Television networks, grrr...

It was a weekend of tennis and golf. The French Open finished up this weekend and NBC covered it. I missed the women's final yesterday because I chose to go for a bike ride. I missed most of the men's final this morning because I had to teach spin. I did see the first few breaks in the first set. But I was quite surprised to come back home less than 2 hours later and find the match over and done with. Looks like I didn't miss much. But I was psyched that Federer and Nadal finished because with hours and hours of air time left, surely, I thought, NBC would replay the women's final between Dinara Safina and Ana Ivanovic* both vying for their first grand slam title, or at least show a few sets of doubles. After all, American Bob Bryan won the mixed.

But no. They aired last year's Wimbledon final between Federer and Nadal. I already saw that one!

So that was more me whining that the network didn't really fit my schedule. Though I think one could make an argument that they probably wouldn't deign to show a women's match--maybe a Justine Henin classic given her recent retirement?--on the day of the men's final.

But this next one is a real, legitimate gripe and--not surprising--it comes from The Golf Channel, which I had on this weekend to watch the McDonald's** LPGA Tour Championships. Good tournament, by the way; I thought Annika was going to pull it out, but major congratulations to rookie Yani Tseng for making her first tournament win a major. [She had a female caddie by the way which is why, when it came to playoff time, I rooted for her over veteran Maria Hjorth.] Not bad. Paula Creamer is probably cringing in her pink shoes (and skirt and hat and shirt and hair ribbons) and trying to crush those pink balls in her non-major winner hands.

Anyway all weekend I heard about how this coming week is US Open week on The Golf Channel. All US Open, all week. That's the men's US Open by the way. The Women's US Open--and, yes, women is part of the title of the event--is in a couple of weeks. So all week on the GC you can see previews, news, and even watch the final round from 2000 when Tiger won his first Open. So in a few weeks when the women hit the course for their Open do you think the GC will be hosting Women's US Open Week? Yeah, me neither. They just barely seemed to be able to squeeze in the championships this past weekend around coverage of some obscure men's tournament in Europe.

* To my blogger friend, Fat Louie, who has seen an increase in visitors with questionable motives with the emergence of Ivanovic: get used to it. I don't have any pics of Ivanovic up and I still get lots of hits off her and what's really weird is what they're searching for: "Ana Ivanovic armpits." I kid you not. Mind you, I've never commented on her armpits but apparently somewhere else on my blog I have used the word armpits and voila--creepy visitors. They must be quite surprised at what they find when they arrive here.

** Good news for all those who find it pretty disgusting the way McDonalds has tied itself to major sporting events in an attempt to improve its image: The LPGA is buying back the championship in 2010. No more title sponsor--of any kind. More good news: the tournament is moving to the northeast. [Well it's good news for me.] Not so good news (again, for me): it's moving to August and will be the final of the four majors. I have a lot to do in August already. There's the Pilot Pen, the US Open, oh and that pesky work/school thing. Oh well. I shall just revel in the ousting of McDonalds and that silly clown who shows up in the trophy presentation line-up.