Sports Watcher for the Weekend of 8/23-24

All times PDT.

Saturday
11-9 AM: Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, baseball bronze medal game, women's handball gold medal game, baseball gold medal game, water polo semifinal, table tennis semifinals, men's field hockey gold medal game (USA). Yes, that's TONIGHT, in just one hour on the East Coast. If I were keeping track of any of this I'd give you pithy analysis, but all I can offer is: Can the Americans avenge their softball cousins? (I heard they lost to Japan in the gold medal game, is that right?) Oh, and pretend 6-7:30 AM isn't part of this, that's when the water polo semifinal is on.

9-5 PM: Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, medal finals in women's basketball, rhythmic gymnastics, synchronized swimming, boxing, canoe/kayak, and women's volleyball (NBC).

5-8:30 PM: NASCAR Sprint Cup Racing, Bristol race (ESPN). We just don't have NASCAR on here enough.

9-11 PM: Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, men's basketball bronze medal game (CNBC). Why the hell is Lithuania so good with no players I've heard of?

Sunday
12:30-2:30 AM: Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, medal finals in table tennis, mountain biking, boxing, and track and field (NBC). Alternately, there's a women's volleyball match at midnight on Telemundo.

2:30-5 AM: Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, men's basketball gold medal game (NBC). Warning: West Coast viewers get screwed again, because this is same on both coasts! In fact the semifinal game this morning was delayed even in the Central time zone, at least in Chicago! It seems the Olympics are indeed more popular on the West Coast than on the East, though that may just be because they always HAVE gotten delayed broadcasts. Some commenters on Awful Announcing suggested putting either the live broadcast or the delay on one of NBC's cable networks, to get around the problem of people not being home at the right times. I have a better idea: We've been talking about digital TV and subchannels all week, why not stick the live feed on there? It's likely to take away "Weather Plus" time, but it's better than insulting a wide swath of your audience by telling them New York really is the center of the universe and actually making people beg for ESPN to save them, even people who are normally ESPN haters. I'm watching this, the Closing Ceremony on CBC, and then I'm done with the Olympics. (ESPN is on record as saying they would never think of delaying events for the West Coast.)

5-9 AM: Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, Closing Ceremony (CBC). I do have to say, NBC seems to treat the Olympics as more of a special event. They play the Olympic Song and CBC just has this weird, almost-offensive, almost-more-appropriate-in-India opener. And CBC uses their own regular sports graphics instead of coming up with something unique.

10-12 PM: Major League Lacrosse, NB ZIP Championship Game (ESPN2). The worst part? This isn't even the only lacrosse league in North America. And you probably haven't heard of the National Lacrosse League either. Apparently it's semi-big in Canada. Who knew? (Just barely interferes with the Olympics on USA on the West Coast.)

12:30-3 PM: Little League Baseball, Little League World Series (ABC). Does it seem a little odd that we pay so much attention to the LLWS for basically no reason? I mean, other than to be reminded about "sportsmanship" that's basically a no-thing anyway? And why do the other three divisions have their World Series on Saturdays while neither Little League WS ends on that day?

Honorable Mention: 12:45-5 PM: National Pro Fastpitch, Championship Series (MLB.TV, second game if needed). It's a league with a grand total of six teams. One look at their website shows how far behind they are. They don't even have TV for their championship series, even, by all appearances, on tape delay. And this coming from one of the more popular non-football-or-basketball NCAA sports. What's going on here?

(Oh, and perfect timing. Aren't all your good players in the Olympics?)

5-8 PM: MLB Baseball, LA Dodgers @ Philadelphia (ESPN). I've banned NBC's Olympic coverage from this space!

Next week, the first weekend of the US Open, and can you feel the football start?