Today’s sports quiz:
What do Joe Louis, the U.S. women’s soccer team, the Boston Red Sox, John Wooden, Ted Williams and Lamar Hunt have in common?
All were subjects of splendid HBO documentaries — programs of major historical significance that sports fans should have in their video libraries.
Here’s an offer you can’t refuse if you haven’t watched or don’t have copies of the six. This week, the pay-cable network begins a six- week run of the award-winning documentary series.
Call it “HBO’s Summer Sports Festival.”
The schedule:
• “Joe Louis: America’s Hero . . . Betrayed” (Thursday) examines the life of the legendary boxer, including his outside-the-ring battles to be accepted in the U.S.
• “Dare to Dream: The Story of the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team” (July 8) tells the inspiring story of the young women who excelled on the soccer field and provided life lessons for millions of girls.
• “Reverse of the Curse of the Bambino” (July 15) chronicles the Red Sox’s 2004 comeback victory over the Yankees in the American League Championship Series and their sweep of the Cardinals in the World Series.
• “The UCLA Dynasty” (July 22) traces the incredible success of the UCLA men’s basketball program under the guidance of Wooden.
• “Ted Williams” (July 29) explores the life of the Red Sox slugger, including his career as a war hero, his complex personal life and relationship with the city of Boston.
• “Rebels With a Cause: The Story of the American Football League” (Aug. 5) follows the colorful history of the AFL from its genesis in 1959 when Hunt announced his intention to form a competitor to the established NFL. (You even will see the notorious striped stockings worn by the Broncos in 1960.)
Each program airs at 4:30 p.m. with the exception of the Wooden show (5:30 p.m.), and all six will be available on demand following the initial showings during the festival.
Strasburg on TV again.
ESPN2 will televise tonight’s Washington at Atlanta game (5 p.m.) and rookie Stephen Strasburg, the Nationals’ phenom, is scheduled to pitch.
This game should produce Strasburg’s largest television audience, surpassing the former San Diego State star’s earlier appearances for the Nationals on TBS and the MLB Network.
Quotable.
“My thermometer for my baseball fever is still a goose bump.” — Vin Scully, 82, talking about his 60 years in the Dodgers’ broadcasting booth
Longtime Denver journalist Dusty Saunders writes about sports media each Monday in The Denver Post. Reach him at tvtime@comcast.net.
World Cup soccer games look great in 3-D, cost aside
How many soccer fans will watch the 2014 World Cup matches in 3-D?
DirecTV and set manufacturers such as Panasonic would like to have some futuristic knowledge now as they show a limited number of games produced in 3-D during current competition.
I put on the necessary glasses Wednesday at Denver’s Listen Up outlet to watch Germany beat Ghana 1-0. I marveled at the clarity and dimension of the telecast — and the commercials. (A baseball bat and shattered glass nearly fell into my lap during a clever ESPN promotional pitch.)
The soccer stadium was next to my couch in the viewing room. And the action in the two goal areas produced an I’m-near- the-net feeling.
A soccer game, as fans know, does not contain the scoring- oriented action of football and basketball. But even the back- and-forth movement by players on the soccer field provided a you-are-there feeling that ordinary TV and even HD can’t deliver. However, this 3-D production did not have the up-close-and-personal feeling of Comcast’s recent experimental 3-D telecast of the Masters golf tournament that put viewers on tee boxes and around the greens.
Listen Up executive Kevin Russell said his firm has “sold a few” 3-D sets during recent weeks.
The price for a 63-inch plasma 3-D set: $4,299 — plus $140 for a set of battery operated 3-D glasses.
Obviously, I didn’t pull out my credit card or checkbook.
I will check back in four years.
