After Bad Mondays, Michaels Looking for a Good Friday

After living in the San Francisco Bay Area for about 13 years, Al Michaels moved to Brentwood last February, returning to the area where he had spent his teen-age years.

If Michaels were a normal sports fan, he might have trouble deciding whom to root for tonight when the Rams play the 49ers at Candlestick Park in a 5 o’clock game being televised by ABC.

But since Michaels will be the play-by-play announcer, all he’s rooting for is a dramatic game.

Michaels figures that ABC, which had 45-3 and 37-0 games on Monday nights within the past month, is due.

“We’ve had a couple games where one team won on a last-second field goal, like the Bears did against the Lions Monday night or the Rams did against Chicago earlier in the year,” he said. “But we haven’t had a game that has been dramatic from the start and built to an exciting finish, one like the Dolphin-Ram game Sunday.

“At the start of the season, our schedule looked good. But you just never know. It appeared CBS was stuck with a real turkey on Thanksgiving Day with Green Bay and Detroit. So what do they get? A 44-40 game.

“We just haven’t had that kind of luck.”

It’s understandable that Michaels would want a dramatic game. That’s when he’s at his best. Possibly no one in the business is as skilled at enhancing an exciting moment with well-timed, appropriate words.

Who can forget his “Do you believe in miracles?” call at the 1980 Winter Olympics when the U.S. hockey team upset the Soviet Union and Finland to win the gold medal?

And Michaels came through with another incredible performance in October when the Boston Red Sox, down 5-2 going into the ninth inning, came back to beat the Angels, 7-6, in 11 innings of Game 5 of the American League playoffs.

“I remember being tired and drained going into that game,” Michaels said. “The two games before that one had been dramatic, and we were going from a night game to a day game, so there wasn’t much of a break.

“But it didn’t take me long to get into the game. It was truly a classic, the greatest game I’ve ever seen.”

Although there haven’t yet been any extraordinary dramatics, Michaels has enjoyed his first season on “Monday Night Football,” which comes to an end Monday with New England at Miami.

“I’ve enjoyed it even more than I thought I would,” he said. “I was a little apprehensive going in.

“I’m comfortable announcing baseball because I’ve always followed the sport day in and day out. But I’d never done pro football before.

“But now I’m also comfortable with football. I’ve gotten to know a lot of people in the sport and developed some good sources.

“I’m more up and more excited going into Week 16 than I was going into Week 1. I haven’t had a vacation in eight months, but I don’t feel like I need one.

“I stop and think sometimes how lucky I am. I have a great job, I have my health and I have a nice family.”

He and wife Linda have two children, Steve, a sophomore at Palisades High, and Jennifer, a seventh-grader at Paul Revere Junior High.

“Life is never perfect, but I sure don’t have any complaints,” Michaels said.

Roggin’s wrap-up: Fred Roggin’s year-end “Hall of Shame” show, expanded to half an hour this year, will be televised on Channel 4 Sunday night at 11:15 p.m. It will follow a regular five-minute sports report.

Roggin and editor Steve Pomerantz have spent the last month selecting shots for the show.

Complaint Dept.: A group called Citizens for Integrity in Broadcasting has filed an official complaint with the Federal Communications Commission against Channel 7 for conducting its ill-fated viewer poll on the telecast time of the Nov. 20 Raider-San Diego Charger game. The complaint asks that each viewer who spent 50 cents on a phone call get a refund. According to the complaint, that amounts to $16,968.

TV-Radio Notes Lineup change: NBC had originally planned to show the New York Jets-Cincinnati Bengals game in Los Angeles at 10 a.m. Sunday. But the network has switched to the Kansas City Chiefs-Pittsburgh Steelers game because it might affect the Raiders’ playoff chances. . . . CBS offers Chicago-Dallas at 1 p.m. Sunday. . . . The Bears seem to have replaced the Cowboys as America’s team. Their game with Detroit Monday night got a national Nielsen rating of 21.9, the second highest Monday night rating of the season. No. 1 was a 22.0 for Chicago-Green Bay Sept. 22, and No. 3 was a 21.6 for Chicago-Rams Nov. 3. . . . No. 1-ranked Nevada Las Vegas, competing in its own Rebel Roundup basketball tournament, will make two appearances on Channel 9 this weekend. Tonight, the Rebels will play Ohio University, and the game will be shown on a one-hour delay at 10 p.m. Even if they somehow lose tonight, their final-round game will be shown live at 9 p.m. Saturday. The announcers are Ross Porter and Sonny Vaccaro.

Neal Pilson, former CBS sports president who continued to oversee the department as executive vice president of the CBS Broadcast Group, has returned to his former position. But he is now also the president of CBS broadcast operations. Pilson replaced Peter Lund as CBS sports president. Lund has been named president of CBS-owned TV stations. . . . Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth, NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle, NBA Commissioner David Stern and NHL President John Ziegler will appear on an hour-long taped program, “The Commissioners,” Sunday at 4 p.m. and again at 8 p.m. on CNN. . . . Stu Nahan, who has been filling in for vacationing Rick Monday at Channel 11, will begin filling in for vacationing Bud Furillo on KABC radio’s “Sportstalk” show Monday. . . . KIIS-FM sportscaster Charleye Wright is spearheading a drive to raise $300,000 by Jan. 1 to save the football program at Cal State Long Beach. About $150,000 has been raised, according to Wright.

NBC has signed basketball commentator Al McGuire to a new multiyear contract. Among his duties will be working the 1988 Summer Olympics at Seoul, South Korea. . . . Cable snafu: Communicom subscribers complained that Prime Ticket’s tape-delayed telecasts of the Crespi-St. John Bosco and the Banning-Carson prep championship games last weekend were cut off during the second quarter. . . . NBC, concerned that its football prognosticator, Paul Maguire, wasn’t faring well, asked oddsmaker Danny Sheridan to figure out just how bad Maguire was doing. According to Sheridan, Maguire is batting .500 (25 wins, 25 losses) picking against the line. But Sheridan discovered that Maguire is doing better than Jimmy the Greek, who has 16 wins, 25 losses and 1 tie on CBS. Brent Musburger responded by telling USA Today: “That’s unfair to Jimmy. We make him pick games involving our NFC teams. I’d like to challenge NBC. I’ll put up $10,000 next year and take the Greek against anyone NBC wants picking any three games per week against the spread. The $10,000 will go to charity.”