There’s a Game Behind the Cameras, Too

For sheer excitement, can the World Series top the baseball playoffs? Probably not.

Maybe a better question is: Will NBC’s coverage of the World Series top ABC’s coverage of the playoffs?

How television covers major sporting events has become almost as big a story as the events.

A number of major newspapers, including the Boston Globe and USA Today, have sports reporters assigned full time to cover broadcasting. And most papers have someone assigned to it part time.

To deal with all those reporters with questions about World Series coverage, which begins Saturday at 5 p.m. PDT, NBC this week held what it calls a teleconference, which actually is a television press conference.

In a studio in New York were Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola, the World Series game announcers; Bob Costas, pregame co-host; Harry Coyle, NBC’s coordinating producer and director of baseball, and Michael Weisman, NBC Sports’ executive producer.

The group was seen on monitors at NBC affiliates in 11 cities, where reporters were standing by to ask questions.

A reporter from Minneapolis, new to the beat, said he was amazed by the whole process and wondered if the TV aspect and the announcers hadn’t evolved to become as important as the game itself.

Said Scully: “The concern is well founded. If I had my way, we would have none of this, to be honest. If I had my way, it would make no difference if my name ever appeared in the newspaper, so help me God.

“However, it’s become a fact of life, and there’s not much we can do but live with it.”

Said Garagiola: “This is not something I look forward to, but it’s part of the job. And I’m happy to accommodate you people.”

After the teleconference, Garagiola told a group of New York reporters, who viewed the proceedings live, that the attention he gets sometimes keeps him from doing his job.

He said that before Game 1 of the 1984 World Series between San Diego and Detroit, he went down to the field to talk to the players. Instead, he talked only to reporters--19 by his count--who asked for interviews. That was the last time during that Series that he went down to the field before a game.

Network announcers have become celebrities, well-paid celebrities. Dealing with the public and the press comes with the territory.

Tom Lasorda, a celebrity of a different kind, went to Sunday’s Raider game instead of Sunday’s Angel playoff game. Asked why, he said: “Whenever I go to a baseball game as a spectator, I really can’t enjoy it. People are always coming up to me to talk or get an autograph. I really don’t mind, but it bothers the people around me.

“Believe me, I enjoy the attention. It sure beats the alternative of being unemployed and not known by anyone.”

Scully and Garagiola may want to keep that in mind.

What most of the reporters taking part in the teleconference essentially wanted to know was what the NBC people thought of ABC’s playoff coverage and what they were going to do differently.

“ABC’s coverage was fine,” Weisman said. Coyle said the same thing.

But . . .

“I have nothing against wives,” Coyle said. “A shot of a wife can be a great shot, if you use it once or twice a game, like in the ninth inning of a close game and the pitcher is in trouble. But to show a batter, then his wife, then the batter, then his wife, then the batter, then his wife . . . well, that’s ridiculous.”

Coyle, on ABC’s use of a roof camera at the Astrodome: “If that shot is so great, why don’t they sell seats up there.”

Weisman didn’t think ABC stayed with stories long enough. “I think we would have kept a camera on Moose Stubing longer, following him into the dugout to see how his teammates reacted to him,” he said, referring to Game 2 of the American League series when the Angels’ third-base coach failed to give Bobby Grich a sign.

“And I think we would have stayed with Keith Hernandez longer (after he was called out on strikes in Game 1 of the National League series and argued vehemently with umpire Doug Harvey).”

The use of instant replays as an officiating tool was one of the topics discussed during the teleconference.

Said Garagiola: “I don’t like it. Football has taken a mole hill and made a mountain out of it.”

Said Scully: “I don’t think it should be used as high court.”

You might say Costas doesn’t like it, either.

“It’s been a failure in football, but it would be an absolute horror in baseball,” he said. “The day our national pastime is desecrated by that much of an intrusion of technology will be the day all right-thinking Americans will begin to fear for the future of our republic.”

Add Costas: He is also an outspoken opponent of nighttime World Series games. “It used to be daytime Series games were undeclared holidays, particularly in the cities of the participating teams,” he said. “Everyone took time off to watch the game. Some of the mystique and tradition of baseball has been lost by playing Series games at night.”

Interesting opinion, since television is responsible. The networks want the higher ratings night games bring and, on the weekends, don’t want the Series to go up against college and pro football.

TV-Radio Notes Because of the dramatic playoffs on ABC, NBC might be in for record ratings during the Series, particularly if there is a Game 5 next Thursday. On that night, the “Bill Cosby Show,” currently No. 1 in the ratings, will be packaged with the Series, which will begin at 5:35 p.m., 10 minutes later than usual. Also, there will be only a five-minute pregame show. In the East, the Cosby show will start at 8 p.m., followed by the baseball game. In the West, the Cosby show will follow the game. . . . The highest-rating Series game ever was the sixth and final game of the 1980 Series, in which Philadelphia defeated Kansas City. It drew a national Nielsen rating of 40.0 and an estimated audience of 77,370,000. . . . Vin Scully, asked about his most memorable World Series, said there were two. “One was 1955, when the Brooklyn Dodgers won their first, and what turned out to be their only, Series,” he said. “The other came the next year, when Don Larsen (of the New York Yankees) pitched his perfect game (against the Dodgers).” . . . Scully, on how announcing has changed: “It used to be we met with the commissioner and he would tell us to never second-guess the umpire.” . . . Harry Coyle, who will be working his 35th Series, on how directing has changed: “At first, viewers were just pleased to see a picture. Now we have to guard against overproducing because there is so much equipment.”

Pro football Sunday: Raiders at Miami on Channel 4 at 10 a.m. PDT, with Dick Enberg and Merlin Olsen reporting, followed by the New York Giants at Seattle on Channel 2 at 1 p.m., with Pat Summerall and John Madden. . . . College football Saturday includes Iowa-Michigan on CBS at 11:30 a.m. PDT and Alabama-Tennessee on ABC at 12:30 p.m. . . . College football Oct. 25: Penn State-Alabama on ABC at 12:30 p.m PDT, USC at Stanford on CBS at 12:40 p.m. and Auburn-Mississippi State on ESPN at 4:30 p.m. . . . Prime Ticket will celebrate its first anniversary Sunday with a showing of the Kings’ home game against Edmonton. Oct. 30, Prime Ticket will reshow the Mid-Summer Night’s Magic all-star basketball game that was played Aug. 10 at Pauley Pavilion. The White team, getting 40 points from Dominique Wilkins, beat the Blue team, 170-166. Magic Johnson scored 26 points for the Blue, and Larry Bird added 24. . . . Sign of the times: NBC will now call the Fiesta Bowl the Sunkist Fiesta Bowl. The reason is that Sunkist Growers agreed to contribute $500,000 more to the game if NBC used its name. . . . Thomas Hearns will fight on Showtime tonight at 6, facing Doug DeWitt at Detroit. . . . Vince Ferragamo, recently released by the Green Bay Packers, is getting into television work. He will be Bob Elder’s guest on “Inside Football” on Channel 56 Saturday at 9:30 a.m. and the following week becomes the show’s regular co-host. . . . MTV gets into the swing of things with a World Series weekend, beginning tonight at 9. Series participants will introduce their favorite music videos and talk about rock n’ roll and baseball.