It chokes, smokes and doesn't mind being on a blog

Pushed aside from its usual page 2 home on the Daily News Friday sports page, here's the two extremes of media notes worth noting this week:

WHAT SMOKES
== MGM Home Video will begin releasing DVD packaged versions of the old “Gillette Home Run Derby” TV series ($14.95 a volume), starting with the first edition on July 10 and the second coming in August. For those who need a refresher: The campy, black-and-white shows pitted a slugger from the National League (Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Duke Snider, Ernie Banks, Gil Hodges, etc.) against one from the American League (Mickey Mantle, Harmon Killebrew, Rocky Colavito, Jackie Jensen, etc.) in a nine-inning long-ball contest that took place at the old (and empty) Wrigley Field in Los Angeles during the offseason. The winner got $2,000; the loser $1,000. The 26 episodes were taped in the winter after the 1959 season and ran only one year
(1960) because host Mark Scott died and wasn’t replaced. The show was revived on ESPN in the 1980s and it had popped up occasionally on ESPN Classic, but it hasn’t been seen on TV since 2003. Several websites, including Amazon.com, are already taking DVD preorders.

==Gotta admit, we had our doubts about the viewer-ability of a Major League Baseball draft when ESPN2 announced it would carve four hours out for it a Thursday afternoon. But in the end, that was the beauty of the whole proceedings: It didn't compete with anything else (especially the NCAA college baseball playoffs), it was done very professionally, it was at a time when we could watch and follow along, and it moved at a much better pace than the NFL Draft that ESPN and the NFL Network constantly drags down with overanalysis and how it's playing out according to their experts predictions. Having both Peter Gammons and Steve Phillips on the set gave the show plenty of time to explain to viewers what was going on, why agent Scott Boras could muck things up, and what was the philosophy behind taking college players over high school players. As long as ESPN keeps this thing on a low-key level and doesn't try to NFL-it down the road, it wouldn't be that difficult to imagine watching an NHL draft someday. Again, as long as Chris Berman isn't around to choke the life out of it.

== HBO Sports executive producer Rick Bernstein said in a statement earlier this week that “as we optimistically iron out a new agreement with Larry Merchant, Larry has agreed to work Saturday’s HBO pay-per-view telecast from Madison Square Garden” featuring Miguel Cotto against Zab Judah. Merchant, 76, who has been with HBO for 30 years, had his contract expire June 1. The two are trying to reach a two-year extension, according to ESPN. Tonight, Merchant is supposed to be honored at the annual Boxing Writers Association of America banquet with an award for his longtime service to the sport. Word is that HBO executive producer Ross Greenberg was all ready to replace Merchant with the younger, louder and (somewhat) contemporary Max Kellerman, but a backlash in the media caused him to reconsider. Taking Merchant out of the main event and sending him to cover the "After Dark" matches isn't a bad idea. Merchant has become almost painful to watch form questions in post-fight interviews and his long, drawn-out commentaries leave viewers wondering if their TiVo is on pause. But it's the Kellerman element that probably upsets more viewers. Greenburg may just need to buy more time to find someone as a better replacement.

WHAT CHOKES
== Fox Sports Net confirmed a multi-year deal with the (egads) Versus network to sublicense 10 football games from the Pac-10 and Big 12, starting this fall. What it means is that UCLA’s Sept. 8 opener at home against BYU (3:30 p.m.) and USC’s Oct. 6 game at home against Stanford (4 p.m.) will be farmed out to the Versus network, as well as the Dec. 1 Cal-Stanford game and two others yet to be determined. Versus will also have UCLA’s game at Utah on Sept. 15 (2 p.m. PDT) as part of its Mountain West Conference deal. Five Big 12 games will also be included, starting with the Sept. 15 Iowa-Iowa State contest. For the last five years, FSN had this arrangement with Turner Sports, but TBS will be tied up this fall with coverage of the Major League Baseball playoffs. FSN is in 82 million homes (through 25 regional affiliates); Versus is reported to be available to 72 million homes, but the network is in only half of the 3 million cable homes in Southern California.

== ESPN and Fox have been jockeying to try to lock in on Roger Clemens’ 2007 debut for the New York Yankees - ESPN made a special switch last Monday to get the Yankees-White Sox on before Clemens bailed out with a “fatigued groin.” As it turns out, neither will do his comeback game set for Saturday when the Yankees face the Pittsburgh Pirates. Fox, which has the exclusive Saturday afternoon rights, already committed to three other regional games — Oakland-San Francisco (where Giants starter Barry Zito pitches against his former team), Houston-Chicago White Sox and New York Mets-Detroit, the later of which will be sent to the Southern California market (as well as 70 percent of the country, with Dick Stockton and Eric Karros on the call). Expect plenty of cut-ins from the Yankees-Pirates, which starts just minutes after the 12:55 scheduled starts of the three regionals. Fox Sports spokesman Dan Bell explained that the network has to notify MLB two weeks in advance to change its Saturday regional schedule, and the fact that Clemens’ on-and-off status of coming back precluded Fox from locking in a date that far away. As for why the Mets-Tigers would be in the L.A. market rather than Giants-Athletics, Bell explained that the West Coast factor can be argued in this case, but any New York team does well as far as generating ratings in Southern California, and Mets-Tigers play out as the best overall matchup of the day and the network wants that one to have the most exposure in cities that don’t have a local team playing in that time window.