HBO is hot on boxer Stevie Johnston's comeback trail
	27 July, 2006 It's another step forward in the comeback of Denver boxer Stevie Johnston. The two-time welterweight champion whose career was derailed three years ago by, in various portions, legal problems, alcohol, shaky management and a car wreck, is riding a four-fight winning streak. He'll be featured on "HBO Boxing After Dark" against Vivian Harris (26-2-1) in a 10-rounder (8:30 p.m. Saturday). Johnston, 33, whose record is 39-3-1, was a last-minute replacement for the injured Mike Arnaoutis. Also on Saturday's card is a 12-round match between welterweights Joshua Clottey and undefeated Richard Gutierrez. Fran Charles, Max Kellerman and Lennox Lewis do the blow- by-blow from the Chumash Casino & Resort in Santa Ynez, Calif. You go, Mary Some stories make me happy. Like Mary Stroebe, one of the competitors in Saturday's Life Time Fitness Triathlon in Minneapolis/St. Paul (2:30 p.m., KUSA-Channel 9). She won't finish first, except maybe in her age group. She's 88. She's one of 2,500 participants in the 1.5K swim, 40K bike race and 10K run and, not surprisingly, the oldest entrant. It's the fourth time Stroebe, who did her first triathlon at 76, is in the event. Hello, Pollyanna His sport besieged by drug and image problems, plus looming labor issues, Commissioner Bud Selig sees major-league baseball's glass as full. He told interviewer Charley Steiner on XM Satellite radio, "We went over the 45 million mark in attendance yesterday. We are right on pace to break another record. I feel very good. We're having a wonderful year." Talkin' football NFL Network to carry 52 preseason games, six of them live, in 24 days, starting Aug. 11. In an interesting twist, the network will use local TV broadcasters and split the coverage between the two teams' announcers. The Broncos meet Houston in one of the live telecasts, at 6 p.m. Aug. 27 from Invesco Field at Mile High. Around the dial If the Rockies have any hope of staying alive in the NL West race, their four-game series against the division-leading San Diego Padres is a make-or-break deal (7 p.m. today and Friday, 6 p.m. Saturday, all on FSNRM, and 1 p.m. Sunday, KTVD-Channel 20). ... Tuned in to "Final Score," the new nightly highlights show at 10:30 p.m. on FSN Rocky Mountain? Refreshing to get the results without the ham-handed attempts at comedy that ESPN dishes up. ... Don't try calling in to "Two Live Stews" (6-8 p.m. weekdays, KKFN 950-AM), because it isn't "live," it's tape-delayed. Callers have to dial in between 2 and 4 p.m. ... Quotable: "Boxing is smoky halls and kidneys battered until they bleed." Roger Kahn