Thursday, August 09, 2007

A Contrast In Sports

Sports fans have potentially a busy night tonight.

On the local front, the Warner Robins Little Leaguers battle a team from Mobile, Ala. (ESPN, 8 p.m.) in Florida for the Southeast regional title. The winner gets a trip to compete in the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa.

In general, I usually find the Little League World Series a lot of fun. Back in the days when I was a sports writer, it was one of those events I wanted to say I covered one time. It's infectious when you see kids actually playing for the love of the game. (Little League parents in general, however, are another story.)

Also, you can catch the rubber game of the big series between the Atlanta Braves and New York Mets this afternoon (TBS, 12 p.m.).

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the NFL preseason gets going tonight as the defending champion Indianapolis Colts visit the Dallas Cowboys (Fox, 8 p.m.) Rather, I should say that the Colts' scrubs face the Cowboys' scrubs. Is there anything more overrated in sports than the NFL preseason?

You see the big names for about a series, then they hit the showers. The NFL preseason is all about corporate greed, since they charge an arm and a leg for fans to attend these games. Still, if people are willing to pay the ticket prices, then the joke's on them.

The lone exception to my loathing of the NFL preseason was in 1996, when I got to cover the Carolina Panthers' first-ever game when they hosted the Denver Broncos at Clemson. There was a general air of excitement seeing these guys play for the first time. (Carolina finished 7-9 that year, the best-ever start for an expansion team).

Finally, golf's final major tees off with the PGA Championship (TNT, 2 p.m.)

THURSDAY'S BEST BETS: "Burn Notice" (USA, 10 p.m.) continues to get more enjoyable every week, and apparently the suits at the network have noticed. TVGuide.com is reporting that USA has renewed the show for a second season.

One of the summer's top dramas, "Mad Men," (AMC, 10 p.m.) is also new this week. See how I managed to list it on the correct night this time around?

3 comments:

Jonathan said...

NFL Pre-season is awful. I'm always excited just for the simple fact that football is back and then I watch three minutes of the game and turn it off. I can wait four more weeks; hell, I've waited this long. Plus, I'm a Raiders fan, so don't have a whole lot to look forward to this season as it is.

Congrats on getting "Mad Men" on the right night. Seriously, though, I have not had a chance to catch "Burn Notice," and have not been able to find the eps available anywhere else. Hopefully they'll do one of those marathons here one day and I can at least record them, or might have to wait for DVD I guess. But I am looking forward to catching it; it seems to be right up my alley plus Bruce Campbell, how could you go wrong?

Anonymous said...

"Mad Men" is not just the best show of the summer, it's the best show by keaps & bounds. None of the other shows I am watching...Kyle XY, Rescue Me, Big Love, Entourage, The Dead Zone, The 4400, Psych...all fine shows, but none can match "Mad Men" for my $.

The NFL pre-season sucks. I will continue to follow my Braves until real football starts. And then I will follow both.

Phillip Ramati said...

USA tends to repeat stuff in marathons, and Burn Notice airs several times a week, so you should be able to catch up.