A public memorial service was held for Jack Buck at Busch Stadium in St. Louis yesterday. The legendary voice of the St. Louis Cardinals died of lung cancer at the age of 77 Tuesday.

Buck worked for the NBC, CBS and ABC television networks and was also the radio voice of "Monday Night Football" on CBS radio for almost 20 years.

Buck's son, Joe, is the lead baseball and football announcer for Fox and is also the voice of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Kalas 'Klassics'

Harry Kalas fans can hear some of his "Klassic Kalls" and vote for his "Greatest Kall" on the Fan Forum section of www.phillies.com.

Some of the selections are no hitters from Rick Wise, Terry Mulholland and Tommy Greene (where have you gone "T the Green"?), the winning of the NL pennant in 1993, Del Unser's three consecutive pinch hit home runs, and my favorite, Mike Schmidt's 500th home run in 1987.

Unfortunately, there isn't anything from the Phillies' World Series victory in 1980, because the local announcers weren't allowed to do the games due to the network's contract with baseball.

Kalas, who has been the voice of the Phillies since 1971, will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame later this summer, joining other announcers such as Jack Buck.

Play it again

The United States vs. Germany World Cup quarterfinal soccer game airs live on ESPN today at 7:25 a.m. There will be a replay on ABC at 1:30 p.m. Obviously ABC is praying for a U.S. victory.

Women's weekend

ESPN's "Women and Sports Weekend" will air over 40 hours of women's sports programming (luckily not the TV movie "When Billie Met Bobby") to commemorate the Title IX law, which was passed to give equal opportunities for females in sports.

There will be replays of the 1999 U.S. Women's World Cup Soccer victory, and "The Battle of the Sexes" between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs.

Also, there will be the special "On the Basis of Sex: The Battle of Title IX" tomorrow at 8, followed by "On the Basis of Sex: An ESPN Town Meeting" at 9 p.m.

Eye on China

Comcast SportsNet's Dei Lynam will be in China since Yao Ming is expected to be one of the top picks in the NBA Draft on TNT Wednesday. TNT regulars Ernie Johnson Jr., Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Hubie Brown announce the proceedings.

University of Missouri basketball coach Quin Snyder will also be a special analyst. Although Snyder is a successful college coach, he was also probably selected to do the show because he looks great on camera.

Tennis on TNT

TNT will be televising 86.5 (thank heavens for that .5) hours of Wimbledon beginning tomorrow. This is the third year in a row the tournament will be on TNT. Some of the announcers are newly-signed Marv Albert, Jim Courier, Mary Carillo and Ernie Johnson Jr.

Big numbers

With a rain delay taking it into prime time Sunday, this year's U.S. Open was the highest-rated Open in history with 38 million viewers for the final round on NBC.

On the other hand, the final NHL Stanley Cup playoff game between Carolina and Detroit could only muster a 4.2 rating/8 share for ABC.

As Anne Robinson would say, "NHL, you are the weakest link. G'bye."

Laura Nachman covers television and radio sports for the Courier Times. Write to her in care of the Courier Times, 8400 Route 13, Levittown, PA 19057, fax 215-949-4177 or e-mail bradyresident@aol.com.

June 21, 2002