CURSE OF THE ONION -- You've heard of the Sports Illustrated curse, which as several MediaPost staffers have pointed out, is alive as ever. But here's another for your consideration: The curse of The Onion.

TUNE IN TWO WEEKS LATER? - Riff is sympathetic to Fox's problem every fall, getting its primetime schedule launched amid baseball. While it's a great platform to promote the new programs, it might be a little too much to ask viewers to remember that a new show will start Oct.

THE COURTS GIVETH AND TAKETH AWAY. Two court rulings are having profoundly different effects on investor confidence of two major media companies.

NOW PITCHING, MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL - One of the biggest advertisers during baseball's division championships this past week was Major League Baseball itself. Spots on Fox and ESPN featured players like Derek Jeter and Torii Hunter, with the Minnesota Twins centerfielder exclaiming that he'd rather steal a home run than hit a home run.

BLOWING WIND OVER WINDY CITY. Is New York in danger of losing its status as the "First City?" Possibly, at least in terms of major league baseball media supremacy goes.

HOW DOES BRENNAN & CO. SOUND? The ouster of Bob Brennan from president of Leo Burnett Worldwide initially comes as bad news for agency media operations, but could be a blessing in disguise of, as the Riff suspects, Brennan returns from the dark side of the business to helm a media department, or, for that matter, start one of his own.

TRIBUNE 1, AOL TIME WARNER 0. The battle of the media giants was held in another arena Tuesday night, when two of the conglomerates' subsidiaries played each other in the first round of the National League playoffs.

ABC Gets Touched By Something: CBS claims the franchise, but through the first week of the new primetime season it appears that ABC has been touched by an angel. The alphabet network was the only one of the Big 4 to post a significant ratings gain over premiere week 2002.

Call it the battle of the media trade acronyms, but the MPA took a few shots from the ARF last week. The Magazine Publishers of America was besmirched twice during Thursday's sessions on the Advertising Research Foundation's new media model, once for lacking credibility and another time for acting like a research Luddite where print ad responsiveness research is concerned.

Have A Coke And A Smile, Or A Beer And A Diaper. Contextual media planning may be the future of the business, but it is not without its pitfalls.