Games for Insomniacs, Not Children

Here’s a benefit of living in the West: We don’t have to stay up until the middle of the night to see the end of World Series games.

But even in the West, Games 3 and 4 lasted past many youngsters’ bedtimes.

Although Game 5 Thursday night ended at 8:07 p.m. PDT, a rain delay pushed the end of Game 3 to 9:40 p.m. and Game 4, a record-setting 4-hour 14-minute affair, also ended after 9:30. That’s 12:30 a.m. in the East.

Remember the good ol’ days, before 1970, when we had daytime World Series games? Remember, during grade school, of thinking up new excuses for getting out of class to watch them? Or maybe you had a with-it teacher who worked the telecasts into the curriculum, or excused students from class.

Teachers sometimes required only that students who wanted to watch the Series pass a test to show at least minimal interest.

Daytime World Series games helped make baseball our national pastime. But football and basketball have become more popular.

In an article in the October issue of Reader’s Digest, baseball historian Curt Smith, a former speech writer for President Bush, asks, “Where have all the children gone?”

He writes: “Baseball owners’ and television executives’ lust for higher ratings and rights fees turned the World Series into a nighttime show and took it away from children.”

Just think of all the children across the country who were in bed when the Toronto Blue Jays scored six runs in the top of the eighth inning Wednesday night and won, 15-14, in the highest-scoring game in World Series history.

These children will grow up without the kind of World Series memories that the generation before them enjoyed.

And that’s a shame.

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Another baseball turnoff is the Phillies chewing and spitting tobacco.

Lenny Dykstra, Manager Jim Fregosi and others contorting their mouths and spitting out streams of brown juice may not bother hardened baseball fans, but to many, it’s disgusting.

Then CBS throws in a commercial about a knife-wielding wacko in some gory and violent movie, and the impression is that no one gives a hoot about the young people who might be watching.

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The main complaint, one you hear over and over about CBS commentator Tim McCarver, is that he talks too much.

Says McCarver: “I was told years ago that you’re not talking too much as long as you have something to say.”

There is some truth to that, and no one can accuse McCarver of showing up unprepared. He comes loaded with information.

McCarver’s problem, though, is not that he talks nonstop, it’s his style. He comes on too heavy-handed, much as Dan Dierdorf does on “Monday Night Football.”

Most people watch sports to relax, and an easy style helps. Vin Scully, who is announcing the Series with Johnny Bench for CBS Radio, has a relaxed style, and that’s one reason he is such an excellent baseball announcer.

McCarver’s CBS counterpart, Jim Kaat, is also easy to listen to, and that’s why many critics prefer the B team of Greg Gumbel and Kaat to the A team of Sean McDonough and McCarver, even though McDonough continues to grow on people.

When McCarver worked with Jim Palmer at ABC, he seemed to be more accepted, and Palmer’s low-key approach probably contributed to that.

Not that McCarver can do a complete about-face, but if he simply brought down the voice level a notch and was a little less emphatic about things, he probably would catch less criticism.

He does seem to be talking less during this World Series, and one reason for that may be that CBS, under a new baseball producer, Bob Dekas, is being more judicious with replays. In previous years, CBS showed too many replays, requiring McCarver to talk even more.

Overall, the camera work by CBS this year has been outstanding. The overhead camera that shows the strike zone is a real plus, even if the umpires don’t like it, and some of the super slow-motion shots have been great.

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Ratings game: Those late-night finishes are apparently costing CBS rating points. Despite all the offensive fireworks in Game 4, the national Nielsen rating was only 18.0, down from 18.9 for Game 4 last year.

Through four World Series games, CBS was averaging 16.7, compared to 18.9 after four games last year.

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Working the late shift: McDonough, on the phone from Philadelphia, said that he got back to his hotel a little after 1 a.m. EDT after Wednesday night’s game but because he was still keyed up he couldn’t get to sleep until, he guessed, about 3:40. Then he was up again fairly early Thursday morning, preparing for Game 5.

“Thank goodness for adrenaline,” he said.

