Because Superfan Is Back, That Doesn’t Mean He’s Changed

Ed (Superfan) Bieler burst onto the Los Angeles sports scene as the host of KABC’s “Sportstalk” show in 1973 and gained immediate popularity.

He became a champion of the people, speaking out against what he saw as injustices. He took on the Coliseum Commission for not making improvements and he complained about high ticket prices and long concession lines. He even criticized Dodger hot dogs.

In a market with an overabundance of soft-hitting housemen, Bieler was a breath of fresh air. But while Bieler was hard-hitting and controversial, he also was viewed as irresponsible.

That criticism eventually cost Bieler his job at KABC in 1976. George Green, the station’s general manager, fired Bieler because of too many threatened lawsuits.

Bieler will return to the L.A. market Monday, doing morning sports reports for radio station KGIL.

“It’s been a long exile,” Bieler said Thursday. “This is my home. I think I belong here. I hope this is the start of something.

“I think since I left the show at KABC, it has had the impact of a snowflake on the bosom of the Pacific.”

Bieler, who until December was doing a general talk show for San Diego station KSDO, said he has not toned down his style, nor does he plan to.

“I’ve examined myself in the mirror many times since I left here and have always come to the same conclusion,” he said. “I would not do anything differently.

“If telling the truth is going to rub some people the wrong way, then so be it. When I was here before, I took on the Coliseum Commission, and I would do it again. I’m going to get back on my wagon.

“I don’t take exception with some of the things George Green has said about me, but I don’t think the word irresponsible applies to me. I think the problem was George felt pressure from the sports Establishment.”

Add Superfan: Last week, KMPC sportscaster Jim Healy, on the air, referred to KABC’s Bud Furillo, who is of Italian derivation, as Mussolini.

“I take exception to that remark, violent exception,” Bieler said. “Although I have been critical of KABC’s show, I have no problem with Bud.”

He does with Healy, though.

“I think it is one thing to criticize someone’s on-air performance, if it is an honest evaluation that can be backed up, but it is quite another to attack one’s ancestry,” Bieler said. “I think Jim Healy has gotten a free ride in this town too long. It’s time someone went after him.”

Puff and stuff: Speaking of soft hitting, it was noted here a couple of weeks ago that KMPC’s Joel Meyers is a fine and versatile play-by-play announcer and that he does a good job of moderating KMPC’s “Sports Line” talk show, but as an interviewer, Meyers is, well, soft.

On the UCLA pregame and postgame shows, most of the “questions” he asks Coach Walt Hazzard sound more like statements. Then Hazzard just expands on Meyers’ comments. It makes for bland radio, and makes Meyers sound more like a fan than a reporter.

Recommended viewing: At the 1968 Masters, Roberto de Vicenzo might have won had he not signed an incorrect scorecard. His playing partner, Tommy Aaron, gave De Vicenzo a 4 instead of a 3 on the 17th hole of the final round, and Vicenzo didn’t notice the mistake.

The result was that Bob Goalby avoided a playoff and won by a stroke.

According to De Vicenzo, the error still haunts him. “People won’t let me forget,” he says. “Wherever I go, I am asked about it.”

Goalby says it was unfortunate for him, too, because he never got the credit for winning that he deserved. The error overshadowed his victory.

It was a not-so-great moment in sports, and among the many stories dealt with in an HBO show, “The Son of the Not-So-Great Moments in Sports,” which will be televised Monday night at 8.

It is a sequel to a similar show last May that won an ACE award as cable television’s best sports special. The latest edition, produced by Tim Braine and written by Larry Merchant, is just as good. Tim McCarver is the host.

The show includes radio announcer Clem McCarthy’s miscall of the 1947 Preakness. McCarthy had Jet Pilot winning, when it was Faultless.

“What am I talking about?” says McCarthy to a national audience. “I have just made a terrific mistake.”

Then there is golfer Bernhard Langer climbing a tree to hit a shot at a 1981 tournament at Fulford, England.

“Langer gave new meaning to the term wood shot by straddling two branches and calmly chipping out to the green,” says McCarver.

Langer’s score on the par-3 hole? “Naturally, a tree, “ says McCarver.

Add “Moments”: Other segments include:

--The Atlanta Falcons stopping a game in 1972 to present Dave Hampton with a trophy after he had gone over the 1,000-yard mark. On the next play, Hampton is thrown for a loss that puts him back under 1,000, and the game ends before he can carry again.

“Oh well, he can tell his grandchildren he passed the 1,000-yard mark twice--coming and going,” says McCarver.

--Darryl Dawkins shattering two glass backboards within a month.

“Now that’s what you call a real pain in the glass,” says McCarver.

--The Oxford and Cambridge crews, in different years, having their shells sink, and the Cambridge crew steering off course in 1984 and crashing into a bridge.

--Boxer Chuck Wepner getting an intentional head butt from wrestler Andre the Giant in a wild match at New York’s Shea Stadium.

Viewers are even treated to Tim McCarver singing the Irving Berlin song about Italian runner Dorando Pietri, who lost the 1908 Olympic marathon when he was helped across the finish line. That’s one of the show’s low points. Mostly, there are high points.

Notes UCLA’s game with Arizona State Saturday at 11:30 a.m. will be regionally televised by CBS. Channel 4 will televise USC’s game with Arizona at 3:30 p.m. But the real biggie of the weekend, Pepperdine at Loyola Marymount Saturday night, will not be televised, and that’s a shame. . . . It’s the Lakers and Boston Celtics on CBS Sunday at 12:45 p.m. The following Sunday, CBS offers the Lakers and Philadelphia 76ers. . . . Fred Roggin will present football follies on Channel 4’s 11 o’clock news every night next week.

Possibly the biggest television innovation in recent years was the race-cam, a tiny camera that is mounted inside a racing stock car. Race-cams will be in cars driven by pole sitter Bill Elliott, Darrell Waltrip and Richard Petty during CBS’s Daytona 500 coverage Sunday, beginning at 9 a.m. Now, the Australian engineers who invented the race-cam have invented a new camera, which will make its debut Saturday during CBS’s taped coverage of today’s International Race of Champions at Daytona Beach, Fla. The camera, which is no bigger than a pack of cigarettes, will be mounted on the dash of Harry Gant’s car and will allow viewers to see the driver’s face. If all goes well, the same camera will be mounted on Petty’s dash in Sunday’s main event.

NBC has hired Pete Maravich as a basketball commentator. He’s scheduled to work two regional telecasts in March, and may work more. . . . Tom Lasorda will be Nick Charles’ guest on CNN’s “Sports Sunday” show this Sunday at 4 p.m., taking calls from around the country. . . . Former CBS sports pro football producer Hal Uplinger is among the five former Marshall High basketball figures who will be inducted into the school’s new hall of fame today during halftime of the Belmont-Marshall game. Uplinger was All-City at Marshall in 1947, led Los Angeles City College to a national junior college championship and played for the old Baltimore Bullets in the early ‘50s before an injury ended his career. Uplinger, currently the president of the L.A.-based Sports Radio Network, helped director Tony Verna invent the instant replay when both worked for CBS in the ‘60s. Uplinger was executive producer of the recent world-wide “Live Aid” television show.