half after his rocky ride on Monday Night Football,
Boomer Esiason sounds liberated as an NFL analyst for CBS Radio.
His frank, provocative comments are what CBS needs for its TV
broadcasts. Where was this asplike tongue when he was in the MNF
booth? ... ESPN baseball analyst Orel Hershiser makes a good
first impression with his Richie Cunningham looks and persona,
and he packs as much substance as style, in large part because he
started keeping computer files of all his games in the mid-1980s,
which include notes on every at bat for every player he pitched
against.

ALL TIMES EASTERN. SCHEDULES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.