The Week In Tv Sports

DON'T MISS

Sunday 7/18
British Open
?ABC SATURDAY 10 AM AND SUNDAY 9 AM
Bigger, longer, uncut. South Park'? No, Carnoustie, the ultimate Scotland yard, with its stiff winds, par-5s that seem to extend beyond Hadrian's Wall (in typical Scottish fashion, the longest, a 520-yarder, is named Long) and rough that, according to PGA Tour money leader David Duval, "is seven feet tall." In the final round the drama will be especially grand if the afternoon leader board includes the names of such animated lads as Spain's brassy Sergio Garcia (page 64), a.k.a. El Ni�o, the 19-year-old who two weeks earlier won the Irish Open, and uppercutting Tiger Woods (right), four years Garcia's senior and the titlist in three of his four most recent tournaments.

HIGHLIGHTS

Saturday 7/17

Braves at Yankees Padres at Mariners
?FOX 1 PM AND 4 PM
Derek Jeter is both Batman and Robin, the deft-hitting prince of Gotham City and the Boy Wonder who makes all the girls swoon. Talk about a swinger! Jeter's Yankees host an Atlanta club that, despite having no one among the top four in any major batting or pitching category, had the National League's best record at the All-Star break. For those who get the late-afternoon game, Seattle's newly opened Safeco Field, with its retractable roof, natural grass and naturally retractable relief pitching, makes its national television debut.

Fernando Vargas vs.
Raul Marquez
? HBO 10:30 PM
You'd think that a fighter with an Eyes Wide Shut approach to felling opponents would be a Cruiserweight. Or a naive kid, man. Not so in the case of precocious pugilist Fernando Vargas, 21. "You can hit [Marquez] with your eyes closed," says the IBF junior middleweight champion, who has knocked out all 16 of his opponents. "Usually southpaws are intelligent fighters, hard to hit. Raul isn't." The 27-year-old Marquez (30-1) required 70 stitches near his eyebrows following a victory two years ago over Keith Mullings. Did we hear somebody say, "Eyes swelled shut"?

Sunday 7/18
CART Molson Indy Toronto
?ABC 3 PM
In Colombia, CART is beginning to rival cartel for headlines now that Juan Pablo Montoya, 23, has burst upon the Indy car scene. The rookie from Bogot� replaced two-time defending champion Alex Zanardi (who migrated to Formula One) on the Chip Ganassi Racing team and has impressively followed in his predecessor's tire treads. Montoya, the current series points leader, has won four of the year's first 10 races. When Zanardi, who won on this 1.72-mile street course last year, earned Rookie of the Year honors in 1996, he had only three victories.

Monday 7/19
Modern Marvels: Baseball Parks
?THE HISTORY CHANNEL 10 PM
While this gem of a one-hour documentary reveals how diamond designs reflect the eras in which the parks were built, it is even better at trivia. Did you know that the outfield of Baker Bowl in Philadelphia, the home of the Phillies until 1938, was "mowed" by sheep? Or that nobody hit one out of Boston's Braves Field-opened in 1915 with dimensions of 402 feet down the lines and 550 feet to dead center—in its first decade? Style points must be deducted, though, for not once referencing Field of Dreams.

ALL TIMES EASTERN. SCHEDULES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE. SOURCE: NIELSEN SPORTS MARKETING SERVICE.