Can you believe that at the end of this week, we’ll be in the second half of the 2016? And it also means the days will be getting shorter throughout the month.
This week, we have the start of Wimbledon, EURO 2016 heads to the Quarterfinal round, College Baseball’s College World Series moves to its Championship Series, the Olympic Trials really ramp up in the month leading to Rio, baseball steams towards the All-Star break and NASCAR is back at Daytona as we have a nice three-day holiday weekend for the 4th of July.
Let’s take a look at what’s in store this week.
WIMBLEDON
Tennis’ third Grand Slam tournament begins this week at the All-England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club and after sitting out the French Open, ESPN is back for the fortnight at SW19. Chris Fowler will be the lead announcer for the fortnight. the analysts include Darren Cahill, Chris Evert, Mary Jo Fernandez, Brad Gilbert, Jason Goodall, John McEnroe (pulling double duty with BBC Sport as well), Patrick McEnroe and Pam Shriver.
Chris McKendry and Hannah Storm will alternate as hosts. LZ Granderson and Tom Rinaldi will serve as reporters. Rinaldi will also call some matches.
ESPN will air 140 hours on television and more than 1,500 on the WatchESPN app. ESPN will air coverage from Monday through Friday starting at 7 a.m. ET with non-stop coverage lasting until 4:30 p.m. On Saturday, ESPN begins its coverage with Breakfast at Wimbledon at 7 a.m. followed by live action at 8 a.m.
Should you be working and unable to watch the ESPN coverage online, Tennis Channel will be back with its Wimbledon Primetime program which will begin right after ESPN signs off. It will air BBC’s feeds of the matches and run from approximately 4:30 p.m. until 8 p.m. with replays all evening along.
Bill Macatee and Mary Carillo will host Wimbledon Primetime and they’ll be joined by Paul Annacone, Tracy Austin, Jim Courier, Lindsay Davenport, Justin Gimelstob, Martina Navratilova and Jon Wertheim.
So here’s the schedule for this week:
Monday, June 27
1st Round — ESPN, 7 a.m.
Wimbledon Primetime — Tennis Channel, 4:30 p.m.
Tuesday, June 28
1st Round — ESPN, 7 a.m.
Wimbledon Primetime — Tennis Channel, 4:30 p.m.
Wednesday, June 29
2nd Round — ESPN, 7 a.m.
Wimbledon Primetime — Tennis Channel, 4:30 p.m.
Thursday, June 30
2nd Round — ESPN, 7 a.m.
Wimbledon Primetime — Tennis Channel, 4:30 p.m.
Friday, July 1
3rd Round — ESPN, 7 a.m.
Wimbdleon Primetime — Tennis Channel, 4:30 p.m.
Saturday, July 2
Breakfast at Wimbledon — ESPN, 7 a.m.
3rd Round — ESPN, 8 a.m.
Wimbledon Primetime — Tennis Channel, 5 p.m.
On July 3 which normally is a rest day for Wimbledon, ABC will air three hours of highlights from Week one from 3-6 p.m.
EURO 2016
EURO 2016 continues its knockout round phase with the end of the Round of 16 on Monday and then the Quarterfinals on Thursday running through Sunday. Because of ESPN’s commitment to Wimbledon, coverage of EURO 2016 shifts from the Mothership to ESPN2 for this week.
Here’s the schedule for this week:
Monday, June 27
Round of 16
Italy vs. Spain — ESPN2, noon
England vs. Iceland — ESPN2, 3 p.m.
Thursday, June 30
Quarterfinal #1
Poland vs Portugal — ESPN2, 3 p.m.
Friday, July 1
Quarterfinal #2
Wales vs. TBD — ESPN2, 3 p.m.
Saturday, July 2
Quarterfinal #3 — ESPN2, 3 p.m.
COLLEGE WORLD SERIES
The College World Series Finals will take place at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, NE. Arizona will face Cinderella Costal Carolina in the Best of Three series beginning Monday night. ESPN will air all of the finals whether it ends on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Heres’s the schedule:
Monday, June 27
Game 1: Arizona vs. Coastal Carolina — ESPN, 7 p.m.
Tuesday, June 28
Game 2: Coastal Carolina vs. Arizona — ESPN, 8 p.m.
Wednesday, June 29
Game 3 (if necessary): Arizona vs. Coastal Carolina — ESPN, 8 p.m.
OLYMPIC TRIALS
As the Rio Olympics get closer, we get a better idea of who will represent the United States. NBCSN and NBC will air coverage of the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials throughout this week all in primetime. Dan Hicks, Screamin’ Rowdy Gaines and Michael Tafoya will be in Omaha, NE at the CenturyLink Center to call the action.
