Daily Sports: Legends Enter Canton On Saturday

Playoff race baseball is going full steam with a number of good games, but the highlight of Saturday’s daily sports tour has to be in Canton. Today is Induction Day, and at 7 PM ET, the NFL Network will show the ceremony inducting five new men into the Pro Football Hall Of Fame. The five are…

*Larry Allen, a guard on the great Dallas Cowboy championship teams of the early 1990s. The Dallas O-Line was perhaps the last truly great unit that we’ve seen, clearing the way for Emmitt Smith.

*Cris Carter, the wide receiver for the Minnesota Vikings. Carter’s tremendous career was marred only by not making the Super Bowl, with the best chance being 1998.

*Jonathan Ogden, the long-time offensive tackle for the Baltimore Ravens.

*Warren Sapp, the fearsome defensive tackle that spearheaded the great Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense that won the 2002 Super Bowl.

*And then we come to the big name on the list and its Bill Parcells. He made his coaching legend with the New York Giants, winning Super Bowls in 1986 & 1990, took the New England Patriots to the AFC title in 1996, made the AFC Championship Game with the Jets in 1998, and then did his last bit of coaching under Jerry Jones in Dallas, where Parcells still managed to coax out a couple playoff appearances under an incompetent front office.

Baseball action is keyed by Fox’s 4 PM ET coverage, of which the highlight game is Texas-Oakland. The Rangers took the opener of the big three-game series last night and now new acquisition Matt Garza gets the ball for Texas this afternoon.

The other big trade deadline pitcher was Jake Peavy, and he makes his Red Sox debut tonight against Arizona. That game is part of MLB Network’s split coverage at 7 PM ET, with the other game being the crucial St. Louis-Cincinnati battle in the NL Central.

And if NFL lore, or baseball playoff race heat doesn’t do it for you? Then it must mean you love college football, and at 7 PM ET, ESPNU shows the beatdown Alabama put on Notre Dame to win the 2012 national championship.

Here at TheSportsNotebook, we’ll have NASCAR Sprint Cup Series coverage, looking at Sunday afternoon’s race in Pocono, and the general state of the push for the postseason. Yesterday we had Las Vegas on our minds here, reviewing  how MLB teams were faring against their preseason Over/Under win props, both in the American League and National League.