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Notes By George Stahl NEW YORK (AQB)--With skillful reporting and guileful interviewing, ArmchairQB.com has confirmed one fact, unknown before now, about ESPN's list of the greatest North American athletes this century. There are no bowlers in the top 100. ... But wait, there's more. "Not only is there not one bowler," said Mark Shapiro, executive producer of ESPN's SportsCentury project. "There is not one bowling event, not one bowling coach, not one bowling influential person. That is one sport that I am unhappy to say we completely avoided and disregarded in terms of this project." Sorry, Earl Anthony fans. ... Better luck next century, keglers. OK, so maybe that's not earthshattering news, but Shapiro did tell ArmchairQB.com some very interesting stuff about the SportsCentury project in a 25-minute interview on the latest edition of AQB's Internet radio show Armchair On The Air. [Click here to listen to the whole interview.] Among the items discussed, Shapiro reported that ESPN is investigating putting the SportsCentury collection on the market, possibly on a home-video basis. "I can't promise you that it's going to happen. There are a lot of issues," Shapiro said, such as securing rights to use certain footage, music and photos. "It's just very difficult to license all of that material that we've dug up over the last three years and put into these shows." "We're working on it. We might come out with 10, we might come out with 20. We might have to the revise the shows somewhat. Somewhat. We're going to make it happen - we're very optimistic about that - it's just not locked in stone right now." But Shapiro did say that on either Dec. 30 or 31, ESPN2 will devote the whole day to replaying SportsCentury programs. That airing is a week after the No. 1 athlete on the list is announced in an hourlong special on ABC. Shapiro said the program will profile the top two athletes and then announce which one is No. 1 at the end of the show. Of course, Shapiro wouldn't tell us who No. 1 is (Hell, he wouldn't even say who was No. 101 or 102), but by listening to the interview you will find out who the only two people in the world are that know the rest of the list. You also can hear Shapiro respond to some of the more common complaints about ESPN's SportsCentury list - the inclusion of horses, the amount of negativity in the some of the athletes' shows and how the voters were chosen. "When the project is over, we'll all sit back and we'll be proud and we'll take a breath," Shapiro said. "But as you're going after it, you have to remind yourself, we are doing work that we are proud of, and we are doing historical work as well." Click here to listen to AQB's interview with Mark Shapiro, or to hear previous AQB interviews with NFL Hall of Fame announcer Charlie Jones, New York Post/TV Guide sports columnist Phil Mushnick, ESPN's Charley Steiner and Bob Ley, and more... Click here to see the latest news on the SportsCentury project as well as an index of all the stories ArmchairQB.com has written about SportsCentury. Click here to see an index of all the stories ArmchairQB.com has written on the SportsCentury project. To get you ready for the first week of the NFL season next week, here's a complete list of the season-opening games and who the announcers will be (play-by-play man first, followed by analyst and sideline reporter, if available). It's a Fox doubleheader because CBS will be televising the U.S. Open men's final at 4 p.m. 1 P.M. GAMES: Arizona
Cardinals at Philadelphia Eagles, Fox Baltimore
Ravens at St. Louis Rams, CBS Buffalo
Bills at Indianapolis Colts, CBS Carolina
Panthers at New Orleans Saints, Fox Cincinnati
Bengals at Tennessee Titans, CBS Dallas
Cowboys at Washington Redskins, Fox Kansas
City Chiefs at Chicago Bears, CBS New
England Patriots at New York Jets, CBS Oakland
Raiders at Green Bay Packers, CBS 4 P.M. GAMES: Detroit
Lions at Seattle Seahawks, Fox Minnesota
Vikings at Atlanta Falcons, Fox New
York Giants at Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Fox San
Francisco 49ers at Jacksonville Jaguars, Fox SUNDAY NIGHT: Pittsburgh
Steelers at Cleveland Browns, 8:20 p.m., ESPN MONDAY NIGHT: Miami
Dolphins at Denver Broncos, 9 p.m., ABC Click to see Randy's review of the NFL preview magazines; the complete 1999 NFL television schedule; or Peter King's comments on his competition.
CBS begins its live coverage of the U.S. Open at 11 a.m. Saturday. Unfortunately for the network and for tennis fans, many of the sport's most familiar names are already gone - such as Pete Sampras, Patrick Rafter, Steffi Graf, Anna Kournikova, Tim Henman, Mark Philippoussis, Carlos Moya and Amanda Coetzer. Sampras' withdrawal this week because of a back injury not only took him out of the U.S. Open but, as the New York Post reported, took him off of 60 Minutes II. The Sampras piece, reported by tennis fan Charlie Rose, was scheduled to air either this past week or next week. Instead, as the paper reported, it was tabled until a later date. CBS, televising the U.S. Open for the 32nd straight year, will broadcast more than 40 hours of America's premier tennis event, ending Sept. 12 with the men's final, which the network no doubt hopes Andre Agassi is playing. John McEnroe and Mary Carillo will call the action for CBS, along with Patrick McEnroe, Tony Trabert, Pam Shriver, Bill Macatee, Michele Tafoya and Bonnie Bernstein. CBS will televise the tournament from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Sunday and Monday. USA Network continues its 86 hours of excellent U.S. Open coverage Saturday and Sunday with evening telecasts from 7:30-11. For more details and a complete list of televised sporting events for this weekend, check out ArmchairQB.com's Today's Lineup. |
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