Expect to see 2012 Olympic holdovers Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Missy Franklin, Katie Ledecky as well as veteran Olympians Natalie Coughlin and Dana Vollmer to swim for coveted spots on Team USA.
Here’s the schedule starting with tonight’s coverage through next Sunday with all times Eastern. NBC’s coverage will be live in the Eastern and Central time zones, but tape delayed everywhere else (what else is new?):
Sunday, June 26
Qualifying Heats: Men’s 400 Meter Freestyle, Men & Women’s 400 Meter Individual Medley — NBCSN, 6 p.m.
Finals: Men’s 400 Meter Freestyle, Men & Women’s 400 Meter Individual Medley — NBC, 8 p.m.
Monday, June 27
Qualifying Heats: Women’s 100 Meter Backstroke & Breaststroke, Men’s 200 Meter Freestyle — NBCSN, 6:30 p.m.
Finals: Women’s 100 Meter Butterly & 400 Meter Freestyle, Men’s 100 Meter Breaststroke — NBC, 8 p.m.
Tuesday, June 28
Qualifying Heats: Women’s 200 Meter Freestyle & 200 Meter Individual Medley, Men’s 200m Butterfly — NBCSN, 7 p.m.
Finals: Men’s 200 Meter Freestyle & 100 Meter Backstroke, Women’s 100 Meter Breaststroke & 100 Meter Backstroke — NBC, 8 p.m.
Wednesday, June 29
Qualifying Heats: Men’s 100 Meter Freestyle & 200 Meter Breaststroke, Women’s 200 Meter Butterly — NBCSN, 7 p.m.
Finals: Women’s 200 Meter Individual Medley & Freestyle, Men’s 200 Meter Butterly — NBC, 8 p.m.
Thursday, June 30
Qualifying Heats: Women’s 100 Meter Freestyle, Men’s 200 Meter Individual Medley & Backstroke — NBCSN, 6:30 p.m.
Finals: Men’s 100 Meter Freestyle & 200m Breaststroke, Women’s 200 Meter Butterfly — NBC, 8 p.m.
Friday, July 1
Qualifying Heats: Men’s 50 Meter Freestyle & 100 Meter Butterfly, Women’s 200 Meter Backstroke — NBCSN, 6 p.m.
Finals: Women’s 200 Meter Breast & 100 Meter Freestyle, Men’s 200 Meter Individual Medley & Backstroke — NBC, 8 p.m.
Saturday, July 2
Qualifying Heats: Women’s 50 Meter Freestyle, Men’s 1500 Meter Freestyle — NBCSN, 5 p.m.
Finals: Women’s 200 Meter Backstroke & 800 Meter Freestyle, Men’s 50 Meter Freestyle & 100 Meter Butterfly — NBCSN, 8 p.m.
Sunday, July 3
Finals: Women’s 50 Meter Freestyle, Men’s 1500 Meter Freestyle — NBC, 7 p.m.
Starting on Friday, NBC will air coverage of the U.S. Track & Field Olympic Trials live from the fabled Hayward Field in Eugene, OR. Tom Hammond who has called Olympic track & field dating back to the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona will be back to call the Trials. In an early press release, NBC mentions that Kenny Albert will be part of the coverage and he’ll likely call some of the events as well. Joining Tom and Kenny will be analysts Ato Boldon, Craig Masback, Tim Hutchings, Todd Harris and Lewis Johnson.
NBC will have primetime coverage on Friday as well as on Saturday afternoon. Here’s the schedule:
Friday, July 1
Men’s shot put, Men’s 10K finals — NBC, 9 p.m.
Saturday, July 2
Women’s 10K finals, men’s and women’s long jump finals — NBC, 2 p.m.
Decathlon — NBCSN, 5 p.m. (Part of U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials coverage)
MOTORSPORTS
This weekend, NASCAR heads back to Daytona for the Coke Zero 400 for the traditional 4th of July Weekend race. NBC will carry flag-to-flag coverage of the race on Saturday in primetime starting at 7:45 p.m. This marks the start of NBC’s half of the NASCAR schedule and will go all the way to the season-ending chase for the Sprint Cup.
Rick Allen, Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte will be in the broadcast booth for the call of the lap-by-lap action. Dave Burns, Mike Massaro, Marty Snider, Kelli Stavast, Alex Hayden and Jim Noble will be in the pits. Krista Voda will return as race host with Dale Jarrett, Kyle Petty and Rutledge Wood as analysts and feature reporter, respectively.
Formula 1 will be in Spielberg, no not, Steven’s house, but Spielberg, Austria for the Austrian Grand Prix.
