The Week In Tv Sports

Highlights

SATURDAY 7/15
?Cardinals at White Sox
FX AND WGN 7 PM
Forget the Mideast summit and follow the Midwest summit. At midseason St. Louis and Chicago were comfortably atop the National and American League Central, respectively. Reports from the West Banks (of Lake Michigan and the Mississippi) say that these clubs could be headed for an October confrontation. Reporting live from Camp David, I'm Wolf Blitzer.

? U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials
NBC 8 PM; SUNDAY 4 PM
Excerpts from the international best-seller Marion Jones's Diary:

7/15 150 pounds; alcohol units, 0 (v. good); calories, 2,700 (low-fat). Tonight will run the 100-meter final against that pesky Inger Miller. I'll already be taping my obligatory Jim Gray interview by the time she finishes.

7/16 147pounds; alcohol units, 0 (unless you count rubbing alcohol); energy bars, 2. Now this I'm looking forward to: competing against Jackie Joyner-Kersee in the long jump finals. Note to self: Make sure to watch Michael Johnson in the men's 400 meters and Suzy Favor Hamilton versus Regina Jacobs in the women's 1,500.1 do wonder what it must be like to have competition.

? Lennox Lewis vs. Francois Botha
HBO 9 PM
If Survivor morphed with Friends, Ross would be the first to go; if it morphed with John Irving novels, A Son of the Circus would be voted out; and if Survivor morphed with the band Survivor, Stephen Ellis (the bass player, as if you didn't know) would be outta there. If such a hybrid existed in the heavyweight division, nobody would care until the last two people remaining on the island were Lewis (36-1-1) and Mike Tyson. Alas, a few tiki torches are still lit, and Botha (40-2-1) has yet to see his snuffed out. Tonight's scheduled—and we stress that word—12-rounder originates from Lewis's hometown of London.

THURSDAY 7/20
?British Open
ESPN THURSDAY AND FRIDAY 9 AM
Our first recipient of the Dude, I Feel for You award, narrowly edging the PGA Tour field (minus one very conspicuous golfer), is newly and unhappily unattached Dennis Quaid. Quaid's estranged wife, the sylphlike Meg Ryan (now dating Russell Crowe), made her film debut in 198l's Rich and Famous—which Tiger Woods, 24, already is. Everybody's Ail-American on the fairway is breaking away from the rest of the Tour with five victories this year, including his runaway at last month's U.S. Open. Beginning today at St. Andrews, golf's gladiator will attempt to become the youngest man to attain a career Grand Slam.

Don't Miss
MONDAY 7/17
?When It Was a Game III
HBO 10 PM
The third one-hour installment of this wonderful, wistful series chronicles the 1960s, an era of growth spurts—and the attendant pains—for baseball. It was, as in other walks of American life, a turbulent decade, as the national pastime expanded from 16 to 24 clubs and the National League embraced integration, creating a talent gap between leagues. But it was also, for the fan, the last days of Camelot, of doubleheaders and players like Willie Mays (above) never seeking free agency. "You couldn't say that we actually saw more baseball in the '60s," says Bob Costas, by now the Cal Ripken of sports documentaries, "but maybe what we saw made a deeper impression."

ALL TIMES EASTERN. SACHEDULES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.