No longer must the AL and NL be the girls and boys standing awkwardly on opposite ends of the gym at the eighth-grade dance. This weekend, they shall dance and perhaps make out a little, until AL’s dad picks her up at 9:00 and the NL is left alone, sad and confused. There’s Yanks/Mets, Cubs/White Sox, Braves/Red Sox, Angels/Dodgers, A’s/Giants and some more good interleague baseball this weekend. (I’ll be at Brewers/Twins on Sunday. I haven’t seen the Twins in person since Kirby Puckett was in the lineup.)
Here’s what’s on the TV this weekend:
Tonight
Major League Baseball: Atlanta Braves at Boston Red Sox (TBS). Tonight’s pitching matchup is Anthony Lerew vs. Devern Hansack. Wait! Come back! It gets better, I promise!
NBA Playoffs: Cleveland Cavaliers at New Jersey Nets, Game 6, and Phoenix Suns at San Antonio Spurs, Game 6 (ESPN). Will the Suns/Spurs series get nicer or nastier after the controversial Stoudemire/Diaw suspensions?
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Quaker Steak and Lube 200 from Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte, N.C. (SPEED Channel). Mmmmm … steak and lube.
Boxing: Friday Night Fights Presented by Just For Men: Cristobal Cruz vs. Zahir Raheem, light welterweights, from Tulsa, Okla. (ESPN2). No play for Mr. Gray!
Saturday
NHL Playoffs: Ottawa Senators at Buffalo Sabres, Eastern Conference Finals, Game 5 (NBC). Buffalo’s not dead yet. Don’t put them on the cart. OK, go ahead.
Major League Baseball: N.Y. Yankees at N.Y. Mets or Chicago White Sox at Chicago Cubs (FOX). We haven’t seen this much hostility between the North Side and the South Side since Patrick Swayze starred in that one Civil War miniseries.
Horse Racing: Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore (NBC). Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense is a 7-5 favorite. I’ll pick to win: Circular Quay; place: Curlin; show: Street Sense. Maybe I’ll parlay that bet with the winner of Cruz vs. Raheem.
NASCAR Nextel Cup Nextel All-Star Challenge from Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte, N.C. (SPEED Channel). There are no Cup points awarded, but the winner gets more than $1 million. These guys will do anything for money.
Boxing: Jermain Taylor vs. Cory Spinks, middleweights from Memphis, Tenn. (HBO). Taylor pulls out the “Hey, is that Elvis?” tactic and KOs Spinks when he’s distracted.
Sunday
NHL Playoffs: Anaheim Ducks at Detroit Red Wings, Western Conference Finals, Game 5 (NBC). Where are all these goals coming from? It wasn’t supposed to be like this!
Major League Baseball: N.Y. Yankees at N.Y. Mets (ESPN). The Mets start John Maine (5-1, 2.15) vs. the Yankees’ Tyler Clippard (who?).