MLB
Plenty of action this week for baseball. ESPN will carry a late night game on Monday after the College World Series and Wednesday’s game will air either on ESPN or ESPN2 depending if there’s a Game 3 of the CWS Final Series.
Sunday, June 26
Chicago Cubs at Miami or Cleveland at Detroit — MLB Network, 1 p.m.
Los Angeles at Pitsburgh — ESPN, 8 p.m.
Monday, June 27
Los Angeles at Pittsburgh — MLB Network, 12:30 p.m.
New York Mets at Washington or Chicago Cubs at Cincinnati — MLB Network, 7 p.m.
Houston at Anaheim — ESPN, 10 p.m.
Tuesday, June 28
New York Mets at Washington or Boston at Tampa Bay — MLB Network, 7 p.m
Wednesday, June 29
Miami at Detroit — MLB Network, 1 p.m. or Chicago Cubs at Cincinnati — MLB Network, 12:30 p.m.
Baltimore at San Diego — MLB Network, 4 p.m. (joined in progress) or Philadelphia at Arizona — MLB Network, 3:30 p.m.
New York Mets at Washington — ESPN or ESPN2, 7 p.m.
Thursday, June 30
Texas at New York Yankees — MLB Network, 1 p.m. or Los Angeles at Milwaukee — MLB Network, 2 p.m.
Chicago Cubs at New York Mets or Kansas City at St. Louis — MLB Network, 7 p.m.
Friday, July 1
Cleveland at Toronto — MLB Network, 1 p.m.
Chicago Cubs at New York Mets or Kansas City at Philadelphia — MLB Network, 7 p.m.
Saturday, July 2
Cleveland at Toronto — MLB Network, 1 p.m. or Milwaukee at St. Louis — MLB Network, 2 p.m.
Anaheim at Boston or Chicago Cubs at New York Mets or Cincinnati at Washington — Fox, 7:15 p.m.
New York Yankees at San Diego — FS1, 10 p.m.
GOLF
The PGA Tour heads to the fabled Firestone Country Club in Akron, OH for another installment of the World Golf Championships. This time, it’s the Bridgestone Invitational. Golf Channel will have Thursday and Friday coverage beginning at 1:30 p.m. ET while CBS takes the weekend at 2 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday.
The European Tour celebrates the 100th Open de France and Golf Channel will have early morning coverage throughout the weekend, first at 4:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. ET on Thursday followed by 6:30 a.m. on Friday, 7:30 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
MISCELLANEOUS
CFL goes to Week 2 with another four games. ESPN2 carries a Thursday night doubleheader followed by another game on Friday with ESPN3 streaming one game.
Thursday, June 30
Ottawa Redblacks at Montreal Alouettes — ESPN2, 7 p.m.
Toronto Argonauts at Saskatchewan Roughriders — ESPN2, 10 p.m.
Friday, July 1
BC Lions at Hamilton Tiger-Cats — ESPN3, 7 p.m.
Winnipeg Blue Bombers at Calgary Roughriders — ESPN2, 10 p.m.
The Tour de France begins on Saturday. NBCSN will carry the bulk of the month-long event that will carve a path through the country. Stage 1 will air on NBCSN starting at 6:30 a.m. with a primetime replay beginning at 9 p.m.
ESPN has a Premier Boxing Champions event in primetime on Saturday from Reading, PA.
The WNBA will have six games aired on national television this week. NBA TV has doubleheaders today and on Wednesday while ESPN2 will have one game:
Sunday, June 26
Phoenix Mercury at New York Liberty — NBA TV, 3 p.m.
Connecticut Sun at Los Angeles Sparks — NBA TV, 5 p.m.
Tuesday, June 28
Dallas Wings at Los Angeles Sparks — ESPN2, 10 p.m.
Wednesday, June 29
New York Liberty at Minnesota Lynx — NBA TV, 8 p.m.
Connecticut Sun at Phoenix Mercury — NBA TV, 10 p.m.
Thursday, June 30
Atlanta Dream at Los Angeles Sparks — NBA TV, 3:30 p.m.
NBA
ESPN and NBA TV will cover the beginning of the Free Agency period on Friday with various specials on both days:
Friday, July 1
Free Agent Fever — NBA TV, 2 p.m.
NBA Free Agency Special — ESPN, 7 p.m.
Free Agent Fever — NBA TV, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, July 2
Free Agency Special — ESPN, 7 p.m.
Free Agent Fever — NBA TV, 7 p.m.
And the NBA Summer League begins Saturday in Orlando. NBA TV will have live coverage and you’ll see the listing of games in the Viewing Picks.
That will do it for a action-packed week in this summer edition of This Week in Sports Telvision.
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