TV Daily Sports: AL East & NBA Draft Talk Keys Wednesday

Wednesday night in daily sports is about the AL East and the NBA draft, as most sports fans settle into summer, while fans in Miami and Chicago still pull the confetti out of the hair after the championship celebrations. And, we might add to that list, the baseball community with UCLA. Congratulations to the Bruins, who beat Mississippi State last night and won the school’s first national title.

MLB Network has a doubleheader today that will start up in the late afternoon from Fenway Park. The Red Sox host the Colorado Rockies in a getaway game at 4 PM ET, and that’s followed by the Rangers-Yankees from the Bronx at 7 PM ET. The AL East isn’t a whole lot closer to being a settled race now than it was in April, with Toronto having surged back into contention, and this division promises a lot of excitement in the coming months.

The NBA Draft is on Thursday, and two different networks will have shows to get fans ready. One, as you might expect, is NBA-TV, which will have a one-hour mock draft starting at 8 PM ET. It will be hosted by Ernie Johnson, whom NBA fans will remember from TNT, as the pregame host who set the table for Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley, while also trying to make Shaquille O’Neal look coherent. ESPN has its own preview show at 7 PM ET.

NFL Network will pay tribute to Don Shula, with a look at the storied career of the legendary coach of the Miami Dolphins, starting at 8 PM ET. If none of the above programming options work for you, check ESPN at 8 PM ET. Right now, all the listings say Game 3 of the College World Series, but UCLA rendered that irrelevant last night. And if you’re able to be at home, or still have time to get to the DVR, Wimbledon is on all day on ESPN2.

TheSportsNotebook will be talking baseball, with a look at the AL West coming up a little bit later. Previous MLB coverage this week has looked at the Philadelphia Phillies and Detroit Tigers. For those who want to re-live the championship moments, you can check the closing reflections on the NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Finals.