Sports

SELIG SEES BIG BUCKS, FANS MISS HISTORY

ON a Sunday in June, New York couldn’t have asked for a more New York baseball moment: Mariano Rivera’s 500th save pitched for New York, in New York, against the other New York team.

But greed remains the mark of the Bud Selig Era. Thus, tens of thousands of otherwise interested New Yorkers missed it because the game began at 8:05 p.m. — moved to an illogical starting time for ESPN money — and, on a Sunday night, didn’t end until nearly midnight.

Not that anyone had to stay awake to sense that baseball is still enslaved by sanctioned greed. It wasn’t as if late-arriving fans on a Sunday night would soon fill all those conspicuously empty up-front seats, the kind left unsold throughout a weekend Mets-Yanks series.

By now, I suppose, we’re supposed to accept it, roll with it. Baseball’s Selig Era cultivated a strain of shamelessness that trades common sense and common decency for, well, how much ya got? So, take it or leave it. And get over it.

I’m trying. But it’s not taking.

Incidentally, when the Giants and Jets don’t sell out because of their PSL ticket extortions, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will be forced to change the TV blackout rules rather than risk the New York market. And he’ll claim that the bad economy is to blame. But Giants and Jets patrons have remained through previous hard times. The economy will be blamed for the NFL’s greed.

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The next Geneva Convention must ban the use of ESPN Sunday Night Baseball tapes. Sunday night’s Mets-Yankees telecast, in the wrong hands, well . . . Is there no one at ESPN with the combined authority and sense to say/demand, “Fellas, tonight I want you to say as little as possible as often as possible. Remember, it’s TV. Got it?”

What Joe Morgan (mostly), Jon Miller and Steve Phillips did to Sunday’s Mets-Yanks — a 4-2 job that lasted 3:38 — was perpetrate a relentless assault on the good senses, including those that keep us from screaming. They endlessly analyzed something, anything, everything, eventually taking on the sound of a lawn mower going around and around (and around and around). It was like a tape of one of those hot-dog eating contests, but played in reverse.

At one point, they debated how the Yanks may one day keep Derek Jeter’s bat in the lineup. Move him to first base? Second? They never mentioned DH.

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Fox is proud of the fact that it will break into coverage of tomorrow’s Mets-Phillies to show Manny Ramirez’s first at-bat, during what is expected to be his second game since his drug suspension. Not even the second lunar landing was deemed that newsworthy. . . . Alexis Arguello Jr., his father dead this week at the age of 57, is a producer for CBS College Sports Network.

No one can accuse Mike Francesa of not sharing. When he knocks Joe Girardi he speaks for himself — “I,” “me” and “my.” But when Girardi’s on with Francesa, it becomes an “us” thing, “Callers ask why you did this” or “Fans wonder why you did that.” . . . Brooklyn-raised and sharpened bowling Hall of Famer Mark Roth, 58, is recovering from a stroke that last month left him partially paralyzed.

Leave it to Nike to present a TV ad mocking “the critics” who call Lance Armstrong “a doper.” The critics? How about fellow cyclists, lab technicians, trainers? . . . MLB still trying to cash in on PEDs. MLB Network this week presented the 2001 Home Run Derby: Luis Gonzalez, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, Troy Glaus, Bret Boone, Todd Helton, Alex Rodriguez.

Did NBC, “The Plausibly Live Olympics and Tennis Majors Network,” yesterday think U.S. viewers figured it was high noon at Wimbledon for the Serena WilliamsElena Dementieva semi at the same time it was 4 p.m. in New York?

Halfway through Billy Mays’ obit I expected to read: “But wait, there’s more!”

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ESPN remains eager to do all it can to look foolish. Sunday, during coverage of the Brazil-U.S. Confederations Cup final, the screen flashed “Score Alert.” ESPN then stole everyone’s attention to report that 4-1, Reds over Indians in the top of the fifth, was now — wait for it –5-1!

Wednesday, ESPN reported, “Zach Randolph was traded to the Grizzlies for Quentin Richardson, sources told ESPN.com’s Chad Ford. The deal was first reported by the L.A. Times. So then why, other than for cheap cross-promotion and to take dishonest credit, would ESPN put itself in the story?

And Mike from Saddle Brook is curious why ESPN’s NBA Draft coverage would include a graphic noting players who are “Spanish speaking born.” Writes Mike: “I had to be taught English; are people born speaking Spanish?”

phil.mushnick@nypost.com