The Week In Tv Sports

Highlights

SATURDAY 4/22

? Indians at Red Sox
FX 1 PM
Last year Mike Hargrove, Cleveland's manager at the time, phoned the bullpen so often that he was courted by long-distance pitchmen David Arquette and Arsenio Hall. In two momentum-swinging losses at Fenway Park during the 1999 American League Division Series, Hargrove rang his pen nine times as the Tribe surrendered 32 runs—all earned. Under new skipper Charlie Manuel phone use is down, and through Sunday the Indians' pitching staff ranked fourth in the American League with a decent 4.08 ERA. With such sluggers as Robbie Alomar, David Justice, Manny Ramirez, Richie Sexson and Jim Thome, Cleveland now does virtually all its long-distance dialing from the plate. Power is still the Indians' calling card.

? Laila Ali vs. Kristina King
SHOWTIME 10 PM (TAPE DELAY)
If the Ali and the King involved were Muhammad and Don, this match, from Guangzhou, might be dubbed the Great Brawl of China. As it happens, the four-rounder pits female fighters Laila Ali (4-0), the 22-year-old youngest daughter of the Greatest, against Kristina King (1-0), a 30-year-old prison guard from Lansing, Mich. Foxy fisticuffs from communist China? This might inspire a boxer rebellion. Ali-King is an appetizer for the lo mein event, a heavyweight nontitle bout between Andrew Golota (34-4) and Marcus Rhode (24-15).

THURSDAY 4/27

?Cubs at Astros
WGN 4 PM
Are they the Astros or the Retros? Houston's cozy new ballpark, Enron Field, boasts a 315-foot short porch in leftfield and a grassy outfield slope that is in play, reminiscent of Fenway Park circa 1912. Moreover, the Astros' lineup sports an Alou (Moises, nephew of former Houston star Jesus Alou) and a Cede�o (centerfielder Roger—no relation, alas, to old Astros' headliner Cesar Cede�o). How long can it be before Houston looks to get Blue Jays centerfielder Jose Cruz Jr., son of one of its best outfielders ever, back to his hometown?

? NHL Conference Semifinals
ESPN 7:30 PM; ESPN2 7:30 AND 10:30 PM
The Western Conference's top four seeds are the last three teams to win a Stanley Cup—in chronological order, the Avalanche, the Red Wings (twice) and the Stars—and the Blues, who finished 1999-2000 with the best regular-season record. If each advances to the conference semis, Colorado and Dallas will meet in a rematch of last year's conference finals and Detroit will face off with St. Louis. Any Game 7 of the conference quarterfinals was scheduled for Tuesday ( ESPN, 7 p.m. and, if there's more than one, ESPN2, 7:30 p.m.).

Don't Miss

SATURDAY 4/22
? NBA Playoffs
NBC 12:30 PM, 3 PM, 5:30 PM; TNT 8:30 PM
www.jumptheshark.com is devoted to hilariously "chronicling the moments when TV shows go downhill." (The site name alludes to Fonzie's waterskiing over a pool of sharks on Happy Days) We keep waiting for the Jazz to jump the shark, but the venerable trio of Jeff Hornacek, Karl Malone and John Stockton (above) has shown it's not quite ready to slide from All in the Family brilliance to Archie Bunker's Place mediocrity. At week's end Utah was waiting to see whether it would play Sacramento (whom the Jazz beat in the postseason last year) or Seattle in one of the eight first-round series televised this week on NBC, TBS and TNT.

ALL TIMES EASTERN. SCHEDULES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.