It Appears Angels Are Going to Go for Starr Quality

It’s all but a done deal: Bob Starr, who used to do Angel games on radio with Ron Fairly before moving to television and working with Joe Torre, is coming back.

Starr, who in recent years has been doing the Boston Red Sox on radio, is expected to be named Al Conin’s replacement soon after the season ends.

If he does return, Starr probably will also go back on the Rams next season.

KMPC will then have to find a new spot for Paul Olden. One possibility might be for Olden to join Starr on Angel broadcasts, although one problem is that Olden does baseball for ESPN.

Other candidates for the No. 2 Angel radio job include Geoff Witcher, co-host of KMPC’s “Baseball Tonight,” and KMPC Dodger reporter Larry Kahn.

Working against journeyman Witcher is that he worked one season as an Angel television announcer with Joe Buttitta, and both were let go. Also, Witcher’s fill-in work on some SportsChannel Dodger telecasts this season was mediocre at best.

Working against Kahn is a lack of play-by-play experience, but he does have vast baseball knowledge. Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda was raving about Kahn on KMPC late Tuesday night, and in this case Lasorda wasn’t blowing smoke.

Other possibilities include Jay Johnstone and Bobby Grich.

Angel television announcer Ken Wilson, who also does St. Louis Blues hockey, was willing to give that up if he could have done the Angels on both television and radio.

But apparently that’s not going to happen.

Wilson’s partner, Ken Brett, wasn’t as receptive to doing both.

“The appealing part about doing just television is it allows me to spend more time with my kids,” said Brett, who has 5-year-old twins, Casey and Sheridan.

Brett’s contract expires at the end of the season, and he has yet to sign a new one. With the Colorado Rockies also interested in Brett, it’s not a foregone conclusion that he will re-sign.

For some reason, the Angels switch announcers more than they do managers.

Conin was the fair-haired boy when he started in 1983. Nine years later, he was told that his contract would not be renewed.

Conin is no Vin Scully, but then who is? Sure, his voice inflections, which come across as contrived, are bothersome at times. But why is he good enough for nine years and then suddenly isn’t?

Is it Conin’s fault the team continues to lose?

Conin’s partner, Bob Jamison, never made much of an impact one way or another, but did he do anything badly enough to get fired?

It really is a wacky business.

One thing about the Dodgers: They have a lot of stability in their broadcast booth.

Scully is finishing his 43rd season with the Dodgers, and Ross Porter his 16th.

Don Drysdale, who is in his fifth season, was rumored to be a candidate for one of the openings with the Angels. But he said Wednesday: “I’m not going anywhere. Things are just fine here.”

You couldn’t blame Scully if he thought going to work these days was drudgery. But Scully isn’t hanging his head or complaining. His enthusiasm and professionalism remain at their usual high levels.

The Dodgers are in last place, but they haven’t brought down their lead announcer. He is still the best in the business.

“One thing about this season is that the Dodgers haven’t been in a lot blowouts,” he said. “So many of the games have been exciting, one-run games.”

The Dodgers have been involved in 54 one-run games. The problem is, they have lost 37 of them.

“You can’t come to the ballpark thinking, ‘Gee, the team is in last place, 30 games out of first place,’ ” Scully said. “You have to think about each game individually. You have to think, ‘Hey, this should be a pretty good game tonight.’ You never know what might happen.

“I still love the game. There are still times when I feel the goose bumps.”

Scully was talking before Wednesday night’s game against Cincinnati. In the first inning, the Reds’ Bip Roberts tied a National League record with his 10th consecutive hit, and Scully’s call showed genuine excitement.

After the inning, Scully said, “See what I mean?”

Scully’s listening and viewing audiences aren’t what they would be if the Dodgers were in the middle of a pennant race, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t working just as hard.

“I’m actually working a lot harder because you can’t just rely on the games to hold the audiences,” Scully said. “You have to go back and dig up information. You have to come up with more stories and anecdotal material.”

