Baseball is back on Fox this week, and play-by-play announcer Joe Buck still is as refreshingly glib as ever.
Asked about ways to fix baseball in Florida during a national conference call this week, Buck confessed to having no answer, but pointed a finger at Tropicana Field.
"I was born in St. Pete, and I've known the Tampa-St. Pete area now almost as well as the city I live in," said Buck, the national sportscaster of the year. "I was stunned where the ballpark was placed in St. Pete.
"Even when I was younger and I saw that thing thrown together to try to lure the Giants and the White Sox at different times to come down there, the whole idea of putting the ballpark where they put it ... it didn't surprise me and it doesn't surprise me that they struggled getting people in there."
Buck was more complimentary of the Devil Rays, however. He thinks they're getting better and hiring Lou Piniella was a stroke of genius.
Maybe one day, the Rays even will be good enough to merit consideration for a Fox broadcast. Once they recover from the Hit Show, that is. As Buck said, the cost of bringing in aging free agents "just put that franchise in such a hole that I think they're going to be digging out of that hole for a long, long time."
While you wait, Fox has Anaheim at Boston at 1 p.m. Saturday. ALL ABOARD: CBS Sports and USA Network are on the Annika Sorenstam Ratings Winner Express, adding increased coverage of next weekend's Colonial golf tournament.
USA will provide live coverage during Sorenstam's first two rounds. Even if Sorenstam tees off in the morning, USA says it will be there live to cover her entire round, and then return later in the afternoon with its regularly scheduled coverage beginning at 4 p.m. (tee times will be announced Tuesday).
USA also has added LPGA Hall of Famer Patty Sheehan as an analyst and will fill its coverage with vignettes of other great moments in women's sports.
CBS is adding an hour to its third-round coverage of the Colonial even if Sorenstam misses the two-round cut, but you can bet the network is praying she doesn't.
BYE BYE HARD KNOCKS: HBO's groundbreaking reality series Hard Knocks, which brought viewers into the NFL training camps of Baltimore and Dallas the past two seasons, will not air this year.
HBO is saying that it has been unable to find the "perfect fit," but read between the lines: none of the teams HBO was interested in was willing to provide the complete access afforded by the Ravens and Cowboys.
Spokesman Raymond Stallone said the series, produced by HBO and NFL Films, is not dead and will try again in 2004.
THIS WEEK: NBC had exciting fights last week and closes its three-week boxing series at 3:30 p.m. Saturday with former Tampa fighter Nate Campbell headlining the card. Campbell says, "I punch with the intent to take your life." Would that be worse than eating our children? ... Real Sports (10 p.m. Tuesday) talks with Terry Bradshaw about his struggles with depression and profiles the phenomenon of ESPN's Pardon The Interruption. ... Curt Gowdy, who called the memorable 1975 World Series home run by Carlton Fisk, will join Chris Berman and Joe Morgan in the booth for ESPN's Wednesday Night Baseball (Yankees at Red Sox, 7 p.m.) as part of a "Living Legends" series. Here's hoping Berman shuts up enough to let Gowdy get a word in.
