MLB, Fox and TBS agree to new TV deal

First-round playoff games will be shown only on cable starting next season as part of baseball’s new seven-year television deal with Fox and TBS, a total package worth almost $3 billion.

Turner Broadcasting System also will televise 26 regular-season Sunday games in 2008 while eventually cutting back on its nationwide Atlanta Braves coverage.

The World Series, All-Star games and Saturday afternoon telecasts remain on Fox through 2013, as does one of the league championship series. The other LCS – alternating between the American League and National League each year – is still up for bidding.

“That’s the last piece of the journey here to be solved, and there is an enormous amount of interest,” commissioner Bud Selig said. “So we’ll be able to hopefully announce that in a very short period of time.”

There is a chance, too, that TBS could benefit from the deal even sooner. The network will show all division and wild-card tiebreaker games, starting this year.

So if the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees finish even in the A.L. East this October and just one playoff spot remains, for example, TBS gets the game.

“Don’t make me start dreaming,” Turner Sports president David Levy said. “I’m looking for a lot of ties.”

If two first-round games overlap, one will be broadcast on TNT, Levy added.

As part of the new deal, the World Series will start on a Tuesday instead of a Saturday beginning next season.

Selig defends drug policy

Bud Selig defended baseball’s drug-testing program and insisted the toughened policy is working, then later touched on recent scandals set off by Barry Bonds, Jose Canseco and Jason Grimsley.

“I really think steroid use has been minimized,” the commissioner said. “Amphetamines, we’re doing OK.”

A year after Rafael Palmeiro tested positive for a banned substance and suspicion ran rampant, only one player has been penalized under Major League Baseball’s stricter steroid rules – New York Mets minor leaguer Yusaku Iriki. He was suspended 50 games. Last season, he would have received a 10-day penalty.

This is the first year that amphetamines are banned. A first-time offender is sent to counseling, but his name is not made public. Selig declined to provide numbers.

“I’m happy where we are with the drug-testing program,” he said.

Uecker stalker pleads not guilty

A woman pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of stalking Hall of Fame announcer Bob Uecker.

An attorney for Ann Ladd, 45, entered the plea at a preliminary hearing in Milwaukee County Circuit Court. Ladd, of Prospect Heights, Ill., waived her right to give testimony at the hearing, said her lawyer, Steve Kohn.

Sauerbeck must teach kids

Oakland left-hander Scott Sauerbeck was ordered to speak to children about alcohol for fleeing police along with a woman charged with driving his car while drunk. Sauerbeck pleaded guilty in Avon Lake (Ohio) Municipal Court to obstruction of official business and permitting someone intoxicated to drive his car.