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Remote patrol

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BRITISH OPEN: Ch. 28, Saturday (9 a.m.-2:30 p.m.) and Sunday (8 a.m.-1:30 p.m.) - Nothing says Ratings Gold like last year's winner, Todd Hamilton, defending his title. Tiger Woods being in the hunt is a very good thing for ABC, which is praying he keeps steamrolling the field because we looooove when Tiger wins.

WORLD SERIES OF POKER: ESPN, Tuesday (9 p.m.) - Don't peek at the results (it wraps up either today or Saturday in Vegas), but trust me - it wasn't a good tournament for the familiar faces. Still, some fresh episodes through November are a welcome respite.

THE ESPYS: ESPN, Sunday (9 p.m.) - What will Serena wear? Which athlete will it be the most uncomfortable watching read a bad joke off a cue card? At what point will we turn it off, sickened by Boston Red Sox overload?

GREAT OUTDOOR GAMES VI: ESPN, all weekend - The Games have received the Sports Emmy for Best Live Audio the past two years, which generally consists of handlers barking out instructions to their dogs in the Big Air competition.

BOXING: HBO PPV, Saturday (9 p.m.) - Normally we wouldn't recommend any television viewing that costs 50 bucks, but Bernard Hopkins and Jermain Taylor for the middleweight title should be worth it. If you don't have the cash, though, be patient and wait for the free replay next week.

Former WDAE-AM 620 program director and golf show host Brad James has been hired by Genesis Communications as vice president of programming and marketing. Genesis Communications operates talk-radio WWBA-AM 1040 as well as WLVU-AM 1470 (which carries ESPN Radio) in the Tampa Bay market.

Great move by NBC to hire away Cris Collinsworth from Fox. Collinsworth, who signed for six years, will be a studio analyst and co-host for NBC's Sunday night football. He was with NBC from 1990-98 before bolting for Fox and has won a record five Emmy Awards for Outstanding Sports Studio Analyst.

The 76th MLB All-Star Game on Fox was watched by 29.5-million, the same number of times Chris Berman said the word "backbackbackback" the night before during the Home Run Derby. The national rating for the All-Star Game was 8.1.

Welcome back, Junior. Locally, the ratings for the Chicagoland 400 Sunday on Ch. 8 increased every hour, peaking with an impressive 11.3 (from 6:45-7 p.m.) and 10.3 (from 7-7:15) in the last half-hour. That means more people in Tampa Bay were tuned in to that 30 minutes than any other 30-minute period all weekend on any channel.

Thank you, ESPN and baseball, for turning the home run derby into the most tedious, boring and now we can add flag-wavingest event of the year. Oh, and by the way - is it over yet?