Daily Sports: The AL East Race Keys Monday TV

The AL East race is the focus of daily sports on Monday, with consecutive prime-time games on MLB Network and ESPN2 featuring the three teams with a realistic chance at winning the division title.

It’s the Rays-Orioles from Camden Yards, in a 7 PM ET start on MLB Network. Both teams are hot on the heels of the Boston Red Sox, and it’s the Sox who take the field in a late 9 PM ET start at San Francisco.

I think it’s safe to say ESPN won’t get the same fireworks from Boston-San Francisco that they got last night in the Sox-Yankees game, the long overdue beaning of Alex Rodriguez and the pathetic defense of A-Rod by Yankee players of a man who has demonstrated his willingness to throw his own teammates under the bus.

Normally ESPN (or ESPN2) starts its baseball coverage at 7 PM ET, but the calendar is a-changin’, and now ESPN will have Monday Night Football in this time slot. Tonight’s game is Redskins-Steelers, and I think it’s safe to say there will be more commentary about the one man who isn’t playing—Robert Griffin III for the ‘Skins—than anyone who is.

NBA-TV celebrates Michael Jordan today, showing a series of some of the best Bulls’ games starting at 1 PM ET. The prime-time fare is a 7 PM ET showing of Game 6 of the 1993 NBA Finals. This was the game where Jordan gave up the ball trailing 98-96 and spotted John Paxon open for a wide-open three that won the title. At that time, a great player giving up the ball to create a good shot for a teammate wasn’t see as the act as weakness that is today if LeBron James were to do the same thing.

TheSportsNotebook will have MLB coverage today, updating the American League playoff race, looking at the current injury report and the coming schedule. We’ll also have a to-be-decided feature on a particular team in that race.

Please also check out the NFL analysis and college football coverage, as a lot was added over the past week. The NFC South went up online over the weekend, the AFC North has been covered and in the colleges last week covered the Big Ten, Pac-12 and Mountain West.