L.A. just can’t win for beans

Game of the weekend that everyone’s discussing, but not everyone will be able to see. . . .

New England Patriots at Dallas Cowboys (Sunday, 1:15 p.m., DirecTV “Sunday Ticket” locally): The 5-0 Patriots are at the 5-0 Cowboys, which some people are calling a “Super Bowl preview” (although, frankly, not by many people living in Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Green Bay or Seattle). Most of the country will be viewing this game on CBS. Not in the Los Angeles area, where KCBS instead will be showing the 2-2 Oakland Raiders at the 2-3 San Diego Chargers.

My column about the local Patriots-Cowboys blackout generated some emails.

From Erik Schuman: “KCBS can say all they want how the Oak/SD game will get higher ratings -- and that it might -- but only because people here are so DISGUSTED with what they are doing -- jerking us around with TV coverage. How ANYONE can justify a 2-2 and 2-3 team as opposed to 2 UNBEATEN teams is beyond me and I don’t wanna hear. . . about how OC/LA is considered “Chargers’ territory” because this area showed the Chargers just how much (little) we care for them when they had training camp in Carson and they had to go back to SD because they were IGNORED up here. UNREAL stupidity!”

And for a couple dissenting opinions . . .

From Ben Quinones: “The LA TIMES Sports section is very interesting, for lack of a better word. In the last week or so we get sports cover piece after cover piece on the BOSTON Red Sox. Today we get a huge article on Kevin Garnett and the BOSTON Celtics and now we get a piece about the NEW ENGLAND Patriots and what ‘Local fans want to watch.’ What ‘local fans/local viewers’ are we talking about? Boston Transplants or Native Angelenos? The last time I checked this was Los Angeles and the MAJORITY (yes, do the research) of fans are Raider fans. Perhaps this article leads to a bigger question? Is this really about ‘the formerly local Oakland Raiders and the quasi-local San Diego Chargers’ and their fans or what people from Massachusetts want to watch?”

From David Nelson: “Honestly, most of us So Cal people are sick and tired of the whole East Coast sports focus anyway. I mean, it gets really old hearing about the Red Sox, Yankees, and Patriots. Enough already! Christine, I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to tap into the local opinions about this, but most of us are really fed up with hearing about those teams. Who cares? This is Southern California. The Chargers have the most star power in the NFL right now, and if they play the way they should, they are the best show on TV. We don’t need the Cowboys vs. Patriots. This is So Cal and so are the Chargers! Face it, LA will never have an NFL team -- too much greed to make that happen, so like that old song says, ‘Love the one you’re with.’ Go Bolts.”

More New England stuff on the tube because, well, you saw what the Angels’ October batting order looked like. . .

Cleveland Indians at Boston Red Sox (Game 1 today, 4 p.m., and Game 2 Saturday 5:15 p.m., Channel 11): TBS experienced some rookie jitters during its coverage of the American League and National League division series, and now it’s over to Fox for the AL Championship Series. Can that be considered a good thing?

Reader Joel Beers sounded an early word of warning via email: “Please, I’ll take TBS coverage -- even with bumbling, mush-mouthed incoherence of Frank Thomas -- any day over Fox’s Tim McCarver and Joe Buck, and ESPN’s Jon Miller and Joe Morgan. Those guys’ vocal patterns have unfortunately been ingrained into the ears of baseball coverage for far, far too long. . . . In seizing baseball rights for so long, Fox and ESPN’s crews have managed to do something rather remarkable: be absolutely colorless by being absolutely histrionic. I think they’ve done more to ruin the allure of baseball among the nation’s young than Barry Bonds, Frank McCourt and the Baltimore Orioles’ pitching staff put together.”

I wonder if Fox and TBS agreed to a secret deal by which McCarver and Thomas were placed under a collective verbiage cap: Only so many words to go around during the playoffs. McCarver can talk the entire American League East under a table, so Thomas had to cut his talk time to preserve room for McCarver. Yeah. That must be the reason.

Playing for the right to get knocked out of the World Series in five games, max. . . .

Colorado Rockies versus Arizona Diamondbacks (Game 2 today, 7:15 p.m., and Game 3 Sunday, 5:30 p.m., TBS): From a Friday TBS news release: “ ‘Inside the NBA’ Analyst Charles Barkley to Visit TBS Exclusive Coverage of MLB NLCS Game #3.” Really. Ernie Johnson must have made the bullpen call after all. Actually, there’s a catch to Barkley’s Game 3 appearance -- he is in Colorado to hype the late-October return of the “NBA on TNT.” While he’s there, according to the release, “Barkley will also be interviewed during the telecast.” Better late than never.

Trojans return to the big network. Remember them?

Arizona at USC (Saturday, 12:30 p.m., Channel 7): Like a vainglorious aging stage star picking and choosing when to mail it in according to the size of the audience, USC played down to the network that carried last Saturday’s Stanford game.

If we go through the motions and still win by two touchdowns, who’s going to notice? The game’s on Versus.

The Trojans went through the motions. They did not win by two touchdowns. Versus carried every minute of USC’s first home defeat since 2001. People noticed.

Are we not fans? We have TiVo. . .

LSU at Kentucky (Saturday, 12:30 p.m., Channel 2) and Boston College at Notre Dame (Saturday, 12:30 p.m., Channel 4): While USC tries to regain some traction against Arizona, Trojans fans can tape No. 1 LSU at No. 17 Kentucky and wistfully wonder about what might have been. At the same time, No. 4 Boston College (not Boston again!) tries to remain six notches ahead of USC in the Associated Press top 25. Unlike USC, Notre Dame is undefeated against Pac-10 competition.

Pucks. . .

Boston Bruins at Kings (tonight, 7:30 p.m., FSNW) and Detroit Red Wings at Kings (Sunday, 5 p.m., FSNW) and Minnesota Wild at Ducks (Sunday, 5 p.m., Prime): Bruins at Kings tonight. Finally, somebody around here is stepping up to take this New England thing head-on. Be brave, L.A.

Punt. . . .

New Orleans Saints at Seattle Seahawks (Sunday, 5:15 p.m., Channel 4): Looked good on paper six weeks ago. The 2005 NFC champions and 2006 NFC runners-up are a combined 3-6 in 2007.

christine.daniels@latimes.com