LOS ANGELES -- Al Michaels, every bit the baseball fan as Bob Costas, misses the game so much he can't hide it.
Michaels, like Costas without a baseball outlet for the first time in memory, lamented his existence during last Monday night's telecast of the San Francisco-Denver exhibition game. Football partners Frank Gifford and Dan Dierdorf good-naturedly chided Michaels, telling him he was living in the past.
ABC is back in the baseball business -- for one day, anyway -- when it airs the title game of the Little League World Series on 'Wide World of Sports' at 4 p.m. EDT, but Michaels will not be part of the telecast.
Newcomer Brent Musburger teams with Jim Palmer, Michael's former baseball partner and now an ESPN analyst.
'I never came in and said 'I want to do this and I want to do that,'' said Musburger, who joined ABC in early summer. 'But one thing I've always wanted to do is the Little League World Series.'
Costas was a baseball broadcaster earlier this summer when NBC aired an amateur baseball game between the United States and Cuba from Havana.
Last year's ABC rating for the Little League World Series was 5.3, impressive when judged against NBC's rating average of 4.8 for Game of the Week telecasts.
The rest of the weekend sports fare (All Times EDT):NEWLN: Saturday Auto Racing
NASCAR (7:30-11:00 p.m., ESPN), coverage of Busch 500 from Bristol, Tenn.NEWLN: Baseball
Majors (3:00-6:00 p.m., CBS), New York Mets at Los Angeles or Boston at Toronto.NEWLN: Basketball
WBL (8:00-10:30 p.m., SPTSCHNL), coverage of playoff game.NEWLN: Football
NFL Exhibition (8:00-11:00 p.m., TNT), Denver at Miami.NEWLN: Golf
PGA Tour (1:00-3:00 p.m., CBS), coverage of third round of the World Series of Golf from Akron, Ohio.
Amateur (5:00-7:00 p.m., ESPN), coverage of third round of the U.S. Amateur Championships from Denver.NEWLN: Tennis
Men's (2:00-4:00 p.m, ESPN), coverage of semifinals of WCT Tournament of Champions from New York.NEWLN: Sunday Auto Racing
Grand Prix (3:00-5:00 p.m., ABC), coverage of race from Denver.
IROC (5:00-6:00 p.m., ABC), coverage of race from Michigan.
'Speedway Sunday' (7:30-10:00 p.m., SPTSCHNL), in-studio show focusing on races worldwide.NEWLN: Baseball
Majors (8:00-11:00 p.m., ESPN), Oakland at Detroit.NEWLN: Football
NFL Exhibition (1:00-4:00 p.m., CBS), Houston at Minnesota.
College (3:00-6:00 p.m., NBC), coverage of Colorado vs. Tennessee in Pigskin Classic from Anaheim, Calif.NEWLN: Golf
Amateur (3:30-5:30 p.m., ESPN), coverage of final round of the U.S. Amateur Championships from New York.
PGA Tour (4:00-6:00 p.m., CBS), coverage of final round of the World Series of Golf from Akron, Ohio.NEWLN: Tennis
Men's (1:00-3:00 p.m., ESPN), coverage of final of WCT Tournament of Champions from New York.NEWLN:
