  Since it's late Friday afternoon, I thought I'd give a rundown of some of what I'll be watching this weekend. Maybe we'll make this a weekly feature. Tonight, I'll be watching the Braves-Dodgers game on TBS. I could go to the game, but I actually would prefer to watch this one on TV. If you haven't watched TBS for a Friday night game yet, check it out - they're doing some pretty neat stuff (and some not so neat) for their "Braves Friday Night Xtra.
" Well, tonight's highlight for me will be guest commentator Dale Murphy, former Brave great. Murph was my favorite player growing up, and remains I guy I really admire. He's losing steam on the Hall of Fame ballot, which is a shame, because he's exactly the type of great character guy the Hall supposedly honors. Anyway, Murph's a whole story for another day, so I'll save it for then. There's also NBA action tonight, with Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals. The Lakers have advanced to play the Timberwolves, led by MVP Kevin Garnett. Think the NBA and their broadcast partners were relieved at that matchup? The East will be a snoozer, but at least they will get some viewers for this series. I'm not really an NBA guy though, so I probably won't watch too much. But it's there for all you NBA fans who have somehow persevered through the slowest early rounds in the history of pro sports playoffs.
Tomorrow, FOX returns with the Saturday Game of the Week. My question is why do they wait until mid-May to do this? What have they been showing on Saturday afternoons for the past six weeks? On the plus side, it's six weeks that I haven't had to listen to Tim McCarver's idiodic commentary. Also, it's not really like it's that big of a thing for me - it just means that the Braves are on a different channel, because that's the game they will be showing. You know, most of the country already sees the Braves (and Cubs and Yankees as well) on a regular basis, so how about finding some different teams to show us, FOX? Tomorrow night, it will be over to FX for the NASCAR Nextel All-Star Challenge. This is usually a pretty fun event, and you never know what's gonna happen (like two years ago, when a rain storm came just after the first wreck of the race and NASCAR decided to let the guys who wrecked get their cars fixed during the delay). It's also much shorter than the typical NASCAR race and full of action, so it's a great chance for non-NASCAR fans to check the sport out and see how it can be quite interesting.
I highly recommend it. There's also a hockey Game 7 tomorrow night. John I'm sure will be trying his best to watch his Lightning finish off the Flyers along with NASCAR. I'll let him discuss this more though if he wants, because I'm not really a hockey guy either. NBA fans can again check out playoff action tomorrow night, with Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals. But I'd have to guess you'd be a pretty hard-core fan to be looking forward to watching Detroit and Indiana slug it out.
At least the West has some intruiging teams. Sunday looks like a pretty slow day. Whatever happened to Sunday afternoons chock full of sports? Even the lone NBA playoff game of the day doesn't tip until 8:30. By then, it will be almost time for me to watch the Sopranos. Thankfully, things are really about to crank up for the big summertime events (Tennis and Golf are about to enter their summer run of majors, beginning with the French Open on Monday).
So what does Sunday afternoon offer? Well, there's baseball again (Braves-Dodgers on TBS), the final round of the PGA Colonial (no Tiger, no Vijay, no Ernie, no Phil, not much interest), and that's about it. How can Sunday afternoon be so empty? Guys, get some points by doing something productive Sunday afternoon, because you won't have many more weekend afternoons this barren on the sporting scene.
Well, that's about it for the weekend, sports fans. Like I said, we can all look forward to next week, as the French Open begins on Monday, the Stanley Cup Finals start Tuesday, and the NBA and MLB plug along. Oh, and one of Europe's biggest days on the sporting calendar is next week as well: the Champions League final, with Porto facing Monaco. More on all that next week. 