TV-Radio Notes

The USC-Notre Dame game Saturday at 11:30 a.m. will be on NBC, with Charlie Jones and Todd Christensen announcing. They will also do the Nov. 13 meeting between the No. 2 Irish and No. 1 Florida State. . . . Are you ready for this? The biggest game in the Big Ten Conference so far this season will be Penn State at Ohio State on Saturday, Oct. 30, but ABC will not show it in the West except on pay-per-view at 12:30 p.m. ABC that day has Notre Dame at Navy at 9 a.m., followed by USC-California at 12:30 p.m. Don’t we get enough of Notre Dame without being subjected to a lopsided game against Navy?

KMPC will carry Ohio State-Purdue Saturday at 11 a.m. . . . UCLA radio commentator David Norrie, in his third year, has become an outstanding broadcaster but needs to learn to give a broadcast room to breath. After J.J. Stokes had caught his record-setting fourth touchdown pass against Washington last Saturday, Norrie immediately started reeling off records and stats. He could have waited at least until the crowd noise died down. That would also let the listener enjoy the moment. Often in broadcasting, as Vin Scully has shown, silence is golden.

J.T. Snow, one of the guest analysts on Channel 2’s World Series postgame shows, could some day follow his father, Jack, into broadcasting. J.T. appeared very comfortable in front of the camera Tuesday night, as did his Angel teammate, Torey Lovullo, on Wednesday and Thursday nights. . . . Todd Zeile of the St. Louis Cardinals will be on XTRA with Rick Schwartz and Steve Mason tonight about 9 to talk about his celebrity golf tournament, to be held Nov. 1 at Valencia Country Club. The tournament benefits the College of the Canyons scholarship fund.

New KMPC midday hosts Doug Krikorian and Brian Golden, reporting from the World Series, might be better off using megaphones than phone lines. You can barely hear a word they’re saying, which may not be all bad. Anyway, KMPC, a late add, couldn’t get any studio space at the Series sites, thus it had to resort to using phone lines. . . . KMPC’s Joe McDonnell underwent knee surgery Thursday, and while he is out, Scott St. James and personable Mike Lamb, a former USC offensive lineman whose broadcasting career is starting to take off, will fill in.

Bill Rosendahl, senior vice president for programming for Century Cable, says Century systems will probably be carrying ESPN2 sometime before the end of the year. So Century subscribers who don’t get enough hockey on ESPN, Prime Ticket, Channel 9 and Channel 5 can take solace. . . . Is Los Angeles crazy about the Mighty Ducks or what? Their season opener on Channel 9, a 7-2 loss to Detroit on Oct. 8, got a 4.6 Nielsen rating. The highest rating for a King regular-season telecast on Channel 5 during the last two seasons was 3.5 for a game against Toronto on Nov. 2, 1991. . . . NBC will televise the NHL All-Star game on Saturday, Jan. 22.

Prime Ticket, which now has a King pregame show with Bill Macdonald and former New York Islander wing Billy Harris, will also have a Laker pregame show for the first time when the regular season starts Nov. 5. Versatile Paul Sunderland will serve as host and probably will be joined by Marques Johnson. Sunderland, who will also do Pacific 10 basketball for ESPN and Pepperdine basketball for Prime Ticket, will also be used by NBC occasionally as a sideline reporter on NBA telecasts. . . . Larry Burnett has replaced Randi Hall as Prime Ticket’s Laker sideline reporter.

Channel 2 will cover the final two rounds of the Ralphs Senior Classic golf tournament at Rancho Park, live at noon Saturday and tape-delayed Sunday at 4 or 11:30 p.m., depending on whether there is a Game 7 of the World Series. Jay Randolph and Frank Beard will anchor the telecasts, with Bill Kratzert serving as the on-course announcer and Jim Hill offering special reports.

Showtime’s coverage of the International Boxing Federation welterweight title fight between Felix Trinidad and Anthony Stephens at Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., Saturday night at 7 will offer a couple of firsts. The judges’ scoring will be announced after each round and if the scheduled 12-round fight ends in a draw, there will be a 13th round to determine the winner.