Do not look for French Open coverage Sunday on NBC.
Do not look for the Arena Football League playoff game Sunday on NBC.
Do not look for Roger Clemens' bid for 300 wins Sunday.
None will be broadcast.
The annual All Children's Hospital Telethon is for a good cause, but invariably it helps produce the most calls to TV stations and newspapers from viewers wondering where their sports went.
Sunday, the telethon pre-empts tennis and Arena football, with no plans by Ch. 8 to re-broadcast the events on tape delay in the evening.
As for Clemens and his bid to become the 21st major-leaguer to win 300, that has nothing to do with telethon coverage and everything to do with TV rights.
The obvious choices to pick up the Yankees game against Detroit were Fox and ESPN, which both have broadcast deals with MLB.
But Fox can't broadcast the game because its contract is for Saturday exclusivity (as well as a previous commitment to televise an NFL Europe game).
Besides, the Yankees have no agreement with any Fox stations, a further hindrance. Unlike, say, the Cardinals, who were on Fox Sports Net the night Mark McGwire hit his 62nd homer, making for a seamless cut-in by local affiliates.
Fox spokesman Tim Buckman said, though, that earlier in the week when it was still possible Clemens would start Saturday, "the wheels were in motion for us to look at a few different options to bring that game to viewers. Then the onus would be on us."
ESPN's baseball schedule calls for Monday, Wednesday and Sunday games. The network also has no available windows to bring the game to viewers, with previous commitments to bowling and golf.
The last time a pitcher went for 300 wins, Nolan Ryan in 1990 on a Tuesday night, ESPN showed the game live. But Tuesday night was a regular baseball window at the time.
ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz said his network is working with MLB to determine ways to keep fans posted with regular updates.
Fans with DirecTV, however, should be able to find the game on the YES Network, the Yankees 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week channel, or any number of sports bars should be able to help out desperate viewers.
NBC WATCH: Saturday will be a much better day for fans of tennis and Arena football as NBC kicks off its 17 total hours of French Open coverage at noon, and follows with AFL playoff game between Detroit and the Storm at 3.
HELLO? BUELLER?: ESPN's coverage of Tuesday's Stanley Cup opener between Anaheim and New Jersey posted a 1.4 (1,209,195 households) Nielsen cable rating, which is down 52 percent from the 2.9 ESPN had for last year's Carolina-Detroit opener, and down 18 percent from the 1.7 for the New Jersey-Colorado opener in 2001.
BOXING REDUX?: According to Street & Smith, NBC was emboldened by the ratings and profits of its three-week boxing series and plans at least one fight in September and perhaps more on a regular basis.
4,000 AND COUNTING: Dwayne Staats, the Devil Rays play-by-play announcer for FSN, will call his 4,000th career MLB game at 7 tonight.
