Ron Darling is close to a three-year contract extension with SportsNet New York, NYP TV Sports has learned.
The deal would keep Darling as a game analyst on Mets telecasts through the 2010 baseball season, sources said.
The former Mets pitcher will join analyst Keith Hernandez and play-by-play man Gary Cohen for the majority of Met-casts on SNY.
The trio is expected to broadcast over 100 games together this season. Even with the heavier workload, Darling, 46, is expected to shoulder in the booth, sources believe he will continue to work as a studio analyst as well.
An SNY spokesman said the extension had not yet been finalized.
Darling was nominated for a 2006 Emmy award for his work as an analyst.
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MSG Network will commemorate the 45th anniversary of the infamous Emile Griffith-Benny “Kid” Paret bout when it airs Dan Klores’ film, “Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story” on Saturday at 8 p.m.
Ten days after Paret fought Griffith for the welterweight title at the old Garden on March 24, 1962, Paret died from injuries he sustained in the bout, the third between the two boxers.
MSG plans to incorporate more films into its programming.
In other MSG news, the network has agreed to a new, multi-year agreement to broadcast New York Red Bulls soccer games. The network has held the rights to the Red Bulls/MetroStars the past 12 years.
Under the new agreement, MSG will air approximately 20 games per season. Its first broadcast this year will be the Red Bulls’ season opener at Columbus on Saturday, April 7 at 7 p.m.
Shep Messing and J.P. Dellacamera will return for their sixth season behind the microphones.
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HBO’s newest sports documentary, “The UCLA Dynasty,” premieres Monday night at 10 p.m.
The show explores the unrivaled success the Bruins’ basketball program enjoyed under coach John Wooden from 1964 to 1975 – a 12-year stretch in which UCLA won 10 national championships and amassed a 335-22 overall record.
Interview subjects include Bill Walton, Lucius Allen, Gail Goodrich, Sidney Wicks, Jamaal Wilkes, Henry Bibby, Marques Johnson, Dick Enberg, Elvin Hayes, Don Chaney, Digger Phelps and, of course, Wooden.
Of the many memorable anecdotes included in the program, Wooden’s recount of the morning following UCLA’s 1964 national championship win sticks out.
“We’re waiting in front of the Muehlebach Hotel [in Kansas City], my wife and I, and a pigeon flew over and dumped right on top of my head,” he explains. “I thought, ‘Gee, the good Lord is telling me something there – feeling too good, must not let this go to my head.'”
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CSTV announced that Virginia Tech basketball coach Seth Greenberg will serve as a studio analyst throughout the rest of the NCAA Tournament, and that St. Joseph’s coach Phil Martelli will be featured as a special guest analyst Saturday night.
Both coaches will appear on “Tourney Talk,” which airs on CSTV Saturday night at 9 p.m.
Greenberg and Martelli regularly appear on the network in other capacities.
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With Yankees games creating a potential scheduling conflict for YES, four Nets games will be broadcast on WWOR-9 this April:
The relocated Nets games include: at Bulls on April 6; at Wizards on April 10; vs. Knicks on April 13; and vs. Bulls on April 18.