Asking and answering:

• From a television standpoint, what is the best news about the baseball playoffs that begin next week?

Start times are moving up for the World Series and league championship series. For the first time in 38 years, weeknight World Series games will start before 8 p.m. (7:57 p.m., to be exact) -- about 40 minutes earlier than past years. The Saturday World Series game also will start at 7:57 p.m. and the Sunday game at 8:20 p.m.

So, at last, grade-school students in the East actually might be able to watch an entire World Series game. Last year's Philadelphia-Tampa Bay series averaged 3 hours, 16 minutes, ending after many folks were asleep.

And I don't want to hear a peep from people on the West Coast griping that World Series games are starting before 5 p.m. PDT. For years, folks in the East had to sacrifice sleep so Monday Night Football didn't start before West Coasters got home from work. So deal with it, West Coasters -- you've been catered to for years.

Meanwhile, MLB suggested a weekend afternoon World Series game, but Fox declined. ``What I know, from our research people, is that if we played Saturday afternoon, viewership would be 30 percent lower,'' Fox Sports president Ed Goren said. ``And there would be an economic impact to that.''

Fox's weekday [and Saturday] American League Championship Series games also will start earlier, at 7:57 p.m., and TBS' NLCS games will start at 8:07 p.m. TBS also has all the first-round games, and those times will be similar to last year, including some 9:30 p.m. starts in Los Angeles and Anaheim.

• Why have NBC 6 and WPLG-10 not brought back their Sunday night sports shows during football season?

Channel 10 said it can make more money by airing paid programming at 11:30 p.m. Sundays. NBC 6 said the Sunday night NFL games are ending too late to justify doing it. To accommodate an extra newscast, Channel 7 moved its Sunday show 30 minutes later, to 11:30 p.m. -- where it competes with WFOR-4's show at 11:35.

• How are the Dolphins able to continue avoiding TV blackouts in a 75,540-seat stadium, even though the team has sold only about 50,000 season tickets?

Because the Dolphins need to sell only 62,133 tickets to lift the blackout. The other seats -- suites and club seats -- don't count toward the blackout restrictions.

• Why were the Fox analysts shouting ``Orthodonist! Orthodonist!'' during a recent NFL pregame show?

Because gap-toothed Michael Strahan said, half-kiddingly, that fans ``hurt my feelings'' when they chanted that when he was a player.

• How was last week's second installment of Joe Buck Live on HBO, which featured Curt Schilling; a roundtable discussion with Dan Marino, John Elway, Joe Namath; and Dallas owners Jerry Jones (Cowboys) and Mark Cuban (Mavericks)?

A lot better than the first. Potty-mouth comedian Artie Lang tarnished the show's June debut with vulgar rants. His only appearance on last week's show was a skit where he bumped into Buck and chased him down a Manhattan street.

This episode was much more civil and thoughtful, though Buck must ask more pointed questions to extract interesting answers. Instead of allowing Jones and Cuban to spend so much time complimenting each other, Buck could have asked Cuban about how often he argues with NBA commissioner David Stern, and about whether players had asked Jones to cut Terrell Owens, among other things.

• Why isn't FSN, the Panthers' rights-holder, televising the team's first two games Friday and Saturday?

FSN said because the games start at noon, and because Versus is televising Friday's game, it did not want to allot two of its 71 Panthers telecasts to the first two. And televising games from Finland is costly.

• What's the latest on the talk radio front?

Atlanta Braves and ESPN announcer Jon Sciambi said he spoke to 790 The Ticket, which would love for him to do a talk show again, but Sciambi said there are no plans for him to fill The Ticket's open 1 to 3 p.m. slot. Former NFL running back Robert Smith and former UM quarterback Gino Torretta are among numerous options for the 1 to 3 p.m. slot. Also, former 790 host Kevin Rogers was named WQAM's host on most nights from 8 to 11.

• Will the Canes get full national exposure for Saturday's Oklahoma game?

No, but ABC will send the game -- called by Brent Musburger and Kirk Herbstreit -- to 81 percent of the country, with the West getting Southern California against California.

• Why should ABC be extra careful with its graphics during the UM-Oklahoma game?

Because not only did corporate partner ESPN (which produces ABC's games) identify the Dolphins starting right guard against Indianapolis as someone who isn't even on the team, but ESPN also inexplicably posted an ``82 and sunny'' graphic during its UM-Georgia Tech telecast.

Which would have been fine if the graphic had not appeared at 10 p.m., when it was most definitely not sunny.

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