The retrospectives on Dodger history on the postgame shows are the kinds of things Scully is talking about.

“When you’re in a pennant race, all you have to do is hang on and go along for the ride,” he said.

TV-Radio Notes

Who would have thought that UCLA-San Diego State would end up as a primary telecast on ABC, but it is. The 12:30 game at the Rose Bowl will go to 42% of the country. Keith Jackson and Bob Griese will call the action. . . . With NFC East teams having a bye, Sunday is an off day for NFL football. CBS offers Atlanta-Chicago at 10 a.m., and NBC will televise Miami-Seattle at 1 p.m. It’s NBC’s turn to show a doubleheader, but it can’t show two games here because the Rams are at home. . . . The game of the day should be San Francisco at New Orleans on TNT at 5 p.m. . . . The Monday night game on ABC is the Raiders at Kansas City.

If there had been pay-per-view in 1973, Billie Jean King vs. Bobby Riggs would have made millions. Tonight’s Martina Navratilova-Jimmy Connors pay-per-view match at Caesars Palace doesn’t have the same appeal. The suggested price is $24.95. Barry Tompkins, Riggs and Betsy Nagelsen are the announcers. Vitas Gerulaitis was going to be one of the announcers but instead is coaching Connors. Jim Hill is the host. . . . It’s a big weekend for Caesars. The HBO fight between Terry Norris and Simon Brown takes place there Saturday night. . . . Working with Palos Verdes-based pay-per-view promoter Rick Kulis on tonight’s tennis event is former UCLA quarterback Tom Ramsey, who is also Prime Ticket’s UCLA commentator.

Ramsey has become an outstanding commentator, and so has another former Bruin quarterback, David Norrie, who works the UCLA games on radio with Chris Roberts. . . . Roberts is one announcer who will tell you the score, the down, yards to go and time left. . . . Ramsey’s Prime Ticket partner, Bill Macdonald, does a good job but needs to tone it down a little. Every two-yard run is nothing to get excited about. . . . CBS newcomer Matt Millen also needs to reduce the decibel level.

Bill Walton showed class by admitting he messed up when he missed a few Channel 13 Clipper telecasts late last season, and Channel 13 showed class by accepting Walton’s apology and hiring him back. . . . KMPC has hired Daily News sportswriter Paola Boivin as Brian Golden’s permanent co-host on the mid-day show. “She’s knowledgeable and gives us a female presence,” program director Len Weiner said.

Oops department: Golden, in promoting an appearance by former boxer Randy Shields on Monday afternoon’s “McDonell-Douglas Show,” said Shields had been accused of murdering three people. Doug Krikorian later came into the studio to correct the embarrassing mistake. Shields was a hero, not an accused murderer, having foiled three robbers at a San Fernando Valley restaurant last week. Shields wounded two of them in a running gun fight. . . . Shields told his fascinating story during his appearance on “McDonnell-Douglas.” He said he didn’t feel like a hero. “If they were able to do it, anybody would have done the same thing to save their friends,” he said. Shields, a professional bodyguard, said he merely did what was natural.

Roberts, doing a news flash on KMPC the other day, got a little carried away when he said Joe McDonnell “broke the story” that Wayne Gretzky’s agent denied rumors that Gretzky was going to retire. . . . ESPN, in selecting its first 10 ESPN telecasts, scheduled the Kings twice--Oct. 27 at Uniondale, N.Y., against the Islanders and Nov. 10 at Winnipeg. With Gretzky out of the lineup, that Winnipeg game may be changed.

Channel 2’s “L.A. Football Company” show last Sunday morning was 100% better. Hill, the show’s host, made an excellent point when he said the Raiders may have waited to change quarterbacks in order to boost ticket sales for their regular-season home opener. . . . CBS’ Terry Bradshaw, on “NFL Today,” was a little more direct. Citing the performance Jay Schroeder had against Cincinnati, Bradshaw called benching Schroeder stupid. “It was a gutless decision,” Bradshaw said.