ESPN don’t got game. The über sports network that likes to think it blankets the world of athletics plays second fiddle on two major events Sunday – the Daytona 500 (noon, KDVR-Channel 31) and the NBA All-Star Game (6:30 p.m., TNT).
That doesn’t slow the ESPN juggernaut. The NBA game, played in star-studded Las Vegas, is too often a bore – it’s really about who’s on the red carpet, not who’s on the court. Remember the 2005 game in Denver, when you couldn’t get anywhere near the “stars” and hangers-on getting limo-ed around town for very- private parties?
Instead of watching the on-court antics of the pros, check out the celebrity game, featuring Taye Diggs, Bow Wow, Carrot Top, Jamie Foxx, Reggie Bush and others (5 p.m. Friday, ESPN).
ESPN does get one consolation prize this weekend – it carries the Busch race, its first NASCAR competition in six years (11:15 a.m. Saturday, ESPN2).
Together again
Former CU coach Bill McCartney sits down with ex-players Charles Johnson and Alfred Williams for fun and games on “FSN Live at the Barbershop” (10:30 tonight, FSN Rocky Mountain).
McCartney, who took the Buffs from a 1-10 team to a national championship, will talk about CU’s current football recruits and what coach Dan Hawkins can expect from them.
Talkin’ baseball
We may be freezing, but Fox Sports is thinking spring and baseball.
For the first time since 1989, there will be a Saturday “Game of the Week” on broadcast television (Channel 31) from the start of the season, beginning April 7 with three regional games.
Fox will carry as many as 72 games featuring 22 teams over 26 weeks under a new, seven-year deal with
Major League Baseball.
Around the dial
Nicolas Cage is set to give the traditional “Gentlemen, start your engines” call for Sunday’s Daytona 500 … “Taking Issue With Brian Curtis” looks at homosexuality in sports (5 tonight, CSTV, Comcast digital cable channel 411) … Don’t know the fighters, but with Playmates as ring-card girls, who cares? It’s fight night at the Playboy Mansion for “Best Damn Sports Show Period” (9 p.m. Friday, FSNRM). Professional touch: Sean O’Grady does pre-fight interviews … Minnesota and Colorado College meet in a WCHA showdown (7:35 tonight, FSNRM) … Former Chicago Cubs manager Dusty Baker joins
ESPN’s “Baseball Tonight” as an analyst, beginning March 28 … Quotable: “I’ll say this, when he said he didn’t know anything about his engine, he wasn’t lying. He knows diddly-squat about engines.” Fox NASCAR analyst Darrell Waltrip on his brother Michael’s rules infractions.
Dick Kreck’s column appears Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. He may be reached at 303-954-1456 or dkreck@denverpost.com.
