Watching Some Trials, Errors

To all the Bachelors, Bachelorettes, Survivors and American Idols who milked their 15 minutes of fame too far into overtime, take a seat on the bench. There’s a new reality-series concept that’s sweeping the country, most recently to the chagrin of Laker fans and Kobe Bryant supporters everywhere:

Sports in the courts.

It’s a concept with legs, armed with boundless stamina and an endless supply of new material as the lawsuits and arrests continue to stockpile by the hour.

In the upcoming week, Fox, ESPN and -- fittingly enough -- Court TV, will mine this mother lode with special programs on law and order and athletes with records, both on the field and off.

The lineup ... so to speak:

Monday: Court TV convincingly argues that sports fans can be no less greedy than their overpaid athletic heroes on “Crying Foul,” a damning examination of the two fans who went to court to stake their claim to Barry Bonds’ historic 73rd home-run ball.

Wednesday: Fox Sports Net goes to unprecedented lengths with its first two-hour “Beyond The Glory” documentary, because how can you keep any serious look at the life and crimes of Mike Tyson to less than 120 minutes?

Thursday: ESPN puts Pete Rose’s Hall of Fame candidacy on mock trial at Harvard Law School, with Alan Dershowitz handling the prosecution and Johnnie Cochran the defense. No kidding. Bob Ley will host the three-hour mock trial with commentary provided by CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin.

Johnnie Cochran arguing on behalf of Rose’s induction into Cooperstown?

The mind reels with the possibilities.

If you go only on the hits, you must permit!

Unlike the Rose case, which has great potential for over-the-top hilarity, the Bonds baseball trial was only too real, too pathetically over the top.

Court TV chronicles the debacle from the fateful swing of the bat in October 2001, which resulted in two fans, Alex Popov and Patrick Hayashi, claiming ownership of the ball, through the farcical courtroom trial in 2002 to the eventual auction of the ball last month.

Martin Triano, Popov’s attorney, states pompously that the case of the contested baseball represents the “best of humanity and the worst of humanity.” He’s half right. Very early on, it’s clear no one is worth rooting for in this sorry escapade.

The fans squabble like candy-deprived children; at one point Popov sums up the dispute by crowing, without an ounce of irony, “I had it, I caught it, I want my ball back!” The TV cameraman who captures the mad scrum for the ball ridiculously compares his footage to “the Zapruder film.” The judge presiding over the case is a spotlight-seeking ham who can’t resist chipping in with melodramatic play-by-play before rendering his decision: “Bonds swung at a slow knuckleball ... He connected ... “

The only principal who comes off well is Bonds, shown shrugging early during the proceedings and advising the contestants to put the ball up for auction and just split the money.

After more than a year and hundreds of thousands of dollars spent in legal fees, the judge eventually does precisely that. Last month, the ball was auctioned for $450,000 -- a pittance compared to the $3 million-plus bid for Mark McGwire’s 70th home run ball. Popov and Hayashi get their cosmic comeuppance.

(And then some. Triano is suing Popov for $473,500 in unpaid legal fees.)

Fox’s look at the never-ending Tyson saga is notable in the access received by the producers. Tyson consented to four interviews totaling 12 hours and Tyson’s former wife, Robin Givens, grants her first public interview about Tyson since the couple sat down with Barbara Walters in 1988.

Givens says she regrets giving the Walters interview, describing it as “very poor judgment on my part.”

Tyson is typically outrageous, telling the viewer all that needs to be said when he describes himself as “a great manipulator. You have to understand -- in order to be the greatest fighter in the world, you have to be the greatest liar in the world.”

“Crying Foul” airs Monday at 8 p.m., “Beyond The Glory” on Wednesday at 8 p.m. and the Rose mock trial on Thursday at 4 p.m.

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Intensity Is Contrived

Having learned the hard way that tied All-Star games don’t cut it with the fans, Major League Baseball tries to manufacture some excitement at Tuesday’s event by dangling World Series home-field advantage as a carrot for the winner.

Fox will broadcast the All-Star game and held a conference call this week to discuss the format change. Excerpts:

Joe Buck: “My personal opinion is that it takes the pressure off the managers to feel like they have to get everybody into the game.... I know from talking to managers in their offices before games in years past, their biggest concern is, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to get all these players into the game.’ ”

Tim McCarver: “I think it’s a step in the right direction and I fully support the change.”

Ed Goren, Fox Sports president and executive producer: “The new system is replacing something that was extremely arbitrary -- alternating home-field advantage from one year to the next -- and the players acknowledge that. It’s not as if this was replacing a system that everyone bought into.”

Buck: “To me, this change takes the pressure off the managers and they can say at the end of the game, if they’ve got four or five or six guys looking at him with puppy dog eyes -- like ‘Why didn’t I get into the game?’ -- the answer is, ‘In case it was tied after nine innings, I had to have you around.’ We’re not going to go through that mess again.

“If you have those guys on the bench, then logically you’re going to have the starters play longer, you’re going to have the top reserves play even longer than they typically would, and I think you’ll get a more enjoyable game.”

McCarver: “I don’t think it’s going to affect the pitchers that much, but it will affect the everyday players. I remember in 1966, Sandy Koufax pitched the first three innings, whereas in 1999, Pedro Martinez, with as electric of stuff as I’ve ever seen in an All-Star starter, pitched only two innings. It would have been interesting that year to see him go six or seven innings just to see how many guys he could have struck out.”

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Stark Moves to NBC

Now that the “Monday Night Football” executives have come clean on the journalistic objectives for their sideline news reporters -- ABC stands for “All ‘Bout Cheesecake” -- Melissa Stark moved on to a better place Thursday, accepting a national correspondent position for NBC News’ “Today” program.

“Melissa began her journalism career in news and wanted to do more than just sports reporting,” NBC News President Neal Shapiro said in a statement. “She has the intelligence, energy and curiosity to do the wide variety of stories that appeal to the morning news audience.”

Stark spent three seasons on the sidelines for “Monday Night Football” before resigning the position when she became pregnant.

ABC replaced her with former cheerleader and ever-ready magazine model Lisa Guerrero.

In addition to reporting for “Today,” Stark will help cover sports for NBC, including the Olympic Games next summer at Athens.

Larry Stewart is on vacation.