“Two bits, four bits, six bits, a dollar/Cheerleaders make me hot under the collar.”
NFL Network, always ready to please its fans, airs not one but two “reality” series on NFL cheerleaders this summer.
The three-part “The Buccaneers Cheerleaders: Making the Squad,” an inside look at “the grueling, highly charged and competitive audition process,” debuts Monday (6 p.m., NFL Network). The Chargers cheerleaders follow July 10.
Monday’s episode is followed by “The Secret Lives of Cheerleaders.” Yowzah!
And there might be moments from grueling calendar shoots too.
Almost immortal
Pity Dave Flemming. When Barry Bonds slugged his 715th home run against the Colorado Rockies Sunday to pass Babe Ruth on the all-time list, Flemming, the San Francisco Giants’ play-by-
play radio man, was on the job.
“Three-and-two,” said Flemming on KNBR in San Francisco. “Finley runs. The payoff pitch, a swing and a drive to deep cen …”
Dead air.
Coincidence? Sabotage? No one knows, but it’s former Rockies TV analyst Duane Kuiper’s call for Fox Sports Net that will go to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.
“I’m disappointed,” Flemming said later. “I made the call. It just didn’t go over the air.”
More cars, less stars
Lucky for fans of the Indianapolis 500, an exciting finish rescued an otherwise ho-hum race.
The coverage team of Marty Reid, Rusty Wallace and Scott Goodyear were up to the task with plenty of personal stories and sidelights.
But too often they left us looking at long shots of cars, virtually indistinguishable one from another, and no hint of who was driving them.
Not that the on-air crew took notice, but there was plenty of on-track jockeying not at the front of the pack, too.
The IndyCar series moves on to Watkins Glen, N.Y., for a road-course race (1:30 p.m. Sunday, KMGH-Channel 7). NASCAR is at “the Monster Mile” in Dover, Del. (noon Sunday, FX).
Around the dial
Will this never end? Father’s Day looms, but the NBA and NHL playoffs drag on and on. The NBA Western Conference finals match Phoenix at Dallas (6:30 tonight, TNT), while the NHL’s Buffalo and Carolina go down to the wire with a Game 7 (5:30 tonight, OLN). And the finals are still to come. … If poker is a sport, so is this: ESPN and ABC covering today’s finals of the National Spelling Bee (10 a.m., ESPN, and 7 p.m., Channel 7). … Early birds: Live coverage of the French Open tennis tournament continues Sunday morning (4 a.m., ESPN2). … Quotable: “There is no halftime for cheerleaders!” Anonymous
Dick Kreck’s column appears Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. He may be reached at 303-820-1456 or dkreck@denverpost.com.
