THE E IN ESPN STANDS FOR ERROR; NETWORK DROPPING THE BALL IN LATEST SPAT WITH BASEBALL.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH The Media

ESPN has done a commendable job making itself out to be the victim in this latest tiff with Major League Baseball, which resulted in a lawsuit filed Tuesday to prevent MLB from ending their $40 million per year contract three years early.

But in this case, baseball has every right to be miffed. Likewise, it has every right to cut off its nose to spite its face.

It'll be up to a federal judge to decide what ``events of significant interest'' means. That's the key phrase in the contract that allows ESPN to move up to 10 games a season because of conflicts, and it doesn't have to consult the league on it.

To ESPN, this means it can show NFL regular-season games on three Sunday nights this September instead of three baseball games.

To baseball - and there's no doubt it has developed an inferiority complex when it comes to the NFL - the phrase has come to mean ``you never asked us about this when you signed the deal with the NFL 16 months ago if we'd be OK to move games to ESPN2, so if you do it now, it'll give you carte blanche to move games for anything else you consider important.''

An NFL game in that Sunday night slot will draw ratings almost six times greater than a baseball game. No duh. But if projected ratings become the foundation of defining an event of significant interest, baseball argues that ESPN could sign up the World Wrestling Federation and decide its shows were worth bumping baseball for.

In the past, ESPN has used this clause to move games out of the Wednesday night window for events like U.S. Open golf, the World Cup, the College World Series and even Busch Grand National races; the next will be June 2 because of a conflict with the NHL playoffs. But that's Wednesday night. Sunday night is an entirely different programming beast, which baseball wants to again point out to the network. When ESPN tried to move three baseball games to ESPN2 last September, baseball took them away and gave them back to the teams to do with what they wanted. As a result, a fortuitous national telecast of the game when Cal Ripken's consecutive-game playing streak ended was shown only locally.

The 76.2-million-homes-strong ESPN will counterpoint that ESPN2 goes into just 12 million fewer homes, and these three games are just nine hours of programming compared to the more than 80 games and 500 hours of regular-season time they give to the sport, and have for most of the past 10 years.

``We've been baseball's best friend,'' says Dick Glover, ESPN's vice president of programming. ``This isn't about the NFL or ESPN2. It's about that deal that baseball was thrilled about when it was signed. We're happy to live up to the deal. Now they've gone to a rather extreme step of saying they're going to terminate the entire thing. We feel we've been baseball's best partner.''

But sometimes friends do crummy things to friends. And in this case, you're a friend as long as the checks keep clearing.

Another goofy take: In the big picture, Disney-owned ESPN has a huge vested interest in baseball since it also owns the Angels. So when baseball announced on April 21 it was ending the contract after the 1999 season, it might not have had Disney's blessing, but Disney didn't stop it.

Now look: the mouse will be funding lawyers on both sides of the table to resolve this.

The other spin ESPN has subtly put on this is - whenever it has tried to resolve this issue with baseball, it says the league has turned it down and would ask to renegotiate the contract for three times, or $130 million a season, more than what ESPN is paying now.

The implication is that someone has put the bug in baseball's ear that it's not getting enough money for its product and there are others willing to pay more for it. That, of course, points to Fox, which would be the most likely to benefit from a regular-season package even if it means getting into a bidding war with Ted Turner. Then, Fox could take over Sunday night cable baseball instead of the Thursday night package it currently has in place.

No one at Fox or Turner can comment. But you know privately they're not too upset to watch Disney squirm on both sides of this issue. If a baseball cable package falls into their laps, they'll accommodate it.

Bottom line is ESPN dropped the ball and baseball finally got tired of being charged with the error, no matter how many hours of programming it has received in return. A deal's a deal. And this has become a big deal that someone - most likely Disney - is going to have to pay for.

Reverse spin: Former CBS Sports president Neal Pilson, who now calls himself a sports consultant, is readily available to comment on issues like this. Which is akin to asking the captain of the Titanic about the benefits of oceanic travel.

Wednesday's Daily Variety quotes Pilson in its ESPN-MLB story as pointing out that baseball's ratings are so low because ``the demographics . . . are old, lower-income people who live in rural areas.''

This is the same Pilson who, when leading the charge at CBS nine years ago, felt baseball was worth a $1 billion, four-year deal. That eventually destroyed his network's sports division and made baseball so anti-Madison Avenue that CBS was basically giving away 30-second spots on the 1993 World Series telecast.

