1.   ESPN, the sports programming lunker, has already tipped the scales with its catches.

2.   Prices for baseball teams have soared in recent years due to the increasing value placed on sports programming by operators of TV networks.

3.   Sports programming, particularly hockey broadcasts, falls close behind.

4.   Steve Belkin, a businessman who heads Sports Media Management of University Heights, Ohio, a sports programming company, travels throughout the Midwest and to California.

5.   The cost of cable programming, particularly sports programming, has skyrocketed in recent years.

6.   Rejecting the idea could cost baseball a place in the Sydney sports program to be decided in October.