Ed Sullivan. The Smothers Brothers. The Muppets. They each pioneered the variety show format, throwing together a slew of different acts into a television pot. And hoping for the best.
The tradition continues in Denver this weekend with a wide, all-encompassing variety show of sports.
Almost every fan should be able to find something of interest from the cornucopia of spring sports offerings in town and on TV between today and Sunday. It’s like a sports stew, a fan-favorite menu of baseball, hockey, basketball, football, soccer and lacrosse.
When’s the last time traffic was a problem downtown on a Sunday? It could be the case this weekend, when the Rockies and Avalanche share 1 p.m. start times less than a mile apart. At least the Rockies’ 6 p.m. game Saturday starts an hour before the Nuggets’ tipoff at Pepsi Center.
Here’s a breakdown, from start to finish:
• The Rockies open their 2008 home schedule today at Coors Field with a 2 p.m. game against Arizona. Mark Redman takes the hill for the Rox. The two teams come back Saturday with their aces: Jeff Francis for Colorado and Brandon Webb for Arizona.
• The Avalanche on Sunday ends its regular season in what could be a game of significance. Colorado hosts a Northwest Division rival, the Minnesota Wild.
• The Nuggets have back-to-back games starting Saturday at the Pepsi Center against Sacramento at 7 p.m. Then Denver gets out of town quick to face the SuperSonics in Seattle at 7 p.m. Sunday.
• The Rapids look to improve their record to 2-0 after an impressive season-opening win over the Los Angeles Galaxy last weekend. They travel to Kansas City to play the Wizards on Saturday at 3 p.m. (ALT).
• Another Los Angeles team, the Arena Football League’s Avengers, comes to Denver tonight for a 7 p.m. game against the Colorado Crush.
• And the Colorado Mammoth, after hosting the Rochester Knighthawks on Thursday, travels to Buffalo to face the Bandits on Saturday. It will be a rare stretch of two games in three days for the West Division-leading Mammoth.
And just think, if the Colorado women’s basketball team had continued its improbable run through the WNIT, we could have added a championship game to the Saturday schedule. Maybe next year.
AROUND TOWN
Trotting out some old favorites.
Curly Neal, Meadowlark Lemon and the rest of the Harlem Globetrotters met Scooby and Shaggy and helped chase “The Ghostly Creep from the Deep” in a 1972 episode of “Scooby- Doo.” So it will be about on par Saturday when the newest ‘Trotters share a stage with Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler. The Globetrotters, now in their 82nd season, play two games in Colorado this weekend: today at the Budweiser Event Center in Loveland, 7 p.m.; and Saturday at the Pepsi Center, 1 p.m. The Denver game features Cutler cutting it up with the Globetrotters. Physically, Cutler playing the role once held by Shaggy is inspired casting. But it’s the game, against the Washington Generals, that will take center stage. Ex-Wyoming standout Anthony Blakes helps lead the ‘Trotters.
STAY ON THE COUCH
Burton’s bull’s-eye.
Jeff Burton will be the one with the target on his back this weekend at NASCAR’s Samsung 500 at the Texas Motor Speedway. (As opposed to Target-sponsored Reed Sorenson, who literally has a target on his back.) The eighth race of the season, airing on Fox on Sunday at 11:30 a.m., hopefully will start to sort out some odd early standings. Burton is atop the Sprint Cup Series leaderboard by virtue of a victory and two other top-five finishes. But Carl Edwards has two wins this season and is all the way down the list at No. 14. And seventh-place Kasey Kahne hasn’t finished higher than sixth.
GET OFF THE COUCH
Pick your poison.
A suburban-to-urban run on Sunday will send runners all over town in the Platte River Half Marathon and Buckhorn Exchange Relay race, starting at 9 a.m. The halfie will run from downtown Littleton to the Buckhorn Exchange at 10th Avenue and Osage Street in Denver (platteriverhalf.com). And a shorter, more leisurely race will run through Denver in the City Park 4-Mile race, also on Sunday at 9 a.m. The walk-or-run race is part of the Rocky Mountain Road Runners Trophy Series (rmrr.org).
WHAT WE’D LIKE TO SEE
Roadrunners rule.
Records are falling at area colleges. The Metro State baseball team this week earned its first top-10 ranking, coming in at No. 9 in the NCAA Division II poll. Outfielder Jake Palmer’s 66 RBIs are on pace to shatter the team’s record of 85 in a season. The Roadrunners can move up the ranks after a four-game series at Nebraska-Kearney this weekend. And Denver tennis standout Adam Holmstrom, ranked 13th in Division I at No. 1 singles, is two wins shy of becoming the first Pioneers player to reach 100 wins in a career. He can reach the mark this weekend at the Sun Belt Shootout in Murfreesboro, Tenn.
ODDITY OF THE WEEK
Keeping up with Kip.
The Rockies this week provided a good trivia question for 10 years from now: In defense of their National League title, who was the starting pitcher for the Rockies’ season-opening victory over St. Louis to begin the 2008 campaign? The answer, of course, is long-reliever-turned-temporary-ace Kip Wells, who gave up one run in five-plus innings in Colorado’s 2-1 victory Tuesday.
