It’s Dark in L.A. for Raiders, Rams but Not for Dodgers

The Raiders’ game Saturday at 6 p.m. at the Coliseum against the Dallas Cowboys will be nationally televised by NBC but will be blacked out in Los Angeles.

The game won’t even be shown on tape delay.

The next two Raider exhibition games--Friday, Aug. 22, against New England, and Thursday, Aug. 28, against Cleveland, both at the Coliseum--will be shown on tape delay by Channel 4 at 11:30 p.m., preempting Johnny Carson.

So why can’t Saturday’s game be shown at 11:30 p.m.?

Because it’s a national telecast with national commercials. Channel 4 makes money only on local commercials.

Not only will L.A. viewers, at least those who don’t have access to satellite dishes, miss the game, but they also will have to get along without the pearls of wisdom from Al Davis. The Raider owner is scheduled to spend the second half in the booth with Dick Enberg and Merlin Olsen.

The Rams will play San Francisco at Anaheim Monday night at 7:30, but that game won’t be televised in Los Angeles, either.

The Rams are the only National Football League team without a local TV deal for exhibition games.

Some good news: The Dodgers, who will be on Channel 11 tonight and Sunday from San Francisco, will have two of their three home games against the New York Mets televised nationally and shown in Los Angeles.

Monday’s game will be televised at 5 p.m. by ABC, with Al Michaels, Jim Palmer and Tim McCarver reporting, and Wednesday’s game will be televised at 5:15 p.m. by NBC, with Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola reporting.

Game 2 of the series, Tuesday night, will be televised by Dodgervision.

Meaningless award: Washington, D.C., sportscaster George Michael, host of the popular “George Michael’s Sports Machine” show, which is syndicated on Channel 4 Sunday nights at 11:45, won an Emmy this week as outstanding sports personality host.

Michael does fine work, and his show is excellent, but the award doesn’t mean much. That’s because people in the business with vested interests make the nominations and selections. The sports departments of NBC and CBS refuse to take part.

“It’s a joke,” NBC spokesman Kevin Monaghan said. “People may not vote for their own show, but they’ll vote for one that doesn’t have a chance of winning so that their show has a better chance.”

Curt Gowdy and Kathleen Sullivan were the other nominees in the category. Enough said?

Thursday night football: Cal State Fullerton will make two appearances on ESPN this fall as part of the cable network’s Thursday night college football package.

The school had to do some schedule changing to accommodate ESPN and lost a home game in the process. The Titans will now play 9 of their 12 games on the road.

Their first ESPN appearance will be Oct. 2 from Tulsa, Okla. That game originally was scheduled for Oct. 4.

Their second appearance will be Oct. 30 from Fresno. Their game with Fresno State had been scheduled for Nov. 1 at Santa Ana Stadium, the Titans’ home field, but the site had to be changed because the lighting there is not suitable for television. The Fresno State game was to have been Fullerton’s homecoming game.

Fresno State, the nation’s only unbeaten major college team last season, also will appear on ESPN when it plays at Nevada Las Vegas Nov. 6.

Add ESPN: The network will have new college football announcing teams this season. Jim Simpson has been replaced by Mike Patrick, a Washington, D.C., announcer, on play-by-play, and Paul Maguire has been replaced by Pat McInally, the punter who played for Villa Park High School, Harvard and the Cincinnati Bengals. Maguire is now with NBC.

The Thursday night team will be John Sanders, sports director of KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, and Channel 7’s Gene Washington, who did superb work when he was teamed with Don Criqui at NBC.

ESPN also has hired Beano Cook, formerly with ABC, as an in-studio commentator.

Cook, not a former player or coach, nor particularly handsome, bills himself as Joe Average Fan. And a fan is what he is. “There are only two things I’ve ever loved in life--my parents and college football . . . and not necessarily in that order,” he says.

Cook, who once served a stint at sports information director at Pittsburgh, will be the host of a half-hour preview show on Saturday, Aug. 30, at 4:30 p.m. before ESPN’s opener, Miami at South Carolina.

Fantasies: Len Berman’s annual “Sports Fantasies” show will be presented on NBC’s “SportsWorld” Sunday, to be carried by Channel 4 at 4 p.m. and by San Diego’s Channel 39 at 3 p.m.

Berman, asked about the craziest sports fantasy he has received, had little trouble picking one. “I could not for the life of me hope to know why a grown man would want to race a greyhound,” he said.

One of the 10 fantasies on Sunday’s show will be Tim Rhein of Naples, Fla., racing Lady Matilda in a 200-yard race held at Flagler Dog Track in Miami. Rhein will get a 100-yard head start.

Add fantasies: Among the thousands of fantasy requests sent to NBC was one from the Rev. Michael E. Ewoldt of Mobile, Ala.

“Being a pastor, my fantasy would involve the best of worlds--the natural and spiritual,” he wrote.

“I dream about holding a chapel service for the Nebraska Cornhuskers football team . . . then join them on the sideline to scream my head off and see God answer my prayer for victory.

“I’m reminded of this every time I read about Moses parting the Red Sea and then see the Huskers play on TV in a stadium that’s a sea of red.”

A student at the University of Wisconsin Whitewater wants to take on Charles Barkley of the Philadelphia 76ers in a pizza-eating contest. Another fan wants to have a beer-drinking contest with Mike Ditka.

A former high school quarterback, who is now an attorney, wants to be tackled by Dick Butkus. “I wonder if Mr. Butkus would be interested in a shot at not only a quarterback but also an attorney,” wrote Michael Wintersteen of Danville, Pa.

Notes Attention, boxing fans: Mike Tyson will fight Cuban-born Jose Ribalta on HBO Sunday at 7. Ribalta is 23-3-1 with 15 knockouts and has scored knockouts in his last four fights, two in the first round. Tyson, unbeaten in 25 fights, has knocked out 23 opponents, including Marvis Frazier in 30 seconds July 26. . . . Olympic gold medal winners Meldrick Taylor and Pernell Whitaker will fight in separate bouts on ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” Saturday at 4:30 p.m. on Channel 7 and 3:30 p.m. on San Diego’s Channel 10. Taylor (12-0, 7 KOs) will meet 1976 Olympic champion Howard Davis (28-3, 12 KOs), and Whitaker (8-0, 6 KOs) will face Raphael Williams (25-2, 16 KOs). The fights, from Atlantic City, N.J., will be shown on a delayed basis.

The final two rounds of the five-round International golf tournament at Castle Rock, Colo., will be televised by CBS at 2 p.m. Saturday and at 1 p.m. Sunday. In this event, 2 points will be awarded for a birdie, 5 for an eagle and 10 for a double eagle. One point will be subtracted for a bogey and 3 for a double bogey or higher. . . . Former Dallas wide receiver Drew Pearson and current Raider defensive end Howie Long will join Len Dawson, Nick Buoniconti and Larry Merchant on HBO’s “Inside the NFL” this season. The show will begin its 10th season with a special edition Thursday, Sept. 4. . . . Channel 5 sportscaster Ed Arnold will also work for radio station KMPC beginning Sept. 1. He’ll do sports reports on the morning “Jim Lange Show.” . . . The Raiders’ 32-0 loss to the 49ers on CBS last Sunday drew a Nielsen rating of 23.5 in San Francisco. The L.A. rating was 11.1.