Angel World Series Would Bring Back Voices From Past

If the Angels make it to the World Series, nostalgia will be a major part of the KMPC radio broadcasts. The station has invited all former Angel radio announcers to return and be a part of the Series.

The plan is for two old-timers to be Bob Rowe’s guests on each of the two-hour pregame shows and then join Ron Fairly and Al Conin to do commentary during the game. Also, if they wish, each will do play by play for an inning or two.

In 1961, the Angels’ first as a major league club, the announcers were Don Wells, Bob Kelley and Steve Bailey. Wells, who spent 12 seasons with the Angels, is now with KFWB, and Bailey is still with KMPC. Now the sports director, Bailey is in his 35th year at the station.

Kelley died before the 1962 season, and Buddy Blatner joined the team for seven seasons. Blatner is now selling real estate in the Ozarks.

Other Angel radio announcers who have been invited back--and all have accepted--are NBC’s Dick Enberg; Don Drysdale, who is now with the Chicago White Sox and ABC; Dave Neihaus of the Seattle Mariners; Steve Shannon of the Milwaukee Brewers, and Al Wisk, who is now an attorney in Dallas.

Also, Bill Brundidge, the Angels’ first TV announcer, who now lives in La Habra and owns three auto-glass stores, has been invited to take part.

This group will be heard only on KMPC, since the affiliate stations on the Angel radio network are contractually required to use the CBS radio feed. The CBS announcers for the Series will be Jack Buck and Sparky Anderson.

Add baseball: The American League championship series between the Angels and Boston Red Sox will begin Tuesday in Boston, with pregame coverage on ABC beginning at 5 p.m. Al Michaels and Jim Palmer will be the announcers for this series, with Drysdale doing postgame interviews.

The National League championship series between the New York Mets and Houston Astros will start the next night, with Keith Jackson and Tim McCarver reporting and Corey McPherrin doing postgame interviews.

CBS radio’s playoff coverage, carried by KNX, will have Curt Gowdy and Ernie Harwell on the American League and Brent Musburger and Johnny Bench on the National League.

Opinion: Since NBC is televising the World Series, it would seem sensible to have Enberg involved in the coverage if the Angels are in it. At this time, Enberg is not a part of NBC’s Series team.

O.J. Returns: Since Michaels will be busy with the baseball playoffs, Frank Gifford will take over the play-by-play duties on the next two Monday night football telecasts.

This Monday, when ABC televises San Diego at Seattle, the commentator will be O.J. Simpson.

Simpson wasn’t surprised to be invited back. He said Dennis Swanson, president of ABC sports, had asked him before the season if he would return as a fill-in from time to time.

No, the commentator working with Gifford on Monday, Oct. 13, will not be Joe Namath. It will be Lynn Swann. The game is Pittsburgh at Cincinnati.

Critique: Will someone please give some tranquilizers to the hyperactive directors working college football telecasts. Once a play is over, they switch cameras about every two seconds.

Everyone doing college football is guilty, but the CBS crew working last Saturday’s Miami-Oklahoma game was particularly bad.

One moment viewers got a sideline shot of a coach or player, the next they got one of a cheerleader jumping for no apparent reason, the next a shot of some students hamming it up for the camera, and so on.

After one of the two touchdown passes caught by Miami’s Michael Irvin, Irvin started slapping hands with fans, who in turn grabbed him. But as this little incident started to develop, CBS switched to a crowd shot. Then a cheerleader shot, then a . . . you get the picture.

Ground-level camera angles are something else college football directors overdo. It even got to commentator Ara Parseghian on the replay of a touchdown catch and run by Oklahoma’s Keith Jackson.

“If we had a different angle, you’d see how open Jackson was on this play,” he said.

Cold-hearted: Just call CBS the Callous Broadcasting System. At the end of the massacre of the Rams in Philadelphia last Sunday, CBS signed off with a picture of Ram wide receiver Chuck Scott lying unconscious on the turf.

CBS then went to New York for updates on other games, and nothing was ever mentioned about Scott’s condition.

Imagine how Julie Scott, Chuck’s wife, felt. She was watching the game in Ivanhoe, Calif., where the parents of Jill Young, wife the Rams’ Michael, live. Julie Scott wouldn’t have known that her husband had gotten up and walked off the field had Michael’s mother not been listening to the game on the radio in nearby Visalia and called with the good news.

Update: Jim Hill is still on his unplanned vacation from Channel 2. Hill is not working because of a dispute over the amount of time the station now allots to sports news. “There’s no new developments,” said Ed Hookstratten, Hill’s agent.

Broadcast Notes Notre Dame will make its fourth network appearance in four weeks Saturday when ABC televises the Irish at Alabama, with pregame coverage beginning at noon. . . . ABC added Notre Dame-Purdue to its schedule last Saturday, hoping to steal some of the thunder from CBS, which had Oklahoma-Miami. It didn’t work. Oklahoma-Miami drew a national Nielsen rating of 12.4, and Notre Dame-Purdue got a 4.6. The 12.4 is CBS’s highest college football rating since Nebraska-Oklahoma got a 13.2 in 1983. . . . ABC is planning to televise Notre Dame-Penn State Nov. 15, and CBS will televise Notre Dame and USC Nov. 29. With Notre Dame figuring to also make a couple of appearances on cable TV, the Irish probably will end up having at least 8 of their 11 games televised nationally.

CBS will televise Arizona State and UCLA from the Rose Bowl Saturday at 11:40 a.m., with Verne Lundquist and Pat Haden reporting. . . . Fresno State and San Jose State will meet in a Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. showdown Saturday afternoon, and the game will be shown delayed at 7:30 p.m. by Prime Ticket. . . . The Freedom Football Network, which offers games involving the service academies, will cover Dartmouth-Navy Saturday. Ontario’s Channel 46 carries the games in this area. . . . Looking ahead: CBS will televise Arizona at UCLA Oct. 11. Game time remains 12:30 p.m., even though CBS had asked for a change. Other Oct. 11 telecasts include Texas-Oklahoma on ABC, Oklahoma State-Nebraska on ESPN and Washington-Stanford on WTBS.

Pro football Sunday: Raiders at Kansas City on Channel 4 at 10 a.m., with Don Criqui and Bob Trumpy reporting, followed by Dallas at Denver on Channel 2 at 1 p.m., with Pat Summerall and John Madden. . . . After four weeks, the national ratings for “Monday Night Football” are up 10% over last season. The average Nielsen rating is 20.4. At this time last season, it was 18.6. . . . ABC, which annually televises the Indianapolis 500, is delving deeper into auto racing. It has made a deal with CART to carry five Indy-car races in 1987. . . . The America’s Cup races, with the preliminary round beginning Saturday, L.A. time, will be previewed in a one-hour special on ESPN Sunday night at 7.

Recommended viewing: “Autumn Ritual,” which will be shown by Channel 4 Sunday at 1:30 p.m., is a provocative one-hour special that offers a look at pro football from various perspectives. Producer Steve Sabol of NFL Films has put together a fascinating film. . . . “We’re So Excited!” a half-hour special reviewing the Angels’ season and previewing the team’s playoff series with Boston, will be shown on Channel 5 Sunday night at 9:30. . . . Attention indoor soccer fans: Besides carrying 24 Lazer games this season, Prime Ticket will also carry 12 San Diego Socker games. . . . Prime Ticket will televise 37 King hockey games this season, beginning Oct. 19 with a home game with Edmonton. . . . Teams usually feature their most valuable player on the cover of their media guides. So who’s on the cover of Lakers’ media guide? Announcer Chick Hearn, of course.