Must-Flee TV Is the NHL’s Specialty

The NBA Western Conference finals got boffo ratings on TNT. Game 3, for example, received a 6.8 cable rating and was the most-watched NBA playoff game ever on cable.

Meanwhile, the Stanley Cup finals aren’t doing too well on ESPN.

“Overall, the national TV rating for Games 1 and 2 of the Lightning-Flame series has been a 1.1,” writes Greg Cote of the Miami Herald. “That’s America yawning. That’s a Romania-Belarus soccer number.

“ESPN could air a rerun of a mah-jongg tournament and get that. In fact, Game 1 barely cracked the list of top 20 cable telecasts that night, stumbling in at 19th and trailing (among other shows) a Cosby rerun.”

Trivia time: Citation, considered by some to be racing’s greatest horse, won 32 of 45 starts and finished out of the money in only one race. What race was it?

Bear facts: “Shannon Sharpe signs with CBS,” writes Steve Rosenbloom of the Chicago Tribune, “and I’m thinking, don’t you hate it when a studio show has a better tight end than the Bears.”

Weakness spotted: Deion Sanders, whom Sharpe replaced at CBS, has also lost his gig as the host of ESPN’s “American Sportsman.”

Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times speculates that maybe Sanders had problems with his tackle.

An obvious pick: Mike Downey of the Chicago Tribune speculates that the Clippers, who have the second pick in the NBA draft, will select Atlanta prep star Dwight Howard. Downey’s reasoning: “Because you can always use a guy named Howard on a team of Stooges.”

(Note: Moe, Curly and Shemp were the Howard brothers.)

Another idea: The Clippers might trade the rights to Howard to the Atlanta Hawks, whom Downey calls “a team popularly known as ‘the Clippers East.’ ”

No humility here: The Tribune’s Sam Smith says Howard is lobbying the Orlando Magic, which has the No. 1 pick. Smith quotes Howard as saying, “I’m going to be the No. 1 pick. I’ll get them to decide that when they see me work out.”

Age discrepancy: Charles Barkley says the 1982 Lakers and the 1986 Celtics could beat any team in the NBA today. Says Jim Armstrong of the Denver Post: “Which is pretty impressive, considering most of those [players] are in their early 50s.”

Looking back: On this day in 1925, Lou Gehrig pinch-hit for Pee Wee Wanninger in the eighth inning to start his streak of 2,130 consecutive games for the New York Yankees.

Trivia answer: Hollywood Park’s 1951 Premiere Handicap, which was run Monday as the Shoemaker Breeders’ Cup Mile. Bill Shoemaker, for whom the race was renamed in 1990, rode the 1951 winner, Special Touch.

And finally: Regarding the lyrics to “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” reader Pat Mooney asks, “Why do we sing a song about going to a ballgame when we are already there?”

Larry Stewart can be reached at larry.stewart@latimes.com.