Sorry, Jack Bauer. Today’s viewing is all about sports: The NCAA Final and baseball’s opening night! Can’t wait. Can’t wait. … Oh, and we’ve got the finale of “I Love New York.” That’s a sport. Sort of.

The main event in my world is A’s vs. Mariners (3:30 p.m., Fox Sports — Bay Area). It’s one of seven televised games available in our area today. Sweet.

Can the A’s keep a good thing going without Barry Zito, without Frank Thomas — and with a couple key players already on the DL? Obviously, we don’t know how it will all end. That’s why is makes for good drama.

Play ball.

The champagne celebration in baseball has become a very trite TV ritual. Players, clad in newly minted championship T-shirts, spray and splash the bubbly all over each other in a locker room covered in plastic tarps while talking about how they “overcame adversity” and how “no one gave us a chance” and how this team has a “really special chemistry.”

Their comments are dutifully recorded by a member of the broadcast team who drew the short straw and had to deal with the clubhouse mayhem. Meanwhile his TV partner remains safe and dry up in the broadcast booth where he reports on the “big picture.”

Yes, if you’ve seen one champagne celebration, you’ve seen them all. Still, I could NOT take my eyes off the TV screen last night as the Oakland A’s finally nailed down the AL West Championship with a 12-3 victory over Seattle. That’s how sweet it was.

It was made even sweeter by the fact that my 11 year-old son, Sam — a boy who never really got the whole sports thing — remained glued to the couch, right up against his Dad, through the whole thing. Sure, it was way past his bedtime, but for special moments like this, you just let some things slide.

Bring on the playoffs.

Today’s sports pages show the Oakland A’s enjoying a healthy lead in the American League West, so naturally, this lifelong A’s freak should be thrilled.

I am, of course, but I’m also worried. I’m worried because it now looks like the A’s will be locked in a spirited pennant race throughout the month of September — just when I’m supposed to be predominantly focused on the new network season.

Oh, the agony. Do I catch up with the latest episode of “Desperate Housewives”? Or do I stick with the A’s as they desperately try to nail down a playoff spot? Any diehard fan will tell you that a baseball season is very much like an absorbing TV soap opera. There is fresh drama every day as you follow the ups and downs of a diverse cast of colorful characters. There is heartbreak and euphoria — hopefully more of the latter.

And, if you’re lucky, your team is still in the thick of things in September, when the baseball action gets really juicy … and when — Holy Toledo! — the networks are flooding the airwaves with tons of new shows.

Take me out to the ballgame … And thank God for TiVo.