SI View The Week in TV Sports

Highlights

SATURDAY 10/20

Baseball League Championship Series
FOX 4 PM (AL Game 3), 7:30 PM (NL Game 4) For a franchise that
once lived by the refrain "Spahn and Sain, and pray for rain,"
it's the same old story for the Braves. They're still relying on
a pair of starting pitchers to get them past their National
League Championship Series foes, the Diamondbacks. (Our refrain:
"Maddux and Glavine is all we be havin'.")

MONDAY 10/22

Biography Close-up: After the Game
A&E 8 PM Although host Harry Smith's low-key interviewing style
occasionally borders on sleep-inducing, the candor that he six
subjects (Zina Garrison, Wayne Gretzky, Art Heyman, Bo Jackson,
Alan Page and J.R. Richard) exhibit during this examination of
retired athletes' lives makes for an absorbing hour.
Particularly compelling is Garrison's admission that she
suffered from bulimia and severe depression after her departure
from the WTA tour.

TUESDAY 10/23

Winning Is Living and Losing Is Dying: The George Allen Story
ESPN 7 PM The title of this fascinating, hour-long NFL Films
production encapsulates the philosophy of Allen, an obsessed pro
and college coach, a man who ranked "football, family and God"
in that order, according to his quarterback on the Rams, Roman
Gabriel. Endearing anecdotes come from Jennifer Allen, author of
last year's well-received Fifth Quarter: The Scrimmage of a
Football Coach's Daughter, who recalls how during one family
vacation to the Bahamas her father "saw some natives who were
unusually fit" and began to time them using a stopwatch and
football he just happened to have with him.

ALL TIMES EASTERN. SCHEDULES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

Don't Miss

MONDAY 10/22

Eagles at Giants
ABC 9 PM In Greek, Philadelphia means brotherly love, and
recently when the Eagles have played their NFC East rivals from
New York, they've more than lived up to their city's name.
Philly has dropped nine consecutive games to the Giants by a
combined score of 218-115. Three of the Eagles' six losses last
season came at the hands of New York, including a 20-10 drubbing
in the NFC divisional playoffs, a game in which Philadelphia's
All-Pro quarterback Donovan McNabb (above, 5) was held to a
subpar 198 yards of total offense and was sacked six times. With
Monday Night Football's early-season schedule having been about
as entertaining as a C-Span2 marathon, here's hoping that this
matchup between two likely playoff teams is one that fans can
love.

COLOR PHOTO: OTTO GRUELE

THE ZAPPER

NBC's recently added Nov. 3 broadcast of Michael Jordan's
Wizards' taking on the 76ers--the network's first pre-Christmas
Day NBA game in 11 years--is good news for hoops fans but
possibly bad news for Fox: That same night is World Series Game
6 (if necessary).... Will Major League Soccer's title game on
Sunday (ABC, 12:30 p.m.) be decided on penalty kicks? Both
semifinals, Earthquakes-Fusion and Fire-Galaxy, were headed to
decisive third games as SI went to press.... ESPN's two-hour The
Season--Cal Ripken (Friday, 8 p.m.) relives the Iron Man's final
year in the majors.