SPORTS ON WEEKEND TV

The American League baseball playoffs highlight sports television viewing on a weekend that includes both professional and college football and hockey.

With the National League championship series taking the weekend off, baseball fans have only the AL series to watch. The Oakland Athletics face the Boston Red Sox in the opener this afternoon on KCBS Channel 2 and KFMB Channel 8. The telecast begins at 5, with the first pitch scheduled for 5:30. The championship series continues Sunday afternoon on the same channels, with the telecast beginning at 5 and the first pitch scheduled for 5:27.

The Raiders’ quest to become the National Football League’s first 5-0 team tops Sunday’s pro football television menu with KCAL Channel 9 and TNT showing Los Angeles’ game against the Buffalo Bills beginning at 4:30 p.m.

KNBC will air the Indianapolis Colts-Kansas City Chiefs game at 10 a.m., and KNSD Channel 39 in San Diego and KMIR Channel 36 in Palm Springs will carry the Cincinnati Bengals-Rams contest from Anaheim Stadium at 1 p.m.

Sunday’s other NFL telecasts match the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears at 1 p.m. on Channels 2 and 8 and the San Diego Chargers and Pittsburgh Steelers at 10 a.m. on KNSD and KMIR.

In college football, four of the nation’s top 10 teams can be seen on cable. No. 1 Notre Dame faces Stanford at 10 a.m. on SportsChannel; No. 2 Florida State visits No. 9 Miami (Fla.) at 11 a.m. on Channels 2 and 8; and No. 10 Florida meets LSU at 4:30 p.m. on ESPN, with SportsChannel airing a delayed telecast at 8:30 p.m.

In games involving local teams, UCLA will try to stay undefeated in the Pacific 10 conference when it takes on Arizona at 12:30 p.m. on Channels 7, 3, 10 and 42; No. 15 USC will play host to Washington State on ESPN at 7:30 p.m., and Cal Lutheran will oppose Santa Clara at 1:30 p.m. on KADY Channel 63.

Tonight at 7:30, Prime Ticket airs the Kings hockey game against the Vancouver Canucks.