Daily Sports: Championship Action Across The Board This Weekend

What a weekend of championship action across the sports spectrum is ahead. From hoops to hockey to golf to baseball. From the rains of Merion to the fields of Omaha, to the Riverwalk of San Antonio to the shores of Lake Michigan, the stakes are high. Okay, enough melodrama, let’s get to the weekend in daily sports TV action, going one time slot at a time…

SATURDAY EARLY: U.S. Open golf coverage is on NBC, starting at noon ET, and this will be all-day stuff on both Saturday and Sunday. By 3 PM ET, the College World Series starts up in Omaha, with Oregon State-Mississippi State on ESPN2. An hour later, and its major league baseball. MLB Network has split coverage of Red Sox-Orioles and Giants-Braves starting at 4 PM ET.

SATURDAY NIGHT: The golf will run until 7 PM ET, and then in prime-time the big event is Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals. The Chicago Blackhawks and Boston Bruins meet in the Windy City, with the puck dropping at 8 PM ET and coverage provided by NBC Sports Network.

Fox will challenge hockey with its major league baseball coverage. The nation will be divided amongst five games, starting at 7:15 PM ET. The best of the lot is Yankees-Angels, at least in terms of marquee value, so I’m guessing that’s where Joe Buck and Tim McCarver will be. Although given the train wreck that is the Angels, Seattle-Oakland, with Felix Hernandez facing the team who has the American League’s best record coming into today, might be better baseball.

And if you want to sneak in a little more baseball, Louisville-Indiana are on ESPN to conclude the day’s action in Omaha at 8 PM ET.  The Cards and Hoosiers are in a four-team “pod” along with Mississippi State-Oregon State, where double-elimination play through Friday will determine one of the teams in the best-of-three finals.

SUNDAY EARLY: The final day of the U.S. Open again starts at noon ET on NBC. And again there’s college baseball coverage, with the other four-team pod beginning its own double-elimination sequence. It’s an ACC battle on ESPN2, as N.C. State plays the nation’s #1 overall seed in North Carolina.

Baseball at the highest level will be on TBS, as their customary Sunday afternoon telecast has Dodgers-Pirates at 1:35 PM ET from the Steel City. And the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series goes to Michigan for a 1 PM ET race shown on TNT.

SUNDAY NIGHT: The U.S. Open will wrap up about 7 PM ET. Then it’s the game of the year in the NBA, the test for the Miami Heat we’ve been waiting for, but wondering if we would get. The one where they have to play a road Game 5 in a series knotted two games apiece. The Showdown In San Antonio starts at 8 PM ET and will be on ABC. If you want to check out college baseball, UCLA-LSU will start at 8 PM ET on ESPN2.

HERE AT THESPORTSNOTEBOOK

It’ll be a busy weekend here at TheSportsNotebook. We’ll have a double dose of MLB coverage, with features in both the American and National League, as we get caught up after a week focused on Finals action in the NBA and NHL. And speaking of which, NHL analysis comes back tomorrow morning to talk about Game 2, while NBA commentary will return on Monday. There will also be NASCAR Sprint Cup Series thoughts coming up today.