Here, Monday’s Bout Is for Stay-at-Homes

Sometimes it pays to live in Southern California, and not just because of the weather.

In the rest of the country, fight fans will have to pay $25 to $35 to see Monday night’s Thomas Hearns-Marvelous Marvin Hagler fight on closed-circuit television.

But in Southern California, the fight is available at both closed-circuit locations and home TV. The catch is, not everyone can get it on home TV. And for those who can, it still will cost $15 to $25.

The fight is being carried by 32 of Southern California’s 33 addressable-cable systems. That represents about 500,000 households--a little less than half the cable households in Southern California. About one-fourth of the L.A. market is wired for cable.

An addressable system is one equipped to carry pay-per-view events. The L.A. market has by far the most addressable cable households. Chicago is second with fewer than 200,000.

The fight is also being carried over the air by ON-TV and SelecTV. They cover another 190,000 households.

The fight is being provided to cable companies by Choice Channel, a new Century City-based pay-per-view network that is scheduled to begin 24-hour national service in September. This fight is the network’s first event.

“We plan to have two more events--probably another fight and a rock concert--before we go full-time,” said Rick Kulis, one of the three founders of the network. The two others are Robert Block, founder of SelecTV, and Jack Smith. Kulis and Smith have backgrounds in pay-per-view television.

Smith said they expect about 80,000 cable subscribers to order the fight, amounting to well in excess of $1 million. Smith said they have been getting about 500 orders a day and expect that to increase considerably over the weekend and on Monday. The cost of the fight to cable subscribers was $15 before April 5 but is now $20, which is $5 less than ON-TV and SelecTV are charging.

Add fight: Monday night’s card begins at 6, with the main event, scheduled for 12 rounds, set for 7:50.

In separate six-rounders on the undercard will be light-heavyweight Ricky Womack, a finalist in the Olympic boxoffs, and heavyweight Willie deWit of Canada, a silver-medal winner in the Olympics. Also, Cubanito Perez will box Andy Minsker in a 10-rounder, and Daryl Chambers of Detroit (22-1) and Louis Santana of Los Angeles (22-1-1) will square off in a scheduled eight-rounder.

Last add fight: Tonight at 8, ESPN is offering a half-hour special, “Hagler-Hearns: A Close-Up.” George Grande will be the host, with Jim Gray filing reports from Las Vegas, site of the fight.

On Monday, ABC’s “Good Morning America” will be broadcast from Las Vegas and will offer live interviews with both fighters, plus taped profiles. Tuesday, the show’s host, David Hartman, will interview the winner, and Sugar Ray Leonard will offer his analysis.

Eddie Alexander update: The former Los Angeles and San Diego sportscaster was back in court this week.

Alexander, convicted of fraud, served about one year of a two-year prison sentence. He was released in December after his attorneys argued that an early release would allow him to work toward restitution. The courts have ordered Alexander to repay defrauded investors $531,599.

Alexander has not repaid a penny, according to Asst. U.S. Atty. Bill Grauer. Alexander appeared in a San Diego federal court Monday. His attorney said that the Oakland radio station for which Alexander had been working, KFYI, has declared bankruptcy and that Alexander is without a job or income. Alexander was granted a delay on whether his probation should be canceled, pending a review.

Grauer suggested, however, that the court order Alexander to pay at least a percentage of any income he makes toward restitution. Alexander reportedly was making $2,000 a month at the radio station, which declared bankruptcy only last week.

Up his alley: There’s the Bob Hope Desert Classic, the Bing Crosby Pro-Am, the Andy Williams Open, the Dinah Shore Invitational. Now, along comes the Pat Boone Open. It’s not a golf tournament, though, as are the others. It’s a professional bowling tournament.

The final round of the tournament at Windsor Locks, Conn., outside Hartford, will be the 15th stop on ABC’s 16-week Professional Bowlers Tour. Boone will join Chris Schenkel and Nelson Burton Jr. on Saturday’s telecast.

Boone said that when he was asked to lend his name to the tournament a few months ago that he thought it was a great idea.

“They didn’t know if I was a bowler or not,” Boone said. “Actually, I’ve been bowling since my pre-teen years. It was the one activity our family was involved in. My father’s construction business (in Nashville) didn’t allow much time for anything else.”

Boone said that the last time he bowled was in June, 1984, at a golf-bowling charity event in Chattanooga, Tenn. “I had just come off the golf course,” he said. “There were TV cameras and a lot of people there, and I never bowl well in a situation like that. But I had a strike, a spare and then eight straight strikes. My score was 267. I’ve never had a game like that. I usually bowl around 185-190.”

Notes Attention horse racing fans: Hollywood Park and Channel 56 have patched up their differences, and the Anaheim-based station will carry race recalls from Hollywood Park during the meeting beginning April 24. There will also be horse racing-related shows on non-racing days. The shows will be produced by former Santa Anita race caller Dave Johnson, who now is at the Meadowlands. Johnson will also be the host for some of the shows. They will be shown at the same times that the shows from Santa Anita are now on--7:30 on weeknights and 8 p.m. on weekends. . . . By the way, the president of Channel 56 is Pat Boone, who was an original investor and owns 37% of the station.

Sunday’s Long Beach Grand Prix will be televised the following Saturday by NBC. KLAC is providing radio coverage Sunday. . . . NBC’s Game of the Week shown here Saturday will be the San Diego Padres at Atlanta, with Bob Costas and Tony Kubek reporting. Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola will be in Kansas City to work a Detroit Tiger-Royal game, which is the network’s primary telecast. . . . Monday’s Boston Marathon will be televised live by ESPN. . . . The Rams and Raiders will each make three appearances on ABC’s prime-time football telecasts next season.

Ratings game: The Dodgers’ first two telecasts of the season drew Nielsen ratings of 14.5 and 13.5. Meanwhile, the Kings’ playoff game against Edmonton Wednesday night got only a 1.7. . . . Last Sunday, the Lakers on CBS got a 9.4 Nielsen rating in Los Angeles, while the Dinah Shore golf tournament on NBC got a 3.7, and a supposedly attractive USFL game on ABC, New Jersey vs. Houston, drew only a 3.1. . . . ABC is going back to the well one more time. For the sixth time in eight weeks, the network will televise Doug Flutie and the New Jersey Generals. This Sunday, the Generals will play the Portland Breakers. . . . ESPN has hired former UCLA tailback Mike Haffner as a USFL analyst. Haffner was with NBC for nine years, from 1974 through 1982. He played at UCLA in the early ‘60s, then spent time in the Canadian Football League and with the Denver Broncos as a wide receiver.

Mailbag: During the recent NCAA championship basketball game, play-by-play announcer Brent Musburger almost never gave the score. Instead he relied on the graphics people to supply it. A lot of another announcers do the same. Mrs. Thomas R. Irby of Pasadena writes with a valid complaint. “So often the score is flashed on the screen, although never enough, and not spoken. My husband loves the games but he doesn’t see very well and therefore has to guess what the score is. I am sure there are many viewers like him.”