Pilson might want to check his contacts again about baseball demographics in 1999. All five Major League Baseball national-rights holders saw an increase in ratings last year over the year before, and not just because of Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa broadcasts.

McGwire games on Fox, for example, were just 7 percent higher than other telecasts. Compare that to NBC's NBA numbers, which saw a 42 percent jump whenever Michael Jordan played.

Also, the World Series ratings broken down last year showed male teen ratings were up 27 percent. And in households earning $60,000 or more, baseball on Fox increased 24 percent.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg, Neal.

SOUND BYTES By Tom Hoffarth

WHAT SMOKES

The new guy ESPN has on its NHL studio show . . . oh wait, that's Barry Melrose. A neatly cut, bespectacled former Kings coach . . . who must be angling for a return engagement in the NHL - and the Kings have a spot open, gosh darn it. ``It's no challenge to coach the Kings anymore,'' Melrose said. ``New owners, new building . . . anyone can coach a team like that.'' In all seriousness, Melrose considers Ice Dogs coach John Van Boxmeer to be the best choice for the Kings' spot, even if his name isn't brought up much in media speculation. ``Usually the guy who gets the job is someone whose name doesn't come up,'' said Melrose, in his fourth year at ESPN. ``It was the same with me when I got that job. I wish Dave Taylor the best of luck finding a coach and I hope he gets it turned around.'' So that means Melrose isn't interested? ``I've had chances to come back and coach but they weren't quite right,'' he said. ``I'd love to come back. I miss being with the players. But then you see what (former coach turned ESPN analyst turned coach again) Jim Schoenfeld is going through, and you wonder why you'd ever want to do it again.''

Oh, yeah, what about the dome trim? ``One day I just woke up and said, `I wonder how I'd look with short hair,' '' said Melrose. ``I've always been impetuous like that. Sometimes, it works. I know it's been a lot easier to keep up.''

WHAT CHOKES

The honeymoon for the first season of ABC's ``Sports Night,'' the show that tries to show us how lovable and (somewhat) laughable it is behind the scenes at a cable sports news department. The Sports Business Journal gave it an arrow pointing down after pointing out its hard line against athletes making cameos ``may be too strong.'' Entertainment Weekly gave the season finale a C+ and added: ``While creator Aaron Sorkin's unrelenting Mamet-meets-``Seinfeld'' banter seemed refreshing last September, after 23 episodes it makes you think, ``If these were my co-workers, I'd pray for downsizing.'' Which is contrary to the fawning by TV Guide, which said the show ``is so ingratiating, these characters seem like old friends after one short season.'' It's more like as ingratiating as a neighbor who thinks it's cool to play the xylophone at all hours.

After promoting coverage of the Kentucky Derby all week, KXTA-AM (1150) ran the race call Saturday - but went back to ``Dodger Game Day'' before the track announced the official finish and the payouts. Next time the Dodgers game ends, why not cut away to the ``Dawg Pound'' before Rick Monday can figure out the final totals?

Hubie Brown's '97-model hairpiece. Add some dressing and toss that Caesar salad after you shower, Hubemeister.

WHAT SMOKED ON LOCAL TV

The top 10 Nielsen-rated sports events (with their share numbers) on L.A. television from April 29 to May 5:

Event DateStation Rt/Sh. (x)

NBA: Lakers at Seattle 5/2 KNBC  9.9/25

a-Kentucky Derby 5/1 KABC  5.5/16

NBA: Portland at Lakers 5/5 FSW  5.1/8

NBA: Portland at Lakers 4/29 FSW 4.8/7

MLB: Dodgers at Philadelphia 5/2 KTLA  4.4/12

NBA: New York at Indiana 5/2 KNBC 4.2/12

MLB: Dodgers at Philadelphia 5/1 4.2/11

NBA: Dallas at Lakers 5/3 FSW 4.0/10

NASCAR California 500 5/2 KABC 3.0/8

MLB: Chicago at Angels 5/1 KCAL  2.6/5

a-First half hour of Kentucky Derby show on KABC was 3.2/10.

(x) One rating point equals 50,092 TV homes in Los Angeles; a share is the percentage of all the TV sets in use at that time.

CAPTION(S):

2 Boxes

BOX: (1) SOUND BYTES By Tom Hoffarth (see text)

(2) WHAT SMOKED ON LOCAL TV (see text)